Planescaped's GameSpot Friend's Reviews

Stingray52 reviewed Bionic Commando for the PC...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:02:58 -0700

...and gave it a 5.0.

A third person action/shooter, that could of been something original, but rather wasted due to many let downs.

First of all, the porting actually sucks. I don't need to see X box buttons in the actual game play and have to pause and check the controls to see what button the game was referring to, furthermore, the mouse aiming and game play feels wrong, they should throw more effort when porting it from console to PC.

game combat is interesting in the first few levels, and get repetitive after wards, lack of new enemy units and new abilities for you Bionic arm makes constrains the game of just exploring new locations with your swinging abilities.

I had a couple of cheap thrills when I was playing against the snipers in the early levels, the game had some sort of a challenge, and I was forced to approach with caution.

battling the Mech suits and the planes was interesting for the first time, then its the same thing over and over.

I must say though, the game environments are decent, and are fun to explore.

and here it is, the same mistake, you must kill every enemy, in order to hack an outpost relay, to deactivate mines, I don't need to do it frequently. no really.

the story is good, needed more presentations and cut scenes though. in addition, the challenges (although some of them was dull) were nice since they are related to your character's upgrades, but they should of allowed more character customization I'd say. the voice acting is OK, but your character's voice is somehow Dull, he sounds just like a mindless brute.

Enemy AI is good, and they can detect you from long ranges making it more realistic, and enemies know how to put up a good fight which keeps you somehow conservative and force you to come up with attacking strategies and approaches.

however, the radiation limits you from taking high grounds and surprising the enemy.

if you played prototype, you will find this game average and needs more innovation to give it some sort of originality.

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"Stingray52 reviewed Bionic Commando for the PC..." was posted by Stingray52 on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 01:02:58 -0700

Stingray52 reviewed Lost Planet 2 for the PC...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:39:07 -0700

...and gave it a 3.0.

Aside from the graphics, the game doesn't introduce anything new, some new lame repetitive boss battles and multiplayer features.

Combating soldiers is very shallow and totally lacks any action-fun elements. you basically just run and shoot until they die, there is no challenge at all, and when there is no challenge, the game falls short.

battling Akrids is annoying and slow, most bosses got huge HP, and you just keep on hitting the bright spots until they eventually crack down and die. "OMG look its a Cat G Akrid, what should we do? just shoot the same spots slowly and slowly, until they fall".
even smaller akrids are no fun at all, you just keep on running and shooting with your buddies, and that's it, the level is over.

sometimes, the game get interesting in some situations, due to level designs and some new weaponry, but Lost Planet 2 doesn't know how to keep that.

there are some levels which are totally pointless, take about 5 minuets, even though you check everything in the map.

I don't have to activate Data posts in every single level, I know it increases the battle Gauge, but shouldn't the B-Gauge be related to combat and skill superiority rather than Data posts?
basically, YOU MUST activate Data posts, it seems its the only objective in the game, it capture enemy positions, control trains, and hack enemy mainframes.

The Vs, which is suppose to be the highlight of the game, is limited in game play periods, and controlling the Vs should of been more flexible, faster and more entertaining, battling enemy Vs is really broken, since the AI is broken, they just keep on jumping and switching between targets while taking damage from you, and if your standing from a distance, you can easily take them with a rocket launcher, and they would stand still like nothing is happening, and if you shoot a bunch of enemy soldiers, other enemies who are standing 50 meters long would show no reaction to gun fire or noise, which makes you really frustrated.

The Episodes thingy was some how different, but the story is blurry, and playing with different factions doesn't introduce any new game play methods or specialties.

at least they would of made a new machine gun that sounds better and makes you eager to shoot!

Want my advice, keep this game the last option for you at this time, I'm sure there are many stuff out there that is more fun.

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"Stingray52 reviewed Lost Planet 2 for the PC..." was posted by Stingray52 on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:39:07 -0700

Stingray52 reviewed Red Faction: Armageddon for the PC...

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:15:49 -0700

...and gave it a 5.0.

Seriously!

The Seal? it pretty much looks like the marker in Dead Space series, the Ravager got limbs that are similar to Necromorphs!

Even the Objective beam and the exo suit entrance is somehow reminds you of dead space....

The game combat situations is repetitive, in same environments, its a third person shooter that delivered nothing new at all. the game is long and boring, with a predictable story, and your gonna get confused whether actually the game is an action or horror, the cinematic scenes shows you that the game is pretty intense, and well crafted, and more horror oriented.

while the game play.... is action oriented.

they should of introduced more enemy types, after you get to see them, the game simply puts different combination of enemy units in similar places, no surprises at all, and frequently, you're gonna forget the objective your doing, because they are not very interesting.

instead of blowing things up and collecting salvages on a regular basis (which is cool only in the first half hour), they should of introduced a some sort of challenges that can get you upgrades, something that is game play related. I must say though the graphics and effects are nice, but graphics are way not enough.

weapons of the game are good, however, they should of introduced LESS weapon types and upgrades for each weapon according to the player's preference.

there are actually some cool levels when you get to jump in the Exo, ride in the Spider and the fighter jet, this was a nice change after running and feeling bored for a long time underground.

I wouldn't recommend buying this at all, if you played decent third person shooters like Gears of War / Dead Space, this would look like an obvious flash back to you.

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"Stingray52 reviewed Red Faction: Armageddon for the PC..." was posted by Stingray52 on Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:15:49 -0700

Stingray52 reviewed Singularity for the PC...

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:58:34 -0700

...and gave it a 7.5.

Excellent Story, nice weapons with a variety of choices, creepy stunning surprising moments, challenging game play, Fun puzzles but some visuals glitches (bad Porting and feels like a console quality), controls might get confusing, lack of interactive training, subtitles are not available which makes it difficult to understand conversations with Russian/English accent.

The Game takes place in an island know as Katorga-12, were the Russians found some element known as the K-12, as an alternate source of energy right after the end of the second world war. the Russians discovered that K-12 was an ideal element as well for time manipulation, and started a project. United states special forces are sent to investigate the situation in Katorga-12 in modern days, your character is one of the main elements in the Operation.

I know, your first impression of the game is "just another horror FPS". but believe me, the game hold many surprises, your first personal encounter with mutants, is scary as hell, the first one I met reminded me of Silent Hill, but after wards, it will become very normal for you to encounter mutants, and even fun because your weapons will be upgraded, and you will totally enjoy shooting 'Em Up. weapons of the game are nicely done, and are Fun to shoot, the upgrading system of weapons is simple and reliable. The game is not about shooting mutants only, you will encounter Katorga-12 security guards, which usually put up a good fight. During the Course of the game, you must engage with stealth tactics as well. you will meet some blind mutants that you can simply evade, but will give you a hard time if disturbed.

The Story of the Game held many surprises, twists, I won't Spoil anything. Katorga-12 is Timely Unstable, which means, sometimes you get Lost between Time Dimensions and between the future and the Past, and this is very interesting, although we've seen that Idea in prince of Persia warrior within, but the idea was Forged within a different Frame. you will acquire/understand the story by Re-living the past, and Continue in the Current time.

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"Stingray52 reviewed Singularity for the PC..." was posted by Stingray52 on Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:58:34 -0700

Stingray52 reviewed Dead Space for the PC...

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:53:32 -0700

...and gave it a 9.0!

When I first Got the game:

"Astonishing visuals, Creepy atmosphere, well acted voices, Dismemberment of enemies adds a new (challenging) combat strategy, Variety of interesting weapons, Great Level Design, Various types of enemies."

What didn't make it perfect: (This was sorted out in Dead Space 2)
"Mouse Sensitivity somehow is confusing, which sometimes results in slow Camera movement and hard aiming, story comes from a slow start, Upgrading equipment requires too much."

In Dead Space, you take the Role of Isaac, an engineer who is sent on a routine mission to fix some technical flows on a Space station known as the Ishimura, your team responds to the distress calls, but later you find out that the Station was infected with some sort of an Alien infestation, Isaac and his team must find there way out after there transport vessel has been destroyed by aliens.

Dead Space successfully manages to deliver a creepy cold environment to the players, you would spend most of your time on the edge of your seat. the creators were professional in setting traps and surprises that will give you chills, Plus the Dynamic Music is a pretty neat touch, when you get spotted by an enemy by surprise, the music changes in a creepy twisted way. the combat system is really nice, it's just shoot and move on, matter fact it's really challenging, you have to dismember the limbs of mutants in order to succeed in defeating your enemies. however, as I said, there a bunch of enemies, and each one has a certain weak point and special attacks, some of them are lethal "if you approach the nested Mutant, you will be decapitated immediately". Traps are well designed, you have to watch your steps between corpses not knowing which one will rise to get you. know that, every spot in the game is not safe, the mutants use the vents to move around, and ambush you, the AI was excellent.

The weapons are really weird and put up on a nice way, the Plasma gun serve's as the gun basic weapon, the Ripper/Line Gun/Contact Beam are really strange but Fun to shoot. the Ripper fires a fast moving circular blade, that you can control on a short range for some short time, it serves an ideal way to dismember enemies, Great for the Gore Fanatics. however, aiming these guns are not really easy, as I said before, the camera is somehow moves in a weird way, but if you have played Dark Sector/Resident Evil 4-5, you won't face a lot of difficulties moving the cursor. the upgrading of equipment in dead space however require a lot of resources. in other words, too many to upgrade and not much resources, pick your choices carefully.

the voices, were excellent, it couldn't get anymore realistic. Level Design was put up on a perfect as well, it almost comprehended every section a space Colony would have. zero gravity levels are Fun to play, and Vacuum levels are challenging. but the story develops really slowly, but it's ain't a cliche zombie story where the crew got infected from a virus, it's really interesting and you should check it out. the objectives of the game were repetitive/boring for many of us, specially for shooter fans, since Isaac is an engineer, most of the objectives are to fix the ship dead parts and sections.

The Game is intense, and you gotta go get it!
I recommend this to Adrenaline Junkies!

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"Stingray52 reviewed Dead Space for the PC..." was posted by Stingray52 on Thu, 07 Jul 2011 23:53:32 -0700

Stingray52 reviewed F.E.A.R. 3 for the PC...

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:04:17 -0700

...and gave it a 9.0!

I always enjoyed Fear series, but this one, was a bit different from the rest. the multiplayer is amazing. with variety of game play for both characters, each one has their own abilities and powers. Cinematic scenes and voice acting are amazingly done, embedded within a great story that follow up to F.E.A.R. 2.

Graphics are enough for me, since I rarely rate games based on graphics. game play is smooth and challenging, which introduced a new cover system method among all F.E.A.R. series that is similar to Gears of Wars cover system but in first person shooter way.

the enemy A.I. is well crafted and give a real challenge on higher difficulties, enemies with shotguns will charge you, standard enemies knows how to take cover, and know when and how to throw a grenade to REALLY flush you out. enemy commandos gives you a big fight, and act as mini bosses in some levels.

although weapons are limited, but they give each player their own style. for example (I never used a shotgun in the game, and mainly relied on sub / machine guns.

the level design was the most brutal part for me, it involved a variety of environments which made the combat in the game less repetitive, for me, the levels were what a first person shooter fan would want.

The new RPG elements in the game were fantastic, basically you get upgrades and promotions based on your game play style in each level, the within games challenges can grant you point for example -which are mainly guns involved-, finding bodies for psychic links, and locating secret area for items like dolls.

the major drawback for the game was it short, for me, I expected more levels much like F.E.A.R. 2, I'm sure expanding the story is really difficult, personally I think more levels would Ruin F.3.A.R. but one can always hope for perfection.

another minor draw back was the lying cultists who would stand up once you shoot or step by them. I mean seriously, this is becoming an old Cliche! this was used it Dead space and Bio shock series and made it silly as well (basically it gives the player a tendency to shoot all bodies which eventually eliminate the enemy element of surprise), this Cliche was good in Resident Evil series long time ago... I mean they could of made them jump from the roofs or windows just like the early introductions of the cultists. However this was used in 2 or 3 scenes in the game, in the third Interval I guess, but without that would of made the game better.

Overall, F.E.3.R. offered cool multiplayer, amazing characters and story, and challenging A.I. that totally worth the wait.

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"Stingray52 reviewed F.E.A.R. 3 for the PC..." was posted by Stingray52 on Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:04:17 -0700

Stingray52 reviewed Dead Space 2 for the PC...

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:56:04 -0800

...and gave it a 9.5!

When was the last time I played something like this?
I don't remember, honestly, there wasn't. Vicious visuals, astonishing game engine, and realistic voice acts. EA did it again, this game made a new standard for horror games.

After being recovered from the Ishimura Mining frigate, Isaac Clarke received therapy sessions to deal with the nightmares about his dead girlfriend; and his previous encounters with the marker and the aliens, Isaac suffered from a coma that lasted for 3 years, to witness the horrors again of the necromorphs, aliens that transform humans to viscous creatures in seconds. You don't know how the infestation spread in Titan colony, haunted by his dead girlfriend Nicole; Isaac must escape the Titan colony trying to figure out how the infestation began on Titan station, and live with the pain of his dead girlfriend.

The game engine is solid, excellent, the physics are realistic, and response speed is wild, it's the kind of games you "shoot with your head" rather than shooting with your gun. Game has some nice puzzles, tremendous interactive cut scenes and breath taking moments. Suspense and fear will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time, you cannot rest, not for a moment, they come out from nowhere, from every corner, from every vent and window, they even show up in elevators.

The combat system/strategies are amazing, you can use your environment (Since the game is on a space colony, shooting windows will force the air to be sucked out, just before you get pulled as well, you shoot the emergency door buttons), furthermore, you can use your kinesis to throw pipes at the enemies that stab and cross them, you can as well freeze opponents, blow things right in their face.

Dead space 2 has new enemies, the "horde", which is basically a bunch of kids that scream like a little girl, run like hell to climb on you and tear you apart, and there were new ones, which I enjoyed very much playing with, creatures that hide behind corners and wait, till you show up, they would ram you with their horn, and hide again, playing with these sneaky ones is very tricky. Another one is a necromorph that pukes acid, very lethal in close range. You still have the original necromorphs, the babies with 3 tails, lurkers, pregnant necromorph, the one with an exploding hand, and the pure alien creature (which transform humans to necromorphs). Nonetheless, dismembering enemies is the most fun, gory and brutal thing in the whole game, you feel good about it every time.

The upgrading system is nice, really. You are free to upgrade all the weapons you like, and they are all lethal depending on how you handle them. The new suits are awesome, whole lot of different from the classic maintenance engineer suit.

Bottom line is, if you like the first dead space, you SHOULD NOT miss this. If you feel lazy of playing the first one, the game has a nice feature; a cinematic of the first game, explaining the story and events, and you can start right away.

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"Stingray52 reviewed Dead Space 2 for the PC..." was posted by Stingray52 on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 02:56:04 -0800