THE YEAR IS 1962. God (sometimes also known by the more humble name of Stan Lee) is sitting in his office at Marvel publishing wracking his brain for a new idea for a super-hero. The Fantastic 4, the X-Men and a number of other previous titles are all doing well, having lead to a surge in demand for quality comic books. Fortuity shines on our intrepid hero and he glances across to see a spider making it’s way steadily up his office wall.

Forty-seven years later, this chance event had lead to arguably the most famous, most well recognised and best loved super-hero character in comic, television and film history. With dozens of off-shot comic lines, several reinventions and re-tellings of the original seventeen page short in what, at the time, was to be the final issue of Amazing Fantasy, and three smash hit films (even if the third was crap) to reintroduce good old Spidey to yet another generation. When you consider it like that, Spider-Man : Web of Shadows (in this instance for the Nintendo Wii) has a dizzying legacy to stand up to.

Something which it does in spectacular style.

From the city spanning opening, punctuated by an extremely famous piece of classical music (which I of course have forgotten the name of) and a Spidey that is decidedly more aggressive than we are used to seeing him, to the fist full of alternate endings. Dictated by your decisions at key moments in the story, you can influence not only the final outcome of the game, but also some of the more important events along the way as well.

You have a meter that shows your general leaning either towards the “good” traditional red Spider-Man, or the “bad” black Spider-Man. We were promised during early development of the game that, for the first time, we would actually b given the opportunity to play Spider-Man as an anti-hero. Or even an outright villain, and I’m happy to say that, for once, the pre-release claims were right on the money. Not just little acts of selfishness, but outright cruelty, such as (spoiler alert) during the battle with a symbiote infected Wolverine. Upon defeating him you are given the two options of how to proceed, and if you choose the black option Spidey lifts him above his head and, literally, rips him in half at the waste. Dropping him back onto the floor in two pieces.

I could go into great detail of the plot and game mechanics, but personally, I think the game is so well made that it needs nothing further. The more important part of a review, after all, is the simple question of whether it’s any good or not. And the answer is a resounding, explosive YES. The game is absolutely amazing, and as far as I’m aware is identical to the Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 release in everything except graphical complexity. Certainly the games rooftop opening is exactly the same and I am now looking forward to playing the HD version as well to compare the two.

Spideyness: 9.5/10

Graphics: 9/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Audio/Music: 9/10
Plot/Scripting: 9/10
Overall: 9.5/10

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I’m generally not much of a gambler, but around this time of year that changes for me, as my sport of choice (NHL Hockey — I am Canadian after all), gets down to the wire, and the playoffs soon begin. Also, one in awhile I allow myself to indulge in a little online poker just for fun (never more than I can afford, of course).

I had been looking for a good place online to place bets, and play a few hands of poker as well. However, as you may be aware, there are many online betting portals available, and it can be hard to know which ones offer the best bonuses, as well as high pay out rates.

Thankfully, I came across a good website which provides casino and betting data in an easy to read table format. You can read more about the website at bestusaonlinecasinos.org, and then find the best betting portal for your needs, if you’re game. All of the websites listed are trustworthy and will pay out your winnings. Also, they all accept US players, which is important as I know a few of my American friends have had trouble finding quality online casinos to enjoy. So, if you’re looking to place some sports bets, or play a few hands online, it’s a good website to check out.

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I live in a small apartment with little room for exercise equipment, but would much rather work out at home rather than drive to a gym. So I had high hopes for the Wii Fit right out of the box — and for the most part, it hasn’t disappointed.

Pros:

1. Watching others play is almost as entertaining as playing yourself, especially if they have poor coordination.

2. The game’s balance board is intelligently designed, and sensitive to precise movement. It integrates well with the gameplay, resulting in a smooth fitness-gaming experience. While I did hear some complaints from the big footed persons in my life, regarding the size of the board, it was fine for my size six (female) feet.

3. Wii fit can really make you fit - The exercise instructions are clear, and easy to follow. If you put the effort in, your heart will be pumping and you’ll get a pretty good work out.

4. I’m having a good time while getting a bit of a better bod. Wii Fit is definitely more fun than the treadmill. Honestly, we need more games like this for America’s gigantic youth. Enjoyable gameplay (personal favorites include slalom-skiing, and tightrope-walking) make you forget that you’re engaged in physical fitness.

Cons:

1. Uses BMI to determine your physical health. BMI is a flawed system, but I suppose is a decent enough health indicator for these purposes. However, someone with a lot of weight from muscle will be considered fat by the Wii Fit, which is humorous to me, but probably not to those individuals.

2. Locked content. It’s not terribly hard to unlock, and the purpose for it is clear - as you progress with your fitness, you unlock more levels. But the levels are unlocked based on time spent playing, and with some of the exercises and mini games being quite short (as in only a few minutes,) it can leave you repeating the same thing over and over again before unlocking new levels. And that’s not cool.

3. It’s a little on the expensive side. At $125+ US Wii Fit isn’t cheap.

4. Too much time fiddling with the remote gets annoying. There’s no way to program the system to play multiple fitness routines in a row, resulting in many pauses to navigate the game menus.

Overall, I recommend the Wii Fit for anyone who wants to get a little fitness out of their gaming experience. While not perfect, it has managed to mesh together exercise and fun, leaving the Wii Fit with a thumbs up from this reviewer.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to spend any time as of late tracking my progress with the Wii Fit. As a small business owner, I often have to wear many hats, and don’t always find the time for gaming that I would like. However, the rewards my business brings is certainly worth it at this point in my life. Currently though, with the economic downturn and all, I’ve had some to spend a lot of my time looking for Small business lending options.

An expert in small business lending, Jon M Queen also knows about funding for businesses and business loan companies. Find out more about the profile of Jon Queen here at LinkedIn.

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Well, our regular subscribers will have surely noticed that it’s been a little quiet in GR land the past few weeks.  But fear not, we have not forgotten you, our loyal minions of return minionness.  It5’s gotten back to that time of year when everyone, even we, your review writing lords, have a lot to deal with.

At present, our duties consist of :

1) Shouting at the TV

2) Shouting at each other

3) Shouting at ourselves

4) Eating cake

And E) Sleeping in the garden

However, come the other side of the new year, bot the Reaper and I will return with an impressive line up of both new and old games for you to sink your teeth into.  I don’t want to go into too much detail about our little secret project, but I can assure you it is something on a scale not previously considered.  Something that has been made possible only now through the keen application of Ebay, an old CRT Television and a lama called Steve.

We will also be briinging you Fallout 3 for both Playstation 3 and PC, Siren Blood Curse, Rainbow Six Vegas and several more titles that you may still be uhming and ahhing about that we can, perchance, inform you correctly about.  Both the good and the bad aspects.  Watch this space my loyal minions, thine faith shall be rewarded.

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I loved the first game, and this game only improved on everything that i loved in the original.  The guns all track better than in the first making it easier to hit enemies, they are more balanced and some arent ridiculously overpowered anymore as well as adding a few more guns into the mix. The cover system still works great but is improved and more refined over the original. The story mode reminds me of a good action movie with lots of explosions and big monsters.

The old and new multiplayer modes are fun and will keep you going for a long time after the story if you are into the game play. My favorite part of this game has to be the new Horde mode where you just fight wave after wave of Locust enemies that progressively get more powerful testing to see how long you can survive.

The graphics are better than in the first adding more color and life into the game over the original drab brown and grey color pallete and over all more detail. the swarming effects that the unreal engine added were cool to see as well because it put around 100 or so enemies on screen at once in certain parts.

Anyways to cap it off this game is a must have for shooter fans or action fans, if you’re only into games for the story or level ups i’d stay far away though, but i will be playing this game for a long time into the future just because the gameplay is so fun and the awesome new horde mode.

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