Call of Duty Black Ops II

I have played the latest in the Call of Duty franchise, and I believe this is a great improvement from MW3. Don't get me wrong. I love MW3, but I think we can agree that the game needed more content than being an updated version of MW2. Black Ops II doesn't play it safe, but takes a chance creating one good game.

What you will like from the game

• The campaign is amazing. There are great moments in the game that you wished were in the previous games. It really is engaging taking up multiple roles playing as the good and bad guy.

• Mission Customization. You can customize classes for the campaign creating variety every time you play the game.

• New Zombie Modes. Zombies is taken to the next level. Not only it has the traditional survival mode, but it includes other modes. Grief puts two teams fighting to be the only one alive. And this mode can get chaotic. Tranzit is the buzz for the game. Up to 4 players can explore an entire town with the help of a bus. Also to note as of now there is an upcoming DLC to finally allow us to play as the zombies.

• Multiplayer's Pick-10. Black Ops II breaks the traditional class set up for the new pick-10-system. Players are allotted 10 points to customize classes in any way from having two guns and three perks, to having six perks and a knife.

• Score Streaks. Instead of killstreaks, Black Ops II improved on MW3's idea of pointstreaks. Players will have to earn score points within the game to call in streaks. The way to earn score points can be anything from kills, to objectives. This really gets players more involved in teamwork instead of going Rambo.

• League Play. I haven't much to give a lot of info, but you can actually be part of a league along with other players around the world close to your skill level. In a way this is similar to clans from Elite.

Though this game is an improvement, there's not to say it is faulted by minor problems.

• Poor branching storylines. This is the first COD to have a branching story where your decisions influence the game. Yet I find there is little change to the story based on the decisions and the choices are small. For instance whether or not to shoot someone.

• Strike Force Missions. These are side missions that are supposed to also influence the story by completing various objectives. You get to control everything from the soldiers to the machines. However most of these missions are repetitive and don't seem to really influence the main game.

• This may be minor for me, but I think there should be more game modes for multiplayer. Where is Sabotage? I used to play that a lot. Also I wonder if they are going to add modes from MW3 like Infected.

Aside from all of that, I find this game to be one of the top FPS games opposed to Halo 4. If you have not played this game, I say go for it. It is worth the $60 as you will keep finding excitement and you can expect future DLC. I personally give this game a score of 9 out of 10.

Playstation Sharpshooter

Yes I know it is late to review this, but I have friends who still don't have this accessory and thought would be a good thing to review.

The PS Sharpshooter is a PS Move accessory for shooter games. I have the Sharpshooter for Resistance 3. The purpose is to simulate the feel of a rifle in your hand to make the game more realistic. However there are things to keep in mind if you are planning on buying this accessory.

• You will need to have both the Move and the Navigation controller to use the gun.

• Turning the camera in the game is usually the gun itself. By rotating the gun in a direction, your onscreen character turns to the direction. It may be difficult at first to get used to the feel.

• Keeping the gun up on screen is probably going to be a problem. To situate your character you have to have the gun pointed at the screen at all times so that you don't end up having the character look down. The problem is trying to keep it up gets tiresome after an hour of holding the gun.

• The cost of the gun is around $40 new. However, since it has been years since the Sharpshooter has been out, the price may have dropped slightly.

• Oddly enough, after 2 years of the Sharpshooter, there are still no Sony Playstation branded scopes or sights for the gun. Looking at the gun, it looks like there should be, but Sony has never made one up to this point. Though sights are not necessary, it would make the gun look more war authentic. However, I have seen people buy actual military red-dot sights and screw them to the gun, but I would think the sights are more expensive than the gun itself.

In the end it comes to personal preference. This accessory is not necessary to play games, but depending on the player, it could hinder or improve on the shooting aspect of the game. I recommend borrowing the accessory from a friend or see if you can find one at a cheaper price to test out on your games.

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Over the Christmas holiday, I finally got my copy of Tekken Tag Tournament 2. After playing a great amount of time on this game, I have to say, it's an improvement from Tekken 6. The first thing you will notice is how similar the main menu is compared to the last game. But that is only the beginning. There is much more to look at in this game.

Pros of the game

• First off, if you pre-order the game, you would have gotten a bonus stages and characters. Luckily, now with updates, you can have access with all the bonus material.

• Large assortment of characters. There are characters from EVERY Tekken game, making it the most epic roster of Tekken.

• More creative endings. The original Tekken Tag endings were bland. They were relatively short and had no meaning. This game has more developed endings. It makes you feel like these endings have a purpose and seem to relate previous Tekken games. Some endings are developed in many styles. Instead of the standard FMV, there are noir styles, comic book styles, watercolor styles, and much more.

• Since Characters are based on previous games, Their movesets carry over. If you have played Tekken 6 mostly, you will already have a feel to the characters in this game.

• The characters can have multiple customization costumes. As opposed to previous games that only allowed for two character changes per character, this game allows for up to 10 character changes.

• The new Fight Lab gamemode. More or less, this is a training mode for newcomers to the Tekken series. But instead of a simple instruction tutorial, this mode has a story, which I say is kind of entertaining.

• New Combot. Combot from Tekken 4 returns in this game. But instead of mimicking other players, you can customize Combot with moves from other characters. This is a good concept to try out different attacks and combos. You will unlock more moves as you progress in Fight Lab.

Cons of the game

• Online Pass. Unfortunately, this game is plagued by the Online Pass problem. If you bought the game used or renting the game, you will need to buy a pass to play online.

• Character Customization. Though there is character customization, it lacks simplicity. You can buy clothes and items in the menu, but you don't have much of a variety. It turns out to unlock weapons, panels, auras, and cooler costumes, you have to play ghost mode and fight against gold characters. This wouldn't be a problem if you can choose the items you wish to unlock. But you will randomly get items. Also fighting gold characters is also random further decreasing the chances.

• Useless DLC. Though there are no DLC characters or stages, they do have endings and soundtracks from EVERY Tekken game which you can buy. In my opinion, this is a waste. Having soundtracks from other games would be nice to incorporate in stages, but it's not enough to make me buy it. The endings are a blast from the past, but you can watch these endings free on Youtube.

With only minor faults, I find this game to be enjoyable and a great collection for any Tekken fan. Or even for gamers who want to start Tekken. It's easy to pick up and fight. There is a lot of replay value that will keep you coming back for more. Rating this, I would give this game an 8 out of 10.