Borderlands has received yet another DLC update to prove there truly is no rest for the wicked. After opening The Vault and foiling Dr. Ned on an island full of zombies, Xbox 360 owners got to close 2009 out with another DLC update that adds yet another memorable character to the mix in Mad Moxxi. As if the game disc itself didn’t have enough Mad Max and Thunderdome references for you, this newest addition could be considered a flat-out parody of that universe as it thrusts players into Mad Moxxi’s Underdome through a new “Riot” game mode for 800 Microsoft Points. While the Underdome isn’t as expansive as The Zombie Island, it certainly does its job in implementing some frantic action into the otherwise wide-open format of Borderlands and it adds enough to make the battles fresh and easily worth the 800 MS Points if you are a fan of the game.

As Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot is an non-standalone expansion of a retail title, I’m going to eschew the traditional review format as having nearly all of the game’s material recycled to the disc makes revisiting items such as graphics, control and the like a bit pointless. If you enjoyed these aspects in Borderlands, they are served up once again in their purest form in this expansion.

There isn’t much of a story to Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot, other than to introduce the Underdome’s ringmaster, Mad Moxxi herself. The Underdome, much like the obviously referenced Thunderdome, also fits within the conventions of items such as Smash T.V. – “contestants” are placed into a proverbial blood sport where only the strongest survive and fans look on in bloodthirsty fashion. Mad Moxxi fits into the cast of Borderlands characters extremely well and, as expected, her voice acting is top notch. While her one-liners will no doubt become a bit repetitive during gameplay, they also serve in alerting the player to some of the ongoing action and most of the quips will get a few smiles or laughs from players (at least from the first few times they hear them). A few scenes and references in the lobby will shed a little light on Moxxi’s backstory, but what the expansion is really about is in annihilating the competition and scooping up some extra loot.

As I’ve already said, the exploration and questing aspects of Borderlands and its first DLC are pitched to give players a more action-based survival mode. The game handles this in Horde and Firefight fashion (from Gears of War 2 and Halo 3 ODST respectively), placing players into a moderately-sized environment and unloading enemies in waves. As players progress, up to four random modifiers will be mixed in to trouble them with handicaps such as no shields, steadily decreasing health and strengthening enemies or making the combat more interesting by speeding up movement, reducing gravity and making certain weapon types super effective. Each combat round has five waves of varying enemies placed into groups (normal enemies, melee-only enemies, gun-wielding enemies, etc.) with the fifth introducing a boss character from the on-disc quest taking center stage. If players can survive through five waves, they are rewarded with a small loot dump at the stage’s central tower and given a quick breather before the next stage begins. On the other hand, if a player drops dead, they are thrown into a penalty box where they can attempt to shoot at enemies while their teammates try to survive the round to bring everyone back into the game – otherwise, if the entire team falls, all of the players will be unceremoniously booted back to the Underdome lobby.

The premise is simple, perhaps even unoriginal, for sure, but the sheer random nature of the modifiers and the frantic pacing of the mode makes Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot a winner. Not only will players get a survival-based mode that will occupy them for around an hour on just the simplest of environments, but they will also get a much-needed storage bank for items that can be expanded by purchasing SDUs throughout the game. If you’re serious about Borderlands, the storage bank alone might be worth the price of admission, but it’s all about the team-based gameplay and given the odds of survival against the relentless hordes, especially with the later environments throwing a rough 20 rounds (100 waves) each at you, The Underdome provides a great multiplayer mode that is ripe with action. Also, seeing as the enemies adjust to evenly match the host’s current level, players can surely be challenged and with high-end vending machines located in the lobby, this expansion is perfect for players coming in from the end of the Borderlands quest.

Unfortunately, players will see a lot of repetitiveness in the expansion, especially with the few environments being recycled back into the more advanced survival arenas, and the extra achievements aren’t exactly inspiring, but Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot does what it set out to do. The expansion is meant to be a no-frills action experience and on that front, it delivers on all levels. If you enjoyed Borderlands but feel that you didn’t get to pull the trigger as much as you wanted to, this expansion is clearly for you. The only way I could not recommend this expansion to someone is if the idea of spending multiple hours fighting off bandits, psychos and skaggs in an endless onslaught doesn’t sound fun to you, but I would imagine these players would be few and far between if they already own Borderlands. Fans of Horde or Firefight mode will know what they are getting into with this DLC add-on and for $10, players can give this new mode a spin and come away satisfied while taking a break from grinding through the main game.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

Back when EA scored the exclusive rights to publish football games with the NFL license, many people thought competing football titles were completely done for.  The most notable group of people that took offense to this action came from the avid Visual Concepts fans, but, thankfully, other football titles didn’t cease to exist.  Midway squeaked out two mediocre Blitz: The League titles and even in 2009, we are seeing efforts such as Black College Football Experience arise on the market.  Stepping back a couple of years, though, VC did give the pigskin another hike, which garnered the attention of many, but, ultimately, 2K Sports’ All-Pro Football 2K8 didn’t seem to measure up in sales as it quickly hit clearance bins and has been relegated to the $5 used price tag.  Was the title genuinely bad in comparison to other football titles or did the lack of the NFL license hold people back from dropping money on the title?  A full two years later, let’s look back and see if All-Pro measured up to the 2K installments that made it a contender.

Right off the bat, the major determination in the game’s appeal factor will stem from how badly you really want to have a football game with licensed NFL teams (I refuse to call them “real teams” like everyone else – are there fake or imaginary NFL teams I don’t know about?).  The hook this installment implements is in injecting the likenesses of hall-of-famers and other notable players no longer tied into the NFL’s Players Association:  Joe Montana can once again airmail Jerry Rice, Barry Sanders can tear up the turf and Too Tall Jones can rattle the brains of any unlucky quarterback.  The title opens up to players by letting them start up their very own team – the greatest of legends are marked with a gold star and the ranks also spill over into silver and bronze stars and instead of numerical attributes, each player has potentially up to five special attributes based on their position that suggest what style of play they are best suited for as well as any special abilities they can provide to their teammates or to the play in certain situations.

Being based on a premier sports franchise, All-Pro surprisingly offers up little in gameplay modes and variation.  The franchise mode is questionably absent and the season and creation modes are as bare-bones as they can be, leaving the brunt of the replayability on the game’s online mode, which does offer up a fairly robust league feature if players are looking to jump into a season against friends or strangers.  A lot of the flair and substance found in other 2K titles seems to be a bit tamer here, though, and the menu system has a little bit of a knack to it if players haven’t sunk their teeth into a recent 2K Sports title.  While players will get used to the navigation, it hardly seems as intuitive as it could be.  The achievements do ask players to take part in the wide span of modes, though, meaning if you want the full 1,000, you’ll take part in everything the title has to offer (even though you can really “cheat” most of it), and while there isn’t a huge selection of modes or options not common to any football title, the gameplay is solid enough to support the chunk of time you’ll put into All-Pro.

Sure, some players will talk down on 2K just because it isn’t Madden, and that’s a perfectly acceptable personal opinion, but there is a reason why VC stood as a true competitor to the Madden franchise.  The game is solid all around in representing the sport, incorporating every in-game occurrence and feature one would expect to see in a football game.  Even though players won’t be manning their favorite NFL team, what is presented on the disc is still football and there is a lot to love in the depth of the play selection, even if every team is dealt the same playbook.  Players can call hot routes on the fly, adjust their lines and pretty do anything that any football game in this generation allows them to do.

On the flip side, though, there are some truly glaring moments where AI seems be missing its I.  Kick and punt returns will see the CPU player needlessly diving for the catch and even completely missing the ball at times.  Receivers running routes together seemingly get clumped together and a tad confused and they hardly seem to have an awareness of what is going on during the play at times.  Passing can at times be a chore as there are times where a pass won’t even be targeted on the receiver’s route and there are some really questionable occurrences where the receiver doesn’t make the completion.  For every negative, though, there is a solid spot that shines through, such as the robust tackling mechanics, interesting kicking controls and solid blocking engine set in place, it’s just there will no doubt be a point where a player will become frustrated by something beyond their control.

Perhaps the most confusing aspects about the title, though, is its blatant misuse of all-star potential.  The game’s balance is extremely strange, limiting players to their teams of two gold players, four silver and six bronze (with the rest filled in with generic “slider-set” players with no special attributes) and not allowing them to control the preset teams that conveniently have four gold-star players and so on.  With nearly 250 former NFL players placed into the title, you would think there would be a little more leeway involved in letting players juice up their teams, but there is no such way players can assemble dream teams or all-star caliber teams that serve up a true legendary 11-on-11 pigskin matchup.

Furthermore, none of the legend players are scanned in, so some of the players end up being a generic mess.  The graphics as a whole are merely passable, as while there are some amusing fictional arenas, All-Pro hardly takes advantage of the Xbox 360 with washy environments and mediocre character models – if the title didn’t animate quite nicely, the visuals could have been a total disaster.  Thankfully the sound kicks in to save the presentation with the classic duo of Dan Stevens and Peter O'Keefe reprising the commentary along with all of the crunches, whistles and crowd roars you would expect to hear out of a quality football title.

At the end of the day, fans of the former 2K series of football titles will fit right in with All-Pro Football 2K8.  Without the NFL license, Visual Concepts stepped in to provide a very solid title, but some iffy presentation, a few instances of spotty AI, lack of single-player depth and questionable implementation of the legendary players really chop this title down to above average.  It certainly won’t dethrone Madden, but as a first entry with the concept, 2K has a very promising premise on its hands.  It would be nice to see the series built upon, but after two years with no sequel, it’s sad to see the concept might not ever be improved upon.

GemuBaka Final Game Score: 3 of 5

While Dictionary.com explains the verb “milking” in a variety of ways such as “to extract; draw out,” oddly enough, I didn’t see Guitar Hero mentioned anywhere on the page. However, if gamers receive more entries such as Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, the likelihood of that scenario may come true. While the gameplay is as sound as ever in Smash Hits, players simply receive Guitar Hero: World Tour, splashed with a little Guitar Hero: Metallica and a score of notable, yet, been-there, done-that master tracks. Add in a few questionable development choices by Beenox and marketing choices by Activision and it’s clear to see the cash-filled udder of the Guitar Hero cow is getting a little raw.

There’s honestly not much to say about Smash Hits other than it is a version of Guitar Hero: World Tour with songs plucked from Guitar Hero’s past, but when this update asks for $60 of your money, of course, our readers will want much more information in order to weigh in on a purchasing decision. The game’s navigation and scenarios are identical to Metallica’s wherein players can tackle career, quickplay, creation and online modes, with gameplay mechanics remaining unchanged since Guitar Hero: World Tour. While there is nothing original to be found here, there is still a lot of variety in the modes, especially if you can catch players in the game’s online modes, and while some of creation tools’ menus are little awkward at first, there is still a span of tools available to players. Smash Hits does, however, carry on with a new story in its line of career modes, this time pitting the game’s central storyline characters, fresh off their success from previous games, in a brand new legendary tour that has players performing at all of the wonders of the Earth such as the Amazon, Great Wall of China and more. While it doesn’t add much to the game and can be rather hokey, the story does add an extra dimension and identity to the game that is missing from other music game titles.

Moving on to the game’s presentation, I’m not sure what happened with Smash Hits, but the title seems to be lacking in this department when compared to other titles. It doesn’t help that, yet again, all of the game’s models and animation are 100 percent recycled from Guitar Hero: World Tour, but even then, the graphics seem to have less pop than in the series’ other entries. Following Metallica’s choreographed animations for specific songs, the animation doesn’t measure up in Smash Hits. Also, a lot of the venues in World Tour and Metallica feature more animation and flair than the ones found in Smash Hits, however, there are still a few impressive ones such as the Antarctic with its penguin and polar bear figures spewing ice and the characters’ visible breath vapors. The game’s menu is pound-for-pound the same as the previous two GH games and still doesn’t give players a lot to look at other than text and character models. Sure, everything does its job and is passable, but it comes across as slightly weaker than previous games and when you boil it down, most gamers that pay $60 for an update would probably want to see more effort put into changing up the presentation.

Audibly, while the game does the master tracks justice, there are a few weird balancing issues that fluctuate between the various songs, most notably where a few of the songs feature higher bass guitar volumes than the other instruments. Furthermore, while this aspect is purely subjective, a few fans of bands featured in the game may be disappointed to see live versions of a couple of the songs as opposed to an original recording. On that note, though, Smash Hits really does come across as a “Best Hits” game for the series, with very notable recordings that have proven to be fan favorites in the series. While the songs may not be everyone’s cup of tea and some players may debate why song x is in the game while song y is not, again, that delves into subjective territory – but then again, Smash Hits depends on the appeal of the song list in order to entice old players to play previously introduced songs once again and is perhaps the sole factor in whether players want to pick up the game, since hardly anything else has changed since the tweaks given to Metallica. Personal tastes aside, though, the music is still placed front and center in Smash Hits and most players will be too into the gameplay to notice balancing issues and other minor audio qualms.

While the gameplay hasn’t changed one iota, players are still given a healthy roster of songs along with the added benefit of being able to play the drums and vocalize to songs from previous entries where the features weren’t implemented. Even though the game still comes across as a fun multiplayer experience, there are a few balance issues that plague the various modes in a variety of different ways. With the guitar, while most people won’t complain, experts may be turned off to know that by implementing the series’ slide bar functionality, a lot of the songs have become much easier to perform, lowering the “Through the Fire and Flames” expert pedestal just a bit (it’s okay, you still have Guitar Hero III to unleash your inner Danny “Phenom” Johnson). This actually makes the game more accessible to players and Smash Hits does offer a satisfying difficulty progression and scale in its song choice, but when you’ve been in the music game genre for as long as I have, you know even the slightest adjustment, including those made to just merely update the note chart positioning, will set off long-time, expert players.

The bass guitar parts largely remain unchanged from World Tour or Metallica standards, but I seemed to have problems pulling-off with some of the open notes. The drums get the added benefit of expert+ difficulties for players to get their double-bass on and the vocals are as straight-forward as ever. Unfortunately for some of these instruments, though, when you consider songs pre-World Tour were chosen for their guitar parts, this leaves some of the other instruments on occasion with uninspired parts as compared to the guitar. Honestly, though, anyone who enjoys Guitar Hero will largely be able to look past these small qualms (if they notice them at all), but there is a fair stack of these minor setbacks that might tick at experienced players.

 Outside of the main game play structure, though, I felt Smash Hits takes a step back with its linear, bare bones career mode. While Metallica made strides in simplifying the mode and giving players more freedom in which songs they can perform, Smash Hits ignores the improvement and reverts back to a structure that more reflects the original titles from which the song list stems from. On the surface, the mode seems identical to Metallica’s (although progression requires more stars) and players can skip past unwanted songs or songs too difficult for them, but the façade ends once the band reaches a certain point and you are required to go back and pass every single song in order to unlock the final two stages. It’s an odd event of counter-production that most players will deal with, but, again, the career mode is pretty much just the game’s playlist and nothing else, offering very little replayability in the mode and making it pale in comparison to Rock Band. On the other hand, though, the quickplay and online modes still work just as great and provide much more gaming mileage, assuming you can round up other members for your band.

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits may have absolutely no originality to it, but that’s not to say it is without merits and it can still appeal to any gamer willing to pick up an instrument or mic. The most obvious target for this game will be the gamers who somehow missed out the first time around on the five title represented on the disc, but longtime fans who have been there, done that, may be a little more hesitant to pick up the disc. Ideally, the best way to decide if Smash Hits is fit for your collection is to answer two quick questions: Do I like Guitar Hero games? Do I like the Guitar Hero: Smash Hits song list? If you answered yes to both questions, then the game just might be for you.

That being said, however, I do have to question the decision to pump this out as a full-priced retail release. This collection of songs could have easily been handled as downloadable content and the fact that Smash Hits, much like Metallica (aside from the band’s songs), does not support World Tour’s DLC is shameful. GHTunes does return in Smash Hits, but chances are you’ve already downloaded the top songs on the service for your other Guitar Hero games. Perhaps the only real blessing attributed to being a standalone retail release is in the title’s offering of a fresh, new 1,000 achievement points. Thankfully, these achievements have received a bit more of an overhaul, with some real dandies included to challenge expert players who may be initially put off by the slightly lower guitar difficulties. The achievements do span the range of the instruments, however, and they still really encourage players to buddy up and play with others.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

With Activision now seemingly pumping out a new Guitar Hero game every month, Smash Hits provides a another full-priced disc featuring nothing but the same old song and dance we’ve seen since World Tour. The player’s personal taste in music will really be the ultimate judge for this game, which merely takes songs from previous Guitar Hero entries and tosses them into the World Tour engine. There’s nothing new to be seen here and the presentation and some mechanics actually fall below the standards set by the previous two games in the series, but Guitar Hero buffs should still get some mileage out of the new instrument parts and new chart choreography. Smash Hits achieves what it sets out to do, but, unfortunately, it does nothing more, making it one of the weakest console Guitar Hero releases in the lineup.

Dance Dance Revolution Universe boldly goes where no rhythm dancing title has gone before, making it the first DDR game to hit the new generation of console systems. Using the Xbox 360, Universe stays true to the Xbox's Ultramix format but still manages to maintain its own identity with a fresh mix of 70-plus new songs, beefier visuals, and online modes.

What hasn't changed an ounce, though, is the tried-but-true arrow-stepping formula that has kept feet flowing since 1998 and staying true to its title, this DDR is in fact universal in the sense it is accessible to beginners and experts alike.

Players who have never stepped up to the pad before will find solace in the game's Basic Edition, which holds a dancer's hands through a number of lesson modes and tutorials. On the other hand, at the push of a button, novices and experts can jump straight into the eye-crossing frenzy of the game's more difficult levels as well as have access to the full buffet of game modes.

In essence, Universe copies the setup of Ultramix 4 with completely redone presentation, bringing in the power courses (tunes mixed into a nonstop course of nearly 10 straight minutes of game play), relay modes, an expanded quest mode, challenge mode, multiplayer party modes and online modes. The party modes throw in the usual array of multiplayer modes, quadruple pad dancing and more, which also carry over into the game's exceptional online capabilities that feature leaderboards and downloadable content.

Unlockables and achievements tally mostly through the game's quest modes, which features a map of the United States and all of the territories players can conquer through the art of dance. By entering a state, players will then have unlimited tries to meet a pre-determined criteria and success grants them currency and access to special events and competitions. Thankfully, the quest mode in Universe isn't limited to one player, allowing buddies to join in on the quest to dig deep for the game's decent chunk of hidden songs.

Universe features more than 100 minutes of music and the title brings forth a ton of original music that is sure to please fans of electronic. Very few of the title's tunes fall into the mainstream category, bringing out the fresh change of pace most music games (many of which have been other DDR titles admittedly) have been lacking recently.

Konami really opens the vault for Universe, featuring throwback tracks, a few recent pop hits, a number of original tracks from low-key electronic artists and some great Konami video game themes that really add variety and flair to the song list. A sprinkle of a few DDR original tracks and exclusive remixes are there to remind players they are playing a DDR title, but, much like in the Ultramix titles, the list is so unique to the version, it doesn't seem like you are playing yet another arcade ported Playstation 2 game.

Konami made the most use out of the Xbox 360 hardware by pushing video effects and trippy visuals that nearly burn straight through the retina. Colors explode everywhere and the characters look very detailed and crisp with fluid dancing animations, but this is seriously the first DDR title where I found the backgrounds and animations to be so distracting I had to turn them off. Coupled with the fact the HUD is changed in some modes and the step rating/combo indicator is relocated, enlarged and animated even more, the fantastic visuals unfortunately come across as an occasion hindrance that obstructs a player's view of the scrolling arrows.

As a DDR enthusiast, it's great to finally see more songs feature oni ("demon") difficulties, including in songs that never had the difficulty option when it originally appeared in arcades, most notably in Johnny Desire's version of Hot Limit of DDR 5th Mix's long version fame, where the lyrics are so indiscernible, people make the joke of "We drink Ritalin" as being part of the chorus. The difficulty really throws some tough step charts at expert players that should keep them satisfied, and if not, the challenge mode features some truly brutal stipulations that should illicit many a curse word.

However, as a minor irritation, when selecting the oni difficulty in game play, when players switch songs, the game automatically defaults the difficulty back to beginner instead of heavy and if players forget, they'll have to suffer a beginner step chart or end the current song and go back through the menu. A minor point to make, for sure, but it still makes for an irritating exercise for expert players.

Elsewhere, aside from an ear-grating announcer (which I also turn off), the sound and control of Universe is just as tight and pleasing as ever. The pad controller, which features a cord thanks to Microsoft's proprietary policy, works just as well as any other dance pad bundled with a DDR game. By scraping up four pads, Universe steps in as the Xbox 360's answer to a fun multiplayer party title. Unfortunately, to make the multiplayer modes work on foot, players are going to have to pony up for more pads or hope they have friends with extra dance pads.

Players worried about Universe being a mere Ultramix upgrade won't have to worry anymore. The game's featured songs are 100 percent original to the title and thanks to downloadable content, Universe should have players occupied for quite some time (or until the next version is available). Through edit, online, party and challenge modes, the title makes for the most enjoyable entry into the series Konami has released to the United States in the past couple of years.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 4 of 5

Reprinted with permission from Diehard GameFAN

While Activision continues to roll out brand new versions of Guitar Hero on all cylinders, Harmonix is kicking back, fully confident in its Rock Band 2 format. Through regular content releases, the company continues to extend the longetivity of its rock-solid sequel with huge chunks of downloadable content and expansion packs at lower costs. This week, it’s no surprise to see the company’s newest expansion hit the shelves to keep the momentum going as the franchise gears up for a classic rock expansion aptly titled Rock Band: Classic Rock Track Pack.

Out of the gate, it’s important to note the title isn’t a “full game” and more of an expansion, which will explain the brevity of this review. Regardless, even though the disc is more of an expansion, players can still play all 20 songs in the game straight off the disc without even owning Rock Band or Rock Band 2 and since the expansion is a purchase, 250 more achievement points are up for grabs if you’re looking to prove your music game mettle. Furthermore, at the retail price of $30, when you consider the average downloadable content song is $2, simple math should tell you Harmonix is giving you a $10 break on the songs and upping the package’s value by allowing players to import the tracks into their Rock Band or Rock Band 2 game via hard drive.

While players can go solo through the song list or team up with bandmates to tackle the game’s songs, there is no career mode and player customization is absent when playing on the Track Pack disc. With this, unless the gamer is a Rock Band enthusiast, most people will likely be content in just playing through the list, picking up achievements, using the download code and then pawning off the disc. However, since the expansion isn’t based off a single artist like other recent efforts, the disc will most likely garner a bit more appeal as long as the player is into the rock genre, as the offerings include a variety of popular tunes that span earlier decades.

Outside of the simplistic expansion explanation, the game is 100 percent Rock Band 2 as everyone knows it, although the options are stripped down to simple tour and quickplay options. No story elements or real selection of game modes are present, but they really shouldn’t be expected so much in a music game expansion. The graphics still rank among the best ever seen in the genre and the music and crowd interaction bring the sound to phenomenal levels. Outside of the new song selections, nothing has deviated from the Rock Band 2 format, meaning the play control and game mechanics are as solid as they were when the franchise first released. The expansion songs have a healthy balance of difficulty and with each song having four difficulty levels players can make the game as easy or hard as they wish.

On the downside, however, all the Track Pack has to offer is 20 new songs and new achievement points so if you’re looking at the disc alone, these two factors are the only thing to do in the game. While this completely hacks the replayability of the game and the title hardly has any originality, again, the point of the disc is to enhance what is found in the main Rock Band game. As long as one can stomach the song selection, players will have no issues in sticking with the disc until all the songs are cleared and the achievements are met, proving the series hasn’t lost its touch.

GemuBaka Final Review Score: 3 of 5

In the end, the decision lies on whether or not players can discover their inner classic rock fan and if they don’t mind the disc isn’t a full game. There isn’t a lot to be found on the disc itself but the proven engine of Rock Band 2 is still there. To break it down, players are getting $40 worth of song content for $10 less and the allure of 250 more achievement points isn’t too shabby either. If you’re into expanding your Rock Band experience, the disc will do exactly that, however, if you’re looking for a marathon Rock Band outing, the expansion is only meant to extend your enjoyment of the main series. You’ll probably only get a couple of hours out of the disc before you’re ready to move on, however, the now-standard download code will let you take the disc’s offerings into the robust world of Rock Band/Rock Band 2.

View the Rock Band Classic Track Pack Song List