Raskulls is the second game being released in Microsoft's Games for the Holidays. It is classified as family platformer. For me, I think there should be some more specific genres to describe games like this. The first one would be, Super Star Saga Humor, and second would be, Mr. Driller Block Smashing. Those two titles sum up the hilarity and expected gameplay theme of Raskulls. (Warning: No plumbers or Drillers were harmed in the making of this review)

The story of Raskulls seems to revolve around space pirats desire to look for an alternate power source. So of course, their eyes get set upon the valuable gem known as the "Shiny Stone." Of course, this stone belongs to our skully heroes. But, with a failed first attempt, the King devises a plan to lure the attempted thieves into a trap by hosting a tournament and having the Shiny Stone as the prize.

The tournament results in a series of races and the winner progresses onto the next bracket. (You know, how actual tournaments work.) As you reach the final race, you are confronted by a monstrous Raskull. This large Raskull CHEATS! You get zapped before the buzzer and he leaves. So, now you have to play catch-up and fend off his two goons. Upon winning, you find out, the giant Raskull isn't a Raskull. IT'S ONE OF THE PIRATS! They don't take loss politely, so they zap you again and steal the Shiny Stone.

Raskulls plays like a normal platformer with the ability to zap colored blocks. Simply stated you just have to progress through levels by zapping blocks and avoid getting mushed.

There are three types of maps that you will encounter while playing. Racing, Puzzle, and Speed. Racing is your average start at point A and end at point B. In a puzzle, you have to make it to the end without using all of you charges. Speed maps are more or less time trials. Nothing to terrible.

If you progress strictly through the main story, it isn't too long of a game. It becomes increasingly more difficult as you progress along. The races never get too bad, but the puzzle maps get very annoying. Players only have a limited amount of zaps which becomes increasingly annoying. There are times where you have to be patient and there times when you have to book it. Figuring out those different choices is the annoying part.

The best moments I had were online. I loved getting into a group with my friends and completing a Grand Prix. We would laugh so hard while zapping each other. But, there aren't a lot of mulitplayer maps. And unfortunately, one play through on each of the maps is all the enjoyment you can get out of them.

All in all, Raskulls is a fun game. But, repetition of gameplay does cause some serious pitfalls. Online multiplayer was fun, but it could get annoying for some players. My suggestion, get a group of friends, all of you buy it, and play online to have a blast.

Score: 7.5/10

Raskulls was developed by Halfbrick Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 on December 29st, 2010. A copy of the game was provided to us by Microsoft for review purposes.

Every year since the console launched fans and industry folk alike, have been talking about 'The Year of the PS3'. Every year we see the lists go up and fanboys go mental over the 'Power of the PS3' and 'The Year of the PS3', well 2011 could actually be such a year.

Given that no more games get the boot or delayed to 2012, Sony has really lined up a strong library for the coming year which tempted me to create a list. Check out all the titles that are scheduled to hit the shelf in 2011.

I realize that I am excluding some anticipated downloadable games like Journey and Pixel Junk Shooter 2 but this list is for disc based PS3 exclusive titles only, therefor DC Universe Online is also missing.

This list will include the big titles only and is listed in chronological order.

Little Big Planet 2 - 1/18/2011

Killzone 3 - 2/22/2011

MLB 11: The Show - 3/8/2011

Yakuza 4 - 3/15/2011

ICO & The Shadow of the Colossus Collection - Q1/2011

SOCOM 4 - Q1/2011

Motorstorm Apocalypse - 4/5/2011

Resistance 3 - September 2011

Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One - Fall/2011

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception - 11/1/2011

inFamous 2 - Q4/2011

The Last Guardian - Q4/2011

Twisted Metal - ?/2011



[Image by CrossDominatriX5]

Today we are treated with almost 5 minutes of gorgeous Uncharted 3 Gameplay which shows some of what we have seen on Fallon after the VGAs and new footage as well. Drake can now punch thugs much better.

Check out how Drake and Sully manage not to die in this burning villa.





[Via Kotaku]

Nintendo has revealed the initial list of 3DS titles which will be shown to the public at Nintendo World in Tokyo next month as reported by 1Up this morning.

The full list of titles (playable demos in bold):
* indicates working titles

•Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater 3D "The Naked Sample"
•Pro Evolution 3DSoccer
•Street Fighter IV 3D Edition
•Resident Evil Revelations
•Dynasty Warriors Chronicle
•Dead or Alive Dimensions
•Ridge Racer 3D
•Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle
•Nintendogs + cats
•Kid Icarus: Uprising
•The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D
•Steel Diver
•Pilotwings Resort
•AR Games
•Nintendo 3DS Camera•Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
•Super Monkey Ball 3D
•Kingdom Hearts 3D*
•Gundam The 3D Battle
•Tales of the Abyss
•One Piece Unlimited Cruise SP
•Cubic Ninja*
•Puzzle Bobble 3D
•Pro Baseball Family Stadium 2011
•Animal Resort*
•Xevious
•3D Bijin Tokei*
•Starfox 64 3D
•Paper Mario*
•Animal Crossing*
•Mario Kart*
•Surechigai ("passerby") Mii Hiroba

[Via 1Up]

As if Microsoft knew that we are just itching to play some more Mass Effect 2 after the announcement made at the VGAs regarding the sequel.

Today, Microsoft revealed, via Majornelson's blog, that all three main story DLC packs for Mass Effect 2 are discounted to 200 MSP each! That is an actual bargain and for those who waited and a great belated Christmas present.

The three DLC packs are Lair of the Shadow Broker, Overlord and Kasumi. Go grab them now since this is a one time deal and today only as part of the Xbox's 'Countdown to 2011' promo!

As everyone should know, all of us here at onPause LOVE Bad Company 2 on the consoles and PC. So when EA announced that they were making an IOS version that could be taken on the go, I got very excited.


To start off with: the game features a very simple and easy to use menu. You can choose campaign, multiplayer and view the credits. Not to much more to choose but, what more do you need really.


Graphics for this IOS title look pretty good actually. Cut scenes didn't jump or stutter and when in game, there were only very few bad pop-ins. Explosions look like they should, good enemy detail, the weapons that you use and see throughout the game looked sharp.


Most of the sounds reminded me of its bigger brother just without the crazy bass rumbling your couch the whole time.

Now that we got all the good out of the way, let's move on to why you probably won't want to buy this title.


Load times were right around 30 to 40 seconds on my iPod Touch 3rd gen. A lot longer then I wanted to wait to play this game.


The AI in the game is worthless. Teammates would stand next to baddies and not fire a single bullet, nor did the enemies put up a fight most of the time.


And the biggest complaint of them all are the controls. The game is pretty much completely unplayable thanks to them. Something as simple as moving forward does not work one bit. And don't even get me started on the driving missions…


To wrap this up, all I can say is, you are just going to want to skip this one. The terrible controls and the sucky AI makes Bad Company 2 IOS not worth playing. For your own good just skip it.

After consumers laid their eyes on Nintendo's latest dream machine at E3 2010, the 3D enabled Nintendo 3DS, they were barely able not to fly to Japan and steal one from their vault 'Ocean's Eleven' Style.

Today we've seen the news of the 3DS being available for 'pre-order' at GameStop stores, spread like wild fire on a summer day.

Sure, the good news is that gamers can secure their new handheld now by throwing down 50 bucks, according to neogaf but we still don't know the official price.

If your GameStop can't find the system in their 'system' just tell the clerks behind the counter too look for SKU Number 020132.

We should know the official price for the US by late January after the Ninteno event.

(Via NeoGaf)

A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of reviewing the action loaded, high octane off road racer nail'd and as you know - we liked the game a lot. In an effort to get to know the makers behind the game, we sat down with developer Techland and asked them some questions, more specifically Blazej Krakowiak - International Brand Manager at Techland.

Read on below to find out what some of the 'OH CRAP' moments were during development, what the Polish staff likes to eat and why there are no huge trick moves during the super long jumps in nail'd.



First of all congratulations on releasing nail’d – we really enjoyed the game and so did many in the gaming community. Techland is a longstanding developer and your studio has shipped some great and memorable games including the Xpand Rally and Call of Juarez series as well as most recently nail’d. The racing and shooter genres couldn’t be further apart – why are you developing such different games? It shows great diversity.

Thank you! We had a lot of fun working on nail’d and I hope that players will enjoy playing it. As for the question, we like those genres. They’re popular, relevant, fun to develop and play. We have smaller projects like a very successful series of speedway games and even a sci-fi TPP arcade shooter. We believe in being good and getting better all the time at making games. There’s a number of business factors involved in picking our projects. Our publishing partners are also involved in those decisions. Having our own multiplatform engine and a dedicated development team keeping that technology on the cutting edge gives us a degree of flexibility in choosing genres and devising new features for our future projects.

Nail’d is an absolutely crazy and over the top arcade racer, where did the motivation for the game come from?

To be honest making it over the top was one of those ideas. We were thinking about the fun of riding dirt bikes and ATVs the way they let amateurs do it. Anyone can rent a quad and try hopping over some bumps and climbing small dunes. It feels great and it’s a completely different experience than driving a car, an armored vehicle by comparison.

While contemplating the puny and immensely entertaining hills and dunes at the local off-road track, we realized the potential for ‘vertical gameplay’ in a racing game. Thus the basic idea for nail’d was born: “extreme tracks, huge jumps and incredible speed”. It sounds like “sharks with lasers” but it’s present throughout the entire game and represents the experience we set out to create.



While nail’d is much faster than PURE for instance, the comparison lends itself due to the general format – how come there aren’t any big trick moves in the game? The jumps sure are long enough.

When tricks enter the picture, the dynamics of the whole affair change: players must think about launching themselves into the air and then staying there to pull off the mandatory tricks. It’s a good game mechanic but it requires a different pace and track design. In nail’d the terrain is a challenge all by itself. Those spectacular vistas are full of treacherous cliffs, rocks, narrow passages and jumps. Obstacles which need to be evaded during jumps or landings are also quite common. With tricks in mid-air we would have to slow down and make sure that players would be able to land safely.

Right now even during the jumps players can feel the sensation of speed: rock outcrops and treetops are flashing by and at the end of the jump there’s usually some tricky maneuvering to do. You have just enough time to admire the sheer size of the environment and the scale of the track before having to avoid another obstacle or cope with another sharp turn.

If there was one feature you could add or remove post launch – what would it be?

The temptation to keep adding more features is something all developers need to keep in mind and in check :). With all the talented, creative people in Techland’s two development studios, we always have more ideas than we could possibly fit in any single project, much less a fun-oriented back-to-the-roots arcade racer like nail’d. We were left with lots of great ideas for future projects so we’re not telling :).

Are you thinking about making nail’d into a franchise or will the next racing game be a new IP? I personally would like to see another rally game.

Techland has many interesting titles we could follow up on, we’re also interested in looking for new IP’s like nail’d. Questions like this one inevitably have to be answered the same way: anything’s possible. Regardless of the answer, we wouldn’t be able to discuss it anyway.

How many sodas and pounds of junk food were consumed during development of nail’d.

A specific count would be impossible but we all know what the fuel of the industry is. I can only speculate that Techland Warsaw devours a lot of Asian food while our development HQ in Wroclaw prefers a mix of traditional Polish food and Kebab. Pizza as the timeless classic is also always on the menu but it’s not even close to the top of the list. Soda machines are also hard at work. We could probably get detailed stats for those but I’m afraid of the truth. There are even fans of healthy food in both offices, bringing their own meals or ordering something fancy. We’re open minded and try not to judge them :P.

What would you say was the craziest or most memorable thing that happened between the beginning and end of development.

Murphy’s Law is alive in game dev so there are always some ‘oh crap!’ moments to remember. For example, both ISPs ran into problems at the same time so there was no way to send or receive some critical bit of data. The first power outage in years happened on the very night the team worked hard to finalize an important build.

Of course less disastrous things can also occur: someone forgets to put a comma in the right place in one configuration file and the game goes crazy for a while with inverted gravity. This sort of thing works best when the culprit is late for work or takes a day off and tracking down the source of the problem becomes a cross between House M.D. and Angry Beavers.



Techland’s website lists 60 team members, you’ve shipped a lot of games since 2000 – how are you able to manage such a high production rate?

60 is not even close to the actual numbers. Right now we have a staff of almost 200, with about 170 working directly on games. Nail’d was developed by Techland Warsaw, our younger and smaller development studio based in the capital. We’ve been working with those guys for a long time even before bringing them officially into the Techland family.

Our development HQ, so to speak, is based in Wroclaw. The staff here is bigger and able to develop one or more multi-platform games simultaneously. This is also where the Chrome Engine team resides, developing the technology powering all the other projects including nail’d.

Lastly – please tell us one thing for each of your three upcoming games, Dead Island, Warhound and Chrome 2 that you’d want your community to know.

Regarding Chrome 2 and Warhound I can only repeat our official statement we issued a while ago: those games are on hold for the time being. We may revisit them in the future but for now we’re focusing on other titles including Dead Island which is doing great! Stay tuned for more announcements from Techland and our partners.
Thank you very much for your time.

I hope you got some XBL point cards from Christmas, you are definitely gonna want to buy today's XBL release. Dead Rising 2: Case West is now available for download from the Marketplace for 800 MSP. Download the trial here.

Dive into the zombie-infested world of Dead Rising 2 with this fully-featured, stand-alone game! Chuck Greene, the man framed for the Fortune City outbreak, is fighting for his life. Enter Frank West, a survivor of the Willamette infestation. In order to clear Chuck’s name and get Frank the ammunition he needs to bring Phenotrans down, the two men must infiltrate a remote facility west of Fortune City. Encounter new enemies, discover new weapons, build new combo weapons, and witness terrible secrets as you fight your way through this massive complex in search of the truth.

It's Christmas eve and by now you are probably sitting by a crackling fire near your fire place with a smoking pipe while enjoying eggnog.

We thought it would be nice to make your Christmas Eve experience complete with a sweet Holiday Card and a bit of a Christmas Performance from onPause.

Enjoy your holidays and get ready for some awesome new content to come from us in the new year! If you're not in the holiday spirit yet, stop being a Grinch and grow a heart!

Merry Christmas!

Telltale Games is a developer that prides itself in returning to the roots of adventure games from the past such as Monkey Island or The Dig, while using a modern representation of them. When the studio announced that it would do an episodic Back to the Future game the entire industry cried out in excitement. The best point and click adventure developer was making a game based on one of the most beloved IPs of all time. The big question is, did they pull it off or are they out of time?

Right from the get-go, Back to the Future makes a great first impression. The stylized art-style representation of Doc Brown and Marty McFly is absolutely charming and spot on – so is the voice acting. While Christopher Lloyd lends his likeness and voice talent to the game, Michael J. Fox did not, only providing the appearance. This turns out not to be a problem at all since voice talent A.J. LoCascio does an incredible job impersonating Fox’s Marty McFly voice.

Telltale has absolutely captured the Back to the Future vibe with this game and I had goose bumps on more than one occasion while playing the first episode of this five part series, which continues in February next year. Co-writer of the Back to the Future films, Bob Gale, helped write the script for the game and it shows through and through. ‘It’s about time’ takes place in the 1930’s era in a prohibition themed Hill Valley. Doc Brown’s assets are being sold off back in 1986 since he got into some trouble in the 30s. Marty travels back in time to rescue the Doc before his death.

There is an unbelievable amount of detail and cross referencing going on in Back to the Future ‘The Game’. Without going into heavy plot spoilers, Marty will encounter characters like principle Strickland’s sister, a young Emmett Brown and of course, a Tannen! It is hard for me not to spill the beans on this game since it will deprive you from enjoying the story line. Telltale walked a great line with this first episode, the writing is very much Back to the Future-esque without ever being too cheesy or reaching for laughs. Fans will feel right at home. The gameplay consists of walking around, having conversations and solving rather simple but enjoyable puzzles. It seems that Telltale intended this game to be more accessible to larger audiences. While you will probably not need the build in hint system, it is there if you want it.

Back to the Future Episode 1: ‘It’s about time’ is an absolute hit. The game does a fantastic job of providing a great mix of storytelling and gameplay. The detailed and rich universe of the IP has been translated really well into a video game. There were so many funny moments in this first episode that I cannot wait for more. Telltale could not have done a much better with this first episode; the one thing I would have liked though is a slightly larger environment to explore and maybe some tougher puzzles. For the most part though, this game is exactly what I wanted it to be, a charming and well designed point and click adventure game which serves as a fourth entry into the movie franchise.

Score: 9 / 10

Back to the Future: It's About Time was developed and published by Telltale Games for the PC and MAC on December 22nd. A copy of the PC version was provided to us by Telltale Games for reviewing purposes.

Welcome to the Sierra Madre Casino! The casino’s mythical contents are lusted after by desperate wasteland scavengers, who tell stories of intact treasure of the old world buried deep within its vault. Lured here by a mysterious radio signal advertising the long-awaited grand opening of the casino, you are thrown into a high stakes game where you’ll have to work with three other lost souls if you want to survive. ~ Xbox.com Official Release

On December 21st, Bethesda released their first DLC for Fallout New Vegas. It takes place in two primary locations. A town called the Villa and a Casino that has been frozen in time, the Sierra Madré. The courier is faced with ruthless new enemies, treacherous puzzles and obstacles, and countless manipulative ploys. To sum this DLC up in a nutshell, it plays perfectly into the Fallout universe. Oh, the name you ask? Dead Money.


Dead Money follows suit like most Fallout DLC that has been released. After the appropriate progression through the story, you will pick up radio signal telling you about the wonderful promises the Sierra Madre has to offer. And, for everyone that has wandered the Mojave Wasteland, you may have stumbled upon an Abandoned BoS Bunker. Before purchasing the DLC, this location is nearly useless. No items. Locked doors. Empty footlockers. Only beds to help with sleep deprivation.

Now, post-DLC installation, you will find it is the source of your newly acquired radio signal. And, because I don't believe in super spoilers, I'm going to skip over some story progression and introduce some of the enemies, weapons, NPCs, and perks. Not necessarily in that order.

Dead Money has two main enemies. The Ghost people and Holograms. Both enemies are difficult in their own right. Ghost people cannot die, unless you dismember them. Which, can become bothersome when you have five or more attacking you. My suggestion, make sure you have the Bloody Mess perk. Holograms are a completely different story. They cannot be killed, only avoided. They shoot very strong lasers from their foreheads, just like cyclopes... that could shoot lasers from their eyes.

Personally, I'm very disappointed in the new weapons introduced in Dead Money. Three or so new guns, and plenty of melee weapons. For the list of weapons, visit here. It wouldn't bother me so much about the weapons if I didn't get all of my gear taken from me when I entered the Villa.

Looking at the achievements, you'll notice you have one called "Assemble Your Crew." The crew consists of Dean Domino, Christine, Dog and God. Unlike the Mojave Wasteland, you can only have one companion in the Villa. Very frustrating. Each companion, just like the Mojave, has their own perks. You'll get familiar with them, believe me.

While mentioning the perks, I will say the level cap has been raised to 35. So, you do have two more chances to get those perks you've been wanting. For a quick list of them, visit here. Most aren't that special, unless you are working on some specific builds.

Now, I will quickly say, Dead Money is a great improvement. The bugs that got fixed really help with the overall game play. But, with fixes come new problems. One such bug really annoyed me. I had to make my way across some steel beams. And, let's just say my acrobatic abilities suck. I fell. And I noticed I was going to die, so I reloaded my last save. BUT, to my surprise I just died all over again... and again... and again. Apparently, something kept telling the game to reload my death, even after I told it not to. So, I was forced to shut off, and reload the next previous save. It finally worked and I had to progress from that point instead.

If I could bestow some wisdom and parting thoughts, I would say this, be prepared to scream, save often, and have your melee weapons skill up to a decent level. Dead Money strips you of your gear. Most Ghosts have Bear Trap Gloves or Knife Spears. You may find some guns and ammunition in crates, but nothing beats the infinite ammunition of a melee weapon. Also, the story behind Dead Money is one worth taking your time and investigating. It fills in story holes that you didn't know or didn't remember.

Be sure to check out the Fallout Wiki for a complete list of Dead Money related goodies.

Score: 9/10 : Despite the DLC being frustrating, it was incredibly great. My suggestion, go out and get it ASAP.

Fallout: New Vegas "Dead Money" was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda software for the Xbox 360 on December 21st, 2010. A copy of the Downloadable Content was provided to us by Bethesda Softworks for review purposes. 

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 is THQ’s follow up to last year’s successful iteration of the franchise. The SVR series has been around for a few years now and continued to make great strides in delivering an authentic wrestling experience in and outside the ring. SVR 2011 is no different as it builds some new features onto its predecessor and tweaking existing ones.

If you are not familiar with the Wrestling scene, or have never played a SmackDown vs. Raw game before, SVR 2011 can be a little bit overwhelming at first but if you have experience with the franchise and watched big dudes smack each other in a ring on TV before you will feel right at home. I won’t even wait to the conclusion on this review, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011is a good game that has a few flaws but will excite casual wrestling fans and enthusiasts alike. The game swells with authenticity and breadth of modes, superstars and customization. There are 70 superstars, legends and divas to choose from, or players can create their own wrestler if they'd like. The customization is really well done as there are loads of options from body type, clothing, walk-out style and more. You will not get bored of making your superstar or diva!

When it comes to modes, there are plenty to select from as well, while there are the usual modes we expect in a SmackDown vs. Raw title, the 2011 entry includes the new WWE Universe mode which is a combination of the previous years’ career mode and one-off exhibition modes such as Pay-Per-View events. This mode is sort of open ended and allows to build rivalries with other superstars, you can play as your own wrestler or select from the wide range of existing ones such as John Cena and Randy Orton. Once players work their way up and win a Number 1 contender match, they earned the right to partake in a world title fight. The other big mode is the Road to Wrestlemania, where players can choose from 5 different story paths including Cena and the Undertaker. This mode has been expanded upon and now includes a backstage area where players can walk around, listen to other characters, get in fights, talk to management or level up their superstar. The backstage part of Road to Wrestlemania is really fun actually and does a good job telling a story which is specific to the wrestler you chose and as rediculous as you'd think. I have a couple of gripes with it though; the awful lip syncing and rather empty-feeling backstage area still need to be improved. Those two aspects really took me out of the experience.

When it comes to the control scheme I am also pretty satisfied with SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 as they are pretty intuitive after learning or re-learning them. This can be done in a free-fight area upon booting up the game, similarly to the EA Sports titles. In general it is easy and really fun to play SVR 2011 because the fighters control well enough and interacting with objects in and around the ring work much better this year due to the improved physics engine. A small issue I did have were the grappling transitions which did not seem to work as well as I wanted them too. I believe this could be fixed with a patch down the road and does not take away too much from the overall, well feeling controls.

The online modes are a big part of SmackDown vs. Raw again this year and allow for some serious fun. Leveling up is made easy and simple to keep track of. Players can jump into the ring with 11 other superstars online, for instance, and you have a recipe for madness – and XP!

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 is a good game. Players will have fun with the authenticity, different story lines and customization as well as the new mode and fine tuning that was done over last year’s game. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement as the game’s backstage area elements needs to increase its warrant to be used and some control issues remain. This game might not be for just anyone but if you’re a wrestling fan, you will have a hard time putting down SVR 2011.

Score: 8.0

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 was developed Yuke's Media Creations and published by THQ for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on October 26th. A copy of the Xbox 360 version was provided to us by THQ for reviewing purposes.

Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect has launched back in November and we are finally getting around to ‘knock out’ all of the reviews for the new platform. Fighters Uncaged is an Ubisoft published motion tracked fighting game that puts the player into the fight. While this sounds like a perfect fit for a Kinect exclusive motion fighter, the game has several issues that keep it from being a good game. There are solid ideas and concepts here but in the end Fighters Uncaged just has too many problems to work as intended.

When I booted up Fighters Uncaged, I had started up the tutorial in order to get down all the moves before heading into the fights. This training mode went on for about 30 minutes or so and did a good job of explaining the moves and at this point I thought, this game is pretty good.

Players take control of Simon, who has to win a fighting tournament in order to free his father as it was explained in the manual. Don’t be fooled though, there is not any sort of deep story telling or narrative in the game, players will only go from opponent to opponent during the campaign mode.

After the tutorial was completed I started fighting really mean looking guys. I was actually pretty excited to apply my acquired move set against someone who’d fight back; the problem was that the moves do not actually work well enough during fights as the training had led me to believe. The game was not always able to properly detect what I was doing and translate it to the on screen character. Most of the time Simon headbutted someone when I ducked or punched when I did a kick.

There is actually a fairly decent size move set in this title with ducks and dodges, swings and kicks, blocks and headbutts. Players can also use long and short attacks depending on the positioning. The problem, again, was the fact that Fighters Uncaged isn’t responsive enough to detect what moves I was applying. During fights players need to expose the opponents by doing a low leg kick for instance, followed by a punch or returning a hook shot after a successful block. When the moves actually worked and I pulled of a nice combo, I really enjoyed it but more often than not they didn’t work. One gameplay element though that I found either really awesome or really bad (cannot decide at this point), was the power move, in order to fill up the power meter, players needed to dodge several punches or kicks before actually yelling at the sensor to activate it – a strange choice to turn on this ability.

Fighters Uncaged isn’t a super pretty game but it looks decent, there aren’t any big crowds to speak of though, which would have helped the atmosphere. Speaking of environments, there was not much ambient noise either since the audio mostly consisted of grunting and the occasional curses. Also lacking is any sort of online component, it is pretty much a single player experience but that may be due to the current control scheme.

Fighters Uncaged was a game I had some high hopes for but it failed to deliver on its promise of putting you into the fight. I didn’t mind the lackluster fluff around the game but the fact that the actual controls did not work breaks the experience. If Ubisoft decides to create a sequel to Fighters Uncaged though, it could still become a good game as the Kinect sensor would be fully capable of delivering good input responses. The first round is not a knock out.

Score: 5.5

Fighters Uncaged was developed by AMA Studios and published by Ubisoft for the Xbox 360 on November 4th. A copy of the game was provided to us by Ubisoft for reviewing purposes.

I love this time of year. Everyone is in a cheery mood and eating lots of good food, plus there are gifts. Who doesn't like gifts, right? Hothead send over a Christmas card that shows off what we can look forward to in the new year.

Click here to see the animated Christmas card.

Are you ready for Sackboy? Can you not wait for Little Big Planet 2 to release on January 18th, 2011? Well, thanks to another onSwag and Sony's graces we can help you guys out! We will be giving away a couple dozen beta codes over the next couple of days.

How do I win you ask? Easy! We will be throwing up the codes randomly on our facebook page and twitter account. LIKE and follow to be the first to snatch one of those sweet, sweet beta codes!

These are US Beta codes!

Let us know in the comments if you got one!

Capcom sent out a brand new trailer featuring the photographer that we all know and love; Frank West. This new video focuses a little on West's story from DR1. View it after the jump!

The guys at Konami must be pretty happy with the reception Castlevania LoS has received over the past few months. The publisher today revealed that 2 DLC packs are on their way.

In the first downloadable content called:‘Reverie’ "players will return to the Castle as Gabriel to help Laura, the former servant to the vampire Carmilla, in destroying the unruly evil that was previously kept in check by the recently slain Queen".

The second content pack is called ‘Resurrection’, "which continues the story directly after the end of the game and gives some insight into the dramatic epilogue seen by players upon completion of the game, and Gabriel's ultimate destiny".

Resurrection will be the larger content pack of the two with a big battle at the end against someone 'very familiar'. Both packs are expected to launch in early 2011.

EA and Valve today announced that the Electronic Arts' publishing arm, EA Partners will - once again - publish a Valve title with Portal 2. Previously EA had distributed and published physical copies of Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 for the digital giant Valve Software.

Portal 2 is set to release on PS3, Xbox 360, PC and MAC on April 21st, 2011.

Most racing game fans nowadays enjoy arcade based racers like MotorStorm, Need for Speed and maybe the driving sims Forza or Gran Turismo. There are not too many motorcycle based simulation racing games on the market today and there is a reason. The genre is very niche because bike racing is not on many gamers radars – but, based on SBK X, maybe it should be. Milestone has developed a mass of racing games including the MotoGP, Superstars V8 Racing and Superbike series. The Italian development house cranks out decent racing games every year and 2010 is no different.

For those of you who have not heard about the SBK series, it is a highly competitive, circuit based, motorcycle championship that spreads over the entire world. Most of you probably know the MotoGP series; SBK is a bit different and unique. All events during the SBK World Championship include two races making this an incredibly competitive title to win.

As noted previously, Milestone has a great deal of experience when it comes to delivering a classic simulation experience. The team was able to incorporate the official SBK license which includes three different classes, Superstock, WSS and finally SBK. Players can choose from 90 real riders and their bikes on the official circuits which include Monza, Valencia, Magny-Cours and the Nürburgring. Make no mistakes, this is the real deal. There are several different modes to pick from in SBK X. While we have our standard races and race weekends, there are also full championship seasons, multiplayer, career and story modes. Players can create their own riders and unlock new attire for each of them as they progress and win races. There are some nice touches in the rider creation including the 'riding style' option - fans of the genre will appreciate this.

The two meatiest modes, and the ones you’ll want to play, are of course career and story mode. During those modes players will start out from the Superstock and progress to the SBK class. In order to get there, players will need to place well during races and championships which will lead to the eventual promotion to the SBK class – this is where the fun is!

Now that you know a bit about the progression and features of SBK X – how is the racing? Fantastic! The gameplay experience is where SBK X shines. The game can be played from an Arcade mode level up to a full on Simulation experience – this is for experienced racers only though, as newcomers might want to start with the arcade mode since the sim settings are not forgiving at all. If you’ve played bike racers before give the low sim setting a shot and see how it feels before progressing to the highest degree. While all this might sound incredibly boring to some, the fun level is incredibly high when you are racing around Valancia at the edge of grip and control with full sim settings switched on.

There are bike settings galore in SBK X – I have seldom seen more customizable options in a game, from chain tightness over gear ratios to spring stiffness. Each of these settings actually make a noticeable impression as you go around the track – getting the setup right will be an important part of being successful. Once on the track the bikes feel very responsive and behave as a motorcycle would. Going into a corner after breaking from a high speed straightaway will have the rear of the bike slinging back and forth a bit before smoothing out during the turn and require careful acceleration in order to avoid a neck breaking ‘high-sider’. I was pleasantly surprised at how well and different each of the bike classes handled.

The tracks are also very impactful on the racing action. High traffic areas will provide more rubber build-up and traction while rainy patches will offer only spotty grip.

SBK X would be an even better game if the AI was smarter, too many times was I able to ‘game’ the AI into thinking I would turn or blocking a path which caused other riders to slow down more than what is realistic. The computer driven opponents also were not as completive as I’d like and once I mastered a track, no one could really touch me even on a mediocre bike. While there is a 16 player multiplayer mode I was not able to test this part due to a lacking online community at the time of the review.

SBK X is an incredibly hardcore racing simulation at its core that may rival Gran Turismo 5 in terms of realism. The game is really exciting when driven at the edge. Motorcycle racing fans, who know who Max Biaggi is or how many races Carlos Checa won last year, will really enjoy this game but even with the arcade settings, newcomers won’t feel the same excitement. SBK X may be the best bike sim you’ve played to date and if it finds an audience in the US, it just may be appreciated as such.

Score: 7.5

SBK X was developed by Milestone and published by Deep Silver for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on December 7th, 2010. A copy of the PS3 version was provided to us by Deep Silver for reviewing purposes.

Editors Note: The game also includes the Legends Pack DLC which allows to race legends such as Biaggi, Fogerty, Lanzi and Yanagawa.