Major League Baseball 2K10 Review: Pitching With Two Strikes [Review]

If MLB 2K9 had been an actual ballplayer, last year’s performance would have sent it to the minors, if not the waiver wire. After a soul-searching offseason, 2K Sports decided to focus on the fundamentals for MLB 2K10. This year’s game fixates on the batter-pitcher matchups that infuse every at-bat with suspense and dramatic potential. That is, of course, one component of a much larger simulation sports consumers expect. Is Major League Baseball 2K10 a short-term specialist, or can it deliver a complete game? Loved Pitching Power: Mapping your pitches to the analog sticks is not new to this game, but I came away from MLB 2K10 feeling the designers finally nailed what they set out to do last year. By incorporating a pitch-selection button (last year, it just interpreted your gesture), the game provides a truer fidelity to what you intend to throw while still incorporating variables in its effectiveness. The overall effect is to make you feel very much in charge on the mound, and not subject to a battle of pitch and swing ratings. It’s also very satisfying. When you crank a 12-6 curveball, which requires you to wind the right stick 8 pm to 10 pm, and freeze the No. 5 hitter for a called strike three, it’s a fists-in-the-air moment. The analog controls are better tuned than last year but not so unforgiving that, say, cutting the corner on the slider’s motion results in a wild pitch. There’s always the pitch analyzer to show you the path your stick traveled, and you can enable it for every pitch or just the ones you blow. After three or four games you’ll build a quick familiarity with the standard pitching motions. After five, you’ll really get off on putting them over the plate with oomph. On Pro difficulty, it’s a little too easy. I threw a lot of 10 strikeout games, including with Carl Pavano (who hasn’t done that since 2003) but that was on Pro difficulty, so serious hurlers will want to pitch on a higher difficulty or with tuned gameplay sliders. My Player: 2K Sports’ first stab at a singleplayer career mode in baseball is mostly a success – if you pick a pitcher. I did, so I found it enjoyable. This is the quarterback position of baseball, offering the most interaction with the game, and in this mode is a more likely choice so I give My Player a passing grade. My Player’s biggest drawback is the lack of a difficulty selection (by default, I think, you’re playing at the Pro level. And that’s it.) Superior players will probably get bored with My Player after two full seasons, either as a smoking ace or a hitter stranded in the minors, toiling for upgrade points. There’s a bit of a balance issue, though. Pitchers, by the volume of career events in which they’re involved, advance very quickly. You’re given one set of call-up goals and after that, it’s automatic to the majors. Or it was for me, anyway. While the training drills were routine enough that I didn’t feel my player was learning the trade entirely in live-fire action, he still ended up in the majors with just three pitches, with movement and control ratings in the 50s. While hitters may spend a realistically long time in the minors, it will feel like too long for some. If you’re a power-hitting outfielder, you’re looking at four plate appearances and a handful of outfield chances a game, and that, plus the drills, makes for a long bus ride. If you want to go hitter, I definitely recommend an infield position. MLB Today: My knowledge of this is largely drawn from the preview I got in January. As the Major League Baseball season is not yet underway, I can’t testify to this in practice. But I love the concept. MLB Today will provide you your team’s roster – both reflecting the real-life matchup of the day and any platoon arrangements (righty-lefty lineups) the team commonly uses. For those without intimate firsthand knowledge of how their favorite team has adjusted its lineup or reset its rotation midseason, MLB Today will do all of that work. Underneath, it’s built on the same concept as NBA Today in NBA 2K10 – in that the announcers’ commentary will adapt to and remark on past performance in a dynamic season. This is true for the persistent modes, too; I heard it even a few games into the My Player season, and it sounded lively. Booth Revue: It’s vogue to bag on sports commentary, but Gary Thorne, Steve Phillips and even John Kruk provide some very strong, well written and delivered dialogue. If you play with the same team you’ll certainly hear the same anecdotes, especially establishing the starting pitcher or a superstar’s first at-bat. But the commentary engine does a good job of blending real names with variables such as the previous at-bat’s result, what pitch got him out, what he blasted, etc. And then MLB Today should step in to cut down on the repetition. (When you’re playing opening day all the time, you’re bound to hear the same stuff.) If you play a plethora of teams and situations it is apparent how committed the game is in delivering a live broadcast. Kruk is by no means my favorite broadcaster and when I tried to discern why I disliked him in this game, it’s because I realized even he was in natural character. Hated Mangled Multiplayer: Early on the game was hamstrung by a freeze during the multiplayer ready screen – so bad that the only way to get back to the game was to quit back to the dashboard and start all over. It appears it will require a patch to completely resolve this, which tells you how bad this problem is. Game invitations sent to friends in your list are not affected, but I was unable to connect in a ranked match against a random opponent until the weekend. When I got in, I found the game completely warped to the favor of the pitcher. This is largely because of the palpable lag in your commands. (They’re there in pitching, but don’t do as much damage.) I was late on every swing. On the hill, with the Cubs’ 67-rated Carlos Silva against the Yankees, I chucked fastballs down the pipe and my opponent still fouled them off. I don’t prefer multiplayer in sports sims anyway, but the problems weighing down this experience mean I’d only take on someone in my friends list as a casual challenge, and I don’t think any of mine have this game. Subpar Visuals: Yes, they’ve solved the terrible framerate problems in last year’s game. But still, visually, MLB 2K10 isn’t an immersive or particularly visually appealing game, and that’s even without knowing what it is up against in MLB The Show. While the project takes pains to incorporate two-player animations – such as broken-up double-plays or collisions at the plate – these are not frequent enough occurences to raise your overall impression of the action. There is a lot of stop-and-start, and jerky transitions out of, say, a swing animation into running. Players at the end of a fielding play don’t stand around reacting naturally, they drop into a hands-up ready posture. The players faces have been upgraded, but oconsidering how bad MLB 2K9 was, the game still has a long way to go. Tim Lincecum looks like a skinny, brunette Chris Griffin from the Family Guy. And the poor quality of the uniform backs has been discussed before. You’re going to be frequently reminded that you’re playing a game, not watching one, and not in good ways. Airhead Intelligence: While the game strongly improves the physics and the actual gameplay, the decisions driving both remains simplistic and predictable. In My Player, as a pitcher, your manager’s leash will be based solely on your pitch count. I got into terrible late inning jams, emerged still with a lead, and still found myself batting in the bottom of the seventh or eighth. Pitchers won’t sacrifice bunt on you even with zero or one out and the booth crew calling for the obvious attempt. Opposing defenses will largely play you straight up rather than shift. Trading players and grabbing free agents in franchise mode, the game will mostly indulge whatever you intend to do, realistically to your advantage or not. Swing Shift: This seems like a conference-room bright idea that never materialized in the design process. MLB 2K10 incorporates what is essentially an intentional foul swat to prolong an at-bat and harass the opposing pitcher into making a mistake or throwing a more preferable pitch. Against a computer AI, it was too easily implemented – sometimes even for hits. And as a pitcher against a bot hitter, it seemed like the game was still working on the assumption that a human would be fouling off the two-strike pitches I threw. I got a ton of backward Ks, in other words, and saw nowhere near the rate of foul balls you get in a game like MLB The Show. The defensive swing also isn’t a natural feeling, flicking the stick to the side instead of forward. Add to that the herky-jerky check swing mechanic that was patched in very late and you have four different swings, only two of which are meaningful: Straight up and power. While the game’s cut down on cheap home runs, power overall has really taken a hit. You’re going to have to guess correctly with the power swing to clear the fences. I won games with base hits, walks and a double or lucky triple. Small picture, MLB 2K10 is a winner. (If, however, you’re looking for multiplayer baseball, wait until the game is patched.) It delivers on its marketing promise and creates some truly memorable individual matchups. When you pitch your way out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam, under this control scheme, you feel it for a long time. Backing out to the bigger picture, it’s not really a high quality sim, although I’ll allow that MLB Today, once it can draw on a reasonable sample size of stats, might deliver a higher fidelity. Still, too much about My Player and Franchise seems to be stage managed or indulgent of user whim. But for what it had to get right, MLB 2K10 came through. It’s a recommendable game on the Xbox 360. The gameplay is well tuned and, melded with the more deterministic batting and hitting controls, doesn’t seem as inscrutably random as you can encounter when unknown players face pitching meters. That may sound like damnation by faint praise, but it’s not. More than anything 2K Sports had to hit the core gameplay square or else it was looking at total product failure. MLB 2K10 is not a perfect game. But it is a quality start. Major League Baseball 2K10 was developed by Visual Concepts/2K Sports and published by 2K Games for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 2. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played all game types in both single and multiplayer modes. Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ .

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Major League Baseball 2K10 Review: Pitching With Two Strikes [Review]

PlayStation Store Update: Just Because [North America]

This week’s North American PlayStation Store update is a good week to both familiarize yourself with Avalanche Studios’ Just Cause 2, one of three new demos, and to catch up on previous PlayStation Network releases. While the PlayStation 3 offerings might be a little slim, the PSP platform is swimming in new releases, including the digital download versions of Dante’s Inferno, Lunar: Silver Star Harmony and a quintet of new PSP minis. Peruse this week’s new PS3 and PSP downloadables below. Games & Demos for PlayStation 3 Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1 and 2 ($14.99) Just Cause 2 demo Major League Baseball 2K10 demo MotoGP 09/10 demo Games & Demos for PSP MLB 10: The Show ($39.99) Major League Baseball 2K10 ($29.99) Dante’s Inferno ($39.99) Lunar: Silver Star Harmony ($29.99) PSP minis: Digi-Tiles ($2.99) PSP minis: Vector TD ($3.99) PSP minis: Earthshield ($2.99) PSP minis: Legend of Kunoichi ($2.99) PSP minis: Smashbreak ($2.99) Patchwork Heroes Demo Expansions & Add-ons Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce Quest Pack #1 (free)

 Dragon Ball: Raging Blast Ultimate Warriors Pack 1 (free) Dante’s Inferno Dark Forest Pack ($4.99) Dante’s Inferno Relics Triple Pack ($2.99) MLB 10: The Show – 6 Classic Stadiums ($9.99) MLB 10: The Show – Franchise Funds Increase ($0.99) MLB 10: The Show – Road to the Show Training Points ($0.99) Resident Evil 5 Costume Pack 2 ($1.99) Resident Evil 5 Desperate Escape ($4.99) topatoi: Pillar Of The Skies ($7.99) Guitar Hero 5 tracks “Adam’s Song” by Blink-182 ($1.99) “All The Small Things” by Blink-182 ($1.99) “First Date” by Blink-182 ($1.99) Blink-182 Track Pack ($5.49) – “First Date”, “All The Small Things”, and “Adam’s Song” The Beatles: Rock Band
 tracks “All You Need Is Love” by The Beatles ($1.99) Rock Band tracks “Downfall” by Trust Company ($1.99) “Panic Switch” by Silversun Pickups ($1.99) “Sort Of” by Silversun Pickup ($1.99) “White Falcon Fuzz” by The Mother Hips ($0.99) “Third Floor Story” by The Mother Hips ($0.99) “The Game” by Disturbed ($1.99) “Meaning of Life” by Disturbed ($1.99) “Voices” by Disturbed ($1.99) Disturbed Pack 2 ($5.49) – “Meaning of Life,” “The Game,” and “Voices” Game Videos Pulse 3/4 Edition make.believe Global Lifestyle Brand God of War 3 Vengeance Trailer UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves PlayStation Heroes Trailer UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves – UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune Multiplayer Pack Trailer Dante’s Inferno Developer Diary – Treachery Dante’s Inferno Developer Diary – The Big Game Fallout: New Vegas Teaser Trailer BioShock 2 Launch Network Trailer Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Launch Trailer Themes & Wallpapers MLB 10: The Show Themes (x11) (White Sox, Indians, Tigers, Royals, Twins, Cubs, Reds, Astros, Brewers, Pirates and Cardinals) (free) 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Dynamic Theme ($3.99) make.believe Theme (free) Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Theme (free) Clover Fractals Theme ($1.49) Nightmare Before Christmas Theme ($1.49) Vintage Comic Mickey Theme ($1.49) Abstract Premium Theme ($1.99)

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PlayStation Store Update: Just Because [North America]

Get Lost With Your Lost [Note]

To: Ash From: Crecente Re: INTERNET PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT LOST!! Again with the Lost! Man, I can’t go anywhere these days without running into. Sometimes I feel like the survivor in a TV pop-culture zombieland. And I don’t watch sports either. It’s like I’m slowly being removed from society, at least the bits that hang out at water coolers. What you missed: Fallout: New Vegas Set For Fall Release Crush The Castle Micro-Review: Fun With Trebuchets The Plasmids and Tonics of BioShock 2 Rockstar Deems This An Epic ‘Stache Surfer Mag: We Need A New Surf Game For Fun, For Training The Games You Won’t Sell, The Games You Can’t Sell Analyzing The Fallout: New Vegas Trailer Sega Offers Reasons Iron Man 2 Won’t Be Dreadful Finally, A New Look At L.A. Noire Gamestop Among Retailers Subpoenaed Over Deceptive Ads

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Get Lost With Your Lost [Note]

U.S. Army Trains with "SimCity Bagdad" [Military]

Army officers are practicing counterinsurgency strategies for Iraq with using a video game plainly inspired by SimCity. In fact, a frustrated officer unprepared for the fall of Baghdad asked for such a thing by name years ago. UrbanSim is the name of the training program, profiled in an item in the current issue of The Atlantic. Its creator refers to it simply as “SimCity Baghdad” because “instead of tornados, earthquakes, and Godzilla running around your city, it’s insurgents.” Players – let’s call them trainees – learn how their goals for a region are affected by the situations there. For example, finding jobs for people is one thing; but they need to feel safe before they’ll work. Or they can end up doing favors for persons later discovered to be corrupt or bad actors. Cracking skulls is a sure way to flunk. “The worst student so far ended up with 70 percent of the town against him,” writes the Atlantic. “He thought the only way to increase civil security was to go bust down people’s doors,” the game’s programmer said. UrbanSim is sometimes criticized for being something it’s not, and never was advertised to be, a perfect crystal ball of the situations counterinsurgency managers will face, or an X-plus-Y formula for how to effectively win hearts and minds. But as a means of laying down the basics of the job with multiple, repeating encounters and outcomes, it seems to be a stronger investment than live role-playing encounters and other forms of training. SimCity Baghdad [The Atlantic, illustration by The Atlantic]

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U.S. Army Trains with "SimCity Bagdad" [Military]

Assassin’s Creed Fan Film Shows You How Altair Lost His Finger [Clips]

High quality fan films can enrich video game lore as much as yaoi fanfiction damages it by filling plot holes and visualizing pieces of the game’s back story we only hear about in passing. Take for example the loss of Altair’s ring finger on his hidden-knife-hand. From playing Assassin’s Creed , we know he lost it as part of the Assassin’s initiation. But try as I might, I can’t remember actually seeing that happen in the game — I only remember internalizing Altair’s missing finger as fact. This is where creative video group, TheDuoGroup, steps in to show us what that moment could have looked like. In the almost-10-minute animated feature, titled “Initiation,” Altair undergoes the part of his training where he loses that finger and takes the final step toward badassery. TheDuoGroup blurbs that, “Like all young men, Altair aspired to leave his mark on the world. After years of grueling training, fear and anticipation course through his veins. Anticipation, because he understands that this is the last right of passage towards brotherhood. Fear, because he knows that though hundreds of apprentices have reached this point, few come back alive.” Thanks for sharing your work with us, Graham! Note: This is not an official Ubisoft video. It’s just a pretty, spiffy fan video .

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Assassin’s Creed Fan Film Shows You How Altair Lost His Finger [Clips]

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Preview: Fear And Loathing At Ubisoft [Preview]

Two weeks before my appointment with Ubisoft, I managed to inflict a stress fracture on my ankle. So my opinions of the game are colored by the painkillers I took two hours before heading off to meet Goichi Suda. Given the nature of No More Heroes , I’m not sure whether my altered perspective detracted from my experience or enhanced it. I’m going to go with enhanced because as I read over my notes from that meeting all I see are good things written around giant smiling cats I don’t remember drawing. It must’ve stuck some kind of chord. The thing I feel bad about, though, is not knowing how to say “stress fracture” in Japanese. Suda 51 was kind enough to inquire why I was limping at the end of the appointment and the best I could do was “It’s a little broken.” Which I think freaked him out because either something is broken or it isn’t right? What Is It? No More Heroes 2 is the sequel to Wii game No More Heroes in which players take the role of Travis Touchdown and go about laser-swording various enemies to death for cash and stuff. The third person action adventure game is broken up quite nicely with some motorcycle segments and 2D mini-games. The major appeal comes from the game’s insane brand of mature humor, which targets a very niche and dedicated audience of Wii owners. In NMH2, Travis is dragged back into a tournament-style chain of fights once again as part of a revenge quest. Many character favorites from the first game return and you actually get to play as other characters besides Travis, like the sexy Shinobu. What We Saw I shared a playthrough appointment with some journos from 1UP where we passed the controller around for a series of mini games, a section in Travis’s apartment, part of a Shinobu level and the first level of the game where Travis fights Skelter, brother to some dude you killed in the first game (which I confess I never beat). How Far Along Is It? Near final. The game is due out January 27th. What Needs Improvement? If You Can’t Stand The Crazy, Get Out Of The Game: No More Heroes 2, like its predecessor, is weird, violent and totally proud of both. The narrative is bizarre, the action is gory and the mix of gameplay types between story missions and side missions can leave you reeling. Do not ride this ride if you have a heart condition, a poor sense of humor or a weak grasp of Suda 51’s brand of insanity. Camera Is A Little Bit Too Crazy: I noticed during Shinobu’s level that the camera would sometimes have trouble keeping up with her during sharp turns in narrow corridors. Shinobu seems to move a lot faster than Travis, so I could see this becoming a real problem if you’re racing through the level, slicing up a storm. It’s No Longer “Open” World: If you liked the open world of the previous game (although some people found it small), you’re going to be disappointed to hear that NMH2 sticks to a map system instead. The map system marks where story and side missions are in town and when you select one, you teleport there. To me, it didn’t make the world feel small or anything (and given my drugged state, I actually really appreciate the hand-holding with regards to knowing where the next story mission is), but I can think of a few people who wanted more open world, not less. Shinobu’s High Heels: Just watching her sprint in those thigh-high puppies made me want to cry, imagining my poor ankle going through the same motions. What Should Stay The Same? Still Endearingly Crass (And Violent): “Tone it down” is not in Suda 51’s vocabulary — not even in its Japanese equivalent meaning. From the fourth-wall-breaking narration where Sophie dismisses the need to catch the audience up on the plot of the first game to chopping off people’s heads in slow motion with buckets of blood flecking the screen, NMH2 is every bit as inappropriate and violent as the first game. And I don’t think the fans would want it any other way. Still Pretty Easy To Pick Up: There are some updates to gameplay that make bosses more complicated to beat and the training gym mini-games are notoriously difficult. But other than that, it’s not hard to master the sword fighting moves or the procedure for charging up your weapon. Newcomers won’t be lost. Fashion Statements Are An Option: You can take Tavis clothes shopping and customize a great deal about his outfit — right down to some shades straight out of the 80s. But what I found really cool is how developer Grasshopper Manufacture gave a nod to Japanese fans by holding a shirt design contest. You can find the winning entries on the racks at the clothing store. OMG Kitty~! My favorite thing next to the anime video game you can play in Travis’s apartment is Travis’s cat, Jean. At the end of the first game, she appears to have let herself go and is now a big ball of cat blubber. A mini-game lets you train her with “cat exercises” and arrange her diet so that she loses weight over time. The cat exercises were pretty hilarious — one of them involves Travis hoisting her up over his head, which probably benefits his weight loss more than hers. So adorable! And probably the reason I drew giant smiling cats all over my notes. Final Thoughts Now that my ankle is mostly better and I no longer am under the effects of painkillers, I realize how ridiculous the cat thing is. My cat would kick my ass if I tried to lift her over my head under the pretense of trying to make her lose weight. Also, here’s some news you can use: —There are about 10 hours of gameplay total (side missions and all). —No save data from the first game carries over or has any impact on the game. —It doesn’t use Wii MotionPlus. —The motorcycle returns in some side missions. —Suda 51 had nothing to say either about the ports of the first game to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, or about his ongoing project with EA.

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No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle Preview: Fear And Loathing At Ubisoft [Preview]

Venetica’s Traiding And Training Trailer [Clips]

Let’s see how many people hop directly to the comments section before watching the Venetica Traiding and Training developer diary! Can’t say I’m liking the frame rate in this video for Deck13 Interactive ’s action RPG, due out next year for the Xbox 360 and PC, but I like the way they spell.

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Venetica’s Traiding And Training Trailer [Clips]

Tony Hawk: Ride Review: Time To Bail [Review]

The latest edition of the venerable Tony Hawk skateboarding video game franchise slides across your carpet on a plastic skateboard in Tony Hawk: Ride . Losing ground to EA’s Skate franchise, Activision tapped developer Robomodo to help take the Tony Hawk franchise in a whole new direction, eschewing standard controllers for a new plastic skateboard peripheral, attempting to bank on the success of peripheral-dependent titles like Guitar Hero. In Tony Hawk: Ride, players stand atop the included skateboard peripheral, tilting and raising the board to pull off tricks as high-tech sensors track the board’s movement. It’s definitely a bold move, but as any skater can tell you, bold moves have a nasty habit of ending in a face-plant. Loved The Novelty: The concept behind Tony Hawk: Ride is certainly an intriguing one. A skateboarding game that uses a plastic skateboard controller had my attention from the moment it was first announced, and I have to admit that at first I was a charmed by the novelty of the whole thing. When you first get on the board and finish calibrating everything there are moments of giddy enjoyment. They quickly fade, but I’m giving Robomodo credit for at least trying. The Board As An Object To Stand On: A plastic controller with delicate innards that can handle close to 300 pounds of frustrated man jumping up and down on it without shattering into a million pieces is a worthy piece of plastic indeed. I’ve broken real skateboards doing less. Hated The Board As A Game Controller: While it’s great for standing on and looking vaguely ridiculous, the Tony Hawk: Ride controller falls short when it comes to actually controlling the game. At times it seems too sensitive, while other times it doesn’t feel sensitive enough. In the game’s “casual” difficulty, which guides you along on rails with diverging paths, one doesn’t have to worry about steering, instead focusing on performing tricks using a combination of tilting, lifting, and turning the board. At no point in the Road Trip career mode did I truly feel as if I were in control of what I was doing, attempting to do one thing and doing something completely different instead. I particularly had difficulty getting the game to decide whether it wanted to ollie or manual. Switching from “casual” to “confident” takes you off of the rails, giving you full control of your movement, which is great if you want to ride around in circles while the camera breaks. It takes a great deal of patience to master movement… unfortunately much more patience than I possess. Adjusting the sensitivity of the board helped, but not enough to make “confident” difficulty entertaining. It feels to me as if the game was designed with casual play in mind, with not as much fine-tuning done for the more advanced modes. Another point against the board that must be mentioned is the fact that while it features many of the controls of your standard Xbox 360 controller, many of them simply don’t work at various points in the game, requiring the use of a normal controller to navigate menus. Why would you go to the trouble of adding all of those buttons if you couldn’t use them? It makes no sense. A Visual Throwback: While previous entries in the Tony Hawk series gave you interesting places to skate, Ride’s levels are mainly linear, meaning there isn’t that much to see. The visuals are drab and uninspired, which wouldn’t have been as much of an issue if the gameplay fell into place, but here we are. It’s a definite step backwards for the series, but the board probably won’t register that step anyway. Loading Time: The only thing worse than looking silly trying to control your skater as he or she speeds through the various courses in Ride is standing still for ridiculously long periods of time, staring at the loading screen. It doesn’t help that between each new course or new challenge you have to not only wait while the game loads but also indicate your riding stance (goofy or regular), over and over again. It’s frustration on top of more frustration, with a side of frustration. Glitching Is Not A Skateboarding Term: Little graphical and gameplay glitches abound in the game. Oftentimes my skater would clip right through obstacles, or drop from seemingly solid ramps to the ground below. Furthering the feeling that the game was designed with the casual on-rails gameplay in mind, the graphical hiccups only intensify when you take the training wheels off, not aided in the least by the aforementioned camera. All The Small Things: On top of the big issues I’ve detailed here, there are a bunch of other nits I have to pick that didn’t warrant a full Hated paragraph on their own. Issues like tutorials that don’t quite tutor; online multiplayer that consists of playing alone and comparing scores after the fact; and an overall lack of information provided in the menus and navigation. It’s hard to care about unlocking new gear when the game won’t tell you what that gear is. During one of my play sessions with Tony Hawk: Ride, my girlfriend looked up from her random knitting and said, “It’s a pity you can’t play it with the regular controller. It looks fun.” For me, that simple statement sums up everything that is wrong with the game. Ride is a game built completely around a plastic skateboard controller that doesn’t come close to getting the job done. Since the board is required to play, it drags everything else down with it—the integrity of the Tony Hawk franchise included. Tony Hawk: Ride was developed by Robomodo and published by Activision for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 17th. A Wii version of the game was developed by Buzz Monkey. Retails for $119.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through the Road Trip mode on the Xbox 360 version on casual difficulty. Played through first stage on confident before giving up out of frustration. Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ .

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Tony Hawk: Ride Review: Time To Bail [Review]

Kotaku Game Club: Modern Warfare 2 Discussion Begins.. NOW (Levels 1-3) [Modern Warfare 2]

You’ve read the rumors. It’s happening now. Join in the chat below and for the next hour, let’s talk about the first three levels of Modern Warfare 2 ’s campaign. I’ve got some conversation-starters for us… 1) What did you think of the training level? Did it train you? How did it set the scene of the game for you? 2) The game’s first big action comes in the second level, Team Player. You’re fighting in war-torn Afghanistan, yet most of us playing have not fought in war-torn Afghanistan. What did it feel like to “be there”? 3) Cliffhanger is the first full-sized level and brings back the Hollywood-style set-piece / thrill-ride style of Infinity Ward’s most-loved games. Do you like your war games this fantastical? Ok… GO! (We’re doing this for an hour) NOTE – The next Game Club meeting will be on Friday, same time as this one, 2pm Kotaku Time, 4pm ET. We’ll be covering levels 4-6.

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Kotaku Game Club: Modern Warfare 2 Discussion Begins.. NOW (Levels 1-3) [Modern Warfare 2]

Reminder: Modern Warfare 2 Kotaku Game Club Starts Tomorrow [Modern Warfare 2]

As promised/threatened, Kotaku’s Game Club returns tomorrow. And now I can put a time on that: 2pm Kotaku Time (Mountain time), which is 1pm in Los Angeles, 4pm in New York, and 8am in Luke-land. A few reminders… -The first day of this Game Club will cover only the first three levels of the game, including the training level. We will only discuss those levels. It would be best if you, like me, didn’t even play past that. That way, we can have a shared sensation of experiencing the same portion of a game at roughly the same time. We’ll discuss levels four through six on Friday. -The Game Club is open to all. Once the post goes live tomorrow, kicking things off, the club itself will be the comments section of that post. I’ll be there with you all for an hour, talking about the game. I’ll have some starter topics in the post, but, after that, it’s open to any and all discussion about the first three levels. Spoilers will not be tolerated for content beyond those levels. -That’s it. Easy, right? See you in 24 hours.

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Reminder: Modern Warfare 2 Kotaku Game Club Starts Tomorrow [Modern Warfare 2]

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