Here is a statement the company released:

“It’s eye-opening to see how video games can be used in amazing and unexpected ways to help educate our next generation,” Valve said in a statement.

“Using interactive tools like the Portal series to draw them in makes physics, maths, logic, spatial reasoning, probability, and problem-solving interesting, cool, and fun which gets us one step closer to our goal—engaged, thoughtful kids.”

Essentially the invitation is that they want educators to actually try the game. Then once they see how the concepts are used to play the game, they invite them to contact the company about possibly providing a PC toolset that allows for the kids to design and set up their own physics based concepts, maps, or puzzles.

Pretty cool idea. Edutainment at its best!

Playstation's online service has a separate paid subscription service that promised benefits and discounts. They recently announced the deals that they are featuring for this month on Sony's online blog and it is pretty sweet.

The addictive and fun strategy game Plants vs. Zombies as well as the Sega Genesis classic Altered Beast are both being offered as free PSN arcade games. On the PSOne side of things they are offering Resident Evil 2 & 3 for free as well as a 50% discount off of Resident Evil 4. That's a whole lotta zombie goodness to beef up on as you jump into the newly released Dead Island game which comes out today.

Some of the great discounts they are offering includes an Ewok tribe full of LucasArts game and DLC discounts for the PSP as well.  Some good ones include Star Wars Battlefront 2, Star Wars Battlefront Rogue Squadron, and Star Wars Force Unleashed.

Many have been wondering what the benefit of this Playstation Plus membership was going to be and this is one of the better deals since it was launched. At $49.99 a year or $17.99  for 3 months access the following was promised:

So far this program has been a success with beta access to games like Assassin's Creed Revelation, Resistance 3, DC Universe Online, and SOCOM 4.

So, hop on to PSN now and grab some of that free goodness! Game on!

So long productivity!

The gaming landscape has seen a number of different zombie games that have seen various levels of success. Resident Evil, Dead Rising, and Left 4 Dead have all taken their stand in delivering the survival horror experience and each franchise has their niche. Dead Island looks to become the first FPS-RPG of the genre with some truely frightening visuals, intense melee focused gameplay, weapon crafting, and seamless co-op multiplayer. As the information and trailers have flown about, the game seems to be a zombified version of Borderlands with a taste of Fallout 3 RPG stylings.

You are placed on the island of Banoi as one of 4 distinct characters on vacation who are attempting to survive and escape the island. Xian Mei is an intelligent hotel resort receptionist. Sam B. is a one hit wonder hip hop star. Logan is an ex NFL player. Lastly, Purna is an ex-police officer turned bodyguard.  Apparently, each character has their own specialization (in terms of which weapon type they favor) as well as a 'rage' attack that allows them to perform some kind of special maneuver that boosts the character's abilities or gives them unlimited ammo for a short duration. They also have physical and mental skill trees that can be customized or upgraded as the characters go up in experience levels.

A part of the reason for the comparisons  to Borderlands  and Fallout  are the loot based weapon drops and work bench weapon creation. As the characters battle various types of zombies (different speeds, strengths, attack types, etc.) they will occaisionally drop money, items, and weapons. These weapons are of different qualities and bringing them to work benches and other characters who have 'shops' allow you to upgrade and repair these weapons. When blueprints are found, you can even create new weapons such as an electrified machete or explosive knives. You'll occaisionally find firearms about the island but ammunition for them is quite sparse. The attempt to make this a more 'realistic' survival horror game is quite apparent so far.

Adding to the atmosphere are the gory graphics. The various trailers shown detail how attacking different parts of the zombies with different types of weapons have various effects and damage modifiers. For example, take out a zombie's legs with a ranged weapon or otherwise and watch it slow to a crawl as it continues to chase you. As you can imagine, head shots are quite effect and bloody. Without a doubt, Deep Silver has poured a lot of their attention into the appearance of this gore fest in order to make it the quintessential omage to zombie movies.

Another anticipated feature of the game is the co-op experience. The game is set up so that friends can jump in and out of your game with their own progressed character at any time. There is no separate horde or deathmatch mode. Instead, the story mode is intended to be a load screen minimized experience that allows you to explore the entire island as you uncover the story's secrets. With this in mind, the game was also crafted to encourage team work so that the replayability of the game can be experienced solo with all of the different characters or with friends. With a reported 25-30 hours of gameplay, there is a lot that's been shown that excites a great many zombie hunters.

Here's to hoping that when it drops on Sept. 6th for the PS3, Xbox360, and PC that it is a memorable one. In the meantime, check out the trailer to see a bit of the game in action.

Making a sports sim about a game as complex as football is not an easy thing and EA seems to have enough experience to make it an award winning title each and every year. So when Madden 12 was promoted, the developers stressed a desire to listen to their fans and work on two key things, the franchise mode and collision detection. Thankfully, both areas have been addressed but how well is the real question.

Controls

When it comes to playing a football game, one of the most important factors is the balance between the gamer's skill and the 'auto-help' of the computer. Gamers in sports games always want to feel like their skill is paramount to the outcome of the game. Mess with this balance too much in terms of not helping the gamer and you alienate the casual ones. Too much in the other direction and you lose your core fans. With this edition of Madden, they seem to have found a nice balance of the two.

Controlling the QB is tight and responsive. You will feel the difference in the arm strength, accuracy, and quality of the different QB's as you control different ones. Despite that you will still feel as if you have sufficient control over how they throw the ball.

Running the ball is a bit easier thanks to their most noticable change in the game, the collision system. No longer will you see your RB hit a hole and get magnetized to a nearby defensive player who hasn't even begun escaping his block. You will rightfully see them reach out or begin to break their block and depending on your RB, you'll muscle your way through the contact or get pulled down. Also, the animations surrounding the tackling allows for more gang tackling to happen. At times you'll get annoyed that a break tackle animation where your RB is stumbling takes a bit long or slows him a bit too much but it doesn't seem unnatural. Again this collision system certainly improves the way the actual gameplay happens and leads to more realistic animations and situations on both sides of the ball.

Knowing that I am less prone to remember which button is the Stiff Arm button and which is the Spin Move, I found that I was still able to feel as if I could be slightly competitive. Probably the biggest change I noticed was the default setting of auto-sprint. The intent of this feature is to cause the gamer to concentrate on hitting seeing a hole and hitting it rather than getting frustrated with how quickly the runner hits his top speed if you forget to hold a button down. Remembering the ease of controls for the old school 2K football games, I still feel as if some of the running moves take a bit of getting used to. Hardcore fans will see not see this as an issue though.

Finally, the speed of the game as you play seems to be just right. Moments just before a pass or a catch or a handoff seem to be at just the right speed so that the game doesn't seem to race so fast that one might forget to react to say a defender breaking a block or needing time to switch defenders on the pass. Sometimes it does seem as if the games slows down a bit too much during the passing game but in a way that is a good thing given it gives the defense a chance to switch defenders and the transition not be so jarring.

When it comes to playcalling, the gameflow option remains from the previous season and the feature manages to speed the game play up for those who wish to avoid delving too much into strategy without losing play calling competitiveness. In the past, asking Madden seemed to be a bit of a death sentence at times since his plays would typically be very generic and conservative which would oftentimes negate the strengths of most teams. Still, the use of this feature does not allow for you to actually see the play before you all it. Instead, all you get is a complex name for a choice. Seeing the play you select is only achieved by actually going to the full playbook. On the flip side, you are allowed to edit the gameplay decisions as well as the play book to mirror your desired style of play.

Calling audibles is much easier now. Pressing the appropriate button brings up a quick menu that allows for you to easily call for a hot route, run, pass, deep pass, and such in order to keep your opponent on their toes. Of course, if you are playing against a friend on the same TV, you will still show them exactly what you're about to do.

All in all I think casual fans will see a suitable window for improvement without feeling like they have no chance of success when they pick up this game.

Franchise Mode

EA Sports finally decided to spend a suitable amount of their development time on beefing up their franchise mode. They incorporated some features that added a bit more depth and strategy to the experience that were experimented with in Head Coach '09. The ability to cut players, bid on free agents, trade draft picks, dynamic player performance, evolving team gameplans, player profiles, and player roles add a host of features that make each season different from the last.

In the preseason, you are given the responsibility of cutting your roster in between games. Though this was a highly requested feature, the way it was added makes the feature a bit tedious. If you decide to manually do the cuts, you are simply given the entire roster list and asked to cut a set number of players for the week. There is no coach evaluation of the previous preseason game performance or any kind of diagram that shows the minimum amount of players needed or desired for any of the given positions. There just seems to be very little assistance in making these cut decisions beyond the overall ratings of the players. This added feature just seems to be a bit of a missed opportunity. Scouting options seem to be the best of the added features though. These work out pretty well. As the preseason games go along, the rookies stats are gradually unlocked which does lead to seeing a benefit in the roster cuts. Still, for the remainder of the team, this doesn't seem like much.

As you play through the season, you'll notice the different players improving and devolving according to hot and cold streaks which is a result of the dynamic player performance. This adds a nice unpredictability to each game as your team and the team you play against. Again, as with the practices, you never get a sense of how your coach or inspirational QB affets his teammates aside from casually checking the team ratings. Even then it is hard to know the exact reason for a player's bonus or penalty. The hot and cold streaks are highlighted by insignias on the player's stat or rating page which is good but most times you have to be actively looking to evaluate the player to know that he is influenced that way. The addition of features like the player roles and the dynamic performance should be emphasized a bit more.

The menu screens are a bit lackluster but they get the job done. Dropping players and looking for that key free agent or trade to improve your team as you go about your season is accessible and you don't feel as if your free agent pool is too small at any time which is great for multiple season fanatics. Within the options is the ability to also adjust how the coach approaches the gameplay for each position on the field. Changing LB's focus to aggressive will show more gameflow plays that have LB blitzes.

The addition of the practice feature to this mode is decent enough. The intent of this addition is to see how well your team plays given certain changes in personnel or strategy. You are allowed to pick the play for each side and then execute the play on either side of the action. As it currently is used, I don't see this as a big addition or benefit aside from seeing how one particular player controls.

Another noticable feature is the create a player or team options which allow for you to create fantasy teams and use them in the franchise mode. That's right people! You can create Willie Beaman and the Miami Sharks for all of your Any Given Sunday dreams!

Superstar Mode

The create a player RPG style mode returns and the biggest change is that you have more control over how the player progresses. Now your play by play performance garners you a set number of bonus skill points or penalties over the course of practices and actual games. Then, you are allowed to allocate these points in the various attributes to improve your player. This mode plays out well enough and you do feel as if you have control over how well your character plays and advances but it feels very empty. Since you are able to simulate through games until your player is on the field, most times you can play through almost an entire season in a few hours gameplay time. Also, some of the bonuses and penalties at times don't seem appropriate or properly explained. My created HB had a hard time performing well on the All-Pro difficulty I set up but for some reason, every game he was given a Superstar Tackle bonus. Since an HB never really tackles anyone, I was baffled as to why in my worse games and practices that this bonus was the biggest one I would receive. I expected to see bonuses for how many first downs I got or for total yardage or proper blocking but never did. Sometimes i would even notice that big passing play gains would be overlooked or minorly awarded. Again, this mode seems to be moving in the right direction but needs some tweaking before it is particularly enjoyable or memorable.

Madden Moments

 This mode is kind of like replaying some of the most memorable moments of the previous season. Real life scenarios are set up and you are challenged with reproducing a certain stat or comeback. Your performance is then scored and placed upon a leaderboard against friends and globally. For a moment I thought that completing these challenges would award coins that could be used on the famed Madden Ultimate Team mode but I was wrong.

Madden Ultimate Team Mode

This particular mode is interesting in that you are given a randomly generated team (almost like a fantasy team). Then you are tasked with acquiring coins (from online game performance or actually buying coins with money) to purchase card packs. These card packs are kind of like buying football cards. These cards represent players of today and the past. You then use these cards to build a legendary team to battle other fantasy teams. This gives you the opportunity to play as legendary players or collect (eventually through a lot of hard work, trading, or money) historic teams.

The only problem with this mode is that it is entirely dependent upon your online play and money. You can purchase your way to the ultimate team or play your way there. Online fanatics will love this as it is a reflection of their online achievements. Franchise fanatics (which, by the way was the focus for this year's improvement) will see no use in this mode as their time spent there will not grant them any coins.

Online Play

Here Madden 12 shines as usual. There are lobbies, team play, leaderboards, online franchises, and other options make this mode feel very beefy. The new online communities allow for you to gather like minded players so that you can avoid the randomized skill point matchups as your only source of ranked matchmaking. Here you can set up a ruleset (All-Madden with 10 minute quarters) and have games with a filtered group of people. These communities can be any size and can be made private or public. This is a nice addition that makes the online experience a bit less annoying since you can cater the experience to how you want to play and who.

The Intangibles

Madden once again has great in game presentation in terms of camera angles, replays, and such. The commentary is abit off at times but it does a well enough job to make you feel as if you're watching a real NFL game. Sometimes they'll make mistakes like saying an interception is the first of the game when there were clearly others that happened earlier but I'm sure minor bugs like this will be fixed with future updates.

As I said before, the menu structure is serviceable. Finding different options and screens were easy enough and screen transitions had appealing graphical changes so that things felt fluid and epic.

In the end, this edition of Madden isn't quite the homerun that was expected. The additions to the Franchise mode seem a step in the right direction but need a bit more of the RPG style Head Coach 09 features to make it a truely rewarding experience. The collision detection was without a doubt the change that stood out the most making the game feel less cheap and canned. This alone takes the 90 million plus unit selling franchise to a respectable level that may win back some of the dedicated fans it lost in the past. It sure has for this fan.

Final Score: 84 out of 100

Info: 

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone

Available for: PS3, PS2, PSP, Wii, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox360, PC

Website: http://www.ea.com/madden-nfl

The sci-fi classic movie Aliens from way back in 1986 has seen it's share of video game interpretations. The franchise as a whole has seen it's ups and downs whether on the big screen or on the computer screen.

Well now it seems like Gearbox Software and Sega have finally reached a zen moment as they've been at work with a proper video game interpretation since 2006. Entitled Aliens:Colonial Marines, it finally seems possible to bust some bugs in a major way on consoles without having to share time with the Predator or the bug itself! Set to release in Spring of 2012 we may finally have the Aliens FPS we've been waiting for!

Check out the trailer and somebody wake up Hicks!!!

New Tigallo, new Tigallo, new Tigallo!

That's right Little Brother and Foreign Exchange fans. Phonte Coleman (emcee, singer, songwriter, and all around entertainer) is ready to drop his solo debut on September 27th, 2011. Click the picture above for a link to download his new single featuring 9th Wonder and Slum Village emcee Elzhi.

And while you are there, check out the host of new music from associated artists like fellow Justus League affiliate Median and his new album as well as a free mixtape from the multi-instrumentalist Zo! who is also responsible for some of the grooves felt on previous Little Brother and Foreign Exchange albums.

Here's a bit of what is in store for local attendees and online spectators:

On Friday, August 26 at 8:15pm ET, fans will have the exclusive opportunity to watch a Gears of War 3 expo match featuring Th3 Nsan3z, the 2008 Gears of War 1 Pro Circuit National Champions and 2009 Gears of War 2 Pro Circuit National Champions, vs. Team Epic. Additionally, attendees will have the opportunity to compete in a Mortal KombatPlayStation® 3 tournament in the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and PlayStation booths for a share of a $7,000 prize pool.

Fans can go online to purchase spectator passes, watch the event in real-time and become MLG league members to receive discounts on passes, as well as free 720p high quality, ad-free LIVE video streaming.  The LIVE broadcast will be showcased via four streams – two streams for StarCraft^® II: Wings of Liberty^™, one for Call of Duty®: Black Ops and one for Halo: Reach. 

The Raleigh competition is the fourthof a challenging, six-city US Pro Circuit tour that places the most talented players alongside their toughest opponents.  More than $1 million will be awarded throughout the year making this the largest MLG season to date.  The recent, record-breaking Anaheim Pro Circuit (July 29-31) drew more than 20,000 spectators and delivered more than 35 million online stream views.

Local attendeese will also have access to sponsored professional gamers in various meet and greets throughout the event. There will be booths promoting exisiting and upcoming games and accessories detailed here:

Booth highlights include:

• MLG Booth: Visit the MLG booth for an opportunity to meet MLG pro players and personalities, compete in the Black Ops FFA to win exclusive prizes, and participate in the MLG booth scavenger hunt to win cool prizes.
• Sony Ericsson, official mobile handset of MLG: Demo the Sony Ericsson Xperia™ PLAY onsite and experience new titles like Minecraft and N.O.V.A 2 for the first time at the Sony Ericsson booth. Compete in mobile gaming competitions for a chance to win great prizes like your very own Xperia™ PLAY.
• Dr Pepper, official soft drink of MLG:  Stop by for play-a-Pro sessions, signings, Text-to-Win promotions with an array of prizing, and a chance to meet the new Dr Pepper Girls.
• BIC® Flex4® Razors, official razor of MLG: Play Halo: Reach in the BIC® Flex4® Live FFA (free-for-all or individual) competition. One winner will be flown to the National Championships to compete for $4,000. Plus, participate in a text-2-win promotion for a chance to win cool gaming gear like an ASTRO A40 Audio System.  
• PlayStation®, official partner of MLG: Play Resistance® 3 and Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception™ before you can buy it at the PlayStation Compound. Experience the PlayStation® Move Sharp Shooter attachment, stereoscopic 3D gaming and compete with friends for amazing prizes.
• STRIDE, official gum of MLG:  Participate in unique challenges throughout the weekend and receive Pro Player autographs.
• Alienware, the official desktop of MLG:  Experience the most powerful desktops available at Alienware gaming stations throughout the venue.
• ASTRO, the official headset of MLG: Check out and buy the latest gear – the A40 2011 and A30 pro gaming headsets.
• Parrot AR.Drone, official Augmented Reality Gaming Toy of MLG: Race these flying quadricopters in an obstacle course against MLG pro players for a chance to win a FREE AR.Drone, test flight skills in the AR.Drone cage, and grab free swag all weekend.
• Army National Guard: Meet Tim Kennedy—professional mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and National Guard Special Forces Sergeant, test strength in a push-up competition and participate in a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare competition with a chance to win great prizes. Additionally, visitors can see themselves in a National Guard uniform and view a pre-release version of a brand new augmented reality helicopter rescue game.
• Mad Catz:  For the first time, check out the soon to be released MLG controller and MLG fight stick for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
• CALIBUR 11:   Try out and purchase the MLG Vault for Xbox360 –an external case for Xbox 360 slim hardware.

Army National Guard and MLG are also offering a military discount. Spectators can show a valid military ID to receive a reduced rate for passes. Additionally, in advance of the event, Raleigh area Play N Trade stores are offering free spectator passes with the purchase of NOS®, the official energy drink of MLG.

Go to the Major League Gaming website for more information on how to watch the live streams of the competitions as well as information on how to register for Free For All events where amateurs can compete.

And for those of you who think that events like these are silly, take into account that the last event in Anaheim California garnered 35 million live stream views globally! E-sports as a serious spectator sport is growing. Check it out this weekend as you wait for the NFL to ramp up!

Deus EX: Human Revolution is at it's core a first person shooter and role playing game hybrid (FPS-RPG). Other FPS games typically focus upon the action and combat to progress the storyline and differentiate themselves from the pack. This is where Deus EX:HR is unique. Instead of shooting everything that moves like in Halo or Call of Duty, Deus EX:HR specializes in one thing, choice. You make your own decision as to whether a foe is to be killed or simply left alone. By using brute force, stealth, hacking, or social skills, you can approach most situations in a number of different ways.  These decisions can actually alter the storyline and even the ending. Much like the iconic storybased games such as Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, and Fallout, you're given a custom experience everytime you play it.  Where Elder Scrolls and Fallout specialize in a 'living world' style enviroment with wandering monsters and encounters, Deus EX:HR leans a bit closer to Mass Effect's approach of giving the hero a number of tools and skills to approach a more personalized storyline to your character.

Cyberpunk Flavored Choose-Your-Own-Adventure

When you first start the game you are launched into a complex technology and science based mystery. Adam Jensen (the hero that you control) is an ex-SWAT security guard for a high profile human cybernetics research and manufacturing company named Sarif Industries. Escorting an important scientist (both professionally and personally apparently), Jensen quickly finds himself in the midst of an attack on the building by cybernetically enhanced black ops mercenaries. Outnumbered and outmatched, you search around for survivors, clues, and foes only to be nearly killed upon reaching the merc leaders.

Once your hero wakes up from his cybernetic operation, his presence is immediately requested to quell a hostage situation. Curiosity about the office building and exploration instantly takes hold and doing so can bring about wireless feeds stating that the situation deteriorates and hostages are killed. Such consequences don't end the story though like most linear games would. Instead your experience continues on. Eventually taking on the hostage situation, you are then given the choice of handling the terrorists with deadly or incapacitating force while keeping in mind that dead men don't talk. While your boss may want heads on a stake, speaking to the terrorist leader may reveal that someone other than him is pulling the strings in a much larger plot. Choices, choices!

As you get into the guts of the game and the more open world take on the game reveals itself, you'll experience more of the essence of the classic original. Initially set within a futuristic Detroit, you'll explore in a perpetual night highlighted in an errie golden hue. Kind of like a gritty Tron styled visual, you will notice that the color pallette for this game is severely restricted to set the mood. Though this dark style is fitting for the story, it is interesting to see the varying detail spent on the different character models. Most cutscene's play out with gorgeous detail on both the characters' animations and the background's, but during gameplay, most characters speak and move about with robotic facial animations or gestures. Those that require intense discussions do have slightly better animation than others but most characters seem to have a more Xbox or PS2 flavored quality than what is typically seen in today's gaming scene. These observations were made on the Xbox360. Apparently, the graphical detail achieved on the PC version completely blows the console version away (which is typically the case).

The downgraded graphical content could be due to the immense amount of content and interactivity that adds to the immersion into the game. As the golden hue'd eternal evening highlights every interactive object in a golden border, you'll notice that every box and barrel isn't movable as a novelty. Instead, they can become steps to secret stashes, secret entrances, or strategically placed cover. Sending Adam through five futuristic cities including Detroit, Shanghai, and Montreal providing a number of street corner convos, personal emails, and other reading material that throw you deeper into the techie rabbit hole. While it isn't necessary to read each and every email, e-book (or e-post-it note rather), and newspaper found, Eidos Montreal made it extremely compelling to do so. Some material reveals info on characters you'll encounter, hidden loot, or passwords for security systems. 

With a story this deep, it is pretty easy for the main character to exist as a voiceless enigma pulled along through each twist and turn. Here, Adam Jensen has a backstory to explore as well that ties into the mystery you're trying to solve. Constantly feeling like a pawn in the midst of a chess game with more than two sides, you can approach this game with educated patience or violent disregard knowing that the storyline will change based on how you approach it. All the while, Adam's monotone and relatively emotionless voice  manages to carve out an iconic place in the lore of today's memorable gaming heroes.

Controlling  Jensen

The combat controls are pretty standard for a game of it's type. After playing a round of Call of Duty, the controls may feel a bit stiff though. This isn't much of an issue but can be particularly frustrating if you find yourself discovered in the midst of attempting to sneak around. Shooting enemies in areas such as the arms or legs will stun them for a time while head shots do the most damage (of course). Shooting an enemy in the arm typically led to a standard animation much like old school FPS games Perfect Dark or Goldeneye. Unlike both of those games, Adam Jensen is not quite a tank (at least until you augment him to be that way). Running into the midst of multiple enemies typically leads to a quick death as the enemy AI will target you quickly and use tactics to take cover, call for backup, and flank you.

Also, Jensen's close combat abilities are pretty effective too. When in range, you are given the onscreen option to KO or kill your target. Once again, the transition between the gameplay and the little cutscene that shows the takedown is jarring. The screen blinks as if you're about to watch another movie and then when it is done, you can see the result of your carnage on the floor. This could have been executed better but thankfully it isn't so jarring that it takes away from the experience.

To assist in your combat effectiveness, Jensen's augmentation possibilities include armor, aim stability, and a wicked Typhoon weapon system that slings explosives in 360 degrees to level all nearby foes amongst others. Also, the different weapons that you can encounter can be upgraded with purchased and discovered modules or kits. Some kits will increase damage. Others will increase ammo capacity. You may also find kits that add laser targeting or ones that increase the firing rate. This adds to the strategy of inventory management given that you can only hold so many guns and always wondering what shiny new death dealer you may find next. Pacifists have a few options as well since stun guns and tranquilizer rifles make there way into the armory as well.

When it comes to stealth, you'll be doing a lot of crouching, sneaking, and creeping about stages and airducts. A somewhat jarring mechanic is that when you take cover, the view switches to third person view which allows for better vision around corners. Still, the transition between the two is a bit sudden (especially when you leave cover). Here, Adam's possible augmentations will allow him to move silently, have enhanced radar, jump to amazing heights, move heavy objects, and a cloaking device. There's even an extremely fun ground strike that stuns all nearby foes! This style of gameplay takes a considerable amount of tactics and time to do. Thankfully, the game rewards you with significant experience point bonuses as you do so.

Hacking is more of a strategic mini game that requires you to capture and fortify nodes of different types in order to gain access and acquire loot. Using augmentations to become a better hacker can allow you to turn off security cams, open doors, acquire info, and even turn security turrets against your enemies.

The social aspect of the game requires you to watch characters expressions as they talk as well as their expressions as they listen to you. With great voice acting, you'll encounter all kinds of people that can help or hinder your goal of helping Sarif and yourself solve this mystery. You can even use augmentations that enhance your ability to get information from those you are questioning.

All of these enhancements can be acquired through what is called Praxis points that are either found/purchased as software upgrades or granted once a new experience level is acheived. With a high price point on these Praxis points and a number of different levels of augmentations, it is near impossible to acquire them all. Another aspect that keeps the balance is the fact that bio energy is expended when most augmentations are used. Spend all of your energy and you can no longer use your augmentations until they recharge or they are replenished. There are even augmentation enhancements that improve your bio energy level and recharge rate.

Even with all of these options, once you encounter boss fights you'll find that the only tactics available are straight up combat. This can make these fights extremely frustrating. With an inventory system that requires space for ammunition for each weapon type carried, it is easy to run out of ammunition which also increases the difficulty. Still, this may be a part of the charm for some.

In the end, Deus EX: Human Revolution is the blueprint for the modern day RPG which fits in nicely with publisher Square Enix's legacy for some of the greatest RPGs in gaming history. With it's amazing capacity of freedom of choice, this game manages to make the player forget and forgive minor gripes in exchange for a memorable and exhilarating experience. The styling of the game even spawned a fashion sense that can be purchased giving use all a taste of presentable nerdism. Well...though that is debatable, the amazing concern for immersion into this world in this way and so many others certainly makes Deus EX:Human Revolution an instant RPG classic.

Final Score: 85 out of 100

Info: 

ESRB Rating: Mature (for blood, sexual themes, strong language, drug reference, use of alcohol, and intense violence)

Available for: PS3, Xbox360, PC

Website: www.deusex.com

• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar;
• Larry Bird;
• Wilt Chamberlain;
• Julius Erving;
• Patrick Ewing;
• Magic Johnson;
• Michael Jordan;
• Karl Malone;
• Hakeem Olajuwon;
• Scottie Pippen;
• Oscar Robertson;
• Bill Russell;
• John Stockton;
• Isiah Thomas;
• Jerry West.

On top of these legends and their teams, a pre-order bonus gift was announced in the press release as well.

Bonus Gift with Purchase – Customers who purchase their copy of NBA 2K12 for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft or PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system early will receive two bonus, historic NBA teams featuring their own NBA greats – the 1990-91 Golden State Warriors and the 2001-02 Sacramento Kings. Bonus content will be available on launch orders only, while supplies last.

This means you'll also be able to crossover with Tim Hardaway, sharpshoot with Chris Mullen (both with GS),  and pick and roll with Chris Webber and Mike Bibby in their heyday.

Here's to hoping that this  version of NBA2k will continue the trend with more classic teams as DLC this season!

SOURCE: Business Wire