The Serious Sam games are known for 2 things – humour and non-stop action. While the previous doesn’t quite hit the mark this time around, there is not any denying Double D XXL offers a variety of the latter.

Double D was originally released a few years back on PC, and this “XXL” version – available on Xbox Live Arcade – expands on it with some new features and gameplay modes.

When you missed it first time, Double D is a 2D Contra-style platformer. Whereas the primary Serious Sam series involves FPS games, Double D still takes its core principles – namely, chucking hundreds of enemies at you non-stop if you run backwards with the hearth button jammed down – and adapts them successfully for side-scrolling gameplay.

The foremost selling point here’s the facility to stack the guns you collect on top of one another, allowing you to create bizarre weaponry configurations.

You can stack three shotguns on top of one another for triple the firepower, or stack a tommy gun on top of a chainsaw for both long and short-range attacks. Ammunition may be a consideration, however, so if you can just stack every gun on top of one another if you would like it is a horrible waste of ammo and you’re more likely to end up stuck with a pea-shooter before long. This trailer for the computer version sums it up in a suitably sensible manner.

On top of the weapon-stacking, new to the XBLA version of the sport are the choices for upgrading each weapon, offering satisfying variation to the gameplay.

One such upgrade gives your pistol an air buffer, which helps you to float within the air in case you fire it. Another allows you to fire bees from your shotgun, while another permits you to fire slippery butter puddles from your grenade launcher. In total there are 40 types of upgrade, which combined with the gun-stacking makes for millions of other possible weapon layouts – though you’re more likely to only manage a pair and persist with them for almost all of the sport.

Humour has always been a key a part of the intense Sam series, but it’s kind of hit-and-miss in Double D XXL. The cut-scene skits are such a thing that might has been funny within the mid ’90s – when the newness of comedy voice acting in games like Duke Nukem still hadn’t worn off – but now they feel old-fashioned and anachronistic (especially the awkward cut-scene by which an enemy general compliments a topless female kamikaze on her “nice bombs”).

The cut-scenes aren’t exactly hilarious, then, however the enemy designs are silly enough to lift a great number of chuckles. Take the Vuvuzelator, for instance – a monster with a body product of stacked pancakes and vuvuzelas protruding of it – or the Chimputee, a chimpanzee with bionic arms and a jetpack. The bosses also are ridiculous, but more with regards to size – some are so ludicrously massive they’re far too big to slot at the screen even if it’s zoomed all of the way out.

Serious Business

Controlling Sam takes a bit of being used to. The sport uses a twin-stick system for moving and shooting, but then maps the jump button to LT and maps the power to throw jump pads (which might be used to bop around) to LB.

However, after you get the hang of it, things work fairly well. It is simple to change between your various weapon stacks and the accuracy of the dual-stick set-up makes it simple to quickly direct your bullets on the swarms of enemies coming from all directions.

Also chucked in for this new XXL edition is a few new auto-scrolling vehicle stages within which Sam has to prevent dying while slipping past swarms of enemies. In such sections, or titular hero would be clunky to manage, and the sport wouldn’t really have lost anything of their absence.

a number of multiplayer options round things off. Co-op is entertaining enough but if the camera zooms all of the way out it may sometimes be tricky to maintain track of which player you’re controlling. Deatchmatch, meanwhile, is a forgettable inclusion that just seems to was chucked in there for sake of appearances greater than anything.

While it is not precisely the most unique gaming experience you are going to have, there’s at the least charm in Double D XXL’s unashamed ’90s gaming values. The art style is ugly, the gameplay is easy and the voice acting is atrocious, but it’s Serious Sam and it knows you do not mind.

Over seventeen years, the Tomb Raider series has consistently did not recapture the magic of its brilliant debut. The smart, mysterious original saw you isolated and alone, drawn deeper and deeper into dark chasms, and not using a idea what was arising next (dinosaurs!), and nothing for company however the occasional reassuring grunt from heroine Lara Croft.

But things quickly went south: across five subsequent games, we had embarrassing side characters, musty, derivative levels set in dull cities, dubious polygonal outfits, and lots of shooting, all of which reached its nadir in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness. When new developers Crystal Dynamics launched Tomb Raider Legend three years later, it was no surprise that they returned Lara to the tombs and puzzles of her 1996 debut – but, ultimately, nothing before or since has quite recaptured the remoteness and mystery of that first game, nor that feeling of playing something truly unique. Well… perhaps formerly.

After her ship is washed up at the shores of Yamatai, Lara is kidnapped

At the outset of this origin story, Lara is a part of the Endurance, a boat cresting in the course of the Sea of Japan seeking the fabled kingdom of Yamatai. a contemporary graduate, she and her ally Sam have followed an informed hunch that the paranormal island may well be located in the Dragon’s Triangle, a notorious point of interest for monstrous storms and ship-ripping seas.

Predictably, upon arrival, their boat is torn asunder and driven against rocky crags – but because the remainder of the crew struggle to collect supplies before an anticipated night singing kumbaya and toasting smores, Lara is knocked out and kidnapped. It’s then that the genuine horrors of Yamatai become apparent to you.

BIG IN JAPAN

Waking up in a meat-filled den stuffed with mutilated corpses and leaking flesh bags hanging ominously from the ceiling, it’s clear that Yamatai has a couple of secrets. The primary you quickly discover: a gaggle of fellow survivors – with a population expanded from years of assimilating other research teams and expeditions into the combination – has also become stranded here; worse, they’ve developed a murderous disposition. Who they’re, and what they need falls on Lara to analyze – but first she must survive, and help Sam and the remainder of the crew to get off the island alive.

Lara might possibly be at the box but, really, the island itself is the star of the show. Split up into hubs, the gameworld offers an elegant mixture of open-world discovery and linear narrative progression. Each hub is vivid and noteworthy, attributable to the convenient (but excellent) plot excuse that’s Yamatai’s extreme weather.

Hot and fetid jungles, blustering snow-capped World War II bunkers, musky temples untouched for hundreds of years, sandstorm-ravaged cliff faces and glorious sun-kissed vistas, Yamatai is beautiful to have a look at and a pleasure to explore. It is easy to face back and admire the view – but what makes this world really come alive is how Lara’s physical presence is felt here.

Strike a flaming torch in a tightly compacted cave and tongues of fireside will lick juicily on the shiny wet roof rocks. Lara’s arms shake with the tension of opening up a heavy-lidded chest. In a nod to these horrible back-snapping sound effects of previous Tomb Raider’s, her fragile place on this hostile environment is emphasised through some gut-punching death animations, too. Dive into shallow waters and her neck will crack sickeningly against the rocks beneath. Fail to prevent driftwood as you plough down a waterfall, and also you could come to be impaled throughout the head.

In many games, violent death prompts quick restarts and hardly a breath taken, but these animations do a terrific job of grounding Lara, of constructing her feel human, of ramming home the results of failure and, conversely, the elation that comes through success. Occasionally, they’re undermined by the unwelcome appearance of inexpensive, button-mashing Quick Time Events. But don’t panic. They do not surface often, and the fundamental tenets of the gameplay remain the series staples we demanded: exploring, puzzle-solving and combat.

The cover system is seamless, giving combat a rampant, chaotic form of flow

From afar the primary obvious comparison to make in relation to combat will be with Uncharted’s breed of canopy-based shooting. Here though, Lara automatically leans down slightly whenever enemies are nearby, and once you move towards cover, you seamlessly press up against it. These smooth transitions slash on dodgy moments, and lend combat a rampant, chaotic flow. You will not end up erroneously attached to the incorrect little bit of cover – but you’ll still maintain complete control over Lara as she leans out. (You press the left trigger to fireside.)

A scramble ability enables you to dodge incoming shots or swings as you dart across the hectic, ever-changing island, dispatching foes. We mean hectic too. Scenery catches fire and falls apart, tables get overturned, buildings burn and crumble, and enemies constantly look to flank you and find alternative paths, forcing you to constantly carry on the move. You mostly feel like you’re at the fringe of failure, which only adds to the stress, making firefights dangerous and frightening.

Right up front in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Raiden’s gruff Russian employer Boris reminds him that, ‘this isn’t an infiltration mission.’ As in, this is often not, under any circumstances, a typical Metal Gear Solid game. Yes, you possibly can go full-on stealth in case you are so inclined – but, the truth is, this third-person fighter is created for something: the art of confrontation.

The first couple of hours unfold just like the start of the most important-budgeted Bond movie you are able to ever imagine, with Raiden assigned to give protection to a peace-loving African politician, who’s then kidnapped by a band of mercenaries (dubbed Desperado Enforcement). After losing an eye fixed (and a limb) to enigmatic baddie Samuel Rodriguez, things go full-on lunatic: a ridiculous but entertaining tale of revenge is bolted to a barely comprehensible excuse for slicing up bad guys – and the cherry on top You might want to save the brains of poor, innocent street kids even as. Yep. Their brains.

Up until the game’s first boss battle you have to become familiar with the elemental attacking controls. These mirror the Dynasty Warriors series for simplicity and mashability, while overtaking it relating to visual splendour. That said, tapping Square or Triangle (we played it on PS3) for light and heavy attacks won’t help much when the foes get XL-sized, just like the memorably named LQ-84i – the game’s opening boss – who’s a quick moving robo-pooch with a chainsaw tail attachment. (More on him later.) It’s here that the possibly divisive Parry system becomes important.

Initially, the shortcoming of a dedicated block button feels counter-intuitive – and you may rage at its omission

There’s no dedicated button to dam in Revengance. Instead that you need to tap the sunshine attack button (Square) while aiming the left stick towards an incoming attack. At the beginning it really is incredibly counter intuitive and you will rage. It just seems massively at odds with Raiden’s otherwise fast-moving and flowing combat. But, as you perfect your timing, this methodology finally ends up inciting the texture of the to and fro parrying we’re used to in old-fashioned Japanese samurai movies. Deeper into the sport there are boss fights where you may be countering multiple attacks from different angles – and, in doing so, you’ll feel like a real ninja with each perfectly-timed chink of metal.

DEAD RISING

This sense of from side to side swordplay is barely really prevalent during boss fights, though. Standard enemies are easily-beatable through an old school combination of running about and pad-mashing, and the fact is, it is a combo that many, many players will finally end up counting on because the game does a woefully blunt job of explaining its chief mechanics. A dodge move (performed by pressing Square and X together) becomes invaluable when battling slower, hammer-wielding enemies, but isn’t explicitly explained. You should conceivably play your entire game and never even realize it was there.

Yet, what the combat system lacks extensive it greater than makes up for in sheer spectacle. Once he’s been rebuilt after his run in with Rodriguez, Raiden is forced to tear the spines from his enemies on the way to restore his health. In a cunning twist of slow motion glory-gore, these spinal juices are best sucked up before the bodies in their owners can hit the ground. It makes for some eye-watering encounters.

Using L1, Raiden can enter Zan-Datsu (Blade) mode, slowing down time as his weakened enemies flail in the course of the air. Timing a well-aimed slice through an enemy’s vitals, after which hammering the Circle button, will ‘inspire’ Raiden to achieve in and yank their neon blue gooey bits out… before crushing them in a clenched fist. These combat-intensive sections are fantastic: they’re slick, never get old, and look amazing, with out a frame-rate issues to talk of, even if things go nuclear.

Connor isn’t Connor on this alternate timeline. He never met Achilles, never trained as an assassin, and was never given his new name. He’s simply Ratonhnhak:ton, and rather than white robes he wears animal skins. But here’s the twist: he remembers everything that happened in Assassin’s Creed 3. On this first slice of DLC, titled The Infamy, he’s inhabiting a brand new version of himself in a brand new reality, but he’s aware of it.

This is, even by Assassin’s Creed standards, a bizarre story. Not just will we have the mystery of Connor being inexplicably transported to a parallel dimension, but he also has seemingly supernatural powers granted by Native American spirit animals. Within the first episode, it is the power of the wolf, which matches in much an analogous way as Metal Gear Solid’s stealth camo. It lets you move between patches of canopy without being spotted, but eats up your HP.

The Apple of Eden does regularly regardless of the writers want it to

George Washington is considered one of history’s most revered heroes, but here he’s a complete bastard. His mind have been corrupted by the Apple of Eden – a mystical orb that may brainwash people, shoot lasers, and do traditionally regardless of the Assassin’s Creed writers want it to – and has crowned himself king of the newly formed America. He’s hanging people, lining people up and shooting them, firing lasers at people, and customarily being a despotic, power-mad nuisance.

Connor’s mission, naturally, is to forestall him. But to take action he needs a bit of help from the Sky World. An early mission sees him making tea from the bark of a unique tree and drinking it, which transports him there. The Sky World seems like the Animus – all white, glitchy, and triangular – and you’ve got run, jump, and climb your way through it to earn the Wolf Cloak power. You furthermore mght gain the flexibility to name upon three ghostly wolves with a view to pounce on nearby guards.

SILENT BUT DEADLY

Most of the missions within the Infamy revolve across the Wolf Cloak. In case you come across a guard you come into sight, so that you need to carefully time your dashes between cover in crowded areas. Guard dogs can smell you even if you’re invisible, so that you need to drop bait to lure them away. It isn’t a reinvention of the present stealth, but it surely does provide you with a number of more options. Calling in your wolf pals to take out guards as you cower unseen in a bush is an especially useful tactic.

But despite the hot storyline and Connor’s new power, it still sounds like Assassin’s Creed 3. The elemental mission structure is identical – including their often tortuous linearity – and it’s set at the Frontier, which we already spent 40 hours exploring often game. There are just a few visual tweaks – bodies hanging from trees, ruined buildings, frozen corpses poking out of the snow – but it isn’t as radical a makeover as, say, Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare.

We finished the most important story missions in around three hours. There’s some side content to pad things out, however it sounds like exactly that: padding. As you progress in the course of the Frontier you will be alerted to random events occurring nearby, including rescuing civilians from the King’s troops or raiding convoys. These work inside the same way because the main game’s emergent missions, but in a context that reflects Washington’s hold over the rustic. Pretty disappointing, really.

Memory fragments are a clever way of having you to decide to all three episodes

The memory fragments are more interesting. The perfect parts of Assassin’s Creed 2 was assembling Subject 16’s ‘The Truth’ video by looking for collectables and solving puzzles. The Tyranny of King Washington has its own version of this, and the video you construct will apparently reveal its own truth about Connor’s arrival on this alternate reality. It truly is, obviously, a clever ploy to get you to decide to all three episodes, as is the cliffhanger ending.

But it is the story that stands proud here. It’s essential see Ubisoft completely rewriting history, instead of just slightly altering it, to spin some of the series’ most absurd and intriguing yarns. Washington as a comical cartoon villain is entertaining, and the Wolf Cloak makes stealth less frustrating than it was inside the vanilla game. Still, it is not a vastly different experience, and if you’ve already bled Assassin’s Creed 3 dry, it’s possible you’ll find this add-on somewhat too familiar now and again.