Platform: PS3 Publisher: SCEA

Naughty Dog’s PS3 debut, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is an Indiana Jones inspired, action-adventure game played out through a mixture of Gears of War’s cover dependant shooting gameplay and the Tomb Raider series platforming elements. The player guides protagonist Nathan Drake (think Ash from the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness movies) as he climbs and swings through the world and solves puzzles while at the same time utilizing cover to take out enemies. This mishmash of gameplay comes together harmoniously and is joined by a cast of believable and interesting characters set in a story that, while not unique or inspired, is told extremely well.

Mass Effect is Bioware’s first 360 offering, mixing elements of action games like Gears of War and sandbox elements from rpgs such as TES: Oblivion in with Bioware’s trademark storytelling and high quality dialogue all wrapped in a new and fully realized IP. This mixture of features comes together to form one of the best rpgs in recent memory (PC or console, Japanese or Western) with only a few blemishes clouding its pristine surface.

Gameplay- 9

The growing pains learned from Jade Empire’s ‘good on paper, bad on execution’ combat system along with inspiration garnered from RE 4/Gears of War’s ‘over the shoulder’ shooting mechanics makes Mass Effect’s combat system the most fun and involving that’s ever been seen in the genre. Gone are the days of pseudo-realitime, turn-based combat; gone are the days of pointing and clicking to attack. Now the action unfolds exactly like a 3rd person shooter but with the added option of pausing the game at any time to change equipment, give orders to computer controlled teammates, and to use abilities and skills.

Unfortunately the friendly and enemy AI is sometimes suspect, with allies occasionally stepping in front of your line of sight and enemies that bum rush the player like a fired up linebacker with a clear path to an unawares quarterback. Another letdown is the frameskipping and slowdown that persists in the more demanding areas of the game. This is more of a nuisance though as the areas where the performance takes a hit are all out of combat and in the hub environments.

Visuals- 9

With the current Unreal Engine, Bioware has created a stunner and filled it with the most realistic digital actors seen; yes even more so than Half-life 2 and its Episodes. Characters convey emotion and animation to a degree rarely found outside of big budget CGI films.

The buildings not only look great artistically as if they were made by an architect instead of by a committee of map makers. Detailed textures on trees, plants, and other organic environments further immerse the player into Mass Effects universe with the only visual hiccup coming from texture pop in as the game streams data off the disc to keep load times at a minimum.

Sound- 10

Straight out of classic sci-fi movies from decades past, Mass Effect features a synth-laden soundtrack that perfectly fits the game’s visual flair. What does come as a shock and a bit of a disappointment is how scarce the game’s music is. There are many times in the game where there is no background music, when ambience is used to create tension (in battle or when exploring a UCW- UnCharted World) but when the music is this good it is a shame that it’s not used as often as one would like.

The dialogue is delivered spot on with different lines for each choice the character makes…for the most part. In some circumstances the line given by the game’s protagonist is exactly the same regardless of the choice that was made by the player.

Longevity- 10

Like many games of this generation, Mass Effect is a shorter game in length than what was offered in its genre last generation. No doubt this is a trend that’s caused by the astronomically high cost of developing games in the ‘high-def’ generation.

To make up for this many developers have upped longevity in a different way, increasing replayability. With Mass Effect, many of the game’s achievements bestow gameplay rewards. Some unlock weapons or abilities that can be given to a class that otherwise couldn’t receive them. Others are more universal, like having a 5% exp increase across all characters. This is a fantastic addition to achievements and one I hope other developers will adopt.

There’s also the new game+ feature which lets players replay the game with completed characters. This is more than just a novelty as the player continues to level up (the limit is level 60 and for most players it takes 3 playthroughs with the same character to reach it) and receive better equipment (the max is X or 10 for people not partial to reading roman numerals) and makes playing though on the harder difficulties appealing to gamers that normally wouldn’t entertain the notion.

Learning Curve- 8

Mass Effect may seem daunting initially. The game has no real tutorial, just the manual and in game pop up menu. It expects that the player will know what they are doing so make sure to read the instruction book prior to playing and keep from skipping past the pop ups that appear early in the game.

The combat may come as an unpleasant surprise to those attempting to play Mass Effect as a shooter, which it is in appearance only. To succeed in combat, pausing the game every so often to give teammates orders and to use abilities is required. Woe to those who play this like Gears of War or Halo 3 as the end result will be a reload screen.

Mass Effect is a tremendous first showing for Bioware both as a hardware debut and new IP. It moves the genre forward in realtime cinematics, animation, voice acting, and combat while offering up a compelling universe and characters that the few problems present are almost completely overshadowed.

Overall Score- 9.2

It's time to check out the best gamers online magazine again.The Blue Skittle for this month brings you a load of cool reads and some very interesting articles, interviews and graphics.

Check out The Blue Skittle latest issue as Foo Mo Jive was featured in a special article again this month. Check out all the PAX talk by our writers and some of the best articles yet.

I would like to take the oportunity to thank Ooopy, Kiki and all the staff from TBS that was representing not only TBS but also Podtacular at PAX.

Thanks guys. You guys Rock!!!!

The Review Frenzy Preview for: Beautiful Katamari
Author: ClownX
Edited by: Killazilla

The Skinny
The Katamari Damacy series has always been a favorite of mine. Pastel colored worlds, blocky, Lego-like graphics, a quirky Japanese, sensibility, and a soundtrack that is the aural equivalent of walking into a candy shop, bundled with a budget price, make a winning combination. So, when the new Katamari Damacy game was announced for the Xbox 360, I was downright giddy! This joy resurfaced when I picked up the September issue of OXM, and found the demo on the demo disc.

The whole series stars The King Of All Cosmos, and his diminutive son, The Prince, and his Cousins. In the first game, The King had a night during which he was extremely intoxicated, and ended up destroying all the stars in the sky, and charged The Prince to roll up items on Earth, in a ball called a Katamari, to replace the stars. The second game, We ♥ Katamari, involved The King and The Prince dealing with their newfound popularity. What lies in the third game? Time will tell. So, since the basics have been covered, let's get cracking.

The Good
Katamari Damacy has always been dead simple: Pick up smaller stuff in your Katamari, avoid bigger stuff. Not much has changed in this game, and that is quite good. Most of the game is controlled with the Analog Sticks, and an occasional use of the triggers for controlling the camera. Being that your Katamari cannot pick up objects bigger than it is, many of the items you cannot pick up at first. The music is also great. The series' soundtrack consists of J-Pop, which normally, I dislike, but it works well in this game. It's bright, and poppy, and, if the last two games are any indication, there will be an extremely wide variety of J-Pop within. There is a definite feel of completeness to the demo. Everything seems very thought out and planned, and, while the demo level is still a small arena with very little order, it makes sense. An odd, Katamari Damacy sense, but sense nevertheless.

The visuals in Beautiful Katamari are a touchy subject. On one hand, they at first blocky, ugly, and not very nice to look at. On the other hand, however, they fit the game perfectly, with all the items in a seemingly Lego-inspired design choice. This makes the sometime modular items (a ladder made of people, for example), much more fun to pick up. Though it may not seem it, play one of the PS2 prequels, and you will see what I mean by saying that KD looks much better on the 360 Everything seems more vibrant, and all of the models look sharper. As an added bonus, the game rescales without load times.

Overall, even though it won't be heralded with visual masterpieces such as Gears of War and Bioshock, it does its job sufficiently. By the way, look out for the 360 island, and the other 360 themed stuff. My Katamari was as big as a few hundred thousand Wireless Controllers.

The Bad
In this demo, one is hard-pressed to find flaws. As I mentioned before, the graphics are not going to win any awards, and aren't for the HD aficionado. Also, I have noticed, like the last games, that the framerate slows down when one is picking up a vast amount of items at once. Again, not much has changed. Though I like that, a little innovation would be very nice.

Overall Impression: Excellent
I just can't wait for the next installment in this amazing series. So, until next time, ROYAL RAINBOW!!!

This is the preview for Stranglehold, made by Amusement Games and Tiger Hill Entertainment.