Living the Great American Dream in GTA IV Liberty City

Long before this game was released on the XBOX 360, the world was treated to stylized images of Niko Bellic and the deliciously sultry chick with a lollipop balanced precariously upon the tip of her tongue. It was this steamy female, whose name was rumored to be Lola del Rio, which got me intrigued and not the Russian lead character in Grand Theft Auto IV, one of the most anticipated game of the year. Along with the rest of the gaming population, I am still wondering if Rockstar made her out to be a character or merely part of their marketing gimmick to attract potential buyers who were smitten with Miss Lollipop.

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So You Think You Can Rock?

Snapping at the heels of Guitar Hero III is Rock Band, a similar rhythm game that gives players the freedom to pretend that they are a rock star, AND lets them get away with it too.

I am amazed how no one has thought about pitting players against armed with a guitar, bass, drums and their vocal prowess against each other before, but developer Harmonix obviously has a gem in their hands with Rock Band. This game is more about cooperative multiplayer than anything, because obviously you cannot form a rock band all on your own! Players basically team up in a rock band to create performances and gain the highest scores together as they play a medley of 40 officially licensed musical tracks.

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Tom Clancy’s games are full of espionage-themed missions, terrorists and close quarter gun battles. The Rainbow Six Vegas series for the XBOX 360 is not excluded, and fans of the first game will surely love the sequel to the XBOX Rainbow Six Vegas 2 game. The story in the first R6V ended on a cliffhanger, and Ubisoft banked on fans’ curiosity to sell the second.

Nothing much has changed in the game play although enemies’ Artificial Intelligence has been slightly increased. Another notable feature is the ACES system that stands for “Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization”. Players will be given a great array of weapons depending on the tactics employed to progress through the game, namely Marksman, Assault and CQB (Close Quarter Battle). Translated, this means that if one of your opponents fell by Headshot, you might unlock a spiffy new sniper riffle thanks to the Marksman division as detected by the ACES system.

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