Jlulover's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Jlulover's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Jlulover's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Mon, 20 May 2013 23:20:47 -0700 GameSpot Jlulover's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Mon, 20 May 2013 16:55:52 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company-2/user-reviews/811537/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Bad Company starts takes place with a company that suddenly stumbles on something big on a military mission. With all the different personalities and actually a fun and good story spent on the singleplayer it makes for a great singleplayer story. The multiplayer doesn't lack anything either with a progression system and a lot of destructable enviroments that makes for dynamic gameplay.

The bad:
The graphic does take a hit in this game and does have framerate issues. If you don't care for the greatest graphics this won't be something to take notice of. But some may take notice.
Some of singleplayer events might be annoying with smaller glitches and sometimes quick time/live scenes events taking you out of the experience.
The multiplayer might feel a little familiar to most. The multiplayer does offer detructable enviroment, but doesn't really have anything new than any other shooter when it comes to multiplayer.

The Good:
The singleplayer really gives you a lot of options to approach the situation. Not forcing the player to choose just some random weapon the character is assigned. But actually choosing a weapons the level and what the player wants. The levels are linear, but don't feel linear as it actually might be.
The gameplay itself is really solid and does give the player enough to choose from in multiplayer and singleplayer.
The story is really solid in singleplayer and gives the player a story full of action story. With funny one liners and some great voice acting, it gives the story depth and purpose.
The level design is well done and never feels forced and gives the player enough variety to actually be a good change of pace instead of the constant gun shooting.

Overall:
It's a great shooter with really great singleplayer with humor and depth and a multiplayer that is solid but doesn't really add whole lot to formula, but is still fun to play. I would recomend this to anyone that is a fan of shooters to explore and some that haven't really tried the genre out yet.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company-2/user-reviews/811537/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 19 May 2013 15:35:46 -0700 Ravenhoe reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/batman-arkham-asylum/user-reviews/811495/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

As every other geek on this planet, I am a big fan of the dark knight (even though I thought his last film was not that good despite the hype) and I am thrilled to say that this has been the purest Batman gaming experience I had the pleasure to taste so far. Yes, there are some shortcomings, but all fade away in the bright light of quality that Rocksteady delivered with Arkham Asylum.

The visuals, sounds, music and the great voice acting (especially Batman and the Joker) create a very broody, yet exciting atmosphere, a perfect fit for the dark undertone of the Batman comics, while maintaining the thrilling spirit of adventure that makes this franchise so energetic and popular.

The setting is a tad weird, a large island, which serves as an asylum, certainly makes it much easier to create the game in terms of level desing, yet I would have prefered some more realistic locations, in line with the comics / films / lore. On the other hand, the setting gave the designers the freedom to throw in all sorts of bosses (a who is who of batman villains, most of which are second class villains, I reckon they are saving Catwoman and The Penguin for some other time) and levels. The remote setting makes it possible to have a whole island taken over by plantlife without you getting the weird feeling that you are playing some weird Japanese RPG.

The combat is visceral and so is the level 'solving', even though I found the game quite easy to beat, unless you are trying to find each and every secret level and item that is, but I am not a completist and here to beat the single-player story and that's it, thank you very much.

When it comes to first person combat, be it medieval melee or martial arts, most games either lack the finesse and excitment of combat or have control schemes that make your fingers go all entangled on your ass (Severance, TMNT, Dark Messiah of M&M etc.). Batmam AA manages to make the combat easy to get into, yet you still feel that you are in charge of the action the whole time. The pacing is also very nice, with some parts relying on your stealth skills while other are just bedlam and brawling like there is no tomorrow.

The idea of leveling Batman up is neat but never really takes over the game like some RPG game would, but it is a nice addition to add some depth and tangible feeling of progress as you fight your way through hordes of people with make-up issues.

The story is nice, not a lot of twists and Joker wants to take over the world (O rly?). As usual, all the villains are never inclined to kill Batman when they have the chance but rather let him live, only to have him thwart they plans before curtain fall, ... what the heck, that is what it's like in the movies too eh ?

All in all, this game is loads of fun and I sincerely hope that the other games in the series (City and Origins) add a bit more spice to the levels and the story, but retain the tight and super-polished gameplay. SLICK !

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"Ravenhoe reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PC..." was posted by Ravenhoe on Sun, 19 May 2013 15:35:46 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/batman-arkham-asylum/user-reviews/811495/platform/pc/ Thu, 16 May 2013 17:24:48 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Transformers: Fall of Cybertron for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-fall-of-cybertron/user-reviews/811396/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

The game Fall of Cybertron takes place after the first game that tells the ending of the war between the Autobots and Decipticons. You take control of both sides and getting a deeper perspective from both sides.
There is a multiplayer in this game that has a progression system. There are also several classes to choose from enabling the player to explore more than one way to play.

The Bad:
There is a certain level that totally has a harder difficulty then the others. This is totally different then any of the other levels. The enemies are way harder, and more then the other levels. It also gives you little oppertunity to get more health and ammo. Making it hard even on normal and easy diffuculty. This is something the developer should have taken notice before launching it or fixing it after release.
The campaign is also a little on the short side. There is also little replaybility to the campaign other than trying to get achievments or trying to do it on harder difficulty. It is a shame it is so short, because the story is actually pretty good. Feeling they could have explored the game more with characters. The characters have little screen time other than the many known ones.

The Good:
Even though the story is short and not fully using the potential some of the stories could have had, it is by no chance bad. The story is really well paced and has enough actions and cutscenes to immerse the player in the experience.
The characters are colorful and well written. You never feel dull in the singleplayer experience. With funny and serious moments through the whole campaign makes it a really great game. Great characters and great story.
The gameplay itself is really solid. With a heavy gun and light gun and special abilities for each of the characaters. Examples are Stealth that gives you the ability to actually sneak up on enemies. The really great thing about this is that the level design actually makes you benefit when you use the ablities and it doesn't feel forced in any of them and go with them without any problem. This makes the gameplay even more diverse and giving players more variation. The player can also transform into a vehicle that makes the gameplay even greater, leaving the player to choose either form and playing as you see fit. Some stages in each level might be better to use in one or the other form. They never feel forced and gives the player the option to play how they want. The player also gets to upgrade weapons, perks, abilities, buying perks, etc. And gives a sense of depth to game.
The multiplayer is really good and gives the player the choice of making the robots to look how they want, giving them different weapons and in the end a lot of choice how they want to play it. There was no issue with lag when i played this.
The graphics has its own style and does stand out to the eye. It really is amazing at times. Especially when looking at cities and the horizon of large buildings. Just showing how great the world looks like.
The voice acting is really good. They really bring the characters to life and brining old actors back from the animated series is also a great plus for fans of the series. The guns sound also really authentic and makes you want to shoot a robot right in the face with great results.
Overall
With players given the choice between abilities, lots of weapons, transforming, great story and just a lot of choice for the player. The story might be linear, but they player gets to choose how they want to play. It never truly feels like you are just passing through and actually experiencing a greay game. If you can look past a few flaws, it is a really great game to have in your library

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/transformers-fall-of-cybertron/user-reviews/811396/platform/xbox360/ Thu, 16 May 2013 06:25:07 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Where's My Perry? for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/wheres-my-perry/user-reviews/811368/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

The Where's Perry app was the free app of the week at Starbucks this past week, so I took the time to sift through a little bit of it after playing the free version months ago. The principle of the game appears simple at first. The goal is to get Agent P, Perry the Platypus, through the tubes to thwart Doof by clearing the way of water through tunnels. The first few levels are simple, by using your finger, or a stylus, you clear the rubble away. Amongst the rubble are also secret agent files and other items as well as gnomes that can be collected. The water has to douse the gnomes in order for them to be considered collected.

The game is actually quite addictive. I played about 20 minutes yesterday, but thought it had only been five or less. The graphics are quite good, I'm using an iPad 2 and the voices, Major Monogram and Dr. Doofenshmirtz are spot on. There are, so far, no appearances of Phineas or Ferb as of yet. The unlockables as you move along are for either other agents, some seen in various episodes of the show. The other unlockables are for Dr. Doofenshmirtz's inators, which are also very amusing.

Though this game won't ever garner great recognition, it is a fun game, perfect for a tablet or phone. For the price, I believe $3 only, it is well worth the purchase.

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"pokecharm reviewed Where's My Perry? for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by pokecharm on Thu, 16 May 2013 06:25:07 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/wheres-my-perry/user-reviews/811368/platform/iphone/ Wed, 15 May 2013 07:45:17 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Bulletstorm for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/bulletstorm/user-reviews/811333/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Bulletstorm starts off with a bang and doesn't slow down, despite a heavy dose of sophomoric dialogue and meandering story. The game is a first-person shooter (FPS) style that follows Grayson Hunt who is the leader of a special operations unit. Within the first five minutes of gameplay it is soon discovered that Hunt and his team have been deluded and decide to take action against the man who set them up to kill innocent people. What follows is a quick game of shoot anything that moves with any variety of weapons.

What Bulletstorm lacks in story it more than makes up for with easy controls and game play. The weapons are varied and you're able to swap them in and out at regular intervals. The enemies are only slightly varied as you move through the game, but the way you interact with each does change based on what weapons you have and what is lying around. The game awards points based on skilful ways of killing people. If you just shoot them down, 10 points. If you use a piece of the environment, you can get 100 or more. This added element encourages you to use things around you and not just run and gun, as most FPS games do.

The voice acting goes only as far as the story will allow it. The story is predictable, but yet it doesn't feel stagnant. I didn't feel bored at any point even though I could have guessed what would happen next. The dialogue was purposely childish, pandering to the lowest common denominator for the target audience, yet I didn't find it nearly as distracting or disgusting as I thought I would. The fact that the story resolves itself in decent fashion makes the lacklustre story worthwhile.

The graphics were actually decent, not great, but decent. A had a few screen issues and once had to restart a checkpoint because I was lodged inside something. With no jump button, it made movement very linear. The sound was spot on, especially for most of the explosions that occurred throughout the game.

Bulletstorm will never be up for a Game of the Year award. What it lacks in story it more than makes up for in easy game play and just plain fun. The game is a hidden gem, one I acquired for a cool $2 used, no, I'm not kidding. For that price, I can't be disappointed with any of the game. There was a good variety of things to do and achievements to unlock. The game wasn't too hard, but did require precision at some points. Overall, if you can get it used, it is well worth getting.

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"pokecharm reviewed Bulletstorm for the Xbox 360..." was posted by pokecharm on Wed, 15 May 2013 07:45:17 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bulletstorm/user-reviews/811333/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 12 May 2013 14:12:36 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2/user-reviews/811234/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Modern Warfare 2 continues the campaign and the pushes the franchise forward in the modern setting even further. The multiplayer returns as we are used to in the series.
Spec Ops is a nice change of pace making Co-Op avaliable over internet and locally. This mode contains of waves of enemies coming against you and trying to survive with a friend on your side. There are three difficulties for each map, and you are able to test your skills how much you can plan and use skills to get through the waves of enemies.
The multiplayer is also back with new perks, weapons, and levels. This time around there are 10 prestiges to do. If someone wants a real challenge and try to level up again 10 times with all the challenges and weapons, it's a nice change of pace.
The Bad:
The singleplayer is as forgetable as ever. The player takes control over several persons through the campaign and gets you a perspective of things. This had worked, if the story had some sort of depth. But all it really is, is a shallow attempt at an action movie. Some might also be shocked from the infamous airport level, but this game is also labeled as mature. The plot tries to take itself seriously, but when you eventually see plot twists coming from a mile away and all of the levels being very linear. When i mean linear, it's basicly either a stand off trying to survive enemies, escort missions, corridor shooting or simple running from A to B. There are no alternative ways to actually engage the enemy when the actual fire begins. Everything is control with smaller quick time events and very scripted events through the whole story. There are no alternate ways to play the levels. There are intel packs to be collected in each level, but there is barely any exploring. It does not give the player any creativity when it comes to the gameplay itself. The whole singleplayer is basicly just point and shoot with cinematics explosions with forgetable dialogue and characters.

The graphics on the console aren't as good as the pc counterpart, and it shows if you have seen the pc version. Some framerate issues can be seen on the console version.

The Good:
The gameplay is very solid, making tweaks to make it more solid. The gameplay mechanics really shine through in the multiplayer where you can choose your own weapons and perks to your liking and play the way you really want to. The multiplayer has enough depth and options to give the players of this game a good reason to play it.

The sound of the gun mechanics and the game itself are solid, and don't have any real flaws. The guns sound good enough to make the player believe the gun sounds coming out of the actual guns when shooting them.

Spec Ops gives the player also a reason to try out the Co-Op part of the game with several difficulties. Makes it possible to have a friend locally or over internet to play with you. These levels are well designed and could give players that want to explore this part of the game much fun to be had.

Even though most of the singleplayer is plain, the voice actors make it relevant to even take notice of these shallow characters. Making them believable and humane. If there is anything that is good about the singleplayer it would be the voice acting, even though the story and the way the character progress is really shallow.

Overall:
It's a good multiplayer game for those that want either a Co-Op experience or a massive online expeience, then this should be in your collection. But if you want to get this game for it's singleplayer, you should stay away from it. Because it has nothing of depth in there or even worth exploring.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2/user-reviews/811234/platform/ps3/ Sun, 12 May 2013 01:53:05 -0700 Gamer_4_Fun reviewed Castlevania: Lords of Shadow for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/castlevania-lords-of-shadow/user-reviews/811223/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I wanted to get the game when it launched, unfortunately I got distracted and went off the radar until I got it for cheap recently. I must say, wow, why didn't we hear a lot about this game? From the reviews it made it sound like an average game, but is much better than the recognition it got. This game is a wet dream for someone who is a huge fan of Dark Gothic architecture flanked by sweeping vistas stretching all the way into heaven; haunting soundtrack along with everything else which resonates with Dark Fantasy.

Lord of Shadow is a reboot of the Castlevania franchise according to I never played previous Castlevania games, I know shame on me, so going into the game I had no idea what Castlevania is all about other than a gothic dark fantasy game. I heard many complain that Lords of Shadow is more like God of War than Castlevania, which might be true but then again I never played the classic games so I cannot draw comparison, nor does it matter as long as it is a good game. So, is it a good game? Lets find out.

You play as Gabriel Belmont, one of the young knights of the Brotherhood of Light. A group of knights sworn to protect the world from any supernatural threat that casts darkness to the land. Something strange happened, the darkness tipped over the scale of balance and opened the floodgates to abundance of creatures from the knightmares to enter the world and cause massacre everywhere. Among them, Gabriel's wife was a victim. Fueled by rage, righteousness and sorrow; Gabriel sets out on an impossible quest to bring back order to this world.

The game is developed by a Spanish studio called Mercury Games, leading the development was Dave Cox and the mastermind behind the Metal Gear Solid series, Hideo Kojima.

Before we dive into the review, let us talk about understand the differences between fantasy games. There are mainly of two types and are vastly different from each other.

There is high fantasy and then there is dark fantasy. The key to dark fantasy is all about subtle nudges towards beauty as well as something that is mysterious. The whole portrait comes out as something which is .... very unsettling. Your mind can't decide whether the thing you're looking at is beautiful or something you should be afraid of. The form of communication is also another pillar of dark fantasy. The dialogue between characters tend to be less, however the dialog between the player and the environment take the center stage. It is through the environment the players can deduce the story behind the place and the world around it. So it is very tricky to pull off dark fantasy. If you end up throwing in a lot of magic, myth, creatures and craft a world with the most epic architectures imaginable...even though those are some of the staples of dark fantasy, it looses all the subtle things I mentioned and comes comes out flat. What happens is it tries to say too many things at the same time, and not the right things at the right time, so in the process the whole narration suffers greatly and becomes a mess. The team at Mercury Studios under the guidance of Kojima, aced the feel and look of their dark fantasy world, 2nd only to From Software's Dark Souls, which I think is Castlevania: Lords of Shadow's greatest accomplishment.

Lords of Shadow plays to the ambience most of the time, like the screeching of batmans in a cave or being greeted to shivering howl of werewolves as you enter a dark forest. During these moments the music is nowhere to be found as the environmental sound takes front row and center and creates the mood and sort of warning for the dangers lurking ahead.Then suddenly, the music swirls in and sends shockwaves down the spine...Lords of Shadow sits at the very top among among all the video games and movies with incredible music that feeds into the very fabric of the atmosphere like a vampire.

At first glance the combat may appear a straight up hack and slash, like the one in God of War series, but...like the very nature of the game itself; first glances can be deceiving. As you will very soon realize that playing like God of War will drastically cut your adventure time and drag you under the dirt. God of war series values attack and urges players to overpower their opponents to victory. However, Gabriel is not a fallen god like Kratos, he has his limitations. That is why LOS believes a strong defence is the key to surviving an encounter and hence eventually, come out as the victor. With that notion, combat is tend to be more slower paced, lengthier and tactical affair where patience see you to the end instead of heroism. The game even has a focus system that encourages defence. Basically the less hits you take which means when you dodge, block or counter more, the meter fills up and can be used to absorb orbs from the enemies which you can spend on either healing yourself or making your attacks more devastating.

Lord of Shadow would have been much better experience if it had a good camera. The static camera sometimes swings wildly, or getting distracted to something else over our hero. I died a few times because I felt I got betrayed by the camera. There are some platforming sections in the game, and some require a degree of precision which is beyond the tuning of the controls in the game, and makes platforming unnecessarily frustrating. I also felt the game

Overall, it is a stunning experience for me playing the game. I honestly enjoyed playing the game more than any of the God of War games to date, that includes Ascension. Do yourself a favor, forget the reviews for a second and get this game.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/castlevania-lords-of-shadow/user-reviews/811223/platform/ps3/ Sat, 11 May 2013 04:28:33 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Angry Birds for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/angry-birds/user-reviews/811201/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 2.0.

"Angry Birds is so cute!" "Angry Birds is so awesome!" "Little birdies, take wing..." How many times have you heard sentences like these in the past half-decade? I would guess around 950, 000 times.

But Angry Birds is the Justin Bieber of video games. It's undeservingly popular and is potentially dangerous. Some of the birds are cute, and that's about it. It's a game where skill is thrown into a lake of carnivorous piranhas and all you do is pull the birds back on the slingshot and kill annoying green pigs.

There's only one tune in the whole game (not counting the tune that plays when you beat a level, which is almost the same and lasts, oh, half a second), and it's very annoying. The birds make noises when they launch and when you tap the screen to use their special ability, like the yellow bird can speed up, but that's all there is to it.

The visuals are decent - compared to most iPhone games anyway - but the game isn't enjoyable. It's nothing but pure frustration. You pull the birds and launch them repeatedly just for the heck of it. You become the Rambo of video games. You don't even look if you're hitting the pigs, all you want is to beat the level just so that you can get the hell out of here.

I don't know why this game is so popular - yes, the birds are cute, but then babies are cute and yet except for Charlie in the 'Charlie Bit My Finger' video none of them became exactly famous. Maybe it's because some people don't know what games are. They think they're just crap like this where you just exercise your index finger and leave smudges across your iPhone screen.

One of the worst, no, THE worst because of its undeserved popularity, casual games of all time.

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"Spinnerweb reviewed Angry Birds for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sat, 11 May 2013 04:28:33 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/angry-birds/user-reviews/811201/platform/iphone/ Sat, 11 May 2013 04:12:07 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Resident Evil: Deadly Silence for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-deadly-silence/user-reviews/811200/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Resident Evil: Deadly Silence is a port of the original Resident Evil on the PS1. What's truly impressive is that everything - the FMV cutscenes, the gameplay and the sound - all of it from the PS1 is intact. This is an amazing achievement for a DS game.

It's the same story, which means it's very good. The graphics are almost identical to the PS1 version except for some effects, and there isn't any slowdown which is a problem in quite a number of 3D games for the DS.

There's more - a new Rebirth mode, which can be called something like, 'Resident Evil Remixed.' Enemies are at different locations from the original version, and it's slightly harder. There are new puzzles, and it makes use of the DS's touchscreen and microphone.

The cutscenes are fully voiced, and the FMV cutscenes are all there and haven't been dumbed down. The game plays quite well with the DS's controls, and best of all, Resident Evil is finally portable.

Any horror game fan with a Nintendo DS would do well to play this.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Resident Evil: Deadly Silence for the DS..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sat, 11 May 2013 04:12:07 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-deadly-silence/user-reviews/811200/platform/ds/ Sat, 11 May 2013 03:07:00 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Facebook for the BlackBerry... http://www.gamespot.com/facebook/user-reviews/811198/platform/blackberry/ ...and gave it a 1.0.

Facebook... Why is it so successful? Because it encourages people to waste time. It is a menace to society. People visit it, everyday, posting things like, 'Brushing my teeth', 'having my breakfast' ... I mean, who cares?

The only beings it makes sense for is the older generation. Like, can't-get-out-of-my-wheelchair old. They can talk to their friends and it'll be like old times again.

But oddly, young 'uns use Facebook the most.

And it's glitchy. Every page you go to, it says, "Oops, ironing out a few kinks." There are awful waste-your-time online games like YoVille, FarmVille, ZooVille, CityVille and a possible AssVille.

I urge everyone to stay away from this.

It does nothing but create a bunch of narcissistic self-obsessed attention seekers, and I wish for a crushingly violent punishment for the assclown who came up with the idea of Facebook.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Facebook for the BlackBerry..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sat, 11 May 2013 03:07:00 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/facebook/user-reviews/811198/platform/blackberry/ Fri, 10 May 2013 22:42:33 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811192/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

It's easy to see that unlike other developers, Santa Cruz really did try (a little) to make this a good handheld version of a console game. But for whatever reason, whether out of laziness or because it was rushed to meet the release date, they didn't succeed. The end result is a game that is impressive in terms of visuals, but a mixture of too-easy gameplay and choppy sound results in a game that is disappointing and doesn't last very long.

One feat that I would commend the developers for is that the FMV cutscenes are all here, and all are intact, without any loss in quality. That is something that induces a 'wow', but let's get onto the actual game. The story is the same as the console version - in other words, it's very good, but after that it's downhill.

The graphics, like I said before, are amazing for a DS game. There is no slowdown like in other 3D games on the Nintendo DS, and the lighting is great. The character models aren't HD, of course, but they look very good on the DS.

The gameplay is on the easy side. Like, disappointingly easy. Sometimes you die because you don't expect it to be so easy and overshoot. Unbelievable. And there is no increase in difficulty as the game goes along.

The game plays like a 2D side scrolling platformer, but with 3D character models and environments. You use the touchscreen for the inventory. And man, the screen is dark! You'll only be able to see everything if you play on a DS Lite on the highest brightness setting. It's easy, even though Lara has all her moves from the console games like hanging from ledges, swinging around poles and using her grapple, because it's side scrolling. You can't fall off because you jumped a little too much to one side.

It should take an average of less than six hours to beat this game. So what good you can take from this game, can be taken from its screenshots - the graphics. Aside from that, unless it's your life's goal to collect every Tomb Raider game on every platform, or you don't have any other console to play this on except the DS, I would dissuade you from playing it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the DS..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Fri, 10 May 2013 22:42:33 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811192/platform/ds/ Fri, 10 May 2013 21:12:33 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811190/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Poor Lara. While I enjoyed every single Tomb Raider game in the original series, her popularity has been plummeting for a while now. People just can't be satisfied that easily. So what do the developers do? Do they just put in revealing costumes and a cover starring her midriff and hope it'll sell? Of course not. They do that, but they make a great game as well.

Underworld continues the story where Legend left off, and the story is very good. If this had to be the end of the series it's very satisfyingly so. My greatest fear, however, was that the game would be half-assed on the PS2 and the developers would give all the attention to the seventh generation version. But right from the start, Underworld restored my faith in developers. The FMV cutscenes are excellent, and amazingly the in-game graphics are comparable to the PS3 version - this isn't a joke. Whether it's because the PS3's version's graphics are bad or the PS2 one's are very good, depends on whether you see the glass as half empty or half full.

The gameplay is very similar to Legend, but it's more non-linear. You can do more stuff now - shift along small ledges just by moving the analog stick rather than taking a risky jump, and there's an obligatory bike in one level. There's also a 'realistic' factor that makes it more believable through animations and excellent graphics - when standing near a fire in the first level, Lara will raise her arms in that direction to protect herself from the heat. After climbing out of water, Lara's clothes will be drenched. Yes, the latter also happened in Legend and Anniversary, but I never stopped being amazed at how much the developers did on the PS2 in the matter of visuals. The music is good, and the voice acting is well done. There is some minor slowdown in the gameplay of the second level (the one with the giant squid in it) but it never amounted to excessive frustration.

Of course, it's still a PS2 game, so the developers had to make some sacrifices - namely, the double auto target mode from the PS3 version isn't here. Ah well. Who wants that, anyway?

Overall, the now-bankrupt developers did a really good job with it and it's a shame the series was rebooted, though it couldn't have gone on forever obviously and over a decade is a nice long run for a series... but Underworld is a very satisfying end to the original series whichever platform you play it on.

... Except the Nintendo DS, of course.



Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Tomb Raider: Underworld for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Fri, 10 May 2013 21:12:33 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider-underworld/user-reviews/811190/platform/ps2/ Thu, 09 May 2013 12:33:46 -0700 Double_Wide reviewed Star Raiders for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/star-raiders-2011/user-reviews/811151/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 5.5.

For the most part Star Raiders is technically sound but totally misses the mark when it comes to enjoyable gameplay and storytelling.

You spend 100% of the game dogfighting enemy ships, which would be ok if this was done on a larger scale. Your ship can morph into 2 other modes: one that resembles a mech and the other, a stationary turrent. As a mech, your ship moves slower but is ideal for taking out larger ships that have multiple weak points (energy cores). In turrent mode, your ship remains still and has lower shields but causes the most damage out of all 3 modes. Of course, regular flight mode is the most balanced and outside of taking down large ships or perhaps trophy hunting, its the best mode to stay in for taking out enemies. This is really the only level of gameplay variety that the game offers. Each of the 10 levels has 3 parts (A, B, & C) but only one (A) is required to complete in order to move on to the next level while the other 2 are always optional. Every level has the one of the same requirements in order to clear it:

1. Destroy X amount of enemies
2. Find XYZ item
3. Take out all the generators or cores from the extremely large space station

While the lack of variety does weaken the gameplay, not as much as the lack of substance does. All the weapons feel and behave the same. Star Raiders does let you earn in game currency (which is another issue in itself that I will get to) to buy upgrades for your ship but none of them really seemed that much significantly different than the other. The sheer amount of currency that it takes to buy upgrades is ridiculous enough but then the result ends up being very unrewarding. Besides primary and secondary weaponary, you can also purchase droids that supposedly assist you in battle (think R2-D2). However, they ended up being just a huge annoyance once equipped. They constantly alert you to things that you're more than likely already aware of and are overall pretty useless. Now for the currency...oh boy...the currency. Besides what you are rewarded at the end of every mission and per enemy destroyed, there are also items that resemble either glowing golden or blue rocks. You earn currency for destroying these. The problem is...there are literally close to or over a hundred of these scattered across the level. Trying to collect these during the actual mission is very unwise as some are timed or will generally cause enemies to relentlessly swarm you from all directions. Fortunately, Star Raiders always gives players the option to move on or stay in their current location. Most times, you can remain in your current location free to collect more currency and free of enemies. The problem is, it can be very time consuming to collect each and every rock in the level AND some levels inexplicably continue to generate endless enemies when attempting to do this. Honestly, unless you are trophy hunting, the amount of time it takes to collect the extra currency and unimpressive upgrades don't make doing this worth your while.

Another issue is the inconsistant difficulty spikes. Everything in the game goes smoothly up until mission 4-A (level 4 story related). You come upon an astroid with a force field inside of it. While having to destroy all the generators that are powering the force field, you have to destroy or avoid incoming enemy ships. Once this is done, guess what? You have to go inside of said astroid's maze like interior to find a tiny micochip!!!! If you have the patience to keep playing after this then its pretty much smooth sailing until the final level. Instead of an over the top final boss waiting for you (bosses is something else this game lacks), a similar level 4-A situation awaits. You have to destroy the cores powering a force field that is blocking a hole leading to an underground generator. After traveling & shooting your way through these underground tunnels and destorying this generator, you are rewarded with 3 minutes to leave the same way you came in. Oh and wait it gets better...if you die ANYWHERE before getting out then you'll start all the way back to the broken generator with no time added. And just when you thought it got bad enough, if you run out of time then you completely fail the mission and have to restart from the very beginning of the level!!!! Talk about a huge ball of WTF?!

The plot is very basic "take to space to stop the evil alien race of Zylons from preparing an attack against Earth"...simple enough and not a problem. The storytelling however is a different "story" altogether. All story related cutscenes are presented in a cartoony pop-up book like fashion. This isn't the first time I've seen this and I'm not really critizing this alone as it actually reminded me a lot of Tornado Outbreak. However, the total relevence it had to anything that happened during the game is questionable. You're introduced to many characters that have absolutely no role in the story besides the mention of their name and a face. Besides your commanding officer, none of them assist you in battle, have to be rescued or anything. I honestly would have just preferred getting my mission objectives, maybe a final cutscene and that's it. The storytelling adds zero value to the game overall.

Besides the cookie cutter cut scenes, the visuals are well rendered. Especially the enviornments. The music wasn't anything special and the sound effects sound very retro...which I kinda understood why since this is a remake of a 1979 game but I just don't know how well it fit in with the modern day visuals. Controls were solid but very poorly explained. You know something is wrong when I didn't find out that the ship had thrusters until playing the very last level of the game!


My Breakdown:


What's Good:

- In game visuals, especially environments are very well rendered
- Solid and simple controls
- Overall simplistic gameplay
- Offers 3 different combat modes, each with distinct sets of strengths and weakness


What's Not-So-Good:

- Despite its simplistic basis, the more advance controls are poorly explained
- Collecting extra currency
- Little effort seemed to be invested into cutscenes
- I for one would have liked to see what an actual Zylon looks like
- No boss battles!

What's Bad:

- Levels 4-A and 10-A! A total pain in the @ss!
- The overall storytelling. Pointless
- ^ Meaningless characters
- The lack of variety in mission objectives.

In all, Star Raiders ends up being 30 missions of doing the same tedious tasks over and over again instead of being a fun game. The potential is there but never realized and some times that is worst than an unapologetically bad game.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Double_Wide reviewed Star Raiders for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by Double_Wide on Thu, 09 May 2013 12:33:46 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/star-raiders-2011/user-reviews/811151/platform/ps3/ Tue, 07 May 2013 08:26:26 -0700 The_Last_Ride reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iii/user-reviews/811091/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

In this sequel to the Assassin's Creed games, we visit early colonial America. It starts with Haytham Kenway and him making his way to the new America to search for where his relics may be of use. He is also searching for clues left behind by Minerva and Juno that both Assassin's and Templars are looking for. This part of the story is very linear and serves as an origin story. There is a little plot twist after you are done with his story. After a few hours in you take over Connor, Kenway's son and continue the story from there.
There is a new setting setting in this game never shown before with the forest and animals being a part of the game. Hunting and skinning animals are also part of the game. This game does not have any upgrades when it comes to the home where the character is settled.
The whole setting takes the whole american revolution and takes the fictional characters such as Haytham and Connor and puts them right in the middle of them. They also have real characters such as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and other known persons from that era.
The gameplay and combat itself has been changed a little bit. The counter system has been worked on and needs more timing than before. This can make confronting larger more challenging

The bad:
Something that sticks out right away after the beginning is that guards recognize you immediately if you just have one on your notorious level. You get recognized faster when you are on rooftops, it does not give you any incentive to actually climb the houses in the cities of New York and Boston. The posters for you to get noticed less is even removed from your map entirely making it harder for you to lose your character getting noticed by guards.

The modern part of the story also has a bigger role in this, which isn't bad. But the sour note the game. With the game ending on the biggest cliffhanger in the entire Assassin's Creed series. The other ones in the series, might not have a a real ending except for Revelations ending Ezio's and Altairs story. They just leave one big question mark and break the entire series with such a an ending. It will be a big dissapointment for those that have played all of the games and might even anger some.

The new homestead isn't upgradable and doesn't really give you any incentive to go deeper. It gives you more story to some characters if you are invested in the game and want a little more story to it. Some are interesting, but they consist mostly of fetch quests and mostly consist you doing the same with helping them with something they can't do themselves. They can be really tedious to do if you can't get invested in the characters. The upgrades and shipments you do with the homestead are pretty much useless and doesn't really give any depth to the game. Looking at the result of this design decision it is not clear what was suppose to be the meaning of this whole system.

The counter system doesn't always respond the way you want it to, and get often hit even though the timing is good.

The good:
The graphics of this game are a really big upgrade to the previous games in the series, and it is really stunning to watch, wether it is the cutscenes or exploring the world. It is truly beautiful to look at.

The characters of this story are strong, some might be used to the idea of a character of the likes of Ezio and Altair. They have to keep in mind that this is a whole new character, with his own story and problems. The voice acting is great, and give depth to the characters and the story itself. Even though that i have mentioned that the "modern" ending for the game ends on a big cliffhanger, doesn't mean that this game doesn't have a good story. Connors and Haytham's story through this game is really good and worth experiencing.

The audio and sound effects are well made and the mood it sets when traveling in the forest is really important, could have felt really empty if this wasn't case.

The gameplay has also improved. The climbing has never been this fun, even though the game does not give you any real incentive to actually climb and explore the rooftops because of troops, doesn't mean the mechanics for it are bad. Far from it, it's never been this much fun to actually climb which is really sad when the notorious system undermines this mostly.
The combat is more realistic and requires the user to time the counters more, it can be really fun when have a few opponents and really dominate them, but when you have several enemies against you it can work against you.

Overall this is a mixed bag, there is enough though to actually play this game, even though some might be dissapointed with this being the biggest and best in the series, it is far from being a bad game. It is worth a shot if you are an Assassin's Creed fan, but also keep in mind, this might not be the overall best game. I did not encounter many bugs in my Xbox version, but that doesn't mean this is free of bugs and glitches.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"The_Last_Ride reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the Xbox 360..." was posted by The_Last_Ride on Tue, 07 May 2013 08:26:26 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iii/user-reviews/811091/platform/xbox360/ Mon, 06 May 2013 23:36:32 -0700 Gamer_4_Fun reviewed Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/far-cry-3-blood-dragon/user-reviews/811079/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

I really wanna know what happened at the boardroom during the first meeting behind Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, also what kind of substance the guys were on. All because the concept behind Blood Dragon is just ridiculous, crazy and not something any modern designer in his/her right mind would pitch in, but yet it did happen.

Ok, I am just gonna put it out, Blood Dragon is the most awesome thing happened to videogames since.... video games. I have no idea what ubisoft was thinking (if they were thinking at all), but was the most brilliant decision ever made and potentially, a start of another great new franchise for them.


With the core game being Far Cry 3, the game is extremely flexible allowing the player to reach his/her goals with vareity of tools, approaching from multitude of direction.

It is the most fun game I've played in recent memory. The core game being the superflexible Far Cry 3, with added speed,agility and awesome weapons and everything coated with neon and purple hues make the game standout while still as fun as ever to play by your own rules.


The game is dipped in neon, to further emphasize that this sci-fi world is the one you left in the 80's.

The nod to the 80's cheesy sci-fi moments and many references is what really makes Blood Dragon pure...gold. What makes the game further standout from other games is that Blood Dragon is bold enough to make those references, not subtle at all, but in your face. The game made me smile to all the way to falling on the floor while laughing like a maniac.

You're getting incredible value for 15$. All I can do is hope that the numbers turn out to be good and Ubisoft makes a separate franchise out of it.

To sum up Blood Dragon, this game is Ultra Mega Awesome!

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Gamer_4_Fun reviewed Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon for the PC..." was posted by Gamer_4_Fun on Mon, 06 May 2013 23:36:32 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/far-cry-3-blood-dragon/user-reviews/811079/platform/pc/ Sun, 05 May 2013 16:44:24 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-revelations/user-reviews/811037/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Resident Evil Revelations was the first game that drew my attention to the 3DS. The story is just as derivative as you would expect with a series that has such a lengthy history, at points you're not sure which was is up, and I strongly encourage you watch through the credits for any hidden pieces.

The story follows various different characters, two familiar to long-time fans, Chris Redfeild and Jill Valentine. With those two, you also pick up a bevy of new characters who are both memorable and forgettable. My favourite is the kid paired with Qunit who's name escapes me. The story is set between Resident Evil 4 and 5, placing this after Leon's adventure and by far my favourite of all the RE games. Jill and Chris are separated for the beginning of the game, introducing two new characters, Parker and Jessica. Neither are all that memorable, but at the same time, I did feel like they were very dynamic characters, their motivations and dialogue leading you to believe they were real people and not flat characters as you would see in a Gears of War like game.

The story gets dizzying at times, but what stood out for me the most was the variety of weapons. You start off with a pair of standard weapons and one melee weapon. As you move through the game and go into different areas, as you get more items, you get more and more powerful weapons. Upgrades are found that can be swapped in and out of each weapon. Much like the recent change to Dead Space, you can apply an addition to each weapon, if you don't like how it works, you can swap it to another with no penalty. I ended up sticking with the shotgun and machine gun as my most favourite weapons, putting the most powerful upgrades in each.

The game is featured on a smaller console, and while I could tell the difference in the 3D, once again, I can't say I was overly impressed by the 3DS display. The cut scenes were decently rendered, but the actual game play graphics are limited by the tiny 3DS screen and the passable 3D graphics. I do wonder how they will upconvert the graphics with the console cousin coming out soon.

The controls and game play were easy to pick up and understand. During some of the boss battles, things would seem get frustrating, forcing you to press a certain button repeatedly to get up or force you to press the reload button when your character should auto-reload when you ran out of ammo. There was very little dodge to the dodge button, which also made some sequences tough. At varying points, you couldn't avoid hits from the enemies, making boss battles especially challenging.

The length of the game was appropriate given that it is a mobile game. I finished the game over the weekend, putting in less than 10 hours. While this isn't the best RE game I've ever played, it is the best one I've played in recent memory. The game does feel a lot like RE4 in both controls and story. It is well worth playing, though perhaps not for the full $40 I paid when it was released.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"pokecharm reviewed Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS..." was posted by pokecharm on Sun, 05 May 2013 16:44:24 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-revelations/user-reviews/811037/platform/3ds/ Sun, 05 May 2013 08:10:02 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Way of the Samurai 2 for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/way-of-the-samurai-2/user-reviews/811025/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

Samurai. The legends of Japan. People who would commit suicide instead of surrendering, if my history book told me the truth.

Way of the Samurai 2 is not about samurai. That may be surprising, but it seems the developers have never seen a history textbook. In this game, you create a character, and you're a bum with a sword in feudal Japan who is starving when a little girl gives him a rice ball to eat, at the start of the game. Guess that makes you a samurai? Anyway, the story is not so great, and given how short the game is you would have thought the developers would have put more work into the story. There are multiple endings, but all but two of the story paths have the same ending. And none of the endings are good.

You can make choices on what to say which sometimes affects the story, and you can do stuff to prolong your story, but mostly it makes no difference. None of the characters are likeable - a dumb girl who the townspeople call 'No-name' (but you can find her real name by teaching her to read and write), a woman who runs some kind of business, a few side characters and Hanzayaman Takamura who is the 'rebel leader' of the town of Amahara.

The gameplay - you walk around town but there's rarely ever anything to do except go in the shops for doing stuff like eating to restore health or drinking alcohol which increases your energy but loses you some health. And you never need the shops because it's too short. You can talk to people, but nothing they say is interesting. If you kill even one person (except thugs), all the shopkeepers kick you out of their shop when they see you. Honestly, what else is there to do in free-roaming except kill a few people? You can visit a dojo where they teach you how to fight, but you learn as much on the fly.

There are different types of swords like 'Ore' and 'Ninja' and the swords break if you use them too much without pausing between attacks. You can collect items like scrolls which power up your swords and food items which restore health. You can roam around, sleep in your house, etc. Just pass the time. There isn't much to do.

The graphics are not very good, and all battles have the same music - which is decent but gets repetitive. The voice acting is poor, but the sound effects are good. There aren't that many options in create-a-character mode, which means whatever you create, you won't like in the least.

Overall, the developers really could have put together a good game here, but they didn't even bother to do a little homework. Even after playing through all the story paths and watching all the endings, I wasn't all that satisfied. Way of the Samurai 2 is historically inaccurate, gameplay-wise and graphically average, and the voice acting will hurt the ears of anyone with functioning aural cavities. It's really disappointing what the developers came up with when they had such a good premise to go on. I wanted to like this game, but it's hard to. Overall, this is not the best samurai-based game.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Way of the Samurai 2 for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sun, 05 May 2013 08:10:02 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/way-of-the-samurai-2/user-reviews/811025/platform/ps2/ Fri, 03 May 2013 05:50:01 -0700 MrTakeda reviewed XCOM: Enemy Unknown for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/xcom-enemy-unknown/user-reviews/810957/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Before I start I just want to say this is the first XCOM I have ever played, actually, I have never played a turn based shooter until now.

XCOM is about an alien invasion on earth, you are the commander of the
"XCOM project" your name is, "Commander"! Xcom's job is to stop alien threats to humanity, you will battle aliens, disarm bombs, rescue civilians and
dissect dead aliens, yummy. The story is kinda average here (its about an alien invasion for gods sake!), but the voice acting is pretty good, although the soldiers have American accents regardless of there nationality (I had a soldier from North Korea and he sounded like a cowboy!) . The Graphics are also pretty good, very detailed, and the sound effects are smashing (get it?).

This game is quite easy to play, the controls are easy to learn, but there are alot of little things you need to find out for yourself (I found out that cars explode when there on fire the hard way, ouch...) When your not battling the alien horde you are in your underground base, you get to pick where your base is from five select locations around the world, I must say it would have been nice if you could select anywhere you want but there you go. While in the base you will scan for alien activity around the world, research alien items, craft guns grenades and gadgets with which to destroy aliens, and expand your base by digging deeper into the earth. When alien activity is detected on your scan, you scramble your troops, you can take four soldiers on a mission at once (later you can take six), if you keep your troops alive you will watch them learn, level up and progress from a bunch of scared newbies to a group of dangerous veterans well trained in the art of blowing aliens to pieces. When a soldier dies you are flooded with ANGER!!! You actually care for your soldiers ,
and to see you don't forget them and respect them there is a memorial with all the names of the dead soldiers you have lost.
Of course you can always save regularly so when a soldier dies you can start again, but that means its not as tense, well XCOM has "Iron man mode" which does'nt mean Robert Downey Jr is going to help you dispatch the aliens, it means that if you make a decision you have made it and there is no going back.

The graphics are mostly good but the frame rate is very choppy and there are alot of glitches, like guns clipping through walls and soldiers firing in the wrong direction and still hitting the target. But other than that the graphics are nice and decent (lighting effects especially). The sound is also very real sounding. I kind of thought the ending to the game was a bit disapointing, and very sudden.

But XCOM is still a great game, and I didn't play the original! I heard the hardcore fans didn't like the normal difficulty because it was to easy, well there is a "classic difficulty" and an "Impossible difficulty". There is also a easy difficulty for people who are new to this style of game (like me). XCOM is a great game and I think it is a must buy, especially for people who are fans of the original.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"MrTakeda reviewed XCOM: Enemy Unknown for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by MrTakeda on Fri, 03 May 2013 05:50:01 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/xcom-enemy-unknown/user-reviews/810957/platform/ps3/ Thu, 02 May 2013 09:07:07 -0700 pokecharm reviewed Tomb Raider for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/810933/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

When it was announced that Tomb Raider would be re-released, I yawned. I had never played any of the previous games and hadn't thought to watch the Angelina Jolie movie either. I now consider myself thankful that I didn't besmirch this franchise when I get to have a fresh take that few gamers can boast, or perhaps be embarrassed about.

The game starts off with a tutorial, as most games do, introducing the gamer to the controls. The action genre doesn't get a great addition through the game play, but the controls are easy to understand and manipulate as the story charges forward. Simple button presses get you through QTE scenes, but there aren't so many that you get frustrated that you're hardly playing. The combination of melee and weapons worked well with the controls make combat quite fluid.

The sound quality was done well throughout. There are sections of the story where the voice acting felt forced, as the story seemed shaky in the middle. The notes that are found throughout the world were interesting, revealing more of the story, but now that I've seen that in so many games, it almost feels very done. The background noise for the game were accurate. If Lara forged through a forest, you could hear the grass. If she jumped into a body of water, you could hear the splashing. It felt very real and authentic.

The graphics were amazing, for the most part. I did suffer from occasional glitches, AI and Lara going through solid objects, most notably when I was falling off of great heights. The cut scenes were really well done. The people looked very real, hair still seemed slightly off. The weapons looked realistic to a degree. The modifications that Lara was able to make were not nearly as detailed.

Speaking of weapons, I have to say, though there were basically only four types of weapons, I loved the variety they managed to work into those four weapons. It was fun adding new things, the only disadvantage being once you added something. You'd spend the salvage points and couldn't try something else if that didn't work. That was one area where I would give Dead Space some credit. If something didn't work, you could remove it from the weapon and try it somewhere else.

The game was very linear, and while there were a lot of things you could pick up and find, it didn't really add a great deal to the story. Lara grows up in this game, and it is great to play. The trouble is that 'the coming of age' story isn't anything new, certainly not for gamers. The fresh take on the series is well done by Square Enix. I realise I've never played Lara Croft game, but this one sucked me in from the beginning and while I can't say it blew me away, I kept wanting to come back, I kept wanting to play more, to see how the story would end. And that, that my friends, is what makes a good game. Though we can argue about this to the end of time, the newest Lara Croft game is a good game. It keeps the gamer engaged from beginning to end and adds variety in every few chapters to allow you, and Lara, to grow and learn something new. Though Square Enix didn't consider this game a success, I really enjoyed it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"pokecharm reviewed Tomb Raider for the Xbox 360..." was posted by pokecharm on Thu, 02 May 2013 09:07:07 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/810933/platform/xbox360/ Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:23:44 -0700 pspitus reviewed Dead Island: Riptide for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/dead-island-riptide/user-reviews/810714/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Link to video review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzJYR6SqkOw



*PLEASE NOTE: Review taken straight from the video :).

*Start trailer for Dead Island Riptide*

Ooooh no, I'm not falling for that sh*t again! How dare you Dead Island. Fool me once… shame on you. But fool me twice… shame on me. Ya bastards! Do you guys remember when the first Dead Island trailer was released?
*Start trailer for Dead Island*

It was such an emotionally moving trailer, telling the story of a family's demise during a zombie apocalypse. Frame by frame, our heart strings were tugged at. Our tear ducts began malfunctioning. And as the trailer continued to play in reverse, we kept telling ourselves… "Man… this is going to be the best zombie game ever". An emotionally driven storyline, compelling and memorable characters, free roaming first person combat . Honestly, what could go wrong?

Well it turned out that the game was nothing like that all hahaha xD. Oh man, game trailers… you gotta love them. False advertising for the win!

If you have played the original Dead Island and you thoroughly enjoyed it, you will definitely enjoy Dead Island Riptide.

Now Dead Island Riptide is certainly not for everyone. It is geared towards a special type of audience- in the end you will either love it or hate it. If you are looking for a deep and engrossing zombie apocalypse storyline, and are hoping to connect with the characters in some special way, similar to Telltales' Walking Dead game… then this game is definitely not for you.

However, if you're seeking a mindless zombie killing good time, then this is right up your alleyway. Grab yourself a weapon, and let's do this. Dead Island Riptide is a hybrid action RPG, which combines the levels, skill trees, and abilities you would find in an RPG, and crams it together with the action packed experience you would find in first person shooters. Throughout the game you will spend most of your time bashing, smashing, slashing, shooting, burning, electrifying, killing, maiming, and slaughtering zombies while performing a variety of missions and side-quests. You can also create and upgrade your weapons using a variety of materials you find along the way to increase your level of badassery and improve your zombie killing arsenal.

While it's not essential that you play Riptide with others, I would highly recommend it. To truly enjoy and get the most out of this zombie apocalypse, bringing some friends along is definitely the way to go. Playing as a loner, whoops I mean solo, can often feel tedious, lonesome, and just boring since you spend most of the time doing the same thing over and over again. But add in a friend or two and you guys will definitely have a blast. Power in numbers contributes to the overall experience that you will get out of this game.

The thing that plagues this game more than zombies however are the bugs and glitches within the game. It can sometimes feel like the game isn't even completely finished. Don't be surprised if you find yourself dying for no reason. Or if the audio suddenly cuts off. Or if vehicles suddenly disappear. Or if the mini map leads you off a cliff like a b*tch.

Overall Dead Island Riptide makes minor improvements and addresses some of the issues from the last game, but it still feels like a large DLC rather than a full-fledged sequel. If you are really into zombie games and enjoy mindless zombie slaughtering, you should definitely give this a try. However, for everyone else, stay away from this title as it may just leave you rotting in the brain.

Dead Island Riptide gets 3 "Who do you Voodoo B*TCH!" out of 5.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"pspitus reviewed Dead Island: Riptide for the PC..." was posted by pspitus on Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:23:44 -0700
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