Battlefield 3 is getting its first DLC, called Back To Karkand, which brings back old Battlefield 2 maps, weapons and vehicles into the Battlefield 3 era. We’ve gotten our hands on Back To Karkand, and we’ve got a review for you.

First the basics: if you pre-ordered or own a copy of Battlefield 3 Limited Edition, you’ll get Back To Karkand for free, otherwise, it’ll cost you $15. Now the contents: Back to Karkand includes 4 new maps, 10 new weapons, and 3 new vehicles. Hardly a lot for $15 bucks, but as we found out, there’s a lot of quality in Back To Karkand.

First, the maps: Strike At Karkand, Wake Island, Sharqi Peninsula, and Gulf of Oman. If you’ve played BF2, you’ll know that these are classics, and when it comes to Strike At Karkand, it’s one of the most popular multiplayer maps over the past 10 years in any game. The Battlefield 3 versions of the maps add destruction, and of course, much better visuals. Gameplay wise, the maps retain their well known paths and choke points, and feel very familiar. One thing we liked is that some of the maps, like Karkand, include more than the 3 usual capture points that are found in regular BF3 maps.

There are 10 new weapons to be unlocked, but in order to unlock them, you have to complete one “assignment” per weapon — 10 in total. We liked this idea of having to actually earn a weapon rather than just rake in kills in unlock. Vehicle wise, we have one new jet, the F35, a new APC, the BTR-90, and the DPV buggy. Not a lot, but it’s still better than nothing.

Overall, Back To Karkand is an awesome add-on for Battlefield 3, especially if you’re getting it for free. Some of the maps, like Wake Island, felt noticeably smaller than their original counterparts, and the new vehicles, besides the F35 jet, don’t feel like enough to justify a $15 price tag. But the maps, the Battlefield gameplay, and the new weapons are just what Battlefield 2 veterans need.

The Good:
Solid Battlefield gameplay
Great nostalgia feel with old BF2 maps
Maps are well made, look great and play great
Free (if you own a Limited Edition copy of BF3)

The Bad:
Doesn’t feel like enough content if you’re paying $15 for it.
A few gameplay glitches here and there.

Overall score: 9/10

The PlayStation 3 featured the best looking racing game after it launched: MotorStorm, the first party Sony title offered some of the biggest thrills and stunning visuals in a racing game. The third entry into the series, MotorStorm Apocalypse, is set during the apocalypse where the racing tracks are constantly affected by the environment — everything from earthquakes to tornadoes will do their job at making the gameplay more hectic and tense.

MotorStorm Apocalypse is set in a large city which has been evacuated due to an earthquake. The empty city now makes for a grand racing track for off-road racers. The story follows a group of racers who venture inside the city to compete in tournaments. The story is quite thin, but then again, this is a racing game and the story isn’t meant to do anything but guide you from race to race, which the story in MotorStorm Apocalypse does well (and does with a nice graphic novel style).

Gameplay wise, if you’re familiar with the hectic MotorStorm gameplay, you’ll be pleased to know that the Apocalypse follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, and even pushes it further with a new mode called Festival, which pits everyone into the same race: motorcycles, ATVs, cars, buggies, trucks, and Monster Trucks, all competing alongside each other. The tracks are exciting in one sense: the tracks are dynamic, which means there’s always something going on, maybe an earthquake changes the course or blocks a road, a skyscraper topples over, or a plane crashes. This forces you to stay on your toes at all times and pay attention, which adds even more tension to the thrilling gameplay. Multiplayer wise, there’s up to four player spit screen more, or online which supports up to 16 players, which also offers persistence and unlocks. Online multiplayer, especially when you find a great match with 16 players, is one of the best multiplayer racers you can play.

Visually, the game looks great, but not that much better than the previous MotorStorm offerings, but this time, it also supports 3D. The track design is varied and offers a lot of replay value. There are a few issues with the game though, most noticeably, the car physics. Some times, a much smaller vehicle can block or cause a larger vehicle to spin, and sometimes a small bump on the road can cause you to lose control, while large boulders from an earthquake don’t affect you at all. This kind of inconsistency with the physics can be frustrating at times. Also, loading times tend to go on for a while. Overall, MotorStorm Apocalypse will surely please fans of the series, especially if you own a 3D TV.

The Good:
Great gameplay
Interesting race tracks
Awesome online multiplayer
Great visuals

The Bad:
Not much gameplay innovation
Physics are frustrating at times
Long loading times

Overall score: 8/10

It’s not hard to find a decent online multiplayer shooter, whatever you style is. There’s Bad Company 2 for the realistic FPS, Call of Duty for those wanting a faster pace, Team Fortress 2 for those who want a cartoony styled fun, and of course, classics like Counter-Strike are always popular. Brink manages to incorporate elements from all of those games, while adding a few of its new ideas. In theory, this should work very well. But theory is different from practice, and Brink is a solid proof of that.

Brink is developed by Splash Damage, which recently did Quake Wars, so they’re certainly competent when it comes to multiplayer shooters. Brink is set in the future, where the remaining humans are stuffed in a city block called “The Ark”, and you fight as either The Security Forces or the Rebels. There isn’t much of a story here, but there really isn’t a need, since it’s a multiplayer shooter. The campaign can be completed with humans or bots, but don’t expect much help from the AI. Multiplayer wise, there are 8 maps, and each map has a different objective. The maps are very varied and stylized, and we loved the new “parkour” style gameplay where you can climb and slide all over the map. The only thing we found limiting is the player count: only 16 players online are supported, which doesn’t feel like enough in these days when 32 or 24 players are the norm.

You can customize your character quite a lot by unlocking new items, completing certain challenges etc. The customization part is great, and it’s something a lot of shooters are gravitating towards these days (even failed ones like APB). You not only unlock looks, but skills and weapons as well. There are 4 classes, Soldier, Medic, Operative and Engineer, each with their job to do in a particular mission. One of the exciting new aspects is that you can chose a specific body type, large, medium or skinny, each with their own advantages and disadvantages — the large body isn’t as fast as nimble as the skinny one, but can take more damage, while the medium is just… medium — and kinda boring.

Visually, Brink separates itself from other FPS shooters by having a somewhat comic style, somewhere in between the “realistic look” and the “Team Fortress 2 look”, and the game’s cell shaded looks add to the overall style and aesthetics, which add a lot of originality to the game. However, the quality of the graphics isn’t that high, textures are somewhat low res, effects are uninspiring etc. Overall, the graphics, including the sounds effects, kinda feel dated. Worse, we’ve experience a lot of connection and networking issues with the game, something the developer promised to patch soon.

Overall, Brink promised to deliver lots of new features to the multiplayer FPS scene, but overall, those new features don’t make a big impact. Worse, the nuts and bolts of the gameplay feel saggy and behind most contemporary shooters. We’d wait about buying Brink until it’s gotten a few patches. And a few price slashes.

The Good:
Great character customization
“Parkour”-style movements add an interesting level to the gameplay
Interesting visual style/aesthetics

The Bad:
Lots of lag
Gameplay still feels dated
Graphics look dated
Limited amount of players online
Only 8 maps
Bad AI

Overall score: 4/10

When the Conduit was first revealed for the Wii, it didn’t even have a publisher, but managed to get a lot of attention, enough to get a publisher, finish and ship the game. And while the end product wasn’t all that revolutionary — the game suffered from lots of smaller issues — it still sold somewhat well, just around a million copies on the Wii, making it one of the few successful third party shooters on the console.

The sequel, aptly named Conduit 2, plays like many other Wii first person shooters. They really don’t have much in common with shooters on Xbox 360 and PS3, as the pace is significantly slower as you have to aim with the Wiimote. If you’re familiar with that, Conduit 2 won’t be hard to jump into. But even if this is your fist Wii FPS game, it doesn’t take long to learn the basics of the controls. The game starts where Conduit 1 left off, where you play as Michael Ford, who must stop the villain, John Adams (don’t ask us how they came up with these names), from getting hold of some powerful alien technology. There are no major plot twists, no reveals or reversals in this story — it’s as simple and straightforward as it can be. To the point of being boring and predictable.

And while most levels and missions are linear and alike throughout the game, the controls and gameplay is solid. You can tightly customize the Wiimote controls and sensitivity to perfectly suit you, which is a big plus in a game that relies on motion controls. But besides that, there isn’t anything innovating in the game that we didn’t see in the Conduit 1 or other Wii FPS shooters. There were a lot of opportunities to try something new here, but the gameplay in Conduit 2 simply feels like by-the-books remake of the old one.

Visually, Conduit 2 looks great easily one on of the best looking games on the Wii. Not only does it render worlds in beautiful fashion, it excels at showing all the different world on Conduit 2, from jungles, to open sea battles, to tight, interior locations. However, it’s still a Wii game, and even the best visuals on the Wii are ages behind the Xbox 360 and PS3. There are also a few hiccups and framerate issues that tend to kick in when there’s too much action on the screen.

There’s also multiplayer in Conduit 2, and while it’s fun, it doesn’t offer much in terms of longevity compared to other shooters. The split-screen mode is a welcomed addition, since many Wii owners have multiple Wiimotes and nun-chuck controllers. Overall, Conduit 2 follows in the footsteps of the previous game. But a bit too much.

The Good:
Decent gameplay
Great visuals
Good variety in levels

The Bad:
Short single player campaign
Boring story and characters
Uninspiring mission design
Framerate issues

Overall score: 5/10

The onslaught of great multiplayer shooters has been seemingly never ending over the past few years, from Call of Duty, to Battlefield, to Halo and many others, it’s not hard to find a great game out there where you can have some fun online. The PlayStation series SOCOM has always bet big on multiplayer, and always fell a bit short of joining the heavyweights of Battlefield and Call of Duty. Does SOCOM 4 finally help the series reach its peak? Read on to find out.

SOCOM 4 is the first real SOCOM game on the PlayStation 3, and the campaign follows a squad of soldiers as they battle their way through the South American jungle fighting a group of militants who are trying to stage a coup. Not the most original storyline, but it’s good enough for a video game. It’s a third person shooter which switches between tense combat and steal missions, neither of which are anything special. They’re not bad by any means, just too generic — nothing stands out, and we don’t get to do anything we haven’t done a million times before. You’ll be jumping in and out of cover a lot, much like Gears of War and the cover system is quite smooth. We did experience a few issues, mostly related to the AI, but overall the campaign was smooth

Multiplayer wise, there’s co-op, and then there’s the main course of the game: SOCOM is known for its multiplayer far more than its singleplayer, and in SOCOM 4, there are plenty of multiplayer modes and plenty of maps to check out. With up to 32 players, multiplayer is quite competent and can get very tense (and that’s a good thing in multiplayer). However, like much of the game, there isn’t anything in SOCOM 4 we haven’t see before. Furthermore, we experienced a lot of lag and glitches in the multiplayer, to the point where it felt like a beta.

Visually, SOCOM looks decent, it’s not the prettiest game by far, but where it excels is during the cut scenes. Facial animations and visuals during cut scenes are stunning, to say the least, and coupled with great voiceover, it’s offers some of the best cut scenes you can have. Too bad the story and characters are too generic for us to care. The rest of the game looks decent, but doesn’t stack up against heavy weights like Uncharted. It is worth noting that SOCOM 4 supports 3D and Move, but we didn’t get to check those features out.

Ultimately, what SOCOM 4 offers has been done many times before, and done better. If you want a great campaign, great visuals and competitive multiplayer, get Killzone 3. Because virtually everything SOCOM 4 offers, you can get better elsewhere. If you’re a die hard SOCOM fan, you’ll probably enjoy it.

The Good:
Great-looking cut scenes
Good co-op mode

The Bad:
Campaign is too generic
Gameplay is too generic
Multiplayer is laggy and glitchy

Overall score: 6/10

The original Portal was a breath of fresh air for all gamers, as it offered wonderful gameplay, lots of humor and style. All while being quite limited to only a few hours of gameplay and with minimalistic visuals. After much anticipation, the sequel is here, and it delivers across the board for any Portal fan — any videogame fan, period. Not only does it offer great puzzles, lots of humor, but also sports a wonderful story and characters.

Portal 2 has the same ground principles as Portal 1, you’re still armed with your trusty Portal gun, where you create entrances and exits to Portals in order to solve puzzles. Portal 2 ups the ante by introducing several new gameplay features, including gels that propel you, light bridges, tractor beams, jump pads and lots of other stuff. The puzzles are far more intricate this time, and are still based around the same principle: open the door to exit the level. Usually this is done by transporting companion cubes to activate a switch etc. And while the puzzles are a lot more intricate and complex, they never feel impossible, and you can usually beat any level with a few tries and some creative thinking. And you’ll be doing a lot creative thinking in Portal 2.

There’s also multiplayer in Portal 2, with co-op gameplay. Here, you play as two bots, and you have to work together to solve the puzzles and get through the levels. Teamwork in Portal 2 co-op is a must, and you won’t solve a single puzzle without working together. Since this can be a little tricky if you can’t talk to the person (Portal 2 supports VOIP), there are a set of tools you can easily access in order to communicate with each other — a great touch many games seem to be forgetting these days when it comes to co-op.

Visually, the game looks an order of magnitude better than Portal 1. But Portal 2′s visuals still don’t fully stack up with the recent shooters like Crysis 2. What the visuals in Portal 2 do, is create an amazing atmosphere, with wonderful lighting effects, shadows, and art design. There is a lot more details and style in the world, and despite still using the aging Source engine, it manages to be just enough for a game like Portal 2.

Overall, Portal 2 is the must have sequel to Portal, it offers everything the previous game had, only a lot bigger, better, and with a ton of new features (like co-op). It’s our first must buy game of 2011.

The Good:
Amazing gameplay and puzzles
Never feels frustrating or impossible
Lots of humor
Great atmosphere and story
Cp-op is a blast

The Bad:
Somewhat dated visuals
Too many loading times

Overall score: 9/10

Battlefield 2 is a classic FPS game that will surely be inducted into the videogame hall of fame at some point as one of the best team multiplayer shooters ever made. Despite its bugs and glitches, its addictive gameplay kept players glued to screens for years after its release. In fact, there are still tens of thousands of players playing online, over 6 years after the game was released back in June 2005.

Now EA is releasing a stripped down, free version based on Battlefield 2, called Battlefield Play4Free. It’s a free, downloadable title much like Battlefield Heroes, only that it takes the realistic FPS approach to Battlefield. Battlefield Play4Free offers 4 maps from BF2, including classics such as Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman. The maps have been remade to fit the new gameplay style, which is simplified quite a lot — there are only four classes, the same four classes featured in Bad Company 2. However, unlike previous Battlefield games, you cannot change class during a game, which is a striking omission from the Battlefield gameplay. After all, the freedom to pick a class suited for the gameplay was what Battlefield relied on. In Battlefield Play4Free, not so much, and as a result, the game suffers tremendously.

The gameplay itself is rather tame and doesn’t seem to run as fluidly as Battlefield 2 or any other BF game. Something just doesn’t feel right, and when you throw in a considerable amount of bugs into the mix, the experience is disappointing, to say the least. What makes the experience worse is that the micro-transaction system is almost designed to nickle and dime players. You have your standard weapons, with the ability to purchase new ones. But weapons and gadgets you purchase for one class aren’t available to all classes. You can earn in game credits and spend them on the new weapons, but you can’t buy the new gun, you can only rent them. And in order to rent them, you have to play at least a few hours to amass the points needed to unlock a gun that stay unlocked for only a short while. This system is downright insulting, as in order to get a decent soldier, you’ll have to spend $10 to $20 bucks. If you you want the top of the line gun for all your classes, it’ll easily set you back $30, and that’s for just one gun.

It gets worse. As we mentioned, you cannot switch your kit in game, but the game lacks another feature: you cannot chose which map to play — the game automatically selects a map and server. Visually, the game looks quite dated, looking even worse than the 6 year old Battlefield 2. There aren’t many social features, not even basic ranking structure — a stable of the Battlefield franchise.

Honestly, we cannot see whom Battlefield Play4Free would appeal to. In order to get something decent out of the game, you need to spend more money than a copy of Battlefield 2 or Bad Company 2 costs, and those are real retail games. Sure, Battlefield Play4Free is a free game, but to be honest, it’s a waste of time. EA could have attracted a lot more Battlefield fans by offering Battlefield 2 for free instead of wasting money and effort on Play4Free.

The Good:
Brings back old Battlefield 2 memories
Free

The Bad:
Dated visuals
Clumsy gameplay
Lack of common sense features
Nickle and dime micro transactions
No social features or online ranking

Overall score: 1/10

We’ve had our 3DS for a while now, we’ve spent some time with it, played all the games we could get hold of, and we’ve gotten to know Nintendo’s the 3D capable portable console. Is it a gimmick? Or a portable revolution? It’s somewhere in between. Read on for our full 3DS review.

When Nintendo announced the 3DS, people mainly fell into two camps: the ones saying it was a gimmick and that Nintendo is just following the new hot 3D trend. Others were simply excited that Nintendo was trying something this new: a 3D capable console where one doesn’t need glasses to enjoy the third dimension. Not a bad setup. But does it pay off? What’s it like playing a 3DS? It’s hard to explain, but if you’ve played 3D games before (on a PS3 for instance), you get the idea. Only that on the 3DS, you don’t need glasses. Instead, though, you need to keep your eyes square on the screen, and adjust the depth slider to fit. If you go outside of that narrow boundary, the 3D effect is fizzled and disappears.

Hardware wise, the 3DS has the same iconic design as all DS consoles, and almost the exact size as a DSi, only a bit thicker. Besides the 3D screen, the other new hardware feature you instantly see is the new left control stick, which is now analog. All other buttons are as you expect. Under the hood, the 3DS packs a much more powerful processor and graphics chip, in order not only to deliver a 3D image, but to make some really nice looking games as well. The three inch lower screen has an updated resolution to 320 x 240, while the main, 3D screen is at 800 x 240 pixels, but since it’s in 3D, each eyes needs its own pixel, meaning the effective resolution is at 400 x 240 pixels. It may not sound like a lot, but it’s quite adequate. Other hardware features include 3 cameras, two at the back for 3D pictures, and one in the front for video calls.

Playing 3D games isn’t effortless, as there are a few rules, for one, it’s best if you keep the screen 12 inches or so from your face, and keep your eyes centered on the console. On top of that, you have to keep the 3DS as still as possible when playing, which was sometimes a bit hard to do when we were riding on the bus or in a car with someone. We played a number of games on the device, including Nintendo’s cool new Argumented Reality minigames. Some of the game were amazing while other lacked in both visuals and gameplay, but one thing is certain: the 3D works (albeit with a few caveats), and it clear to see developers taking great opportunities with this device. While some games were barely worth in 3D, others utilized the new feature greatly.

Overall: we can definitely recommend the 3DS for those who want the latest and greatest, because the 3DS is such a piece of hardware. However, at $250, the price is quite steep, costing twice as much as a DS Lite. On top of that, the battery life is anything but impressive, and the 3D effect requires you to keep a certain distance to the screen, and keep it steady. On top of that, you may be at risk of getting a head ache while playing it. We didn’t experience any issues of that kind. Bottom line: the 3DS is a hard sell for $250, but the hardware and 3D effects aren’t just gimmicks, they’re genuine selling points.

The Good:
3D effect is wonderful
Powerful hardware, great looking games (for the most part)
Lots of potential

The Bad:
Pricey at $250
3D effect has limits and requirements
Poor battery life

Overall score: 8/10

The original Need For Speed Shift was, in our humble opinion, the best Need For Speed game to date, and it managed to blend the arcade and simulation style gameplays better than anyone else. Now EA is back with Need For Speed Shift 2: Unleashed, and above all, we’re glad that they’re sticking with the same formula.

Shift 2 features the tried and tested racing campaign, where you race to unlock new cars and races, race some more, unlock some more. It’s the same old thing, and it works. You progress though your career, unlock faster and faster cars, get to race in more prestigious races. We wish Shift 2 could have tried something new, but there isn’t much to try since it’s a racing game and the system has worked for a long, long time. You can customize your cars with new mods, engines, transmissions, paint jobs etc. But all that is secondary compared to the gameplay, and we’re glad to report that Shift 2 sticks to a nice blend of arcade and simulation, perhaps a bit more on the arcade side, but for the most part, the driving is nice and has a great feeling to it. The AI has some issues at times, which can get frustrating especially when then bump you off the road.

There are all the cars you’d want to drive in a racing game, from classics to brand new supercars like the Pagani Huayra. All cars look amazing and are recreated down to the last detail. What’s better, there’s a progressive damage system on every car as well, where you’ll go from getting a few scratches to totaling your vehicles — just the way we expect in racing games these days. The race tracks available are likewise pretty, but personally, we actually prefer the fictional Shift 2 tracks than those rendered after their real life counterparts (maybe because we play so many racing games we know the tracks in and out). But our favorite tracks are those that can be driven at night, which feels like a whole new world when you’re racing at night. It’s something every racing game should try and feature from now on.

One of the new features is the new in-car camera angle, or helmet cam, which is the best way we’ve ever seen it handled in a racing game. You actually feel like you’re driving the car, as your head bounces up and down depending how the ride, and when you corner, the camera and view turns towards the corner, just as you would when driving a real car. Safe to say, it’s quite immersive and makes you feel like driving the car. The faster you drive, the more blurred the screen becomes, and while this might sound like a gimmick, it actually works pretty well to simulate the sense speed.

Overall, Need For Speed Shift 2: Unleashed won’t please the simulation fans who are geared more towards Forza and Gran Turismo, nor will it please those looking for pure arcade driving. Shift 2 is somewhere in the middle, and it’s about time we get a decent racing game in that spot.

The Good:
Solid gameplay
Great visuals and car models
The in-car camera is groundbreaking

The Bad:
Some AI issues
Not as much replay value as in other racing games

Overall score: 9/10

“But can it run Crysis”, has become a meme since the original Crysis was released, a game that was notoriously hard on even the highest end PC systems. And still to this day, it’s one of the most realistic looking games you can get. So it’s with great anticipation that PC system owners are looking forward to Crysis 2, too bad the game has been “consolized” to some extent, meaning that the visuals aren’t as groundbreaking as they were before. But they’re still very, very pretty. And the game isn’t that bad either. Read on for our full Crysis 2 review.

Crysis 2 is set in New York City, which has come under attack from aliens, and you, sporting your trusty Nano suit, get to kick a lot of ass. The game isn’t as open as the previous Crysis, where you could roam the island and do what you want, Crysis 2 in comparison is a lot more streamlined and linear, but fortunately, not as linear as, say, Call of Duty. The combat is great and your three suit functions: strength, armor and stealth add depth to the gameplay, where you have to decide how to attack a certain objective (and make sure that your suit energy doesn’t run out). However, the great gun play and action is somewhat inhibited by a disappointing AI, which isn’t as smart as we anticipated in a title like this. In many ways, the AI in Crysis 1 felt smarter. Some times, you’ll attack enemies and they won’t respond, or will notice you but won’t fire. But it’s never a huge issue in the game, and it doesn’t affect the campaign to much. And may we add, the singleplayer campaign is great, albeit a bit too linear, but thoroughly enjoyable.

The same can’t be said about multiplayer. Up to 16 players can duke it out in what we can only describe as Call of Duty: Future Warfare. The amount of features Crysis 2 “borrows” from Call of Duty is staggering, down to the point where you need a certain level to join certain game types. And the nano suit, which is also available in multiplayer, offers lots of unbalancing issues. It just feels that Crysis 2 could have tried something new with multiplayer, but instead opted for the obvious choices that everyone else is doing.

Visually, the game is a looker, but PC owners might be a bit disappointed, seeing how the game was developed with consoles in mind. The PC version doesn’t support DirectX 11 and isn’t visually as revolutionizing as its predecessor, but we really can’t complain about the looks of the game: it looks gorgeous! We reviewed the PC version, but briefly played the Xbox 360 version, and it was one of the best looking games we’ve played on that console. But even on the Xbox 360, as with the PC version, there are some technical issues like frame rate drops, some texture popping and shadows sometimes tend to disappear. Overall, Crysis 2 is a solid shooter, and one of the better looking ones. Too bad the multiplayer is too by-the-books, with little innovation.

The Good:
Great, intense campaign
Awesome visuals

The Bad:
A few bugs and glitches
Disappointing multiplayer
Bad AI

Overall score: 8/10