Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes

Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes lets Star Wars fans young and old live out the sweeping galactic adventures of the Clone Wars. For the first time ever, players can fight as their favorite Jedi and clone troopers from the preeminent animated television series – from familiar faces like Anakin Skywalker to new heroes like Clone Captain Rex. A brand-new storyline, which bridges the gap between season one and two, takes the player on a multi-faceted adventure to stop a mysterious techno assassin’s destructive plot. Built around two-player cooperative action, the accessible controls and family-friendly gameplay bring Star Wars fans across generations together like never

Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited

Dungeons & Dragons Online™: Eberron Unlimited™ (DDO Unlimited) is the free digital upgrade to DDO, the most exciting MMO with the best combat. DDO Unlimited raises the level cap to the natural D&D? limit of 20, introduces a new class, and makes subscriptions optional with unlimited free play. Set in the vast and dangerous online world of Eberron, gamers discover hidden treasure, pummel monsters, and look to evade traps left behind by an ancient race. By leveraging the most active, most realistic combat system of any online game, DDO Unlimited players deliver and feel every blow that goes into a baddie's demise

Fallout 3 Broken Steel / Point Lookout

Point Lookout opens up a massive new area of the Wasteland – a, dark, murky swampland along the coast of Maryland. So hop on the ferry to the seaside town of Point Lookout, for the most mysterious and open-ended Fallout 3 DLC adventure yet.

STORY: Buy a ticket and hop onboard the Duchess Gambit, as Tobar the Ferryman takes you to the strange seaside town of Point Lookout. What secrets does the dilapidated boardwalk hold? Who lives in the sprawling mansion? Why is the Punga Fruit so important? And what horrors lie in the depths of the murky swamp?

Point Lookout is the most open-ended DLC yet, and allows you to explore a huge, swampy wasteland any way you’d like. A completely new quest line allows you uncover the town’s hidden secrets and wield powerful new weapons like the Double-Barrel Shotgun against the swamp’s dangerous, and deformed, denizens.

Wolfenstein

Set within a near-fictional, historical WWII setting, players take on the role of the heroic OSA agent BJ Blazkowicz as they are thrust into the unknown and unexpected to battle against combat troops, otherworldly forces, and the dark science created by a supernatural Nazi force hell-bent on world domination. Wolfenstein offers players an action-packed experience as they investigate the powers of a dark parallel dimension, join with resistance forces, and employ an arsenal of conventional and otherworldly weapons in attempts to annihilate the Nazi war machine. Ensuring a deep variety of action, Wolfenstein provides gamers with an assortment of interlinked missions that drive an intense, story-driven combat experience; while the Wolfenstein multiplayer experience continues the world-renowned tradition of class-based team objective gameplay with a full arsenal of conventional and supernatural weapons for addictive online warfare.

Aion

When a new triple-A massively multiplayer online game is announced, there is usually a lot of hype about what it will offer and how it will differentiate itself from the other titles vying for players’ time and monthly subscriptions.

Aion, from NCsoft, has had some additional pressure put on it in addition to the hype. Consider that NCsoft has had a couple of MMOs start out and then falter and close (Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa), and while City of Heroes/Villains is still going strong, the North American market for Lineage 2 is a little shy (the game, though, is a huge hit in Asia), so if NCsoft needs a hit MMO, it appears that pressure falls squarely on Aion and the development team.

The closed beta session ended today, and the game will launch a new version with a ton of new content and some changes for when it goes to open beta at the start of September. The game will release September 22 – if all goes according to plan.

With all that in mind, and knowing the game may be a slightly different beast with the next version, it’s still applicable to do a preview of the game. What Aion brings to the MMO table is a game that will be challenging, is beautifully crafted and has stories steeped in lore for the player who wants to feel some immersion.

Aion is the story of a world shattered, with two races growing up separately with a racial hatred of the other side. The Elyos are pure and light, with white wings (once they have ascended to level 10 and become a Daeva – more on that in a moment), while the Asmodians are a bit darker, with clawed feet and fingers and black wings. The game does have a robust customization selection in the character creation so while there are some physical attributes particular to each race (as well as armor that is bit more finite in looks at the start), you can create your own look for your character.

There are four profession archetypes, that each break down into two sub-classes: warrior breaks down into gladiator and templar, priest goes to cleric and chanter, scouts can become rangers or assassins, and mages can choose the path of sorcerer or spiritmaster (pet class). There are beginning towns that have a series of quests designed to introduce the game to players as well as get them to level 10, which is when players ascend to the rank of Daeva and get their wings, as well as determining what class they will play through the rest of the game with that particular character. As your character advances, you buy skill books to learn the skills commiserate with your level and class.

The wings truly offer an interesting dynamic to the game. First off, they are not a form of transportation that can take you all over the world. The wings are on a timer and can be zone specific – in that you can fly in some zones, but not in most of the land quest zones. However, you can still glide by double-tapping the space bar and this can help you traverse hostile territory faster, or even chase down a running enemy, if you can find a bit of a hill to use as a launching point for the glide mechanic.

The game itself has base elements that are standard with most MMOs. You get a series of quests designed to draw you through the lore of the game as well as level you up. You level, you get better skills and better equipment. There is also a harvesting and crafting element to the game that will give players who want to take a break from the fighting something to do.

In combat, you can chain attacks. One attack may open a secondary chained skill and allow you to evolve the damage to a higher level.

But Aion’s glory is also a warning post for the player base – this is not a world where a player can waltz through it with hardly a thought for strategic elements or group dynamics. The Shattered World is a harsh place where beauty can host peculiar wildlife that will do you in quickly and effectively. Yes, with skill you can fight a couple of levels above you, but get careless and mobs half a dozen levels lower will attack and might kill you. In addition to experience debt, there is also damage to the soul, which can accrue and cost a pretty bit of coin to heal. The more soul damage you have, the slower you recover and move. Grouping, when possible, is advised and a good group can make for a thoroughly enjoyable time.

Silent Hill: Homecoming

From the instant the air raid siren sounds, a chill went up my spine and the atmosphere seemed to engulf the very air I breathed. The world around me slowly morphed into a creepy sepia colour, with bloodstained walls, steam punk surrounds of rusting metal and cogs with wallpaper made of stretched skin, it was then I knew I was back in the familiar surrounds of the game known as Silent Hill.

You play as Alex Shepherd arriving back in his hometown of Shepherds Glen which is known to players of earlier Silent Hill games for its unsavoury past, from what you believe is a stint in the military. The weather is foggy and it’s eerily quiet as the general population of the town seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. Feeling alone isolated and confused, you morph from the real world to the “otherworld” on a regular basis and don’t know what the hell is going on, gradually piecing together the story through flashbacks and jolted memories.

Of course there is more to it than what the hand full of people left in the town is letting on, as you travel down the path of deception, sacrifice and insanity meeting old friends, family and weirdo’s wondering why there are so many deformed and mutated creatures wanting to tear your head off at every turn. You need to find your father to shed some light on the situation whiles constantly chasing after your little brother Joshua as the little snot just wont stand still and he keeps leading you deeper into trouble.

Apart from the skinless feral dogs and the giant bugs most of the enemies have that distinct Silent Hill look about them. For those unfamiliar with the “Silent Hill Look”, this means the enemies look like a blind mad scientist has dissected and dismembered several humans and animals, placed the internal organs on the outside and sewn them back together with complete disregard of where the head, arms and legs are meant to be. Then replaced some limbs with sharp implements and brought them back to life Frankenstein style. Some creatures will make you jump, some can be avoided and others just wont let up and require different strategies to put them down for good.

If you slash at certain enemies that have skin (like the pendulum headed Schism) with the knife or axe they receive an open wound, and when they eventually die their bodies stay on the ground and do not miraculously disappear like in some games adding a bit more realism. Along with the action there are also many puzzles to solve to receive various items, open tombs and doors or escape from buildings.

The combat system mechanics are easy to use on the Playstation 3 (PS3) version. R1 brings up the weapons select screen, L2 gets you into combat stance and automatically locks on to the nearest enemy while R2 fires. The control pad is used for quick swap between shotgun, rifle, handgun and axe as well as turning your torch on and off. When you run out of bullets or just want to save them for the boss, you can equip the knife using quick and strong attack combos or if you choose, the slower crowbar and axe. The L1 button gets you into the inventory to use your health drinks, first aid kits and the health serums or any items like keys and plaques that you pick up along the way. You pick up maps for each building and main areas of the game that shows save points and mark where you have been making it easy to navigate your way around each area.

There were a few annoying parts like when faced with multiple occultists only one at a time would fight while the others stood idly by and although most cut scenes can be skipped over there were some boss fights where you had to endure the same monologue from certain characters without the ability to skip through the ramble. It would also have been a nice touch if the six-axis controller (PS3) had been used in some parts of the game, like when you have to turn valves.

There was another unfortunate thing that was no fault of the game creators, because Australia does not have an R rating for games, Silent Hill: Homecoming was delayed so some scenes could be altered to pass through the old ladies on the classification board. This meant some scenes go black where normally you would have seen horrific detail. As much as I am against censorship (I wont go on a rant about War and violence on the news shown in prime time etc), for me this did not matter because sometimes what you can not see and what is hinted at can be more horrifying if left up to your imagination.

BattleField 1943

There is no shortage of first person shooters set in World War 2, so there may be a few people who are thinking why should I bother with Battlefield 1943. Which is a pity as Battlefield 1943 is a stand out member of this genre.

To start with it has to be noted that the game is in many ways limited, there is no single player campaign, with the only single player aspect being the tutorial level. There are only 4 maps, of which only 3 at the time of writing are accessible, with the 4th “Coral Sea” air campaign map becoming available when 43 million kills are reached. However what Battlefield 1943 does do within these limitations it does well.

In terms of gameplay on first glance the game appears to be quite limited as there are only 2 factions (the Japanese and American) factions and you are restricted to choosing 1 of 3 classes; Infantry, rifleman, and scout. Each class has its own set of weaponry and special abilities and you can only switch to a different class when you respawn, or if you pick up an equipment pack containing a different class’ weaponry.

While this may seem quite constraining when compared to other shooters when you can use whatever weapons you want, this does force you to adapt how you play to suit the equipment and map. A scout is a bad choice for close quarters fighting, but in the hands of a master is a deadly assassin killing off soldiers from a distance with no recourse. While the reverse is true for the infantry, deadly at close quarters but easy to pick off from a distance.

However, what really adds depth to the gameplay in Battlefield 1943 is the use of vehicles and equipment. In terms of vehicles it is possible to commandeer landing crafts, jeeps, tanks and airplanes, with the aircraft being in particular demand throughout the game. This often leads to a mad rush to the free aircraft at the beginning of a game, with several players hoping to be one of the lucky ones to take to the skies.

With the exception of the single seat aircraft, each vehicle can also take at least 1 passenger. Passengers can either man the weapons on the vehicle or shoot their own weapons whilst in motion. There are also static weapon emplacements spread around the map, which take the form of “forward” facing machine gun turrets and anti-aircraft batteries which can move round 360 degrees but cannot fire below the horizon, making them potentially devastating against aircraft, but leaving the operator vulnerable to ground attack.

The most devastating combination of fixed emplacements is probably in the Mount Suribachi base on the Iwo Jima map. If the guns protecting the base are properly utilised they can devastate enemy attacks and easily fend off air assaults. The base is vulnerable to a sneak attack from the rear however. In addition to fixed gun emplacements, a solitary radio bunker is placed on each map which can be used to call in air strikes, if these are timed and guided wisely can cause mayhem to closely grouped enemy soldiers and vehicles.

Prototype

The video game industry’s obsession with “open world” games is getting a bit old now, Grand Theft Auto did a good thing with GTA3 but it seems ever since every other big release seems to want to clone its mechanics around it. Sure a lot of these seemingly open world games may only have the big sprawling city in common with the game but after all the Spider-Mans, Assassin’s Creeds, Saint’s Rows, and other countless open world games of late, you can’t help but wish the next innovation would just hurry up.

Which brings me to Prototype, another in the long line of games which gives you a big city and sets you off to climb sky scrapers, torment civilians and do stuff that would be remembered as one of the worst disasters in the history of man if it really happened. Right off the bat the biggest annoyance with Prototype comes from this reluctance to move from the codes and conventions set in place with these type of games.

Once again you’re in New York. Once again the city will be filled with side quests that rank in as pretty much pointless. And once again you’ll be playing one of the biggest releases of the summer. However, with that, Prototype isn’t a bad game, in fact it’s far from it. In Prototype you play as Alex Mercer, a man who wakes up one day to find out his body has super human powers but can’t quite remember why.

The story line that pushes you through this 15 hour adventure feels almost ripped off from various X-Men back stories but it works and as it develops it becomes one of the better stories in a video game of recent memory. As you do progress through this story Alex will become more and more powerful and thus opens up the game a lot more.

The game features an extremely robust upgrading system, this system is not only very well implemented but can radically alter the game depending on which options you choose to follow up. While most games that offer a lot of upgrades to your character end up becoming redundant by the end, as you usually end up with everything, thus making the order in which you get them the only real point to the system. In Prototype what you choose from the start will be what you learn to traverse the world with.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: Arkham Asylum is an upcoming Action Adventure Stealth video game for Microsoft Windows, Play Station 3, and Xbox 360, and is based on Dc Comics' Batman. It is being developed by Rocksteady Studio and published by Eidos Interactive in conjunction with Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment and DC Comics and will be released on August 25, 2009 in North America and August 28, 2009 in Europe. It is based on the long-running comic book mythos, as opposed to most other Batman games which are adaptations of the character in other media besides the source material.

Some boss battles are focused on combat while others will focus on gadgets. Combat description features Batman perched on a high ledge in a wide open room as some of the Joker's thugs rifle through drawers. Batman switches to detective mode using a blue tinted visor that among other things lets Batman see his enemies through walls and identifies things like guns and knives. One thug is carrying a machine gun, so Batman jumps off the ledge, spreads his cape, and stuns him. He then swipes his cape to stun his other enemies and engages them in combat. FreeFlow Combat is accomplished using only three buttons: Attack, Stun and Takedown.During battle, a combo multiplier at the top of the screen will increase with every strike. Once the combo expires, a colony of bats will swirl around Batman and then contribute to an experience bar on the left side of the screen. In an RPG-like skill tree system players will be able to distribute points where they prefer. Gadgets are revealed by collecting items in secret rooms, and they can be upgraded using accumulated experience points to access new areas. The player will need gadgets to survive against certain enemies. There are sections that involve stealth, although the developers state that they prefer to call them "Predatory" gameplay sections, as stealth tends to imply weakness. Batman can create distractions with bodies and victims' yells, and then stalk the guards as they go to inspect. The combat experience is heightened using realistic physics

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction

When Ubisoft unveiled the new-look Splinter Cell: Conviction at E3 in July, it immediately topped many people's "Best of Show" lists. Despite being a hands-off demo, it was impressive enough to beat out Halo: ODST and Mass Effect 2 to win GameSpot's own "Best Xbox 360 Game" award, as well as the "Best Action Adventure Game" award. So we were fairly excited when we received an offer to actually go and play the game for the first time, and after getting firsthand experience of the action, we drooled over in Los Angeles.

Our hands-on demo covered exactly the same ground as the E3 build--a spectacular 10-minute set piece that sees rogue agent Sam Fisher infiltrating a mansion to hunt down a man connected to the death of his daughter. If you're unfamiliar with the demo, read our E3 coverage or check out the E3 stage demo to see it in full. There was only one problem with the E3 demo--seeing the game producer effortlessly blast through the game doesn't really compare to the final experience you'll have with it. During our play test, we used a number of different playing styles, from stealth to guns blazing, and also tried to do some crazy stuff to test the game engine.

Long-time followers of Splinter Cell: Conviction may remember that when the game was originally unvelied, the developer emphasised the crowd dynamics and how non-player characters will react to your behaviour. The beginning of our demo level contained a crowd of people going about their business--walking around the market and drinking in the coffee shops. We decided to draw our weapon and fire into the air, and sure enough, it resulted in panic spreading through the civilian populace. It also resulted in guards coming to investigate what was going on, which means we were killed shortly after.

Ubisoft production manager Andreane Meunier was also on hand and emphasised that the guiding principle for the team was to avoid frustration. "You should feel like the ultimate predator," she said, bringing up an image of a panther on her presentation slides. As part of this revised design consideration, dead bodies can no longer be dragged and hidden from other guards because Sam's just too badass to worry about such trivialities. We tested this new gameplay mechanic out on two guards outside the mansion. We sneaked up and executed the first guard, then got out of sight before the other patrolling guard found him. He approached the dead body and exclaimed, "F***, he's been killed!" before altering his patrol pattern to scout the rest of the area. In another nice touch, he peeked around corners and became more frustrated as time went on, calling us a "douchebag" to try to tease us out of the shadows.

Arma II

Arma II is a first- and third-person tactical shooter that simulates a military operation in the midst of a growing civil war in the fictitious European country of Chernarus. The sequel to Armed Assault and the spiritual heir to Operation Flashpoint, Arma II sets a new standard for realistic military simulation games. While Bohemia Interactive's games have always been detailed and ambitious, its latest has surpassed its predecessors by adding meaningful interaction with non-player characters (other than shooting them), increasing the number of moral and strategic choices you will face throughout the campaign, and achieving unprecedented levels of detail, openness, beauty, and believability in the setting. Despite an infuriatingly buggy single-player campaign and some artificial intelligence driving issues, Arma II is a triumph. From its fascinating, sophisticated, and unscripted battles to the immersive detail of the gameworld, Arma II delivers a wholly unique and uncommonly replayable gaming experience.Arma II’s setting is visually striking, amazingly detailed, and brimming with life. Modeled after regions of the Czech Republic, the landscape is so authentic that you could orienteer by watching the stars move across the sky. The terrain includes picturesque forests, mountains, beaches, and pastures, plus one large urban area and several smaller towns, and in many missions, you'll have free rein to traverse vast tracts of the 86-square-mile gameworld. Alongside the Chernarussian people, wild animals and livestock go about their respective lives. However, the animal AI is disappointingly indifferent to the war. Another element of the environment that can interrupt the immersion is the scarce number of civilians you'll encounter per town, along with how few buildings you can enter. On the whole, however, finding a well-worn trail in the forest or commandeering a farmer's tractor for the occasional joyride makes the world feel lived in and real.

Like the geography, the story is refreshingly complex and believable. In the former Soviet Republic of Chernarus, five factions vie for power, including the US Marines, your faction for the single-player campaign; the Chernarussian military, which is allied with the US; the Red Star Movement, a group of Communist separatists from the ethnically Russian areas of Chernarus; NAPA, an independent group of nationalist partisans fighting the Communists; and the armed forces of the Russian Federation. Although your mission is to help the legitimate government in its campaign to crush the Communist insurgency, it's not always clear which factions are in the right; they're all guilty of corruption and atrocities.

In contrast to many first-person shooter games, the war doesn't stop and start at your convenience. You'll find corpses, stumble upon unscripted battles, and encounter friendly troops on patrol, creating the impression that the fighting will continue with or without you. At the same time, your actions can have a profound influence on the story as the campaign unfolds. For example, at one point, you can become instrumental in forming an alliance between NAPA and the Chernarussian government, and at another, you can follow up on evidence of Communist war crimes to win the hearts and minds of the natives. Civilians can often provide intelligence about nearby enemy forces, rebel leaders, and their hideouts, but don't get too attached to your new friends, because enemy partisans don't take kindly to collaborators. In the campaign, each path you take develops fluidly into new missions, which typically begin with a simple objective, like scouting an area, and lead to additional optional objectives, based on your choices. Will you risk your squad and engage your target on foot, or will you endanger nearby civilians by calling in a missile strike? The ramifications of your actions will bear both on your immediate situation and on how the game unfolds several missions down the line. Other missions will send you deep into enemy territory to scout for insurgent bases, capture rebel leaders, rendezvous with partisans, and take part in a wide variety of other realistic military operations

Rage

Over the years, Doom and Quake have been the first-person shooter games that people associate with developer id Software. But the studio has shifted gears to work on Rage, its first all-new property since Quake and a postapocalyptic action game. We finally got the chance to see the game in motion, including the on-foot shooting gameplay, the behind-the-wheel driving, and the story and quest elements.

Rage takes place in an alternate future where the world is recovering from an asteroid hit. You play as the sole survivor of an "Ark," one of several subterranean structures outfitted for about a dozen inhabitants and built by the government to survive the calamity. Though not all of the story details have been made clear, id has revealed that because of his background, your character's body is full of wondrous nanotechnology that will let his body automatically heal itself from injuries over time, as well as defibrillate itself should you fall in battle.

In Rage, you'll emerge from an underground shelter to find a dangerous wasteland.

Your character has emerged wearing an "Ark suit," the distinctive clothing that you and your comrades wear, which will also draw unwanted attention from a mysterious and powerful entity in the wasteland known as the Authority. You emerge from the Ark to find a world much different from the one described to you because more people have survived than the government anticipated--cagey, rugged survivors scraping out a living in the deserts of the wasteland and fighting off encroachments from desert bandit groups and armies of angry mutants. You come under fire from bandits the moment you step out into the sun, but you're rescued by a trader named Dan Hagar and pressed into service to help the local settlements conduct trade with Wellspring, the largest hub city in the wasteland.

Street Fighter 4

It's obvious that each iteration of the long-running Street Fighter series has been carefully tuned and tweaked to the finest degree, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Street Fighter IV. The lessons learned in the franchise's 20-plus years have been used to prune back the core fighting experience to create something truly special.Street Fighter IV is a resounding success not only because it's one of the most technically complex 2D fighters ever made, but also because it's also wrapped inside a layer of absolute accessibility. Never has the old "A minute to learn, a lifetime to master" adage been truer than it is here.

The Street Fighter fundamentals have remained consistent over the years; your job is to knock out the other guy or gal. All 12 of the classic world warriors--Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Blanka, E. Honda, Zangief, Guile, Dhalsim, Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and M. Bison--are back and playable from the outset, and they're joined by six brand-new and diverse characters. Abel, a mixed martial arts grapple-style character; Crimson Viper a female fighter with sweeping, airborne fire attacks; Rufus, a rotund fighter whose body makes him a bit of a sight gag despite his deceptive speed; and El Fuerte, a pro wrestler whose rushes and air throws make him a slippery foe. Ryu and Ken's sensei, Gouken, also makes his playable-character debut in Street Fighter IV. Naturally, he didn't teach the boys everything he knows, so when they meet again he has a few tricks up his sleeves, including a horizontal and vertical fireball EX move. The game's new end boss, Seth, fills the last spot and joins the list once you've unlocked everyone else. Character balance is spot-on across the roster, and as a result, you should never feel that you can't compete simply because you've chosen one character over another.

You'll need to finish the game multiple times and in special ways to unlock the complete character list. Doing so will make fan favourites Cammy, Sakura, Akuma, Fei Long, Rose, Gen, and Dan playable. Like previous games in the series, Street Fighter IV lets you perform powerful super combos, but it has removed air blocking and parrying completely. Developers Capcom and Dimps have added a completely new gameplay system: focus attacks, a new multipurpose offensive and defensive ability that can be charged to one of three levels by pressing and holding the medium punch and kick buttons simultaneously. There's no onscreen bar to show how charged your attack is, so you'll need to rely on the progressively darkening ink splashes surrounding your character model. Each character features a unique focus animation, so you shouldn't have any trouble working it out after a few rounds with each. Focus attacks make you vulnerable to damage because you need to be standing still to charge them (though you can dash forward or backward to cancel them), but the trade-off is that you'll absorb the first hit without the penalty of an animation reset, allowing for an instant counterattack if you land it. They can also act as armour-breaking moves, shutting down more-powerful attacks. Successfully landing a fully charged focus attack will deal damage and crumple your opponent to the ground, giving you the chance to follow up with an unblockable hit as he or she falls.

Bionic Commando

PC enthusiasts are used to feeble ports of console games, and Bionic Commando is no exception. The usual signs of indifference to the platform are all here, such as onscreen prompts that assume you are using a console controller, and laughably few graphics options. But even if you're just seeking good entertainment and are able to look past the obvious apathy shown to this version of Bionic Commando, you'll still find that consistent fun is in short supply. There are some good ideas here, and when they coalesce, you glimpse the great game struggling to escape from the shackles of averageness. You see it when you fling automobiles at a crowd of troopers; you see it in the exciting, high-flying concluding sequence. More often, however, you get the idea that developer GRIN didn't know what to do with its clever ideas. Early glimpses of a big world to explore tantalize you, but your progress is restricted by annoying clouds of deadly radiation. You'll come across new, more powerful weapons, only to discover that shooting them is just as lame as firing your default pistol. Moving about the world with your bionic arm is fun, but that mechanical wonder isn't strong enough to carry the entire experience.