On your journey, as main protagonist Jason Brody, your main objective is to rescue your other rich friends from a psychotic pirate named Vaas. Vaas, by the way, is one of the most engrossing antagonists I’ve come across in a game. He pretty much steals the show, just as the Joker has done in the Batman Arkham games. In time, this journey turns into much, much more; and almost spiritual path of reckoning. Upon investigating portions of the island, Jason comes across the Rakyat tribe, who offer Jason guidance. Through various trials and accomplishments, you can level up on your journey by acquiring tattoos… thereby becoming a true hunter.

In essence, the meat of Far Cry 3 is liberating enemy outposts. By defeating all enemies in these areas, they are turned into safe zones allowing you to upgrade, fill up on ammo, acquire side missions, etc. Outposts can begin fairly easy… see bad guy and shoot. Later, however, stealth can be key. It is imperative to locate an outposts alarm system and deactivate it; otherwise, the enemies will sound the alarm calling in for reinforcements and ruining your day. Or, you could shoot a tiger cage, thereby releasing the animal to attack the enemies while you go in and shut down the alarm. Just be aware that the tiger or any other animal has no problem attacking you in the process. Another key component is to locate, climb, and activate radio towers (18 in all). By doing so, more of the world’s map opens up to Jason, allowing for further clues of his missions and areas he needs to go.

Early on, many compared Far Cry 3 as a Skyrim with guns. While the game doesn’t necessarily go into the 100 hour arena; it can take upwards of 30 hours to complete most portions of the game. When you add in hunting animals, side missions, discovering various plant life to make medicinal syringes, playing poker (a fun sidetrack by the way), time goes by quickly.

If you are a fan of old school Nintendo games, then right off the bat, you may get a feeling of retro déjà vu. The game play is very similar to Zelda II, with an overworld map, and side scrolling dungeon areas sprinkled all around the Land of Ooo.

The levels themselves are pretty standard (scary woods and ice castles), but feature a wide variety of enemies, from mind-controlling worms to sentient signposts. Most enemies are easy enough to handle on their own, but a few of them pack a wallop. So stock up on pancakes and milkshakes or things might get a bit tough for you.

One of the best parts of this game is the story. Fans of Adventure Time will be glad to know that it was written by the show’s creator, Pendleton Ward, so the story is solid. You play as Finn the Human as you (if the title didn’t give you a hint) try to uncover just why exactly the Ice King has stolen your garbage.

The game itself is a great bit of nostalgic side scrolling hack’n’slash, with beautifully rendered graphics that perfectly follow the feel of the show. The pacing is solid, and leaves you excited for what the next new area has in store.

Adventure Time also has one of the best uses of the 3D capabilities of the 3DS around as well. The worlds have an almost pop-up book quality to them, making the images feel very vivid and alive, which is not a simple feat for such a simple game.

The only real problem I had with this game was the length. From start to finish, you can beat this game in less than 5 hours. While this may be great for kids with shorter attention spans, for the older fans of the show, it can leave you wanting more. A game like this should take a while to play, so you can soak up the beautiful art, level up, explore, and have a sense of accomplishment when finished. Even though the game was a lot of fun, it really felt rushed.

Another problem is a troublesome little glitch during an end game boss fight. It took several tries, and several trips to the internet for help to figure out a strategy to beat it. Given the target market for this game (children) it wouldn’t be surprising if many gave up on finishing this game out of frustration.

During your play through, you’ll encounter Declassified objectives. These are optional choices you’ll be deciding between that will make the missions even harder. The extra objectives are challenging but never impossible. In fact, I suggest doing all of them to make the game just a tad bit more exciting. For instance, I had to use only pistols during one of the game’s more difficult sequences. Another one blasts you with a sandstorm. They’re fun, and unpredictable to say the least.

This game also has a significant bad guy but he’s woefully underused. A big bad locust that continually pops up to bug Kilo squad- you have to ask yourself why this guy is so special. Not to spoil anything but the ending in Judgement feels completely underwhelming.

Once you finish the eight hour single-player experience, you’ll have access to another short series of missions called “Aftermath” that take place during the Gears of War 3 story line. It’s pretty cool to see just where Baird and Cole went when Marcus and Dom were engaging other locusts around the planet. The character skins actually look different than in Judgment because “Aftermath” takes place in the bleak future. It was a nice touch and showed that developer People can Fly actually paid attention to continuity.

Gears of War is a hectic third-person cover-based shooter. Throughout the years and sequels, EPIC games has perfected the gameplay of its gory shooter. Snapping a perfect active reload in your rifle is still one of the most satisfying moments in gaming. That being said, there haven’t been a whole lot of gameplay changes from Gears of War 3 to Judgment and this is both a good thing and a bad thing. Nothing is more frustrating than needing to be revived by your teammates and finding them bumbling, doing anything but saving your life. It’s unfortunate to rely on your AI companions for help; if you’re playing through the more advanced difficulties you’ll need your online backup.

A new feature they have in Gears of War: Judgement is the prize boxes. As you continually level up and complete certain ribbons and achievements the game will reward you with these prize boxes that you’ll open up in the main menu. They’re random in what they will contain, it could be anything like free experience points to new skins for characters and weapons. It’s pretty fun and I hope more games implement this feature in the future.

And Multiplayer is back. You’ll be playing as both the human COG and the Locust horde with a new class based system. Finally the COG can heal each other and have special access to weapons. Unfortunately, this isn’t the end all Gears of War multiplayer. The game only ships with four maps and four game modes. This is disappointing; they also took out executions and “Down but not out” features. I suppose it’s to speed up the sometimes dragging multiplayer gameplay of the previous Gears of War games but it’s sorely missed.

First of all, there are different types of beta testers. A video game today comprises numerous sections, and although there is obviously a form of general testing tasks, most of the work is related with the specifics of the game.

For example, content testers are responsible for reviewing texts, dialogues and even signs that may appear in the game. The role performed is similar to what a spell checker does and of course it requires language proficiency.

There are other types of beta testers also known as “fans”, who work from home and communicate via internet. Basically they receive the game and then they send a report of all errors they encounter as they play.

The third type of beta testers is the professional ones, whose full time role is to test video games. Their job does not differ much from a normal software tester and is mainly focused on running tests related to performance, usability and reliability.

They usually focus on a specific part of the video game and try to force situations that lead to possible programming errors. Some of them are obvious such as graphical errors or AI glitches but there are others that require more attention and time such as running all possible actions in each place. This translates to move the character glued to the walls or solid objects, jumping everywhere, shoot anything that might break, etc.

Asking to work as a video game beta tester today may sound like a joke and traditional job boards may not shed any light to a candidate. There are options such as specialised online forums but then there is a possibility of being scammed. The whole idea of working from house without strains sounds too good to be truth and attracts all kind of lurers with no so-good intentions.

Gaming companies usually pay depending on the engaged activities. For example if an online survey is taken a payment between $5 and $75 may be received. Other tasks that could represent a return for the tester are:

• Participating in focus groups.
• Previewing game trailers.
• Reviewing games.

One of the pioneers in the video game testing industry is Gamingjobsonline.com, a video game tester website that offers fresh opportunities to individuals that are willing to make their living as a video game tester. They have partnered with recognised game studios to bring opinions in online focus groups.

The first borderlands game was an excellent first person shooter/role-playing game loot fest, taking concepts from game franchises like Diablo, with it’s RPG stat setups and the joy of finding bigger, badder items along your journey, and mixing it in with a first person shooter created a surprise hit for gearbox, gaining a large following. The sequel to Borderlands offers more of the same, with some serious improvements across the board, making it a prime example of how a sequel should be composed, taking the formula that makes it good, but improving upon it, rather than removing things that makes it work.

Borderlands 2 Story is about the adventurers of a new set of vault hunters hunting down and destroying the tyrannical president of Hyperion, Handsome Jack, who is controlling Pandora with an iron fist, with a megalomaniac, egotistical mindset, making this guy someone you will hate rather quickly. With the assistance of the previous vault hunters, the story proceeds much better and offers you much more insight than the previous game, which had very little in the way of story and narrative. Borderlands 2’s story offers much more narrative, cutscenes, and the Echo recorders scattered about Pandora which offers more insight on character backstories, including the new Vault Hunters. Overall, I enjoy the story for Borderlands 2, as it offered great plot twists, story advancement, and character interaction between those you meet up with in your adventure.

The gameplay for borderlands 2 is also an improvement over the original, adding more items to collect and loot, a bank and character transfer system so you can move items between your characters, slot machines to gamble your cash for loot and prizes, and much more. The vehicle combat is something I noticed a huge improvement on, as the vehicles can take quite a bit of punishment in regards to the “tin can” armor of the first game, which would explode for taking even the slightest gunfire. Vehicles in the game have a power sliding feature and far better controls, making vehicle combat much more satisfying and rewarding.

New in this series is something called, “Badass Points”. completing numerous challenges for each character offers you these points, which after accumulating enough turns into tokens, which can be spent to increase permanent stats which affect all characters, and using these tokens will give you an option to increase 1 stat with 5 options chosen from 15 stats. These points really get me into doing all the challenges you complete and also get you more customization skin options, which I find to be a really neat addition to the game.

Customization options are another new thing in Borderlands 2, as you find these from mission rewards and other means, you can customize your characters head and their clothes, making your character look different and unique. The game features multiple skins and head pieces for all characters, so finding them all can be a bit of a challenge, but fun!

The 4 starting characters, and the DLC Mechromancer, all have unique skill sets that compliment them and offer a wide variety of different builds and setups. Axton the Commando, Salvador the Gunzerker, Zero the Assassin, Maya the Siren, and the DLC character Gaige the Mechromancer, offer very pleasing styles and setups, and the class mods and relics you can find can boost certain stats and offer bonus points toward certain skills.

Playing in cooperative play is a blast with friends and you have the option of skipping story bits if you have already completed them in another players game, or playing the mission yourself if you choose so. Trading with characters is much easier now, because of the new trading system. Rather than dropping items on the ground you can now initiate trade with another player and safely trade items and money to each other, or if you want to fight for it, you can also wager items and perform a duel for them, the winner takes all in this case.

Dead Space 3 picks up a couple of years after the second game, with protagonist Isaac Clark having settled into a reclusive life trying to avoid the monster-causing Markers littering the galaxy. But, of course, it wouldn’t be much of a game if Isaac was able to keep laying low. Instead, we get to see Isaac and the survivors of a doomed expedition to the ice planet Tau Volantis face off against Unitologist (Marker-worshipping) soldiers, reanimated 200-year-old corpses, giant Necromorph beasts, and more. Along the way, bonds are tested, tables are turned, and secrets are revealed, just as in any engaging story.

Visually, the graphics haven’t evolved a whole lot since the last entry. In terms of console life, both the 360 and the PlayStation 3 are coming up on retirement (maybe sooner rather than later), and so there probably isn’t a lot left to eke out of these two machines. But, that’s not to say that the game’s swirling snowstorms, zero-gravity space levels, and monster-infested hallways and corridors don’t look impressive. The series has always had a high level of polish, and that aspect remains.

One of the big changes to the franchise is the ability to construct new weapons. This time, instead of finding blueprints for already determined weapons, Isaac is able to collect pieces to build his own weapons. At first, I missed the old way of slowly uncovering new weapons to use, but then I started to dive into the deep well of options available. Once I got used to the mechanics, I started to have fun experimenting with all the different flamethrower-rifles, revolver-javelin guns, and pulse rifle-grenade launchers I could piece together.

The other big addition is the ability to have a friend jump into the game for two-player co-op. Although I haven’t tried it myself, I’ve heard that it’s handled well, with the drop-in/drop-out aspect working much smoother than in some other games. Secondary players get to experience the game from the perspective of John Carver, a military man who’s able to team up with Isaac to “take down the terror,” as the game’s marketing department likes to say.

Dead Space 3 continues the series’ push toward more and more action. Even comparing it to Dead Space 2 (which, in my opinion, struck a great balance between creepy tension and pulse-pounding action), this newest game feels more like a mainstream shoot-em-up. For fans of the first two entries, Dead Space 3 will still take care of all your gory Necromorph limb-severing desires. There are even a few scares and a heck of a lot of tension. But, don’t expect it to be quite the same experience as that first terrifying game.

Still, if you liked the first two games, you will probably enjoy once again stepping into the RIG suit of engineer Isaac Clark. The controls, the visuals, and the overall smoothness of the game make it pleasure to play. For the most part, I had a blast working my way through it.

Dark Souls, like Demon’s Souls, leaves you in a world without much to go on, except for the assistance (or hindrance) of player set messages left on the ground to guide you. Demon’s Souls had a great and unique multiplayer in which you can see the ghostly images of other players running about in their own worlds, to give you a sense of you are not the only one left, and Dark Souls follows that tradition.

Other Multiplayer features are invasions (other players attacking you), Kindling fires (which gives one more extra flask from others who kindle their own fires close in the network. You can also lay down summoning signs to assist others in their world as a phantom, or activate their own signs to summon up to 2 other phantoms to assist you in your fight for the current area.

A big difference from Demon’s Souls, is instead of the World/Player system, is the use of 9 covenants, which offer different gameplay styles. Some Covenants are PvP (Player vs Player) base, Some are Co-operative gameplay, and each Covenant is unique in their own way and different rewards. However, betraying your covenant can lead to consequences, or attacking/killing NPCs (non-player characters) can have dire consequences as well, so be careful!

Dark Souls, like Demon’s Souls, uses the souls you gather from enemies and such, as currency. Do you want to level up, purchase items, absolve your sins? It all requires souls, and you need to choose wisely what you will do with them.

The games unique approach to multiplayer is a very nice touch, and no other game series follows in their Multiplayer pursuit. Also, coming soon there is the Prepare to Die Edition, which will be available on the consoles and the PC version as well, so more content is on the way in the coming months.

One of the earliest video games, Pong, was in fact a simulation of the game table tennis. Other classic arcade games featured basketball, baseball, hockey and even racing. While these have little resemblance to the sophisticated action games of today, they started a trend that has continued to this day. Sports games are one of the most popular categories of video game and the category continues to evolve as technology improved.

The modern era of graphically advanced action games began in the early 1990s. John Madden Football for the Sega Genesis console is arguably one of the most influential of early sporting simulations. The same decade also saw the advent of 3D graphics for gaming consoles and PCs. By the end of the decade, extreme sports were becoming increasingly popular and began to appear in the context of electronic entertainment.

After the turn of the millennium, it became common for major league teams to endorse games. Many featured real-world teams and even characters based on popular players. New types of input controllers such as the Wii made for even more realistic experiences. Today, this category of game continues to thrive and the software itself becomes more and more realistic.

Sports games are generally those that put the player in the shoes of a participant in the sporting challenge. These arcade style action games are among the most popular. Another type of game inspired by sports is that which lets the player take on the role of the team coach or manager. This type of game relies less on reflexes and more on big-picture strategy.

Are you ready to get off the bench and get in the game? You don’t need to be an accomplished athlete to excel in the virtual world. Whether you prefer arcade, console or PC, you have countless options available. In fact, there are even hundreds of free ones you can play online without having to purchase costly software. You don’t even need advanced consoles or controller hardware. Many websites let you play with your keyboard and mouse right inside the web browser. A realistic and exciting sporting experience is just a few clicks away.

Eventually, Sony listened to non-Japanese PlayStation fans and released a title called Motor Toon Grand Prix in the United States for the PlayStation. As it turns out, this wasn’t actually the original game and was, in fact, the second in the series, known in Japan as Motor Toon Grand Prix 2, just repackaged for the U.S. market. Even though this wasn’t exactly the game that American gamers had been hoping for, it was so much like the first game that they were still quite happy with it. The game was extremely popular and got high praise from fans and critics alike, who compared the racing game’s setting and tracks to scenes out of Toon Town, the fictional city for cartoon characters in Disney’s movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit? It was as visually appealing as it was fun to play.

The game remained popular among PSOne fans, and although there was high demand for it, Sony curiously left the title out when they began their PSOne Classics brand, which sold re-releases of popular games for the original PlayStation console. But finally, after the creation of the online PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 console, Sony decided to re-release the American version of Motor Toon Grand Prix as a $5.99 USD download. This is still the very same game from 1996, and many fans of the original title were happy to have a digital copy of the game rather than having to worry about a hard copy – which, by the way, is what prompted fans to ask for the release in the first place, as their original copies of Motor Toon Grand Prix had become scratched and damaged from all the use!

As already stated, PS3 owners will find nothing changed in the PSN version of MTGP. Everything that first attracted fans is still there. Players who are new to the title will find an enjoyable racing game along the lines of Mario Kart. Track layouts are challenging even for veteran racing game fans, and they will enjoy the transparent track loops that allow them to see what other cars are doing. They will also find that they have weapons at their disposal for use in slowing down their opponents – Banana peels, oversized weights, dynamite, and many other cartoon mainstays. Another fun element, as in cartoons, cars will stretch and bend when going around corners and then snap back into shape. The happy, silly background music is the proverbial icing on the cake. You start off with a few levels and simpler tracks, but as you progress in the game, newer tracks that offer more challenges – and new weapons to slow down the other drivers -will open up to you.

The first thing I noticed about Lost Winds 2 were the amazing visuals, characters are well defined with smooth animations, there are no overlapping pixels and backgrounds are elegant and vibrant. Interactive elements are clear and there’s clear distinction between background and play field. The music is an enchanting melody so relaxing that you don’t really realize its there until you turn the sound off, it’s incredibly immersive and I think it adds to the addictive nature of the gameplay.

Game controls are brilliantly simple, a lot of thought has gone into utilizing the touch screen. The default movement settings are tap movements, tapping on a position will make you move there and holding for a second will make you walk that way until you stop yourself or reach an obstacle that is too high to climb normally. Alternatively, you can visit the options and switch to a virtual d-pad, you can also position it too your taste. Personally, I found the tap settings far superior mainly because it allows you to play one handed and I’m a lazy gamer at heart. A quick swipe creates a wind gust which you can use to jump and push items, a slower swipe will create a slipstream which you can use to lift objects or carry fire to where it’s needed. Pinching your fingers creates a vortex which you can use to hold objects and enemies in place and this is probably the most important mechanic you’ll use, it’s essential for defeating enemies and comes into play in puzzles as well.

As you progress through the story, you gain access to new powers and items that make your progress easier or open new paths for you. Level design is simply brilliant, you’ll need to utilize your powers to their utmost. The puzzles are incredibly challenging but not frustrating. The actual game world is fairly small but requires a lot of backtracking to gain items and powers. There is no quick travel so you have to go everywhere the hard way, it’s not so bad due to the compartmented level design and it adds a much needed longevity to the title. I completed Lost Winds 2 in about 10 hours, not bad for an iOS title but it leaves your appetite unsated. I was wanting more to do after finishing but there is practically no replay value, you can try to find all the hidden collectibles but trying to play through again offers no new challenges, that though, is the only negative I have.

Lost Winds 2 is a very stable app, I never had any force closes, but be aware that you can’t just switch it off anywhere. The game saves at checkpoints marked with a totem pole, saving is automatic and when you start playing again, you start from the last statue visited. If you don’t want to replay sections again, you need to visit one before shutting the app.

As a little aside, finding the hidden tiki statues unlocks different characters for the photo mode where you can place characters from the game onto your own pictures. If you choose to, share them on social media or save them to your device. Personally, this didn’t really appeal to me but fans of the series may get a kick out of making their own photos with game characters.

Lost Winds 2 is amazing to play, it’s just unfortunate that it’s so short. It’s challenging however and the touch gestures are intuitive and innovative. You’ll occasionally gust when you want a slipstream but it’s never a big problem due to great level design. This title is most definitely worth a look and is suitable for all ages and tastes, easily 4 stars, the only letdown being the limited length.