New ScreenShots of Max Payne 3

Gears of War 3 Preview

The Gears of War 3 multiplayer beta is finally opening itself up to its rabid fan base, myself included, giving us a much-needed taste of what the full multiplayer will offer. If you're an owner of the Bulletstorm Epic Edition, you can get it now. On the 25th it will open up to the public. Participating in the beta every week will net you rewards including special Flame versions of the basic weapons like the Lancer and Hammerburst. There's a good deal of content to talk about here so let's just dive in.

First off, for a beta the multiplayer is surprisingly bug-free and polished. Granted, this level of detail is expected from a developer like Epic, but it's nice that I haven't had any technical issues after playing quite a bit of this game.

The multiplayer beta offers a taste of three of the competitive modes (sorry, no Beast mode yet). There's Team Deathmatch (similar to the Warzone mode from past games), which should be familiar to any shooter fans as you and your team fight against another team (one plays as the Locust, the other as the COGs) to the gory, gruesome death. The interesting touch here is the limited respawns, so your team shares lives. Once they're out when you die, you won't be coming back until the next round.

The second mode is called King of the Hill, and it's much like Gears of War 2's Annex Mode where you take control of a specific area and defend it from enemies trying to do the same. The third, dubbed Capture the Leader, is like Capture the Flag from other games but in this case you're trying to capture the other team's commander. This was pretty difficult since your target is almost always on the move, heavily protected by their team, and fighting back. To go along with the three available game modes, there are four maps to explore, each with a unique look and layout to distinguish it from the rest. The first is Checkout, a broken-down department store with lots of cover. Shotguns and grenades seemed especially useful here since it has some of the tightest quarters. The second map is called Trenches, and it's a slightly more intimate affair. For the most part you'll be spending much of your time hiding behind and diving between different cover spots. Despite its small size, there's a good mixture of confined spaces and open areas the make it ideal for any type of player; just watch out for those pesky grenades.

The third map is Old Town, and it's the most expansive of the bunch. I don't suggest stopping to look at the scenery (I died doing that more than once), but this map looks especially stunning, as the town you're fighting in is located on the side of a mountain. Ranged weapons seemed to work best here since much of it is comprised of wide-open spaces that are ideal for long-ranged combat. I couldn't even tell you how many times my guy's head suddenly burst in an explosion of gore and brain matter because of the sniper hiding on the other side of a courtyard.

The fourth and final map available in the beta is the destroyed arena that is the Thrashball stadium. Each map is interesting in its own way, but this map is by far my favorite. Players spawn on several spots along the side of the stadium; you can go inside the complex to vanquish any campers or go high and pick off unsuspecting opponents running throughout the court. Thrashball is easily the most original map (not to mention one of the more colorful ones) of the bunch, and I can see it being one of the more popular ones as well.

When jumping into the multiplayer beta, you don't only have fresh maps and game modes to experience, but a brand-spanking-new arsenal of weapons to go along with it. There's the Lancer, Boomshot, and a plethora of other weapons Gears fans will no doubt be fully familiar with, but there are some new additions as well. Some of these fresh faces include the Digger: a gun that launches an explosive that burrows under the ground before coming up and tearing apart any cover-hugging opponents to shreds. If you're one of the unfortunate souls standing in the way of this awful bugger, it's almost always an instant kill; fortunately you have a bit of a warning when one's coming at you.

There's also an old-school Retro Lancer that's ideal for firing in short bursts since the longer you pull the trigger the wilder the shots get. It also has an incredibly brutal bayonet attached to its barrel so you can run up to an enemy before promptly sending them to meet their maker. Another of the major additions is the sawed-off shotgun (it could be seen in the Gears 3 announcement trailer) that reloads painfully slowly but can shred several enemies at once as long as they're close enough.

Gears of War 3 also offers a vastly improved rewards and stats system that honors and tracks your skills and accomplishments in battle. Your games played, won, and lost are recorded as well as your kills, deaths, k/d ratio, assists, incapacitations, and total score. They're all tracked so you can see exactly how you measure up to your friends (or strangers) on the leaderboards.

The rewards system is much like the ones found in Halo: Reach or the recent Call of Duty games as your kills with each weapon, executions, accomplishments in specific game modes, and much more are recorded so at specific milestones you'll receive ribbons, characters, and weapon skins for doing well on the battlefield. For the beta specifically, you can unlock beta exclusive skins like the Urban and Gold skins for each weapon if you play enough of each mode.

This is just a paltry taste of what we can expect from Gears of War 3's full multiplayer, but it already has about as much content as most of its competition. Add to all this more maps, the highly addictive Horde mode, and the brand new Beast mode, and it looks like our third trip to Sera will be the best yet. Just make sure your Lancer's polished and your trigger finger's limber because out there be monsters.

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Uncharted Film Do it Right or Go Home

Kicking off the month with an interview in the LA Times, David O. Russell, the writer and director of Sony's Uncharted film, said he has a really great idea for his spin on the upcoming adaptation.

"This idea that really turns me on is that there's a family that's a force to be reckoned with in the world of international art and antiquities," Russell said. "[A family] that deals with heads of state and heads of museums and metes out justice."

We all know it's not uncommon for game canon to receive drastic alterations or to be abandoned altogether when it's adapted for mass celluloid consumption. That's not what is so profoundly asinine about Russell's idea. When Russell initially backed out of the project earlier this year over an inability to come to an agreement with studio heads, there was some semblance of a script already started—one that supposedly was a loose adaptation of Drake's Fortune, which involved modern-day fortune and glory hound Nathan Drake's quest to find the lost city of El Dorado. The screenwriters rumored to be attached to the project were perhaps a dubious lot, but taking cues from Naughty Dog's original script and the bizarre indie-leaning directorial choice of Russell seemed to suggest that perhaps Sony was actually taking Uncharted seriously.

However, when he later came back on as director, Russell was also now penning a script himself. And when he revealed what his intentions were with its narrative (which is rumored to star Mark Wahlberg as Drake as well as Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro as his uncle and father respectively), he's made it pretty clear that he has absolutely no idea what Uncharted—a series about a smartass, globe-trotting treasure hunter searching for legendary artifacts from throughout antiquity—is all about.

As if that wasn't enough, at the Hollywood opening of Russell's new film The Fighter, a fan pleaded with the director to cast fan-favorite Nathan Fillion—a man who was clearly born to play Nathan Drake if ever there was one—in Russell's film. Russell's response was that he'd never heard of Fillion. "So you want him because he looks like that guy [Drake]?" the director asked. When the fan went on to briefly explain the similarities in mannerisms between Drake and his would-be real-life counterpart, Russell appeared to be learning this information for the first time.

Now Russell has further muddied the waters. In a recent interview with Joystiq, Uncharted 3's director, Justin Richmond, has said that "all that stuff [about the film] was denied by David O. Russell," when the film director recently spoke to Richmond over the phone. "He actually called us up and was like, 'I don't know what these guys are talking about,'" Richmond said during the interview. Richmond also confirmed that Wahlberg isn't about to be confirmed as Drake, either.

So, not only has Russell basically outed himself as having never played any of the Uncharted games, but, what, was he high when he talked to the LA Times? What about all that talk about having a "family dynamic...on the bigger, more muscular stage of an international picture…[with] all the character stuff in it"? Is that not happening now? I suppose one can dream.

Needless to say, it seems pretty obvious that Russell doesn't know what he's talking about, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the Uncharted film. Either he's played the game and is just throwing the plot to the wind, instead penning a script that puts Drake and his extended family in an "antiquities mafia," (as Kotaku so eloquently put it) or he just hasn't played the games.

I had already disowned Russell's Uncharted film based on Russell's purported ideas for it—taking Drake's exploits out of the context of the pulp adventure serial format isn't just stupid, it's a slap in the face to Uncharted fans everywhere, not to mention Naughty Dog themselves. Now that Russell has suggested that all of this may not even be true, I have to wonder just what could have possibly possessed him to take on this project in the first place.

Since ignorance seems to be the order of the day here, let me spell it out: Nate Drake is clearly Indiana Jones for the twenty-first century, so any series of Uncharted films could, if handled properly, create be the start of a new pulpy adventure film dynasty—not some idiotic mash-up of Goodfellas, Repo Men, and National Treasure. As much as I would love to see Nathan Fillion as Drake, the reality of that situation still seems highly unlikely—even if he was cast that wouldn't account for questionable quality of Russell's script. And with Uncharted 3 now set to release late next year (and already shaping up to be stunning), do we really need further cinematic adventures of Nate Drake?

Maybe not.

All time Favourite Games of PS3

1. GODS OF WAR 3
2. UNCHARTED 2
3. CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS
4. CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE
5. METAL GEAR SOLID 4
6. FINAL FANTASY XIII
7. UNCHARTED 

History of Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider is one of the biggest gaming franchises in existence. It's spawned ten games and two films, and it's made a cultural icon of heroine Lara Croft. Yet despite its universal success, Tomb Raider has struggled throughout its history to maintain the high level of quality set by the earlier titles in the series. As Tomb Raider approaches its fifteenth birthday, we look back on the life and times of Lara Croft.

On November 25 1996, Core Design and Eidos Interactive unleashed the original Tomb Raider on an unsuspecting world. 3D gaming had just hit the mainstream with the recent launch of the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, and Tomb Raider offered a potent combination of original gameplay ideas, gorgeous graphics, and polygonal breasts. The original Tomb Raider saw Lara Croft pillaging priceless artifacts and endangering local wildlife from Peru to Atlantis in search of the mystical "Scion" artifact. It was the right game at the right time, and became a critical and commercial hit, selling over seven million copies.

What many people forget about the first Tomb Raider is that it was brutally difficult. The game was puzzle-heavy, its combat and platforming extremely unforgiving, and most of its massive levels contained just one save point. Knowing that many gamers didn't make it to the end of Lara's first adventure, Core Design sought to make Tomb Raider more accessible in the inevitable sequel.

In the run up to the release of Tomb Raider 2, Lara Croft was already a household name, and the next game in the series was highly anticipated, even making national news in the UK. A bigger budget made for a longer game, more eye candy, and a more diverse range of environments, along with new gameplay devices like vehicles and underwater combat. Tomb Raider 2 saw Lara visit Venice, China, and the ruins of a sunken cruise ship in a more action-focused adventure.

Though some fans of the series bemoaned Tomb Raider 2's shift from puzzle-solving and exploration, there's no doubt that this change helped the series obtain more mainstream success. And with this snowballing success came increased sales and more sequels.

It's difficult to fault a developer for sticking to what they know is successful, and that's exactly what Core did with its third Tomb Raider game, offering gamers a steaming bowl of the same Tomb Raider experience they knew and loved. New backdrops such as Area 51, London, and India as well as powerful new weapons and a bikini-clad Lara could only sweeten the deal. However, reviewers of the game at the time started to see a pattern emerging. The two-year-old game engine was beginning to show its age, as was the tried-and-true Tomb Raider gameplay formula. 3D action platformers had been evolving alongside the Tomb Raider series for the past two years, and Tomb Raider 3's graphics and control system compared unfavorably to many of them.

Despite its aging technology, Tomb Raider 3 continued to up the ante in terms of cinematic gameplay. The dialogue was cheesy, the villains ridiculous, and the voice acting questionable at best, but Tomb Raider 3 was one of the first games that gave players the sense that they were acting out a movie (albeit a pretty bad movie, with giant spiders and terrible acting).

2001 brought about the first appearance of Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movie. Though a critical flop, it was fairly successful commercially, bringing in $274 million for Paramount Pictures. But the mediocre quality of the film was to foreshadow the fortunes of the next Tomb Raider video game.

Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness was released in 2003, promising a brand-new game engine, improved graphics, and controls and an intriguing, cinematic plot. However, it was not to be. The game was a train wreck - full of bugs, panned by critics, and met with poor sales. Core had written an entirely new game engine for Angel of Darkness, but it simply didn't work - the game was prone to frequent, frustrating crashes. And while its visuals may have received a much-needed boost, its gameplay remained firmly rooted in the past.

The dissolution of Core Design shortly afterwards, followed by the failure of the second Tomb Raider movie, seemed to signal the demise of Lara Croft. However, franchise owners Eidos Interactive were determined to revitalize Tomb Raider, and three years later, on the series' tenth anniversary, Tomb Raider: Legend arrived. Legend, developed by Crystal Dynamics, rebooted the Tomb Raider series and brought Lara into the era of HD gaming. The more advanced technology of the current generation of consoles allowed Crystal Dynamics to create stunning environments and craft a control system that played to the strengths of analog controllers. Crystal Dynamics even brought in Tomb Raider creator Toby Gard, who had left Core in 1997, to work on the project and ensure it kept true to the spirit of the series. The reaction from critics and gamers was one of cautious optimism. The game sold well, and earned a respectable Metacritic score of 82.

The following year Crystal Dynamics released Tomb Raider: Anniversary. Anniversary was lovingly-crafted HD re-imagining of the first Tomb Raider, which perfectly captured everything great about that game, while deftly avoiding aspects of the original which, looking back, now seem broken and frustrating.

With two successes under their collective belt, the developers at Crystal Dynamics brought a direct sequel to Legend to market in 2008, in the form of Tomb Raider: Underworld. Underworld offered many technological improvements over Crystal Dynamics' previous Tomb Raider games, including motion-captured animation for Lara, making her move, climb and fight in a more realistic way. There were also changes to the way Lara could interact with the world, with more interactivity seen in levels. Parts of the world could be permanently destroyed, and Lara would leave footprints wherever she went. Unfortunately, despite this new technology and a plot which brought back classic Tomb Raider settings and characters, Underworld failed to meet Eidos' sales expectations.

This year, Tomb Raider is due for another reboot. Given the series tempestuous past, it's impossible to predict whether Tomb Raider 2011 will manage to recapture the success of earlier Tomb Raider titles, but it's looking good so far.

Dark Knight Rises Roles Revealed

Warner Bros. has officially announced that long-rumored cast members Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard are indeed in The Dark Knight Rises and revealed who they are playing. And it's not who you think.

The studio said "Cotillard will appear as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father's philanthropic endeavors for Gotham. Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon."

Since we know a young Ra's Al Ghul will be in the movie (played by Josh Pence) and that rumors have swirled for months that Cotillard would play Talia Al Ghul, could "Miranda Tate" simply be her own form of "theatricality and deception" a la her dad's alias of Henri Ducard? We shall see.

Alas, Gordon-Levitt isn't playing Alberto Falcone, Riddler, Robin or any of the other existing DC characters that have been rumored. Most likely, Blake is an amalgam of a number of GCPD cops from the comics who have served in the Major Crimes Unit.

TDKR reunites Cotillard and Gordon-Levitt with their Inception director, Christopher Nolan.

The director said in a press statement, "When you collaborate with people as talented as Marion and Joe, it comes as no surprise that you would want to repeat the experience. I immediately thought of them for the roles of Miranda and Blake, and I am looking forward to working with both of them again."

Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne/Batman with Anne Hathaway cast as Selina Kyle and Tom Hardy as Bane.

UPDATED: Badass Digest claims their sources had previously informed them that Gordon-Levitt's character is "someone sowing chaos in Gotham at the start of the film." Is that who Blake is? If so, he sounds something like Detective Max Cort, a rogue cop on Jim Gordon's Batman-hunting GCPD task force who becomes a masked vigilante himself in the "Prey" storyline by Doug Moench.

LEGO STAR WARS 3 Review

LEGO video games date back to 1997, but didn't truly start their golden age until developer Traveller's Tales took control of the brand and paired up with publishing giant LucasArts to bring us LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game. Since that day dawned, a mere six years ago, TT Games has partnered with other big name publishers to bring us Batman, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and soon to be released Pirates of the Caribbean, all based in the world's most iconic block universe. Yet the hallmark series has, and probably always will be, with the folks from, "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away."

LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars takes its place as the third game in the series (The Complete Saga not included) and focuses on the events of Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones and the first two seasons of the animated series, The Clone Wars. You'll begin with an epic escape from the Geonosian execution arena, then you are brought to Anakin Skywalker's flagship, the Resolute, where you are free to explore or continue the story missions, most of which have you hunting down either Asajj Ventress, Count Dooku, or General Grievous.

The gameplay mechanics have not strayed too far from their roots, nor has the humor. Despite the epic struggle between the forces of good and evil, the game always carries a sense of lightness and whimsy; it's an engrossing and hilarious parody, especially for those familiar with the storyline of the animated series. The downside is that gamers who are not familiar with the series may find themselves scratching their heads... but still chuckling through the confusion.

You spend most of time running through the different areas, smashing or blasting everything in sight to gain precious studs, the currency you amass in astronomical amounts. These studs can then be used to purchase all manner of unlockables, from new characters (there are 114 in total to collect) to hidden red blocks which grant you a plethora of bonuses. When you've completed a mission, you can return to that area in a free play mode with any character you've unlocked to try and best your score and collect minikits, also used to unlock characters. Because the game is so fun and addictive, you'll have no reservations about playing a level over and over again.

It's a good thing the fun factor is so high because it overshadows the game's biggest flaw, which is the lack of direction. From the very beginning, while trying to escape the arena and being swarmed by droids and other baddies, a tip from Yoda will pop up, giving you an idea on how to proceed, but will fade nearly as quickly as it came. If you were busy keeping an eye on your character and the action on screen, too bad, you missed it, and it's never coming back. So now you're stuck in Limbo, desperately trying to figure out how to proceed. This problem is persistent throughout the entire game, and for many puzzles, you aren't even given hints, so it's trial and error until you stumble upon the solution. Another issue along the same lines is getting lost aboard the ships. Between the Resolute and later Grievous' ship, the Malevolence, there's a lot of nooks and crannies to discover, but you'll always have to book it back to the bridge if you want to continue the missions. There's no onboard map system, so if you're lost or don't want to make the hike, the best solution is to save and quit, then reload, taking you right to the bridge.

Although the biggest issue, it still tends to be something you brush off, since there's always something close by to smash or blast into stud goodness. How you demolish everything in sight is just as enjoyable as the bounty collected. Each character approaches combat differently, and many have multiple attacks at their disposal. Jedis and other users of the Force wield lightsabers, and have many different Force-based abilities to fool around with. Troopers use blasters, miniguns, rocket launchers, grappling hooks, and different grenade-like weapons. Even droids like R2-D2 can stun enemies for a brief period. Along with the multiple ways to dispatch enemies, the tools are also required to obtain level bonuses and solve the various puzzles. So although you can breeze through the main story in just a few hours, you'll be tempted (especially completionist gamers) to keep going back for more, with a lot of extras to be found.

Mass Effect 3

A while back, a rumor started circling around the internet about the upcoming Mass Effect 3. That rumor? Earth, our home sweet home, was supposedly going to have a major role in Mass Effect 3's plot.

So, is the rumor true? Well, sort of, but not in the way you'd expect.

Fair warning, this article is going to contain spoilers up the wazoo, so if you are the type of guy who refuses to skip to the end of a book before you finish reading it, turn away now.

Mass Effect 3 will start on Earth, shortly after the events of Mass Effect 2's DLC campaign "The Arrival." Our favorite commander with Schrödinger's gender, Shepard, is being put on trial because of that whole being-sent-to-rescue-one-scientist-and-inadvertently-destroying-a-star-system thing. Unfortunately, before Shepard can be made into a (probably deserving) scapegoat, Reapers attack and start blowing things up.

This is about as far as Earth's direct involvement in the plot goes. Reapers are tearing the planet apart, and it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot you can do about it at first. Of course, Shepard is a hero, and heroes will go down fighting even if it means bringing down the rest of the universe with them. So off you go in the newly equipped and pimped-out Normandy SR-2 in an attempt to unite all the races in the universe. The ultimate goal, of course, is to fight the Reapers before they destroy the Earth.

This is apparently where the majority of Mass Effect 3's plot and gameplay will be focused. Other planets and species are having their own problems, and you, being the eternal happy helper, will have to resolve their issues so that they can join you in the fight. Some of the things you'll help out with include stopping the war between the Quarians and the Geth, resolving a Salarian struggle over the Krogan genophage, and solving a lot of less important problems.

One of the coolest parts of Mass Effect 3 is that it takes into account everything you have done in previous Mass Effect games (if you transfer your data, that is). Choices you made in Mass Effect 2 will either prevent certain civilizations from joining the cause or allow them to become your allies with relatively little meddling. Other choices will alter the quests you have to take in order to recruit more races to join the war effort. BioWare boasts that over 1,000 variables in Mass Effect 3 will be affected by your choices in previous games.

Among those variables are the returning characters you will see over the course of the game. All former squad members will return, as long as they didn't die in a previous game. Not all of them will be available as playable characters though. Unlike previous games, your party will frequently change over the course of Mass Effect 3, and you won't always have the same pool of squad-mates to choose from. Some squad members will only join for particular missions, and other former squad members will merely become NPCs. Liara, Ashley/Kaiden, and Garrus are the only returning characters that have thus far been confirmed to be playable. Joining them will be a new playable character, James Sanders, of whom very little information has been revealed. Some believe, however, that he has some relation to Kahlee Sanders from the Mass Effect novels.

Shepard has his/her own troubles to worry about (aside from all the horrible galaxy devouring robo-scourges, that is.) Both The Illusive Man and Cerberus are after Shepard's blood. Whatever ultimate purpose they will serve has not been revealed, but they both will be very important as the story evolves.

Mass Effect 3 will not be easy in terms of gameplay or story: players will be forced to make extremely difficult choices as the game progresses. Shepard may end up having to sacrifice entire civilizations for the greater good. There is a secret to destroying the Reapers, and a good portion of the plot will involve trying to figure out exactly what that secret is. However, once revealed, the price of that sort of power may higher than expected.

The game will have numerous endings: some good, some bad, but most will fall into some various shade of gray. There will most likely not be one "best possible outcome" you can achieve. The endings will be based on who you have in your squad, which allies you've recruited, and which choices you've made throughout all three Mass Effect games. Supposedly, you can achieve the "worst case scenario" ending even while trying your best, so the decisions in the game won't be static black-and-white/good-and-evil scenarios. In fact, it's possible that certain decisions made in previous Mass Effect games will lock you out of a "good" ending from the get go. After you get your (most likely bad) ending, the game can continue in a Mass Effect 2-style New Game Plus mode.

Don't worry if you haven't played the previous games; Mass Effect 3 will come with a "previously on Mass Effect" comic that you can use to make decisions while starting the game from scratch. It will detail the scenarios that lead up to the events of a Mass Effect 3 that's not based off previous game save data.

There will be some major changes to gameplay as well. The game will feature far more RPG elements than Mass Effect 2, yet not quite as many as Mass Effect 1. Skill trees will be larger and will give the player more freedom in character customization. Powers will evolve several times rather than just once. Weapons will be able to be modified FPS-style, allowing you to swap out different barrels, scopes, magazines, attachments, and much more. Mass Effect 3 is all about giving you options without bogging you down in stats.

All classes can now wield every weapon type, but each class will have a limited amount of slots to carry those weapons in. As a result, fans have been theorizing that Soldiers will have four slots (enough to carry every weapon), Vanguard and Infiltrator (the Soldier dual classes) will have three, and every other class will have two.

Environmental interaction will be expanded as well. The cover system has been refined: you no longer have to be in cover in order to hop over objects. Battlefields will lend themselves to a more freeform type of mobility, allowing Shepard and his/her squad mates to seamlessly jump over or hide behind anything that looks like cover. Moveable and climbable ladders have also been implemented, allowing you to gain the high ground in ways you couldn't have before. You have to hand it to the guys at BioWare: they can even make climbing a ladder sound like a groundbreaking game alteration.

Unfortunately, there won't be any multiplayer in Mass Effect 3. BioWare had originally wanted to include it but ultimately felt that it went against the sci-fi RPG feel they were aiming for. To make up for it, though, they may eventually make a standalone multiplayer Mass Effect title or even a Mass Effect MMO.

Overall, Mass Effect 3 looks like it is bringing the best parts of Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 together in one brilliant sci-fi RPG epic. It's one of the first games to maintain a consistent world influenced by players' choices throughout multiple installments of the series. In the end, it will all culminate into one massive battle for a universe that you helped build.

Top Ten Mortal Kombat FATALITIES

The Mortal Kombat series has always brought with it quite a bit of visceral combat,
buckets of blood, and broken bones. The thing the franchise is best known for
(even more so than iconic characters like Sub Zero and Shao Kahn), and also the
source of most of its controversy, is the fatalities. In most fighting games, the
fight ends when you've successfully slain an opponent. In Mortal Kombat, that isn't
necessarily the case. Sure, you've already beaten your adversary, but if you're adept
enough at the moves and combos in your character's arsenal you can perform
what the games affectionately refer to as Fatalities. These are the perfect tools for
heaping an extra helping of embarrassment onto your already defeated enemy by
eviscerating their body in a gory and insanely over-the-top finishing move. Since
its inception, the Mortal Kombat games have introduced gamers to hundreds of fatalities,
some were unforgettable, others were unbelievable, and the rest were just meh. Here
are the ten fatalities that we won't soon forget.

10. Sektor's Compactor
(Mortal Kombat 3)

Being a robot that enjoys eliminating anything that gets in his way, Sector has no
shortage of gadgets to assist him in dispatching his enemies. These abilities range
from missiles, to flamethrowers, and even a handy portable compactor for
squashing dazed foes. It's quick, fairly painless, and might even be good for the environment.

9. Kung Lao’s Hat Bisection
(Mortal Kombat 2)

Many of Kung Lao's fatalities include the use of his hat, but the best, and
possibly the most gruesome, of them all is his bisection fatality. Just when the
fight is done and Kung Lao's enemy thinks he's tipping his hat off to them, he uses
his hat to slice them in half, vertically, and everyone knows that's the worst way
to get cut in half (with the possible exception of diagonal bisection).

8. Reptile’s Acid Snack
(Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance)

Reptile's fatality is great because it's a two-parter; just when you think he's done
he extends the kill just a little bit longer. First, Reptile pounces on his stunned
opponent, spraying acid on his face that quickly melts away everything but the skull.
Then he uses that crazy long tongue of his to quickly snatch the skull from his foe,
the one who's undoubtedly screaming in agony as he realizes he has no face, and promptly eats it. Classic.

7. Liu Kang’s Dragon Transformation
(Mortal Kombat 2)

Why Liu Kang doesn't transform into a dragon for every fight is beyond my understanding.
Perhaps he knows he's going to win so he decides to save the best for last? Now, he could
finish his foe in any myriad of ways but instead of unleashing some karate fury on her,
Liu Kang transforms into a dragon and turns her into an after-fight snack. This fatality makes
slightly more sense than Liu Kang's fatality move in Mortal Kombat 3 where he either
summons or transforms into a Mortal Kombat arcade cabinet that smashes his stunned
enemy into the ground.

6. Jade’s Spear Decapitation
(Mortal Kombat: Deception)

Where most fighters would be content with turning their dazed combatant's head into
a shish kebab, Jade prolongs his death by performing some Olympian gymnastics
before expeditiously tearing off their head and showing it for the world to see.
This fatality is brutal, stylish, and includes a little showmanship, and that's essentially
everything a fatality needs to be.

5. Kabal’s Scary Face
(Mortal Kombat 3)

Kabal is one ugly dude. There's a definite possibility he was dropped on his face a
few times as a child (either that or he had a freakish accident with a belt sander),
but the point is, he wouldn't win any beauty pageants. That's not an insult,
in fact, for him it's a commodity. Instead of doing what anyone else in his situation
would've done (i.e. hide in their room listening to "You're Beautiful" while sobbing),
Kabal useshis lack of pretty to his advantage. By removing his mask he can reveal
his twisted mockery of sanity that he calls a face to scare his opponents to death.

4. Goro’s Limb Rip
(Mortal Kombat: Deception)

Goro has four arms, a mean personality, and brutish strength. Add all that together and you have yourself a creature with the absolutely terrifying potential to tear an opponent into five neat little pieces with one quick pull. Think of Goro as the Hulk but with twice the limb-separating potential.

3. Darrius’ Rearranger
(Mortal Kombat: Deception)

When Darrius isn't slaying countless foes in some of the most unimaginative ways possible, he's developing his artistic side. It just so happens this side of him is just as brutal as his other, more physical side, just with a little Picasso thrown in. Where Goro merely tears them limb from limb, Darrius makes the kill infinitely more enjoyable by rearranging their limbs into all the wrong spots. What remains can only be referred to as a grotesque work of art only the Mortal Kombat games could offer.

2. Cage’s Groin Mutilation
(Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks)

It's tough watching someone's chances of ever creating a family dwindle when their groin goes through some sort of trauma. There's no shortage of videos circulating the internet that show guys going through some sort of horrifically painful groin-centric experience. That's what makes Cage's fatality exponentially more difficult to watch, because instead of a quick jolt to the gonads, his opponent undergoes a series of progressively more painful blows to his nether region. The only happy ending to this is when Cage mercifully punches him in half, ending his torment.

1. Sub Zero’s Skeleton Rip
(Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance)

In the first game, Sub Zero showed us his miraculous ability to remove a man's head with the spinal column attached. This was equal parts impressive and absurd, but it also created a problem: how could he ever top such a move? Now try to picture a group of sleep-deprived game designers huddled around a table working on Deadly Alliance and attempting to think of a way to top this when one man stands up, excited by his revelation. "How about he tears out the entire skeleton?" Then when they realize this move has been done already since it's one of Kano's less interesting fatalities in Mortal Kombat 3, they decide to add a little anticipation to the move as opposed to quickly separating the skeleton from the body. The final result is Sub Zero grabbing an enemy from behind and tugging a bit before finally tearing free his entire skeleton.

Portal 2 Review

Creating Portal 2 must have been an incredibly daunting task. The first Portal took the world by storm, winning the hearts of millions of gamers and creating one of the most-quoted internet memes in recent memory. ("The cake is a lie.") Valve had some pretty high expectations to meet, yet they somehow managed to pull it off. With Portal 2, they were able to bring back everything that was great about the original and expand the franchise into some drastically different territory without forsaking the core elements.

One of the first things you'll notice about Portal 2 is the look. The setting is still the Aperture Science laboratory compound, but the scenery is no longer bland and sterile. It's been quite some time since the original Portal, and things have changed drastically. Windows are broken, tiles are cracked, and vegetation has sprung up everywhere. This version of Aperture Science is insanely detailed. The beginning of each chamber even has lit panels that display animations relating to the test subjects, safety, or even the Apocalypse. (Of course, the Portal 2 version of the Apocalypse is a giant gun turret wearing a crown and mowing people down with its never-ending supply of bullets.) And to fit in with the other dilapidated background elements, many of these panels are burned out or not functioning properly.

As far as setting goes, Portal 2 is huge. The scenery is no longer confined to claustrophobic test chambers, so you'll actually get to stretch your legs and breathe. The game takes you into quite a few never-before-seen parts of the Aperture facility, like the turret factory and the pre-GlaDOS test chambers. In fact, once you finish the first couple sets of training chambers, Portal 2 takes on a very Half-Life 2 vibe. It has that magnificent sense of scale: those wide open spaces with precariously placed ledges and catwalks on the sides of enormous structures that make you feel tiny as you climb them.

Portal 2 sounds better than the original. There are, of course, some recurring audio elements from the original Portal. GlaDOS's auto-tuned voice, the sing-song voices of the gun turrets, and the satisfying "schwap" of the portal gun have all returned. However, to keep with the theme of decay, there are intentional glitches in the audio from time to time, and you can even hear birds squawking in the background.

Musically, there is a fairly robust soundtrack this time around. Incredibly well-composed synthesizer tracks always seem to kick in at the perfect times. Every once in a while, you'll even hear a few snippets of classical and jazz music (intended to soothe the test subjects).

Every character in the game is bursting with personality, a feat that could have been drastically diminished by mediocre voiceovers. Yet Portal 2 uses top-notch voice actors who are absolutely perfect for their roles. Chell's robot companion Wheatly is voiced by Stephen Merchant (co-creator of The Office), and Aperture CEO Cave Johnson is voiced by J. K. Simmons (probably best-known for his roles in Juno and Spider-Man.) These guys do phenomenal work; this is some of the best voice acting you'll hear in a video game all year.

Portal 2's story is completely insane. I don't want to dish out any spoilers here, but I'll just say there are some absolutely bizarre moments and some completely unexpected plot twists. I do find the humor to be a little too over-the-top in some places, but for the most part, the spirit of Portal is well-preserved. All the sadistic wit of GLaDOS is back, and it seems like the dark humor is even turned up another notch. GLaDOS is upset that she was murdered in the original Portal, yet she loves testing more than she hates Chell. Her bitterness is at an all-time high, and she constantly mocks and manipulates the player.