The B.P.H.P.

Live by the Creed, Recruit by The Creed











Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is pretty much a direct sequel to AC:II. Things pick up right after the end of the of that game, and without giving anything away, just know that you’ll be controlling the Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze once again and for certain bits Desmond as each get closer to obtaining the information they are seeking.


Hungry for Apples



The mysterious Apple of Eden is an item that everyone seems to be interested in Brotherhood. It’s mysterious power could turn the tide in anyone’s favor so Ezio and his band of Assassin’s seek to keep it from the Templars and many dangerous leaders, most notably Cesare Borgia.

To accomplish this, you can recruit civilians to build up a band of Assassins that will aid in the liberation of Rome.

The story is a great one once again, but as with the previous games, the end will leave more questions to be answered.


Can I join?




Recruiting Assassin’s is a pretty easy task: all of the potential ones will be under attack when you find them by guards, so you must help them out to recruit a new member. Once you have more assassins, you can send them on missions to increase their skills and rank them up to become an equal to Ezio and the rest of the Assassin guild members.

It’s pretty awesome later in the game when you get bombarded by too many enemies and can call in help from recruits and even the odds a bit on your side. This really fits the Brotherhood meaning from the title, and a nice element for this franchise.



WTF! I thought that was you!



A new addition to Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is the multiplayer, and man is it fun! You can choose from a few nice modes, but my favorite is wanted. In wanted, you must track down and kill a target while avoiding someone hot on your tail. You choose characters that range from Doctors to Harlequinss, but the kicker is that the world is populated with NPCs that are based on the real players in the match. Let’s say you have to kill a doctor and he his nearby since your radar assists you, but you see four doctors in an area. One of them is the real target, so it’s up to you to find that out. Failure to kill the wrong target will result in a loss contract, as well as more time for your hunter to find you.

With a rank of 50 to achieve and unlockable items and abilities at each level, Brotherhood’s multiplayer is no joke. Like with Splinter Cell Pandora, Ubisoft has crafted a new multiplayer experience that can’t be beat.


Conclusion

The single player is once again a strong aspect for Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, only this time it’s accompanied by some awesome multiplayer modes.

Even though it’s not a numbered sequel, Brotherhood fits in nicely alongside Assassin’s Creed I & II.

If you loved those games, you’ll love this one.











Developer- Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher- Ubisoft

All pictures for my reviews are courtesy of the Giantbomb users that upload them. Giantbomb

How the West was Undead











Red Dead Redemption was one of my favorite games in 2010 and Rockstar’s hit of the year. It was initially supported with DLC focused on multiplayer, but with the Undead Nightmare, Rockstar has created content on par with the Lost & Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony. Undead Nightmare is a ton of fun, and one that worth picking up either with the retail disc or simply downloading it for Xbox Live.


Something funny’s going on here



Taking place toward the end of RDR, Undead Nightmare shows John Marston going home to his family after fighting through a lot to get back to them. After relaxing with them for a bit, they’re visited by an old friend who doesn’t look like himself and appears violent and crazed. Without going into more detail without spoiling much about the story, Marston finds out the dead are coming back to life and that they’re rapidly taking over the frontier.

Being the hero that he is, Marston sets out to find a cure so he can finally have the peace with his family he so desires. The story here will keep you for about 9+ including more if you want to experience all that the Undead Nightmare can provide. Start to finish you’ll be in for a undead treat with a great story of how zombies came to the West.


Remove the Head or Destroy the Brain



The Undead won’t go down permanently until you give them a nice clean bullet to the head. Hitting anywhere else will knock them down or give you a bit more time to line up a clean shot, but headshots are your friend in this game. Besides your usual arsenal of weapons to choose from, Undead Nightmare provides new additions to use against the undead horde and provide for some pretty epic kills.




Keep em’ Safe



Those who have survived so far in the Undead Nightmare have taken to various locations across the map to defend themselves. All of these are marked on the map so you can help them against undead attacks, and in exchange the people will offer you shelter and ammo; something very scare in this add-on so collect all that you can.

Overtime these places can be attacked again, so look out for when this happens since your source of ammo will be in jeopardy.


Conclusion

The single player portion of the Undead Nightmare is incredible with returning characters to interact with and new weapons to face new enemies. There are plenty more challenges to complete as well alongside more rewards for doing so. If you choose to pick up the retail disc you will get all the previous DLC as well without losing precious hard drive space, so this package is a great deal. Those already with Red Dead Redemption can simply download the Undead Nightmare for just $10 even though it as an equal amount of content when compared to the $20 Ballad of Gay Tony and Lost & Damned from GTA IV.

Rockstar has done it again and proves to be the best at delivering great single player experiences, and leading the way for Downloadable Add-Ons.









Developer- Rockstar San Diego

Publisher- Rockstar Games

All pictures for my reviews are courtesy of the Giantbomb users that upload them. Giantbomb

As promised, Visceral games has delivered a early Christmas present to it's fans with the Dead Space 2 demo. Check it out below:


"Play the Dead Space™ 2 demo today and bring the terror to space! Engineer Isaac Clarke returns for another blood-curdling adventure in the sequel to the critically acclaimed Dead Space™. After waking from a coma on a massive space city known as "The Sprawl", the lone survivor of a horrific alien infestation finds himself confronting a catastrophic new nightmare. Battling dementia, hunted by the government, and haunted by visions of his dead girlfriend, Isaac will do whatever it takes to save himself and dominate the gruesome onslaught. With an arsenal of tools to dismember Necromorphs and new determination, an engineer will bring the terror to space. The Nightmare Returns January 2011."

Link To Content- Dead Space 2 Demo (1.2 GB)

A Kingdom for Keflings was a relaxing game where you could help the little Keflings build their town as your avatar, and now we'll be able to do it again in A World of Keflings, now available on Xbox Live Arcade. The Sequel to one of the first Avatar supported titles will cost 800 MSP, so check out the trial to see if it's worth picking up if you already own the original game:


"Build a robot, rescue the princess, make friends with a dragon and help a creepy witch get even creepier. Take your Xbox LIVE Avatar on a journey through exotic lands while you help the tiny Keflings build and customize their kingdoms! Play with a friend on the same console or with three friends over Xbox LIVE in this story-based, kingdom-building adventure."

Link To Trial- A World of Keflings (127 MB)

Link To Full Game- A World of Keflings (800 MSP)

2010 is just about over.

So many games came out this year in rapid succession, it became pretty difficult to check them all out, but the ones I did get a hold of really impressed me and so were better left untouched.

This year I got to play Mass Effect 2 and once again take up the role as Shephard, savior for the many beings of the universe, visit the wild west as former outlaw John Marston and track down the people I used to roll with, confronted my creation as a famous writer in Alan Wake, and Ponder what was in my coffee as Francis 'Call Me York' Morgan in the bizarre and surprisingly good (kinda) Deadly Premonition.

The ability to remember Reach and blasting enemies both online & off in Black Ops was great as well.

2010 was full of great games and many that I still want to play. In my opinion, here are the games that I saw as the best:




Best Playstation 3 Exclusive game










The Nominees-God of War III, Heavy Rain, Gran Turismo 5, Modnation Racers


And the winner is....Heavy Rain!!



Behind the amazing visuals of Heavy Rain is a story that puts you in control of the action. Not a typical game to say the least, Heavy Rain was a experience that made use of every single button on the PS3 to complete tasks ranging from mundane to insane. It was also recently updated to support the PlayStation Move, so you can feel like you're part of the story to catch the Origami Killer.

Runner-Up

-God of War III-

God of War games have never been a let down, and this edition was backed with some serious power thanks to the power of the PS3. Fluid combat, a slew of weapons, and epic battle showed that God of War III is the action game to beat.


Best Xbox 360 Exclusive Game











The Nominees-Mass Effect 2, Alan Wake,Halo Reach, Fable III

And the Winner is...Alan Wake!!



Alan Wake puts you in the middle of a nightmare created by the character whose name is the title. Mr. Wake has a bad case of writer’s block, and his wife decides to take him on a vacation to Bright Falls to help him get writing again. Well things get sour pretty quickly and Alan must confront elements that seem too familiar.

Runner-UP

-Halo Reach-

Bungie’s final Halo game was a truimph in both sales and quality, and a great way for them to end a 10 year saga. Showing the beginnings of humanity’s struggle against the covenant and featuring an all Spartan squad was really neat, and more tweaks given to multiplayer from the early beta provided a experience that will be played for years. With the credits system they incorporated, you can now rank up without even stepping into multiplayer if you wished.




Best Downloadable Game













The Nominees-Dead Rising: Case Zero,LIMBO,Monday Night Combat, Lara Croft: Guardian of Light,

And the winner is....LIMBO



Limbo chose to give you a simple look and simple task, but simple is the last thing to describe this game. It’s Dark and twisted world featured great puzzle action, and any failures to complete them would result in the gruesome death of small boy just looking for his sister. From the sound to the minimal amount of music, Limbo will provide an experience that will stick with you for quite some time.

Runner-UP

-Dead Rising: Case Zero-

Serving as a way to introduce players to Chuck Greene and the backstory for Dead Rising 2, Case Zero asks for your $5 and a few hours and exchange gave you a cool way to learn the mechanics of DR2. Better than a demo could, Case Zero got me more excited for Dead Rising 2 than I already was, and was a great way to ease the wait.

Best "Bang for your Buck" Award














The Nominees- COD: Black Ops, Halo: Reach, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins

And the Winner is...Dragon Age: Origins!!



With Mass Effect 2 launched and in the hands of gamers, Bioware still found time to support their Fantasy RPG released last year with a slew of DLC constantly available.

Runner-UP

-Halo: Reach-

With a slew of modes to play like Campaign, Firefight, Forge and Multiplayer, Halo Reach has it all. Tired of the same maps over and over? Hop onto forge world with friends and create your own using a nice collection of items. With one map pack already available and more to come, you’ll have plenty of reasons to go back to Reach.


Best Improved Sequel












The Nominees-Dead Rising 2, Fable III, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, COD: Black Ops,

And the winner is...COD: Black Ops!!



After Infinity Ward wowed players with Modern Warfare, Treyarch decided to visit the WWII era once again with World at War. It played fine and multiplayer was fun, but it just didn’t have the same magic COD4 did. Well fast forward to now, Black Ops went forward with the timeline and delivered a great experience that millions have been enjoying since it launched last month. Once again, Kudos to Treyarch.

Runner-UP

-Dead Rising 2-

The original Dead Rising is a great game, but only those who could get around the crazy elements like a strict timeframe and less than helpful A.I. Escorting civilians was a nightmare, and missing a scoop because you were trying to keep people alive was not very fun. It was almost an acquired taste, but with Dead Rising 2 anyone could have fun and enjoy a game with better A.I and more unique ways to take out the undead. Throwing in co-op helped as well, and made Dead Rising 2 even more fun than it already was.


Co-op Game of the year












The Nominees- Halo Reach, Dead Rising 2, Fable III,

And the Winner is....Dead Rising 2!!



Killing hordes of Zombies by yourself if fun. Killing hordes of Zombies with a friend is even better, and that’s what Dead Rising 2 offered up. With drop in co-op no matter what level you are, you could be transported into a friend’s game and help them discover the truth.

Runner-UP

-Fable III-

You can now control your own camera. Bring your hero and your dog into a friend’s world. Fable III finally got co-op right. Lionhead improved on what was just a neat little addition in Fable II, and fleshed out co-op even more the third game. I don’t think we’ve seen the end of Fable games, so let’s hope the next one will improve upon co-op even more.


Best/Weirdest game you probably didn't play

(Deadly Premonition)





Man this game.

It’s pretty out there, but I really enjoyed playing it. It was $20, contained hours of content, and a great story. The gameplay was a bad Resident Evil/ Silent Hill/ GTA type, but you got through that just to watch Francis ‘Call Me York’ Morgan interact with a town experiencing some brutal murders. Put this one on your christmas and you’ll see what the fuss is about with York and the many interesting characters of Greenvale.


Best New Multiplayer Experience: Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood



When Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow was released, I wondered how in the heck would Ubisoft create a multiplayer mode for the stealth game, and they answered by delivering one of the best experiences on consoles. Prior to AC: Brotherhood's release, I wondered the same thing, but Ubisoft once again created a experience that embodies the gameplay from campaign, while creating something new & fresh for players to experience.

It's so cool to have a target you're supposed to take out while avoiding someone on trail and thanks to the crowd composed of multiplayer models, anyone out there could be coming for you. It requires patience and stealth, and is a ton of fun to play.


Best Demo This Year is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West



The short, yet sweet demo for Enslaved was enough for the game to get my attention. From the small taste of the combat to the simple platforming, the Enslaved demo was a great way to get people excited for the game.

Hardest Game of the Year goes to Super Meat Boy!



It may look fun and cute, but don't let it's looks fool you: Super Meat Boy is freakin' hard! The levels can be completed in less than 2 minutes, but will require precise timing to get through. There are no checkpoints and if you mess up, it's back to the start of a level.

Hardest 360 Achievement of The Year

"Invisible" (Prison Break)




This achievement required you to complete Prison Break without ever being seen during the stealth sections. This game was about 80% stealth, so it was a major deal when you got caught. The rest of the achievements on this game were pretty easy to obtain, but I didn’t want to go back through and try for this one since the game isn’t that great.


Greatest Gaming Moment this Year




"Passing through the Omega 4 Relay" (Mass Effect 2)

Your crew was ready. Your ship was upgraded (Hopefully!). What was said by many to be impossible, Shephard and his crew made it look easy. This epic sequence showed that Bioware is one of the best in gaming to deliver experiences that will have you talking for quite some time.

AND NOW FOR THE GAME OF THE YEAR:












The Nominees-Red Dead Redemption,Assassins Creed Brotherhood,Alan Wake,Halo Reach,Call of Duty: Black Ops

And The Winner is... Red Dead Redemption!!!!



Red Dead Redemption has plenty of content to keep you busy for weeks, and Rockstar is once again the best in delivering Open-World games with a great voice cast that took you to the harsh West. Multiplayer was a strong add-on and was supported and tweaked with DLC, while the campaign's length was comparable to many RPGs and was full of thrills. Rockstar may only release a few games each year, but they always deliver.

Runner-Up

-Mass Effect 2-

Mass Effect 2 proves that in the gaming world sequels don't suck. I personally believe the ME2 was a much better than Mass Effect as well, as it provided a great storyline that could be enhanced with your save data, as well as tight controls and gameplay that rival even the best of shooters out there. With a steady stream of DLC available, you could play this game for months and not lose interest. Well done Bioware!





Once again these are the awards and games I have chosen. Many games of 2010 deserve a look and although I didn't put them all, there are plenty out there other than the ones I included. Congrats to the Developers and Publishers for a great year in Gaming, and a Congrats to all the awesome gamers like you. Happy Holidays and Here's to a great year of gaming in 2011!!!