According to a new publish on the PlayStation blog, DC World On the internet will be experiencing the online launch via the PlayStation Store “soon.Inch The new sony has not given a firm launch date as yet, however has revealed 3 prices options for the game. The bottom online game expenses $59.Ninety nine as well as consists of 30 days of perform period, the same as the actual list edition. Monthly fees for the game next tend to be $14.Ninety nine. Alternatively, those people who are in it for the long term will pay $77.Ninety nine for a 6-month membership bundle or $134.99 with regard to Twelve months.

Most importantly with the 6 or even 12 month deals that you still need to purchase a duplicate from the game — to perform for 6 months you are actually paying $137.Ninety eight, and for Twelve months you will be handing over $194.Ninety eight. This is a conserving over what you’d have to pay if you were having to pay month-to-month, however — 6 and Twelve months paid monthly would price $89.94 as well as $179.Ninety eight respectively. It is recommended to be sure you wish to spend that lengthy within the Electricity World before you decide to dedicate that amount of money, however.

The value of purchasing the actual name like a electronic obtain is sort of questionable. The overall game additionally expenses $59.99 at list, as well as certain retailers happen to be discounting this fairly. Amazon . com.org, for instance, is promoting the PS3 version with regard to $56.00. It is also interesting to note the Computer version’s checklist prices are $10 cheaper compared to PS3 version.

The equality within pricing between the retail as well as electronic editions from the PS3 edition is actually, nevertheless, in keeping with laptop computer edition, that amounted to the same both on store shelves as well as by way of digital shops. Using the current achievement of Bulk Impact 2′s day-and-date release upon PSN, too, it is most likely we’ll be viewing much more games obtaining synchronised produces from retail and by way of electronic services for the same cost.

The Good :

• Incredibly versatile creation tools
• Great Story mode with plenty of replay value
• Presentation is uniformly excellent
• Community feedback features ensure that the best user content is easy to find
• Supports user content and DLC from the first game.

The Bad :

• Cooperative play can be confusing
• Tutorials aren’t as comprehensive as they could be.

More than two years after the release of LittleBigPlanet, the creativity of the game’s community continues to impress. Tools that were designed to let users craft their own levels for the popular platformer have been masterfully manipulated to make all manner of weird and wonderful gameplay experiences, 3-million-plus of which live on in LittleBigPlanet 2. The superior creation tools that you’re afforded access to in Sackboy’s second outing are sure to send that number skyward soon, and even if you have no desire to make your own masterpieces, you’re sure to enjoy the incredibly varied fruits of developer Media Molecule’s labors, as well as those of other players. For creators, LBP2 is an easy-to-use tools package that lets you turn your ideas into games that can span multiple levels and genres, and even include cutscenes. For players, LBP2 is a game that lets you play all of these creations in addition to its own charming and impressively varied Story mode. Everyone’s a winner.

Regardless of what you ultimately hope to get out of LBP2, the Story mode is a great place to start. The world of LittleBigPlanet has come under attack from the evil Negativitron, and only you (and up to three of your friends) can save the day. The 30-plus Story mode levels are incredibly varied both in terms of gameplay and visual design. One moment you’re jumping between moving wooden platforms and swinging from sponges; the next you’re riding a bee through a blocky-looking side-scrolling shooter and knocking enemies out of the sky with honey projectiles. Then, after using sticky cake projectiles to solve simple puzzles, you might find yourself cruising through another character’s body and using white blood cells to combat a meanie infection. Each and every one of these levels serves as an enjoyable showpiece for what LBP2′s new creation tools are capable of, and playing through the Story mode is even more fun than in the original game because you never know what the next level is going to have in store for you. Furthermore, Story mode levels have plenty of replay value if you’re interested in finding all of the collectible materials, stickers, Sackboy outfits, and other goodies that have been expertly hidden away.

A number of the Story mode’s collectibles can only be reached if you’re playing cooperatively in a group of up to four players. Sequences that require multiple players are rarely complex, but even relatively simple objectives can be tricky to complete if you have to enlist the help of someone who isn’t familiar with LBP’s floaty physics or comfortable with how Sackboy moves between the foreground and background. Furthermore, playing cooperatively (especially locally) can get pretty confusing because, unless all of you are moving in sync, the camera becomes problematic. First, it zooms out in an attempt to keep all of you in shot, which can make distinguishing one Sackboy from another difficult. Then, if that fails, it leaves the player or players who are lagging behind for dead and they rejoin the action at the next checkpoint. Some levels fare a lot better than others in multiplayer, but often, the most enjoyable way to get items from multiplayer areas is to have friends hop into your game only when they’re necessary, which is unfortunate and not much fun for them. For a fun multiplayer experience, your best bet is to check out some of the new versus games which, once you unlock them in Story mode, include enjoyable takes on basketball, air hockey, and pool, to name but a few.

Armed with the items that you’ve collected in Story mode, as well as any that you’ve imported from your original LittleBigPlanet profile, you might be eager to jump into Create mode, but you’d do well to check out some of the new creation tutorials beforehand. The adequate though not entirely comprehensive tutorials are again wonderfully narrated by Stephen Fry, and even if you consider yourself something of an expert with the first game’s tools, there’s a lot of new ground to cover. Sure, you can safely skip the tutorials on gluing, corner editing, bolts, and basic sensors, but what about Sackbots, power-ups, microchips, and the gameplay sequencer? These are just a few of the new creation tools at your disposal in LittleBigPlanet 2, and they are quite literally game-changing additions. For example, Sackbots are non-player characters that can be customized with different appearances and behaviors; you can use them as actors in cutscenes, as enemies that are intelligent enough to avoid hazards and use power-ups, or–as they appear in the Story mode–as friendly little guys that you must either lead or herd through levels. Microchips, on the other hand, are a strictly behind-the-scenes innovation that give you a big flat space upon which to arrange multiple logic pieces (timers, randomizers, and the like) that might otherwise be confusing and difficult to arrange when applied to an object.

Power-ups are another excellent addition because, much like the paintinator gun that was introduced in the LBP Metal Gear Solid expansion pack (and which, like all of the original LBP’s downloadable content, works with LBP2), they open up many new possibilities when designing levels. The grappling hook lets you swing from any object that it can grab onto, the grabinator gloves give you the strength to pick up and throw heavy and dangerous objects, and scuba gear lets you swim underwater without having to seek out oxygen-filled bubbles or come up for air. The most exciting power-up, though, is the creatinator; a helmet that can be used to fire any projectile that game designers choose and that includes user-created objects. Want to create a level in which Sackboy puts out fires? Give him a creatinator that fires a steady stream of water. Or how about a versus game in which two of you compete for high scores while shooting at enemies whose faces are photos of your friends taken with the PlayStation Eye? Easy, just load up the creatinator with missiles, fireballs, impact explosives, or some projectile of your own invention. You can even have the creatinator launch objects that then fire projectiles of their own. The possibilities are endless.

Perhaps the most significant game changer introduced in LBP2 is the controlinator; a small and unassuming device that, amongst other things, serves as a seat for Sackboy in vehicular gameplay sequences. More importantly, the controlinator can be used to give the players of your games and levels direct control of any object–effectively taking Sackboy out of the equation. Used in conjunction with the new antigravity object tweaker, the controlinator makes it painless to create side-scrolling and dual-stick shooters, tower defense games, top-down racers, and games in which you control nothing but a crosshair and a trigger, to name but a few. As a creator, you even get to map all of the controls of your games yourself, simply by using invisible wires to connect the buttons and analog sticks on a picture of a Dual Shock controller to the movers, rotators, emitters, and other devices that you want them to trigger.

Working with audio in LittleBigPlanet 2 is only as complicated as you want it to be. Different material types all have default sounds associated with them so, for example, when an item made of wood crashes into an item made of metal, what you hear is believable. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though. There are dozens of great licensed songs and original music tracks included, along with loads of sound effects and even a selection of gibberish voices that you can assign to your characters. As with other aspects of creation in LBP2, you’re given more than enough professional quality items to work with, but you’re also afforded access to the tools and raw materials that you need to make your own. For starters, there are dozens of instrument samples that you can use to create your own tunes using the built-in sequencer, and if you want your characters to be voiced or your game to be narrated in some way, you can record your own samples using a headset or the PlayStation Eye mic.

If you’re a creative type willing to put in some serious hours testing and improving upon your designs, there’s no reason you can’t share games with the LBP2 community that are good enough for players to come back to again and again. You might even receive requests to make sequels. Of course, not all of the creations that find their way into LBP2′s community area will be very good or even worth playing. Already, numerous levels are appearing–just as they did for the first game–that serve no purpose other than to unlock trophies for anyone who plays them, while others simply aren’t finished. Thankfully, there are some solid systems in place to help you sort the good from the bad. The option to rate levels after playing them with between one and five stars from LBP has been replaced with a simple smiley- or sad-face option that allows you to see, at a glance, how many players enjoyed it versus how many didn’t. When browsing levels, you can also see how many players have completed them and how many liked them so much that they took the time to bookmark them with a heart. After playing a game, you have the option to write a full review for it and select tags relating to the experience (“short,” “intricate,” “funny”); the game type (“puzzler,” “sports,” “racer”); and specific content (“collectables,” “water,” “grappling hook”) that you think apply.

When searching for new games to play, it’s possible to filter using these tags in conjunction with those relating to the popularity or newness of levels, so it’s pretty easy to avoid games that you have absolutely no interest in playing. Impressively, you can search for levels using these same filters on the new LBP.me community site, and even queue them up for next time you play. Also, as in the original game, it’s possible to bookmark your favorite creators so that you can more easily find new offerings from them.

Like the most prolific creators in the series’ community, LittleBigPlanet 2 is a game that just keeps on giving. That’s also true of the first game, but what separates LBP2 from its predecessor is the sheer variety of games that are being created and will no doubt continue to be created for many months to come. This isn’t just a superbly presented game that incorporates multiple genres and comes packaged with a powerful creation suite, it’s your doorway into a wonderfully charming, vibrant, and ever-changing universe where almost anything is possible. Even if you’re not interested in designing and creating games yourself, LittleBigPlanet 2 is not to be missed.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is a massive leap forward for the anime-based game series, though I am not talking strictly about technology. Keeping all the variations straight can be difficult with entries from numerous developers and publishers spanning the spectrum of systems. More frustrating is that each game covers the same tired ground. Ninja Storm 2 provides the most comprehensive Naruto Shippuden experience, taking players from Naruto’s return to the end of the Pain arc.

Most Naruto games, if not all, feature a story mode. They boast of free-roaming modes, three-dimensional recreations of Konohagakure, and engaging dialogues, but such aspects are rarely more than time-killing padding between bouts. Some story modes don’t even make sense without prior knowledge of the series. Like its predecessor, which focused on the original series, Ninja Storm 2 makes a valiant effort to offer a deeper and more interactive story mode than expected. It almost succeeds.

Konohagakure is no longer fully explorable. Instead, nearly all areas of the game use pre-rendered backgrounds, as in the early days of Resident Evil and Onimusha. This allows for a greater level of visual detail, including streets bustling with activity, while also making it much easier to find side-missions and hidden collectibles. However, even with the tightened environments, Ninja Storm 2 finds too many excuses to send you trudging back and forth through the same locales and empty forests. It won’t be long before you start wishing for a fast-travel option, or even better, a way to fast-forward to the fights.

The fluidity of battle is awe-inspiring. Hands-down this is the most impressive cel-shading to date, and dare I say, far superior to the anime. The characters’ ultimate jutsu (special attacks) will blow you away, and the boss-fights… I’m on the verge of a nerd-gasm thinking about them. From dodging Sasori’s hurricane of puppets to short and intense rail-shooting segments, CyberConnect2 has created some incredibly memorable scenes. The largest battles escalate into quick-time events with timed button-presses, and quite frankly, there would be no other way to handle the massive levels of devastation, nor a better way to enjoy the spectacle.

Ninja Storm 2 expertly toes the line between the technical aspects of the fighting genre and the button-mashing of brawlers. The core attacks are all performed with one button, which can easily be converted into impressive air-juggles and combos by holding the analog stick in different directions. You can also activate chakra to supercharge your projecticles, pull off quick dashes, and unleash powerful jutsu. It’s the type of combat system that’s easy enough for everyone to have fun with, and just deep enough to require tactics at higher skill levels.

The depth of combat rests in timing and the choice of character, for which there are 18 initial characters and 26 unlockables. While Naruto is vicious in close-combat and can throw opponents off with the appearance of his clones, Kankuro’s puppets are best used from a distance and essentially require players to manage two characters simultaneously. Others, including Sakura and Yamato, aren’t the most powerful hand-to-hand combatants, but they have devastating throws and jutsu. Some characters feel under/overpowered, but then again, the character roster is more about fan-service than balance.

The most disappointing feature of the versus modes is the selection of arenas. There are 23 locations, but they are nothing more than flat rings. The previous game had the same problem, but it was also CyberConnect2’s first “next-gen” Naruto game. It’s a shame to look back at the interactive and multi-tiered stages of CyberConnect2’s Ultimate Ninja games for PS2 and think about what could have been. At the very least, the developer has come through and delivered the online battles that fans have longed for.

The game’s events don’t always follow the anime and manga, and in some cases, the changes can be considered improvements. At other times, it’s the same old filler between epic boss battles. No matter what, CyberConnect2 knows the series through and through, and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2 is one heck of an entertaining action game. If you’re not already a fan, it might be time to convert.

What we’re talking about: Quantum Theory, the new third-person shooter from developer Team Tachyon and publisher Tecmo Koei.

Where we saw it: At the Tecmo Koei booth on the 2010 Tokyo Game Show floor.

What you need to know:

• In Quantum Theory’s case, the most obvious comparison is certainly the most apt: it looks, plays, and handles like a Japanese Gears of War. From tank-like protagonist Syd’s roadie-running, baddie-punching demeanor to the shaky over-the-shoulder viewpoint and cover-based mechanics, Quantum Theory certainly shares more than a few aesthetic flourishes and gameplay mechanics with Epic’s blockbluster.
• The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic environment, and finds the earth overrun by a sinister alien threat known only as “Diablosis.” The bulk of Quantum Theory is set in and around a set of Diablosis-infected Towers–looming organic spires that serve as the game’s premier “living environments,” actively eroding and shifting in real-time the higher Syd climbs. The living environments definitely build on the game’s cinematic appeal, with set-pieces regularly rising, falling, and undulating throughout the action.
• Syd won’t be taking the fight to Diablosis alone; the enigmatic Filena fights by his side, paralleling the hero’s hulking demeanor with her swift, slender skill-set. Players are urged to use their AI teammate as another weapon in Syd’s arsenal, picking her up and throwing her at oncoming swarms of enemies. Matching Syd’s powerhouse build with Filena’s acrobatic expertise is a core gameplay mechanic, and vital to traversing Quantum Theory’s treacherous living terrain.
• As you may have gleaned from the game’s barrel-chested protagonist and explosively gritty attitude, Quantum Theory draws some heavy inspiration from the action movie heroes of the 1980s. Testosterone-infused genre mainstays Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were cited as big influences on Syd’s “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to the Diablosus pandemic.

Point in development cycle: The game is actually at 100% completion following three years of development, and is set to hit U.S. shores later this month.

My take: I was pleasantly surprised by my time with Quantum Theory. In all honesty, initial screen-shots and trailers had me a bit at bay, but after spending a bit of hands-on with Team Tachyon’s third-person shooter my curiosity has certainly been piqued by its cinematic flair and innovative living environment aspect. Here’s hoping that what Quantum Theory does differently is enough to set itself apart from other, similar shooters.

Unfortunately, due to a new business strategy for NIS America, we won’t be seeing the PS3 Ar tonelico until at least 2011. With the game so far off, NIS only had a batch of screenshots and a features list to share with us a their annual preview showcase event.

The most striking update is a planned battle system alteration that shifts the series away from traditional turn-based combat to “something more action-y” within monster encounters. It sounds a little like the free-running, button-mashing combat in the Tales series from Namco Bandai; however Qoga adds a musical twist. During combat, players can unlock combos or bonuses by timing attacks or other button presses to the beat of the music. Pulling this off fills a Song Magic gauge that allows you cast special effect spells like stat buffs.

It wouldn’t be Ar tonelico without a little bit of kink. To that end, there are characters within the game who cast stronger spells by shedding more and more clothing — and certain characters the main character can “interact” with to change their appearance. No, we’re not talking hot coffee stuff, but expect some interesting dialogue options en route to one of several possible game endings.

Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel us due out on PS3 around spring next year.

The Sony PS 3 Console, in particular, lets you play amazing and hi-end games. Highly recommended if you are into racing games, the Sony Playstation 3 can remarkably change your digital life. The third system of the Sony Playstation Video Game Console, the Sony Playstation 3 has real time 3D computer graphics, enhanced by the Cell processor.

Games being played on the Sony PS 3 console are available in 20 GB and 60 GB and usually come with multiple flash card readers. These features, and many things besides, make the Sony Playstation Video Game Console and the Sony Playstation Video Game Systems compatible both with high definition televisions and the conventional televisions.

The system also allows you to store your music files, as well as video and image files in the 60GB removable hard disk the Sony Playstation Video Game Console usually comes with. Another great thing about the Sony Playstation Video Console Systems is that you can access online games anywhere and anytime, so long as you have an internet connection.

Aside from that, you can also enjoy other features, such as text and video messaging, multiplayer gaming, voice chatting, internet browsing, downloading, and with the Blue-ray disc player, even enjoy hi-end games and movies.

Indeed, there are many multimedia activities you can do and enjoy with your Sony Playstation Video Game Console. Equipped with outstanding memory capabilities, the Sony Playstation Video Console is undoubtedly the most powerful gaming console in the market today.

The time for a great gaming experience has arrived with the Sony Playstation Video Game Console and the Sony Playstation Video Game Systems.

Released in 2008, Grand Theft Auto 4 is considered one of the top PlayStation 3 games. The game is action packed like its classic precedents in GTA series. However, a superb single-player story mode and online support for up to 16 players make this the best Grand Theft Auto game ever. We’re big fans of better graphics and this game delivers extraordinary details. Plus the install cuts down on loading screens, which gives us more time to ram firetrucks into dirtbikes. Controls are much improved over previous versions. which helps increase the games intensity. GTA4 is undoubtedly a must-have for all PlayStation 3 fans.

What with the best PlayStation 3 games list be like without Metal Gear Solid 4 on the list? This classic video gaming character is brought to life in one of the best PlayStation 3 games to date. It is a mix of powerful storytelling, entertaining gameplay and jaw-dropping graphics. Unlockable rewards, plus lots of cool gadgets and weapons that you can customize to your own style of play. If you’re planning to buy a PlayStation 3, or you already have one, Metal Gear Solid 4 should be at the top of your list.

The newly released Street Fighter IV doesn’t miss a beat as famous world warriors are still capable of super-extraordinary, eye-bedazzling 3D street fighting. Release by Capcom on Feb 17, 2009, Street Fighter IV won’t disappoint loyal street fighting fans after almost 10-years-of waiting. Ryu, Ken, and a host of familiar warriors get back to doing what they do best in Street Fighter IV. Awesome single-player modes, strong online multiplayer, and stunning graphics make up for the lack of tournament mode. It is easy to see why this game is ranked among the best PlayStation 3 games to date.

To learn more about Best PlayStation 3 Games, I recommend you checking out PlayStation for Sale. It is a specialized Sony PlayStation for sale site that lists up to the minute deals on the PlayStation 3, Play Station 2, PSP and most popular PlayStation games and accessories. Be sure to try this website first.

At around 4PM PST on Sunday, PlayStation Network users on Twitter began began to report that they were unable to connect to the online gaming service. Hours later, the problem seems to continue, to the point where Sony has begun to acknowledge the issue on its official PlayStation Blog.

According to the blog, the problem seems to only affect pre-Slim PlayStation 3 models, with PlayStation social media manager Jeff Rubenstein claiming they “have narrowed down the issue and have engineers working to restore service.”

Despite the fact that the game doesn’t have any online gameplay, many owners have reported that PSN issues have kept players from enjoying Sony’s most recent release, Heavy Rain. Any PlayStation 3 owners experiencing PSN problems today? Share your horror stories in the comment section below.

The sit-down unit is fitted with a pair of eyeglasses for the player to view the action through, with gun-shaped controllers to aim and attack with. The big monitor and 5.1 surround sound offer up an even more immersive environment, all the more important when you think how busy arcades are. Of course, when we say “arcades,” we mean Japanese arcades, since they don’t really exist in the U.S. any longer, and we won’t likely see this unit come stateside in a non-import capacity any time soon.
The recently-concluded Arcade Operator Union Expo in Japan got an even deeper look into the cabinet for Komani’s approaching Metal Gear Arcade. Announced last June, the gameplay is set off a adapted version of Metal Gear Online, but the fully-loaded arcade unit should offer up a much another experience.

Game design feels like one big round of “follow the leader” sometimes: when a game does something successfully, everyone else tries to put their own spin on it. Grand Theft Auto III had that effect, leading to a bevy of like-minded titles that aped the concepts that made it so great. The God of War franchise has also left its own indelible mark and it’s finally starting to show with titles like Bayonetta and Darksiders following in Kratos’ deity-sized footsteps. Dante’s Inferno is another chip off the old Grecian block but it exists somewhere in the middle of those two aforementioned titles: unlike Bayonetta, which took the formula and gave it a total glam makeover, Dante’s hews closer to the tried and true; yet, unlike Darksiders, which was a little too familiar for its own good, it actively tries to do something different.

Dante’s more or less succeeds on that latter point, at least in terms of the overall game world. The Divine Comedy might seem like an odd choice for source material, given its relatively small mass market appeal — before any of you literature lovers decide to write me angry yet elegantly worded hate mail, I’m only pointing out that it’s not something most gamers will know intimately — but Dante Aligheri’s epic poem gave the developer lots of material to work with and it actually manages to step away from Kratos’ imposing shadow. The nine circles of Hell deserve a lot of the credit for that: they’re impressively constructed and the dev team got a lot of mileage out of the unique setting.

The architecture in the Lust level, for instance, is appropriately composed of phallic structures and pulsating flesh while the Greed level shines with spilled gold, both in coin form and the molten lava in which the avaricious are constantly bathed. Unfortunately, while the environments are well done, the overall atmosphere is incredibly lacking: You are surrounded by woe but it’s all rather vague; you see disembodied souls plastered into the walls and you hear shrieks of agony, but it’s never more than ambient fluff. I expected my experience to be suffused with suffering but it’s almost an afterthought; even without reading the Divine Comedy, I’m sure Aligheri describes the horrors that he witnesses in great detail and the resulting sense of dread and foreboding is curiously absent here. The puzzle design — a definite holdover from God of War, complete with block-moving puzzles and handles you have to rotate — also doesn’t leverage each level’s theme enough; a lot more could have been done with the material but it’s mostly a rehash of the timing- and environmental-based puzzles that you’ve seen before.

But I still enjoyed my time with Dante’s because the combat is expertly handled. The cross, which acts as your projectile weapon, is especially satisfying and after fully upgrading it, it became my default weapon; the scythe is a decent implement but shooting out waves of holy death was far more enjoyable. The minor enemies, while uniformly dull, are also serviceable and the bosses are varied and interesting. The deep skill tree, the collectible relics which buff your abilities, and the overall pacing of the game — it constantly has you moving forward and you never stay in one circle long enough to get tired of it — also conspired to make me enjoy myself and I, for the most part, gave into that temptation. But there were a handful of moments so maddeningly frustrating that I felt as though I was suffering through a divine punishment of my own; poor cameras and ill-placed lakes of lava resulted in many cheap deaths, and you can’t skip cinematics so prepare to rewatch the same clips multiple times. The final boss fight is also ridiculously hard, enough so that I gave up and bumped the difficulty down to the easiest mode just so I could see the ending for purposes of review; when I did that, I literally beat the boss in literally two minutes.

I also found that I was never really awed by the game’s narrative. Rampaging through a realm of eternal suffering should have left a deep impression but it didn’t, mostly because the storytelling is weak; because I’m not familiar with the Divine Comedy, I had to accept the built-in narrative on face value, and it falls flat thanks to some incongruous holes. For instance, while the main character Dante looks memorable — the Holy Crusader motif is surprisingly effective, from the metal crown-of-thorns to the cloth cross he stitches into his chest — he’s basically an empty shell in terms of his personality. For a man who confronts the demons of his own past, Dante demonstrates no real sense of moral complexity or inner torment; he screams with emotional agony a lot but I never really felt the weight of his plight. Also lacking are the encounters with the many lost souls you can either punish or absolve; while the choice itself is meaningful — relegate them to suffering or offer them salvation — the end result is anything but. These encounters exist solely to open up the skill tree, and it felt like yet another wasted opportunity to leverage the rich setting of the game.

Because most gamers aren’t familiar with the Divine Comedy, the devs were free to safely take creative liberties but that doesn’t absolve them of the burden of crafting a coherent narrative where your actions actually matter.Dante’s doesn’t do that particularly well and while the combat and level architecture are interesting enough that I stuck with it to the end, I was never fully invested in the story nor did I ever come to truly care about Dante’s quest. Add in the fact that the plot twist revolves around an age-old cliche and you’re left with something that has the scope of an epic tale but carries the emotional weight of an action movie. That I enjoyed it as much as I did says a lot about the high level of expertise expended on the game’s action and set design but the lackluster story means it isn’t nearly as timeless as the poem it was based on.

PROS: Worthwhile combat sequences and excellent level design are the highlights in this devilish tale.
CONS: It doesn’t carry the emotional or moral weight that it should; for a game set in Hell, it’s surprisingly bland.