Goombd! Played - Renegade Ops

If you are remotely interested in explosions, chaos and death, then Renegade Ops is the game for you. It gives off that G.I Joe vibe as soon you press start, with an extremely cheesy story that takes you to a few different locales around the globe. All the while, you'll be tasked with destroying just about everything around you. And you'll love it.

Renegade Ops plays a lot like your typical top down dual stick shooter and it does it brilliantly. It instantly reminded me of an old Konami arcade game called Jackal, where you control a little jeep and rescue prisoners of war. There's so much in common between both games that the first level 'Ops has you saving civilians that were captured by an enemy general.



Also, similarly to Jackal, the difficulty is way up there in this game. Even on the easiest setting, you're gonna need to be mindful of enemies and obstacles along the way. It's a good thing there are so many options to pick from in terms of weapon power-ups and character customization. There are a handful of team members to pick from, each with their own set of strengths. I mostly stuck with the artillery barrage chick, for obvious reasons. Hey, I like my girls well armed.

Anyway, if things get too hard, you can always bring a friend or three along for the ride. And if things weren't chaotic enough when playing by yourself, prepare to be bombarded in multiplayer.


Seriously, this game has some brilliant explosion effects. In fact, the entire game is beautiful to look at. Even though the story is carried out in the already cliché 'moving comic' style, it's very well drawn and thanks to a cheese ball cast of voice actors, even if you don't follow the logical minefield of a story, you'll get a chuckle or two out of their performances.

I absolutely loved this game through and through. It's just difficult enough to be rewarding but don't expect a walk in the park if you decide to tackle hardcore mode, where you'll need to be on your toes at every corner if you want any hope you making it to the end. Renegade Ops is easily one of the best downloadable shooters around, period. |10

Goombd! Played - Total War: SHOGUN 2

I've always been a tad intimidated by the Total War series. Honestly, who wouldn't be, at first glance? It's one of the most complex real-time strategy franchises around. One that has spawned a lot of entries and garnered millions of fans around the world. This time we're sent back to Japan for another go at unifying the country under one banner, with plenty of war, swords and of course, honor.

Under a similar engine that powered previous Total War game, Napoleon, SHOGUN 2 is absolutely gorgeous to look at. But don't get distracted by its impressive locales and scale, underneath the pretty visuals lies a lot of complex micromanagement and strategy creation.


The strategy comes into play rather early in the already lengthy single player campaign. SHOGUN 2 gives you a small window of time for you to familiarize yourself with the controls and interface before it kicks you off the boat and into the heat of battle. Things start off rather intensely as you're tasked with taking back villages that were conquered by a rival shogun and quickly move on to taking out said enemy.

Every battle plays out differently, even if you replay levels. The artificial intelligence that powers the enemy side is relatively smart, considering the number of units it has to handle, which can easily surpass the hundreds very early on in the game. Your own subordinates usually know where to go once you point out your orders, but will sometimes get stuck in more complex geometries depending on the map, like hills or steeper inclines. Thankfully it's easy to keep track of units when you're able to simply pause the battle and look around for stragglers.


If you grow tired of battling by yourself, SHOGUN 2 offers a pretty hefty set of multiplayer options to take your conquering band of samurai online, by either dropping a truce flag and recruiting a fellow warlord for a cooperative campaign or head-to-head skirmishes. I was naturally often defeated by more skilled shogun online, but there's truly a lot for the dedicated leader if they get tired of fighting against the computer.

Sega's been doing a great job promoting the Total War games and it wouldn't surprise me if SHOGUN 2 continues to receive improvements in the form of DLC for a long while. This is a huge game and it certainly calls for more expansions and options in the future. Overlord says so. He grows restless. |9

Goombd! Played - BloodRayne Betrayal

If there was ever a time when I'd stumbled upon a game that very few others only pushed aside only for it to turn out amazingly well, this certainly would be it. BloodRayne Betrayal is an exciting reinvention of the franchise and a welcome addition to the 'Games That If You Squint Look A Lot Like Castlevania' (GTIUSLALLC, for "short"). Developer WayForward has done a great job reinventing the moribund character from the early 2000s with a quick, rewarding and absolutely gorgeous 2D action platformer.

Let's get this out of the way right up front: the thing that might turn some people off is how tough Betrayal can get at times. The platforming sections are extremely difficult at times, merciless in nature, that force you to retry until you get them perfectly. That's easily the game's weakest point, while the fighting is its strongest.


I've never been one to love combo systems in games but I easily got into this particular one. Rayne is pretty nimble and deadly, with a lot of attacks at her disposal that make use of both melee and ranged weapons. Enemies are very pattern based and thanks to the fluidity of the animation, it is very possible to see the anticipation and tells of their incoming attacks. Early on you're thrown into a fight that teaches you the very basic of fighting and that's about all you get in terms of a tutorial.

The move set you start the game with is the same you'll be enjoying the credits roll with. There is no upgrade system to speak of, outside of hidden collectibles that can either boost your maximum health or the amount of bullets you can carry. This means that although extremely flexible, the combat can get repetitive if you find a good combination to crutch on during the game. Granted, the further you progress, the tougher enemies get but there was never a point where my go-to attacks did not succeed.


That said, stages are meant to be replayed in order to attain a higher mission score and rating. These are tied to how well and quickly you dispatch enemies. A timer pops up at every encounter and the higher that is when you kill the last foe in the group is what gets tallied to the overall score, up to the incredibly difficult 'S' rank.

I'd easily recommend BloodRayne Betrayal to fans of slash 'em all games. There are some spots where the platforming difficulty bumps the frustration factor off the scale but those are few and far between. And thanks to the fun combat and beautiful presentation, they're blemishes that are easy to forgive. |8