The zombie smashing Dead Island released last year to great reviews across the net. The latest DLC gives us a look into what makes the villain of the game tick. Is he truly a villain, or is someone else infecting him with their ideas? Is this DLC worth playing, or should you just run the other way?

Read on to find your answers in our review.

The main storyline of Dead Island paints Ryder White as the bad guy who is only looking out for himself and his wife. He seems nothing more than a villain to our four playable characters. The Ryder White DLC  shows us who he really is, and gives us his back story and why he’s on the island of Banoi.

The story is the best part of this DLC. The opening sequence shows us that he is a soldier who is asked to do whatever is needed for the greater good. If this means civilians must die, then so be it. If this means eradicating an entire island of all living creatures, he’s prepared to follow through with his orders. Only when he’s shown an image of his wife, and asked to kill her as well, does he pause before answering.

Through the original campaign of Dead Island, Ryder is an easy villain to dislike. This DLC takes our original impressions of the man and turns them upside down. His back story shows us that he is only a pawn in a much larger game, and that he’s not the villain we thought he was.

Gameplay for Ryder White is identical to the Dead Island campaign, with a few changes. Zombie smashing is still there, but all of the great RPG elements are almost completely removed. Ryder starts out as Level 15 and doesn’t change and he has no upgradeable skill tree. His fury mode is already unlocked so you get a super stomp right from the beginning.

Where the original campaign focused on melee weapons for zombie killing, this DLC focuses more on guns. Ryder is a soldier so that does make sense. There are blueprints lying around for more effective melee weapons, but they aren’t carried over to the original campaign, and guns work better. Medi-kits and ammo can be found in decent quantities, and at first you may think this will be a cake-walk. You would be wrong.

In the original campaign, dying will have you respawning somewhere near where you died, with the zombie kills also carrying over. This DLC uses a check point system where you’ll have to kill the same zombies again if they killed you. Ammo and items in your possession aren’t refreshed, so if you’re low on ammo and die, you may have a problem. Items lying around are refreshed though, and that’s a good thing. You may find yourself dying on purpose just to grab a few extra rounds for your rifle or an extra medi-kit or three. Zombies seem to spawn out of places that you have already cleared, and having zombies spawn behind you like that is not fun.

Will Ryder Take the Life of his Wife?

Techland also decided not to allow co-op. This DLC is single-player only, and that adds to Ryder’s isolation. Ryder has to go it alone, with no help from anyone. You may actually find yourself feeling bad for him. He is abandoned, on his own, and has to face never ending zombie hordes.

There are no new levels introduced. Areas will look familiar to Dead Island vets. From the slums to the sewers, everything is re-used from the main Dead Island campaign. The zombies are all re-used as well, with more of the fast moving infected zombies coming at you. The high number of fast movers adds to the difficulty for this DLC. The story itself should only take a couple hours to play through, but add in the death and respawning, and that could easily double.

Dead Island: Ryder White does a great job of letting us look behind the man that stood in the way of our four good guys in the main Dead Island campaign. It not only shows us he’s human, but also shows that he was never the man in charge and he was only a small pawn in a much larger story. That much larger story will probably be the basis for Dead Island‘s sequel.

If you’re a fan of Dead Island, then you’ll want to get to know Ryder White.

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Adrian Gonzalez may have the US cover wrapped up, but Canada is getting a different All-Star.

Find out who after the jump.

He has won the Home Run Title twice in a row. He is a two time member of the 40+ HR club.

He is:

Jose Bautista

With all of the latest news surrounding this years additions to the MLB: The Show series, it is clearly shaping up to be the best MLB game ever.

Nathan Jurevicius’ award winning graphic novel is now alive on the PlayStation Network. Is the video game worthy of its award winning title, or did it just scare us off?

Read our review to find out.

On the outside, Scarygirl is a great looking game with quite a bit of promise. The story follows a little girl who would look right at home in a Tim Burton movie. The story opens with Scarygirl washing up on a strange peninsula and is now being raised by an intelligent giant octopus. A tree house becomes her home and she starts a search for the man that haunts her dreams. Along her journey she is trained by a masterful rabbit, Bunninguru, that teaches her the ways of combat in this strange world.

The art style and story are the best part of this game, by far. Both stay true to the Scarygirl world. Scarygirl herself is a Burtonesque looking little girl, with goth features and an eye patch.

She's kinda cute

The world she travels through is in 2D sidescrolling fashion, with an occasional 3d feel. You can see the graphic novel style in the level design and through the story telling scenes. The graphics are very well done, with elements that look like they were removed straight from Nathan Jurevicius’ novels. The game is very easy on the eyes and is pleasant to look at. There are seven unique worlds, with three levels per world.

Swinging through the Worlds

Scarygirl gameplay is side scrolling action with platforming and battling. Our little girl has some great moves thanks to her special hook hand. Her battle moves start out basic, with either light or heavy attacks, and become a little more effective once upgraded. You can stun an enemy and then grab them, you can then either pound them into the ground, or use them as a projectile weapon. Taking out the bad guys, with the exception of bosses, is a pretty straightforward affair that can get a little repetitive at times.

At the end of each world you’ll have to face off against a boss. The bosses can be tricky. They have no health meter, and there’s no way of knowing how close you are to beating them. Once you figure out the proper way to defeat them, there’s really no way of knowing how close to death they are.You’ll just have to keep going until they are finished.

Taking on a Boss

The controls for the game are simple, but the interactions with the environment while platforming can be a little frustrating at times. Scarygirl has the ability to grab onto things and swing from point to point, but these points don’t always work as planned. If you miss by just a fraction of an inch, you’ll fall. Not a big deal if there’s solid ground under you, but if there’s nothing but air, fire, or steel spikes, Scarygirl becomes Deadgirl. Checkpoints become your best friend, but when the checkpoints seem miles apart, death does not become her.

Look out below

Scarygirl’s upgrades are a cool feature that adds to the replayability to the game. There’s a feather that, when purchased, gives her the ability to fly farther than she could early on. There are spots early in the game that you could see, but not reach. These areas hold health upgrades in the form of collectible hearts as well as gems. After completing each level you earn a score based on the number of gems collected (each level has a set number of gems), how many lives lost, and how many dark weeds pulled. Your score is then posted to an online leaderboard and you can see how you stack up against others around the world.

For completionists, gathering all of the collectible gems, dark weeds, and hearts adds at least a couple extra hours of game play as you’ll have to back track through the previous levels. Gems are used to purchase upgrades, as well as other collectible vinyls that can be viewed in Scarygirl’s treehouse from the main menu.

Sensei Bunninguru

Most downloadable side-scrolling games now have local co-op thrown in, and Scarygirl is no different. You can have a friend grab a controller and jump in and out at any time. They will play as your trusty mentor Bunninguru, but won’t earn any achievements or be able to upgrade their moves. This is a cool feature if you have a friend drop by, but the camera always focuses on Scarygirl so if you the rabbit gets left behind, he’ll be instantly transported to her side.

Scarygirl is a fun little game, with 6 or so hours of game play (add a couple if you’re a completionist). The art style and graphics are a perfect match to Nathan Jurevicius’ novels and the levels are nicely created and designed. Gameplay can be frustrating though, and fighting can get a little repetitive. Health meters for bosses would be a welcome addition.

Scarygirl is nicely priced at $9.99 on the PlaySation Network and is 1200 MSP on Xbox Live Arcade.

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Trine brought with it some fun platforming and cool puzzles, with local only co-op. Developer Frozenbyte added online co-op with Trine 2. Does that make the sequel better than the original? Read our review to find out.

Our three heroes, Amadeus the Wizard, Zoya the Thief, and Pontius the Warrior, have returned. Their world is now being taken over by strange plants and goblins. They are once again united by the artifact known as the Trine and it is up to them to save their world. The story is told through text and narrative and can be a little hard to follow at first. This doesn’t really affect the actual game play and doesn’t take anything away from the game.

Our Heroes

The gameplay is a mix of platforming and puzzles, in side scroller style. If you are playing solo, you’ll be able to switch between all three characters. Each one has their own special abilities and that adds to the intricacies of most of the puzzles. The characters’ abilities are upgraded through experience points that you’ll earn as you play along. Once you’ve spent these points, they aren’t locked in. You can reset them and apply them to other needed abilities for any of the characters. This is a nice little feature that comes in handy early in the game while you are still trying to earn more points. Points are earned by grabbing orbs that can be found all over the place in each level.

Zoya The Thief

The puzzles can be a little mind boggling if you don’t look at them through the eyes of each character collectively. Using the brute power of the Warrior can open up paths that only the Thief can get across. The Wizard is great for reaching higher places, but the grappling hook of the Thief might still be needed to get to those hard to reach places.

All three characters start out with little in the way of abilities, but this changes as you spend those experience points. The Wizard can earn the ability to create more boxes and planks out of thin air, as well as levitate objects and  goblins. The Thief will be given more powerful arrows which can freeze or explode enemies. The Warrior’s hammer becomes an actual throwable weapon, with auto retrieval. His shield becomes stronger and can freeze goblins, which can then be shattered into a bunch of goblin pieces.

Amadeus The Wizard

The original Trine used a mana bar, which limited you with the amount of magic you could use at any given time. Trine 2 does away with that and you can use your abilities without any restrictions. This is definitely an improvement and makes the game a little more user friendly.

The game can be played completely offline solo or with local co-op, but playing online with two other players is where this game really shines. Puzzles are a little easier as long as everyone knows their part. You can play with the three separate characters, or play Unlimited where as you can all play as any of the three. Having three Warriors in battle at one time will make any pack of goblins a mere speed bump along your journey. Having three powerful Wizards can also make life easier when you work together building things with your blocks and planks.

Working Together is Always a Good Idea

The graphics for the game are some of the best looking graphics for a downloadable title to date. The level details and landscapes are crafted to make the game strikingly beautiful. Puzzle and level design give you the sense that much thought was given to their creation. Some puzzles can be solved in different ways, and it is the level of detail that adds to this design. A few glitches here and there may force you to restart a checkpoint or two, but it’s not a game breaker to say the least.

The sounds of the game vary from very relaxing, to up-tempo depending on the level. The rise and fall of the tempo matches the game play. The sound track is already available on iTunes and has some great scores. Ari Pulkkinen, the man behind the music, has created a great collection of music for this game.

Trine 2 is hard to categorize as a single genre of game, and that adds to its overall appeal. Platforming, while not always perfect, is fun and entertaining. The puzzles can be quite intricate, but tend to be a little too easy once you start thinking using the collective mind of the three characters. The RPG elements are thin, but do give the title a nice RPG feel to it. Battling goblins and various enemies can get a little repetitive, but that doesn’t take away from the overall fun the game offers. Online co-op sets this game apart from the original, and definitely makes this game an upgrade.

Trine 2 is a beautifully crafted game, with a great soundtrack and intricately detailed levels. With it’s low price tag, and hours of game play, it is well worth its price.

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Crazy Machines Elements is a recently released puzzle game now available on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live. Is it worth it’s $9.99/800 MSP price or will it just leave you mind bottled?

Read our review to find out.

Crazy Machines Elements is a puzzle based game that uses basic objects to perform objectives. Miniature monster trucks, candles, torches, rockets, and lasers to name a few. Add in the basic elements of the earth – wind, water, and fire – and you finish with what has the makings of a great little game.

The game can be played using your basic controller, and for the most part this works decent. Moving parts around, rotating them, and placing them is simple enough. The PS3 allows for the PlayStation Move to be used, and this gives the game a more precise feel that is usually only found on a PC.

There are three modes to play. You’ll have to play through and complete 60 levels in Puzzle mode before unlocking the other two. This may sound daunting, but once you realize that there really isn’t too much brain power required, you might be a little disappointed. Puzzle mode opens up with you only being required to press a single button on your controller. The introductory levels seem to be geared towards making you familiar with the different aspects of the game, but they could have at least made it a little challenging.

The puzzles are generally machines shown to you that require a few missing parts. The parts are given to you so no guess work is really needed. Puzzle mode is separated into puzzle packs, with ten levels per pack. Each level also has collectible gold nuts that add to the challenge, and a few of these required some extra thought on our part. You can finish puzzles without collecting all of the nuts, so there is some replayability there for completionists. There are 100 puzzles to work through, and some are pretty ingenious. A little more creativity on the gamer’s part should have been required though.

Challenge mode is where this game really takes off. While Puzzle mode gave you most of the assembled machine, Challenge mode just gives you a task to complete, and a handful of objects to do it with. Playing through the Puzzle mode can help you to form mental pictures of what you need to build in Challenge mode, so don’t just blow through the puzzles without taking mental notes. There are only four Challenge packs, with five puzzles each, to work through and we were left wanting for more. The game seems to be ready for downloadable content, and hopefully game packs will be cheap or free.

The last mode available is a level builder/editor. Here you can make your own puzzles for others to play locally. Sony has put quite a bit of emphasis on their ‘Play. Create. Share.’ campaign and it’s very sad to see a game like this without the ability to share your levels online. LittleBigPlanet, ModNation Racers, and inFamous 2 (to name a few) have a never ending selection of content to play through, and that would have made this title truly shine. Instead, we are left without anyway to challenge others with our mind bottling creations.

Crazy Machines Elements is a fun little game, with a low enough price tag, to keep you busy for several hours. Working through the puzzles and challenges varies from rudimentary to ingenious.

The developer, Fakt Software, did a great job on the graphics and sound but fell a little short in this age of creating and sharing. Leaderboards are available to track your scores and see how you stack up against your friends, but why not give us the ability to challenge others with our own creations online?

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