Questions were provided by the media that attended the event and we have the full developer call for you to listen to via our podcast feed for GGS Gamer, or by clicking the links below. Let us know what you think about the call and The Darkness II in the comments or in our Forums section. The Darkness II comes from Digital Extremes and 2K Games on February 7th, 2012 for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3.

I’ve been effectively spamming news about Christine Love’s latest offering: Analogue: A Hate Story and thankfully I feel vindicated in my eagerness. The game places you, anonymously, aboard a spaceship which has been empty and abandoned for many hundreds of years. It’s your job to search the records with the help of the AI on the ship’s computer to discover what happened. But really you can decide what the main story should be. You can decide to assume the role of a criminal investigator or you may find the AI more interesting as people, if that’s not a contradiction in terms (which it absolutely is). It’s a testament to Christine Love’s skill as a writer that she makes the player feel this way. It’s hard enough to get the player/reader to empathise with a fictional character, but to achieve this when that character is also not alive within the conceit of the game is truly extraordinary.

Now not to gush too much about Love’s work, after all it’s not completely perfect. The start of the game is rather confusing. Almost akin to a Dickens novel or one of the later unedited Harry Potter books, there’s a wealth of characters that floods the player’s mind and it’s very difficult to keep track of. This is further amplified by the cultural boundary between the player and those characters. This is necessary as Love is, to some extent, addressing the nature of feminism: the society that the player reads about is so far removed from ours. It’s based upon the Joseon Dynasty in Korea: the medieval oppression of women makes many of the characters entirely unlikeable (this, of course, being the point).

As you discover more about the AI and the what happened to the spaceship so the AI discover more about you. Without providing a character build screen the characters gradually learn more about you as you choose what to tell them about where you come from and why you’re here. I’ve only played one playthrough, and I must say that the inclusion of a timer for one sequence really put the stress on. This was something I was not expecting from a gentle visual novel and it was a welcome change. As for my ending, I was satisfied, although the way I played it meant I didn’t feel quite as much of a sleuth as I could have had I played it differently. That’s the advantage of having five different endings to a game: though it may not be very long I will certainly go back repeatedly to unlock them all, and if Love’s prior games are anything to go by, I’ll have a totally different response next time around.

Speaking of prior games, how does Analogue stand up against Love’s former work. Well, don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story is certainly a hard act to follow. Objectively I’d say it’s not as engaging a story for me, perhaps because it wasn’t as easy to relate to and the plot twists didn’t feel so shocking. But that may be more of a comment on my ignorance and gullibility when I was playing DTIPB. I would say that Analogue felt like much more of a game than a visual novel (though don’t go expecting any platform sections) and in this way it is, as its name suggests, much more akin to Digital: A Love Story. I’d say this game is Digital, with a more engaging plot, nicer graphics and music, and a far less abstruse gameplay mechanic.

Graphics and music are aids to the story here. With DTIPB the occasional shoddy art really ruined some people’s immersion, but no such complaints can be launched at Analogue. It’s gorgeous throughout as is the music. Subtle and elegant, much like in DTIPB, though I’ll admit while I imported the music files from that game into “My Music”, the musical score for Analogue belongs more in the game than iTunes. The gameplay includes a fair bit of coding, but everything is taught to you. At one point I got an error message from Renpy (the game’s engine) and wasn’t quite sure whether I’d managed to screw up the coding that badly or the fourth wall had just fallen into a black hole.

Check out this masterpiece in plot and get your MSDOS fingers ready for Analogue: A Hate Story. Though not as great as last year’s Christine Love release, it’s a damn sight sharper and cleaner, and it tackles moral issues the rest of the industry might not consider for another thirty years.

Good stuff

• Engaging plot
• Attractive layout
• Impeccable art and music

Bad stuff

• Story a little slow to get into
• Number of characters could be confusing

Family Focus

Tackles some adult themes, but nothing too explicit. Being an indie game there’s no PEGI rating but I’d imagine it would be given a “12″.

The writer discusses possible theories about the source of this unexpected altruism, including a compulsive need to be providing input or base tribal instincts to defend territory as a group. I think the cause is much more basic.

DICE has figured out the appropriate way to encourage teamwork and selflessness. Stuart cites the simple act of reviving a fellow teammate while under fire, which not only puts the player at risk, but could ruin that all-to-important Kill-Death ratio that is the staple of FPS bean counters. But see, this ignores one key element of the Battlefield 3 experience.

Killing an enemy is worth 100 points. Capturing a command point and converting it to your own, or destroying an M-COM objective will net you 200 points. Reviving a team mate is worth 100 points… the same base amount as a kill. It should also be noted that you don’t lose points for dying.

But who cares about points? On the surface Battlefield 3 is a standard modern day multiplayer FPS. However, Battlefield 3 is actually an action role-playing game. As you take part in various battles, you gain points for certain activities. These points unlock better weapons and equipment in various categories. These are no ordinary points, sir. These are… EXPERIENCE POINTS! And if the endless stream of Battlefield and Call of Duty games has taught us anything, it’s that people love unlocking weapons and equipment for their “character,” not to mention the programmed response most gamers feel at unlocking achievements and ranks.

Through careful tuning of point values and unlockables, DICE has found the holy grail of today’s gaming community. They seem to have correctly incentivized teamwork. Not only that, but this has had the secondary effect of causing most players to be generally civil and helpful to each other. This flies in the face of the well known “online disinhibition effect,” otherwise known as John Gabriel’s Greater Internet F**kwad Theory. Just about every major multiplayer game from Unreal Tournament 2004 to World of Warcraft has been rampant with this kind of behavior.

Thank goodness a developer has finally figured out a way to mitigate the seemingly unending tide of internet stupidity. So, what’s the next step? That’s a good question, but if the gaming industry stays true to form, we can hopefully see other developers copy, borrow, and steal from DICE’s pinnacle of team-based gameplay.

When I first heard about ScaryGirl, I was unsure as to what to expect. I was not a big fan of the graphic novels that the game is based on, but I knew of them. I knew about a girl that had been lost at sea and rescued by an odd Octopus that became a pseudo-parent to this lost child. But beyond that I had no idea how this strange concept would play out in a video game. Thankfully, ScaryGirl found a way to mix unique visuals with a tough as nails platform title that is as fun to play as it is to look at.

As stated, things have not gone so well for ScaryGirl. She was found at the bottom of the sea by an octopus named Barney, who clothed her and set her up with a house with items found at the bottom of the ocean. This explains ScaryGirl’s appearance, which is a mash up of all things odd, like an eye patch, a strange vest and stitches for a mouth. She even has a tentacle arm, although that is never really touched on in the explanation of the character here in the game. We do find out that ScaryGirl is being haunted by dreams that lead her on a quest to find out what is happening with The Tree of Knowledge.

Of course, getting to the Tree of Knowledge isn’t as simple as walking down the road, or ScaryGirl would be a rather dull and pedestrian game. Instead you have to travel through several distinctly different lands, each with its own unique palette and design style that look absolutely gorgeous. The whole visual style immediately brought to mind Psychonauts, in the sense of being very colorful and unlike anything out there right now. The animation flows very nicely with all of ScaryGirl’s movement and even to the little things like background animation.

ScaryGirl does move beyond its visuals to its core gameplay which plays out as a standard fare platformer. The game does do a few things to change the playbook a bit, as you have branching paths that allow players to approach a level in different ways. And the game moves in a weird 2.5D style, where the world is sort of rotating as you play it. If you are on a winding road up a mountain, you see the action not from a side view, but more on an isometric view of the curved road up the mountain. ScaryGirl has standard attacks like a light and a heavy attack, and each can be bolstered with upgrades that you can buy from a roaming salesman that randomly appears in certain levels. You collect gems, which then work as the currency of the game. While the upgrade path was not deep, the upgrades do add to the overall fun of the game.

Things falter a bit when you get to controlling standard movement, as ScaryGirl’s controls feel a bit floaty. Many times, I found that when I tried to pull off a finesse move, the touch was just not there more often than not. I never felt like I had solid control with the character as she interacted with things like jumps, or short movements. I tried a second controller to see if it was a controller issue, but the problems still remained. This becomes a bigger issue in the later levels of the game, as the enemies come fast and furious and the difficulty ramps up and you start fighting the controls to control the mayhem on the screen.

The difficulty also starts to become a fighting factor with the game, because it does ramp up to Mega Man difficulty levels, but with lesser controls. I want to have precise controls in a platformer and ScaryGirl just does not have that sense of control. Maybe it was just the 360 controller in general, but not having a frame of reference for either the PS3 or PC versions, I can only go on what we have to review, and it is a bit troublesome. It might be something that can be patched, but if not, it could be a problem as it really starts to hurt the enjoyment that you are having about halfway through the main game.

ScaryGirl does have solid drop in/drop out local co-op for those that have a friend or family member that want to journey through this beautiful world on your couch. The second player plays as a Kung Fu fighting rabbit, which has some slick combat moves of its own. The co-op is fun, and it does help when you get to some difficult sections in the game.

Overall, ScaryGirl has a great look, and captures the visual style that has been found in the Nathan Jurevicius graphic novels, but the iffy controls detract from the fun that you will get in the game. It is a fun diversion that I want to like, and continue to go back to try different paths and to try and find all the gems, but it just falls from being a great platformer.

The Good:

• Colorful Art Style
• Unique Environments

The Bad:

• Floaty Controls
• Unbalanced difficulty in later levels

Family Focus
ScaryGirl never shows any real blood or subject matter that could be considered objectionable. Some might be bothered by an orphan girl raised by an octopus at the bottom of the ocean, but really, the game is safe for all ages.

In an interview with OXM, Ninja Theory says that there is a huge difference between the Eastern and Western perspectives of aesthetic. From a division in the gaming community that would make the Grand Canyon look like a pothole and even deflecting death threats, Ninja Theory refuses to succumb to peer pressure in their visions of what Devil May Cry might mean if it were to come from a western studio.

Ninja Theory’s Creative Director Tameem Antoniades and Capcom’s lead producer Alex Jones acknowledges that there definitely is a different take on what’s cool from both sides of the world. That doesn’t mean one view is wrong, and the other is right.

“Japanese style ethos does tend to involve making characters look cool for the sake of looking cool, adding odd accessories, crazy hairstyles and color, cowboy boots and so on simply because they look cool,” said Jones. “We in the West tend to be more functional adding things that have meaning and being able to explain that meaning. Why does Dante have white hair? I want to make a little story around that and explain it. And so on for the rest of his design choices.”

“We’ve not so much done away with any of the Japanese aspects of the series,” said Antoniades. “But are more building on the foundations of the franchise to develop a game that has a different flavor. We grew up on U.S. and European movies, comics, music, and general culture. That’s what we’re tapping into.

“We’re not pretending we are Japanese nor making apologies for that.”

Fans might still be angry about it, but at the very least Ninja Theory isn’t backing down from what they set out to do, nor are they pretending to be something they are not. Sticking to your guns? Now that’s pretty cool in its own right.

Whatever aesthetic hang-ups diehard fans of Dante might have, Ninja Theory has taken a lot of time and effort to keep faithful to the combat system. Featuring gunplay, swords, scythes, and all other sorts of destruction faithful to the original series, Ninja theory is out to prove a point. And they’re being pretty cool about it.

No release date has been discussed for DmC, but it’s looking to release for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 sometime this year. We hope it does, anyway.

Via CVG.

And CyberConnect2, the developing studio, isn’t ashamed of just how outrageously outrageous this game is.

Renowned for their artfully done anime-stylized games, CC2′s newest IP is turning heads. Whether it’s in the positive or negative is entirely up to the gamer’s own perspective. One thing’s for sure: CC2 is looking to create a stir, and create they did.

In an office lined with over 3,000 DVDs, Blu-rays, anime, and manga of all sorts, employees here are more than just encouraged to delve into the melodrama of Japan’s favorite pastime: it’s a requirement for employment.

“It’s a general rule in our studio that all staff members should know all of the anime and manga that are on the shelves,” said CC2 president Hiroshi Matsuyama in an interview with Eurogamer. “If they don’t, and if they’re not reading something or watching something, I get mad.”

In a resume peppered with titles such as .hack and Naruto, CC2′s past works are testaments to this practice of immersion. Each previous title has been just like an interactive anime, with an animation and dramatic story-telling style just like their television and movie counterparts.

Asura’s Wrath will definitely be no different. In past trailers, it’s already been made clear that the art style is very anime-esque. Go ahead and add story mechanics to that category. Wrath‘s story will be split into episodes. At the beginning of each “episode,” players will be treated to a short trailer, and then at the end, there’s going to be a cliffhanger.

Whether this unconventional technique will sit well with players remains to be seen. It’s certainly different, as the game will probably feel like you’re playing through a series of episodes from a TV show as opposed to one cohesive game. After a demo released last week to some rather negative commentary, Matsuyara admitted that it’s probably because people aren’t having an open mind about the structure. “There have been a lot of mixed comments about the gameplay and how the story balances out against the gameplay,” he said. “We think that’s happened because people are comparing it to a lot of other games they’ve played before.

“We’ve seen a lot of comments that people want the game to be more like Bayonetta, for example. If you want to play a God of War type of game, play God of War, and if you want to play a Bayonetta type of game, play Bayonetta. I want people to play it and not have all these preconceptions. I want them to start from zero, from square one, and to take it for what it is and understand that it’s a completely different experience focused on the story.”

Well, negative responses or not, Capcom, who’s partnering with CC2 on the game, says that a response is better than no response. “We’d rather have people say that they really like it or that they really hate it,” said Capcom producer Kazuhiro Tsuchiya. “Having that contrast is really important rather than a half-arsed reaction to the game, because that doesn’t have any impact. If people say it’s really good then others will go and play it, and when people say it’s really bad others will want to see for themselves.”

Just how bad is it? Well, for starters, you’re punching gods in the face, tossing ginormous elephants into outer space, and have machine-gun wielding Buddhas to help you blast through obstacles. Yes, machine-gun wielding Buddhas. The oxymoronic gates into Oblivion just opened up.

We won’t even touch on getting ground into dust by a gigantic finger whose tip is the size of North America.

However, CC2 is keeping its reputation intact with the art style. It’s beautifully crafted, a testament to its past titles. With the deep lines and dramatic lighting, one could almost argue that it’s like a carving, or an embossing. Dramatic, indeed.

Will the game be a big seller overseas, with its heavily Japanese inspired art style and highly melodramatic story line of revenge, bereavement, and betrayal? That’s something that we won’t know until gamers decide to pick it up, but Tsuchiya knows just how much of a risk both Capcom and CC2 are taking. In a market increasingly aware that a $60.00 price tag just won’t do for a brand new and unproven IP, Asura’s Wrath could tank just as hard as that crushing blow that’s about to land on your head.

“Of course there’s a big risk in a new IP in this day and age, especially with all the sequels and prequels around,” said Tsuchiya. “We can’t guarantee that people will accept our game — they may well hate it.

“Sequels are necessary in our industry, but it’s also important to have new ideas so we can grow and progress. And that challenge of creating a new IP, it helps us grow as games creators as well. So that’s what we’re thinking — it’s risky, but it’s a challenge that we’re excited about.”

In all honesty, Asura’s Wrath deserves a fair chance. Within all that shouting and sheer madness, there’s an inner peace to be found within the matrimony between manga, anime, and video games. While it may seem simply far too alien (and rage-fueled) for many of us, it just might make some of us feel right at home.

Asura’s Wrath is set to be released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 on February 21st in North America, February 22nd in Japan, and February 24th in Europe.

Via Eurogamer.

Yes, I sprung the twenty bucks American for Origins and I will throw my kudos into the largely-ignored kudos ring. This game addresses just about every issue that made me hate Nintendo’s 2009 darling New Super Mario Bros Wii. Join me for the exegesis, won’t you?

On first glance, the similarities between the two games are enough to make one think Michel Ancel ran New Super down to his secret dungeon of coders for advanced reverse engineering. Both games are 2D platformers set in bright, happy, wacky worlds. Both support four players, with a playable roster consisting of two characters you like and two you could give a crap about (Mario/Luigi/two toads vs Rayman/Globox/two teensies). Both allow less-skilled players to tag along inside floating bubbles. But where Shigeru Miyamoto allowed New Super to flail in the morass of twenty five year old gaming foibles, Rayman Origins offers a more modern take on the platforming concept.

LIVES AND CONTINUES – When, oh when, is Miyamoto going to back away from this crippling, archaic design concept? In New Super Mario Bros Wii, you collect extra lives. When you run out of lives, you can use a continue. However, when you do, the game will reset your current progress if you have not reached one of the game’s specific auto-save points. This turns New Super into a game where you must constantly worry about your life stockpile… resulting in players having to pull off bizarre stunts to generate 1UPs.

Yes, this is classic Mario in action, just like it’s 1985 all over again. Except that it’s not 1985, and gamers – particularly the casual audience that Nintendo has corralled – deserve better than being forced to unexpectedly replay levels or perform pro-level 1UP grinding. NSMBWii is a game slavishly devoted to its own legacy.

To add insult to injury, the option to save anywhere is unlocked after you beat the game. Exactly when you don’t need it.

Rayman Origins puts the fun in the playing. No lives, no continues, no lost levels. When all players die, the level rewinds to the last checkpoint. When a level is finished, it stays finished. You can focus on enjoying the levels, taking exploratory risks without fear of wasting a life, and replaying levels because you want to, not because you have to.

PLAYER INTERACTION – There’s a strange physicality in New Super Mario Bros that echos the very first time Mario and Luigi shared the screen: 1983′s Mario Bros. In that arcade classic, players could bounce off of each other’s heads for higher jumps. That concept continues in New Super but the stakes are exponentially higher thanks to unforgiving level design. In Mario Bros, you might get accidently (or purposefully) bounced onto an enemy turtle, big whoop. In NSMBWii, the openly dangerous environment means players are continually bouncing each other off to their deaths. Serious players are almost forced to take turns so as not to get in each other’s way.

Rayman Origins makes the players intangible to each other, so there’s no uncontrolled bouncing. The chief interaction between players is the attack button, which creates silly slap fights and cartoony chaos. While that does shove players around, the key difference is that you get to choose when you do it. This keeps the mayhem down to a controllable level. The idea that players are in charge of deciding when this interaction happens erases all the frustration found in New Super.

CHARM – Now here’s one area where Origins pales under Nintendo’s nostalgia-pandering light. Rayman just doesn’t tickle the triggers that Mario does. Mario, his music, his visuals… this is the language of gaming legend. Rayman, not so much. The settings and characters of Origins are predictably wacky, even tiresomely wacky. It lacks the warm charm of the Mushroom Kingdom, which generates good feelings for lapsed gamers, new gamers and pro gamers.

Where Origins shines is the level of animation, a high-res affair that is considerably more exciting and detailed than the staid, traditional mechanics of Mario’s animation. In any given screen, there’s a ton of action, both in the background and from the characters.

None of this is intended to label New Super Mario Bros Wii as a bad game. (Well, that ancient saving system completely pisses me off!) I’m sure the devoted 2D Mario fans will point to my criticism and explain those elements are precisely what make the game tense and challenging. However, I’m here to evangelize Rayman Origins… and after playing both, even though I pretty much have zero interest in Rayman as a franchise, I have simply had a hell of a lot more fun with Origins. And as a Nintendo fan, I still feel the frustration over Mario’s huge-scale return to 2D platforming being, for me, a non-starter. Rayman Origins combines the classic platforming experience with bows to modern design, and it manages to keep multiplayer fun and frantic without being an unplayable pain.

Pinball is one of those activities that tend to be more fun on a live table than on a console. However, Zen Studios has slowly been changing that perception, as they have been cranking out pinball titles for the last few years that feel like solid alternatives to the live pinball experience. The latest release from Zen Studios is Marvel Pinball: Vengeance and Virtue, a new set of tables for the Marvel Pinball package that was released over a year ago. While the package is a mixed bag when it comes to enjoyment of the tables, the overall feel is that Zen Studios has kept up the right feel of pinball with this new release.

Marvel Pinball Vengeance and Virtue adds four new tables to the Marvel Pinball or Pinball FX 2 franchise depending on your platform of choice. The new tables are themed around Moon Knight, X-Men, Thor and Ghost Rider. Of those four, I get three of the tables, and they are famous because of movie franchises or fan praise, but Moon Knight seems to be the odd man out, as he has always been sort of a cult Marvel hero.

As with the other tables, each of the Vengeance and Virtue tables includes themes, elements and statues from the hero title in question. Each of the tables strives to give you a feel of large scale, comic book combat, and for the most part it does. It also helps that each of the goals you need to accomplish to get large scores are marked as clear as they have ever been in one of these pinball titles. That has always been a knock on the franchise, with the tables being a bit chaotic, but each table in this pack seems well laid out with clearly marked goals for all of the missions.

It is also funny to note that of the four tables, the Moon Knight is the most interesting, both in its look and the way that it is laid out. It has some unique features and several well designed ramps that just made it a blast to play over long periods of time. Unfortunately, the Thor table is the lame duck this time around, which plays very similar to the Iron Man table that I did not enjoy from the first Marvel Pinball. It is full of ramps, but it always seems like you are hitting the same ramps over and over to the point of boredom.

All in all, you are getting four new tables, that completely integrate into both Marvel Pinball and Pinball FX 2. The scores will add to your Hero/Wizard score and the tables are a bit of fun. Sure, the Thor table is a bit of a dog, but the other three more than make up for it and its price tag makes it an easy recommendation for anyone that has enjoyed these titles over the last year. Marvel Pinball Vengeance and Virtue is well worth the price of admission for anyone that wants to build on their table collection.

The Good:

• Fun tables
• Solid pinball mechanics
• Integrates seemlessly into the Marvel Pinball/Pinball FX2 franchises

The Bad:

• Thor table is a bit dull

Family Focus
Marvel Pinball Vengeance and Virtue involve the relatively non-violent game of pinball, which lacks any major issues. Beyond a bit of combat between virtual avatars on the table, it is pretty harmless and safe for all ages.

Downloadable content is meant to expand on the player experience. Some studios might see this as an opportunity to introduce whole new worlds (a la Fallout 3‘s Point Lookout), or a simple expansion. “RAAM’s Shadow” falls into the latter category, and while some gamers might find that it falls short, it’s a must have for diehard Gears fan.

It packs a lot of multiplayer punch, giving players willing to shell out the MSP (or for free, if you own the Gears Season Pass) new multiplayer characters, and the “Chocolate” weapons set.

Of course, the main focus of RAAM’s Shadow is the single-player campaign. With over 3 additional hours of gameplay, you might wonder why exactly did Epic not include any collectibles in the campaign. A bit of a let-down for any collector junkie, but the campaign delivers nonetheless.

Harken back to the days of the first Gears of War. Back in 2006, when gamers first stepped into the world of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, we didn’t know what to expect. Who the hell are these grumbly guys? Why was Marcus locked up, and what the HELL are these Locust things? While Gears of War 3 delivered the epilogue of the entire series, “RAAM’s Shadow” takes us back, way back, to a time before the first game happened. It’s a prequel, and gives us a look at the events that led up to the Locust Invasion of Sera, and what exactly was “E-Day” and the Hammerstrikes.

It's like Bill. Except with COG armor.

Players assume the role of Barrick, a member of Zeta Squad, and a former Stranded who was plucked off the streets of Sera, had a Lancer shoved into his hand, and enlisted with the COG. Gamers who have taken the time to read all the extra Gears of War books written by Karen Traviss and the comics would know of him more than those who have not. For most of the campaign, players view the planet from Barrick and Zeta Squad’s point of view, as the Locust begin their assault on the human race.

However, a few parts of the campaign give players a chance to play as the terrifying General RAAM, and while some players may cringe at the thought of ripping apart COG soldiers, the rest of us enjoyed every last bloody second of it. It’s a great change of pace, and offers up a different perspective on the events. Remember that lovely Kryll cloak the nasty General toted around aboard the train with the Lightmass Bomb? Yeah, now’s your chance to point that finger and tear apart COG soldiers.

The campaign, as mentioned before, is only about 3 hours long. However, in those three hours, we’re given some great environments to shoot our way through. We move from an open space, to a parking garage, a school, and even to an orphanage at one point. And there’s none of those troublesome Lambent bastards either.

While the campaign achieves its goal of a much-needed fleshing out of certain plot points within the Gears universe, it still comes out feeling a little flat at times. No collectibles? Seriously? Searching the corners of each and every room yields little reward except for an ammo dump, which will be unnecessary to the seasoned Gears player. A few places within the campaign were also a little hard to navigate, but that could’ve just been me with directional issues.

RAAM sees shadow, six more weeks of Kryllstorm.

Of course, as a DLC pack, you can’t be expecting the longest of all campaign experiences. It’s a short, but powerful, rollercoaster ride through the fall of Ilima City as we watch the Locust begin their assault. Well, we also get to see how powerful one finger can be. And it’s not the finger you’re thinking of.

The Good

Story fleshes out the events before the first Gears of War.

Still as mechanically sound as main game experience.

Annihilate the COG as General RAAM with his Finger of Kryll Doom.

The Bad

No collectibles are hidden in those darkened corners.

Level design leaves something to be desired.

Campaign is dismally short.

“RAAM’s Shadow” is currently available for download from Xbox Live for a price of 1200 MSP, or free if you have a previously purchased Gears Season Pass.

Family Focus
With all the blood, gore, cussing, ESRB M and PEGI 18 ratings, it’s a self-explanatory no.

Benjamin Franklin would have been fantastic at Dark Souls.

I just logged my 100th hour on my Soul Level 123 Knight, Drackard, and I’m showing no signs of slowing down. That said, when I got the game over the Christmas break, for the first few days I was averaging an obsessive fourteen hours a day. Needless to say, I’ve slowed down considerably since then, but my progress is steady and unrelenting and I’m already half way through my second play through, or New Game Plus.

For me, Dark Souls is one of those rare games I feel ready to dive straight back into once the credits have rolled. The title is notorious among gamers for its punishing difficulty and merciless mechanics, but I’ve heard several exaggerated claims surrounding the title. Having read various hyperbolic accounts of the game across the internet, I’ve been meaning to write something in its defence (not that the game requires it, having won countless game of the year awards and inspired a petition for a PC port currently standing at over 78 thousand signatures). What exactly keeps me coming back to a game that is reportedly such a middle finger to the player? This is what I’m going to try and articulate for those who find the idea of a Souls game utterly devoid of fun, as well as try to dispel some of the myths that surround this RPG epic.

First and most obviously, the difficulty. Dark Souls makes no pretence about what it asks from its players — if you have any doubts, perhaps you should visit their website. Y’know, preparetodie.com?

This is likely the number one reason many people are averse to giving Dark Souls a go. From Software like to perpetuate the image that when it comes to the Souls games, only the most hardened RPG veteran need apply. This is true only to a certain extent — the truth is, Dark Souls isn’t so brutal if you approach it with the right attitude. This is a game where death is a mechanic rather than a punishment for failure, so you quickly learn to not be disheartened when the now infamous ‘YOU DIED’ message fades across your screen. There are incredibly few moments where the game throws you a curve ball and you feel unprepared for the battle in store. For the vast majority of the game, Dark Souls is a fair and predictable fight. The combat has rules, and if you follow them you will excel. Try to rush through an area, and you will perish — it’s that simple. This is a game where every enemy commands your time, attention and respect. There’s not a single creature or villain in Dark Souls who won’t cause you serious damage if you’re not careful. But that’s all you need to do: be careful. It’s not a massive ask of anyone.

Actual combat aside, Dark Souls is made trickier by the omission of several RPG conventions gamers have grown accustomed to. These are not oversights for which the game is to be discredited, but rather are design choices which lead to thorough enjoyment once you wrap your head around the systems. There’s no map, ever, because Dark Souls will train you to remember what’s around each corner and to be sure of where every path will lead. There’s no quest log or journal, because Dark Souls will have you focused on one singular goal at a time. Breaking free from the crutches of traditional RPG mechanics is a total breath of fresh air. Dark Souls drops you into a universe whose inner workings are slightly obscured, but incredible proficiency awaits anyone who puzzles hard enough and taps into the machinations of the systems at work. The satisfaction of working out exactly how to beat that foreboding knight with his seemingly unbreakable shield, and driving a spear through his back before consuming his souls is absolutely unparalleled. You did it, not because a hint popped up in the corner of the screen or because the enemy had an obvious glowing weak point, but because you thought about the encounter and used your wits to great effect. Sure, you might run into the next enemy and die – losing your precious souls, the game’s experience points and currency, in the process – but you learn from every death and come up with new strategies, new plans of attack. The fun is all in the preparation, and the glory comes when that enemy falls to its knees and you reclaim your hard earned souls before trudging further still.

The concept of making the player work to uncover the mysteries of Dark Souls also carries over into the game’s narrative. Here, you’ll find no expository dialogue giving artificial context for the game’s events, nor will you encounter contrived circumstances which enable a wordy character to cheerfully fill you in on the entire world’s history; you might be undead, but at least you don’t suffer from that most popular of gaming tropes, amnesia. Instead, the few friendly faces your character encounters assume a shared understanding of the world they find themselves in, and offer only veiled hints at the greater plot. By talking to everyone you meet along your perilous journey, you piece together both the fate of the Kingdom of Lordran and your own role within it.

There’s something to be said for pushing your way through Dark Souls and discovering your own methods to success, but even if that doesn’t sound like fun to you, you shouldn’t be dissuaded. There’s a thriving community built around the Souls games, be it in the form of the various Wikis which document the games in superb detail or even the friendly /r/DarkSouls subreddit. There’s a meta-game layered on top of Dark Souls which consists of working with others to achieve your victory; something which is seeded in the game itself by way of summoning a stranger to your side during a boss fight and the comments scrawled on floors by other players: “Try fire against the next foe!”, and this blooms wonderfully in the communities which surround it. I have certainly fallen down the Wiki-editing rabbit hole multiple times. Be it confirming somebody’s theory on a particularly potent equipment combination or simply filling in a missing nugget of information, the sheer fun in helping the cause is remarkable.

If you were to take anything away from this article, let it be this: We live in a time where gaming has become a mainstream channel of leisure and entertainment. To that end, most games have opted to lessen the difficulty and big up the feelings of heroism and badassery. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s refreshing to find a game which does away with it all and casts you as the hopeless underdog fighting against a tide of the dangerous and the unknown. Never shy away from a genuine challenge like Dark Souls provides – besting the purportedly hardest game of a generation is gaming euphoria at its purest.

"Okay... One hundred and one."