But what about what we didn't do? There are a handful of key titles that we thought we could expect for this year's holiday season, so why weren't they showing alongside their seasonal bretheren? We rounded up for you a complete list of this year's no-shows and the hype that preceded them, and then tried to get to the bottom of their conspicuous absence.

Hit the jump for the full report.

The Game: Alan Wake

The Hype: Max Payne developer Remedy announced the "action thriller" way back in 2005, promising to unveil it at E3 — but the game's skipped every event since then, while the developers denied cancellation rumors.
The Facts: A recent story referring to a Windows-branded contest that suggested the game would be shown at this year's Tokyo Game Show turned out to be old news from last year - Remedy posted on its Alan Wake forums that the team's just gotten back from a bit of holidaying, and that they "haven't had time to chat with Microsoft on upcoming shows/showings yet." We contacted Microsoft, and got a "no comment."

The Game: Beyond Good & Evil 2

The Hype: After the original Xbox title first earned critical acclaim in 2003 (making it the ideal title for the return of Kotaku's Game Club), Ubisoft at last announced a sequel for Xbox 360 and PS3 at its Ubidays 08 late in May with a single trailer. No release date was given, and the only other thing we've heard from boss Yves Guillemot is that the sequel will be "more accessible" (read: easier) than its predecessor.
The Facts: Ubisoft has not returned requests for comment, but since the lid was only peeled off the first trailer late in May, it's probable that E3 came too soon to expect the developer to put together a serviceable E3 build.

The Game: Tekken 6

The Hype: Back in 2006, some less-than-impressive E3 screens surfaced for the sixth Tekken title, and in early 2007, unconfirmed rumors suggested the title would launch on Xbox 360 after a period of PS3 exclusivity. When? All we heard is "after Soulcalibur IV" — that's this month, and with no show at E3, that seems pretty unlikely.
The Facts: It's been out on Namco's Japanese arcades, the ones modeled on PS3 hardware, since November 2007, and that's the only place it's been seen since then. We've got no comment from Namco as of press time.

The Game: APB (All Points Bulletin)

The Hype: Dave Jones of Realtime Worlds, the team behind Crackdown, first unveiled APB at GDC 08 in February, wowing audiences with the Counter-Strike-inspired MMO that featured character customization with so many choices that Jones demoed a battle featuring modded FFVII characters. It must have inspired investors, because only a month later Realtime Worlds scored an eye-popping $50 million in venture capital to support the game's development.
The Facts: After the developer bought full rights to the game back from Korean company Webzen, rumors abounded that the developer was angling to sell the game to Rockstar, to create a GTA IV-branded MMO. No such deal surfaced, and early in June the developer said they were in alpha, heading for a full public beta.

Realtime Worlds president Tony Harman told Kotaku that the investment, plus the changing of hands, is the reason behind the no-show at E3: "This year we would have had an exciting presence with APB at E3 if we had continued with Webzen as our publisher," Harman said. "But, given that we re-acquired the rights to APB just this spring and closed a very large fundraising round ($50,000,000) to secure APB’s future, the timing just wasn’t right to attend E3."

"RTW is very excited with APB's progress and we have used our fundraising as a means to invest even more heavily in the APB development team. RTW hopes to release more information later this year with regards to gameplay details and beta plans."

The Game: Brütal Legend

The Hype: The "heavy metal roadshow" epic, starring Jack Black and in development by Tim Schafer-fronted Double Fine, was first announced in September 2007 to much anticipation. We've since seen some effervescent concept art and even a trailer, enough to provoke anticipatory handwringing over the next opus from the well-reputed Psychonauts genius.
The Facts: Alas, it looks like the Activision-Vivendi merger tangled E3 plans for Brütal Legend — Vivendi was the game's original publisher, and the newly-combined company largely snubbed E3 amid its withdrawal from the ESA, though it did hold a press conference there. Just ahead of the event, Schafer confirmed that he hopes to show the game "soon after" E3, and told MTV Multiplayer that "As soon as the dust settles from this whole [Activision Blizzard] merger thing we should be able to talk about the game a lot more.” On Double Fine's official blog, though, Schafer humorously told readers that he skipped E3 because he was much too fat to get through the door, but hopes the South Beach Diet will help.

The Game: Indiana Jones

The Hype: The game was announced in 2005 and first unveiled at E3 2006, appearing to be slated for a 2007 release — when 2007 came and went, we figured that LucasArts would time the game's launch with the release of the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull flick. Nope.
The Facts: LucasArts has had its share of troubles lately; back in June, it sacked anywhere from 75 to 100 employees. Though the publisher stated it was still committed to internal development, it joined Activision, Vivendi, id and others in ditching the ESA, and while it still presented at E3, LucasArts told us in late June not to expect any new announcements or titles at the show because of "too much noise" around the event. The publisher has not yet returned requests for comment, but the facts seem to point to a resource-limited LucasArts preferring to focus on Star Wars right now.

The Game: Team ICO's Mystery Project

The Hype: The team behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus is working on something, possibly even two somethings, with a Sony exec saying he was "pretty sure" it was an ICO sequel while another rep said it seemed "close to Shadow of the Colossus" in atmosphere. Since then, all we've seen is an exciting screenshot of a chain disappearing into a hole of some kind.
The Facts: Sony says there's nothing new to announce — if there are any details to be known about when we'll see the Team ICO game, they aren't telling us.

The Game: Duke Nukem Forever

The Hype: The "Forever" in the title must refer to how long it's been since we first heard about this game. Actually, it's been more than a decade — that's right, it's said to have entered development in 1997, a whole 'nother console generation ago. Since then, we've seen the occasional stray screen and twittering rumor to remind us that our favorite piece of vaporware does exist. But then, when a trailer surfaced at last, a 2008 release date was confirmed (and then promptly un-confirmed), and Shacknews actually got to take a demo for a spin, we wondered — could this E3 finally be the one?
The Facts: 3D Realms' Scott Miller said at the end of June that the game, although "coming along" (of course), would not be at E3. Why? Because E3 has become so unimportant that Miller just forgot it existed. "It's just that we view E3 as irrelevant nowadays. In fact, I wasn't even aware it was coming up," he said.

The Game: Aliens: Colonial Marines

The Hype: A new FPS based on the Aliens IP? Count us in. Sega first revealed official details of the Gearbox-developed title in February 2008, teasing with a quick trailer at its gamers' day in May. The release date is supposed to be "late 2008," the same timeline as other games shown at E3. So why did Aliens: Colonial Marines skip the party?
The Facts: Sega of America president Simon Jeffery told our own Crecente that Aliens was the game he was most looking forward to among the publisher's entire lineup. "I think Aliens is going to be kickass," he said. Coming out this year, then? "Well, fiscal year," said Jeffery. "This E3 we're really focusing on stuff that's coming out by the holidays, as much as possible," he added.

The Game: Bungie's Next Project

The Hype: Rumors abounded about what Bungie's next project would be — a Halo sans Master Chief? A 2D platformer featuring a plunger-wielding hero? Whatever it was, when a cryptic splash page appeared on Bungie.net at the start of E3 week, it seemed we were just about to find out.
The Facts: What's E3 without a little drama? When no Bungie announcement came, Bungie president Harold Ryan was quick to reveal the reason why via a simple letter posted on the front page of the developer's website — Bungie had been planning to announce its next game, but said it was as disappointed as the fans when its "plans were just changed by our publisher." When Microsoft's Don Mattrick let slip during E3 that Bungie's next project was indeed a Halo game, the publisher soon followed up with an explanation for why they held off on a big reveal: Microsoft thought it had its competition well enough beat with its E3 presser, and decided to save some of its "embarrassment of riches" for a later event that would "do this game more justice."

Has EA DICE managed to provide a combination of solo and multiplayer experiences worthy of your gaming dollar, or has the mixed focus resulted in mix review scores? The critics arm themselves after the jump.

Eurogamer
...that famed Battlefield freedom has finally been translated into a coherent single player campaign, where your choice of route can have a distinct bearing on your chances of success. Governed by a linear succession of objectives, the route you take to get there can often be genuinely up to you. Be it stealthily on foot, sniping everything from afar or storming the gates in a tank, you simply use whatever hardware's at your disposal and set about taking down everyone in your way, in whichever way you can. With gunships and motorboats occasionally upping the ante further still, the moments when Bad Company is firing on all cylinders are thrillingly epic.

GameTrailers
Bad Company has a slightly different feel than other shooters, and not just because of the much higher things-blown-up to things-not-blown-up ratio. Weapons feel powerful—especially considering how destructible most of the world is—but accuracy isn’t as unnaturally precise as it is in some other shooters and this can make weapons feel less lethal. On the other hand, fans of shotguns will be very happy at the effectiveness of their weapon.

GameSpot
Be sure to crank the volume up to 11—Bad Company has some of the finest sound design out there. A sniper shot echoes perfectly through the mountains, while indoor firefights are so loud you may want earplugs. Visually the game does not fare as well. While it's by no means ugly, there is a strange graininess on each texture. Even looking into the clear blue sky in the first scene of the game, you'll be amazed at how fuzzy it looks. Of course, the destructible environments and exciting explosions make up for any graphical shortcomings.

TeamXbox
Battlefield: Bad Company knows what it wants to do and does it. The gameplay is simple and easy to wrap your mind around, but opens up to a lot of different strategies. The explosions are visceral and fun, and the game looks great too. Yeah, I bitched about the color palette, but there are moments when you realize they’re going for that smoky, hazy look that a battle-ravaged landscape would have and it’s O.K. It may not be a magnum opus like GTA IV, but Battlefield: Bad Company is a great piece of mindless fun to waste away some hours with this summer.

Not nearly as bad a company as I was expecting.

Sixteen years and three lackluster sequels later, Infogrames subsidiary Atari and developer Eden Games attempt to breath new life (and new death) into the series with an all-new Alone in the Dark, featuring a strangely displaced Edward Carnby in a modern-day setting. New setting, new gameplay, and terrifying new enemies, none of which are more terrifying than your average game critic.

IGN
I love a good yarn, and I was hoping to find one in Alone in the Dark. Instead I was introduced to yet another amnesiac fighting demons and carrying around a spooky stone. It doesn't help that our hero is challenged in the dialogue department, having been endowed by the game's writers with a nasty blue streak. You can count on hearing the words f*** or s*** nearly every time our scarred-up hero opens his mouth, an attempt at gritty realism that comes off as adolescent and trite.

Team Xbox
The problem is, who – if anyone – at the publisher or developer actually played this game and decided it was a good thing to unleash on gamers? Did they not realize how horrible the game is to control or how screamingly annoying the camera is switching from third person to a fixed shot is? Did no one say, guys we really need to make this game less of a frustrating mess, even for people who play lots of games? The answer to these questions seems to be “no”.
VideoGamer.com
For a game set in an eerie looking Central Park, with monsters around every corner, Alone in the Dark isn't really very scary. You'd assume this would be a given. You even have the trademark torch that runs out of batteries, yet there are few scares. When a monster lands on the roof of your car for the first time you might jump, but then when you've seen another magically fly 100 metres in order to do so it ruins the mood somewhat. There's a constant fear of death, but this isn't down to the setting but the inevitable fumbling in your inventory. One of the scariest moments occurred early on when Carnby appeared to be having some kind of seizure, his body uncontrollably gyrating on the spot. Alas, this was a bug, just one of many that occurred during my play through of the game.

1UP
As a lesson in ambition and creativity, AITD is an awkward (but welcome) role model. Though no one element is particularly polished, the game's plenty varied, and it happily defies genre characterization wherever it can — racing segments, rappelling, and a handful of great ideas keep things fresh. Though with such methodical, purposeful design every step of the way, it's tough to sit back and enjoy what's otherwise an engaging, surprisingly cinematic caper. You likely won't be thrilled by the time you sit through both of the equally lame lose-lose endings, but I can't imagine you'd regret your time in the Dark.

The game sounds like almost as much of a mixed bag as its review scores.

Now the two companies have teamed up again to give the classic Indiana Jones trilogy the tiny toy treatment in the hopes of recapturing the magic and wonder of the first two outings. Have they unearthed yet another treasure, or are they up to their waist in a pit full of snakes? Throw me the whip, and I'll throw you the review roundup.

G4 X-Play
The LEGO games have never been lookers, per se, but they’ve always had solid graphics and, most importantly, a great style accenting the notion of an evilly possessed LEGO play set. Original Adventures definitely continues the trend, delivering the same sort of clean and goofy looking graphics seen in the Star Wars games. Each character’s simple animations deliver a ton of personality, and while the environments are a bit flat, they set the scene well.

GameSpot
Though the puzzle aspects alone are enough to make Lego Indy worthwhile, the humor makes it enjoyable even for people just watching the action. The silent cutscenes take you through the journey in a much sillier manner than Steven Spielberg originally envisioned. No, you won't see the Lost Ark melt some unfortunate Lego person's face, but you will see Indy's father fall asleep (because he's old!) and even the Harrison Ford look-alike donning a blonde wig to deceive a foolish guard.

Eurogamer
Where the game unfortunately suffers is in what's been taken out. It's not entirely fair to compare Indy to the feast of content that was LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga since that was a compilation of sorts, but even compared to the single Star Wars editions this feels disappointingly light on the features that matter once the story mode has been exhausted.

TeamXbox
Lego Indy doesn’t vary much in scope and content from the previous titles that the pair (LucasArts and Traveller's Tales) have worked on, but it’s still a fun game to play and a smart take on the game-from-a-movie process, which more times than not turns out to be lacking in the “game” portion. Most of all, it makes me wonder what they’ll team up on next.

Perhaps they didn't capture all of the magic of the Lego Star Wars series, but a great deal of it made it into Lego Indy.

So how did destiny fare? The game is out, the scores are out, and the word is out on the ambitious first-person shooter. Does Haze deliver a nice, warm buzz, or does it leave you shaking and sweating in the corner, craving your next fix? Here's several small doses of Haze, now in convenient capsule form.

G4 X-Play
Here’s the problem — despite all of the creativity used to build the two sides in this game, Haze still plays like an incredibly average first-person shooter with some very sloppy design issues. Play as a member of the Hand and you feel incredibly naked, not to mention having to deal with very confusing level design that leaves you wandering around lost more than driving any sort of action. Play as a member of Mantel and, unless you’re juiced up, you’re pretty much just as useless.

GameTap
Sure, it has a consistent framerate and no loadtimes (thanks to its four gigabyte install), but its looks vary from "pretty good for an HD-gen shooter" to "wow, look at those textures change from low- to high-res back to low-, and check out those cracks!" The weapon pool is really scant, with just a pistol, assault rifle, sniper rifle, flamethrower, and rocket launcher. Sure, there are Mantel and Promise Hand versions of each weapon, but it realistically translates into the Mantel type looking futuristic while the Promise Hand version looks budget and uses a Spanish name.

CNET
A seven-hour campaign and uneventful multiplayer modes just don't cut it in light of the far better modern shooters available on the market. The patchy quality of the entire package is surprising, considering the developer's fine pedigree. Yet Haze is a roller-coaster ride made up of tall peaks and unfathomable valleys, and it won't leave you so much breathless as disappointed with its squandered potential.

IGN
There is a litany of problems with the game, from the odd warping of allied soldiers that blink into view suddenly at arbitrary checkpoints to poor texture work. Many of the environmental textures are generic and weak, and you'll frequently see seams or tearing constantly pop up within the game, which distracts from the action onscreen. The worst example of this has to be the visuals for the flamethrower, the Dragon de la Gente, which vomits a horrid cone of supposed flame that looks visually on par with what you'd find from the 386 PC days 15 years ago.

Kotaku
There's really no reason to recommend Haze over similar titles in the PS3 library. The game feels less polished than it should, seemingly "good enough" for release after suffering multiple delays. The story is forgettable, the weapons nearly indistinguishable and the seemingly strong concepts so poorly implemented that you'll have a hard time convincing three of your friends to drop whatever else they're playing for a co-op slog through the thing.

I thought I was going crazy over the past year concerning Haze, not seeing what the big deal was all about. I'm still a bit crazy, just not regarding this particular title.

SCEE: LittleBigPlanet Delayed, Not Coming Until October
Killzone 2 Dated for 2009
Resistance 2 will Feature Eight-Player Co-Op, 60-player Multiplayer
Motorstorm 2 Gets Named, Detailed
Gran Turismo Racing Academy Announced
Sony Gamers Day UK Info Dump: Resistance 2 to SOCOM Confrontation
Men In Black Becomes First International BD-Live Title
Episodic Siren Blood Curse Hits PS3 This Summer
Sony Brings Indie Music to PSN via Movement
Europe Getting MGS4 Bundle After All
SCEE Plays Up Social Gaming At Gamer's Day 08
PlayStation 3 Outsells 360 In Europe
Mirror's Edge In Motion

But until Gran Turismo 5 actually comes out, we can only get a taste of things to come through Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. So is that taste making reviewers hungry for more? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview to find out—a buncha reviews with the crust cut off because we know you like it that way.

Dark Zero
Gran Turismo 5...ups that realism to an insanely high level. Not only in its boasting of tossing around 200,000 polygons, but also in the way physics differ for each car, at times offering infinitesimal but still noticeable changes in the way you must drive each car. Making sure each is different it from the one before.

Jolt
Online play is certainly welcome, but compared to rival games, the lobby features are not what we've come to expect from this generation. We've no doubt that's one of many things that will change come GT5's release, but that's not what we're reviewing here today.

Videogamer
What doesn't impress nearly as much is the way your AI rivals behave during races. The GT series has always been criticised for its racing experience and GT5 Prologue doesn't improve things a great deal...At times while playing Forza 2 you could have mistaken an AI driver for a real-life opponent, but no such mistake could be made while playing Prologue.

IGN
...in order to complete every race in the game you'll have to do some serious grinding for cash in order to simply be able to afford the cars you need. The bare-minimum ride selection will cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million credits, while the biggest payoff you'll get for any race is around 30k credits. Considering that most of the races pay far less than this, you're looking at a whole lot of repeat laps...

Kotaku
Look, as a demo, it's a good one. What's already on offer looks great, and feels great, so GT fans should have little doubt that when the full game's released - with hundreds of cars and dozens of tracks - Gran Turismo 5 will be everything they want it to be. But now, as a retail product? With a limited singleplayer experience and unstable online play, I just don't think it's worth $40.

Story
You play Niko Bellic, an Eastern European who has been lured to the US by his cousin Roman who claimed to be wildly successful here. Roman lied. He just runs a small taxi company and needs tough guy Niko to help him in his fight against debt collectors and people who he's generally rubbed the wrong way.

City
Liberty City, modeled after New York, is actually smaller than San Andreas from GTA III. Broken into 4 districts, players will enjoy pseudo-areas Broker (Brooklyn), Dukes (Queens), Bohan (Bronx) , Algonquin (Manhattan), and Alderney (New Jersey).

Single Player
You can change Niko's clothes, but you can't change Niko. GTA IV will not allow huge character customization in this mode. That's for multiplayer. But it isn't so bad playing Niko. He's a modern man who takes the occasional cab, uses the internet to read more about his targeted hits, and knows to hide in cover during firefights while shooting with far better (over the shoulder) mechanics than his predecessors.
Rockstar has claimed gameplay as long as 100 hours. A play-through by Xbox World 360 was completed in 25 hours without sidequests, and estimated to run an average player around 40 hours for the main campaign and another 25 for sidequests (that's 65 hours total). Every GTA IV day is 48 minutes of real time. That means a 40 hour game will take roughly 133 days of game time, or a little over 4 months.

Multiplayer

Here's all the multiplayer...that we know about. Pull out your trusty cellphone and dial up the fun (but keep that party to 16 people, m'kay?).

Race
•Players race from one point to another with cars, boats and helicopters
•In Free Race mode, it's a start to finish race. In Canonball Run mode, players must hit checkpoints along the way

GTA Race
• It's Race mode with weapons that spawn along the way. Plus you traverse on foot.
• A tutorial mode is included.

Team Deathmatch
• Two to eight teams battle. As opposing teams are taken out, the winning team takes their cash.

Hangman's NOOSE
• Four players attempt to escort crime boss while avoiding SWAT team attack. Online only.

Team Mafiya Work
• Two to eight teams take separate contracts like stealing cars and escorting wanted men. The team who completes the most contracts in a certain time wins. Teams can also attack other teams.

Team Car Jack City
• Two to eight teams steal marked cars that spawn on the map. Whichever team delivers the most to the chop shop (in the best condition, or containing drug bonuses) wins the most cash and wins the game.

Turf War
• Two teams capture control points (or "bases") in a game very similar to Team Fortress 2. Controlling points equals cash. Cash equals winning.

Cops 'n Crooks
• Two teams only. One team are crooks who need to escort their boss safely. One team are cops who must bust the boss.
• All for One mode works as described above. One for All mode ditches the boss, and the crooks must escape with no respawning.

Co-op Campaign
• Our own Brian Crecente described it only as a "short co-op campaign," not a full co-op game ala Crackdown.

Other Interesting Multiplayer Tidbits:
• Characters can level up, peaking at level 10.
• All games are played on same Liberty City map.
• Liberty City map is fully explorable in all game modes.

Rockstar Social Club
Rockstar has announced a website called the Rockstar Social Club, and the first game it supports will be GTA IV. Among plenty of other services, the club will track the first player to complete 100% of the game and the fastest single-player participants over time.

GTA IV Music and Amazon
If you like any of the 200 songs that play in the game and have signed up at the Rockstar Social Club, just text message a special code through your in-game cellphone. Over time, a playlist will be built from the selected tracks which can be purchased DRM-free through Amazon for about $2 a pop.

FAQ

What's the deal with downloadable content?
Extra "episodes" will be exclusive to the Xbox 360. Sony has said that PlayStation 3 owners will get some type of DLC.

What's better about GTA IV?
• No load screens, ever (UPDATE: Stephen Totilo reports that the game indeed has sporadic, brief loads. However, there are no actual loading screens. Word fun.)
• Autosaving
• Liberty City will remember the damage you've caused.
• Euphoria engine brings AI physics to falling, getting hit, etc.
• Every street is named
• GPS support
• Targeting no longer sucks.

What vehicles will the game feature?
Cars, motorcycles, boats and helicopters. No planes.

Will there be storyline co-op?
As we said above, yes, but it won't be nearly the complete game.

What's in GTA IV Special Edition?
As explained by Rockstar:
• A customized Grand Theft Auto IV metal safety deposit box with keys.
• The Art of Grand Theft Auto IV. This 68 page book contains never-before-seen production artwork from Grand Theft Auto IV.
• The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV. This CD features select new material from top artists that can only be found on this release.
• An exclusive Rockstar keychain for the safety deposit box keys.
• A limited edition Rockstar duffel bag with vibrant orange lining.

How much will Special Edition cost me?
$89.99

Well I'm not paying no $89.99.
Then you ain't getting no GTA IV Special Edition.

What was that reference from?
Caddyshack.

We'll try to keep this page updated with the latest news, so be sure to bookmark it and come back every now and again.

Be sure to also check out:
GTA4 Hands-On: The World is Yours
GTA IV: Reinventing a World

Sources other than Kotaku: [Official GTA Site] [MTV Multiplayer] [Wikipedia] [GTAIV.net]

So the question isn't should you play Ikaruga if you haven't. The question is, should you play Ikaruga on XBLA, or should you hunt down a Gamecube or Dreamcast version. Hit the jump for our Frankenreview to find out: it's Ikarugalicious.

Team Xbox
Time and again, the game has gotten high marks with critics as being one of the best looking 2D shooters on the market. ... now, making the jump to the 360, the game looks even better. In 720p HD, everything looks sharp, refined, and runs smooth as silk.

IGN
To truly excel at Ikaruga requires a mastery of the polarity system and a lot of practice...Casual gamers may find themselves overwhelmed and unable to scratch the surface of this classic. That would be a shame, though, as this is easily one of the best titles on the Live Arcade.

CVG
If you have an LCD TV you can flip that bad boy on its side and, in the options screen, flip the gameplay sideways so you get full-screen up-scrolling action (known in the shooter scene as TATE mode). That's how the purists play (and us).

Eurogamer
...whereas once dedicated players would need to import Japanese DVDs of the top players' score runs for tips and techniques, now you simply select their name on the scoreboard and sit back to watch their replay, awestruck. The option to save and upload all replays, combined with co-op play over Xbox Live, makes the definitive version of the game.

At $10, it's the price of two value meals. And cheeseburgers don't taste this good.

Adventures at Capcom's Digital Day 08

Lost Planet Colonies Is Rehash With Bonus Material

Gallery: Lost Planet Colonies

Gallery: Megaman Starforce 2

Udon Drawn SFII Turbo HD Remix Looks Amazing

Gallery: Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix

Gallery: We Love Golf

We Love Golf Details

Gallery: Plunder

Hands On With Capcom's Piratical Plunder

Gallery: Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3

Hands On With Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3

Gallery: 1942: Joint Strike

Hands On With 1942: Joint Strike

Gallery: Bionic Commando Rearmed

But after double-checking with the critics, it appears that I'm definitely in the minority. So hit the jump for our Frankenreview on Super Smash Bros. Brawl—what is pretty much a 5-chapter review of a fanboy wet dream.

GameSpy
From a visual standpoint, Brawl doesn't look much better than Super Smash Bros. Melee did on the GameCube. There is some slight improvement, as you can run the game in 16:9 widescreen format at 480p, and the difference is more noticeable on newer television displays. The real benefit is that everything runs at a silky-smooth 60 frames per second. But outside of the new characters and stages, you'd be hard-pressed to tell this game apart from its GameCube predecessor when viewed side-by-side.

NintendoWorldReport
Hands down, my favorite new thing about Brawl is its stages, which have been upgraded significantly for Brawl and are much more fun than those from Melee. Similar stages have enough differences so as to still feel unique. The levels pulled straight from Nintendo DS games—such as the frantic Pictochat stage—are some of my favorites. There is so much variety in the fighting locations that Melee's stages, some of which are included in Brawl, seem rather boring in comparison.

GamesRadar
Brawl's biggest addition...is Wi-Fi Connection support, and it functions... fairly well. If you're brawling with pals off your Friend Code list, the experience should be generally clean and lag-free. However, our attempts to play random opponents led to more than one unplayable choppy scrap that ended in disconnection. There's also no practical way to communicate with other players, and it's a total pain in the ass to share saved pictures. Apparently swapping 16-digit Friend Codes isn't enough, as you also have to share 12-digit Brawl codes. We'd say this'll get ironed out as the weeks wear on, but Wii's online "presence" has never seemed a priority.

1UP
I encountered some difficulty in putting a score on this game. Do I give it a B+ and say, "But if you're a huge Nintendo fan, add a point?" Or do I give it an A and say, "If you're a less committed fan, drop a point?" The answer was simple: This game was made for Nintendo fans. If you'd like to debate that fact, question whether Joe Schmo in Best Buy, who buys Madden once a year and maybe Halo cares whether or not Saki from Sin and Punishment is an unlockable trophy. As a Nintendo fan, I found great pleasure in unlocking all of the minutiae, in playing with characters that, to me, were unexpected surprises, and in reveling in what is clearly the greatest celebration of Nintendo culture around.

Kotaku
Super Smash Bros. Brawl improves upon its predecessors in every way imaginable - a truly worthy successor to the Nintendo fighting throne...[it] isn't just a game that will sit in your Wii for months, it's a game you'll actually play for months, if not longer. Alright, alright. I'll give in to the masses and pick up a copy.

So what did the critics think of Army of Two? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview on the game—what is inarguably the leading meta review system on Kotaku today.

GameTap
The aggro mechanic, where one player draws attention and hostility and glows red as a result while the other player effectively becomes invisible, sounds really goofy but actually works...It sounds nonsensical and looks pretty goofy, but the visceral feel of one guy tearing through baddies with an unlimited-ammo gun while the other slinks around and ends fools like a ninja is pretty great.
Eurogamer
There's a whole plethora of other co-op mechanics built into the game, and the majority of them are mildly pointless and prosaic in their implementation. Boosting up to high ledges, simultaneous co-op sniping, pre-animated feats of twin strength, and the scripted moments of back-to-back, slow-motion massacre all feel rather forced and flow-breaking.
IGN
[AI] will do what you need it to do for the most part and help you through most missions without major incidents. However, the AI will perform some stupid mistakes here and there, such as dragging you large distances to what it determines to be "safe cover" before healing you...and will sometimes charge blindly into the middle of battle, swinging the momentum its way and leaving it open to be quickly injured or even killed.
Daily Game
Borrowing a page from Gears of War, Army of Two [online multiplayer] goes the route of more-intimate online matches, with four players hopping into games that see two armies of two going up against one another. Like a tactical team-based game, Army of Two includes several objectives within each of its three game types (Warzone, Bounties and Extraction), and although the map choices are limited (four total, based on the campaign), they offer enough diversity that players can switch up their tactics each time out.
Kotaku (360 version)
I've never been a fan of small team shooter match-ups, but Army of Two doesn't just make it work, it makes it sing. Buy it for the chance to head butt your enemies to death in a custom mask, keep it because you're not going to want to give up on the ability to drag and heal, distract enemies with gunfire and use car doors to block bullets on the move. Whether or not the game is going to rattle the industry, it looks like a pretty fun co-op shooter.

So hit the jump for our Frankenreview, victory lap 2007 edition. We pulled reviewers' top rated games* from Game Rankings to relive some of our best moments from the year.

Note, on repeat games, we picked the higher ranking platform.

Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - Gamespy
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner. Super Mario Galaxy represents the Nintendo Wii's best release to date, and takes the tried-and-tested formula from Super Mario 64 and Sunshine to a new level of perfection. It's the single best reason for naysayers to finally take the hardware plunge

The Orange Box (Xbox 360) - Gaming Age
If one thing is certain, there is not one game out there that offers such a complete package at the regular retail price of a single game. You get 5 outstanding games that give you a little bit of everything, action, story, puzzles, multiplayer, and just flat out addictive content...you would be doing yourself, gamers, and the wonderful developers a great injustice by not buying The Orange Box. Not only is it possibly the best bargain in gaming history, but arguably the best FPS experience of all time...

Bioshock (Xbox 360) - Jolt
Even when vastly outnumbered and outgunned, BioShock puts mania before mere survival...yet, that fear of an impending death never fades. The feeling of being watched, of being used, of being nothing but a pawn, balances perfectly with the game's no-holds-barred approach to combat. It's this mixture of ambience, emotion and plain old fun that sets BioShock apart from the scores of FPSes hitting the shelves this year...it is one of the most progressive, gripping and downright fun games to hit the market in the last decade.

COD4 (Xbox 360) - Eurogamer
...all you really need to know is this a huge return to form for the Call of Duty series, and for war-based FPS titles in general. Even without the vastly impressive multiplayer elements, Modern Warfare would be worth buying for its outstanding single-player campaign. It succeeds not only for being consistently spectacular, but for the way it has been crafted into something that keeps you engaged right to the very end.

Halo 3 (Xbox 360) - 1UP
Halo 3's campaign is better in every way imaginable. Subtly beautiful, rich and lush graphics, a heart-pounding orchestrated score, new weapons, vehicles, and enemies...and even better enemy and teammate A.I... Sure, no one aspect of the game is life-changing on its own, but perhaps the package as a whole is. After all, Halo 3 has enough content to keep you stuck to your controller for weeks, if not months or even years. Looks like we won't be finishing the fight anytime soon after all.

Good times. Did we really play that many FPSs this year...on the Xbox 360 no less? [image]

Let's think about the future for a second. You probably don't understand the kids that make up the bulk of our audience, but I do. I call them the network MySpace remix 3.0 social generation. Unlike any other people before them, young people today like to interact with each other. They also like music. YouTube is the perfect example of whatever point it is I'm making. Everything should be online and customizable.

It's short. It's funny! It's worth a read. As someone in the comments section said, "You just saved me so much in travel expenses." Touché.

Five Short Video Game Industry Keynotes [Magical Wasteland via GameSetWatch]

PSExtreme
The most important thing about Unreal Tournament III is its speed. Where as UT2004 felt heavy and a little on the clunky side, Unreal Tournament III feels lean, and mean, and frenetic. Even though the speed of the game was slightly slowed down for the PlayStation 3 version (meaning, the players run a little slower), the intensity is still chaotic

1UP
Playing with the Sixaxis controller quickly erased any concerns about whether the game would struggle without the traditional PC mouse-and-keyboard setup. The default stick response errs on the little-too-slow side to keep from being spastic for the average user, but it can be dialed up to as twitchy as you like.

GameDaily
If it is multiplayer action you crave, then Unreal Tournament has it in spades. Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch and Capture the Flag are obvious favorites, but the new Duel and Warpath modes are real attention getters. With Duel, you face off against an opponent on a smaller map, resulting in a more intimate battle. Warpath involves some strategy, as you must capture and shut down enemy nodes in order to make their energy core vulnerable. Although the multiplayer support is only half of what the PC version handles (ten to sixteen in comparison to thirty-two), the PS3 edition is still lots of fun.

GameZone
The biggest change, and the one that affected me the most [from UT2004], was the removal of the adrenaline counter. I didn't know prior to playing UT3 that Epic had removed it, so it came as a big surprise not to have it included in UT3. In the past, the adrenaline counter permitted players to build up the meter through the means of kills or picking up items on the map to gain access to abilities such as invisibility, but with it removed, it felt like a little part of my soul died. [Ed note: having hated that adrenaline meter, we're thrilled.]

The Orange Box
IGN
Even in Portal, a short title that often requires a little trial and error, this problem is massive. The 360 version takes about three seconds to load your last checkpoint if you die. The PS3 version takes seventeen. It hurts.

GameSpy
Voice chat, especially over Bluetooth, has problems...Although EA has implemented some fine options for testing out your headset in-game (negating the archaic practice of exiting to the XMB to make adjustments), it's a bit of a moot point. We tested out three different Bluetooth headsets (including the Jabra packaged with Warhawk and a USB headset) and nothing seemed to work.

Kotaku
There are some other unusual hitches [in TF2], such as a brief pause as your character goes underwater and a visible delay in the launching of the Demoman's grenades. Game-killing bugs these are not, but serious players will most likely find themselves cursing their PS3s when one of these idiosyncrasies leads to their death...

GameDaily
Valve blends its older games with newer content, delivering an essential bundle only a fool would ignore, unless said fool demands the best version.

I'll be picking up UT3 this week. What about you?

So how was it? Hit the jump for our Frankenreview and find out: 5 muffin tops ready for ingestion.

IGN
You'll notice some slowdown issues when things get hectic, and the techno audio and sound effects often fight, having audio levels not always equalized as we'd like them...[but] the colors are still bright, however, and these remain to be some of the best particle effects we've seen on Nintendo's handheld, so while DS is the smallest piece of technology Geometry Wars has ever existed on, it still hold on to the spirit of the game very well.

GameDaily
You move your ship with the D-pad while touching parts of the screen to direct your line of fire. You can also use the face buttons for directional fire, if you prefer a more "old-school" method of play, ala Robotron 2084. The shoulder buttons activate whatever bombs you may need — and you'll definitely need them. Messing around with both the D-pad and the touch-screen takes getting used to, but it's a surprisingly functional control scheme.

Gamespy
Called "geoms," Galaxies' widgets are the game's most interesting gameplay shift...Anytime you kill an enemy with your gun, or your drone kills an enemy, the enemy drops a small yellow geom. Geom gathering forces rethinks of classical circle-strafe Geometry Wars tactics. Various stages filled with walls, mazes and other strangeness will also force you to rethink your routes, but the geoms demand that you actually go, and go quickly, right where you've cleared some enemies

GamesRadar
Fans will notice a significant drop in the amount of cursing and angry restarts that follow deaths. After you die, extra Geoms to unlock new levels or Drones are waiting for you in the menu, and leveling up your collection of Drones or testing your skills in some of the more challenging levels breaks through the monotony of its predecessors one-level grind.

Gamer 2.0
Geometry Wars: Galaxies is the definition of portable fun. Are the graphics great? No. Is the sound revolutionary? Probably not. Does the game make use of online play? No to that as well. But the bottom line here is that it gets the job done and it does what handheld games are essentially supposed to do.

Anyone pick it up yet? What do you think?

But Uncharted ended up being pretty good after all. Hit the jump for our Frankenreview: the full story on Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Well, not the full story. We're not spoiling the game or anything. Or will we...

IGN
Uncharted does what few titles manage — it completely immerses you in its experience. From the moment the game begins with a sweeping camera move through the waters off Panama, a rich score and the words of Sir Francis Drake etched on screen, Uncharted will have you hooked. It'll maintain that hold with its story, style and gameplay.
GamerNode
...the characters in Uncharted are awesome. I thought Heavenly Sword was an anomaly, being a game rivaling most films in terms of voice acting and dialog, but Ratchet & Clank and now Uncharted have proven to me that it wasn't. Whether you hate the PS3 or not, you can't deny that a lot of the big titles do a great job in the voice acting and dialog department
TotalPlaystation
For a game that is really quite front-loaded with combat, you would think it could have felt a little more satisfying. Maybe it's a byproduct of this fancy-schmancy animation system that calculates and layers multiple pre-set animations on the fly, but the bullets never seemed to smack home with enough force (excepting the way a shotgun or a desert eagle could send someone flying 10 feet, mind you)...
1UP
Almost all of the handful or so of puzzles require you to crack open old-man Drake's diary for a hit-you-over-the-head solution. Think turning statues to the four compass points or rotating some rotting engravings...
Variety
At first blush it would be easy to compare Nathan Drake, the treasure-hunting star of Sony's new adventure videogame "Uncharted," with "Tomb Raider's" Lara Croft. But Drake leaves Lara in the dust, delivering the Indiana Jones experience better than gamers have ever seen it before...Anybody pick it up yet?

GameSpy
Super Mario Galaxy's graphics are out of this world. We've not seen such a beautifully vibrant game on the Wii. The strong use of bold colors married with the better-than-expected texturing makes for a great-looking game. It runs, as expected, very well at 480p in a 16:9 apsect ratio, and while a small part of us aches for a 720/1080p version of the game, we'll take what we can get. There's nothing else on the system that looks this good...
NintendoWorldReport
...the pseudo-linearity, aided by the automatic camera, makes it possible for the game to go back to its 2-D platforming roots rather than the wide-open, but less interesting seek-and-find nature of prior games. Occasionally, a handful of Star Shards must be collected to progress, but there is nothing approaching the tediousness of the blue coin collecting in Super Mario Sunshine. Players will absolutely want to collect all of the Power Stars.
GameSpot
It helps that practically every stage in the game has a great deal of replayability purely on its own merits. These levels are just inherently fun to go back to again and again...comets will enter orbit in some of these galaxies, and thus change the way you play in some bizarre way. Whether it's speeding up all the enemies in an area, putting you on a timed run, or having you race against a doppelganger Mario, there's a nice variety of change-ups to experience.
CVG
Galaxy also plays around with gravity and physics like no Mario game before it. You'll flip gravity to navigate giant block mazes, use a planet's gravity to propel yourself to a new platform and shoot into the stars...no matter where you run or jump gravity will twist and pull you towards the planet, allowing you to run all the way around it and even jump to other planets by hopping into their gravitational pull... It's not as revolutionary as Mario 64, but it certainly re-defines what we expect from a 3D platformer.
Eurogamer
It's simply an explosion of inventiveness - a total rejection of the cookie-cutter. There's almost no way of knowing when you go into a level what it's going to look like, what you'll need to do, or how long it will take. One star will be a cheeky diversion, the next a five-stage epic of delight and adventure.Hmm...what can you say to all these near perfect reviews? Something cheesy. Like, Houston, your Mario Galaxy has landed on the Wii. No, actually that's horrible. But we'll leave it up as an example of what never to say when talking about the game.

So hit the jump for our Frankenreview of COD4—the only review you'll ever need of the game before deciding, yes, it's a must-play and, no, you're never joining the Armed Forces.

Atomic Gamer
ew games have captured the detail level of a modern-day Middle Eastern city, at least when compared to photos from over there, but Call of Duty 4 does that well. And its depictions of snowy Russian rural areas - including a trip to Pripyat, the city which housed many of the people working at Chernobyl - are very convincing and do a great job to immerse you.
Gamespy
CoD4's mechanics are superb. The sense of aiming down your gun's barrel and unloading a full clip into an enemy feels perfect. The sense of impact behind a well-placed shot or three and the sense of danger as you try to bail out of the blast radius of a frag grenade is amazing.

TotalVideoGames
The inclusion of a time limit to several of the missions introduces a sense of pace and urgency to the proceedings, whilst occasionally a challenge that has no bearing on the success or failure of the mission becomes apparent, such as a split-second chance to save a citizen from execution.
UGO
The online multiplayer mode in Call of Duty 4 is unparalleled thanks to one enormously simple concept: Infinity Ward dangles so many unlockable carrots that you simply have to keep playing to see them all. Leveling up is nothing new for online gaming, but things are taken a step further in Modern Warfare as higher levels unlock access to additional weapons, Perks...and rulesets. In all, there are six basic game modes spread across 13 types of matches and 16 differently-sized maps inspired by the single player campaign's missions.
1UP
Call of Duty is one of those roller coaster-type games, where you sit back and let the game guide you down one hopefully thrilling path. But the trick to pulling off a successful linear shooter is breaking the player away from the rails every so often...Moonlight rescue missions, frontal assaults and panicked extractions, sniper infiltrations and assassinations, ambushes and support roles, small teams and big squads...
The recurring theme throughout the reviews was a constantly varied style of gameplay that kept COD4 from falling into the ho hum FPS trap.

While Rock Band won't be on store shelves for a few weeks, we do have at least 50% of the equation to ignite the flame wars. So hit the jump for our Frankenreview of the Harmonixless Guitar Hero III—all the answers to all of life's problems in five short paragraphs.

PlanetXbox360
Some veterans of the series may think that the buttons on their new guitar are sticking but that is actually a gameplay feature that Neversoft included to help new gamers feel comfortable in the series. The time limit to hit the correct key has been increased by what feels like a good bit of time, now hitting those impossible guitar solos is much easier. At first I felt like the game was too easy but the developers helped offset this issue by amping up the actual song difficulty.

Yahoo
The new guitar (we tried the wireless Les Paul that comes with the 360) feels a lot sturdier, with crisp precise controls and a suitably tense whammy bar. The detachable face plate will allow for some slick customization for people who aren't content with stickers. And being able to detach the neck will make it much easier to bring your controller to a friend's house...Give us this solidly built wireless guitar, Activision, and we won't begrudge you the extra profit.

OpposableThumbs
This is the first Guitar Hero game to venture online, and it's about time. While the face-offs and battles I've been able to participate in have been fun and largely lag-free, you're forced to search for your own games: the quick match option that is supposed to allow you to jump into a game quickly is completely broken....Also keep in mind that the co-op career mode, complete with exclusive unlockable songs, is offline only. That means that if you want to play these songs (and you will), you'll need a friend with a second guitar and time to unlock them with you.
GamesSpot
It's...disappointing that Activision has finally decided to corporate up the Guitar Hero experience with a fair amount of lame product placement and dynamic in-game advertising. It's one thing to get branded guitars and get Guitar Center to sponsor your in-game shop— it's quite another to have several of the game's environments feature billboards that display ads dynamically, and logos for Pontiac and Axe Body Spray that pop up all over the place. It even goes so far as to have Axe-sponsored guitars you can buy in-game, and Axe-sponsored go-go dancers prancing about the stage while you play. Gross.

GamesRadar
By going real with the songs, next-gen with the graphics and online with the gameplay, it leaves the wishlist relatively barren. At the same time, it's not delivering us much new on the gameplay front, and in fact lags a bit in terms of smart strumming mechanics.
The most noticeable difference to me in Guitar Hero III (and Rock Band, for that matter) has to be the hefty amounts of original studio dubs. I never had issues with playing covers before I'd experienced something better. And now it's really hard to go back.

As you can see, my wife and I didn't even attempt gaming pumpkins after seeing your brilliance, but hit the jump for a complete list of our exclusive gaming pumpkin coverage.

And Now, A Megaman Pumpkin

Mario Pumpkin Might "Win"

Day Of The Pumpkin!

Pac-Man, Dots and Clyde

Metroid Pumpkin Glows, Might Eat Your Head

Sonic-o'-lantern

Okami Pumpkin

Pumpkins Go Next-Gen

The Halo-Ween Pumpkin

WoW Pumpkin

Pac-Man Gourds (Not Pumpkins, Which Are Lame)

Mario's Towering Pumpkin Inferno

RRoD Is Truly Frightening

Smashing Xbox 360 Pumpkin Stencils

Another Awesome Zelda Pumpkin

Bad Guys Need Pumpkins Too

Hallow-Wind Waker

Alien Hominid Pumpkin

Probably The Best Mario Pumpkin

Pumpkichu Gives Us Nightmares

Space Invaders Immortalized In Pumpkin

Wario Scares Us

Big Daddy from BioShock

Mario Pumpkin

So hit the jump for our Frankenreview; this week we did something special and only included reviewers that had "game" or some amalgamation of such in the title. That's for you, Insomniac. Live it up.

GameZone
The new Ratchet & Clank title, Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, is every bit as compelling visually as the high-end Hollywood animated features. Take anything from Dreamworks or Pixar, and compare them and you will find that ToD is a visual feast that rivals them. The major difference is, of course, that when you watch one of those films, that is all you are doing ...you are an integral part of the event.
GameDaily
The voice work is up to Insomniac's usual standards, filled with personality and hardly any dead spots...The dialogue is still hilarious, even with the random chatter that plays in the background. On top of this, the music works on a rhythm all its own. The tempo changes constantly depending on what's happening on-screen. What sounds easygoing at first soon bursts with romping energy. It's a terrific soundtrack, one with great unpredictability.
GamingAge
Whether it is a (optionally) motion control-enabled tornado launcher, a kick ass electric whip, or viscous little plasma beast capsules, nearly all the weapons are fun to use and required to be utilized throughout the game.... This is by far Insomniac's best selection of weapons and gadgets yet, although I have to say they are probably a little too good. By spending a few extra minutes exploring the stages and collecting raritanium and bolts, weapons can be upgraded to ridiculously powerful levels, even early on in the game.

GamerNode
Just about every minigame utilizes the Sixaxis controls (unless you count Clank's couple of solo runs). I know what you're thinking: "Sixaxis controls! Oh no!" but in all honesty, they're done well in this game. Nothing really takes you out of the flow; you do things such as control Ratchet as you halo jump from a ship or glide through the air, slide a ball around a circuit to hack electronics a la Bioshock, and cut holes in walls, and all in the midst of gameplay.

GameAlmighty
Whereas earlier installments of the Ratchet and Clank series offered a range of single player and online multiplayer modes, Tools of Destruction hones in on its solo experience with just a story-driven campaign. Dropping multiplayer negatively impacts the game's long-term value; however, focusing purely on the campaign has resulted in a level of quality that easily surpasses any previous iteration.
Yes everyone, it looks like Ratchet & Clank Future is every bit as good as we'd hoped.

And when we finally laid our eyes on the 93 ton, 700+ year-old statue Flynn said, "Never in my life did I think I'd see this. I remember rolling it up in Katamari..." It was a special moment.

Hit the jump for our Frankenreview on Beautiful Katamari for the Xbox 360: every review you ever need on a game from a franchise famous for rolling up the Great Buddha.

Gamespot
Beautiful Katamari doesn't look much like an Xbox 360 game. If anything, it looks like the PS2 game engine upscaled to the brink of exploding...we hoped for visuals that represented some kind of significant advance over those in previous games. The world and things that dwell within it just look kind of fuzzy up close, and while there are plenty of colorful backdrops and square-shaped people, again, all of it seems ripped right out of the PS2 games.

Gamepro
Beautiful Katamari suffers from some of the same goofs that plagued the other titles. You'll still get stuck in tight spots because the camera swiveled behind a wall or table, co-op control still amounts to pretending you share a single uncomfortable body with a twin, and a few of the levels are filled with frustrating opportunities to abruptly end your hard-won progress because you ran over the wrong item.

Gametap
...for Mars, you've got to roll up a katamari that hits 10,000 degrees. The katamari is continually getting cooler, and if you roll up cold things, the temperature goes down even more quickly. And then there are the environment hazards to watch out for, like those panicked fireman who might throw water on you and put out the katamari completely. It's a fun new twist on the katamari levels.

Gameinformer
This installment is also void of the wacky human-based story, and the King of All Cosmos seems to be bored and doesn't have the witty one-liners you know him for.
1up
The big addition to this Xbox 360-exclusive title is online versus play (as well as some future downloadable content and online leaderboards). Here you jump in a match with three others and compete to nab the most of a certain item in the given time. The big change-up from single-player action is the addition of a lock-on button that allows you to target opponents before dashing into them, knocking items off for the taking. This mode offers nothing more than forgettable fun, though, at best...
Hmm, I really hoped for this to be an HD feast for your eyes, even if the mechanic was getting a bit stale. Sounds like a pass if you've played the games before and aren't craving more Katamari.

We've met the engineers, scoped the beautiful graphics and heard about the 9 character balance to no end. Now we're left with one thing: actually playing the game. So hit the jump for our Frankenreview on Team Fortress 2: all the value you see in The Orange Box, squeezed into review form with way more disappointing content.

PCGamer
[A] Pixar comparison isn't fair. TF2's gurning murderers look better...It sounds like a small thing, to be able to tell what class someone is as surely and as clearly as you can...But stuff like this has an intensifying effect on your moment-to-moment experience: you feel, see and comprehend the game world in Technicolor. It makes all the relationships instantly clear and the importance of your actions explicit. In short, it makes everything you do 300% cooler.
1UP
Valve's rebalancing and outright revamping of key classes works; each actor in TF2's cast of nine owns his role with less overlap than ever. The football-like match flow is intact, too — Heavies and Soldiers wrestle at congested lines of scrimmage; now and then Scouts and Spies slither through for Hail Marys (expressive in-game taunts substitute high steps)

IGN
If nobody wins the game at the end of a round, TF2 transitions to an overtime round where teams are no longer allowed to respawn, health pickups disappear, and resupply cabinets no longer give out health. You need to instead rely on medics and dispensers to heal any damage. Strangely, if nobody wins in overtime or wipes out the other team, the round ends in a draw. Sort of defeats the purpose of overtime, doesn't it?

Eurogamer
The game also does a lovely job of framing your relationship with other players and nurturing them. If someone is dominating you, the game says so, and revenge is sweeter. The scoring system, of course, helps reflect this - if someone is dominating you, they get more points for continuing to do so. Valve also includes a range of Achievements...that - rather like celebrated Geometry Wars 360 achievement "Pacifism" - push you in the direction of new ideas as much as they celebrate or laugh along with your accomplishments.

Shacknews
So are there imp