SoulCalibur has always been a flashy franchise — in more ways than one. When the original came out on the Sega Dreamcast, I was completely awestruck, and wasted hundreds of hours clanging swords and flinging people out of the ring.

By the time SoulCalibur III rolled out, I was a bit disenfranchised, and became more a casual fan — that is, until I came back full circle for SoulCalibur V.

First things first — SoulCalibur V’s engine and mechanics are rock solid. The game looks great, plays great, and the netcode is superb (but more on that later). Considering how much time has passed in the series, nearly every character looks and feels fresh, and even the ones that don’t age look great in V.

Mechanics wise, SCV adds a few new moves and changes to the series. Firstly, there is no Soul Gauge — it has been replaced by a “Super Meter” of sorts, that allow you to execute a number of different special moves, up to and including a Critical Edge attack (which is reminiscent of a Hyper Combo from most Capcom VS games). There’s also a new Just Guard technique, which is executed by quickly pressing and releasing the guard button, that pretty much replaces the less useful Guard Impact.

All these new additions are very fresh, and add a new layer of depth to combat. Critical Edges help newer players gain an advantage in combat if they can learn to combo them in for high amounts of easy damage. On the flipside, Just Guarding is an incredibly hard mechanic to master, meaning Pros will have a lot of fun taking care of scrubs after some practice.

Overall the game has a good balance to it, and manages to mix a number of solid fighting game mechanics together, while retaining that unique weapon combat feel the series has always had. Additionally, Ezio, the game’s guest combatant, could easily be included in future games as a standard character. His fighting style and character design fit the SoulCalibur universe like no other guest star before — Assassin’s Creed and SoulCalibur fans alike are sure to enjoy him.

So for all you single player fans out there, how good is the content? Well, unfortunately, SCV’s story mode is short, and only occasionally sweet. Your enjoyment of the story will most likely entirely hinge on your enjoyment of Patroklos — a character that I personally found very uninteresting. Only a few times will you play as his equally uninteresting sister, Pyrrha, which is kind of like a less fun Sophitia .

As for the actual content, it’s pretty bare-bones this time around. If you’re wiling to skip the game’s cut-scenes (and most of you will due to their fan-fiction quality), you can complete the story mode in thirty minutes. It’s kind of odd, but SoulCalibur V’s story mode is handled by an utterly different developer — CyberConnect2 — which may explain the drop in quality.

Quick battle mode immediately reminded me of Virtua Fighter 4, in that you have the ability to battle over two hundred different unique CPUs, and earn titles/gear through their defeat. In this mode, you’ll be able to sort all the way from beginner to advanced CPUs — 99% of which are unique creations using the game’s creation mode. Quick Battle was fun for a while, but my interest quickly deteriorated in favor of online play.

Instead of a few half-baked single player modes, SCV would have greatly benefited from a “Challenge Tower” Mode that recent fighters have thankfully been offering. It would have given new players a chance to slowly learn all the game’s mechanics, and have fun doing it. Instead, they’re just going to have to tough out Quick Battle and Arcade until they have the guts to go online.

The character creator from Broken Destiny and SCIV is also intact — and it’s extremely expanded in V. You’re allowed to use your created fighter in every mode outside of Story. The only real complaint I have is that Project Soul could have easily added a lot more styles.

To seemingly make way for the story mode’s concise focus on Patroklos’ journey, the arcade mode is extremely bare. Sadly, each character doesn’t have a story driven arcade mode. Instead, you’ll play six rounds against various CPUs — that’s it. After completion, you can share your completion time with your friends via leaderboards. To say this is dissapointing is an understatement.

I doubt very many people will enjoy Patroklos, and as a result, there’s no real extra story to be had with most of the game’s other characters. However, we all know fighting games are mostly about multiplayer, and if Project Soul was willing to make that sacrifice in terms of single player to produce a better game, so be it.

Multiplayer wise, Soul Calibur V is pretty much all you can ask for in a fighting game. It has online lobbies, ranked play with a solid matchmaking system (that allows you to actually only play people of higher skill level if you wish), and a solid netcode that’s basically lag-free. Speaking of the lobbies, they’re easily the best part of the online experience.

Not only do you get to watch full fights in a window in the lobby, but you get to chat with other fighters as well. The ability to text and voice chat really adds to the enjoyment of the game’s all new Global Colosseo, the granddaddy of all online lobbies.

With this bad boy, you’ll be able to go in and play constantly with a gigantic amount of players, and even enter and compete in tournaments online.  Unlike most other fighting games that feature smaller lobbies, you’ll never sit there without a match — you can challenge people pretty much every free second you have. With the Global Colosseo, Project Soul has sucessfully created a way to facilitate community growth in the game itself, which is always a plus for new players looking to get into the tourney scene.

Overall, Soul Calibur V is a great title that will be sure to win back fans of the series. It features a solid mixture of new and old mechanics, as well as an incredibly fun and rewarding online playground.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 game Soul Calibur V.

[Achievements that require no explanation will be branded as such]

A lot of people out there have been having issues obtaining a number of SoulCalibur V’s cryptic achievements, so I decided to share some tips.

There are a number of unlocks that can be obtained simply through completing the game’s single player modes and ranking up online, but a number of them are unlocked through in-game options and through your combat prowess — as well as your general knowledge of SoulCalibur V’s new mechanics.

Hit the jump to figure out how to get every achievement or trophy — if you’re new to the game, you might learn a few things too.

History Repeats

Battle in SOULCALIBUR V for the first time (excluding training and VS battle).

(Self Explanatory)

A Soul Coalesces

Edit a player license.

The easiest way to obtain this is to quickly create a character, then press Start on the main menu and change your license portrait to that character.

Beginning of Destiny

Register 3 rivals.

Every time you play someone online you have a chance to register them as a rival. After completing a match, win or lose, you can register them immediately into one of three slots.

Proof of a Fighter

Win consecutive matches on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Win two matches on Xbox Live/PSN in a row

Mercenary of War

Fight 30 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply compete in 30 matches on Xbox Live/PSN

Strategist of War

Fight 75 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply compete in 75 matches on Xbox Live/PSN

Hero Carved in History

Fight 100 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply complete 100 matches on Xbox Live/PSN

Carry Out Your Beliefs

Win 5 times in one style on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Use one character (or one created character) and win five times. “Style” = character.

Courageous Warrior

Win 20 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply win 20 times on Xbox Live/PSN

Conqueror of the Arena

Win 50 times on Xbox LIVE/PSN

Simply win 50 times on Xbox Live/PSN

Synchronize DNA

Use Ezio in a player match.

Use Ezio one time in a non-ranked online match

Awakened to Violence

Reach E4 rank in ranked match.

Play enough ranked games to get to rank E4.

Reason to Fight For

Reach E1 rank in ranked match.

Play enough ranked games to get Rank E1.

First Step of a Legend

Reach D1 rank in ranked match.

Play enough ranked games to get Rank D1.

Sings Own Praise

Upload a replay of your win.

This one is tricky. Right after a match, upload a video. Then, go to “replay” in the online play menu (not your player card). Go to the Battle Log section and save one of the uploads. Then, go to the “My Battles” section to complete the requirement.

Notes on Rivals

Play back another player’s replay.

The easiest way to do this is register a rival, press Start and view their player card, then view a replay.

Path to Glory

Quick Battle: defeat 50 warriors.

You must defeat 50 CPUs in the Quick Battle Single player mode. If you’ve already beaten a CPU it will display their name in white. If you haven’t, it will be green. Note that you can sort/flip the quick battle menu with the option at the bottom of the screen. The easiest way to gauge this is to view your “titles earned”, not “wins”.

Road to the Duel

Quick Battle: defeat 150 warriors.

You must defeat 150 CPUs in the Quick Battle Single player mode. If you’ve already beaten a CPU it will display their name in white. If you haven’t, it will be green. Note that you can sort/flip the quick battle menu with the option at the bottom of the screen. The easiest way to gauge this is to view your “titles earned”, not “wins”.

Sudden Temptation

Quick Battle: defeat all warriors.

Quick Battle has 240 total warriors. You must defeat all of them. This is easily the hardest achievement in the game. The easiest way to gauge this is to view your “titles earned”, not “wins”.

Perfect Trainee

Arcade: clear Asia route.

Go to the single player Arcade section. Select the Asia route. You can set this to easy, or if you choose hard, you can get two achievements in one (War Veteran).

Purge of the Holy

Story: clear episode 1.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

Shields Come Together

Story: clear episode 8.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

Resurrection of Order

Story: clear episode 16.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

Home is Faraway

Story: clear final episode.

Self Explanatory – story mode progress. By skipping cutscenes you can complete the story in 30 minutes.

War Veteran

Arcade: clear any route with difficulty set on hard.

Choose any Arcade Mode path and beat it on Hard. All paths offer similar difficult levels.

Mask Another’s Memory

Arcade: clear a leaderboard route with a record better than your rival.

To make this easier on yourself, register all 3 rivals. Go to the Arcade section and select “Leaderboard route”. If your rivals have times, simply beat them to unlock this. If your rivals do not have times, register new ones online — the more rivals that have times, the better. Nightmare and Mitsurugi are particular good CPU bashers.

Usurped True Name

Quick Battle: win against 10 players with titles and use the obtained title on the player license.

Earn this in Quick Battle. After 10 wins, simply switch your title to the last CPU you beat (pay attention to their title). If you go over 10, you can simply switch to the next CPU you defeat’s title.

Pursuit of Obsession 

Quick Battle: defeat Harada TEKKEN.

To find Harada TEKKEN easily, switch the criteria for quick battle search to “Advanced”, “Japan”. Cycle through the list until you find him. He’s fairly hard to beat as he uses cheap tactics. I found Ezio’s crossbow attacks or Yoshimitsu’s spins to be the easiest way to defeat him, as well as constantly attacking low with most characters.

No-hitter 

Ranked Match: win 10 times with Ezio.

Simply win 10 times as Ezio ranked online. Do this sooner than later unless you plan on learning Ezio, because by the time you rank up, everyone else will be more skilled than you.

Skills for Duels 

Legendary Souls: win with brave edge.

After you beat the story, Legendary Souls mode will unlock. It is a boss rush mode. To obtain the achievement, win a match with a brave edge attack (these vary from character to character).

Passionate Artist 

Creation: create a character with full-on coordination (used everything except for height).

Create a throwaway character with every single equipment slot filled. Hats, armor, stickers; everything. To be sure you get it, fill your portrait up entirely and take a snapshot, then save the character. Your creation will look ridiculous, but at least you’ll unlock the requirement.

Colorful Illusion 

Creation: take a thumbnail by manually setting a decoration frame and background.

After creating a character to go the snapshot menu option. Create a full background and both frame options. Take a picture.

Fetal Soul

Player level reaches 5.

“Player Level” is earned through doing everything in the game — not just online ranked play. You can earn points by playing every mode.

Throbbing Soul

Player level reaches 50.

“Player Level” is earned through doing everything in the game — not just online ranked play. You can earn points by playing every mode.

Soul Fulfilled 

Player level reaches maximum.

“Player Level” is earned through doing everything in the game — not just online ranked play. You can earn points by playing every mode.

Stalwart Barbarian 

Perform a wall hit 50 times.

When you knock a player into a wall, whether it’s destructible or not, it’s considered a wall hit. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Adored by Heaven 

Perform 20 grapple breaks.

Press L2 or LT right as a player is going to grab you to break it. Eventually you will easily earn this achievement even by accident. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Like a Flowing Stream 

Successfully perform a just guard 5 times.

Press Guard the moment a player attacks and quickly release it to perform a Just Guard. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Momentary Pleasure 

Successfully perform an impact 100 times.

Impacts have been changed in Soul Calibur V — they are basically obsolete in SCV given how good Just Guarding is. But for the purposes of this achievement, press back or forward, and (A x B x G).

Black Sword of Death 

K.O. with critical edge 30 times.

Simply finish an enemy with a critical edge (super, in other games) 30 times. Press DF, DF A+B+K to execute it with all characters when the enemy has low health.

Hands of the Abyss 

Win by ring out 50 times.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Parrier of Swords

Perfect win 50 times.

Win without taking a hit 50 times. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Wind of Battle 

Reach over 87,600 m in total movement distance in battle.

Self Explanatory. This one could take you a while.  You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Alluring Kaleidoscope 

Land a brave edge 100 times.

A Brave Edge differs from character to character, but is executed after certain moves with (A+B+K). Look up your character’s movesets to figure out each Brave Edge. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Gale Forces 

K.O. the opponent 25 times with an attack after a quick move.

Press Up or Down twice to quickly move, then press an attack — KO an enemy 25 times with this ability. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Never Ending Effort 

Land an attack 20,000 times.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Footprints of Soldiers 

Defeat 100 male characters.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend. This is probably easiest attained with defeating all 240 characters in Quick Mode.

Give in to Temptation 

Defeat 100 female characters.

Self Explanatory. You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend. This is probably easiest attained with defeating all 240 characters in Quick Mode.

Fancy of a Mad King 

Guard burst 30 times.

When your Life Gauge changes to red, you are suseptible to a guard burst, which means your guard will be broken and you will be stunned for a few seasons. Against turtling opponents, don’t let up when their meter is yellow, and break their guard 30 times to earn this achievement.  You cannot “cheat” this achievement/trophy by doing it in Versus against a dummy player, but you can boost this in online player matches with a friend.

Lively Pub 

Change the BGM in options.

Go to the options menu, and change any stage’s default background music. You can earn this faster than any achievement/trophy in the game.

Geralt is finally headed to the 360 – after years of talk about The Witcher coming to consoles in some way shape or form, a date has finally materialized for the series’ second entry: April 17th, 2012.

While I thorougly enjoyed Witcher 1′s unique take on ambiguous morality, I haven’t had a chance to play Witcher 2 yet; but that may change this Spring. No word on whether or not the console version will fill you in on the first game’s events, given how it’s still a PC exclusive. Also, there’s no information on how smooth the porting process is going: given how buggy the second game as at launch, you can probably expect a ton of bugs.

Capcom announced Thursday that Resident Evil 6 is in development and will be released November 20 this year for 360 and PS3, with a PC version to follow. Familiar protagonists Leon Kennedy and Chris Redfield will take the front stage in battling a surge of bio-terrorism. Government espionage! Jetsetting! A world in peril!

Surprising as this announcement may be, and even though the release is this year, it’s still ten months away. Here is more practical news: Resident Evil Revelations for the Nintendo 3DS will be upon us in less than a month. And guess what, you can download the demo straight from the Nintendo eShop right now.

Capcom knew how to tease us when they demo’d the game at 2011 E3. Even back then we knew the franchise will be making a big splash (pun intended) with this title. The E3 demo had some solid gameplay.

This go around, RE Revelations follows Jill Valentine and her partner Parker Luciani as they search for Chris on a seemingly abandoned cruise ship. What ensues is good ‘ol RE action, intrigue and the “revelation” of a new weapon, the T-Abyss virus. Will T-Abyss show up in Resident Evil 6? Irrelevant. Go get the demo.

The rhythm genre, for the most part, has been over-saturated these past few years. After the sucess of titles like Gitaroo Man, PaRappa the Rapper, and DDR, the market started to flood with Guitar Hero after Guitar Hero iteration, until finally, it imploded, with basically only Harmonix Music Systems remaining. Thankfully, Harmonix kept things fresh with the much needed keyboard instrument, and of course, the Dance Central franchise, which took the country by storm.

But is Dance Central 2 in danger of flooding the market once again? Read on to find out.

Just like Dance Central 1, your objective is to well – dance to victory. You’ll accomplish this over a number of new and old[er] songs, which, for the most part, would actually be played in a club, and should cater to just about every age group. Using the Kinect sensor, various “move” cards will scroll across the screen, and the more accurately you nail the moves, the more points you get – just like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, you can earn anywhere from 1-5 stars per song for your efforts.

This time around, Dance Central 2 expands the “crew” aspect of the game, with an aesthetic similar to the Jet Set Radio series – the cities are overrun with gangs, and it’s your job to represent your crew through dance – or something. So the story doesn’t really matter – what matters is that the game is fun, and has a ton of different modes to tackle.

You might look like an idiot learning to play Dance Central, but you’ll have a ton of fun doing it. The game caters to your lack of coordination if you let it, with the improved Break It Down training mode, which allows you to practice each and every step, until you get it down pat.

Personally, I was having a lot of problems with the “Butt Bump” during Baby Got Back, so I have Harmonix to thank for improving this much needed feature. The Kinect’s voice capabilities have also been added to this feature, which allows you to easily navigate between different moves you wish to practice, in addition to enabling slow motion, which is a really nice addition that elevates the game’s Kinect functionality.

The game also contains an expanded Workout Mode. While the game isn’t 100% accurate (as it doesn’t ask for your gender or weight specifications), calories are roughly tracked from every mode, and you can get at least some idea of how hard you worked in that particular instance. In addition to the calorie counter, there are also timed workout sessions that you can engage in. Just like the home versions of DDR, this is a really nice inclusion, as it can get you motivated to start really losing weight with a more rigorous external workout routine, using the game as a complement.

If learning and workouts aren’t your thing, you can jump right into the game’s free mode, or challenge mode, and start earning badges. Just like Rock Band’s tour mode, you can choose from a number of songs, and after fulfilling a certain requirement, you’ll move onto the next level.

Multiplayer also adds what was probably the most requested feature of Dance Central: simultaneous multiplayer play. With this new iteration, you can finally share the dance floor with your significant other, sibling, or friend, and settle once and for all who is the best dancer, head to head.

Or, you could always play nice and tackle a song together to earn the coveted 5 star rating. The game also supports drop-in/drop-out play, which is really nice for seamless dancing without interruption. There is a caveat however – just like a crowded club, be prepared to bump each other on occasion, depending on the song number/moveset. There were a few occasions where I had to re-position my Kinect, even though it was working just fine with another title.

Dance Central 2 also caters to the completionists out there, with unlockable content such as new characters and venues, depending on how badly you want to re-do songs for higher scores. Thankfully, as is the norm with rhythm games these days, all of the game’s songs are unlocked from the start – meaning you can unwrap the game, pop it in, and jam with your friends without any issues.

If you’re yearning for more songs, you can import all of the tracks from the original for just $5 (as long as you have your code). Additionally, the store is more clean this time around, and new copies of the game come with enough Microsoft Points to buy one extra song.

While Dance Central 2 hasn’t done anything vastly different to move the genre forward, it is still a solid entry, and has solidified itself as a solid franchise. As long as you don’t mind looking a little goofy in front of friends, you really can’t go wrong popping this in at a party to liven the mood a bit.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 game Dance Central 2.

There’s no denying the popularity of the Call of Duty series. In fact, COD is in the same conversation as Mario when it comes to the most sucessful gaming series of all time – ever since Infinity Ward’s smash hit COD4, the series has taken off and never looked back. Fans tout the series’ ability to put you into a five hour action movie without fail, and provide a competitive multiplayer element that thousands of people will still be playing years later.

So is Modern Warfare 3 the same old song? Read on to find out.

For starters, the game offers three facets – a single player story, competitive multiplayer, and an auxillary Special Ops mode. Story wise, the gist is that Makarov is back to his old tricks, seeking to agitate World War 3 even more than he already has. The campaign will take you through the streets of New York, Paris, and other major world-wide settings. To be blunt, despite the grand setup, story mode is a mixed bag.

The game switches from dynamic Soap/Price stealth missions fans know and love, to standard “run and gun” foot soldier missions featuring Sandman and his team. The dichtomy between these two stories is pretty significant – simply put, the Price missions are extremely diverse, and provide you with a ton of tools and weapons to meet your goal. The stealth nature of these missions also mix things up from the run and gun style you’re going to be experiencing for hundreds of hours in multiplayer.

Unfortunately, the Sandman missions are pretty dull. In fact, quite frequently while playing them, I forgot what game I was playing – they really just don’t have anything to them while you’re running from linear tunnel to tunnel completing inane objectives. While the Soap/Price missions at least have smoke and mirrors to make you feel like you’re on a grand Special Ops assignment, it isn’t quite the same with the other mission types.

Additionally, the story is a bit more shallow than past iterations, and the philosophical undertones are dialed down a bit in favor of Hollywood style action. Personally, I’m not too upset about the change, but if you’re expecting a jaw-dropping Modern Warfare style “Nuke” moment, prepare for a letdown.

But despite some of the shortcomings of the campaign, ss with most Call of Duty games, the bread and butter is in competitive multiplayer – thankfully, Modern Warfare 3 is no different. Much to my excitement, there are a few extra innovations that make the series much more enticing for new and casual players. Firstly, the “Kill Streak” system has been completely overhauled. Previously, players had to kill others without dying to secure special abilities such as a Predator drone and a Chopper Gunner – there was no other way to earn streaks. Now, in addition to the killstreak system,  MW3 provides both support and  perk packages.

With the support package, your streak not only carries over into death, but you also earn points by shooting down helicopters, or taking objectives – personally, I find this to be the most fun option of the lot. With this package, gone are the days of never earning fun rewards – even if you’re a moderately skilled player, you can still earn an exciting reward towards the end of the match. The trade-off is that the rewards are not as effective, but it’s still an option that will no doubt benefit your team. The perk package is similar to the Kill Streak system, but each kill earns you a new perk – if you die, you lose it all. The risk-reward system will no doubt appeal to pro players, and again, is just another fun option for players to experiment with.

The other innovation MW3 offers is the Prestige Shop. After leveling up past 80, players can choose to Prestige, and go back to level 1- just as you’ve always had the option to do – but this time, you’ll earn tokens to spend on various perks. For instance, you can spend one token to unlock a specific ability/weapon to use in future Prestige levels – gone are the days where your favorite gun is off limits – you can play the way you want to again and again. While most pros will continue to Prestige for bragging rights, from this point on, more casual players will at least have a little fun starting from zero.

Gameplay wise, multiplayer is just as fun as it ever was. While the game’s maps aren’t up to par compared to pretty much every iteration outside of COD4, the perk system and weapon loadouts are pretty balanced this time around, and fans will be able to enjoy pretty much every mode they could want – in addition to the new “Kill Confirmed” mode, which requires you to grab a kill’s dogtags before the point is counted.

In addition to the Story and competitive multiplayer, Modern Warfare 2′s Special Ops mode is back with a vengeance. This time, the game’s standard stand-alone missions are joined by a Nazi Zombies-esque survival mode, complete with explosive dogs and juggernaut bosses. While Survival isn’t as engaging as Treyarch’s hit zombie series, it’s still a very fun diversion, and at least worth trying for an afternoon. Sadly, it’s limited to only two players – something I hope can be fixed with a later patch.

With Modern Warfare 3 also comes the launch of the new social network/DLC season pass Call of Duty Elite. Gamer Limit will cover Elite at a later date, but keep in mind that it only seeks to augment the Call of Duty experience and takes nothing away from the total package. Additionally, you can sign up for basic services for free.

Ultimately, Modern Warfare 3 feels similar to it’s brethren, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a great game. The single player element is still exciting, and multiplayer has more options than ever – if you’re a fan of Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3 is a no brainer.

This review is based on a retail copy of the Xbox 360 game Modern Warfare 3.

Batman just can’t get a break. Between Nolan’s films, a recent anime series, and reboot afer reboot, the caped crusader sure is putting a lot of criminals behind bars – just to have them break out again of course!

But in this particular instance, he has a few tricks up his sleeve, and the outcomes of his encounters aren’t as predictable. In fact, whatever issues I had with Rocksteady’s first Batman outing have been solved — simply put, Arkham City presents an unprecedented interactive Dark Knight experience.

Right from the beginning, Rocksteady’s second entry lets you know that it’s serious about topping its predecessor. Without spoiling too  much, within the first five minutes of the game, Bruce Wayne is incriminated under a set of mysterious circumstances.

Through the help of an incredibly well done interactive opening scene, he has to fight his way out of the newly founded city-wide prison known as Arkham City. In a stark contrast to the creepy setting of “Asylum“, “City” feels more bustling and alive, pitting The Joker’s, Penguin’s, and Two Face’s crews against each other in a city-wide conflict.

From there, Arkham City plays out in a similar manner to Asylum, in that it retains the same free-flow combat and free-roam systems, but it expands them masterfully. For instance, one of my smaller complaints from Asylum was that the combat system was too simple.

To rectify this issue, Arkham City basically doubles your gadgets and move sets, in addition to pumping up the difficulty a bit both in the stealth and free-fight sections. Not only are enemies more plentiful and built to last, but the thugs themselves also have their own wide array of weapons and gadgets at their disposal – such as detective-vision blocking equipment, riot shields, or proximity mines.

These simple additions, strewn out over the course of the game, help keep things fresh and unpredictable. It seemed like every half an hour or so you had to learn a new tactic or counter-tactic, which gives the game a more exciting “on the fly” feel.

To combat these enemy buffs, Batman can activate gadgets in combat using various button commands, such as the super simple “RT/R2″ double tap to throw a freeze bomb. Pinpointing targets in combat is as easy as moving towards them, and despite a few misfires every now and then, the system works quite well.

Batman will also have some more help this time around, in the form of four unique playable Catwoman sequences. While these sections aren’t absolutely neccesary to enjoy the game’s story, they are a ton of fun in their own right, and short enough to not overstay their welcome. While Catwoman isn’t as versatile as the Dark Knight, her sections reflect that, and are still a ton of fun to play. At the end of the game you can freely switch between Batman and Catwoman to roam about the city and complete unfinished business, which is an ingenious addition.

Story wise, explaining the narrative isn’t as simple as saying “Arkham City presents an intruiging tale that will have you rivited from beginning to end”. I wouldn’t feel right reviewing this title without making specific mention of famed writer Paul Dini’s ability to craft a spectacular story – simply put, that man can write, and the actors and actresses deliver in spades.

Even dialogue that’s as simple as banter between thugs, that would normally be throwaway in other games, is pure genious. In fact, I found myself multiple times stalling a thug takedown just to listen to a conversation – it’s that good.

In terms of longevity, Arkham City also delivers. In addition to a 12-40 hour campaign (depending on your need to finish sidequests/collectibles), City has a New Game+ mode, extra skins, and a more robust fully themed Challenge Mode. Instead of Asylum’s bland “Challenge Rooms”, that basically threw you into a situation with no explanation, Arkham City’s Challenge Mode is presented by none other than a fan favorite villain: The Riddler.

Not only will you encounter some pretty unique scenarios this time around, but you’ll also be able to use Batman, Catwoman, Robin (DLC) and Nightwing (DLC), all while being taunted by Gotham’s own Edward Nigma.

While it would have been nice to play as Robin during the campaign, Arkham City is packed full of enough content to justify the $60 price tag, and even being able to play as four characters in challenge mode is a feat in itself (most action games will give you two characters at most to play around with). The Ridder’s in-game collectibles also aren’t as easy to locate as before – you’re going to have to use all of your techniques and gadgets to obtain them all this time around (completionists beware!).

All in all, outside of a few minor issues, I couldn’t ask for a better Batman experience. If Arkham City was a graphic novel, it would be considered a classic.

The tower defense genre has always been one of my favorite ways to kill time when gaming. There’s something that is just so satisfying about building the perfect line of defense and watching your maze of death take care of everything. While this genre has previously been relegated to modifications and other derivative works (WarCraft III custom maps, etc.), now digital distribution services like Steam allow game developers to create fleshed out, full fledged titles. Orcs Must Die is one of these full fledged tower defense titles.

As the name implies, Orcs Must Die involves building a series of traps so that wave after wave of oncoming Orcs meet a grisly end. This sounds entertaining on paper but, as gamers know better than anyone, the proof is in the play. To see if Orcs Must Die is worth your money, hit the jump.

Long story short, yes. Orcs Must Die is a great little title that effectively combines the joy of building traps and mazes with the non-stop action of a third-person shooter.

The story of Orcs Must Die is pretty basic. There is a world full of Orcs and other beasts that is sealed off from the Human realm. There are portals that allow passage from one world to another, and it is up to an elite group of “War Mages” to keep the Orcs out. Unfortunately, these War Mages have been falling left and right to Orc hordes leaving only your character, the prototypical douchy bro who, despite his immaturity and ignorance, is the one person standing between the Orcs and the Human Realm.

In order to defend the Human Realm you need to set up a series of traps between the Orcs and the portals. Lucky for you there’s a wide variety of killing machines at your disposal. Spiked floors and Arrow Walls are just the basics. As you complete each level you’ll unlock a new tool of destruction. Expect to see some wacky devices like spring-board floors that send Orcs into pits of lava or a wall of blades that dice up any poor monster that steps too close to it. Unfortunately, these traps aren’t cheap.

The way the game works is that after each kill you get a small amount of money. In addition to these bounties, every time you clear a wave of monsters you get more money. Additional funds can also be found on the bodies of larger monsters like Ogres.

Speaking of larger monsters, there are a whole slew of beasts that want in on the Human Realm. On top of the basic Orc, which is relatively slow and pretty easy to put down, there are armored Orcs, fast but fragile Gnolls, Orcs with cross bows, giant Ogers that can stun your character with a bash from his club, and a whole host of other standard fantasy monsters.

One thing I really liked about Orcs Must Die is the third-person shooter aspect. I always get stressed out playing standard tower defense games because if there’s one hiccup in your tower line you lose the game. Orcs Must Die gives you a sense of urgency. If a few Orcs slip through you can put them down yourself thanks to a pretty hefty arsenal. You start the game with a crossbow (which can insta-kill most monsters with a head shot) and a sword. As you get further in the game you’ll unlock new weapons like the Wind Belt, which allows you to summon a gust of wind sending the Orcs into a pit of lava, or the Fire Bracers, which lets you cast a devastating fireball. Each weapon also has a secondary fire option allowing you more ways to stop the horde. For example the crossbow’s alternate fire stuns a small area of Orcs.

In addition to traps and weapons, you can also hire mercenaries to help the cause. Elven Archers and Paladin Guardians will eventually be unlocked when you hit a certain level. These mercenaries deal a decent bit of damage to the Orcs, but be careful. If you put them in a dangerous spot the Orcs won’t hesitate to bum rush them and take them down.

To add more depth to the gameplay, Robot Entertainment has included two systems for upgrading. First, at the end of each level you will be given a rating of one to five skulls based on your performance. If you don’t let a single Orc though the portal you’ll be taking home five skulls. These skulls can be used to upgrade your traps, mercenaries and weapons. For example, I upgraded my Elven Archers for fourteen skulls and in turn they now cost less money to deploy on the battlefield.

The other upgrade system is not persistent like spending skulls. Basically you can hire Weavers, magical sorceresses that will upgrade specific stats for your character and traps, once per level. There are two Weavers to choose from; Elemental and Steel. The Elemental Weaver will allow you to pay a certain amount of gold to have specific elemental damage upgraded. The Steel Weaver upgrades physical things like how much damage arrows do or how much money you get if an Orc dies in a trap. While these two upgrade systems are nothing new to gamers, they do add an additional level of strategy to the game.

My one complaint about Orcs Must Die is that there’s no multiplayer. I understand that the game is suppose to be an arcadey title with a heavy focus on leaderboards, but I can’t help but imagine how much fun this game would be with other players. It could be something as simple as co-op or a last-man-standing type of game mode, just something so that I can play with my friends. To be fair, Orcs Must Die is a $15 title, so the exclusion of multiplayer is totally justifiable. I just hope that Orcs Must Die sells well so that Robot Entertainment makes a more in depth sequel with multiplayer.

All in all, Orcs Must Die is a fantastic budget title with more than $15 worth of entertainment. Available on both Steam and Xbox Live Arcade, you should do yourself a favor and check it out. It’s a great way to kill time while killing Orcs.

Human Revolution has been a long time coming, and Deus Ex fans should be basking in the nostalgia as they go down a familiar road.  New series players will be just as engrossed; Human Revolution is a polished, deep experience in an immersive near-future world.

Our star of this world is Adam Jensen, a security manager working for Sarif Industries.  Sarif is a leading augmentation company making strides in human augmentations, which doesn’t sit well with people who believe in human ‘purity’.  No sooner can Jensen voice his worries about the potential results of human augmentation than a radical terrorist group attacks Sarif Industries, leaving Jensen on the brink of death when he tries to rescue his ex-girlfriend.  Jensen is saved with extensive augmentations before being called back in during a hostage crisis.  This seemingly simple mission immerses Jensen in conspiracies and cover-ups as Jensen bears witness to the titular human revolution that leads into the first two games.

As a prequel Human Revolution ran the risk of appearing redundant given our foresight of how future events culminate with Deus Ex but the narrative of the game is second to none.  Human Revolution waxes about the relationship between man and machine in interesting ways.  Social criticism explores topics including the relationship between humanity and technology, how technology is used by people of different socioeconomic backgrounds, and fighting against the same technology one relies on for survival and functionality.  The opening features a telling sequence of machines mingling with man.  It saves Adam’s life, but how far is too far?  When does humanity end and machinery begin?

Human Revolution comes across as a very visual game, and a lot of these questions are mostly conveyed through the world itself.  It really feels like a living world; bums rummage for trash and gang members talk trash in back alleys, civilians fiddle with phones, and augmentation clinic doctors plead with the police for protection against protesters who claim they are fouling humanity.  Something as simple as listening in on two civilians can give interesting insights and perspective onto how Sarif Industries has affected the world and peoples’ thoughts on augmentation’s benefits or downfalls.  Character histories can be discovered through pocket secretaries, E-mail accounts, and testimonials from other characters just by looking around.

Gameplay in Human Revolution is diverse and rich.  The game fully understands the spirit of Deus Ex but feels very much like its own first person RPG.  The four distinct gameplay styles of combat, stealth, hacking and social are all deep and full of their own strategies, but they often mix with each other.  There are always multiple ways to complete any given objective and, as the game itself notes, the easiest route isn’t necessarily the best or most effective.  As early as your initial hostage situation you’re given the ability to initiate a firefight with the terrorists guarding the front entrance, carefully sneak past them, or discover a cleverly hidden rooftop entrance.  Getting into a police station can mean talking your way past the desk sergeant, hacking security systems, or sneaking in through a ventilation system.

Combat will likely take some getting used to.  Firefights are cover-based but combat functions very differently than most shooters. Even with augmentations Jensen is a mere mortal who can’t withstand more than several hits without dying.  As infuriating as this may sound on paper it makes each battle delightfully tense.  There’s a thrilling sense of strategy to taking advantage of cover when available, isolating enemies and confusing them with concussion grenades, and picking them off one by one.  Even with higher end weapons like sniper rifles and shotguns, combat is very situational.  Running and gunning will do nothing but put you in a body bag very quickly.

Combat is a viable option but since you can’t effortlessly blast through your enemies stealthy gameplay is also encouraged.  Stealth is top notch in Human Revolution with enough cover and alternate routes that you can often sneak through entire bases or areas without a single combat encounter.  On a basic level, there’s a clever mechanic that lets you press a button to hide against cover view the surrounding area from the third person.  It becomes a fantastic way to carefully plan routes, watch for enemy patrols, and quietly make a break for where you need to go.  You can perform takedowns that knock enemies unconscious (or outright kill them at the risk of making more noise) but you’ll need to hide the bodies lest they be discovered by other patrolmen.

Hacking is another example of the game going above and beyond pseudo-quicktime events you often see in other games. It’s a clever, dynamic mini-game in which you go from node to node inside of a computer system on a hackable terminal with the intent of accessing a central node that lets you override security.  Each time you access a node you have a chance to set off a trace, which puts you on a timer to get you to a central node, but you can combat this with software pieces to slow down or temporarily stop traces.  Hacking has five levels of increasing difficulty, and it’s fun enough that I enjoyed hacking even when I had a door or safe code, least of all for the experience points.

Even the social aspect is much more engaging than most speech checks found in RPGs.  You frequently engage in social ‘battles’ to convince someone to get what you want.  Early in the game when you confront a terrorist who has taken a Sarif manager hostage you can sympathize with him, appeal to his reason, or be threatening to try to get him to release his victim before she gets hurt.  You can also get a social augmentation to see ‘persuasion levels’ to see how well your tactics working corresponding to someone’s personality.  Additionally you can determine what type of personality somebody has and the best type of dialogue approach that will give you what you need.

Regardless of what you do the game rewards you for just about everything.  Completing quests awards you with experience points, but taking down an enemy without being seen, discovering a ventilation shaft, and every conceivable tactic awards you with extra experience.  Experience earns you points that can be spent on various augmentation skills, such as an upgrading your strength to carry more inventory items or lift heavier objects.  One of my favorite techniques is an upgrade that gives you temporary invisibility.  Alternatively you can put points into hacking to hack more sophisticated security systems.  In a nutshell you can take whatever strategy you want and bolster it significantly with these upgrades.

If there’s a problem with the augmentation it throws in several upgrades that have almost no practical use.  The damage resistance upgrade marginally upgrades your health, but it makes almost no difference when an enemy is spraying you with machinegun fire.  I was able to pick and choose the upgrades that were actually good, but I wound up getting them all early enough that it’s easy to see a particular ‘cookie cutter’ system working unless you have a devout interest in specializing in one pillar.

The one downside to all of this diverse gameplay is where it comes into play during boss fights.  Specifically, it doesn’t come into play.  For a game where combat is tactical and gameplay itself emphasizes multiple pathways and methods to accomplish an objective, you’re forced into boss battles where, perplexingly, brute force is the only option to take down your foes.  I focused comparative little on gunplay so engaging the boss for the first time forced me to run around, empty my inventory, and defeat bosses before they drained Jensen’s meager health bar.  It’s the only smudge on an otherwise stellar gameplay experience.

Even outside of tactical scenarios the world of Human Revolution is immeasurably fun to explore.  You’re constantly rewarded for wandering even on a smallest level, be it hacking somebody’s E-mail to learn more about their personal history or reading one of several Darrow books that give you a “Scholar” bonus of 200 experience points apiece.  The moment you step into the grimy city of Detroit there’s a sniper cache to discover, side quests to involve yourself in, safes to discover and hack, and apartments to raid for credits, pocket secretaries, and painkillers.  When judged by scale Detroit is fairly small, but the depth of the city allowed me to get lost in it for hours on end before I even bothered with a sizeable chunk of the main story.  I found myself accessing apartment rooftops for hidden weapons and hacking into offices to see what I scrounged within.

The art direction in Human Revolution lends itself the type of functional dystopian future that echoes Blade Runner.  Society lives and functions but an eerie sense of fatalism permeates the atmosphere.  The slick, polished walls of Sarif Industries contrast sharply with the filthy streets of Detroit where the poor and despondent linger in alleyways while civilians go about their business discussing the coming changes due to human augmentation. Juxtaposition is a common theme in Human Revolution as dark shades of gray and black mix with sharp orange and gold hues similar to what is seen on the box art.  It may be depressing but it’s also captivating, and it contributes to the stellar atmosphere.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution lives up to the lofty expectations of the Deus Ex name. Beyond that, it’s a superb game in its own right.  A thoroughly engrossing narrative is made all the more entertaining by the polished gameplay  and rich opportunities for exploration.  There’s a lot to do in Human Revolution; as bleak as the world is, feel free to immerse yourself in it and get to hacking, sneaking, exploring, or whatever else you feel like doing.

More than any other sports series available, FIFA has been the pinnacle of consistency. To not falter from this in an industry with yearly installments of sports games is almost unseen. FIFA, without question, has always pulled it off — somehow staying consistent in polish, realism, innovation, and delivery.

FIFA 12 is no different than its predecessors in this regard. However, many are skeptical of the latest gameplay changes and the impact they will have on the balance and realism of the game. Thankfully, there is nothing to be worried about.

One of the most noticeable improvements this year is precision dribbling. The control this gives you is much more substantial than one would think. In the past, one would resort to special moves to make way around an opponent when the player’s speed was outmatched. Now, precision dribbling (which is utilized by holding L1/LB and using the right analog stick) provides the close, controlled movements that are necessary at times to either give that edge to make your way up field or provide a safer way to wait until the field opens up before making a move.

Precision dribbling brings with it yet another sense of risk/reward — an element that has always been sprinkled throughout the game. The defensive AI plays safe when making these more controlled movements which, in turn, opens up the field. Precision dribbling coupled with special moves or a smart pass provides that seamless one-two punch which will quickly become a part of any player’s arsenal. That alone makes this one of the greatest changes in FIFA 12.

The next substantial change to gameplay is tactical defending. In the past, defensive strategy boiled down to a pressure system that was ultimately unrealistic and, quite honestly, extremely cheap at times. Now, defending has become much more strategic and, thankfully, less automatic.

By initiating your defensive-men to contain, the AI will shadow and close in on the opponent. The distance at which this contain occurs is entirely controlled by you and allows for a more realistic, tactical approach at defense. This change truly turns the defense of FIFA‘s past on its head as instead of the all-out pressure approach, it is now a more patient, wait to strike approach.

Waiting to strike becomes the key in tactical defending as auto-tackle is now a thing of the past. Instead, tackling is initiated by you and must be timed appropriately. The tension this provides on the other side of the ball becomes extremely refreshing and makes one of the most important parts of football an absolute blast to engage in.

While utilizing the new tactical defense, you will also notice more realistic player collisions. Through the use of the Player Impact Engine, collisions are now almost exactly what you would see on the field. While not without its occasional hitches, it is safe to say that the physics shown off through this are unparalleled in sports games today.

Outside of gameplay mechanics, EA has introduced something called the EA Sports Football Club. For those familiar with the NCAA Football franchise, this is very similar to Season Showdown. The idea here is that your progress throughout any aspect of the game is rewarded through experience. This experience is then applied to the club that you choose to support. Teams are then ranked against eachother based on everyone’s contribution. In addition, there are friend leaderboards and challenges that mimic real-life events that have occurred throughout the year.

While the Football Club will surely not turn many heads, the additions to career mode certainly will. When first brought into the most feature rich mode in the game, you will notice the much needed changes to the front-end. These changes make information such as news and the calendar much more accessible. While this may seem insubstantial, I can assure you this was a much needed addition over years past.

Other additions to the career mode are in the area of scouting. Scouts can be hired and sent around the world to find potential prospects. The better the scout, the more expensive the salary, but the better chances at snagging that primetime player. Once prospects are acquired, they are placed in the Youth Academy where you can watch their progress and eventually bring them up to the main squad. This is easily my favorite addition as, with any sports sim, I find myself becoming very meticulous with the control I have over my team’s needs and future.

The final and most intriguing element added to career mode is, well, drama. Coaches and players will interact with the media and become very open with their opinions on the current state of your club. Players will also approach the coach and voice these opinions as well. The plethora of information provided by the players not only creates that drama that most sports games lack but also provides a realistic way of gleaning information in order to keep form and morale at its best.

Online has also seen some additions as well through Online Friendlies and Head-to-Head seasons. Online Friendlies is a more contained version of Head-to-Head seasons where players can challenge their friends and play through 10-game seasons. Head-to-Head seasons is similar but is instead on a much grander scale as you will face off against divisions of players and work your way up the ranks to better divisions playing in season games as well as tournaments. For me, most of my time online in past FIFA titles was taken up by FIFA Ultimate Team — which is of course still around — but I have now found my new online mode of choice for the foreseeable future.

FIFA 12 takes realism to an all-time high in sports games. The innovative changes in gameplay mechanics, much needed changes to career mode, and additional online modes makes this one of the most complete FIFA packages to date. If you’re a true football fan, you’d be remiss to pass up FIFA 12 — even if you own FIFA 11.

[There's been a lot of confusion as to whether or not reviewers have actually beaten the game - so here goes: I completed Dark Souls at Soul Level 77, after 37 hours and 10 minutes of play - for reference, I beat Demon's Souls at Level 76, at 22 hours and 30 minutes of play. Dark Souls is a considerably longer, and harder game.]

The spiritual successor to one of the “hardest games of this generation” is finally here – ready and waiting to knock gamers’ teeth out, then rip off all your appendages and laugh. While that may seem over the top – so is Dark Souls. There are literally areas in this game where you can get killed in less than a second from enemies that ambushed you from a small alcove; cursed so you only have half your total HP every time you spawn until you find the cure vendor; then be reborn as a hollow shell of your former self.

This is the world of Dark Souls – are you ready?

Dark Souls starts innocently enough with its character creation screen, allowing you to choose from a number of classes, and this time around, from a number of “gifts”. All of the gifts outside of the Master Key (which the Thief gets automatically) are obtainable in-game, so this part is kind of insignificant, but helps add a little bit of customization to the creation of your hero. Unfortunately, the creation tool itself is still horrendously bad, so good luck creating anything that doesn’t look as if it escaped from the set of The Muppets.

Once you’re good to go, you start in a tutorial area that’s set up very close to what Demon’s Souls had, but this time around, you have to beat the [easy] end-boss. Once you’re done with him, you’re on your own – literally! The game will basically throw you into a semi-home location called Firelink Shrine, and tell you your mission is to ring the Two Bells of Awakening, then “something” will happen. Congratulations on hearing your first vague “tip” – this is about as descriptive as Dark Souls ever gets.

When I say you’re “on your own” – I mean it. There is no “Nexus” – no home base of operations to visit and regather your thoughts/items. Instead, you must seek the comfort of bonfires, scattered about the game’s areas, to level up, and fine-tune your character. Upon finding and lighting a bonfire, you can respawn at it after dying – some bonfires are very conveniently located near boss fights – some are literally five minutes away – some are completely hidden from view – essentially you’re at the mercy of wherever the game decides to put these bonfires.

Overall, I like the bonfire system, but I know a lot of people are going to miss the “Nexus” style mechanic from Demon’s Souls. Simply put – the Nexus was easy street. If you were stuck, you just went back to your safe home location, where all of the vendors conveniently  located, tried 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, and 5-1 in sequential order, and eventually found the “right” way to go. In Dark Souls, the game vaguely tells you where you need to go next, and then hopes that you’re able to find it.

There’s no teleportation mechanic until basically the end of the game – so you have to go by memory, or if you’re resourceful, by consulting an online map. While apprehensive at first, I eventually warmed up to this idea and found myself randomly wandering around, enjoying the sheer diversity of some of the areas. While most of them aren’t as memorable as Demon’s Souls, they’re still really fun, and suicide runs are still a blast, given how much loot the game has.

Dark Souls basically plays to this tune the entire game. It’s as if From Software listened to people’s complaints about Demon’s Souls being too easy, and threw absurd mechanics into the game just to make it harder. But you know what? I loved them for it. No longer can you “cheese” bosses by getting into a certain area and spamming arrows/spells (you can still cheese a lot of regular enemies though – which is part of the experience). All of the bosses in Dark Souls rush you down, and force you to react; making them a joy and a challenge to fight.

It creates a thrilling experience that really isn’t replicated in games today, and as a result, I forged new memories of classic boss fights for years to come. Make no mistake, like Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls can be beaten on skill alone. If you master dodge rolling (Demon’s Souls fans take note – the rolling invincibility frame is shorter), back-stabbing, and the parry/riposte mechanic, you’ll go far. If not, you’ll have to grind for souls, and you can still beat the game, with stats making up for the skill-gap. But despite how much fun the game is, it’s littered with some pretty inexcusable technical issues that detract from the overall experience.

There are two areas in particular where the framerate drops significantly, to the point where it is utterly unplayable for a few seconds. This mostly happened when I was climbing up ladders, but it can happen when the game has to render a particularly large area. It also wasn’t just an isolated incident. Upon doing a suicide run through the Londo Ruins, the game would lock up for five full seconds on this one particular short-cut ladder I preferred to take. Each time I had to wait for the game to catch up with itself, for the framerate to return to normal. This is pretty inexcusable considering how great the visuals look at times (anything with fur on it looks incredible up close).

There are also a number of bugs that are very similar in nature to Demon’s Souls, most notably collision detection issues, auto-locking issues, and online issues that are isolated to Dark Souls. Sometimes the collision detection will feel a bit off, to the point where an enemy will get an unfair hit on you, or you’ll miss an obvious hit – this can get pretty annoying at times, but it’s also a pretty rare occurrence. Another rare bug is when the lock-on system doesn’t allow you to switch targets – I noticed that this consistently happened in a few areas, with particular enemies every time (just like the framerate drops). However, like the detection problems, I didn’t have too much of an issue with it.

What I do take major issue with is the [lack of] online infrastructure that publisher Namco Bandai has set up. There’s a very simple explanation for this massive ball-drop: Atlus used dedicated global servers for online play, and Namco Bandai opted to go with smaller P2P servers. As a result, a lot of the online components that are essential to the “Souls” experience, like checking bloodstains to see how an online player died, checking notes left by players, summoning others to help with boss fights, and fighting off PVP invaders, are scarce.

Considering Dark Souls is apparently out-selling Demon’s Souls, I was shocked when I noticed considerably less blood stains on the ground, until I found out that Namco-Bandai was behind it. Personally, I try to tackle the “Souls” games solo – with as little help as possible, so I didn’t feel the burn of the shoddy server setup. However, I do know that a lot of gamers out there strictly play these games with friends, or as a “helper” for low level players with tough boss fights. Unfortunately, those people may want to pass on this one, especially since the Demon’s Souls servers are still open.

All in all, Dark Souls is a more difficult, but less enjoyable (and less accessible) Demon’s Souls. Personally, I think From Software’s latest offering has too many technical problems for it to be enjoyed by the masses; but if you’re a glutton for punishment, you may get even more out of Dark Souls just because of the difficulty, and extended length – I know I did.

[I completed the game at Soul Level 77, after 37 hours and 10 minutes of play - for reference, I beat Demon's Souls at Level 76, at 22 hours and 30 minutes of play. Dark Souls is a considerably longer, and harder game.]

That’s right, the supposed “too hard for school” action-RPG Dark Souls has officially hit retailers, and I have no doubt that many people will play it for a few hours, and promptly give up.

But that’s a shame. Despite how hard the game may seem, there’s always (repeat: always) a solution to your problem. Dark Souls was masterfully crafted to the point where once you figure it out: you become God, and engage in one of the most rewarding gaming experiences of all time. I’m going to provide some very brief tips for you, in hopes that you’ll have that eureka moment just like myself.

Here is a typical Dark Souls first session:

0:05 – Oh wow! Easy training monsters! Have at you, fiends!
0:15 – FFFFUUUUUUUU I died in a hit?!
0:20 – Ok…no town…where do I buy anything…
0:35 – FFFFUUUUUUUU this game is impossible I quit.

Tame non-story spoilers incoming. I’d recommend saving this article if you get stuck, and need a quick reference:

Basic Tips:

•  Your starting class doesn’t necessarily matter, unless you want the Thief’s Master Key without having to waste a gift, or you want to start as a Pyromancer to allocate as many stats as possible at an early level. After the first 6-8 hours all classes start to blend, and everyone can use anything they have the stats for. Every gift outside of the master key can be obtained in the game.
• I’ve heard a lot of things about the master key – about how it’s not good, because it will only confuse you after you unlock secret pathways to very late-game areas. This is partially true, but I still urge you to take it if you trust your instincts. You can get some pretty amazing suicide loot by way of the master key shorcuts (suicide loot, like Demon’s Souls, is obtained when you run, usually naked, through a really hard area in search of drops and items).
• If you beat the first tutorial boss without running through the door to the left, you’ll earn a special weapon (it takes a TON of strength to use however) – if you take the black firebombs gift, you can take him down pretty easily.
• The first merchant is right near the start of the Undead Burg – go up two flights of stairs – then look right – see the two lance skeletons? Break those boxes and head through the outside door there. You can most notably buy firebombs and arrows, which will help with the next two boss encounters.
• If you want to cheap-out the Tauros boss [the first real boss], grab around 10 Firebombs and just chuck them at him at a safe range – he’ll go down easy. You can also get him to jump off the area, or you can climb the ladder and do a falling strike.
• You will need to grind in Dark Souls. The first grind spot is above the Undead Burg bonfire, right where the dragon appears. Simply go up the ladder you kicked down after the Tauros boss, walk up the stairs, then quickly walk back down – repeat for an easy 300 souls per run.
• Once you make it to the Red Dragon, grab a bow and ~100 arrows – head to the bridge below him and aim for his tail – keep shooting – after some time, you’ll earn the Drake Sword – one of the best starting weapons in the entire game. Note that it doesn’t scale with your strength/dexterity statistics, so you will want a plan B.
• Your first order of business is to ring the two bells of awakening. One is in the Undead Parish, in the church past the iron boar mini-boss. The other is in Blighttown – a really hard area that you should tackle second – you can get into Blighttown from the Sewers, or the cave in the Valley of Drakes.
• If you get cursed, head to the top of the belltower at the Undead Parish – the NPC there will sell a cure for 3,000 souls each (post day one curse patch).
• Personally, I like to save my humanity pickups for special occasions. What I do is accumulate them, and when I’m at a bonfire with a boss fight I know I can beat, but need more Estus Flasks for, I use two humanity at the fire to kindle it and get that little extra boost.
• Press “Circle” (PS3) or “B” (360) to slide down ladders (shoutout to GameFAQs for that one).

Massive Spoilers incoming – only read if you need help completing the game

Advanced Tips: 

• Need to grind even further than 300 souls per run? How about 7000? First you need to purchase the forest key from the blacksmith below the Undead Parish for 20,000 souls (it’s a good idea to buy this after a boss fight). Then, head to the forest using the entrance next to him; keep going straight until you pass 4 tree monsters, and get to the magically sealed door. Open it, and note the very small pathway near the cliff. Run over to the left and gather the four male enemies (the sorceror, the templar, the clear thief, and the warrior) – corral those enemies back to the entrance, and head to the utmost point of that path near the cliff – all the enemies will run up the ledge, and dive over you to their doom. You may need to bait them a bit, but it works.
• After you ring the two bells, if you’re lost, keep reading: head over to Sen’s Fortress – it’s the place where the Onion Knight was sitting at, near the Undead Parish blacksmith. Complete the fortress and kill the Iron Golem. That will lead you to Anor Londo – the next area.
• Once you’re in Anor Londo, head to the middle area, and take the first beam on the bottom floor into the cracked window. Make your way around the building catwalks to the main castle, and enter in from the right side. Once you’re there, you can open up a few shorcuts, grab some amazing loot, then head in for one of the most challenging boss fights in the game.
• After completing Anor Londo’s main castle, you will obtain the Soul Vessel – this is a story item that will allow you to complete the game by stealing four Lord souls, which unlocks the final boss fight. The location of the four Lords (un-named, to prevent spoilers) are as follows:
• One is on the side path of Anor Londo – go straight as soon as you head into the area by way of the gargoyles, and head all the way down that path.
• One is in the Tomb of Giants – past the Catacombs, after Pinwheel.
• One is in the Old Londo Ruins, after you drain the water (you need the abyss ring from the Wolf Sif to fight this boss).
• One is past the Demon Ruins, after Queelag in Blighttown – beat the Ceasless Discharge and two more bosses, then fight it.
• Another special enemy is in the painting, in the Anor Londo building with the white ninjas – to enter the painting you need the peculiar doll – obtain the doll by re-visiting the tutorial area using the crow’s nest in Firelink Shrine.