Jak & Daxter join the rising number of games from yesteryear that have received HD upgrades. The original Playstation 2 trilogy has been remastered for the PS3 with 720P graphics. Although the last game in the trilogy, Jak 3, was released in 2004, several spinoff titles kept the franchise alive well into the current generation of gaming. I still remember enjoying hours of gameplay with the Daxter spinoff when I first got my Playstation Portable. The trilogy still maintains its fun, whimsical story. Aside from the visuals, nothing much has changed about the game, including the horizontal camera controls, which are flipped by default. For a modest price of $39.99, this three game collection is a bargain for gamers (especially kids) who have yet to experience the joy (and humor) of Daxter.

Jak & Daxter is a true trilogy in every sense of the word. In the initial game, ...

J. Edgar may not have taken home any Academy Award nominations, but the film does deserve special accolades for Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance. I can’t say that I’m a fan of younger actors who put on makeup to look much older. Usually the illusion takes away from the film. However, in this case, DiCaprio does a stellar job of playing the dual role of a younger insecure J. Edgar and the older J. Edgar shrouded in lies and cover-ups. The biopic tried to expand on the FBI director’s personal life, while simultaneously exploring J. Edgar’s philosophy on secrecy. However, in trying to do both, it fell short of doing either equally well.

The film explores J. Edgar’s relationship with his mother as well as his closest colleague Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). The story spans the FBI director’s fifty years of service to the nation, starting with his humble beginnings. ...

Are you a fan of Young Justice? I know I am. It’s by far one of the best new series to hit Cartoon Network. Thundercats, Young Justice and Ben 10 are the triumvirate of cartoons that can be enjoyed by children young and old. Give me a marathon of those three cartoons and I’m in total utopia.

Unfortunately, all three of these series have one universal problem. Home video releases. Much like the schedule of episode airings on TV, the home video releases tend to come to us in fragmented bits. We can never get an entire season at once to sit down with and enjoy. Young Justice Season 1 Volume 3 is the latest release in this home video fiasco. It collects four episodes from the series: “Bereft”, “Targets”, “Terrors” and “Home Front”. However, don’t expect any cool bonus features. As great as Young Justice is, there is no ...

Eddie Murphy’s original idea to unite several black comics on screen becomes a mediocre crime comedy in Tower Heist. This one-time watch popcorn flick has a few laughs thanks to lesser-known actors like Casey Affleck and Michael Peña. Murphy appears in rear form, sidestepping the past ten years of slapstick comedic roles for a straight character. Although he only takes center stage for a small part of the movie, it’s the segment with the most laughs. Murphy helps to bolster the energy whenever Matthew Broderick tries to suck the life out of the heist with his Debbie downer performance. When you’re not distracted by Gabourey Sidibe’s bad Jamaican accent or the odd romance that buds between Ben Stiller and Téa Leoni, you may even find yourself enjoying this Tower Heist. The Blu-ray comes with a few bonus features that warrant watching, especially two alternative endings that seem better than the ...

These days, you can’t skip a release week without another shooter game entering the market. If it’s not a shooter title, it’s a sequel or a licensed property. Before long, you can’t help but feel like you’re playing several versions of the same game – just with better or worse graphics and the possibility of a different type of Deathmatch. The Darkness II just happens to be all three of these: a first-person shooter, licensed property and a sequel. However, The Darkness II finds a way to shine a light through the litany of repeat games with a creative story, superb voice acting and frenetic gameplay that always keeps the adrenaline pumping. There are moments when the combat can get too chaotic and cause a migraine or two, especially when you’re trying to eat a heart instead of pick up a weapon. But the smart story will compel you to ...

There’s no doubt that animated films wowed us in recent months. Films like The Adventures of Tintin and Rango were impressive in every way and to compare The Secret World of Arrietty is simply unfair because it’s the antithesis to those other films; yes, it’s animated too but where many animated films make sure that no stone goes unturned, giving us everything we could dream of, Arrietty still leaves plenty to the imagination. It’s the type of story that makes you ask what or who is living under your home. It makes you look at your light sockets differently or maybe that crack in your kitchen baseboard. And maybe, it makes you look at yourself in the mirror a little differently too.

Our story introduces us to the Clock family, four-inch tall species of humans called Borrowers who live underneath the floorboards. The protagonist is a young girl named Arrietty (Bridgit ...

The story in Shank 2 may be as paper thin as The Expendables, but there’s still a lot of brawling mayhem to be found in the Shank sequel from Klei Entertainment.

There is something very familiar about Shank 2 and it’s not just the fact that this game is a sequel. The 2D side-scrolling game from Klei Entertainment is a friendly reminder that the days of linear brawlers are far from over. If you give a game a little style, some cartoony blood and upgrade the controls, you can still delight even the most seasoned gamer. Shank 2 doesn’t seek to reinvent the work of the original title; rather, it is an upgraded game with more fluid controls and a cooperative survival mode. Waves of villains, sometimes scantily clad, and endless power-ups await you in this new game. Just don’t expect a very thought provoking story.

Shank 2 feels like ...

With The Dark Knight Rises coming to theaters and gamers still high off of Batman: Arkham City, it’s the perfect time to introduce something new to the Batman franchise. Warner Bros Interactive decided to capitalize off of everyone’s love for the world’s greatest detective (outside of Sherlock Holmes) and online shooters like Modern Warfare 3. Gotham City Impostors is a first-person shooter game that really has nothing to do with Batman at all. This game is all about poking fun at the Dark Knight and his rival the Joker, while giving you yet another shooter to play online. So if for some odd reason you find yourself lacking another FPS, then you can hop right into Gotham City, slap on a pair of tights and battle it out in a game of fake Jokers versus overweight Batmen for a steep $15. In truth, there is a lot of addictive, fun ...

Despite the presence of Ezio Auditore from Assassin’s Creed and a tried-and-true battle system, Soulcalibur V doesn’t try to break any molds with the franchise.

Every fighting game franchise has its own unique style that separates it from the group. Street Fighter made ki-based, energy attacks – like the Hadouken – popular. Mortal Kombat took that and added in gory fatalities. Tekken decided that raw hand-to-hand combat was order of the day, while Dead or Alive went for attractive female character designs and multiple settings within a single board. Soulcalibur was the game that took the raw fighting style of Tekken and supplanted ki-based attacked with weapons. If you owned a Sega Dreamcast, Soulcalibur was one of the top games to own for the defunct, but always loved, console. Soulcalibur V comes home three years after the last. Following up a year filled with Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 ...

Final Fantasy XIII-2 corrects the major flaws of its predecessor and will restore your faith in the Final Fantasy franchise.

Final Fantasy is one of the most recognized RPG franchises in gaming history. It solidified its position with Final Fantasy VII, one of the Playstation’s defining titles. Gorgeous summoning spells, an amazing battle system with limit breaks and a captivating plot with memorable characters made it a legendary title. Games VIII and IX on Playstation were good, but not as groundbreaking as VII. Then came Final Fantasy X on the PS2. Once again, Squaresoft (prior to the merger of Square with the Enix Corporation) showed the gaming community just how great its RPGs were. The company decided that the game was so good; it would be spun off into a X-2. Unfortunately, the spinoff paled in comparison to the original. Three games later, Square-Enix has made a similar ...