A Serious Headline.

Serious Sam Double D review.

In a generation of videogames where 2D games are being transitioned into 3D, it's quite refreshing to the opposite happen here with Mommy's Best Games' brand new spin on the crazy insane Serious Sam franchise, coming soon to an Xbox 360, PC and indeed PS3 near you soon.

SS:DD is a platform shoot 'em up in a similar vein to that of Metal Slug, Super Probotector and even has a slight whiff of Shadow Complex with its twin stick run and gun shooting mechanic which works extremely well given the fast paced nature of the series.

All the things which make a Serious Sam game fun are there bar a couple of missing features but for what it lacks in co-op and one liners from Serious Sam himself the game makes it up by adding one particular feature which absolutely seals the deal in making this game hectic, frantic and other things which sound like it's moving at 1000 mph. Which it is, by the way.

Gun Stacking is a unique feature in which you literally stack weapon upon weapon until you have up to a maximum of six weapons per stack (or which you can have eight stacks) and wreck complete havoc on the familiar enemy types such as Gnaars, Kamikaze's and even some impressive new additions to the crazy roster of baddies. I won't spoil anything for you as it's all part of the fun, but if you didn't like those Vuvuzelas then you're in for a weird treat.

As usual you start of in an Egyptian style environment with Natrisca offering you barebones mission data which is filled with self referential humour and even throws in a few popular culture references, secret locations and those pesky trap items which are key essential staples feature and make Serious Sam Double D more fun that it has any right to be in two dimensions.
There are challenges to be unlocked and offer even more enemies jam packed onto a screen with the task of killing X amount with a certain weapon type which add to the longevity of the game but it's such a shame the main game only lasts about four hours. I could've gone on for maybe just one more hour... or two.

Rampaging through eighteen levels was an incredible ride to be had and certainly whet my appetite for the upcoming "big box" version of Serious Sam with its third incarnation hitting this October but i'll be honest, if I can't stack weapons in the 3D version then I'll be a sad gamer. I bet Mommy's Best Games are proud in having created a feature which no other game has.
SS: DD is hitting August 30th for PC and later for consoles.

Head to Steam, Get Games, Impulse and other digital stores to get your copy now! It's bloody marvellous.

8/10

I'll have a robotic arm to go, please.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution



It's been quite some time you got to play a lead role of Eidos Interactive's much loved franchise, Deus Ex, but this week you get to step into the shoes of Adam Jensen, the protagonist who has been augmented by science and technology to make him more than just a human.

In Deus Ex: Human Revolution, society is on the brink of a global meltdown with a majority of the population not reeping the benefits of the breakthroughs to humanity in the year 2027. As Adam Jensen, working for Sarif Industries you must found out who or what is causing all the problems in this futuristic world and survive an enslaught of enemies who are all out to have you killed.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a first-person role playing game giving off a definite Fallout meet Mass Effect 2 vibe. The ability to talk your way through sticky situations, break down certain walls and even sneak by enemies by being completely invisible are all at your fingertips thanks to the revolutionary breakthrough in human augmentation.

As you complete missions, hack terminals, find secret areas and kill enemies you earn experience points like any good RPG which allows you to improve your Adam Jensen and hopefully provide many unique ways to play the game.

Imagine a scenario which pits you crouching behind a wall in an attempt to deal with the on-coming group of enemies, how would you deal with the situation. Would you either prepare for a full on brutal attack with your special weaponry and deal with the outcome afterwards or alternately, if you have earned enough levels of experience to equip a cloaking device you can literally turn invisible and sneak right by the oncoming enemies and hopefully evade conflict all together, just make sure you don't knock into any objects in the world nearby, it could alert the guys you were intending to dodge.

Thirdly, you could indeed construct a way to evade the enemies without a cloaking device by placing a series of boxes, pallets and barrels to reach to areas which are out of view. This game certainly offers more than youe bog standard linear adventure.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel origins story to the previous two games and is out this week on Friday.

CS: Go Go Go.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive.



Rarely do I use this opportunity to promote news from within the games industry other than the week of E3 and Eurogamer but today I am writing to you with some very important news. Not only have Valve, the creators of Half Life, Team Fortress 2 and Portal announced a new game for a long running series of games but I am just excited that they have announce another game.

It's been so long since my hay-day of Counter Strike. I am in a clan, playing (poorly) online against other clans vying for whatever attention I could be getting and I loved every single second of it. If you're not aware of Counter-Strike, then I feel sorry for you. It's definitely one of the best, or at least it was before games moved on since.

Counter Strike: Source was released, quite astonishingly in 2004 since then we have had a huge evolution in how online First-Person Shooters are played from stat tracking to matchmaking in Halo and indeed Call of Duty it should be very interesting to see how this new iteration from Valve Software stands up in todays Call of Duty obsessed world.

The premise of the game is simple. Counter Terrorists on one side, each with their own unique look, sounds and weaponry against, you guessed it, Terrorists. Nothing too specific, just naughty people terrorising hostages, bombing delicate locations and indeed, if you're old school, murdering VIPs.

Each successful round will earn you money which in turn allows you to purchase new weaponry and equip your selected guise with body armour and grenades if you so desire. While this might seem a bit unfair that the winners get better the game is so finely balanced that even the strongest team with body armour can indeed fall against the under dogs, and that's when Counter Strike becomes incredible.

There's no word on pricing or even a screenshot of the actual game for that matter but I am still ultra hyped for this game. It's coming to PC, Xbox Live Arcade and PSN in the early months of 2012.

"Lock 'N' Load"