A Shooting Game That’s Not For Kids

Recently released by Epic Games and Electronic Arts, the insane, very masculine first-person shooter game Bulletstorm is certainly entertaining. Built upon the Unreal Engine 3, and sister to the popular game series Gears of War, Bulletstorm delivers a new shooter experience that is stylish, creative and loads of fun!

Set in the 26th century on Stygia, a planet where paradise was lost and overrun with rampaging freaks, flesh-eating plants and creatures the size of skyscrapers, Bulletstorm tells the story of Grayson Hunt and Ishi Sato. As ex-members of Dead Echo, an elite military force, Grayson and Ishi are mercenaries on the run across the galaxy until they are stranded on Stygia.

Their main objective here is to survive long enough to seek revenge on the one person responsible for their plight.

Throughout the approximate six hours it takes you to finish the campaign, Grayson’s hatred for his former commanding officer Serrano is apparent.

This is clearly Bulletstorm’s excuse for the character to go on a revenge-filled rampage. With the way Grayson complains all the time, you know he takes it all too seriously.

In Anarchy multiplayer mode (to me, a twisted version of a typical Horde mode), teams of up to four players fight together to survive waves of blood-thirsty mutants while scoring Skillpoints to advance.

You can’t just survive each wave – you need to earn enough points to pass onto the next group of enemies. To do this, your team has to work together to earn Team Skillshots, which gets you throw bonus points on top of what each Skillshot is worth (depending on how many people are involved).

In Echo mode, Bulletstorm tracks and compares your scores through locations found in the campaign. Basically it’s somewhere in between a time trial mode and a race for the highest score as you replay sections of the campaign as quickly as possible to earn as many Skillshots as possible.

Through the Skillshot system, the game provides imaginative ways to perform spectacular kills with some of the most unique weapons you’ll ever see.

A couple of those include the Boneduster, a four-barreled shotgun that packs a huge punch, and the Headhunter, a sniper rifle that allows you to guide the bullet as it reaches its target.

Warning: Bulletstorm is not for the keiki, as the rating is M for Mature. It retails for $59.95, and is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. The PC version has a download option, and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions include a one-time user online pass registration code that gives you access to six bonus Echo maps and the exclusive Quiksilver leash. As a bonus, a lucky handful of Xbox 360 Bulletstorm Epic Editions will grant early access to the Gears of War 3 beta.

Find Bulletstorm at your nearest Best Buy (bestbuy.com), GameStop (gamestop.com) or Amazon.com. Visit bullet-storm.com for more information and to view videos from the game.

Click Chick’s Mobile App of the Week: Aweditorium

Perfect to use on your new iPad 2, Aweditorium is the perfect app for music lovers who want to find new music from emerging talent. Basically the app re-imagines what a music experience should feel like on an iPad. It takes all the disparate content surrounding an artist – beautiful photography, lyrics, high-definition video and interviews – and ties them all together into a fun experience on a multi-touch display.

Even if you’re not a music fan, you’ll be delighted with the intricate detail within Aweditorium. It features a large grid of tiles, and each tile represents an artist. When you tap a tile/artist, one of their songs will start playing. The bottom of the screen will show the song lyrics or you can opt to learn more about the artist (i.e., history). The tiles also are grouped together by music type.

Aweditorium is quite amazing. Enjoy it for free from the iTunes App Store. clickchick@midweek.com