The Last of Us (PlayStation 3)

Pros Excellent graphics that could pass as a next-gen title. Emotion-stirring story. Brutal combat.

Cons The game sometimes telegraphs enemy encounters. Ho-hum puzzles. Bottom Line The Last of Us is a horror masterpiece that proves that the aging PlayStation 3 still has the potential to produce jaw-dropping AAA games.

By Jeffrey L. Wilson

Naughty Dog, the Sony-exclusive development house behind the Uncharted, Crash Bandicoot, and Jax and Daxter series, has created what many have hailed as "the last great PlayStation 3 game." Considering The Last of Us's exquisite gameplay and narrative design, and the fact that the PlayStation 4 is on-deck for a November 15th, 2013 release, that sentiment may very well be true.

The Last of Us combines action and survival gameplay to tell a character-driven tale about a world destroyed by the Cordyceps fungus, a growth that transforms humanity into zombie-like monsters (the fungus, in fact, is one that appears in the real world and has unsual effects on its hosts). The zombie-like creatures roam the land, while survivors battle the creatures, and one another, to stay alive. 

The story focues on Joel (voiced by Troy Baker), a hardened survivor, and Ellie (voiced by Growing Pains' Ashley Johnson), an optimistic teenage girl who work together to trek across the wastleands that are the remains of the United States. The A.I.-controlled Ellie assists the player-controlled Joel by, for example, shouting out the direction from which enemies approach or by helping Joel break free from an infected human's grasp. She's far more useful than BioShock Infinite's A.I.-controlled Elizabeth.

Joel and Ellie's relationship is what gives The Last of Us its heart. The excellent script sees the two very different people affect one another in surprisingly subtle ways. I grew to care about the characters, which is a rare occurrence.

Unlike many of the other big franchises in the survival-horror genre (Dead Space, Resident Evil), The Last of Us isn't just about headshots and re-ups. Supplies are scarce, so stealth is just as important as the ranged and melee combat. There's a crafting system, too; you can, for example, combine a rag and alcohol into a Molotov cocktail.

The Last of Us also features Naughty Dog's "Balance of Power" adaptive artificial intelligence system. It lets enemies react realistically to situations by attacking when you're low on ammo, or calling for help when you're overpowering them. As a result, you must mind your surroundings.

The Last of Us, unfortunately, falls into the same action-adventure puzzle-solving trap as many other games of its ilk. These moments causes the game to lose its way a bit, and takes away the brutal, hard-hitting combat. The Last of Us can sometimes telegraph enemy encounters; when you walk into an area where there are conveniently placed items that can serve as cover, you know that it's time to break out the weaponry. It breaks the element of surprise to some degree.

Still, The Last of Us is an excellent, must-play title for survival horror fans. In fact, the script is so good, I'd recommend The Last of Us to gamers who aren't fans of the genre. The PlayStation 3 will soon begin to fade into the background, but The Last of Us will be remembered as one of the best games that the video game medium has ever produced.

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Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate (for PlayStation 3)

Pros Good graphics. Incredibly cinematic fights. Varied roster. Lots of modes.

Cons Awful story mode and repetitive pre-match dialogue. Some laggy online play. Bottom Line Featuring engaging fighting, various martial arts styles, and gorgeous, interactive environments, Dead or Alive 5 is a worthy addition to the long-running fight franchise

By Jeffrey L. Wilson

The fighting game renaissance that began with Capcom's Street Fighter IV sees its latest high-profile entry: Tecmo Koei's Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate. The $39.99 polygonal fighter adds bug fixes and new modes to the series' trademark rock-paper-scissors style combat. Featuring intricate mechanics, several beautiful interactive environments, and characters from Sega's Virtua Fighter series, Dead or Alive is a fun fighter, but the awful story mode and some online lag are to the game's detriment.

Street Fighting
Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate nearly 30 fighters representing a wide cross-section of martial arts styles including wrestling, MMA, and ninjitsu. That's not quite as robust as Tekken Tag Tournament 2's 40-plus person roster, but there are fewer duplicates and goofy characters (such as Alex, a boxing glove-wearing dinosaur). In a surprising move, Tecmo borrows Akira, Sarah Bryant, Jacky Bryant, and Pai Chan, fighters licensed from Sega's Virtua Fighter series. It's a natural fit.

Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate's action is fast and accessible, but the game's rock-paper-scissor's gameplay in which strikes beat throws, throws beat holds (counterattacks), and holds beat strikes, favors more cerebral players. Sure, you can attempt to button mash your way through a match, but you'll be quickly squashed—especially online where completion is high. The new Power Launcher attack favors savvy players as it lets characters with low health deliver one air-launcher per round. It can lead to big air combos if properly utilized.

There are numerous ranking systems and fighting game modes, but one that stands out (for the wrong reasons) is story mode. The story is a confusing cheesefest that has awful voice acting. That said, it's useful for unlocking the Virtua Fighter characters. And on the topic of voice acting, the characters' pre-fight dialogue is filled with repetitive throwaway lines that you'll want to skip as soon as you've heard them once.

Like Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate now four online combatants mix it up (the vanilla version lacked online tag action). Tag action is fast, and it's remarkably easy to do team attacks, which plays more to casual players. The online mode has some lag issues, but it doesn't ruin the experience. As such, DOA is a bit of a hybrid fighter that has one foot in the hardcore and more casual realms (although nowhere near as watered-down as Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3). Unlike Tekken Tag Tournament 2, this game allows you to continue fighting after one character falls. Still, you should utilize wise character management by swapping out heavily-damaged characters to heal (or master the improved sidestep move).

Noob warning: If you play the CPU on one of the higher difficulty settings, be prepared to see nearly all of your blows countered—it's quite frustrating. Thankfully, there's a deep practice mode (one that rivals Skullgirls) that lets you work on technique mastery.

Masterful Environments
Battles take place in varied locations ranging from a circus arena to a war-torn landscape. The environments are interactive, too. Not only do random items in the environments break—everything from barrels to fences—but you can slam people into Danger Zones that cause the victims big damage.

You can also knock foes over ledges, which trigger cinematic quick time events. The winner of the QTE gets a temporary damage boost for unleashing extra fury. Wise fighters will use Power Blows (a super attack that you can use to blow opponents into a selected direction) to really lay on the hurt by sending foes into Danger Zones. This gives Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate an action movie vibe more so than games like Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown (which approaches sim designation), and it works well.

Not Quite the Champ, But Still a Strong Challenger
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 remains the Editors' Choice among 3D fighters for its incredibly deep gameplay and excellent all-around package, but Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate is no slouch. It's more green-friendly than Namco Bandai's offering, but that's not necessarily a knock (unless you're the type to spend every waking moment in the digital dojo). That said, if you bother to learn the rock-paper-scissors mechanics, you can have some rather strategic matches as you knock opponents around the crazy environments.

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Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist (for PlayStation 3)

Pros All new customizable Spies vs. Mercs online multiplayer competitive mode. Custom build-outs. Increased gameplay variety (Ghost, Assault, Panther styles) in single-player story mode.

Cons Long load times. Repetitive and sometimes tedious game play. Short single-player story mode. Bottom Line Splinter Cell Blacklist is everything you've always loved (or hated) about the franchise with the addition of new competitive multiplayer Spies vs. Mercs modes.

By Matt Sarrel

Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher is back, and he's more lethal than ever.  It's a good thing, too, because a group of terrorists calling themselves The Engineers have had enough of the omnipresent US military and have launched a terror ultimatum called The Blacklist—a deadly series of escalating attacks on U.S. interests.

As we've grown to expect from the franchise, the story was gripping the moment I started playing Splinter Cell Blacklist. Hell, I was hooked the minute they handed me the razor-sharp curved assassin's blade known as the Karambit. The first series of cut scenes and the "introduction" level (which can be skipped) grabbed my attention and set my expectations pretty high. I experienced mystery, intrigue, surprise, and terror within the first few minutes of playing. 

I think the highest praise that could be paid to Ubisoft was the reaction of my twenty-one-year-old roommate (an NYU senior and history major) to the subject matter and the game play. I hadn't even finished the tutorial when she climbed up on her soapbox and railed against "games like this that teach Americans that it is OK to bomb Syria." Anytime that a single game can be indicted for "eroding the moral values" of an entire society caused by "the glorification of violence, torture and murder," then the developers need to give themselves a massive pat on the back. When a game gets under someone's skin that deeply then you know you've done something right.

Ghost or Panther? legacy
The Splinter Cell franchise has always been about stealth. This changed somewhat with "Conviction" which introduced some heavy straight-on combat elements. "Blacklist" builds on the stealth and combat aspects to let players use their own style to attack the different objectives.  Players are scored on their ability to get through a level using "ghost," "assault," or "panther" tactics. Ghost points are earned by playing in full-on stealth mode and making it through a level without alerting enemies. This is the most difficult set of tactics and also the most rewarding in terms of points. Panther style matches my personal style the closest and involves stealth, distraction, using cover, and ultimately disabling enemies to move through the level. And finally, assault style is exactly that – rush in headlong with guns blazing, hurling grenades, and throat slashing.

Customization goes beyond how the levels are played to how you equip your Sam Fisher. You can select your build-out to include upgrades to Sam himself, his suit, goggles, weapons, transportation, and more. These upgrades cost money, and money is earned by accomplishing objectives within levels and by beating the levels themselves.  Each level can be played umpteen times and different challenges (elimination, wave-based, and stealth-only) await you, so there is no end to the amount of money that you can bring in to customize your Sam Fisher. The only downside is that after a while working towards the perfect build-out per level seemed to be a waste of time; I found myself choosing the same weapons and gadgets over and over again because I liked them, regardless of the situation.

Sam and his team – Anna "Grim" Grismdottier the technical operations manager, CIA operative Isaac Briggs, and computer specialist Charlie Cole – comprise the Fourth Echelon, a fully mobile ops unit with unlimited resources.  Your main hub of operations is the Paladin, a specially outfitted stealth airliner that flies you from mission to mission around the world. The Paladin houses the Strategic Mission Interface (SMI), which is basically a tactical map of the world. Navigating the SMI is how you choose which mission to play, receive mission briefings, and check the status of mission objectives.  The SMI is also where you choose between story, co-op, challenges, and competitive multiplayer modes.

Multiplayer Excellence
Multiplayer modes are where Blacklist really shines. I've always enjoyed the co-op missions and this continues in Blacklist. In particular, online multiplayer "Spies vs. Mercs" pit two teams against each other as either the fast and stealthy spies or the slower and more lethal mercs. Spies try to sneak around and accomplish various objectives while mercs hunt them. The "Classic" mode brings back the same dynamics as the original Spies and Mercs. 

A new "Blacklist" mode lets you push the limits of customization and use the money you've earned in other parts of the game to make custom build-outs of weapons and gadgets. A lot of the gear is designed to counter the opposing team which makes for an interesting mini-arms race. For example, the Spy can carry a gas mask that nullifies the Merc's gas grenade. Spies vs. Mercs is good enough to be a game by itself.

More of the Same
My criticism of Blacklist is the same that it has been since the beginning of the franchise. Missions can be repetitive, frustrating, and tedious. Many times I find myself repeating the same actions over and over again with slight variations until I get it right and can move through the level. I found this to be more and more likely to happen as I increased difficulty and progressed through the game. I have thrown many a controller down in disgust over the years. Finicky controls (but I wanted to turn left while in cover, not step out of cover to my left) and variable stealth mechanics (I was hidden there a second ago but now the enemy can magically see me although nothing changed) really get on my nerves. If not for a very flexible game-saving system I would not have been able to tolerate my frustration long enough to review Blacklist.

AV Issues
I'm also a little disappointed by Blacklist's audio and video quality. There are some quality issues during cut scenes that make them jump and blur somewhat. Load times are excessive which further detracted from my enjoyment. In-game graphics are good, but nothing stellar, and sometimes animations looked really awkward and bodies sort of fell and twitched on the ground needlessly.  Within minutes the soundtrack distinguished itself as unremarkable. Lighting, a critical aspect given the heavy stealth gameplay, looks like it hasn't improved since the original Splinter Cell.

And that may be the strongest statement that can be made about Blacklist: in many ways this is simply more Splinter Cell. If you loved the earlier games then you'll love this one. If you hated the earlier games then you'll find the same frustrations and shortcomings here. The major enhancements are to multiplayer gameplay, competitive and cooperative, and serve to increase variety and replayability. Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist doesn't break enough new ground to achieve greatness; perhaps the next iteration will up this game's game a bit more. 

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Madden NFL 25 (for PlayStation 3)

Pros Improved Infinity Engine for more realistic physics. Engaging franchise and career modes. Fun for both rookie and pro players. Hundreds of new plays. Improved running game.

Cons Idiotic commentary (as always). Occasional unrealistic player movements and collisions. Bottom Line The venerable Madden monolith returns for a 25th season, and it's quite possibly the most realistic Madden to date and just as much fun as it was in 1988. Deep franchise and career modes and online gameplay options round out this excellent offering.

By Matt Sarrel

Madden NFL 25 breaks its numbering convention (this year should be Madden NFL 14) in order to embrace the franchise's rich, twenty-five year history.  This is demonstrated by Barry Sanders gracing the cover of the PS3 and Xbox 360 version (Adrian Peterson is on the cover of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One) as well as the more than 50 legendary players and coaches who can be used in Connected Franchise mode.  The game, which is also available for Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Vita, includes legendary players and coaches such as the aforementioned Barry Sanders, Randall Cunningham, Mike Ditka, and even sentimental favorite William "Refrigerator" Perry.

In keeping with the "25" theme, Madden NFL 25 brings the All-25 Team to the field.  This team roster, available from the Play Now menu, includes players and coaches who were the best at their position according to the player rankings created by the Madden NFL development team.  In essence, this is an entire team comprised of players with outlandishly high—dare I say broken?—rankings.  Remember how freakishly fast Deion Sanders was in Madden '95 with a speed of 99 and acceleration of 99?  Or how about Marshall Faulk with an acceleration of 99 and an agility of 99 from Madden NFL 2003?  Now I really do feel nostalgic because I interviewed Marshall when he was the cover athlete and I definitely remember him complaining that EA had shorted him with a measly 93 speed rating.  The All-25 Team is the team to play when you need to be guaranteed a victory.

Incremental Improvements
Screens that display during load time prominently feature older versions of the game with a mention of how that game was different from predecessors.  This nostalgia may even evoke a tear from eye of a seasoned veteran such as myself who actually remembers playing each version as it came out.  These screenshots and captions echo a central theme of the franchise: combine a realistic football experience with steadily improving graphics and small incremental improvements in gameplay over last year.

And that's exactly how it feels when you take the field in Madden 25. 

This is year two of award-winning Infinity Engine physics, and collisions are more realistic (which is good because they weren't always so convincing looking to begin with). EA also cleaned up a lot (but not all) of the bugs that used to make players flop around on the ground or stumble over each other after plays end. 

The Running Game
Madden NFL 25's ground game also leverages the Infinity Engine and the new Force Impact system to provide physics-driven truck moves, stiff-arms, and big hits for more realism.  Many times during my testing I was impressed by the visceral quality that a big hit had. I could almost feel the smackdowns.  New audio for physics collisions that scales based on the severity of the hit adds to this feeling.

The new Madden also includes an improved running game called "Run Free" that gives you a huge amount of control over the ball carrier with moves such as spin, juke, stiff-arm, dive, and hurdle.  A new mechanic is the stumble recovery, which provides a small window after the ball carrier has been hit and before he's been brought down during which you can pull down on the right thumbstick and regain your balance to add a few yards or even escape completely.  Flick up on the right thumbstick and you'll dive forward for extra yardage.  Truck and Truck Spins are powerful ball carrier moves, too.  Push the right thumbstick forward just  before the impact of a potential tackle and try to run through a defender.  Using the L2 button combines a "precision modifier" with each ball carrier move to give the player a little something special like a bigger juke or a fake out hop.

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