In twenty two minutes of writing this blog it will strike midnight in the UK and will mark a decade of being a user on this website (September 21st). though this account is not my original one (I signed up as vengeance00 back in 2004 at the age of fifteen) I have been frequenting this site for many years and have seen people come and go and gotten used to I think three website changes. I've watched events coverage like E3 when Gamespot began streaming them live and seen a number of staff-produced shows aired and canceled. and unfortunately I've seen the dark moments as well, the accusations of bribery, targeted hatred and just general nastiness from both the members of the community and the gamespot crew themselves. but this site has continued to grow and change for the better and while everyone has a favourite site to get their news, I find myself drawn to this site time and again.

It has been fun Gamespot, lets see if you can make it another ten years with me!

While the core game play is solid, RAAM's Shadow may leave player feeling short-changed in the experience.

The Good:
*Solid game play expected from the series *Playing from the locust stand point is an interesting premise * New bosses as well as new ways to dispatch them *new skins for Locusts, COGs and weapons.

The Bad:
* RAAM sections feel linear and simplistic * Zeta team has little time for character development aside from outside sources.* Price maybe a bit steep for some.

Gears of War 3: RAAM's Shadow is the third DLC add on and first campaign add since the release of Gears of War 3 back in September, and while the game play is as good as it has always been the experience may leave players feeling short-changed on the additional features the campaign brings to the franchise.

The DLC focuses on the events after the initial emergence of the Locusts on E-Day, where Zeta Squad consisting of returning characters Tai Kaliso and Minh Young Kim as well as introducing Michael Barrick (from the comics) and DLC exclusive Alicia Valera. Tasked with helping with the evacuation of Ilima City four hours before the city is engulfed within a Kryll-storm, the gears find themselves in the path of the advancing vanguards of the Locust horde with General RAAM and its forefront.

In a series first the DLC allows the players to experience the war from the Locust's side in the role of RAAM himself and his elite body guard for co-op play, however despite the name the DLC focuses more on Zeta then it does on RAAM.

First is the Zeta squad side of the story.

While seeing of the last of the evacuees of their post, Zeta team come under attack from emerging locust forces. After surviving the attack but losing the last group of civilians to locusts, Zeta is ordered by command to search a nearby evacuation post that had lost contact with during the attack. After searching the area for survivors, the team are requested by Jace Stratton to find his friend Gregory Wilson and the children in his care before the Locust or Kryll get to them first.

The player plays as Michael Barrick for Zeta sections of the campaign, and goes through the standard motions that have been the staple for the series thus far. This includes fighting locust from street to street, the destroying of vital locust assets and the exploration of (should be) abandoned buildings. And like the previous three campaigns in the series it handles this well without feeling familiar of repetitive, even including new bosses and new ways of defeating old ones.

The DLC also of course features no Lambent and also the return of emergence holes from Gears 1 and 2 and depending on player skill, more difficult encounters then before as the game do longer has to do things progressively being a post campaign DLC. However the DLC story is a bit simplistic when compared to the other campaigns (and past campaign DLC for the previous games).

However the characters have little time or room for enough development, especially if the player has never played the previous games or read the comics in Michael's case. Most of the chatter is the same as what player have heard from Delta squad, and the development we do hear is little to no impact on the campaign or our interest for the characters.

Next is on to RAAM's side of the story.

After emerging onto the streets of Ilima City, RAAM is instructed by Queen Myrrah to safeguard the Tremor; a Boomer sized locust totting a large hammer capable of summoning seeders from the depths of Sera with a good few whacks. This is so the Kryll-Storm can move forward and overrun the city quickly killing every last man, woman and child within its borders.

RAAM, along with his personal guard (a Theron Elite with a Sawn off with a bayonet attackment and two Mauler elites with bullet deflecting shields) escort the Tremor from their emergence hole through a street littered with defended COG positions and barricades until the Tremor reaches his destination. At this point RAAM must defend the Tremor from an enemy counter-attack until the Seeder is summoned and can begin bloating out the sunlight. This is essentially what player does for the entire two sections of RAAM game play.

While playing as RAAM the player will notice several changes in game play from the standard Locust or Gear most notably the "Kryll-shroud" which acts like a cool-down ability rather then a gun. As RAAM is unable to run, roll or take cover, the Kryll-shroud gives the player immunity to most damage with fire and explosions being the shroud's weakness. Whenever the player takes hits from weapons like Boomshots, Scorchers and Silverback rockets, the Kryll are either killed or driven off from RAAM's person leaving him vulnerable to smaller arms fire. And being that RAAM's other weapon is his trusty serrated blade; this can leave the player in a tight spot especially if among the enemy forces.

The other ability of the shroud is that it allows RAAM to direct it like a Hammer of Dawn to attack distant COG soldiers, however this removes the shroud in order for the Kryll to go and attack. The attack can last up to about 12 seconds, and when depleted or ended early will leave RAAM without his shroud for an addition 3-5 seconds.

When RAAM isn't commanding his Kryll he's busy decapitating and impaling his victims with his serrated blade (the same one he uses to kill Kim back in Gears of war 1). This works similar to the clever weapon but has unlimited use and also sports a charge move likened to the retro-lancer's bayonet charge making it a pretty handy way to move around quicker. A single swing of the blade will knock down all cog soldiers with two to three swings to bring down a silverback. RAAM also sports two executions, the quick tap being the curb-stomp and the held down execution has RAAM pick up his foe by the head and decapitating him whilst muttering something along the lines of "Die Groundwalker".

While it is fun to play as RAAM the experience does feel a bit empty with the lack of weaponry at RAAM's disposal, in fact when encountering RAAM in the Zeta team side of the campaign he is able to throw a grenade that I call a "Kryll-grenade". Upon impact it leaves an area of effect attack like an ink-grenade but instead of toxic gas it attracts Kryll to the area attacking anyone who stands in it. Even if they manage to leave the infected area the Kryll continue their assault usually until the player is knocked down.

It is also disappointing that RAAM is unable to pick up mounted turrets from and bag emplacements and use them single handed like in Gears of War 1, giving it limited ammo would help with balancing issues that may have occurred. In addition I felt that there were too few COG soldiers in RAAM's sections of the campaign, especially when three of the four Locusts are able to deflect/ignore most damage from the front.

The campaign is listed to give up to three hours of gameplay at the cost of 1200 Microsoft points (or $15/£10) or free with the Season pass. The DLC also includes six new character skins (Tai Kaliso, Minh Young Kim, Michael Barrick, Alicia Valera, RAAM and Theron Elite) and the Chocolate weapon skin for versus, horde and beast game modes.

DUKE NUKEM: FOREVER

Pros:

Fast paced action.nice range of unique guns.

duke's one liners and other pop culture references.

sections of the game when you shrink are fun to play.

plays like a classic shooter rather then a modern shooter.

Cons:

Long load times.

some have mentioned framrate issues but i didn't come across it.

2007 graphics if you care so much about them.

SCORE - 6.5/10

BRINK

Pros:

Surprisingly well balanced ****s and body types.

promotes teamwork without making it a chore.

Decent amount of customizability.

Free-running is great once you've gotten used to it.

All game modes can be done cooperatively.

Cons:

Story line is sub-par at best.

twitchy AI bots - switches from docile cow to rampaging bull.

Poor party management issues – no in-game lobbies, randomly denying players to join (my level 20 character couldn't join my friends level 16 but he could join me).

Engineer turrets are hit and miss – will randomly ignore enemies.

Sessions go from no lag to game crippling lag (when it rains, it pours).

SCORE - 8/10

if anyone wants to add me my username is karloss01 (like my gamespot one).

WARNING: will contain spoilers of several games and/or series. Will be marked with caps SPOILERS and SPOILERS END in case you still want to read on.

For the past sixteen years I've played a lot of games (still haven't finished adding to my collection log) and I've played the good, the bad and the awesome of many of the mainstream and those that didn't even get a mention during their time. But the memories of those games live on in not just me, but many gamers who had also experienced the lost treasures of the past (and present). As I wrote this entry I had notepad open adding games that I remember for being outstanding games but was dropped for different reasons. So below are some ofthe games and series that deserve a sequel in my book.

CHAKAN: THE FOREVER MAN

Not well known amongst the gaming community, Chakan the forever man was a Sega mega drive (and game gear) game released in 1992 based on a comic series of the same name by R.A.K comics. Ed Annunziata (who also headed echo the dolphin) saw the comic at a convention and was impressed with the work, offered to make a video game adaptation of the series. The game was unique platform game as many at the time were based on popular children's cartoons and comics, the game had a dark feel to it with it's dull colour palette and well developed (for a mega drive game) story line. To give an idea what I'm on about here is a quick summery on the story of the game.

SPOILERS

(beginning dialogue of the game)

It has been long…

So very long…

I have hunted evil for no more then a thousand years.

Yet, I remember well how this pain started… as though it was just yesterday.

When my blood was warm, I was a great warrior. Neither man nor beast could best me in mortal combat.

Then, in my arrogance, I said one day even death himself will bow before my swords…

He smiled and said, from a man of death, from death himself, a wager. If you win, eternal life is yours. If I win, your soul is mine to do with as I wish. Foolishly I accepted…

With sword and spell, we clashed toe to toe. The world trembled at our unleashed powers.

I attacked with such fury and might, that even death was taken aback, and then, incredibly felled!

I toppled the master and he granted my reward.

I am cursed to live until all supernatural evil is destroyed.

I hunt…

And fight…

And kill…

Until the end of my curse.

Only then will I be able to seek solitude and forever rest.

(extra bit from the booklet)

"You are a tactful swordsman, so I will not renege on our wager. I grant you the kiss of eternal life, but, for your arrogance and pride I will temper my gift with this curse. Each nightfall, evils will be shown to you, and the pain of their victims will be your pain. You will never know rest as you wander this world searching to slay the horrors that haunt your sleeping world. You will suffer grievous wounds, but you will not die, and as eternity rolls on, you crave my touch. Your face will bear my visage, and your eyes will burn with hellfire. Let it not be said that I am without mercy. There shall be an end to your curse, if all the beasts of the dark are slain, then you may find rest."

(The ending dialogue of the game.)

The mocking laughter of the dark one, Death!

Chakan, it has taken you a long time to come to this...

You said… You said when all of the beasts of the dark were slain, then I would have my rest.

Hah, hah, hah, hah… let me now show you the totality of your curse, Chakan.

Look above you.

See the countless stars above…

Each surrounded by worlds like yours…

Worlds thick with supernatural evils.

They are so many and so far away, and you are stuck on this mote of dust waiting to reach them…

Waiting such a long, long time…

Waiting forever.

Not all evil has been destroyed!!!

SPOILERS END

That's the storyline without adding on the comics or the descriptions of the eight bosses in the game. Even without the story line this game was know for pure difficulty, the game was surprisingly hard for it's time with few getting past the first four bosses (as many would play practice mode which gave you infinite potions but only allowed you to go halfway through the game).

Only till recently I was able to beat the game and that was because I used an emulator so I could come back to it instead of dedicating an entire day to it. But even with a modern age handicap it still proved to but as and fun and as hard as I remembered it. This game did have a sequel in development in 2001 but became vapourware and eventually absorbed into the non-canon game Legacy of Kain: Blood omen 2.

In terms of ideas for a sequel, the developers had a similar idea to what I had for the series. It would be several thousand years and eventually humanity is able to travel the stars and Chakan will finally be able to slowly (but surely) cleanse the universe of all supernatural evil so that he could finally rest. The game would go into a sort of Sci-fi genre with swords and spells thrown in. with my idea though each of the levels would be a small sandbox world which would allow Chakan more and more access depending on what items he has collected from his journeys around space, such as a cloak so that he can walk freely among non-hostile citizens of these different worlds and species. It would work similar to devil may cry and god of war but be more on seriousness and platforming instead of combat taking all the glory.

LEGACY OF KAIN

A series that has had relative success but has yet to see a sequel on the current generation consoles, with five in the series the game tells a story involving time travel, fate and self control over one's destiny. Between the five games you play to protagonists – Kain the title character and first on to be played in the series (Blood omen, blood omen 2 and Defiance) and Raziel a 'good guy' turned 'bad guy', turned unwilling pawn (Soul reaver, Soul Reaver 2 and Defiance). Each have similar abilities as both are (were in Raziel's case) vampires but have distinct differences. While Kain was similar to the traditional vampire (drinks blood, turn into a bat) with some extra abilities like turning into mist and telekinesis to name a few, raziel is a undead wraith feasting on souls instead of blood and able to jump between living world (material) and the spirit world (spectral).

And while the story; voice acting and atmosphere were solid through out each game, the game play went up and down but never to terrible. For blood omen it was a above head RPG like game, Soul reaver 1 and 2 were free open world 3rd person games, blood omen 2 was a chapter based 3rd person and Defiance a DMC like game (in camera and feel).

A sequel was in discussion as leaked concept art and 3d renders titled "legacy of Kain: The dark prophecy" the team had several hiccups and setbacks along the way. First and foremost Crystal Dynamics were but in charge of the Tomb Raider Franchise after core designs made a poor attempt with angel of darkness and for the time being had been working it seems solely on this franchise. Second Amy Henning the writer and director of the series (from soul reaver 1) left the team to work with naughty dog to write and direct uncharted 1 and 2. Lastly Tony Jay, voice of the Elder god (seen as the main antagonist) who has been in all five games died in 2006 at age 73, and with his distinctive baritone voice he will be a very difficult man to replace and give his character justice.

SPOILERS

Now to recap the ending of defiance.

Having discovered that Raziel had a choice in his fate, Raziel purified his soul reaver and sacrificed himself to Kain's reaver in order to purify and create a holy weapon that not only had incredible power but was able to open its wielder's eyes to the spirit world. This allowed Kain to finally see the one responsible for the events that had happened, with his new blade he was able to hurt the elder god and fend off his attacks.

After escaping the elder god's attempt to bury Kain alive, he looked out to rest of the world and thought of Raziel's sacrifice now knowing what he needs to do to put an end to this fight. Raziel gave what Kain had lost a long time ago, the first bitter taste of hope.

SPOILERS END

The game does need a sequel, one more to wrap up the loose ends of the plot and an ending to it. To me it's the equivalent to Shakespeare's writings for the gaming scene, not as recognised as others and is still a game I measure others to in terms of story. Here is a sample of the writing from soul reaver 2

Kain: Thirty years hence, I am presented with a dilemma... let's call it a two-sided coin. If the coin falls one way, I sacrifice myself and thus restore the Pillars... but as the last surviving vampire in Nosgoth, this would mean the annihilation of our species... Moebius made sure of that. If the coin lands on the reverse, I refuse the sacrifice and thus doom the Pillars to an eternity of collapse. Either way, the game is rigged.

Raziel: We agree then that the Pillars are crucial and must be restored.

Kain: Yes, Raziel, that is why we've come full-circle to this place.

Raziel: So after all this, you make my case for me. To end this stalemate, you must die so that new Guardians can be born.

Kain: The Pillars don't belong to them, Raziel... they belong to us.

Raziel: Your arrogance is boundless, Kain.

Kain: There's a third option, a monumental secret hidden in your very presence here. But it's a secret you have to discover for yourself. Unearth your destiny, Raziel. It's all laid out for you here.

Raziel: You said it yourself, Kain... there are only two sides to your coin.

Kain: Apparently so, but suppose you throw a coin enough times... suppose one day, it lands on its edge.

FUTURE COP: LAPD

Just want to mention that this is on the play station store, don't know which one as I have the original copy.

Released in 1998, Future Cop was a 3rd person mech game developed and published by electronic arts and released for the Playstation, Mac and PC. The story was a day in the life of a pilot of a mech called X1-Alpha a highly advanced police mech that could transform into a hover car and armed to the teeth to deal with the apocalyptic city of Los Angeles. Other then that the game took a arcade feel to the story (being none) and concentrated on gameplay.

The single player (and co-op mode) contained 8 unique levels each fighting a different bad guy from mad scientist to hardened mob boss to a supercomputer. The mech itself was armed with three sets of weapons and rapid fire weapon (gatling lasers, machines guns and lightning gun), heavy weapon (hellfire rockets, concussion beam, fusion torpedoes) and finally special weapon (mortar, shockwave generator, mines). When you have co-op enabled, both players share a single health bar so if one dies it's restart, which is a good way to encourage team work and evading incoming fire.

The next part is the multiplayer, though only two players the game is more then just a simple death match. The game mode is called Precinct Assault and can be played with one player as well. The aim of the game is to destroy the enemy base by getting one of you tanks into the enemy's base, however this is not as easy as it sounds.

Across the maps (five in total) are turrets, outposts and power-ups each could be taken by pressing the action button (L1) and power-ups simply by moving over them. taking turrets and destroying enemy ones earn you one point while killing the opposing player earn ten and takes ten of the player (to the minimum of 0) this allows you to form an offensive by buying tanks (1 point per tank to the max of 20) or you can boost your defence by building attack helicopters (same price and restriction as tanks) that attack any enemy that comes close enough to your base. Finally you can spend 30 points on an outpost; there are four outposts (usually one in each corner of the map) which defend the left and right hand side of the main bases. These can be bought next to the enemy so that tanks can be deployed close to the enemy, however they cost double points (2) you can also invade their airspace a little by doing the same with the helicopters.

One last thing to mention on the multiplayer is the super units, when you reach 50 points you gain access to the flying fortress and Juggernaut which you can have only one of each. The flying fortress defends it's teams half of the map so if both have them deployed they can get into dog fights with each other, while the juggernaut is the same as it's smaller brothers but can deal and take a lot more damage and if taken lightly can destroy a player several times over. Both these can only be deployed from the main base and not an outpost.

For the single player part of Precinct Assault, the player faces sky captain who unlike the player has a gun ship and if damaged or runs out of ammo can go behind his base and automatically rearm and heal. There are ten modes of difficulty in which to beat him and you can do this on all five maps (a total of 50 times to beat him) beating him on the first four maps gains you entry to the last map which in my opinion is worth the work.

Other then a lack of story line the game was very enjoyable in both single and multiplayer. The soundtrack was superb and game had quite a few funny moments. From internet chatter it seemed that this game ranked well with reviewers, if I can remember 90% from the official Playstation magazine (and gamespot gave this a 7 with the only flaw being restarting a level when dying) but the game got little advertising and thus wasn't thrust into the spotlight so sales were poor.

These are a few games that stand out to me most for a sequel, at the high end of gaming quality.

So do you the readers have any long lost favourites you would like to see the return of? perhaps Little Big Adventure or Call of Cthulhu? leave a comment to let me know :D

Ladies and gentlemen this is the first blog entry I've ever done and I wanted to address something that I think has whittled down through the development of online gaming. You see I've played games since I was pretty much born, my dad had bought a Sega Master system which he played while tending to me when I was a couple of months old. I liked the colours he says but really it was just so he could unwind and spend time with his son. At 3 years old (1992 and the year my younger sister was born) I was old enough to be able to play with a controller and at that time I was playing sonic the Hedgehog on the Sega Mega Drive.

Now skip a few years and with the Playstation out was the first console that I owned myself and not inherited off my dad. Some of the first games I got Tomb Raider (1+2), Mortal Kombat trilogy are the ones I remember most fondly, though Mortal Kombat completely own me. During this time I had a good group of friends (who I still hang out with) and we'd go to each others houses and play to death every multiplayer game there was. Many years were spent playing Crash team racing, Perfect dark and Golden Eye before it, having loser goes off if more then four of us came over at once. We even played single player games together; Soul Reaver for one was one that we played together figuring out each of the bosses' weaknesses and finding the hidden glyph shrines. Through my high school years we'd hook consoles up and play Halo 2 eight player (12 if we were all available) into the night (usually finishing a session at midnight).

However those days are far behind, my friends have gone to universities up and down the country and now we have online multiplayer. I'm not saying that online capability is a bad thing, what I'm saying is that it's a bad thing if it's the only way to play with your friends. To my knowledge Halo 3 is the only multiplayer game that supports 4 player splitscreen and online play at the same time, If I want to play modern warfare with my friends I can't simply throw them a controller and they jump into online multiplayer the next time I'm in a lobby if they want to play they need to go home and play from there. I don't think removing splitscreen from games is a good idea; it excludes people who may not own a console but would like to play when they come over.

In my mind games should always add, not take away from what its successors had. Co-op hasn't suffered the same fate as splitscreen which intrigues me, why keep one and throw away the other? Now one answer could be simply balance issues for example if one of four players were placed on the opposite team, the other three would have an advantage over the other team simply because three of a six man team (going by halo 3) can see through the eyes of one of the six enemies they're facing. But really that is just bad match making and not the players' faults, match making so that it perfectly fits several groups of four into games perfectly should really of been the correction if that was the problem.

What do you, the reader think about splitscreen? Should it be excluded from games (online or offline)?