Despite previous attempts in the fight focused only on the previous titles have fallen flat superstars, THQ has decided it’s time to give the nostalgia-crazy fans they have been clamoring for years. Licensed by the WWE, years of experience in the development of wrestling games and one of the strongest engines of struggle, Legends of WrestleMania should be a no-brainer, right?

To begin, the list of legendary fighters is simply enormous, stretching from the mountains and Jim Duggan Junkyard dogs all the way to The Rock and Hogan. There are some glaring omissions, especially the likes of Man Randy Savage Macho and Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, which together had possibly the greatest match in WrestleMania history … but, of course, not everything is within the control of THQ.

While the legends are 40 + large, can actually more than double the play list, simply by importing a Smackdown! Vs Raw 09 game save from the main menu. This is sure to rub a lot of people the wrong way, except with the SVR, of course, serving as a key to unlock content already on disk. It’s probably a safe bet that SVR rental numbers increase in the coming months as a result.

For the game based entirely on the most popular superstars of WWE in the past, THQ is hoping to pull in the ongoing struggle not only fans of the game, but also the informal, everyday player who has not played a game 20 years of struggle. The Smackdown! Raw vs controls have been completely scrapped here, leaving room for a much more simplified somewhat dumber down control scheme. In what seems to be a tribute to the WWE in early arcade titles, the game only uses the left stick and four buttons on the face – the strikes, faces and backs are assigned to the buttons, with the last button that acts as a sort of context-sensitive capture all. Although there is no any major issues pulling off moves with the simple control scheme, it is a pity that the developers do not allocate at least something like running or hurtful to one of the triggers.

The base game Legends of WrestleMania is a mixture of Smackdown! vs. Raw and an old-school button Masher. As in most recent title fight, beating her opponent in a cause to fill pulse meters, allowing access to the finalists and mockery, but unlike many current games, a bar of basic services Health keeps track of fighter that has the top. The simple game strike deal and does the job adequately, but unfortunately, the Yuke’s team felt the need to lever in Quick Time Events in everything. I’m not talking about the occasional test of strength, but everything from Irish whips to collect weapons hidden under the ring is met with a QTE. It is impossible to finish a game without hitting at least a handful of these interactive cut scenes.

There are a few other annoyances, too. Things taken for granted in other wrestling games, like walking anywhere in the sand or the search for weapons, require a deal done now in some hot spots arena – some of which are followed by, you guessed it, more Quick Time Events.

With any other wrestling game in the sun sending the player through an ultimately uninspired, played a has-played-all-race mode, Legends instead uses its terrible history of WWE Assets offer a unique single-player experience. WrestleMania Tour Mode inherently provides three ways of replicating some of the most famous WrestleMania match-ups – through the eyes of the winner to “Relive the history from the viewpoint of a loser trying to ‘rewriting’ history or a new party on the condition of “Redefining the story. Before the game, the game displays a summary of harvest using long WWE footage to explain the enmity between the competitors and create the next contest – something sure to delight fans of long struggle.

Perhaps the coolest feature in WrestleMania Tour Mode is the inclusion of objectives, a set of bonds in the game the player with the award coincides with new costumes, and video. The difference between a goal and an achievement or trophy is that they recover all the goals at the end of the match. Objective principles require pulling out a couple of simple exercises, while the later has reenacting almost exactly matches the original. With this way of being a most individual players, which was nice to see a few more prominent parties. As it stands, there are fewer than 20 among the three sections.

In addition to WrestleMania Tour, there is also a legend of the murderer so that their faces against the established superstars of WWE Legends level. Experience points for your created wrestler come to such a fast pace, however, that all levels after the first is rendered more or less trivial.

The game also offers an amazing online mode shape, which examines not only their record but an overall score of his party on the basis of the results. Unfortunately, there is significant delay in almost all games online, especially when more than two players are involved, the reduction of many parties to end the strike-parties.

Of THQ Smackdown! vs Raw series is known for a great looking character models, and the team behind the legends of WrestleMania was able to continue that tradition. When the SVR models go for realism, Legends’ superstars take on a more exaggerated, exaggeration, and almost idealized look. But as good as it seems that the wrestlers, which is still plagued with the same speed-up, janky animations Smackdown! series has become, unfortunately, also known by.

Legends of WrestleMania is a journey filled with nostalgia. Everything here feels like a 1980 or 90 WWE broadcast from WrestleMania replicated scenarios right at the plate with the correct name based on the TV era. However, the inclusion of unnecessary QTEs to the formula and a relatively short single-player experience that is not to become a legend in its own right.

With its acquisition of the license from Hasbro, EA seems hell-bent on making all the board games that he spent his childhood in a flipping over with watery eyes rabies consoles. Trivial Pursuit is the latest effort to destroy his sanity and controller. Trivia games on consoles Dicey was an effort, but the advent of downloadable content makes them feel more at home in this generation. Trivial Pursuit offers the same features of a board game version, filling a void game piece with pastel-colored slices of six different categories. The same categories may be recalled that the original one back in: Science and Nature, Art and Literature, Geography, Sports & Leisure, History, and entertainment. The players make their way around a board, as sacred as the game piece of pie that control rolling the dice. The number in the roll of the dice in general offers a number of places available land on the board, leaving it with a decision as to what type of questions that deal with another.

The headquarters of large areas yet to grant the status of the color pie wedge, while responding to a question after landing on it. The game ends when one player category still includes the six sectors, races in the middle of the plate, and responds to a question of chance. Question topics range from as recent as Twitter to as old as the ancient poets matching quotes. The fear of the multiple-choice design to undermine some of the difficulties can relax, as the majority of cases the most intelligent choices leads to second guess it. With the core gameplay intact, the game does a good job of offering a new twist on the classic board game with two modes – The Board and delete data and Friends Multiplayer. The Board is clear about the play of supply to the fans just tender. The goal is to get a combination of the highest score and fastest time when plowing through the board. Each correct answer in a square regular category prize of two hundred points and, more importantly, increases the score multiplier for that category of headquarters plaza.

The basis of the score is rewarded with a wedge of five, with the current multiplier winning score increased appropriately. Every time you give a wrong answer for a wedge issue, a multiplier drops. The finish line area in the center of the board has to build all the multipliers in all six areas of the venue and added together to score a big bonus at the end of the game. Playing across the board, if you answer a question correctly or not, the spaces are no longer valid, matching all the color spaces disappearing from the board when you drop a wedge wins. There is a steady decrease in time of all issues, although its score is not dependent on how quickly to respond, simply limit your ability to Google for the correct answers. Facts & Friends Multiplayer mode takes things in a totally different direction, which allows all players to use the same game piece to go on board and only a wedge for each category rewarding. The game becomes a frantic race to catch a class before your opponents as possible. The twist is that it is not necessary to land a seat to save space in the wedge.

Technically does not need to answer a question correctly to get one. Before a player can answer the next question, another player has the opportunity to ‘bet’ on the results. Each correct answer and win a bet from the wedge. Get enough right and you can earn without the wedge in the landing area of the seat. The trick is to get your opponents to see the issue and if there is gamble is correct or not, or possibly “steal” the issue for themselves by selecting ‘I know that, allowing the opportunity to respond first. Once you earn a spot in the category of spaces that are removed from the board, that decline as in the way of clearing the board. How to last a little longer, there are “bonus” spots on the board in turn to select a bonus ability, including the doubling of points in the next question or allowing it to steal an opponent wedge.

Once all sectors are dishes out, the game moves to the final round. Each of the sectors that gained on the board to turn in the life ‘which are deducted for each incorrect answer. The last player with at least one life remaining wins the game. The mode is a blast, and may take some time between the premium spaces and difficult questions. Those who seek the simple board game version can play through it, and remember that under the classic game mode.The could use a little more polish in the audio / visual department. The presentation is decent, although somewhat bare bones in terms of menus. For a board game, the graphics do the job Easy to read questions and solid design. These are small details that make up for that lack of visual, such as detailed historical statistics for each player. The inclusion of Live Avatars are smart, the choice of using only the head of statistics in the table and crawl at the bottom of the screen. Selection of correct answers with your left stick, and confirming with the button, it works well.

The game draws a map, zoom, and places four possible locations on the map to select players without text indicating what the name of each. It is a good concept, but the game has done well, at least, show the boundaries of the states within the U.S. countries and beyond. The speaker lacks personality dry, giving a commentary on life without the game is repetitive quickly. At least, under the key, jazz-inspired soft background music is relaxing. Trivial Pursuit gets high marks for accessibility and development of new ideas for playing a game of more than 360 owners more. With a package already available for free download, the game seems to have a lot of legs, despite the lack of Live multiplayer. Live mulitiplayer, this test would be game for consoles. Without it, the Trivial Pursuit still proves a good buy for fans of the genre.

PopCap’s Peggle and Square Enix’s Crystal Defenders--two seriously addictive games–hit Xbox Live Arcade today, marking the latest releases for casual games that have proven surprisingly popular among hardcore gamers.

Peggle is best compared to pachinko, the Japanese ball-bouncing gambling game. Players shoot balls from the top of the screen and watch them fall as players aim to hit all the pegs before they run out of shots.

Crystal Defenders brings a Final Fantasy Tactics flavor to the exploding tower defense genre, where players build fortresses in order to fend off waves of invading baddies. Today’s XBLA download is a reconstruction of the iPhone edition, which released in December to positive reviews.

Resident Evil 5, the sequel to Resident Evil 4 is the fifth game of the series. It is currently under development, but people have begun to talk about it. What’s heard of him? Not much on Resident Evil 5 has been yet revealed by its developer Capcom. Few details were released about the game. The concept is believed to be similar to Black Hawk Down. The game as announced by the producer, Jun Takeuchi, will be similar to Resident Evil 4. So what else is included in the Resident Evil 5.

It is the most anticipated game of the year and will not be released in 2008 too. Resident Evil 5 was announced in 2005 but its publication was launched in 2009. The developers also stated that the concept of darkness Resident Games will decrease. Players can hunt zombies in the sparkling light instead of dark. This is a totally new concept in the series to be introduced through Resident Evil 5. Besides zombies, two new enemies will also be introduced into the game. That will be different from zombies and won in the sense that they possess more intelligence and weapons than their predecessors.

The plot of Resident Evil 5 will be located in a Africa. First humans originated in Africa. But in the game, as Africa is the land where the virus originated. Resident Evil 5 will also include improved graphics and effects of lightning. Players may leave at different times of day and in different weather conditions. Player of the ability to work in light and darkness will be based on real human capacity to work under those conditions. In Resident Evil 5, a player will have to adjust accordingly as humans.

Resident Evil 5 gameplay and controls are based on Biohazard 4. Capcom will release the latest on the game at E3 conference in July 2008. There have been issues with the Resident Evil 5. Controversy became part of it before it is released. Resident Evil 5 was the subject of the controversy of racial discrimination. Criticizers concerns about how the white man as the hero is black, while the zombies in the African village. They believe that zombies are not shown as black Africans, but the black shows up as zombies, which really looks to be.

I think Resident Evil 5 as previous Resident Evil games will be a great success for Capcom. The game will prove it. Resident Evil 5, after being released, will be hailed by many critics and criticizers despite some controversies that became his forgotten past. I also believe that issues of racial discrimination described in Resident Evil 5 is going to let the world know what is happening all over Africa and how the people are being treated there. We all know how dodgy HIV or AIDS could be, and through Resident Evil 5 developers have made efforts to show the same thing. Therefore, giving full marks to the Resident Evil 5 for efforts to increase the staff of the standards of the peoples of Africa, directly or indirectly. I hope Resident Evil 5 proves to be super hit.

The Tour de France has completed more than a month ago. Landis took place as the winner, but soon appeared as the protagonist of an issue of doping. Two trials were taken, and both were positive. That I lost sight of. Is there still a new winner? Should history be rewritten Tour? This is probably what you expected Pereiro of Spain, but could become the official tour winner. However, whatever happens: Does it matter more?

Apparently, the verdict on the case of doping is not finalized. Someone with a competitive attitude and Landis (of which we understand, to run the tour with a malfunctioning hip) will fight until the last bit to convince people that he is the real winner.
But what if – despite all judgment – Pereiro will be named as the winner of the Tour de France 2006? Will be the real winner?
If you try to search engines for “news” on this subject which will not find anything. As far as journalism refers to the visit is over. The event is finished and any changes thereof shall be written in the margin.

And that’s it for the power of the Tour closing ritual. The winner has been held in public. After this event, the excitement has faded and the Tour of 2006 is history. Not only for participants but also for the public, energy moves in a new direction. The memory of the public has been trained by the same ritual. And the new information does not come easily.
Even if Pereiro again be the official champion, will be the winner of a game that has been completed. That is like playing the World Cup final in a stadium empty. No journalists, no audience, no one.

What it means for the future of doping control, if you can not try before the final, you might as well forget it … Most likely this will be the 2007th edition of Trivial Pursuit. Perhaps that is where it belongs …

So, if I were to mention in a reviews PopCap, I’m sure a lot of readers would cringe. I mean, most of us do not want to be associated with the company that produces a ton of games at the older crowd. Sure, they occasionally hit it big with some games, but most of them involve some sort of matching items with a couple of others in the same row to remove them from the board. The design has become insanely popular and spawn tons of clones, after all – Bejeweled is undeniably one of the more popular games among the non-hardcore crowd.

However, on occasion, PopCap makes a game that manages to enthrall both the hardcore audience and the non-hardcore alike. Bejeweled actually did a good job of that with its simple style of gameplay but surprising amount of depth. Zuma is also a pretty addictive puzzler that is ridiculously simple to learn. Well, get ready to download and buy yet another high quality game from PopCap because they have another that you probably skipped over because of the cartoony theme and company it came from – enter Peggle.

Peggle is one of the oddest combinations of games that I’ve ever seen. On one hand, you have a Pachinko-style element to the gameplay – the ball plop down a set of pegs and watch as it lights up and bounces them like crazy all over the screen. Unlike Pachinko, though, you’re also playing a game of Breakout here since lighting up any of the pegs on the screen deletes them after your ball leaves the screen. At the bottom, instead of slots score, you have a moving basket that, if it catches the ball, gives you a free shot. I know this all sounds pretty darn simple, but it seems PopCap has also figured out the formula for the substance that keeps gamers hooked to MMOs and collectible card games, taken the substance and then included a liberal dose alongside Peggle.

The gameplay, as I mentioned, is horribly simple. At first, levels are a piece of cake – you’ll be tasked with eliminating all the orange pegs from a level. Eventually, green pegs are introduced. These green pegs will grant you some sort of power, be it a line that will show you where the first bounce of a ball will go to a fireball that blows straight through any peg in its path. There are ten of these powers in total and I can really only see one or two that I would rarely, if ever use.

Each of these powers is “taught” by a master of that power. Each of these powers comes with five levels of its own. Some of them are pretty simple, with scattered random pegs. However, others are pretty interestingly themed, in particular the stage with a big and small Yin-Yang and the one that is a car, complete with moving dotted line under it. The overall levels are well designed and make you want to go through them again to top your last score.

And, to completely finish The Game, you’ll need to do just that. After you’ve beaten the 50 regular levels, you’ll have to take on 75 challenges ranging from pretty easy (take out 35 orange pegs instead of 25) to the ridiculously difficult (eliminate every single peg, including the blue ones, from a stage). The wide variety of styles challenge is really what makes these last so long. Another nice touch is that, if you accomplish one of these challenges throughout the course of The Game (say that you get 350,000 points on one of the levels that would be a challenge for 350k level later on), you’ll get a completion for the challenge later on. You do not have to worry about getting lucky as you go through The Game only to lose the high score challenge when you got time rolls around.

There’s also the ability to play against a real, live person sitting beside you (sorry, no internet play). This is also really fun, especially since a couple of new rules are added. First of all, you have to hit an orange peg on your turn, else you’ll lose 25% of your total points (and that you will not gain any earned either on the turn). This forces people to consider leaving a big combo point to rot since an orange peg is not involved but can also lead to more assholish moves such as leaving your opponent no shot. If you get down to the last peg, the person to bust it actually is not necessarily the winner, though The Game fever does go into extreme mode. Each of the holes is worth half of its normal value, though, with the center being worth 50,000 points. The slight in The Game luck element that can lead to one shot completely changing the course of The Game is what makes it so fun, especially if you have a really Cocky buddy.

As already mentioned, The Game’s graphics are pretty simple, albeit colorful. They’re definitely not top-notch graphics that you’d expect from a 50 dollar game – being that The Game is only 20 bucks, though, it gets a pass there. Where things go really well in Peggle, though, is the sound. The music for the levels is pretty Addicting, but the best part comes at the end of the level. See, when your ball gets close to the final orange piece, you go into what is called “extreme fever” mode. When this happens, the ball gets a rainbow trail behind it but, more importantly, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (from the last movement of his Ninth Symphony) starts to play. You may not recognize the name, but you’ll definitely recognize the music. It still cracks me up every time I hear it because it feels like The Game is trying to have some sort of epic feel about it. However you look at it, though, it is just plain fun to hear it belt out from what feels like a somewhat serene game until that point.

Overall, Peggle is probably the biggest surprise game of the year for me so far. Normally, I avoid PopCap stuff because it is so simple and makes me want more in 15 minutes. Peggle, however is different – while it is simple and seems to not offer much on the surface, there’sa whole other game buried deep within for the hardcore gamer. The subtle touches, though, are what really make this game worth picking up, particularly for 20 bucks. Hardcore gamers, do not miss out on this one because of the company it is from – it is a fun game to play in between the crazy frag sessions.

With all the critical acclaim for the Watchmen comic series and all the hype surrounding the new movie adaptation, it’s possible that folks might have certain expectations for the new video game set in the same universe. However, if you are hoping to find some of the comic’s depth and maturity here, or are looking forward to reliving your favorite scenes from the movie, you will be sorely disappointed. Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a shallow beat-’em-up game set years before the events of the comic. Its narrow scope may disappoint some, and the Watchmen veneer isn’t very deep. Yet thanks to lively, brutal combat and impressive visuals, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is a fun, fist-flinging romp for the few hours that it lasts. The $20 price tag is a steep one, but for anyone who enjoys a good old-fashioned beat-’em-up, The End Is Nigh delivers.

Pretty much all you do for the entire game is beat up bad guys, and the combat is good enough to stay fun throughout. Whether you’re playing as Rorschach or Nite Owl (the only two playable characters), the fundamentals are simple: light attack, heavy attack, block, and throw. Peppering your opponent with attacks works well, and there are some nice animation touches that make even this basic combat enjoyable. Throwing enemies is particularly delightful, whether it be into a crowd, off of a ledge, or into a wall. As you progress, you’ll encounter tougher enemies that block your basic attacks, so you have to use the various combos you learn along the way in order to stun them or knock them down. These combos add new animations to the mix and are generally a bit nastier than your normal attacks. However, the best animations are the finishers, which you activate by matching the button prompt that appears over the head of a weakened enemy. The camera zooms in during these brutal flurries, allowing you to appreciate every blow. While Nite Owl’s no slouch, Rorschach is the clear standout here: his finishers are so manic and so vicious that you can’t help but cringe and cackle with delight as he just keeps hitting a guy who is clearly unconscious.

Basic attacks, combos, throws, and finishers make up the bulk of your fighting move set, but Rorschach and Nite Owl have a few other tricks up their sleeves. They can each counterattack easily, disarming any armed opponents and positioning themselves for a strike. Rorschach will even hold onto these weapons, and his brutal finishers get even nastier when there is a crowbar involved, though watching him wield a knife like a bludgeon is a bit silly. Each hero also has two special attacks that drain energy from a meter in the corner of the screen. Rorschach can do a short bull rush or freak out and do more damage for a short period of time. Nite Owl’s grenade stuns anyone nearby, and he can use the electric charge in his suit to zap a large radius of foes.

As you fight your way through the rough areas of town, you’ll encounter a few different breeds of thug and lowlife, some tougher than others. It’s easy to die if you get yourself surrounded and try to punch your way out, but judicious use of counterattacks and special moves should be enough to get you out of any tight situation. There are throwaway actions here and there, like lever-pulling or valve-turning, and an oddly tricky lock-picking minigame that seems a bit out of place in a game that’s all about brute force. Despite these extraneous tasks, a creeping sense of repetition looms over The End Is Nigh, and it’s possible you’ll grow weary of pounding your way through wave after wave of goons. Though the game mixes up your enemies’ fighting styles in order to make you use your entire arsenal, the action can often teeter on the edge of button-mashing boredom. Those inclined to revel in the perverse joy of cracking skulls will be able to keep repetition at bay, but the relatively simple gameplay will quickly wear thin for others.

For all its merits, the combat wouldn’t be nearly as fun if it wasn’t paired with top-notch graphics. The sharp character models are fashioned after the movie costumes, and the smooth, realistic animations make the action exciting and extremely satisfying. You’ll chuckle when Rorschach jams his hands in his overcoat immediately after furiously maiming an entire biker gang, and both he and Nite Owl pack a wickedly pleasing punch. There are occasional physics-based oddities, especially when throwing your enemies, but the animation is still consistently impressive. The detailed environments provide a rich setting for your beatdowns, and stark lights and deep shadows (occasionally too deep) create a dramatic look. The quasi-animated cutscenes provide a few pages’ worth of story across the six chapters of the game, and the sinister machinations at work fit nicely into the Watchmen universe.

Though you can have some split-screen fun with a friend, it’s baffling that there is no online cooperative mode. That would have made the $20 price tag a little easier to swallow, but as it stands the price feels a bit greedy. Those inclined to tire of repetitive gameplay will find the price of entry too high, but there is some value here. The impressively animated combat is fun and brutal, and the sumptuous environments provide the perfect pugilistic playground. The many unlockable combos and achievements provide some replay incentive, and the combat is surprisingly fun to come back to even after you’ve beaten the game. Though it may be shallow, overpriced, and likely to disappoint anyone hoping for more weighty fare, Watchmen: The End Is Nigh is ultimately a simple, well-crafted game that will please those looking to dish out some good old-fashioned beatdowns.

At any given point in Eat Lead: The Return of Matt Hazard, the titular star of this tongue-in-cheek action game from developers Vicious Cycle might find himself squaring off against any of the following enemies: Mobsters, zombies, cowboys, space marines, 2D Nazis, and even Japanese role-playing game bosses. One part action game and several parts game-industry lampoon vehicle, Eat Lead is nothing if not unique. We had a chance to spend some hands-on time with an updated build of the game recently to see how far it’s come since our previous look in October of last year.

The setup for Eat Lead revolves around Hazard, a fictional action-game star who racked up a string of hits across multiple platforms in the ’80s and ’90s. After a few disappointing bombs, Matt Hazard retired, only to take up his career as a two-fisted badass at the beginning of Eat Lead after getting an offer to star in a brand-new action game from megapublisher Marathon Megasoft. Traversing the eight levels that make up Eat Lead, Hazard soon discovers that the game is rigged and that the levels he’s making his way through are trying to delete him…permanently.

From that premise, Eat Lead takes the idea of poking fun at video games and runs with it, with levels that change in appearance and makeup on a dime, enemies that start out as soldiers only to transform into zombies, and boss battles that are memorable to say the least. It’s tough to know what to expect from one area to the next in Eat Lead, and there are more than a few chuckle-worthy moments as a result.

Consider the sixth level of the game, which we got to play during the demo. After a brief intro movie that featured some back-and-forth between Hazard and his companion QA (who can hack into the game’s levels and help him along the way), Hazard begins the level outside of a warehouse, surrounded by crates, forklifts, and trucks. These objects serve as perfect cover for Hazard, and you can use the cover system by pressing the A button on the Xbox 360 controller. Pressing the B button will cross Hazard over to a nearby cover point, if available, and you can aim your cursor and press the Y button to sprint to a specific point of cover.

Safely behind cover, we first took out the bad guys that were in the level using a pistol. It wasn’t long before we picked up a machine gun and, once the level was cleared, we moved into the warehouse. We found more bad guys inside, only these looked completely different from the enemies we fought outside, considering their garish armor and their use of what appeared to be water guns. As it turned out, these guys were holdover enemies from an ill-fated, kid-friendly water-gun shooter from Hazard’s 64-bit days. As silly as it sounds to be taking up arms with a water gun, it got the job done against these clowns, so we went with it.

Now, naturally, you don’t spend an entire level fighting bad guys with squirt guns. Any game called “Eat Lead” better have an assortment of weaponry to choose from and, indeed, we played with submachine guns, sniper rifles, even laser blasters. Blasting enemies doesn’t technically kill them; these are virtual bad guys, after all. Instead, Hazard can absorb a defeated enemy’s code. If he builds up enough code, you can add a temporary ice or fire damage modifier to whichever weapon you’re carrying.

Like the neon bad guys who were susceptible to water blasts, many of the enemies have unique traits that you’ll discover as you go. In the level that we played, we also ran into space marines reminiscent of a certain visor-wearing, heavily armored, combat-evolved hero. Conventional weaponry didn’t really do much to them but, if you managed to snag a laser pistol, you could take them down with relative ease. Our favorite garden-variety enemies were the 2D Nazis, patterned after something out of the original Castle Wolfenstein. Blasting these flat-planed bad guys was easy…until they turned sideways, at which point they effectively disappeared from view until they decided to face you again.

By far the highlight of the level that we played was the final boss battle, in which Hazard takes on a final boss, known as Altos Tratus, who had the creepily androgynous look of, well, practically every Japanese role-playing game enemy ever made. Better than the boss’s look, though, was his speech, or rather the lack of it. To get through Tratus’ long-winded prefight speech, the frustrated Hazard has to page through multiple screens of text, and the occasional puzzling ellipses. Though the boss battle was in real time, Tratus plays like a turn-based boss in true RPG style–and defeating him was a matter of figuring out which attack he would do next, blasting him for as much damage as possible, and preventing him from healing himself.

Though the concept in Eat Lead is solid–with loving nods to everything from JRPGs to Super Mario Bros.–there were a few rough areas that we hope get attention before the game is released. Melee attacks, which you pull off in close quarters by pressing the X button, didn’t have much oomph to them and seemed pretty ineffective as well. In addition, though Hazard’s movements into and out of cover seemed smooth, he feels fairly stiff to us when running and shooting; a bit more responsiveness in the controls would be a welcome addition. If the gameplay manages to live up to Eat Lead’s satirical metaplot, it has a good chance at finding success. The game is due on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in early March.

This past weekend, 26 years after Sean Penn played a surfer dude, he won the Best Actor Academy Award for playing a gay dude. No offense against Penn’s slick portrayal of Harvey Milk, but the nonchalance of Jeff Spicoli is a bit more appealing to this land shark that’s more surf hodad than political poser.

The surf mentality epitomized by Fast Times at Ridgemont High has easily carried over into the current culture of snowboarding. This isn’t too surprising really, considering how skateboard and surfboard cultures are so closely aligned, and that snowboarding was born from one or both of these sports; depending on whom you ask (some claim the first snowboard was called the Snurfer—take that for what it’s worth).

Whatever snowboarding’s true roots may be, its more-extreme-than-skiing nature, juxtaposed with laid-back surf-dude personalities, has been captured well in video-game land. Games, such as SSX, Amped and 1080, have had their ups and downs gameplay-wise throughout their franchises, but the devil-may-care personality of the sport and its participants have always been consistently present.

The newest entrant into video-game boarding is Bongfish’s Stoked Reviews, a title that is in no way short on personality or extreme snow activities. The German-based (where I’ll assume “bong” means something entirely different) Bongfish decided to take a slightly different path down the mountain than current direct competitor Ubisoft. Whereas Ubi’s game revolves around the sport’s most popular athlete Shaun White, Stoked allied with Absinthe Films for its real-world edge.

While Absinthe/Stoked is a fine marriage for the hardcore/progressive boarder/video-game players out there, the tie-in is a bit lost for the casual snowboard game fan. Absinthe also has a heavy Euro slant (even though it does feature U.S. talent, too, such as Travis Rice), so some of the athletes, brands and culture featured in Stoked will be a bit more foreign—literally—to the Western crowd.

Although some of the hard-core rider/culture aspects of Stoked will be a bit unfamiliar to the gamer who knows little about the real sport, the actual gameplay put together by Bongfish is quite accessible. A very thorough tutorial, complete with pro-rider voiceovers and AI-run how-tos, is strong enough to turn beginners into intermediates, if all of the lessons are followed.

Tutorials and the act of generally getting users accustomed with how to play Stoked are areas where Bongfish’s boarder really outshines its Shaun White competition. Stoked takes learning how to snowboard very slowly, which further increases the player’s comfort level with how things work. It’s not that hard of a system—analog grabs with the right stick and trigger-button modifiers—but the progression system has been spread out in order to keep the learning curve extremely shallow.

Also helping to ease the pain of trying to learn the controls of yet another snowboarding game is something known as the Grab Bible. This is Bongfish’s slick term for “move list,” but it deserves such a catchy name because of how it has been designed and implemented. Separate grab categories make specific moves easy to find, and ultra-clean and concise graphics easily illustrate exactly what to do for every move.

The “bible” is accessed through a faux PDA of some sort. Now, normally this idea is a colossal failure in games, but Bongfish deserves credit for making Stoked’s PDA quite useful. The bible, a nifty mountain map, level objectives and even soundtrack playlists (yes, even these are quite functional and iPod-like in Stoked) are navigable and cleverly designed in the popular, handheld device format.

As mentioned, Stoked features a very methodical progression system aimed at making users feel comfortable with the controls and the physics of its engine. There’s the whole “do well to get sponsors and move up in the ranks” scenario that seems to make its way into everything from race sims to b-ballers. The sheer scale of the open-world mountains of Stoked keeps the progression toward being a pro—with a plethora of tricks in the bible and freebies on his back and feet—pretty much entertaining throughout. If the system does get boring, you can also jump online and ride with up to eight borders per session. This is a nice big group of boarders, especially when strewn about the large maps. The super-long runs possible on such a big mountain also afford a route-creation system for the multiplayer action. And if you needed more proof that Bongfish wants users to know what they’re doing before competing in Stoked, you won’t even be able to create a Live match without first finishing the (sometimes challenging) tutorials.

One big letdown of Stoked—big enough that you may get frustrated before progressing out of the amateur ranks—is that, even if you are perfectly trained in the controls, they don’t always give positive feedback via the character’s reactions. For one, it’s really hard to tell when a rider is loaded for a jump, and therefore attaining maximum velocity for the upcoming maneuver. Stoked also requires a pre-load ‘twist” for the kind of super spins that are standard in the less-sim board games out there. This is a unique feature, and one that looks good on paper, but the timing between the pre-loaded twist, the actual spin and the timing of the jump is so precise that it makes even the most basic trick a handful. The system is pretty reliable for those who practice at it, of course, but it seems to break down when the boarder is on an uneven surface or any surface that’s more of a map anomaly than a mountain feature.

As previously mentioned, Stoked’s PDA makes the ability to create genre-specific playlists quite a breeze. Even more surprising, however, may be the fact that the pre-loaded music of Stoked is quite a formidable and eclectic mix. I never would have expected such a “world” soundtrack outside of a FIFA game, but Bongfish really did diversify in the set. You may not find tons of well-known acts, but these groups are good enough to keep any moderate music fan enthused. Sound effects are solid, and the voice acting fares pretty decently, too. Although any time a pro athlete spews dialog in a game, there are going to be some hiccups. For instance, Wolle Nyvelt will talk you through the tutorials—and with good personality—but you’ll only understand about half of what he says unless you’ve been brushing up on your Austrian-derived German.

Visually, Stoked has more ups and downs than Blackcomb’s Superpipe. The upside is that things such as the user interface, the several-times-mentioned PDA system, the HUD and on-mountain icons are really sweet; art-direction slick, but user-friendly at the same time. The mountain also shows flashes of brilliance, especially those parts that are interfaced by the characters. Packed-down sections of snow made by multiple board passes are approaching Lost Planet quality when it comes to modifying frosty game bits. But the general visuals associated with each boarder and the basic features of the ginormous mountain are lackluster. Character models and texturing are just too basic for an extreme sports game in this day and age. There’s also a slight rigidness to the boarders’ animations, although I dug how the actual boards flex when under stress. The mountains suffer from a bit of a plain-Jane appearance, even though it’s obviously difficult to jazz up acres of frozen tundra. The active weather (and accompanying forecasts) system is decent, but trees popping in left and right is a real downer.

There are moments in Stoked when you’ll feel like it’s going to become that niche snowboarding game that all of the hip, young X360 players are going to play forever; like SSX back in the day. At other moments, though, you’ll feel as if you’re back on the chair lift awaiting the next run.

For every clean run Stoked makes toward it becoming the premier snowboarding game on the X360, there comes some slop that reminds you that the mountain is still open to any and all competitors.