Up until a week ago, LAIR was going to be the game that I purchased... but then I saw how Warhawk was coming. So, I decided, "Well, If I'm going to get a game, I should probably get the multiplayer one first so that I don't fall behind in skill." So after school yesterday, I began my quest to find a copy of Warhawk.

I drove into the Best Buy parking lot, turned off the car, stepped out, and walked into the cool, air-conditioned building, walked to the games section, and cried on the inside. They had no copies of Warhawk left, though strangely there were a whole mess of Bioshock copies. Whether this is just because of an overstocking of Bioshock and an understocking of Warhawk or just because more people bought Warhawk, who knows. Anyway, so I went home, pretty depressed. Then I though, "Wait, I should call Software Etc. and see if they have any copies."

So I gave them a call and they had just two copies left. I rushed to the mall and when I arrived, I bought the last copy. After picking up my brother from one of his activities, we went home, shoveled down dinner and began our play-a-thon of Warhawk.

All I can say is... WOW. This game is one of the funnest I've ever played. It's multiplayer only, as most of you probably know, but one of the cool things about it is that you can play split-screen online. So, you and three other friends can play with other people on other consoles from one console, a feature that Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal and Ratchet: Deadlocked had as well.

Actually, now that I think about it, Warhawk is a lot like the Ratchet games' multiplayer, but it does pretty much everything the Ratchet and Clank games tried to do, but better. It actually seems like Incognito tried to do this on purpose. Let's see... Ratchet and Clank was sort of big on flying, which Warhawk does, only it's more refined and offers an actually flight mode and not just a hover mode. Also, the game is in Third Person, though Warhawk does its Third Person mode better (partly because of the type of weapons that Warhawk uses compared to Ratchet and Clank's somewhat inaccurate weapons).In the Zone mode of Warhawk, your base gains power-ups over time just like your Nodes in Ratchet and Clank's Node game mode. That's about where the similarities end, but still, it's kind of amazing how much the two are like and how Warhawk does it sooooo much better.

Getting into a game is really easy. You can easily filter out the games you don't want to see. It also offers the ping, which many online Console games don't seem to show. This is nice, though, from how much I've played, there is no lag! Absolutely no lag what-so-ever. This is big for me because almost every online game I've played, I've gotten loads of lag and this is the first I've been able to play lag-free.

There are only five maps, though there are many different variations of these. If you only want to use a small portion of the map, you can just use a small portion of a map. However, if you really want to have some fun, you have to play with lots of players on huge maps.

The sound is fine, nothing spectacular. The theme music is kind of cool, but besides that, you won't hear anything all that exciting or moving.

The game has pretty good graphics and animations and such. I mean, it's not really supposed to be a mile-stone for graphics, but the textures are pretty good and I like games like this that use more than just three colors *cough* Gears of War *cough* Killzone 2 *cough* Sorry about that. I must have a cold. Anyway, there aren't really any animations because of the online nature of the game, but when you blow up somebody's Warhawk, their body is ejected. I was standing on a bridge and all of the sudden I hear this explosion and this body falls on the ground next to me. It was hilarious! I had a good laugh about that.

The game isn't that hard to get into. The Motion Sensing controls are off by default and I like it that way. I don't really like flying with the Sixaxis, though you adjust the Sensitivity, which I haven't tried yet. However, when you turn on Sixaxis control, it turns it on for ALL vehicles, which, if you don't want to use it for ground vehicles, is kind of annoying. However, as long as you DON'T turn on motion controls, you'll be fine. The controls are pretty basic. R1 to fire your main weapon and L1 to throw a grenade/use secondary weapon, depending on the situation. O is to crouch, X is jump, Square is to enter a vehicle/climb ladder/enter turret/etc., and... you get the idea. Not much to figure out and all of the controls are in the controller menu and the manual that came with the physical version of the game.

My only gripes are the lack of classes (all weapons are picked up in game, like Resistance) and that ground combat is mostly ignored by everybody else because everybody just hops right into a Warhawk. This may change over time because the appeal of flying a Warhawk might lessen or it may not. I'm not saying that flying the Warhawks is boring, it's just not all that immersive when every single character is in the sky and almost nobody is on the ground. Maybe it's just me though...

Anyway, this game is incredibly and this is a must buy for anybody who owns a PS3. It's got great sound, amazing multiplayer, interesting graphics, incredibly fun gameplay, and is just all around a great deal for $60 (or $40, whichever version you buy). I'll have my full review up later. Until then, see you next time.

--dewmandew7, Free Lance Writer

Dewmandew7's Score:

7.0

Good

The Good

Amazing graphics * Combos are somewhat entertaining to watch * Excellent replay value

The Bad

Just another button mashing Beat 'Em Up * Generic gameplay * Generic enemies * Incredibly short

NOTE: The word that is starred out is stile (with a y instead of an i). I didn't want to go through that whole paragraph looking like I spelled it wrong, so I'm noting it here. I cannot use the word for formatting reasons. Please try to stomach through it.

On July 26th, 2007, Sony released a demo to one of the most highly anticipated games of the year for the PS3. The game in question is Heavenly Sword, a game starring Nariko, a female ninja-warrior-type person. It's essentially a button masher. Think God of War, but with a girl instead. As much as people want to believe it isn't a God of War-clone, it is. Now, on with the review of the demo.

The demo starts with a cutscene hinting at what the story's about, but not really telling you anything that interesting. It opens up with Nariko talking to this weird little Gollum-like girl named Kai. Nariko tells her to go keep watch and then says something about a Twing Twaang (bizarre, no?). She then goes off to apparently find her father. The whole story is pretty hushed up in the demo, but that's besides the point. You may have half a mind to skip the opening cutscene but you're actually better off watching it. It takes about as long to load the game after you skip the cutscene as it does to actually watch it, which leads one to believe that the opening cutscene isn't real time and I'll tell you why.

The graphics are amazing! This is immediately evident as the opening cutscene ends and goes to Nariko standing and overlooking the terrain from a cliff. Everything is incredibly detailed. Nariko's hair sways in the wind, all of the different ponytails moving independent of each other. The environments are beautiful. There are waterfalls cascading down a cliff and... get this... a rainbow that fades out or becomes more solid looking as you change the camera angle. The draw distance is amazing. You can see for what looks like miles. Now, after you're done looking in awe at the visuals, you realise you have something to do.

The sound is better than average, but it's nothing special. You get one song for the demo. There is a bit of background voice-over. The sound effects are rather generic. Don't expect any amazing soundtrack or anything.

The first action in the demo involves you running down a rope connected to and supporting a pillar off in the distance. You tap the X button repeatedly to run but then, what's this? There are enemies on the pillar below you! They see you coming and start chopping the ropes. You have to jump between the ropes. You perform actions on the ropes God of War-esque **** by pressing the buttons indicated. You press the left and right buttons to jump between the ropes, which I thought was strange, because it seemed like that would a much more Sixaxis-appropriate control. However, do not fret. There is plenty of Sixaxis control, which I will get to in a minute. So, you keep running down the rope and eventually come to a pillar, where you body slam the jerk (read: axe wielding enemy)who keeps chopping the ropes on you off the pillar (most deliciously evil). From there, your first moments of combat start.

What can I say, the combat is just like God of War's. You have two attack buttons. Triangle is an undercut-type attack and square is your average slash.Besides this default Speed "Stance", as the game refers to the different fighting stances, there are two other stances. One of the stances is a power stance where Nariko will combine the two swords into one and use the sword more like a warhammer (it is a big sword). This makes her much slower, but her attacks are much more powerful. There is also a range stance, which will have Nariko throwing her swords at her enemies. Each complementary stance is entered by holding down R1 and L1 respectively. There are many different combos. The normal ones for each stance aren't particularly outstanding. Just your generic combos. However, when you start using your aerial combos, it gets a lot more exciting. By holding down L1 and clicking Triangle, you may (or may not) throw an enemy into the air. After this happens, quickly move the Sixaxis upwards. Nariko will leap into the air where you can beat the living snot out of said enemy. The combos are pretty exciting and entertaining to watch, one involving a kick right in the crotch (poor guy). Now, rounding off the list of attacks are the super****. You only get one type during the demo, which involves tapping circle. You power up your super****move by counterattacking and pulling off combos. There are three spheres in the small HUD showing Nariko's health. When one sphere has been lit up, you can pull off a level one super**** However, this only dispatches one enemy. Having two or three spheres lit up let's you do the level two and level three super**** respectively. These ones will also knock the enemies around you off their feet. Now that we're on the subject of enemies, let's talk about them. There are three types of enemies: enemies without shields, enemies with shields, and enemies with axes that you don't get to fight. Yes, very generic. There isn't even any difference between the enemies within these three types. All enemies of the same type look exactly the same. You can pretty much beat the crap out of the shieldless enemies. The shielded enemies, on the other hand, must be knocked off guard. Certain combos will accomplish this for you. Finally, the axe enemies only receive short cameos in the demo and you never get to fight them.

Now, after you've dispatched the enemies on the pillar (whether by tossing them off or outright killing them), you cut the final rope keeping the pillar from toppling to the ground. This causes the lower ropes to snap and the pillar begins to fall down to the ground below before landing right in the middle of an open air building and a couple poor dudes' arm wrestling match. It's a pretty cool moment, however. Anyway, after you've killed all of the enemies down there, axe enemies break through a door nearby and...

The demo ends. Just like that. You go from being "All-right! I get to fight some axe-dudes!" to "What!? That was the shortest demo I've ever played in my life!". Yes, the demo that takes up 1 GB of space takes three to five minutes to complete. However, it has a load of replay value. It's fun to go back through and see all of the different combos. After you've done that, however, you can delete the demo. I suppose you could call it fun, but this demo didn't make me want to buy the game for $60. As this is only a demo, certain things about it could change before the game is released, but as it is set to release in September, major changes are unlikely. I may pick the game up after it becomes a Greatest Hit (which, with the massive hype-train behind it, it will) and it's $30. However, that will be a while. Besides, there are already loads of other amazing games coming out this fall/holiday, so I'm not complaining. If you agree/disagree with my review or have something to add, post a comment. Thanks for you time.

--dewmandew7, Free Lance Writer

On June 25th, as you all know, Gamespot revamped their reviews to use ratings in 0.5 increments as well as medals for games that are outstanding in some area or another. Many people have complained about this, saying that it will be harder to distinguish between two different versions of the game or, more accurately, saying that it will give users less ammunition in the System Wars forum. I, however, applaud the new system.

Unlike the last system, this system rates the games based on their overall quality, rather than throwing a bunch of different scores together, averaging them, and then regurgitating a new number. Before, the graphics was worth one-fifth the score. However, as we all know, just because a game doesn't exactly have graphics befitting the system it's on, it doesn't mean the game should be docked down two points. Also, a game that is really boring and not a lot of fun to play shouldn't have its rating jacked up because it has outstanding graphics. With this system, Gamespot can rank the game based on how much they enjoyed it and then later award the game Kudo points in the form of medals if the game did something particularly well. This is very, well evidenced by my recent review of Final Fantasy X. I loved the game and would have most likely given the game a 9.0, but based on slightly outdated graphics and a couple other problems that I had to lower scores for, my overall score didn't accurately depict how I felt about the game. This is why the new review system makes more sense. Now, seeing as Gamespot has this great new review system, why isn't it available for users yet?

Giving users the ability to use the same format for the reviews as the Gamespot professionals has many benefits. First, if they allowed us to use the summary "Good" and "Bad" about the game would make users actually think about what they liked and didn't like about the game instead of them just rating everything a 10 and typing "Ths g@me roxxorz!!!!11!!!!!1 U shud get it oor ur stoopid!!!11!1!" and then copying and pasting five times. This would encourage users to be honest about their opinion of the game and keep them from spouting off nonsense. Second, if Gamespot allowed users to award games medals, they could have a counter showing how many users gave a game a certain medal and what percentage of total reviews that is. Also, users would be much more excited about writing reviews so that they could award medals and they may just learn a few things about proper writing. Yeah, I know... it'll never happen. Third, if Gamespot allowed us to use images in our reviews as they do, the user would have an easier time getting their point across. They'd be able to show what they're trying to say is so cool instead of just writing about it. Finally, Gamespot would do well to let the user use the 0.5 increment rating system instead of the five categories because users will be able to rate a game more accurately. Instead of just rating things higher to raise the overall score, they could just rate it based on how much they enjoyed the game, instead of just falsely rating one aspect to raise the game's overall score. By bringing this review format to the user, Gamespot could bring in a whole new generation of reviewers.

Of course, as always, allowing users to use this format would have some problems, though they'd be just as bad as the last format's. Obviously some people would just rate games incredibly low or incredibly high when it's not deserved and then award the game all of the good medals or all of the bad medals and then not even give a reasonable excuse for giving them these medals. However, the problem could be partly mended by raising the required Gamespot level to about 7, thus sifting out the people that really just want to annoy others. Also, the fact that users have to write "The Good" and "The Bad" about the game will make them realise that Dance Dance Revolution doesn't exactly have "Technically Proficient Graphics". I don't think Gamespot has anything to worry about if they just change the level requirement to write a review slightly.

In conclusion, Gamespot's new review system is perfect for the task of rating all of these coming diversified games. Now that we have a huge variety of games coming out, it's time that Gamespot revamped their reviews and reviewed the games a little differently, especially now that the age of casual gaming has come about in which many times the games have sub-par graphics or sub-par sound or cost a little more than they're worth, but the games still have an enjoyable experience. This allows Gamespot to rate the games based on how much fun they were, and then reward them later in the form of medals. I think Gamespot made a good choice switching to this format and I hope they bring it to the users soon as well.

Overall Score:

9.0

Editors' Choice

The Good:

More accurately reviews games based on how much fun they are * Rewards games with "medals" to show outstanding aspects of the game * Allows games that are less than suitable in some area to receive a decent score

The Bad:

No user created content.