FIFA 12 has become the best selling sports video game..

FIFA 2012 sold millions of copies in the UK alone
FIFA 12 has become the biggest selling sports video game ever according to chart company GFK-Chart Track.
It says the game has just held on to its fifth consecutive week at number one, meaning it has had a total of seven weeks at the top spot.
It was released in September 2011 and sold 3.2 million copies around the world in its first week in the shops.
 

 
Publisher Electronic Arts says the game sold 2.4 million units in the UK alone last year.
That was 50,000 more copies than FIFA 11 sold during the same period in 2010.
The figures include only so called 'packaged goods' so don't account for smartphone or tablet PC sales.
 

 
'Stunning achievement'
Despite selling more copies GFK Chart-Track said FIFA 12 has some way to go to beat a record held by one of its predecessors.
FIFA 98: Road to the World Cup managed 11 consecutive weeks at number one.
Speaking just after the launch of FIFA 12 Executive Vice-President of EA Sports said he hoped the game would continue to sell well beyond its first few weeks in the shops.
"FIFA 12 is a stunning achievement by our team at EA Canada.
"We intend to keep them [the fans] engaged all season long as FIFA 12 follows the heartbeat of the football season".
 

Video games developers could win £25,000 in a competition run by Abertay University..

 

Prizes are available in three categories, including "games on the move"
 
Video games developers could win £25,000 in a competition run by Abertay University in Dundee.
Four prizes are on offer in the Tiga games contest - part of the university's £5m prototype fund launched in July 2010.
As well as the cash prize, the winning companies are offered support from established games developers.
The fund is designed to help start-ups or smaller firms that need a boost to produce new prototypes.
Previous winners of the contest - run with the computer games industry association Tiga - include Dundee-based Proper Games.
The four prizes will be chosen from three categories: games on the move, games in the home and social web gaming. Two winners will be picked from the social category.
'Strong interest'
One of two established games studios - Antix Labs or Turbulenz - will help the winners build their prototypes.
Paul Durrant, Abertay's business development director, said: "Getting funding for exciting new projects can be difficult, so we'd strongly encourage developers to apply for this exciting opportunity.
"As well as receiving £25,000, working with Tiga, Turbulenz and Antix for mentoring and support is a great opportunity for any company. We've seen strong interest so far in this contest, so are expecting some innovative responses to the challenges.
"The Abertay University prototype fund is all about creating these new opportunities, and we look forward to funding more fantastic game ideas with strong business potential."
The university said applications must be received by 12:00 on 26 January

Max Payne 3 game delayed…

 
The latest game in the Max Payne series has been delayed by two months.
Max Payne 3 was due to be released in March but now won't hit shelves in the UK until May.
It's published by Rockstar Games, which is owned by Take-Two Interactive Software.
The company said it expected revenues for the current financial year to be hit by around £145 million because of the delay.
"We do not take changes to our release schedule lightly," said Strauss Zelnick, Chairman and CEO of Take-Two.
"This short delay will ensure that Max Payne 3 delivers the highest quality, groundbreaking entertainment experience that is expected from our company."
Fans of the series have already had to wait nearly 10 years for this latest instalment.
Since 2003's Max Payne 2, a film featuring the character was released, starring Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis.
'Valuable brand'
The latest edition is set several years after the previous game.
 

 
It sees the former New York police officer relocate to start his life over in Sao Paulo, where things go from bad to worse for him.
Alex Simmons, the UK editor of video games website IGN.com, told Newsbeat Max Payne is a valuable brand that Rockstar will want to protect.
"If that game's released and it was substandard it would essentially mean they could never release in that franchise again.
"I think that's important to Rockstar, that they want to make it the best it can be."
But he added there could also be financial reasons behind the delay.
"It wouldn't surprise me if someone, somewhere said, 'Look, we need a little bit more time to polish the game, but also we need a really big hit in the financial year 2013,' so this works for both."
Although Simmons said that two months wasn't too long compared with GTA IV's six-month delay - which was also published by Rockstar - he said most fans would find it annoying.
"Yes it's frustrating but having played [Max Payne 3] quite a lot already I think it'll definitely be worth the wait."

Disappointing Games Of 2011

 

It's hard to look back on any year of gaming and try to pull out the best and worst games, but that's not going to stop us from trying. Any list of this kind is by definition subjective, but these are the gaming experiences that stuck with the editors of Ars Technica, Wired magazine, and wired.com. They are the ones we think define 2011: the games that stumbled and the ones that soared.
Let us know what you think, what we missed, and what choices make you shake your head in anger. Sure, there were games that let us down, but we'd argue that the important part of the list are the best games. If you haven't ripped into these games yet, it's a good time to start.
Let's start with the negative, and take a look at the most disappointing games of 2011.

9. Dead Island

This game represents a stupendous achievement for Axis Animation. Unfortunately, Axis Animation is the team that made the riveting CG trailer that convinced over a million people to shell out for a buggy, mediocre open-world zombie game made by Techland. Its previous series Call of Juarez was a poor man's Red Dead Redemption, just like Dead Island is a poor man's Dead Rising. The most unforgivable element was the inconsistent combat: I'd swing an axe and bury it in an enemy's chest, and it wouldn't register. Then I'd swing again and miss them by several feet, and its arm would fly off. —Chris Baker

8. Hard Reset

This PC shooter benefited from an innovative PR campaign that showed the game's first image mere weeks before the public was able to play a demo. Based on that, we expected a fun, classical first-person shooterwith impressive graphics. It was a fun game with an innovative weapons system, but just as the story and action seemed to be picking up, it all came to a crashing end. More content is coming, and the game remains in active development, so we can only hope something can be salvaged from this interesting failure. —Ben Kuchera

7. Jurassic Park

You might go into Jurassic Park: The Game thinking it's a basic adventure game, something more like the rest of developer Telltale's line-up. You'd be wrong. It's much less. The quintessential example of an interactive movie, Jurassic Park is a mini-series set during and after the events of the first film, but with a few button presses thrown in every now and then to make it feel as if you're doing something. The story is mildly interesting and feels like a step up from the unnecessary third film, but there's simply too little gameplay. —Andrew Webster

6. The Nintendo 3DS launch lineup

Consoles typically launch with one or two great games, a handful of decent B titles and a whole bunch of rushed garbage. Nintendo had the latter two categories sewn up when it launched the Nintendo 3DS in March, but not so much that first one. No Mario, no Zelda, no nothing except for Nintendogs, Steel Diver, andPilotwings Resort. Throw in the fact that the digital games shop wouldn't be ready for months, and the 3DS launched with a pitiful whimper. Things are better now, at least. —Chris Kohler

5. Assassin's Creed Revelations

The Assassin's Creed series needs a swift kick in the ass. This year's entry might be loaded up with new features like the ill-received "Den Defense" mode and other such frivolity, but the actual explore-and-assassinate gameplay—you know, the stuff that was so good in the first place?—is thinner here than in the previous two entries. It's time to trim the fat, get back to the fundamentals and create something that's as much of a leap as Assassin's Creed II was over the first game. —Chris Kohler

4. Two Worlds II

After the buggy, disappointing mess that was Two Worlds, things could have only gone uphill for the sequel, right? Not exactly. Two Worlds II was certainly better than its predecessor, but it still felt like a game at odds with its players. With a clunky interface, a predictable storyline and some truly atrocious aesthetics, Two Worlds II often seemed like it was just daring you to stop playing. —Jason Schreier

3. Rage

There was always hope for Rage. While history has not been kind to Doom 3, we were all hoping that this time, it could pull together something that could reinvent the shooter. What we got was a half-baked game with a nonexistent story and annoying game mechanics that lacked meaning or consequence. The new engine introduced a number of issues to PC gamers, and it required a large installation on the consoles. Rage might have looked good, but it showed none of the grace and flair befitting of a a big-budget release from a boutique studio. —Ben Kuchera

2. Dragon Age II

In 2009, BioWare released the fantasy role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins to critical fanfare, garnering praise for the game's breadth, scope and lore. Fifteen months later came the slapdash Dragon Age II, which gutted many of its predecessor's good qualities. Instead of adventuring through forests and swamps, players spent the whole game fighting through a single city, a city so generic that its districts had names like "Darktown" and "Hightown." For many fans of Dragon Age (or of BioWare's classic fantasy RPG seriesBaldur's Gate) the sequel was an epic letdown. —Jason Schreier

1. Duke Nukem Forever

Hail to the king, baby! Duke may not be winning any more Vaporware Awards any time soon, but he is the winner of this other dubious accolade. Playing its first few levels, you might think that Duke Nukem Foreverwould be a funny, risk-taking shooter that made up for its old graphics and thin gameplay with good-natured poop humor. What it actually turned out to be was a technical mess full of never-ending loading screens, bland levels and broken gameplay. We'd love to see a great Duke game someday, but this one wasn't worth the wait. —Chris Kohler

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The best games of 2011

20. To The Moon

All video game writers should be forced to play through To the Moon, an indie PC game that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster ride through the memories of a dying old man. It's a beautiful, personal story about love and communication, a drastic departure from the save-the-world tropes found in many of today's triple-A games. There's not a whole lot of interaction here, but spend 4 to 5 hours with To the Moon and you'll be a sobbing wreck before you can say "one of these days, Alice..."
—Jason Schreier

19. The Witcher 2

If you're the type who agonizes over the moral decisions in games like Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age, thenWitcher 2 will have you losing sleep. There's no binary good or evil here, just shades of gray, and the choices become more difficult when you realize they have far-reaching implications: Do a good deed for someone and they might return the favor much later into the game. Witcher 2 has beautiful graphics and strategic battles, but what keeps people talking about this RPG is the quality of its role-playing. —John Mix Meyer

18. Gemini Rue

Part Blade Runner, part Monkey Island, this sci-fi noir adventure game is packed with puzzles and plot twists. It's a short, sweet, satisfying experience, the type you can (and will) zip through in a night or two. Experienced point-and-click adventurers might not find Gemini Rue too difficult, but it's an experience worthy of the glory days of LucasArts and Sierra. —Jason Schreier.

17. Jetpack Joyride

It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a game becomes better as you increase the scope or complexity.Jetpack Joyride is the perfect example of a game with a simple idea—you touch the screen to move up, and remove your finger to move down—that shines on iOS devices. The wonderful design extends to the vehicles you're able to drive, the missions that earn you more coins and the continual content packs that add more things to see and do. From a game that's only a dollar on the iPad or iPhone, it's one of my fondest memories from 2011. —Ben Kuchera

16. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

This charming, sprawling PSP adventure is funny, heartbreaking and everything in between. Legend of Heroeshas love, betrayal, interesting combat, a metric ton of sidequests and just about anything else you could want in a JRPG, including an obligatory (and hilarious) crossdressing scene. —Jason Schreier

15. Bulletstorm

This game tanked, probably because the story and characters took the thick-necked raunchy Spike TV dudebro vibe from Epic's Gears of War and turned it up to 11. But look past the lunkhead character design and scatological tough-guy talk and you find the same sort of innovative twists on shooter mechanics that made the original Gears so surprisingly satisfying. Bulletstorm's slide-kick, enemy-grabbing leash and endless array of imaginatively gory skillshots provided some of the most satisfying action gaming experiences I had all year. Go buy a new copy and help convince Epic to make a sequel. —Chris Baker

14. Uncharted 3

The actual story in Uncharted 3 can be hard to follow, and there are some storytelling tricks that I don't agree with, but when the characters interact with each other it's easy to see why Naughty Dog is so respected: no one can write characters and situations like Amy Hennig and her team, and it's amazing to relax and enjoy the back-and-forth between Nathan Drake and his gang of rogues. The action setpieces are likewise breathtaking; you fight on the land, in the sea, and of course in the air. Uncharted 3 is a thrilling look back at the movie serials that also inspired George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to create the Indiana Jones movies, but in many ways Drake is a much more interesting character than Harrison Ford's withered archeologist. —Ben Kuchera
trailer

13. Superbrothers Sword & Sworcery EP

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery EP is a game of moments: some as small as watching a deer hop into the bushes, others more revelatory and world-changing. But each one is powerful. It's an intimate game that makes you feel like it was created solely with you in mind. A point-and-click adventure that won't make you feel frustrated, with puzzles that often force you to simply poke around until you find the solution. It's leisurely at times, and heart-pounding at others. It's like nothing else you've played before. —Andrew Webster

12. Rayman Origins

This 2-D side-scroller with lush, colorful and intricately detailed animation is hands-down the most visually appealing game I played all year. The only downside is that I sometimes died because I paused to drink in the hand-drawn animation. The solid framerate really helps you enjoy it. Like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Rayman Origins is designed to be a great single- or multiplayer experience. But the gameplay is quicker, more varied and more brutal. In fact, I think I prefer it to Nintendo’s blockbuster platformer. —Chris Baker
trailer  
11. Resistance 3

The first Resistance was a hit for the PlayStation 3, but fans cooled on the second release. Insomniac went back to what made the original so much fun to create the third game, and what resulted was a delicious mix of atmosphere and a unique period setting: Think of what would happen if Robert Heinlein wrote a Steinbeck novel, add some of the best guns to ever be used against aliens, and you have an idea of the quality of the game's single-player campaign. A recent pack of downloadable content added a survival mode and included seven songs from metal gods Mastodon. Why? Why not? Resistance 3 proved that when you mix things you're passionate about into a big pot, amazing things can happen. —Ben Kuchera

10. Dead Space 2

Although it devolved into something of a gore-heavy corridor shooter in its second half, Dead Space 2 was front-loaded with lots of brilliant scare moments. A streamlined design made it more compelling than its predecessor, even though you were so loaded up on ammo that none of the monsters ever really had a chance of stopping your traipse through an abandoned space habitat. These highs and lows make it hard to voice a full-throated argument in favor of Dead Space 2, but you've got to experience the good stuff. —Chris Kohler

9. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Of all the games of 2011, Deus Ex: Human Revolution had the greatest potential for failure. Eleven years is a long time to wait for the follow-up to one of the greatest games of all time, after all. To its great credit, Human Revolution does not disappoint. It is everything you could want from a Deus Ex game, provided that everything includes bleak future cityscapes, twisted conspiracies, crazy body modifications and the ability to play as a sneaky hacker badass (or some mixture of those three). Just try to look the other way when the boss fights come up. —Marty Cortinas


8. Dark Souls

In a year of games that found endless ways to hold your hand, it's amazing to see one so willing to slap your face. Dark Souls can feel like going from a hot tub to a cold pool if you jump in without learning how the mechanics work or reading up on the game, but it's a shock to the system in the best way. The world of Dark Souls truly does not care if you live or die. There's something freeing in the game's ability to kill you at any point: When (if) you do succeed, you will always feel like you earned the victory. —Ben Kuchera

7. Bastion

The best games are released with some kind of delightful twist or gimmick that provides a new way to view or play an established genre. Bastion was immediately impressive due to the lush, hand-painted look of its graphics, and the music carried strong emotional weight. The real treat, though, was the in-game narrator who seemed to speak the story of the game as you played it. He addressed everything from the weapon you chose to the mistakes you made as you tried to fight your way through the game's intriguing story. —Ben Kuchera

6. Super Mario 3D Land

A platform is only as good as its killer app. Take the Nintendo 64, with its silly-looking controller and its cartridges that already seemed archaic in 1996: None of that mattered after a few minutes of exploring the courtyard in Super Mario 64. Super Mario 3D Land is a killer app for the 3DS in the same way. Not only is it a fantastic game, almost on par with the brilliant Super Mario Galaxy, but it also addresses many of the misgivings I had about the platform. Stereoscopic 3D was a nice bonus feature in other 3DS games, but it’s absolutely integral to 3D Land, which plays some sort of clever trick with depth or perspective every 90 seconds or so. It never occurred to me to switch off the 3D during my many long hours of collecting gold coins and ground-pounding. —Chris Baker

5. L.A. Noire

Your ability to enjoy L.A. Noire rests in great part on your ability to look past its barely-there and occasionally contradictory gameplay. Chris Baker wanted to put it on our Most Disappointing list instead. I think, especially in the fullness of time, L.A. Noire's mechanical failings will be overlooked in light of its frighteningly real characters and lifelike animation. The story is gripping enough and the characters human enough to keep you fascinated even as the adventure gameplay begins to fray at the edges. —Chris Kohler

4. Portal 2

If there's one thing Valve is known for beyond actually caring about narrative, it's nearly pathological levels of fan service. Portal 2 delivered on both counts. Not only were you given more of what made the original first-person puzzler so great—mindbending level design and the wryest humor this side of the BBC—but the Valve braintrust went off its potato and crammed the sequel with enough features to give GLaDOS a kernel panic. A surprisingly robust co-op campaign, a quiver of new play mechanics, and the where-have-they-been-all-our-lives voice performances of Stephen Merchant and J.K. Simmons (whose Cave Johnson may just be the most badass character of the 2010s thus far) made for a blessed respite from the aimless open worlds and copycat shooters that plagued the release calendar. —Peter Rubin

3. Batman: Arkham City

It's simple: Be the Batman. Everything that made Arkham Asylum such a blast is present in Arkham City,except there's more: more free-flow combat, more Gotham City, more gizmos, more Riddler trophies, more challenges, more villains. It all melds together to form a sprawling, open world perfect for busting heads and hurling Batarangs. As for the killjoys who complain that there are too many Bat-gizmos (whaaaaaat?), did I mention that you get to play as Catwoman? —Marty Cortinas

2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Some people will try to tell you that Skyward Sword's souped-up motion controls, which allow players to swing the Wii Remote and have Link swing his sword in precisely the same way, weren't a critically important feature—just a clever mechanic that if discarded wouldn't have had much impact on the game's overall quality. Don't listen to those people.
By allowing players to move Link's sword with exactness, Skyward Sword's enemy encounters became more than just speed bumps on the road to the next dungeon. You had to be careful in your swordplay; slice in the wrong direction and an enemy would block your strike, leaving you open to a nasty counterattack.
Almost every facet of the typical Zelda experience has been rethought, leaving little more than the “you found an item” jingle and some familiar faces as reminders of the past. A fresh, successful revamping of the Zelda formula. —John Mix Meyer

1. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Much has already been written about the way Bethesda's open-world role-playing game allows players to direct their own narratives. Skyrim completely lives up to its raison d'être, creating a world so vibrant, it's easy to buy into the illusion that it actually exists. Granted, some of the bugs and glitches are hard to swallow, particularly on the PlayStation 3 version (which we did not review). But you'd be hard pressed to find another game with this many meaningful choices.
Ultimately, when we think about the games that stood out most in 2011, Skyrim will take center stage for both ambition and execution. The game is at its best not during its grandest moments but during the little details that flesh out its world, those bits of environmental storytelling that make every sight worth seeing. From a bustling wizards' college to an abandoned lighthouse filled with corpses, the landmarks in Skyrim are peculiar and unparalleled.
Perhaps the biggest testament to Bethesda's success is that though I'm over 80 hours in, and even though my shelf is stacked with all sorts of other new games, I just can't stop playing Skyrim. —Jason Schreier

Gameloft Releases Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation In The Android Market

Last night, Gameloft released the much awaited Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation on the Android Market. The iOS counterpart of the game was released quite a few weeks ago, and Gameloft had promised that they will release the Android version of the game before this year ends.

Modern Combat 3 is a first person shooter set during a war, and consists of more than 13 mission campaign along with a multiplayer mode. The graphics of the game look very real, and are a level above the previous games released by Gameloft. Sadly, the controls of the game are typical of Gameloft, which makes playing this game a bit tough. Modern Combat 3 supports all the recent Android phones which have a 1GHz processor and 512MB of RAM.

Just a word of caution though, the game requires a whopping 1.37GB of free space in the storage card of your phone. So make sure you have adequate free space in your handset before buying the game.

Modern Combat 3 Fallen Nation is available for $6.99 in the Android Market and can be purchased fromhere.

Dead Island offers flashes of fun in unfinished, buggy PC release

Deep Silver has sent us the following statement: "We deeply regret that an incorrect version of Dead Island was inadvertently made available to players on Steam launch in North America. We are very sorry for any issues you may have experienced while playing the game—the correct, patched version will be made available to North American players ASAP. Other territories are not affected by this situation, the fully patched game will be available on Friday as announced."

We will be sure to test the "real" version of the game when it becomes available. The original article remains below.

Dead Island is a first-person action-RPG that places you on a beautiful island and then surrounds you with zombies. The story can feel threadbare, and the characters are often little more than cartoons, but the struggle to stay alive gives you more than enough reason to keep playing. As Robert Kirkman loves to point out in theWalking Dead comic series, the real dangers after a zombie infestation aren't the undead, but the survivors that also surround you. When society breaks down, it's the people that become truly monstrous.
You play one of four characters who is immune to the infection, which is a clever way of explaining why you're the one leaving safety to help with every major and minor mission. The game has moments of brilliance and is often fun, but it's also clearly not finished—and nearly broken on the PC. I can't wait to revisit things when the technical issues are sorted out.
How bad are things at launch? This is the first game I can remember playing where a developer's no-clip mode was mapped to "Y" as a default in the final code.

So what's going on here?

It's hard to separate the issues with the game and the issues with the PC port, but we'll try. For starters, moving feels weird and imprecise, a sure sign that the controller-based controls weren't tweaked for a mouse and keyboard. When driving a car, simply looking around introduces an annoying amount of lag. When you attempt to strafe you begin moving at half-speed, which doesn't make much sense. That speed reduction is more than enough to ensure a quick death once you are surrounded by zombies.
The graphics suffer from too much brightness, which leads to a blown-out image no matter how much you fiddle with the in-game visual settings or the controls on your monitor. If a character is knocked down a sloped surface, their legs and arms often pass through the environment as they get up. Some missions crashed, or broke down at the very last step, leading to a number of situations where I had to quit and restart the game.
I found myself stuck in the game's environment, and when I restarted the game I found I had kept my progress in the game's story, but my experience, abilities, items, and cash had all been wiped clean. I was fighting powerful enemies with none of the advantages I should have had at that point in the game, making it impossible to continue. I was forced to start over, losing around four hours of progress. This made me very grumpy.
Then, after some testing, I realize what had happened. If you accidentally hit the "Y" button and go into no-clipping mode, you may fly into a solid object and get stuck. If you restart the game from this position, all your character's stats are wiped. This bug exists in the version of the game that is live on Steam right now.
We were given a list of fixes that were coming in a day-one patch, and it was extensive. I haven't had a chance to play much with this patch, but many of my issues haven't been addressed. I have a feeling we're going to see an extensive number of additional patches coming in the coming days and weeks. Graphical and gameplay issues plagued my time with the game to the point where I decided to walk away after ten hours or so.
There are also gameplay issues that were confounding. How can I fit piles of crowbars, knives, and baseball bats in my inventory, but I had to use energy drinks the second I picked them up? Is it a glitch that every time I pick up a bottle of alcohol it replaces the weapon in my hand, so when I try to attack a zombie thinking I'm holding a knife, I instead take a big drink and get drunk? Why do pipes break so easily against the skulls of zombies? The weapons in Dead Island often feel like they're made of cardboard, and fixing them or replacing your arsenal is going to take up a good amount of your time. Who knew the skulls and armbones of zombies were made of adamantium?
You can either constantly replace the fragile weapons, or head to a workbench to repair them. This costs money, which you find by searching the zombies you kill, finishing missions, or scouring the environment. The first 30 minutes of the game will have you going through an amazing amount of luggage for pieces of wire and money. Everyone on the island seems to be carrying around $8 in their pockets, until you put a few hours in the game. Then the zombies begin to drop more money because... the money levels up with you?
The combat is nice and personal; you use blunt weapons to break the arms and legs of the undead. The aiming system is imprecise, however, and it's hard to judge where a blow will land, even with practice. When you place your aiming reticle over a zombie it begins to slide around, as if it's trying to lock onto different parts of the zombie's body. This may also be a holdover from the game's console roots, but it leads to frustration and missed shots. The slow strafe controls, rarity of health kits you can carry with you, and tricky combat systems make it hard to get out of bad situations if you are surrounded. Don't worry, if you die you're merely revived a few feet away, less some money. This system does a great job of sapping any tension from the game, since there is so little to be lost by your death, unless the game spawns you in another group of zombies.
The inventory system is maddening. You can only hold a few items in a quick-use menu, and you can switch between weapons by holding down the middle mouse button and selecting which weapon you'd like to use in a circular interface. If you go through all the weapons in your quick-use slots, you need to bring up the menu, go through your extensive collection of pipes, bats, and knives, add those to your quick-use slots, select one, andthen go back to the game. This kills the flow of battle, as the zombies seem content to hold back and wait for you to select the best blunt object in your arsenal. The system inventory management is an annoying, clunky part of Dead Island that should never have gotten past testing.

It's not all bad!

The frustrating thing about all these issues is how much fun there is to be had. The missions take you to some beautiful parts of the island, and you'll meet some interesting characters and help them in varied ways. When the combat clicks, you can feel the brutality of breaking a zombie's arm and them cutting off their head or, in my favorite move, knocking them down with a running jump-kick. Getting into a vehicle, running down the zombies, and then smashing out the windshield so you can see is brilliant, as is the fact the steering wheel is on the "wrong" side for us Americans.
You need to plan your movements very carefully, and if you get stuck in the middle of a zombie mob it's usually because you did something wrong. You can play up to four-player co-op, and this makes the game a much more frenzied, action-oriented game. There were many times I found myself having a great time and being drawn into the world of Dead Island.
Then a technical issue popped up and jerked me right back out of the experience. To play the PC version ofDead Island in its current form you're going to need incredible patience and a willingness to fight through some very clunky game mechanics. As it stands, I can't recommend this in any way, shape, or form. This is a game that needed more time to bake, and hopefully after a few patches we'll be able to enjoy the game hidden under the unpolished exterior.
Dead Island is available now for the PC, 360, and PS3. We have not played the console versions.

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Review on game Gemini Rue…

If Gemini Rue had been released 15 years ago, it would be remembered today as a classic. But the gritty, sci-fi thriller was instead released in 2011 and serves as a nostalgic reminder of the heyday of point-and-click adventure games. Part Blade Runner, part Beneath a Steel Sky, it's a game that doesn't attempt to do anything new. Instead, it does something old very, very well.

Gemini Rue is a detective story. At least, that's how it begins. You play as Azriel Odin, a tough, trench-coat wearing cop stuck on a planet of perpetual rain and run by a criminal syndicate known as the Boryokudan. When a meeting with an informant falls through, Odin finds himself struggling to gather the information he needs to find his missing brother. At the same time, in a rehabilitation facility hidden deep in space, a man known only as Delta Six finds himself without any memories. A mysterious director guides him through his rehabilitation, but what he's being rehabilitated for he doesn't know. Meanwhile, other patients attempt to curry his favor. But why? And who should he trust?

Who am I?

You'll play as both of these characters throughout the game, and their stories intersect in surprising and clever ways. It's not what you initially expect. The story at first appears to be little more than a spin on Blade Runner, but as it unravels, Gemini Rue is able to stand on its own. The tale is dark: people die and complicated issues are addressed. Themes of betrayal, predetermination, and the importance of memories are interleaved throughout.
The story is certainly engaging, with a small yet solid cast of characters and a fantastic closing sequence, but what really makes Gemini Rue is its atmosphere. The noir-esque tone is set immediately, with falling rain, retro-futuristic technology, and a dark but subdued musical score. Odin is a cop with a past he wants to forget and a partner who doesn't trust him. It would almost feel clichéd if it wasn't done so well. And while the visuals are decidedly retro, they are no less impressive for it.
Gemini Rue is simply a beautiful game. What the developers have managed to do with the limitations of pixels and sprites is incredible, and the art boast an amazing level of detail. Things get less impressive when you leave the dark, run-down planet surface and enter the sterile, stark-white rehabilitation center, but it still looks great. The only real issue visually is the inclusion of bland, out-of-place character portraits that thankfully can be turned off completely. They only obscure the detailed backdrops anyways.

The stellar production values and solid writing are able to almost entirely mask the fact that the game uses a formula that hasn't really changed in over a decade. You interact with the world using the simplest of commands—an eye to look at something, a word bubble to speak. It's archaic in a lot of ways, but also cozily familiar. If you've played an adventure game before, there isn't much you need to learn in Gemini Rue. The one possible exception is the curious inclusion of cover-based combat, which will occasionally have you trading bullets with enemies. It's simple enough, though, and there's a pretty extensive tutorial disguised as a rehabilitation training session to guide you through the process.

Something old, nothing new

This also means that the game is subject to many of the frustrations of the genre. The puzzles are generally intuitive and don't require any bizarre solutions. Problem is, though, that because the game world is frequently so dark, it's pretty easy to miss certain small, hidden clues, which results in the always dreaded pixel hunt. This is alleviated somewhat by a few clever additions, including a computer network that you can search for clues and a cell phone-like communicator you can use to call for help.There's also at least one poorly constructed minigame that has you guiding a spaceship via a radar. It poses no challenge and is incredibly tedious.
But with a game like Gemini Rue you should already know what you're getting into. It uses a formula that's already well-established and doesn't veer from the course. What it does so well is accentuate the strengths of that formula by presenting a gripping narrative coupled with a convincingly beautiful presentation. It's a love letter to adventure gaming, but at the same time it stands up as a thoroughly enjoyable modern release.

Verdict: Buy