Darksiders 2 and Sleeping Dogs reviews now up!

This week marks the return of video games after the dreadfully empty July, with several huge games hitting stores - and you can read the reviews of two of the biggest and best right now!

Darksiders was Joaby's GOTY of 2010 - and he would not stop talking about it. Naturally then he was eager to get his hands on Darksiders 2, which THQ touted as 'Darksiders but bigger and better.' What did he think?

I persevered through a particularly harrowing side dungeon to chase down exactly this sort of thing - the Soul Arbiter's Maze took me roughly 2.5 hours to complete and was, to be perfectly honest, perhaps the most exhausting game dungeon I've been through in... a decade? And this was with a clear map guiding me through it - it's completely possible to get lost, making this optional part of the game take even longer.

The NIS-style JRPG stylings of these parts of the game - this isn't the only endurance test available in Darksiders 2, simply the only one I chose to put myself through - are fantastic in what they set out to achieve. They're a great test of a player's capacity for patience and skill, and it's great to see a game force you to be better.

When you complete the maze - earning along the way some very valuable loot that you can use to boost your character - you feel a real sense of achievement, even if the game's plot doesn't progress during the side dungeons at all.

JRPGS? And he liked it? You had better believe I'll be holding this over him the next time he mocks my video game preferences. How did he feel about the rest of the game? Read Joaby's excellent review to find out!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on Sleeping Dogs to review, and I had a lot to say about it. More than I usually say about games in reviews - because it's awesome. When I began playing it I was let down by it not being as much like Just Cause 2 as the Rico costume the game gave me led me to expect, but it wasn't long before I changed my tune:

There are heaps of things to do throughout Hong Kong too - street races, drug busts, shrines to find and use to boost your health - even Karaoke, letting Wei belt out select tracks by Pat Benatar and Aha with all his might. The main thing Wei does in Hong Kong however, is punching.

Combat in Sleeping Dogs primarily focuses on Wei's martial arts ability and will feel familiar to anyone who has played Batman: Arkham City - Wei strings attack combos by tapping or holding the X key, counters with Y and grabs enemies with B. Enemies don't wait for Wei either, but he is suitably quick to respond - as long as Wei isn't in the middle of another attack he can break from whatever he is about to do to counter a new opponent. The combat always feels realistic too - Wei's moves can get elaborate as you finish off an enemy after chaining together a series of attacks, but the animations have a sense of impact and both Wei and his victim react accordingly.

Like all snippets of text, that one doesn't tell you just how excellent Sleeping Dogs is though - you'll have to go and read my review of it to learn! It's like a riddle! Are you picking up Darksiders 2 or Sleeping Dogs? Let us know in the comments below!