The End is near! Well, EndWar is at least.

(Personal disclaimer: While I love EndWar and all that the game is, I would be remiss by not mentioning that I worked on it. That's right, look in the credits and you'll see yours truly as the Military Authenticity Advisor. Part of the reason I wanted to work on the game is in part due to the fact I knew it was gonna be great and I'd like to think I helped a little in making the finished product so good .had a little hand in that. However, I must exercise due diligence and come clean with the fact that I work on it when writing a review. I can't even tell you how stoked I was when my copies of the game, see below, arrived. Man, thank goodness I got that out of the way now back to blogging.)
Okay, so there are lots of games that try to put you in the role of a military Commander. None however have ever made it this easy! With Tom Clancy's EndWar the way you command your troops and move around the battlefield is by donning a headset and issuing voice commands just like real soldiers. The ease of which you command your forces guarantees that RTS games have made the leap from PC to their new console homes! Add in the stunning visuals, diverse environments and cinematic-like presentation and its like you're right in the thick of battle.
The game leaps you to a near future in which the world is fought over by three distinct factions. The story and factions are notional and based in a World War III-like future. The United States, Russia, and a European Union have each become superpowers. The US plans to send a military capability to space in order to lead the arms race. But terrorists swoop in and destroy the station before lift-off. This becomes the events that sets off global war. You pick up your desired faction and fight a number of battles around the globe based on their view. To keep you in the mind of global warfare you'll get updates from your commander and the media as to how the fight is going.

Although the game play and capability is similar across the factions the look (down to the finest deetail) of vehicles/aircraft, personnel and voices differ. Infantry comprises riflemen and engineers, tanks and artillery are your armored advantage; the sky is ruled by gunships and transports move troops around and give you an anti-air threat. The vantage point from each units camera is amazing! You'll see rounds zinging by, artillery impacts, burning hulks and even aircraft blown out of the sky.
Issuing commands to those units couldn't be simpler. You hold the trigger button and speak a preset command into the microphone. You can attack, bring reinforcements and switch camera views by voice alone and that unique control mechanism is the biggest draw of the game letting you closely follow and command your units into the fight. Allowing you concentrate on the battle and not on the buttons (that is SO a tagline).

The campaign takes you through a series of battles that help you save the world and there's online capability that lets you fight other budding Pattons or Rommels online. The game is slick, easy to control and most importantly FUN to play. No wonder it was named "Strategy Game of the Year" at E3!!! Run out and get your copy today. Now I've got to get back to controlling my armies, Dutch out.

God of War in my pocket, does it get any better?

Get your minds out of the gutter. God of War is not the nickname for my pants soldier. But now that I think about it...maybe that's for another post. No, I'm referring to the latest edition of the award winning "God of War" (GOW) game series. Yes, it has been a wicked long (yes I'm an official New Englander now) time since my last post. Partly to be blamed on work (I could get so much more done if I didn't have to go to a "job") and then I contracted this season's flu that turned into an upper respiratory infection (giving me a glimpse of what I would sound like as a 65 year old smoker!!). So once again, outside forces conspired against my blogging.

The one highlight from being on my deathbed was that I had plenty of time on my hands to do nothing but play the latest version of God of War "Chains of Olympus" for PSP (and yes this is a screenshot from the game).
Thank goodness I now have a REAL gaming reason to show off my PSP. This game is gorgeous and doesn't lose a set to its console brethren. The guys over at Ready at Dawn studios (they've given us a revamped Jak and Daxter) give us a new game in the Kratos storyline. Yes, our favorite all white and swirly tattooed Spartan is back and he's as pissed as ever. Kratos makes Leonidas from "300" look like a girl. This title lets us see/play as Kratos years before he threw himself off a cliff in the first God of War for PS2 game. This isn't a port mind you but a brand new title for PSP with new monsters, environments and interactions with the Gods.

Its hard to beleive that you can get the same "big game feel" of a sweeping massive world filled with things to be killed on the PSP screen. The combat is as stylish as ever and well executed. There was a lot of concern that since the PSP is short a thumbstick to its PS2 (and PS3) big brother that the game wouldn't feel the same. No worries here about gameplay/combat at all. Its as engaging as ever and after you figure out the button combos that let you "roll" out of the way, you're good to go!

As you'd expect, there's tons of blood and guts (you're still swinging the Blades of Chaos afterall), action, magic and sex. Oh yeah there's even a little sex in this title. Within the first few minutes of playing this game you get treated to a "subtle" threesome sex game that unlocks extra orbs. Bringing a whole new meaning to a fun handheld game! Bless the devious minds behind the God of War games.

So, you get it all here: Epic bosses to stomp, puzzles to solve and plenty of blade slinging butt whupping. There's even "Lost Levels" footage you can unlock when you complete the Challenges of Hades that give you an idea of what else could've been in the game. My favorite? The room called "the juicer" that was set up with cages. In order to get through it you'd need to collect enemy blood by squeezing it out of them (how freaking cool is that?). I'm hoping this gives us hope for another PSP title.

If you don't own one already, this game is THE reason to go out and buy a PSP. Not to mention its the perfect thing to hold us over until we get God of War 3 for PS3! Its coming, just look at the back of the PSP game guide.