2011 So Far - Number 2 - Portal 2 9/10

If there was one game this year that took me by surprise it was Portal 2. I wasn't a huge fan of the first game, not that I didn't like it just I never really played it, you wouldn't believe my surprise when I first played portal 2.

Portal 2 does what so many games these days fails to do. It provides an extremely fun and creative way to play a game, you shoot portals around giant rooms to solve puzzles, believe me it's a lot more fun that it sounds. The story is one of the enjoyable and memorable storys I have ever played through, with Steven Merchant staring as Wheatley's voice, you fall in love with him! He is goofy, stupid but so lovable.

Along with a kick ass story, Portal 2 comes with a completely separate coop mode which is playable online and locally. Having to solve these puzzles as a pair can be challenging, but my partner in crime and fellow colleague; Craig Shields, had a great time Platinuming Portal 2. Not only that but on the PS3 version you get Portal 2 on steam for free! What a steal, earn your trophies on your local Mac or PC! Truly one of the best games I have played, not only this year but all time.

Portal 2 reaches number 2 in our game of the year.. So far list, being beaten not by necessarily a better game, but a deserving winner.

2011 So Far - Number 3 - Mortal Kombat 8.5/10

There's no doubting that the Mortal Kombat theme tune from the movies is one of the best soundtracks to have ever existed and perhaps if it was included in the game we may have scored it higher (probably not) but despite that injustice the Mortal Kombat reboot was a shock to us all, after poor games of the last few years.

Armageddon and Dark Alliance have been vanished to bargain bins and we've lovingly taken the new Mortal Kombat into our hearts and through our bowels to a gruesome fatality. All the characters you loved from the old Arcade games are here along with fatalities, babalities and so much more. Mortal Kombat packed in the modes to keep us busy from standard Ladder Mode to Story and of course the aptly named Challenge Tower which can take a good chunk of your time.

A lot of publishers would be wise to take a good look at what Neatherrealm and Warner Bros have done with Mortal Kombat. The fat has been stripped off from the lacklustre games of recent years it has been taken right back to basics with a lick of HD paint and it works wonders because of it.

Mortal Kombat is a great fighting game and will keep you entertained for hours, it's certainly our front runner for fighting game of the year and also enjoys third spot on our game of 2011..so far.

BY CRAIG JOHN SHIELDS

2011 So Far - Number 4 - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 9.5/10

Everyone knows that, Ocarina of Time was and still is one of the greatest games ever made. With a re-release on the Nintendo 3DS, people are finally able to play Ocarina of Time once again. The question was always going to be, is there any point? Of corse there is, not only is the 3D outstanding, it also shows off what the 3DS can do. I have personally completed Ocarina of Time more times than I can remember, but after picking up a copy on the 3DS last week, I couldn't be happier.

Nintendo had no reason to change anything about Ocarina of Time, from the day it released in November 1998, Ocarina of time was one of the perfect games and it still is. The dungeons and quests that you have to go through are still challenging and entertaining and at times still very difficult.

The whole point in this game however is to show off the 3DS and what it can do and Zelda certainly doesn't disappoint.  The 3D is extremely good, although this is the first 3DS game where you actually need to turn the 3D down or it can strain your eyes, it all depends on yourself. Obviously Zelda cannot win the game of the year this year, but it can't be left off our list because it is simply one of the best games ever made. This is why this classic re-make makes it to number 4 on our list.

2011 So Far - Number 5 - L.A. Noire 8/10

We start our countdown with listing Rockstar's 'third column' in their franchise hit list behind the GTA and Red Dead series L.A Noire. The ambitious project brought together by Team Bondi used real actors to give the player a brand new way of interacting with characters. While the game itself has so far proved less popular sales wise than there other two franchises. Rockstar are quietly pleased with the result with talk of a sequel high up the agenda.

While we fell in love with the accurately re-created 1940's Los Angeles and the Truth, Doubt, Lie detective system it fell short to becoming a true great due to some of the repetitive nature of the cases and some plot holes in the story.

There is no doubt L.A Noire is a game to be remembered in history more for what it tried to accomplish rather than what it did, but hopefully the guys at Team Bondi can build upon solid foundations and a rather enjoyable game and that's why it makes our top 5 games of 2011...so far.

BY CRAIG JOHN SHIELDS

The Top Games of 2011...So Far...

Hey there and welcome to DCR's first ever awards section. With all the great titles that we've already had this year the guy's at DCR thought we should highlight some of this year's hit games by ranking them from five to one.

We've had a plethora of great games this year starting with early runners LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3. We moved into March and April with Mortal Kombat and Valve's brilliant Portal 2. We put on our Detective Suit in May with L.A Noire and moved into the Summer with Cole McGrath in inFamous 2 and a little known sleeper hit from Nintendo, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the 3DS.

This feature will start next week with number five being revealed on Monday all the way down to our number one game of 2011...so far being revealed on Friday!

inFamous 2 Review

Almost a year to the day I travelled to my local game store to purchase a game to take my time up. I wanted something that was good, I needed something that would take my mind off real life for a while, something I could get lost in. It was a difficult time in my personal life, my girlfriend and newborn son having both been admitted to hospital a few hundred miles away, I was moving house and of course had full-time work getting in the way of everything. Eventually I settled on inFamous at £9.99 which after playing the first in the series to death was a bargain. I think due to my emotional attachment at the time thanks to my personal circumstances and the fact that any free time I did have was devoted to infamous 1, had I of reviewed it it certainly would have got a higher score than it deserved. That's not to say this review of the sequel, cunningly named inFamous 2 will be reviewed incorrectly. It perhaps means that I expect more than I usually would from a sequel, infamous one captivated it's audience and turned Sucker Punch Productions from Sly creators and Banjo-Kazooie wannabe's into a real player in the industry, behind Uncharted, inFamous is now arguably the second biggest Playstation brand, overtaking, Resistance, Ratchet and perhaps even Killzone and they've cemented their position within the Playstation family here.

inFamous 2 see's the return of Cole McGrath, just an average courier boy who get's caught up in an explosion and gains electrical super powers, the premise is simple but the execution is superb. This time Cole has travelled south to New Marais as he's being chased by 'the beast' an almighty being revealed at the end of the original, Cole's goal is to grow strong enough to defeat him by finding blast cores in New Marais and continues the excellent story building blocks from the first game. Thankfully inFamous 2 doesn't pull a 'God of War' and take all your powers away from the first game, you keep all you earned and learn new more powerful moves, imagine summoning an electrical hurricane, you can do that here.

A new gameplay addition is 'the amp' a metal electrical rod that Cole wields for melee combat. A few quick taps of the Square button hits the opponent and a hit of the Triangle is the cue for one of the sweet finishers that end your opponent. The melee naturally fits into the game and changes the gameplay enough from the first one where it could be accused that holding L1 and mashing R1 to fire lightning bolts was enough to get through most troubles, but not here, the combat is varied enough from powers to melee where you'll want to switch it up, plus there's nothing more satisfying than jumping off a 4 storey building and slamming to the ground causing an electrical shockwave that kills four guys at once.

If you've never played inFamous one don't fear, you can jump right into the sequel without playing the first (although I highly recommend you to try it). The first game's story is beautifully told the minute you hit start with a loving crafted comic strip style cut scene, these comic strips were littered throughout the original but unfortunately take a bit of a back seat in the sequel. There is no doubt the biggest difference between the original and the sequel is the set-pieces. Dramatic helicopter fights and large explosion's really deliver a Hollywood feel and I've not even told you half the story (and I won't for fear of spoilers). Uncharted 2's train and building set-pieces have gone down as folk-lore at Sony and have set a new industry standard in the video games. The boys and gals at Sucker Punch have taken note and have 'Unchartedised' inFamous 2. Copying off Uncharted 2 isn't a bad thing as the core comic-book super hero gameplay style still reigns supreme but taking tips off Naughty Dog has definitely upped their game. The in-game explosions, even when your just walking around New Marais can be spectacular, needless to say the set-pieces included in the story can be breath-taking, unfortunately nothing to match Uncharted 2, but very few can.

Missions in inFamous 2 are varied enough, more so than the original which tended to repeat some situations over and over but there's enough variety and more importantly fun missions to keep you going through the campaign and onto the side missions which can be completed at any time. The addition of user-generated content was a slightly left-field decision for a game that isn't LittleBigPlanet but it's certainly a welcome one. Some of the early UGC missions I've played were interesting enough without being amazing, but this is down to the lack of time after launch rather than the tools. The UGC interface is quite awkward to create with no real manual but as a starting point for future releases it's certainly a solid platform to build upon.

However it's not all plain sailing for the sequel, during amp and explosion sequences the camera can somewhat go awol. There was a situation with an early boss I encountered who grabbed me by the tongue and tried to pull me in, the idea to get out of this is to shoot inside his mouth to get him to let go, but because I was running away at the time he grabbed me, the camera showed the view behind me and away from the monster so there was no way to save myself. This can be annoying especially when trying to combo melee moves from one guy to another but it's a small annoyance and really shouldn't spoil your enjoyment of this game too much.

Sequel's are supposed to be bigger and better in everyway, inFamous 2 ticks both these boxes with flying colours and stands out in an industry with a lot of wannabe's. It falls short of being on a par with an Uncharted or Mass Effect but it's certainly worthy of it's place as a big gaming franchise, Sucker Punch, welcome to the big time, I'm sure you'll be here to stay.

9/10

Mortal Kombat Review

Well we waited an eternity for Mortal Kombat and we waited even longer for this review, but it's here now! If you haven't already got this game, stop reading and go get it. Right now.

Okay still need convincing well here we go, as always just going to talk about the story mode without trying to spoil anything. First thing is first, the story is great, its a lot of fun and for all you new to Mortal Kombat it starts from the very beginning then eventually going off into the newer story. It doesn't take a whole lot of time to complete which I think is really good seeing as all you want to do is play as every character and see some damn fatalities. There are some parts that are very challenging and at the same time a lot of time. Whilst we are talking about the story we can't help but talk about the voice acting, in essence its great even with the slightly cheesy and stupid moments, notably Jonny Cage. Also there are some moments when you feel a fight just starts over literally the dumbest things. Saying that its still a lot of fun.

The graphics are amazing in my opinion, I am fresh from playing Marvel vs Capcom so I had a good chance to compare the two and the styles are very different of course, but I feel Mortal Kombat does an extremely good job, notably the little things like how you can see your characters damage getting worse and worse with insane amount of blood, torn skin and im some parts you can see the brain. It's brilliant, the attention to detail is better than words can describe. I am going to talk about fatalities later on and we will return to this topic.

I can't really write a proper review without talking about the sound of the game. It is unbelievable how good the sounds are, you feel every punch or every fire ball hitting your character. Literally feeling all the pain they go through! One of the sounds that I notice more than any other is when you uppercut one of the mechanical characters, I can't even describe it but when you next play just pay attention and it will blow your mind.

Other game types include the classic ladder mode, tag ladder, test your luck, test your might etc which are all pretty fun. My favorite game type, Test your Luck. Honestly genius, anyone can pick up a controller and fight against someone who has a ton of experience and win. If you haven't heard about this game type, basically all it is, is a simple fight between two people however, there are between 4 and 7 slot reels that you spin before the fight, based on what lands you can have things added to the maps such as meteor showers and earth quakes. The maps can be altered, flipped upside down or go black for periodical periods of time. Things can be added to the health and powers bars, along with extra health or SP dropping from the sky. Then the fun begins when things are added or taken from players, you could end up as a zombie with no arms or head, you can't block or jump whilst your opponent has the power of a vampire, turbo speed and basically has a hell of a time owning you!

The Challenge Tower, you son of a b***h. 300 events in this tower, you want that platinum trophy  or achievement, better get working right now. Although I can't moan because its truly awesome, starting of simply with little mini games and fights, to fighting 3 Goros at a time, because 1 isn't a pain as it is.. Also a fight where you play as Sub Zero and Scorpion but can only damage your opponent based on what color he is, coordinating with the colors of your characters. There are 300 challenges, do I really need to say more?

Now we arrive at the characters. I don't think anyone can be disappointed here, we have pretty much even character that there is to think off and of corse with time will come DLC characters. I am kinda pissed you don't get to play as Goro others than in the challenge tower. The costumes look amazing for everyone and again with time will come old school costumes, I would love to test out some of the character costume codes that I have but I can't, thank you again Sony. Talking Sony I think you have to buy this game on this console, simply due to the fact that you get an exclusive character, Kratos, when the Xbox gets nothing. He fits perfectly into the game and has an interesting story in the Tower mode. No characters seem to over powered when you know what you are doing. There are obviously some slight combo glitches which need to be patched and sorted out, Night Wolf and his stupid shoulder charge is very frustrating when someone online knows that one combo and that is it!

Finally lets talk about online. Even though we had to wait god knows how long to actually go online with the PSN going down, now that we are there what is it like? Well its okay, when you have a match, ranked or unranked its fun. The king of the hill mode is a good laugh too, even just spectating! Having a crowed score your match out of 10 is always interesting! The issue is lag. Lag and getting a game.. Sometimes it can take forever to get just a single ranked match! Then when you do the lag is bad! Not all of the time, 70% of the time its fine, but it does need to be fixed.

What more can I say, the game is amazing! A lot of content for your money and it is easily the best fighting game on the market right now! A solid;



8.5/10