However, Shienryu does offer some challenges as you must reach the end with only a few lives, although pick-ups will help you along the way by giving you lives, increased ammunition, faster shooting or being able to shoot lighting!

At the end of the game you can record your score on a local leaderboard to see all your scores. Shienryu can be played on both PS3 and PSP.

Although it isn’t the number 1 shoot’em-up around, it is worth a go for anyone looking for a bit of cooperative madness, and is well worth every penny of the price- £3.99.

Buzzin’ Games   5/10

Swap Me Game

Absolutely loved this game although it can get really frustrating when you get stuck on one of the levels, but it certainly gets you thinking.

There are 60 levels of the game to complete, with the final level turning into a space rocket once you have all the cubes in order.

This is a free application with each level telling you how many cubes need to be moved to allow you to clear the board.  Some levels may take only one move, others can take up to five moves.

The only downside to this game is that you do need a network connection to be able to play but apart from that it certainly has you scratching your head trying to logically work out the moves.

The Swap Me Game free version application is available for download to Nokia devices from the Ovi store.

Heavy Weapon

Heavy Weapon is a 2-D shoot-em-up game from PopCap that over two years ago was released on Xbox Live. The game has recently been released on the PS3 as a Playstation Network (PSN) game.

The game consists of 19 missions that you must complete. You can either do this solo or with a friend.

As you progress through the levels you can upgrade your tank in various ways. Once you have completed the level you get one point to spend on upgrades in the armoury. You have the choice of upgrading your defence or attack. I can assume everyone will go for the second option by purchasing Homing Missiles, a Laser, Rockets, a Flak Cannon or Thunderstrike.

There are three different game modes. These are:

Heavy Weapon – Mission Mode
This can only be played offline and can be played as a one or two player game. In this Mission Mode you must reach the end of each level by destroying the enemy forces and their boss with only three lives.

Heavy Weapon – Survival Mode
Survival Mode is where you have to stay alive for as long as possible whilst battling with the enemy forces. This game mode can be played online or offline with up to four players as you battle for the highest score. Playing Heavy Weapon in Survival Mode gives you the option of playing either a War Party or an Arms Race. War Party allows you to keep ‘re-spawning’ as long as someone in your team is still alive.  Whereas the Arms Race game mode only gives you three lives each.

Heavy Weapon – Boss Blitz Mode
The Boss Blitz Mode is where you battle every single boss from the game one at a time in the biggest battle. You will need to complete all missions to unlock this mode.

Another feature of the game is that it has both online and offline multiplayer. As I previously said you can play Survival Mode and Mission Mode in offline multiplayer, but you can also play levels online with up to four friends, playing either War Party or Arms Race. It allows you to invite friends to join the game as well.

Heavy Weapon features a collection of 13 trophies; some of which are very easy, while others can be quite challenging.

Overall the game creates a high level of excitement as you battle your way through whilst avoiding all bullets and fighting for survival as you play single or multiplayer.

Buzzin Games rating: 72%

Battlefield 1943

Battlefield 1943 is a new online multiplayer game released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 through Xbox Live and PSN.

Battlefield 1943 adds to the collection of Battlefield games which includes Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield: Bad Company which was released last year.

Battlefield 1943 allows up to 24 players to play online in one match. From the title screen you are allowed to enter a match through; quick match (places you in a random game), Private match (create your own game and invite friends to join you) or Battlefield 1943 is built around the same online game play and style as Bad Company with a few adjustments. It uses the same scoring system as bad company, but a new style is added including fantastic graphics and beautifully designed surroundings.

Battlefield 1943 screenshot

Whilst playing you are either USA or Japan.

The only game mode you can play is conquest the idea of the game is to capture and hold the majority of the flags; there are five flags on each map. Capturing flags gives your team a new spawn point with vehicles so you can travel to other parts of the map.

Capturing flags also gives you points which contribute to your overall score. In order to win the game the opposing team must run out of reinforcement tickets. The amount of reinforcement tickets available for both teams are indicated by the two bars at the top of the screen every time a killed soldier “respawns” , one of the tickets are used. Another way to lower the amount of reinforcement tickets the enemy has to capture and hold three or more bases in the game.

There are three maps available to be used in the conquest game mode, these include: Wake Island, Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal. On each of these maps there are cars, tanks, boats and planes. These vehicles can all aid you in capturing flags as they provide a faster transport than running or swimming. Cars can hold up to three players, tanks can hold two, boats can hold five and a plane can only take one. When in a plane you can voyage all over the island (, don’t go into trees or buildings as you will die losing ten points for suicide). Planes can drop bombs and you can use two guns. If you want to get out of the vehicle you can jump or you can use a parachute to get to the ground safely.

Now we move onto Battlefield 1943 weapons.

You choose one weapon class at the start of a match and every time you die and then respawn you can choose again. Enemies drop a bag when killed, and it stays there for a while, if you want to you can pick up this bag and your weapon class changes to what the enemy had. In the game you have an unlimited supply of ammo which is a very helpful feature, for secondary weapons you must wait a few seconds though.

In the game there are three weapon classes which you can choose from, they are; Rifleman, Infantry and Scout. Rifleman gives you a semi-automatic rifle, rifle grenades, two grenades and a knife. Infantry gives you a sub-machine gun, a rocket launcher, two grenades and a wrench. The wrench; which is used as the melee weapon to kill enemies with can also be used to repair damaged vehicles. The final class Scout gives you a scoped rifle, a pistol, three satchel charges and a knife.

The aim of the game is to get kills but doing this will also earn you points, and points are what you need to rank up. Accumulating a certain amount of points unlocks the next level. The higher you get the more points you will need to level up.

Now you can play air superiority on the final map coral sea. This game mode is completely different from the rest of the game. In this game mode you are not allowed on land. Everyone is in a jet and you must work as a team to shoot down enemy fighter jets and claim air superiority. The only way to win is to take control of the sky and stay in control until the enemies reinforcement tickets run out.

The game allows you to earn 12 trophies. The trophies are all fairly simple to collect including a very easy gold. Two trophies are unlocked by playing 30 and 100 matches due to its addictive game play you’ll have it in no time.

This is definitely a game I would recommend, its addictive online multiplayer action has kept me playing for hours on end. The game is definitely worth purchasing if you are a fan of the battlefield collection or just a fan of shooters. I would give this game a 90% rating as it is very good. My only criticism is that there are only four maps so maybe additional map packs could be added in the future.

Buzzin Games Rating: 90%

archer macleans mercury

Archer MacLean’s Mercury is a challenging puzzle game that was originally released on the PSP in 2005. Mercury has now been re-released on the PSN (PlayStation Network) for £4.79. This is a recommended buy for anyone who hasn’t already played or purchased Mercury, as it is a frustrating and challenging game in a most enjoyable and unique way.

Mercury is a ball of liquid that you have to get to the finish before you lose too much mercury. To get to the finish you must complete many tasks including opening doors, activating buttons and just staying alive!

You will need to focus quickly to find the best route to finish in time, you will also need to change the colour of mercury to activate colour specific switches (or buttons), doors to allow mercury into the next area and colour filters which will only allow  a certain colour to pass through.

There may be a paint shop which allows you to transform instantly to the colour you need, or you may need to create your colour by using two or more paint shops and mixing the colours together in order to obtain the desired colour. Some levels contain teleports which can be used by any colour mercury just by waiting under it. This adds to the difficulty of some levels as you must identify where each teleport goes to.

The game itself contains six worlds, each with many challenging levels to complete to unlock the next world. These worlds are Neon (Tutorial), Quartz, Xero, Aqua, Helios and Nano. Each world contains various levels, the main ones being Race, Percentage and Task.

Race requires skill and speed as you are in an epic battle with time and you must complete the level quickly. Finishing these levels usually requires a small percentage of mercury, so you can rush through the level with little concern for losing mercury.

Percentage will normally require a larger amount of mercury in order to complete the level. You are given more time so be sure to take a steady route to the finish.  But you still need to be fast enough if you want to be placed top of the high scores chart for each level.

Task will require a lot more skill than the other levels. These levels are designed to challenge you, usually with colour filters and colour specific switches, you may even need to finish the level using a different colour than what you started with. Despite this you still must battle against time and not always a high percentage of mercury is required to finish the level.

At the end of each world there is a “boss” level.  The levels are very difficult to complete compared to the previous levels in that world as you must finish quickly, maintain a lot of mercury and use paint shops, colour switches and colour filters efficiently to complete the level.

Additionally, enemies can be included in some levels.  These enemies feast upon mercury.  Try not to get trapped in a corner with multiple enemies. Enemies automatically follow you when you get close to them so you can trick them by luring them away from the finish or switches you need to activate. You can even distract them by breaking off a small amount of mercury and let them nibble on it while you go for the finish.

Overall Mercury is a very good game which can offer hours of frustratingly difficult fun with its addictive and challenging gameplay.

Mercury offers a challenge to all levels of gamers. A recommended buy especially as it has been re-released at a low price.

Great game.

Buzzin Games Rating: 83%

Popcap’s Zuma is an exciting single player puzzle game that is suprisingly addictive and includes challenging levels that had me playing the game for longer than I had anticipated – always a sign of a good game.

Zuma has two game modes Adventure and Gauntlet Adventure which allow you to play through many temples, each with three stages, each with three unique levels.

The aim of the game is to destroy all of the coloured balls before they reach their goal. By shooting all the coloured balls you will make it to the next level.  However, letting just one ball drop into the hole will have you started over.

An added bonus is to get balls of the same colour to line up, three in a row which has the balls disappear.

The concept is simple, but Zuma is really challenging. Each level becomes more difficult and more taxing, leading to simple addictiveness, a challenge you get sucked into without realising it.

The Gauntlet game mode gives you an endless stream of balls. By destroying a specific amount of balls your status increases, and with the level of difficulty, until you reach the ultimate level, The Son of Sun.

In the Son Of Sun mode there are many different arenas to play on. All your scores, from any game, are placed onto a leaderboard.  So you know what you are competing against.

Zuma comes with it’s own PlayStation 3 trophies.  You can play it on the move via your PSP Remote Play.

Overall Zuma is an exciting game with bright effects and colours that spawns hours of fun, with its addictive nature and challenging gameplay.  The game is only £6.99 and is available on the PlayStation Network.

Racing Game: Fuel - Games Review

This month saw the release of Fuel, a racing game for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles from Codemasters. The hype was big.  But was it worth it?

Fuel, the press release told me, was built on ground-breaking technology to give the game a huge world of “atmospheric beauty and awe-inspiring size fully open to race and explore. There is 5,000 square miles of game world to explore, making it the ‘biggest game ever made’.

This unprecedented racing playground features dramatic weather effects, including tornados, blizzards, sandstorms and lightning, a full day / night cycle and enormous environmental diversity, from the snow-capped dormant volcano Mount Rainier to the arid Grand Canyon and everything in between.”

Fuel allows gamers to pick and choose their route, races and career progression while extensive multiplayer options allow up to 16 players to race against each other in pre-set events, explore the world in free ride or create their own challenges and share them online.
It includes a wealth of over 70+ quads, trucks, bikes, cars and even hovercrafts that race across both land and water to choose from.  But is a wide range of vehicles, terrains and race tracks enough for an arcade style racing game in 2009?

Like a lot of other gamers, I was really getting quite excited about the release of Fuel.  After all, Codemasters know their stuff right? Unfortunately, Fuel may look great, and may offer you more race track and vehicles than other racing games.  But frankly, that’s not enough.  And after the initial buzz of excitement Fuel falls well short and fails to deliver.

You can play Fuel in two different game approaches: Free Ride and Career and Challenges.

Free Ride is very similar to the Freeburn gameplay in Burnout Paradise.  Unfortunately, the similarities with Burnout Paradise don’t stop there.

Fuel: screenshot

The game’s Career and Challenges mode allows a player to fast-track to the beginning of an event without having to travel between each race. The main emphasis of the game is career events and the challenges offer extra interest level as missions. Unfortunately, most of the Career and Challenge events are simple standard races against a grid of 8 other opponents.
Similar to Burnout Paradise, your progress in the Career and Challenges unlocks more vehicles.
Fuel is an exciting game filled with 72 career events, 196 challenges and a vast land available to roam freely in freeride where you can collect oil drums, liveries and vista points.

On a more positive note, Fuel has online multiplayer races for up to 16 players.

Furthermore, the game comes with a race creator that allows players to design checkpoint races and can form part of the endurance challenges. Competing online with up to 15 other players is Fuel’s best point.  Though I’m not sure the gameplay is going to keep anyone’s interest for too long.

In conclusion I would say if you haven’t already got a racing game for your PS3 or Xbox 360 then you will possibly enjoy Fuel enough to warrant a purchase.  However, if like me you were hoping it would be an improvement on what I already have, think again.

Buzzin Games: 65%

I should probably come clean here and say I don’t really get what everyone saw in the original F.E.A.R. – released in 2005. It was certainly a decent corridor shooter with some nicely used horror elements, but as soon as you realised that the scenery was barely going to change and got bored of the bullet time mechanic and samey enemies… well, I can’t understand why it got such major praise.

But there’s some good news for F.E.A.R 2 – there’s certainly a lot more variety here, but on the negative side, the world of first person shooters has moved forward a long way and makes the game look somewhat dated. It’s still a competent shooter, and if you’ve never played one before you’ll likely think it’s amongst the best games ever made, but everyone else will suffer several moments of déjà vu as they work their way through the game’s 14 levels.

Which isn’t to say it isn’t an enjoyable game, it’s just that it’s made no effort to innovate.

The Xbox 360 platform is absolutely packed with FPS (first person shooter) games – off the top of my head: The Orange Box, Halo 3, Rainbow Six 1 and 2, the original F.E.A.R, The Darkness, Turok, Turning Point, Unreal Tournament, Perfect Dark, Frontlines, Medal of Honour, Shadow Run, Time Shift, Call of Duty 2-5, Battlefield, Ghost Recon, the original F.E.A.R… and many more I’ve forgotten – and there’s not a great deal to make F.E.A.R 2 stand out.

In fact, if you were to make a check-list of tried-and-tested FPS elements, you’d be able to tick most of them off well before the final chapter closes on the cliff-hanger ending: health packs – check, bullet time – check, gun turret battles – check, mech suit – check, providing sniper cover for a team-mate – check, moving platform segments – check, collecting diary elements to fill in the piecemeal story – check, check, check-aroo.

These elements are tried and tested for a reason – they work well with the genre. It can be linear as anything (and this most definitely is), but as long as the basic mechanics work, then you can be happy and F.E.A.R 2 accomplishes this. It’s also got some rather superb levels later on, too. The school based one just over half way through is particularly memorable, and fits well with the horror motif it attempts to establish as the game goes along.

I say attempts, because it seems to drift in and out, as if the developers couldn’t quite decide whether they were trying to make Silent Hill or Rainbow Six.

The result is a computer game that never really provides shocks in the same way the original did, and frequently resorts to tactics which have really lost their shock value – movement caught off screen, psychological episodes where the scenery completely changes temporarily and a frustrating lack of good lighting.

In fact, this particular method of establishing a mood seems fundamentally broken – it (like many other games) tries to suggest a perfect brightness setting to keep the atmosphere, but it’s too damned dark to see anything at some points and actually holds up progress as you use the ineffective flashlight to try and take the route you should be taking. Worse still, you break the atmosphere by turning up the brightness to a level where the route is actually clear.

This may all sound overly negative, so I should re-balance it a bit. The gun play works very well, with the ability to topple tables to create cover if you can’t find any around. The weapons feel suitably meaty, and the opposition A.I is pretty much spot on, as enemies are quick to spot you, shout orders, create cover for themselves and play tactically around you, which plays in very well with the wonderfully atmospheric audio.

It looks very nice too, and the greater variety of the scenery does a good job in showing the power of Monolith’s engine. When you activate the slow-mo effect, you can see bullets whizzing past your head, creating a sense of tension that feels lacking at times thanks to facing the same cloned soldiers over and over again. The plot (an outlandish horror-sci fi romp about a little girl trapped against her will with the power to control things with her mind – if you didn’t play the first game you will be more than a little lost) explains this well enough, but when there’s a list of enemy types you could easily count on two hands, it’s pretty hard to keep any sense of tension around proceedings.

In terms of multiplayer, the game is actually very well served, though again there’s not a great deal here to draw you from the Xbox’s other multiplayer delights.

There are a total of six modes, ranging from the usual straightforward death matches to team based games of flag capturing and other hijinx. It incorporates the ability to gain experience as you play, like in Call of Duty 4, but with every game requiring this kind of time sync to improve your character, there’s a real danger of putting people off of your game.

That said the multiplayer maps are all well designed and create a good sense of action, and the developer is releasing a free ‘toy soldiers’ map pack (based on shrunken players in everyday environments) which promise to make it even better. As ever, multiplayer will live or die depending on how popular it remains.

Finding a game at the moment is pretty easy, but will it be five months from now? Time will tell.

So, F.E.A.R 2 is a good game, rather than a great one. It’s a solid first person shooter which will provide a few scares and a convoluted storyline, set against some of the best gun play imaginable. Just be aware that if you’ve played more than a handful of shooters in the last few years, nothing the game provides will feel new, inventive or unfamiliar in the slightest.

If you’re aware of that and go in with expectations suitably muted, you’ll find F.E.A.R 2 passes an enjoyable 10-12 hours… it’s just that Monolith have brought us some fantastically memorable games in the past – including Alien vs Predator 2, No One Lives Forever and Condemned – and F.E.A.R 2 all feels a bit ‘by the numbers’. That’s a shame given the developer’s pedigree. As it stands it feels a bit lost in the Xbox’s FPS line up – far from the worst, but a way short of the best. Hopefully they can raise the bar with F.E.A.R 3…

7/10

De Blob Mobile Game Review

De Blob is fighting to keep Chroma City full of life and colour.

To do so he must stop the evil INKT robots from draining the city of every last drop of vibrant colour and defeat the evil INKT Corporation.

Starting the De Blob mobile game, you will need to undertake some ‘Blob Training’.  This will show you all the things you need to know to fight and destroy the evil INKT Corporation robots whose goal is to erase all the colour from Chroma City.

Your role is to put the colour back into the buildings by finding paint, covering yourself with it and then splashing colour all over the buildings. As well as basic colours you are also able to blend colours by mixing two together to create colours you  can’t find naturally such as green, purple and brown.

Some of Chroma City’s buildings are very large.  The bigger the building the more points are available. But you must be a certain size and colour to completely cover them.

You can destroy your enemies from the evil INKT Corporation by locking onto them and squashing them. You can also destroy INKT vehicles,  but to do this you have to be a ‘Size 4′, the maximum paint size.

But be careful! If an enemy touches you losde your own colour and turn to black.  While you are ‘colourless’ be careful not to touch any coloured buildings or you will erase the building’s colour and lose yourself points.

De Blob Mobile Game screenshot

To get rid of the black colour you will need to find the nearest fountain or water supply and wash it off  so as colour returns to grey. By going in water you can also reduce your size this can prove helpful if you want to travel through a narrow passageway.

‘In Revolution’ is the story mode in which to play the main game.

There are four different areas (Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Government) each containing four ‘blocks’ or levels which increase in difficulty as the game goes on.  By completing levels and areas you will unlock the next stage.

In each block there is a score limit which must be reached to open the exit gate.  A time limit is also set.

Furthermore, there are missions within each block that if completed will reward you with extra points and time bonuses.

With each block you can collect ‘block stars’.

In De Blob there are five to collect with each block:

Green Star- Obtained by completing the block

Blue Star- Colour 100% of buildings

Red Star- Complete all available missions

Orange Star- Complete the block in under the Orange star time (indicated before the level)

Purple Star- Complete the block with a greater score than the Purple star score (indicated before the level)

De Blob is a cool game to play with good graphics and colour; and the gameplay is fast too.  This mobile version works well; and I would recommend it to anyone.

The game is suitable for all ages.

Buzzin Games Rating: 80%

Pure

Pure – ATV Off-Road PS3 Game Review

Pure is an adrenalin-fuelled rush and great fun to play. I’ve not played an off-road Quad bike ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles) racing game before, but the game itself lends from other racing games where the point is not only to go fastest, but to obtain points for tricks.  The better the tricks, the more points you will accumulate.  Points are based on a built-in ‘risk vs reward’ point scoring scheme.

This makes playing Pure much more exciting.  Rather than simply racing around a track, it will have you attempting to squeeze more tricks into each jump, hoping that you land right way up and not over-cooking a stunt.

There are three events to choose from:

Sprints offer less chance for completing tricks, as you race around short, tight tracks at tremendous speeds. Sprints are all about speed.

Freestyles are the antithesis of Sprints.  In Freestyles ‘points mean prizes!’ The more outrageous your tricks, the more you score. Ramps are placed around the track to invite you to score high, while ‘power-ups’ litter the course to boost your fuel tank. Freestyles are fun, but not as exciting as a stand-alone mode.

Standard Racing is by far the most exciting, as you balance the need for speed with the choice of more daring stunts for your ATV to gain boosts.  By collecting boosts you unlock better tricks throughout the race.

Once you’ve gained some control and understanding of the game you can enter the World Tour event.  The first races are easy and will give you a chance to get some more racing experience.  But as you begin to progress the World Tour will become harder, as you race against more aggressive, fearsome opponents.

As you complete each event you will unlock parts for your ATV and the races will become much harder. By unlocking new parts the game allows you to customise your ATV and even create a new ATV.

If you don’t want to compete in the endurance of a complete World Tour you can opt for single events, but by competing in the World Tour you will unlock new tracks to race.  And if that isn’t enough, you can play Pure online with up to 16 players.

Visually, Pure is amazing, perfect.  The graphics certainly help the adrenaline rush of this excitingly awesome game.  Check out the game play.

Buzzin Games Rating: 85%