Catherine is somewhat of a strange game, not just because it features copious amounts of sheep and sheep references, but also because it is unlike anything else you’ve ever really played. The story centres around a 32 year old man by the name of Vincent who feels content within the confines of his relationship with long term girlfriend Katherine, who conversely  is ready to move things forward. Things take a turn when blonde bombshell, and slightly psychotic, Catherine enters the scene and wraps Vincent into a downward spiral of adultery, debauchery and a complete mental breakdown. To make everything worse his recurring nightmares don’t aid him in tackling his dilemma, or do they?

The nightmares that plague Vincent every night actually make the meat of this game. Forming as block pulling puzzles, Vincent has to save his hide from the pits of doom by pulling and climbing blocks to escape from the growing horror. It must be said that these puzzles are both incredibly enjoyable, but are mindbogglingly hard and frustrating; although once you surmount them you’ll feel like a god, especially when you’re facing off against one of the boss monstrosities that chase you from the depths. To ensure that these block sections don’t dull, new styles of blocks are brought in which really mix up the gameplay, and a constant stream of new techniques to learn and master mean that what once looked like a very basic gameplay idea, becomes a very deep thought process that needs to be done quickly and efficiently to get the best score.

For us though, the real highlight of the game came outside of the block solving. The small sections in between stages where you could talk to your fellow wall climbers, all of who appear as sheep, proved to be a wonderful respite from the block pushing chaos. The individual stories each sheep had, the tips they could offer, and the hope you could give them from talking really gave you the sense of gratification in seeing them making it through the trials along with you on each stage. After every night of stair climbing action you can relax with an alcoholic beverage at Vincent’s watering hole of choice, the Stray Sheep. Here you can chat to fellow patrons, drink alcohol -which helps improve Vincent’s reaction time in his nightmares (not the greatest advert for drinking responsibly)- and play an arcade machine to take part in some more block pushing madness. It’s these moments of quiet where the story really takes hold. Idle conversations allude to the private lives and issues of other ‘stray sheep’ who populate the bar, and you slowly realise the nature of their problems. Here you also get to read and reply to texts from both of the games temptresses, and all of your actions have a response on how the game will continue on. It’s very subtle in how it does it, but every text ignored, or indeed replied to in one of many multiple ways, changes how your relationship will progress within the story.

Ultimately though it is the story that will keep you gripped. Usually a game that revolves around a relationship would turn us off, it’d sound like some damn rom com stapled onto the side of a puzzle game, but here it takes a very dark tone to the relationship paradigm. Peppered with such bleak humour and the more than occasional swear, this game’s content really isn’t for the young, after all it is all about sleeping around  behind your long term lovers back. Its mature themes however only add to the game’s self awareness of just how crass it can be, and many times erring on just the right side of tasteful. It’s scriptwriting is excellently done and despite the multiple endings that can come out from the game, it isn’t obvious at all whats going to happen, nor when the story changes to tailor the decisions you’ve made. And of course this is all sweetened by the visual package that wraps the entire thing together.

We’d be surprised if you saw another game this year that pulled of the moving comic look as good as this does; it’s just stylistically beautiful. Taking its artistic influences from anime, with cut-scenes being anime in their own right, the character models and environments look stunning in motion, and picture perfect when still. The general lighter tone that anime seems to bring to a production makes the darker moments all the more sinister. The ‘boss’ levels of the nightmare sections of gameplay contain some of the most disturbed creations you’ll see in a video game. Few things can creep you out, or create a sense of urgency, than a giant rotting baby with a mini-gun for an eye and a chainsaw for a hand, clambering up after you so it can kill you. And if it isn’t that, then it could be a crazed zombie bride with blade like nails waiting to squish you like the helpless bug you are. It’s crazy stuff, but its also some of the best design we’ve seen in a long time.

Catherine isn’t perfect. It’s puzzles are unbelievably hard, so hard in fact the Japanese version came with a patch for ‘super easy’ mode, and it can be confusing to figure out exactly what you ‘should’ be doing to get the desired story outcome, but those are about its only faults. It has tonnes of replay value, with nine alternate, and amusing, endings, as well as a two player co-op and competitive modes to enjoy and a super difficult extra block puzzle mode known as Babel for those seeking an even greater challenge. If we’re honest, this title was completely worth the obscene wait that it took to get it across the Atlantic from North America, and we’re incredibly grateful that Deep Silver took the chance to publish it. It may only be February, but Catherine is easily the greatest game we’ve played this year, and  unless something truly spectacular comes along, it’ll stay at our number one. It seems that Atlus’ Persona Team can create an incredible and engrossing game, even outside the Persona series.

Final Score: 4.5/5

The app lets you take part in “missions” which upon completion unlock Xbox 360 rewards and an entry into a sweepstake. The sweepstake prizes include a custom 250GB Xbox 360 themed in either Mass Effect 3′s Paragon or Renegade finish.

There will be no in-game bonuses from taking part in the app as EA are providing that themselves with their “handheld/mobile” tie-in.

The first mission is now available and to take part all you have to do is sign up. When enough people have signed up you’ll nab yourself a Normandy prop for your avatar. The second mission will arrive next week and will give players a chance to get early access to the Mass Effect 3 demo. To take part you have to submit your best pick up line, or indeed your best put-down if you want to be a renegade.

There are a total of 11 missions planned across the coming weeks until the games March 9th release.

Source: Eurogamer

Today the publisher announced that thanks to the failed expansion of its tablet peripheral to PS3 and Xbox 360, that cost it $80 million in lost revenue, they no longer have any plans for the device.

Speaking at an investor call, they said that the device had shipped a million tablet to retailers, with 1.4 million units of stock left unsold.

“We were confident that uDraw would resonate again this holiday, given last year’s robust sell-through” said THQ’s CEO Brian Farrell. “Our confidence was misplaced.”

Manufacture of the tablet has ceased and they wont be supporting it with software at all. Farrell says that THQ does have a successful plan for selling the remaining stock, it does however have “no other remaining commitments with respect to uDraw”

“We were looking at uDraw as a bridge to this core and digital future, and that bridge turned out to be a plank that we walked off.”

Personally, the only thing I can think of uDraw tablets being used for is expensive bricks in the house of the future.

Source: Edge

Last Light is the sequel to the equally grim and post-apocalyptic shooter Metro 2033, and has now seen itself delayed until early 2013, a fair jump from its original Q3 2012 launch.

The announcement was made during a call to investors earlier today, it turns out that developer 4A ‘needs a little more time to polish up the title’

THQ’s CEO Brian Farrell did promise that the company will spend twice as much on marketing the title as it did the first, as this is a big focus for the company overall.

Source: Eurogamer

As usual with most games an update is always going to arrive on day one, however XIII-2‘s update is largely the most pointless thing we’ve heard in a long time.

With the press of the R3 button you can now send a Facebook status straight from the game detailing what you’re getting up to. So now you can spam your own Facebook with idiotic status’ that none of your friends will care about, unless they are sad enough to actually give a damn about what you’re doing in the game at every given moement. In which case, they should be shot.

Source: VG24/7

• Bollywood’s “Katti Kalandal” 
• Love Letter’s “Why Oh Why”
• Sweat Invaders’ “Skin to
• Skin and Snap’s “The Power”

Being a HD remake of the original PS2 and Xbox title, old fans as well as Rayman newcomers can enjoy this classic game all over again with sumptuous HD visuals, improved audio, and tweaked to run at 60 frames per second.

If that wasn’t enough, there are nine mini-games to unlock, as well as achievements and worldwide online leaderboards.

Featuring so much more than just your standard Trialbike racing, Evolution boasts a same screen multiplayer as well as online multiplayer, many different modes of racing that don’t require a bike, and a powerful level editing tool.

You can see some gameplay and some features you can expect, in the video below.

The Bull revolver is a large frame handgun with 8 rounds of firepower that can be shot accurately over short distances.

The Bull revolver gameplay trailer is a first in a series of weapons trailers for Max Payne 3

You can take a look at the gameplay below.