Zen Studios’ been doing a great job bringing new content to their flagship product, Pinball FX2. But I guess I already said that before. That’s a great thing. Very rarely do we get to see such a following from a developer for their game post release. Considering how one of these tables was free for a couple of weeks to begin with, it’s hard not to like it. It helps that it’s also an awesome Pinball FX2 table.

THE GOOD:

Humorous!

The Paranormal table explores the funnest and most influential clichés in popular tales of sci-fi and paranormal activity. The main character is a mix of Fox Mulder and David Lynch who’s always getting too far into his cases. Considering this is a simulation of a pinball, there’s only so much they can cram it in but man, there’s a ton of hilarious hidden kinks to find.

Discovery!

If you were lucky enough to grab this for free, there’s a ridiculous amount of content to flip your way through. Regardless, if you’re buying this later on, you won’t have much to regret. There are plenty of levels and challenges to tackle later on. Like the previous PBFX2 releases, you’ll find a heavy dose of challenges in Paranormal. I was also refreshing to see how missions are served out – by placing bullets in a gun chamber, looking your pinballs and culminating in a multiball frenzy.

THE BAD

Cramped!

At points, it feels like this table is cramped. This might sound ridiculous, considering this is a videogame and practically anything can happen but that’s exactly the problem here. There’s so much happening at once that Paranormal feels really cramped. It looks a little smaller that the usual FBFX2 table too, so that’s probably the reason why I had this feeling.

THE UGLY

For a temporarily free table, Paranormal was one hell of a deal. For 240 MS Points, the usual price for Pinball FX2 DLC, it’s still very much worth it. Just like previous downloadable content, there’s a enormous amount of replayability in the form of online scoreboards and the Pinball FX2 friends list integration.

THE GOOD

Fresh… sorta.

Sorcerer’s Lair started out as a Zen Pinball PlayStation3 table and now it’s part of the Pinball FX 2 catalog. We’ve been getting a wave of licensed tables lately, so it’s refreshing to see an original theme dropped into Pinball FX2. The fantasy theme of exploring a sorcerer’s castle is an interesting premise for a pinball table and Zen Studios managed to cram a lot of secrets into this table.

Layers… more than a wedding cake!

Do you remember the NES version of Pinball? No? Well I do. I used to love playing that game with my brother and uncle when I was a kid. Granted, these days it’s considered to be the worse of the pinball games on that system but I wasn’t aware of that fact at the time nor cared. It had special levels that could be accessed by doing certain mundane tasks like lining up icons and scoring points. Sorcerer’s Lair takes that concept further by opening up challenge sections off table, like a complex series of gears that are used to guide the pinball or using flippers to kill spiders.

Light show… to a point.

Like the Marvel tables, this particular table is extremely flashy. Falling in with its name, magic is shown off with plenty of flashing lights and colors.

THE BAD

Alone in the dark

Similarly to the hero tables, things tend to get a little confusing at times due to the table layout, which twists and turns rails that arch over each other and can easily confuse you if you’re not paying attention. That’s made relatively worse due to lack of lighting during special portions of the game, like when multiball mode is activated.

THE UGLY

Pinball FX2 fans have plenty to be happy about with Sorcerer’s Lair. The theme is relatively new to the game and the table design is extremely fun. It’s easy to go into the million point area right away, so don’t be surprised to see +8 digit scores in the online leaderboards. The many layers of special stages and secret sections are also very fun to unlock and go beyond the mechanic of nailing a trick shots repeatedly.

I had the chance to play and preview this game during my visit to E3. During my play time at that event, Kill Team seemed like a cool twist on the 40,000 franchise, which up ’til now had only been used as fiction for a few RTS games and a couple of forgettable shoot ‘em ups. So how did it end up?

THE GOOD

Cool classes

The Space Marines are tough dudes and the classes you can pick from show it. Each has its own pros and cons, some favor ranged fighting, while others like to get in close and melee the crap out of Orks. There are some twists in that ying/yang relation though, one class in particular serves as a support unit, with its own special power up in the form of a deployable turret. I enjoyed jumping around the classes but ended up sticking with the guy that carries around a huge rocket launcher. Call it ‘playing it safe’! You can even pick which sect your space marine is from, which boils down to which color his armor is, really.

Somewhat hectic gameplay… but fun?

Kill Team is played pretty much the same way you would play a game like Robotron. You’re constantly flanked by attacking Orks that charge at you with no regards to anything. There are a few different types of enemies, including bosses that try to vary things up a bit but the main thing you’ll be doing in this game is walking back and laying down the lead on foes. The few power-ups that you can uncover for your weapons help out your odds of surviving the onslaugh and are the basic offerings you’d expect to see in a game like this: shields, weapon buffs and health pick-ups. There’s also a few perk upgrades you can earn which add a few options for you to customize your marine with as well as two or three new guns that are unlocked as you progress through the game.

THE BAD

Can’t see where I’m going or doing!

It’s really tough when a developer tries something different or stylish within an already well developed genre. Although Kill Team is a competent dual stick shooter, there are times where I didn’t know where the hell I was going thanks to some insane camera shifts, tilts and angles. Not to mention the overuse of slow motion during certain kills. What’s even more annoying, you can’t skip cutscenes either, and those are pretty darn long to begin with. If you die during a stage, get ready to watch these over and over again.

Grabbing a friend to play… locally!

How are we still getting local only multiplayer in downloadable games these days? Sure, playing locally with a friend is fun but the option to take things online is vital for a game like this. Tough luck, you won’t see it in this game!

Over in a whim…

Kill Team’s only five levels long. If you want to stretch the game out a little, you can go after the scattered collectible aquila badges hidden throughout levels, but beyond that, there’s only a handful of survival stages that take place in enclosed parts of the campaign stages. You’re able to battle friends over leaderboards in regards to how long they can last in this mode. Beyond that, there’s very little to do in this game after you’re doing with the “story” mode. There isn’t even the option to rank up the difficulty.

THE UGLY

Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team isn’t a bad game. It’s a pretty competent twin stick shooter. That’s the problem. It’s just competent. There’s a metric ton of better shooting games out there in the download space. It’s a saturated market and if you don’t try to set yourself apart from the pack, you’re doomed to be forgotten. There’s a small tie-in to the actual Space Marine game set for release later this month in the form of an unlockable power sword. That’s it. Emperor or not, Kill Team is just another forgettable game that you’ll be done with in a weekend.

Does this table stack up with previous pieces of downloadable content for the excellent Pinball FX 2?

THE GOOD:

Sploding with character!

Ms. Splosion Man is probably one of Twisted Pixel’s funniest characters and that’s saying a lot. The transition from an action platforming game to pinball was done perfectly. Not only that, but all the charm from the original game is intact as well. Be ready to get the same funny quips from the Ms. Splosion Man game along with a few new ones.

Miiiiiiillios of points…

Seriously, I stink at pinball games. Things get way too hectic and I don’t really keep up. Even so, the Pinball FX2 tables manage to help me squeeze out a lot of fun in the limited time my skills let me keep a ball in game. Ms. Splosion Man’s table is no different, in fact, this is probably my most successful scoring table for this particular pinball game. I was able to do a lot of the objectives in my first run through and was even placed in the top scoring leaderboards among my game reviewing friends, with a few million points to boot.

Don’t get her wrong!

That’s not to say this Ms. Splosion Man table is a walk in the park. Just like her actual game, this lady does not pull any punches. There are a lot of layers of missions and quests to play through as you progress in the table, like taking down the hunkering Mighty Eternal bot, blowing up scientists and even saving Splosion Man from the clutches of evil. All’s done through a variety of objectives that involve this table’s many twists and turns, some of which are extremely tricky to do and require a ton of skill to pull off. All in all, expect to spend a lot of time with this lady and her table’s balls in play.

Her looks are also explosive

Pinball FX2 is a very colorful and vibrant game and this Ms. Splosion Man table only carries that notion forward. The visual style and character design of the Twisted Pixel games was carried over perfectly, along with the rest of the presentation. This is one truly beautiful table, for sure.

THE BAD:

The lights! They buuurn!

Like I mentioned before, Pinball FX2 is an extremely busy game. If you don’t get ‘into the game’ and focus on the pinball, you won’t last long. There are a ton of lights and flickers doing their best to draw your attention away from the game at all times. That really isn’t a detractor to PBFX2, all pinball games are like that, but be prepared by a double dose of crazy if you decide to get this table.

THE UGLY:

Pinball FX 2 was already a blast to begin with and pardon the pun, but Ms. Splosion Man’s even more of a bomb. It’s a fully featured piece of downloadable content that expands PBFX2′s truly awesome gameplay even further. If you like Twisted Pixel’s games, you shouldn’t waste any more time. Just go get this table and have a go at it. You’ll thank me later.

THE GOOD:

Variety is the piece of the universe

Having the ability to switch from various factions is Retribution’s greatest strength. It’s a lot of fun to see each of the factions’ unique abilities. Tyrannids have swarms of units that literally swarm enemies for instance, while the imperials tend to stick back, pick off targets, with longer range firepower. Orks are completely bananas, building their own contraptions with parts littered from space. It’s awesome to see a particular mission from various angles as well as employing different tactics in the other game modes.

The return of bases… somewhat

Relic’s been trying their best to move away from the base game with Dawn of War II but Retribution somewhat brings back a few base build elements. You don’t build bases per se during missions, but you’re able to fortify capture points and get expendable ground forces that can help out your hero characters. Keeping these fortifications is vital during most of the missions and do play a big role in later difficulty settings.

MULTIPLAYER!

Dawn of War II had a pretty decent multiplayer host of options but Retribution takes it to another level. The Last Stand mode is a survival based multiplayer level that pits you and up to three other people against increasingly tougher odds. Although there are only two maps to pick from, The Last Stand is a lot of fun to play with friends or even randoms, even more if your character is already somewhat leveled.

Leveling… the best of…

Character development plays a big part in Dawn of War II and even though Retribution is a standalone product and not an expansion, it borrows a lot from the previous game. The upgrade system is very complex and you’ll be more often than not having to make tough choices in terms of what abilities to pick when you level up, thanks to all the roads you can take in a skill tree, like a powerful gun upgrade in place of a movement speed upgrade. You can ticker and build a big deck of characters from just the base faction choices, which adds a lot of replay to Retribution.

Holy crap… achievements

If you’re into Steam achievements, holy crap, be ready to spend a LOT of time in this one. There are over 70 unique achievements to earn that take you through the entire game and challenge you to be increasingly better. This is a pretty creative set of achievements for sure.

THE BAD

Weaker campaign

Retribution does have as good of a story campaign as Dawn of War II, feeling more like a mosaic of back stories thanks to the fact that it sports so many factions.

THE UGLY

Dawn of War II: Retribution is one of the best follow up pieces of content around. The fact that it’s a standalone product makes it an easy choice for newcomers to jump aboard, the kind that doesn’t want to worry about picking up every single shred of story. The other kind, though, that does want to dive into the lore, there’s plenty of threads that can lead you further down the 40K rabbit hole, as well as introduce you to the best gameplay features from the original Dawn of War II. For veterans, this is a great set of missions and game modes to play through and shouldn’t be missed if you already enjoyed previous Dawn of War games.

So what makes Bastion so great?

THE GOOD:

GORGEOUS!

This is one of the best looking downloadable games around. The art is amazingly colorful and detailed all throughout the game. Every environment you visit has its own look and feel, and the characters you’ll interact with, both allies and foes
feel like live, breathing creatures and not just sprites.

Atmosphere… breathe it all in!

Awesome art is just a slice of Bastion’s charm. The inclusion of a dynamic narrator is sure to keep you glued to the game until the end and probably beyond that. The way the narration follows your actions is easily one of Bastion’s coolest features. It hardly repeats, either, so the added challenge of discovering what else that guys has to say about the story if you do something different here or there is yet another reason to keep playing. Bastion’s soundtrack is also noteworthy, featuring some of the best tunes I’ve heard in a game, period.

So much in such a small download!

There’s a lot to do in this game. Depending on the combination of weapons you choose to use, there will be numerous other ways to play the game that will take you more than one playthrough to see. Some of which them are vastly different than the rest and require a whole other style of playing Bastion. Plus, you’ll want to discover all of the hidden idols and runes that add an extra layer of challenge to the game, along with making your score ever so popular in the leaderboards.

Combat revolved!

Bastion takes a cue from popular dungeon hacking games like Diablo but manages to carve its own style with much simplified controls. It’s all down to evade dodging incoming attacks and countering with your own. There are no magic bars preventing you from using certain weapons repeatedly, it’s all down to a very well designed cooldown system. Extra props to allowing the interchange between buttons when picking weapons – if you’re down to going with just ranged weapons, be Bastion’s guest!

THE BAD:

Chaos…

The combat in Bastion is tight and works extremely well regardless of the weapon combination you choose to implement. However, there are instances where you can get a little too busy, mainly at the beginning of the game when you don’t have as many weapons or power-ups, with enemies swarming you left and right. This happened very rarely during my playthrOugh and maybe it’s just my fault for not being very good at games! Who knows?

THE UGLY:

SuperGiantGames’ debut game is absolutely phenomenal. The influences from games like Diablo and Torchlight are obvious, but Bastion has a lot of personality and more than enough content to stand on its own as an unique game. From the start screen down to the final stage, Bastion has variety and challenge to keep you coming back for a long while.

Editor’s note: Special thanks goes out to SuperGiantGames Creative Diretor Greg Kasavin for kindly providing a review code for the game. Also, if you aren’t very interested in diving into this title on an Xbox 360, be sure to check out the upcoming Steam version of Bastion on August 16th.

How can a show which only had thirteen episodes spawn a feature film? After Joss Whedon’s Firefly was cancelled in 2002, sci-fi fans howled as Fox tore another great show to pieces and created the biggest open wound in the community since NBC forced the Enterprise off the air in 1969. But following in the grand traditions of fanboys long departed, the self styled “Browncoats” aimed to misbehave and refused to let the show head off into the blackness of cancellation. By 2005, decent DVD sales and a fan writing campaign had brought the crew of our favorite Firefly class ship together for another adventure. But sadly, what we got was the worst of all worlds, a movie that is at once generic and esoteric, as well as overdone to the point of being boring.

Having watched the film before I absorbed the series it is based on (which is completely worthwhile addition to any DVD shelf or Netflix account) I returned to the film hoping that having spent some quality time with the cast of characters I would come to appreciate the film and understand the near messianic status it has within the genre. Having experienced the film from both a position of ignorance and fluency with its canon, one has to come upon the terrifying conclusion that this film fails as no other has. The casual viewer will find that they have no idea what is going on through half of the film, as Whedon exposition of character development is non existent. Between the hammed up fight scenes, we are treated to a series of crude brawls and bashed over the head with philosophical monologues to treat these characters as anything other than generic forms filling out the role in another CGI enhanced mess. Having been confused as a causal viewer, this dynamic was nothing short of tragic as a fan, watching the titanic characters of the series reduced to crude caricatures. The down to earth decency of Nathan Fillion’s Mal Reynolds is lost among the too frequent chase scenes and close angle brawls. Indeed, none of the nuanced layered and superbly flawed characters of the show appear to star in this film. Gone is River Tam’s innocent and playful side, as is Simon’s cultured reserve. But equally devastating are the long absences of Shepard Book and Inara from the film, leaving the personality of the ensemble off balance from the harmony the 9 characters created during the series. Serenity may have a shiny new look, but the ship’s heart has been scrubbed.

But the narrative as a whole is where Whedon shows that he can’t make the jump from TV to film. Aside from two unnecessary and poorly explored main character deaths (main characters final battles should never take place off screen or die casually) the whole structure of the Firefly universe comes crashing down by the completely predictable reveal regarding the Reavers. Keeping with the Wild West motif in the series, the Reavers were portrayed as men who had stared into space too long and confronted by the darkness of the human soul had become something inhuman. Terrifying yet profound, this philosophically wondrous subtext is stripped by the film, reducing the Reavers to yet another series mindless zombies created by a failed government experiment. This too undercuts the series narrative regarding the imperious Alliance, as it portrays the them not as the misguided crusaders of the series, but caricatured purple bellied fascist storm troopers. The ambiguous themes of living in a lawless frontier between utter savagery and an altruistic but tightly regulated civilization are blasted away by the superbly rendered climax as the films 28 Days Later and Starship Troopers clash in a dazzling CGI space battle. Without any emotional value in these characters, the space battle is little more than a tech demo.

Adequate performances by Fillion and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the coldly fanatical Operative barely manage to keep the film flying. Although Ejiofor’s performance is decent, hardcore fans would have liked to see another tie in to the series, such as bringing back Jubal Early or the Hands of Blue. Never the less, decent performances can’t make up for the scaled back characters being tossed into a generic plot. Indeed, the generic feel is what undercuts the film, as the lack of characterization is what confuses the casual viewer and disappoints the hardcore fan. This is not the glorious morality play it has been made out to be by internet fandom, it is a high end zombie movie with some of the Whedon charm haphazardly injected into it. These are not the characters we know or would come to love after getting into the series, they are action movie ragdolls as mindless and gray as stereotypical zombies they have to fight off.  For those hoping for the next great adventure, all they will find is a ton of 狗屎.

WH4K Kill Team is an isometric twin stick shooter. Okay, don’t jump off your window yet. It’s not just another shooter. You get to pick from a handful of classes based on the 40,000 fiction. I picked the engineer marine who had the ability to hey, put down automated sentries down. But hey, he had other powers as well, like a super grenade that practically decimated all orks and greenskins that flooded the many screens I ran through.

Cooperative play is probably the best part of this game. I had a buddy along for the ride during the demo and it made all the difference. I’m not sure how balanced the game is for solo play, but it’s pretty ridiculously fun playing with someone else. Orks really outnumber you all the time and your marine is a complete murder machine.

You turn said soldier into a murder machine when you get to upgrade that bad boy when he levels up. You get experience points as you defeat enemies and such, as usual. The upgrades, though, are pretty cool and benefit each class specifically. For instance, my engineer was able to get a few new abilities in the demo when it was time to upgrade, like a stronger ‘area of effect’ (AOE) attack that I ended up not using, sadly.

Kill Team looked pretty darn cool, especially considering it’s a downloadable game. The customary super-exaggerated armor proportions that’s Warhammer’s signature is in full effect in this game and so were the ridiculously slimmy, disgusting and hilarious orks. They die oh-so funnily.

In a way, I really can’t wait to fully play this sucker when it’s out later this year. It’s just fun and in the end, that’s pretty much the reason I still play games. Sure, bring on the serious games but keep making stuff like this, people. It’s fun to shoot monsters in the face. And I certainly love that.

For an American sci-fi fan, these are dark times. Ron Moore and Joss Whedon aren’t producing television series, Star Trek lives on only as a rebooted film series and Star Wars: The Clone Wars is still on the air. But somewhere beyond the horizon lies a strange organization still producing quality television. As alien as it appears, the BBC’s Doctor Who is the show to watch for escapism, fantasy and the occasional lesson.

Sci-fi is often knocked in the mainstream of entertainment for being too weird and fanciful. Make no mistake about it, Dr. Who is a weird show, even by the standards of the genre. We follow around an alien character named the Doctor who receives little back story, and never gives us a name. More than that, he travels through time and relative dimensions in space in a blue phone booth, encountering some of the strangest creatures in existence. Often the storytelling can feel disjointed, comically out of this world and slightly repetitive. American sci-fi bases itself around getting at familiar subjects and experiences by setting itself in a faraway place. Who’s philosophy is the utter unfamiliarity of a place and the danger of an adventure into the unrecognizable. As a result, the overarching themes of the Federation, the browncoats and the 12 Colonies of Man have been scraped away, leaving the show to succeed or fail based on the creativity of a brief encounter with a strange race or character. While devoid Roddenberry’s grandiosity, the show never the less is incredibly entertaining for its inventiveness in both alien species and new cast of secondary characters which crop up every week.

However, there are several elements that bind the show together to make it a powerful addition to the pantheon of good television. First and foremost is the superb acting talents which play the Doctor. In their own ways, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith’s Doctors all display a lovable and endearing character, at times childish and flippant covering up a fierce moralism and cutting intellect. Indeed, despite his human appearance, this is what makes the Doctor so alien and fascinating is his ability to in effect act as an adult version of a child genius. Brilliant and brilliantly funny at the same time, it is a welcome departure from the flawed but stoic warriors who dance across the sky in America. The British wit is alive and well in the Doctor.

Another critical element of the show is that it actually handles time travel in an interesting new way. The viewer is first introduced to characters who’ve encountered our heroes before now, but later in the travelers personal timeline. In other words, time travel allows us to view character development in reverse, where we are introduced to characters after they have an established relationship and watch the details of how the relationship developed later. Additionally, the aftermath of events which take place in the season finale are strewn throughout the regular season, leading to a surprising and innovative reveal every time. This is a brilliant innovating in storytelling through time, cutting away from the tired clichés of non-interference or paradox creating car chases that ruined time travel in America.

Finally, for a series that constantly shifts cast members and even protagonists, there is one constant that keeps the viewer coming back for more: great villains. Be it the robotic efficiency of the Cybermen, the deceptive simplicity of the Ood or the sheer power behind the iconic Daleks, the series villains are terrifying for their utter inhumanity. Indeed, viewers will find themselves nervously standing at tip-toe when that single blue eyestalk emerges from the dark, knowing that a horde of people are about to be ruthlessly exterminated.

Inventive, gripping and at times extremely amusing, there’s good reason the Doctor is gaining popularity in America. With new episodes coming in September, but a wealth of material already available from the BBC this is a show no one will want to miss, regardless of what time you come into the series.

Ninten-Dos

-Increased 3^rd Party support

Don’t get me wrong, Nintendo’s first party titles are legendary franchises. Link, Mario and especially Fox McCloud need to be on the new system. But after all the power stars are collected and Hyrule is safe again, the lack of 3^rd party titles leaves gamers feeling empty, especially since we know that 3^rd parties can create some greats for Nintendo as GTA Chinatown Wars showed. But since the days of the N64, Nintendo’s been losing out in this area. While Miyamoto may be a genius, he’s not the only one and without big new hits from Ubisoft, Valve, Konami and the like, Nintendo fans will keep sighing when their logo is the only one not to appear at the end of a particularly awesome commercial. Much as the fanboys love new hardware and old franchises, an updated Wii Sports and a new Zelda isn’t enough to sustain a system for 6 years.

-Backward compatibility with the Wii:

Backward compatibility itself is a great addition to any console. One of the saddest moments in gaming history occurred when I discovered that I couldn’t play Halo 2 on the 360 in my common room  in college. Moreover, keeping the Wii compatible with the Gamecube controller was a big plus with some of the current generation’s best games, like SSB Brawl or Goldeneye. But in Nintendo’s particular case, there’s good reason to continue to support the Wii format: mommy money. Despite losing out hardcore gamers to Sony and Microsoft this generation, the Wii has never the less outsold them by a huge margin because of its simple and innovative control system. When Nintendo figured out that they could co-opt the same people who’d been telling their kids to turn off that idiot box with hits like Wii Fit, it turned their new system into a cash cow. Having disappointed hardcore gamers for the past few generations, Nintendo shouldn’t swing to the other extreme and leave grandma fumbling with 30 buttons. Keep the Wiimote and Nintendo will keep this new demographic.

The Controller:

According to various sources, the big innovation for Café will be its controller, which will include a 6 inch, touch sensitive screen. If this is true, it would be an amazing step forward. Think about the possibilities. Image an FPS where you use the controller to clear out a room of badies, pop open a panel and have to disarm a bomb on the controller screen itself. But aside from interactive game play, such a controller would blend the lines between console and handheld, allowing players to download minigames directly to their controllers and continue the game after shutting of the TV. If these designs, or something like them, prove to be genuine, they will represent a leap in controller design equal to the N64’s analog stick.

Is this the Future?

Ninten-Don’ts

-Graphics on Steroids

Don’t get me wrong, Project Café is going to be a next generation console and should definitely have some power under the hood, especially compared to the somewhat underpowered Wii. But one of the worst tendencies of the industry has been to equate better graphics with better games ever since Sega turned “Blast Processing” into a slogan. For it own part, Nintendo made the same mistake with Star Fox Adventure, which allowed you to see every hair on Fox’s face as you raced through an 8 hour long Zelda rip off. More recently, Sony and Microsoft have tried to bolster sales of numerous identical shooters by plugging how many millions of shades of grey your grizzled marine will encounter. Story, control and gameplay need to be at the heart of any good system. Plugging the system because its HD or can render ever more detailed shadows means that Nintendo is more focused on the arms race between silicon chips rather than gamers experiences.

-Peripherals

Occasionally, a great peripheral like the Rumble Pak comes along and becomes an industry standard. Most of them, however, end up like the Power Glove: difficult to use, unappealing after the first week and so over hyped and uninspired that they end up sitting in a cabinet with our old Gameboy link cables. When a company starts pushing specialty items that can connect to a system, it suggests that the system is incomplete and incapable of delivering a good time by itself. If Nintendo starts pushing Café’s connectivity with the 3DS or launches with an updated vitality sensor, it means they know the console is no good.

-DVDs, Blueray players and 3DTV

Trying to turn a gaming system into an all-purpose entertainment system is often an expensive but futile proposition. Very few people buy a game system because they can post achievements to facebook or upload pictures to it. This is especially true of DVD players, which were a useless addition as most households already owned one. They drove up the cost of consoles in the current generation and blue-ray may be poised to do the same at even greater cost. Higher prices and distracting from the games will do little to enhance gamers experience while draining their wallets. But at least these are marginally useful. 3DTV is an expensive magic trick that became irrelevant to gaming once the N64 was released. Passing off a background popping out at gamers is the ultimate distraction and would demonstrate that Nintendo has so little confidence in what’s going on in front of the screen. The wow factor will wear out quickly, but unlike useless peripherals, it can’t be put away and will drive up the initial purchase price. Nintendo would do well to remember the last console which they pitched for its advanced 3D effects was the Virtual Boy.

Whatever comes out on stage at E3, it is sure to be big. The question is, will Project Café explode onto the market, or will it explode in Nintendo’s face?

THE GOOD

Great, ’cause otherwise, I’ll erase your ass!

Mars is a fun little table for Pinball FX2. It isn’t as busy as the Marvel Pinball or Fantastic Four tables and it’s on par with the main set you got with the original game. You still get a fair share of missions to partake which are very fun to play through, like navigating your space shuttle in order to avoid solar flares, by shooting the pinball through different corridors. Other quests like gathering soil samples aren’t nearly as tense but work within the theme.

Liberals! Intellectuals! Peacemongers! IDIOTS!

Thankfully, Zen Studios avoided most of the Mars clichés. There aren’t any green men running around the pinball table at any time. Mars is mostly bereft of life this time. No one at home. This is mostly set in space and for that, they’ve done a great job with the presentation. You’ll see your space shuttle fly in from off screen, little robots doing their thing and even a probe here and there scanning the table. Everything looks and sounds as good as you’d expect after playing the other Pinball FX2 tables. There are lots of lights, flickers and sounds all the time.

Anyone keeping tally?

This plus is pretty much a given when we’re talking about Pinball FX2. The online leaderboard system is amazing and ridiculously fun. Battling friends online for the top score is still one of the best parts of FX2, proving that they got a great and viable platform that can be kept alive by quality downloadable content.

THE BAD

I saw Elvis

There really isn’t anything particularly wrong with the Mars DLC. It plays exactly like the original set of Pinball FX2 tables (read: fun!). The theme, though, is a little stale in comparison to the previous DLC packs, which made great use of the Marvel Comics properties. Mars is just okay as a theme. It isn’t bad. Just okay.

THE UGLY?

The Mars DLC for Pinball FX2 is a great table. Even though it isn’t as interesting theme-wise as the previous download packs for the core FX2 game, it looks just as good and play as well as any of the other tables you’ve played in the past. So if you’re looking for an excuse to keep Pinball FX2 in your hard drive (and why wouldn’t you?), Mars just might be it.