DeathSpank is a pretty strange name for a game but the strangeness of the name reflects the bizarre but hilarious dialogue used in the game. It is a hack and slash roleplaying game very similar to the Diablo series in quest structure and the loot system. You play as Deathspank and the basic objective is to complete quests in order to retrieve an artifact of great power, surprisingly called “The artifact”. The dialogue is hilarious and I had a smile on my face most of the time while playing it and laughed out loud on several occasions while talking to the quest givers. The humour comes from DeathSpank’s dim-wittedness and the strange individuals that you help in your journey for “the artifact”, all while collecting better weapons and armour and leveling up. That covers the type of game and the major aspects of the game that appealed to me.

The graphics remind me of the approach Diablo 2 took but much more detailed and better looking. It is one of the better looking arcade games in my opinion and the art style fits the game perfectly. The character models are 3D and the backgrounds are 2D. The cut scenes are short but look great and advance the story well. As you move around the background moves as if you are moving around a tiny planet. It is difficult for me to explain but works well and does not get in the way. It allows you to travel easily and fits very well with the rest of the game. Content wise it is pretty clean the humour gets kind of mature near the end of the game but it is not bad. There were no real sexual references that I noticed and there is no gore when killing enemies so in that aspect it is clean also.

The quests are mostly pretty easy for the most part and take just some logic and paying enough attention to the quest givers to complete. There is a hint system which uses fortune cookies that you find from killing enemies and smashing barrels to help you complete the quests. A few quests at the end of the game stumped me but I only had to look up the guide to one of the last quests online. After I did I felt kind of like an idiot as from talking to the characters involved in the quest made it quite clear what to do. The bosses were pretty easy with the right strategy and as long as you are at an appropriate level and have decent armour.

There are a few basic quests, mostly involving killing, things collecting things, delivering things and a short escort quest. There are loads of side quests to do and if you make an effort to complete all of them as well as the main quests you will probably get around 15-20 hours game play depending on how much you focus on leveling up. I think I was at about 20 hours after completing all the side quests, getting to level 20 which is the max level and beating the final boss.

It is 1200 Microsoft points which seemed a bit steep to me initially but after playing the 20 minute trial I was hooked and bought it the next day. I would recommend that anyone download the trial play for the full time it gives you and if you enjoyed what you played you will not be disappointed with the full game. There is limited replayability as once you have beat it you do not have much incentive to play through it again but the content you get in a single play through is worth the cost to me. DeathSpank is well worth the 1200 points it asks for, will you help DeathSpank Dispense justice, defend the down trodden and vanquish evil?.

Well, encase you have been wondering where the Weekly Wisdom’s that I have been posting are at, they have been over at The Hardcore Christian.

If you have missed them in the past, you can view them all here that I have posted.

Battlefield holds a special place in my heart.  One which I can trace all my online gaming back to, so when I play a Battlefield game I have high expectations.  Lately I have also had some relatively high disappointments as well.  Battlefield Bad Company 2 released an online mulitplayer demo recently which allows players to play 1 map and attack and defend from each side.  There are plenty of tanks, helicopters and small vehicles to drive and lots of places to hide.

The first thing you will notice about the demo is the chaos.  I don’t know if I play MW2 too much but I feel like there is so much going on on the map that I don’t know where to begin.  I feel like the backdrop to the map also camouflages the enemies to the point where you don’t see them until they are right up on you.  The second issue I take with this game is the stiffness of the controls.  I feel like my player is on rollerskates running around on the map.  I am unable to take corners very well and it takes me 2 attempts to get into a doorway.  The weapons all start out with iron sites as well with the exception of the sniper rifle and due to the lack of smooth atmosphere I feel like shooting someone is like performing surgery.

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This Review is by HCG Member-ZANATAR

Premise – Human Covenant war prior to the Halo trilogy.

Fighting to preserve the human race from utter annihilation from an alien force known as the Covenant. Real time strategy based game designed so you can build your army and conquer.

The Good -
Good story line for the campaign with excellent quality video cut scenes. 
CO-OP campaign available for extra added fun. 
Easy to use controls.
Very fun online play with optional character use including three human and three Covenant options.
Each online race option has its own special abilities making for a more strategic setup.
Characters in the game perform just like in previous Halo games. 
Most gamerscore is easy to get. 

The Bad - 
Limited ability for building.
Buildings build one at a time on any specific build site, making it take longer to build multiple buildings. 
Limits in your view of the game.

The Ugly -

Can’t really think of anything that was bad enough to put here.

Final Thoughts – I loved this game. It’s positive qualities definitely outweighed the negative. I would recommend this game for anyone who enjoys an RTS style game.

Let’s get something out of the way. This is a game about 50 cent. If you don’t like 50 Cent’s music, G-unit, vulgarity or Gangster Shootouts, this probably isn’t the game for you. Just making that absolutely clear. If you do want to play this game, I suggest you take the same method I did and check your brain at the door, you won’t be needing it. Thinking is actually going to hurt the experience. If you think too long about a game based around 50 cent trying to chase down a skull covered in diamonds all over the Middle East, well your going to get confused and probably develop a headache.

50 didn’t get paid for his last show (apparently his music is very popular in the Middle East) and the diamond covered skull he was given for compensation was abruptly stolen. You’re going to have to help him get it back through gameplay that is easily described as Gears of War meets The Club covered in a thick layer of 50 cent. You’re playing 50 cent, you’re listening to 50 cent, and your AI or co-op partner is often heard shouting about 50 cent. “Yeeaah, Go Fiddy’”

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Sega may be back on the rebound with it’s latest Sonic The Hedgehog title.

With recent releases of Sonic games including Sonic Unleashed being relatively mediocre it’s nice to see the genre trying to improve upon itself.  Sonic and the Black Knight puts our favorite blue hedgehog in medieval times during the fantastical reign of King Arthur.  Sonic is summoned by Merlina, the daughter of Merlin, to assist in taking down the immortal and equally evil King Arthur and his loyal Knights of the Round Table.

The game consists of the same fast-paced 3-D racing seen in Sonic and the Secret Rings, instead of using the Wii-mote to control Sonic’s back and forth movement, you use the nunchuck.  With your left hand controlling his forward, backward and side to side movement your right hand is left with the Wii-mote to “sword fight”.  The game actually pulls off the sword fighting quite well, though the pace of the game can be slowed down quite a bit while engaging in battle.  The controlling of Sonic is rather straight forward and seamless.

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A lot has been said about the Flower experience for the Playstation 3.  The game itself is a downloadable title priced at $10.00 (US).  There has been debate on whether the title is actually a game or an experience but that’s not what I want to talk about with Flower. 

What I found with the Flower game/experience is that there is so much truth to the concept of Flower.  Propelled by the wind, you move petals that in turn bring life to more flowers and carry them along in the wind with the first petal.

The world in which you navigate is dark and drab.  It’s your job as the wind is to bring light and life to the environment.  The more areas that you revive, the more areas become available for you to bring life to.

Isn’t that a Christians mission?  To allow yourself to be propelled by God to bring light and life to dark and dead areas?  To collect believers and work together for the common goal of bringing more life wherever it is you travel?

It’s actually quite a simple process.  There isn’t debate, the flowers don’t try to convince each other to follow, they simply arrive and lead the rest.  By example we do this with love and light given and guided by God.

“You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can’t be hidden. Matt 5:14