Rage

Tasty, refreshing, makes you wish for an apocalypse...however you want to describe it, Rage is a barrel 'o fun that combines elements of a first-person shooter and a role playing game. From the makers of Doom and Quake (seriously, it's right there on the box), Rage is a post-apocalyptic first-person role playing shooter that both looks and plays great. Though I must admit, the title makes no sense, and has nothing to do with the plot. It seems to be there just to look cool. Oh well.

In Rage, you play as a nameless, voiceless (it's a shooter, what did you expect?), lone survivor of a cryogenic spaceship crash. Your ship is called an Ark, and it's one of many. It's about a hundred years after the great asteroid catastrophe of 2029. What's left of humanity has evolved into a wacky mix of post-apocalyptic characters from Mad Max and Fallout. NPCs basically break up into three categories: bandits, The Authority, and sane people who won't try to kill you. As an Ark survivor, you're worth a lot of dough to whoever can turn you into The Authority, the ruling faction of the Wasteland. Needless to say, it's up to you to do what you gotta do to survive.

The first thing you'll notice about Rage is that it looks fantastic. Both the camera and the characters move smoothly across the screen, and the scenery shows a great level of detail. Seriously, you need to see this in HD. The sound effects are also well done. Each gun sounds different, and the voice acting is pretty good. In fact, the first person you meet in the game is voiced by John Goodman...yeah.

But don't think this game is all show, because the gameplay is excellent as well. Sure, most of the missions are the same--go here, get this, come back--but it doesn't get old, mainly because every dungeon looks unique, and you get to travel across the Wasteland in suped up offroad vehicles complete with machine guns, rocket launchers, and other fun toys. Vehicles are upgradeable through winning races. To make some extra cash you can play gambling minigames, including a futuristic, wild west version of craps, and Rage's own knockoff of Magic: The Gathering. There's also plenty of id Software Easter eggs to uncover.

The controls are easy to pick up and are very responsive. Looting is easier than ever; just point at a corpse and click, and you've cleaned it out. Even loot laying around in bunches can be gathered all at once, and you can carry as much as you want. You can also carry all of your weapons.

The weapons of Rage vary from traditional arms like assault rifles and shotguns, to awesomely crazy ones like exploding RC cars and boomerang blades (but not the one from that piece of crap, Dark Sector). Most of them are also upgradeable, and some of them can be built with the junk you find around the Wasteland. Many of them can also use different kinds of ammunition, including armor piercing and exploding. Weapons also show a convincing amount of weight when fired.

Enemy AI is also very well done. Every encounter feels different, and they come at you from all sides, including the ceiling and the floor. That being said, they don't always seem to respond correctly when they take gunfire. Before you die, you'll also have a chance to play a button command minigame to get right back into the action.

When campaign mode is over, there's two multiplayer modes: Road Rage and Legends of the Wasteland. Road Rage is an online exclusive mode focused on the game's cars. You can either race or battle your friends, and unlock new cars and upgrades by gaining points. Legends of the Wasteland is about you and a buddy letting the bullets fly in a dungeon overrun with enemies, and the best part is that it can be played on splitscreen.

Alright, so it sounds like a good time, right? Well, what about the neutered third act? That's right. Just when the game's epic conclusion begins, it suddenly ends. I dare you to finish this game without saying "That's it?" out loud. You could probably blame id Software for running out of time or money or whatever, but an ending like the one this game offers is just unacceptable. Hopefully they can fill with gap with DLC or a sequel.

To sum it up, Rage is a great game. Despite the horrible ending, the game looks and feels excellent, and is definitely worth a try.

Available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. Rated M for Mature. Developed by id Software, published by Bethesda Softworks.

Image provided courtesy of WikiMedia.org.

Fallout: New Veags: Lonesome Road

All good things must come to an end, as well as Fallout: New Vegas. (Zing!) But before The Courier walks off into the sunset, Obsidian has given us one final DLC to (kind of) wrap up the mysteries of our hero's past. Once the package is downloaded, you'll get a five level cap increase (totaling at 50 if you've downloaded the other packages) and access to The Divide, a military town scarred by nuclear devastation after The Great War. But let's just say that there are probably better ways to spend $10.

In Lonesome Road, you answer the call of Ulysses, the courier who turned down the Mr. House's job of delivering the Platinum Chip and deferred it to you. You're allowed to travel to The Divide without a weight restriction, and you can come and go as you please. However, you can't bring any companions with you.

The biggest letdown of this DLC is that it's so limited. The main quest is literally straight forward. All you do is follow narrow the path that Ulysses has laid before you while he communicates with you through an eyebot with the same name as ED-E, even though he isn't ED-E, even though they both have the same origin story. I agree, it's stupid. ED-E is also your companion in The Divide, which is great because you'll need someone to help you carry all the loot you'll find. ED-E also functions as a workbench and an ammo workbench.

The character Ulysses walks a fine line between entertaining and annoying. He slowly reveals the past you share with him though riddles and accusations that you are responsible for a great crime that I will not reveal. But he does it in this sensual voice that sounds like sexual chocolate.

There's only a couple new types of enemies in this game: the Marked Men and the Tunnelers. The Marked Men are the designated humanoid bad guys with guns. They're supposed to be ghouls, but they look a lot like Red Skull. The Tunnelers are a tougher version of the Spore Carriers from Vault 22. Fighting one of them isn't that bad, but they travel in packs, which are a total bitch to fight. Don't worry, The Divide also has Deathclaws, and if you've played Fallout long enough you'd know how much of a headache those guys are.

Probably the best thing about Lonesome Road is the tasty new weapons, including the Red Glare (a repeating rocket launcher), the shoulder-mounted machine gun (a minigun that shoots 10mm bullets), and the satchel bomb (which you can build yourself). But the best new weapon is the laser detonator. Warheads are scattered across The Divide, and the laser detonator can set them off from an infinite distance when there's nothing to block the beam.

There's no official side quests this time around, which shortens the total playtime to about 4 or 5 hours, which sadly makes this the shortest of the New Vegas DLCs. But if you're an achievement whore, there's plenty of collectables to hunt down.

If you're a Fallout superfan you've probably already downloaded the package, and why you're reading this is beyond me. But if you haven't downloaded it yet, wait for a price drop to happen, because this package is too short to be worth $9.99.

For the record, Dead Money was my favorite DLC for New Vegas, followed by Old World Blues. Honestly, it's a toss-up between which I like less between Lonesome Road and Honest Hearts. Both of their stories were so bland and the quests were too straight forward. But I'll bet that all four of these DLC packages will be included on a "game of the year" edition of New Vegas sometime in the future, although it probably won't be called "Game of the Year Edition." Hey Bethesda, for what it's worth, you can totally use "High Roller Suite Edition" as the subtitle of this re-relase, and I promise I won't sue. Just put my name under the special thanks category in the credits, that's all I ask...and some free swag...and an in game character. Damn it! I blew it.

Available on the Xbox Live Marketplace, the PlayStation Network Store and Steam. Rated M for Mature. Deveolped by Obsidian Entertainment, produced by Bethesda Softworks.

Image provided courtesy of Wikia.com.