I have been a dedicated Tony Hawk man for quite some time. I even own a Tony Hawk VHS tape in which he shows off some of his tricks. Admittedly, that VHS tape is still in its plastic wrapping, but I do own it. I used to sit and play the Tony Hawk games for hours on end. When it comes to business EA are pretty smart and their policy over the years, especially with sport titles, is that if something is popular they should do it themselves. Skate burst on to the scene a few years back and, in true EA sports style, had a flashier appearance than its competition.

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Petz Fantasy is the latest in a long line of Tamagotchi inspired games on the DS. The game is filled to the brim with bright colours and very cute big-eyed fantasy animals. Warning: If you don’t like cute games you should stay well away from Petz Fantasy. The music lacks variety but that’s par for the course in this type of game. Young children will no doubt like the creatures but I don’t feel the structure of this game leads itself to longevity.

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As a young kid I spent a silly amount of money on arcade games. Going on holiday was extra exciting as it was a chance to experience new amusement arcades. The same games but in a slightly different arrangement. No matter where I was there were a handful of arcade cabinets which always caught my attention. One of those games was the World War II shoot ‘em up, 1943. In many ways Airstrike: Eagles of World War II feels like a fully 3d version of 1943.

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I’m a big fan of MMA, especially the UFC which is home to the best group of fighters in the world, and I was happy with Undisputed’s first outing in 2009. That’s not to say I didn’t have any issues with last year’s outing. Submissions were a personal gripe. To be more specific I hated how difficult it was to get out of them once they were locked in, which happened very quickly. Unfortunately, this issue has not been addressed in 2010 and I hope they re-evaluate this next year. Until that time UFC Undisputed 2010 has some new additions and a great deal to offer fans.

In career mode you begin as an amateur and once you feel you’re ready to turn pro you’re given a contract to fight in the World Fighting Alliance. My created fighter was a Light Heavyweight. I have a bad habit of not reading manuals and because of that I didn’t fully understand how the fatigue system worked. I went into my first pro fight with 100% fatigue, for some reason I assumed that was good like a full health bar, that really wasn’t good. I gassed very early into the fight and was smothered to death by an over-excited wrestler. I learned from that harsh lesson and went on to win my next six pro fights in a row. This prompted Dana White to come calling and I accepted his contract offer to fight in the UFC. This was it, the big time.

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The man-child with the fantastic name, Travis Touchdown, is back yet again and learns that once an assassin always an assassin. The brother of one of his previous victims appears on the scene and attacks him. Travis takes care of this nuisance but discovers he is only the tip of the iceberg. His best friend has been murdered and he finds himself pulled back into the killing game. Travis vows to avenge the death of his friend, no matter what it takes. In order to do this he must re-enter the killing game and once more fight to be the top ranked assassin. This means good times for us.

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I am a HUGE fan of Cyberpunk and Deus Ex blew me away.  A trailer for the upcoming third title in the series will be released this Friday, 4th June.  Below are a few taster images (click to enlarge) of what to expect.  The game looks incredible, with a strong Blade Runner feel to it, and I can’t wait to get my hands on this when it’s finally released!

Alpha Protocol is described as an “espionage RPG”. That sounds amazing. Splinter Cell: Conviction is full of espionage and that was great. Plus I enjoy playing Role-Playing games. Also, this was developed by Obsidian who brought us Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinters Nights 2 which, although not as good as the originals developed by Bioware, were pretty good games. This has winner written all over it.

The act of hacking a computer shouldn’t be too easy but here it can be a real pain. There’s one type of hack which is like maze puzzles I used to play as a kid, those are fine. There’s another type of hack which involves taking two codes and placing them over corresponding codes in a constantly moving code puzzle, those aren’t fine. Those particular puzzles are like The Matrix minus all of the fun, even less fun than Reloaded and Revolutions.

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After years in development Sam Fisher finally makes his return in the long awaited Splinter Cell Conviction. When Conviction was first announced, fans of the series saw a much scruffier Sam Fisher than they’re used to. The images made me think of Jack Bauer when, shortly after saving the president of the United States, he appeared in ’24′ looking like a crazy homeless bum. Sam’s crazed homeless look made him seem both capable and likely to kill anyone, including himself, at any given moment. Anyway, Sam has returned and he’s pissed. That would be the American usage of the word pissed. Not pissed as in drunk which would bring us back to the scrapped homeless incarnation I mentioned above. Sam is pissed, as in angry, and he needs some answers. He intends on leaving anyone who stands in his way without a pot to piss in. In actual fact, Sam intends to leave many people without the ability to piss at all.

Each level in the game is narrated in the past tense. As you experience Sam’s past you’ll uncover information on what happened to his daughter, his involvement in Operation Desert Storm, what Third Echelon are now up to, and much more. The story is well written and plays out like an action-packed series of 24. When compared to other Splinter Cell titles Conviction has a little more action and a little less sneaking around. Fans of the sneaking approach needn’t worry as there’s still plenty of that going around but a greater emphasis on action will make this more accessible to gamers who are new to the world of Splinter Cell.

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Many years ago Prince Darkness Gannon stole one of the Triforce with power. Princess Zelda had one of the Triforce with wisdom. She divided it into 8 units to hide it from Gannon before she was captured. That’s the intro to 3D Dot Game Heroes. Okay, it’s not really, but it may as well be. That’s actually the intro to The Legend of Zelda which tells the story of a young hero with a fairy companion, a bit like this game. Actually, a lot like this game. Being similar to Zelda, like this obvious homage or otherwise, is no bad thing but it’s worth pointing out this title isn’t going to win any awards for originality.

There was once a small 2D land named Dotnia Kingdom. Six magical orbs protected the kingdom and everything was peaceful until one day the Dark King, Onyx, stole the orbs for himself. Monsters roamed the land and Dotnia fell into chaos. A hero arrived, with their magical sword, and took back the orbs. They bested the Dark King in battle and locked them inside a dark orb. Some time passed and the citizens of Dotnia forgot about that special day. The King declared that 2D was old news and ushered in the dawn of 3D. Someone stole the dark orb and monsters once again roamed the land. There’s a great deal of dungeon crawling to be done. It’s a dirty business but someone has to do it, and that someone happens to be you.

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Heroes of Newerth, as you can see from the screenshots, looks a great deal like Warcraft. You would certainly be forgiven for thinking most of the artwork on the website has been taken from an unreleased Warcraft title. The reason behind such similarities is that Heroes of Newerth is based on a custom Warcraft III scenario named Defense of the Ancients.

To describe this as a real-time strategy game would be to ignore the fact this is an interesting hybrid of the RTS and RPG genres. When I think of the RTS genre titles such Command and Conquer and StarCraft spring to mind. You begin with a main base and have worker units mine for resources, then create some buildings, barracks for ground troops, possibly factories for land and air vehicles, then there’s a choice of building your defences or going on the offensive. Heroes of Newerth has little room for this type of approach. It feels as though the developers took a decision to shift the focus from resource management to confrontation.

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