Pads & Panels

#5 Portal 2 (PS3, 360, PC, Mac)

Publisher/Developer: Valve

Portal 2 trades the surprise of the first title for anticipation the second time around, but it manages to live up to the hype. While the plot may not be quite as a shocking, it is still funny as hell, with fantastic voice work driving things from start to finish. Portal 2 falters a little in the variety and quality of its single-player puzzles but adds a few new elements to keep things interesting. The real selling point for Portal 2, though, is its new co-op mode. Valve gives us the opportunity to prove that two minds are better than one in a series of much more complex puzzles that involve four portals, rather than two, and seek to drive apart our friendships in the process. (more…)

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Title: MLB 11: The Show

Platform: PS3 (PSP)

ESRB: E

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Developer: Sony San Diego

Rating:

Review by: Archie Easter

With baseball season in full swing, it’s also time for baseball games to make their seasonal trek to consoles. With that, MLB 11: The Show is hitting the mound this year with a few changeups to the series formula. Past entries of the franchise have sometimes been short on additions and new features, but MLB 11: The Show assuredly slides home as more of an evolution than last year’s turn at bat. (more…)

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How I tried to play Hunted: Demon’s Forge, but couldn’t take it

By Bill Jones

Hunted: Demon’s Forge mostly flew under the radar for me until its release, but once it got here I was strangely compelled to play it. The characters and art style did absolutely nothing for me, but the idea of a more melee-centric co-op experience akin to Gears of Wars but placed in the realm of a fantasy dungeon crawl sounded like it could have been awesome. Not to mention, Bethesda, the game’s publisher, was kind enough to send along two copies for review, to cater to the title’s co-op nature.

So when I asked who else wanted in, Eric took the bait. It took about a week to coordinate, but we both hopped online one night and decided to give it ago. And based on the preliminary results, I’ll be happy if we never decide to play it again. (more…)

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2010 Holiday Gift Guide – For the Digital Download Fan…

By P&P Staff

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Super Meat Boy

(XBLA, PC)

This game is alternately heaven and hell for platforming fans, but it manages to toe the line well enough to always be stuck in that sugary sweet spot that makes it so addicting players don’t even mind dying a few thousand times in the game’s 300-some levels. Plus, the Xbox Live version is going to have regularly-updated free downloadable levels added, which only makes the game even better! (more…)

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Title: Halo: Reach

Platform: 360

ESRB: M

Publisher: Microsoft

Developer: Bungie

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones and Dan Braun

The Campaign

Halo: Reach, Bungie’s farewell to the series, serves as a prequel to the core trilogy. Taking place in 2552, the latest game in the Halo series tells the tale of the fall of Reach, which leads into Halo: Combat Evolved. Or rather, it would do greater justice to the UNSC’s Noble Team to say Reach tells the tale of their heroic last stand.

Reach has served as the heart of UNSC military power, and in many ways is an Earth-like hub for the human race…and home to the elite Spartan forces. The Covenant have launched an attack on the planet unlike any other, however, and this could be the team’s chance to give humanity one final hope. (more…)

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Title: Crackdown 2

Platform: 360

ESRB: M

Publisher: Microsoft

Developer: Ruffian Games

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

It’s been more than three years since gamers first roamed the streets and leaped from building to building in Crackdown’s Pacific City. After being packaged with Halo 3’s beta code, the original achieved significant sales, but Microsoft took its sweet time getting around to a sequel. Now in the hands of Ruffian Games, rather than the series’ original creators at Realtime Worlds, Crackdown 2 doesn’t stray much from the formula of the original, for better and for worse. But mostly for the better. (more…)

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Title: Doom II

Platform: XBLA

ESRB: M

Publisher: Bethesda

Developer: Id Software/Nerve Software

Rating:

Review by: Eric Stuckart

If Wolfenstein 3D was the granddaddy of the FPS genre, then Doom and Doom II were the cool uncles. The first Doom took the PC gaming world by storm back in 1993 when it first released, and ‘94’s sequel improved on the successful formula. Now, finally available on Xbox Live Arcade, Doom II is back with even more features than ever. The game was ported over with nary a hitch, but as an added bonus, this version of Doom II has a new chapter, “No Rest for the Living.” With great level design and intense amounts of challenge, this 9-level set stands on its own in the spirit of the original classic. In addition to that is multiplayer, which also features four-way split-screen local and online co-op, as well as the original deathmatch games. With the irreverent humor of every other episode, this is definitely one to pick up for Doom fans, except, of course, for those keyboard-only Doomguys out there. (more…)

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Title: Army of Two: The 40th Day

Platform: PS3 (Also 360)

ESRB: M

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: EA Montreal

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

Sometimes a sequel creates great innovations to surpass its original. Sometimes it disappoints based on the expectations laid out by series predecessors. Sometimes a sequel is just a downright bad video game. Army of Two: The 40th Day oddly falls somewhere in between all of these options, with disappointment and poor design, but a few clever new ideas.

The original Army of Two was nothing to get excited about, but ultimately provided some fun. Set to be a revolution in co-op gameplay – a game designed with only that purpose in mind – it offered little more in the way of co-op than the traditional wall boosts and an “Aggro” distraction system built for flanking in the third-person shooter. If anything, its co-op achievement came in the charm of the interactions between Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios, two ridiculously masculine mercenaries who had a penchant for gold-plated guns. (more…)

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