EA Sports is back once again with NHL ’10. Now before you start with the moans and groans, gimme a chance, it’s not as bad as you may expect it to be.

Honestly, I’m not a huge hockey fan like I was back about 15 or 20 years ago. Boston Bruins was my team and [;ayers like Cam Neely, Ray Bouque, Don Sweeny, Andy Moog, Ted Donato, and a few others were in my opinion the boys to beat. Well, just about most, if not all have since retired or are on the brink of. So, if you were ask me to name two people on the current Bruins’ roster, I’d give you nothing more than a blank stare.

As well as being absent from following professional hockey I have also been absent in the annual edition of EA Sports’ NHL games, I have to say, EA has advanced beyond a point I ever imagined it could for a hockey game.

Do I have something in my teeth? Do I HAVE teeth ?

First thing I noticed when I fired up the game was the graphics, graphics were sharp and everything from people in the crowd to the lines and logo on the ice looked really sharp. The game starts off with a small tutorial on how to preform wrist shots, slap shots  and how to aim your shots. Then you get a lesson in a new feature for fighting. In past editions it was always a view of both players facing off toe-to-toe, the angle wold usually zoom in on these two combatants, but not like it does in this ’10 edition. When intimidated ot to try to start a fight, you simply press the ‘Y’  (on Xbox 360) or triangle button (on PS3) – once the fight is about to begin, the view kinda spirals around then ends up with you in a first-person view, like a hockey version of Fight Night Round 4. Fighting controls are pretty simple, simply use the right analog stick to to move side to side, or up and down to tug on your opponent’s jersey, and use the left analog stick up and down to throw punches.

The action can get intense

Now when I normally play a new sports game, I jump right in and select my favorite team and start the season. I figured if it takes me a few games to get the controlls down, out of a 82 or 84 game season I should be able to hold my own. So I chose my team from the old days, the Boston Bruins and I actually reconize 1 name on the roster, Zdeno Chara. As far as the rest, the names could be made up for all I know. Game starts with your team walking from the dressing room through the hall, then stops just before going out onto the ice. The lights are down, the music is pumping, the fans are going crazy for their home team, lights are flashing while the team logo is projected onto the ice spinning around – then your team hits the ice for the pre-game skate warm up. From there on it’s Bill Clement & Gary Thorne provide the color commentary through out the match up.

Some of the newer features added, preisisoin passing. A pass to a teammate doesn’t always go tape to tape, so player’s AI is advance to where players will use their skates to kick the puck ahead to gain control with their stick. A “Battle for the Cup” mode was added, allowing you to jump right ito the play-offs and earn the coveted Lord Stanley’s Cup. My favorite feature “Battle Along the Boards”  allows you to pin the puck against the boards in hopes to draw in the opponent and hopefully to be able to kick out the puck to a team mate and possibly set up a play down the ice. Another new feature is “spectacular goals.”  Players will do almost everything short of taking their lives to put that puck in the net. You’ll see players will one-time loose pucks, shoot from their knees and and will attempt to bat pucks out of the air. I’ve scored a few goals like this, looks really cool on the replay – although the computer did it and scored and it clearly was high-stickig, but no call.

Will this go in?

Now overall, my favorite feature is the “Be A Pro” mode. In this mode, you creater you’re own skater. You chose the position, jersey number, where he’s from, lefty or righty, pick out hs equipment, everything right down to scars or freckles on his face. From there you take part in the Prospect Game where the top North American prospects take on the top Worl d Prospects in one game. Now just like as if it were actually YOU on the team, you only control your player and only when he’s on the ice. Otherwise you get a great view of the game from the bench (or penalty box if that’s the type of game you play. You get scored on a number of things, obviously it helps to score and at least show your a team player and get an assist or two, but they also look at how well you play your position on offense & defense. After the game you then enter the NHL draft. The better you do in the game, the higher you’ll be in thedraft order. I was taken 8th myself.

Now, just because you’re a “NHL’er” doesn’t mean you have a permanent locker in the dressing room. The team’s general manager gives you a shot and evaluats your performance the decids whether or not you earned a spot on the roster or do need more work and at to report to the team’s minor league or AHL team to broaden your skills. I was drafted my the Tampa Bay Lightning and after 4 games in the NHL, even though I was second on the team in scoring, I was sent to the Norfolk Admerials and put on the third scoring line. I worked my way up and lead the team in scoring and have een moved to the 2nd scoring line.  This makes the game that more fun in my opinion as you’re trying to score and set up others on your team to score so you could one day be back in the NHL arenas. Another thing that makes this game ineresting to me that while I’m on the AHL roster, I actually live real close to two different AHL arenas, so it’s pretty cool when my team is on the read at one of these venues.

All in all, NHL ’10 is a lot of fun, maybe because I’ve been out of the loop for so long, I really can’t say for sure. But the “Be A Pro” feature has got me hooked. It kind of incorporates a sports game into a RPG style game.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Operation Flashpoint:DR takes place on a ficticious island off the coast of Russia. The openning cut scene gives you a brief over view of the history of the island and how it changed hands from being controlled by Russia, China and Japan. More recent years reveal that the island is rich in cude oil and then the Chinese, who have control once again, are threatening to keep it for themselves. The United States Marines are brought in to help restore order.

Now the first thing you’ll ntice is OP FP:DR looks pretty good visually. The graphics could have stood to have been tweaked a little sharper, but I suspect that might have had to be sacrificed to make room for the massive open world the game takes place in. Don’t take this the wrong way, the game looks good, but you can see where there is room for improvements. Everything in the distance looks really sharp, but approach a bush or walk through a thick open area and vegitation seems to take on a 2-D look..

The shooting and the action is intense

Now lets get this out of the way – the computer controlled A.I. – This is a hit and miss though out the game. So far after about five hours of play, I’ve come across situations where the enemy’s AI is outstanding or at least somewhat alert to my squad’s presence and open fire on me and my squad. Most times when walking from ‘point A’ to ‘point B’ riflemen and turret gunners are spotted. Even as far as 200-300 meters they pose a threat. Other times I’ve come across ememies just standing there clueless like a statue just feet away.Even your own squad on occassion will all of the sudden come up missing for whatever reason. You’ll pull up you map and notice that they are way behind you as if they’re like a  bunch of kids at the zoo who stopped to watch the monkeys when you’re suppose to be heading over to the exotic bird show that starts in a few minutes. The squad is almost totally reliant on your commands. You’ll pretty much always have to give the ‘Follow-me’ command just to get them to keep up and on task. They are pretty good at firing at enemies and actualy do mannge to take out a enemy or two. You have many other commands, you can have them advance onto a certain position, assault a building like a SWAT team, give suppressing fire on an enemies location allowing you to flank them. Another really bad AI situation is if you and your squad are in a vehicle and you get out, they won’t get out and follow you unless you give the command to ‘exit’ or ‘follow-me’.

Now there is a level of realism here – if you get shot, depending on where and how severe the wound, you may need to find cover real fast and apply a field dressing to prevent yourself from bleeding to death. A shot in the leg will cause you to loose the ability to run or sprint, which makes sense. When you get shot, it’s best to check the meter in the lower left corner of the screen to see how bad the injury and how fast is the blood flow. If it’s not too bad and the blood is flowing at a slow rate, you can hang in the fight for a bit and try to take out the enemy and reduce the threats you are facing and THEN apply your field dressing. Although, you must be careful of your surroundings and what your using for cover. If your head is exosed, there is a chance you could catch one in the melon, and there’s no asprine  that works that fast. Your 4 man squad does have a desgnated medic, you want to keep an eye on this guy and make sure he stays alive. Reason being, you can comand him to heal other members of the squad who has sustained injuries, and occassionaly you’ll take a shot that incompsasitates you. You won’t be able to reach you’re equipment to get a field dressing yourself, but you can call for you medic to come to your position and heal you. Just hope you’re not lying out in the open so while he’s trying to heal you, he ends up getting shot him self. You also have the ability to heal your squad member, good luck though, trying to get close enough to apply the field dressing is like playing tag with them.

Sometime you just cant go all guns blazing

There are many different weapons available through out the game and you are able to carry quite the load. You have your main rifle, then a secondary weapon that could be another rifle or some sort of rocket launcher, two different types of grenades (frag and smoke),  a pistol, the aforementioned field dressings, and binoculars. Your primary weapon will fall into two different classes- assault or marksman. The difference really is the marksman class equips your rifle with a scope making long range shots more accurate. The assault version is the same rifle and uses the premounted iron sites, which are better for close range shots. You rarely find yourself in many situations where enemies are that close and will feel more comfortable when you have the scope mounted on your rifle. You’ll come across stacks of ammunition crates thoughout the island where you can pick up other weapons and ammo, or swap out weapons, or pick up ammo from fallen enemy soldiers.

In addition to the small stock of weapons on your back, you do also on occasion get the chance to call in air strikes to take out armored vehicles and personnel from a safe distance. This task is at times nessecary to allow your troops pass through certain areas with little or no resistance from the enemy. Using the binoculars is the best way to make sure you call in the right coordinates as you can zoom in better from a safer distance, reducing the enemies from firing on you before you’re in better range.

Online is a lot of fun

The single player mode basically takes you from checkpoint to checkpoint. Should you get killed or fail the mission, you have the option of starting the mission over or starting from the last check point (depending on the situation, not always the best choice). Don’t worry if while advancing to a check point that you loose a member of your quad, they all respawn with you when you reach the next check point.  Aside from the single player mode, there is co-op play also with 3 other players over Xbox Live and Playstation Network, there is also a versus mode that puts two teams of four players against each other.

Overall, if you’re into a military based FPS that is more of a tactical style game play, this isn’t the worst game you’ll ever play. May not be the greatest, but I’m enjoying it so far and have a hard time stopping after every mission.  If your style of play is more of a ‘run-n-gun’ game plan, better look elsehere for that excitement.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Origina line up Alex, Eddie, Dave & Michael

The game starts out with a little trial by fire, or in this case, pyrotechnics, and the band members are introduced.  Original members, Eddie & Alex Van Halen are represented to a tee as spitting images as to how they presently look as well as front man David Lee Roth. Now the twist is that original bassist Michael Anthony is no where to be found on the game, and anyone who has read any press stories in regards to more recent history about Van Halen know why.  Those same people will know and possibly recognize current Van Halen bassist, Wolfgang, who is actually the son of Eddie Van Halen. Honestly, I’m happy that Wolfgang gets to share the stage with his dad, not only in the game, but in real life as well as he played bass on the last tour Van Halen had done. But being a fan of Van Halen since the early 1980’s, I really was looking forward to seeing Michael Anthony and his signature ‘Jack Daniel’s bottle shaped bass guitar.

Now, just about any and all possible Van Halen hits are represented in the game from ‘Running with the Devil’ to ‘Jump’, ‘Panama’ and ‘Hot for a Teacher’. One thing that is going to leave you with that real deep empty feeling is that there are no Van Halen songs from the days when Sammy Hager took over as front man for the mega-arena rock band. As a fan of the band, you’ll be itching for songs from albums like 5150 and OU812, but to get those, you’re gonna have to dust off those old cassette tapes.

One addition to this edition of Guitar Hero is that certain songs when completed will unlock specific information about that song. As an example, completing  ‘Ain’t Talkin ‘Bout Love” unlocks two additional options for that song, one is the lyrics, where you can listen to the song and follow along, and the other is ‘fun-facts’ about that specific song. While viewing the fun facts, you watch the animated Van Halen perform that song while you can read about little tid bits of history about the song. I chose to read the fun facts on this particular song because the band I play in covers this song.

More recently, Alex, Dave, Eddie & Wolfgang

Guitar Hero Van Halen supports all the basic band game play as GH:World Tour or GH5 and downloadable content from both are compatible as well. For those who were able to take advantage of the Guitar Hero 5 offer to receive this Van Halen edition really can’t complain as you technically received two games for the price of one. Those who missed out, but still want to have the Van Halen experience will get your chance on December 22, 2009 when the game will be available to regular retail sales.

All in all, in my opinion this is a definite must for Van Halen fans, just try not to get too carried away and get caught in some old zebra stripped spandex pants and maybe strap on a helmet before attempting the classic David Lee Roth jumping kick.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

The voice over work on this game is right on target with The Joker’s voice is brought to the script by Mark Hamill. Those of you unfamiliar as to who he is, he played Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movies. The voice of Batman follows suit with the more recent movies, that dark, mysterious sounding voice that you’d expect.

Now one thing you have to remember when playing as Batman – yes he is considered a super hero, but he does not have super powers like Superman. He can’t fly, can’t deflect bullets off his chest, but he does use his cape to glide throught the air to get from one point to another undetected. He also has a nuber of different gadgets available to him  One additional trick up Batman’s sleeve is ‘detective vision’ – we’ll touch on that a bit more whortly. And of course he is a expert in martial arts. Bottom line, you have to be cautious of enemies rifles and stun rods.

Got a little something in your face!!!

Now the story stats with the openning sequesnce where Batman is racing through the City of Gotham escorting The Joker to Arkham Asylum. Graphics in the cinematic sequence is one of the best I’ve seen from almost any game. Only problem in my opinion is that it’s a long scene before youtake control. You, with The Joker strapped to a gurney, guards, doctor, orderly and the Commissionor wander down a long coridor to where The Joker is then taken into the meximum security secion of the building. within a few short moments, everyhing falls apart and the action begins. Minor spoiler alert here, but to no suprise – Harley Quinn makes her first appearance and helps The Joker escape and with the help of the other villians and inmates, take over control of Arkham Asylum. The Joker tests Batman, which is a quick tutorial on the controls, by releasing a bunch of inmates in a few near by cells. You just follow the directions and fight your way through them.

Shortly after this you’re next task will introduce you to you’re “Detective-Vision.” Batman’s Detective-Vision allows Batman to see a number of different things. When activated he’ll be able to see weakened surfaces that can be dstroyed with a small explosive, points of interests like grates over air ducts that can be removed to expose alternae routes, and most importantly, will show people/enemies on different levels. When people are in your line of site, it’s not always clear whether or not they are an inmate or a guard. You will see something that closely resembles a X-ray of the person, but will need to switch to regular vision to tell the difference. One tip I can give, when approaching a group of inmates, it is very important to switch to the ‘Detective-Vision mode ato detirmine if any of them are armed. Those inmates (and guards for that matter) will show up outlined in a red color to show that inmate is carrying a gun.I’f you are perched up high looking down and only one inmate is showing to be carrying a weapon, you should use your ‘glide-take-down’ on that individual to reduce the chance of getting shot. Only fault to this is those inmates who carry a stun rod, will show up in normal blue outline. These guys can be a little tougher than those coming at you for hand to hand combat.

As you progress trough the game, you unlock upgrades that can be applied to Batman. A few upgrades include a more durable suit so melee attacks do less damage, and upgrades to to add certain skills like the ‘inverted-takedown’ which is my favorite. After a take down, it is also wise to find a spot to hide immediatly after as other inmates will converge on that area looking for you. You’ll also  need to pay attention to the inmates heart rate. Those who are armed and nervous tend to be a bit jumpy and will just start firing when spooked. And just at the point when you feel the game is getting repetative, Batman unlocks a new gadget, making getting aounr or taking down enemies even more fun. You start with the general Bat-a-rang that is a good way to stun enemies who are rushing at out. Then you get exploding foam for getting through weakened walls. It can also be used to stun rushing enemies as well. Other gadgets include a zipline, grappling hook that is perfect for pulling down grates that are high up, a scanner for hacking into securoty locks – just to name a few.

Now Batman Arkham Asylum will have to back tracking quite a bit looking for a laorge amount of answers to The Riddler’s riddles and markings which are scattered all over the place. Whether it’s collecting a ‘riddler trophy, or taking a picutre of a specific item, you’ll spend a lot of time searching for these. You’ll kick yourself when what seems like the most imposible riddle to solve turns out to be the most obvious item in the room. Another thing you’ll searh for I mentioned are The Riddler’s markings. These markings are spread out all over Arkham Island, in order to solve The Riddler’s riddle and find these require you to go to a specific spot on the map and look in the correct direction to get the proper point of view. As an example, one of the markings (they’re all question marks by the way) requires you to get to the highest point ona building, look down and line up the dot on the railing one floor below to the rest of the marking that is located hundreds of feet away on the ground level.

Are you feeling lucky… Punk?!

Even as fun and as great of a game Batman Arham Asylum is, there are a few flaws. At times, depending on how confined of an area you get into, the camera anlge may make it a litle tough to get your berrings as to where you are. Also, when free roaming outside, the map can be a little confusing to figure out where you need to go. There is no HUD available to guide you in any specific direction when you need to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’. There was one instance early on where I was suppose to go to where the Batmobile was parked, I ran in all sorts of different directions trying to figure out where exactly I had to go .

So overall, Batman: Arkham Asylum is the type of game that once youstart playing, you loose track of the time an hours have gone by before ou realize it. Great graphics, sounds is awesome, action is non stop controls are easy. Unlocking new gadgets just extends the fun and finding new ways to take down enemies is always a blast. All the classic comic book villians are here, Scarecrow makes a few appearences when Batman has a flash back to his childhood when his parents were killed. I’m going to go too deep into those moments as the Scarecrow guy freaks me out a bit. There are a bunch of really great games yet to come here in 2009, but, Batman Arham Asylum should be at least nominated for an award in some category.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

Now, all the original characters are back, Axl Steele, Johnny Napalm and the rest of the crew. In addition, and my favorite, Xbox 360 gamers can import your Xbox Live Avatar and create a ‘all-avatar’ band to rock with. This in my opinion is great for comedic value as my avatar doesn’t do a whoe lot normally but play with a radio controlled warthog on my dashboard. So to see him shred the guitar or drop beats on the drums is a great plus to this game.

The first thing you notice that comes with each song is an additional challange. It can be a number of different tasks, specific to one instrument, or requires an entire band to complete. Each challange gives you the opprotunity to achiev  up to three additional stars for that songs, depending on the level of that chalange completed. They are ranked Gold, Platinum & Diamond, challanges can be anything  The cahllange can be anything from how many seconds the whammy bar is used, ‘up-strum’ only on the bass, or consecutive beats.notes hit in that song.

Party-Play has been improved this time around, when playing with others in a band setting, you’re not limited to just one, singer, guitarist, bassist or drummer. You can have all four bandmates playing guitar if you wish, or two drummers and two bass players – whatever combination you desire, so everyone can play the instrumen they’e most comfortable with. Also, jumping into a band during a song is flawless now with the ability to join at any time, without having to start over or pause.

The music studio has been revamped to make it much easier for those who wish to take the time to create your own playable tunes for the game. Now it’s not so simple that you can creat a song in just a few minutes, it still takes, time and patience to get it just right, but there just seems to be a little bit more assistance this time around than in the World Tour edition.

One of the biggest changes I noticed is the animations. In earlier GH editions, the on stage characters had too much of a ‘puppet’ thing going on. It was actually one of the biggest turn off’s for me personally. To me the those animations were best compared to the music video “Land of Confusion’ by the group Genesis. Those of you who are unfamiliar, I suggest searching ‘You Tube’ and check it out. Another option is to just imagine a poor cunstructed set for a high school musical or play. This improvement alone is well accepted, espacially when the likes of Shirly Manson, Santana, Kurt Cobain, and Johnny Cash take the stage.

The set list is the norm for the Guitar Hero franchise with e wide range of songs from different genres. Songs from A Perfect Circe and Iron Maiden, and expanding down to artist like David Bowie & Bob Dylan. Downloadable content from the World Tour edition is compatible with GH 5 to expand the set list.

Now the big bulet point – if you purchased GH5 from a Gamestop store, or online during the period of September 1st through September 30th, you are eligible to receive the currently unreleased Guitar Hero:Van Halen for free. If you missed out, don’t fret, the game is slated for regular retail release on December 22nd.  I personally have received confirmation that my copy has been processed and is being shipped, so check back later this month for a review/preview.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.

The game starts off with a small motorcycle and a course constructed out ouf ramps, platforms, tires, barrels, etc, etc. Your goal is to make it through each of the 50 plus courses in the least amount of time possible. Check points through each course are forgiving and after each wipe out, you have the option of starting at the last check point successfully passed, or from the very beginning of the course. As you progress, you unlock new courses, faster bikes, and mini games. We’ll get to the mini game, relax Sparky!!!

Physics play the biggest role in this game. Everything from how your motorcycle responds with the terrain, to how far forward or backwards you tend to lean. Don’t get me wrong, nothing beats getting some huge air and attempting to pull off a flip or two, but remember one thing – what goes up, must come down. You must be sure to adjust yourself to the correct angle to stick the landing, otherwise you may find yourself face down and you bike in pieces.

Over the river and through the woods……..

You will get to a point in the game where you’ll feel like there is no possible way to completed a track and most likely you’ll walk away from the game. Next time you come back to try those difficult tacks again and see you other friend’s posting times for completing those very same tracks will give you the drive to tackle them again.

TRIALS HD included a course editor to allow you to construct your own tracks to race through. You can also share those tracks with others to test their skills on and see who has the better time.

Alright there Sparky, I know you’re chomping at the bit waiting to hear about the mini games. There are about 12 different mini games to unlock that will test your skills that you obtained from the regular race modes. Everything from transporting bombs as far as possible before they explode from bouncing around too much, to bailing out and hurling your rider through the air for either distance, or see how many bones he breaks. There are also games straight out of a circus that have you riding either on, or inside a giant cage ball.

All in all, for 1200 Microsoft points, TRIALS HD isn’t a bad buy, 800 would feel a bit better though. I’d suggest trying out the demo before going in full throttle or try the demo and decide for yourself.

That’s your Baldguy review.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox 360.