DLC

Batman: Arkham City Harley Quin’s Revenge Pack Story Trailer

Finally, Batman: Arkham City gets some worthy DLC in Harley Quin’s Revenge. If you’re wondering why Harley Quin wants revenge against Batman look no further to the Joker. The trailer shows Batman falling into Quin’s trap while trying to rescue a trapped cop. Next we Robin jump onto the scene with his acrobatic fighting style and weaponry. Personally I am stoked to play as Robin.

I managed to see a few new takedowns for Batman and Robin during the video.  Batman Arkham City was one of the best games to release last year let alone the best Batman game to ever be created so this DLC is welcomed. Batman: Arkham City Harley Quin’s Revenge DLC drops May 29 for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. If you want to read a really good Batman: Arkham City review I suggest you visit Video Games Source, Thanks GamerSpawn for the video.

Forza Motorsport 4: American Le Mans Car Pack DLC – Trailer

Here is the next in line of monthly DLC packs for Forza Motorsport 4 titled American Le Mans Car Pack. To make a long story short the video below shows ten new cars that we will never get to own or drive. This particular Forza 4 DLC drops next week February 7. I’m still in the process of playing Forza 4 for review. However i wished i bought that Season Pass when it released months ago as it would’ve saved me some money already. One thing Turn 10 does is support they’re games as evidenced by the monthly DLC packs. Thanks GamerSpawn.

Dead Island: Ryder White DLC – Review

Published By: Deep Silver, Developed By: Techland, Genre: Adventure, Release Date: Feb 1, 2012, Rating: M, Systems: PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Price: $9.99

Presentation: Ryder White DLC is a single player story campaign that takes place just before the events of Dead Island. I was extremely excited to play this for the fact its Dead Island and its a story driven DLC campaign where you can explore Banoi once again. What I didn’t expect from its presentation was bad pacing issues, over-powered zombies, bottleneck zombie gangbang insta-kills and no achievements or trophies to speak of. What just might be my biggest gripe with Ryder White’s presentation has to be the over-powered zombies. Keep in mind I beaten Dead Island and not once did I feel that game’s difficulty was cheap or unfair. For Ryder White Techland must of fed the zombies steroids because I died alote during this DLC.

If a small group of zombies gets you in one of the many bottleneck alleys or sewer areas your dead no matter what gun or weapon you have. The latter never happened to me in the full game of Dead Island. Pacing issues were odd. Lets say your running from an infinate spawn of zombies and reach a small shack with an NPC. Magically all of the zombies that were chasing you dissapeared. I understand the shacks with turrets are safe zones in Ryder White. However it was still weird seeing that. You start off at level 15 and stay there the entire campaign. One thing about Dead Island i loved was the fact that you could implement RPG leveling up characteristics to your protagonist.

You do start the campaign with a good arsenal. The campaign always kept plenty of weapons and items scattered about. I did not see one store where you could sell your junk at which I didn’t get. The game has so much looting and nowhere to sell the stuff? You start the game with a Shocking Crowbar mod and a crowbar. I ended up finishing the campaign with that same weapon in my inventory. So lets recap the Ryder White’s presentation shall we. The game’s difficulty is ramped up too far which creates a bunch of useless deaths and breaks gameplay continuity and flow. You can’t level up Ryder at all. Bottle-necking zombie gangbangs in small areas gets you insta killed. Weird pacing issues and no stores to sell goods.

Story: Ryder White fought in Iraq and was a member of the Australian Defense Force. He was also the final boss in Dead Island. Ryder White DLC’s story is mainly about how White blew up the  bridge in Moresby. You remember that bridge from the main game? Much of the first half you have Ryder fighting zombies and Rascal gang members on his way to blowing up that bridge. The second part of the story has Ryder making his way to the prison as he tries to save his wife Emily who has been bitten by an infected prisoner. Charan (Kevin) the prisoner from Dead Island plays a bigger role and shows his manipulating skills through cutscenes with  Dr West and Ryder White. Protocol 66 is the order to bomb the entire island of Banoi but first White wants Emily safe. When I look back at the story its nothing special but does tie up a few loose ends from the main game. Then again you probably don’t even need the DLC to figure out the main game’s loose ends.

Visuals: The city of Moresby looked good. I like how the sky was dark in the beginning of the game and later the sun was out. Dead Island is a goodlooking game. However I can’t say that Ryder White looked any better than the main game. There were some weird graphical glitches with NPC zombies. Regardless, the game does look nice. The settings included Moresby, sewer sections and the prison.

Sound: If you played Dead Island you know the voice acting is laughable at times. While not horrible Ryder White is decent. The sound design is solid and atmospheric. I hate hearing Suiciders say “help meeee”. I couldn’t tell if the orchestra tunes were in the original game or not however I did enjoy them.

Gameplay: If you played Dead Island you basically do the same thing in Ryder White. There isn’t any new gameplay tweaks that I noticed. However there were a few new weapons. Incendiary Grenades came in handy. There were plenty of guns including a new One Shot Rifle. RAGE Mode is back. White uses a pistol and focuses as he causes massive damage to humans and zombies. Apparently there is a chainsaw but I did not find it during my playthrough. There were more turrets set up throughout the campaign then normal. Workbenches were plentifully scattered about the various locations of Moresby and the prison. You don’t take any missions from NPCs until the end when you do two or three missions for Charan.

Ryder White in alote of ways feels like a different game than Dead Island. No RPG elements/ leveling up, no co-op, no stores to sell stuff and store items. You rarely take missions from anybody as your alone most of the game. The missions as a whole weren’t very good. There are only a few main missions like taking over the Police Station from the Rascals. You need explosives from the Police Station to blow up the bridge. Another mission while in the prison you had to get knock-out gas from a group of bad guys. You use the gas on the four main stars from Dead Island. In the elevator. You remember now? But as a whole the missions were meh mostly due to the over-powered zombies.

Replayability: Dead Island: Ryder White DLC campaign lasted four hours (for me). Four hours is  decent in my opinion. Keep in mind I didn’t do alote of searching or exploring either. Collectibles came in the form of Emily White and Andrew Meishes’s audiologs. No achievements or trophies does cause an obvious problem for replayability. However cumulative achievements and trophies continue on from your main Dead Island quest to/through Ryder White.

Final Verdict: Dead Island: Ryder White is a mediocre single player campaign you can buy for about $10.00. I would pay $2.00 for it (after completing it). The reason why I say that is throughout the campaign I felt I was killed more due to bad level design and overpowered zombies than lack of skill. The latter took all of whats good from Ryder White and flushed it down the toilet.

6/10

Gears of War 3: Fenix Rising Map Pack – Review

Published By: Microsoft Games Studios, Developed By: Epic Games, Genre: Action, Release Date: Jan 17, 2012, Rating: M, Systems: Xbox 360, Price: 800 Microsoft Points.

What It Comes With? Fenix Rising Map Pack retails for 800 Microsoft Points but what are you getting and is it worth it? You get four new multiplayer maps including Anvil, Academy, Depths and The Slab. You get four new playable multiplayer characters which are pretty cool including Savage Kantus, Savage Maruader, Cole Train (LE) and Recruit Clayton Carmine (LE). You also get seven new Achievements and the ability to Re-Up. Re-Up is like prestige ranks in Call of Duty. Once you hit 100 level in Gears of War 3′s multiplayer you can start over again. Only the Fenix Rising Map Pack lets you Re-up.

Maps

Anvil: Anvil gave me a Gears of War 1 multiplayer vibe for its ruined structures look. The map itself is one of the bigger sized maps in Fenix Rising. Its not huge but can be considered fairly big. Off in the distance you can see a huge castle structure. I played alote of Stay Frosty gamemode on Anvil. Everywhere you look you see vines and greenery growing around all of the ruined structures. As far as who can excell at this map i would say anybody. I think any type of player can be good on Anvil. Its big enough for players who like to sit back with a Longshot. Many people did the gnasher thing when i played today so its flexible for different play styles. There are small areas for indoor fighting but most of the map takes place outside.

Depths: Easily the most unique setting out of all the Fenix Rising maps. If you ever wanted to fight in an exquisite hotel underwater this is the map for you. At times it feels like you’re fighting in a fishbowl. You can see a city outside the glass underwater. I like how the water on the glass roof created sparkling light reflections on the floor. I also got a strong Bioshock vibe as i played Stay Frosty on Depths. There are two main spawn stations on opposite sides of the map, a Lounge and a Train area. The hotel you fight in was pretty nice featuring marble floors, statues and chandeliers. Depths is a nice sized map. Its basically a big square and both teams have to fight head on since the space is so open. I personally enjoyed this map the most out of all the Fenix Rising maps.

The Slab: This map was the most unimpressive of the group. The setting is that of an old ruined maximum prison facility. The two main starting spawn points are the Exercise Yard and the Showers areas. The Slab is the only map that takes place in the nightime with rain and storms above. The reason i thought this map wasn’t so impressive was due to its size. Its a fairly small map. You pretty much just fight in the centerof the prison. The only outside area is the exercise area. If you love small Gears maps you will love The Slab i’m thinking. Outside you can see the mountains and a vast sea (nice view). You can see a sign over the prison that says “The Slab” and a sign near the entrance “Deathrow”. Red spray painted messages such as No Victory, No Safety are among the messages you see splattered on the walls.

Academy: From what i understand this map was where Marcus Fenix was originally going to attend military school but went a different direction. The Acadamy map definitely has the prestigous academy thing down pat. You fight in sweeping hallways lined up with bookshelves. Outside is a nice sized courtyard littered with marble statues and flags blowing in the wind. This was a good map despite my team ineptness of winning. This map takes place in the daylight and has some indoor and outside fighting areas. Academy is probably the most balanced designed map in Fenix Rising.

Character Skins

I was able to play with all four new character skins from the Fenix Rising Map Pack. The Locust skins were the best. Savage Kantus looks crazy and makes a wicked scream in-game, it just happens sometimes you can’t control it. Savage Marauder looks just like the Locust from the single player campaign bridge scene in Gears of War 3. As far as Cole Train and Recruit Clayton Carmine go i wasn’t impressed. Cole just wears his football uni, maybe it was different but i couldn’t tell. I seen that uni in the beta. Carmine i nver played with anyways so i really couldn’t tell. The Onyx Guard skin from RAAM’s Shadow looked way better than Carmine imo.

Gamemodes

Stay Frosty: This gamemode is a experimental mode featuring an overpowered head shottin Hammerburst. All players get a Hammerburst, Snub Nose and Frag Grenade. Everyone used the Hammerburst as it could easily kill you with three bad placed shots. If a person hits you once in the head its gameover.  The Hammerburst was clearly overpowered purposely for Stay Frosty. The mode was fun but kinda got old pretty quick since you can only use two different guns.

Alpha Executions: I played a few Fenix Rising maps on Alpha Executions and have no idea what’s the difference besides this and regular Execution. One thing that was obviously different was that all players looked the same on each team and had the same gun loadouts ala Gnasher, Lancer, Snub-Nose and Smoke Grenade. Getting back to the actual gameplay i thought it played the same as regular Execution.

Achievements

There are seven new achievements added to Gears of War 3 Fenix Rising Map Pack. Now They Begin to Understand (20g), Complete All 12 Waves of Beast Mode on All Fenix Rising Maps. Time to Re-up! (50g), Achieve Level 100 and Choose to Re-up Another Tour of Duty.  Those are just two examples of the of achievements in Fenix Rising.

Final Verdict: After so many Gears of War 3 maps already out asides from Depths none of these really stood out to me. The new character skins are cool and the ability to Re-up is definitely something hardcore Gearheads will want. Overall Fenix Rising is a good map pack no more no less.

7/10

Gears of War 3: Fenix Rising – Academy Trailer

Looks like more Gears of War 3 DLC is headed our way gamers. Below is the trailer for the map titled Academy which is one of five new maps included in the Fenix Rising Gears of War 3 DLC. Asides from the five new maps you also get new player skins and three new re-up awards. Its 800 MSP and releases January 17, 2012. I am starting to feel like a smart guy since i purchased the Gears of War 3 Season Pass after the game released.

It seems like a good deal already considering RAAM’S Shadow was really good. As for the Academy map it looks pretty good. It appears to be a Academy of sorts prior to E-Day and features large statues, courtyards and plenty of indoor fighting areas. I suspect Epic will release more trailers of Fenix Rising DLC maps over the next couple of days. Gears of War 3 is a sci-fi shooter developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. Thanks ign.

Batman: Arkham City – Challenge Map Pack Trailer

Batman: Arkham City Challenge Map Pack is the latest DLC to drop for the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham City. What do you get with this DLC? You get The Iceberg Lounge Challenge Map, The Joker’s Carnival Challenge Map and The Batcave Challenge Map. The Iceberg Lounge map looks real elegant as you kick ass on a marble floor with a huge chandelier above you. The Jokers Carnival Map looks like it was ripped right out of Arkham City.

The Batcave map looks pretty good also. Three totally unique challenge maps that you can play on with either Catwoman or the Cape Crusader on. On a side note i am currently playing through Batman: Arkham City and its primo so far. Love the combat and atmosphere. The Challenge Map Pack drops December 20, 2011 (like i said above) for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Thanks GamerSpawn.