1. Duke Nukem Forever (2011)

Absurdly long development times are perceived as harbingers of doom nowadays, and 2011’s Duke Nukem Forever serves as the poster boy of such a perception. Development spanned 15 years for Duke Nukem Forever, and it’s still in the Guinness Book of World Records today for that reason. Not releasing an entry in over a decade will no doubt poison a franchise, but the game’s quality also failed to garner optimism for ole’ Duke. For one, Forever’s design was outdated without actually, you know, being good. The pacing tries to ape Duke Nukem 3D, but falls on its face due to the lack of viscerality the former had and the incredibly repetitive level design. Duke Nukem Forever soured players with its cringy humor too, yet I believe it could’ve been charming if some creativity was put into it. Remember how cool it was to run into a corpse of Luke Skywalker in Duke Nukem 3D? Or the unique visual aesthetics of levels like the “Escape From LA” stage to the 2001 Monolith on the moon? Duke Nukem Forever failed to use its raunchy referential charm in creative and fun ways, leading to a boring time embarrassingly cringing at the screen for many players.

2. Dragon Age: The Veilguard

Another 4th game in the respective series with a troubled dev cycle was Dragon Age: The Veilguard. While The Veilguard didn’t bomb quite as hard as Duke Nukem Forever, its tone is similarly to blame for its meager performance. Unlike the gritty (and very bloody in the case of Origins) realistic medieval tone of the previous Dragon Age games, The Veilguard is lit up in bright purples and sanitized almost like an ‘E for everyone’ title at times. Even the enemy designs lean in the cartoony direction with dragons that hardly instill any sense of fear or urgency. But it’s the awkward writing and dialogue that really disappointed a lot of fans. Instead of working you way through an origin story through blood, sweet, and tears, your character is just instantly accepted as ‘the hero’ of the narrative. Teammates rarely argue with you and often feel more like cheerleader social workers than elite warriors. At least the combat feels satisfying, but many have lamented the series distancing away from RPG mechanics since Inquisition, and The Veilguard is the series at its most streamlined and RPG-lite.

3. Mirror’s Edge Catalyst

Unlike Duke Nukem Forever or The Veilguard, Mirror’s Edge fans don’t mind a return to the series in the style of Catalyst. The main reason Mirror’s Edge has been dormant since 2016 is because DICE and EA have been focusing almost exclusively on reviving the Battlefield franchise. And thanks to recent gaming trends of big companies not giving small series’ a chance, it’s unlikely we’ll see another Mirror’s Edge title. But Catalyst didn’t exactly do everything right. The story was incredibly bog-standard, with characters that fell flat for a majority of players. The main reason to play the game was the excellent parkour movement, and that’s something Catalyst opened up substantially thanks to its more open structure. However, many locations felt copy-pasted, adding a sense of bloat that didn’t exist in the first game. Catalyst is still recommended by fans of the short-lived series, but its bump in quality from the first game, as well as DICE being busy elsewhere, doesn’t leave a lot of room for a series return.

4. Bionic Commando (2009 reboot)

Bionic Commando’s gritty 2009 reboot effectively killed the franchise due to a paltry 27,000 US units sold in its first month. Capcom’s top brass criticized the outsourced dev team for being difficult to work with, affirming their hesitancy to outsource overseas that would reverberate throughout the company for years. We previously cited Bionic Commando as an example of nonsensical story twists in games, and for good reason. This reboot is laughably campy despite its attempt at high stakes grit. The dude’s arm is his wife for crying out loud. But it wasn’t just story that players couldn’t take seriously, it’s also the janky movement with the arm rope slinging and the average shooting and combat mechanics. I’m glad the Bionic Commando reboot exists, if for the memes and campy ‘B-movie’ quality alone, but it also helped convince Capcom to shelf the series, and that’s a shame considering how iconic the original 2D titles were.

5. Saints Row (2022)

It’s been three years and I still haven’t encountered anybody who likes the Saints Row reboot. On paper, the ingredients for a decent Saints Row experience are there. But the exucation is severely half-baked. The open world design is uninspired with a plethora of repetitive side missions. Even the humor is disappointing, something the series always differentiated itself with. Saints Row was always known as the more goofy GTA, with well-written gags and scenarios that managed to get a chuckle out of gamers. But the reboot is anything but that, going for a more serious tone in-between jokes that fall flat on their face. Seeing how poor sales were and the terrible critical reception, it’s very unlikely we’ll see a new Saints Row anytime soon.

6. Lost Planet 3

Lost Planet 3 is undoubtedly the black sheep of the series. It’s the only entry developed by an outsourced western team, it didn’t heavily feature mechs in combat, and was panned by critics and the fandom alike. If relegating mechs to a minor role wasn’t enough of blow to fans, the repetitive side missions, bland level design, and less fluid combat sealed the deal. At least you’re still fighting Akrids in a snowy environment, but besides that, the game is hardly recognizable from the past two entries.

7. Crackdown 3

I’m not going to pretend that the Crackdown series was a household name worthy of GOTY discussions or anything, but the first two titles showed a lot of promise for the arcady GTA/Saints Row alternative. Crackdown 2 in particular was just a ton of fun to let loose and enjoy the bonkers open-world mayhem in. And the third game had a lot of hype leading to release, with none other than Terry Crews starring as the main city-destroying protagonist. But even longtime fans couldn’t find much to enjoy with Crackdown 3. The world map lacked variety, basically feeling like the same three nighttime city blocks copy/pasted throughout. The missions and gameplay don’t do much to make up for level design either, forming a repetitive loop of basic tasks over and over again. There’s not even anything fun to collect; with ability orbs comprising the majority of world secrets. I don’t even think Crackdown 3 would be appealing if it released decades ago; it’ll be a miracle if we see another entry any time in the near future.

8. The Order: 1886

Everyone talked about the life-like graphical fidelity of The Order at the time of the PS4’s launch. It was the defacto tech demo game for the console for good reason, showcasing impressive lighting and texture details. But hardly anything noteworthy could be said about any other aspect of the game. I can’t in good conscious call The Order a bad game; it’s just that it wasn’t much of a game to begin with at the asking price. The campaign takes around six hours to complete with little more than some collectibles to warrant further play sessions. It’s not just that it’s brief though, the content is somewhat superficial with its many quick-time events and bog-standard cover shooting. It’s one of those games that’s fine to rent for the story and setting, but you’ll forget about in a couple weeks. While The Order never developed into a series, it was initially planned to be one, with a sequel on the docket until the studio, Ready At Dawn, shuttered in 2024.

9. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Finally, we have the controversial cult classic, Kane & Lynch 2. This game was bound to have mixed reviews from its inception. Despite how it appears, Kane & Lynch 2 is a highly unconventional art piece of a game. The camerawork is intentionally amateurish and, at times, nauseating, in an effort to simulate cop cams or body cams. Plenty critics called out the camera as terrible and superficial, but it’s also the element that appealed to its fans the most. It’s really the five hour campaign and repetitive cover shooting that resulted in the general poor reviews and lackluster sales. And with IO Interactive moving on with their enormously successful Hitman games and upcoming James Bond title, it’s unlikely Kane & Lynch will get another opportunity to gain a following beyond that small cult classic crowd.

As most of you may know of the ON Live service that lets you play game on your computer even if it is a piece of crap and still looks great with essentially no lag is having a Special Sale this weekend only!  How does $5.00 sound for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days for the PC this Friday?  Additionally Just Cause 2 will be 50% off this Saturday April 30th making it $14.99 along with 75% off Batman Arkham Asylum this Sunday only running you only $7.50 which are all a steal in my book.  You can try all the demo for free as well.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days – Demo
Just Cause 2 – Demo
Batman Arkham Asylum – Demo

Let’s start with the building blocks of any third person shooter; The shooting mechanics and cover system. I can’t began to imagine how bad the gunplay was in the original for KaL2 to be considered an improvement. It’s not the worst I’ve ever witnessed, but the general shooting mechanics feel loose and imprecise and it certainly doesn’t help that a large majority of the weapons are quite inaccurate. This isn’t a bad thing in itself, but it can become troublesome fighting enemies at any range other than point blank. While we’re on the topic of ranges, there a variety of balancing issues within the limited arsenal of weaponry that make the shotgun the only weapon you ever need. Move over sniper rifle, this shotty has some ridiculous range. Despite my complaints, the general engine isn’t all bad, with some satisfying action that is often well gratified by effective hit markers.

The cover system suffers from a similar problem of being a bit hit and miss. Largely speaking it works the way you want it to, but now and then it would lock me into position and prevent me from moving across the block or wall I was up against. It happened one too many times for my liking, and caused the whole system to feel static and stale. It didn’t help matters that cover in the game doesn’t always protect you from harm. I understand that a sense of realism was trying to be conveyed through this, but it actually just made certain portions of the game needlessly frustrating. The poorly considered control scheme also became apparent whilst engaging with bits of cover in the game. Once you plug in a controller or customize the button layout it’s fine, but the default keyboard and mouse configuration made no sense. I could live with C being my cover key if all other buttons were in use, but when I have a perfectly good space bar that isn’t mapped to a command… It just seemed like an easily avoidable irritant.

Other aspects of the engine are weakened by an attempt to prioritise style over substance. Annoyingly this results in not having any conventional explosives or grenades. Instead you can find explosive barrels and throw them at your adversaries, shooting them in mid-air to cause the explosion. It looks cool, but there just aren’t enough explosives placed throughout the levels to make it work. There were far too many cases of that one guy hiding behind cover where one well placed hand grenade would’ve made all the difference. The most obvious case of visuals winning out over game design is the game’s camera. An attempt has been made to make it seem like the action is being recorded on a handy cam, so when you sprint or get shot at the camera starts to shake. It’s quite visually pleasing, though it can become distracting after a while. Thankfully the option has been included to turn the effect off. It did seem however like it was a last minute endeavour without much prior planning, as the effect seems to entirely disappear when you aim down sight and the story makes little or no attempt to justify the idea of some guy with a hand camera following Kane and Lynch around.

The plot unsurprisingly follows Kane and Lynch once more as they attempt to do an arms smuggling job in Shanghai, but when one of Lynch’s “errands” goes wrong the duo find themselves hunted by the one of the most dangerous mob bosses around. It’s a lot better than I make it sound, as I can’t really do justice to the stories tension and effective exposition without giving away any spoilers. You can take it from me though, you’ll definitely want to play from start to finish. There are a few blemishes though, with some weak scripting and characterisation that make the story seem a bit too much like a poor man’s Quentin Tarantino. There are also a few pacing problems with the odd level out-staying its welcome, but possibly the biggest let down is the ending. It just felt like one of those “is that it” sort of moments. For all the complaints I make I did enjoy the plot, but it just seemed in some cases to be missing a rather obvious trick.

As far as the playability of the single-player mode was concerned it was a case of a few bad cooks spoiling a perfectly reasonable broth. The level design made a lot of sense and the partner AI was able to cover me from various locations and generally not act like a total nuisance. That said the enemy AI was horribly unbalanced with some enemies charging at you like lemmings and others sitting behind cover like they’d forgotten what was happening. It resulted in one or two ridiculous set-pieces that were about as frustrating as it gets, and this was only on normal mode.

For all its flaws the single-player was certainly worth seeing through to the end. It was just a shame that the end came so quickly. Measuring in at barely six hours, some may feel a little cheated by the experience. A second play-through also seems highly unlikely seeing as there are no collectibles, or any other attractions that will warrant a repeat run. The co-op mode might keep you coming back for more however, as these things are always better experienced with a friend. PC users beware however, that unlike the console version, you will irritatingly be unable to enjoy the co-op story in split-screen.

If you find yourself wanting a bit more solo love from Dog Days once the story is over, then you might find the arcade mode to be a worthy time-sink. The premise is that, much like the multiplayer mode, you have to loot a location with a few AI comrades and proceed past waves of bots to the exit. It’s a nice attempt at a Horde-style mode, but the lack of map rotation means you just keep playing the same map over and over until you lose or give up. It’s a nice try at increasing the game’s lifespan, but it really doesn’t quite cut the proverbial mustard.

Whilst playing through arcade mode I was constantly thinking to myself “hey, wouldn’t this be really awesome if instead of AI I could play this with human players?” Thankfully you can and this is, in fact, the main crux of Kane and Lynch’s multiplayer shenanigans. Fragile Alliance is the bread and butter mode that sees you and up to seven others robbing a fixed location and battling AI controlled police while you make your way to the exit vehicle. The loot is split between the remaining survivors at the end of the each round, so it is often in your best interest to betray your friends in order to get a larger cut of the swag. You can do this by shooting them yourself and potentially leaving yourself vulnerable to the mercy of your other comrades, or you can try and screw them over through the rescue vehicle itself. It’s quite a diverse mechanic, in that you can interact with you getaway car or chopper in many ways. It has its own health you always need to watch out for and when you’re inside it you can either hold it to let your friends in, or make a 50/50 split with the driver in order to make him leave your colleagues behind. You always need to plan your betrayals carefully, as once a robber goes down he will respawn as a cop and make your getaway that little bit more challenging.

Fragile Alliance is a mode that is solid and enjoyable and leads to a lot of tense final rounds.

The problems come in the form of some quite static map design and a very limited weapon selection devoid of any customization. The maps are generally quite well designed with multiple paths to choose from and a few nice effects like explosions and civilian NPCs that add an intensity to the proceedings. The problem comes in that they never ever really change. There are no weapons spawns to fight over, no advantage points, no nothing. You just go through the same thing over and over again but with different people each time. It means that after one or two plays on each map you really feel like you’ve seen and done it all. This little issue is also compounded by the lack of maps on disc. I’m sure this will be fixed with some DLC, but for now having only six maps is really quite a limitation.

This feeling of repetition could’ve easily been rectified with some nice unlocks for ranking up and some decent customization. Unfortunately KaL2 lacks both. The weapon selection is pretty small as it is, but you can opt to buy new weapons with your loot in between rounds. The problem is, as you’re ranked according to how much money you have, you almost never feel like you can justify spending your cash on new guns. It doesn’t help that your initial equipment is already quite decent and that the new guns you can buy don’t really offer much of an improvement. Any guns you purchase don’t carry over into future matches either. This seemed like a missed opportunity as, with no customization options and no upgradeable weaponry, the levelling up system seemed a bit trivial. Now that I’m a rank six I can buy that new assault rifle, but when you’re initial equipment is nearly just as good, why bother?

It’s a good thing then that the other two multiplayer modes almost make up for some of the online system’s failings. Undercover Cop plays out in a similar way to Fragile Alliance, the key difference being that one player is the undercover cop and is tasked with killing the others before they can escape. It works much better than you might think, and it adds a new layer of tension always knowing you’re only a few seconds away from an inevitable betrayal. This added mistrust makes this the strongest mode of the three by a long shot.

For those wanting a more straight up team deathmatch sort of thing, you’ll find your hit in the Cops and Robbers mode. It’s yet another twist on the Fragile Alliance formula, pitching two teams of six as the criminals and the filth respectively. Each player respawns if they bite the dust, meaning your really have to push to keep your side in the competition. It becomes a frantic affair that never really lets up and is a nice mash up of the usual formula. It can become a bit too hectic for its own good however, and the lack of grenades and tactical positions on the maps means it can quickly become a mindless case of running and gunning. I also noticed that one of the mechanics soon became a bit glitchy. The idea is that, should one of your buddies fall, you can snatch up his loot for safe keeping. Supposedly, if you have over a million in loot all players in the game can see your name above your head wherever they are in the map. After a while though I began to notice that I could see everyone’s name above their head, both friend and foe. This was further complemented by the incredibly short respawn times and spawns that always pop you right back in the action, that often made the games become a bit of a stale-mate. There’s certainly a thrill to be had in the mode, but it’s certainly not the most competitive game type ever devised.

The multiplayer component of Kane and Lynch 2 certainly throws out a lot of interesting twists on the standard shooter formula, but it was too riddled with bugs to feel like a truly solid experience. The lack of host migration was a really annoying start, but it was made even worse by a glitch that crashed the entire game whenever it failed to find a new host. It was like it was trying to migrate the host and just gave up every time it failed (which it did every single time.) The servers also seemed a bit unstable, with the occasional lag spike piercing through. Hopefully this is just a temporary server hiccup that will be rectified post-launch. I was about to say these aren’t game breaking issues, but technically speaking the game crashing glitch is actually a game breaker. It’s not the worst glitch I’ve ever seen, but it just seems so sloppy and amateurish. The multiplayer just isn’t tight enough in this respect to pull the masses away form Modern Warfare 2. It’s certainly refreshing with some interesting ideas, but with Halo: Reach just around the corner, I doubt a few interesting ideas are going to be good enough.

The visuals of KaL2 sit in a similar camp of trying out some new ideas that are likely to divide opinion. The shaky hand cam effect mentioned earlier and the rather abrasive film grain effect show an attempt to take the visuals in a more gritty and earthy direction. It certainly suits the themes of the game and works for the most part, although I think the grain filters could’ve been applied with a little more subtlety. The technical capacity of the visuals is a bit harder to judge. The textures can definitely lack interest and the character models, whilst quite detailed, seem a little bit too shiny. It just looks a little unnatural and the hair in particular seems quite poorly rendered. For all my hating on the graphics there’s actually a lot of good going on as well with some intense effects within an epic scope and some very accomplished animations. It all actually looks pretty tasty by the time you’ve whacked all the graphics settings up to the max. The honeymoon period ended somewhat abruptly for me however, when I was treated to a recurring graphical glitch that rendered all the colours in different shades of pink. It wasn’t anything a quick reboot wouldn’t fix, but it certainly underlies the fact that a little bit more time in testing might have done the game some good.

The sound, on the whole, was a bit more of a regimented success with some decent voice acting and satisfying sound effects. The background tracks were a little sparse and unremarkable, but it was nicely covered by the decent voice clips. Particularly in multiplayer the diverse voice acting comes across, with a large variety of vocal clips for each character model. My criticism is mainly levelled at specific voice overs in the campaign. Generally speaking the guys voicing Kane and Lynch do good work, but there were one or two more intense and emotional segments of the story where they didn’t really deliver the lines in a particularly meaningful or effective way. Alas, this is but a small knock I level at what is a successful audio track on the whole.

For those of you still unsure if Dog Days is your kind of game, I’d say to consider how much of it is your kind of style. If you love films like Pulp Fiction and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, you might be able to overlook some of the game’s short comings in favour of the entertaining story and unique style. That, and for all it does wrong, it’s the only game on the market that lets you rob a bank in its multiplayer mode (aside from the original Kane and Lynch.) The problem of purchase is more likely to centre around the game’s longevity. With a short campaign and only six maps for multiplayer, this might be one of those games that would be better bought at a reduced price in a few months time. It certainly doesn’t help matters that the achievement/trophy list is fairly unremarkable. It cuts a nice balance between rewards for the story, arcade, multiplayer and various other feats, but I didn’t really find any of the list particularly fun to hunt down. I suppose the achievement/trophy list typifies Kane and Lynch 2 as a whole. It’s a game that looks good on paper, but is lacking a certain X factor that prevents it from fully realising its unique and refreshing spins on the classic shooter formula.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

The loveable duo are back in what will surely be a family fun-fest. Or maybe not.

It looks like the profanity that was found in the original game to an alarming degree is still present in Dog Days, although it remains to be seen how this will impact on the gameplay experience.

Check out the trailer below.

Update: This video is no longer available.

Currently the demo for Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is now running, but you have to you must have been able to get into the preview which had limited space.  Next week the demo will be available for everyone to download and let me just say the demo so far has been pretty awesome.  It has a different and unique style than the first game which I wasn’t too crazy about.  The demo will be available for the Playstation 3 on July 27th while the Xbox 360 and PC just have a “Next Week” date set for them.

The demo lets you play 3 ranked multiplayer playlist modes online, as well as a campaign level (solo) and an Arcade Mode which requires you to grab all the loot you can grab and then escape with a team as you are swarmed with enemies.  You can also go renegade in this mode and try and take your teams loot by killing them and then escaping… I could not get away alive after going renegade.  Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days comes out for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC on August 17th.

Gamestop Pre-Order Bonus:
Greed, Betrayal, and Revenge Multi-player Pack! Betrayal, greed, and dirty money feature prominently as you play the Radio Tower Map across all 4 multi-player modes. As an added bonus you’ll receive three exclusive multi-player weapons: the Doretta handgun with silencer, the US-standard Steel 780 shotgun, and the TOQ SBR submachine gun.

Amazon.com Pre-Order Bonus:
get $10 off a future video game purchase. The promotional code will be placed directly into your Amazon.com account within 2 business days after the product ships. Additionally, receive an exclusive graphic novel and a code to unlock the exclusive Goodbye Katty Gun. Both the code for the gun and the graphic novel will be included in pack when the game ships.

• Visiting KaneandLynch.com
• Text 725-79 with the words “dog days” with your cell phone
• Sending a message to the 1UP “KaneLynch2” profile

After playing the demo, I was blown away with the unique style of the game as well as the functional mechanics including a cover system that you will need to use to survive.  The demo has 3 ranked playlist multiplayer modes you can play online, as well as a campaign level and an Arcade Mode which requires you to grab all the loot you can grab and then escape with a team.  You can also go renegade in this mode and try and take everyone else’s loot and escape.  Big improvements from the original game.  Check out the demo if you don’t believe me.

Let’s face it – backstabbing your friends once in a while in a good, solid online-shooter is always fun. Yeah, so you ‘accidentally’ dropped the grenade at the spawn point. Alright, the trigger was really sensitive and the gun just happened to be aimed at your friend’s head. Most of these situations result in gnashing of teeth and angry looks. But fret no more! With Fragile Alliance, this can now be fun for everyone involved!Fragile Alliance is all about greed, betrayal and revenge. Basic rules are simple – you perform a heist with seven other people. You go in, steal some well-protected cash and get out in less than four minutes. If you get away with the most money after three heists, you win. Everyone shares in the loot but if you’re crafty and feel like not sharing that’s an option too. All you have to do it blow away your heist buddies, turn traitor, grab the money and make a run for it. Thus, natural greed combined with the willingness to betray your friends is the road to success in Fragile Alliance – if you can get away with the money, of course. In FA, revenge is truly sweet and any player killed by a traitor respawns as a cop and gets a bonus for taking out the guy that killed him.With the second installment of Fragile Alliance in Dog Days, a lot of changes have been made to streamline the experience and make treason, revenge and greed and more fun. We’ve added all the campaign features to the experience so we now have ‘down not dead’, human shields (yes, you can take another player as human shield, which will start a mini game) and explosive canisters to play around with and use as traps or grenades. We also improved on the betrayal aspect by working a lot with the balance in the player vs. player situations, so it’s going to take some effort to become a traitor and a lot more effort to get away with your 30 silver coins once you’ve betrayed the group. We also changed the reward systems dramatically to balance the game modes and to reward players that do all the hard work in the heists along with a lot of minor tweaks that are sure to get everyone excited. So, Fragile Alliance is still all about betraying your friends, getting the money and getting the hell out in less than four minutes. It’s top fun for the whole family, one of the most original multiplayer game modes out there, and it’s coming to you at the end of August.

According to an ESRB listing, more information has been revealed for next instalment in the Kane & Lynch series: Dog Days. The listing states that:

This is a third-person shooter in which players assume the role of two criminals through the underworld of Shanghai. The game incorporates a stylized surveillance-camera art style that supplements the action. Players shoot their way around the city in search of a specific target. They assassinate suspects, infiltrate the mob, and kill many enemies along the way. Sniper shots and gun battles against enemies are frenetic and depicted realistically. Intense depictions include damage inflicted on civilians: players can walk up to any character and shoot them at point-blank range; the dead can be shot on the ground, causing frequent splashes and pools of blood. Blood frequently stains city streets, subway walls, and vehicles. In a sequence occurring after implied torture, the two criminals are depicted with slash marks and gashes across their bodies; the characters are naked except for a blurry mosaic effect. The game contains some references to the drug trade (e.g., “coke”), and use of the words f**k, motherf**ker, and sh*t.