Rage - Xbox 360 (also available for PS3, PC)

With the imminent release of the new Mad Max movie this weekend and a new upcoming game on the way that looks great, it's crazy that up to now there's only ever been one official Mad Max game released before, and that was on the NES in 1990. It didn't even get a release outside the US so it's unlikely that too many people in Europe will have ever even heard of it, let alone played it. However, there have been a few games released over the years that were obviously very heavily inspired by Mad Max that have filled the gap nicely. Rage is one of those games.

Released in 2011 and developed by id Software of Wolfenstein/Doom/Quake fame, Rage puts you in the shoes of an Ark volunteer....basically, what's happening is that a large asteroid is about to hit the earth so a selection of people are being placed into cryogenic pods within 'Arks', the idea being that in the future everybody can just wake up, rebuild society and everything will be hunky dory. At least that was the plan.

What you'll soon realise is that something's gone badly wrong. You awaken in the future, but the Ark you're in has malfunctioned. All the other cryogenic pods around you contain corpses, and upon making your way outside, you're attacked by a group of bandits. You're soon saved by Dan Hagar, a human survivor and taken to his camp where you find out that while you were sleeping, the world's gone to shit and what's left of the world's populace is struggling to survive in small settlements surrounding by wasteland inhabited by mutants. Dan sorts you out with a vehicle  and weapons, and soon you're off doing missions to help make everybody's lives easier, upgrade your kit and move another step closer to cleaning up the world.

The visuals in Rage are absolutely stunning, some of the best I've seen on the Xbox 360/PS3 and even pretty much match most of what the Xbox One/PS4 has put out so far. Environments look real and all the characters who inhabit them are well designed and believable. The main weapons, whilst there's not a huge selection of them, are extremely satisfying to use and all feel like they pack a punch. In between areas, you'll be driving around in vehicles that look like they straight out of a Mad Max movie, performing stunt jumps and fighting off enemy cars with machine guns and mounted rockets, as well as taking part in arena races...all of this is a lot of fun and could pretty much have been fleshed out into a full game itself. The main storyline missions for the most part are also quite well done too...often after completing an area, you'll have to return to it only the second time around you have to navigate it in a different way due to changes that happened during or after your first visit there. It makes the world feel more alive and keeps you on your toes not knowing quite what to expect. There's also a couple of interesting minigames to contend with...one is kind of like a first person homage to Smash TV, another has you playing a 'Magic: The Gathering' style card game using cards you find hidden around the areas whilst out on missions. I even spent a couple of hours trying to beat the game's version of Five Finger Fillet, the old classic pastime made famous by Bishop in Aliens, where you try to look hard by stabbing a tabletop through the gaps in your fingers and invariably end up in the nearest A & E Department wondering why you've now got a stump instead of a hand  Everything you do leaves you wanting more, and to see more of what the world has to offer.

Unfortunately, that's it's biggest downfall...as when the end inevitably comes, it's pretty abrupt and almost without warning. There's no huge boss fight to finish things off with, no epic conclusion to the story other than a glimpse of hope for the future and setting up a possible sequel, not even a reasonably sized cutscene. It feels like it just closes it's doors on you, shuts up shop and says 'Right, that's your lot, time to play something else!' You can't even free roam the world after completion and revisit your favourite areas. It's a real shame it does this, as it badly drags down what is otherwise an extremely enjoyable game. It's premature ejaculation in digital form.*

However, if you want to feel like a post apocalyptic badass, you could do a lot worse than play through Rage. The visuals suck you in, the action keeps you pumped, and there's plenty of side activities to keep you entertained along the way. It's just a shame that just as it really starts hitting it's stride, the credits roll and it's over. Hopefully, this won't be the last we see of Rage though, and there's more to come from id. Especially if Mad Max: Fury Road is a success.

TromaDogg's Final Verdict: 8/10


*apparently 'The Scorchers' DLC does go some way to fixing this by adding six new area and letting you continue to play after the game ends, but I'm judging the game as it was when I played through it, without add ons.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Nintendo DS (also available for iOS)

'YOU HAVE DIED!', screams the blurb on the back of the box. Blimey, that's a bit depressing isn't it? You've not even put the game card into your Nintendo DS yet and you're already pushing up the daisies. That is exactly what happens at the start of this game though. After a very brief intro showing a pointy haired guy who appears to be called 'Sissel' lying dead on the floor in a junkyard in front of an (as yet) unknown woman, you awaken as a ghost with absolutely no memory of who you are, what's going on, or what you were doing there. After having a bit of a conversation with a haunted lamp that calls itself 'Ray' (yes, really!), you discover that you can possess and manipulate certain objects, which is referred to in-game as performing 'ghost tricks', and that you only have until dawn to work out what the hell is going on and solve the mystery behind your murder or you'll fade away completely into nothingness. And it's past 7pm already. So, you'd better get a move on. Luckily, you can also manipulate time to some extent too...

Change how scenes play out with 'ghost tricks'

You'll soon notice that the woman is not the only other person in the junkyard, there's also a very dodgy, hitman looking type with a big shotgun skulking around. Did he murder you? He certainly wants to shoot the woman you've just seen. Another short cutscene plays out and soon she's also lying dead on the floor. This is where you learn the game's main mechanic....basically, if somebody gets killed and you need that character to stay alive, you can rewind time to 4 minutes before their death and then use your powers of ghostly object manipulation to prevent it (and before you ask, no you can't prevent your own death this way...it only works on other people). This leads to quite a few interesting scenarios where you'll have to watch how a scene plays out, rewind time and then use what you've learnt to create distractions or make things happen at vital moments in order to defeat the bad guys and get slowly closer to the truth. Fail, and you'll have to rewind time and try again. A good job then that you can do this as many times as you need to.

Ghost Trick is a very easy game to play. Everything is done via the touchscreen and a couple of icons and you'll have the controls mastered in no time leaving you able to concentrate solely on the storyline and how to solve the puzzles. The visuals and animation look great throughout, the music is suitably atmospheric (with each major character having their own themes), there's a nice variety of locations and the storyline moves at a fast pace and keeps you constantly interested in what's going to happen next, or what new bit of information you'll uncover about Sissel's death....some of the scriptwriting is laugh out loud funny, though that's to be expected considering it's by the same developer as the Phoenix Wright games. And as with Phoenix Wright, it's full of twists and turns too. I was kept guessing about a couple of things even right up until the very end.

Unfortunately though, as enjoyable as the game is, it isn't too challenging. None of the puzzles will take you more than a few attempts to solve, and even though the story has a decent enough length (took me around 15 hours), it's also extremely linear and once it's done, it's done. No unlockables, no extra modes, nothing. But other than Phoenix Wright, there's really nothing else quite like it on the DS, the whole concept of the 'ghost tricks' is quite original and well implemented and used, and that alone is enough for me to give it a recommendation. It's also fairly cheap to pick up now too, so there's really no excuse for not at least considering giving it a go. Whilst it's not quite on the same level or complexity as Phoenix Wright, I'm pretty sure that any Ace Attorney fans will still lap it up and enjoy the ride immensely while it lasts.

TromaDogg's Final Verdict: 7/10

Dilophosaurus and Velociraptors and Tyrannosaurus Rex, oh my!

There's going to be a new movie in the the Jurassic Park series out soon. this time called 'Jurassic World'. I've watched the trailer a couple of times now and to be honest, I'm struggling to get my head around the concept of it. It could turn out to be a decent movie but it looks so far removed from the originals that I'm really not hopeful about it at this point. Check out the latest trailer below:

The first thing that bothers me is that it looks pretty action heavy...not saying that's a bad thing exactly but does it really fit in with what we've come to expect from a Jurassic Park movie? The main attraction should be the actual dinosaurs, not big explosions. Then there's the fact that as far as I can tell, it looks like Chris Pratt is actually training velociraptors. And, if I'm understanding what I'm seeing and hearing correctly, it seems like the main 'baddie' dinosaur is a genetically modified 'super' T-Rex that can communicate with the other dinosaurs and influence their actions. Bloody hell. Just think about that for a moment. So since the original Jurassic Park, we've gone from a 'what if dinosaurs were around today and what kind of trouble would there be if they were let loose' kind of movie to 'what if they were super intelligent dinosaurs that deliberately coordinated massive strikes against us and required a large amount of firepower to put down'. My brain actually hurts with the thought of how this concept must have been pitched to Universal, and which of their executives gave it the thumbs up and a green light.

Of course, it could end up being a superb movie, that revels in it's stupidity and actually delivers by taking the series in a new direction. I'm hoping it does. But it's also pretty likely to end up being a giant turd. I'll try and reserve judgement until I've dragged myself down to the cinema and given it a watch.

In the weeks leading up to Jurassic World's release, I'm going to be taking a look back at where the series began, and some of the games that have been released to tie in with it. Amazing to think now that the original movie came out back in 1993, 22 years ago....