If you’re a sports fan – particularly a football fan – you’re going to love the attention to detail when it comes to the teams and the players. The physics for the ball can be a little wonky at times, but not enough to take away from the game play for most serious football players. There are game play changes from other games in the series, but with a little practice you’re going to get used to them. The artificial intelligence is hopped up quite a bit in this version too, making for a much better single player game experience.

This is probably the best looking game in the series so far. When it comes to graphics and visual appeal, this game is like a real football game almost. For die hard football fans and occasional sports gamers alike, this is a great game to add to your Xbox 360 game library.

If you’ve played Madden NFL 11, we’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and let us know what you thought of this latest in the series of Madden football games. The Xbox 360 version is a little different than that for other consoles, but those that are familiar with the series – and even newcomers – are going to have very little trouble picking up the game.

In all seriousness, this sequel to Mafia by 2K Games is set for release in late August 2010. It’s a historic game, starting in the year 1945. The game is full of moral questions as you play the son of immigrants who starts off with a small life of crime only to come to be known by the local mafioso. Pretty soon, the stakes are higher than ever before for Vito – aka you, the player.

The voice acting is top notch in the game, really allowing you to get into the story. That said, even though there’s a huge world in the game that you can explore a little, Empire City falls a little flat, especially compared to games like GTA. Still, if you’re looking for an authentic look at the life of immigrants in the mid 20th century, this is a great little diversion. The XBox 360 version has received good reviews around the Internet.

If you’ve played Mafia II, we’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and let us know what you think about this Mob Game for the Xbox 360.

If you were wanting to try Dungeons and Dragons Online but didn’t want to pay, now’s the time to download and play. There’s FREE unlimited play. The initial download is a bit hefty (around 3 or 4 gigs depending on your choice), but it’s worth the wait. There’s a download helper so if you get stalled, you can quickly start it going again.

Once you download the game, you’re in for quite a treat. If you’re new to MMORPG (massively multi-player online role playing games – what a crappy title!), this is a great way to see what all the fuss is about without plopping down any cash or signing up for a monthly fee. There are some things to consider, however.

Once you start playing, you can spend money on better characters, bonuses, equipment and other things ala carte. So, you don’t need money to start playing, but chances are you’re going to want to plop some money down to really get into the game – especially if you got stuck on Misery’s Peak in the first section of the game. (Visually it’s a STUNNING adventure, but it’s a bit tedious and confusing after a while. Still, that might accurately reflect what that adventure would be like.)

In any case, if you’re wanting to try Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO), now is the time. With it being free to play, you can at least start a character and see what the fuss is about for yourself. There’s a good chance you’re going to become hooked – especially if you played D&D as a kid – but there’s nothing wrong with a little hack and slash dungeon romp every now and then.

If you want to check out what other people think, there’s always the DDO Forums. They’re also a great place to get hints and tips if you’re new to D&D and new to DDO.

If you have played this game – and love it – let us know by leaving a comment below.

This may seem a little too harsh of a review, but the game, overall, is truly unimpressive.  If you’ve played one bad rpg, then you’ve played this one.  Putting this game into your PS3, you’ll wonder what you spent all that money on.  The graphics are reminiscent of yesterday’s consoles, and seems like it was rushed out into stores.

Sometimes a game that lacks graphics or playability can be saved if it includes a unique fighting system, or has stories that you’ll wish were made into movies.  But these are both marks that Last Rebellion missed out on.   The gameplay does introduce a new concept; the two main characters share a soul and health points and kill targets by working together to “mark” and banish them back to whence they came.

But, this is often as confusing as it is frustrating.  One false move, and you’ve send a zombie into a rage that is inescapable.  As you near the end of the game, you’ll figure out how to predictably kill the monsters every time, which turns Last Rebellion from hopeless hard to tedious.

The reviewers at GameSpot have it right when they said that this game simply doesn’t need to exist.  There are too many outdated and boring features of this game to give it any value.  The landscapes would have been outdated if this had come out on a PS2, the story is bland, and the fighting is either frustrating or way too simple.  Last Rebellion is a game way behind it’s time.  Way, way behind.

If you’re looking for a fun game to play, that doesn’t take itself too serious, you’ll want to check out Just Cause 2.  Out in stores in late March, it offers miles of free roaming and plenty of explosions that keep you entertained for a long time.  Though the story doesn’t take too long to complete, 20 hours according to GameSpot, there’s so much to do in game that you’ll still be playing it after you’ve ran through the story.

A few notable things about Just Cause 2 are the graphics and gameplay.  The action is always going, and the landscapes are amazing themselves.  The main character, Rico Rodriguez, is equipped with two things you shouldn’t go without when causing mayhem on an island in southeast Asia; a grappling hook and a parachute.

With these two things, you can pretty much do anything in game.  Grappling between walls and helicopters is a snap, and if you find yourself miles in the air, sending a helicopter to crash into propane tanks, you can parachute out to safety.  The whole island is an absolute blast to explore, since you’re not constrained to anywhere, really.

There are a few hiccups with the game, however.  The story is on the weak side.  The voice acting doesn’t help it much either.  You shouldn’t boot up your PS3 to play Just Cause 2 expecting a riveting, in-depth story.  Expect to have too much fun, however, spending hours hijacking helicopters, dragging snipers off of ledges with your grappling hook, and generally causing exorbitant, wanton destruction.

If you played any of the GTA series, you’ll feel right at home playing Yakuza 3.  It has similar gameplay elements, such as allowing the player to choose between going from mission to mission, or branching out and starting a few brawls in karaoke bars.  You’re free to influence the main character, Kazuma, to either progress the story, or complete side missions and gain experience.

The graphics are pretty good for the game.  If you’re looking for jaw dropping, drool all over yourself, landscapes, you may want to move on.  But overall, the fighting is exciting (though there are a few bugs), and the whole game looks pretty good, overall.

Some people have problems with the progression and direction of the story, such as reviews at GameSpot.  I have to agree with them to a point, because there were times it seemed like story dragged you between different plot initiators.  But overall, going from mission to mission was smooth and exciting.  And with all of the extra side missions you can do, you’ll sit and play for hours

There is another unique aspect to this game that deserves mention; weapon/armor crafting.  With materials you pick up throughout Yakuza 3, you can craft and upgrade weapons and armor.  This is one aspect where the game misses completely.  Though it can be fun to do, the whole thing is pointless, as none of it is necessary to complete the game.

Overall, Yakuza 3 is a fun game to play that gives you hours of entertaining brawling across the streets of Tokyo.

The gameplay is totally different than the rest of the series.  If you played the first few, you remember sneaking around rooms, pulling bodies into dark corners, and frantically picking locks as the guards patrolled closer.  But Conviction has Sam as a determined killer; out to get the guys who took away his daughter.  The game hasn’t turned into a run and gun shooter yet, and stealth is still important, but it doesn’t have the same tricks of the trade that old Sam Fisher used to have up his sleeve.

One of the new features of the game are the interrogations that Sam will sometimes put his foes through.  Overall, the interrogations seem to both hit and miss.  The first few may be kind of exciting, but overall, they’re few and far between, and don’t get any more exciting or feel as fresh and interesting as the first.

But, that shouldn’t draw away too much from the game.  The sound track is pretty amazing.  It weaves you in and out of the story by adding to it, rather than becoming part of the game itself.  It builds suspense when you need it, and is fairly unnoticeable otherwise; the way a good soundtrack should be.

The length of the game was a little too short for my taste as well.  Since most companies are focusing on building the replay value, they often neglect making the first play through exciting enough to want to play it again.  Gamespot has the correct idea when it said that the first play storyline isn’t challenging enough, but the co-op is what really brings the game to life.

You take on the life of Kratos again, almost exactly from where the previous game left off. There’s a reason places like Gamespot and IGN give this a 9.0 or higher; it’s simply stunning. The visuals, the gore, and the scale of the game is even bigger and more jawdropping than the other two could have hoped to be.

The story brings you through the trials and troubles of Kratos, who may suffer from busy-body syndrome when he provokes the titans to climb Mount Olympus to challenge the gods. But, it’s this event that sparks the story for God of War III.

Kratos is armed with the same weapons found in the other God of War games, but they have a huge improvement. Now, you can switch weapons on the fly, often using several in the same combo. And unlike the other games, they are all useful and necessary. The Swords of Exile aren’t the only weapon that you have to use now, as the others in the arsenal become necessary as the game progresses.

It’s the graphics and the scale of the game, however, that make this truly unique. With how high the limits are on the PS3, Sony really pushed this game to the highest level. There isn’t much about this game that won’t have you hugging your console, thanking it for the level of detail, blood spattering, and awesome landscapes that people have come to love in the God of War trilogy.

You may have played GTA4 on the X-box – it was only available there for a while – but with Episodes from Liberty City expansion, you can now get your mayhem going on the PS3. The gameplay is pretty much the same as old versions, but there are new characters, weapons and vehicles.

Some recommend that you start with the The Lost and Damned adventure and then move to the Ballad of Gay Tony. Both happen at the same time during the game, but that was the original order on the X-Box 360.

As mentioned, the new checkpoint system really makes this game a little more fun for people who don’t have three days solid to devote to mastering the game. And if you don’t like it, you don’t have to use it.

Many people have said that the two storylines happening at the same time is really cool because you get to see events in the game from two different perspectives. This is what makes the game fun – well that and the stealing cars and other “stuff” you have to do to win in GTA4 Episodes from Liberty City.

If you’ve played the PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto 4, we’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and let us know what you think.

Supreme Commander 2 XBox - SupCom2

From visual problems to bugs in the software, the first version of Supreme Commander for the X-Box 360 rightfully tanked when it came to hardcore gamers. Luckily, the game developers actually listened to the players and what we have as a result is a much more playable RTS game for the X-Box 360 console.

The sound in Supreme Commander 2 for the XBox 360 still isn’t the greatest, but that’s okay for most people. As with the original Total Annihilation that the game is based on, it’s all about the gameplay. And that’s where Supreme Commander 2 for the X-Box 360 really shines.

The graphics aren’t the greatest, but the level and location design is really well done, letting you get into the battle as you feel a part of the surroundings.

As for the user interface, it’s said to be very easy to get used to if you have even a little experience with the X-Box controller. If not, a little work and you may like it more than playing Supreme Commander 2 on the computer.

In this game you still gather resources, but it’s more about the major battles and moving your troops around, which most people like.

Thoughts on Supreme Commander 2 for the X-Box 360? We’d love to hear them.