I reviewed it when I got around to it, and put out an honest article. I did leave it there last week instead of posting the new reviews yet though. Because the next thing I knew the Rhode Island TV stations that we get locally in Southern Mass were all talking about this former baseball player whose new video game company was going bust, and bankrupting the state of RI. The next day brought the news of the over a million dollar check that former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling passed, which bounced. Holy crap dude, I would not want to be you right now.

Sadly the bottom line caught up with him. But like new restauranteurs that came from a different industry and “buy” a restaurant, being able to purchase a company does not make one able to run it. Career changes suck. Kingdoms of Amular sucked, not because it wasn’t pretty, or lacked a story, it sucked because it lacked the substance beyond the surface. They did not spend enough time in development, and most likely never hired enough coders.

It was a mistake to market Kingdoms of Amular Reckoning to compete with Skyrim. It lead to the game being dissected by gamers the same way it was. And Amular can not stand up to the comparison in any way shape or form. I thought that it’s major flaw was with the basic level design.

You can look at a masterpiece like Skyrim, and see that each area is designed from top to bottom. From the levels below the ground that might be where chests are stored, there are then layers for earth, rocks, plants and trees. Above it are your roads and buildings, and inside the building is the blacksmith or barkeep that is standing above that chest. Over his head are the upper floors of the building with items, rooms and characters. The items themselves are all interactive, and books can even be taken off the shelves and read. Even the sky is populated with birds, real time weather and sunshine. That is how you make a game. “Room” by room, layer by layer.

Didn’t anyone at 38 Studios ever play a table top version of Dungeons and Dragons? That should be in game design 101, because the analog mapping done in it, is the foundation of video gaming. At least the good ones.

Schilling’s game, as I said in the review was all glitter and had no guts. Jocks traditionally don’t have time for nerds. It is always a mistake to underestimate the gaming community. Hence a shovelware product. I can just imagine the meetings they had, geeks vs jocks about the game, which had potential, but needed another year in development.

I think it is also a mistake to think that if one is a big name in one industry, that it will carry over to another. A big baseball star may have name recognition for a large fandom, even in the millions. Though that might not be the same crowd that will go out and get a glitzy hack and slash RPG game because his name was attached to it. In fact the nerdy gamers that go for RPG’s like Skyrim most likely never heard of Schilling, or would care. I never heard of him and I live in Mass. Not everybody in Mass cares about the sporting events of local teams.

It’s the hardcore gamers of each genre that drive the industry. Whether it is Halo players, or WoW player types, it is the word of mouth online in the long run that makes or breaks a game. Especially RPG’s which take a long time to play and have a much longer review time.

Live and learn I guess. From what I have observed in the news, it seems as though some large karma is playing out over 38 Studios and this game. I am also curious why some sites gave Amular such inflated high scores. Since there are no coincidences.

Don’t be fooled. It may take independent game journalists longer to review the titles, because we are actually playing the game. Independents like this site, Geek Woman Speaks, have no monetary incentive to give a crappy game a good review, and you will get an honest evaluation before you blow your sixty bucks.

If there was an award for ‘most glitter in a video game’ then they would have that aspect cornered. But as with most gimmicks, they are there to cover up for problems with the game itself. It is a very pretty looking game. You can create a female playable avatar, so it deserved a review.

The character creation was limited. You pick race, but not a permanent class. Facial features are on presets. You can choose makeup and hair colors though. I chose a character whose race was more inclined to sorcery. She had unpleasantly long ears, which I couldn’t do anything about.

The clothing and armor were nothing special. They aren’t very detailed or rendered compared to other top of the line games. The hands and feet, and shoes are all indistinct and smudgy. On the surface it seems like a very girly game. Sure you could create a goblin-ish type or some other bad ass with character creation, but you still would have to play in the glitzy, shiny environments. The graphics resemble World of Warcraft, mashed up with the original 2005 version of Kameo. The story book style graphics are a matter of taste, you could love it or hate it.

Those were its good points. The combat ability points menu is over complicated and doesn’t make sense. The areas of Might, Sorcery and Finesse are on menus with icons that indicate various moves or spells. I found that trying to apply the points and how to use them to upgrade was confused and unclear. The twist in the story line is that your character is a “Fateless” hero. That gimmickry is supposed to help players shape their avatar based around play style. It doesn’t seem to work.

There are Fate Cards which are unlocked depending on points. Those also offer upgrades. Then the character can embark on Destinies such as Battlemage and Paragon. The system is at least creative, but it isn’t an improvement over what others have done, and there is a lack of instructions. It also has the radial dialog choices, and typically those don’t amount to much, and seem fine to skip over.

The fighting is pretty good. The spells are big flaming animations that look great. They are mapped easily to the right hand on the PS3. Items and potions can go on the left hand, and you are all set. This part they got right. The enemies are a weird looking assortment of things and goblins. You can equip two weapons at once. You can go with ranged and melee or any combination. Either with weapons or with spells. Eventually combat will fill up a “Fate” meter that triggers the Reckoning Mode. In that state your character can slow time and stuns enemies.

A huge problem is the map system. The terrain of the game is a bright neon lit span of nonsense. The map doesn’t indicate roads, bodies of water or mountains. It is perpetually unclear where to go. Completing missions is frustrating. A little circle may show where the quest receiver is, but it is nothing more than a compass point.

Without a decent map, the poor level design defeats the game. What good is all the glitter when you don’t know where to go? The issue is dealing with fantasy terrain. In a normal game where you can expect something like trails, trees, hills and woods. You have a general idea of how to proceed. In this game you have weird looking plant like things, and no clear directive. You can’t estimate where you are with common knowledge. Slopes normally lead down hill to a trail. At the foot of hills you’ll have rivers and so on. Well, not so here. The spacey looking environment leads no where making getting missions accomplished too annoying to bother with.

With big names like writer R. A. Salvatore character design by comic book artist Todd McFarlane one might be intrigued enough to to try the game out. But beyond that, it isn’t worth it. Over all the game play, story and character models are ridiculous. I don’t know what the developers were thinking when they released this game. It is goofy looking and childish. The level design is indecipherable. There is a crafting system which is too silly to be bothered with in this kiddie ride style of game.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is a game I would recommend that you Pass on. At most you could try it on rental if you ally had to. I give Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 4 Black Cohosh plants out of 10.

so easy to use which was my main interest. With four animals running around and the mess I make while cooking, I hoped for something that would be convenient enough to use frequently. It has two small tanks on kit that are very simple to fill up. One for water and one for the cleaning solution. Which is expensive, but worth it. I thought that the tanks would make it heavy, but it isn’t much different in weight from a stick vac.

You need to wear shoes while using it, because of the steam heat. You can easily burn your feet with it. I know many people mop in their socks or with bare feet to avoid the foot prints, but you are going to need to work with something substantial on your feet. The floor does get warm, so I recommend sending your dogs to their room while you are using the steam mop.

It makes quick heated steam that they say kills 99% of bacteria and germs. It was such a pleasant and rewarding feeling going over spots that had ground in dirt, and even rust. It took up things that were stuck to the floor as well. What a terrific little bot.

They claim that the Hoover® SteamPlus™ Cleaning is 100% biodegradable and non-toxic, so it’s safe to use to kill germs and bacteria while still insuring a non-toxic environment for your children and pets.

The mop seems like a steam iron and a vac hooked up. Ok Hoover, when do I get my cleaning robot that will vacuum the rugs, and steam the floors all by itself?

It has many emotional and rational social puzzles to it. It was one thing in Skyrim, which is a fantasy universe, to marry the woman of my choice. But in the Sims it felt quite different, and more realistic somehow. Is this my own alternate life? Do I create my partner, and remain monogamous in the alternate world? I feel guilty about flirting with my Sim  creations of legendary beauties, Lindsey Bleuth from Arrested Development, and Playboy Playmate of the year Sara Jean Underwood. Does my Sim stay home watching movies and cuddling with my partner per usual, or does she stray? And would she give my Sim partner free reign to do the same?

In a perfect world I would be a paid theoretical physicist, and work as a scientist in the game along with Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hoffstader. Howard Wolowitz is my younger brother, and Amy, Raj and Bernadette all work at the centrally located science building with us too. Lunch hours would be epic.

Now I see why this game has been appealing. It has several good elements. I focus it through the lens of previous tiny computer people games. The gardening and the landscaping, as well as the interior decorating are bringing back nostalgic feelings from Animal Crossing on the original phat NDS. It wasn’t surprising to read in the Wiki that this version of The Sims game originated for DS.

There are pets and a pet shop, but it is no Nintendogs. The dog I was given originally brings in a good income through digging up stuff in the yard, he is the ultimate picker and never takes a cut, except for some praise and hand shaking. Why don’t we have to feed and groom these animals?

There are no food dishes for them, or supplies for their care. Occasionally the dog gets hidden in a corner of the house and is difficult to find. The Pet Shop, worth ten thousand hard earned simoleans, was a let down. There isn’t an interior. It is a rotating menu with a limited amount of dogs. No toy dogs are available either, a major sin.

The game takes place in annoying adherence to real time. The usual clock tricks that are used to exploit other iOS games, don’t seem to work here. The Sims are always on a race against time. The missions of the game are called goals. By completing them you gain Life Points which are your basic skill or ability points. With those you can buy additional properties or if in a jam, you can use them to finalize a work day or a building going up, in no time. At times, you are told to hurry up and get five Sims together for a party, to bake cookies or watch a movie. But not all of the Sims may be out of work yet.

They live a workhouse life style. The main house where Harriet and Rainbow Wolowitz live has several garden plots for mass gardening. The Sims who are unemployed work there around the clock. No deep sleeps. When I chill out for the night they have expresso and plant onions which take ten hours. Those that have to go to work in the morning grow tomatoes which are six hour plants. Then they get more expresso, a turbo snack, a power nap and a quick rinse shower. There are two coffee makers at the work house which really speeds things up. If there is time they raise carrots or bell peppers until it is time to go to work. The peppers turn around every thirty seconds, so by the time you harvest and replant one end of the row the first ones will be ready to pick. The carrots take five minutes and gives the goddess Sou-sou, of their world more time to breathe. Generally between them and the dog they make about $1500.00 per hour for three Sims and the dog, gardening at the same time. The work is slow and requires determination. In order to advance the game without real money, you must have no life, or the type of job where you are waiting for phone calls to come in.

Adding Sims that you intend to be Partners at the beginning will save hard earned simoleans. Once they cohabitate, the house goes up for sale again, at an increased price. Every-time you build a business, buy a house, or add a Sim the costs of everything inflates exponentially. The Sims lives march at their own pace. It may take a day to afford a bathtub or a stereo that you need to complete a Goal. Though the relationships operate at full speed. You can have two Sims either same or opposite sex, fall in love and move in together in just a few minutes. They are down right eager to get down to their underwear and WooHoo! for you at the drop of a hat. Or a garden trowel.

The is often debate about the adult nature of the Sims. Although body parts are blurred out, the characters do spin around and end up in underwear before bathing, or woohoo-ing. One of the Goals is to take a shower with Rich Lather, and then “go seduce another Sim.” the game is not age gated, and seems to be intended for older teens and adults, not kids.

There wasn’t a ceremony, or even much of a prompt from the game. They just became partners after a few Be Romantic minutes and a few Kiss on the Cheek which were only ten seconds. Once they were Partners the offering of Ask to Move In became an option for one of the partners. They looked at both houses, and suddenly they had the same name. The first couple took the last name of my original character, and the hetero couple turned out the name Amy Cooper Phd.

My scenario is Big Bang Theory meets Arrested Development, Parks and Rec and The Girls Next Door, with the addition of myself and a partner. Sort of. Making the characters is the most fun in the game. I wish there was a way to macro somethings like all the trips to the toilet, and complete daily necessities. Sheldon seems to need to pee constantly, and Rainbow is always getting tired.

There are some things about the Sims world that are from backwards day. The corn grows upside down like tomatoes, instead of up stalks like real corn. Pink onions take ten hours to grow, and sell presumably wholesale, for three hundred a bunch.

Then there is the “language” of The Sims the famous “simlish”. It is a non language. Made up from gibberish and nonsensical phrases, a bit like scientology. The written language are wingding fonts and astrological symbols. Probably originating on the old PC computer that the first Sims we created on. Further work has been done in attempts to quantify the language by fans. As well as many recording artists who have provided simlish lyrics versions of their hits for previous games. Including: The Black Eyed Peas, Lily Allen, BareNaked Ladies, Aly & AJ, Drew Carey, Depeche Mode, The Flaming Lips, Pussycat Dolls, Natasha Bedingfield, Paramore, Neon Trees, Katy Perry, and Pixie Lott.

The Sims is all about the management of minutiae, and multiple multi tasking. You do the math, you get results. The environment is tiny and static. Nothing moves except for tiny cars milling around tracks aimlessly going no where. You can’t do any exploration, or walk your Sim very far from its territory. It isn’t as deep as many other games which have capitalized on its software and improved upon the formula. Putting it up against the MMO’s, RPG’s, RTS for iPad, it doesn’t stand against the competition. As a free game, it is perfectly fine. Unless you succumb to impatience, you aren’t inhibited from playing or completing the game without paying anything in real money.

What is with the disagreeable trend to have games that you play outside of Facebook, wanting you to log in to it? I despise Facebook. However to test the Cloud Save function for the review, I created accounts for my character. It took several tries over several days to get the process to Login and upload. I may not have the game on my iPads much longer anyways since the review is done. The information supposedly only stays in the Cloud for seven days.

It is perhaps the ultimate time waster, an alternate reality where a solid days work farming brings in a steady, consistent income. Rain or shine, in the Sims world there is no excitement, other than having the ability to live vicariously in a version of earth without tornadoes, disease, and war. The Sims is the opposite of extreme gaming. It is the game which sits across from Grand Theft Auto on the color wheel. It is the cool blues of gaming, posed against the hot reds of conflict. I give The Sims Freeplay 6 watermelons out of 10. Nevash Naluka!

There are numerous “courses” which are varied layouts of the cards. Each one is referred to a a hole, and your solitaire moves are shots. A golf bag provided will hold utility “clubs” which are spare cards that you can employ when there is nothing on the table that you can match your drawn cards with. When you clear the board of all cards your score may be an Eagle or a double eagle, or a perfect. If one or more cards are left behind then you may get a birdie or just make par. If not there are bogeys.

Then the gophers show up. They laugh at your bad moves, as does the sound effects of a disappointed crowd… The gophers also attempt to distract you when concentrating. You can whack them, and obtain some points as revenge though.

The game is simple, and unique. In that goofy way that only golf can be. It’s addictive, and infuriating. It redoes an old standard, and somehow managed to snare me in. One night until 2:30 am. Or it could have been the iced tea. Either way, you can place a good deal of it for free, and if you get caught up in it, the full version is inexpensive.

It’s a feminist paradox. On one hand the premise of the game, using diamonds to pay for dates with men, so that they will buy you gifts, is disgusting. The guy characters are basically male whores. The female role that you play is superficial, materialistic and detached. If we ever have artificial intelligence with software written like this, the robots will take over the planet without compunction, if they are thinking like the characters in this game.

Everything is based in a numeric evaluation. Style points get you into clubs and on dates. Energy points allow you to work and earn cash. You need to have the right amount of style points to be allowed into work, or on a date. It makes acceptance unambiguous, but it’s blatant sexism. So much so that it may be an over the top send up.

On the other hand, it has fun character generator with hair style and color, and skin tones. Dress up games are fun and this one has enough shops and clothes to keep you happy. Once you run out of any of the stats such as Energy, or Diamonds, you are immediately offered a new batch and are taken to the App Store to spend real money. It isn’t cheap either.

You can get free energy though by tricking your iPad or iPhone. What you do is to go into Settings, and then Date and Time and change it from automatic to manual. Then adjust the time two hours into the future. Go back and open the game app, close it, and then go to Settings and return the clock to the correct time. When you open Modern Girl, the energy bar will be full.

The energy can be used to earn more cash that your character can spend on her dates, clothes and accessories. The dating aspect of the game is very simplified, and almost nonexistent. It isn’t very interesting and the dates are the same. The same dialog boxes repeat over and over for the dates.

Unless you are really into dress up games, you might want to skip this one since it could get very expensive to play, if you are impatient.

It began with problems in dealing with the choice to advance time in the story an entire generation. Where it begins seventeen years after the last volume, has made for uncomfortable choices. A two year time span in the story would have avoided many of the character issues. First is the troubling absence of many of the best female characters Sophitia, Taki and Seong Mi-na. Their replacements such as Natsu and Viola, and Xianghua’s daughter Yan Leixia, don’t measure up.

From the start, the opening credits are too gaudy with highly lit reds and blues. They blew too much space with the idiotic introduction. Overdone lighting effects that glare off the screen don’t impress anyone. It looks like an entirely different art style than the rest of the game. In fact it resembles some other RPG franchise… As does the spirit of Soul Calibur Elysium, who is a blonde with wings, and she also has wings on her head too for good measure. She is wearing a skimpy diaphanous costume where you can see her butt. She looks amazingly hot, but also inappropriately dressed for fighting, and fragile. The two main characters look like they just stepped right out of Final Fantasy.

They have a Team Pyrrha and team Patroklos going on here. It is a show down between a brother and sister. These two are supposed to be the children of Sophitia. The lead male character is her son Patroklos. His sister Pyrrha is the focus of typical video game cliche writing. Although this time the have both the save-the-princess, and the ‘women are all mad/evil’ stereo types going at the same time. Following through the story line was worth it to see how appallingly the female characters were portrayed.

It takes place as the boy journeys around Europe trying to find the kidnapped Pyrrha. It turns out that she is in the possession of Tira the circle blade fighter. Here again another female villain is portrayed as both insane and inexplicably interested in abducting the girl, but she requests no ransom. Tira’s role is as a kidnapping malicious nutcase in an all too typical male dominated video game story line. Sadly it is the return of old school sexism. Portraying female characters either as simpering and weak, or insane.

Pyrrha looks exactly like Cassandra from SC3. Who I hated then for her sanctimonious comments. Worse, we now get Pyrrha who we see as this weeping, whining, hot mess of a girl who incidentally has more power than the brother and is a better fighter. Was all the crying, apologizing and groveling by her character really necessary? SC4 had strong positive female role models. Pyrrha and the treatment of her character is disgustingly sexist, especially coming from this franchise. Which might have something to do with the fact that they outsourced the story.

The story itself is told in mixed media. Having the sepia toned quickly sketched graphics and the subtitles in a modern game today is dated and out of place. Sometimes they got it right. A simple pan above the scene of the next stage, with a bit of narration would have been enough to express the story. Instead of the multitude of story boards, just narration would have been fine enough to do the same job. It’s a fighting game, it doesn’t need more than a premise, it isn’t the type of game that gamers who are preoccupied with lore would play. Towards the end they did put in real cutscenes.

Patroklos turned out to be a lameo guy to play with in story mode. His persona is that of an arrogant blonde haired upper class entitled bastard. With a poor dead saber toothed cat wrapped around his neck. What an idiot he looks like trying to fight against Ivy. His sword is too short. I despise him. But story mode does unlock stuff so I suffer for my review.

I loathe Voldo equally, why do we have to see his ass? He is wearing chaps and is sauntering around like LMAFO doing their “wiggle off”. They speak of Pyrrha as a little girl then they have her fighting the lewd character Voldo with his shiny ass hanging out and the huge gross codpiece. I killed him immediately, scoring Perfect. This game is raising my blood pressure. Not in the happy way. More like rage.

Stupid short sword-ed Patroklos goes up against Siegfried who has a giant claymore great-sword which is as long as idiot Patroklos is tall, it’s hard to contain how much disdain I experience with being forced to play as this dumb ass character. Why did they make the Soul Calibur sword such a weak piece of crap?

The story line deals with the competition between a brother and sister. So why isn’t she offered as a playable avatar choice for Story Mode? Or what about the character that I spent over an hour customizing the previous night? I would have loved to play her through Story Mode. Some things never change. They certainly possessed the ability to make female avatars, but they wasted so much effort on unnecessary things that they wasted the opportunity. Developers always say something like it would be too hard. Well, other games have done it, and this snafu is going to be a deduction of a full point because in this game where they have the know how, it is inexcusable. Even the story line itself makes a plausible arc where you should be able to start with the sister or the brother.

In spite of the tragic story mode, it has many good features. When fighting weapons are very detailed and look like jewelry. The stage settings for fighting are breathtaking. The graphics are very showy. There are wooded themes with moss and brooks. There are temples with falling blossoms. Gorgeous environments fully rendered, excellent lighting effects during battles. Unfortunately you can’t explore anyplace. Which is why when SC5 came out in January I never looked up from Skyrim long enough to try it. It was a good decision. You’ll see lovely brooks and streams, painted over with falling leaves. Cliff-sides that drop off to passing rivers and sandy deserts with dry winds. You can over balance a bulky character and make them Ring Out off an escarpment.

There are twenty-eight playable characters. Ten are new to the series. Some of your old favorites are there. If you have never played the games before, you won’t be disappointed. It does remind me of Saint’s Row the Third and Bleach Soul Resurection, where the previous installments of the game were better than the present ones. You might be better off with a used version of a prior game, than spending the full cost for the new ones. Neither had any worth while improvements.

If Soul Calibur 5 has any problems it is for over doing things. Still tedious is the way that the Move List is done. A PS3 has Triangle, Circle, X and Square buttons. The move list, and Training Mode is given out with what seem to be random alphabet letters, K,G, A,B. I have never seen the logic behind making learning the moves over complicated by adding this step. I suppose there are people who have the patience to interpret it. Basically you can just mash buttons until you win. That is pretty much it. With the Move List being indecipherable at a glance, I didn’t bother with it. There is always too much junk on the interface, and the captions are covered up by a status notification box.

The music is over dramatic. There are too many horns, it is self important and arrogant like the characters. Game music should be ambient and not up in your ears, it should evoke an atmosphere, not pump out marching themes. If you turn down the music volume then the voice overs disappear.

Bad unconvincing voice acting should have just been skipped. Voice actors sound like they are reading story time for children instead of acting. Except for the one voice which stands out. The impeccable voice acting of Lani Minella who plays Ivy who I recognized instantly as the fabulous video game voice of Jenassa in Skyrim, and as Eve in Mass Effect 3.

During the three treasures, where he sees his ‘mother’ they discuss how to make Pyrrha human again. This certainly should have been a real cutscene since it was so important to the story line. After a while it does go to a real cutscene after chapter 18.

Pyrrha is a better fighter throughout the game. She gets painted as evil and then her brother has to tame her somehow. What was interesting and cool is that a girl now had Soul Edge the super powerful evil sword. Her outfit turned from white to black. She grows up all of a sudden and the groveling is over. She is victorious. But she is evil… There is no way for her to triumph. And she destroys the sword. The treatment of her character is a no win situation for her. She has a bigger stronger sword and is quicker and more powerful than her brother, but somehow the story is predispositioned for him to win.

Soul Calibur 5 is a nostalgic look back to a franchise that was good when the next gen consoles were new. Now not only is the PS3 an old appliance, but the games like this one which have been coming out for it over the past year or so are passé. It is rare to find an enjoyable video game these days on a console or a PC, mobile gaming on iPad are where the most creative people are developing.

I give Soul Calibur V, a commonplace 6 incompetent short swords out of 10.

You are given a store, and a starting budget of ten thousand dollars. The gameplay takes place largely of hidden object puzzles. You are shown several locations throughout the country. At each place there is a series of hidden objects and puzzles to solve. It taunts your memory to match objects in pairs or find parts and put them together. One guy collects sporting goods, there is an old lady with victorian objects. There is a geek kid with movie memorabilia and other collectibles, and one hella creepy guy that has medical equipment and a strange collection of oddities.

Also similar to the TV shows, you have the options to consult an expert before buying, Or to restore the objects to get a better price for them. The game permits you to negotiate with the vendors, and they have a red to green slider bar that indicates their attitude towards you. If you keep them happy you may make better deals. When you ate out on the road, you will get calls on your iPhone, and a woman – who is so not Danielle Colby, will give you a list of things to pick for customers, which is usually hidden objects. Certain groups of objects may be hot sellers at different times, automotive, artifacts, or movie collectibles might be the hot items of the day, and when you pick those you get bonuses. Of you do well on negotiating that can also generate more bonuses of cash.

The auctioneer speaks a language that sounds like simlish. It is fun to translate his mumbling into colorful metaphors that it sounds like he may be saying. The game is addictive, humorous and fun. For the price it is wholesome and challenging, and you may learn something. It is definitely well worth buying.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record was inspired by a film in a way similar to the original Dead Rising 2. It does take place in the same mall and city area. To some gamers that may feel nostalgic and good. But I found it to be a cheap way of re-releasing and charging too much for the same game with a different, male again of course, character. Sexy female slayers appeared in some promotional materials, but don’t exist in the game.

Fortune City has an unrealistic color palette, and the graphics aren’t as detailed as the character models. You see realism turned up on the blood and the entrails of the zombies as you kill them. Although the clothing in racks or folded up looks like a heap of polygons. The foods look like tiny pixels. What is worse is that the weapons also look indistinct. It does have the ability to build up your own weapons from various junk that you find. The creativity here is in the crafting kill tools. It was original the first few times it was done in a game, but by now it is just as boring as other over used devices. The giant paper cuts from life size cardboard signs, or smashing zombies with random trash cans and traffic cones can still get a few laughs. A personal favorite was a side walk barrier or a bicycle rack that could be used as a zombie comb out tool over a wide swath of area.

Frank West is used to act out the scenes of the story line. There is espionage afoot and Frank is anxiously snapping stealthy pictures of the conspirators who are dealing in drugs or Zombrex, the anti zombie serum. Just like Chuck Greene, he has to hunt down tubes of the stuff from ransacked pharmacies out among the infected hordes.

At least Frank West doesn’t have the annoyance of having a dying kid to watch over. It is irksome when you have the babysitting element in a game. Heavy Rain, Eco and other games where you have tethered caracters who do not have ondiviual mobility and fighting capability are literally a drag on the game mechanics. I find them to be a short cut for the developers. West is expected to help save survivors, but I wasn’t a particularly good rescuer for them.

Obviously, if you are renting, or even buying (?) Off the Record you aren’t expecting moving drama or scintillating romance. If you thought it was good the last time around and you wanted to play it again, or if you have completist tendencies with zombie items then you may want to hold on to the game. I din’t find that to be necessary but more than a few people have, and there are a few good reasons to keep this one rather than the previous DR2 if you did not grab it then. The camera aspect is a plus aspect of the game over the first story line.

The new Sandbox Mode replaced Terror Is Reality multiplayer mode in Dead Rising 2. You use this for earning cash to spend in the Story Mode. Sandbox Mode allows players to kill zombies for an unlimited time period. Sandbox Mode has the challenges you will be able to find in Fortune City. You win bronze, silver and gold medals and cash. The experience points and unlocked items you acquire in Sandbox Mode will work in Story Mode as well. In the co-op mode one function can be a hang up when another gamer can prevent you from moving freely from one area to another, unless they are near the exit.

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record is almost identical to the other Dead Rising 2. It isn’t anything really special. It is fun for what it is, but is a waste of dough for anyone who all ready bought the first game. It doesn’t add to the advancement of zombie gaming at all. It’s pretty average. I give Dead Rising 2: Off the Record 6 snapshots out of 10.