The game is set in America’s semi-wild west at the end of the First World War and the beginning of the government’s attempt to expand and control. You mosey around in the shoes of John Marston, a former gang member who was just trying to make it as a family man before the government got all up in his business and blackmailed him into hunting down and bringing a former gang member to justice.

Like most Rockstar games, the story is amazing and fun to play, but its all the things you can do that isn’t the main story that makes this game so great. You can arm wrestle the local populace, attend the local cinema and watch a movie that shows the dangers of modern science, help random strangers you meet or just huff it into the wilderness and hunt yourself some ferocious animals.

There are literally not enough good things I can say about this game. The graphics are some of the best I’ve ever seen. The controls are sharp and precise. The story is sprawling and believable. And the game play is fun and engaging.

Possibly the absolute best thing about this game is how alive the world in the game feels. Heat shimmers off in the distance, tumbleweeds rolls lazily across the landscape; drunks stumble around town and yell obscenities at passerby. It is quite possibly the most realistic game-space I’ve ever seen

This review is so short simply because I don’t feel like wasting your time talking about all the things that are so great for there are too many, I can simply strongly recommend that you go out right now and buy this game. This is possibly the best game to come out this decade.

10 out of 10 stars.

Splinter Cell Conviction was released April, 16^th 2010. Now many people gladly pass this game up in favor of other titles such as the ever popular MW2 or the new Battlefield Bad Company 2. Now this seems like the logical. Pass a game that was not made for multiplayer up for a game that does have multiplayer. However, the truth is, Splinter Cell Conviction is a million times better than other top of the line shootersout to date.

Splinter Cell Conviction is a true hybrid of a game. It combines the stealth of its predecessors, with the agility of Mirrors Edge, the weapon customization of Army of Two, right down to the gun fights of Gears of War.

Unlike many games I have played I found zero frustration with this particular one. It never came off to me as a cheap death when a grenade that I failed to dodge killed me, or when I decided to go Rambo on a room full of bad guys and got riddled with enemy fire.

Splinter Cell has many moments that will leave you wanting to play the same scene over and over agiain. Such as the first time you pull off multiple “Mark and Executes” (the games version of Rainbow Six’s “mark” system) after busting through a door, grabbing a hostage, and coming out unscathed. Or the moment you lurk through the shadows and listen to the enemy talk about how much of a renegade you are.

So if you are searching for a fun game to wean you off of the online gamer craze, or if you are simply looking for a game that comes with a great story and atmosphere, Splinter Cell Conviction is the perfect match.

In Darksiders, you play as War, one of the four horseman of the apocalypse who is unfairly accused of bringing about Armageddon prematurely. In consequence, War is sentenced to death by a higher entity than that of heaven and hell, the charred council.  War pleads innocence and demands to be sent back to earth to uncover the truth behind what happened and subsequently get revenge…nothing new here.

The main focus of Darksiders is that Vigil Games, the creators, combined many styles of games and brought them all together pretty well. Darksiders borrows most heavily from the “Legend of Zelda” series. Some examples of the similarities are that each boss is located in a dungeon, the only way to get through the dungeon and ultimately beat the boss is to use the gadget you receive while in the dungeon, and lastly, after defeating the boss, you get a “life container” of sorts that gives you an extra bar of health. Sound familiar yet? Darksiders also borrows from other gaming giants such as God of war and even portal.

While some might get turned off by such blatant use of other companies ideas, most people will be able to appreciate that it is a good game that includes almost all of the things you love about the games it gets its inspiration from and takes out some of the aspects you don’t like.

The story is nothing special and only really picks up towards the end, but you do end up wanting to find out exactly what caused the earth’s current predicament. None of the characters are really vibrant, but Mark Hamill does deliver a nice performance in the form of the watcher, the shifty entity that travels with War on his journey per command of the council. He offers snide comments at some parts and insightful advice at others.

While Darksiders does nothing to reinvent the genre, it certainly doesn’t drag it down. I would at least recommend a rental of this game, if for nothing other than the feeling of nostalgia it brings when playing moments that were clearly inspired by other games.

Dark Void is an action adventure game with some Sci-Fi elements thrown in for good measure. It was announced to be an innovative game that allowed you to fight off an alien threat any way you want. Be it hijacking their “flying discs”, rain down on them with your jetpack machineguns, hang from a cliff while engaging them with the “vertical” cover system, and engage in good-old-fashion firefights. Most of theses aspects the game performs very well.

The games most exciting part is obviously the jetpack. It performs well and the animations while in-flight are beautiful to say the least. Yes, it does take some getting used to and can be disorienting at times but it doesn’t take away from the fact that this is the first game that actually made that jetpack your best means of survival.

The games missions are interesting and they utilize flying well. They sort of have a mission impossible style fell and are really fun.

The game tries to mimic the ARMY OF TWO series with an upgradable weapon system. The system is completely linear and I wish there could’ve been a focus on customizing your jetpack.

Dog fighting is extremely fun and intuitive you’ll always have some action while in the air.

Boss battles are interesting to say the least. They are usually against huge enemies. Ultimately they boil down to fun distractions from the games best feature.

The vertical combat works well to. It is fun and innovative idea but is bought down by the games shooting mechanics. I found the enemies to act as bullet sponges. Taking close to a whole clip to kill (clips hold anywhere from 32-100+ bullets). They could easily overwhelm you when 2-5 enemies are all firing at you. I also found the combat while on the ground to be clunky. When you play as a character with a jetpack you kind of expect to be nimble and speedy. Not to move as terminator when you so clearly are not.

Also the ground animations and cover system both needed some upgrades in the graphical and game play department. I often found myself clipping through plants and the animations are just silly. The “normal” cover system is a joke and the blind fire is TOO accurate! There is no reason why I shouldn’t have to aim and there is no reason why my enemies can perfectly track my movements.

Dark Void fell into a lot of pitfalls that “The Saboteur” bought to the public eye. Goofy animations and sluggish ground combat drag it down a few notches. However the sheer quality of the flying is enough to keep that disc from turning into a “flying disc”.