2k Games has taken up a partnership of the ages.  Good ‘ol Hugh has granted the people working on Mafia II fifty vintage Playboy covers to be used in the game.  These covers will be from the same timeline that Mafia II is based.  Don’t get overly excited to see the wrestler known as China sitting on the coffee table next to the scotch.

We will assume that these will all be PG-13 type covers.  No matter, this is a huge win in the realm of making the game that much more authentic.  We are that much more excited to sink our teeth into this sequel!

Max & the Magic Marker, a creative new platform game from independent Danish developer Press Play, is now available for WiiWare in the Wii Shop Channel. Set in a cartoon world inspired by children’s drawings, Max & the Magic Marker is a classic 2D platformer with a unique twist: the ability for the player to draw directly inside the game world and then interact with what they’ve drawn. After a stellar critical reception on PC and Mac, Max is now available to Wii™ owners in the Americas.

In Max & the Magic Marker players use the magic marker to solve puzzles, overcome obstacles, and defeat enemies by drawing freehand in the gameworld. Everything you draw becomes a real object complete with realistic physics. Can’t reach a ledge? Draw yourself a set of stairs. Need to stay dry when it rains? Draw yourself some shelter. Along the way you must collect ink in order to continue drawing.

Fans of the game on the computer may want to take a second look with the addition of pointer functionality and two-handed control on the Wii. Players will use the nunchuck to control the game’s hero, Max, and will use the Wii Remote to control the giant orange magic marker.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is the first major multiplayer focused shooter to hit store shelves since Modern Warfare 2 was unleashed last November. Fortunately, a multiplayer beta has given those who were most interested in the game a look of what is coming. At first glance, it looks like more of the same… but a lot more. Not only are there more game modes, but there is even more customization and destructibility than the first game. There is nothing quite like blowing up a building that gets in between you and your objective.

As far as the single player experience, you can still expect plenty of humor from Company B and their misadventures. Squad mates will still keep up some witty banter, although the overall craziness will be toned down a little from the first game. Also, the missions won’t be as open ended in an effort to add some structure. Speaking of structure, the overhauled “Destruction 2.0″ tech will improve the games trademark destructibility to the point that, given enough firepower, you can even knock down buildings. The destruction will also have an effect on a smaller scale, as any cover you hide behind can eventually be chipped away to nothing.

EA DICE has done a good job listening to participants in the BETA. Hundreds of tweaks have been made based on feedback, including a hardcore mode which gets rid of the HUD, boosts weapon damage, and allows friendly fire. Modes such as squad rush and squad deathmatch are sure to distinguish Battlefield from other first person shooters. Squad based combat, vehicles, destruction  and character classes make sure that this game includes the best of everything out there.

First person shooters are a dime a dozen these days, but Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is a well rounded game that stands above the noise. If you want something more strategic then Modern Warfare 2 but not as overwhelming as MAG, then this could be your game.

Just Cause 2 has decided that a demo would be a good idea.  We could not agree more.  On March 4, 2010 Square Enix will kick out a demo for all to enjoy.  360, PS3, and Steam users will get this demo at the same time!  This gives you enough time to take care of the God of War 3 and Darksiders demos.

The Just Cause 2 demo will include 35 virtual square miles of the Lautan Lama Desert.  Assassinate a military colonel, destroy military bases, and hijack vehicles are all at your command in this snippet of the game.  This should be a good time for you destruction freaks.  Look for the full game to hit shelves on March 23, 2010 in the US and March 26, 2010 in Europe.

Platform: PC
Developer/Publisher: Cryptic
Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG)
Verdict: A solid MMO even if you aren’t a trekkie.
Pros: Excellent combat. It also allows for soloing.
Cons: It can be overwhelming at times. No story for the Klingons
Acquired: Developer Provided
Price: $49.95, $15 per month

Before diving head first into this review, it’s worth noting that I’m only lukewarm on the MMORPG genre. I played some Everquest back in the day, and I have taken advantage of the free trials of both Final Fantasy XI, and WoW, but none of them ever really sparked a true love (or addiction for that matter) in me. Star Trek Online, however, does an amazing job of scratching both my itch for more stories from the Star Trek universe, as well as my itch for solid, addictive gameplay.

While you can play STO as either a Klingon or Federation officer, the latter is the only choice available when you first fire up the game. Once your faction is selected, you’ll then have to choose a race. Unless you have some hardcore explosive memory loss, you probably remember that bit at the top of this review where I say STO can be overwhelming at times. One of those times is the character creation process. With a wide variety of races to choose from, and the ability to create your own alien species, getting started can be a daunting task. Each species has a set of traits inherent to them that effect either your ability to captain a starship, or your effectiveness in ground combat. Next up, you’ll have to choose a specialization for your character. You can choose Tactical, Engineering, or Science. Your specialization will determine what sort of abilities and items your character will be able to use as you make your way through the game.

Depending on which faction you chose, you’re going to have one of two very different experiences with this game. Federation players will be treated to a story that feels like a proper part of the Star Trek universe. While the PvE missions can be a little repetitive, the stories driving them feel like they could have been ripped from the pages of the script for an unaired Star Trek series.  Klingon players, on the other hand, will be met with no story, other than “Hey, you should go kill some Federation jerks… you know, for The Empire”. Playing as a Klingon puts the focus almost entirely on player VS player (PvP) matches, having you either fight your Federation enemies, or other Klingons over matters of honor… and whether abbreviations count in Scrable. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the Klingon side of things being PvP heavy, but it would have been nice to see the various events that take place in the Federation campaign from the Klingon point of view.

Both Federation and Klingon players will notice a lack of content once they hit higher levels. Cryptic is poised to correct this issue over the coming weeks with new quests and “raid episodes” that will be added to the game over time.

Combat comes in two flavors: space, and ground. Ground combat is pretty standard – select an enemy, and attack until they drop dead. Space combat on the other hand is a little more complicated. Each weapon on your ship has it’s own arc, forcing you to adjust where your ship is facing depending on which weapon(s) you want to fire. For example, most cannons only have a 90 degree arc, so if you have a cannon mounted to the front of your ship, and your enemy is facing the side or rear of the ship, you won’t be able to use the cannon on them. In order to fight effectively, you have to stay in constant motion, all the while firing weapons, and making sure your shields are in good condition.

When you’re not flying around the galaxy fighting Klingons and Borg, you can partake of any and all of the social activities you would expect to find in an MMO. You can hang out in massive public areas, start your own fleet (aka guild), sell your junk at the auction house, or just start a dance party at Quarks bar in DS9. The only problem with all of these delightful activities is that the social areas tend to get all laggy during times of heavy traffic. Cryptic has been releasing patch after patch, and adding servers in order to correct the problem, but the game still chugs from time to time during peak hours. For the record, I’m on a 20mbps connection, so no, it’s not my internet causing the problems.

Cryptic has a great track record when it comes to addressing customer complaints, and updating their games with new content, but I can’t judge the game on what Cryptic will or might add to it. In it’s current state, Star Trek Online is a lot of fun, and it definitely scratches my itch for more stories from the Star Trek universe, however, the lack of a story to tie the Klingon missions together, and the sparse content available to high level players makes the game feel unfinished. If you need a little more Trek in your life, this game is a great way to get it, just bear in mind, it’s a work in progress.

2K Games has announced Civilization V will be rolling onto PC’s this fall.  That is Civilization, the strategy game of all strategy games!

So here is what we can expect.  New visuals and audio are to be expected.  Look for even more landscapes to shaft the Romans on diplomacy over!  Bigger battles will take place this time around.  This is more than just flanking and kicking butt.  You will need some thought to win this one.

Take eighteen civilizations from stone chuckers to mad nuclear warfare.  It is easy to nuke a civilization, but are you badass enough to win a game of diplomacy.  Yeah, diplomacy is getting revamped as well.  Not all wars are won on a battle field.

Lastly is the community.  The Civ games have some of the most passionate fans I have ever seen.  Civ 5 will allow more modding and community interaction than ever before.  Share scenarios, compare scores, brag on your achievements, and visit the vast fan-sites.  All this fun and you never have to leave the game.  How awesome is that.

Hopefully 2K can follow through on all this greatness.  Keep it locked here as we will be following this title like a fan obsessed.  Oh wait, we kinda are!

Its not often that two completely different intellectual properties mix together so well. On paper, Aliens vs. Predator sounds like a winning combination. Sadly it didn’t take long for Hollywood to shake our confidence in this galactic struggle. Before this dark time, Monolith Productions and Rebellion Developments showed us that the combination could work with Aliens vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator 2.

Its been about a decade since these classic PC shooters, and it is about time the series gets a reboot. Rebellion Developments is back and hoping to breathe some life back into the franchise. Alien vs Predator gives gamers the unique opportunity to play as three completely different creatures, each with a different play style. Humans are standard soldiers, equipped with guns and power armor. Aliens are fast, can run up walls and regenerate, but only have melee attacks. The Predator is a solitary super soldier that can cloak to get in position to use its powerful wrist blades or shoulder cannon.

Unlike other games that focus on the Marines blasting apart hordes of enemy aliens, Aliens vs. Predator tells the story from all three points of view. That means three campaigns and three different multiplayer teams. The multiplayer modes made previous iterations stand out and will be what makes or breaks things this time around as well. With modes such as Infestation, Predator Hunt and Survivor, I would say that there is great potential.

If you enjoy shooters, then keep an eye on Aliens vs. Predator. If executed well then this could be a refreshing change from your run of the mill space marine frag fest. After all, what is better then sneaking up on an unsuspecting marine and ripping his spine out? Oh. Yeah, this game is gonna get gory.

Check out some of the fun new ways to rid the world of Zombies!  The best one so far looks to be strapping on a dead animal to your noggin and running around impaling zombies.  We should be taking note as these are great tips for when the zombie apocalypse descends upon us.

Dead Rising 2 is certainly looking to be a bit more fun than the first game.  We are crossing our fingers the footage here is representative of the fun times to be had.  Check out Dead Rising 2 when it hits store shelves in July.

Title: Global Agenda
Publisher: Hi-Rez Studios
Platform: PC
Cost: $49.99
Genre: Massively Multiplayer Online Third Person Role Playing Shooter
Verdict: Interesting blend of the third person shooter and the MMO
Pros: Unique gameplay, and a persistent world
Cons: Sacrifices on both sides were made when merging the MMO and the third person shooter

In the year 2155, things are rough. There’s one global government, and they aren’t really pro freedom. The only logical course of action is obviously to join one of the many private agencies fighting against that government for control, right? OK, so the premise of Global Agenda is a little cliché, but don’t let that deter you – there’s actually a lot to love about Hi-Rez Studios’ first outing.

You start the game off in true MMO fashion by choosing a class. the Assault class gives you access to heavy weapons like rocket launchers, and miniguns. Medics do what medics do in every game – they heal other players. The Recon class focuses on stealth and range attacks, allowing access to abilities such as invisibility. Last but not least, the Robotics class allows you to build turrets and other devices that can blow your enemies to bits on your behalf. On the battlefield, the four classes compliment each other nicely with Assaults leading the charge on the various objectives you’ll have to capture, Recons providing long distance help, or sneak attacking the enemy, Robitics agents building turrets to defend an objective or keep the enemy pinned down, and Medics keeping the team patched up and ready for action.

Once you have picked a class, it’s time to jump into the action. Combat combines elements of both third person shooters, and MMO’s. You can’t just click on a target to select it, and just click it to death from there – you actually have to aim to score a hit. Unfortunately, the damage done by each shot is controlled solely by dice rolls happening behind the scenes. A head shot is no more or less likely to deal additional damage than a shot to the torso. The somewhat simple shooting mechanic is offset by the wide variety of weapons and devices available to each class. Setting up a turret in the right place, or firing a rocket that will follow your target as best it can helps to flesh out the combat. The inclusion of jet packs also helps to add some depth to the combat by allowing players to jet forward quickly, or rocket up to the top of a tall structure. Unfortunately the sheer awesomeness of the jet pack is diminished by the fact that you can’t shoot and fly at the same time.

Speaking of combat, it comes in two flavors: PvP, and PvE. In PvP matches, two teams square off in one of several objective based game types. They’re all pretty run of the mill for shooter fans – some modes require you to take one or more objectives from the other team permanently, and some allow for a back and forth. At the end of each mission you’ll be rewarded with cash and XP. In PvE mode, players are matched up into teams, and sent on a dungeon crawl in order to gather loot, and kill a boss. Alright, so there aren’t actual “dungeons” but the concept is the same – make your way through the facility, kill the big bad, get some loot, celebrate with pie and iced cream. Again, cash and XP for all, HOORAY! The only real problem here is that there’s no plot holding these PvE missions together. The mission descriptions all boil down to “go here, and shoot stuff”. That’s not to say the action doesn’t stand on it’s own two feet, but it would have been nice to see a bit more background on why we’re raiding these places.

Global Agenda also includes a persistent world map where player formed agencies (think guilds) can battle over territory. When you open up the Conquest menu, you are presented with a map that’s broken down into several regions, and broken down further into hexes. Each hex grants it’s controlling agency with resources, allowing the agency to generate income. The amount of fun you’re going to have with Conquest mode is directly dependent on which agency you’re with. In my time with the game I was with an agency that didn’t spend a lot of time worrying about Conquest mode. Consequently, we didn’t have a lot of land, and we didn’t engage in a lot of battles to defend that land or gather new land. The concept of a player driven, persistent map with ever changing borders is a unique and intriguing one – just make sure the agency you’re in makes heavy use of this feature before you think about dropping $13 a month on a subscription to the Conquest server.

So now you’ve got all this cash and XP, but what to do with it? Well, the XP will eventually earn you skill points which can be applied to various abilities on the skill tree. You can upgrade your proficiency with various weapon types, as well as your resistance to various types of damage. In order to avoid balance issues, the skill tree wasn’t given a lot of branches, thus making character progression feel a little basic. I don’t mean to say that it’s shallow, just that the devs played things on the safe side. As for new weapons and armor, you don’t get those in any sort of traditional way. In fact, armor is strictly superficial – your upgrades do all of the stat enhancements that armor would handle in any other MMO. You can also make upgrades to your energy supply – your universal, rechargeable ammo supply. New weapons and devices are awarded as you level up, which leads to an even playing field, as well as a lack of individuality among players of the same class.

Global Agenda sets out to fuse the MMORPG with the third person shooter, and for the most part, that fusion is a success. Both genres had to make some sacrifices for the greater good, but the final product is worth it.  Run and gun gameplay is balanced with skill trees and upgradeable armor and weaponry for a unique gaming experience. Throw in the persistent elements found in Conquest mode, and Global Agenda becomes a unique and robust gaming experience that fans of shooters and MMO’s alike can sink their teeth into.

Telltale Games already has a great game available on the Mac.  That game is Tales of Monkey Island.  This will not due for Telltale though.  They have decided it is time to show that Mac cult some love and release even more games for Steve Jobs baby.

What does this have to do with those of you with a Mac?  Well, you get to decide what game is next to hit the Mac.  That’s right!  Just go here and vote for what Telltale game you would like to see next. Polls are open until February 21, and the winning game will be announced the following week.  Even better, the winning game will then get released in March.

That is not all though.  If you had bought the game on the Windows side of the coin, you get the Mac version for free.  Hell yeah!  All new Telltale games will come out cross-platform as well.  Now this is a developer that knows how to please their customers.

Supporting the Mac, giving existing customers access to both platforms for free, and supporting both platforms from here on out.  This is a win win.  Thank you Telltale for rocking so hard on the gaming front!  Now, all of you get out there and vote!