Xbox 360 Review: Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

After the final boss lay dead before my feet, I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment that no videogame has ever given me before. My hands were gripping the controller so tight that there was actually some pain in my fingers – a reminder of the well-timed parries and attacks that made my time with Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance a success. 

This is not the stealth-action game that fans of the series are used to. Instead, Rising is a fast-paced, sword-slashing actioner from beginning to end, one that is more of a parody of the Metal Gear franchise than a legitimate entry. Yet, as one of the biggest fans of Metal Gear on the planet, I absolutely loved it.

Xbox 360 Review: The Amazing Spider-Man

If you haven’t seen the Amazing Spider-Man movie yet, you should see it before you play this game. I promise to keep this review as spoiler free as possible; however, The Amazing Spider-Man videogame serves as a sequel of sorts to the film, taking place right where the movie left off.

Oscorp Labs has been busy using Dr. Connors’ research to create human and animal hybrids. When the beasts escape from the lab, Spider-Man breaks the former Lizard from his cell, and the two begin working to undo the evil deeds of Oscorp -- before all of Manhattan becomes overrun with creatures.

The story here isn’t necessarily great, but having an original story is a nice change from the typical movie tie-in game, which usually just presents some half-assed version of the film’s narrative. The Amazing Spider-Man is also different from your typical movie tie-in game because, to my surprise, it’s actually pretty good. It may not be the best game you’ll play in the action genre, but it’s certainly fun enough to be worth your valuable time. 

The Digital Revolution: Count Me Out.

The PlayStation Vita is coming to a store near you very soon, and with it Sony is saying goodbye to the UMD format. Taking a page from the failed PSP GO, the PlayStation Vita will make all games available through digital distribution, with an additional option to purchase titles on physical Vita game cards. All games can be downloaded from the PlayStation Network store, where they are then saved to proprietary flash memory cards.

There are many reasons why the PSP Go failed, and the existence of the Vita means that Sony doesn't think it has much to do with the digital-only distribution. Sony is putting a lot of money into the hybrid PlayStation Vita, and that means they really believe in it as a viable product. More importantly, it means they are testing the waters to see if a future console that solely features digital distribution can succeed.

The only way to make a portable console even more portable is to eliminate the need to carry around games. Testing the waters of digital distribution with a handheld console is appropriate, but it's likely not going to end there. With the recent rise in sales on the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network, the message being sent by consumers is that they enjoy having software made available to them on demand. It's very possible that the next generation of home consoles will be digital only, or at the very least feature a much larger digital library than we see currently.

If you're like me, your multimedia life is digital already: my music library is on my PC, I stream movies more often than I watch DVDs, and I have bought my fair share of games from Xbox Live Arcade. The inevitable conquest of the virtual console is at hand, and your game discs will soon sit next to cartridges in a museum display. While this may please some of you, I will be dragged into this dark age of gaming kicking and screaming.