The rise of DLC (Downloadable Content) has led to some truly wonderful gaming experiences, but at the same time some truly terrible gaming sins have been all too regularly committed. Today The Newb Review makes note of the DLC Dos and Don’ts: dishing out praise to those that produce particularly good DLC, and condemning those that have earned our scorn through their shameful practices.

Do: Experiment With Setting and Game Types

Example: Left 4 Dead 2 – The Passing

As well as offering a new story mode campaign in which you meet up with the survivors from the original Left 4 Dead, Valve offered up an ever-changing multiplayer mode called Mutations. Each week a new game mode was made available for the players to test out, with a total of about 20 different modes on the cards.

So far the game modes have consisted of Last Gnome on Earth – players must carry a gnome from the start of the game all the way to the end (did I mention that the gnome attracts the zombie horde?), Bleed out Mode – survivors have no health packs and their health is slowly draining away to zero, with the only way to stay alive being popping pills or shooting up adrenaline, and Chainsaw Massacre – the only weapon available is a chainsaw with unlimited ammo. As of writing only a handful of the Mutations have been released to the public – frankly we cannot wait to try them all out.

Curse his rosey zombie attracting cheeks!

Other notable examples: Borderlands – The Zombie Island of Dr Ned, Borderlands – The Secret Armoury of General Knoxx,

Don’t: Charge For Things That Are Already on the Disk

Example: Soul Calibur 4 – Darth Vader/Yoda

Soul Calibur 4 had a rather erroneous tie-in with Star Wars the Force Unleashed that added Darth Vader’s Apprentice, as well as console specific characters Darth Vader (for PS3) and Yoda (for Xbox 360). Despite assurances that each character would remain exclusive to their specific console (and evidence to suggest that they were lying, such as a blank character icon in the character select screen) within a few months of release, lo and behold; Darth Vader became available for download on 360 and Yoda became available for PS3 users; at a price of course.

Those foolish enough to actually download the characters were incensed to find that the download was a mere few kilobytes, evidence that the character was on the disk all along.

'Never going to happen' Yeah... Right.

Other Notable Examples: Bioshock 2 – Multiplayer maps, Beautiful Katamari.

Do: Take Your Time To Make Something Decent

Example: Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares

Despite being a perfectly decent game, Resident Evil 5 faced a lot of criticism from fans for being too action oriented and forsaking the personality and atmosphere of previous Resident Evil games. Enter Resident Evil 5’s Lost in Nightmares; a flashback mission that takes place during Chris and Jill’s hunt for the founder of the Umbrella Corporation, was released nearly a year after the game’s original release.

By mixing old school Resident Evil puzzle solving, the co-operative gameplay of Resident Evil 5 and a lashing of creepy Resident Evil ambience, Lost in Nightmares was a fantastic addition that showed the possible future of the Resident Evil franchise.

Lost in Nightmares was stuffed full of creepy Resident Evil-y things

Other Notable Examples: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – The Shivering Isles, Resident Evil 5 – Desperate Escape

Don’t: Charge For Useless Crap

Example: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion – Horse Armour

Back in the early days of Downloadable content Bethesda released the infamous Horse Armour pack for Oblivion. For 200 Microsoft points (about £1.50) you could purchase some crappy looking armour to protect your in game horse. Never mind the fact that it should have been in the retail game in the first place, the armour actually offered little protection for your precious horse!

The horse armour pack is the epitome of useless overpriced crap, so much so that despite Bethesda apologising for it on numerous occasions, whenever you look in the mirror at midnight and say “useless crap” five times the shadowy image of an armoured horse will appear behind you and steal your precious Microsoft points.

Other notable examples: Mass Effect 2 – Alternate Appearance Pack, Beautiful Katamari – Cousins pack/Presents pack.

Do: Continue To Support Your Titles

Example: Rock Band

Rock Band is an incredibly rare and wonderful beast in the world of Downloadable content. Originally released in 2007, Rock Band and its subsequent sequels have been bombarded with weekly downloadble tracks that have continued to breathe life into the game, long after competitors have become stale. As of writing there are aproximately 1,500 downloadable tracks on offer, with more added each week.

As if this weren’t good enough, if you so happen to decide to upgrade from one version of Rock Band to another more recent version, you can import all of the songs from previous games – at a small price – and use all of your downloadable content without having to buy it again. In short, Rock Band is Fantastic.

Featured Rock Band Artists include South Park's Eric Cartman

Other Notable Examples: Mass Effect 2,

Don’t: Split the Audience

Example: Saints Row 2

With the release of any substantial online multiplayer expansion there comes with it a risk of dividing up the audience between those that have purchased the add-on and those that have not. In a worst case scenario this will mean that those that have gone ahead and bought the downloadable content will not be able to play with those that have not purchased it.

This is exactly the case with Saints Row 2; a game with a sizeable co-operative component. Once paid for downloadable missions were released, it split the community in two, stopping those with the content from playing with those without the content. This infuriated users the world over, including our very own site writer Campfire.

Why bother paying for digital porn stars when you can just watch the real ones online for free?

Other Notable Examples:  Very few others of note. Thankfully!

Think we’ve missed off a few blatent DLC sins? Or have we neglected to praise a specific game that you feel has done a brilliant job with its DLC? Leave us a comment below and let the world know what you’re thinking.

- Luke Mears

It’s a phenomenon that has existed for years, but is becoming more and more common as the games market expands. I am of course talking about expensive Collector’s Edition copies of the latest new release.

It seems every developer these days is releasing a high priced “limited edition” complete with in-game bonus items, books, soundtracks, short making of DVDs, and little action figures.

Until recently I loved them; my home is littered with all sorts of crap that I have picked up over the years through purchasing limited editions. In my Bedroom you could find Bayonetta’s Gun, a plastic Batarang, and a pewter Big Daddy statue (to name a few examples) cluttering up the place.

It is clear that publishers and developers have realised there is a very strong demand for Collector’s Editions, especially if they come with “exclusive” content. I don’t think it would be too unfair to say that the average hardcore gamer, the sort of person that jumps at the chance of buying the latest games on release day, has some geeky tendencies in him/her.

Average game. Below average Collector's Edition.

The words “limited” and “exclusive” are banded about when describing these products, and are probably enough to get any fanboy’s pulse racing, fearing that this rare treasure may soon disappear. Deep down that’s exactly how I feel when I read the details of the latest Collector’s Edition version of a game I’ve had my eyes on.

However, more often than not, these collector’s editions are released at a premium price, but come in exceptionally poor quality packaging with mediocre additional content at best.

Of course, every now and then a collector’s edition comes along and makes everything better again; take for instance the recent Alan Wake Collector’s Edition. The package included the game, a 100 odd page book that filled in some of the back story behind the events of the game (including samples of Alan Wake’s own writing), a making of DVD that also unlocks developer commentary mode in the game, two premium themes for your dashboard, Avatar awards, and the soundtrack, all wrapped in a hollowed out book. For the price I paid, a mere £40, it was completely worth it.

A Fantastic Bargain at £40

And yet, for every Alan Wake Collector’s Edition there are about half a dozen Red Dead Redemption Collector’s Editions. Now don’t get me wrong, I love the game as much as anyone else out there, but the Collector’s Edition, which I foolishly purchased, was the text book definition of a waste of money.

For £50, it shipped with a download code that entitled you to three pieces of downloadable content: Golden Guns, which increase your fame slightly, the War Horse, a steed that has better stamina regeneration, and the Deadly Assassin outfit, which refills your Dead Eye Metre a little bit faster.

Also included is a download code for the game’s Soundtrack. Let me reiterate; a download code. They couldn’t even be bothered to put it on a CD and slip it in the case. And yet it cost £10 more than the plain old regular version of the game.

If that wasn’t bad enough, I discovered that half of my downloadable content is not available right from the get go; in fact, in order to unlock the Deadly Assassin outfit you have to meet a number of in-game goals, and progress through the story beyond a certain point. It’s not the end of the world, but it is an irritation.

I don’t mean to single Red Dead Redemption out, they are not the only ones releasing crappy Collector’s Editions that fools such as myself keep buying; who can forget the “special edition” Dead Rising, with the only special feature being that it came in a tin case at a £10 premium, or the infamous Batman Arkham Asylum special edition that came with a bonus challenge map, a 10 minute DVD, a short book with character designs in it, and a cheap plastic Batarang on a stand.

To make matters worse, the copy of the game itself was packaged in a flimsy cardboard box, with a faux wooden finish, almost as if they wanted to emphasise how cheap it looked.

A Fantastic Game, But An AWFUL Collector's Edition

Of course no one is forcing people to buy these Collector’s Editions – it’s not like burley men in black kicked down my door and dragged me to my local retailer, forcing me to hand over my hard earned cash for some rubbish downloadable content. But at the same time I have to wonder, how long can this last? How long can Publishers, Developers and Retailers expect to rip people off before they start getting wise to what constitutes a good deal?

To play devil’s advocate for just a brief moment, it cannot be easy for Publishers and Developers trying to find good content for their Collector’s Editions. I would imagine that most game developers are too busy working hard to get the game out on time to spend time sitting in front of a camera talking about how wonderful their game is going to be.

When you take in to account things like Electronic Arts’ Project $10, which offers everybody that buys a new copy of one of their games about $10 worth of free downloadable content, what else do they have the time to make and cram in to the special editions? These DVDs and books don’t just magically turn up out of nowhere, they cost money, and people have put in time and effort in order to craft these bonus items.

A Very Good Collector's Edition For A Not So Great Game

Calling for a blanket boycott of all Collector’s Editions will do little else but deprive Publishers of much needed extra income. Having said that, however, there are a number of ways in which things could go in the future if we stopped buying the bad Collector’s Editions. The best case scenario is that the involved parties take a good hard look at their product and strive to put out better Collector’s Editions.

On the other hand, the involved parties may decide that Collector’s Editions are not profitable and they stop producing them all together. It’s not going to happen overnight, but one day maybe we won’t even have the option of buying expensive variants of our games that come with a load of old tosh. And that would be a real shame.

–Luke Mears–

Left 4 Dead 2 was a very popular game among critics, particularly among us here at The Newb Review. This year Left 4 Dead 2 won the prestigious BAFTA (the UK’s equivalent of the Oscars) for Best Multiplayer Game of 2009. So you can imagine out excitement when Valve confirmed that they would be releasing a number of add-ons for this fantastic title. The first piece of downloadable content is The Passing, which has our band of survivors coming across the survivors from the original Left 4 Dead. The tag line for this new act is “no one survives forever” which teases the death of one of the beloved characters… But who?!

Fear not, we will not spoil it for you here.

The Passing features one new act, made up of three new chapters that take place after the survivors escape from the shopping mall in the supped up race car, and before they are forced to abandon it outside the Dark Carnival. Having followed the road straight out of town, our tenacious survivors (Coach, Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle) find themselves at a raised bridge, which is being protected by the original survivors. After a brief cut scene (which on occasion failed to actually load up for me) we are told that the generator that controls the bridge is out of fuel, and that you will have to refuel the generator if you want to get across. Of course, in typical Left 4 Dead Fashion, there are about 1 Billion zombies between you and your objective. By the time you reach your objective you will probably be drenched in Zombie blood, bile, vomit, and an array of nasty bodily fluids. Why are things never easy in the Zombie Apocalypse?

'I think there might be some zombies out there...'

The three chapters feature everything you have come to expect from Left 4 Dead 2: dimly lit streets, a raging storm, and Zombies… Lots and lots of Zombies. All of the Special Infected return, including the veteran Boomers, Smokers, Hunters, the dreaded Tank and Witch (who has had something of a makeover for this act) as well as the new kids on the block, Spitters, Chargers, and Jockeys.

On your quest to restart the generator, you will come across lock boxes filled to the brim with supplies, as well as two new weapons; a golf club, and an M60 Machine Gun as well as a new type of uncommon infected, the Fallen Survivor. Basically, the Fallen Survivor is a survivor that was not as immune to the virus as he might first have thought. This new zombie takes an awful lot of shooting, but also carries a lot of items, such as health packs, Molotovs, pipe bombs, etc, so coming across him does have its rewards, as well as risks.

The Action is as fast paced and frantic as ever

Also returning are the Survivor messages written on the walls of the safe houses, with one note in particular that will bring a smile to the faces of fans of Capcom’s Dead Rising series.

As well as new achievements, there are some new Avatar costume pieces to unlock, including your very own Gnome Chompski, which will doubtlessly capture the imagination, and trouser contents, of Valve’s more hardcore fans.

All three Maps can be played in the story mode (on your own, in 2 player split screen, or 4 player online), Versus mode (which features a team of survivors VS a team of special infected zombies), Survivor mode (a time attempt to survive as long as possible against the zombie hordes) and Scavenger Mode (in which you must collect as many canisters of gasoline as you can within a set time limit). Arguably the biggest new feature added in this DLC is the Mutations Mode.

The Zombies are clearly big fans of Jazz

A short blog post that is attached to the main menu explains Mutations Mode thusly: Mutations mode takes already established game types, such as Versus, and adds special conditions to them, like a chainsaws only mode. Think of it as being like Golden Gun mode in Goldeneye, or Riot Shields only Modern Warfare 2 matches. Each mutation will last for one week exactly, and once every type of mutation has cycled through, players will be asked to vote for their favourite one. The top user voted Mutations will be made playable again. The first Mutation is Realistic Versus Mode, in which there are no respawns, and no outlines on players or items. In short, Realistic Versus Mode takes away all of the advantages on the Human’s side, making it a very Zombie friendly game mode. With at least six types of mutations confirmed, it is clear that Valve is dedicated towards breathing more life in to Left 4 Dead 2’s multiplayer.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 4/5 While the Source Engine that powers Left 4 Dead 2 is showing it’s age, a lot of effort has gone in to making the game look at good as possible, particularly with the design of the levels and characters. Faces look particularly gruesome, and the streets are dauntingly atmospheric.

Sound: 3/5 The music, sound effects, and voice acting are on par with the main game, as you would expect. However, on occasion, I have had a few problems with the noise produced by the raging storm being far too loud, drowning out all of the other sounds in the game. I do not know if it is intentional, but I found it very irritating.

Story: 2/5 Anyone that is playing Left 4 Dead because they are looking for a fantastic in depth story should probably look elsewhere. The story is very basic, and on occasion, a key cut scene at the beginning of the expansion failed to actually let me know what was going on. It’s a good thing that Valve have announced an expansion for the original Left 4 Dead to fill in the gaps in this add-on.

Gameplay: 5/5 While you can play it in single player, Left 4 Dead 2 is best played with other people. A welcome addition included in the 360 version brings an update, which has been available to PC players for some time, that allows any empty spaces in your multiplayer Versus or Scavenge games will be filled with computer controlled bots.

Longevity: 4/5 Your first play through of the Passing will probably last between half an hour and one hour, depending on your skill level. Achievements and Avatar Awards incentivise multiple play throughs of the DLC, while the Mutations mode breathes new life in to the multiplayer modes, both locally and online.

Overall 4 Exploding Boomers out of 5. While there are a few niggling issues: unclear narrative, and the odd sound problem, The Passing brings with it a lot of new features that are fun, engaging, and downright addictive. PC players can install this update for free, while Xbox 360 Owners will have to pay 560 Microsoft Points (about £4.80) for the privilege.

[podcast]http://realmworx.hipcast.com/deluge/2ed9de20-78b0-f610-e2b3-19b5f3e253cd.mp3[/podcast]

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MP3 Link / RSS Feed

If you’d like the show notes, click the more button.

Show Rundown [H:MM:SS]
—————
Opening Song (Poseidon’s Wrath – God of War 3 OST)

Introductions [0:00:30]

Jason’s Now Playing [0:01:52]
-Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360) DLC
-The Video Review Jason Talked About
-Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360)
-Marvel VS Capcom 2 (Xbox Live Arcade)
-Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (Xbox Live Arcade)
-Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360)
-Tech Problems
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)
-Splinter Cell: Conviction (Xbox 360)
-MLB 2010: The Show (PS3)

Steven’s Now Playing [0:38:25]
-Street Fighter IV (Xbox 360)
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)
-Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)
-Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers (Xbox Live Arcade)
-Chime (Xbox Live Arcade)
-Blur (Xbox 360) DEMO
-The Maw (Xbox Live Arcade)

News [0:57:12]
-Activision countersues ex-Infinity Ward execs
-The Great Modern Warfare Developer Bailout
-Ex-Infinity Ward heads, EA announce deal
-Modern Warfare 2 DLC stimulating PS3, PC May 4
-Four-player Gears of War 3 co-op campaign confirmed
-Bulletstorm raining on 360, PS3, PC
-Splinter Cell: Conviction CE cheapened by defective USB drives
-Microsoft Points are now being sold more reasonably
-Serious Sam back for more on XBLA, PC
-Pokemon Black/White coloring Japan this fall
-F.E.A.R. 3 spooking 360, PS3, PC this fall
-War for Cybertron erupts June 22
-Konami Day Event
-No More PSP for NCAA Football
-Dark Void Zero blasting off on PC, iPhone
-Doctor Who Time Lord-ing over PC, Mac
-Starcraft II gets $100 Collector’s Edition
-Gilbert departs Hothead, DeathSpank done

Wrap Up [1:59:08]

End [2:04:20]

No one can deny that Heavy Rain is a divisive game. Some would even go so far as the argue that it isn’t even a real game thanks to its focus on storytelling over traditional gameplay. I personally found it to be one of the most tense, enthralling, and emotionally engaging titles I have played in a long time. So when downloadable content was announced for this brilliant game I felt compelled to get my hands on it.

Rather than continuing after the events of the main story, The Heavy Rain Chronicles are the equivalent of DVD deleted scenes, taking place at different points in the game; perhaps thinking of them as lost chapters would be a more suitable comparison. The first downloadable chapter, The Taxidermist has resident journalist Madison Paige investigating a potential Origami Killer suspect, a Taxidermist named Layland White, that lives out in the suburbs. It is never really said why she suspects him of being the Origami Killer, all we know is her editor says he is a suspect and that’s it.

Upon inspecting White’s front door, and finding it to be locked, with no signs of anyone home, it’s up to you to find a way to break into his home and conduct your own investigation. As with the rest of Heavy Rain, there are a number of ways this downloadable content can go. Ideally, you want to explore the house and leave no signs behind that you have even been there. Upon securing entry to the ground floor you can open cupboards, examine the contents of the fridge, and his fireplace. Other areas to explore include the secluded garage, and the upstairs of the house, which holds a gruesome secret.

The Taxidermist's home has that perfect Psycho feel to it

Of course, as you would expect in a thriller, just when you find all the evidence you need and are about to make your escape, the Taxidermist returns home. As fun as the exploration and mild detective work is, the real tension in this add-on comes from your attempts to escape the house without the Taxidermist discovering that you are there. On my first attempt I failed miserably. Having decided that the best course of action was to hide myself inside a large wardrobe, which was performed by holding down several buttons at once, I soon developed a painful cramp in my hand and had to let go of the buttons, which caused me to fall out of the cupboard at exactly the wrong time; just as the Taxidermist was walking past the room. After a brief chase, in which I ran down a dead end, the Taxidermist quickly gutted me, which brought an end to the expansion.

The terrible secret is pretty obvious from the outset

At this point the game reveals that the way in which I had just completed the game was merely one of five possible outcomes, and invited me to load up a check point in order to try to obtain a different ending. Two of the other endings were fairly obvious, while the final two took a little bit of exploration and logical thinking to figure out. If you are the sort that prefers not to tax the logical side of your brain too much, then a quick google search should turn up a guide. There is also a slight issue with detachment; anyone that is playing this add on will probably already have finished the main story and already know who the killer is. As such, this search for the Origami Killer, who we already know is not the Taxidermist, comes across as being a bit redundant.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 4/5 Much like the actual game itself, the graphics range from the sublime to the shockingly bad in places. The design of the Taxidermist’s house is incredibly atmospheric and gives off an incredibly creepy vibe.

Sound: 4/5 The music is reminiscent of your typical Hollywood thriller, and is successful in enhancing the already tense atmosphere.

Gameplay: 3/5 As with the rest of Heavy Rain, the game is a cross between a sort of old school point and click adventure, and fast paced quick time button presses. The first two sections of this add on are fairly straight forward; section one has you exploring the outside of the house in order to find a way in, while section two has you snooping around the Taxidermist’s home. The real meat of this expansion comes in the final segment, in which you must try and escape from the Taxidermist’s home.

Longevity: 2/5 While there are five possible outcomes, on my first play through I had completed the add on within 10 minutes. Subsequent play throughs took less time, as I knew exactly where to go in order to trigger the Taxidermist’s return home. While you can explore every nook and cranny of the Taxidermist’s home, there really is little reason to beyond the first play through.

Overall: 3 Stuffed Owls out of 5. While this add on exemplifies everything that is right with Heavy Rain, it also features the same weaknesses. Although there are five possible endings, most may not bother searching them out, if only because the add-on feels a little detached from the main game.

So, the blight of the Darkspawn has been dealt with and the Archdemon slain in one of a variety of ways. Yet, no more than six months after the Darkspawn army dispersed from Ferelden, another threat arises to challenge the Grey Wardens. This comes in the form of the Dragon Age: Origins Awakenings DLC/Expansion pack.

You have the choice of either importing your beloved hero from a previous save on Dragon Age: Origins, or creating a new character in the form of an Orlesian Warden.  Of course, should you import a character the content fits around this, your character being renowned and respected for near single-handedly saving Ferelden. Taking the new character route offers different challenges, the Orlesian Warden being treated with distain at first, what with the history of conflict between the two nations. You also get the option of a few more classes for your characters and three new skills.

Vigil's Keep serves as a rather impressive new base of operations.

What is important to note at this stage is that Awakenings isn’t your average DLC. It is on average a 15-20 hour expansion on the original game. For me, this feels rather odd. It certainly isn’t Dragon Age 2, but at the same time it is far lengthier and detailed than most DLC available on the market. Although, you’d probably expect that considering the £20 plus price tag (Or alternatively, 3200 of your Microsoft points) you’d have to lay down.

The content is on the whole a brilliant expansion on the previous game, adding new depths to an already established character or giving you a break to explore a new one. Whatever beginning you choose, you are placed in charge of Vigil’s Keep, which was awarded to the Grey Wardens at the end of Origins. This serves as your new base of operations; a drier, swishier looking base camp if you will. From here you not only get to know the new characters you meet in this pack, but rule the land of Ameranthine as part of the keep as their new Arl.

Anders, the wise-cracking escapee mage is just one of the new companions you'll meet.

The new characters on the whole are a good bunch. Particular favourites being the cat-loving Anders, a mage escaped from The Circle numerous times and Nathaniel Howe; the son of Arl Rendon Howe, who players from the Origins may remember killing not too long ago.

Whilst they may not be your old, beloved characters from Origins, they each add a new personality to the game that you’ll hopefully grow to love. If not, there’s always Oghren, who returns as… well, Oghren.

On the whole the new storyline, now featuring Darkspawn with the gift of speech, are both interesting and motivating. Awakenings offers just as many optional side-quests and companion based missions as you’re willing to take. For me, the moments when I’d return to Vigil’s Keep only to be asked to make decisions as the Arl were especially poignant. To decide whether to cosy up to the loyal nobles of the previous Arl or to aid the more common folk each had pros and cons and neither felt like I’d be particularly safe on my ‘throne’.

What would Dragon Age be without a dragon, eh?

The only dampener for me was just what was Awakenings? It was too expansive to be DLC and yet it certainly wasn’t a full blown sequel. Upon completing it I was left wondering whether I’d bother going back with my other characters from Dragon Age: Origins just to see an extra 15 or so hours of gameplay. It felt like, say, expecting someone to propose to you. You have a wonderful date, a nice dinner and the stars are shining in the sky… then they inform you they’ve called for a taxi home. Brilliant.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 5/5 The graphics look just as good as Origins, as would be expected for something released so soon after. The new areas to explore range from lush woodland expanses, to the awe of clearing out Vigil’s Keep of Darkspawn in the opening moments.

Sound: 3/5 This gets an extra point added because of the voice acting. I’ve never had too much of a problem with the voice acting in Origins, and the characters in Awakenings are still well voiced; with a special mention to Anders for his dialogue with ‘Sir Pounce-a-lot’. The music however, is quite forgettable on the whole.

Gameplay: 4/5 The gameplay is still as brilliant as Origins. If you loved it before, you’ll love it again. Especially with the new classes allowing for that extra depth in combat.

Longevity: 2/5 This is where it slips a bit. The strange straddling of DLC and full on expansion can lead to confusion over the worth of playing this more than once. Still, if you liked creating new characters in Origins this may not be a problem.

Overall: 3 dragon pups out of 5. If you loved Origins, but can’t be bothered to fork out that much for just an expansion I’d recommend waiting for the price to drop a little. It makes for a brilliant and quite lengthy add-on to the original story, however its identity crisis could be a negative point. It is worth it, however, if you’re a fan; it’s all just dependent on how much expendable cash you’re ok to part with.

Dragon Age Origins Awakening is available to buy in stores and online from prices ranging from £20 upwards for Xbox only. It’s also available for download on Xbox Live for 3200 Microsoft points (£25-ish) or on the Playstation Network for £31

Visceral Games’ choice of source material, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, seemed like an odd choice for an action game to me. A lengthy poem that focused on a Poet wandering through the multiple layers of hell, lead by a dead Roman poet, chronicling all the terrible things he witnessed did not sound like the sort of thing that would seem appropriate for a hack slash adventure game. Maybe I was just lacking imagination. Even now, after playing through the game, I am still left wondering just how suitable the poem is as source material for a video game.

The game itself wound up being criticised for it’s similarities to Sony’s God of War series. It’s one thing to be influenced by someone else’s work, but another thing entirely to copy wholesale. Having said that, this was not my only issue with the game. A reliance on cheap deaths, often dying simply because the game provided no hint that a one hit death was coming your way as well as awkward platforming, hampered my experience with the game considerably.

After playing through Dark Forest, I am reconsidering my stance on Dante’s Inferno’s awful platforming sections because, as annoying as they could be, they added considerable length to the game. The simple act of dying multiple times on the same acrobatic puzzle, or simply falling to your death because the ground beneath your feet collapsed without even the vaguest hint that it would happen, actually kept me playing the game. But what does this have to do with Dark Forest? Simply put, there are no jumping sections, there are no cheap deaths. Subsequently it lasts anything from 5 to 10 minutes on the standard difficulty, and at 400 Microsoft Points (about £3.40 or so), it does not exactly scream value for money.

IT WAS A METAPHOR!

The premise of this DLC is taken from a direct quotation from the poem:

“At the midpoint of the journey of life I found myself in a dark forest where the clear path was lost”

While the original text is clearly metaphorical, the designers have literally placed Dante in the middle of a dark forest with no idea where to go. I do not mean to sound snobbish, and I probably will, but this blatant disregard for the source material gets on my nerves a little. I’m sure that Visceral Games understand the metaphor, but the whole time I played through this add-on I could not help but think “it’s not supposed to be a literal forest, it is supposed to be despair!”.

Having said that it would make a rather poor action adventure game if this expansion had a middle aged Dante sitting around in his pants feeling sorry for himself, and it’s not like the actual game has a long history of being faithful to the source material either.

You spend much of your time pursuing a mysterious figure

Ignoring that minor gripe, in terms of gameplay Dark Forest is pretty much exactly the same as the disk game. It takes place after the introduction level, but before Dante makes it home to find Beatrice Murdered. If you have already completed the game then some of the mysteries in this expansion will seem pointless to you, seeing as you have already beaten it and know what’s going to happen. Enemies are mostly reskinned versions of enemies from the main game, and the path you follow through the forest is entirely linear. There are two major puzzles in this expansion, both requiring that you to be familiar with the points on a compass in order to navigate your way through a labyrinthine of portals as you pursue a mysterious figure. If you accidentally go through the wrong portal you are transported back to the start and must try again.

Enemies have received a new look

At first the puzzles seem a little obtuse, with a vague hint as to what you have to do. However, once you figure it out – particularly at the final section – it becomes incredibly easy. Between puzzles you fight off hordes of enemies which rarely prove to be much of a challenge. It is worth noting that I maxed out my character during my play through, and as such I was able to access all of my upgraded abilities from the start of this add-on. I assume that those of you that have not fully upgraded Dante will be able to use the experience gained from this DLC to boost his abilities.

And that is it. Once the short puzzles are solved, and the mystery figure is caught up with, it’s all over. You can play through the chapter again at any point in time directly from the main menu on different difficulties, but there is no real incentive to play again, save for an achievement that you are awarded if you make it through the dark forest without getting lost.

If Luke Cage Power Man and John Travolta had a baby, he would be Disco Dante.

Also included in this piece of DLC is a new costume for Dante, called Disco Inferno, which appears to blend John Travolta from Saturday Night Fever with Marvel Comics’ Luke Cage Power Man. It is an amusing enough distraction, but that’s all it is; a distraction, and seems a little out of place considering the serious tone of the rest of the game.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 4/5 The graphics are in exactly the same style as the main game. The design of the dark forest itself is linear and, as the title suggests, dark. This is not exactly a problem, but it’s also not exactly ambitious.

Sound: 4/5 There are a number of cut scenes in this add-on with new dialogue included. The quality of voice acting is on par with the main game. The same can be said of the sound effects and music.

Gameplay: 3/5 While I had previously thought that Dante’s Inferno would have been a better game without the irritating platforming sections, and the numerous cheap deaths, it actually just leaves a fairly generic action game. Kudos should be given for the compass based light puzzles, which are enjoyable enough and don’t stick around to outstay their welcome.

Longevity: 1/5 Considering that Capcom recently released two large expansions for Resident Evil 5, Lost in Nightmares and Desperate Escape, with each of them costing the same price as The Dark Forest, I can’t really recommend this DLC. My first play through took 20 or so minutes, as I struggled to figure out what was required of me with the final section of the game. Once I had figured that out, I went straight into my second play through and completed it within 5 minutes.

Overall: 2 deadly sins out of 5. While the expansion is competent, and provides an experience in line with what we expected of the main game, it is incredibly short considering the price. When compared to what some other studios are doing for a similar price: i.e. Capcom, it becomes difficult to justify purchasing this add on.

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Show Rundown [H:MM:SS]
—————
Opening Song (Poseidon’s Wrath – God of War 3 OST)

Introductions [0:00:30]

Jason’s Now Playing [0:02:56]
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)
-Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Xbox 360)
-Mass Effect 2 (Xbox 360)
-Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords (PSP)
-Prinny: Can I Really Be the Hero? (PSP)

Steven’s Now Playing [0:17:38]
-Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)
-Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)
-Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (DS)

PAX East 2010
-Friday [0:30:15]
-Saturday [1:07:02]
-Sunday [1:43:33]
-http://kotaku.com/5505341/suspected-game-code-thief-on-the-lam-%5Bupdate%5D

Wrap Up [2:17:05]

End [2:18:44]

Despite being about one year old, Capcom have recently released two large downloadable add-ons for Resident Evil 5. The first add on, Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares, was a fantastic blend of old school Resident Evil survival horror with the more modern fast paced action and focus on the co-operative gameplay of Resident Evil 5. A mere two weeks later, Capcom have released Desperate Escape, which takes place towards the end of the main story of Resident Evil 5. Those that are outraged by spoilers may wish to skip over the next paragraph.

After Chris and Sheva rescued Jill Valentine, heroine of Resident Evil and Resident Evil Nemesis, from the mind controlling device used by Albert Wesker, Jill sends Chris and Sheva on their way, before promptly passing out. After a short time she is found and revived by Josh Stone, Sheva’s mentor and only survivor of the BSA team that helped Chris and Sheva. After some mildly inappropriate flirting Josh and Jill decide to work together in order to escape Wesker’s facility and reunite with Sheva and Chris.

With the spoilery bits out of the way, on to the gameplay. To say that Desperate Escape feels like a bit of a step backwards is an understatement. It is hard not to compare it to Lost in Nightmares, with the releases being so close to each other. Where Lost in Nightmares had Chris and Jill working together through the dimly lit corridors and dank under passages of the Spencer Mansion to solve one fiendish puzzle after another, Desperate Escape instead prefers to return to the realm of fast paced hoardes of enemies, and big explosion after big explosion.

Combat is the focus of this expansion.

The main set pieces of this add-on comprise of a canyon covered by numerous rocket launchers and a timed rooftop battle against an endless stream of enemies, much like the Mercenaries mode, as you wait for a helicopter rescue. In order to navigate the canyon you need to zigzag through the canyon taking out the turret controllers and using the turrets to destroy impassable objects. The rooftop battle merely requires you to stand your ground and defeat all the enemies that come at you for about 10 minutes or so.

There is a Mercenaries-esque section at the end of this add on that has different enemies depending on the difficulty

Much like Lost in Nightmares, this add-on is independent of the single player campaign. As such you cannot import any of your character’s weapons from your main save. In fact, you cannot save your progress at any point, which is a bit of a let down, particularly as the canyon navigation gets to be tedious after a while. Your characters have very limited resources in terms of health and weaponry but you do discover other weapons as you progress. Also, the sheer number of enemies means that upon defeating them, your foes tend to drop a lot of ammo for your default pistol or machine gun.

While you start out with little equipment, you soon pick up a lot of stuff.

Also included in the pack are two more characters for the Mercenaries Reunion mode. For those that did not read the review for Lost in Nightmares and are unaware of what Mercenaries Reunion mode is, Mercenaries Reunion is a score based time attack mode in which you run around small arenas fighting off the endless hordes of Majini. While there was a Mercenaries mode included in the retail version of Resident Evil 5, Mercenaries Reunion features new characters and slightly reworked levels and enemies. New characters included in Lost in Nightmares were Excella Gionne and Barry Burton.

Josh Stone and Rebecca Chambers are the final additions to Mercenaries Reunion

This time Josh Stone is added to the action, armed with a high powered pistol, a shotgun, and a rocket launcher. The final new character is Rebecca Chambers from Resident Evil 0, armed with a shotgun and a machine gun. Despite appearing to be one of the weaker characters in the game, I was actually able to achieve an S Rank with her without any real problems. Also available as a separate download – and an additional cost – are a new version of Chris and Sheva, both with new weapons in Mercenaries Reunion, and both playable in the main game.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 5/5 The same graphical style from Resident Evil 5 remains intact. While the art style in the main mission is a little drab; mostly stone environments, coloured with dark blues and greys, the explosions look as spectacular as ever.

Sound: 4/5 The same actors that voiced the main characters return and perform in a way that is consistent with the rest of the Resident Evil 5.

Gameplay: 2/5 While the gameplay itself is not bad, it seems like a bit of a step backwards when compared to the recent release of Lost in Nightmares. Favouring the action side of Resident Evil, it isn’t exactly deep. Having said that, there are no real flaws with the gameplay, aside from the tedium generated by zigzagging between rocket launching turrets.

Longevity: 2/5 The story mission lasts about 45 minutes or so, but does not really offer much in terms of an incentive to keep playing. The new characters in Mercenaries Reunion offer a little extra replay value, but only if you particularly care about playing through each level with the new characters or achieving as high a score as possible.

Overall: 3 headless Majini out of 5 While there is nothing particularly wrong with this add-on, being released just two weeks after the excellent Lost in Nightmares makes this title seem a bit weak in comparison. If you found Lost in Nightmares to be too slow paced, then perhaps Desperate Escape will be more to your liking.

Desperate Escape is available to download on Xbox live for 400 Microsoft Points (£3.40 ish) and £3.99 on the Playstation Network.

Game: Assassin’s Creed 2: The Battle of Forli & Bonfire of the Vanities & Secret Locations
Format: 360, PS3
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft

The Newb Review has something of a love/hate relationship with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed series. We weren’t the only ones who, to put it quite mildly, didn’t like the first instalment (for the full review click here) as despite huge sales, every games critic under the sun gave it the good, hard bashing it rightfully deserved.

It was to our surprise then that last year Assassin’s Creed 2 released and not only did it garner huge sales, but this time it was good. Very, VERY good in fact, a gargantuan improvement on its predecessor and subsequently it ended up being Crofterz personal vote for game of the year (although he was outvoted for The Newb Review Game of The Year Award, by about a quadrillion to one).

So naturally, since he enjoyed the game so much The Newb Review has sent him out to splash some cash on the 2 brand new(ish) DLC packs. Namely, sequence 12, The Battle of Forli and sequence 13, Bonfire of the Vanities & Secret Locations. Are they worth the money? Well, hold on… We’re getting to that bit now.

The Battle of Forli

The Battle of Forli is the first bit of DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2 and I said new(ish) before because well, it’s been out for a while now. It also caused a bit of an uproar because anyone who has played Assassin’s Creed 2 will know of the huge gap in the story between sequences 11 (where you acquire a piece of Eden) and 14 (where you go to the Vatican). In the story it says something about sequence 12 being corrupt!?

Well The Battle of Forli is that such memory. It has caused such a big outrage because, well, according to some (and I totally agree)… it should have been in the game in the first place! The time it takes to download the DLC is a clear indicator that the memory is already on the disc, so why not give it to us for free? Well they’ve got to make money some way right? Although this does seem like a cheap trick.

Is the DLC any good? Well it’s rather short for a start. Containing only 6 new missions, including another mission where you use Da Vinci’s flying machine. So for those who didn’t get the achievement for kicking people in mid-flight, you now have a second chance.

However, at 320 Microsoft moon points (and around £3 on PSN) I would’ve liked to have seen a little bit more bang for my buck. In fact, the only thing that warrants the 320 point/£3 price tag is that it fills in and completes the Assassin’s Creed 2 story. But again, the plot hole really shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

Even though there are painfully few of them, there is a nice variety of missions on offer. This is more of the same, but the inclusion of more assassinations, more target locating and more out and out fighting makes for a nice balance. The DLC is definitely more action orientated rather than stealthy (i.e. there’s lots of fighting) and all in all it does a really nice job of filling in the large gap in story. You get some interesting cut scenes that carry the story through well, the same great voice acting you’ve come to expect from Assassin’s Creed 2 and even a few new characters in the mix, as well as exploring a few characters that had seemingly minor roles in the original release.

Unfortunately, it all ends far too quickly and abruptly and the inclusion of the flying machine feels really tacked on. Labelled as a special memory on the map, the flying machine mission isn’t really a mission at all. Ezio seems to fly through the air, without any mission or objective to achieve, and leaves a large question mark over the choice to include it at all.

So let me get this straight, Ezio gets in the flying machine just to marvel at the breathtaking sights?

Review Round Up

Graphics: 4/5 – Nothing has changed graphically from the original game but the inclusion of a few more cut scenes really helps to drive the story.

Sound: 4/5 – Battle of Forli is full of the same great voice acting we’ve come to expect from Assassin’s Creed 2, it’s all very much more of the same.

Gameplay: 3/5 – Nothing new from what we’ve seen in the original game. There’s a nice variety of missions. however the fact that there is very few of them is a big killer.

Longevity: 2/5 – You’ll have finished this DLC in just about an hour, enough said.

Overall: 3/5 – 3 pointless flying machine set pieces out of 5. Overall The Battle of Forli does a good job of filling in the some of the plot holes in the original game. However, at 320 points or around £3 for PS3 owners, I can see why some would expect a little more for their money.

The Bonfire of the Vanities & Secret Locations

The Bonfire of the Vanities is the second pack of DLC released for Assassin’s Creed 2 and it’s the last missing sequence (sequence 13) in the Assassin’s Creed 2 story. Following on from where The Battle of Forli suddenly ended, The Bonfire of the Vanities has had something of a confusing release. So, let’s clear it all up once and for all (read this carefully, it may save you a few bob)… The Bonfire of the Vanities has been released in two editions, one that costs 320 Microsoft moon points (£3.19 on PSN) and one that costs a bit more, at 520 MSP (that’s £5.49 for PS3 owners). The first contains the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC, whilst the latter (the one that I bought, and shall be reviewing) comes with the DLC as well as the added bonus of some extra Templar lairs that previously only buyers of the black and white special editions of the game had access to.

Anyway with all that price juggling b*llocks out of the way, is the DLC any good?

Well, it’s certainly longer than Battle of Forli (it boasts 10 new missions and 3 Templar lairs), giving you far more content for your money. But the variety between missions is non-existent. In Forli you must eavesdrop, escort and assassinate, Bonfire of the Vanities is just a series of assassination missions. Of course, stabbing people in the neck is fun, but personally I wanted a little bit more variety. After all… it’s the spice of life.

In fact you could say Bonfire of the Vanities is the exact opposite of Battle of Forli. It’s certainly worth the price. It’s longer, has less variety and whereas Battle of Forli is all about action, Bonfire of the Vanities takes a more stealthy, relaxed approach as you plan the assassination and then execute.

The same great voice acting and cut scenes you have come to expect from Assassin’s Creed 2 are all present and correct, even if used a little more sparsely than in Battle of Forli. And of course the DLC pack, just like the previous, does a very nice job of filling in and completing the Assassin’s Creed 2 story arc.

Despite it’s lack of variety, the assassination missions themselves are still a lot of fun. You can easily avoid any monotony setting in by visiting the 5 or 6 new viewpoints and the 3 Templar lairs, which really made the DLC worth it for me.

Although the lairs offer little in terms of a reward past simple monetary gains, they act as a brilliant change of pace. The lairs are essentially  the same as the assassin’s crypts in the original release, which inherently means there’s nothing completely new, but coupled with the assassination missions, this makes for a nice overall package.

Unfortunately there is a catch. To fully sync Desmond with Ezio you must complete all DLC packs and the Templar lairs as well as all the other bonus objectives in the original title (such as those stupid pointless feathers). This is a very cheap and dirty move on Ubisofts part – the filthy, rotten b*stards! But then again, at 520 points/£5.49, you can’t argue with the price.

Killing is Ezio's business and in The Bonfire of the Vanities, business is good.

Review Round Up

Graphics: 4/5 – Like The Battle of Forli DLC, nothing graphically as changed… the game still looks incredible.

Sound: 4/5 – Again nothing has changed much from either the original game or the previous DLC. Great voice acting as per usual.

Gameplay: 3/5 – This time around there’s plenty of content for your buck. It’s just a shame it lacks variety. However the Templar lairs really do help to instil a bit of choice and fend off tedium.

Longevity: 4/5 – For your money you get a lot.

Overall: 4/5 – 4 spices of life (curry powder, paprika, cumin and and nutmeg) out of 5. Plenty of content for a fairly cheap price, just a shame the content had a bit more depth.

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Game: Borderlands: The Secret Armory of General Knoxx
Format: Xbox 360
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games

The Newb Review Game of the Year nominee Borderlands received it’s third piece of downloadable content last week, and to cut to the chase, it is brilliant. After the shambolic mess that is Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot which cut out all of the fun aspects of Borderlands: exploration of vibrant open areas, looting, and levelling up, we are treated to a lengthy new campaign, complete with expansive environments, new enemies, new weapons, and a further 11 experience levels to unlock.

Taking place directly after the events of the main game story, your character is contacted by Athena, an assassin who has recently quit working for the Crimson Lance and asks for your help bringing them down. Summoning you to T-Bone Junction, an entirely new town that you can access from any fast travel station, you are tasked with destroying the last stronghold of the Crimson Lance, in particular the titular Armory of General Knoxx.

T-Bone Junction and the surrounding area is large. Each area is linked together by Highways that are overrun with Crimson Lance soldiers. Your main objective is to destroy roadblocks in order to gain access to new areas such as a Prison and Deep Fathoms, which is a dried up lake. During your travels you will meet a number of memorable characters, and while the story is not exactly great, the dialogue is as fantastic as ever. General Knoxx in particular shines with his apathetic messages regarding his superior officer who send him taunting orders written in Macaroni and Crayons. As well as excellent new characters, a number of old faces make a return including Scooter and Mad Moxxi, complete with amusing dialogue.

New vehicles and enemies are abundant in this add on

In order to access the new areas you will need to construct new vehicles to break through the Crimson Lance’s road blocks. The three new vehicles comprise of The Racer (a speedy version of your standard car), The Monster (a Jeep armed with machine guns and homing missiles) and The Lancer (A four person tank armed with mines, machine guns, a laser canon, and a pulse blast). Each of these vehicles has their own strengths and weaknesses, such as the Racer being incredibly fast but vulnerable to damage. The vehicles are very useful when facing off against the new enemies that have been added to the game.

As well as the elemental shock troopers; armoured soldiers that have weapons that inflict either shock, explosive, fire, or corrosive damage, there are a number of new bandit types and new creatures called Drifters: towering spider like creatures. On top of the new enemies and environments, a new super rare class of weapons has been added. These Pearlescent weapons (coloured a sort of turquoise blue in your inventory) are incredibly rare and devastatingly powerful.

The enemies you face are very tough

Due to the fact that the main story of this add on takes place after the ending of Borderlands, you cannot access any of the missions until you have completed the main game’s story. Consequently, the enemies that you will fight are pretty tough. It is very clear that this pack has been designed with multiplayer in mind, as there are a large number of enemies on screen at any one time.

There are a number of side missions included in the game, ranging from simple assassination missions to general Fed-Ex quests. One mission in particular “the Super Secret Final Boss”, is actually impossible to beat on your own as the boss is a level 64 character. The level cap has been raised to 61 in this game, which means that even if you completely upgrade your character, this boss is 3 levels stronger than you are. The only way to beat him is to team up with other high levelled characters and work together to take him and his minions down. You will be rewarded with some of the rarest items in the game for beating this boss, but it is no mean feat.

General Knoxx is an apathetic bastard.

As with every other mission in Borderlands, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx can be played through twice by each character; once on playthrough one, and the final time on a second run. The second play through features stronger enemies of a higher experience level, which should keep this add on challenging even for those with exceptionally strong characters.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 5/5 Brilliant character designs with bold, colourful, expressive graphics. Very stylish overall.

Sound: 4/5 The strong voice acting you would come to expect from a Borderlands game returns. The music remains as strong as ever, and the sound effects are as varied as usual.

Gameplay: 4/5 A wide variety of missions ranging from simple assassination missions, to your typical fetch quests. The three new vehicles shake things up a bit, with each of them having their own strengths and weaknesses. Although it is easier to play this add on with other players, and probably more fun, it is possible to play through it in single player so long as you have a strong enough character.

Longevity: 5/5 The main story missions will last a good few hours, and there are a number of optional side missions. The inclusion of a further 11 experience levels could also provide enough reason to go back and complete more missions in order to get as much experience as possible.

Overall: 4 Pearlescent Shotguns out of 5 It seems Gearbox have listened to the critics of Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot and delivered an incredibly strong add on that builds on all of the original game’s strengths. Exploring a large open world populated with memorable characters and a ton of new equipment has brought new life to Borderlands.

The Secret Armory of General Knoxx is available for download now on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

With the arrival of this generation of consoles and the advent of paid for downloadable content, the life span of your average game has increased dramatically. While most games receive their additional content within a few months of release, Resident Evil 5 owners have been given a new piece of downloadable content nearly a year after the game’s original release.

While Resident Evil 5 had its detractors, I personally enjoyed sharing the intense experience the game had to offer with my friends via the cooperative campaign mode. As a long time fan of the Resident Evil series I was pleased to be playing as Chris Redfield, hero of the original Resident Evil, and found new character Sheva Alomar to be a well rounded addition to the Resident Evil series.

Of course playing through it with the computer controlled second character was not anywhere near as rewarding on account of the AI character being as dense as War and Peace soaked in concrete. While some lamented the evolution of the series from survival horror to intense action game I had come to accept it and loved the game for it’s own merits.

So you can imagine my surprise upon downloading this add on to find that this had more in common with the original Resident Evil games than Resident Evil 5. Gone are the hordes of enemies in large open spaces, and in its place a lonely mansion that oozes tension with it’s darkly lit passageways and tight corridors.

Lost in Nightmares is pure old school Resident Evil

Taking place before the events of Resident Evil 5, you control Chris Redfield and his partner Jill Valentine on the hunt for the founder of the Umbrella Corporation. Tracking him to a remote mansion that will look very familiar to anyone that has played either Resident Evil 1 or Code Veronica, you spend the majority of your time solving puzzles involving crests and cranks in the vein of the classic Resident Evil games. There are a number of nods to the original Resident Evil, including an amusing homage to the pant-wetting dog scene.

The interior of the Mansion will look familiar to long time Resident Evil fans

This isn’t to say that you will not be facing any enemies. About half way through the new content hulking acid-spewing axe wielders crop up, and are a real challenge to kill, especially considering the limited resources at your disposal. Those that complained about having too much ammo in Resident Evil 5 will be happy to hear that things have changed. The combat is far more tense, with really only a pistol and a limited amount of ammo at your disposal.

Your main enemies will be these deformed acid spewing axe men

Adding to the tension further still, the last section of the add on has you losing all of your equipment and having to face off against acidic, tumour-ridden monsters. Here you must use a series of well placed traps in order to gain crest fragments that will allow you to open a locked door. Classic Resident Evil, with a cooperative twist.

Does this look familiar to anyone?

That is not to say that everything about this add on is perfect. The final boss fight is a little cheap, as it requires you to shoot at your enemy until he leaves himself exposed to a punch. However, in order to get to the position to punch him you must engage in a quick time button pressing activity that has an infeasibly short window of opportunity. Sure, you are only ever required to press either A or X, but it soon becomes irritating when you miss out on performing the move because you pressed the button a split second too late.

Also included in the expansion is the Resident Evil Mercenaries Reunion mode. The two base characters that are available with this DLC are Excella Gionne, head of Tricell, and Resident Evil’s own Barry Burton. Rather than just adding Excella and Barry to the existing Mercenaries mode; a score based battle against the clock, Mercenries Reunion has it’s own menu and will require you to earn a B grade on each level in order to access all eight levels.

Excella and Barry make their Mercenaries debut in this expansion

Unfortunately there arn’t any new levels on offer, but each level has been slightly changed. For the most part the large boss enemies on each level are more rare, with more enemies appearing on screen at any one time than before. Also the time bonuses appear to be in different places, which can breathe a bit of life into the game for those of us that have worked out a set pattern for every level.

Review Round-Up

Graphics: 5/5 Anyone that has even looked at Resident Evil 5 knows that it is a good looking game. The character models are detailed, and the environments are suitably dark and foreboding. As an added bonus, without spoiling anything, I compel fans of the original Resident Evil to interact with the mansion’s front door several times in order to unlock a fun bonus.

Sound: 5/5 Menacing cracks of thunder punctuate the chilling music, which creates a wonderful sense of tension. Voice acting can be a little stiff, but for the most part is good.

Gameplay: 5/5 A near perfect blend of old school Resident Evil gameplay, with a focus on puzzle solving and limited resources, crossed with the cooperative focus of Resident Evil 5. The Mercenaries Reunion mode will be familiar to any one that has spent any time playing the original Mercenaries mode, with just enough changes to keep it from feeling stale.

Longevity: 4/5 Clocking in at about an hour long, with multiple difficulty levels and online leaderboards, the story mode is a fun experience that will be worth playing through a few times. The Mercenaries Reunion mode could potentially keep you coming back for hours and hours if you are particularly inclined to try and work your way up the leaderboards.

Overall: 5 shambling undead out of 5. This add on is a fantastic blend of old school Resident Evil mixed with the more modern action adventure co-op gameplay. There’s less of a focus on action and more on puzzle solving, as well as an expansion of the addictive Mercenaries mode, it is hard not to recommend this add on, especially to those that found the series recent shift towards action adventure displeasing.

Resident Evil 5: Lost in Nightmares is available to download now for 400 Microsoft Points on 360 (about £3.50) and £3.99 on the Playstation Store.

the iPad,

Exclusive GTA IV DLC no longer exclusive

and the popularity of naked blue aliens.

We also bring you this weeks new releases and site updates as well as giving you the chance to win a fabuous prize in our Bayonetta competition.

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The epic war of the consoles between Sony and Microsoft (the Wii isn’t made for gamers; see ‘iRate: Wii never play it really’) seems to have descended into a tit-for-tat squabble; each company sinking to new lows by securing the exclusivity of relatively minute amounts of individual titles. Sure, the Joker maps from Batman: Arkham Asylum are only available to PS3 customers, but does Sony really think that this pathetic half-step is going to incense XBox owners into purchasing the rival console?

The PS3 exclusive Joker Maps are no laughing matter for XBox owners

Don’t get me wrong, I use Sony only as an example here; Microsoft is by far the worst offender. Since launch there have been a number of DLC exclusivity deals struck by Microsoft, but here are perhaps the two biggest: Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3.

What makes this worse is the overall quality of this exclusive content. The DLC for Fallout 3 in particular has been met with some mixed reactions. It’s difficult to argue that Mothership Zeta and Operation: Anchorage achieve anything other than detracting from the overall quality of the Fallout experience. Also, our very own Luke ‘Mightyles’ Mears didn’t think much of The Ballad of Gay Tony.

The Ballad of Gay Tony? More like the Ballad of Gypped PS3 Owners!

The word “exclusive” is also something of a misnomer in this context. With the exception of the Joker maps for Batman: Arkham Asylum (although time will tell on that one), almost every piece of exclusive DLC has been a timed exclusive. So after a period of time the DLC is launched on the rival console anyway, usually to the complete disinterest of gamers everywhere. Only the most hardcore fans of Fallout 3, for example, are going to shell out an extra £30 to get their hands on the five packs of new content. The majority will leave it on the shop shelf where it belongs.

Bad DLC in itself isn’t a massive issue, but when the companies we rely on to produce quality products that are worth our time and money begin to shell out large amounts to secure bad content, you know that something is awry. The global gaming industry has become so concerned with rivalry and getting one up (intentional cheeky Mario reference) on each other that it has completely forgotten the people in the middle, the people that really matter, us bloody gamers! And exclusive DLC is living proof of this.

A prime example of timed exclusive DLC not worth the wait

Games developers should be committed to producing titles that deliver the complete experience for anyone that digs into their wallets to purchase a game. It doesn’t matter what format, gamers should be afforded the courtesy of this complete experience.

DLC exclusivity is a corruption of this. Not only are developers selling off parts of the “experience” to the highest bidder, but by doing so they are segregating their audience, causing increasing disillusionment with the developer. We shouldn’t be punished for choosing one console over another. The only kind of exclusivity The Newb Review can endorse is for a full title. Furthermore, by selling off the rights to portions of games through DLC, developers are not only showing a lack of backbone, they are also telling the world that they are driven solely by profit and that they don’t respect the very people to which their products are aimed.

Developers aren’t the only ones at fault though. The tit-for-tat rivalry between Sony and Microsoft, expressed through DLC, is nothing short of childish, playground bullsh*t. If they weren’t so willing to throw away cash carelessly, just to ensure exclusivity rights on the latest and greatest game ad-ons, the thought of exclusive DLC for consoles wouldn’t be so imprinted on the minds of developers, and perhaps us gamers would be treated a little less like mindless sheep.

This is a call to arms: gamers of the world unite. We need to tell the corporations to cease this petty battle for DLC exclusivity. From now on it’s full exclusivity for a title or nothing at all. No more of these petty half-steps to nudge people towards choosing your console.

Borderlands and Assassin’s Creed DLC,

Tony Hawk prepping to ride again

and Nintendo renewing it’s licence to print money thanks to New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

As usual we also have the new releases, site updates and (sadly) some amazing voice acting as well as your e-mails. And details on how you can win a fabulous prize.

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If you want to leave us any questions, comments and suggestions as well as enter our competition please e-mail; podcast@newbreview.com

Any devoted readers of our site will know how popular last year’s Borderlands was amongst the staff. We must have loved it, because it was one of our nominations for Game of the Year.

The real joy we found in Borderlands came from not only the tight controls and the charismatic characters, but from the compelling loot system. The game boasted the fact that there were millions of different types of gun, each with their own individual statistics. Arguably, it was the search for bigger and better guns that made Borderlands so compelling. You can imagine our disappointment when upon loading up this latest piece of downloadable goodness, we discovered that there is essentially no looting to be had at all.

Moxxi provides commentary during each round... And it gets pretty stale.

To set the scene, Mad Moxxi is a woman looking for love. After three failed marriages – including one to a recognisable character – Moxxi founded the Underdome Riot. This is an arena-based battle to the death, with the hope of possibly finding husband number four along the way. Moxxi herself is a typically charismatic character with well written dialogue.

However, in terms of gameplay, Mad Moxxi’s Underdome is a very dull place. There are three arenas: each based on areas you visited in the main storyline and you are tasked with defending yourself against wave after wave of opponents. The first set of challenges has you fighting against five waves of enemies. However, each wave is made up of five rounds, meaning you have 25 rounds to fight through before completing an arena.

At the end of each round you fight a randomised boss character from the story mode. In a way it is similar to the fire fight mode in Halo ODST: up to four players keep fighting their way through increasingly difficult waves of enemies, with certain waves having unfair advantages, such as being immune to headshots. This is all very well and good, but the real problem with this format is that you gain no experience for each person you kill, and they drop no loot.

The only way to get loot is to defeat the boss round at the end of the wave, and a randomly generated gun will fall out of the sky at your feet. So far I have yet to be given a gun that is actually any better than the ones I had previously found.

The new waving robot had them completely entranced

The second problem with this add-on is that the enemies are often too tough, as they have no set experience level. Instead, they match the experience level of the player that hosts the game. In true Borderlands fashion, if you are unfortunate enough to not at least match the experience level of the host, then you have absolutely no chance against the enemies. They are all just too strong.

You could argue that this is where teamwork comes in, allowing you to strategise with your team mates. But there is little time for strategy as the enemies tend to just come charging towards you. Once you eventually make your way through all 25 waves in each of the three arenas, you unlock the advanced challenges. These place you in the same three arenas, but this time you must fight through 20 waves of enemies in each arena, bringing the total number of rounds to 100. Even completing the 25 five waves of the original set of challenges became tedious, and as of writing I have given up slogging through because it has become so mind numbing.

Having listed the faults it would be unfair not to list the few good points of this DLC. A new bank system is introduced, allowing you to store items that previously you would have to have dropped if you found something new and interesting.

Round 1! By round ten you'll want to scratch your eyes out...

Moxxi herself is a good character, although it is sometimes easy to forget this when you are forced to listen to her repeat her phrases for the 131st time in a row.

Finally, if you can stomach beating the Underdome then you are rewarded with one new skill point, which will please the more hardcore players that have already reached experience level 50, and are looking for some way of advancing their character.

Review Round-Up

GRAPHICS: 3/5 Borderlands’ graphical style remains unchanged. The new environments are made up of parts of levels already experienced in the story mode, which is a little disappointing.

SOUND: 3/5 As usual, all the sound effects remain pretty much unchanged. New music will play in the game when you reach the boss fights and this is suitably fast paced and pleasing to the ear. Moxxi’s voice acting is competent, but after the 200th time of hearing her yell “horde wave!” you may get sick of her.

GAMEPLAY: 1/5 While there is a certain amount of fun to be had playing these challenges in multiplayer, it only lasts so long. This add-on is as tedious as it is long. While I appreciate the inclusion of various handicaps in rounds – such as enemies only being able to be harmed by shotguns – by the time you beat the first three arenas you will probably have seen everything there is to see.

LONGEVITY: 2/5 Each of the first set of arenas will take approximately half an hour to beat. When you move on to the final three arenas, which are four times as long, you can expect to spend a few hours on each map. However, the removal of one of the key elements that made Borderlands fun in the first place (the looting) will likely mean that you won’t bother.

OVERALL: 2 Horde Waves out of 5. It seems the developers have forgotten what made Borderlands fun in the first place. Having chosen to remove all the fun of looting and expansive environments to search, they decided to stick you in a familiar looking set of arenas and force you to shoot at wave after wave of generic enemies.

When Mass Effect was first released, BioWare discussed the possibility of releasing numerous additional missions as downloadable content. With a game that has a gigantic open universe to explore, you would think that they would have every opportunity to easily expand the universe with numerous missions well after the original release. Here we are mere moments before the release of Mass Effect 2, and we have had just two downloadable packs for the game: Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station. To cut a long story short, one is good and one is not as good as it should be. Let’s find out why…

Bring Down The Sky

Let’s start with the good. Bring Down the Sky takes place on a gigantic asteroid that is hurtling towards a densely populated planet. Shepard is asked to respond to the distress call placed by a scientific research team based on the asteroid. It transpires that the base has been taken over by anti-human terrorists, and they aim to destroy a booming human colony in retaliation for crimes they perceive the humans to have committed against them. Upon landing on the asteroid you have to drive around in the tank, disable the engines that the terrorists have installed on the asteroid that are pushing it towards the planet and try to save as many people as you can. As well as terrorist hunting and engine sabotage, you can travel around the asteroid looking for traces of a missing team of scientists. This involves simple detective work, such as following a trail of footprints across the asteroid’s surface.

Shepard races across an asteroid to stop the terrorists

This isn’t a particularly lengthy episode; clocking in at about an hour in length, but it does have some replayability with the inclusion of two possible endings. There’s developers have done very little to improve the combat in the game. So if that was a major obstacle for you with the full game, then it will continue to be so. Likewise, the tank controls remain the same. The really interesting thing in this add-on is the moral choice. When capturing the leader of the terrorists you are forced to make a decision, as the terrorists have placed the science team in a death trap, Batman villain style. Do you rescue the humans and give the terrorist leader time to escape or do you punish the terrorist and doom the humans?

Bring Down The Sky introduces some new species, like the Batarians

Pinnacle Station

Pinnacle station is the second and final add on, and is in no way as strong as the first. Shepard summoned to Pinnacle Station in order to try and best a combat simulator for the Alliance Military. Being Commander Shepard, the team on the station are very interested to see if you can best their times in the combat simulator. There are a number of maps, all based loosely on locations found in the single player, such as Sarren’s Krogan Factory, and there are a number of different games, ranging from timed survival, eliminating enemies within a time limit, and a king-of-the-hill-style game where you must capture of check points and attempt to control them all. In essence, it seems as if this add-on has been released as a try out for a Mass Effect multiplayer mode.

Pinnacle Station is basically a lot of combat challenges

One of the strengths of Mass Effect is its strong narrative and multiple dialogue options, however, none of these can be found with any real substance in Pinnacle Station. This is purely a combat exercise. While it is amusing enough at first, there is little reason to actually play through it, other than to earn some easy achievements. For the most part, it’s repetitive, tedious, and a waste of time. This is a real shame because Bring Down the Sky presented some real value, it was cheap and the story seemed significant to the overall Mass Effect Universe. It introduced a key new race; the human traffickers called Batarians. But Pinnacle Station introduces nothing beyond a simple combat mode in which you face off against bots. However, at the same time, I am not entirely sure that Pinnacle Station would be any better if you could play against other human beings, seeing as Mass Effect is a game that is driven by narrative rather than a focus on controls.

The Station itself is very small

REVIEW ROUND-UP

Graphics: 4/5 The character models and scenery are as beautiful as ever, with the sky line in Bring Down the Sky being particularly impressive.

Sound: 4/5 Once again, excellent voice acting, sound effects, and music. If you have played Mass Effect, you know what to expect.

Gameplay: 3/5 While both pieces of downloadable content play exactly the same way as the retail release of Mass Effect, Pinnacle Station lets the team down because it is purely combat based. I do not think it would be too unfair to say that the combat in Mass Effect is not its strongest feature.

Longevity: 2/5 Bring Down the Sky has two possible endings, and will keep you occupied for about an hour or so, which is pretty good considering the price point. Pinnacle Station has about a dozen or so challenges for you to overcome, but they quickly become tedious and repetitive.

Overall: 3 Hurtling Asteroids out of 5. The DLC is good overall, but Bring Down The Sky is the better of the two. Pinnacle Station is competent, but repetitive, and really does nothing to further the game’s story. On the whole I would recommend Pinnacle Station only to those that are completionists, as it can easily be skipped without missing anything important… Unless it crops up in Mass Effect 2 somewhere.

Check back each week for the run-down of each weeks video gaming news.

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Game: Borderlands: The Zombie Island Of Dr. Ned
Platorm: XBox 360
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: 2K Games

For anyone out there that loved Borderlands as much as I did you can now download the first of a series of expansions for 800 Microsoft points off of Xbox Live, which is about £6.80 in real money. The Zombie Island of Dr Ned takes you to an entirely new area of Pandora, Jacob’s Cove, which has recently suffered a zombie outbreak. Jacob’s Cove is a expressionistic nightmare of a town, perpetually doused in moonlight, and full of all sorts of new creatures, including some familiar faces that have been put through a Halloween filter.

Familiar is a very good word to use when describing this expansion as it does not deviate a great deal from the format of the game itself. There are approximately a dozen new missions that, in typical Borderlands fashion, revolve around either travelling across the map to collect certain items, and then going all the way back to where you started, or travelling all the way across the map to kill someone, and then returning to where you started to confirm that your target is dead. If this formula bored you before then this add on is not going to change your opinion of the game at all. The game’s brand of humour also returns, with a prime example being the titular Dr Ned, who is apparently not at all related to our in game friend Dr Zed – despite looking exactly just like Dr Zed, only sporting a comedy moustache.

One of the strongest aspects of this add on is it's striking visual style

In summary, the first add on is everything you would expect from a Borderlands add on – amusing dialogue, minimal story elements, fairly repetitive missions that still have the potential to be fun, and a hell of a lot of looting. It is worth noting that the enemies are all of experience level 34 and above, so you will need to be a fairly advanced character in order to play this, which will effectively make this add on unplayable until you reach a similar level. It is also worth noting that there are no new weapon types added to the game, and the level cap is not increased.

REVIEW ROUND-UP:

GRAPHICS: 5/5 The familiar visual style of Borderlands has been put through a Halloween filter creating an entertainingly spooky looking environment. The character new designs are charismatic, and the new take on some older characters breathe new life in to them.

SOUND: 4/5 The voice acting and sound effects are effectively the same as those found in the original game. There is nothing ground breaking here, but really does it need to be?

GAMEPLAY: 4/5 Much like the original game, the missions can become repetitive, with every other mission being a fetch quest. However, there are more missions that involve collecting audio tapes which have some amusing dialogue in them, which helps make things more interesting. The shooting and looting aspect of the game remains intact, so if that’s your sort of thing then you will enjoy this.

LONGEVITY: 3/5 For less than £7 you will get approximately 5 hours of new content for this game. However, one mission revolves around collecting an obscene number of zombie brains – which are earned by killing enemies with head shots – taking up a lot of time and soon becomes very tiresome.

OVERALL: 4 Zombie Brains out of 5. This first piece of downloadable content for Borderlands is a decent experience at a fair price. While some of the missions can become tedious, the strong character design and dialogue makes up for any short comings. The only issue with this add on is that it will be unplayable for low leveled characters, at least until they reach level 35.

Zombies getting you down?  Blasting them away with impersonal projectile weapons losing that viceral appeal?  Want something a bit more tactile?  Want to let the zombies get so close that you can feel their hot rancid breath your face before dispatching them with a satisfying “thwonk”?  Then you need to get yourself a Baseball Bat.  Our very own Luke “Mightyles” Mears has very kindly donated a code that allows you to download this melee weapon for the X Box 360.  So, how do you get your hands on this code?  Well, for our first competition, I thought we’d make this nice and easy.  Yesterday, we published our review of Left 4 Dead 2 written by Alan “Braindead_Hero” Parrish.  To be in with a chance of winning the code, all you need to do is post a comment on the review post, or on the feedback thread in our forum or by retweeting our twitter post Spam doesn’t count though, so you need to actually say something constructive.  In a few days time we will pick a commentor at random and annouce the winner.  So get posting!

should start by saying that Killzone 2 was a console seller for me. It was the game that really pushed me into finally buying a Playstation 3. Up until that point I, like many, sat patiently waiting for a price drop that (so far) never came. I was content with my PS2 and would happily play the original Killzone title for hours on end.

After buying the PS3, I can quite confidently say that Killzone 2 is one of my favourite games of all time. The single player campaign is good, but the online multiplayer is really where the fun is to be had. Warzone throws you into the heat of online battle with little effort. I had very little experience of online play before, so I was incredibly happy with the simple way one gets into a game. If you’re not picky about the specifics of the match, you get get into an online game with just two button presses. Press X to Join Game and Press Triangle to be drafted into the first game with an open slot. For a newb like me, this sort of interface is perfect for getting started. Once you feel a little more confident, you can start to tweak the settings and set the parameters of the game type you want to join – player count, maps, mission types, weapons/classes etc.

So I’ve played quite a bit of Warzone and reached the rank of General (through hours of slog rather than intelligent play). I’m still REALLY enjoying the online element. At one point I was finding some of the games simply too chaotic. I wanted to try and play strategically rather than an all out frag-fest. I tweaked the settings of the games I wanted to play. First I changed the player count. I only go into games of between 9 and 16 players now. I find that you have more time to breathe and you can actually do something more than die, re-spawn, kill one guy, die, re-spawn – repeat. I also only like to join games that have no Rockets. With RPGs on, games can quickly degenerate into one big explosion. Things like this keep the online experience fresh for me, but I’m always on the look out for other ways to keep Killzone 2 at the top of my playlist.

A couple of extra maps had already been released with the Steel and Titanium map pack, but they didn’t really interest me – especially at the £4.79 price. For the uninitiated, the idea behind this downloadable content (DLC) is that you pay for it, download it (duh) and bingo bango, you’ve got a couple of extra maps to play on in either Skirmish or Warzone. Whilst the first two weren’t particularly enticing for me, the next map pack announced certainly was. DLC 2 – Flash and Thunder brings back two of the most popular multiplayer maps from the original PS2 title. Beach Head and Southern Hills are re-invented for the PS3. I have to say that I was sceptical at first. I was sure that the maps would bare little resemblance to they previous incarnation and therefore be classic in name only. I was right and wrong. The basic layout of both maps is essentially recreated from Killzone 1, with all major structures in place. The graphical style has been majorly updated though and these are two of the most visually impressive maps in the game.

Life’s a Beach

Beach Head is fairly short, but intense. The ISA spawn inside the fortress at the top end of the map whilst the Helghast spawn on the beach itself in one of the two small towers that occupy the far end of the map. In between the two bases you have a real sense of trench warfare. Major impact craters scar the ground between the two camps with several scaffolding-like erections in the middle of the map. There is also a lot of sewer-like piping across the map that can offer refuge. One in particular overlooking the Helghast base seems to be a particularly popular sniping point. I got a lot of kills by laying proximity mines in there.

The terrain itself is very rugged and “hilly”. There is a lot of opportunity for head shots as players come into view from a lower plane. This map is so good for so many classes. The Sniper has excellent points to cover large areas of the map – especially from the ISA base. The Saboteur can get a lot of Proximity Mine kills in the tunnels. Turrets get an awful lot of kills on this map, and there are some great, highspots on which to place them. Most structures on the map have a ladder attached so you can climb above the fracas, place your bot and watch the kills roll in. The enviromental effects are fantastic – better even than Phyrus Rise. This is quickly becoming my favourite map in the game.

I’d rate this map 5/5

The hills are alive, with the sound of Nukes!

Southern Hills is really interesting. Out of the two, its the one that most differs from the original plan. The central structure is more or less the same as the PS2 version, but other than that it’s quite different. The two spawn areas are like nothing from the original. Two bases are fairly similar with the ISA base a lot narrower, and perhaps the easier of the two to defend. In my first game on the map, there were only three of us. I was on my own and the other two were spawn camping (sitting at my spawn point, waiting for me to re-spawn so they could kill me instantly). The base was easily defendably though. With narrow entry ways I was able to keep them at bay with proxitimy mines and completely outscore them on kill:death ratio.

There is a large, multi-level structure in the middle of the map that replicates the original quite faithfully. There are lots of rooms to hide in – which will be important later – lots of rooftops to snipe from and place sentry turrets. There are also lots of spots you can get to with a well timed leap that will give you great vantage points. Graphically it’s similar to Phyrus Rise, but with one major difference. Every few minutes a siren will sound. That is your key to leg it and find the nearest building to bunker down in. An orbiting ISA ship periodically drops a nuke on the map which wipes out everything that is out in the open – players, bots, everything. Hiding behind a wall will not provide suitable cover, you have to get into a building. This provides a really interesting way to play and the associated visual effects are outstanding.

I’d rate this map 4/5

Overall I will say this about the pack. If you ever considered buy DLC, this is the one for you. I’ve never paid for extra content, and have always been reluctant, but in all honesty, this pack is fantastic. I know the price is putting some people off, but I have to say that I think it’s worth every penny. These maps are very well designed and very well balanced. If you’re looking for something to revitalize your Killzone experience, I can whole heartedly recommend this pack. For the whole bundle, I give Flash and Thunder a score of 4/5.