Street Fighter & Blood On the Sand

50 Cent: Blood On The Sand

Pros: Simple fun to play.

Cons: Derivative; lots of bad language.

Blood On The Sand is, surprisingly, the second game to be based on rap star 50 Cent. What’s even more surprising, given how bad the first game was, it’s actually a mostly playable game. You play – no shocks here –  as 50 Cent, backed up by a member of G-Unit (that’ll make sense to fans, and not to anybody else) in a third-person action game that bears a very strong resemblance to Gears Of War.

Blood On The Sand
Blood On The Sand

The plot it astoundingly weird – Fifty’s on a rampage in an unnamed Middle Eastern country to recover a diamond-encrusted skull that he’s been given as a concert payment – but one you get past that and the continuous bad language, there’s actually some fun to be had here. Blood On The Sand glories in every gaming cliché’ you can possibly think of, from exploding red barrels to enemies who rush towards your machine guns en masse. The result isn’t great game design, but it’s still fun in a mindless, arcade-game-style way. Fans of 50 Cent will lap this up – especially as the game features 18 ‘exclusive’ tracks that can be unlocked for listening – and non-fans won’t find it quite as bad as they might expect.

Overall I give 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand a 3/5

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Dawn of War & Total War

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn Of War II

Pros: Easy for novices to pick up; looks great.

Cons: Strategically shallow.

Dawn Of War II is a real-time strategy (RTS) game with elements of Diablo-style RPG thrown in for good measure, set in Games Workshop’s very popular futuristic Warhammer 40,000 Universe. It’s a mix of fantasy and sci-fi, meaning you’re facing off (or being) squads of space marines, orks and the very alien-esque Tyranid forces. For RTS purists, Dawn Of War II can’t help but feel impossibly light, with tactics something of an afterthought, base building notably absent, and an emphasis on collecting in-battle upgrades making this seem more like an MMO-style grind than anything else.

WarHammer
WarHammer

At the same time, that light-feel makes this a very accessible game for those who have found more intense RTS micro-management games a chore. The single-player campaign is, admittedly, pretty easy, but once you’ve blown through that, there’s still plenty of enjoyment to be had from the intense but fairly shallow multiplayer combat modes.

Overall I give Warhammer 40,000: Daw Of War II a 4/5.

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