Merry Christmas!
I love you DToid Freaks!
I hope this qualifies as a a blog post now :)

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I love sandbox games, even though the genre went downhill after GTA San Andreas, there are some note worthy titles that came after such as Crackdown and Saint's Row. (there are some that I threw in the trash bin like State of Emergency and "Just Cause" )This year's InFamous and Prototype's awesome additions to the open-world genre like power-ups and adaptive parkour made the latest GTA installment look really outdated. I really don't know where the 10/10 GTA ratings came from. Don't get me wrong, I played through GTA 4 but they could have done better. It looked better than the previous installments, but that's about it. Everything else got worse.

And now comes EA's The Saboteur. When i saw Inglorious Basterds, I thought it would be awesome to have a game and play as one of LT. Aldo Raine's Nazi hunters. The Saboteur gave me that chance. (Well sort of.) The Saboteur got me playing for two hours straight (this rarely happens when i first pop a game in) because of the good voice acting and plot, and driving mechanics that feel just right. The climbing and cover system are well done, but the fighting mechanics lack a counter, block or dodge button. There are no other major shortcomings for this game, Pandemic sure did craft up an excellent gaming experience.

Again, I don't want to spoil anything else. The game offers a great story line, addictive gameplay, interesting adult content, and great graphics. The mood and texture even adapts to what goes on in the game. Yep, definitely worth your time and money. (9/10)

In my 28 years of gaming I have never written a single game review. First of all I’m no writer, and secondly, given my schedule I’d rather play video games than write about them.

But Dante’s Inferno is an exception. Being a fan of hack-and-slash games, the teaser videos and game screens got me excited when they first came out a year ago. I remember the days when friends and I would waste quarters (and five peso tokens) on Golden Axe- the granddaddy of the hack and slash video games. From the basic Jump, Attack, + Use Magic formula of the genre, spawned such greats as the God of War and Ninja Gaiden releases, (and re-releases!) to mention a few. As the hack and slash genre evolved, combo systems were added, as well as parry attacks, upgrade systems, etc. (Devil May Cry era)

Visceral’sDante’s Inferno takes all these developments,then tweaks them to perfection. It is by far the best hack-and-slash control system I've experienced.

To compare it with God-Of-War (as I’ve read in many review sites) cannot be avoided because of the similarity with the gameplay, etc. but to say that Dante’s Inferno “borrows heavily” or “imitates” God of War lacks sense IMHO, because why should game developers risk reinventing the hack–and-slash wheel?

Visceral Games has successfully crafted the perfect hack-and-slash game with new features like being able to mount huge monsters and control them, a smooth attack and magic combo link system, and a more intuitive, non-contrived use of timing based button-press events. The levels I played were cleverly designed as well. Imagine pulling off a combo in the middle of sequential wall flame traps. I don’t want to spoil the rest. And to think I’ve only played the demo!

The only bad part in playing the demo was the release date. (Feb 2010) To while away the boredom and to satisfy my plasma screen bloodlust, I’m popping back my God-of-War Collection back in my PS3

Download the demo from PSN now or better yet, pre-order a copy now. On a side note, I’m not being paid by EA to write this, but if you enjoyed this review comments below will be greatly appreciated.