WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii | Game review

WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2011 … bouts can last a good half hour
Whether you're a fan of WWE's finger-mangling controls or not, you certainly can't accuse it of short-changing fans. Just about every new version shoe-horns in a mess of new features, with last year's Smackdown vs Raw 2010 being notable for introducing a story creator along with the obligatory new fighters, modes and stadiums. This time around, SvR 2011 has really pushed the boat out, expanding on almost every part of an already huge game.
So now we have more than 70 WWE stars, 100 match-types and a host of new arenas, story modes, backstage areas and customisable features. Fighter likenesses are generally good, despite their typically airbrushed look, with most of their signature moves on show. Combat has been significantly tweaked, with the AI at higher levels more adept at performing reversals, making it essential you use the new four-hit combos to reduce your opponent's alertness before moving in for a finish. There's also impressive implementation of the Havok physics engine, ensuring that any objects dragged into the ring behave, bend or break more realistically.
And yet, despite all this, you either love WWE's style of context-sensitive moves and combos or find it a literal pain in the neck (and just about every other upper body muscle). Bouts can last a good half hour, so be prepared for occasional trips to the chiropractor if you're planning on taking on the new WWE Universe mode that balances and schedules your career over the course of a year. Things are kept interesting by the dynamic nature of relationships between fighters, new fight types such as Hell in a Cell, and an expanded total of over 100 random effects, that can completely change the course of a match.
However, there's no avoiding the fact that the auto-targeting system remains as imprecise as ever, frequently making you attack the ref or climb out of the ring when you intended to perform a kick or throw. Naturally, practice minimises the pain and the training levels provide a sold grounding, but for me it always lacks the kind of precision and responsiveness I'd expect from the best beat-em-ups.
However, if you're a WWE fan this is the best and certainly the biggest of them all, packing in enough new features to justify the admittedly steepish price. Although, I've never been wholly impressed by the "sport", you have to give the developers credit for producing an epic and highly competitive experience you'll probably still be enjoying with your mates long after Christmas.


Cheers!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II for Xbox 360, PS3, Wi and DS | Game review

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II … tinkers successfully with the formula
Certain things go together. Fish and chips, for example. Horse and carriage. Star Wars and sequels ...
George Lucas's seemingly never-ending saga may have left the cinemas (forthcoming 3D adaptations aside), but there are still plenty of complex back stories to fill in the gaps. While some may consider this as welcome as Brian Glazer at Old Trafford, demand clearly exists with, for example, The Force Unleashed shipping some 7m copies worldwide.
Those sorts of figures make a sequel inevitable, whatever the critics may have said about the first game. Happily, some of those negative comments have been taken on board for this epic sequel which, while still limited in some ways – no online play, sadly – retains the good bits of the original while tinkering, mostly successfully, with the formula.
Spoiler alert: The Force Unleashed finished with your character, the Sith apprentice Starkiller, turning on mentor Darth Vader and, apparently, sacrificing himself to start the rebellion. The Force Unleashed II starts, thanks to Vader's cloning programme, with a new Starkiller, who's been created to murder rebel leader General Kota. Things don't go to plan, however, as Starkiller 2.0 is having flashbacks to his former/original existence and, instead of assassinating his former ally, he sets off to rescue him – and to find Juno Eclipse, the object of Starkiller 1.0's affections.
Confused? You ain't seen nothing yet, as many lengthy cut scenes will testify. While these will no doubt keep the fans happy, they could arguably distract from the gaming action. Or, indeed, provide welcome respite from the frequently frantic battles.
It's here that the tweaks are most noticeable, with the camerawork more controlled and the targeting more focused than before. While the lightsaber action is, perhaps inevitably, pretty standard – Hit X. Hit X again. Hit X several more times – that's not what sells 7m copies, anyway. Happily, what does – the Force powers – are even better than before with Push, Grip and Lightning all more powerful, more controllable and more combinable: you can pick up a bit of scenery, charge it with Force Lightning and turn it into an impromptu and powerful grenade.
The best addition, however, is Mind Trick, a proper bit of Jedi power where you can convince Stormtroopers etc to end it all themselves (and there are a LOT of ledges for them to jump off), fight for you or declare "there's a spy in our midst" and start shooting their colleagues.
While the last game impressed with the variety of enemies, TFUII takes a "less is more" approach, reducing the variety but upping the intelligence. The result is a frequently challenging (if disappointingly linear) journey to some truly epic boss battles.
Scenery is, of course, massive and massively impressive, and the possible repetitive nature has been broken up with some freefalling levels and the odd exploratory moment. Whether this will be enough to keep the game fresh over its lengthy running time is debatable, but LucasArts' claims that The Force Unleashed II as their Empire Strikes Back doesn't seem too wide of the mark.


Cheers!