"Wow". That's pretty much what I said when I saw the screenshots and the dodgy icon for Reckless Hero [$0.99]over in the forums. I'm a bit of a sucker for eye candy and from those few glimpses of polished pixels, I was sold. Off I headed to the app store, where I was met again by quite possibly the strangest choice for an icon that I have ever seen in an iOS game. You see, Reckless Hero is an endless driving game in which the goal is to avoid burnt out wrecks, whilst turning as many zombies as possible into red mist. Why the developer decided that a grinning cartoon guy, giving the thumbs up, made for an appropriate icon choice, I'll never know. It certainly doesn't represent the game and I fear a load of people are going to overlook this otherwise solid title.
Okay, Reckless Hero isn't exactly a masterpiece when it comes to storytelling, nor is it very deep. In fact, if it were a puddle, I doubt even Tyrion Lannister would get wet above the toes, but where this game stands out is in its impeccable visual aesthetics. From the ambling zombies, to the fire particles, to the clever use of camera effects and motion blur, this game looks absolutely incredible. The effects can also be disabled via the options, which is a nice touch and possibly very useful on lower end hardware.
I've always been quite fond of Disney Interactive's mobile games simply for the fact that they're one of the few big production companies that has a dedicated mobile team. They got the ground running by acquiring Jelly Car [Free] and buying Tapulous, the studio behind the popular Tap Tap Revenge [$2.99] series. As a team, their biggest hit so far is Where's My Water? [$0.99]. This Thursday, they're showing all their cards on the table and giving their biggest character an iOS game of its own in Where's My Mickey?
First off, if you're a big Mickey Mouse (and gang) fan, you'll be happy to hear that the Mouse house has decided to revive the good ol' Mickey Mouse shorts and bring them to 2013. These three and a half minute new shorts will begin rolling out on Disney Channel and many other Disney properties beginning June 28.
Additionally we got to preview 2 of the 19 total episodes for what we would assume is just the first "season" during last Friday's studio visit. Disney promises each episode will be a breathtaking and unique experience pulling from different aesthetics in the company's huge Mickey vault.
Here are some episode summaries for the first few to roll out:
Among the cartoon premieres are "No Service," in which Mickey and Donald try to buy lunch from a beachside snack shack but are unceremoniously turned down because of the classic "No shirt, no shoes, no service" admonition, Friday, June 28; "Yodelberg" where Mickey longs to visit Minnie atop her mountaintop chalet but quickly realizes that the threat of avalanche has made the trek up the mountain more challenging than usual, Saturday June 29; "New York Weenie," where the hot dog Mickey buys for his beloved and very hungry Minnie ends up taking him on a energetic chase through New York's Central Park, Friday July 5; "Tokyo Go," which finds Mickey fighting Tokyo's crazy commuting crowds aboard the bullet train, Friday July 12; and "Stayin' Cool," in which Mickey, Donald and Goofy must find creative ways to keep cool on the hottest day of the year, Friday July 19.
More than a full week before the shorts' launch, Disney Mobile is rolling out a brand new iOS game that has a caliber of becoming their most popular game so far. In this new game, the "Where's My?" series moves above ground and will be based off the upcoming Mickey Mouse shorts. There will be five level packs at launch. Three of them will be free and two of them are paid "Goofy" level pack off shoots.
What makes this different is the addition of an actual storyline AND animated shorts embedded on each level. For example, the fire episode/level pack where Mickey has to put out a fire seamlessly cuts between gameplay and animation. You'll see Mickey's story introduced, and you're plopped back in to the gameplay. As you produce water by completing the level, you see the water go directly in his bucket and whether he gets to put out the fire or not is for you to see.
Another addition I like is the presence of 20 "XL" levels for tablets. These are bigger and more "zoomed out" puzzles for iPads and other Android tablets. If you've always felt like the previous puzzles are too easy, get ready to be challenged. Where's My Mickey? launches June 20 for $0.99 on phones, $1.99 on iPads and Android Tablets, and finally, Windows Tablet and PCs for $4.99!
We will have a full review shortly after the game launches, but something tells me you Where's My Water? and Mickey Mouse aficionados are already lining up for this game.
While the JRPG genre is mostly famous through the works of Square-Enix, Atlus, Namco, and Falcom, one little publisher keeps plugging away at the genre on iOS. RPG Covenant of Solitude [$8.99] is the latest effort from Kemco, and as usual, it's a bit of a mixed bag with more than a few carelessly cut corners. With so many of these games just from Kemco itself, it's sometimes hard to figure out how any particular one stands out.
Kemco has a few different developers that work on their iOS RPGs. One would hope for a bit of consistency across the various developers for at least basic things like controls or menus, but that's rarely the case, so it helps to know which development team you're getting. RPG Covenant of Solitude is from Magitec, who developed RPG Grinsia before this. It shares quite a few elements with that title, such as the art style, sideview battles similar to Final Fantasy, and eccentricities like burying the save option in a submenu and a mini-map that hops all over the screen trying not to block your view. Unfortunately, unlike Kemco's last few games, this one is not a Universal app.
To the drone of determined electric rock, 3 Sprocket's latest pits geometrical combatants against each other. Cubemen2 [$1.99] is a 3D soldier-marshaling strategy game of varying description. Many will start with the tour of defense levels that gradually metes out new content. More a sandbox for play than a defined, guided experience, however, it options configurable modes of tower defense, skirmishes, territory takeover, and more.
A majority of these are cross-platform multiplayer types that'll substitute somewhat exploitable bots for other humans if you'd prefer. Usually it revolves around a TD-like stream of AI-driven units marching toward a static destination with intent to destroy someone's home structure.
You're presented with a gridded landscape of blocky tiered heights, by default a stark textureless monochrome that looks like rudimentary VR. Swipes and gestures of the fingers fling and zoom the camera around it with enjoyable ease and precision. Cuboids form the canyons, trenches, and castles that your selection of unit types parade about, following orders issued by tapping to select and tapping once more to direct.
Man of Steel [$2.99] infuses the power of Infinity Blade [$5.99] into the hands of Krypton’s last son. If you played last year’s Avengers Initiative [$1.99] game, you’ll find this one vaguely familiar. Unfortunately, since Man of Steel draws heavily from the movie of the same name, this game is limited by the number of environments and villains you face in your quest to save Earth from a Kryptonian invasion. Still, it’s a blast knocking General Zod’s soldiers through barn walls and into gas tankers over and over.
We’ve all watched or read the origin of Superman before in one or more variations. The planet Krypton is going to blow up. In order to preserve the planet’s legacy and save his son, Krypton’s lead scientist Jor-El sends his only son away to Earth. The game begins with a short, motion-comic introduction and accompanying narration from Jor-El. I’ve always been a fan of motion comic storytelling for iOS games, which works especially well here given the source material. A few panels, especially those featuring General Zod, are adapted directly from Zach Snyder’s Superman flick.
If you’ve never played Infinity Blade before, Man of Steel is all about quick swipe attacks. Swiping left to right will deliver a one-two, cross punch combo. It’s a great mechanic that works well for the one-on-one matches you’ll find in this Superman game. Zod’s soldiers tend to walk up to you and square off as if they’re about to begin a game of Mortal Kombat. It always seemed odd for a Kryptonian to make the “you’re going down” pointing gesture before a fight. But that just made it more satisfying when hit them with an uppercut that would send them flying into the air.
Sometimes Superman knocks Zod’s soldiers into the air to continue with some Dragon Ball Z-esque air fighting, while at other times he knocks them into the air and then quickly pounds them back to Earth. In some cases, the Man of Steel actually grabs his enemies and Supermans them through tons of destructible objects. You can actually control which objects Superman pushes his enemies through. This was pretty cool. Knocking a Kryptonian through a postbox or lamppost was great. However, regardless of how many objects you destroy, the destruction XP is generally the same.
Players can also shimmy to the left or right to dodge incoming attacks or use your block. However, when Superman blocks he still takes a little damage. It’s a matter of preference, but why block at all to take damage when you can just avoid the attack completely?
Well, attacking and blocking are both tied to a timing mechanism going on behind-the-scenes. As your progress through the story mode, getting attacked by the same Kryptonians again and again, you’ll notice that Zod’s soldiers will start to get their punches in before you even if you very obviously swiped first. If you check your Character Upgrade menu, and you’ll notice that you can trade in XP to upgrade both your Attack and Dodge speeds.
You can gain XP the traditional way through story mode or make a quick IAP. Luckily, you can bypass the IAPs by simply fighting your way through the survival mode. Even if you only take down a handful of opponents the XP persists through the story mode. You’ll need to rely on survival mode to boost your Character upgrades, which help you to stay alive longer and deliver more powerful blows. You can also find Kryptonian keys that can be used to unlock new Superman armor, such as General Zod’s armor and Jor-El’s Ceremonial armor from the movie.
There are also two super powers, which can be upgraded. I would always save my super speed for those moments when I needed to beat that invisible timer, especially when I saw my opponent’s hand charge up red. There’s nothing worse than swiping madly, while Superman stands there like a lame duck. Thankfully, the super speed power allowed me to unleash a flurry of quick punches. Heat vision works more like a rage blast. Unless you upgrade it, the power doesn’t do much damage. However, it can interrupt an enemy’s attack.
Man of Steel does suffer from a lack of variety. Since it’s tied so closely to the movie, you’re primarily stuck with the environments of Smallville, Metropolis and Zod’s ship. If you perform a knock back, which is when Superman knocks an opponent to a different section of the environment, you’ll usually just end up in an area that looks like a carbon copy of the chapter you already fought through. Also, the Kryptonian soldiers are just grey-shaded variations of each other. There’s a regular sized soldier, shorter woman, tall Lieutenant, big Super Soldier with blue buttons… you get the point. Visually, even Zod looks like just a regular soldier without a helmet. Regardless, all they do is punch and grapple. Zod may surprise you with a heat beam attack, but don’t expect much.
Enemy variation starts to come in the form of EXO Drones, which weren’t in the movie. These purple-headed drones have electric arms. So you have to be more precise about how you hit them to avoid taking damage. Once you break one movie restriction in a licensed game, why not just break them all? Why not have more super villains in more areas? Give us a space fight on Apokolips. Introduce Brainiac. Throw in Lex Luthor in his super suit. Just mix it up. We can always come back to Zod in the end.
At the end of the day, we’ve already suspended our comic belief and adherence to restrictions by playing the game. Superman still has a power meter and you lose when it goes down to zero. If this were the real Man of Steel, wouldn’t he catch a last “humanity saving” wind instead of passing out? I digress.
Overall, Man of Steel is a solid game. The brown landscapes of Smallville may seem bland at times, but it’s still a blast knocking soldiers through a wall or billboard for the umpteenth time – if only just to see them jump right back up through the ceiling of a barn. The game could have benefited from more variety, but such is the nature of licensed game development. Be sure to check out what the folks on our forums have been saying about this game.
If you tried to open up Clash of Clans [Free] this morning, you may have seen an interesting "maintenance break" message appear, which temporarily prohibited you from upgrading your camp. What's the deal?
Supercell has just released a new update. Version 4.53 gives users a wicked new Freeze Spell to use when attacking other users. It can freeze enemy turrets, canons, archery towers and other pesky troops that emerge the Clan Castle. That's great news for long-time players, troublesome news for newbies who are still building up defenses against dragons and Lightning Spells.
Speaking of which, you can now boost your Spell Factory to Level 5 and take both the Lightning and Heal Spells to level 6 to deal some serious damage. Players can also upgrade their P.E.K.K.A to Level 4 so watch out. Don't fret passive players. Your defense also gets a boost with Level 11 Walls and Level 12 Cannons.
If you've been waiting for better, coordinated clan attacks ... you'll just have to keep waiting. We still don't have the ability to do some real team attacks and use our clans to the fullest. However, the new update does give us the ability to add a note with troop requests, so you can let your Clan members know to exactly what types of troops you need.
Personally, I would love a message that lets me know when one of my clan members is under attack so that I can send in additional defensive troops dynamically. The three-minute attack window is small so I can't say how it would work out, but the option would be great.
Download the new Clash of Clans update and let us know which of the new attack and defensive boosts worked out the best.
You’d think that a game involving stickmen wouldn't be that in-depth. Or warrant anything other than a free download.
Stickman Tennis [$0.99] falls into the middle. On the surface, it’s a very simple game involving two stickmen playing each other in a game of tennis. But underneath this simplistic style is a decent representation of the sport.
Upon launching it for the first time, the game sets the control scheme so that your stickman moves automatically, and leaves just the shot controls available to you. You can easily change this in the options so that you control movement as well, and I recommend you do so. Not only does it make the game more fun, but it adds a bit more challenge. With the auto-movement enabled, I found myself staring at the screen and hitting as the balls came to me, which wasn't fun and quickly got boring.
If you've heard of ustwo as a gamer it's probably thanks to Whale Trail [Free], a psychedelic flier starring the darling Willow the whale. Since that hit in 2011 the studio's been fairly quiet on the game front, focusing its attentions on apps that showcase interaction and user interface design. Now ustwo has returned to the gaming world with Blip Blup [$1.99 / Free], a game that might be even better suited to its specialities.
If you're looking to show off your interface design skills, after all, puzzle games are probably the way to go. A solid set of rules and a sensible interface can win the day. Blip Blup has a pretty simple ruleset: when you touch a tile (an act called a "blip"), a pulse of color spreads out from it. It passes like light from its source, travelling through connected corners and stopping against walls. Change the color of every tile before you run out of blips to win.
Simple, and spelled out clearly through the game's interface. The first couple level packs are kind, showing you where your blips will take you. Later, you'll simply need to know. Everything makes perfect visual sense, though. At a glance you can see which tiles you can tap, which ones will get in your way, which ones are special and what they do.
The special tiles are introduced as you work your way through Blip Blup's ten level packs. Each one adds one new rule to the game. An arrow sends your blip along a new path. A series of dots means you need to hit the tile enough times to fill each dot. You can probably imagine what a skull means, and whether or not it's a good idea to blip death tiles.
They all follow that simple, clear iconography, so you could easily put Blip Blup down for a few weeks and come back to it without missing a beat. You might find you need to: there's no way to skip levels, so if you can't complete something in the requisite number of blips, you just need to do better. By the same token, there's no IAP or funny business—aside from an absolute glut of ads in the free version, at least.
The first eighteen levels or so are a cakewalk. It's not easy to fail to get three stars. After that, the game stops holding your hand. Passing levels is still a breeze for quite some time, but earning three stars by using fewer than the maximum blips gets dicey. Once you start juggling a few different types of special tiles, you may find that just passing each level is enough of a challenge—never mind perfecting it. The ramp up isn't quick, but it's there.
If you've ever played (the delightful) Helsing's Fire [$0.99] you'll probably find the experience familiar. Blip Blup is a simpler game, both mechanically and visually, but hunting around for the perfect position to light up the map still works brilliantly.
And while it's simpler, Blip Blup manages to be just as complex as it needs to be. A handful of tiles that mark special rules may not seem like much, but when put together just right they create some very interesting puzzles. Blip Blup may make for an excellent exercise in interface design, but it's also quite a fun little puzzle game from the folks at ustwo.
Perched high upon the face of a (relatively) ancient mountain, dark storms brood. In the shadow of the summit, the hands of warriors covet chromatic pebbles of arcane purpose. Eyes meet in silent determination. The games have begun. Bam fu [$0.99] is imminent.
It's wrapped in a ridiculous premise - something Game Oven Studios is well aware of. The aesthetic of bound-fist monks and dire seriousness is embraced with just the right amount of enthusiasm.
The board is littered with colored circular runeish looking symbols. You want to turn the entire board to your color, because sharing never seems to be an option. You do this by tapping the figures of another color. Each additional player adds another color and pebbles cycle through colors in a set pattern. Simple. In practice, it becomes a furious flurry of hands and fingers and a meeting of temperaments drug to the surface.
When it comes to playing sequels to games that a nearly flawless the first round, my preference is for a follow-up that looks to iteratively improve upon on its predecessors pitfalls without messing too much with its successful formula. In this regard, Ironhide Game Studio's Kingdom Rush: Frontiers [$2.99 / $4.99 (HD)]is the perfect type of sequel for me. Preserving the smooth, well-balanced Tower Defense gameplay of the original, Frontiers adds just enough new content in towers, enemies heroes, and locales to make it another incredible experience.
To put it succinctly, if you've played Kingdom Rush, you've played Frontiers. This sequel employs the same type of Tower Defense gameplay, art style, and presentation. Heck, even the four basic tower types return unaltered. The Three-star ranking and upgrade system also return, as well as a wealth of heroes. Unfortunately, just as before players only get a limited amount of heroes through gameplay unlocking, with the majority requiring IAP. While you don't need these heroes to beat or experience the campaign in its fullest, the cooler ones are locked away, leaving some disappointment. Otherwise, a full-fledged campaign returns, with Heroic and Iron Challenges adding supplemental difficulty for those that desire it.
Where Frontiers does make some changes is in the deeper elements of its gameplay. For starters, the advanced upgrades for each basic tower have been revamped and are now much more interesting. Mage Towers can now be upgrade to Necromancer towers, which will raise the dead of the baddies to fight for you. Another interesting upgrade lies with the Axethrowers (Archer advanced class), which lets you curse enemies to take more damage or dispel aura from the enemies.
The latter is another subtle change for Frontiers. Enemies have a lot more nuanced secondary effects beyond simply attacking your defenders. Whether its shaman that bestow a variety of defense-oriented auras around their servants, queen bees that explode into little bees when defeated, or alien facehuggers that turn your defenders into a horrific (and strong) alien beasts if not defeated in time, there's a lot more to think about beyond simple tower placement. Even the environments require more attention, as enemies will carve new paths halfway through a level, man-eating plants will take out your knights if you don't pay attention, and other settings can reward (or punish) players that heed their surroundings.
Another big component of Frontiers are one-off items that can be bought with gems, a currency that's liberally earned by completing levels and dispatching enemies. Items range from dynamite and freeze potions that affect a small area of the battlefield, a coin package that instantly gives you more money to spend to an extravagantly expensive bomb that destroys ever enemy on screen. There's a decent mix of items that become more and more important the further you get into the campaign.
This is where I imagine some of the debate may occur. Yes, as you get further into the campaign, smart use of these one-time items becomes highly suggested to pass levels and become almost a prerequisite in order to three-star some of the harder missions. This means that players will find themselves having to actually use the gems earned and purchase items in normal course of gameplay. Considering that said gems can be purchased via IAP, I imagine some may argue that Frontiers' gameplay is subtly pushing towards IAP.
Personally, I don't really think that's the case. As I mentioned earlier, gems are easily earned by playing (and replaying) matches, with enough earned after a match to pick up a few items. Considering that most players will be doing this anyways to grind experience for their respective heroes, I don't believe currency (and thus IAP) to be a significant issue). This makes item usage just another strategic element that I appreciate rather than something as blatant as a pay wall.
It sounds small, but the elements listed above make Frontiers one of the most well-rounded TD titles out there. We already Ironhide had the core TD gameplay down pat. With the addition of better interactive environments, more strategic use of one-time items, advanced towers that truly differentiate between themselves and offer a wealth of strategy and enemies that actually require forethought, TD players will have to evolve to take on even more strategy from this difficult title. True, I'm not the biggest fan of the IAP heroes, and a few other nagging issues (such as the inability of the game to save runs if the game runs out of memory while suspended) do exist. However, in the great scheme of things there's little to complain about in this excellent sequel to a great game.
There's something very enjoyable about anticipation followed by a pleasant surprise. Casinos, collectible card games, and a lot of video games all use this technique to make things more fun. Action RPGs have managed to create this feeling quite a bit in the past with random loot, but Battlestone [Free] comes at it from a slightly different angle, to middling results.
The random element in this particular action RPG is not loot. In fact, there is no loot. At all. Instead, it's the heroes who are randomly generated. Battlestone provides you with a couple of heroes initially, but after that, you are left to the mercy of summoning random characters. These summoned characters will be generated from a few different classes, a variety of elements, various perks, and special moves. You can manipulate your luck to an extent, by spending some premium currency, but that currency comes so slowly that unless you're buying IAPs, you'll have to settle for the non-zero chance of getting a powerful hero from the basic method.
Yes, there are multiple currencies in this game, and not just the usual two-currency method we see employed in many modern games. There are coins, which are probably the easiest currency to earn as you receive them for finishing stages. These can be spent on upgrading weapons and fusing your heroes together to make them stronger.
Living for glory kinda went out with dying by the sword: there just isn't much of it in the daily struggle to work a desk job, handle your homework or get your kids in bed on time. Sword & Glory [Free] is an outstanding game that imagines a time when life was all about the struggle to raise yourself and your family for nothing, earn a reputation for great deeds and pass that down through generations.
The life you live may always start the same—the same small homestead, the same brotherly advice— but you have a few key decisions to make before you begin. You can pick a clan, align yourself with the hardy Elk Clan, the noble Eagle Clan or the traditional Bear Clan. Or you can shove the whole clan system and go it alone. Similarly, you can dedicate yourself to a faith or go for a more worldly approach. Finally you define a personality trait for yourself. Those choices directly impact the life you'll lead—the kinds of quests you'll encounter, the opportunities that will arise and the ways you'll excel in combat.
From those humble beginnings you head off to build a life. At first you'll probably focus on helping your family and clan, driving off competition for resources, hunting down petty thieves, and otherwise protecting your homestead. Maybe you'll get married. Maybe you'll range far from home.
Many decisions come down to a binary choice: do violence, or don't. Violence isn't always the best option, but it is usually the fastest route to glory (score, more or less), Epic points and silver. With those things you can improve your lot in life, so while you may want to pick your battles, you'll have to do some fighting.
Fighting comes down to a fairly simple duel system. You face off against a foe with a sword and shield. You have buttons for the same. Combinations of tapping and holding give you shield bashes, blocks, and careful, fast or power attacks. There's a rock-paper-scissors calculation going on in the background, and with that and careful timing you can destroy your foes.
With a few successful bouts under your belt, life opens up. You can expand your home, improving your stats in the process. You can buy new gear that gets passed down to your future characters. You can use your Epic points to unlock truly impressive items. And you can range farther afield, encountering new adventures and new challenges.
Wounds are easily dealt with at the cost of some of your hard earned Epic points, but eventually you'll take too many hits in a single fight and die. Even if you're a flawless warrior, death gets us all in the end. When that happens, your character is given a title for his sacrifice and a place in the graveyard. Your glory is marked on the leaderboard, your silver is lost, your points and gear go onto the next generation, and you start again anew.
It's a fantastic arrangement, well thought out from almost every angle. The most confusing part is that Sword & Glory is currently completely free. It seems as though room was left in its design for in-app purchases of Epic points, but those haven't materialized. You have to earn every bit of future success for yourself, and there is no cost but the effort you're willing to put in.
Sure, the art style might be a touch divisive (stark whites as far as the eye can see) and the game sometimes suffers from clumsy writing, but there's really no reason not to try it out. Sword & Glory delivers what it promises: glory to be had, and life and death by the sword.
Avengers Alliance [Free], an intriguing turn-based RPG that made its initial debut on Facebook, is now out and available across iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. It's free, naturally, with a bunch of in-app purchase options for the game's currency.
If you're not familiar, Alliance tasks users with battling through waves of bad dudes as various Marvel heroes in an effort to secure or control resources. As you take on quests your heroes level up, earning new powers and abilities.
iOS 7 is going to roll in API support for MFi controllers, but who's getting tapped to make them? Apparently, Logitech and MOGA. An intriguing post on Czech site Jablickar.cz reports that Apple is teaming up with MOGA and Logitech to produce upcoming controllers for iOS. It doesn't have details outside of that, but we don't really need promo images or schematics to satisfy our curiosity since reference images are already in the wild.
MOGA, by the way, is an interesting pick: the company already has a ton of support on Android from developers large and small. Gameloft, SEGA, Rockstar Games and others all support the controller on mobile.
The first wave of controllers are expected to hit this fall.
Oh, cool: Double Fine's The Cave is heading to "iOS" at some point this summer, TouchGen has confirmed after getting some hands-on time with the upcoming FingerPad version at E3 2013.
The Cave, if you're unfamiliar, is a puzzle slash adventure game that tasks players with taking a team of three (out of seven) characters into a talking cave on a quest for fame and fortune. Unfortunately, what they get instead are reality checks. It's a pretty good game built by a studio that knows how to write funny stuff and make adventure titles.
"Wow". That's pretty much what I said when I saw the screenshots and the dodgy icon for Reckless Hero [$0.99] over in the forums. I'm a bit of a sucker for eye candy and from those few glimpses of polished pixels, I was sold. Off I headed to the app store, where I was met again by quite possibly the strangest choice for an icon that I have ever seen in an iOS game. You see, Reckless Hero is an endless driving game in which the goal is to avoid burnt out wrecks, whilst turning as many zombies as possible into red mist. Why the developer decided that a grinning cartoon guy, giving the thumbs up, made for an appropriate icon choice, I'll never know. It certainly doesn't represent the game and I fear a load of people are going to overlook this otherwise solid title.
