STORY (9.4/10):

Raynors ex-girl, Sarah Kerrigan was left behind on a mission and sadly Raynor was not able to rescue her. Meanwhile, Sarah was taken by the zergs and turned into something more sinister and deadly. Now she is back and Raynor has to stop her from destroying everything they hold dear and also dealing with Emperor Arcturus Mengsk’s dictatorship and lust for more power.

You play Raynor, a convict with a long criminal record with a gigantic space ship with 3 things on his mind:

• Set people free from the Dominion’s rule
• Kill Zergs and sometimes Protoss if need be
• Set his former girlfriend free from the zergs

GAMEPLAY (9.4/10)

Starcraft 2: WOL is addicting no matter what mode you play one. There are 3 races in the game and Wings of Liberty focuses on the Terran for the single player campaign. Other races are the Protoss which use psionic powers and the Zerg Swarm controlled by the Queen of Blades who dominates over the zergs after the Protoss destroyed the Overmind which had control over all zergs. The remainder of storyline in the campaign is quite straightforward and comes to a simple ending.

In game cut scenes are interwoven into the core campaign real-time strategy gameplay so they do not feel misplaced from the top down view of the game. Make no mistake, this is a traditional base building, resource depleting game right from start. There are 2 resources you need to build bases with in SC2 which are Crystals and vespene gases. In order to build your little army, you need lots of these resources. Once your little army and robots are built, you can upgrade their gear from for example: a level 1 armour upgraded to level 3 and this also applies to weapons, vehicles and combat ships. Vehicles include siege tanks to giant walkers called Thor. There are light combat ships to heavily armoured combat ships like the battlecruisers which are difficult to take down and slow to retreat. If you feel like your current base is not safe, you can always uproot some structures and move them to resource heavy places. Every time you finish a mission, you are given credits to spend on better hardware.

Apart from weapon and armor upgrades, every time you start a new mission, Rory Swan, resident Q for Raynor, sends your way mercenaries and other tough bad asses for your pleasure. Other upgrades are more like additions to the functionality of bunkers, marines, medics, etc. For example, medivac units can heal two targets at once when you purchase the right upgrade.

As you progress along the campaign, there will be moments when you have to choose one of two missions based on what you think is right to progress forward. One of the best part of the game is that Blizzard gave depending on the missions enough time to build your troops and annihilate your foes instead of forcing you to complete a mission under a certain amount of time. Once in a while, you play Raynor instead of the usual blue marine pawns striking the enemy where it hurts accompanied by fellow scientist and other important crew members.

Ingame cutscenes are one of the best I have seen in years with breath-taking realism depending on your hardware and character animation is top notch and all rendering using your hardware. Every character in this epic clash stands out. Tychus Findlay is the kind of guy that shoots first then asks questions later. Matt Horner is a humble soldier piloting Raynor’s heavy duty spaceship. Each one of these characters is unique and does not feel detached from the main game.

Another way of obtaining better hardware is when going on missions; you complete secondary objectives which helps gather zerg research points or protoss research points for better defence or offense

After you are done with the single player campaign, you can try your hands on challenge modes to test your skills before going online. Challenges also have achievements which you can unlock. Achievements is also the best part of the game which is a thousand times better than most reward systems put in by Microsoft and Steam. The achievements make you want to work hard while racking up those scores. Some achievements require you to adjust the difficulty to get and It is so addicting that you will want to try getting them all.

Multiplayer is the meat of this game with 1vs1 to 4vs4 game modes and a lot of maps. For new players, don’t fret any because you get 5 games which test your skills before placing you where you belong online so you do not meet Korean players. In this mode you are not restricted to certain upgrades like in the single player mode. In multiplayer, this is where true strategy shines through and through and how fast you can build up your marines, thors and combat airships. There is nothing much to say about the multiplayer except that it has to be experienced individually to fully understand what I am talking about. Be aware, multiplayer is difficult and takes time to master.

PRESENTATION (GRAPHICS and SOUND) (9.8/10)

The terrains on which missions are executed are varied and beautiful to look at no matter the conditions. There is an absolute attention to detail from top to bottom from marines to battlecruisers. The protoss look menacing and the zergs look absolutely ferocious. Some maps involve you only using battleships to accomplish missions while others require you accomplish missions before being overrun by lava. Voice acting is top notch with the same voice characters reprising their roles from the first game.

I do not like to talk about the in game menus but battle.net is looking spectacular with integration of facebook to add friends. The interface is clean and responsive with nice touches here and there. Also important is the interaction in the bridge, cantina, armory and laboratory parts of the game when you complete a mission.

The textures of every marine, protoss, zerg and all structures come at a heavy price. StarCraft 2 is a system hog. For some reason this game uses almost 2Gigs of RAM excluding operating system functions. In total, when I’m playing in either single player or multiplayer mode, total memory of my computer sits at 3,4Gigs out of 4 Gigs. StarCraft 2 is beautiful to look at on a large screen and you will need a powerful GPU to run this game at ultra settings but it is worth it. System requirements are quite modest and Blizzard did not want to eliminate some PC bases. According to ATI Tray tools, Starcraft 2 uses less CPU power but uses more GPU power so make sure you have a good graphics card.

The audio coming from StarCraft 2 is simply amazing and if you have the hardware that supports 128 voices, please by all means crank it up. The best sounding creatures are the zergs. Playing this game in 2 speaker mode is not doing the game justice unless you have a subwoofer or a very good headphone.

CONCLUSION

StarCraft 2 Wings of Liberty is PC game done right which is what the PC needs to show that it is not dying but forgotten by game developers who are afraid of the changing landscape of PC gaming which few developers really understand. PC gaming is not dead but misunderstood and Blizzard is sitting on a gold mine. I can’t wait for Diablo 3.

LastPass is the best and the most secure password storing application you will ever find on either a phone, desktop computer and notebooks. LastPass is not limited to Windows and MAC OS but can be installed on iPhones, blackberries, symbian, android, linux, etc. LastPass for Android is a 14 day trial.

If you have been writing down all your passwords on a text file or hoping that Internet Explorer or firefox or Safari remembers your passwords, don’t fret, LastPass will not only collect all your logins from all the websites you have ever visit, it will make sure that it is secure with a single master password so you do not have to remember logging in to 100 websites.

You can access LastPass vault when you login using your master password to access settings in order to increase security or decrease security. Other features which is a bonus is that it will add any phone devices you have installed LastPass into the vault.

If you decide never to auto login to a website, LastPass provides you with the feature that allows you to block auto logins to certain sites.

If you are also tired of cracking your brain for passwords to give website, LastPass will generate and store secure passwords so you do not have to remember. LastPass can also save all your fillable forms so you do not have to fill long complicated forms the next time you go to a different website. With one password, you can login to lastPass on any platform and all your details will be available even if you are away from your home or office computer or on your mobile.

The best of all these is that everything is encrypted in such a way that even the company that owns the application does not know your password

Go to Lastpass.com and download a free version and try it out. I am using LastPass on my Android, Home and Office Computer and I love it and all I needed to do was install the browser plugin for internet explorer, firefox, chrome, etc.

Episodes from Liberty City PC Review (9/10)

+ More GTA IV is not bad

+ The return of Liberty City

+ 2 games in one

+ Strong storylines for The lost and Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony

+ Improved Gameplay and game mechanics

+ Intense combat and varied missions from Ballad of Gay tony

+ Impressive dialogues and voice casting

+ New characters who are absolutely nuts

+ Good multiplayer

+ Hilarious dialouges and over the top violence

+ Great audio from 5.1 surround sound

- Graphics engine is getting old

The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isle (9/10)

I am a big fan of Oblivion and it will be the best game I have ever played for a long time and the top 5 five games in my list of all times. Oblivion was ambitious and overall I have spent over 300 hrs including the 2 expansions and mods. I decided to play the shrivering Isle expansion and it is still a blast.

+ More Oblivion

+ Sheogorath’s realm is gorgeous and creepy

+ New crazy and deranged characters that are downright hilarious

+ Strong storyline that carries you throughout the campaign.

+ Game engine still looking beautiful and demanding after 4 years of release

+ Gorgeous maps and new creepy creatures to hack and slash

+ Strong audio with the right hardware and 5.1 surround

+ Classic RPG style missions

-  No horses to transport you in the new  realm of sheogorath

On 28 July 2010, there was an update for HTC hero from Orange that weighs in at 3.14 Mb and it turns out that my ROM has been upgraded from 2.73.61.66 of February 2010 to 2.73.61.92 This an over the air update so preferably be close to a Wi-fi network to get the update. There might be little changes made to the phone with this update but I believe this is a first of a bigger push to the long awaited 2.1 update.

Check it out

BIOSHOCK 2 PC (8/10)
The first Bioshock is one of the greatest games ever made and if you consider yourself a hardcore gamer, it should be on your list. Bioshock 2 is a great sequel to the first.
+ The city of Rapture
+ The spooky atmosphere
+ Much improved shooting mechanics
+ Better guns and plasmids
+ Playing a Big Daddy
+ Fighting big sisters
+ Better upgrades to guns and plasmids
+ Going outside

-Weak multiplayer
-Short single player
-Linear
-weak multiplayer

Torchlight PC (8/10)
+ Lots of Loot
+ Great gameplay
+ Decent story
+ Leveling up is fun and addictive
+ Not a lot of talking but straight up action
+ Great atmosphere
+ A lot of unique monsters to slay
+ Continuation of play after storyline completion
+ Great graphics
+ Lengthy
+ Steam cloud saves
+ Gear upgrades
+ Colourful Spells fill up the screen when in intense battle

- Steam cloud failed and i lost 2 hours of gameplay
- Some repeatitive levels
- No Multiplayer

Assassin’s Creed 2 PC (8/10)

The DRM in this game is a nightmare for legitimate PC gamers like me who actually pay for games. I am prepared to overlook this situation for objective purposes. With that said, this game is far superior to the repeatitve first episode.

+ Great storyline for almost 22 hours depending on how you play it
+ Great gameplay which invloves, stabbing, slicing, stealing, climbing and running on rooftops, etc
+ Leonardo Da Vinci (my own personal Q)
+ Great characters that you encounter
+ Combat system
+ Decent graphics but showing its age
+ Earning Money to buy better gear
+ Swimming in water (first game did not have this feature)
+ Open world
+ Good atmosphere
+ The carefully crafted Italian cities
+ Twisted ending
+ Better looking In-game menus
+ Voicing is spectacular

- Ubisoft DRM (Digital Rights Management)
- I have lost connection 3 times while playing
- Not being able to login to ubi’s server to start the game
- No multiplayer

Warhammer Dawn of War 2: Choas Rising PC (8.5/10)

Choas Rising is simply a very good real time strategic mini Role playing game, period.

+ Choas Marines are a menance
+ New demons to slay
+ Boss battles
+ No base of operations
+ New gear and also upgradable gears
+ Corruption system
+ Gear that increases corruption on the player
+ Spectacular multiplayer modules
+ Great visuals and varying maps
+ Spectacular voicing and surround sound
+ Leveling Up

What I disliked:
- Short single player

Rico, the main character who works for an agency called “the agency” is simply an errand boy but skilled at getting jobs done no matter the task given to him. These factions all have one thing in common which is to take over the government that is oppressing the people and Rico needs to help capture strategic areas of the map for these psychos to overthrow the greedy government of Panau.

Forget the storyline which disappears as soon as you really get into the heart of the game which is causing chaos and lots of it. Blowing things up and hunting Generals has never been fun. Getting around the Island is easier as you can perform a grand theft auto all over the Island with any car, bike, truck, chopper, jet fighters and even planes. You have a choice on how you want to approach a particular mission. Stronghold missions involve you leading an engineer into a facility and taking it over. Standard missions are given at random and can range from mediocre to top class. Agency missions progress the main storyline. In order to get a new agency mission, you have to cause enough chaos to activate an agency mission. This is always fun until it gets boring quickly.

Auto targeting helps in gunning down enemies. It is not the best shooter out there but it works. You get the standard guns like a pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher, grenades, etc which are all upgradable to be more deadly and your shooting gallery. When you proceed in the game, you get unlocks to different equipment that help you survive the Island ranging from better guns to gunships.

Other ridiculous things you can do on this Island is grappling onto anything. I mean anything. You can grapple onto a moving plane, van, truck, boat, etc. You can Jump from the topmost floor of skylines and grapple onto an enemy helicopter, beat the pilot and hijack the chopper with ease. There is even a club in the sky where you can party. You can grapple onto a gas tank and onto an enemy at the same while you watch as the tank takes your foe into mid air. Focusing on ground combat will get repetitive quickly but engaging in everything the Island has to offer is far more rewarding. Apart from the missions, there are challenges you can perform all around the Island. There are car races, boat races, point to point air races and so on.

The storyline took me about 22 hours to complete according to the game and I only completed 30% of the whole game. Just Cause 2 is a gorgeous looking game to boot. Panua is probably the most beautiful looking open world game I have ever encountered to date with cold conditions to the north of the map, desert plains and cities with skyscrapers all with a night and day cycle. Planes, jets and helicopters handle beautifully and was easy to pick up without crashing even the first time. Flying over Panua is a thing of beauty until you get shot down. Sound design is very good despite the bad voice acting. Explosions and gun shots sound just right and make it feel like your military paraphernalia carries weight. Rico and co are the only characters that receive better animation while the others look plain.

Just Cause 2 is not a serious game and deserves to be treated that way. It is a goofy over the top action game with lots of stunts to make Hollywood jealous but under the hood it is fun and addictive for any one who wants to blow stuff up

Dice has delivered an exciting game in Bad Company 2 with both the single player and multiplayer worth paying the full asking price.

Single player Story
Dice is not known to have single players in their Battlefield games until Bad company. The campaign is very well thought out and consistent all the way through to the end. You play Marlowe, one of four military rejects sent on a mission to stop a sinister plan invloving high class weaponry being used in the United States which takes you through jungles, icy weather conditions and desert lands. The story might not be your cup of tea but it works for me

The single player gameplay is great in many ways and the guns you carry around have weight and fire realistically. It might be linear but it is fun all around. The best part of the single player campaign is your squad members in terms of providing comedy along the 6-8 hour ride. These guys are funny period. They also take shots at Modern Warfare 2 with phrases like “Snowmobiles are for sissies”, which is funny. One problem with the members is that these guys do not die and their shots only kill enemies 20% of the time which makes the player carry all the killing weight but if you overlook this minor flaws, the singleplayer is fun.

Multiplayer
Dice has a spectacular track record with multiplayer gaming and they have the best online fragging platform around. The main reason to buy this game is the multiplayer. The maps are varied and large and on the PC side you get 32 players with modes like conquest and Rush being my favorite. Joining squads is easy and you can decide to start a squad and also go out alone. If you are killed, you can spawn on a captured area or spawn close to your squadmates.

There are 4 class to choose from which includes:
Assault: If you like the fun of just assaulting enemy base
Engineer: If you like fixing and rpgs
Medic: If you like healing
Recon: If you like to hide and put a bullet in an enemy’s skull

Each of this class comes with special military paraphenalia unlocks. The more you earn points, the better the guns, equipment and tanks. You also get bonus rewards for focusing longer on a single class. For example being an Engineer longer gives you better rpgs for blowing things up and the same goes for other classes.

Presentation and Sound:
Character animation and the whole atmostphere are done professionally and Dice pays very close attention to detail. Looking for cover and staying long is not wise because every structure in this game including the structures in the multiplayer maps can be destroyed with the right weapon so always keep moving. Overall, Bad Company 2 runs beautifully with all the eye candy turned on with 8X Antialiasing with Horizon Based Ambient Occlusion and DX 11. I recommend playing this game with a quad core processor to enjoy all the physics this game has to offer.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 is a spectacular online shooter with a great single player campaign that offers great value for anyone looking for a more than 200 hrs fix.

Story (7.5/10)
There is a threat in the metro called the dark ones and Artyom, the main character is called upon to eliminate this threat once and for all. Apart from the “dark ones”, other threats in this game include mutated creatures you do not want to mess with and also flying animals called demons which can only be encountered on the surface. Going topside in Moscow is dangerous without being eaten which is why people stay underground. The metro is littered with people who somehow survived the bomb blast. When it starts, you can feel the surferring and agony of the inhabitants of metro 2033. Children make the atmosphere more authentic and while playing the singleplayer campaign, you might end up asking yourself when this nightmare is going to end.

Gameplay (6.8/10)
The shooting gameplay seems to be broken. Shooting creatures or your fellow humans is very poor and the linearity does not help put it at the same level with most triple A titles. Mission completion is going from point A to B which is understandable as there is no room for manoeuvrability or questing underground. Interacing with people is also limited. Every weapon in the game does not fire right which lowers the overall quality of this game.

The currency in metro 2033 are bullets. Trading only happens when you have bullets and you can buy other bullets with bullets. The shinier bullets kill foes a lot faster than the old ones. After a long run and gunning, checking your ammo only happens when you switch weapons for use which is a downer. Once in a while, you are forced to go outside and complete some missions but remember to put on your Gask mask with lots of oxygen so you do not suffocate in the toxic filled atmosphere.Enemy A.I is retarded and should have been fixed before the whole package shipped. Reacting to bullet shots is somewhat realistic but sometimes those guys are downright dumb

The atmosphere is spooky and scary and also varied for a tunnel crawling game. Every tunnel is unique in its design albeit extremely dark in some areas in such a way that you need a torchlight to survive or be eaten.If you here faint crying in the distant, do not bother going after it because there is nothing there except terror. The ending is somewhat disappointing and should have been better and also felt rushed.

The most annoying part of this game is that if you have an Xbox 360 controller, unplug it while playing because you will be forced to use it to enter the next level by clicking on the start button on the pad and also interacting keyboard keys like “E” appear on the screen as “X” which is extremely retarded. I hope this is fixed.

Presentation and Sound (9.2/10)

Technically, Metro 2033 is superior in graphics rendering to other games in this genre. The only game to bring PCs to their knees was Crysis back in 2007. Running the game in Direct X11 with Advanced Depth of field with Tessallation will bring framerates down even for the most powerful GPU on the planet. Human Character seems to be the only objects with tessallation properties. The atmosphere is brought to life by the spectacular engine this game is running on and requires a ridiculously heavy duty desktop to play it at its full glory. Lighting is one of the best I have seen in a game yet and shadow rendering is top notch but all at a detriment to you framerate. Still, if you can run this game on high, please by all means enjoy crank it up and enjoy the beauty.

Also impressive is sound withs enough backgound noise to make you jump out of your seat. Voice acting is extremely well doen and you can decide to play the whole game in russian for authenticity.5.1 surround is the best way to go as you can here those creatures approaching from behind.

Overall, Metro 2033 is an good game that is worth trying out if you have the chance. Hopefully there will be patches coming out to fix the bugs and smoothen the gameplay and if you think, youu PC cannot withstand the pounding, by all means get a console.

Before you go out and buy Mass Effect 2, I would tell you to purchase the original game and complete the quest before importing it to ME2. The character progression brought over from ME1 is probably the best thing I have seen in a game yet. The decisions you make or made in ME1 will be laid out in some story plots in ME2, so be careful.

Storyline

The story in ME2 is much more interesting than in ME1. Commander Sheperd has been sent on a mission in geth territory but there is something else on the horizon: a collector ship with a sinister plan involving kidnapping of human colonies. Sheperd’s Normandy is attacked and your character is killed but you are awakened by a lazarus project funded by Cerberus, an organization bent on advancing the human race run by the mysterious Illusive Man. After you are recovered, you can create a new character from your imported mass effect 1 save file and also change your looks.

Gameplay

Mass Effect 2 is a combat oriented roleplaying game with more emphasis on the combat part which has been improved from the original and the roleplaying part has been reduced and streamlined which is the only part of the game that is a minus for me and also waiting for Mass Effect 3. This second act is all about recruiting people for your suicide mission, gaining loyalty from crew members and upgrading. Each memeber you recruit has a side quest which after completion gains loyalty for that particular member. Loyalty is important as it will affect the ending part of the game.

There are 2 minigames which I spent a lot of time playing which is hacking terminals for credits and scanning planets for minerals so I can upgrade my team and my new Normandy. Scanning for minerals is very slow and should have been better but it is still better than the Mako in ME1 and you dont have to land on the planets to mine resources. Lifts in buildings have been scrapped and go around is easier in this version

The loot system in ME1 has been removed for a more streamlined inventory system. You get specific weapons and while going out on quest and exploring, loots that you find are used with various resources to upgrade weapons. Some upgrades affect just crew members only which is very helpful. In my gameplay I recruited everybody and gain their loyalty before attempting the suicide mission and my Sheperd survived, but you can choose to play differently. Before going out for the suicide mission make sure you upgrade normandy with the following:
- Heavy Armor
- Multi-core shielding
- Thanix
else people start dying.

Leveling up has been simplified to just 4 squad points. For example if you have incendiary power, you can auto level up from 1 to 4 or you can purchase 1 squad point, 2 point, etc. The final (4) squat points evolves your powers to either benefit you only or the entire crew which is neat. Every power has an evolution, so think carefully and remember that you are on a suicide mission. Squat members also level up with you as you go along.

The shooting mechanics as mentioned earlier has been improved drastically from the first game so it feels like a shooting game and the cover system and sending commands to your squad mates have also been improved. When in combat mode, you can also mod your weapon on the fly by pressing the left-shift key and clicking on Cryo mod or inferno mod.

There are more dialogues in ME2 with an interesting interrupt system that shows a renegade left mouse click on the lower left corner of the screen and a paragon dialogue interrupt right mouse click on the lower right corner of the screen which makes the whole experience unpredictable.

Jumping from an action sequence to a cut-scene is fluid and very good and does not take you out of the experience that much and there are less loading times on my system this time around which gives Mass Effect 2 an overall polish.

PRESENTATION AND SOUND
Character animation is the best I have seen in years. You can differentiate every character in this game and BIOWARE’s attention to detail is phenomenal. The side quest in ME1 felt like a copy and paste but in ME2, it has been overhauled and you can find lush environs. The size and scope is obvious with beautiful graphics and sound to blow your mind. The level design is artistic rather than technical and you cannot get it by just reading this article unless you buy and play.Sci-fi sound is essential in a game like this and BIOWARE nailed it. If you really want to enjoy this game then a 5.1 surround will be the sweet spot. Period.

Mass Effect 2 is an experience and will be a contender for game of the year and it also sets a very high standard for other games in the future and the competition might not be from other games but with Mass Effect 3 which is a downside because I have to wait for it. Oh men !!!!!!!!!!!!!!I hate waiting

Story (9.5):
Considering the monumental storyline the movie gave us, I consider this game to be a sort of unofficial sequel to the movie where joker is captured at the end. The joker has been captured in this game by Batman and is being sent to prison for the criminally insane but the thing is joker is plotting to kill Batman when he is inside the asylum allying himself with criminally insane friends like killer croc, the riddler, scarecrow, poison ivy, etc. I have played through the storyline and I must say this is a knockout plain and simple.

GamePlay (9.2):
The game play starts slowly and picks up very quickly with you hunting down the joker but he will not allow you to get to him just yet. Instead he sends his henchmen to hunt you down and this is where the combat system shines through and through. First of all the combat is simple with some button mashing and later on escalates to deadly skills while keeping it balanced instead of complicated and there are puzzles to solve courtesy of the riddler who thinks he is smarter than Batman. The island changes dynamically because you will always come back to some parts so in order to keep it interesting the developers incorporated something substantial which I am not going to reveal but worth it. Batman glides, rappels, hangs upside down, uses batarangs and is very muscular, flexible and jumps around easily, beating foes to pulp.

Batman is nothing without his toys and also being in detective mode. Detective mode is very addictive in the sense that you can see everything in light blue. You can see through weak walls and enemy skeletons which is awesome and very tempting to play through everything in detective mode. The Batmobile makes an appearance and a cool BatJet and other toys like an exploding gel for breaking weak walls. Level design could have been a setback but this game really pulls you into arkham asylum and introduces you to its inmates with mind blowing details and realism. Boss battles are one of the best I have seen with scarecrow messing with your mind sometimes. I really got scared. Once you are done with the single player you can go through the challenges by either taking down a number of henchmen by beating them up or hurting them silently all while earning experience points and opening up new toys that enables you take down foes effectively.

Presentation (9.3):
Batman, Joker, Commissioner Gordon, Warden Sharp, Harley Quinn, etc all look phenomenal including the asylum and its other inmates. The unreal engine really shines and there is nothing more I can say but rather that you should pick up this game and play it. Character voicing is top notch and Batman and Joker are played by the same folks that voiced the characters in the animated series. This game will be a contender for game of the year on many websites and I have to say is one of the best games this year on my list period. This game lets you be the Dark Knight.