What do you get when you mix sword-fighting combat, slightly open world gameplay, a massive wedge of humour and some comic book graphics? No More Heroes, that’s what. This one’s made by the same guys that made Killer 7. Whilst I found that far too strange to play despite its cool look, this one I could identify with more, even though like a good curry with rice it’s a mix of good flavours and mediocrity.

You play as big-time loser Travis Touchdown, a man who only really wants one thing – to get jiggy with French blondie Sylvia Crystal. Anyway, she’s got you into fighting assassins to work your way up the list from 11th to 1st place and once he begins, he can’t really stop and so on he goes, fighting one colourful boss after another after fighting off hordes of henchmen.

Combat is pretty simple, using buttons to slice and throw and gestures to finish guys off. You wave your beam katana which owes a massive nod to the weapon of choice of a jedi, using high and low attacks depending on how you tilt the Wii remote. You can charge your attacks and even get power-ups as a fruit machine spins on screen, It’s great fun fighting all the bad guys in a Kill Bill style which although violent, is so comic book it’s funny.

I would be quite happy fighting through level after level, finishing off one boss after another – unfortunately the game pads these levels out with having to drive around the city of Santa Destroy on your motor bike to get jobs, earn money and qualify for the next meaty level. When driving round the city the game judders, buildings and roads pop into view and the bike doesn’t handle too well. Its no GTA that’s for sure.

However, the game still has lots of charm, including the ability to settle down in Travis’ pad, viewing the restling masks and clothes you’ve earned, petting your cat and even watching music videos. You can also go to the toilet which of course is the way you save your game!

No More Heroes is stylish, fun and worth sticking with for the 11 proper missions. Not everything works great in the game but when it does get into a groove it’s fantastic. It gets a very good 7 out of 10.

Get the game now
New: Buy No More Heroes from Buy.com
Preowned: No More Heroes – Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent No More Heroes – free rental trial from Gamefly.com
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Tags: No More Heroes, No More Heroes review, review of No More Heroes, No More Heros, No More Heroes Wii, gaming

Great, another shooter for the PS3 and Xbox 360 – just what we need. But hold on a minute, this one actually puts a different spin on a third-person shooter because it’s not just about watching your own back and maybe controlling a squad of other players . This one sees you fighting battles with one wingman, your buddy. You’re like Morecambe and Wise, Laurel and Hardy, Mitchell and Webb – only with guns and scary metal masks!

The game takes place over a 16 year period. The two chareacters Salem and Rios both begin as fresh-faced commandos but soon you’re faced with a montage that shows them age, get battle scars and become meaner than ever before. They’re also not being told the whole truth in the game so as you play, espionage and treachery starts to unfold quicker than Paul Burrell’s web of lies.

As far as combat goes, in this game you not only have to consider a weapon’s strength and range but also its aggro. Managing aggro is what makes the difference between success and failure and it works like this. Fire on an enemy and your aggro will increase. Keep firing and enemies will concentrate their fire on you, allowing your partner to invisibly sneak behind them and pick them off. If you manage to stay in this mode for a certain amount of time you get infinite ammo or, if you’re the one doing the sneaking, you become invisible for a short amount of time, allowing you to go in close and kick some ass with your bare hands!

So, covering your team mate or getting him to lay down fire for you is key to this game and it does change the way you’d play a game of this nature. You move and fire, flank enemies and even swap weapons with your team mate. You can even rip doors off cars to use as shields and parachute from planes, either controlling the chute or showing all the people below the business end of your rifle.

In single player mode this is a fun and a different spin on what would otherwise be a pretty standard shooter. However, you can also play the single-player campaign co-op either online or split-screen or play head to head in deathmatch mode.

This is where the game really shines as you work together to snipe targets at the same time and lay down covering fire for each other as you move through the levels.

The game looks very nice too. The main character models and even the cannon fodder enemies all look great on all platforms and the scenery is rich in detail too.

If you’ve finished playing co-op Gears of War and fancy a new online co-op challenge with a buddy, then this one comes highly recommended. Army of Two gets an excellent 8 out of 10

Get the game now
New: Buy Army of Two from Buy.com
Preowned: Army of Two – Pre-Played from Gamefly.com
Rental: Rent Army of Two – free rental trial from Gamefly.com

Tags: Army of Two , Army of Two review, review of Army of Two , Army of 2, Army of II, gaming

Last week I was lucky enough to get a very nice demo of Far Cry 2 on a 50 inch plasma screen and boy, it looks good. Let me tell you more. The demo started with your assassin standing deep in the jungle where they showed off how lovely all the trees look. They then decided to shoot the leaves off and let it be known that they will grow back in time too. Not necessary for the gamer to know but cool none the less. They then walked into a pre-Savanna-type plane and walked into a camp, chatting to an NPC who would be on your side later in the demo. We then high tailed it out of there in a jeep. Luckily, no-one chased us and we drove to a high mountain road.

Looking through binoculars, we could see the camp we were about to invade and also an indication of wind speed. You can start fires in this game so it’s good to know which way the wind’s blowing in case you end up barbecuing yourself.

Anyway, driving into the camp we ran someone over, got out of the jeep and took cover. These enemies are clever though and flanked us, filling us with bullets. Suddenly, the dude we chatted to earlier helped us up and to cover, where he gave us a pistol to get us back on track before picking up another weapon. And they don’t always work. Twice we saw the weapon jam whilst our character tried frantically to clear the blockage whilst being shot at.

Out came the flame-thrower next and soon we were torching wooden huts with people inside and a wooden rope bridge to stop people sneaking up behind us.

Then, it was time to go hang gliding and drift over some of the massive 50 square kilometres of the map which never stops to load in the next segment.

Lastly, we saw that you can set your alarm and have a kip to change the time of day, so if you fancy invading camps at night and being stealthy, you can.

I have to say this one’s looking amazing and there’s not a sign of sci-fi anywhere. It’s a lot more real-worldly, whilst keeping with the open-ended gameplay. Finally, the Far Cry 2 release date is scheduled for the beginning of Autumn.

Tags: Far Cry 2, Far Cry 2 preview, Far Cry 2 features, Far Cry 2 preview, preview of Far Cry 2, Far Cry 2 hands on, far cry 2 release date

Sony are claiming their new Playstation Home MMO could rival World of Warcraft. Sony Online president John Smedley thinks that having many gamers with the same hardware and a solid userbase could make for a mammoth game that could outstrip the tens of millions of gamers currently playing in the WoW on their PCs.

Tags: Home vs World of Warcraft, Sony Playstation Home, Sony Home, Playstation Home, Second Life, MMO

Call of Duty 4 is getting a re-release on the Xbox 360 next month. If you don’t already have the game it’s well worth getting the Game of the Year edition as it comes in a nice new box and with a token to get the new Variety Map Pack without paying 800 Microsoft points. The pack includes 4 new multiplayer Call of Duty 4 maps called Creek, Broadcast, Killhouse and Chinatown.

Related: Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare review

Tags: Call of Duty 4 maps, Call of Duty 4, Call of Duty 4 map packs

The first Xbox Live couple complete with a baby have announced themselves after playing Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 together online. The American couple fell in love whilst shooting each other and now have the world’s first Xbox Live baby.

Tags: Xbox Live, baby, Xbox baby, Xbox Family, gaming