I’m using the term “break” loosely as DX is far from a passive gaming experience.¬† Unless you grew up in the arcades of the 80′s as kid, you probably don’t give a shit about Pac-Man in any real sense and I’m with you on that one.¬† My arcade experience growing up was cramming down move lists for characters in Street Fighter II and rubbing shoulders with 5 other nerdy outcasts at an X-Men cabinet.¬† Pac-Man, with it’s core gameplay still proving to be competent, had become something of an afterthought having been relegated to the corners of the arcade, a vacation for joystick weary hands waiting for their quarter to be next on Mortal Kombat‘s cabinet.¬† Yeah, that sounds kinda sad but DX changes all that.

Looking at the game from a visual and audio point of view, Namco dipped DX in a synthetic batch of techo angel dust and stopped just short of overdosing.¬† The vibrant neon of all ___ visual styles beams its way through your eyeballs and into the back of your skull in a beautiful and potent explosion of color.¬† The music ranges from frenetically feverish to bass beats that looses nothing in translation when placed on top of the game’s action.¬† And you’ll come to appreciate the audiovisual presentation for gameplay’s sake as it works in unison to keep your energy up for what they’ve done to it.

Riiiiide the Stimutax...

The gameplay’s bones haven’t changed too much, with you controlling Pac-Man as you always have, guiding him across the narrow alleys of the game board, gobbling up little yellow pellets, bigger power pellets, and random fruit.¬† However, the the tweaks to the gameplay become quickly evident.¬† Instead of Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde waiting in the box at the center of the screen, random ghosts sleep innocuously on the board until you pass right next to them, causing them to wake up and pursue you relentlessly.¬† With these ghosts in hot pursuit, eating smaller pellets will reveal fruit and after grabbing fruit (later Galaga ships and Crowns) on one side of the board, the opposite side of the board does a quick wipe and reveals a new path of pellets to eat and more ghosts to awaken with some of them holding power pellets.

Eventually, you’ll have a chain of up to 30 ghosts following you with the original fab four showing up later (from the get go, in harder difficulties) to really fuck your shit up by having chaotic pursuit patterns resulting in being sandwiched between them and the ghosts on your ass.¬† Should this happen, not to worry, Pac-Man is equipped with a limited number of bombs that send the ghosts back to their penalty box for about 3 seconds.¬† While that might sound like it might cheapen the gameplay, it does the exact opposite and keeps the game from getting marred by cheap deaths.¬† That will also give you a chance to grab a power pellet and eat an entire chain of ghosts in one of the most gratifying sensations you’ll experience in any game.¬† I kid you not.¬† It’s the video game equivalent of blowing a load…or in this case, eating a load…of ghosts.¬† I don’t know, I’ve never eaten a load.¬† So why did I write that?

Other tweaks include the rapidly increasing speed as you tear through the course.¬† This game GETS FUCKING FAST.¬† Down a pot of coffee because you’re going to need it.¬† It’s so incredibly easy to miss a crucial turn at the higher speeds that chemical alterations to your brain chemistry that caffeine affords you might be needed.¬† Or I’m just weak sauce like that.¬† In any event, Namco wasn’t entirely cruel with the speed; as you get too close to be knicked by a ghost, the game’s speed slows to a crawl giving you a good second or two to make a directional change or a bomb button press.

Top all this off with a choice selection of boards/maps/courses/whatever (although, I hope they offer more via DLC) with variations in gameplay rules from time attack to score attack, to dark mode, and you have one of the greats, not just of Pac-Man games but of video games in the purest sense of the term.¬† It’s as if Namco took a work of art, wiped away all the dust, found a crack in it that had something shiny underneath it, and chipped away at everything that had been bland about it to reveal something truly amazing.¬† The demo alone had me so hooked that I had to buy this game knowing full well PSN would have it on sale eventually.¬† If you’re still not sold, at least try the demo or wait for it to go on sale.¬† And check out the gameplay in this video of something that is wholeheartedly approved and recommended.

A rock-solid combination of deep strategy, rock-rolling action, and captivating art and music from throughout history!

Two castles stand opposed, bridged by an uneven, narrow pathway. One is yours, and you’re quite fond of it. See how the parapets catch the sunlight ever so stylishly? The other is your enemy’s; they’re a jerk, and their crappy crenellations are driving down your property values. Also, their castle sucks, justification enough to try crush it using an enormous rolling stone. Unfortunately, they’ll have a chance to plan and build up some security, doing everything they can to derail your razing rock. Get through their defenses and you’re one step closer to crushing their unsightly tower (see also: their hopes and dreams). But don’t take your turn for granite. Once your turn is over, your opponent’s begins…

Available Spring 2011.

Also, anything in the history of everything that has Dies Irae pumping out in the background gets instant street cred with me.

Enter DC Universe Online (PS3, PC). Create your own super hero or villain and fight with or against the DC universe’s vast pantheon of legendary characters. And as if that wasn’t enough, apparently the gameplay is similar to that of the God of War franchise. Come November, when I disappear, please remember me fondly.

What kind of character would you make to dust Batman’s trophy room?

The God Damn Batman

What we have here is a trailer showcasing some of the online multiplayer versus modes such as the always popular Team Death Match and what appears to be an explosive version of hot potato, Count Down to Extinction. A dose of extra happiness comes in with preview reports stating that the game controls rather well especially the Uncharted-esque, over the shoulder, 3rd person shooting.

To all the sharp-eyed, Transformers nerds out there (your author included), you might notice everybody’s fan favorite fem-bot, Arcee toward the end of the trailer as well as the surprising addition of what appears to be the evil fem-bot Slipstream, from the criminally cut short Transformers Animated. Even with the insistence of using a movie-like voice for Megatron, you have to appreciate the fan love going into this thing.

Transformers: War for Cybertron rolls out for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, Windows and DS on June 22, 2010

Plot details have been intentionally vague at this point, but what we do know is that it revolves around ‘The Origami Killer’ and developer Quantic Dream has said the game is about unconditional love and choice.¬† The demo in which I played gives you two different scenarios to play through: one being a scene with private dick Scott Shelby and the other being FBI agent Norman Jayden.¬† Shelby’s scene is basically his attempt to question a prostitute named Lauren who has lost her son.¬† Everything in this game is basically about timed button pressing sequences.¬† On the surface it would appear that it’s like a really long, drawn out God of War boss fight, but really there is alot more control. From removing your inhaler from your pocket (Shelby is asthmatic) to leaning on a bed frame while talking to Lauren, it’s all done through contextual button pressing.¬† To walk in the game, you have to hold down R2.¬† It’s reminiscent of the old tank style controls of Resident Evil but after familiarizing myself with it, I had no problem.¬† I can see this being an issue for some though and it will likely turn people off completely.¬† The fixed camera can get a little wonky at times but is usually fixed by switching angles with R1.

Shelby’s scene shows off more of the interactive dialogue and what the combat is going to be like in Heavy Rain.¬† After playing through Mass Effect 1 and 2, the conversational flow and options are certainly not as advanced. ¬†But they’re better than most games.¬† The fight at the end of Shelby’s scene involving some asshole john was actually really cool and is definitely like a really REALLY long God of War boss ending sequence.¬† From swishing the sticks up and to the left, to mashing the buttons (and in some cases holding them down) it got pretty intense fast. ¬†And to those not familiar with a Playstation controller, this could end up extremely confusing at first.

Norman Jayden’s scene opens with him driving to a crime scene. ¬†We can see that he’s clearly struggling with some sort of addiction, although I’m sure we’ll get more information when the retail copy is out.¬† This section of the demo detailed the investigative aspect of the game and it is certainly a slick-looking one.¬† Norman has a pair of futuristic shades that he puts on to examine the crime scene. ¬†Tapping R1 will do a pulse scan of a 10 meter radius.¬† If there’s a clue, an icon will pop up and you can investigate it.¬† There are also options to tap into your inner thought process as well, holding L2 will bring up a list of things that your character is thinking about which you can access at your discretion.

The button pressing can get really complex at times, things as simple as walking up a muddy hill in the rain can require you eventually holding down nearly all the buttons simultaneously.¬† There’s functionality to it though and it doesn’t seem unnecessary and didn’t frustrate me personally.¬† The game looks outstanding on the graphical front.¬† It really showcases the power of the Playstation 3; from the downpour of rain, which is constantly beating down on you, to the fantastic way the environments are lit, and of course the immaculately detailed characters.¬† I was a little disappointed that its native output is 720p and not 1080p, but obviously I can overlook that.¬† Uncharted runs at 720p and looks gorgeous, so no big deal.

The voice acting on the other hand…not so great.¬† A game like this absolutely needs the voice work to be top notch, especially with games like Uncharted out there destroying the competition on this front.¬† It sounds stilted and you can definitely tell that none of the actors were even near each other when they recorded their dialogue.¬† Quantic Dream should’ve paid more attention to how Naughty Dog (Uncharted) did things with their actors because I feel like I’m losing something in the translation when it sounds so canned like this.¬† Some of the cheese that’s in the lines can be ignored because this is a take on film noir after all.¬† Even with that major gripe, I cannot wait to get my hands on a retail copy of this game.¬† Heavy Rain looks to break new ground by creating something that is truly a marriage between a game and cinema.¬† I’ve never seen something like this work, and it looks like (spotty voice acting aside) this could be the game that does it.¬† Hopefully this is the game that opens the door to all of those film buffs out there that don’t play games.¬† Check out the video of the Scott Shelby scene below!