MetalDragon199's GameSpot Friend's Reviews MetalDragon199's GameSpot Friend's Reviews MetalDragon199's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Thu, 23 May 2013 14:40:07 -0700 GameSpot MetalDragon199's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Tue, 21 May 2013 21:15:53 -0700 NightFox313 reviewed Silent Hill for the PlayStation... http://www.gamespot.com/silent-hill/user-reviews/811592/platform/ps/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

It made me cringe.

I yearned to play it, but at the same time I dreaded gripping my hands on the controller to do so. I loved and despised playing it. This is the game that made me question if pressing on was really a thing I wanted to do. It made me want to vomit. It was mentally draining. But still I went on to complete it, and here I am now.

Breathless. "The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh."

Silent Hill is just one of those games. A gripping narrative, a believable cast of characters, coupled with a chilling soundtrack and unnerving set-pieces are everything one could want in a horror video game. However, rather than just going for the standard B-movie scare-tactics a la Resident Evil, Silent Hill redefines the horror genre, while - in its own right - the way for a completely new and horrifying genre - psychological horror. A game that was so terribly scary, I had to draw in all of the courage I could possibly take for a human being to play it. And that's what makes this game such a memorable one, and it is indeed an unforgettable experience that I could never forget, no matter how hard I tried. All of the good memories I had with it, complete with all of the ones I didn't want to remember - Silent Hill simply burns a sick, twisted, and distorted image of a peaceful resort gone wrong into the deepest caverns of your mind. And no matter how hard you try scratching it out of your memory, it'll always still be there.

Developed by KCET and published by Konami, Silent Hill was released for the original Sony PlayStation on 31 January, 1999 - during perhaps "the golden age of horror video games". Notable hits such as Clock Tower and Parasite Eve were making their way into the pool of countless survival horror games at the time, but the most renowned and successful survival horror franchise - Resident Evil - was clearly raking in the dough. However, with the release of Silent Hill, things took a disturbingly hard turn. Gone were the zombies and biological disasters, and that Scissor Man lunatic. The horrifying, terrifying creatures of Silent Hill were the things that could only be seen in your worst nightmares - from the deepest bowels of the earth. That's what made the game so intensely scary and yet so satisfying; the feeling of the unknown has never struck more fear into me from any horror game I've played than Silent Hill.

Resident Evil went for the famous jump-scares that plague many of today's independent "indie" horror games. Biological experiments gone wrong would crash through a disturbingly reflective window when you'd least expect it. It's a shame, really, because whenever there was a window to be seen, you could already expect something to crash through it when you come across the same area later in the game. Silent Hill takes all of the cheap scares and throws it out the window. It embraces you relentlessly, throwing every single piece of violent and disturbing imagery as inhumanely possible and envelops you in its pure-evil atmosphere. That's where the magic of Silent Hill lies. And the way the game's atmosphere was so meticulously, so painstakingly designed to remind you of your worst nightmares (and to, of course, conjure up some new ones) works so unbelievably well that you fear that the game you're playing could potentially be a reality. It's like inviting a living hellish nightmare-town into the safety in your own home.

You play the game through the eyes of Harry Mason, a middle-aged man whose occupation is a writer (however, don't take the phrase too seriously; Silent Hill is a third-person psychological horror game - although it occasionally uses fixed camera angles in some cases). He takes his seven year-old daughter, Cheryl, along with him for a vacation in a peaceful resort town, Silent Hill. During a long drive through the night on the highway, Harry notices that a mysterious young girl is walking across the street, and tries to swerve violently to avoid impacting the girl but ends up crashing his car and is knocked out unconscious. However, the long drive wasn't all for naught - upon waking up in Silent Hill after the car crash, Harry notices that Cheryl is missing and ventures out into the ominous fog that defines the town of Silent Hill. He vows to find her and discover the unknown secrets of the creepy town and find out if the world he is in is a reality or a living nightmare.

Trust me, I'd go on and on but that puts you at risk of some major spoilers. So I'll just leave it at that. The third-person camera makes use of some fixed camera angles for more cinematic in-game shots (and in cinematic cutscenes) and the freakier scares, but for the most part the camera is always controllable, giving you a better view of your surroundings. That might seem that having a camera you can easily control takes away from the fear, but it only adds to it in the end. At least it doesn't venture into the notorious trope of Camera Screw and adding artificial difficulty by having a seriously uncooperative camera.

Harry Mason is in a way an "everyman", or an average person who has no real defining qualities other than being an average Joe and simply serves as a sort of avatar for the character. The scary thing about this is, is that Harry is in no way a seasoned veteran, nor has he ever had any sort of experience with fighting, and that makes you feel like you're helpless in some cases - like you're so hopelessly weak and have no chance of surviving in the hellish world. Controlled from a third-person perspective, Silent Hill doesn't feel as clunky in controls or as robust as Resident Evil's infamous "tank controls". There are several ways that give the gameplay a more fluid feeling, such as being able to strafe from side-to-side and - my personal favorite - the ability to shoot and walk in any direction at the same time. The combat system is so limited and hard-to-use, but is effectively scary in the sense that Harry has such little experience with fighting - especially fighting things he's only seen in his worst nightmares.

Harry will also have to take care of himself and manage a rather large assortment of items. The majority of the weapons are melee-based, but ranged weapons can also be used. There is a strangely large amount of ammunition to be found in Silent Hill, and there will be rare cases where you'll run out of ammo for your shotgun or hunting rifle unless you've been shooting it around like a mad dog. Healing items are few and far between, and you're likely to use them frequently, as Harry is a generally weak individual. He can die from a few attacks and is relatively, physically weak - which only adds to the feeling of helplessness, isolation, and desperation. Keys and other items are used for navigating throughout Silent Hill, and maps have to be found to traverse through the large overworld. Locations vary from convenience stores, small houses, to police stations and gas stations. I won't spoil the more important locations.

The atmosphere in Silent Hill is simply the best I've seen in the genre. Derelict and dilapidated buildings, along with cafes and mom-and-pop stores that have seen better days all add to the feeling that Silent Hill is an empty, deserted town. The haunting vision of a town with a dark past is only enhanced by the addition of Silent Hill's trademark: fog. The fog is so thick and heavy that you have no idea what might be ahead of you. Cleverly used as a way to hide the Sony PlayStation's limitations at the time, the game's limited point-distance is hidden with the fog effect that is used so effectively that it made the daytime as scary as pure darkness. The game tricks you into thinking you're in a safe place, and the numerous save points scattered throughout the overworld make each one feel like a breath of fresh air.

And then the lights go down. There is no mercy now. Silent Hill grips you at the neck and refuses to give you any chance of hope or feeling of safety. It is a brutal, mentally-draining experience until the very end. My most memorable moments of the game came from the relentlessly dark portions of the game, where Silent Hill was enveloped in pure darkness. This is what makes Silent Hill so unique in the horror genre. During these portions of the game, enemies are far more disturbing and aggressive. All you have to light the darkness with is a flashlight attached to your jacket - and you never know what lurks ahead or what is hiding in the impending shadows. This is where the radio comes in. Whenever an enemy is nearby, the radio will emit static, and the sounds of demonic children with bloody knives can be heard growling as their bare feet scrape towards your direction. The shrieking of gargoyles and the moaning of the possessed inhabitants of Silent Hill send chills down your spine and make you want to cover your ears in fright.

The tension is further increased with the music and sound departments. Masterfully composed, the game's soundtrack is minimalist in some cases while heart-pounding in others. Depressing and mellow undertones add to the psychological elements of the game, and Harry's feelings that he might not make it out alive with his daughter can be reflected in the game's soundtrack. The haunting blaring of the air raid sirens in the background are so mysteriously timed in the game; so startlingly original. It all makes you wonder about the mysteries of what really happened in Silent Hill. There's nothing scarier when you've just narrowly escaped an ambush from bloodthirsty, savage dogs with the relentless lashing of industrial beats and entering into a room you've never been to before, only to notice that the music has suddenly disappeared. The fear of the unknown is the greatest scare-tactic in this game, and it worked so effectively that I had to play the game in breaks at times, listening to Bossa Nova music - the game is that intense. It robs you of your sanity and throws you into multiple locales that you've never even imagined before and expecting you to explore it.

And where would a great horror game be without puzzles? Silent Hill is chock-full of riddles and clues, many of which left me scratching my head in confusion. Puzzles are abundant and are deviously confusing and devilishly created to make you want to look up answers via walkthrough. Many will leave you frustrated, especially later in the game. The problem about the puzzles is that many of them are so impossibly vague that they put Zelda and Metroid to shame. They are ridiculously hard, but the feeling of conquering the puzzles are so satisfying that it's hard to judge whether the riddles add or subtract from the game. Aside from these, Silent Hill adds a twist on the puzzles. It takes standard items you'd find in your average household and forces you to cleverly use them in a different way. The game really makes you think about that random rubber ball in your inventory, or that metal ring.

The scares of Silent Hill are its core, next to the atmosphere. Even though they almost never use jump-scares to make the player have to buy a new pair of pants, the feeling of imminent death and the fear of what lurks ahead scares me way more than the dogs that crashed through the mansion windows in Resident Evil. Sometimes you'll hear your radio emit static, but there won't be anyone around. You might hear noises in a room next to you, or you might enter a room you once thought was safe but as soon as you open the door a possessed nurse is ready to stab you senselessly. In many cases, you'll wonder if you're hearing things, such as hearing scraping noises on the walls of the room next to you or a banging on the door shortly after you enter an operating room gone wrong. The disturbing imagery works so well here, taking conventional objects and places and turning them into things you'll want to stay away from in real life. The game psychologically attacks you whenever possible, and burns the visions into your skull, making you want to forget the horrifying scenes you've just seen even though it's impossible.

Silent Hill is a startlingly original entry in the horror genre. It builds up the tension to the point where you're simply expecting something to happen, but nothing does. And then it gets you when you least expect it. Although on the short side (the first playthrough can be completed in around five to six hours), every scream you make and every pounding your heart makes makes the journey worth it. It's like an amusement park ride from hell, and the characters are sympathetic. It makes you actually want to care about Harry Mason and whatever might happen to his daughter Cheryl, along with the mysteries of Silent Hill and the tragic occurrences of the past.

It made me want to check into a psychiatrist. It made me want to close my eyes forever. Anything you see in this game will be a thing you'll want to forget about. Silent Hill is a game that defines horror, and is pure psychological horror fuel. It's a game that will build you up and break you down, and drag you through a world you won't ever want to remember.

The game that I wanted to forget. The game that will always strike a chord of fear in my heart.

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"NightFox313 reviewed Silent Hill for the PlayStation..." was posted by NightFox313 on Tue, 21 May 2013 21:15:53 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/silent-hill/user-reviews/811592/platform/ps/ Tue, 21 May 2013 09:35:15 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Army of Two: The 40th Day for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/army-of-two-the-40th-day/user-reviews/811558/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Sometimes you get that feeling. You want a game that is satisfying, but not excessively challenging. Usually you associate it with a good licensed game, like back in the PS1 days, but good licensed games are hard to come by now. Well, Army of Two: The 40th Day for the PSP definitely has that endearing quality that a lot of games don't have. It's easy, it's short, the graphics aren't the best on the system - but the game succeeds most importantly because of its enjoyable gameplay.

Salem and Rios from the first Army of Two game are back, this time in Shanghai, going from meeting a contact to a pointless detour through a zoo to saving the world. The story isn't mind-blowing, but it makes the game hang together, which is enough because it's the gameplay that is the main factor here.

Ever played Age of Zombies? The gameplay is somewhat like that. You press the face buttons to shoot in the direction of their placement, for example, pressing X to shoot downward - this is a top-down game, see. But you can also rescue hostages, buy upgrades and new weapons, pick up items such as cash, shields and power-ups, and then there is the Morality feature. In this, a cutscene plays and you have to make a choice that is either 'good' (which usually gives you no benefit but hey, you did the right thing) and 'evil' (which can give you cash, weapons, and other gear in exchange for pricking your conscience). While Morality cutscenes don't really affect the story except towards the end of the game, it's still fun and makes you go through the game again to make different choices.

There is also an achievements-like feature where you unlock achievements as you progress through the game. For the completionist, this too increases the replay value.

While Army of Two: The 40th Day is not a long game - it can be completed in one long afternoon, it was fun enough for me to play it over and over again. If you know what you're getting with this game, chances are it will be so for you too.

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"Spinnerweb reviewed Army of Two: The 40th Day for the PSP..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Tue, 21 May 2013 09:35:15 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/army-of-two-the-40th-day/user-reviews/811558/platform/psp/ Tue, 21 May 2013 08:32:48 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Dante's Inferno for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/dantes-inferno/user-reviews/811556/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 3.0.

Were that there were copyrights for gameplay. Sony's God of War franchise, as I have always stated, sucks - but they might have gleaned even more cash by suing EA for making such an absolute rip off of their games.

The game is set in the Crusades; Dante is busy killing in some place near Jerusalem. But because he's unskilled, he gets stabbed and dies, but fights off Death and takes his scythe. Then he goes to hell (literally) to get back his wife Beatrice from some smoky-hazy guy, who, I don't know, might be Satan or just some demon; I haven't read Divine Comedy (didn't have the patience for bad poetry) and I didn't play Dante's Inferno to the end (didn't have the patience for bad gameplay). So this Satan/demon bloke takes away his waifu for some reason... the game repeats the same cutscene where Dante vows to Beatrice not to have any 'pleasures of the flesh' until he returns from the Crusades... so what did he do? Adultery? Killing? Like I said, I wasn't interested enough to find out.

So the story is pretty bad. Dante is a weak-chinned, unlikeable jerk, and the game never really manages to make you care about what happens. I have played plenty of horrible games to the end just to see how the story ends, but in this case I just couldn't be bothered. I don't know if it's because the base material for this game's story is awful or the game struggles to settle into its twelfth-century setting. Probably both.

The sound in this game is low and is only hearable on the maximum volume both in-game and with the PSP speakers, and it's not memorable either. Some of the music tracks were almost, but not quite, listenable to by a person with functioning aural cavities. The voice acting is just plain awful - especially Dante's.

The graphics are very good and the only plus point in this entire game. This game actually surpasses the God of War games on the PSP because they had an awful framerate, but the visuals in this game are undeniably excellent. The CGI cutscenes were decent too.

The gameplay is identical to that of God of War - so basically, it sucks. A God of War fan might enjoy mashing the square button and pressing triangle only for the heck of it once in a while, but I don't. Like God of War, you can upgrade your abilities and unlock new attacks with 'souls' collected from defeating enemies. I hated the gameplay in God of War, therefore I hate the gameplay in Dante's Inferno. You almost can't tell them apart.

It's a very easy game, since the enemies are so stupid you barely ever have to guard. Unlocked combos don't have crushing power like you'd expect - indeed, some of them are even weaker than the attacks you have at the start. The combo system is broken - if you take a hit, you sometimes don't get knocked out of a combo, and you still build up your combo even if you repeat the same move over and over.

An avid God of War fan might enjoy Dante's Inferno, but I didn't. In my opinion, it's slightly better than the abysmal God of War games on the PSP, because at least the graphics aren't technically busted. But the visuals do not make this game worth playing. The horrendous gameplay, presentation, story, voice acting and music take care of that.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Dante's Inferno for the PSP..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Tue, 21 May 2013 08:32:48 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dantes-inferno/user-reviews/811556/platform/psp/ 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/ 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.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"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.

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"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.

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"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.



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"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/ 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!

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"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 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.

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"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/ Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:33:04 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Street Cleaning Simulator for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/street-cleaning-simulator/user-reviews/810660/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

I first played Street Cleaning Simulator about a year ago, and I have been playing it over and over ever since like a man possessed. So anyway, when I first played it it was with my best friend. We popped it in and started playing. I rarely get touchy while playing video games, but this game was so moving in every aspect that I started crying about five minutes into the game and by the time the credits rolled, I was basically bawling my eyes out. My friend didn't even look at me after it was over and he has never played a video game with me since. I have no idea why.

The game's script was written by many well-known geniuses the likes of Roald Dahl, Joanne Rowling, Jamie Rix, Aristotle, Mark Twain and Arnold Schwarzenegg-whatsisname, Stephen King, Sylvester Stallone and a small chipmunk. In fact, there are very few famous people who have not worked on this game one way or another.

So, anyway, you play as a street cleaner who has made it his life's mission to clean the streets of vermin. While little toddlers pore over comic books and movies and licensed garbage video games of men wearing their underwear on the outside and wearing a cape as if they're going to the opera, this real-life superhero puts his truck on the road and cleans, cleans, cleans. He never rests because he knows that if he does, the streets will get dirty. And if they get dirty, he drives his car to the edge of a cliff and stays there.

Our street cleaning superhero apparently doesn't have a stereo in his truck, so there is no music. Smart choice because otherwise every time he gets off a bunch of bad guys in masks would smash the windows, steal his stereo and leave a note sneering at his taste in music. And since he's busy fighting the real evil: smidgens of dust, he would not be able to stop them. Oh well, he fares much better than other superheroes. They never fight crime in neighbourhoods that need it. I'd like to see Batman fight crime in my neighbourhood.

"Robin?"

"Yes Batman?"

"Didn't we park the car right here, man?"

Along the way, our hero encounters other cars whose drivers are either busy defying gravity or driving their vehicles full pelt into your truck in a desperate effort to ram it off the road. Obviously these are the same people who say, "Littering is a very bad habit," and at the same time drop a banana peel in the middle of the road, ready for the next unfortunate wretch to cross the road. But our hero here... he stops it. He risks it all. The game lasts a good long time itself, but you will play it over and over and over again because it's so damn addictive. And in the end, there is only one gripe with this game - the inclusion of Stephenie Meyer in the credits. I can't forgive that. They should have had her work uncredited. Big Rigs, I've got two words for you: ha and ha. Turns out, a street cleaner surpasses a big rig in every way. So there you have it. It's not the reigning champ of video games (which is Valkyria Chronicles II. Sorry, I can't help myself even in troll reviews), but it's definitely one of the top contenders.

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"Spinnerweb reviewed Street Cleaning Simulator for the PC..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:33:04 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/street-cleaning-simulator/user-reviews/810660/platform/pc/ Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:52:55 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Strikers 1945 Plus Portable for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/strikers-1945-plus-portable/user-reviews/810500/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 5.0.

Strikers was a series of bullet hell games before bullet hell games were cool. Now, I happen to be a big fan of bullet hell games, and since the PSP has a tragically undernourished library of bullet hell games, of course I had to try this. Who cares if every reviewer in existence panned it, right?

Turns out, I should have listened to the reviewers. This game may be good to distract a child for a while (after tying his wrists to your PSP of course, so he doesn't throw it down in frustration at this game) and if you just feel like a 15-minute blast once in a while, then Strikers 1945 Plus Portable can be pretty fun. But looking at the price and the value for money this game offers, you should look at alternatives like Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting instead.

The idea of the game is unique - a sci-fi World War II shooter, and the music is very good - war trumpets - but after that, it goes downhill. There are six planes you can choose from, and what I don't get is why the hell why we have to choose from them in nine seconds flat - nine seconds flat! Nine seconds is barely enough time to look through the planes. And none of the plane's powers or strengths or abilities are shown in the select screen if that's what you're wondering.

It plays like a generic shmup. If you hold down the shot button, you get a special charged attack, but that's the only special thing about this game. You use your bombs to call an airstrike in which five planes come to back you up; they stay for a very long time and absorb bullets, so all you have to do is get behind them and you're in barely any danger.

The level designs are generic, the bosses are easy and you get infinite continues! Infinite continues, and the scores are randomized so if you play this game for a high score, don't bother since there is no set score for killing a certain type of enemy. So you have infinite continues and you die on one hit; this makes the game both insanely hard and awfully easy at the same time. Worse still, the levels start repeating themselves after a while. Do they think we have amnesia or something that we can't remember?

I'd love to give this game a higher score, but I really don't feel it deserves it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Strikers 1945 Plus Portable for the PSP..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:52:55 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/strikers-1945-plus-portable/user-reviews/810500/platform/psp/ Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:01:35 -0700 predator7256 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/810495/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

I started playing and quickly got addicted to it, i mean it is so immerse in it's nature that you just don't feel like quitting it once you start playing. This is because of the excellent integration of epic the visuals, sounds, story and the gameplay.

The game starts really well with the graphics and state of the art environments, the sky theme is also excellent, something new as compared to the previous Bioshock underwater city themes. The work on the characters and NPCs is also very detailed along with the other objects and game set pieces. The sound engineering is also excellent,follows the traditional approach as per the game theme which includes the soundtrack and the sound effects.

The gameplay is excellent offering a variety of enemies but it seems there is a lot of replacement work done. The big daddys are replaced with handymen, the bee magic replaced with crows, mana with salts and so on. Also the game allows to carry only 2 weapons, which means there has to be careful selection otherwise it does affect the game progress and number of deaths encountered. The game does offer various challenges when encountering the mini bosses and enemies, which requires strategic utilization of the weapons and magic of proper choices to finish them all. Also the introduction of cipher decoding and chest unlocking insist the gamer to keep on exploring which in itself is a good rewarding nature as it uncovers new things which help in the main gameplay and also unlock many stories that clarify certain thing as the main story progresses. the upgrading system is same as the original Bioshock series, nothing new in it.
The companionship of the NPC(Elizabeth) keeps the game interesting and she does offer a great help during battles and during exploration, also her reactions in various interactions keep the game mood interesting.

The story will keep you on your toes, starts really cool and keeps you in a hunt to find more and more till the main clarification you get in the end. The characters designed and created are also interesting. The story is epic offers a really mastered time serious attached events and action. However one disappointing element is that the choices made in the game should have an impact in the endings as the original series is famous for but it does not offer that however some of its consequences are seen in the game itself but really they should have adjusted this feature. But the story does play games with your mind :D

There is a bit of innovation in this game from the previous series. Buy this game, it is a must own in the series.

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"predator7256 reviewed BioShock Infinite for the PC..." was posted by predator7256 on Sun, 21 Apr 2013 05:01:35 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/bioshock-infinite/user-reviews/810495/platform/pc/ Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:45:23 -0700 LightEffect reviewed Spec Ops: The Line for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/spec-ops-the-line/user-reviews/810477/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

With a story that makes you question your actions the entire time, alongside some solid third-person shooting, Spec Ops: The Line will be fairly familiar for most, but also unique at the same time.
You play as Captain Walker, sent to Dubai for reconnaissance, but things escalate and you end up on a search for General Konrad who is somewhere in the city, forcing you to fight your way through refugees and American soldiers. The characters are done very well, each of the two guys with you have their personalities that clash and even question your orders. The best part of the story in this game is how much it makes you question your actions. There is an element of choice throughout the game, though it is not always black and white. The ending has four options, so there is a reason to play through again.
As is it a console port it won't look too much different on PC. The game looks good, not mind blowing, but also not bad at all. Character models and faces are convincing and help you stay immersed in the story. Sandstorms sometimes blow through during firefights and block your vision, light is blinding when you leave buildings and Dubai is impressive even when it is covered in sand.
This is a standard third-person cover-based shooter. You won't see any gameplay elements you haven't seen before, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. The shooting and movement felt very solid the entire game, though I had some trouble with not getting into cover and not running correctly during some faster paced areas. Otherwise everything worked just fine.
There is multiplayer but good luck finding a game. There is also co-op but I have yet to play that either.
I very much enjoyed playing through this game. The campaign took me about 5 and a half hours to complete, so it isn't very long. The story is what should make you want to play this game as it actually makes you wonder why you are killing, instead of just mowing down thousands of people without a second thought.

So do you feel like a hero yet?

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"LightEffect reviewed Spec Ops: The Line for the PC..." was posted by LightEffect on Sat, 20 Apr 2013 20:45:23 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/spec-ops-the-line/user-reviews/810477/platform/pc/ Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:39:21 -0700 Spinnerweb reviewed Cho Aniki Zero for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/cho-aniki-zero/user-reviews/810458/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Cho Aniki has been around since the mid-1990s, but was never released outside of Japan, and what we'll get to in a second will prove why. Anyway, this is one of those games that never made a buzz and is lucky to get localized at all. And if it had been more noticed, then there would be more lawsuits. Quite simply, you can retitle this game, "Sexual Objectification in Videogames: How Would Men Like It?" and it would fit perfectly.

About ninety-three per cent of the cast (the rest are robots) is three-quarters-nude, and horror of horrors, all but one of them are men. The creepiest are Adon and Samson - really huge, muscular men (the subtitle of the game is 'Muscle Brothers') who are almost always in awfully homoerotic poses. Writing about it makes my stomach roil. And there are the two naked babies Misha and El.

Anyway, the only normal-looking characters are the two playable ones - Itadon's a guy (and yes, he's muscular as hell too but at least wears pants) and Benten's the only female character. And she is pretty hot. Actually, she's very hot. They had to make this game sell a little somehow, after all.

I'd have preferred not to have naked men or babies flying around the screen, but you have to pick a sidekick alongside the character you're playing - Itadon can pick between Samson and Adon and Benten has to stick with both Misha and El.

The story is that BuilderPlanet is running out of protein so Itadon and Benten set out to kill off Balzac II the Villain. Quite a simple and idiotic story, with no speech narration, and it's all told through the opening but the story's never the focus in bullet hell games - the gameplay is.

So what about the gameplay? It's decent. You fly horizontally around the screen shooting stuff, you can change directions, and you can use traditional bombs (called Eruptions - it's not as bad as it sounds) and Men Beams - basically laser attacks - though if you pick Benten it's called the Splash Beam and is more of a screen-sweep. Your sidekicks shoot alongside you and absorb bullets. Enemies drop protein capsules and man-juice which you can pick up for more bombs and lasers - let's just call them lasers. You can change your direction, which is a feature not all bullet hell games have. The graphics are nice - the models and environment are 3D - and the music is fine too. There isn't that crazy sense of speed because backgrounds are static, but overall the game does well in the gameplay, graphics and sound department.

One thing to complain about is the presentation. The title and options menu makes you expect it's gonna be hella oldschool - 16-bit graphics and choppy sound effect - but it's not like that, which is good. The Pause screen is just a simple 'PAUSE' written across the screen in WordPad font and you can't exit to the main menu or anything (you have to quit the whole game). In the options menu the control scheme indicates that you can access the options midgame by pressing O, but you can't.

Overall, Cho Aniki Zero is a good bullet hell game for someone who can maintain an indifference to a lot of the stuff shown and implied in the game, and can simply focus on shooting everything, but if you're sensitive to such things then definitely avoid it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Spinnerweb reviewed Cho Aniki Zero for the PSP..." was posted by Spinnerweb on Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:39:21 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/cho-aniki-zero/user-reviews/810458/platform/psp/ Sun, 14 Apr 2013 06:26:48 -0700 predator7256 reviewed Resident Evil 6 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-6/user-reviews/810227/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 5.5.

Well I really don't know what did I just played but it was really disappointing,the game seems broken,unfinished and incomplete execution of the game concepts. Most of all they tried to mix a lot of different things together but it did not just stand up.

First of all, the graphics, very pathetic, incomplete textures, dull looks make this game down by a lot factor, I mean resident evil 5 had good environments and excellent visuals and seems 100 times better than this game. This game really falls below the normal graphics standards that any 2012-2013 game should offer.And while playing the game, looking at the graphics you always feel like giving up and quitting.

The sound engineering seems upto the standards but does not stand excellent.

The gameplay, is a major state of the art screw up which really tries to kill the classic resident evil franchise and is an insult to the same. The unnecessary quick time events, the major camera angle flaws, sloppy and disastrous control mappings most with the camera angles finish the gameplay experience and always irritate you majority of the time and makes you lose your head. The mission set pieces are also poorly designed and overlapping of the cutscenes and some playing of same level gameplay through different characters is really frustrating.There is no element of scare and since there is always a co-op partner involved it takes all the thrill and fun. The classic resident evil horror is totally gone. It was more of an action.Only Ada's campaign was somewhat interesting as there was a solo gameplay involved with good puzzles. There is a variety in enemy tough but they all look like the same old standard dumb AI.There are some action packed moments that can be enjoyed but it's length does not last long.
The new inventory system is also a let down and not manageable, also they have screwed up the save mechanism big time, there is a difference between check point and a typewriter icon being sown on the screen. If you close the game after the checkpoint notification you have to start all over again and if closed after the typewriter icon then there is a proper save, so everytime the player has to make a notice of all this.
The gameplay is no where near the classic resident evil series standards.The gameplay experience is not nice and is a total let down.

The story seems interesting as far the involvement of the characters is involved and runs parallel clarifying things in the later stages of the games and because characters like Chris, Ada, Sherry, Leon are involved it keeps it interesting and keeps the momentum going. Yeah, it does offer a warfare story but when it gets mixed up with the depressing elements of the game it fails to deliver the punch.

CAPCOM people should really learn from games like the dead space,silent hill amnesia and all to really come of to or excel more than the original resident evil standards. I mean I played played it just because there was the involvement of the classic resident evil characters and I have some respect for the classical resident evil franchise.

I would not recommend this game as far as the price and gameplay is concerned but if you want to keep a track of the resident evil story do play it but you better refer the gaemplay videos on youtube in order to save the money for better games.

Bottom Line: Not Recommended, it is broken

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"predator7256 reviewed Resident Evil 6 for the PC..." was posted by predator7256 on Sun, 14 Apr 2013 06:26:48 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-6/user-reviews/810227/platform/pc/ Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:20:56 -0700 VintAge68 reviewed Inversion for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/inversion/user-reviews/809939/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

He was one of the lucky ones, with perhaps a bit too much private happiness to care about, yet the day the trouble arrives --his beloved daughter's birthday-- police officer Davis Russell sees his former life crumble just like Vanguard City's façade: his wife Carolina dies as he reaches their devastated apartment with his co(o)p partner Leo Delgado, while the little Leila, seemingly, is just about to being abducted by the strange, violent invaders.

This has been 38 days ago, and albeit the pain about his impotence in face of the catastrophe is real, all does appear yet so surreal "like some faded memory of another life." But which is this hollow reality they used to know, so visibly showing its weaknesses now a loosened gravity lets things aflow, and why physical principles are getting shifted anyway in this but so familiar place?
This sudden "inversion" having turned Russell's world upside down, with streets and buildings twisted like in an Escherian picture puzzle, how can those tribal savages called "Lutadores" be possibly responsible for a gravitational phenomenon of this dimension? Torn to pieces and swarming with enemies this isn't Vanguard City anymore; but perhaps it too is just some spaceship floating in space, another hidden truth behind a now shattered reality nobody was aware of, a life lie... The Lutadores, brutish men and amazonian women, are bringing the children somewhere so here is where hope is left: to find Davis' daughter Leila in all this bottomless mess.

Gravity used for both narrative and gameplay purposes is what makes the difference in this third-person shooter applying the well-approved Army of Two men constellation in either single or co-op mode to a Gears of War or Bulletstorm-like context. But whereas the blue Low and red High dynamic Gravlink powers manageable by means of the Omnitool-Rig the Lutadores brought along might recall Mass Effect's bionic or Dead Space's telekinetic techniques as do the adrift Zero-G zones, the combination of elements Inversion uses for its not too predictable story makes it peculiar.
Still, the campaign mode has its undeniable flaws: frequently taking or moving in cover seems inevitable when hordes of well-armed aggressive enemies are attacking from --literally-- all sides, but for the most time the cover-system does not obey as fluidly as one might wish (or need), neither in normal gravity situations --on their way through streets and prisoner camps--, nor when seeking cover behind floating debris in zones of altered gravity. Also the obligatory bosses while not too easy when tackled alone with a suddenly not at all helpful AI partner are unnecessarily repetitive so that one has to confront the same foes, like the Slave Driver with his zombie-like crazed-out minions, several times in a row.
Requiring to throw lava blobs and pull down containers, the boss fights make however better use of the consecutively upgraded Low and High Gravity powers, whose main purpose remain yet complementing the traditional firearms --Sniper, Pulse, Energy, Assault rifle (with Bayonet in the Lutadore scrap metal version), Sawed Shotgun, Rocket launcher, Flamethrower-- while the game refrains from employing them for other gameplay facets such as the telekinesis puzzles familiar from Dead Space.

What puzzles most, however, are still the story's actual circumstances: the gravitational anomalies controlled through the Lutadores imbued with their guru Kiltehr's malefic spirit. To tackle them, the Gravlink device locally provides quite some practical possibilities, though resource and time-limited its powers have to be well-dosed in order to get along: in addition to selecting, moving, and throwing objects like rubble or fuel barrels, enemies can be shocked or lifted out of cover using the levitating LowG, while the HighG acquired later on permits to crush objects and enemies alike, or to make a suspended object fall thanks to a temporary heaviness increase. Controls work equal in both cases upon just pressing Left Shift in order to turn light blue into heavy red powers and vice versa.
Naturally, gravity dominates also the destructible environment: balancing across fallen planks gets as necessary at times as diving between blue-outlined pieces of debris in areas of skewed gravity, whereas static or dynamic "vector shifts" allow or even force Davis and Leo as well as the Lutadores themselves to proceed along another plane where the wall becomes the floor or the ceiling, reorganizing the pieces as if in a kaleidoscope.

Well-nigh Newton's Nightmare, the gravitational gameplay elements for both movement and combat outline also the ambitious multiplayer where controls work in quite a more fluid and intuitive manner than in most of the singleplayer campaign. Letting one play as either Human (Uprising/Civilian) or Lutadore (Soldier/Light) the different game modes and maps which in cover mechanics and scenery may recall Hybrid or Mass Effect 3 include gravity and objective-based Grav and Skirmish modes for up to 12 players, as well as the yet known "vectors" to be attacked or defended or even changed in order to turn the map upside down, while Deathmatch or Survival mode against waves of progressively stronger enemies cater to the more common multiplayer habits. Besides "Matchmaking", the complimentary "Create Match" lets one compose a party's custom match out of eight different game modes (Hourglass, King of Gravity, Grav Control, Gravity Slaughter...) and ten splendid maps (Verge, Junction, Flyover, Skyline, Geostation...) taken from the futuristic areas explored during the campaign and providing sufficient space to experiment with the novel controls. Additional game options (Score Limit, Weapons Set, Gravlink Abilitiesç) permit to predefine the matches to one's liking, while completing the Basic, Weapon, Rank challenges help earning additional XP: a pity only that the obligatory GameSpy ID seems to be impeding wider co-op and multiplayer possibilities here.

In many aspects the 14 chapter-long campaign --Inversion to Reversion-- appears a descent to hell: the large-scale gravitational weapon that appears having distorted Vanguard City's gravity planes also ruined the environment whose lava rivers and red skies make it resemble the Lutadores' own devastated territory. --But where did they really come from? Massive Zero G-fissures finally lead to some underground area --that again befools perception for opening to battle-worn space installations apparently supervised through vigilant bots overpowering the Lutadores their way. And to Kiltehr who seemingly has the key to all this in his hands...

Inversion surely doesn't max out its full potential: the gravity skills appear rather accidental and not worked out as likewise the bionics of Mass Effect and the like; the cover system often represents an obstacle to a more cautious approach rather than a help; the delusions are not those of Dead Space, and the friendly AI --recover the partner and be helped-- does not really permit to act as a true Army of Two when playing alone. However, in addition to more than decent graphics and a suitable soundtrack, it still has potential, thanks to gravity providing additional gameplay options which make both singleplayer campaign and multiplayer modes different from many other comparable cover-based third-person shooters.
"Life often makes us regret things we've done and things we haven't. We often desire about going back in time to fix everything when it's too late." --Here is the occasion: play this game.

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"VintAge68 reviewed Inversion for the PC..." was posted by VintAge68 on Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:20:56 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/inversion/user-reviews/809939/platform/pc/ Sun, 31 Mar 2013 01:28:48 -0700 predator7256 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/809654/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

This is a must buy game as it offers a good gameplay with complete satisfaction and offers true value to money spent on it.

The most excellent feature of this game is that the gameplay, story, sound, graphics come up together perfectly as level of immersion goes on increasing from the start.

The graphics are just stunning, however there are few issues but once settings are optimized manually as per the system then it runs fine, the work on the visuals and various environment is just excellent, it does give this game an exploration theme.

The sound engineering is also excellent as it goes really well with the set pieces designed in the game.

The gameplay, this is the real trademark of the gameplay and especially the enemy AI is programmed flawlessly as the enemies provide a good challenge fights and exhibit proper combat behavior. The leveling up and upgrade system is also well implemented, develops properly as the explorations are done and channels well with the gameplay. The weapons and gears are just awesome with the signature bow. The various type of ammunition and different options also make the game interesting. The various objects discovered during the gameplay also clarify the background story offering a better angle to it.The exploration rewards are also worthy.

The storyline is also well constructed and builds up the tempo as the game progresses.

This game is really more worth than the money spent, buy it and play it!

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"predator7256 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PC..." was posted by predator7256 on Sun, 31 Mar 2013 01:28:48 -0700
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