So when I was given the opportunity to review MK vs DC I was a little hesitant at first but decided to give it a go, after all, I did enjoy Dragonball Z. Has the Mortal Kombat franchise finally hit an all-time low or is this new offering a statement that says that the fun has only just begun?... You pick a fighter and then start battling it out against a ladder of opponents and finally, if you make it, you will face some type of boss.... After you have chosen your side your are thrown into the story mode which is basically the same as the Arcade mode but with cut scenes in between fights and without the ability to select your own character, thus forcing you to try out different characters.... The fighting system works well with only a few hiccups, like the blocking not being as responsive as I would like but it doesn’t take away from the overall experience.... While progressing through the story mode I noticed a trend where I would win the first match and then lose the second match 99% of the time because in the second round the AI seemed to take revenge on my first round victory by assaulting me with super move after super move.... The first of these are Freefall Kombat where you hit your opponent off the level and then continue attacking them all the way down.... The Second event is Test Your Might and happens when you shove your opponent into a wall after which you just keep on running through wall after wall.... Even with the super AI I really enjoyed the story mode, it’s a nice change of pace from the normal fight, die, fight, die, fight, die, fight win! The game is simple enough to allow me to pull of cool moves while trying to win and I didn’t even have to resort to cheap tactics to beat anyone, including the bosses.... And this is where the combo challenge comes in. The Kombo Challenge pits you against an AI opponent which never moves or attacks so that you have time to pull off the required combos.... It is sort of an advanced sparring mode, but after trying and failing Superman’s first Kombo Challenge, I couldn’t be bothered.... Nothing beats electrocuting your opponent and mocking him for being a little girl and knowing that any minute he could hit you because he is sitting right next to you.... I think that with this title being aimed at a younger audience, the casual gamer might enjoy this more, but this is not to say that the hardcore gamers out there won’t find anything to enjoy here either.... Scoring Gameplay : 7/10 (Solid gameplay with a few issues, nothing gamebreaking) Presentation : 7/10 ( Nice character models, average backgrounds, a little bland) Sound : 7/10 ( Good voice acting, Standard but cool MK voice “ Finish Him”) Value : 6/10 ( Might not be enough to warrant a R700 purchase, but fans should get it) Overall : 7/10 ( Solid gameplay, looks good and is lots of fun.

I made no secret of my misgivings about Gears of War 2 and how I felt let down by the dodgy matchmaking and bad story. However I also remember saying that Horde mode was very good. Well I would like to take that back and say that Horde mode is possibly the best thing since beer on tap. Which is …

A radio show called Coast to Coast AM with George Noory had been discussing the topic of dreams when someone called in and described some dreams that he had been having that may just sound awfully familiar to anyone who has played Fallout 3. The guy calling in does a fantastic job of keeping a straight "radio face" as he describes his so-called dreams about blue jumpsuits, a vault and a wasteland. The host of the show is obviously completely oblivious to the fact that it is all a big joke and refers to the scenario as "scary", whilst asking the caller how far in the future the dreams took place. Bravo to this guy for pulling it off so well and not doing something like shouting "lol noob, PWnZoRED!" at the end. Maybe there is still hope for gamers.

[ Dramatic Re-enaction of the staff meeting that birthed the ideas behind Ninja Blade ] Hey, what was the name of that game that sold really well again? God of what? Oh, God of War, cool thanks. Hey what was the name of that other game that's pretty popular on that other console? Ninja Gaiden? Oh that was cool as well. Hey... I bet that if we took those two games and mashed them together that we would get, like, a ton of sales. We can call it the God of Ninja Blaiden or is that too much? Ok, let's just call it Ninja Blade then, that's catchy right? Oh man, we are gonna be rolling in it with this one. --------------------- Seriously, I took one look at this video and wondered how Ninja Gaiden and God of War actually managed to pro-create, considering that they are video games and don't even come equipped with the correct tools to do the nasty. For all I know, this game may prove to be a lot of fun but I cannot deny that it looks like a real rip-off of some good sellers. I have checked the google-machine to see if Itagaki (the creator of Ninja Gaiden that just recently left TECMO) is involved with the production but have so far come up with nothing. Thoughts Anyone?

We finally now know when to expect the release of the much anticipated fifth installation of the Gran Turismo series. Before you get too excited, as I did when I first saw the news, Gran Turismo 5 will be indeed be getting a Christmas release (In Europe, so we should be covered as well). Problem is, that it's next Christmas. While it would have rocked the gaming world to have Sony suddenly announce the release of GT5 for this Christmas, we all know that it wasn't a very likely scenario. Either way it is fantastic news to hear that we finally know when the game will be released. Polyphony have a habit of keeping their fans waiting for a very long time but if there is one thing that I have learned from the previous titles, it's that it is always worth the wait. GT Planet reports that in a statement to Spanish Newspaper El Financiero, James Armstrong who is the CEO of Sony in Southern Europe confirmed it's release for Christmas 2009. Here is the translation taken from the newspaper: For next year, the chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment for southern Europe said that they are developing a new game thriller, in which the player may be designing their own history, and the new version of Gran Turismo, which will arrive at Christmas. There you have it. It look's like GT fans are going to have to wait another year but at least they will have something to look forward to all year. Can I please have my PSP version now?

Black Mesa is a complete re-creation of the game Half-Life, utilizing the Source engine. It will let you re-visit the world that started the Half-Life continuum but with all the tech goodness that was developed for the orange box, If you are a Half-Life fan you do not want to miss this! And believe it or not it’s made by …

I’m sure just like me there are quite a few people reading this that would love to live in a country where you can actually go snowboarding. Because of this, when games like Shaun White Snowboarding are released, we run to the shop to purchase said game to live our fantasy in simulated glory. Before you run off however, read …

While the console race has been a close and interesting one to follow, it seems like Microsoft may be whipping a card out of it's sleeve that may just give them a big advantage. The sickening thing about this whole story is that it's an advantage that is going to be obtained by making their console reach a standard of quality that should have already been there all along. Is there a bright future ahead for the Xbox 360, or are we just being setup for even more disappointments from Microsoft? The problem is obviously that Microsoft released a console that was flawed from the start and even though they were in the knowledge of those flaws, decided to release it anyway. It was good to see that Microsoft landed up paying for their underhanded tricks in the long run, with the need to extend RROD warranties for a problem that really shouldn't have been there from the start. Usually I don't enjoy seeing anyone suffer for no reason but they deserved it because at the end of the day it was always the consumer paying the price for a lazy design job and some underhanded business tactics. Many of the issues with the Xbox 360 may now be coming to an end with the latest batch of Xbox 360's to leave the factory and if a decent job was actually done this time around, we may see the era of problematic Xbox 360 consoles actually come to an end.... The new consoles have had their internal memory pushed up from 16MB to 256MB, meaning that the console will now be able to store the NXE dashboard without the use of a hard drive.... The internal memory, while not of much use for other functions is at least big enough that it can now carry the NXE and still have a little bit of space left for a few small Xbox Live Arcade games.

...While the change isn't entirely revolutionary it is a welcome addition for all of the consumers who are going to be looking at buying an Arcade unit.... According to a recent article on Neoseeker , the latest batch of Xbox 360's to come out of the factories are now packing what is called the "Jasper" chipset, which now has a reduced 65nm graphics chip as well as what has now also been revealed as a lower power requirement.... All consoles produced after October 23, 2008 now have this new chipset and if all goes well with the new design then we may see the end of the Red Ring of Death as we know it.

While many of you may already be clued in about the Jasper, a new piece of information has come to light with regards to identifying if an Xbox 360 console is a Jasper or not.

...Will the new chipset mean that consumers in future will no longer need to deal with the terrible woes that have plagued so many gamers in the last two years or are we only being set up for even more disappointment from a lazy design team? Time will have to tell on this one but if Microsoft have actually done a decent job then them and us could possibly looking at a much smoother future for the console and one that should have been there from the start.