Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: BioWare
Genre: RPG
Release date: Available now

It’s been a little while since we defeated the Archdemon (the corrupted old god in the shape of a giant high dragon), about six months to a year by my watch, but the Darkspawn did not disband and retreat to the Deep Roads. They’re organizing and ransacking the north country, and rumors abound of some that speak. As not only Ferelden’s Queen, but also its Grey Warden commander, I find myself on the road to Vigil’s Keep to rebuild the Wardens and scoop up those pesky post-blight stragglers. Of course, the new recruits and I are attacked along the way, so the ritual dismemberments resume in Dragon Age: Origins—Awakening.

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Read the rest of Dragon Age: Origins—Awakening Xbox 360 review on the site

© Michele White for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: 2K Play
Developer: The Odd Gentlemen
Genre: Puzzle
Release date: Available now

Who ate all the pies? Not me. I was too busy playing 2K Play and developer The Odd Gentlemen’s puzzle game The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom to take snack breaks. In this case, the culprit is the titular lead character of the game, a villain sporting a fabulously fiendish waxed moustache who harkens back to the silent-film era. But wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

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Read the rest of The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom XBLA review on the site

© Simon Moore for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Digital Illusions
Genre: First-person shooter
Release date: Available now

Yes, you read that name above in red correctly. Through what at first had seemed a series of unfortunate events, RPG-girl (yours truly) has ended up reviewing the latest FPS to hit the Avault streets. While you might be inwardly groaning as much as I did when it first happened, you’ll be happy to hear that I was pleasantly surprised. Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the latest offering from DICE and EA, not only maintained my interest for the duration of my time with it, but it also continued to keep me coming back for more multiplayer punishment. I won’t say that the game converted me, but my visit to its world of blood, guts and guns was truly an exciting one.

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Read the rest of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Xbox 360 review on the site

© Michele White for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action Adventure
Release date: Available now

Imagine that you are attending a public event during the Renaissance where a city official is speaking. The crowd listens to him ramble on about the future of the city and the great things he is planning. In mid sentence, an assassin jumps down from the rooftops and slips a blade right into the official’s heart. The crowd panics and guards scramble. Your heart drops as the assassin scales a building out of sight in a matter of seconds. Assassin’s Creed II puts you in the shoes of that very assassin in an innovative and interesting way.

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Read the rest of Assassin’s Creed II Xbox 360 review on the site

© Patrick Watts for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: BioWare
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Win 7, 1.8 GHz Intel Core2Duo or equivalent CPU, 1 GB RAM for Win XP/2GB for Vista or Win 7, 256 MB graphics card with Pixel Shader 3.0 support, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card, 15 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9.0c August 2008
Genre: RPG
Release date: Available now

In the gaming industry, much like in Hollywood, sequels to successful products have become just like death and taxes: unavoidable. Many times, publishers and producers decide to crank out a new installment and make a quick buck or two, not worrying too much about quality because they know the fans will buy whatever they’re offered. But every now and then, a sequel pops up that throws out the bad from the first game, while keeping and improving upon the good. One such sequel is EA and BioWare’s Mass Effect 2, the second in a planned trilogy of space-faring RPGs that tells the galaxy-emcompassing tale of a valiant ship commander and his diverse crew battling an unknown force that threatens universal destruction.

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Read the rest of Mass Effect 2 PC review on the site

© Michael Smith for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: ClickGamer
Developer: Rovio Mobile
Genre: Puzzle
Release date: Available now

Sometimes the simplest of games can cause hours upon hours of what would be useful time to vanish. Simple concepts such as manipulating blocks falling from the sky or realigning jewels can eat up time like Pac Man, and now, using birds as catapult ammo joins the ranks.

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Read the rest of Angry Birds iPhone review on the site

© Christopher Troilo for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: 2K Marin
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista/Win 7, AMD 2.4 GHz or Intel 3.0 GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM, 11 GB hard-drive space, NVidia 7800GT or ATI Radeon X1900 or better graphics card, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card, Internet connection (required for activation and multiplayer)
Genre: First-person shooter
Release date: Available now

Welcome back to the beautiful (but decrepit), fallen city of Rapture, where the halls once again echo with the sins of the past. Set eight years after the events of Bioshock, Rapture is now under the control of psychiatrist Sofia Lamb. While Andrew Ryan believed in the genius of the individual, Lamb espouses collective effort and the power of the community. Under Lamb’s rule, the first generation of Little Sisters has matured into adolescence. She sends Big Sisters out to coastlines across the Atlantic, kidnapping little girls and turning them into new Little Sisters. Into this grim picture comes Subject Delta, a fourth-generation prototype of the Big Daddy with no memory of his past, chasing an unseen foe in search of answers and his own survival.

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Read the rest of Bioshock 2 PC review on the site

© Marcus Spears for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Gearbox Software
System: Xbox 360
Genre: RPS
Release date: Available now

We’re always going to want more when it comes to downloadable content. Depending on the platform, publisher and game itself, situations can get pretty ugly, too. Anybody who remembers the horse armor debacle in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion knows what I mean. But that was probably the saving grace of DLC, because if gamers hadn’t voiced their price-for-content grievances, where would we be now? Would we be shelling out our MS Points for single items? Would the greedy hands that be see Borderlands as a DLC cash cow because of the limitless amount of weaponry they could sell? And would we still have seen an expansion as meaty as the Secret Armory of General Knoxx? Thank God I’m speaking hypothetically here.

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Read the rest of Borderlands: Secret Armory of General Knoxx Xbox 360 review on the site

© Andrew Clark for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: W!Games
Developer: W!Games
Genre: Turn-Based Strategy
Release Date: Available now

One of the retro perks of our newfangled Wi-Fi enabled world is the resurrection of the proverbial “family game night”. Once upon a time, we whiled away our evenings chasing down loot and struggling to build a Monopoly to the detriment of our beloved family members. And then, when TV and console games beckoned, it looked as if the traditional board game was destined to a purgatory of moth-balled closets and dirt mall swap meets. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same – and as services such as the Xbox Live Arcade and PSN began to flourish, smaller developers realized that they could utilize the instant connectivity afforded by the Internet to breathe new life into faded board game archetypes. The question is, does Greed Corp. have what it takes to take its place on the crowding shelf of new online classics such as Catan and Carcassonne?

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Read the rest of Greed Corp. Xbox 360 review on the site

© Ed Humphries for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Manufacturer: Able Planet
MSRP: $129.99

Back in the day, I never wanted to play games with headphones on. Instead, I invested in an awesome (and supremely expensive) 7.1 Cambridge Soundworks gaming set. It was pretty spectacular, came with a lot of stuff, produced excellent sound quality, and garnered me bragging rights. Over time, however, it became less and less of what I wanted in a listening device. The speakers were bulky, the subwoofer gigantic, there were wires everywhere, and the connectors didn’t work with the new sound cards. Proper configuration was also a challenge, as people and cats routinely knocked my investment to the floor. After about eight years of service, I gave the entire setup to an audiophile friend of mine, and replaced it with a crummy set of no-name speakers. It was shortly thereafter that I realized that owning a good set of headphones was essential. When Able Planet’s True Fidelity (NC300B) headphones arrived at my doorstep, my dream of world domination via gaming finally began to come true.

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Read the rest of True Fidelity NC300B headphones review on the site

© Alaric Teplitsky for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: EA Montreal
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Release date: Available now

At the beginning of EA Montreal’s Army of Two: The 40th Day, everything is looking pretty calm. Salem and Rios are on an assignment in Shanghai and it’s a beautiful, sunny day. All of that changes, however, when the city gets bombarded. Before you can say “bromance,” buildings are toppling over and casualties are rising.

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Read the rest of Army of Two: The 40th Day PS3 review on the site

© Jason Iatomasi for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Pyramid Games
Developer: Amaranth Games
System requirements: Windows 98 or better, 256 MB RAM
Genre: RPG
Release date: Available now

While 8-bit RPGs such as the original Final Fantasy on NES look and feel a bit outdated for gamers reared on more recent titles, those of us who played them remember with fondness the many hours we spent with them. So imagine my pleasant surprise when I installed Aveyond: The Lost Orb and found old-school graphics, interface and gameplay. Lost Orb is another installment in a sequence of RPGs depicting the adventures of a young lady named Mel who has a dark past and lineage. This episode by Amaranth Games sees our protagonist jilted on her wedding day, so she leaves the handsome prince behind and pursues her own destiny in finding and destroying a lost magical orb with the power to make life miserable for the people of her world.

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Read the rest of Aveyond: The Lost Orb PC review on the site

© Jason Pitruzzello for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Yuplay
Developer: Gaijin Entertainment
System requirements: Windows XP SP3/Vista SP1/Win7; Pentium 4 3.2 GHz CPU; 1 GB RAM; 10 GB hard-drive space; DirectX 9.0c; GeForce 7600 or ATI Radeon X1650 256 MB graphics card; DirectX-compatible sound card
Genre: Flight Simulator
Release date: Available now

Due to a most dire shortage of World War II-themed games during the last decade, I would like to take this opportunity to petition the Illuminati World Government to pass a law that prohibits development of games based on any other setting. This is only reasonable, since WWII is the only war that humanity has ever fought. Don’t let the name confuse you; there was never a World War I, or any other war for that matter. I tell you this with all the authority of a History major. Setting games in imaginary conflicts is simply bad form and should not be permitted. Just think of the children.

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Read the rest of Wings of Prey PC review on the site

© Alaric Teplitsky for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Alawar Entertainment
Developer: Alawar Melesta
Requirements: Windows Vista/XP/2000/ME/98; 700 MHz CPU; 1 GB RAM; DirectX 8.0 or later; 100 MB hard-drive space
Genre: Casual / Time Management
Release Date: Available Now

Scarlett has returned again for another Farm Frenzy adventure. This time, she leaves sunshine and warm temperatures behind and travels to the North Pole to check out a farm she has purchased through a newspaper ad. You’ll breed and care for penguins, walruses and woolly mammoths, manufacture products, and eventually meet a special guest.

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Read the rest of Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age PC review on the site

© Marcus Spears for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink

Publisher: Codemasters
Developer: Codemasters
System requirements: Core i7-920 Quad 2.67 GHz/Phenom II X4 905e CPU; Geforce 8800 GT/Radeon HD 4770 graphics card; 3 GB RAM; 10 GB hard disk space
Genre: Racing
Release date: Available now

I can still remember it; even though it happened way back at the beginning of my Dirt 2 play through. I was in Baja, and right after the start of the race there’s this big jump. I take it along with the rest of the pack, but as I’m cresting I notice a fellow racer turn in on his landing. Everything froze for a moment, like in an 80’s sitcom where the lead character’s narration takes over and tells you what’s “really goin’ on”. Well, in my case I’m screwed – that’s what’s “really goin’ on”. When time resumes again I’m already rounding my fourteenth barrel roll and I’ve taken the rest of the pack with me. Ah, sweet, sweet mechanical carnage. Where have you been?

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Read the rest of Dirt 2 PC review on the site

© Andrew Clark for The Adrenaline Vault, 2010. | Permalink