1.
mercury page 10 December 5-11, 2012
arts
OH HO, THE VIDEO GAMES!
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’:
The good
RESIDENT EVIL 6
CAPCOM, $59.99
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Rating: Mature
Resident Evil 6 shares a lot with the holidays because ev-
erything you shoot leaks red and green. While it takes a
more linear and cinematic approach, the game pays great
homage through its three campaigns to previous styles and
tensions from franchise past. As the series has evolved
from survival horror to an amalgam of action and suspense,
the sixth installment never strays from its signature mix of
tense moments and over-the-top scenarios. Replayability is
endless just like George Bailey’s friends. Reasons to return
will keep walking through the door leaving money on your
table.
MAX PAYNE 3
Rockstar Games, $59.99
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC
Rating: Mature
Rockstar Games has nailed its routine like Kerri Strug in
1996. Taking gripping characters and thrusting them into
ceaseless excitement while popping rivets into a block-
buster production value, we are left with another gem. The
haunted hero returns as a bloated, drunken shell of his for-
mer self. His mission is to overcome the hooch and rescue
his employer’s daughter at any cost. Birthed by “Taken” and
fathered by Vicodin addiction, a slow-motion combat sys-
tem as absorbing as the story and compellingly gritty actors
prove to us that Max has grown up just fine.
BORDERLANDS 2
2K Games, $59,99
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC
Rating: Mature
Borderlands 2 builds upon its initial successes and am-
plifies the cell-shaded looting nerdgasm to brand new
heights. Literally millions of weapon combinations are gen-
erated and scattered throughout the immersive world of
Pandora. It’s your job as a treasure hunter to find them in
between questing and shooting things in the face. With
more enemies, more guns, and more rewards, it’s a truly
one-of-a-kind experience that melds two of gaming’s fin-
est genres seamlessly. Don’t let Mrs. Clause fool you: big-
ger is better.
DISHONORED
Bethesda Softworks, $59.99
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC
Rating: Mature
Pair vengeance with the supernatural and you have a recipe
for the year’s most unassuming and spectacular title. Dis-
honored gives players an amazing breadth of power and
control with their swift assassin protagonist, where mul-
tiple means to every objective shape and bend the plot. Ac-
cess to otherworldly powers and more conventional means
of death, all while having options to find a pacifist’s ap-
proach to a given quest, allows for unprecedented freedom.
It’s a never-ending Advent calendar of stealth kills and rat
swarm puppet mastery, the two things on everybody’s wish
list!
HALO 4
Microsoft Game Studios, $59.99
Xbox 360
Rating: Mature
Simply saying the word emotes a raging candy cane from
the hordes of Xbox brethren. With the franchise’s transition
to 343 Studios, the series faithful were anxiously kept up at
night, envisioning the gentle caress of a female over some
Game Fuel to assuage their worries. Rest easy — it has
been re-purposed with a shiny new veneer that manages
to surpass Bungie’s Immaculate Conception. An amazing
campaign, the most visually sublime graphics on the 360,
and a distinguished and reinvigorated multiplayer experi-
ence leaves you roasting your chestnuts on your opponent’s
Battle Rifle-riddled face for years to come.
TRITTON Warhead 7.1 Xbox 360 Gaming Headset
$299.99
With the mega virgin vanity of Astro’s competitive gaming
So what will ring your bells this year? And what will help you scoop up Rudolph’s high-fiber diet? TOM HODGSON considers
what’s naughty and what’s oh so nice out there this holiday shopping season. Check out his recommendations to get the best
bang for your buck for the gamer on your holiday shopping list
First Person Shooter meets Role-Player. Oh what fun it is to
thrive in the world of Pandora in Borderlands 2.
Best of survival horror-suspense. ‘Quick ­— everybody
strike an angsty pose with their gun for my zombie
apocalypse scrapbook.’ Resident Evil 6 has as many
reason to play it over again as George Bailey has friends.
Continued on page 11
Cadillac of wireless
gaming audio.
The TRITTON Warhead 7.1
Xbox 360 headset’s
skull-crushing ear
muffs offer features
and specs unmatched
by its cheaper competitors.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

2.
December 5-11, 2012 page 11 mercury
headphones being too hot and the cheap, brittle plastic
manufactured by Asian elves in Turtle Beach “workshops”
being too cold, TRITTON steps in and provides a porridge
that feels just right with its immersive Warhead 7.1 Dolby
headset. Its gorgeous industrial chic and over-ear feel, in-
genious design features, and pristine audio quality allow
you to game comfortably and precisely, with astute loca-
tional awareness and EQ presets. The headset uses propri-
etary Xbox hardware to provide to you the only untethered
mic available to 360 users, with a revolutionary in-game
display that helps monitor battery life. The base acts not
only as a pedestal to this tech idol but as a charging sta-
tion for the second included battery, ensuring you’ll never
run out of yuletide for the berating of 12-year-olds. These
skull-crushing ear muffs offer a laundry list of features and
specs unmatched by its competitors, solidifying it as the
Cadillac of wireless gaming audio.
‘Reindeer Games’: The bad
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 2
Activision, $59.99
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii U, and PC
Rating: Mature
Where are the reviews with integrity chronicling its shoddy
hit detection, abysmal spawns, mind-numbing inconsis-
tencies, and the lackadaisical copy and pasting of Zom-
bies? While there are noble ideas which attempt to revolu-
tionize the war-grizzled mechanics, nothing ever feels like
it’s in its right place or lines up where it should be, ulti-
mately bludgeoning any sense of enjoyment. Smack a “Call
of Duty” label on something riddled with muddied colors,
rudimentary textures, and glaring design flaws and become
a billionaire off a product resembling my last PowerPoint
presentation … must be nice. Why must you always piss on
my snowman, Treyarch?
DIABLO III
Blizzard Entertainment, $59.99
PC and Mac
Rating: Mature
Blizzard is an appropriate name, because like the reindeer
stables, they’ll leave you with a lot of crap to shovel. I truly
believe now after witnessing Diablo III’s stumbling release
that they’re strictly out for profits. A name that once touted
legendary levels of prestige and decency through decades
of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo now sees fans as dol-
lar signs. Their unacceptable handling of the game’s launch
and its neutered operability has forever left a bad taste in
my mouth. Giving your loyal fans an incomplete game and
throwing your hands up with a dismissive “Oops!” after-
wards deserves a kick in the teeth from a rabid Rudolph.
Nintendo Wii U
$299.99
Stop dangling a carrot of sentiment to lead me towards
another gimmicky, slapdash console, Nintendo. While
the Wii U will undoubtedly and unrightfully sell out
this holiday season, it has JUST arrived at the current
generation. Rough translation: In 2012, the Wii U has
reached the technical standards of the 2005 market.
By the time true next-gen consoles are released within
two years, the Wii U will be vastly inferior and piti-
fully reaching for your heart strings with mainstays like
Mario and Zelda. Just because you come around once
a year to give me this flashy new toy before you disap-
pear again into obscurity doesn’t make you any less of a
deadbeat developer.
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The Entertainment
Software Rating
Board (ESRB) rates
MATURE content as
generally suitable for
ages 17 and up. May
contain intense vio-
lence, blood and gore,
sexual content and/or
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Continued from page 16
Worst role playing. Even Diablo III’s
fearless demons of hell will grimace
at Blizzard’s business model.
For the player on your list