Blurt’s Video Game Guide #1

Announcing the first installment in our "Play For Today" series of video game reviews. This time out we take on Heavy Rain, Aliens Vs. Predator, Major League Baseball 2K10 and Halo Legends. Watch out for those screen shots and trailers - some of ‘em will bite (or bean) ya.

By Aaron Burgess

Game of the Minute: Heavy Rain

Platform: PlayStation 3

Developer: Quantic Dream / Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

ESRB Rating: M

A hard rain's a-gonna fall. Every game has a storyline, but until Heavy Rain, no game did so much to be a storyline. While it's oversimplifying to call the PS3-exclusive title a digital Choose Your Own Adventure, the idea that you control the story's outcome is central to Heavy Rain's development. This idea, of course, prompted some fair questions leading up to the game's release: Would the serial-killer thriller simply be one big Quick Time Event (a sort of Dragon's Lair-meets-CSI in 1080p, if you will), or would developer Quantic Dream  - also responsible for the similarly boundary-pushing 2005 title Indigo Prophecy - rise to the challenge? Well, rise they have, and if you have a PS3, this is one game you can't miss.

You experience Heavy Rain through the eyes of four characters, each on a mission to stop the Origami Killer - so named for his calling card of leaving folded paper shapes at his crime scenes. However, the game doesn't simply throw you into action: You'll need a few hours just to get used to Heavy Rain's control system, in which onscreen prompts force you to make quick, instinctive choices and familiar button schemes turn on their heads. At first, it'll seem as though literally nothing's happening, but as you soon learn, even the most mundane events in Heavy Rain (e.g., taking a drink, choosing whether to play with your kids, forgetting to take your asthma medication) have butterfly effects that influence the story's outcome - and your character's fate.

Visually, the game is just as stunning to experience. Though a depressive, rain-sodden pallor colors the scenery, the level of character detail takes you past the uncanny valley and gives you a true sense of immersion (down to pervy skin-on-skin level, if you so choose) in Heavy Rain's key players. Though there's no "game over," your choices for each character can have fatal, game-changing consequences - and as the days play out and the Origami Killer continues to evade capture, you'll find yourself wondering how things could've been different had you just, say, stopped that robbery in the convenience store. As the story picks up, so do such moments of action - and indeed, you'll experience enough tension, fear and uncertainty during Heavy Rain that you may need to hit pause just to keep your bearings. And that, of course, is the one way in which Heavy Rain will always differ from real life.

Rating: 9/10

Aliens Vs. Predator

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC

Developer: Rebellion / Publisher: Sega

ESRB Rating: M

How I could just kill a man. Despite the myriad shortcomings in the celluloid collisions of Aliens and Predator, the Aliens Vs. Predator game series gave us a chance to avenge both franchises in cold blood. With the latest AVP title, developer Rebellion reprises the three campaigns from its 1999 PC hit, letting us spill blood as an Alien, a Predator or a Colonial Marine. Each campaign draws on the key abilities of its titular (anti)hero, with the Marine challenge being easiest to grasp due to its basic survival-horror, first-person-shooter experience. Things get trickier as you have to adjust to the unique biology and hunting tactics of Aliens and Predators, but the payoff is delightful in some truly sick kills.

Seasoned gamers should have no problem tearing through single-player campaigns in less time than it takes to watch both Alien(s) Vs. Predator films back to back, but the high-tension multiplayer modes (oh, how those alien life forms love to multiply...) allow for extended playability and fierce co-op play. Unfortunately, the graphics and lighting aren't quite on par with the action, but kudos to Rebellion for its immersive sound design. Tearing your enemies limb from limb never sounded so good.

Rating: 6/10

Major League Baseball 2K10

Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, PSP, Nintendo DS, PC

Developer: Visual Concepts

Publisher: 2K Sports

ESRB Rating: E

Put me in, coach. Last year's MLB 2K entry found 2K's dedicated sports developer Visual Concepts taking a beating from armchair pitchers and hardcore sports gamers alike, but with Major League Baseball 2K10, things appear to be turning around. Not only have the pitching and batting mechanics (as well as the AI) been raised to similarly high levels, but the graphics have pushed the game miles beyond the jagged, buggy punch line that was 2009's entry.

These, of course, are just the most obvious upsides to MLB 2K10: It's when you get into the "My Player" career mode that you truly see the game's pluses. The new addition lets you create a player, choose a franchise and play your way from the minor leagues up to the Hall of Fame. Sports-gaming sticklers will dig the concept that you earn skill points that actually complement your player's position - meaning that you don't necessarily need to stress over your star pitcher's batting average. Although if you decide to start a new career by dubbing yourself "Orel Hershiser," you already know what you're getting into.

Rating: 7/10

File Under "Extras"

Halo Legends (Warner Home Video)

I can see your Halo. If your knowledge of the Halo franchise goes as far as "space games where I like to kill stuff," that's totally fine-but for those of us who aspire to be the Master Chief of our own worlds, Halo Legends is a seven-story, eight-episode treasure trove.

Admittedly, the package - available on both DVD and Blu-ray Disc - drags a little with the slower-paced, dialogue-heavy "Origins" episodes that open it. But from the Ralph Bakshi-reminiscent "The Duel" (a Covenant storyline that explodes with graceful brutality) to the Spartan-driven episodes that close the anthology, Halo Legends takes us on an expansive, beautifully animated journey beyond the game. Of course, for those of us who can't wait to get back in the game, you'll want to stick around for the extras, where a trailer for the upcoming Halo Reach awaits.

Rating: 8/10

Our game guru, Aaron Burgess, lives digitally but dreams in analog down in Round Rock, Texas. Contact him at first2letters@gmail.com / AIM: First2Letters.