Tournaments and Courses
There’s a career mode in Tiger 11 but there’s no storyline or set discipline you need to follow. You simply select the tournament you wish to play, and you play it. This provides you with an arena to earn experience points to improve your customised golfer. That may sound simplistic but believe me it’s a lot of fun. The tournaments included are World recognised events, all of which have been a part of the Tiger Woods series in previous years with one or two new additions. Also this year, a big emphasis from EA Sports seems to have gone on the Ryder Cup.

Here’s a fun fact for you, this year’s Ryder Cup is going to be held in Celtic Manor in Newport, about a ten minute drive away from my house, so to see the course graphically represented in-game was a real thrill! For those who may not know, The Ryder Cup is an event that features a team of golfers from Europe against a team of golfers from America and takes place every two years with a different venue every time. In Tiger 11, I played Ryder Cup mode in a 2 vs 2 format which then carries on for the duration of the whole 18 holes. The aim? Your team of two needs to perform better on a particular hole than the opposing team of 2. So if you were only able to scrape a bogey and your opponents managed a birdie, they will have the advantage. The Ryder Cup is actually one of my favourite things to do, (apart from develop my customised golfer) in Tiger 11 and really inspires the competitive streak within. This is especially fun when you have a few mates around and are playing pass the pad or if you’re playing online against the best of the best.

Adding some swing to your step
Realistically, the differences between Tiger 10 and Tiger 11 aren’t that substantial. If you played last year’s instalment, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to expect with Tiger 11. In fact, if you read Phil’s hands-on with the demo, you’d know that he was pretty comfortable playing Tiger 11 having last played Tiger 07. It’s not a complete port however as there are some new features such as the focus mode which almost completely change the way the game is played. The Focus mode is represented by a circular red gauge at the bottom left hand side of the screen which is gradually depleted from a number of different uses. For example, when you’re aiming your shot, there is an opportunity to tighten up the accuracy of where the ball is going to land on the course. Then when you go to take your shot and are in your backswing, by repeatedly tapping the A button you can add more force behind your club, so that when you bring it forward to hit the ball off the tee, it will help the ball move further than it would have normally. When putting, the focus can also be depleted by using a virtual simulation of how accurate your shot is going to be based on your current position. Using this simulation every time will also deplete your focus. Using a combination of these will soon drain your focus and when that happens, you’re completely on your own and will have to hope and pray that your golfing instincts are up to scratch. All is not lost however, as you can build your focus back up by just playing the game without using any of the nifty features and hitting tee shots onto the fairway or getting as close to the hole as possible without any help from the computer.

Also new this year is a mode called True-Aim. Essentially, this is like being an actual golfer on a golf course as it takes place from a first person perspective and basically puts you in the shoes of your golfer of choice. Of course, that means you cant see your focus or how much emphasis you’re putting on your shots. You are, in fact, completely dependent on your own 20/20 vision and the reaction from the crowd on hand to see how much progress you’ve made with your shot. This is an extremely taxing edition to the latest game and will only be used by those who’ve mastered their craft with previous Tiger Woods games. If you’re a big fan, if you’ve been playing the series and think you’re hot stuff, then you need to be playing through each round with True-Aim on. It may just change your perspective.

Almost like the real thing..

The XP system also seems quite improved from last year as does the customisation. As before, the customisation allows you to tweak your golfer how you see fit; everything from the colour of their eyes, to the depth of their nose and down to their cheek structure. Although, if you can’t quite figure out how you look and know how to create an appropriate likeness for yourself in the game with the options on hand, then, once again, EA have included the option to photo yourself and allow the game to create your golfers face digitally using yours as a blueprint. This is a feature that carried over from last year, and, with the imminent arrival of Kinect, will probably be the last time your Xbox 360 Camera is used. The game scans your face into the game, taking around twenty minutes to do so and then recreates it digitally. This can produce some embarrassing results however, as the game has a horrid way of revealing your worst features over your best. For me, I have quite a large forehead and the game seemed to take great pleasure in showing that to me, almost mockingly! However, EA allow you to play around with their design of you if you’re not happy with the way you’ve been portrayed, so don’t feel too disheartened.

Once you’re done crafting your likeness into the game, you’re given a brief introduction into the XP system. Essentially, your golfer has levels and an XP bar that needs to fill in order for you to progress to the next level. XP is awarded in a variety of different ways; if your tee shot hits the fairway or if you make a close approach on the hole and land it on the green you’ll gain some points. You’ll even gain XP if you score a birdie or a hole in one. Depending on how much XP you’ve obtained from a course indicates how much you get to spend at the end of the course on your golfer. For example, if you would prefer your golfer to be a more accurate putter than a power driver, you can assign XP points to that particular field. Essentially, your golfer’s abilities are in the palm of your hand.

FOOORE!
Graphically, this game is about as good as you can expect a golfing game to be. The courses are about as close to the real thing as you can imagine, including all the bunkers, the hills, the trees and water hazards. Its quite clear there is a powerful engine backing Tiger Woods 11 as it factors in inclines on the course and forces gravity whenever the ball hits a tree. Tiger Woods 11 is very polished in this sense as one has come to expect from an EA Sports product, the physics seem spot on and it looks crisp. The water gleams, the sun shines and the courses are represented so accurately from their real-life counterparts, that at times, it would be difficult to tell the difference. The same is true of the golfers; Tiger really does look like Tiger, as does McIllroy. You can see their apprehension, their excitement, their enthusiasm and their fear as the ball moves about the course. The camera also allows great replay features and gives great perspective as to where it’s going to land. EA have done an excellent job of capturing golf emotion in this package and have shown that there is certainly more to the game than flagpoles and clubs.

Sand in your eye?

Back from Tiger Woods 10 is the randomised weather system, which essentially never lets you play the same game twice. So, in one sitting the wind may be completely against you and rain is pounding down furiously, then in the next, there is but the tiniest breeze and the sun is shining. This is one of a few games where I feel the environment plays as much of an important role to the game as the graphics themselves.

Chirp like a birdie, squawk like an eagle!
The music is generally quite irritating. For me, it’s a slight improvement over last years but that’s not saying very much. While playing the game, however, music isn’t a factor. I also found out while I was playing the game on Xbox 360 that customised soundtracks aren’t allowed whereas they are on Playstation 3. For some, this could be a key feature when deciding upon your purchase, however for me, I just spent as little time on the title screen as I could and jumped straight into a game.

However, if you thought the title screen was bad, wait until you get to the commentators. It’s quite irking to hear that the majority of sound-bites from the commentators last year have been carried over into this instalment and little has been done to change it. They’ll still say the same things, still react in mostly the same way with a slight change here or there to make it seem as if something has actually been changed. Arguably, you could ask what more can be said that wasn’t already captured in previous games. This is true, but if you’ve got any experience with the series at all, you may find that a simple thing such as similar commentary does less to emphasise the changes made between Tiger 10 and Tiger 11. For those who’ve never played a Tiger Woods game before however, even after a while, these two will probably still get on your nerves. Thankfully, you can switch them off, although some may find having them on useful.

Where this game shines with its sound however, is when you’re on course and you’re just listening to the sounds of nature and man coming together. You’re normally listening out for birds chirping, or the crowd whooping, or hearing the chink of the club as it hits against the ball. It’s a rare game where there isn’t music beating in the background and it’s all about being outdoors and hearing the whistling wind or the listening to the waves on the sea. In that sense, PGA Tour 11 is actually very relaxing and calming and does really make a great game to play if you just want to unwind and unravel. All the sounds are as authentic as you can imagine them to be and suit this game so well.

Controversial online schemes
You’ve heard it, talked about and now it’s here, Tiger Woods 11 is the first game to fall victim to EA Sports new online policy. Essentially, this affects gamers who play pirated copies of games or buy them pre-owned. If you buy Tiger Woods 11 shrink wrapped and sealed, you’re going to get a code on the back page of your manual that will allow you to unlock the online mode, free of charge and enable you to play as long as you want. However, this can only be used once and so if you buy this pre-owned, you won’t be getting online with Tiger Woods past a seven day free trial unless you pay a fee equivalent to 1200 points/$10. This has irked some gamers and will clearly take a big chunk of online gamers out of the equation as many rely upon the pre-owned market to get involved with the latest games. However, EA Sports, for better or worse, have decided to make a stance against this and from Tiger 11 onward, all of their games will adopt the same policy. It’s clear that it is having an impact on the industry however, as other companies are considering adopting similar concepts. So be warned.

Ready to set a new trend?

As a reviewer, I only got to sample a seven day trial for the game but it gives a good enough indication of how the online world of PGA Tour Golf 11 plays out. Everything you can play in the game is available online, including the Ryder Cup and other tournaments. You can play team based games, playing co-operatively or against friends, you can even take your customised golfer online. What’s also cool is that you can film any videos of any excellent shots you’ve taken, upload them to the net and people can download and watch those shots. Photos can also be taken to your heart’s content. Taking all that into consideration, when playing an actual game online, the servers seem pretty stable when supporting multiple players, I did face the occasional stutter, however, I think that this might be more of an issue with my connection than the game itself. So, it appears that the fee for online gaming constitutes decent online play, or at least the same as you’ve been used to for EA games in the past. However, just to clarify, there is no noticeable difference in the quality one way or another. I suppose it could be worse, it could be a subscription based model!

Tiger Woods is also an ever expanding product because there will always be challenges for you to accomplish. Whenever you start the game up, if you’ve registered an account, you will be logged into the EA servers, and dependent on which hole you play, you will be competing with players from all over the World based on your performance on that hole. So when at your tee shot, a pop-up may flash on the screen to show you that on a Par 3 hole, someone named XxM@lk0mxX has managed to hit his tee shot onto the green near the flag in one shot. The game will then challenge you to better or to equal that feat and, if you’re capable of doing it, will award you EA Points and XP. While not in direct consistent competition with any individual at one time, there will always be a way to improve your game and your standings in the World rankings, even if you feel you’ve managed to conquer it all.

Hole in One?
Sales of this game have been quite poor in comparison to previous years and whether this is a statement as to the consumers tolerance of Tiger’s infidelity, fans showing their disregard for EA’s new online policy or that there is simply too many other games out there is an arguable point. Whatever the case may be, Tiger Woods 11 is a very good game and its sales are not indicative of its quality. It’s not a vast difference to Tiger 10 and it’s debatable whether this is worth the full amount if you already own last years instalment but there is enough content in here that if you’re a golfing fan, it may be worth another look. The Ryder Cup mode is quite entertaining and the focus system certainly adds a very strategic element to the game. Levelling up your golfer and developing your golfer with all the options available is also quite addictive and can keep you entertained for hours. Also, when considering the platform you want to play on, it may be worth considering that Tiger 11 supports motion plus on the Wii and will have a patch released in September to support Playstation Move. However, EA Sports stated that Tiger 11 was too far in development to support Kinect and Microsoft owners will have to wait until next year to have some motion based golfing!

In short, Tiger Woods 11 is a good game for golfing fans and a good game to get people into golf. It’s a user friendly game, playable and enjoyable by all and can be used for pick up and play or to get more heavily involved in the intricacies on display. Coming from a reviewer who doesn’t generally play or buy sports games, I found many an entertaining hour in Tiger Woods 11 and believe that many of you reading this review would feel the same way.

How We Review Games

I am going to be completely honest and admit that I had little knowledge of the game when I was handed the review code and as such, had no idea what to expect. So the question is does it drown in mediocrity or blow you away, read on to find out.

Ship Ahoy!
Hydro Thunder is a boat racing game that sees you compete in various events to gain credits by finishing in the podium positions. The credits in turn unlock more events and newer, more powerful boats. As you fire the game up you are presented with only the standard “Race” option, a single track, one boat and nothing else. However, it will not be long before you are sitting in at least a Pro level boat with some fifty events to compete in.

It is a boat, honest

Gale force wind
You will find it easy to pick up and play as the controls fall in line with most racing games on the market. RT works as your accelerator and LT your brakes. A will activate your boost (if you have any stored) and X works as jump (again only if you have boost). You can also cycle the camera view with the Y button.

In Single Player there are four event types. The standard race sees you compete against fifteen other drivers in a straightforward ‘first past the post’ race. These are separated into three categories of Novice, Pro and Expert with each category giving you tougher courses and stronger opponents. Along the way various items can be collected to open up shortcuts and unlock bonuses. You can also pick up boost charges to add to the pace of your chosen vessel and “draft” behind an opponent for an alternate speed boost.

Ring Master event’s pit you against the clock. It is your aim to make it to the finish line in the quickest possible time passing through the rings along the way. Each ring successfully navigated earns some boost but any missed will not only wipe out your current boost meter but also give you a time penalty. This can be a little frustrating as you hit fifteen gates in a row giving you a massive boost meter and then because you are going so quick you just, just, miss a ring wiping it all out and forcing you to start over. The Pro and Expert levels are also quite unforgiving in the times needed to gain a trophy and some rings can only be reached if you have some boost stored up so one tiny error can literally be the end of the race.

Gauntlet again sees you in a time trial situation, this time though instead of gates to aim for you have barrels to avoid. These act as mines that detonate at the slightest touch seriously, affecting your lap times. Fortunately the collision detection is sound but again the later levels are pretty unforgiving on the trophy times and it can get quite frustrating when you end up a few tenths off because of a single error in judgement.

Look at the lovely water

Finally we have the championship mode which sees you compete in multiple events against fifteen opponents. Points are awarded depending on your position in each event and at the end of all events the trophy goes to the racer with the most accumulated points.

It is in this mode that the unforgiving nature of the game can really hit you. A couple of slight errors on a ring master or gauntlet event can destroy an entire championship as first or second becomes tenth or eleventh and any chance of gaining enough points for a trophy literally explode in your face!

Hurricane Katrina
As far as Arcade games go, Hydro Thunder is up there with the best of them graphically. In fact even when comparing this to a full title it stands up well. Backgrounds are clear and crisp, colours are vibrant and the all important water effects are as good as you will see. It is perhaps lacking a little in detail, but I do mean a little. The courses are nicely varied as well and there are some excellent extreme weather effects on some of the levels, which add to the challenge and bring an extra layer to the graphical sheen.

The local split screen mode does have a negative effect on the visuals and during this mode there is a hint of slowdown during the more intense moments.

Thunder and Lightning
The background music in the menu screens and races reminds me of classic title Wipeout. Upbeat, techno style tracks are very much the order of the day. In race this can be changed with a right or left press of the D-Pad but unfortunately from my point of view it is all much the same. The sound effects are fairly good also as boat motors, water splashes and explosions are all well executed. There is also a radio controller who will tell you the alarmingly obvious like “we have boost, let’s use it” or keep saying “this is insane” at big jump.

Stormy waters
Multiplayer can be played locally with up to four players in split screen. Unfortunately I have not been able to get another three people in my living room to test the four way split screen but did test with two and the feeling of speed you feel in the single player mode is not quite there. As mentioned above the graphical sheen do decrease a bit also. As you would expect everything is a little smaller as well and I have to say I find it difficult to see how a four way split screen would be feasible on a TV under 40”.

Get the boost

Across Xbox live you can have up to eight players in an event (with up to four on one TV). Events take the form of either a standard race, which is played in the exact same way as the single player race, or a Rubber Ducky race. This splits the field in two with one racer on each team designated as the Rubber Ducky, the aim is to get this team member over the line ahead of the opponents.

The Rubber Ducky is a nice alternative to the standard race fare and in the limited games I have managed to get going you can see the potential it holds. Three team members doing everything they can to block, barge and generally destroy the other Rubber Ducky while trying to free their own at the same time.

Sunshine on a rainy day
Hydro Thunder: Hurricane is certainly not without flaws. It can be brutally unforgiving at times and more than a little frustrating because of it. Also, due to the sheer nature of the Pro and Expert races it can be easier to tone the event down by selecting a Novice boat at times. Having said all that, this is still a very good arcade release. It looks and feels good and on the whole it is very enjoyable to play. There is enough diversity to the events to keep race fans and casual gamers interested alike, and it is a solid challenge to acquire all the trophies on offer.

On top of all that with fifty events including ten championships, each with hidden shortcuts and collectable packages to find the replay factor is pretty sound, and then there is the multiplayer…

How We Review Games

Yes Mr Nukem is back for his second Xbox Live Arcade title, and like the first release (Duke Nukem 3D) it is almost a direct port of its original 2002 PC version by Sunstorm Interactive. However, where Duke Nukem 3D was a first person Doom look-a-like, Manhattan Project goes back to Duke’s side-scrolling roots, but with a slight twist.

At the time of its PC release it is was somewhat ground-breaking for the genre. Eight years on, and some pretty massive leaps and bounds in gaming technology later, it doesn’t seem quite as an impressive a feat. Credit where credit is due though, you have to admire 3D realms ethic of putting Duke in more than just one genre of game style. Question is though, is Manhattan Project the same game as it was back in 2002, and if so, is that a good thing?

Something smells rotten around here!
Duke is back in action and in this game he’s out to save Manhattan, and most certainly its busty inhabitants, from the clutches of the evil humanoid Mech Morphix. Morphix has released some kind of green goop with mutational powers into the sewers of Manhattan, transforming those who come into contact with it into grotesque animal-like killers. Sound familiar? Yeah, throw in some little green turtles and you have yourself a copyright infringement lawsuit. Also it seems that the sick a twisted Morphix has a fixation on kidnapping large lunged ladies and strapping them to bombs; it’s apparent the man has big breast issues.

So with the city in peril, Manhattan turns a the one man who could save the world… Duke Nukem! Holstered up with his Golden Eagle gun and a couldn’t-give-a shit attitude, he dives head on into the action declaring “New York, if I can kill them here, I can kill them anywhere!” You’ll find Duke is well known for his one liners, and in Manhattan Project he ain’t scared to use them.

Hail the king, baby!

Looks like it’s time for me to go… Postal!
The game itself contains eight levels, taking you across Manhattan’s skylines, streets, and sewers before heading out to sea and leading you to a final battle in deep space. The levels themselves are split into three part episodes, but on each you have to achieve the same goals to progress. They go like this… Find the big boobed girl and stop the bomb she is attached to from exploding (that’s a bit of a lie; because they never actually explode, as there is no set time limit within to locate her). You then need to locate the coloured key card, before finishing the level by finding a door and using the key card to progress. At the end of the third stage of each level you exit the door and find yourself in a boss battle.

Along the way you are also given the obvious enemies to kill. They range from pig-like men in police uniforms, to oversized mutant rats in Chinese style outfits, and you’ll even come across a bunch of leather clad robotic women with electric whips. I should note none of the enemies you come across are that hard to defeat, but some odd positional placements on the levels make them more annoying than testing, for example, you’ll constantly find yourself running into them as you go through doorways.

There are secret locations to find, and Nuke symbols to collect. Finding all ten Nuke symbols on each part of a level will give your ego (health bar) a max boost, meaning you’ll take less damage and defeat your enemies quicker. These do give an added element when going across a level, but again to be honest, they’re not essential unless you want to get the accompanying achievement.

2.5D anyone?

There are also a few power ups scattered about a level to give you an extra hand as you progress, these include a force field, a boost that causes you to dish out double damage on enemies, and a jet pack that allows you a limited time to fly about and aid you in getting to those hard to reach places. As for weaponry, you’ll add a new gun type to your arsenal on each level and come the end of the game you’ll have collected a range of weapons. There’s the usual assault rifle, rocket launcher and shotgun, up to the more technological laser cannon and goop gun, which will transform certain enemies into their original form. Each has an individual ammo clip, but you’ll find them all over each level.

Of course though, it isn’t quite as simple as run along killing guys and then getting to the end of a level. With the 3D element to the game you’ll find the camera angle shift giving the perspective of Duke running toward you or away from you, and of course there are higher levels to climb to and lower levels to jump down into. Whether you want to see it as simple camera trickery or a smart game engine ability, it adds to the experience and definitely gives the game a different dimension so to speak. There are also the puzzle elements which will take a bit of grey matter to figure out. These will need to be solved for Duke to advance with his mission and have that final encounter with Mech Morphix.

Controlling Duke is as basic as it comes, and you’ll be blasting pig cops in a matter of seconds. The left and right movement as expected is on your left analogue stick, pushing up makes Duke look up, and down makes him crouch. A is the jump button, with a double press for a higher and longer spinning jump. Right trigger serves as the weapon fire button, and the left one offers a kick or stomp. The bumper buttons both scroll through your collected weapons, and Y throws a grenade or two (depending on how many you have). Finally the right analogue can move the camera angle about so you can get a view of above and below, this is helpful when looking for those sneakily hidden Nuke Symbols.

All this would make for a fun experience however I did find quite a few game-breaking flaws. For example, I found that toward the end of my play through some environmental elements of the level were totally invisible. You may forgive this if it was just background filler, but as you need to use these parts of the environment to move forward in the level it’s pretty much unforgivable. It’s not the only flaw either, as again, toward the end of game levels become very glitchy. Duke will often get stuck on, in and under parts of the platforms. So don’t be surprised if you find yourself needing to look at a youtube video to figure out just how you’re meant to get through when you come to the end game.

He likes makin' bacon

Your face, your ass, what’s the difference?
Graphically Manhattan Project shows its age. There has obviously been a bit of a clean up on the textures, but still, these are 2002 textures which means even with some 2010 polish they still look very dated. There is no evidence of your current generation console being put to work here, and sadly this only adds to one of the games many flaws. For one there are constant screen tears when making Duke jump and the camera angle has to pan rapidly.

Another odd element is the HUD. Sprawling along the bottom of the screen, you don’t really get a sense of what exactly gauges what. It took me until almost the last level to finally workout what was what. With no tutorial to ease you into controls and HUD readings it really is quite baffling. By the time you have figured it out, like me, you’ll probably wonder why felt they needed have it displayed at all.

He's not scared to spray his goop

My name’s Duke Nukem
The one redeeming feature for Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is the same as in the entire franchise; that would be the man, Duke, himself. Rather than worry about a ton of different soundtracks to compliment the game, they rely on Duke’s one line repertoire to keep you entertained. From the brash and almost offensive chat-up lines when saving the babes, to the riotously amusing quips as he blasts full clips into his adversaries, his dialogue is nearly always welcome. The grungy metal beat that doesn’t change throughout the game is hardly noticeable as you are constantly waiting for Duke to deliver another put-down. Look around on the internet you’ll find many a Duke Nukem soundboard packed with all his classics, as well as a few he has borrowed from a few famous films. Duke doesn’t seem to care if it’s an original or not, if it’s witty and serves a purpose, he’ll use it. So, Yippie Kai-yay Mother Fu… Sorry, on with the rest of the review!

Duke likes a babe... or eight!

Duke Nukem Forever?
That’s about as complex as it gets for Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project. With no multiplayer to concern you, you can concentrate on working through the levels, collecting, discovering and killing. To complete the game it’ll take you roughly around eight hours to get Duke to the final battle with Morphix. The problem, however, comes with a lack of mission variety, making it a real chore around the half-way point. So unless you’re desperate to unlock all the achievements for the game, you probably will start to question why you’re bothering to continue. Throw the glitches I encountered into the mix, and I’m really going to be struggling to recommend why you should even bother trying it.

Duke’s sexist outlook and foul mouth wit do make playing entertaining until the voice track start to repeat, and it really isn’t enough to save Manhattan Project. This game should have stayed back in 2002. I can’t help but feel 3D realms put this out to remind us that Duke Nukem is still a big franchise for them, but with the infamous Duke Nukem Forever still nowhere in sight of development with the franchise in the middle of legal battles, this arcade release only shows how badly Duke needs to have that next generation game if he’s to remind us why we should “Hail the king, baby!”

How We Review Games

Immortal combat
So, as you’d imagine, the game features combatants that have featured in the TV Show, but with only eight to choose from, it is a quite paltry amount for any fighting game. More will apparently be offered later on down the line through DLC, but I fear the game will have outstayed its welcome long before they are made available. The game is also quite limited in terms of single player modes with only a choice of four. The meatiest, although still very light on substance is the Arcade Mode, where as you’d expect, you’ll tackle each combatant in a best of three. The other modes inclusions are negligible, the types you’ll never really venture into, with Battle offering you a one off fight against the AI, an unlockable Challenge Mode where you’ll fight waves of enemies with a few variations inbetween, and finally a Practice Mode, which I’m pretty sure you’ll all understand what that does.

Brutality
As a huge fan of both Bushido Blade titles back on the PSOne, I was excited to hear that Deadliest Warrior was gaining a few comparisons in that direction. It is true, Deadliest Warrior does indeed remind me a little of Bushido Blade, but features exactly none of the finesse that was evident in Squaresoft’s classic. The initial bout of nostalgia comes about because this is a game in which you can render an opponent’s limbs entirely useless by getting a vital hit, or slice them off altogether if you’re lucky, but that’s all it comes down to; luck. I was fooled early on in my first match, as I ran towards my opponent, he threw a spear at me that went through my Spartan’s face and killed him instantly. Rather than putting me off as it might many, I thought briefly that I might be reviewing a game with realistic damage that could require some skill and careful strategic combat to master.

Sadly, it quickly became clear that this aspect of the game is rather redundant in gameplay as any moments that involve instant death, or limbs and heads being lopped off usually amount to pure fluke coming at the end of rather ungraceful slugfests, meaning you get no satisfaction out of it other than it looking a little cool the first time it happens. It’s all set out to make the pretence of a strategic game though, a lot of the time you’ll find yourself guarded, trading the odd blow waiting for the right time to parry and then flurry one of the games extremely basic combos, and it’s here where you’ll find the most enjoyment, but it just lacks any skill to hurt your opposition.

It's Knight time for the Ninja.

It all feels very heavy too, not helped by sluggish controls that leave you feeling a little detached from the action or a stamina system that prevents the fight from flowing. Every time you attack, you use stamina, which recharges over a short amount of time. The problem with this is that it’s aimed at keeping the fight open, but it prevents you from gaining any kind of momentum and ending a fight in style, sometimes even resulting in an almost turn-based fight.

The worst aspect is that the game has some pretty severe balancing issues, with one or two characters having a clear power advantage over the others, and the pay offs for choosing some of the weaker ones aren’t exactly the levellers they should be. Each character has two melee weapons; the default is the short ranged weapon, and a mid-ranged weapon, which is slow but extremely powerful (these can be alternated at any time by using the left bumper). I found there to be very little point in bothering with the mid-ranged weapon, as by the time you’ve managed to take a swing at thin air, you’ll find yourself heavily sliced up before you can say ‘decapitation’.

Every fighter also has a projectile, which can only be used a certain amount of times (which appears to be determined by how powerful they are; more powerful, fewer uses). The dodge control is vital to any enjoyment you’re likely to derive from this game, and this is mapped to the Right Stick and is direction sensitive. The dodge also differs depending on your character, the more agile fighters, such as the Ninja or the Apache can use it for quick rolls to get a better strike or to put distance between themselves and their opponent, where it’s less of an advantage for someone like the Knight, where you can only really side-step an oncoming attack. I found this could often hinder you, thanks to the slightly ropey way in which the game manages the 3D plane.

Fittingly, for such a brutal game, there are finishing moves, achieved by holding two particular buttons down (These buttons differ between characters), and using it to land the final blow will result in a pretty gory finishing animation. These look nice but are slightly hurt a little by the motion capture. The odd thing is that the game features your typical ‘best of three’ set-up, and you can perform these in the first round of a match, meaning your opponent must be sending in his identical twin brother for the subsequent rounds…

In between some of the matches, you’ll be offered up one of two bonus rounds. In the first you have to hack down all the pig carcasses hung from the ceiling with in the thirty second time limit. The second puts you in a fight where every hit takes off a limb, and the winner is the first to reduce the other to a bloody mess of a jigsaw. Both are less than gracefully executed and not remotely worth the time to include them, but they do at least serve a purpose. After you’ve beat these with a fighter, you’ll unlock new and updated weapons for that character, adding a layer of customisation and replayability. In the end, though, the game is just not fun enough to warrant multiple playthroughs.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Kill Native Americans, going by this.

Historical graphics
To be blunt, Deadliest Warrior is far from an attractive game, and is definitely leagues below even the most basic looking games on XBLA or PSN. This in large is thanks to the poor texturing, which features a horrible muddying effect (especially noticeable in the environments) that reminded me of resizing a picture to a few sizes too large on Photoshop. The fighters are modelled just as badly, looking extremely dated, a fact that slaps you in the face as early as the main menu. The unmasked characters actually look like they’re suffering a bout of gigantism, probably thanks to being stung many times in the face by an entire colony of wasps.

Some of the motion captured animation is also weakly done, and while it never looks quite laughable, there is something quite ‘off’ about it, particularly during pre-fight entrances or victory celebrations. In the midst of combat, some of the lighting goes a little way in covering up what is just an ugly game where the only redeemable feature visually is the way the blood coats the surfaces. The moment you are taken a little closer to the action, any plus points you could find (while clutching at straws) are ripped away immediately.

Screams of bloody murder
‘Minimal’ is the word I’d use to describe the use of audio in Deadliest Warrior, and on the basis of the quality of audio that has made it into the final game, I’m not very surprised. While the sounds of swords clashing is not a very hard effect for a developer to mess up, and the sound track (which I am assuming is ripped from the TV Show) does a job, sounds and lines from the combatants are really grating. Every slice, every bit of speech seems to host an example of a low quality recording with slight ‘white noise’ over the top of it. This is noticeable when the game goes quiet during loading screens. What’s worse is the audio used to add a bit of validity to the environments, with the Ninja’s stage particularly annoying me with a horrible constant irritating beep that is supposed to be that of birds and grasshoppers.

Piracy is bad!

(Online) Arena Combat
The multiplayer mode in Deadliest Warrior, to the developer’s credit, gives a pretty good account of the offline mode when it actually works; I had numerous connection issues. This can be frustrating when matches can take seconds in some cases. For example, in my first game online which took me ten minutes to get, I took two spears to the face straight away… game over. I’ve no issue with that, I should have learned the first time, it wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if the game didn’t kick you out all the way back to the main menu after every match has ended, a fundamental design choice that simply left me wondering ‘Why?!’

Thankfully, when I did eventually get into matches they tended to be completely lag free. None of that makes the core gameplay mechanics any more fun of course, but it’s nice to know that the people who are getting some enjoyment out of the game can do so in a fairly unproblematic online mode, without fear of being plagued with lag or other issues.

There is a tournament mode included on the online multiplayer menu, although I have no idea what it is about as I only ever received the message ‘No games found that match that search’ in every attempt to play it, and the only time I did manage to start a match in that section, the player dropped out before I got chance to fight.

Tonight, I have dined in Hell!
Deadliest Warrior is a deeply flawed game, but I do have to admit that it’s not totally without its charms here and there. When you’re in a middle of a close fight, knowing that the next strike could prove to be your last, the game does have a certain tension that makes it fun in short periods. Those moments, however, are too few and far between in what is simply a clumsy and ugly fighter with little depth and barely any staying power. Give it miss.

How We Review Games

Now three years on the developers, with a new moniker of Ruffian Games, have to live up to the increased expectation with arguably one of the XBOX 360’s most anticipated sequels. Can they live up to the hype? Read on to find out.

Cell reception
Crackdown 2 is set sometime after the original game. Gone are the previous fractions, instead you are left with two opposing forces. The Cell Terrorist group led by Catalina Thorne, a former employee of the Agency with grievances over her dismissal, and the mutants, lovingly known as Freaks, let loose around the city after an experimental virus was released into the general population.

The background to the story mode has been released in short episodes and can be downloaded from the Xbox Live marketplace free of charge or watched on youtube. It tells of how Catalina Thorne developed and released the virus herself and then headed up the terrorist group who lay the blame at the door of the Agency. You take on the role of one of the Agents tasked with battling the Cell by day and the Freaks by night.

Freak show
You begin with a brief training level. Your Agency guide runs you through the basics of jumping (A), locking a target (LT), Shooting (RT) and throwing a projectile weapon (RB). You also learn to target specific areas of the body by locking on to the target and then flicking the right stick to select Head, Arm or Leg shots.

Driving is equally straight-forward. You enter and exit a vehicle with Y, accelerate with RT, reverse with LT and brake with A. Some vehicles have weapons attached which are fired with B, which is also used as the horn or siren on those vehicles that are not armed.

From here, it is straight into the action. You are initially tasked with infiltrating a Cell stronghold in order to provide the Agency with a key tactical location on the docks. You will be met with a pretty strong resistance but at this point in proceedings the enemy are relatively weak in number and a few well positioned fuel barrels give you plenty of opportunity to chain some explosions and start levelling up your chosen agent.

For those of you who have played the original, levelling up is a little quicker this time around. Your Agent’s skills are split into the same five categories of Agility, Strength, Weapons, Explosives and Driving. Agility is upgraded by collecting the 500 green agility orbs scattered around Pacific City or completing roof top races. Weapons, Explosives and Strength are all levelled up by killing with the assigned skill. For example blow up a group of Cell and gain an explosives boost, kick some Freak butt and gain a strength boost. Driving awards are given for completing races, getting stunt markers and running over enemies.

You can also gain an all round level-up by collecting the hidden orbs located around the City. These are much harder to find than agility orbs as they are often outside the standard line of sight under a barrier or behind a wall but are worth finding for the bonus you’ll receive. There are also a number of audio logs scattered around the City. These serve to fill in the holes of the story and give you some much needed tactical insight into some of the more fortified strongholds.

It is fair to say I have never been a fan of “collect” style tasks in video games be they flags, pigeons, orbs or any other object. However, having said that it never feels like a chore in Crackdown 2. The agility orbs are all fairly visible and you can see and feel the benefits easily enough as your agent transforms from a slow, cumbersome lump into a lean energetic Super Agent capable of jumping over a house.

At this point they'll be squealing like pigs!

The other primary task in the Pacific City clean up is the elimination of the Freaks. In order to clear up the streets you need to reactivate Absorption Units which enable Beacons to be deployed in Freak “Lair’s”. Reactivate three Absorption Units to get a Beacon which then needs to be protected from the Freaks long enough to be activated.

The story mode follows these two major tasks on the whole and I would be lying if I said it does not get a little repetitive at times. There are road and rooftop races as well as Freak breakouts to keep you occupied along-side the aforementioned collection tasks but it can be a little samey.

I also have to point out a couple of minor issues I have with the game. Firstly, as my colleague James mentioned in his Demo Impression, there is no cover system in place here. Sure you can duck behind a crate or hide around the corner of a wall but that is it and you cannot help but think the developers missed a trick. Neither is there a sprint option. Your Agent will move quicker as he levels up but at no point can you change pace, a little odd for a Super Agent methinks.

My other bug bear is within the Agency Intel screen and specifically the map. You cannot view multiple tasks on the map at once so you need to first select what you want to look for (tactical locations, rooftop race) then enter the map, neither can you zoom in or out on the map to get a wider overview of where your destination is in relation to your current location. Finally you cannot set a waypoint or highlight a target to assist you with navigation. These are minor issues but ones which do irritate at times and could so easily have been avoided.

What Crackdown 2 lacks in subtlety it certainly makes up for in sheer brute force. There are explosive barrels located all over the city and explosions can be chained for achievements and just pure fun. To say the screen literally lights up when you link four or five explosions together is an understatement of epic proportions. Watching Freaks and Cell flying around the screen at these chained explosions is about as enjoyable a sight as I have seen in a video game this year.

Detachable gun Turret = F U N

The weapons on offer are pretty awesome too. From standard Grenades to a rubber duck, (unlocked via Facebook) from a machine gun to a Harpoon gun and from a standard shotgun to the quite magnificent UV shotgun which will wipe out a group of ten Freaks in a single blast and clear any other obstacle in its path to boot. The weapons are diverse, imaginative and in most cases just really good fun.

Cell-shading
Visually, Crackdown 2 follows its predecessor almost a bit too much. By that I mean some will criticise the game for looking a bit too simplistic compared to other big name titles. The cell-shaded effect is primary in the simplistic feel but serves to keep that comic book feel to proceedings that set the original game apart. The draw distances are on a par with anything else I have seen and are a fundamental part of the game mechanics. You can stand atop any building and look around to clearly see an agility orb or race marker in the distance removing any frustration often experienced in a “collect” task of missing anything you are not stood next to and looking directly at.

How far can you see?

Pacific City itself has plenty of diversity too. From industrial areas like the docks, to cavernous mountains. From underground lairs, to the downright dereliction of Union Heights. The overall feel of the City is one of degradation, as you would expect with it being a battle ground at the centre of a three way fight for supremacy, but you can see the promise it offers if not for the terrorists and the Freaks.

Another fundamental issue I want to mention is the one of slowdown. A trait I cannot stand in modern video games and one which does not come close to appearing here. During some of the Freak breakouts and Stronghold battles there is quite literally not an inch of screen that does not have something going on. Explosions, right, left and centre are complemented by running battles and bullets flying backwards and forwards and throughout it all the game runs as smooth as the proverbial babies bum.

Enough to make you scream
The game has little in the way of background music but the effects are sharp and clear. Freaks give a somewhat pleasing scream when taken out. When entering a Cell vehicle you are greeted with some intense tunes be it heavy rock or a base filled hip-hop track. If you take over a civilian vehicle it is more of a mellow, softer number. Every new day is met by a celebratory sounding melody. One of the perceived joy and success of seeing through another night of the Freak attack. It all fits very nicely.

Your Agency guide is the same as in the previous game. He is clear and concise and offers a word of wisdom or two when needed (as well as a derogatory swipe when you fail to perform). It is hardly a glorious musical score but it fits the game and sets the tone in the right way.

Welcome to the Party
There are four multiplayer modes in Crackdown 2. I will come to the co-op in a moment but first, for those of you who like your FPS we have the introduction of the now obligatory deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. These work in much the same way as in any one of a trillion other games currently on the market. Maps are pretty varied and there is an added challenge of avoiding “suicide”. Accidently blow yourself up with a grenade or fall a bit too far and you lose ten points. The other point of note is the difficulty in getting a kill with standard weaponry. On a number of occasions I found myself emptying a machine gun magazine at an opponent only a few feet away only to see them still standing.

We also have “Rocket Tag” which is akin to your capture the flag game mode. Up to sixteen players, one Rocket Orb. The idea of the game is to get and keep the orb for as long as possible. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Let me tell you this is anything but the case as literally, as soon as you get near the orb you will have UV shotgun blasts ringing in your ears. This mode is hugely entertaining and frustrating in equal measure, I cannot recommend it enough.

Prepare to get Hammered!

So to the co-op. This is a fundamental factor of what makes Crackdown 2 a special game. You and a group of friends can play through the entire game together or you can drop in on another game or have someone drop in on your own game from time to time. Throughout this you can work in close proximity or separate to complete the story mode objectives from multiple angles. You can completely ignore the objectives and just roam the streets of Pacific City kicking some serious Freak or Cell butt. You can also go off and compete in street or rooftop races, it is entirely your own decision and throughout it all you can pick up your own achievements.

It is worth noting though, that the host will be the player who is credited with story mode objectives and in order to collect the Xbox live orbs you need to be in close proximity to each other. This mode is great fun, total freedom in every respect and a really enjoyable experience. As far as I’m concerned Crackdown 2’s co-op mode is what sets this generation of gaming apart. Get a group of friends together over Xbox Live and just enjoy.

Agents at the Ready
Crackdown 2 is a triumph. It follows on from the original just enough to keep fans happy but not too much to alienate newcomers. There is a diversity of gameplay to satisfy the masses and yet it is not confused to the point it falls between stalls. It is unique enough to offer a new challenge but not so much to fall into a niche market. There genuinely is something for everyone.

It is not without its flaws and I doubt it will win any awards for originality or the depth of the story but overall this is an enjoyable, exciting video game that genuinely ticks all the boxes. It looks good, it sounds pretty decent and above all it plays supremely well. I cannot recommend it enough.

How We Review Games

A rude awakening
Limbo has no conventional plot. That is to say the story, if there truly is one, is delivered in such a simple, striking and unique way that it’s nearly impossible to be certain what has happened (or is happening), but it’s also nearly impossible to keep the mind from turning over every scene.

It begins with a child rousing in a dark, shadowy forest of gray and black with no one else around him. Early on, the only other living things he comes across are a gargantuan spider and a small, dog-like creature; but as he travels further and further he finds himself another group of young boys; all of whom immediately try to kill him. All of the other kids he finds are either dead or dying by the time he reaches them, and in some cases their corpses become necessary tools to complete puzzles.

There really isn’t much else to Limbo. There are, of course, some other key discoveries that you’ll have to unearth on your own should you get the game, but beyond what you’ve read the story doesn’t go any deeper. There are only a few cut-scenes, and even these occur during gameplay to keep transition into and out of them absolutely seamless. What results from the vague story and captivating delivery is a unique style of storytelling that, for once, could not be replicated in any medium but a videogame. It’s quite an achievement.

Alone in the dark
Limbo’s gameplay suffers from an erratic difficulty curve due to its unusual design. This may be the first game I’ve ever encountered in which the entirety can be played from beginning to end without one instance of loading. So, if you’re good enough, you can play the entire four-to-five hour experience without one break from gameplay should you keep from dying. As a result, there’s an inescapable feeling of being in a wide open, yet oppressive, world in which solutions to each puzzle could be hidden anywhere, and, for the most part, that is the case. Often there were times I worked my way through a puzzle up to its final point thinking I had everything I needed in the immediate area only to find, upon searching the greater expanse, the final piece was in some far off corner awaiting discovery.

See this worm here? It lodges into your head and forces you to move nonstop in a single direction. Nice, huh?

Don’t let that fool you into thinking this is a terribly hard game. It’s actually painfully easy. The most difficult aspect of Limbo by far is being able to move with precision. Because of how slowly the kid moves and how awkwardly he jumps, judging distances and how quickly you can reach a certain spot always requires a prerequisite death to test how exactly you’ll have to proceed. Put succinctly, most of the game is a chore.

What makes the difficulty curve so unreliable is that every so often you’ll come across an absurdly confusing puzzle that offers absolutely no hint to its solution and requires precise timing, accuracy and some luck (which means it will take many, many tries). On the other hand, there were times when I got stuck on a puzzle that was ostensibly impossible. In one case I went at it for hours and hours, cut the game off, prayed, ate some fish (I hear it’s brain food) and played a match of online chess (to strengthen the mind!) only to return to the game and find that all I’d overlooked was a very minor detail in the puzzle. Once I’d noticed that, the puzzle was depressingly simple. This happened many times, as (though the game looks really great) often the plane you’re playing on won’t be in the foreground, which means certain elements of the puzzle can be obscured or mistaken for parts of the background. As you can imagine, that’s incredibly frustrating.

As long as little hitches like that don’t arise the game is a smooth, thought-provoking trip through a mysterious and harsh world. Trust that when I say you will die, reader, I mean you will die all the time. In Limbo’s unforgiving world, anything can kill you from hidden, oversized bear traps that will behead you to mobile gun turrets that will perforate you. Even little mistakes in handling the puzzle can end your life. In one case a giant circular saw-blade was coming my way ready to slice me in half. I hit a button that activated a crane which began to slowly open up to drop a box which I would use to jump over the blade. As the crane slowly opened, I became impatient and ran over, trying to reach it just as it would land only to have it drop on my head and knock me out. I covered my eyes as the kid was bisected.

Funny moments like that are abound in Limbo, and the punishment for death is never more than having to restart any given puzzle. Checkpoints are forgiving, and there’s no loading between deaths, so you’ll always be able to immediately jump back in.

Oh the beauty of obscurity
Visually, Limbo is absolutely amazing. Its detailed backgrounds thematically contrast well with its shadowy foreground. What results is an experience in which the scarcity of information about the kid and the world he’s in is replicated in what you see upfront. The detailed backgrounds reflect the world’s complexity buried beneath the raw facts of the situation: That you are a lonely child in a murderous land which steals life from all without reason or hesitation. It’s a beautiful game that uses simplicity to convey the most difficult of concepts with its basic, tell-tale imagery.

This may seem to require simple platforming, but when those dim letters light up it'll get ugly.

Beyond that, death in Limbo is as gut-wrenching as in any high-end shooter or horror game (like Dead Space or Gears of War). Though in those games you may wince at the over-the-top gore and detailed visuals, in Limbo you’ll clench all over from the finality and swiftness with which every life is doused. Giant spiders will force their thin, long legs through your skull and out your lower back, and then apathetically toss your corpse. Homicidal children chasing you across trap-ridden paths will be crushed beneath tremendous slabs of stone, or will drop into spike pits and be skewered.

Wait… what was that sound?
Limbo’s audio is yet another flawless part of its package. Every sound (be it arrows rushing through the air or the reverberating buzz of a massive fly twice the size of a man) conspires with the game’s haunting aura to keep you fearful to press forward but too enrapt to go back. Your heart will literally stop the moment you hear the chorus of snaps as a tree trunk slowly topples and obliterates you. Conversely your heart will race furiously the first time you find yourself trapped in a pit overflowing with water once you realize your courageous child can’t swim.

At the end of the day
Limbo is, above all, a masterfully designed experience. It seems that, for the sake of such a wondrous experience, the actual gameplay was left mundane and barely appealing. Limbo is at its best when everything is flowing and you’re moving through this experience in one go, navigating the world speedily and just escaping death by inches; so its replay value is incredibly high. With its impeccable sound and looks, and its flawless execution, it’s quite a value, especially at a time when the release schedule has thinned. Without a doubt, this game should be on your hard drive. It should be on your mind and it should be in your memories. For it offers something unfortunately rare in this world: An experience impossible to achieve outside of a videogame.

How We Review Games

So, if you’ve read my reviews and seen the marks I’ve given out, you’re probably all wondering what I, as a reviewer, consider to be my standard bearer. What do I consider to be the finest achievement the industry has ever known when every single game is stood side by side?

Coming into this review, I was touting it to be Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, a choice certain to quirk a few eyebrows. However, now that Lucasarts are re-releasing the game for a new audience with a whole host of new features, I feel it is my responsibility as a videogame journalist to at least try to justify myself and determine if those feelings are still relevant today.

So, nearly twenty years on, is this still the masterpiece I remember it to be?

Uncanny acclaim
Love it or hate it, Lucasarts re-released the classic Secret of Monkey Island last summer to critical acclaim. It was a keen experiment to be sure, in an age of 3D graphics and high definition sound, re-releasing a game twenty years old with a fairly niche fanbase and an original marketing campaign mostly founded on ‘word of mouth’. However, it was a successful experiment that allowed retro gamers to relive the game as it was originally intended all those years ago but also introduced the wonders of Monkey Island to a brand new audience with sparkling high definition visuals, and improved background music and sound effects and voice acting. The game did tremendously well, considering it was a re-release and inevitably got the company talking about the sequel which was also eager for a facelift.

Time to cool off!

Monkey Island 2 is quite a different animal to the original Secret of Monkey Island. At the time, the narrative structure of MI2 was unique, as it was one of the first games to start the player close to the games conclusion and have Guybrush Threepwood recollect his adventures to that point to both Elaine, the love of his life, who seems surprised to see him dangling from a piece of rope with a chest in hand and to us, the player, who are slightly perplexed at seeing the nature of Guybrush and Elaine’s relationship following on from the ‘Happily Ever After’ ending of SOMI. The flashback sequence begins with Guybrush on Scabb Island showing off to a pair of washed-up pirates who are listening to his story about how he defeated the Ghost Pirate LeChuck with a bottle of root beer. Satisfied he has their attention, Guybrush then brags that for his next trick, he is going to find the legendary treasure of Big Whoop. Sick of hearing the same story and indulging his delusions of grandeur, the pirates dismiss Guybrush and direct him to the town of Woodtick to see if he can find someone else to pester with his travelling tale.

However, Guybrush isn’t exactly welcomed with open arms as he enters Woodtick and bumps into local bully, Largo LaGrande. Without giving him a chance to breathe, Largo tips Guybrush upside down, forcing him to plead for mercy and then robs him of the mounds of money he has collected from his pirating escapades. Once he’s made his point, Largo tells Guybrush that he’s in charge and has placed an embargo on Scabb Island preventing anyone from leaving without his say-so. Ticked off from his reception, Guybrush starts to ask around Woodtick and finds out that Largo was in fact LeChuck’s right hand man, and is running things now that the Ghost Pirate has not been heard from. Guybrush, floored by the knowledge, his pride dented and his reputation tarnished, decides upon revenge and searches out the ingredients for a voodoo doll to rid Scabb Island of Largo LeGrande for good!

Based on how the game actually opens, you can tell that Guybrush went on to become a pretty successful pirate in-between Monkey Island 1 and 2 as evidenced by his mounds of money and fancy clothes. It was so bold of LEC to completely change the feel of both games. Monkey 1 was filled with intrepid adventure; you were there to take Guybrush through his paces in his quest of becoming a pirate. It was a game that told us something about our own ambitions and goals and how things can be achieved, even if it is by the most unconventional means. Then MI2 spun that completely on its head. MI2 managed to introduce Guybrush in a completely different way, a man who has accomplished his dreams, who has built up a reputation for better or worse, yet made it seem as if he is still struggling in the rat race of life. The game wasn’t afraid to reinvent itself, it wasn’t afraid to push new boundaries and I appreciated that perhaps more than any other quality it offered.

The purpose of this review however, is to consider Monkey Island 2 as a special edition and not just how it was represented back in 1991. That would only be considering half of a game, as the SE introduces High Definition graphics, adds voices to the cast, gives a directors commentary that can be played over the top of the game, and provides unlockable concept art. The Special Edition gives us a whole new experience for a vintage title.

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck...

Could you walk with two peglegs?
The controls for MI2:SE are much improved over those of MI: SE last year. In the HD remake, control of Guybrush is completely handled by the left analog stick (although sometimes it’s very easy for Guybrush to get stuck on his path and it will take several attempts for the player to move from some areas). By pressing in the right shoulder button, the player can access their full inventory with the ability to drag the item out of the inventory and use it on the environment or on another item, or just to simply manipulate them however the game allows. Some new additions include the ability to press in the Left Bumper, which shows all of the areas the player can interact with in the environment by highlighting them. The player can also hold in the X button and get a hint as of what they need to do next. They’ll first be presented with a small, subtle hint, followed by something more substantial and then if they’re still stuck, they’ll be instructed on exactly what they need to do to solve a puzzle.

Of course, you can switch to classic mode at any time and use the original point and click interface. This time, instead of controlling Guybrush with the left analog stick, the player will control a cursor that they will need to move around on the screen and press a button as to where they want Guybrush to go. There are also a series of verbs at the bottom of the screen which the player will need to select one and then use that verb on the environment around them, whether it be ‘look at crypt’ or ‘give banana to monkey’. There are also pictures on the bottom right of the screen to indicate your inventory, the player can select a verb, then use it on an item in the inventory to interact with the environment around. It’s your standard point and click affair that you’ll have been used to with the Secret of Monkey Island and Sam and Max, which doesn’t really play well on an Xbox control pad, but you can still navigate the game quite easily, should you prefer to play MI2 for its original face value.

How it all began...

Ye don’t look like much of a pirate to me!
The HD remake really suits Monkey Island 2. I would even go as far as to say that it looks better and more lively than MI:SE. Although I have to say the way Guybrush has evolved has always been a point of contention with me and when compared to his figure in the original to the pencil shaped frame he’s now adopted, I still don’t think he will ever replace my original vision of Guybrush. Yet, this is as good as the game could possibly look and really fits in with the rest of the series.

LEC have also worked their magic on the backgrounds and frankly, Phatt, Scabb and Booty Island have never looked better! You can see that this is all hand drawn and has been a real labour of love for the development team. It’s as if they are finally able to express the vision they originally had all those years ago now that the technology is in place to support it.

You’ll also be able to look at Concept Art, another new feature in the Special Edition, which is unlocked by making a certain amount of progress in the game, whether it be doing some puzzles or collecting a certain item. The concept art shows LEC’s thought process on each character and how hard they worked to get the image exactly right for this new imagining of LeChuck’s Revenge. Seeing the many variations of Guybrush was particularly eye-opening for me.

What’s also great about these Special Editions, however, is that we get to see the game was it was originally intended, and while this isn’t the best port of the original MI2 that you’ll find on the web anywhere, you can really see how this game has evolved. As a port, the sound seems a little off and resistant to today’s soundcards, not accurately emulated to authenticate the original 1991 experience, and the graphics don’t really blur well together when alternating between classic and high definition, but it really gives you an idea as to how you would have felt playing this on your Amiga way back when.

Arrr! Ye certainly don’t sound like much of a pirate!
Unique to this edition is the directors commentary which can be accessed at select times in the game as prompted on the screen. The directors commentary features three of Monkey Island 2’s main designers sat in one room together chewing the ‘Phatt’ on the game. These men are Tim Schafer, best known nowadays for Psychonauts and Brutal Legend, Dave Grossman best known nowadays for being top dog over at Telltale Games and Ron Gilbert who has been working on the recent Death Spank! Their dialogue is a fascinating insight into how much the industry has evolved in the last twenty years, with all three saying what they felt the industry has become from where it used to be, to what their abilities at the time allowed them to accomplish in Monkey Island 2. They even talk about how certain screens would be drawn and completed but not given a puzzle until much later in the development cycle and go as far as to say the industry has become less spontaneous than it was back then. I also like how you almost unlock certain aspects of the commentary by completing a puzzle and then the designers tell you how they came together on the thought process and explain it in a bit more detail.

Truthfully, their interaction is one of the best points of the Special Edition for me and really catered to the nerd within, although there still wasn’t enough for my liking. Some places you visit in the game, I was stunned and surprised that there was no option to hear a director’s commentary in Phatt mansion or in the Voodoo lady’s House of Mojo. My inner Monkey Island fan would always clamour for more, admittedly, but these are integral scenes within the game that I felt defined much of its charm and the game did not allow Gilbert, Grossman and Schafer to tell us what they thought about them.

Just like the old days.

The voice cast is also back again in Monkey Island 2 and remains faithful to the rest of the series. LEC have once again acquired Dominic Armato to play the role as Guybrush Threepwood, now making him the voice of the intrepid thrillseeker. Earl Boen also returns as Le Chuck and still sounds as devilishly evil as ever before. Alexandra Boyd plays Elaine Marley and Neil Ross returns as Wally the Cartographer.

The music is also very creepy, very dark and uninviting. While listening to the classic version, you can see how much adding real instruments has given an altogether different, perhaps even more sinister atmosphere than before. LeChuck’s theme in particular really fits with instruments. What LEC have failed to replicate is the iMUSE system from the original game. Monkey Island 2 was the first game to feature this, and it basically takes a piece of music for an overall area and then when changing screens, visiting a different part of that large area, a new variation of the same piece of music plays. When the player would leave the area, the music would smoothly fade out and would return to the original melody. Unfortunately, LEC have not been able to maintain that in the original classic version, which, as I alluded to before, probably would not make this the best port possible for die-hard enthusiasts who would only notice a detail like that.

Is it really special?
For me, this was a beautiful journey back to a World that I hadn’t visited in quite some time. It was an absolutely pleasurable experience from start to finish and even though Lucasarts have changed almost everything about the original to make it more in tune with the modern look of the series, I wouldn’t change a thing and would still play it through tomorrow. Monkey Island 2 Special Edition is the remastered version I’ve waited almost twenty years for. Everything that a fan of the series could possibly want is right here in this small, affordable little package. At 800 points or £6.99, this is one of the best stories you will see in a game this year; it’s funny, it’s dark and its informative. Playing the game through again didn’t make me doubt Monkey Island 2 as my favourite game of all time, it reminded me why that is the case and it still managed to divulge something fresh and new to me that I didn’t already have and can now add to my list of reasons as to why I love this game so very much.

I won’t fanboy you but what I will say is this: If you enjoyed Monkey Island 1 Special Edition, then this is a no-brainer purchase for you. If you hated it, then move along, there’s nothing to see here. However, I still stand by my word, I love Monkey Island 2 enough to proudly consider it the finest experience in the industry, and this Special Edition didn’t insult me, it didn’t disrespect me; it just kept giving twenty years on. That is more than anyone can ask for.

How We Review Games

Click here for Trent’s full Red Dead Redemption Review.

The Outlaws to the End DLC is a co-op add on which allows players to team up with a maximum of three friends as you attempt to complete six new missions. These are called River, Walton’s Gold, The Herd, The Escape, The Kidnapped Girl and Ammunition, respectively. At the start of every mission, a narrator gives you a brief summary of what you’ll be dealing with. Take note that this is the only form of narrative in Outlaws to the End.

The gameplay is much in tune with that of Red Dead’s multiplayer, although there are a few tweaks. Unlike Free Roam where you’re immediately thrown into the world, you get to choose one of four classes before each mission. One or two of these are made for specific missions and even specific parts in some. Each class contains different loadouts such as shotguns, repeaters and projectiles. The Soldier class is a Jack-of-all-trades sort of choice, specialising in close to long range combat. It shares similarities with the Gunslinger which excels in close to medium range. The Marksman is the Sniper class, ideal for long range and the Miner is best used in close range. I was careful whenever choosing a class as the wrong choice would jeopardise the mission. For example, choosing the Miner for missions with wide open areas, like River, isn’t wise.

Que pasa, gringo?

Ammo is fairly abundant and players are even allowed to pick up weapons dropped by enemies in case you’re short on bullets. There are also ammo crates in certain parts of each map where you may refill. One of the more interesting and well-handled tools is the checkpoint system. What makes it different to conventional checkpoints is that once you die, you won’t be revived until your team manage to reach the next one. This is one of the reasons why teamwork is so essential. Speaking of dying, whenever someone takes too many hits they don’t perish immediately, giving other players the ability to revive the downed team-mate. There is a fixed time in which the downed team-mate must be revived and if it runs out, then they won’t respawn until the next checkpoint. Waypoints also make a welcome appearance providing much needed direction.

Like in any other cooperative game, communication is the key. I can’t mention how many times I died simply because a team-mate mistakenly threw dynamite in my direction. The importance of teamwork should not be neglected in this DLC especially in Advanced Co-op. This mode is unlocked after you’ve earned gold medals on all missions. For me, this is one of the highlights of Outlaws to the End. The enemy AI is smarter and even more ruthless than before. Any wrong step and you will be floored, putting your teammates and the mission at risk. As well as a more formidable foe some of your own strengths are taken away in Advanced Co-op. One of the more appealing things about Red Dead’s combat is the targeting system. When set on casual or even normal the combat is a breeze. As if a steroid-pumped AI wasn’t bad enough but in Advanced Co-op your default method of aiming is expert. Suffice to say caution is your best friend. A scoreboard showing how you’ve done will appear at the end of each mission and the goal is to achieve gold medals on each. There are also achievements/trophies included adding extra incentive.

Perhaps the most appealing part of Outlaws to the End is that each mission has its own level of diversity and individuality. You’re being constantly challenged in different ways, whether it’s keeping a stagecoach on course to a checkpoint or evading dynamite launching miners. The inclusion of achievements and the challenge of Advanced Co-op ensure replay-ability. The fantastic soundtrack is audible in certain parts of missions providing that glorious Western atmosphere. Yes, there are the odd niggles commonly associated with Red Dead like bugs and glitches, but don’t let these minor nuisances dissuade you, however. If you enjoyed Red Dead Redemption and have friends willing to play cooperatively, downloading this is a no-brainer. The best part is that you can get all this enjoyment for the handsome price of zero!

How We Review Games

So, how does it measure up? You know what do to find out. OOH RAH!

Not so much of a story, more of a setting, and I still don’t know what that is…
Blacklight apparently has something of a rich universe that the publishers are looking to exploit, with talk of books, comics and movies already lined up, and it’s a great shame that none of that universe made it into the IP’s debut game. Play this game without doing your research, and you’ll have no idea what scenario you are meant to be experiencing. From my initial findings, Blacklight refers to the main faction in the game, and presumably the closest thing you’d come to as being able  to describe as the ‘good guys’. The opposition is apparently called ‘The Order’, a fact I only became aware of after my first match as that faction and I was informed by the on-screen result.

This, in my opinion, is just one example of the most consistent issue that plagues Blacklight throughout; nothing is ever  explained properly. Sure, take a gander through the options menu, and you’ll find a lazily placed ‘how to play’ section with a few text documents explaining things in some minor detail, but this is just not good scene setting. From the text I was able to work out that Blacklight are the USA’s finest soldiers with the greatest technology. The Order is made up of ex-US Soldiers, and for some reason they’re fighting each other in Soviet Russia at some point in the near future. When exactly I’ve yet to establish… It was around this point I stopped caring about who was fighting who, or why they were fighting; the set-up is about as clear as tar.

I’m not saying that an online only FPS should have a full plot or the in-depth narrative to rival the writings of George Orwell, but it’s nice to have the scene set for you and be given an idea of why you’re doing the things you’re doing. More than that, though, it’s just that this is the first instance you’ll find where the game doesn’t offer you any sort of user friendly help, leaving you to clumsily feel your way around.

Can you believe I couldn't find one official first person screenie?

Hard to get to grips with, but fun when you do
The first thing you should notice when starting up a game of Blacklight, is that it controls pretty damn smoothly. Aiming feels a natural experience and the general handling sits in the same ballpark as a Battlefield title. The controls are ripped straight from the like of Call of Duty too, so you’ll find no real surprises there either. The second thing I need to say is prepare to die… a lot. For an online shooter, Blacklight has to have one of the harshest difficulty curves I’ve ever encountered. Sure, you have a health meter, but I’m sure it’s only there to look pretty as one shot will usually equal instant death. The game makes a point about how you have the most advanced technology and armour known to man, and if this paltry amount of punishment is all it can stand, then the respective factions need to sack their suppliers. This can make the game very unwelcoming, and requires a bit of patience early on as you learn the ropes and get a decent image of the maps in your head. Once you do adjust to the difficultly, however, the game can be an absolute joy to play at times, although it does have some issues along the way.

There are seven modes in total, including standard death matches, capture the flag (retrieval), detonate, domination, and last man standing gametypes. For most part these work rather well, although sometimes the harsh nature of the game can make the more objective based modes a bit of an uphill struggle or chore to play through. There is no campaign, but the game does boast a ‘Black Ops’ mode, which can be played cooperatively or on your own, and this mode is extremely poor. There are four missions to take on, offering you different objectives in each; however it is severely let down by poor enemy A.I. The type of A.I. that keeps trying to fire at you despite being behind several objects of cover, or leaves that cover despite being perfectly safe…  It’s not like you can use this mode to practice for online either, as the enemies can take much more damage than found online.

There are twelve maps in total, and a couple of these show some examples of truly great level design, but be warned; there are some absolute stinkers too. The game is at its absolute best in the bigger, sprawling maps that help open things out and make the combat a little more forgiving. The smaller, tighter maps can sometimes make for frustrating gameplay, but the worst one I encountered employed a honeycomb style layout which led to death at every corner. Most of the maps have too much of a reliance on forcing the players into smaller chokepoints, and limited to two or three in each map, this can both be a blessing and a detriment. A blessing in the more open maps, creating some nice ‘Mexican stand-off moments’ amidst the chaos, and a detriment in that one or two maps are horrendously unbalanced as a result. I kid you not, in one map in particular and playing as Blacklight, more than once my team and I spent the entire match penned in our own spawn area, unable to force our way out.

Seriously, I couldn't...

While some might point to the way the game handles respawns as the reason for that scenario, and an element of that complaint is fair, I have to say that at least it’s managed quite well. Rather than spawning you next to a colleague away from the action, or choosing a random spawn point, each team has a base area in which they spawn, which is defended by two heavy duty turrets covering certain angles. This allows you to get your wits about you before running back out in to the battlefield.

Unfortunately for Blacklight, there really isn’t a lot here to make it stand out from the crowd. The guns, although highly customisable (through unlocks), are standard issue for a game of its type. That said, there are some cool twists on traditional items, particularly the grenades. Instead of a smoke grenade, you have digi-grenades, which apparently interfere with your much lauded ‘Hyper Reality Visor’, creating a pixelated area that can distort the enemy’s view or hide your own movement, much like a smoke grenade. Get too close to one of these clouds and your visor will receive loads of little error messages, really screwing up your view. By far my favourite type of grenade is the EMP that causes the infamous Blue Screen of Death to appear on your visor before smartly rebooting. The visor that I’ve mentioned is something that Zombie have really talked up, and it does have a large part to play once you start levelling up, offering the ability to temporarily see through the scenery, used much like a heat signature tracker.

The unlocks are set up in a similar fashion to that of most war games on the market now, and while it’s nice to see a little notification telling you that you’ve unlocked something,  but just as with the setting, the game takes no time to offer you any explanation of what they are or how to use them. Once you get the hang of the customisation, this part of the game gets somewhat enjoyable the further you get into the game, but none of this is helped by an absolute abortion of a menu system which, especially early on, can leave you wondering what the hell you’re doing.

It doesn’t look Unreal
The game uses the Unreal 3 engine, as many a great game has done, but you’d be hard pressed to be able tell as it really doesn’t look like an Unreal game at all. Being a downloadable title, it’s always going to be hard for a game to rival the likes of the full retail brigade visually. As such, Blacklight can be found to be a bit of a mixed bag, and a lot of the compliments you could pay it will usually feature the precursor ‘For an XBLA game…’. In some cases it holds up against its XBLA peers, offering a grittier, darker experience, and compared screen  by screen to say, Battlefield 1943, it does look a little sharper and features more detail, although you have the consider that the level of scope is far less than that of DICE’s popular title. Much like some other aspects of Blacklight, the visuals simply do a job in looking nice, but won’t particularly blow your socks off.

One thing I did really like in Blacklight is the visual representation of your customisations. All of the weapons feature a base part that can be upgraded with new parts as you unlock them, and these changes and additions are noticeable in-game. It’s the little things like that this that draw you back into the atmosphere that the lack of decent stage setting almost prevents.

There is no cover mechanic! WHY SCREENSHOT IT?!

No kick
Unfortunately, the sound effects used for the weaponry in Blacklight is certainly weaker than it could have been. We all know how important a part sound plays in creating an atmosphere, but what’s never mentioned is the importance of sound to add credence to the actions you are doing. Even the slight of a lack of an audible kick when firing, as is apparent in this game, can leave you feeling a little detached from the action. Shouts of ‘Fire in the hole!’ and the like are just things we come to expect in titles like these, to the point where we barely take them in anymore. Elsewhere it’s pretty much standard fare for war games, especially musically; it sounds like Zombie Studios were aiming for something out of a Paul Greengrass movie.

Should you pick it up or put Blacklight: Tango Down?
Blacklight: Tango Down, despite its problems, is a game in which there is a lot of fun to be had if you’re willing to put the work in initially. It’s a game that’s as unwelcoming as it is totally unforgiving, and definitely not worth a look for the impatient. Honestly, there are better times to be had on the Xbox Live Marketplace for much less than 1200 MS Points, and Blacklight will only ever be remembered as a quasi-decent shooter. That said, it is a game that I can see myself going back to beyond the need to review, but I can’t say that others will be willing to look past its faults.

How We Review Games

The studio (Taleworlds Interactive) grew as well, while still remaining relatively compact; with the help of an actual publisher the small but very productive wargame publisher Paradox Interactive improved the production values, leading to the release of Mount & Blade: Warband at the end of march, this year.

Mount & Blade: Warband is a mix between a RPG and a strategy game, but is also unique in many ways, so it’s not easy to make it fit comfortably in a single category. Being an independent game released by a small Turkish developer it’s quite probable that a sizable percentage of our readers never heard about it or its predecessor.

Calradia, the sandbox continent
The game is set in an alternate continent named Calradia, but that’s as far as the “fantasy” aspects of this game goes.  There is no magic, no enchanted swords, no elves, no monsters and no orcs. The setting is a gritty and realistic middle age where the only form of power lies in steel, gold and the relationship with the nobles of the land. This is doubtlessly the first thing that makes Mount & Blade Warhand unique.

The continent is populated and ruled by six realms: The chivalric Swadia, the norse-like Kingdom of the Nords, the Slavic-inspired Vaegirs, the mountain-dwelling Rhodoks, the mongol-like Kergit Khanate and the rich Sarranid Sultanate, that resembles an Arabic realm. Each of those powerful factions has its own culture, architecture, rulers and unique troops, creating a rich and varied universe in which to play.

Riding towards the sunset in a beautiful oasis village...

The story is very limited. Some would actually say that there’s no story at all. You’re a random dude (or dudette), and you have to make ends meet in Calradia. Besides a very compact initial questline that will teach you the basics, you’re on your own. This is what I meant in the title of this paragraph: Mount & Blade Warband could be defined as the wet dream of every fan of sandbox games.

There’s no overall storyline to bind you. You can be a trader, a bandit, a mercenary, a tournament champion, become a vassal for one of the realms or create your own domain. You don’t like the king you serve? No problem. You can start a rebellion to put a different claimant on the throne. You create and shape your own legend according to your taste and with very few restrictions.

Whatever role you chose, you’re still not bound to it. Tired of being the vassal of a king? You can renounce your oath (and any fiefs you’ve been assigned, of course), and swear allegiance to another faction. The claimant you put on the throne is no more of your liking? You can rebel and create your own empire, starting a quest to conquer and unify all of Calradia.

Trading is getting boring? You can start hunting other caravans to rob them of all their goods, or travel from city to city looking for quests and missions to earn money and glory.

You can even fit multiple roles at the same time, playing as a mighty general in times of war, and as a caravan master when there’s peace, or an almost endless variety of other combinations.

The path of glory, from mercenary to king
One of the most prominent features of Mount & Blade: Warband is that the world itself lives and breathes dynamically around you. Every faction has, besides its king, twenty feudal lords with their own personality and quirks.

Some are honorable and will remain faithful to their king unless the situation is really dire, some others will switch faction according to the balance of power several times during the game. Some will even join you as your vassals if you manage to become king yourself. All of them will move in the world according to their own interests and missions, fighting in wars and tournaments, courting ladies, administering their lands, and interacting with you on several levels.

The political game is actually frighteningly complex, especially considering the sheer number of actors in play. Kingdoms will go to war with each other according to or independently from your actions, will gain and lose territory, and the newly acquired fiefs will be given to one of the lords or to you, if you managed to earn the respect of your king and your peers.

When you’re a king yourself you’ll have to weigh the relations between the lords under your rule carefully. Assigning a fief to the wrong lord can upset the others, while giving it to the right one can increase the respect you receive from your subjects considerably. Often there won’t the a “right” or a “wrong” choice, but you’ll have to tread carefully to keep a balance between your vassals, making sure that the ones you upset with a decision will be happy about the next, without starting to harbor desires of rebellion.

Nothing is like the sweet scent of carnage in the morning...

There are also several ladies, wives, daughters and sisters to the lords, that normally do what noble ladies did in the middle ages. They attend feasts, act as gossip hubs, and can be courted for love or politics. All of the characters are related by a quite complex family system, that will play an important role in the game. You can marry a lady to enter the good graces of the lords she’s related to, or have to persuade in several ways a particularly stubborn lord if you want to marry his daughter that you happen to like more than the rest.

Obviously, if your character is a female, she can court (or be courted) and marry one of the lords themselves. This is only one of the differences that characterizes the game as a female Warband leader. It’s the middle ages, and women aren’t exactly treated as equal, as a consequence the game is openly more challenging if played as a lady.

While this might for sure stir some feminist hearts out there, it’s quite realistic, and the disadvantage isn’t so overwhelming to make it frustrating or less fun. On the other hand, managing to raise to power despite the difficulties of being born with boobs tends to be quite rewarding.

The same  level of complexity can be noticed in the world’s economy; it is completely dynamic and governed by supply and demand. Caravans will move from city to city and will dynamically alter available goods and prices, making thriving as a trader quite a challenging and interesting enterprise.

What I’m referring to as “fiefs” are basically the hundreds of cities, castles and villages scattered on the continent of Calradia, and that act as quest hubs, military bases and markets. Every single one has its own peculiar look and it’s permanent inhabitants. No village or city in Calradia looks the same as the others, and the same goes for all castles. This is obviously quite important even during sieges, as every castle and city has a different setup for walls, towers and access points. Each siege has its unique tactical quirks that a good general will have to learn and exploit.

Hold the line!

The heart and soul of Mount & Blade Warband is, obviously, your Warband itself, that will evolve from a ragtag mercenary company to a full fledged army counting hundreds of individual soldiers. At the end  of my latest play through I had about 220 soldiers under my direct command, without counting the garrisons of my fiefs and the troops under my vassals.

Your own character is the centre of your army. He will progress in the usual RPG way, with levels and skills, becoming more and more powerful. You will be able to buy new pieces of armour, weapons and warhorses that will raise your combat effectiveness. Obviously you will also be able to fully customize your character’s appearance with a complex slider system that loosely reminds me of Oblivion. There are no classes in M&B Warband, and while a few decisions on your character background will have a marginal impact on your initial skills and stats, you will be completely free to chose the way you want to skill up. You might decide to invest everything you can in strength, agility and combat skills in order to create a powerful hero able to cut a bloody path in the middle of an enemy army, or to shape him as a great leader that will be able to field more soldiers at the same time, or an archer that can stand back and chose his targets by killing just the most powerful enemy commanders and units. The possibilities and combinations are nearly endless.

Besides you, the most important part of your warband are your heroes. There are sixteen of them scattered around Calradia, and you can recruit some or all of them. Each of them has his or her own unique looks, personality and story and they progress in the same way as your character. You can freely give each of them a role, thanks to the “party skills” system. Basically some of the skills like tactics, surgery etc.. can be delegated to your heroes, letting you invest on other skills. This will turn them into specialists that will benefit the whole party, for instance by healing your men faster after a battle, or saving some from death, turning a mortal wound in one that will just require some rest, or again lowering the prices in marketplaces and so forth. Of course your heroes can also grow into powerful warriors in their own right, forming the elite of your army.

Again, relationships play an important role, and your heroes will interact with each other, often with conflicting personalities that will force you to juggle between them to avoid them leaving your party, or to wait until your leadership is high enough to keep them in check. If you like looting villages and slaughtering peasants, maybe it’s better not to hire the most soft-hearted ones. For sure keeping your party united and effective is a quite challenging work of balance in itself.

Winter sports in the Middle Ages

The lowest level of your warband are your rank and file troops. You can travel from village to village recruiting volunteers that will provide cheap but low level infantry, or you can visit taverns where you will be able to hire costly but higher level mercenaries.

You can pretty much hire every single unit in the game, independently from your affiliation (or lack thereof), to create the army you like the most. You can even recruit for instance, the peasant women that you rescued from some bandits (or the bandits themselves). Initially they will be weak, but will ultimately evolve into powerful female knights. Every basic troop can level up, turning into a more advanced version with better equipment, and eventually specializing in areas like archery, heavy infantry or cavalry.