In October 20, Gearbox will release “Borderlands” in North America, a both RPG and a shooter game, that appears to be counted among the games that were head titles on the 2009 list of new releases. “Borderlands” is planned to be an RPG and a shooter, but actually it is perceived more as a shooter. In this game the player has to make use of his quick reflexes skills in order to tag the foes in their weakest points; the foes present themselves in a shape of humanoids and monstrous creatures; for these last ones, the player has to pin in their mouth or in different vulnerable spots behind their armor. Being not skillful with targeting the player’s life will not last too long.
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So you play as a shooter, but all this time you are in the hands of statistics that will affect your weapon’s accuracy, or it can bring a lot of damage to your playing. Choosing a specific type of weapon, you are able to become more familiar with its use, in this way boosting the rating of your class’ shotgun that leads to improved accuracy of your shots. Your skills are also classified, the game scoring you one point for every skill that belongs to five character levels. The class nominated for soldiers was tested and the result lead to a division of the soldier’s skills in medic, infantry and support branches.

In your unfolding of skills your character is allotted aids, such as scorpio turret, in order to fire at the foes next to you in the battle. It depends on you how you decide to allocate the points, and according to this you will get weaponry upgrades such as guided missile upgrade or, for the one who reaches the of the medic tree will have health improvements upgrades. Your weapons (pistols, combat rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, energy weapons as well) are endowed with special effects such as fire rounds or acid blasts or electrical discharges. To guard yourself against death you have a spring of health from where you can take ‘supply’ and a shield that can be upgraded and will be recharged after damage is done. In case you find yourself in a close-to-death state, you are given the option to crawl and aim to kill some enemies nearby, thus you would be able to get back on your feet.

The game offers also a tutorial not before entering the option of picking up a class and a name for after that to be guided by a talkative tiny robot that will teach you the basics of motions and shooting. At the beginning to make the things easier for you, you are simply facing the killings and collecting variety with few possibilities of gaining access to machines’ vendors, allowing you the option to purchase grenades, weapons and even health packages. After this guide tour, you are cast into the game with different levels of combats and different types of enemies, but no further details are to be displayed; this part is left to the players to discover in the October release of “Borderlands”.

When Akella and Playlogic have released Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales, it was displayed as an exciting RPG adventure with various situations where players were involved in an exciting journey as pirates to swordfight, trade goods, take over cities and forts and so on. Being recently released, its sequel made the object of IGN reviewing in order to check the novelty introduced by the reteamed Akella and Playlogic. Compared to the first game, this new one players can make their own life on the sea performing one the characters they choose: merchant, corsair or adventurer. The characters are ruled by a P.I.R.A.T.E.S. system that dictates the way you can pull out the sword, or how much loot you can carry and how much health you are entitled to. The same system is present in the ship’s behavior ruling over the way you navigate and the way of fighting in combats using your vessels.
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The good thing with this system is that you can improve your skills this leading to a specialization in certain abilities, for instance if you prove good handling with your blade, then you are allowed to become an expert fencer and make additional damage on foes. Next to this feature you are able to build your reputation as a captain by performing several things, such as sailing into ports, getting goods for your crew, hiring new mates on board of your ship. You are allowed to disembark and run different activities on the shore including exploration of different dungeons where buried gold might be found.

The fact that the game doesn’t come with any tutorial at all makes the discovery of all these facets very difficult to approach. And Age of Pirates 2 has ten separate difficulty levels, but even if you set the game on the level of a beginner you don’t get any information regarding what you need for instance to control the ship, or to access menus. This is very frustrating since you are left with the feeling of making your way through the game sensing that you don’t know how to do a thing. Not to mention that beside the fact that it lacks the tutorial it is also lacking information about certain elements of gameplay. For instance, while being onshore, you have different conversations with others in which you are supposed to answer in specific terminology regarding ships and in case you don’t have an internet browser opened you are left with the desire to have these features already developed in your gameplay. Maps are also the object of complaining as you find it hard to understand their directions when you are supposed to maneuver through the jungles of a certain location.

The point is that the game implies so many nautical elements that a player probably should be previously familiar with especially that the voyages and situations are everything but peaceful and common. While being reviewed, all in one the game presented itself with controls that are unintuitive, lack of instructions and for these issues Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships rated a mediocre IGN score of 5.7, hoping at the same time for a better sequel.

The world of the mischievous minions has suffered quite a few changes compared to the first Overlord game through that that it introduces new tricks, new ways to operate the machinery, sail the open seas as well as develop an weird talent in attacking the baby seals. Overlord II starts as a brand new game, where the player faces a new enemy (a Roman-like Glorious Empire populated by obese nobles) is supposed to begin the evil dominion right from the scratch. The characters are elves, Empire’s obese nobles and snobs, and the fairies. The tone of the game breathes comical-like situations with a lot of fun to go through. The minions are the active characters, attacking enemies, and acting like real pain in the neck. In the game there are four types of elves whom you are aware of long after the game has started, but when you do, you are already endowed with a great mini-army. Being an overlord you need to have the support of this army as there is a lot of heavy lifting to do and toughest battles to face.
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Deploying the minions on the battlefield requires strategy skills as your creatures are very dependable on the situations they encounter trying to find ways to attack the present danger. However they prove sometimes to be dumb (acting in funny ways that make them loose their lives) in this case they require their overlord management. But even if they have these momentary lapses of reasoning they are still a bunch of talented creatures with new traits, such as the ability to ride various mounts that make them be more effective and speedy. A feature that turns the game into its best points, is the possibility of an overlord to possess a subordinate and to play from his point of view perspective.

Compared to the previous Overlord this one allows this time the players to manually move the view on the screen, but unfortunately this feature is handed over to the right stick of the controller, the same one that moves your minions, therefore you often see that the minions are moving when you actually wanted to move the camera across the field. Other flaw is inside the targeting system which often activates a shot to a wrong object, other than the one you aimed. Some periods in the time of the game you can find yourself at a loss not knowing what to do or where exactly you are.

The duration of the game is more than 20 hours and playing a two-player competition available through the cooperatives mode, might turn it into a funnier play, though this mode isn’t as deep and multi-featured as other multiplayer games offer. Better than it predecessor, Overlord II displays more detailed environments including a diversity of locations, such as snowy passes, jungles, green hills, and even the overlord’s underworld tower. The voices of your minions are heard in a funny squealing with which you get used in time.

As you play the game right from the start till you reach the end you are given the impression that everything is changed compared to the previous one you’ve played, so you end up asking yourself: Is Overlord II a brand new game?