Full Frontal Assault Review

Ratchet and Clank has been one of Playstation's favorite franchises since the first game came out in 2001. The series includes some of my favorite games, characters, and plot lines of all time. On November 27, the eleventh installment was released under the title Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault. The game features a mix of tower defense and platforming shooters, as players are sent to take over enemy structures while simultaneously defending their own headquarters. A huge fan of the series, I couldn't stay away from this game for very long. The nature of the game caused me to convince Danny K, vintage game expert and fellow R&C fan, to help me out.

The game begins aboard a cruiser called Phoenix II, where Captain Qwark, monitors the galaxy for possible threats. Qwark expresses his discontent with how peaceful Polaris is just in time for a masked, nameless super-villain to appear and reveal that he had deactivated the Planetary Defense Network across three planets. Qwark, along with Ratchet and Clank, immediately dive into battle, leaving the Plumber in charge of Phoenix II. The game tracks our three heroes across the endangered planets, defending Q-force bases and reactivating pieces of the Defense Network.

Both the offensive and defensive aspects of this game work well. As attacker, you must venture out, taking out squads of enemies and unlocking weapons, much like the classic style. During defense, you're required to defend six generators powering your Q-force HQ using turrets and mines that you place around the area. Alone, this can be frustrating, as you have to travel back to the base the instant some enemy triggers the motion sensor. With a partner, one player can be out earning money while the other fend off enemies and builds turrets. The vendor system, however, stands apart from the other games. All weapons are free, but you can only carry eight per round, only collect one per vendor, and the weapons reset after each round.

There is also a competitive multi-player aspect of this game. Competitive battles consist of three phases, recon, squad, and assault. Recon is for collecting weapons, squad is for building turrets and hiring troops, and assault is for leading the strike on your opponents. How you act in your squad phase can determine how your assault phase runs, as not having enough troops can cause your opponents defenses to stand or not having enough turrets can leave your base wide open. The competitive aspect of the game adds something fun to do with your friends if you've already run through the short list of campaign missions.

My biggest issue in this game is its lack of creative levels. You battle across three planets, then the villain launches weather devices and you battle across one of the planets again, this time with a snowstorm. Also, if played alone, the game takes much longer to finish and is a bit more difficult, making a coop partner necessary.

This game is an interesting spin on the Ratchet & Clank norm, and I had a lot of fun battling against aliens alongside my friend. This is a welcome addition to the Ratchet & Clank family, but a fan can only hope that Insomniac Studios will return to the platforming, planet hopping games that we all loved.

7.5/10

Rayman Legends delayed, And Will No Longer be a Wii U exclusive

Ubisoft has announced that Rayman Legends has been delayed and will no longer be a Wii U exclusive. Legends will no be released on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii U in early September. Over six months after its original release of February 26th.

Xavier Poix, managing director of Ubisoft's French studios said "When we saw all the comments when we announced the game would be focused on Wii U, all of the people that have both the PlayStation 3 and 360 were really disapointed." 

Psychonauts 2 lose Minecraft Devs support

Mojang's Markus Persson, and Double Fines Tim Schafer talked about a year ago about the possibilities of a new Psychonauts, but alas that dream has died.

Schafer stated "I think I gave Markus a heart attack when I told him how much Psychonauts 2 would cost." Persson clarified on Reddit that Double Fine would need $18M to make Psychonauts 2 a reality saying " I don't have time at the moment to even try to get educated enough to make an 18 million dollar deal." 

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Announced

The Witcher 3 will get a full reveal in the upcoming issue of Game Informer. 

It has also been revealed that the Witcher 3 will be the "final episode" in Geralt of Rivia's story. CD Projekt Red's studio head Adam Bakowski stated " People may ask if this is really the last Witcher game. Yes it is. why? Because we believe that the series should end on a high note." 

The Witcher 3 will also be developed on CD Prejekt Reds new engine REDengine3 along with their next game Cyberpunk 2077 

The Witcher 3 is scheduled to release in 2014 with Cyberpunk 2077 to follow. 

Saints Row 4 could release in August 2013

 Chris Stockman the design director on the original Saints row, tweeted that " the word around the campfire is SR4 is shipping on current gen consoles in late august." New saints Row publisher hasn't confirmed this report.

Saints Row 4 originally just going to be an expansion to Saints Row the third called Enter the Dominatrix was morphed into a full sequel by late publisher THQ.

Although CEO of Koch media, Deep Silver's parent company, Klemens Kundratitz said there's "no doubt" the next Saints Row will release in 2013. 

The Last of Us News

Naughty Dog has just announced that their first new franchise since the release of Drake's Fortune in 2007, The Last of Us, will feature a multi-player mode. Though they haven't verified what it would be like, there are preorder bonuses at Gamestop that are related to multiplayer, such as items, skins, and bonuses.

Along with this, a new trailer was aired at Spike's Video Game Awards. This trailer shows insight into what the plot of the game will entail.

This game releases May 7, 2013 and offers a new start for Naughty Dog and their fans.

PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale Review

Nintendo has had great success from their crossover fighting franchise, Super Smash Brothers. This title features everyone's favorite Nintendo characters doing battle in bouts of up to four opponents at a time. Now, Sony has decided to create their own game as such, and released PlayStation All Stars: Battle Royale. This game features your favorite characters from franchises like Killzone, Twisted Metal, Bioshock, InFamous, and many more, taking part im matches us gamers have only dreamed of before.This game provides seeming endless entertainment for you and your friends to take part in. The amazing cast of characters, dynamic maps, and diverse items always make the game interesting.

Don't knock over his ice cream.

The best part of this game is the cast. I really enjoyed battling my way through the PlayStation universe as Cole McGrath, Kratos, and Ratchet. Rivalries are formed between characters, such as Sly Cooper and Nathan Drake, or Parappa the Rapper and Ape Escape's Spike. The battles lead to a story that, though interesting, leaves to be desired. The best example of a story is Drake ending up with a few pages of the Thevius Racoonus, prompting Sly to take them back. The worst is Jak pulling a gun on Ratchet because Ratchet looked at him funny. Some of them are even comical, such as Kratos knocking over Sweet Tooth's ice cream cone.

Bioshock's Songbird firing at the plane from Uncharted 3

The maps in this game are fantastic, and adds new layers to the story. Sometimes you get to see Chop Chop Master Onion kick a Chimeran Goliath so hard that it collapses. Other times, your Uncharted 3 cargo plane will get shot down for flying too close to the sky city Columbia. It is worth it to play all of the maps just to see what happens next.

One of the games downfalls is the unbalanced characters. Some always land hits and gain AP incredibly quickly, while others are easily avoided and take awhile to level up. Some level 3 supers are difficult to use and don't guarantee kills, while others allow up to six and guarantee three. Another problem is the noncompetitive challenges to be played alone. The game lays out several difficult tasks that are too be completed whilst battling three opponents. The third difficulty I had was how characters tended to be unnecessarily aggressive to each other, such as Spike attacking Parappa for scaring away a monkey, but this was only a minor issue.

I would strongly recommend this game to anyone who likes their PlayStation exclusives, Smash brothers, or fighting games. Its better than any Smash Brothers game that I've played, and its something that's been a long time coming.

9.5/10