GamingGeeks-gaming reviews, cheats and walkthroughs

GTA IV or Saints Row 2, which one’s better? This thought hounded my mind before playing the latter. But, when I completed some missions, it was clear that Saints Row 2 has more depth in gameplay than Grand Theft Auto IV. Although, the Saints Row series follows similar sandbox style of gameplay, its variations in gameplay is awesome.
One of the best aspects of the game is the ability to modify the physical appearance of the character. The saints row character creation system can change physical features along with voice style, costumes and even sex. The game also lets players to modify the detailed aspects of the character including hairstyle, gestures (anger, naughty looks), facial expressions, and even facial dimensions! Saints Row gives freedom to gamers to select male or female characters.

The first mission starts with a tutorial where players have to escape a prison and get back to the changed and new Stilwater city. As you proceed through various missions, you get a chance to takeover other gangs as you rebuild your own. The gameplay is basically an arcade style of gameplay with loads of slang words and violence. In other words, if you are frustrated with your boss, release the anger on this virtual world.

There are loads of mini missions apart from the main ones and this ensures more freedom of choice. A successful completion of a mission can earn you respect points and money. The cash can be used for upgrading clothes, buying the latest cars and even performing stunts. The money can also be used to buy property, just like GTA. Using respect points one can unlock missions.

The custom-written graphics engine delivers better graphics than its predecessor. The environmental design has certainly progressed far better than Saints Row 1. The sound is equally impressive; there are loads of radio stations that provide many genres including electronic, metal, rock, reggae, hip-hop and even metal. Hmm… Typical GTA! Bands such as Duran Duran, Mastodon, Avenged Sevenfold will certainly keep you playing for hours.

All in all, Saints Row 2 is an excellent game much different from GTA IV. However, the game does not present any drama or simulation like GTA series. I will rate it 4 out of 5.

Watch the saints row 2 trailer on YouTube Visit the official site for the latest patchesJoin Saints Row 2 fan club

Anime games always have an amazing cartoony styled influence on contemporary gamers. The water colored backgrounds, the hand drawn manga-styled characters and engaging cut scenes, all make up a good anime video game. Just imagine, a strategy war game based entirely on the World War II scenarios, but having Japanese anime warriors. Seems interesting! Well, that is what Valkyria Chronicles is all about.

Pictured in an alternate version of the 1930s war-stricken Europe, this strategy game promises excellent gameplay and engrossing manga styled graphics. The story revolves around Welkin, a brilliant lad who dreams to become a biologist, but is swept up in a battle when his peaceful homeland, Gallia is invaded by the” Empire”, a powerful military outfit seeking ultimate power. To save his homeland from inevitable destruction, Welkin employs a small platoon to defend, but discovers that the enemy army has Valkyria, a powerful race. Now it all depends on Welkin’s strategy to deploy his mini troop and defeat the Empire and Valkyria.

There are many map-based missions in the Valkyria Chronicles. Players have to deploy their platoon comprising of intelligent spies, snipers and trooper and create havoc around invaders. The missions are varied and constantly shift from defensive modes to offensive tactics. The one thing I loved is the re-playability of the game. The game never lets you that the scenarios are repetitive.

Valkyria Chronicles is an unusual and unique blend of anime-style characters and water colored backgrounds. Developers SEGA worked hard on characters through the “CANVAS” graphics engine. The engine is created exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The blend of hand-drawn illustrations and immersive real-time battles will certainly take you to the edge of your seats.

When WWE and WCW were hitting the rings of fame, a new entertainment wrestling organization was introduced. TNA or Total Nonstop action was initiated by Jeff Jarett, a former WWE and WCW wrestling star. Well, that was some history. What my article deals is more about the TNA videogame released in the late 2008.

The TNA Impact Game for Xbox 360 is fairly new to the ever-popular Wrestling video games like WWE Royal Rumble. The game boasts loads of new faces and some similar faces as well. Former WWE wrestler Kurt Angle was a bit impressive on the hexagonal ring, but all the new occupants did not impress me.

The game has a strange story. You get trashed up for refusing to throw a fight. In the next frame you suffer from a partial memory loss and end up being an amnesic. Your only goal is to get your memory back while working your way back to the TNA status. The game has an interesting character customization menu where you get to change the looks of your character.

TNA Impact has a variety of gameplay options. Developers Midway did a swell job in maintaining the realism in gameplay. It’s certainly on a hunt for a new sequel. The game boasts intuitive combats. Yes, this isn’t a button masher. Gamers need to have some kind of patient, timing and thought. The best way to become familiar with the game is to learn some high-flying maneuvers in the tutorial section.

There are loads of wrestling styles to unlock in TNA Impact including, no-hold barrels, high-flying maneuvers and submissions. As you gain credits, you unlock different moves.

All in All, TNA impact is an average wrestling game with some familiar and not so familiar faces. A great pastime for you wrestling lovers!

Hey gamers, check out my PC game reviews published on Brighthub.com in 2008:

PURE PC game review: Pure is one of the best off road racing games 2008 has ever seen. With great graphics and many levels, this game certainly appealed console and PC gamers in 2008

Best addictive maze games: Do you love maze games? Well here are the best chosen online and downloadable maze games of the decade.

Miniclip.com review: Miniclip.com is one the best gaming portals with some of the best award-winning flash games and casual games.

Top 5 Shrek Games for Kids: Shrek games always promise loads of fun and entertainment. This article illustrates the best Shrek games for kids.

Mortal Kombat and Marvel characters have created a web of mythologies over the past two decades. Both games created waves in the gaming industry and appealed to fans, both young and old. The dream of combining fatalities and brutalities of MK and non-stop action of DCU did come true with the Midway’s latest iteration, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe.

The game features one-on-one fights between DC superheroes and Mortal Kombat characters. Gamers can play two single-playing campaigns, one as the DC cast and other as the MK one. Watching Raiden taking on Superman and Sub Zero engaging in a grueling battle with the Joker is a certainly a treat for gamers.

The game is certainly meant for kids. The fatalities and brutalities go bloodless. There’s no blood and gore involved and is suitable for the younger audience. All in All, Mortal Kombat Vs DC Universe would be better known for its starcast and good graphics, otherwise the game lacks a good storyline and may not appeal ‘true’ Mortal Kombat fans for its bloodless deaths. I mean, who wants to witness a bloodless fatality!!   

If you thought Far Cry 2 is the true sequel to the original one, you are wrong. The game features completely new characters and settings and uses a unique style of gameplay. The story takes place in the deep jungles of a fictional Central African country facing anarchy and civil war. Gamers don the character of a mercenary who gets dropped in deep jungles to hunt down and eliminate a notorious arms smuggler “The Jackal”.  

Far Cry 2 engages players in a deadly journey in highly realistic African landscapes including the savannahs, plains and jungles. This second grueling sequel employs sandbox style of gameplay where a player’s choice depends on the progress and speed of the storyline. With an open-ended environment spanning 19.3 sq miles, one can imagine the level of detail and number of hours it can take to complete the missions. Players can choose a wide range of vehicles and weapons and also can interact with environment. Weapons include the usual assault and sniper rifles to RPGs and light machine guns. The enemy AI is mostly human mercenaries. Gamers will miss the androids from the original Far Cry version but the enemy AI is intelligent enough to challenge you in a head-to-head battle. They are aggressive and alert and can be very challenging.

Developers Ubisoft have strived hard to ensure Far Cry 2 is realistic enough to please gamers. I loved the 24-hour day and night cycle and the climate system which ranges from sweltering sunsets to thunder storms. The protagonist experiences the stings of malaria fever and needs pills to keep the illness at bay every 30 to 40 minutes in real time.

All in All, Far Cry 2 is bigger, bolder and immersive than its predecessor. The game has a unique blend of action and stealth. You will find many open-ended missions and side-quests to complete. Great sequel, although different!

Cover art source:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/97/Far_Cry_2_cover_art.jpg

Quantum of Solace is the latest 007 action-adventure game that offers some comfort and fun for agent 007’s fans. Combining the set-pieces from the latest bond flick and Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace takes players into a solid a modern shoot’-em-up with excellent firefights and intense action. T

he game features true-to-life rendered faces of Daniel Craig and Judi Dench. The voice acting has been excellently executed. The realism in graphics is impressive, thanks to CoD4 Graphics engine and control system. Quantum of Solace is actually a first person shooter, but the game also has a third-person perspective whenever Bond dives or climbs or does some other stunts. There are also some levels where agent 007 uses stealth and hits enemies with his scoped beauty.

The enemy AI is average. Enemies can duck and throw grenades at you whenever they feel they are in danger. The fight scenes are a bit unimpressive and the controls were a bit difficult for me. Overall Quantum of Solace is an average game as compared to Goldeneye and Non One Lives Forever.

World of Warcraft (WoW) certainly redefined online gaming with a huge list of online players still hooked up to this popular MMO. With more than 10 million subscribers engaged in this online epic battle to gain supremacy, the creators, Blizzard thought of a unique way to make the gaming experience more intense. The result was a sexy gaming mouse with gothic looks and eye-catching programmable buttons.

The release of the World of Warcraft gaming mouse by Blizzard Entertainment created waves among WoW lovers. Released in collaboration with SteelSeries, the WoW gaming mouse has 15 programmable buttons that allows users to execute more than 120 game commands. The configurations are quite simple as gamers have to download the driver software and create complicated macros with ease.

The WoW gaming mouse also includes a four-way-D-pad, a scroll wheel and a two-way button on each side. This sexy rodent has also some unusual features. It supports 16 million illumination colors, all profile specific, and up to ten different profiles. I loved the treasure-chest designed box pack as it surely looks quite gothic and attractive, just like the mouse itself.

The World of Warcraft gaming mouse functions extremely well. At first you may experience a slight problem in getting used to it, but once you are well-versed with the controls the gaming experience will never be the same. The only problem with the WoW mouse is its non-versatility. It is focused too much on World of Warcraft and may not function quite well with other PC games. So if you are not a WoW player, stay away from it.

Nintendo created waves when it released its double-screened portable game console, the DS. The overwhelming success of the DS prompted Nintendo to release an upgraded version called the DSi.  Released in November 2008, Nintendo DSi has some innovative features apart from its double-screened magic. It boasts a 0.3 megapixel camera, in fact two megapixel cameras. The cameras are integrated inside and outside of the DSi handheld.
 

The main screen of the DSi is bigger than the DS by a quarter of an inch. The touch-styled portable game console can give some serious competition to the iPod touch as it includes a music player that plays AAC files. It includes a microphone with which users can record their voices. Users can store more than 300 photographs as the DSi has 256Mb of in-built memory as well as a SD card support.

Another great aspect of Nintendo DSi is its built-in web browser and Wii support. There is also some fun picture editing software which allows photographs to be framed and pasted in calendars. It will also launch an online store for users to download cool software and games. Gamers in the US and Europe are waiting eagerly for the DSi as the game will be launched in a few months from now.

Visit Nintendo.com  

With games like Diner Dash, Mystery case files and Bejeweled topping the charts year after year casual games are certainly making the gaming industry remake itself to please casual game addicts. From Microsoft’s Xbox to Nintendo’s Wii, all are striving hard to add new bite-sized titles. Social networking sites like Facebook are including a host of new casual games such as Scrabble and many others. The popularity of casual games is such that most customers pay more than 2 billion for such games.
 

All Time Best Casual Games

While the rage for casual games began with the initiation of Tetris in 1985, the craze for such low-cost games have increased in numbers. Here are some of the best all time casual games that prove to all-time favorites:

MapleStory:
Released in 2003, MapleStory ruled the gaming market in Asia, both in terms of gameplay and innovative cartoon-style concept. This MMORPG lets players take part in a fantasy land. There are various missions for gamers who collaborate with others in defeating cute monsters in real time. The simplicity and ease in gameplay are the core aspects of MapleStory. It is a 2D side-scrolling game with simple keyboard and mouse controls provided a welcome-change for both hard-core and casual gamers. The control keys can be easily customized with the drag-and-drop method. The simple gameplay and controls made this online casual game a monster hit in the Asian gaming market.

Grab this Manga styled cutesy game at softonic.com!
 

Jewel Quest:
Sprinkling some innovative twists to a boring pattern-matching game is what Jewel Quest did in 2004. This classic matching game welcomes players to the expansive ancient ruins of the Mayan civilization. Apart from just pattern-matching, Jewel Quest contains complex and difficult puzzles full of cursed items, mysterious buried artifacts and cursed items. Players embark on a journey to open strange doors, rearrange sand tiles to turn it into gold and solve some Mayan mysteries.

Download Jewel Quest
 

Diner Dash:
 You can ‘feel’ the popularity of Diner Dash when it sold more than 200 million copies world-wide.  For me, Diner Dash is one of the best casual games of this decade. This restaurant-managerial game can certainly take your breath away, especially because of its uniqueness in gameplay. It also created a new superstar, Flo, whom every gamer, whether girl or boy, still adores.

Download Diner Dash