Think for a while and imagine a baseball game where players throw flaming balls or take a leap of 20 ft in the air managing to obtain a home run without cheating or displaying any grotesque side effects? Well, this kind of game exists and it is materialized in the shape of Xbox 360 game called “The Bigs 2” where you can hit a ball that far that it would make the best baseball player ever envious.
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The game is filled with possibilities of zooming around the filed, and usage of superpowers to lift the National team to the World Series.

The moves that are done in an over-the-top way turn the moments of The Bigs 2 into the most exciting ones, but it is a pity that strategic pitching completely occupies the game. Every pitcher is entitled to four different pitches, the aiming is done through an onscreen cursor, then you hold down the correspondent button in order to gain power and then release it. If you get near the power gauge, you have the possibility to throw another harder pitch an hide where the ball will land. In case you miss the gauge then you are warned about the landing of the throw and the batter will end up having a great advantage.

You can also get tired during the game by losing the ability to throw certain pitches across the game whereas every hit you give up is lowering the effectiveness of the last type of pitch. The game presents also a dynamic in the risk/reward feature that makes it exciting and satisfying. As a pitcher you have to test the batters by sending them into their comfort zone. Slinging one to the catcher you complete the turbo meter that allows you to throw flaming, unstoppable balls. The strategy is rendered by your plan to figure out when to try for the money pitch and when to wander around the corners.

The mechanics involved in the hitting are not that deep displaying the option for you to swing for contact or power without any other whistles. When you are already familiarized with the mechanics you can unleash your superpowers, being in the field you can take a leap that high that you can snatch a ball these being triggered by quick-time events. Being a batter you are allowed to use Big Blast that leads to a contact that enables you to fly the ball out of the park. The baserunners need to be watched otherwise they will make something stupid. The fielders are able to jump higher than anyone present but the problem is that they can not track down the balls.

The Bigs 2 is played in its majority as a baseball game but it also presents some mini games and other goals with the purpose of adding some diversity. The visuals are very well rendered with player models created in detail and the sense of real life going on in the stadium next to a commentary that brings excitement to the game.

The experience one gets on the field makes the game so much fun to be and the excitement propels The Bigs 2 as the star of this kind of shows.

The new demo of Alan Wake –Remedy, as a thriller/horror game, comes with five big surprises that brings the game back into attention. Taking the structure feature of the game we find it to be deeply involved into tracking the characters, drawing their motivations and taking decisions as a player. In the note of a TV show, the game presents stages that are connected into narratives, with a coherent story telling experience that ends up to a conclusion of the episode. The player is given the chance to experiment more often due to the replayable version of the episodes.
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Alan Wake events start in a mountain town when the darkness falls and bad things begin to appear. The character you play is lighting a torch and through the 5.1 channel surround you can hear the sound that almost stuns you. The graphics are very accurate representing the lit surroundings with a choice of real colors. Humanoid monsters suddenly appear and with the help of the bright light of the flare you can make them sizzle like vampires do in the sunlight. The lightening and its effects are very evocative as you keep using the flare in the darkness where monsters may appear if you don’t have light at all on you.

Alan and the other characters look very well designed with a facial animation, a blend of careful key-frame animation and capture of the motion that draw amazing sequences in the game. Not to mention the fact that every major object in the environment presents its own shadow over the surfaces of the displayed game. The atmosphere breathes horror through each and every pore of the game.

The series of events do not have sequences to be loaded, thus the player needing to deal with the plot form the beginning to its end. You are given different dark and dangerous places to pass through and in the end you get an SUV that helps you drive the cliff-side road located on top of the ocean followed by the tornado that you have to put up with. Here you get to a macro-level with details that worth appreciating combined with moments of normality that make the whole beauty of the game.

Alan Wake proves to be a compelling experience that one otherwise wouldn’t have thought to get after the five past years spent in the development and reworking of the technology of the themes. The feature of controls and motions look to be made in a logical manner, with an intense action, with an atmosphere of omen watching all over the place. Borrowing motifs from Stephen King, Sleepy Hollow and settings to belong to American gothic style, Alan Wake – Remedy reveals itself as a big surprise that put you through more original experiences.

On the July 4 of the 2002 was the date when America’s Army has been first released, and with the major new revision called America’s Army 3 it proved to reveal a reliable, playable state of the team-based game. Your role is that of an American soldier with optional boot camp missions serving as instruction and primer to Army life, these missions enabling you to unlock equipment such as special sights and better gear. The details are incredibly well rendered touching the reality in a perfect note, while displaying the latest uniforms and gear of a real army.
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The game has five maps, and some of them are simply updated versions such as Bridge and Pipeline. On the maps there are alleys with three lines to delimitate north/south and close quarters, ranches seen as rural levels to delimitate fortified farmhouse that has its basement as a bunker. Each map provides multiple effective game modes, including “take and hold” mode for gaining control over several points of the map, “secure and extract” for capturing the flag, “activated objective” for defending certain points at no matter costs. Many of the modes do not require killing of the enemy in order to offer the success, this is not so important, but the mission itself seems to be the key to success.

The game provides six rounds in a match, rounds lasting about four to five minutes, teams being able to switch positions and tasks after the third round, this thing giving them the opportunity to make it even. Working in team is the aspect that is emphasized by America’s Army 3, where seizing an objective through your mission will give your team four points, compared to one point that you might get at an individual shot down enemy. Teamwork is highly rated as the game offers a built-in VOIP support that enables communicating between each other.

The gameplay involves a lot of tactical moves that need to be cautiously made from cover to cover, from crouching to laying down to the best position for firing or using the grenades. The weapon graphics presents a well rendered model accurate to those of M-16s. The sounds represent exactly the actions that you as a soldier are performing, including even the way you breathe when you pull the trigger. The game doesn’t offer options to regenerate health, but has the feature of a medical choice rendered by the medical kits each soldier carries upon himself. Whenever you are hit laying down on the battlefield another soldier can come to resuscitate you, here you can use the medical training that you had in boot camp, or you can as well bandage your wounds I order to stop bleeding.

America’s Army 3 presents a more mature player base with a touch toward reality and a tactic that few of the other console shooters display. The game being offered free to the players contains the satisfaction of a job well done in a teamwork effort.