Thyasianman's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Thyasianman's GameSpot Friend's Reviews Thyasianman's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Wed, 19 Jun 2013 00:53:13 -0700 GameSpot Thyasianman's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:11:38 -0700 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Metro: Last Light for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/metro-last-light/user-reviews/812435/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

NOTE! This game relies heavily on you having played it's predecessor. Much of the poignancy was lost on me because of this. Also, the english voice acting is utterly terrible with a few exceptions, making believing in some key moments difficult and neigh impossible. I would recomment checking out the Russian version, with English sub-titles (I had a look, its MUCH MUCH better) I noted that the ending was poignant, for the way I played it. It would have been much more meaningful and emotional for this two game epic if I had taken the other ending which relied on me having made choices I failed to make because I didn't believe the voice acting or the dilemma because I didn't play the last game. This game is truly magnificent, unfortunately, I may have played it wrong (except where the voice acting is concerned... just unfortunate something like that could have been so detrimental). Anyway, if it worked, this game could have gotten a 9 as the story is truly magnificent in its scope and depth and presentation (voice acting excluded). The first few hours of Metro are also some of the most amazing, terrifying, immersive moments I've every played in games to date which made the last half feel weaker, but damn is this game worth playing.


Metro Last Light is dark, relentlessly tense, occasionally action-packed and often frightening. It's rare that we see a shooter of this calibre uninterested in making you awe in explosions and feel powerful when you shoot a gun, instead Metro is unafraid to make you feel scared, make you feel awful and make you feel all alone. It forces you to stop, look and listen. It has a deep conviction to atmosphere and detail which is astonishing, and makes for a beautiful world to traverse but not to do much else in. In fact Metro single-handed reliance on its impressively detailed and dangerous world can on moments feel empty, especially when you're just an observer and aren't shooting or interacting with its world. But once the game throws you out into its urban and underground wilderness with only your guns, your light, and your wits to survive, Metro makes for a compelling journey through the nuclear wasteland.

The story of Metro places you in the immediate after-effects of your decision to annihilate the mutated surface creatures known as the "Dark Ones" from 2010's Metro 2033. These creatures aren't the monsters you're comrades of the Order, one of the three factions that are fighting to survive in the Metro, make them out to be and you are tasked to uncover your mysterious relationship with them. Although it is interesting on a surface level, especially as it frequently made me feel empathetic to the situation of the inhabitants of the Metro, and when it placed me with the burden of his actions from the last game, for the most part I never thought too much of it during gameplay. It feels written outside of a video game context, and therefore fails to cohesively bring out the best in the moment to moment gameplay other than providing backdrop to the traversal and shooting, of which it is excellent. The ending is poignant, for what it is, but the last half of the game doesn't come together as well it could have.

Much of the game is traversal, although it's well-paced with encounters. Encounters offer you choice in how to get through; stealth and full-on action are possibilities, and each are uniformly excellent. The game offers solid mechanics that feel great to shoot, sneak and stab. Unfortunately bad A.I breaks the immersion, being stupid in combat failing or being bad at path-finding. Those choices are confined to human opponents however, which comprise of half of your time shooting.

Unfortunately a lot of time is spent with the stupid and agitated animals which are less engaging intellectually, although are much more frightening. Much of the game is terrifying. The darkness hides the unknown which include mutated creatures such as gigantic spiders, weird shrimp creatures and enlarged wolf-like monsters who look horrifyingly realistic and disgusting. This makes moving through environments utterly engrossing and tense as you narrow your eyes and ears. I jumped off my seat on many occasions as I was playing on Hardcore as one strike from a lobster-like monster's claws could end my life in an instant. Supplies are limited and you spend a lot of time scrounging the environment for them, particularly the gas mask filers which you need to breathe in particular sections. Ammo is also scarce and like the last game, also used as currency, and can be swapped for weapon upgrades and more ammo although many of the guns you pick up are well-equipped anyway making this exchange system sometimes unnecessary although nevertheless welcome.

These moments are immersive because they make you environmentally aware. Metro doesn't succeed as well when it forces you to walk through its long corridors observing the intricately crafted world around you. A little girl who loses her bear, a group of drunken men arguing, a marketplace alive and a theatre complete with hilarious acts. These are a sample of what you observe, but not actively engage with. As a result, the game becomes boring and tedious in long stretches as you wait for some way to actually play Metro. As an extension of this frustration, you begin to want to actively engage in combat which makes for the short no-combat but tense traversals through its environments equally frustrating. It's unfortunate that Metro's only method of immersing you is with detail because the world itself is beautiful to look at, in its own intriguing way.

You are alone for the most part, in this decrepit, dystopian, and for much of it (particularly if we talk about the spiders and the gigantic shrimps or the high level of rotting corpses) disgusting world. The outside sky is grey and sometimes raining heavily over the ruins of Moscow, inside, the environments are claustrophobic, dark and filled with cobwebs. The nuclear wasteland is void of colour. It's depressing. An effective musical score follows you along and becomes one with the backdrop helping to build tension and anxiety appropriately. Along with the relentless fear attached to the mutated creatures that roam this land, much of the game I felt helpless and sometimes hopeless. I wasn't really having fun. I never smiled. It was compelling, but it left me exhausted. By the end it made me thankful that Metro's alternate universe never became a reality. I was also thankful that I had experienced it.

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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Metro: Last Light for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Sat, 15 Jun 2013 09:11:38 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/metro-last-light/user-reviews/812435/platform/pc/ Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:36:02 -0700 Lord_Python1049 reviewed PlanetSide 2 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/planetside-2/user-reviews/810656/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

A game like Planetside 2 should exist. It's concept is too exciting to have been contained to imagination. A large constant world, populated with thousands of players, filled with air and ground activity in an existential battle for conquest. It's what dreams are made of.

There's no end goal. You battle forever against two other factions over land and air, taking over gigantic land structures straight out of a sci-fi lover's wonderland. Your screen can and will be filled with countless players, and at times you will be overwhelmed and die. That's okay because everyone is dying around you. It's normal. There's a team play here on a large scale and patriotism to your faction is encouraged through announcements of shared failure and success. It takes the Battlefield's series class structure and conquests mode and expands it into a continental scale.

The game offers lots of depth with its array of land and air vehicles, building structures and weapons which include maned turrets that all have their own variations that play against each other in interesting ways. For example, the Vanu Sovereinty's Scythe aircraft is better at hovering making it a popular ground support but against the more maneuverable New Conglomerate Mosquito in dogfights, it begins to struggle. This depth is uncovered through a lot of observation and learning from mistakes that takes a considerable amount of dedication. Fortunately, the game plays fantastic and looks great as well as offers a Training Room to get you into practicing all types of weapons and vehicles in preparation for the real deal.

It's important to note that game world is expansive and it's foolish to dismiss the array of transport options to trek by foot between points of interest across three of its gigantic, varied continents. It takes some time to search for transport, or wait for a deployment and over time if you just want instant action as I did on occasion, Planetside 2 forced me to be patient and slow down.

What kept me playing is the upgrading and leveling up system. All weapons and vehicles have exciting upgrades that improve or provide new features to play around with. They are rewarded for skilled players, not paying players through in game "certs". Like the Battlefield series that it borrows most of its features from, xp is granted for team work, but individual achievements such as kills dominate play. You can still pay for new weapons though, but these are very expensive but reasonable considering the entry ticket is free. As I played, I was constantly working towards an unlock that I know would help me a great deal in combat and it motivated me to play better and more efficiently. I choose areas of play I knew I could generate more points from and decided on classes.

The exciting thing about Planetside 2 is how it encourages you to feel a sense of belonging to your faction. It offers the host of team play features such as voice chat and squad/platoon options that encourages team work and strategy. It's unfortunate that the self-serving upgrade system ultimately encouraged me to feel like a lone soldier fighting among many, but for a while before I became engaged with my own leveling up I felt like we were truly fighting for each other. If only Planetside 2 gave us more context behind this conflict to care about, or more rewards for capturing entire areas of locations then maybe the conquest itself wouldn't have gone boring and lose meaning. But the core combat and leveling up system is solid enough to sustain interest by itself makes it worth playing for any Battlefield fan interested in bigger and more.



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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed PlanetSide 2 for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:36:02 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/planetside-2/user-reviews/810656/platform/pc/ Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:39:03 -0700 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/810549/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Lara Croft's latest adventure is a beautiful and explosive adventure through the exotic jungles of a mysterious island. It is touted as the origin story of how Ms Croft became the adventurous "survivor" she is today although what's really interesting here is the Encharted-style cinematic set pieces and the incredible visual detail that the developer has given to the environments that constantly made it a joy to navigate.

The game throws you straight onto the exotic island after Lara and her crew on board a ship crashes and is stranded upon an unknown land. After a few hours of moving to the next objective, learning the ropes and watching a tonne of exposition, some involving the abuse of poor Lara by the dreaded island, you become involved with the mysteries of the occult magic that keeps you on the island, and its gang of loyal followers who presumably were once stranded survivors like yourself. There are sure a lot of them, most of whom Lara gets to annihilate using an array of fantastic designed weapons that you get to switch and customise on the spot. A lot of the first hours deals with her growth into a real survivor, although the situations she goes through are far from realistic (why are there crates everywhere) and feel like a let down when you compare it to how this concept has been dealt with in other mediums. Think "Castaway" or "Lost".

That;s okay because the game looks amazing and controls intuitively. You will jump, climb, shimmy and grapple your way through dangerous looking obstacles with an ease and pace of an Olympic athlete. Things explode and crash about around you as well. There are moments of quite beauty to be had as well that break up all action, and with some simple stealth weapons can lead to some enjoyable moments of planned tension. You can stop and look around to find the many collectables, some that are vanity, some that are useful. You upgrade weapons with "scraps" which you get from crates and boxes, and finding them is part of the fun.

Once the game gets to its end, things play out much more predictably than I would have liked. Characters that you supposedly care about are placed in danger and you have to save them all, how that ends seems just as by-the-book. The character development, the plot points and the themes seem uninspired once the shine wears off from the technical achievements and thrill of the ride achieved with its great pacing of the quiet and loud moments. That's okay, It gets right a lot of things that matter. And how many games are like the Encharted series anyway?

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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Tomb Raider for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:39:03 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/810549/platform/pc/ Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:27:09 -0700 nutcrackr reviewed Tomb Raider for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/808871/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Tomb Raider is a reboot to a well established, stale franchise that was in need of an overhaul. It aims to tell the origins story of Lara Croft, the well known archaeologist heroine. It's grittier and more gruesome than any of the series previous games. Crystal Dynamics have made some big changes to the combat, platforming and puzzles. Almost all of the modifications are improvements to a franchise that has been stuck in a rut for a while. Its biggest source of inspiration comes from the Uncharted series, but it manages to put it's own spin on the action-adventure third person shooter genre. This reboot has young Lara Croft facing dangers she was never prepared for.

Lara's journey begins on the ship Endurance with a small crew in search of the lost kingdom of Yamatai. Lara's intuition sends the Endurance through a mighty storm that breaks the ship in two. While some of the crew escape on lifeboats, Lara washes up on a mysterious island and is taken captive by crazed inhabitants. The Solarii inhabitants have been trapped on the island for decades. Lara's adventure will unearth a sordid past of gruesome sacrifices and remnants from World War 2. Anyone who tries to leave the island is killed by powerful storms. Lara and her friends must find the source of these storms before they can escape.

The atmospheric beginning of the game centres on survival. Lara escapes the Solarii before isolation drives her to shelter. She is tasked with finding food using a newly acquired bow. After apologising to a dying deer, she skins the creature for its meat. This is the only time in the entire game, spanning several days, where Lara needs food or water. Her ankle even gets caught in a bear trap, yet she moves freely minutes later. There is massive schism between the survival narrative, told through cut scenes, and the action game design. The engrossing atmosphere is preserved until the conclusion, but survival aspects are mishandled or tossed aside. Tomb Raider is not a survival game and rarely tries to bridge the gap that indicates otherwise.

You may become attached to Lara through the hardships she faces and not because of her subdued personality. Lara gets battered and bruised more than any other hero in recent history. She endures a monastery exploding in flames, buildings collapsing, zip-lines breaking, planes falling and winds ripping walls apart. There is very little revealed about Lara beneath her scratched, muddied exterior. The back story is limited to a handful of flashbacks that don't lead anywhere. Lara's campfire journals offer brief, predictable insights into a character that you desperately want to know. Camilla Luddington has a great voice, but her timely moans are more prominent than her conversations or monologues. Lara stands tall during adversity but you are seldom exposed to a deeper personality.

The design of combat is separate from the survival themes. It is the most improved aspect of this reboot and very different from previous Tomb Raider games. It clearly takes inspiration from the Uncharted series with fast aiming, nimble movement, close over the shoulder view and melee importance. Platforming during combat is carefully managed and exploited by foes. You take cover behind boxes and walls automatically. You crouch behind cover and peak out naturally when you aim. Exploding red barrels are found almost everywhere and enemy grenades force you from cover. Your arsenal is fairly balanced and you'll rarely need to worry about ammo. The vastly different combat is a wholesale improvement over the previous games and matches many modern shooters.

When enemies get close, you can use Lara's agility to perform sneaky moves. Your melee weapon, a climbing axe, is not a great option unless enemies are weakened. Instead, you scramble on the ground to avoid attacks. You can throw dirt at nearby enemies to make them vulnerable or give yourself time to retreat. It is possible to counter melee attacks and carefully plant an arrow in an enemy's knee. Certain skills produce horrific finishing moves on injured Solarii. The scramble and melee counters make the action even more fun when enemies get close.

Stealth occurs naturally when nearby enemies are oblivious to your presence. You can get close to foes, as their vision is very fair compared to the size of levels. You are able to silently choke enemies from behind and avoid detection without firing a weapon. The bow is most useful during stealth; silent headshots are easy to achieve and arrows distract enemies. Certain scenarios craft wonderful stealth experiences. One such scenario has you moving through a forest under darkness while Solarii guards scour the area with flashlights. You can use the trees for cover, wade through the central river or use the zip lines to come from behind. Most sequences don't give you the chance to sneak around. Given the quality of the stealth, it's a shame there wasn't more of it during the game.

Platforming is more forgiving and pleasurable than its predecessors due to its brevity. Lara can scale ledges, slide over zip lines and swing on banners. A climbing axe is used to latch onto visually unique rocks and clamber around perilous cliffs. Zip lines allow for faster movement between areas and often replace tedious back tracking. Lara's movement requires less ruthless precision, unless you are dropping from one zip line to another. You won't be redoing many long platforming sections because the game saves frequently. There are no lengthy sections where Lara uses her upper body strength while you stare at walls. The platforming is less important, but Lara is still nimble and strong when she needs to be.

Most puzzles have been relegated into the optional, basic Tombs. The campaign has puzzles, but they rarely hold you up for more than a few seconds. The puzzles in Tombs are not dissimilar from those in Half-Life 2. They might involve weighing down a seesaw to leap towards climbable rocks. Or you may need to drag a pontoon across electrified water. Tombs only take a few minutes to complete and much of that time is spent crawling into them. Completing Tombs is not very fulfilling partly because you open identical chests which provide treasure maps of nearby collectables. Tombs are optional and easy, but they should have been more involving to give a sense of accomplishment. Crystal dynamics have proven themselves proficient in puzzle design, so it's a shame the puzzles are brief and hidden away.

You have access to varied tools that are used to progress or find hidden collectibles. From the opening sequence, a torch is used to set objects on fire to create explosions or release salvage. Salvage is then used to upgrade weapons with more damage or faster reloading. Once you get the shotgun, it can tear down barricades exposing hidden relics. The rope arrow can latch onto objects and create zip lines. The ascender provides rapid movement on zip lines or a way to pull heavy objects. These tools are steadily exposed to you so you can unlock areas you may have spotted minutes before. Having the entire tool set makes exploring the beginning areas quite liberating.

Tomb Raider is a pleasure to continue playing after you've finished the game. You are free to fast travel to campsites in each of the areas. It's not an open world game but you can explore to finish tombs, find relics or do other side tasks. Some areas, like the beach, are brimming with visual splendour and wildlife. The game repopulates areas with oblivious enemies that you can shoot or stealth your way past. This increased opportunity for stealth will make you wonder why there wasn't more during the campaign. Instinct mode highlights collectibles but isn't required. Tomb Raider is a relaxing game to play, even on the hardest difficulty, and returning to the world is more fun than you might expect.

Tomb Raider is a good reboot because it reinvigorates a constrained and predictable series. It's a shame the survival aspects are not perpetuated when the premise is ideal for it. Lara's personality is also hidden under her toughened and beaten exterior. It's fortunate that the game is so delightful to play, whether you are jumping, shooting or exploring. The brevity of puzzles and platforming is the special recipe that pulls the series from it's over reliance on those aspects. Puzzles could be more prominent though, especially when most are optional. The combat is smooth and stealth is the perfect complimentary element. Tomb Raider might not be a game about survival, but the changes it introduces will keep the franchise alive for years to come.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Tomb Raider for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:27:09 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/808871/platform/pc/ Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:46:15 -0700 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Portal 2 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/portal-2/user-reviews/808614/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

The portals from the first Portal are back, but the additions of great characters, a clever story, and stunning set pieces along with great new puzzle mechanics are what distinguishes Portal 2 from its predecessor making it an stellar follow up to one of this generations best games.

The world feels fleshed out, characters and settings are given back story, and its told through wonderfully designed locations, that with the help of hilarious and sometimes dark dialogue reveal a history that is compelling to explore. The places themselves have been fleshed out; no longer is it just sterile test chambers. Aperture Science is now collapsing around you and the wreckage is beautiful to behold. Details such as grass growing through the walls, pools of water, are examples of variety, but then there are wholly different environments that aren't even test chambers, In fact, gone is the string of test chamber structure; Portal 2 is an journey in and around the wacky and dark humored Aperture Science, and the puzzles themselves no longer are confined to contrived tests but make up traversal problems akin to Half Life 2. In fact the feeling of adventure and story telling through the environment borrows more heavily from the Half Life series than its predecessor.

Giving the world its perspective is the stellar voice work from its few memorable characters. These characters are hilarious to listen to, but aren't one note like a lot of voice over narrators; these characters interact with each other and have motivations. You will care about what they say as line is perfectly comedically timed as well as being as being central to the story.

The first Portal was memorable because of portals. Portal 2 is memorable because of the wonderful world and the great characters that inhabit it. It strikes a perfect balance between story telling and puzzle gameplay that rather than being at odds with each other, complement each other. It's a puzzling good time.

(note: the original review was already written then gamespot went to "sleep" and I lost all of it. Cannot be bothered with it again.)

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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Portal 2 for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Sun, 10 Mar 2013 12:46:15 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/portal-2/user-reviews/808614/platform/pc/ Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:52:51 -0800 nutcrackr reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iii/user-reviews/806898/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Assassin's Creed 3 is a step backwards for a franchise and a game that rarely exploits its greatest strengths. It continues directly from the end of Revelations, as Desmond and his Assassin team are headed for a remote cave to save the world. The Sun is about to unleash its fury on Earth. A powerful defensive shield, built in part by an advanced, extinct civilisation, is the only chance to save Humanity. Desmond must use the Animus to relive the 18th century and assume the role of a Native American named Connor. With his predecessors' knowledge, he can to unlock the secrets of the device and prevent Armageddon.

AC3 has the slowest and longest introductory phase you will ever see in a game. The first 5 sequences are rigid, leisurely and feature more cut scenes than action. It takes a good while before you are even controlling Connor. Instead you control an interesting man called Haytham. He is searching for the key to unlock the cave that Desmond is using in the future. These opening 5 hours are very heavy on exposition with frequent elements that involve doing little more than walking. Once it establishes a core group of characters, you then control Connor.

The early parts of Connor's journey are a challenge to get through due in part to their gameplay insignificance. You'll start as Connor by playing a game of hide and seek with friends. This is a poor tutorial for hiding from enemies, if that was the intention. You'll then hunt animals using conveniently placed clues. You only ever need to do once for the rest of the game. The hunting mission is very similar to the one in Call of Juarez. Connor hunts some rabbits and then tries to find some feathers on a mountain. This does introduce you to the tree climbing. You only get access to the horse whistle in sequence five These slow intro sections do a terrible job at bringing you back into the franchise.

Connor is exposed to spirits; the translucent predecessors that showed themselves to Ezio. They tell him to seek the Assassin's symbol that leads him to an ex-assassin named Achilles. The ageing Achilles refuses to train Connor and perhaps he should have taken his first answer. Connor wins his respect by thwarting a convenient attempted robbery, and Achilles agrees to train him in the ways of the Assassin. Unfortunately you never actually perform any kind of training with Achilles. Months pass in seconds and you become a learned master because the game says you are. New tools are dumped on you and explained through the HUD rather than through the characters or examples. You've seen many of these devices before but some of the controls have changed and the lack of simple explanation is disappointing.

AC3 has a few new tricks up its sleeve but they are mostly smoke and mirrors. The biggest of those seems to be controlling the large sailing ship, the Aquila. This broken down wreck is left in the bay near Achilles' Homestead. After recruiting some lumberjacks, who incidentally play no further part in the game, the game skips ahead six months (again) and the ship is ready to sail. You can take side missions that have you fighting boats, wrestling harsh winds or protecting vessels on the high seas. The Aquila has a tactile feel and turning to align your cannon fire works rather well. Although an interesting and functional aspect, the significance of sailing is lost beneath the sea.

Free climbing has been changed to make the whole process less involving. It requires very little input from the users to scale the buildings. Large leaps don't require button presses and all you'll need to do is hold the forward and sprint buttons to climb. This removes a good deal of fun out of finding the right route to a viewpoint, as zero skill required to reach the top. It also means that you might get stuck on buildings as you are running from or chasing enemies. The free climbing in the previous games was fine, and this change brings no improvements.

Even climbing viewpoints are no longer satisfying. Not just because the free climbing is unskilled, but because the viewpoints are repetitive. Churches of similar structure are copied in towns. The very same tree viewpoint you already climbed in another part of the open forest is waiting for you to ascend again. There are no truly high climbs to viewpoints and the only reason you'll be compelled to reach the top is to unlock the map of the surrounding area. A map which shows a lot of uninteresting side missions and shops you'll never need to use.

Regular tree climbing is limited because many trees can't be climbed. The ones that can are linked together by perfectly placed branches to direct you over specific areas. Careful attention was paid to ensure that it doesn't look odd, but it still looks odd. It would have been better to make all of the trees climbable so that nothing looks out of place. However, this would require a complete redesign of the open areas, because they are very empty aside from mostly placid wildlife. The tree climbing is a half finished aspect that receives little attention during the game for that reason.

Ubisoft have changed the combat so that three movies and one weapon work for the entire game. All you need is the hidden blade, counter, break and attack. Against regular enemies you don't even have to worry about breaking their defence. The only new challenge is that enemies will occasionally distance themselves to shoot you with slow loading rifles. You can quickly run to stab them or just run perpendicular to their attack vector and remain undamaged. The game only lets you grab enemies when the firing squad lines up to attack. Connor loves to play with his victims too, as unarmed foes can take around ten stabs before dying. The hidden blade proves less useful, killing enemies in close proximity can result in immediate detection. The inconsistent nature and simplification leaves only the animation to provide the satisfaction.

AC3 reverts back to the bad old days for core mission structure. This means a return of the awful eavesdropping and tailing missions. These horrible tasks were outlawed in the amazing Assassin's Creed 2 for good reason, now they are back to haunt us. As you tail an unsuspecting enemy, he will turn around at specific times. You need to hide behind objects or a crowd or the mission restarts. One mobile eavesdropping mission caused mission failure when a group of children bumped into the targets and knocked them so they faced my direction. These are not good stealth pieces and bringing them back from the dead in worst state that before is a true achievement.

There is a great emphasis on variety, but the result is a series of micro gameplay elements that never amount to anything substantial. The game frequently feels artificially padded with long walks and cut scenes. When it does have the opportunity to extend the game play naturally, through training, it instead chooses to leap forward months. The game only really wants to alternate between winter and summer to bring regular environment variety. It's interesting to see a game world change seasons but it doesn't add much to the game. When snow covers the ground, Connor has a hard time moving around and it's difficult to distinguish features your poor horse will crash into.

At this stage you are probably thinking that the open world mechanics are the true savour of this third major release. Unfortunately they don't do nearly enough, and the elements that worked in the previous games are disfigured. In the towns you are able perform short, pointless side tasks. One of those is chasing almanac pages that are almost invisible, a terrible replacement for rooftop races. Another is trying to plant some information on a civilian who can see through the back of his head. Could you believe that I didn't care how much money I had through the game? Would you be surprised if I only once bought weapons that I didn't even need? Doctors are gone because health regenerates. You can't buy shops anymore and money is useless.

As strange as it might sound, the parts I enjoyed the most were those involving our bar tending champion; Desmond. In the present day he and his team are searching for power sources to unlock the secrets of a cave. He acquires one power source from the top of a sky scraper that he scales using free climbing. Another mission has him moving through a stadium while avoiding guards. Juno speaks to him in this cave and gives him cryptic information about their failed attempts to stop the end of the world. These sci fi elements are refreshing diversions from the 18th century and tickle the grey matter.

The most impressive elements of AC3 are the presentation qualities of the cut scenes and world. There are many pre scripted in engine cut scenes. These are amazingly synced and well animated. Unfortunately they further blur the line between game and movie and not in a good way. In some sequences there are just enough gameplay elements for it to be classified as a game. In those cases though, the gameplay is rather ordinary. AC2 also had many great cut scenes, but they never replaced the gameplay as they do here. They were carefully separated and gave you plenty of free time to go about your business during missions.

AC3 is the result of a huge number of man-hours, but it has not resulted in a good game. Most of the work has gone into micro elements, a huge empty world, animations and cut scenes. Gameplay is secondary and a return to some of the worst features in the original is unforgivable. Assassin's Creed 3 needed more focus, less rigidity, better gameplay elements and more enjoyable side tasks. AC3 is the worst game in the series because it ignores the successes and failures of the other games.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Assassin's Creed III for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:52:51 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-iii/user-reviews/806898/platform/pc/ Mon, 17 Dec 2012 08:39:02 -0800 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3/user-reviews/804828/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 6.0.

Call of Duty's Modern Warfare series has been the hallmark first person shooter series that has defined both the cinematic and the modern military shooter for so long as there have been cinematic and modern military shooters. But at this point, their inability to change and adapt and fix what have been glaring design issues makes their latest outing a difficult game to recommend for long-time fans no longer enamoured by the stellar cinematic presentation. However, MW3 holds beautiful moments, although brief and quickly disrupted by the default explosion, predictable "shock" moment or rush of enemy spawn, while the stock multiplayer suite remains as compelling as previous instalments.

Bringing to an apparent close, MW3 returns to the story of Soap and Price and their impossible battle against the odds with international mad men driven by a desire for destruction. Leap frogging across the globe, into varying military scenarios, all of them seemingly unrelated and quickly debriefed, you partake in a global military standoff that produces some incredibly beautiful moments, both serene and destructive. You will experience some grand moments and some plot twists beneath the confusion of explosions and military banter.

However, MW3's penchant for rapid fire change of scenery and strung together scenarios post fitted with an arching plot that makes little sense make a mockery of story-telling that has been well established for milenia. There is no character development, personal interaction or real dialogue between the endless waves of enemies and barrage of explosion after explosion after explosion, dotted with moments of contrived tension, making it hard to care about your actions. Although there are times when the weight of three games does add up to some emotional significance, you can't help feel empty by the time the credits roll.

The gameplay in MW3 being the same does not help. If you've played a recent Call of Duty before, you will be familiar with the series trademark penchant for linear story telling and level design, but to deliver on contrived moments of shock, awe and tension, MW3 forgets the meaning of "interactivity" providing a reductive game of 'Simon-says'. Much of the game you will follow numerous rules built so that you feel these moments. If you are able to buy into the reality of the moment, despite seeing the strings being pulled clearly in front of you, these moments may work to be compelling. Otherwise they feel limiting to the point of frustration. The game just wants you to do what it wants you to do, and feel what it wants you to feel. Don't even think about not listening to instructions because MW3 will punish your detour of its set path. It will take away your gun for a cinematic moment. It will show you an explosion. It will force you to stay still while enemies patrol slowly overhead, a lot.

Then there is the actual combat. Although the game remains fruitless in terms of new toys to pick up and play with, not that variety of weaponry amounts to variety of gameplay, MW's refined movement mechanics that treasure quick reflexes have been polished to a sparkle. Once again, you aim and you shoot at hundreds of enemies that take cover, pop out of cover to shoot fiercely at your direction and occasionally throw grenades or bull rush towards you. Unfortunately, on occasion the game demands a particular approach, usage of weapon, pacing that it doesn't communicate very well which could lead to frustrating deaths.

In fact, the series trademark impossible number of enemies to defeat means that if you play the game on the "hardened or "veteran" difficulty levels, you will have to get shot, a lot. In fact, the game will punish you to no end in this regard, occasionally letting you die due to a lucky bullet from a distant foe despite you intuitively following closely behind an a.i companion, or in the case of a driving sequence; doing absolutely nothing. The purpose of this remains a mystery, although I would guess the game's length is a factor.


Moving on to the arguable selling attraction, the multiplayer at least offers you more choice to approach your play style. Similarly with its single player however, it offers less compared to previous incarnations. Maps now focus nearly single-handedly on short range combat, meaning that snipers will find little use in these battlefields. This change provides a quick, tension filled multiplayer competitive play that will rarely produce the 30-1 kdr player in amongst the leader board charts. This means a greater focus on quick reflexes as opposed with strategic positioning and team play.

Moving backward from Black Ops, and sticking more closely to its immediate predecessor, MW3's guns are deadly and quick to kill as ever, meaning that fast reflexes can beat strategy easily. Those who were happy with Black Op's direction will be disappointed with MW3's ruthlessness and relentlessness in its competitive action. Similarly missing is character customization, but returning are weapon skill trees, and the usual ranking system that offers incentive to keep playing to unlock weapons, attatchments, kill-streaks, weapon paint, and gamer tags. New game modes include Kill Confirmed, which works great, but is not a replacement for the missing and frenetic "gun game" mode from Black Ops 2. Multiplayer is solid and retains that similar Call of Duty action, but may divide fans.

MW3 encapsulates a direction that gaming has taken in the past few years towards providing cinematic moments in replace of game interactivity, For series veterans, without engaging gameplay mechanics or a compelling story to pull you through its contrived scenarios, MW3's campaign can end up feeling like a chore at times. Although previous games were similar, the focus on hand-holding linearity and lack of any surprises lays bare the fragile framework of the series. New comers and casual gamers may still find it an exhilarating feast for the eyes and ears.

The series has been known for its philosophy on refining and focusing on popular mechanics, polishing them for every new release. But no longer can brilliant presentation and cinematic moments hold up the campaign's familiar, unengaging yet intuitive gun play that the series has stuck to for so long. Games like Halo provide strategy, planning and choice in combat, Call of Duty just wants you to do what it says. Even with its fantastic and frenetic multiplayer, If you're the type to follow structured orders into the foray of global warfare, then you may just want to answer this latest call of duty, otherwise this latest installment will successfully hammer the final nail on the coffin for you.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3/user-reviews/804828/platform/pc/ Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:41:59 -0800 nutcrackr reviewed Botanicula for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/botanicula/user-reviews/802805/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Botanicula is a delightful adventure game from the developers who brought us Machinarium. Amanita Design craft another appealing universe with a variety of bizarre creatures living within the ecosystem of a tree. You play as a group of creatures and their home is under threat by a dark creature capable of sucking the very life from things. As you journey through the tree branches you'll find new friends and solve simple puzzles. Botanicula rewards players who want to click their way to success.

Puzzles in Botanicula are not as hard or involving as those found in Machanrium. Some puzzles are trial and error, but these are rarely a chore. Most puzzles are just a few simple steps with the occasional need to bring items to the correct characters. You might play a game of Pong against a creature to acquire a bird. Alternatively finding seeds in a cavernous area will allow you to progress. Much of the game is a standard pixel hunt but the hunting is enjoyable.

The land of Botanicula is full of wonderment and interaction. Clicking on objects or characters may set off a chain reaction of animations and delicious melodies. You'll want to click on everything even though you won't need to. Some trial and error puzzles produce some interesting results each time. Admittedly there were only two spots in the game where my progress was stalled briefly from the smooth flowing adventure.

Almost every click and puzzle results in some audio-visual payoff. Botanicula is a great looking game produced entirely using Flash. It has a distinct flavour with strong contrasts between creatures, interactive elements and backgrounds. The music is also great, just as it was in Machinarium, meshing beautifully with the visual design. The adventure in Botanicula is a short one, as you'll have seen everything in four hours. But it's hard to fathom being disappointed with the end result. What you get with Botanicula is a relaxing adventure that will surely bring a smile to your face.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Botanicula for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Thu, 08 Nov 2012 15:41:59 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/botanicula/user-reviews/802805/platform/pc/ Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:33:44 -0700 nutcrackr reviewed Dishonored for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/dishonored/user-reviews/802209/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

They say revenge is a dish best served cold. In Dishonored, revenge is served by teleporting behind a guard, stabbing him in the neck, sending a swarm of rats to devour his friend and slowing time so you can escape. Dishonored can be brutal or stealthy, depending on your preference and patience. It borrows ideas from many great games including BioShock and Deus Ex: Human Revolution. While Dishonored succeeds in several areas, it fails to fully realise its own potential.

You play as Corvo Attano, protector of the Empress and trusted ally. You return to the city of Dunwall after trying to find aid for the vicious rat plague. While talking to the Empress, you are interrupted by teleporting assassins. They manage to incapacitate you and kill the Empress before your eyes. They also take the young Lady Emily, the true heir to the throne and last hope for the city. Conveniently you are left alive to take the blame. After escaping your prison cell, you must track down the perpetrators and rescue Emily.

Your first task is to meet with a group of loyalists who believe you are innocent. This ragtag group has associations deep within the corrupt military. With their help, you will kill or disrupt those who have turned your life upside down. The loyalists provide you with supplies and a place to sleep. The Hound Pits Pub, their base of operations, allows brief respite and simple exploration between missions. The structure of the world is a linear series of sandbox missions woven by a thin and clichéd narrative.

The world of Dishonored is well designed and enticing. The city of Dunwall feels similar to City 17 (Half-Life 2) with grey, oppressive structures associated with the overwatch forces. Good use of lighting, swarms of rats and detailed architecture produce a distinctive atmosphere that can draw you in. Audio logs and journals provide additional story much like they did in BioShock. A talking heart provides further contextual information and is probably the most interesting member of the entire cast. This heart locates Runes and Charms, scattered within the levels, which are used to acquire powers.

Blink is the first power you obtain and one of the most memorable features in the game. It allows you to teleport short distances, along the ground or on rooftops. You can teleport across an open area to avoid patrols or appear directly behind an oblivious guard to choke them to sleep. Blink can place you atop a street light, so you can knock out isolated guards with sleep darts. Reaching heights with Blink and surveying the area is not unlike the Assassin's Creed series.

Blink doesn't always work as advertised. It can ignore climbable ledges especially when looking directly up. Odd detection can result in situations where you miss ledges that should be climbable. This means Corvo can land ungracefully in the middle of irate guards several floors below. If you wish to avoid guards completely, Blink can make this trivial. The game is still largely improved by the inclusion of the Blink power, enhancing both stealth and action.

A handful of mostly unremarkable powers provide offensive and defensive capabilities. One power gives you control over small animals and later humans. This possession can be used to avoid guards or score easy kills. Freezing time can be useful although you'll rarely need it. It's probably impossible to grow tired of sending rats to consume or distract guards. Being able to see through walls is handy too. The passive powers that increase health or agility are docile in comparison. There isn't a huge variety of powers and you can't upgrade them all during one play through.

The non-lethal stealth options are limited when compared to similar games. Most of your actions involve sleep darts, choke holds, x-ray vision and the Blink power. These are no distraction devices and firing arrows near enemies sometimes goes ignored. You can't disable lights, not that there are many shadows to hide in anyway. There are security devices to rewire but they pale in comparison to the options in Human Revolution. It's a pity that you can rarely talk your way out of situations. Most weapons aren't designed for the non-lethal approach. Ten sleep darts is all you have for each mission and you cannot sell the deadly ammunition you never plan to use. Non-lethal stealth clearly comes second to the action.

Artificial Intelligence is crucial in stealth games and here it is merely adequate. The transition from guards seeing you to entering full kamikaze attack mode is extremely short. If they notice something at range, you can usually avoid full detection. If your boot sticks out from behind an obstructed railing, you will likely have the entire area of bad guys swinging swords in your general direction. Escaping initial detection isn't hard and enemies might go back on patrol within seconds. On the highest difficulty, guards are twitchy and have greater sensory awareness. Messing with the AI is never as enjoyable as in Thief: Deadly Shadows.

The AI has a tendency to glitch if you happen to be in the wrong place. This issue was most obvious during an assassination. After entering the target's room, a scripted sequence began in the adjacent room. My target slowly made his way to my location and I dashed into this nearby room to take down idle guards. After returning, my target remained outside never to enter. This forced me to reload my last save. With no logic to account for non standard solutions things can fall apart. While rare, this type of AI glitch happened enough to be disruptive during stealth.

The non-lethal, stealthy approach is not necessary, unless you want the morally superior ending or unique achievements. As an action game it shares similar mechanics with Dark Messiah, Arkane Studios last game. Direct confrontations are over quickly and there is less sword play than in Dark Messiah. There are fewer hilarious spells or environmental traps that send enemies flying too. No need to be patient or conserve ammunition with plenty of bullets from guards. Dealing with enemies is effortless thanks to sword block and capable weapons.

Combat can be creative if you want to fool around with the powers and weapons. Sending flesh eating rats towards guards and lobbing a grenade is a quick way to clear an area. You can even throw explosive whale oil drums or set razor mine traps to startle daft guards. Performing drop assassinations on Tall Boys is also rather satisfying. Creative action is its own reward because the most effective method requires minimal brains and fewer reflexes. The action is proficient but never competes with the naturally creative execution seen in BioShock.

Dishonored's defining moment came during a costume party mission. After identifying the target, you are told to bring her to the cellar alive. A brief conversation has you both in an occupied music room, unsuitable for non-lethal takedowns. The target quickly becomes bored of you, the mute protagonist, and walks off. However, she walks directly into the cellar alone and the nearby guards ignore the Corvo "lookalike" following close behind. On replay, after killing the guards, all three potential targets make their way to the same isolated room. This sequence highlights some flaws; superficial options, poor balance and silly contrivances.

After enacting my revenge, the resulting dish was a little cold. Dishonored never quite matches the many games it borrows from. Stealth is restrictive and AI problems hurt the cat and mouse gameplay. Luckily it still has some fun moments, especially when Blink and rats are involved. Being able to play the game in stealth or action is a good thing even if it isn't perfectly balanced. Significant differences to the final level, based on the chaos you generate, are certainly appreciated. If only the rest of the game was consistently excellent. Just like the act of revenge, Dishonored is a flawed solution that may leave you feeling a little empty.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Dishonored for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:33:44 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dishonored/user-reviews/802209/platform/pc/ Sat, 01 Sep 2012 10:31:22 -0700 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/grand-theft-auto-iv/user-reviews/799428/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

Note This game must be played on a high end machine, with detail set to high. The world of liberty City looks detrimentally worse on medium settings and on PC it looks ragged and unclean. Also, I played this game as a non-American, and appreciated its intoxicating setting and satire, and the message it had about American culture.


Grand Theft Auto isn't usually known for its dark, themed stories. Its previous works have been satires of culture wrapped in homage, inventive wit and free-form sandbox fun.GTA4 takes the series into a more structured experience, and it takes it into the higher realm of art. No longer is it just satirising culture and being crazy, it's also giving you a real and mature story to work with wrapped in a compelling world, and it pulls it off, and this isn't hyperbole, better than any game before it.

Niko Bellic is a troubled man. He's no average Joe six-pack, blue collar slave. He's been through a very tough life back in his old country, some unnamed eastern European nation, and he's made his way to America's Liberty City to be with his dreaming cousin Roman, and take care of some business. Through some unfortunate circumstances Niko finds himself back in his old ways, but his reasons aren't just for money and glory, no. Niko Belic needs to find some answers, and he's willing to risk everything he's got to find them.

Although Niko Belic is a very likeable character he's troubled and difficult to relate with. There will be moments where you will start to question his choices, but it never pulls you away from his character. You will be in his shoes, and at other points an observer; you will root for him, you will be angry like him, you will learn about his past and what makes him who he is and you will care about him and the people that surround and give him meaning. This is used to further the story as the game will give you choices that affect his life in major ways. Over the course of the game, Niko Bellic became more real than any character I have ever seen in games and I cared very much about certain conclusions in the game, that lingered over me like real life. This is an example of how interactivity in video games can pull off story better than other mediums.

Complementing this is the world of Liberty City, its crime and corruption, its dreamers and its losers, its ingrained philosophy and its encapsulation of Capitalism and the natural selection that occurs at its many levels of society. This can be seen through driving through its streets, through being entangled with the individuals that populate it, from cheating wives to fast food joints through listening to its radio stations, through watching its TV channels, and though Niko's story.

Grand Theft Auto's execution is nearly flawless; Liberty City is simply compelling to be in, both due to the rich and thought out architectural design, and to the characters that populate it, be it its pedestrians on cell phones and rude taxi drivers or the story characters who give it its thematic depth. The story missions use the city to great effect, set pieces occur within the city, in indoor and outdoor locations that make it feel like you are in Liberty City. Every aspect of its technology is also to note astounding; it makes nearly all other games look inferior by comparison. It raises the bar not only for sand box game design, but for technology and artistry in all video games.

Gameplay wise, it's a third person cover shooter where you'll be killing and driving (and flying) around various locations doing missions. But to put it this way would be to do it a disservice. Like all great games, it overcomes its gameplay definition and becomes an experience. Because GTA4 is about Niko Belic's journey, you'll do some crazy amazing things, like be part of helicopter chases and take out mob king pins single handedly, but its all grounded in a very human character that will grow on you. When I first started playing, I went on the classic GTA style rampages, by the end of the game, I became so immersed in my role that it just felt wrong to be doing them. Grand Theft Auto is growing up.

Another aspect that brings alive the world of liberty City is the superb radio station soundtrack. Granted it isn't as loveable as San Andreas, its more in line with Vice City where its more ambient and soundtrack than sing alone and pull over just to listen music. But it fits great, and during some missions it will sometimes feel like it was deliberately timed. The talk back stations are also consistently funny, taking pot shots at political correctness, the political system, and satirising real world issues, people and institutions, and it all fits in with its general vibe. Despite being a very grounded and serious story with emotional punch; GTA4 doesn't lack humour. GTA's cast of character's are funny and also very real and it's a balancing act that Dan Houser pulls off with aplomb.

And its cast is the star of the Show. Niko Belic meets some very messed up individuals, and they are all interesting both on a personality basis, and as people who are more than they seem. They all have traits that tell us something about human nature, and they are moulded by the society around them; the world of liberty City and the American dream. By the end, their stories will stay with you like real people you encounter in real life, and that the game manages to do what movies do,(like how movies use techniques like lighting) utilising video game medium specific qualities like "radio stations", choices, a sand-box world that complements the story, to imprint a message tells us that GTA4 is an example of what games as a unique medium is capable of; saying something meaningful about the human condition and our society.

All in all, we can discuss at length of how GTA4's Liberty City pulls off satirizing American culture, tells a human story through its many features but then we might mislead you into thinking GTA4 isn't fun; because it is very fun for the reasons stated above. It's not as fun as San Andreas, but I for one don't mind. I cared about what happened in GTA4 more than any other GTA game, and I loved it more for it; GTA4 is simply an unforgettable game.



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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Grand Theft Auto IV for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Sat, 01 Sep 2012 10:31:22 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/grand-theft-auto-iv/user-reviews/799428/platform/pc/ Sun, 15 Jul 2012 02:43:20 -0700 nutcrackr reviewed Mass Effect 3 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/mass-effect-3/user-reviews/797349/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Nobody saves the Galaxy quite like Commander Shepard. Mass Effect 3 is the conclusion to the cinematic epic spanning three amazing games. The Reapers are beginning their eradication of all technologically advanced life and Earth is right in the firing line. Shepard must unite the galaxy, resolve disputes and take sides to end the extermination. After the great success of Mass Effect 2, this finale has lofty goals to achieve. Thankfully this conclusion proves to be an immensely enjoyable game.

Earth is attacked by the Reapers within minutes of starting a new game. Shepard's prediction of the invasion has been largely ignored. You experience the ramifications of this ignorance first hand when Shepard fights his way off Earth. After escaping from the chaos it's no surprise that the fate of the galaxy now rests on your shoulders. You will take the spaceship Normandy to the far corners of the galaxy in search of help. After this shaky start on Earth, the game builds momentum until it reaches critical mass.

Familiar faces from Mass Effect 2 make important, emotional appearances throughout your journey. The crucial choices you made, some from the previous game's suicide mission, determined which squad members survived. These surviving squad members reappear at logical locations within the universe. Character histories become much more than just dialogue trees. A weaker Normandy squad and some poor emotional ploys are the only missteps when it comes to characters. The return of friends is the true triumph of the third game.

Seeing old squad members while building a galactic army is superbly executed. Continuing from where you left off, by using a save game containing crucial choices, will make the experience far more personal and enjoyable. An emotional scene at the midpoint made me realise how easy it was to care about these characters. The third game is the wonderful conclusion to character story arcs that have been years in the making.

Almost all events involving characters are resolved. Topics dealt with include the Genophage, Thane's son, Samara's daughters, Jack's responsibility and the Geth / Quarian conflict. Some situations call for tense and poignant moral decision with electric repercussions. Characters may sacrifice themselves or you may have to kill an old friend during a stand off. It might be as simple as saying goodbye to a major character after a pivotal moment in their digital lives. When all the pieces slide into place the complete picture becomes a beautiful mosaic of your adventures in this universe.

Mass Effect 3 is focused more as a third person shooter than the previous games of the series. They have improved scenarios with better pacing and level design. There are fewer sequences of knee high walls and enemies lazily entering the opposite door. Using a flashlight in a dark space station might feel a bit like Dead Space. The variety of enemies, weapons and missions is far superior to the previous games. The transitions are more natural and it could stand on its own as a third person shooter.

Mass Effect 3 is linear progression with a few side missions that impact on "War assets." This numerical figure tallies the total force Shepard has acquired. Planet scanning is one significant, optional source of war assets. This tedious element returns with few redeemable qualities. Tiny Reaper ships chase the tiny Normandy around star systems before you jump to light speed. This new Reaper harassment element might have worked better with some Benny Hill music. Once you have enough war assets you can finish the campaign or jump into multiplayer.

Multiplayer makes its debut in the series and is intrinsically linked to your military force in the single player. Effective military strength (EMS) is your total war assets modified by Galactic Readiness. Galactic Readiness starts at 50% and increases the more you play online. The catch is that it will drop everyday if you don't play. It is difficult to get the choice between all the endings without playing multiplayer. Linking the planet scanning and multiplayer components to the ending was a strange decision.

Fortunately the multiplayer is rather capable, well at least for a few hours at a time. Four different characters using varied powers and weapons engage in horde mode against Reaper, Geth or Cerberus forces. Six maps at launch was disappointing but additional maps, available for free, extend the lifetime of the online component. Connecting the single player component may actually ensure more people are playing online for longer. The replay value in the multiplayer is good with random missions split between the attack waves.

The multiplayer component is more enjoyable than you might expect. Earned credits are spent on packages that distribute medigel, missile launchers or bonus items. These items will give you an edge during the harder enemy waves. Occasionally my character would stutter when moving. This sporadic issue, relating to connection quality, fixed itself when going into cover. Four average players should have no troubles with the base difficulty, but there is plenty of challenge in the harder modes. Multiplayer is a competent online subset to the single player campaign.

The end of Mass Effect 3 may be a disappointment to some but the extended cut improves the weak finale. The original ending is abrupt and Bioware released the Extended Cut DLC in June 2012 with the goal of providing more closure to fans. The new endings add clarity, cut scenes and voiceovers that improve the original conclusion. The artistic vision was preserved with minor adjustments that improve continuity. The Extended Cut endings are more satisfying and certainly preferential over the original endings.

Mass Effect 3 is an incredible game because characters are brought back into the narrative with exquisite finesse. Thought provoking decisions have lasting effects on prominent alien species. Bioware even improved the finale and multiplayer components with free DLC. This astounding, controversial science fiction journey has made a big impact over the last six years. While the evolution of the series hasn't always been for the better, it maintained quality with each release. Saving the Galaxy with Commander Shepard and his remarkable friends has been an outstanding experience.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Mass Effect 3 for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Sun, 15 Jul 2012 02:43:20 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/mass-effect-3/user-reviews/797349/platform/pc/ Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:01:13 -0700 nutcrackr reviewed Max Payne 3 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/max-payne-3/user-reviews/795751/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Max Payne is a tortured individual. He lost his wife and baby child many years ago. His femme fatale companion, Mona, was killed in the second game by the dearest of all his friends. Even after all of this agony the series continues under developers Rockstar. Remedy created the first two games that, despite excellent critical reception, lacked the sales they deserved. A collaboration of numerous Rockstar studios has taken Max to a new location with new characters and a reason to keep killing. Max is headed to Sao Paulo as private security for a rich family and he learns that trouble is quick to follow.

A Mafia problem in New York, explained during two nostalgic chapters, ultimately drives Max to Brazil. No characters from the previous games return and only a handful of references exist outside the snowy New York levels. Thankfully Max, his voice and signature bullet time moves are frequently on display. It's a shame the story hangs onto narrative threads for too long and is generally less interesting than one of the TV shows from Max Payne 2. The graphic novel from the prequels is gone, replaced by frequent cut scenes.

Cut scenes are numerous and they tell the story between chapters, break up the action and mask load times. They will feel familiar if you have played GTA 4 but flashing dialogue and seamless transitions help identify them. A large number of cut scenes during the first half consist of Max getting drunk and feeling sorry for himself. This tiresome trend, along with minimal humour, makes it hard to get behind him as a character. During the action it's not uncommon for cut scenes to take control from the player for minutes.

It's rare to deal with a group of bad guys and not have a filler cut scene that takes you to the next section. It retakes control as you near a door and shows Max moving to the next area. It's tiresome to lose control when nothing remarkable is added to the narrative. It's annoying to exit some cut scenes only to be removed from cover, repositioned and pitted against enemies who know your exact location. To make things worse the cut scenes will always switch back to your right handed weapon. You might be killed instantly as you exit a cut scene, depending on your health status

Perhaps it's lucky that when you do die, and you will die often, your health is fully restored after reloading the auto save. When the game feels like you've had enough, which is three kills after you've actually had enough, it will toss a few painkillers your way so you can deal with the ridiculously armoured foe that ends the sequence. The combat is different from Max Payne 2, perhaps not as straightforward, but it is still enjoyable.

Bullet time is changed and the prevalence of cover alters your approach. The longer, more spectacular shoot dodge is a great upgrade. It is hurt by cramped locations, poor recovery and enemies over-utilizing cover. If you have spare painkillers and take fatal damage, you'll be given a short time to postpone death by killing your attacker. This "Last Stand" manoeuvre is helpful but your target can be obstructed.

Bullet time never quite feels as slow or satisfying as the last game. There is no cascading effect into slower bullet time and you rarely spend a long time in slow motion. Carefully prepared scripted sequences almost makes up for this. Although there are several, a personal favourite was being knocked by a vehicle and shooting enemies while spiralling in the air.

Cover is standard for third person shooters and it makes its debut in the third game. It works as you might expect although not having a crosshair until you aim is somewhat disruptive. Most cover isn't destructible and you actually gain bullet time while enemies suppress you. Staying in cover and peaking out to pop enemy heads is a valuable option to gain bullet time and reduce harm. Killing from cover pales in comparison to the satisfaction gained from slow motion kills.

The third game handles weapons differently to engage in a more realistic, tactile approach. For series fans this means two things: no grenades and no huge pockets to hold guns. You'll only be able to carry two small weapons and one large weapon. Should you dual wield Uzis you'll have to drop that auto shotgun. Enemies throw grenades and it's disappointing that Max doesn't even have Molotovs to throw back. The experience could have been more enjoyable with a wide selection of weapons available at all times. Movement animations for Max are superb though; he feels weighty but is only slow after shoot dodging into a wall.

One of the best qualities of the previous games was the replayability. Unless you are a collectible addict there is little appeal to replaying this new campaign aside from unlocking infinite bullet time and painkillers. Dead Man Walking, the survival mode from Max Payne 2, is replaced with Score Attack. Here you go through the campaign and rack up points based on accuracy, chained kills and technique. This mode cuts the story between chapters but still leaves in many annoying cut scenes. It demonstrates how little the story adds to the experience, a sharp contrast to the previous games. The combat has excellent potential but is rarely allowed to break free outside the multiplayer.

For the first time in the series, Max Payne gets multiplayer. You'll play as a gang member from the Favelas or maybe a member of Punchinello crime family in Hoboken. Team Deathmatch is standard but there is also Paynekiller and Gang Wars. In Paynekiller two players take up the roles of Max and Passos from the campaign. This mode is hard to enjoy when you aren't playing as one of the powerful duo. Gang Wars is a mix of many different, familiar modes with some narration by Max. Domination, Bomb defuse and even capture the suitcase are present but the chain of events lasts too long and lacks consistency.

Bullet time works in multiplayer by slowing everybody within line of sight. This does result in a few situations where bullet time turns on and off as you pass windows but for the most part it works. It is rather satisfying to jump from a building and shoot real players in slow motion. Ragdolls do all sorts of weird things in multiplayer as characters feel clumsier than Max, people will try to shoot dodge only to clip a railing and tumble to the ground. Other problems include failure to join games, getting shot while in cover, quick deaths and pauses before spawning.

Multiplayer is clearly not a lazy addition but it's hard to see it providing dozens of hours of entertainment. There are funny moments with characters, like when a mob character screams "lets dump this in the river" after killing an enemy. Grenades are present in the multiplayer but they are horrendous to throw. The online portion is full of customisations of clothes and loadouts, like many recent shooters, but they take a lot of time to earn.

It would be nice to say that Max Payne 3 is a good port because of the vast array of configuration options. Unfortunately it gave me an infuriating mouse problem that doesn't appear to be very common. The crosshair skipped across the screen at random times, making the shooting about as fun as playing tennis with a bowling ball. A combination of low settings reduced the problem. On the multiplayer side of things, there is text chat but the connections are peer to peer with no visual display as to the quality of connection. It's worth noting that the game implements a few aim assists by default when using a mouse.

If there was one example that could demonstrate the change to the franchise, it would be the sniper section. In Max Payne 2, Mona covered Max with a sniper rifle as he ran through a construction site. In the new game, Max protects Passos from one side of a football stadium. The setup sounds similar but the difference is that the third game locks the sniper scope on Passos and only allows you to shoot after he runs between cover. In Max Payne 2, your view is never locked and you can use any of the weapons at your disposal. Max Payne 3 doesn't give you control of the experience for long enough. It doesn't trust you to dictate the action and that is the real crime.

After a long development and almost two years of delays, there is only about 4 hours of gameplay in the story mode. Max Payne 3 is a missed opportunity more than it is a bad game. The combat is slightly different but still enjoyable when given time to breathe. The visuals are nice and, despite the mass of hair on his face, the star is still Max Payne. The multiplayer will generate more value but the campaign might be more fun to replay even with the unskippable cut scenes. Max Payne 3 doesn't match the pacing or wit of its predecessors, but there are still good qualities to enjoy.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Max Payne 3 for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 03:01:13 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/max-payne-3/user-reviews/795751/platform/pc/ Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:21:29 -0700 nutcrackr reviewed Alan Wake for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/alan-wake/user-reviews/790852/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Alan Wake is a psychological action game created by Remedy. Announced as an open world game in 2005, it was going to push the PC platform to extremes. Instead it launched only on the Xbox 360 in May 2010 thanks to an exclusive deal with Microsoft. It morphed into a linear experience back when Remedy had trouble with pacing and storytelling years before release. After pleading with Microsoft, they were able to self publish a PC port. Alan Wake was coming home. That port hit Steam less than two years after it landed on Microsoft's console. You'll want to savour every minute as you step into the role of novelist, Alan Wake.

Alan is a bestselling author who is having trouble writing. He and his wife, Alice, decide to take a holiday in Bright Falls, located in the American Pacific North West. Bright Falls is surrounded by the beautiful Elderwood National Park and the town is preparing for their annual Deerfest celebrations. A strange lady in the local diner gives Alan a key to his holiday cabin on Cauldron Lake. After reaching the cabin, the married couple share a disagreement and Alan gets some fresh air. Screams from the cabin draw him back. Alice is gone. Has she been kidnapped, did she drown in the lake or was she even alive to begin with? Alan will battle humans imbued with darkness as he tries to find the answers.

Much of Alan Wake is set during the night when the local population is far from normal. Darkness has taken over Bright Falls and people in the area have turned into psychotic killers. These unstable humanoids, called Taken, wield axes, chainsaws, sickles and knives. Protected by the dark they harness unnatural speed and strength. Only light can stop them. Alan Wake has combat that differs slightly from standard third person shooters. Remedy has opted to use light for protection and harm.

Combat in Alan Wake feels unique, which helps it remains satisfying for much of the game. The basic principle is to use light to burn the darkness from enemies and use conventional weapons to finish them off. You typically have a flashlight in hand, serving as your crosshair and main light source. This flashlight can be focused, draining battery power and providing damaging light. Not only does light burn the darkness, making enemies vulnerable, it slows their progress. You'll have to focus on multiple Taken to keep them from getting close.

What makes the combat interesting is how there are moments of vulnerability and great strength during each battle. If you run low on batteries or ammo you will need to manually reload as Taken close in. Alan has the ability to dodge attacks, producing some cool slow motion sequences. Although dodging is hard to perfect, it helps avoid several fatal blows. He's certainly not nimble, unable to run far or break from multiple attacks. Should a few Taken corner you, it's lights out for Alan.

Once you burn away the darkness, you turn enemies into sparks with standard weapons. The revolver, shotgun and hunting rifle are well balanced and feel great to use. Ammo can be limited early but there were only a few spots where it dropped to worrisome levels. You'll have access to a flare gun, which behaves more like a rocket launcher than a tool of safety. Hand-held flares provide seconds of protection for reloading or running to a nearby light source. Flashbangs emit powerful light that can disintegrate multiple enemies at once.

Light plays an important role outside immediate combat. Light heals Alan and any Taken chasing you will disappear back into the forest when you reach a well lit area. Lamp posts also mark the point for checkpoint saves. You will feel like you have achieved something each time you get to one after tough battles. Your flashlight, or car headlights, will also reveal luminescent graffiti pointing you to hidden stashes. These stashes, located in side areas, spawn enemies to keep you on edge as you acquire more supplies.

Most enemies are deranged humans who run at you with a variety of melee weapons. They speak with a devil voice, "have you called 911 yet," and hurl objects in your direction. There are a few basic varieties, ranging from the quick to the heavy. You also have to deal with Ravens attacking in large groups from the air. The Ravens make good use of the flare gun although battling them is not as fun as the humanoid enemies. Possessed objects fling themselves at you with force, so standing behind cover is often your best defence. Perhaps more types of enemies could have been used from the wonderful environment.

The real star of the show is the Elderwood National Park and its surrounds. Mist settles around the base of trees as light tries to pierce the darkness creating a fantastic atmosphere. Cabins, ranger outlooks, farms, mines and even the town of Bright Falls all make effective appearances. You aren't scared to go forward because you will be searching for more combat, locations and story. You will be uneasy about darkness, looking for the next light source and scanning the forest. You'll know when danger is close: the wind picks up, the forest gets blurry and darkness swirls. It's an effect mix of survival horror and action adventure.

The engine powering Alan Wake holds up very well on the PC platform. Although there is low resolution textures and simplistic geometry, most of it looks wonderful. The lighting effects are incredible, from the flashlight shadows to flares. Enemies react well to light, holding their arms up and creeping forward. What's most impressive is the lack of loading times, as starting a new game has you playing in seconds. Levels twist and curve around themselves, so you will see your destination in the distance across a chasm or valley.

The story in Alan Wake features a lot of exposition. It's an attempt to narrate the game so you feel connected with the story. It works but the dialogue can be bland and reveals little of strange happenings. Rather than giving you glowing objects or a huge arrow, you get a voice over telling you about a simple objective. Fewer words could have said a lot more. Still it's not bad, the weirdness and exaggerated characters fit perfectly with the world.

There are a several key characters that continue through the six episodes much like TV characters. Many of them are first seen in the Bright Falls diner at the start of the game. There's a pair of aging rockers and the waitress, Rose, is mildly obsessed with Alan. Sarah Breaker, the sheriff, is probably the most normal of the entire cast. Barry Wheeler, Wake's agent, will give the most laughs. He's also voiced by the same man who brought Vinnie Gognitti to life in Max Payne 2. It's an interesting selection of characters.

The story is presented via six distinct episodes over about 10 hours. This makes it feel like a TV show, each episode has an objective and climax. It breaks the narrative into separate chunks, giving you a summary of events between each episode. It's also the perfect time to take a break and come back to the game the following night. The middle episodes are exquisite in terms of presentation and length. They offer great pacing, interesting locations and the motivation to find out more. The game stumbles on the final episode because it's repetitive, has little story and most characters are absent.

The two DLC episodes, The Signal and The Writer, are included with the PC version. They produce an additional three hours of gameplay and are presented in dream like sequences. The combat can be harder, as you deal with more Taken in close quarters, but ample supplies level the playing field. The DLCs revisit areas, with The Signal feeling lazy by design. The voice of Max Payne (James McCaffrey) is most prominent in both episodes, serving as a beacon of light. The Writer DLC is particularly good toward the end with a great final battle. These episodes won't give you answers to story questions you may have, but are definitely worth playing if you enjoyed the original experience.

The flaws in Alan Wake are subjective as to the quality of the overall experience. The lip syncing and facial animation systems are sub standard. Improving them would have enhanced character likeability when watching the pre-rendered cut scenes. The cut scenes themselves are lower resolution and look different from the game, sometimes jarringly so. The collectibles are useless and silly additions to the world, demonstrating Remedy's infancy with achievement systems. Still it would be remiss if I claimed I didn't enjoy Alan Wake very much.

Alan Wake arrived on PC seven years after it was announced. The saying, better late than never, certainly applies here. Technically it stands up very well despite the loss of the original open world vision. It excels in areas of atmosphere, combat and pacing. Remedy has created a combat system that remained engaging from start to finish. The intriguing story ensures the desire to continue forward is strong. The biggest downside to playing Alan Wake: knowing that it ends.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Alan Wake for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:21:29 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/alan-wake/user-reviews/790852/platform/pc/ Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:45:41 -0800 nutcrackr reviewed Dear Esther for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/dear-esther/user-reviews/789479/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Dear Esther begins with you on the shores of a desolate island overlooking the coast as waves caress the rocks. An abandoned lighthouse is only a few steps away, and this is where your journey begins. It's a journey full of visual splendour and intriguing dialogue. No quick time events, no puzzles and no weapons to kill vicious monsters with. The first words you hear are from a man reading letters addressed to a person called Esther. It is the simplest form of exploration and adventure. The island comes to life with perplexing dialogue and classy visuals.

The island isn't open for free-form exploration. There are discrete paths along cliff sides or beaches. You'll proceed through luminescent caves and enter abandoned shelters. There are branching paths and you can head backwards to explore if you desire. Some dark areas require the automatic flashlight but you'll never have trouble seeing the beauty of the island. There is very little back tracking and several points of no return. Along the way, small objects scatter the landscape from those who came before you. You are walking in the footsteps of the man who is bringing the letters to life.

Intrigue is produced through the well voiced dialogue that is triggered as you move through the island. Many of these audio cues are directly related to what you see. The words are perfectly enunciated with balanced emotion. Toward the end you may be startled by some of the dialogue as it changes in tone to give urgency. The core behind this adventure is deciphering the confusing dialogue. It's a mixture of multiple different story threads. Your goal is to connect the story with the visuals that surround you

Dear Esther uses the Source engine to great effect, pushing the tech that powered Half-Life 2 to new highs. Wonderful cavernous areas, wind swept crests, haunting beaches and rusted ship wrecks are some locations you visit. The ambient audio does a great job to complement the environment. Wind circles through an enclosed path and water flows gently down a stream. Consistent textures give an earthy feel to everything. A wonderful music score helps connect it all together. Perhaps the final scene demonstrates the raw visual achievement if you haven't already noticed it.

There is no conventional gameplay in Dear Esther. This world seems the perfect fit for puzzles and interaction, but there is none. The closest in terms of mood and atmosphere would be the Penumbra games. Those games had puzzles and many interactive elements, all absent here. Instead you will walk, explore, swim and listen to dialogue for around 90 minutes. It may sound boring but the experience is far from it. The world hooks you in and compels you forward. You need to approach Dear Esther with an open mind to get the most out of it.

It's almost inevitable that you will ask yourself whether Dear Esther is really a game. Is it a form of art, an interactive story, a tech demo or a mixture of all of these things? Does it really matter? Dear Esther is a visual and auditory journey through a wonderful world. It's captivating experience that you won't soon forget. While the story may not make much sense when you finish, it won't stop you thinking about what has just transpired. It's a unique experience, one I recommend to anybody who can spare 90 minutes. The change of pace, visual accomplishment and thought provoking dialogue is worth it alone.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Dear Esther for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 19:45:41 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dear-esther/user-reviews/789479/platform/pc/ Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:59:46 -0800 nutcrackr reviewed Q.U.B.E. for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/q-u-b-e/user-reviews/788641/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

QUBE is a first person indie puzzler from Toxic Games. It is the first game released with the help of Indie Fund. Players wake up in a sterile environment of white rooms formed from blocks. As you move through the world colored blocks appear. Players manipulate these colored blocks to aid themselves or move objects to a destination. Special gloves allow you to activate the blocks from a distance or even bestow neutral blocks with a specific block type. Using the blocks in combination and correct sequence will take up most of your time.

The environment in QUBE is quite bland but it serves to make the colored blocks feel alive in contrast. The white blocks may move in cyclical patterns to produce some hypnotising effects as you walk from one puzzle to the next. Unlike Portal there aren't characters or jokes, the game relies on the puzzles and it only explains where you are at the very end of the game. Your real friends will be the colored blocks.

Different colored blocks react in unique ways when activated. Red blocks extend or retract by one unit. Yellow blocks are linked in threes and can create stairs. Blue blocks provide a pad that objects and players can launch from. The opening areas will relax you into using the blocks in basic ways. Later you'll be using all blocks in specific orders to get things done. Near the end, the world is populated with neutral blocks that you must correctly assign to a specific block type.

You'll be turning entire sections of walls and switching on magnets to move objects. A few puzzles, behind glass floors, ask you to position four magic boxes using the power of magnets. Here you will block the boxes to position each correctly before moving them all in tandem. These types of puzzles are not new; they've been done in 2D before. The 3D implementation is decent but lacks precision. Magnets are slow to activate, so moving one world unit becomes a hassle.

Some of the best puzzles involved a ball rolling down a ramp. The ball acts as a switch once it drops in the right colored pool. Before it drops in the pool, the ball needs to pass through specific colors. Passing through red and blue painters will create a purple ball. Not only do you need to place the blocks in the right position but you need to time your moves. Reflexes are helpful in some puzzles but most are sequence and placement orientated.

It's a little disappointing how many times puzzles broke. In one room, a block was somehow knocked perpendicular to any possible forces. Many rooms have a reset button but not this one. It required a restart from one of the frequent checkpoints. A few times when testing the solution of a room I managed to get stuck within a rotating wall. My favourite was when a neutral block incorrectly reset allowing me to complete the puzzle with little effort.

The core design of QUBE is relatively sound. It just needed more polish and an infusion of creativity. Maybe some longer puzzles directly involving the player would have helped. It uses the Unreal 3 Engine reasonably well but many two dimensional puzzles struggle to find a home in a three dimensional space. The game will probably take 3 or 4 hours to complete depending on your aptitude. The game is enjoyable enough and should hold your attention for the entirety.

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"nutcrackr reviewed Q.U.B.E. for the PC..." was posted by nutcrackr on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 16:59:46 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/q-u-b-e/user-reviews/788641/platform/pc/ Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:52:42 -0800 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Minecraft for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/minecraft/user-reviews/785936/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Minecraft is not exactly a video game as you know it. Here is a game void of a tutorial, there is no clear objective, no proverbial hand to guide you and no over-arching story. It'd be a stretch to call Mark Persson a master of game design based on Minecraft alone, but as a cheap indie game, what a marvelous concept this game has.

Minecraft's concept is quite simply marvelous. Take the mechanic of say a construction set, but place the person in first person and strip away all of that complexity into a simple lego-style block builder. But add a mining element as well, and add zombies and various monsters that lurk at night so that building becomes a practicality. Exploring random-generated caves is not the boring grind it seems to be in your mind. This is because the sense of adventure is so enthralling that you forget your even playing a pixelated java game made by a man in his basement who's taken great shortcuts to make the game. Once you've got the resources, then the real fun begins because now you can build whatever you like so long as it Is made up of large blocks and a limited colour palette.

Here this concept is executed well enough so that players aren't turned off, but this concept does not reach its full potential thanks unfortunately to the bland visuals, the lack of direction and a general sense of dissatisfaction. Building is extremely limiting and an artist at heart does have to overlook or overcome barriers that this games pixelated, block style, and limiting colour palette does present. If you want to build anything of great detail, for example, make sure it's built large enough so that those blocks edges become unnoticeable and miniscule. And make sure you've made enough time in your schedule to get that done as well.

Friendly and unfriendly A.I is near broken. This makes combat and general existence within the game extraordinarily mediocre. The fear for the zombie is also dampened by the mechanics of how they spawn; only in dark locations. Placing lights everywhere negates the need for a fortified fort in the first place. If you're exploring the caves, a general sense of what could be lurking in the shadows adds tension to your adventures, but at a point you wonder whether it's been your own imagination that has truly made this game work.

Persson has been taking his time. Since the game was originally released in beta, Minecraft has not evolved very far. Take out the user-generated content that has been implemented into the game, you're left with a game maker who seems tepid or extraordinarily lazy. This has kept Minecraft a simple yet engrossing concept game from ever doing anything artistically extraordinary, discounting anything the millions of players have created of course. Of course, many fans will exclaim that Minecraft's lack of direction is in fact a feature, but in reality this is a strong argument against it being a game, and more of a weak construction set that only appeals to the lazy. If you want to make great art, why not pick up Blender for free?

If you want to play a powerfully engrossing creative experience then here is Minecraft who has taken up millions of minds who have probably never been given a paintbrush this easy and this fun to use. Unfortunately, because of its implementation, one can only wish and wait that a large, big name studio with an equally big budget will take this concept up and create a truly magnificent game out of it. However, for now, if you sound like the creative type, then this powerful concept video game will most likely appeal to you.

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Multiplayer Review

Minecraft's core concept has suddenly been made more magnificent thanks to the inclusion of other human players both intent on creating their own great stuff and destroying yours.

To be fair, you can choose who to play with. Starting you own server means not having to deal with griefers and those not bent on playing along nicely. Playing on someone else's server means dealing with people willing to take advantage of the internet's animosity. In both, the game takes interesting and surprising turns. While playing with friends, the social element and a sense of common goal adds extra fun to an otherwise lonesome endeavor, and various dynamics such as town building come into play. While playing on a public server, expect tribalism, sadism, and a little socialism as you help build up someone else's great visions.

The multiplayer has been argued to be the best and ultimate reason to buy Minecraft and this is well founded notion. However, the shocking laziness of Mojang and its head, Mark Persson means that making multiplayer work is as much of an adventure through the wilderness. Apparently this was a feature, but I'm calling Persson out on that.

Here this part of the game deserves its own review mainly because it works on a whole other level. Because Minecraft is relatively cheap, picking this one up means picking up various experiences for the price of one. It doesn't however negate the fact that Minecraft remains popular in large thanks to its community and the minds of those millions, and not because it's a very good video game.

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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Minecraft for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 21:52:42 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/minecraft/user-reviews/785936/platform/pc/ Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:56:41 -0800 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Mass Effect for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/mass-effect/user-reviews/785696/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Mass Effect is considered by most critics as a flawed gem, but many fail to understand how flawed this game truly is. Mass Effect 2 was the game that drew players into this trilogy, and it must be forewarned that Mass Effect is a game that is not for everyone who liked Mass Effect 2.

First and foremost it must be mentioned that Mass Effect is one of my favourite games. The RPG elements are cumbersome and the shooting was always mediocre at best, but the journey through this space-faring adventure mystery kept me hooked. This is made possible through a well
designed dialogue tree, lots of interesting races and characters and a very well paced story that consistently pulled you through to the end. Mass Effect 2 had a central story line that took a backseat to the loyalty missions of your squad members and although it was a fantastic build up to Mass Effect 3, it was never the twisting and mysterious journey that Mass Effect was.

But it must also be said that if you've played Mass Effect 2, then Mass Effect is definitely ruined. The game's primary explosive twists that, in my experience, left me gaping in its sci-fi splendour, is basically common knowledge in Mass Effect 2, so it's now very hard to recommend Mass Effect unless you are a hardcore fan.

Although the adventures through the universe of Mass Effect remains a delight, it can't be helped feeling a chore at times thanks to the less than spectacular gameplay, when they were decent enough to get you through the story, now they suddenly make this game a whole more unacceptable. A list of these problems was accumulated by Bioware and nearly all of them resolved in Mass Effect 2, and its possible a list is somewhere on the internet, but now I will only mention what Mass Effect may have done better.

Mass Effect did RPG a little more RPG like. IF you enjoy micromanaging, deleting, selling and buying discovered items then its all here but be warned, the inventory is disgracefully laid out and the amount of redundant items can leave you tired and confused. Here the combat is a little more free-form and more intuitive to your control, but the cover system is nearly never-used, the allies and enemy A.I is atrocious, some biotic powers are OP, making this a very simple shoot them up that never causes you to think hard.

Mass Effect had the advantage of being the first Mass Effect game, and here learning about these new races and the intricate relationships between them was fun and engrossing. If you've played Mass Effect 2, that element is gone. The art style of the first game, although fantastic is nowhere as refined and developed as Mass Effect 2, despite being extremely similar due to a slightly dated graphics engine and the missing little touches of nuance that would bring this world into its own.

This game is not for everyone. If you've never played a Mass Effect game before, then this is a great place to start mainly for the story and the universe. If you've played Mass Effect 2, then Mass Effect is not recommended unless you're a hardcore fan of this universe (I know I am). If you don't like Mass Effect, then definitely try out the much improved Mass Effect 2.

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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Mass Effect for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:56:41 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/mass-effect/user-reviews/785696/platform/pc/ Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:49:13 -0800 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Call of Duty for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty/user-reviews/785638/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Capturing what World War II was like in a video game is no easy task. Do that in a first person shooter while making sure to not over do the hero saves the world cliché is also just as difficult. But all of Duty manages to pull this off with dignity that no other Call of Duty has since been able to achieve. Although the game's rusty mechanics leave this game in the proverbial dust, the game still showed how large budgets are meant to be used.

Most importantly the first in the series had a more meaningful message to say, such as war was fought not by one man, and war is wasteful. These messages are told various times with some care, mostly through the spectacle of the numbers and how moments are presented and through the quotations after your death and especially at the end of the game. It was told, but it was never trying to tell it best, here Is a game still about the spectacle of WW2, with ambitious cinematic moments and a scale and vision that would later provide the blueprint for later Call of Duty games.

Gameplay wise, this is not the deepest first-person shooter just like its younger brothers you're here for the adventure of war in the comfort of your living room. But the shooting still works very well, and was fresh and intuitive when it was first released. Providing relative skill mostly in the frame of where is the best place to stand and shoot (preferably with good cover). Unfortunately, the shooting falls short compared to its younger brothers especially if you've played the others thin.

The scale and ambition remains in how the game manages to pull off very large scale moments such as the beach landing mission where seemingly hundreds of comrades are dying wastefully as well as the scope of missions ranging from Tank missions to escape from Nazi territory and the variety of locales you visit. When you've finished the game, you've been seemingly everywhere and what an adventure it was. But the original awe that such production values provided are today no longer present, making many of these moments weak and sometimes pointless.

And here in lies the biggest problems of the game. The Call of Duty series borrows so much with little innovation that the original amazing production has basically been lost in a sea of imitations that have done it better. The gameplay and the production value are today no longer satisfactory, but at the time they were revolutionary. One stand out factor remains and it's the messages the game tried to convey, and they highlight how Call of Duty has lost meaning in recent years,

So here is a masterpiece of the ages, that has ironically aged very poorly. The game does not stand up as a single product today so well, but that's only because of what lead from it. If you could compare this game to any ordinary product than let's use the original telephone. Not a very useful appliance today but thank god it existed, or we wouldn't have the endless copy cats, and the multi-trillion dollar series as of 2011.

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"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Call of Duty for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:49:13 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty/user-reviews/785638/platform/pc/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 20:51:47 -0800 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets/user-reviews/785630/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Note this review is written in the perspective of an adult looking back at his time playing as a child. This review was written after all Harry Potter movie spin-offs were released.

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As a boy, I was obsessed with Harry Potter. It was a fantasy that not only freed up a wild imagination within but brought exotic excitement to boring and rather long school days. This boy lives in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and makes this solid but still sub-par Legend of Zelda clone magical.

The magic is made possible through the recreation of Hogwarts and the incredible soundtrack that brings Hogwarts alive. Never has a soundtrack alone been able to conjure up the sense of magic and wonderment that Harry Potter means to millions of its fans, and never has Hogwarts been crafted to appeal to the wizard within us all. Learning new spells is similar to Link finding a new weapon. Places you once couldn't go are suddenly available and this borrowed mechanic makes exploring Hogwarts fun and exciting. You see many of the beloved sights from the movie as you progress through this stripped down story, re-imagined and every time, remaining a delight.

Exploring is only one of the magical wizard activities you'll be occupied with in your time at Hogwarts others include the well implemented dueling club, the linear and very short quidditch games and sneaking (okay, not really) through Snape's dungeon. They are never really spectacular, but at least they are there.

Hogwarts has character and charm, the grounds of Hogwarts comes alive thanks to the moody textures and magical music that brings the world to its own. The characters have a toy like charm about them as well, the voice acting is adorable and the sparks and sounds as you wave your wand for some reason or another also fit in this world. This is a trip to Hogwarts that not only makes do with the technical limitations of 2002 Hardware, but in a way defined them and owned them.

The controls in this game represented a step in the right direction from the previous game, and still remains the best controls of any Harry Potter game thus far. Players want complete and intuitive control over their wands, and Chamber of Secrets was the last game to truly understand this. The central hub that is Hogwarts is allowed to flourish thanks to these solid controls and combat that would otherwise be dull and shallow, manages to keep being entertaining until the very end.

This game is a re imagining of Harry Potter that has its own identity that fits so well into the Harry Potter universe thanks to its understanding of what makes Harry Potter so special. Although this game is held back by the limitations to Hardware and its own budget, the Harry Potter fan has never and still does not have a game this close to reaching the untapped potential of Harry Potter.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/harry-potter-and-the-chamber-of-secrets/user-reviews/785630/platform/pc/ Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:21:52 -0800 Lord_Python1049 reviewed Terrorist Takedown 3 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/terrorist-takedown-3/user-reviews/785586/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 2.0.

Okay, I know you're wondering why, so here's the reason why I'm a strange fan of this series.

I've been traveling to Vietnam on periodic trips to see family every 3 or 4 years and every trip, I've left with a satisfying cache of pirated games to bring home, with games ranging from Half Life 2 to The Witcher 2, and including the video game franchise "Terrorist Takedown". Every trip, I've left with a copy of the latest in the series and this last trip I've come home with Terrorist Takedown 3, and boy this last one was a stinker.

I mean, seriously. I've played the first when I was really young (and stupid), which was basically an average turret shooter with some (at the time) flashy graphics. The second came a few years later and, (surprise!), gave you legs! and got you to shoot through some sub-par levels in what I considered at the time to be a relatively noble ambition that fell flat. This last one I bought hoping this time, for real development, for at most a pleasant surprise, and for its memento value, but all I got was the surprise; this entry has absolutely no redeeming qualities; it's just one hell of a bad game.

So is it unfair to say that I reviewed this game based on 10 minutes into the first mission? Even if I admit it foremost and emphasis that this is a really, really bad game?

So take this as a warning kids, if you ever travel overseas and see the once seminal shooting franchise that is 'Terrorist Takedown' with its alliterating title and awesome call of duty like cover, don't be fooled! It will suck you in, hand you its glimmers of hopes and dreams and all you get in the end is this game. Terrorist Takedown 3 =( .

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Lord_Python1049 reviewed Terrorist Takedown 3 for the PC..." was posted by Lord_Python1049 on Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:21:52 -0800
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