There is something very special about Shank for me, probably stemming from my fond memories of Double Dragon and Final Fight.  But this isn’t the first 2D brawler to come to the current gen consoles, so what makes this different?

To start with let’s take a look at the game’s visuals, it’s an almost perfect art style with a solid amount of character to it.  All you need to know about Shank’s story is told in the grimace of the lead protagonists face – “shit just got real!”

Shank’s moment to moment gameplay also pans out like you’d expect, walking left to right taking on gangs of bad guys with a few tasty boss battles in between and with a smattering of platforming.  Things starts out simple with light and heavy attacks combined with a selected firearm and the well used evade move (you’ll be using this a lot).  It is at this point where you’ll either continue to enjoy Shank like I did, or get frustrated and admit defeat.

The art style and animation which portrays almost perfect combat transitions can also be its major down fall. Imagine controlling Shank as he fights through two skin heads, tears through an eight foot biker with his chainsaw before marching across the screen guns blazing as a few dogs start to lunge.  You’re mid-animation you realise that perhaps if you were to evade, you could counter with an uzi and a few grenades – nope, too late.

It may sound like a tiny gripe, but I found myself blaming the – admittedly incredible – animation when I did badly. This system doesn’t take long to adapt to, until you find another weapon, as all in all on the fly I was able to select between three guns and four heavy melee weapons (which have different effects against different enemies) and consequently I never felt quite at one with the combat system until the very end.

Once I had battled through to the last few levels and final boss battle, everything came together and I was able to quickly assess each encounter and know what weapon would see me through the best.  Which is why, once the game was over, I was left wanting more, perhaps a little more than just an additional difficulty level…

Although the end can come in less than four hours, the prologue of the story can be played with a friend by your side in a whole separate co-op story.  Not only do you get to see a little more of Shank’s brutal story unfold, but twice the action on screen makes for twice the enjoyment, not to mention two character specific combat situations and boss battles.

For what can feel like a short experience, I would have dropped well over the £10 asking price going through Double Dragon in the arcades and I got the same feeling as that felt here.  There is a demo available as always and I strongly suggest you go check it out.  Just remember to persevere if things feel a little ‘shanky’.

MLG Rating: 8/10

Platform: Xbox 360 (Playstation 3)  Release Date: 24/08/2010

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a digital  copy of Shank for review purposes by the promoter. The title was reviewed over the course of three days on an Xbox 360. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

Its been a long time coming, but the daddy of racers ‘Gran Turismo 5′ is finally due for release this coming November.  With 16 player online multiplayer, damage modeling and not to mention 3D support, fans deserve a lot from this title.

Next up we have some Death Track: Resurrection.  Think of a mixture of The Fast and the Furious and Death Race and you’ll soon find the tone that 1C Company are trying to hit with this combat racer.

Want more racing combat? Anarchy Rush Hour takes aspects from many games, melding street racing, stunts and car combat all into one game.

PC time now people -- EA bring us a free to play open world racer exclusively to the PC. With real world licensed cars, player profiles and a sophisticated match making system.  Needs for Speed World could fill quite a void.  Oh and did I mention it was FREE?

Finally, with all of the official teams, cars and circuits you’d expect from the official F1 title, Codemasters are pushing their EGO Game Technology Platform to recreate the feel of driving a 200+ MPH car.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sojw9x1X-M

Gran Turismo 5, Developer: Polyphony Digital, Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

Death Track: Resurrection, Developer: 1C Company, Publisher: 505 Games

Anarchy Rush Hour, Developer/Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment

Need for Speed World, Developer: Black Box, Publisher: EA

F1 2010, Developer/Publisher: Codemasters

First Anthony Carmine took a sniper shot to the head at the ‘House of Sovereigns‘ in Gears of War 1

Then it was poor Benjamin Carmine who suffered greatly inside the ‘Rift Worm‘ in Gears of War 2, after which Marcus collected his GOC tags and a letter written to his brother Clay.

This brings us nicely to Clay Carmine, the third brother who’s to be introduced in Gears of War 3 in April next year.  But what is to be his fate?  From the 29th July Xbox Live users will be able to cast their vote to either see the COG soldier following in his brothers footsteps or break tradition and survive the entire game.  Two Avatar t-shirts will be available on the marketplace to show support, one with the words “Save Carmine” and one with “Carmine Must Die“.  Each purchase counts as a vote with ALL proceedings going to the ‘Childs Play’ charity

This harkens back to DC comics in the late 80′s with the Batman story “A death in the family” where readers were able to call a premium number and vote on the possible survival of Robbin.  Needless to say, over 20 years ago the fans wanted blood for the second Robbin ‘Jason Todd’.  In this day and age, will Gears of War fans show mercy?

So come on fellow MidLife Gamers…. which way do you want Clay Carmine to go?

With noticeable lag and expected mini game collections, Kinect looked to be very light on the whole “game” front.  However I believe I saw one title where the developers actually understand that you work to your strengths and understand your limitations.

Lets take another look at what Harmonix had to show off, Dance Central.

Up until this point, every game seemed to respond slowly, however with Dance Central, it wasn’t so apparent.  The reason for this I see as being smart design.

In the same way Suda 51 knows how best to “compliment” a game with motion control on the Wii, Harmonix are understanding Kinect’s apparent limitations and working around these.

Take the look of the game while its playing, the focus is placed more on the game than the player, unlike everything else which relies on reminding the player they are in the game.  Each dance routine has been split into individual moves, meaning that for a good few beats of a song, Kinect only has to recognise one simple gesture.  There are no transitions and the actual in game representation of the player is only shown in a small box by the list of upcoming moves.  Excellent, work there Harmonix!  You understand that the controller (in this case, “yourself”) is not the be all and end all of a game.  The more you hide the controller and forget about it, the more you can be drawn into the game.

Developers please take heed.  Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do something.

Its taken a long time for some developers to hit that fine balance in the Wii and Xbox owners are much less patient.

Over to you then MLG Community: What did you take away from the Kinect live demonstrations tonight?

Since then, one of these has already been teased as part of the Rock Band: Green Day demo, namely the addition of the keyboard instrument (although still no confirmation as to how this will be implemented).

With that in mind, I wanted to get his remaining suggestions out there for all to digest, but before we begin, let us understand that this is a wish list assuming that Harmonix have limitless money and resources at their disposal.

1) Setlist open from the get go

This is something we’re starting to see as a trend now, but let’s make sure a casual player who has little time to grind through the career can jump into Quickplay and have every song available from day one.

2) Song Export

Been building up your Rock Band library for some time now? Haven’t we all!  So let’s allow the usual option to export the songs on disc to your system’s hard drive.

3) Character / Band import

Spent hours creating the ultimate band in Rock Band 2? Then let’s have the ability to import that band, including their current equipment and threads!

4) Menu Sounds

Let’s get rid of those menu sounds, you know the ones I mean, the guitar sound for entering or existing a screen, or for scrolling through songs.

5) Harmonies

Let’s hope that RB3 is going to be using the same engine and design as The Beatles.  So let’s get harmonies throughout the entire back catalogue of songs (where applicable).

6) Duelling Instruments

Got 2 drum kits? Got 4 guitars?  Let the players have a local face off using whatever combination of instruments they we have laying about.

7) Lead & Rhythm

Like we used to have in Guitar Hero co-op, the option to play replace the bass track with rhythm action. Actually scratch that, let’s have another runway and include an extra band member.

8) Drumming Without The Kick

The ability to remove the kick pedal from the equation, but still being able to ramp up the difficulty for the pads.

9) Drum Overdrive Method

Not everyone likes the fills, or is any good at them.  How about letting the drummer select the original fill method, or The Beatles timed one.

10) Better Tutorials

How about the game analysing your performance to spot where you have trouble with specific instruments and suggest songs which will help you overcome those obstacles?

11) Facial Scanning

Eye Toy / XBox Live vision camera support to allow players to scan their face and have it mapped to your band member.

12) Custom / Saved Setlist

Custom setlists can be saved against a users account.  Party time is here and you want that cheesy 80′s cock rock setlist with Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi – just select it from your library.

13) Advanced Filtering

What if I want to see all songs, which are 4 star of above difficulty just for the bass.  Bang, there it is.

14) Ghost Performance

If you’re the type of person who thrives off friendly or competitive leaderboards, how about being able to select a specific users score for a song, which then tracks your progress compared to theirs as your playing?

15) Video Recording

Just like SingStar, users with the Eye Toy or XBox Live vision camera can select to save or upload performances after each song.  A bit of an in game editing suite might not be a bad idea either…

16) Live Gig Mode

Taking the video recording to the next level, before you start to play your setlist of cheesy 80′s music you should be able to send a tweet out from your linked twitter account with a URL.  The link then takes followers to the Rock Band web site and streams the performance directly to their desktop.

So there you have it, 16 ways in which RB3 could improve to be really awesome. More suggestions? Drop us a comment and let us know what you want from the next Rock Band…

2010 brings us Ubisoft’s latest telling of the Prince, who this time has returned to his Kingdom only to find it under siege by an overpowering army, throwing you right into the action with the expected mixture of 3D platforming and good old swordplay. The story may not be the most original with its Good Vs Evil power struggle, but it does its job and keeps the game paced well with some admirable voice acting.  The Prince in particular is his usual cocky and overconfident self, but does so without being obnoxious.

To start, lets focus on what has always made Prince of Persia games great, the platforming.  All of the staple actions return including wall running, swinging on bars and naturally avoiding a whole host of traps on the way.  It seems Ubisoft have really nailed level design when it comes to challenging your thinking and dexterity, taking learning’s away from the Assassin Creed 2’s tomb sections and expanding on them.  I’ve never before seen one environment change so much during a platforming sequence to continue to add complexity and keep the prince progressing while not having to load a new environment.

Things can get a little crazy as the game progresses and the Prince unlocks new magical abilities thanks to the last remaining Jin in the city, starting you off with the ability to freeze water in place.  Once this option is toggled the Prince is able to use water spurts to leap onto or swing across, while running across frozen waterfalls and leaping from column to column.  Towards the end, the Prince is also able to change the formation of his environments, allowing long gone platforms and columns to become solid again.  Again the level design compliments these new gameplay elements and will really challenge the players perception.

Once a new ability is unlocked through the story, the Prince will be given a number of easy to understand obstacles which help teach the player how to use these correctly.  These sequences are invaluable as towards the end of the game the player will be expected to use all of these abilities on the run up to the games final battle.

The only downside to the platforming would be the controls, although Ubisoft have implemented these to the best of their abilities, there are times when the animation of the prince would indicate his next jump will be successful, but result in a long drop to his death.  We do however see a return of a rewind time ability, which although limited the average players will use a lot.

The platforming is broken up like all Prince of Persia games with combat.  Where the 2008 outing saw the Prince taking on single foes, this is a return to form with kill rooms of up to 20-30 enemies ranging from soldiers and sand creatures up to mini boss golems and giants.  The Prince is equipped with a trusty sword, a knockdown kick and an evade action when things get a little too hairy.  Some enemies require more than just button mashing and a combination of all of the above.  The Prince is also able to use one of four combat abilities, such as a whirlwind or fire trail, but as this uses up a mana slot (also used for rewinding time), players soon find that the standard attack is sufficient for almost all situations. Combat does however yield experience for the prince, which in turn can be used to develop his abilities as the player sees fit.  These range from additional sword or kick damage to an increased health bar or improved time rewinding ability.

Once the story is completed the player is able to play the challenge mode, this is a single killroom with 8 waves of varying and increasingly difficult enemies.  A great place to continue to rack up experience outside of the story in the attempt to max all of your skills out.  Although your time is registered allowing you to replay to beat this, the game would have benefited from additional levels of complexity and perhaps throw some platforming challenges in there.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game, the feeling of accomplishment once I had finally managed to bend my fingers around the controller to achieve what at first seems impossible is second to non.  I just wanted more, which lets face it, is never a bad thing.

MLG Rating: 8/10

Platform: Xbox 360 (Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, Windows, Nintendo DS, PSP)  Release Date: 20/05/2010

Disclosure: Midlife Gamer were provided a physical copy of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands for review purposes by the promoter. The title was reviewed over the course of ten days on an Xbox 360. For more information on what our scores mean, plus details of our reviews policy, click here.

After a big of digging, I got in touch with the man behind the text to ask him how he came about creating this Fighting Fantasy style game.

MM – To kick things off, can you tell the readers of MidLife Gamer who you are what you do?

MR – Hi! I’m Matthew Reynolds and I work as a video games reporter for UK entertainment website Digital Spy.

MM – Next up is something dear to every MidLife Gamers heart and something we ask of everyone we meet, what is your favourite beverage and favourite biscuit?

MR – Beverage – tea. Hands down. Biscuit? Chocolate digestives. Or Cadbury’s Gestives, which were essentially the same thing but with chocolate chips thrown in. I tried one by chance ages ago and haven’t seen them again, but I still remember how mindblowing it was. Please let me know if you do spot them in the wild.

MM – For those who haven’t had a chance to look at “Text Zedventure” yet, can you give them an idea as to what the game is?

MR – Text Zedventure is a choose-your-own adventure game where you explore a variety of locations through choices using the Xbox 360 controller. It’s just text and sound, no visuals. You play three separate chapters within the same city, trying to escape and survive after it succumbs to a virus that has infected its residents.

MM – An amount of profits are going to charity, can you let our readers know where that will be going and your reasons behind the choice?

MR – Until May 31, all profits (45p of the 65p each game costs, after Microsoft’s take) go to charity Save The Rhino. After that date, 25% go the charity. The reason for this is I figured the main sales period of the game comes just after release, and such a promotion would hopefully persuade more to pick it up sooner rather than delaying a purchase and then not looking at the game again, thus raising more funds. How well that’ll do, however, remains to be seen. I’ll be releasing data on my website about sales and so on in June, but it’s already sold over 1,000 copies, which is rather excellent.

I’m doing this because I ran the London Marathon earlier this year and this game was my main sponsorship idea. It was released two weeks after the event, rather frustratingly (it was supposed to be done before Christmas!) but the funds are still obviously part of my sponsorship. The reason I picked Save The Rhino in the first place is that I wanted to raise money for an animal charity, and one that would deserve the cash. They run 15 conservation projects around the world with just five full-time staff members, and conserve species in over 126,000 square kilometres in Africa, so I knew every penny would go a long way.

MM – For anyone out there who is interested in making a game for the Xbox 360 Indie platform, can you give them know what is involved and the process you had to follow?

MR – Well for one, I have no programming experience whatsoever – I’m just another one of those annoying press types who wishes he could make games but couldn’t, hence why it was so simple! I had to start from scratch and learn the ins and outs through a variety of tutorials and samples online. The official XNA website has a video series on 2D and 3D games, which give you a vague idea of how things work, and it’s best to find a tutorial close to whatever game type you’re looking at and build it from there. (As I need to go from one panel to the next, I built Text Zedventure from a Game State Management sample.)

If you search using the right terms and look in the right places, you can fill the gaps from tutorials and with enough tinkering it will work. I think having programming experience will help tremendously, but to do something as simple as a choose-your-own adventure, I think I piecing it together like this serves fine. There’s also a real sense of satisfaction knowing that I constructed it without actually taking a course or likewise, especially as wielding together many of the components in the game wasn’t as obvious as it looked. It was a massive challenge, but in the end I absolutely loved doing it.

MM - How helpful was the Xbox 360 Indie community when it game to creating the game?

MR – Very! As per the last question, any gaps or things that wouldn’t work out I pitched to the official XNA forums, and they were always extremely helpful in eliminating why things don’t work and what you’re doing wrong. As long as you go in there with as much information as possible, and don’t ask the most basic questions that are obviously answered elsewhere, then they’ll give you all the help you need. It’s a real great community and I quite honestly wouldn’t have done it without them.

MM – Once your game is made available, what avenues have you taken for promotion?

MR – I’ve mainly pitched it to smaller ‘fan’ websites and indie-only venues. As I work in the press I know it is unlikely to make the big blogs and websites, so I’ve focused my energy on the gamers themselves would are more likely to give it a look. (Although saying this, Gamesradar picked it up by its own accord and gave it a sterling write up, which absolutely made my month.) Twitter is also an invaluable tool, since the #xblig hashtag and retweets acts as a direct channel to users you wouldn’t otherwise have had contact with.

MM – With so many MidLife Gamers growing up with text adventures, which would you say stick out in your mind as some of the greats?

MR – No games come to mind (I remember playing a few growing up but nothing concrete!) but the main inspiration was the Fighting Fantasy series by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone, which I pored over after picking up a dozen books on the cheap from a car boot. It also gave me a clear design decision in the game, which was that choices should matter and be permanent where possible. There was always the temptation to go back to your last page and go half way down the other route to see what could have happened, which kind of cheapened that original choice. In the game, if you made a decision you have to stick with it, and have to go through with the end result. I wanted players to really consider certain situations, and care about the outcome.

MM – The zombie apocalypse setting is something we’re seeing a lot more of as of late, was there anything specifically that inspired to story behind Text Zedventure?

MR – It was – at the time of conception (about a year ago – early 2009!) the zombie theme was all the rage and hadn’t quite got stale yet, so that was a factor. The main trigger however was that I was reading Max Brooks’ World War Z at the time, which eventually gave me the idea of individual standalone chapters, as well as an overall pessimism to events that Text Zedventure carries.

MM – Have you any thoughts about bringing Text Zedventure to any other platforms?

MR – I’d like to – PC is a natural choice considering the XNA platform makes for a fairly easy conversation, but whether people would be interested for the effort it would take is something I’ll have to consider. But I’m certainly open to the idea of different platforms.

MM – What is next for Matthew Reynolds, are you planing any future development?

MR – I’d like to develop another game – this was mainly an aside to my press duties, to finally make a game as I wanted to growing up – and the concept can easily be extended. Again, it’s a case if people want it, since it is rather time intensive and at times rather stressful! Ultimately, I would be happy to give it another go if people want to see the concept develop further.

You can check out Matthew Reynolds personal web site here which contains further details on the success of his title and don’t forget to check out his game “Text Zedventure” on Xbox Live Indie Games for 80 MS points.

This year saw a new category entered which certainly deserves to stand beside the likes of “Best Television Soundtrack” or “Best Contemporary Song” which saw an unexpected winner.

The prestigious “Best Original Video Game Score” statue this year went to composer “Joris de Man”, the man behind the Killzone 2 Score.

The Ivors committee had the following to say in regards to the new category

“The Ivors has always sought to reflect the ever-changing world of songwriting and composing.The video games market has matured beyond recognition and big budget orchestral scores are regularly being commissioned. Writing music for games also requires a number of specialist skills compared with conventional film scoring, such as non-linear and multi-layered composition.”

Recorded at the world-renowned Abbey Road Studio’s, the score is available on iTunes here

What games of late do you feel deserve to be recognised for their score?

Since then as we all know, a coalition has been setup to act as government for the United Kingdom which brings Ed Vaizey into the spotlight as Culture Minister.

Lets take a look back at Xero’s questions and spotlight Ed’s answers -

Xero: First question, who are you and what do you do?

I’m Ed Vaizey and I’m both the Shadow Culture and Creative Industries Minister and MP for Wantage and Didcot.

X: Next, something we ask everyone here at Midlife Gamer, a subject that is very near and dear to our hearts; what is your favourite biscuit and beverage?

EV: Biscuits – whatever my team leave lying around for me to steal, beverage – probably coffee, though I am working on drinking more water.

X: So, do you play interactive entertainment of any form yourself, either as a personal hobby or with family members? If so, what do you play, if not, why not?

EV: I’ve played the Wii a few times, and achieved the distinction of coming last in the party conference Wii ski-jumping competition. I hope to get a bit more time to work on my skills over Christmas.

X: Perhaps one of the hottest areas of debate in video games at the moment is that surrounding violence and controversial material. Do you believe the current structure of censorship for questionable content is adequate?

EV: The fact that there have been two different bodies rating games has been confusing for consumers and parents. I know the video games sector is keen to address this. The current digital economy bill will change the way that video games are rated, making age ratings compulsory for all boxed games designed for those aged 12 or above – we are supportive of this measure. I think in terms of adult games, as with film, theatre and art, individuals should be free to make their own decisions on what they buy, watch and play.

X: Can video games be responsible in influencing young people to commit violent acts and inspire criminal behavior?

EV: As I understand it, research in this area has not shown that conclusively. The roots of crime are complex, and personally I do not believe it can ever be as simple as the ‘video games cause crime’ headline that is often bandied around.

X: Why do you believe certain British politicians, for example Keith Vaz MP, focus much of their energies on highlighting the negative areas of interactive entertainment?

EV: It is perhaps an easy way to generate press coverage. As video games are a relatively new medium, I think they are something that few current MPs have direct experience of – it is much easier to be negative about an area which you don’t personally know well.

X: How important is the video games industry to the nation in particular regards to economics? Is it something worth investing more in, for example at the higher education, small business and blog level?

EV: There is a lot of talk around government and Westminster about NENJ (pronounce it ninja!) an acronym for ‘new economy, new jobs’. It refers to high tech jobs, green jobs, but also crucially jobs in the creative industries, as those which will drive our economy in the future. I think this is absolutely the case, and the video games sector has a key role to play in this. The UK has an amazing talent for creativity and this is absolutely something we should be investing in and seeking to capitalize upon.

Personally I would love to be able to invest more in the video games sector if we were in government. For me the key areas are helping UK companies retain their IP rights, access investment, increase understanding amongst investors of creative businesses, and development support.

X: If we are to assume that video games are indeed art, does government have a responsibility to preserve them? Should Manhunt, for example, be included in the nation’s galleries or museums, and if so, are there any plans to do so?

EV: I think that is something that we will begin to see. I would like to expand the remit of the UK Film Council to also cover video games, and this is the kind of area where they could take the lead. The British Film Institute already keeps records of video games. I think critics are leading the charge on this, with considerable media discussion about the significance of, for example, Grand Theft Auto. So I don’t think this necessarily has to be about the government stepping in and taking responsibility, but rather, perhaps enabling the sector to work on changing perceptions and becoming regarded as a mainstream art form, alongside film or literature.

X: What do you believe the future of Britain’s games industry is, and how do we get there?

EV: I hope, as outlined above, building on and expanding on considerable successes so far. I think this does require a significant shift in attitudes, starting with Government: video games, and the creative industries, should be at the centre of our business and economic plans. At the moment, they are too easily set to the side as a ‘niche’ sector.

So here’s hoping that Ed Vaizey can deliver as promised by ensuring the video gaming as a business continues to thrive…

Reports from VG247 not only allude to multiple non disclosure agreements in force against British publishers and developers, but also suggest the following additional features:

• PSP2 has two cameras, one forward and one backward facing
• It has a touch-screen, but apparently it has retained the trademark physical PlayStation buttons.
• Digital only media (such is the case with the PSP Go)
• 3G over the air connectivity
• A possible 2011 release!

With theories around the release moving from late 2010 to early 2011, perhaps E3 this year isn’t the place we’ll get the first official look at the PSP2, but could in fact be later this year at TGS…