Platform: Console Publisher: Electronic Arts Developer: EA Tiburon Genre: Football Number of Players: 1 - 4 Age Rating: Everyone Release Date: Aug. 12, 2008 MSRP: $49.99 - 59.00 Gameplay: 9 Visual Appeal: 9 Audio Appeal: 9 Re-Playability: 10 Overall Rating: 9 Website: Connect Buy - Rent

 Twenty years ago, football had a video game leader; it was known as Techmo Bowl.  At the time, no one could imagine that the fictitious players and leagues could ever be beaten.  All of the sudden a sports broadcaster named John Madden decided to throw his hat into the stadium with Electronic Arts and official licensing from the National Football League.  The next thing you now this white haired John Candy look-alike is the biggest thing in football since safety gear.

 Every so often Madden comes out with game that is leaps and bounds past the previous year's incarnation.  The 1993, 1998 and 2003, Madden games blew people away with the revolutions in football simulation.  In 2009, the game spikes the ball in face of the pattern that was beginning to form and screams booyah!  This year Madden throws new features, play mechanics and offers versions for more game systems than before.

 There is a franchise mode where players draft, train and play on and off-season.  With franchise, mode players can check out the game plans, storylines and consult with the coaches and owners.  The NFL Superstar mode allows players to build their ideal player starting from the ground.  Each player is given an apartment and has to manage their game plays, roles and egos, all in an effort to make the NFL Hall of Fame.  In either case, there are Mini-camps and Practice modes to help warm up the team for the big games.
 Some new modes include a Party Mode and online play.  To play online players must register their game with Electronic Arts after creating an account.  From there EA takes care of all statistics and provides players with a locker to store data, a messenger to connect with friends and manage the buddy list as well as a Live Sports Ticker.

 Exclusive to the Nintendo Wii is the Call Your Shots feature, where players can mark with their Wiimote the route of their plays.  If a goal is made, there is a Celebrate Your Success feature using the Wiimote to dance and parade about.  The Wii version also uses Miis as judges during games.  There is also a Wii exclusive five on five neighborhood games feature in the Party Mode.  Let us not forget the All-Play features using gestures, also exclusive to the Wii.

 There is no arguing that the game looks better than ever before.  From the stadiums to the players and even the weather effects, they are great.  The audio is also above par and the new EA Trax fit nicely in to the game.

 Is this game worth the price?  Do you like football?  If you answered yes to both, then why have you not bought the game already?  Throwing in the online play is just icing on the already moist cake.  This is the best Madden game ever!

Platform: PS3 & X360 Publisher: NamcoBandai Games Developer: Project Soul Genre: Fighting Number of Players: 1 - 2 Age Rating: Teen Release Date: Jul. 29, 2008 MSRP: $59.99 Gameplay: 9 Visual Appeal: 10 Audio Appeal: 8 Re-Playability: 10 Overall Rating: 9 Website: Connect Buy - Rent

 It has been a few years, but Soul Calibur is back to the way it should be.  No more is there an annoying role-playing adventure to get in the way of the ass kicking.  The game focuses on character creation, modification and competition.  The characters from the previous three games have returned, but with them come new characters plus one from outside the Soul Calibur universe.  Owners of the Playstation 3 will find Sith Lord Darth Vader waiting for them.  Owners of the XBox 360 will get to experience the wisdom of Jedi Master Yoda.

 The game play is focused on fighting.  Players fight against the computer, against other players locally and against players over the Internet.  While there are the typical adventure and arcade modes, the online components are what will really satisfy the hardcore players.  Players can play in ranked and unranked matches with or without armor and modifications.  If players cannot find an open match, it will not be too long until someone finds them if they create a match of their own.

 After players earn the cash, equipment and features they need by playing the offline modes, they can create and customize characters.  There is also the ability to download content online.  Players can start from scratch or adjust an existing character.  The skies the limit and the features are much more in depth than those of Soul Calibur III.

 Visually, the game is stunning.  There is great depth in the scenery and the characters, especially the females, are pleasing to the eye.  The synchronizing of the mouths to the voices could use a little work, but it is not a put down in any way.  A return is the medieval music just as in the previous games as well as the addition of Star Wars fare for its related stage.

 In the end, this game is best suited for two-player action.  There is no extensive single player mode.  If a player has a constant stream of friends, then this game will rock!  If not, then they will need a broadband connection, else, the game will bore them quickly.

Platform: PS3, XBox 360, PC & Mac Publisher: Activision Developer: Infinity Ward Genre: FPS Number of Players: 1 Age Rating: Mature Release Date: Nov. 5, 2007 MSRP: $59.95 Gameplay: 8 Visual Appeal: 9 Audio Appeal: 8 Re-Playability: 10 Overall Rating: 9 Website: Connect Buy - Rent

 For the first time, a Call of Duty game takes place in the modern era.  In the three previous games the settings was during the Second World War.  With the multiple first person shooters focusing on the Second World War, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a breath of fresh air.  This is also Infinity Ward's third time producing a Call of Duty game.  Treyarch produced the third game.

 The story takes place between the Middle East and northern Russia.  A group of terrorists has their hands on nuclear material and it is the job of an American and a British task force to stop the terrorists from achieving their goals.  Until the end, the groups always seem to be just a second too late.

 The game play is what one expects of a first person shooter.  Fire a gun, jump, and run, throw a grenade and hide.  What CoD4 does differently is it throws in some newer technology and allows players to shoot from a flying gunship and a Blackhawk helicopter.  In addition, players can even call in air attacks.

 Depending on if you get a console or the computer version of this game determines the controls.  Players should get whichever version they are most comfortable with, else they should expect to play the same checkpoints multiple times until they adapt, no matter the difficulty.  If a player is used to using a computer keyboard and tries to play on a game console controller, there will be a significant learning curve.  It is best to keep with that a player already knows if they wish to survive.

 As the forth game in the series, CoD4's looks have improved from the previous versions.  The imagery is clearer, the faces look more like faces and the bodies look more like bodies.  The mission briefing animation even looks near realistic.  The sounds are those of war.  If there is an extended bit of silence, music begins to play softly.  The only issue is the player audio.  Sometimes the quality is not very good and other times players have their microphones set too sensitive and cause over modulation.

 At the time of this review, Halo 3 is the only other FPS with a comparable online player base.  The difference is that CoD4 is not a one-trick pony; it has a number of different online modes.  The modes include the standard free-for-all, a team battle and a team capture the flag.  Other modes are unlocked as players gain experience.  As players progress they can also unlock additional weapon classes.  There is even downloadable content for this game, including new map packs.

Platform: PS3 & XBox 360 Publisher: Atari Developer: Dimps Corporation & Namco Bandai Games Genre: Fighting Number of Players: 1 - 2 Age Rating: Teen Release Date: Jun. 10, 2008 MSRP: $59.99 Gameplay: 8 Visual Appeal: 9 Audio Appeal: 8 Re-Playability: 9 Overall Rating: 9 Website: Connect Buy - Rent

 Dragonball Z: Burst Limit is the retelling of the Saiyan, Ginyu, Frieza and the multiple Cell sagas with a little Bardock and Broly thrown in.  The problem is that long-time fans have seen these stories all before, multiple times.  The hope was that Atari would come up with an original story as other games have done.

 The difference between this game and many of the previous incarnations is the advanced fighting system.  Each button on the controller is utilized to its fullest.  Unlike in the previous games, ki cannot be charged by pressing any button, it builds automatically and there is no flight.  However, the action is fast-paced and the control is slightly better than the previous games, charging ki or flying would only slow the game play down.

 The game's buttons control guard, ki blast, a rush attack, a smash attack, aura spark, transform, blow-away attack and a ultimate guard that also doubles as an pursuit attack.  The ultimate guard is a higher-level guard that uses ki to prevent major damage from ultimate attacks.  Aura spark places the player in a charged state that allows them to perform powered up moves and their ultimate attack.  Grabbing and taunts are achived via multiple button combinations.  All buttons can be configured, as the player prefers.

 The game is pretty, but it suffers from what Dragonball Z: Budokai suffed from, too much character lighting.  While there is only one sun around the planet Earth, in this game it seems like the planet and the sun are about to collide.

 As always and with any DBZ console game, the FUNimation voice cast is on hand.  The word "darn" is thrown around quite a bit in the Z Chronicles mode.  The background music is par for the course as well as the sound effects.  The audio highlight is the half-Japanese, half-English spoken theme song.  It is reminiscent of the Japanese theme songs from the animated television show.

 This game is only the second console DBZ game to feature Internet battling.  The Nintendo Wii version of Dragonball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 was the first.  The difference is that the Wii game was incredibly slow, unless the opponent was local, where as this game is near lag free even if your opponent is as far away as the Netherlands.  Online battling can be done freely or with a point system.  The point system establishes the player's rank in comparison to others in the world.

 To unlock every character, area and costume, players must complete the Z Chronicles mode.  After that is done, a Trial mode offers Survival, Time Attack and Battle Point options.  The highlight is the Versus mode where players can challenge the computer, a friend or a person over the Internet.

 Determining if purchasing this game is worth one's money depends on how much a fan the person is, if they have someone else to play against or if they have a broadband Internet connection so they can fight over the Internet.

Platform: Console Publisher: Activision & RedOctane Developer: Vicarious Visions Genre: Music Number of Players: 1 - 2 Age Rating: Teen Release Date: Jun. 29, 2008 MSRP: $49.99 - 109.99 Gameplay: 8 Visual Appeal: 7 Audio Appeal: 6 Re-Playability: 8 Overall Rating: 7 Website: Connect Buy - Rent

 Let us think back to the early 1980s when a certain rock group known as Journey made its debut on a video game known as Journey Escape.  Back then, the Atari 2600 and orange soda pop were all the rage.  The goal of the game was to help the band escape crowds of fans after a concert while their hit song "Don't Stop Believing" plays.

 It is over two decades later and Aerosmith has made its video game debut in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.  The difference, other than the obvious involving technology and trends, is that both Journey and Aerosmith were young back in the 1980s and now they are both old.  Luckily, computer graphics can be made to make the band seem younger, but then the live-action cut-scenes reveal the truth.

 GHA, as it is known by the fans, is a true Guitar Hero game.  Match the fret button colors to the gems on the screen and strum.  It is easy.  This game is a spin-off of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, to reiterate all of the common points are a waste of everyone's time.  To read the common points, find the GH3 review.  From this point on will be what is different between GH3 and GHA.

 There are slight visual differences between the versions.  The animation is smoother, but the graphics are lacking.  There was seemingly a graphical trade-off, perhaps to be able to utilize the animated versions of Areosmith to play their own music.  Unlike in GH3, after completing each venue there is a live-action clip of the band speaking about the venues they have played.  There is only one battle and it is against Joe Perry in the sixth venue.  Once the game is over, there is a long credit sequence with the animated Aerosmith in the studio playing "Kings and Queens".

 The sound is Dolby stereo home theater friendly and players can adjust the volume of the guitar, band and other effects, such as the crowd.  There are some complaints about unusual clicking and audio errors during many of the songs.  There are over 40 songs where two-thirds of them are Aerosmith's own music.  The remaining one-third of songs is from groups whom were inspired by or friends of Aerosmith.

 The game does offer two-player and Internet-based play.  Users with a Nintendo Wii or a PlayStation 2 will not be able to download content.  True Guitar Hero and Aerosmith fans should get this game.