edubuccaneer's GameSpot Friend's Reviews edubuccaneer's GameSpot Friend's Reviews edubuccaneer's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Sat, 18 May 2013 02:23:26 -0700 GameSpot edubuccaneer's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Tue, 23 Apr 2013 15:16:59 -0700 GeekyDad reviewed Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/shin-megami-tensei-devil-summoner-soul-hackers/user-reviews/810588/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

The review title is just a slight jab at the folks unable to appreciate anything in the Shin Megami Tensei (SMT) series that isn't Persona. Don't get me wrong, I love Persona 3 & 4, but this ain't like those games. Soul Hackers is more like the original SMT games, and to that end, it is pretty darn sweet.

Let me premise this review by saying I'm reviewing it as a classic game, not necessarily a modern 3DS release. Why? Well, this is kind of a love letter to fans from Atlus. The game originally released, as most of you probably already know, on the Sega Saturn and then was ported to PS1. Neither release was localized for the western world. Now, SMT fans get a chance to make their ends meet for the series, and considering the cost to find a hardcopy of one of the original versions, not even in English, this is a great opportunity for many of us.

Soul Hackers, with its cyberpunk setting, is surprisingly hip today, though the story and dialogue were written almost 15 years ago. Heck, this game was really ahead of its time in that regard. The presentation isn't going to bowl anyone over, but the voice work goes a long way to helping the transition to a modern handheld.

You probably know the premise by now. If you don't, go look it up – I won't waste time with that here. Suffice it to say, however, it's an engrossing story, one that dives deep into the metaphysical and emotional.

For the uninitiated, Soul Hackers' gameplay consists of first-person dungeon crawling with random encounters. Today's standard is probably the Etrian Odyssey series, and anyone who is familiar with those games can immediately visualize what you'll get here. However, Soul Hackers offers a more focused adventure, with interesting twists and turns.

Additionally, as is the norm for pretty much all SMT games, demon recruitment is a big part of the experience. SMT is basically Pokemon with an M-rating in that respect. That being said, demons don't level up in Soul Hackers, and you'll need to routinely recruit and fuse new demons in order to keep your edge. I really enjoyed this aspect of the game. It's old-school, sure, but it still works great today. It actually offers more incentive to collect and create new demons.

Demons are more than merely a gameplay device, though. The dialogue and interactions with them add a ton of personality to the adventure. Unfortunately, they don't animate all that much visually, and if you've been playing this series for a while, you've likely seen most of these demon sprites many times before.

The music, on the other hand, is fresh and varied. Some new tunes were added, along with a complete OST if you ordered a physical copy, and the sound effects hold up quite well. Wasn't terribly impressed with the character Nemissa's voice actress, but the rest of the cast were pretty great. You'll recognize a lot of the actors if you've been playing RPGs for a while. It's a fun crew for sure.

My only real gripes with the game – and let's face, they're really minor – are the things that weren't updated that probably should have been, as well as things that were updated that are kind of useless. The menu system feels clunky at times, and the touch-screen usage is absolutely lame. Rather than afford you the option to sift through the menu on the touch screen, its functionality has one use: to open the hack menu.

Speaking of hacks, they're basically cheats to make the game easier. There is an option to actually make gameplay more difficult, but I would have rather seen separate difficulty settings for each playthrough, something to work toward unlocking perhaps. Instead, Atlus went the Bioware route, giving you the option of changing the difficulty on the fly. I personally haven't touched a single hack, but I still don't like having the options there. It's a temptation I don't really care to have in my games. This ain't Animal Crossing after all.

In spite of these quibbles, we still get a wonderfully spruced up port of a classic SMT game most of us outside of Japan never a got a chance to experience. And it's a damn fine experience at that. Not everything is going to please everyone, yet there's still something here for almost everyone to enjoy. The grind isn't too heavy on the normal settings, and the dungeon designs, though visually unexciting, are interesting in terms of the goals set in front of you. There are light puzzle elements, but the story and demon interactions definitely take center stage in Soul Hackers. I recommend anyone interested in the game go ahead and nab a physical copy, since you'll likely get more value out of it with the included OST and extra box. Persona 3 & 4 fans may wanna watch some video before buying, as this might not be your thing, but SMT fans should swoop it up without worry. If you dig Etrian Odyssey gameplay but long for more substance story-wise, this will almost be a dream come true for you.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/shin-megami-tensei-devil-summoner-soul-hackers/user-reviews/810588/platform/3ds/ Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:01:39 -0700 gbrading reviewed Black Mesa for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/black-mesa/user-reviews/809984/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

When Half-Life: Source arrived, without much fanfare in June 2004, many people were disappointed. Half-Life is of course one of the most cherished and revered games in video game history, but people had expected that when Valve ported the game to their new Source engine, they would get something that looked a lot closer to Half-Life 2. Instead, Half-Life: Source was a straight port of the original game, using the same textures, guns and sound effects. The only noticeable improvements that were made were the introduction of more realistic water effects and a 3D skybox to replace the old 16-bit bitmap images. Half-Life: Source was Half-Life: No more, no less. This lead some plucky, aspiring mod developers to wonder what Half-Life would look like if it was rebuilt from the ground up in the new Source engine, taking advantage of all the benefits it would bring, to recreate the a familiar but truly new experience. Now, 8 years later, Black Mesa is the sum of this great endeavour. For many years, rumours circulated that Black Mesa was merely vapourware: The promise which could never live up to expectation; the dream which would never be realised. It is with a certain delight it can be said that the naysayers were wrong: Black Mesa is, without doubt one of the finest modifications ever created, being both a faithful adaptation of Half-Life, but introducing enough original content to make you feel like you're playing something brand new. The mistakes it makes are minor in comparison to the triumph of creating a free first-person shooter which could easily be sold as a retail product.

For the 0.5% of people out there who don't know the plot of Half-Life, allow me to give you the condensed highlights. You are Dr. Gordon Freeman, a bespectacled, bearded research associate at the Black Mesa Research Facility: A giant underground complex in New Mexico of offices, laboratories and test chambers where experiments of dubious ethical and scientific value are carried out. Freeman has a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from MIT and appears to be just your average scientist, until the fateful day arrived when everything was thrown out of the frying pan. At the beginning of the game, you take part in an experiment which results in a terrible disaster befouling the Black Mesa Research Facility: Massive damage is sustained and portals to an alternative alien dimension open up across the complex, with all manner of dangerous animal life stampeding through, wreaking havoc. Most of the game is comprised of your attempts to escape the facility and also to avoid the marines of the Hazardous Environment Combat Unit, who have been sent in by the US Government to "liquidate" the situation, including all Black Mesa personnel. Black Mesa doesn't alter any of the story beats of the original game, and includes line-by-line many sequences from the original game. However it does often extend dialogue and conversations by adding in additional flavour text and incidental chit-chat, all of which feels true to the spirit of the first game. As of the time of writing, Black Mesa does not currently offer a complete recreation of the original game: The levels which take place in the alien world of Xen are still to be completed. Nonetheless, this is still a lengthy game which will take approximately 10-12 hours to finish, feeling very one-to-one in terms of length with the original Half-Life.

Gameplay itself hasn't been drastically altered from the original. Freeman has access to the same arsenal of weapons, from his trusty crowbar to the MP5 submachine gun and several more experimental weapons later in the game. The enemies you meet along the rollercoaster journey are just as varied, ranging from the ubiquitous headcrabs to the HECU Marines. The shooting of Black Mesa feels comparable to the original game, but certain weapons feel either slightly more powerful or less so. For example the crowbar now has less reach and takes several hits to dispatch a headcrab, whilst the shotgun can bring down a marine or vortigaunt with a single shot at close range. All of the memorable set pieces from the original game make a return, normally with a new spin on a familiar theme, or introducing a new physics puzzle into the mix, similar to those encountered in Half-Life 2. An example for this might be you need to turn off the valve where gas is escaping in order to extinguish the flames. In the original, you'd just turn the handle and be done with it, but in Black Mesa the handle is actually missing, necessitating a brief search before you can reunite handle with lever.

Graphically is naturally where most of the time and effort of crafting Black Mesa has been invested. The game is similar in detail to the original Half-Life 2 and borrows many lighting effects from Episodes One and Two. By and large, it looks great. It's not going to win any awards for graphical prowess, but if the objective of Black Mesa was to bring Half-Life up to the standard of its sequel, then it definitely succeeded. The amount of custom geometry, taken for granted in any retail game, is very impressive, with an absolute minimum of props being imported from the standard Source list, ala Garry's Mod. There are many gorgeous high-resolution textures which have been finely constructed (my personal favourite being the health kits) and all of the character models look as good as anything Valve put into Half-Life 2. Black Mesa uses a rather sophisticated face creation system which generates semi-randomized character faces, which means you're unlikely to see the same character twice. Level design is by and large a straight up-rezzing and improvement on the original layouts, but many areas have been altered and extended for the sake of continuity. For example, there used to be a very sudden jump between the laboratory areas of Sector C to the more industrial ones, but now this change happens more gradually. Nonetheless, every room, corridor and outdoor vista feels true to form, and you will recognise many famous areas including the Hydro-electric Dam, the lobby of the Biodome complex and of course the Lambda reactor core. There are many highlights to the experience, but my personal favourite was Questionable Ethics chapter, which raises the game in terms of atmosphere by posing many questions about whether the Black Mesa scientists are as innocent as they appear, given the highly controversial experiments.

Black Mesa really excels in the audio department. The game has been fully re-voiced by a volunteer cast, all of it recorded professionally and delivered flawlessly. Some lines are a word-for-word repeat of the dialogue from the original game, but many character interaction moments have been elongated or changed to include further chatter and ambient conversations. Pressing the E key on any character will normally yield another line or two of flavour dialogue, often unique to that character. In a conscious effort to secure continuity with Half-Life 2, the named characters of Dr. Isaac Kleiner and Eli Vance feature in the game, as does security guard Barney Calhoun in the most fleeting of cameos. The musical score has also been completely redone, drawing a heavy influence from the original music but delivering something with feels completely fresh. Valve games have never been particularly acclaimed for their music, but the soundtrack to Black Mesa provides a suitable backdrop to the various hectic goings-on at the research facility.

Black Mesa does make one or two relatively minor mis-steps, the biggest of which may be the overreliance on the oft-fabled crouch-jump. In Half-Life original, you might have had to use the crouch-jump manoeuvre (jumping and crouching at the same time in order to achieve a higher or longer jump) maybe once or twice throughout the campaign. In Black Mesa, crouch-jumping is an essential skill you must master early on if you want to jump into vents, or cross gaps which are impassable using the normal jump. This can lead to occasionally frustrating sections where you make multiple attempts at the same jump, quicksaving and reloading after each try and inevitable plummet to your death. The epicentre of this frustration is definitely the trip-wire mined room in the Surface Tension chapter, which was maddening enough in the original game but is even more so here given the fact that you must crouch-jump over a laser line which you have no idea if you will hit or not because Gordon isn't body-aware (when you look down, you can't see his feet). There are also infrequent technical glitches including long loading screens and crashes to the desktop, but no doubt when Black Mesa is officially released on Steam via the Greenlight initiative, these will have hopefully been patched out.

When it comes down to it, the most amazing thing about Black Mesa is the fact that it exist at all. After 8 years of intrigue, disappointment, excitement and regret, it is incredible that a team of volunteers, paid nothing and doing all coding, designing and building off their own backs, sitting through years of whinging, moaning and apathy from the Internet, managed to create a game in the first place, let along create a game which is a great experience. Although that experience is still not truly complete, it is certainly worthy of your time, especially given the incredibly low barrier to entry. Black Mesa reminds us of everything which made Half-Life great, and yet it is also an education in what aspects of it weren't so great. Games have moved on a lot since 1998, but the core appeal of a shooter has not changed. Half-Life raised the bar for storytelling, atmosphere and action; Black Mesa can be proud to say that it can jump just as high. Now you can experience an updated version of one of video gaming's most historic titles, and it won't cost you a nickel.

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"gbrading reviewed Black Mesa for the PC..." was posted by gbrading on Sun, 07 Apr 2013 15:01:39 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/black-mesa/user-reviews/809984/platform/pc/ Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:43:13 -0700 Allicrombie reviewed Tomb Raider for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/809082/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!


Lara Croft is back, but it isn't the Lara you grew up with. Tomb Raider takes adventuring to a whole new level of accessibility and action as you make your way through a mysterious island that's bursting with numerous locations, filled with hidden dangers and deeply buried treasure. In the end, the same could probably be said of Lara herself.

Things start off mild enough for the crew of the Endurance, the large ship that features a varied array of skilled personnel. Like the Titanic before it, however, it isn't long before the craft's fate is sealed, and its occupants are scattered to the winds, each of their destinies in question for much of the game. So begins the journey of Lara Croft, to track down survivors, while braving the perils of a once forgotten island.

There is a single player and a multiplayer mode, though purists will probably ignore the multiplayer completely. It isn't terrible, but still feels like an unnecessary addition to what is essentially a single player experience. The addition of a multiplayer mode is an all too familiar one in gaming in recent memory and while it doesn't detract from the single player experience at all, it's still a little disappointing that they had to throw it in here.

The single player adventure is wholly immersive and engrossing, thanks to lots of dramatic events that unfold as you make your way through the various locales on the island. All the characters are interesting and have their own motives for coming along, none more interesting than Lara herself. Where the game really shines is in the fact that its really a coming of age story, wrapped in a tightly focused adventure. The Lara that you begin the game with is a far different person than the one you control as the game nears its climax and its nice to see this evolution towards the Lara that we all know.

What's also nice is that even though your ultimate goal is getting everyone safely off the island, there is a lot to do on said island. Beyond the exploring, you earn experience for every item you find, and enemy you kill. Base camps scattered about let you turn this experience into usable skills, and salvageable gear lets you upgrade various weapons.

Raiding tombs is just as fun and profitable as it was in previous games, however tombs have gotten noticeably smaller. Those of you expecting large, expansive halls and huge crypts may be a bit disappointed, as all of the tombs are more like two bedroom apartments. Its still worth your time to explore them, but they wont eat up your whole day.

For all its impressive single player aspects, the multiplayer comes down to the standard fare of earning experience through kills, leveling up and unlocking a variety of characters and weapons at predetermined levels. It's the same multiplayer we've seen for years in other games.

Controlling Lara is pretty intuitive, thanks to on the fly directional pad weapon swapping and dramatic timed button presses that ensure you grab hold of ledges overlooking hundred foot drops. Quicktime events that require split second timing are as annoying as ever, though.

The AI isn't bad either, and will effectively make use of and run between various forms of cover, both while taking shots at you and throwing explosives your way, which serve to damage you as well as expose you from whatever cover you're hiding behind. This makes the combat more of a dynamic run and gun affair, instead of a battle between opponents peeking out from behind cover.

Everything in Tomb Raider looks quite nice as well. You'll see the waves on the beach lap at the shore, as the tide crashes satisfyingly onto nearby rocks. Tiny fireflies in the forests blink into existence when night falls, and smoke rises from torches and into the sky. It's these little touches and more that go a long way towards adding to the feel of immersion.

The music does a good job setting the mood, some of the ambient tracks in the background, such as when you're inside a shrine, really help the immersion. Like most adventure games, there are a lot of dramatic moments as well, with the music fading into the background during the quieter times.

This is an excellent adventure that ultimately succeeds as a modern coming of age tale. With heaps of collectibles to uncover, a story that's worth experiencing and an island that's just begging to be explored, as a reboot, and as a game on its own, you could do a lot worse than Tomb Raider.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Allicrombie reviewed Tomb Raider for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by Allicrombie on Tue, 19 Mar 2013 15:43:13 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tomb-raider/user-reviews/809082/platform/ps3/ Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:45:44 -0700 Allicrombie reviewed Hitman: Absolution for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/hitman-absolution/user-reviews/808666/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.0.


Agent 47, the dual wielding, impeccably dressed anti hero from the previous Hitman games is back and has a new mission. You play as Agent 47, on the trail of a rather nasty gang of characters, who've kidnapped someone important to you. The story unfolds slowly over the course of the game and features some of the slimiest characters you're bound to see in a video game.

Presentation wise, the game is about as slick as Agent 47's bald head. You'll move throughout each level, using the gift of stealth and the art of disguise to slip past enemies unnoticed. You score points for each objective completed, as well as optional level challenges. You are docked points for every kill that isn't a mission objective, as well as being seen. If you don't mind losing points, however, you can play a "run and gun" game, and take down your enemies instead, though the game does try to ensure that you stay on a more stealthy path.

The modes of the game include the traditional story mode, and a "Contracts" mode, where you can challenge the scores of other people playing, with custom made levels and objectives or simply create your own.

The interface is a tribute to minimalism, and it works pretty well. There's a simple radar showing enemy placement in one corner of the screen and your instinct bar in the other corner. You call up a small, cross shaped inventory screen when changing weapons, but it fades into the shadows, like our hero, after a few seconds.

The in game tutorial, which takes up the first half of the first mission, does an excellent job of getting you acquainted with all of the tools you have at your disposal. It turns on the scoring system for the latter half of the mission and from there you're on your own, though on the easier difficulty levels, there is a rather robust hint system available.

On the easier difficulties, you'll prove a very efficient and deadly killer, slipping past enemies like a ghost, while taking them down like a trained professional. On the harder settings though, enemies will spot you easily from a distance and use cover and sweep tactics to provide quite a challenge.

There's a robust hint system as well, on the easier difficulties, which will give you advice on certain items found in levels. You can also turn on a kind of "detective mode" by using instinct, which lights enemies up like Christmas trees and lets you see the locations of any weapons or any objects you can interact with in the world.

You'll move through a number of exotic locales on your journey, from Chicago to Chinatown to South Dakota as well as many other places. They all look rather nice, and you'll find yourself staring at the immaculately polished floors of hotel lobbies, rustic wooden interiors of gun shops, and moonlit cemeteries. The South and its inhabitants all have a gritty exterior, as if coated with a thin layer of grime that just won't wash off.

Agent 47 by comparison is always dapper and ready for anything. Even in disguise, its hard not to enjoy his gruff exterior, tempered by years of this kind of work.

Aurally, the game does a good job. The music is appropriately subtle when you're in stealth mode, and ramps up to dramatic levels when you're in a more combat-centric role. The sounds of different weapons are noticeable, and the voice acting is predictably over the top, but that's part of its charm.

You'll come to find an almost eerie sympathy for the trials and tribulations of Agent 47, and the life he has to lead, by the end of the story. Nameless, his only moniker a stoic number, he wields power over life and death like a painter, who uses only the deepest shades of red, and the darkest shades of black. You may have a few lingering, thought provoking questions by the end, but for 47, there is only the next mission, the next kill, the next contract. It may be a solemn, grave existence, but wherever his next contract takes him, we hope we're along for the ride.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Allicrombie reviewed Hitman: Absolution for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by Allicrombie on Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:45:44 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/hitman-absolution/user-reviews/808666/platform/ps3/ Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:59:06 -0800 GeekyDad reviewed Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/fire-emblem-awakening/user-reviews/807842/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Over 100 hours later, I'm ready to weigh in on Fire Emblem: Awakening. For full disclosure, I've been a moderate fan of the series up until now. In that I mean, I've only played three other FE games before this one. With that in mind, I approached my first playthrough (currently on Chapter 15 of my second playthrough, with a concurrent Lunatic Mode playthrough ongoing) on the Hard/Classic difficulty, and it's been nothing but fun, fun, fun.

For the uninitiated, Hard Mode is about on par with the Normal Modes of past FE games released in the States, and Classic signifies that when your units die, they stay dead. There's also a Casual mode, which allows players to regain their fallen comrades after a skirmish. Though I didn't make use of the Casual mode myself, I'm glad to see it added to FE. It's something that has obviously invited in many new players, and this series surely deserves it.

The story follows the exploits of the Ylissian prince, Chrom, and his new best friend (either male or female), an avatar character which you create at the beginning of the game. There are a few twists and turns here and there, as well as ample character development, but honestly, Awakening's story is a mishmash of engrossing, disjointed, and simply ridiculous. There are elements that do a great job drawing you in, but there is also major plot development missing. The dialogue can be over-the-top, and though the overarching story is solid, the glue that's meant to hold it all together is terribly weak.

In spite my disappointment with the story, the characters grow on you. This is due in large part to the huge amount of character building the game affords you. The Support system is a major boon, allowing you to form relationships with units that will ultimately fall in love, marry, and sire children you can later use as playable characters. A lot of this is obviously a throwback to FE4, but it's mostly new to us outside of Japan.

The Support system is also more organic than it perhaps was in games like Radiant Dawn, as characters form bonds based on fighting near one another, rather than simply initiating conversations back at base. Stats are raised when fighting side-by-side, and as your relationships grow stronger, so do the benefits units bestow upon one another. You can pair units together, which completely alters the approach of strategy. Building up relationships not only reaps gameplay rewards but also treats you to some of the most entertaining dialogue the game has to offer.

One major change to the Fire Emblem formula is the ability to pretty much endlessly grind. Though you could level up units in the tower of Sacred Stones, and other mechanics in past FE games may have given players the opportunity to beef up their characters in other ways, Awakening really opens the flood gates in that regard. Random encounters appear periodically, as well as StreetPass battles, and a plethora of DLC (available and on the way) give you the option of gaining quick XP, unique characters and weapons, as well as Limit Breaker, a scroll that boost max-character stats by 10 – all re-playable to your heart's content.

However, none of these additions subtracted from the experience for me, personally. The opposite was true. Though you could probably zip through the story in about 20 hours, much of my time was spent noodling with building up my characters and forming relationships. And you can't really experience everything the game has to offer in a single playthrough–or even two for that matter. There are tons of conversations to enjoy, tidbits of backstory, and loads of cool pair-ups to experiment with.

The game's also quite gorgeous. I enjoyed the visuals and 3D in Ocarina of Time and Resident Evil: Revelations, but this is the first 3DS game in which I found it impossible to turn the 3D effect off. The action in other games often makes it hard to fully enjoy the 3D, since you're inadvertently moving your system around. With a game like Awakening, though, you have more time to sit and enjoy the view.

I also rarely turn off the battle animations, which are comprised of beautiful landscapes and character models. The battlefields are easily my favorite visual highlight. The 2D sprites look fantastic atop the polygonal overworlds that are chock full of wonderful details, such as birds flying above the 3D screen – absolutely stunning.

The same can be said about the music. It seems Nintendo finally "gets it" when it comes to real orchestrations over outdated MIDI sequences. There is an incredible variety of powerful themes littered throughout the adventure, and when you complete the story, you can go back into the extras and enjoy them alongside the Unit Gallery. There's also a cute, little Hubba Tester that can make faux romance determinations for all of your unlocked characters, and if you ever want to go back and watch the story cutscenes (which are amazing in 3D) again, you can do so in the game's theater mode. Intelligent Systems really spared no expense.

Fire Emblem: Awakening may not be the perfect SRPG, but good Lord, if it isn't one of the best this generation. The interface (you can touch on any element of the touch screen for a detailed description of stats, items, etc.) is the best the series has seen, and the helpings are robust. The story is disappointing, especially when graded against such game giants as Final Fantasy Tactics (War of the Lions version, that is), and the DLC is overpriced, not to mention a little bit tasteless at times (some DLC is designed to allow players to pay to make the game easier). Nevertheless, this is absolutely one of the best values I've gotten out of my 3DS. The gameplay is addictive, and the community is abuzz. If you're a longtime fan, jump right in; if you've been scared off by the series in the past, this is your opportunity to finally enjoy a great (and completely unique) SRPG series without being intimidated by unforgiving systems.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"GeekyDad reviewed Fire Emblem: Awakening for the 3DS..." was posted by GeekyDad on Fri, 22 Feb 2013 11:59:06 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/fire-emblem-awakening/user-reviews/807842/platform/3ds/ Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:55:51 -0800 Allicrombie reviewed Guild Wars 2 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/guild-wars-2/user-reviews/805945/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!



Since the days of EverQuest, persistent online worlds have become increasingly complex. Filled with thousands (even millions) of players, hundreds of quests, and more and more activities to keep these worlds populated. These worlds exist as living, breathing, virtual communities. One of the more recent of these online worlds is Tyria, the stage set in Guild Wars 2. It may not redefine a genre, but Guild Wars 2 offers an identity all its own, and in this age of online worlds, that's saying something.

You'll start at the character select screen where you choose from a few various races like the beastly Charr or the plant like Sylvari. Your race affects more than just what you look like; it also affects, to a point, the kind of shape your main story will take on, and what kind of places you'll visit, at least early on. The customization screens are fairly in depth, letting you adjust your character's nose, mouth, cheeks, and even eyebrows.

Next you'll choose a profession which is the game's word for class (not to be confused with crafting professions). There are eight classes involving both melee-centric classes like the Guardian and the Thief, as well as ranged classes like the Elementalist and the Ranger. Guild Wars 2 also brings back the Necromancer, a ranged/pet class not found in many games since the days of the original EverQuest. Players looking for dedicated tanking or healing classes may be at a loss, initially, as the game doesn't feature generalized roles. Every class has access to self healing spells, as well as a group heal, and while the more heavily armored classes provide the most effective tanks, it is at the very least, an option for ranged classes.

You're then thrust into the world not too far away from your race's capital city and proceed to take down a rather large, intimidating foe, before properly arriving at or near your capital. From there you accept quests given by various quest givers in the world, leveling up and earning new skills. Gone are the punctuation riddled denizens of other online worlds, Tyria's residents feature outlines of hearts above their heads. Completing the tasks required fills in those hearts and allows you to purchase items from the quest givers, with karma. Earning karma is as easy as taking part in a dynamic event or boss battle occurring in one of the zones, your level of participation determines how much karma you're rewarded with, as well as one of three Olympic flavored medals.

You'll have access to five skills based on the weapon or weapons currently equipped as well as five skills that you unlock using "skill points" found and earned while exploring. These can be earned by defeating a tougher than average boss monster or simply communing with a place of power and receiving the point automatically. These skills range from traps and summoned weapons, to shape-shift abilities and summoned companions. Although they have made several attempts to fix these, several of these "skill challenges" remain bugged and unusable, at least at the time of this writing.

You'll also unlock "traits" which let you allocate a point into one of your character's primary stats every level, starting at eleven. Choosing between power, precision, toughness, and vitality affects damage dealt, critical hit, armor and health, respectively. The more points you pump into a given attribute, the greater the bonuses you can unlock, including adept, master, and grandmaster level traits, given enough points.

Dungeons become available at level thirty with a new one being unlocked every ten levels. These function as you would expect in an online role playing game. You and a group of four others brave said dungeon, battle ferocious monsters and claim loot. Even without dedicated tanking or healing classes, dungeons aren't terribly difficult, and it's usually easy to find a party willing to go dungeon diving, even at off peak hours.

The World vs. World PvP mode is actually fairly well done, for a PvP model. You choose a map and attempt to complete one of four objectives, such as capturing structures, or building siege weapons to attack enemy structures. There is also a structured PvP mode, where players can simply fight each other. Your level is set at the maximum and you have access to all skills for your class. This is not only a fun diversion from the normal PvE game but can give you a glimpse of your character, at the max level.

There is also a fairly in depth crafting system in the game, however, it's not explained particularly well. The basics are you can gather materials from the world, through mining or chopping down trees for wood, or gathering food from bushes and you use those materials to construct the basic elements needed to craft more complex items. With eight crafting professions available, there is quite a lot to accomplish here. You also get experience from crafting items but nowhere near enough to make crafting a viable substitute for questing or killing enemies.

Challenge-wise, the "scholar" classes seem the most vulnerable at the moment. I have no doubt this will change as time goes on and the game evolves, but for right now, specifically the Elementalist and Mesmer classes are very squishy and dealing an adequate amount of damage with either of them forces you to put in more effort than the melee classes. While weapon swapping on the fly between two sets of equipped weapons may be the most effective method in combat, Elementalist players forgo the weapon swapping option to have the ability to swap between different elemental attunements in combat. The Mesmer's clones help, but the truth is, at this stage, these classes simply do not have the survivability and ease of use of the other classes, which is a shame.

One of the nice things about the game is that you get experience points for everything you do. Killing creatures, completing quests, crafting items, and even just exploring the world nets you points and rewards. You'll unlock achievements for repeating all these actions as well. Exploring the world also has other perks, as there are points of interest and views, located on each zone map. Getting to some of these views often involves a tricky jumping puzzle, but your reward for doing so, in addition to experience, is a panoramic view of the surrounding area, as the camera swings around. It's a great way to take in more of the world itself and ultimately brings you one step closer to immersing yourself in varied and often times, eye catching landscapes of Tyria.

Focusing on the journey, rather than the destination, the game incorporates a variety of dynamic events that take place in each zone, some reminiscent of large scale end game encounters, others simple escort missions that have you facing off against hordes of smaller foes at once. Some of these events are chained together and comprise two or more events. These dynamic events usually involve many players and can be quite challenging, even at peak hours of the day. Completing these events earns you karma, used to buy items from any of the quest givers in any of the zones.

The game also makes use of an interesting mechanic known as downscaling. If you take your high level character to a lower level area, your character becomes "downscaled" to match the maximum level for that area. This allows players who may have lower leveled friends in the game to group up and quest or explore a dungeon with them, while still getting experience and rewards.

There's an in game trading post where players can sell any or all of the loot they've accumulated. There's also an option to use real money to buy gems or gold, which in turn can be spent on luxury items. The game can get away with these micro transactions, which are becoming increasingly more popular in online gaming, by not having a monthly subscription fee.

Visually, the environments are beautiful. You'll notice power plants glowing beneath rippling waves and mist slowly rising from swampy forests to blanket the moon. Sparkling fireflies hover in the air in some zones, and there's a neat "water on the lens", camera effect when coming out of a body of water. Distant bonfires blaze to life at night and forests are lush and earthy. It's all quite lovely and a pleasure to take in. Character models up close are well detailed and armor can be dyed a number of different colors. You can also find dyes as drops in the world, including special rare dyes, so the chance that your character ever looks exactly like another character is a slim one, indeed.

Noted composer Jeremy Soule provides the soundtrack for the game and it is a great complement to the lush backgrounds that populate the world of Tyria. From the haunting themes of snow capped peaks to the subtle but mischievous strings heard in the darkened swamps, the music is one of the highlights of exploring the world. The music ramps up to dramatic levels when you're engaged in battle, and although these battle hymns aren't terribly memorable, they do a good job of amplifying the increased tension.

With eight character classes, a bevy of crafting professions, and a rich landscape to explore, Guild Wars 2 is the exception, rather than the rule. It may borrow a page here and there from other online role playing games, but in the end, is able to carve out its own identity through a varied selection of races and classes, a unique skill system, and a world punctuated by symphonies that's just begging to be explored. Every long journey begins with a single step and this is one journey worth undertaking.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Allicrombie reviewed Guild Wars 2 for the PC..." was posted by Allicrombie on Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:55:51 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/guild-wars-2/user-reviews/805945/platform/pc/ Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:02:27 -0800 GeekyDad reviewed The Walking Dead: Assault for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/the-walking-dead--assault/user-reviews/804190/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

The Telltale Walking Dead games have been a wonderful addition to the franchise, but one thing they've been missing are the main characters from the comics/show we have grown so attached to. Walking Dead Assault is definitely an abbreviated companion, but it's still another very well thought-out game fans will enjoy.

Walking Dead Assault (WDA) is a simplified RTS that allows you to bring up to four party members with you into each mission. You'll begin the adventure as Rick, making your escape from the hospital where the story ultimately begins. You'll collect ammo and supplies along the way, as well as unlock new characters as you complete chapters. Supplies are used to purchase unlocked characters, but you'll also use supplies as currency to upgrade four stats that affect damage, health, ammo capacity, and the cool-down timers for special abilities. It's an excellent progression system that caters perfectly to fans' appreciation of all things Walking Dead.

The game is played from a top-down perspective, and movement of individual party members is done by double-tapping an area of the screen. You can slide around the camera with your finger and tap and hold a particular area of the screen to have all party members move in unison. Characters each have ranged and melee weapons and attack automatically anytime enemies are nearby.

Sounds simple, and for the most part it is, but WDA throws in some cool mechanics that keep the game from ever feeling overly repetitive. Using guns, of course, makes noise, and if your noise meter fills up, you'll alert herds of walkers that can make for some seriously hairy situations. And though you can control the party as one easy mob, you'll still be required to do some micro-managing, lest party members get overrun by groups of enemies.

Each character has a special ability that can only be used in spurts – ranging from healing the entire party, to adding additional accuracy to attacks – but party members also each have unique, passive abilities that increase range, speed, etc. It's a lot of fun mixing and matching the group, and it's actually quite necessary in order to successfully complete the bonus objectives present in each chapter.

Almost all missions task you with killing all walkers, but you'll need to complete those bonus objectives in order to nab most of the game's unlockables. There are some real treats, too, such as extra supplies, art work, cool bits of trivia surrounding the writers and story, and of course, achievements and high scores. The game will automatically place the name and best completion time over each mission for you and any of your Game Center friends who also have the game on their device. It's a cool, built-in competitive aspect that offers yet another incentive to repeat missions; you can earn supplies from repeat visits as well.

It doesn't hurt, either, that the game looks great. It's fashioned after the comic art, with only hints of color for dramatic effect. Comic-book captions pop up mid-mission, alerting you to horde activity or the concerns of party members. Unfortunately, there's no real dialogue or story progression other than the locales that are played out as you make your way through the game. Still, the sound and music are excellent, and the entire presentation is a complete treat for any Walking Dead fan.

Walking Dead Assault isn't a deep RTS, but it is one of the best on the iOS platform. The controls make great sense, and the micro-managing that is necessary isn't frustrating. The mechanics are kept simple, yet there are some fun and interesting gameplay devices that make it more than a mindless-zombie-kill fest. Additional chapters are on the way via DLC, and for the asking price, this is definitely a valuable addition to any Walking Dead fan's collection.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"GeekyDad reviewed The Walking Dead: Assault for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by GeekyDad on Tue, 04 Dec 2012 09:02:27 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-walking-dead--assault/user-reviews/804190/platform/iphone/ Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:21:52 -0800 Allicrombie reviewed Diablo III for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/diablo-iii/user-reviews/803474/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.



"The path to paradise begins in hell."

The above quote from "Dante's Inferno" may fit the beginning of the Diablo franchise quite well. The franchise itself spans three games and fifteen years. The third act of Blizzard's storied franchise is here and while the journey within may be fraught with blood and tears, this is no grand narrative on an epic stage. What it is; is simply, unabashedly, a good time.

You play a hero who comes in one of two genders and five distinct flavors. The classes barbarian, monk, demon hunter, witch doctor and wizard are yours to choose from and they each offer their own signature look and array of skills to fine tune to your liking. You are tasked with making your way to the lairs of three of the lesser evils and destroying them before taking on the big D himself.

Each character class uses their own different resource to power their spells/skills, represented by a large glowing orb that refills over time. The resources may vary but the mechanic is pretty much the same. The barbarian uses rage, the witch doctor uses mana, etc. The demon hunter uses a combination of discipline and hatred, so their orb is split into two halves, which is a bit unique compared to the other classes, even though it works the same way.

The story itself is easily forgettable, as the narrative and quests are there simply to move you from one area to the next. There are easily predictable twists and turns along the road and you'll find yourself coming back not for the exposition, but for the hordes of monsters you get to wade through, hoping they drop valuable weapons and items. At least each area has its own unique feel, from the sorrow filled cemeteries and forests surrounding the first town, to the arid deserts and icy plains surrounded by flames that come later.

After hitting certain amounts of experience points, you'll "level up" and unlike it's predecessor, which rewarded you with skill points you could "assign" to various skills, Diablo 3 streamlines this process by rewarding you with either the skills themselves or various runes that can be used to modify those skills. Its not nearly as customizable as the old system, but it's a lot more user friendly, and greatly reduces the odds you'll end up with a bad build or "gimped" character.

The controls are as intuitive as ever. You move with the left mouse button and attack with the right button. You can hold alt down while you attack for an alternative attack, (which can be binded to any skill or spell), and you have four quickslots which you can toss any spell or skill into for quick access, and you have the town portal and health potions already hotkeyed for you. for quick escapes and even quicker heals. The major downside here is that there's only four quickslots and you may find yourself using more than four spells or skills frequently. Skills and spells fall into different categories such as active, secondary, defensive, etc, but with the exception of passive abilities, they can all be bound to any quickslot or mouse button you like.

Your first playthrough on "normal" difficulty probably won't cause you to lose much sleep, but the difficulty ramps up significantly in the nightmare, hell and inferno difficulties. Stronger monsters and rarer drops await as well, however. Jumping into a game with other players also sends the difficulty soaring and its a blast watching three other players hack and slash their way through the seemingly endless minions of hell.

You can play with up to three others, for a total of four and jumping into a game is pretty easy, as there are options for a random game or you can simply jump into a friends' game. Once in a game, you simply click on the battle standard (each player has a fully customizable one) to zip directly to the other players and join the action. Its all quite seamless and really gets you and your group in the action a lot quicker than previous games where you had to town portal or, god forbid, walk to where your friends are.

Graphically, the game isn't amazing, but there is definite eye candy to be had. Enemies have various death animations whether they're vanishing into pillars of light or bursting apart into an army of worms, they're all quite nice to behold. Destroying enemies in different ways also has a significant effect, wizards can shock and burn enemies to the ground and their bodies with often smoke and crackle with static electricity after death. In comparison, demon hunters can shoot poison arrows at foes and those bodies will turn a sickly color, with green mist rising from their corpses. It's little touches like this that go a long way towards immersing you in the heart of the action.

Visually, Blizzard cinematics have never failed to impress and here is no exception. Taking their art to nearly short-film quality, the cinematics in Diablo 3 set a new high bar in terms of presentation. Textures flow like rivers, light pours in through windows, etc. It's all very lovely to look at, its just a shame that the cinematics, like the previous game, only serve as short, chapter bookends, giving small pieces of the story, that serve as a border for the in game action.

The music and sound effects are fine, with the music ramping up to dramatic levels when you're in a big battle and then fading into the background during quieter moments. The voice acting is okay, though most of the lines are fairly cheesy, again, you aren't playing for the exposition, (I hope).

Diablo 3 also manages to pay homage, in game, to its predecessors, almost to a point where crafting its own identity as a game becomes difficult. You'll recognize familiar characters and areas from the first two games, far more than you'll marvel at new places and foes. This is both a credit and a disservice to the game. If you played the first two games in the series, you'll appreciate the familiarity, but the new car smell won't be as pungent or last quite as long.

Better than the sum of its parts, Diablo 3 manages to walk the thin red line between familiar and contemporary. The minions of hell may be endless, but there will always be those to answer the call of heroes. There's a sense of togetherness here, as even questing solo, you aren't really alone. With the push of a button you can join others on their journeys to defeat evil, in a land thick with danger and overflowing with treasures, that suddenly doesn't seem so far away.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Allicrombie reviewed Diablo III for the PC..." was posted by Allicrombie on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:21:52 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/diablo-iii/user-reviews/803474/platform/pc/ Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:08:31 -0700 GeekyDad reviewed Resident Evil 6 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-6/user-reviews/802241/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Man, did this game turn out a whole lot differently than I (and many like me) thought it would. When the first trailers hit earlier this year, the appearance of Leon and the darker tone promised a return to the Resident Evil roots – you know, survival horror and all that? For better or worse, that's not really what we get here at all. Well, there are hints and whiffs of intensity, but most of that is born from frustration with some seriously flawed game design. In any event, the game has managed to grow on me in spite of major disappointment.

I'd rather not bore you with the game's premise. You can look all that up on your own if you're not already versed on the setting(s) of Resident Evil 6 (RE6). You'll play through three main campaigns – Leon and Helena, Chris and Piers, and Jake (Wesker's son) and Sherry (you know, the kid from RE2) – plus (the worst kept secret in gaming history) Ada's campaign, unlocked after completing the other three stories.

There's a lot of game here for sure, though Mercenaries out of the box is pretty paltry, with a mere three maps (without pre-order content) to choose from. I think it took me roughly 25 hours to complete the first three campaigns, and Ada's, though much shorter than the others, is packed with a lot of interesting gameplay devices and sequences.

However, all of the campaigns are a mishmash of good, bad, and seriously ugly gameplay. Leon's campaign starts out feeling a bit like Left 4 Dead and ends up stuck in a Kane & Lynch rut toward the end. Chris and Piers go for a decidedly more Gears of War approach, and though there are some excellent boss moments, it too is rife with technical and design issues. Jake's story, though not exempt from a few poor design decisions, somehow manages to feel like the most cohesive and complete action game of the three.

All three of the campaigns have some wonderful high points, as well as moments that make you want to pull your hair out. Most of the moment-to-moment gameplay is quite satisfying, but the cheap deaths are overdone – way overdone. The quick-time events (QTEs) are a huge source of frustration throughout the entire experience, particularly one that requires you to jiggle the left stick to the point where it feels like it's going to tear off your controller. Other QTEs are actually kind of fun, but the mechanic should have been used more sparingly.

Far too often, these QTEs come at you when you least expect them, or there's simply no indication as to what you're meant do next. Sure, there was a taste of this even back in RE4, but the developers of this game seem to have misinterpreted the intent of these devices.

It's also frustrating, especially in Mercenaries mode, when you're supposedly locked into a coup de grace animation and a zombie/enemy manages to get up and walk away. This happens a lot, and it can make getting high scores in Mercs the wrong kind of challenge, as well as holding onto ammo in the campaigns particularly difficult.

Mainly, it's the schizophrenic pacing and lack of identity that make RE6 such a disappointing experience. There are almost no puzzles in the main game, and the ones that are present are pretty much solved for you by a waypoint indicator that constantly stays onscreen. Ada's second chapter is probably the best we get in terms of not having your hand held the whole time, but even here you're forced to replay a large chunk of game you previously played in Leon's campaign.

In spite of my many complaints – and I do have many other things I could nitpick – the package as a whole is still quite loveable. I love being able to play almost the entire game with another player in a style that isn't as restrictive as it was in RE5 (much of the touch-and-go gameplay feels like Left 4 Dead, focused more on cooperative travel, rather than dramatic sequences). I love that the partner A.I. in this game is actually helpful and doesn't suck your inventory dry. I love the new mechanics and the camera system, even though they felt completely foreign to me at first. And I love how challenging the Mercenaries mode is, since there are so many new things to learn and relearn – many animations can now be broken (purposely) by enemy attacks.

It's a shame, though, Capcom still feel the need to try and gouge us by holding back many of the Mercs maps we already know exist in hopes of selling them to us later down the road as DLC. Had the main game been better, perhaps I wouldn't feel cheated. But three maps in a $60 package that doesn't even include a printed instruction manual (that's right, and there isn't even one in-game – you have to go online and download a PDF if you want complete gameplay instructions) is not cool at all. Capcom have been getting worse and worse about this sort of thing over the last four or five years, and it reeks especially badly in this case because the game itself isn't up to their otherwise high standards.

As a sort of aside, Ada's campaign is perhaps the ideal example of what this game represents. It's all over the place in terms of gameplay and design. One minute you're required to use stealth to make your way through a level, and the next you're stuck in these old-style, fixed-camera scenes that are finicky beyond belief. They threw out storage containers and safe rooms – things that made sense – and kept out-of-date gameplay mechanics most of us can agree have no place in a modern adventure. Yet, Ada's second chapter is perhaps the most enjoyable segment of the entire game. Again, RE6 just flails all over the place when it comes to quality.

Though it may have lost a sense of direction, one thing Resident Evil hasn't lost is its sense of humor. There are some great Easter eggs to experience and lots of fantastic music that stews together with the rest of the game in an oddly endearing way. The dialogue can be cheesy, hammy, and the plot devices spammy, but there are almost as many memorable lines of dialogue here as there ever were in past numbered RE games.

Visually, the game is extremely attractive and runs totally smooth. I can't think of a single moment when I experienced slowdown. There are, of course, going to be lag issues when playing online, but matchmaking does a fairly decent job showing you which players are viable options to hook up with. RE6 has amazing lighting, superb set pieces, and loads of environmental detail.

The audio is powerful and perfectly matched with the gameplay and cutscenes onscreen, though you may never actually stop to think about it all that much. The orchestral scores are subtle and refined, and the sounds of bashing zombie skulls are, oh, so satisfying (yes, there are actual zombies in this particular Resident Evil game).

One other cool but somewhat disappointing feature is RE.net, a website designed specifically to interact with the game. In theory, you link your progress in the game to the website and earn RE points, which can be spent on virtual goods on the site. The selection ranges from new palette swaps for Mercs costumes, to dioramas and wallpapers. There are also regular online events where high-score players (though hackers have already invaded the leaderboards) can earn substantial winnings.

The site, in execution, is less than perfect, though. You constantly have to re-link your console account to your site account, and updates are incredibly slow. It's still a cool addition, though, and something that should pad the longevity of the game if they can iron out the technical issues.

Hopefully, Capcom will iron out the game's issues as well. There are supposed to be free updates that unlock a co-op option for Ada's campaign, but really, what we need right now is new, free Mercs content (Update: today Capcom announced a fix for the camera, which is due out in mid-December). I'll gladly pay for additional story DLC, but for what I paid, RE6 has yet to fully live up to its end of the bargain. I love it for what it is, but it disappoints me for what it isn't. It isn't a fully realized Resident Evil game; it isn't a good value for the money (don't let the length of the game fool you – longer doesn't always equal better); and even as an action game, it isn't quite ready for primetime. RE6 holds on to archaic design whilst scrapping things from the series that actually worked. And in some places, RE6 even feels unfinished.

In this instance, Capcom is like a really busy parent that wanted so badly to please their child but is so out of touch with what that child wants, it gave them something it had almost no interest in. The effort is appreciated, but instead of trying to "buy" our love, why not simply listen to us. I'm far from ready to give up on this franchise, but this isn't a fully baked cake, that's for sure.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"GeekyDad reviewed Resident Evil 6 for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by GeekyDad on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:08:31 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-6/user-reviews/802241/platform/ps3/ Thu, 09 Aug 2012 13:01:00 -0700 GeekyDad reviewed Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions-2011/user-reviews/798403/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Where to begin with this game? It's a fairly old tale for video games at this point, and I did initially give it a whirl on PSP, but the slowdown inherent in that version was a turn-off. Of course, after falling in love with Covenant of the Plume at the time, nothing was going to compare anyway. Give me enough time, though, and I'll grow hungry once again for more strategy gameplay.

I'm so glad I finally had a reason to go back to this game. The iOS platform has many great apps, but deep SRPG adventures it's surely lacking in. The price tag is pretty hefty as well, but at least with Square you know you're getting a high level of quality.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions (FFT) on iOS takes some getting used to, as the controls and camera can be finicky. The text is small, making it easy to click on the wrong menu selections, and you'll need to switch out camera options when wanting to change from moving the camera over the map to merely turning its perspective.

The gameplay also has a few archaic remnants that can be difficult to reconcile, most notably the inability to undo moves; once you move a unit, you're locked in to that move. It might seem a small gripe, but it makes plotting ranged actions more tedious, and the camera being what it is, you can often find yourself misaligned with targets.

In spite of these complaints, FFT is still utterly consuming. The job system is addictive, and this particular translation of the game offers – bar none – the very best story in the Final Fantasy franchise.

Though I absolutely adored FFT A2 for the Nintendo DS, the original game weaves a much more complex and dark tale, complete with realistic relationships between characters. Murder, deception, and folly are the order of the day, but the game doesn't overdo it with just a single emotional note. In my 30+ years of gaming, this might be the very best story I've experienced in a video game to date.

Visually, I think the game still looks fantastic, though the colors are a bit washed out. The sprite design is detailed and varied, and the polygonal battlefields often look like water-color paintings. Unfortunately, the game does experience slowdown during spell animations, but turning off the ally/enemy indicators helps alleviate some of that. Some sound effects – especially those that accompany the over-the-top summons – sound a bit out of date and are rough on the ears, but the soundtrack is phenomenal. Many themes are reminiscent of the older PSX Resident Evil games, while others have a lilt and lightness you can never grow old of. It's an incredibly well-rounded product, both in terms of presentation and gameplay. The cutscenes are simply gorgeous.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions comes to iOS less than perfect, but it's still an amazing adventure that has easily withstood the test of time. In the many years after its inception, nothing bests it in terms of story, and aside from a few out-of-date mechanics, the gameplay is still the best this genre has to offer. For the asking price, you cannot do better than this.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-tactics-the-war-of-the-lions-2011/user-reviews/798403/platform/iphone/ Sun, 05 Aug 2012 15:11:53 -0700 c_rake reviewed LIMBO for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/limbo/user-reviews/798249/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 5.0.

Limbo is a love/hate experience. It casts a brilliant, haunting atmosphere thick with tension and horror against an empty though thought-provoking narrative of a boy in search of his sister. The trials he faces are threatening, but also cheap and frustrating for basing each one around its gimmicky death animations.

It begins with the boy awaking in a dark forest. How he ended up here is left to the imagination. Perhaps he's dead, now walking the dangerous road to the afterlife. Or maybe fell unconscious in his pursuit for the girl, either from exhaustion or a plain ol' knock on the head.

A long journey awaits, taking him through the wilderness to factories and back again, eventually touching suburbia briefly. What few residents remain, aside from the massive arachnids, in the old and abandoned locales are inhospitable, attempting to scare the child through meager means, even attack if pushed far enough. Who they are is, again, left to the imagination.

The world is a dark place. Bear traps and electrified beams bar the way forward, constant nuisances as they become increasingly clever in their placement. Grisly deaths accompany each near-scripted failure, the boy being impaled, sliced, and hacked to pieces in myriad ways, each kill worse than the last. Well-timed audio-cues elicit a few jump-scares and make the place feel unnerving. Obsession with the gruesome, however, loses value soon after the first few missteps, annoyance taking its place.

The first couple hours are the most guilty. You run forward, taking in the sights, vaunting over obstacles until you meet your end at the hands of some surprise trap. Climb atop a log and it'll cause a bolder to crush you, but not before you've moved too far to escape. Grab onto a rope and a bear trap will fall on you, a split-second evasion your only hope at survival. You're practically forced to fail before you can even attempt to succeed because the hazards are so poorly telegraphed.

The slow movement of the child compounds the problem, making carefully timed leaps – a regular occurrence in the latter half – an impossibility. He's only capable of so much, being a kid and all. Yet developer Playdead expects him to act as a nimble athlete. Swift action lies outside the game's boundaries, but a good number of hurdles demand it, regardless. To dash across absent electrified beams as a cart steadily rolls toward the activation button mounted on a wall, for instance, the kid's jog never fast enough. Victory hinges on luck, in such cases -- trial and error at its worst. You can't simple find a solution; you have to execute it flawlessly.

With each cheap theatric, frustration takes over. The allure of the game's tone and style are forgotten, the sloppy design all that you think about, even when the game enhances its puzzles late in the game. The damage is already done. Too late for redemption, no matter how smart and clever traversal becomes.

Perhaps had the rest of the game followed the blueprint of its latter half, discarded the "look at this gnarly kill!" shtick early on, it would have been better. You can at least get a feel for what the puzzles ask of you before walking into them. Shame that such a small, seemingly insignificant decision would spell disaster.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"c_rake reviewed LIMBO for the PC..." was posted by c_rake on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 15:11:53 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/limbo/user-reviews/798249/platform/pc/ Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:43:46 -0700 Bozanimal reviewed Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/insanely-twisted-shadow-planet/user-reviews/798092/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (ITSP) opens with a full orchestral score, your flying saucer (and your planet, for that matter) under attack by an unknown alien organism that has infected a nearby star- and that infection is spreading. Naturally it falls to you to do what you can to save the planet. Starting with but a radar and the ship's hull to protect you, you take your personal space craft out into the wilds to save your planet.

Along the way you upgrade your vessel, solve puzzles, avoid and combat a variety of foes, and uncover secrets that include bonus video footage and concept art. Games for Windows LIVE is required for ITSP, so you will need an internet connection to play the game, including the single-player campaign.

For the most part ITSP is a very smooth game with modest system requirements. You interact with the game as you might any two-dimensional, side-scrolling platformer, minus the platforms. Your ship moves easily in 360 degrees, with accurate controls that have a great tactile feel. You aim your selected equipment with the mouse, be it scanner, blaster, missiles, or any of the nine different pieces of equipment you will come to unlock.

You'll need to explore the game to find them, though, and ITSP gives you a large world to investigate. The environments border on indescribable, taking you underwater, through giant machines, down corridors covered in tentacles and unidentifiable fleshy masses, and through icy caverns.

The 2D artwork is stunning, fully-rendered in the popular chunky animation that has become typical of shows like Samurai Jack, Clone Wars, and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, only much, much darker. If you took all those shows and dumped in a pot of Cthulu with a sprinkling of H.R. Giger, you'd get a pretty good idea of how you could take modern animation and twist it into something dark and foreboding.

And dark it is. While explicitly rendered in deep, solid colors, most of the world is rendered in multiple planes of silhouettes. So the foreground might be shadowy outline of grinding gears, the mid-ground where you reside comprising yourself and your enemies, and the background various animations following the theme of the section of the planet you are exploring, such as large machinery at work, only blurred slightly to give a sense of depth.

The music and sound effects are consistently perfect, punctuating every shot fired and accenting your ship when damaged with a sound not unlike a car that's just not running quite right. The Prague Philharmonic provides a full orchestral score and is absolutely wonderful, making the journey feel truly epic in scope ever step - or antigravity pulse, rather - of the way.

And when you hit a boss you know it. The bosses are big, scary, and a bit mysterious. Each has its own pattern of attack that is both fun to discover and that, once deciphered, makes the encounter an enjoyable exercise in skill. After each boss you feel a bit like David toppling Goliath.

All that said, ITSP is not without its faults. The game uses automatic checkpoints for saving progress at key points. The problem here is that it makes many problems and encounters trivial, since when your ship is destroyed you appear a short distance away at full health, any encounter in progress reset. This trivializes a lot of encounters, removing what might otherwise be tense moments were you to run out of lives or lose power-ups.

Further, I observed a bug during the final encounter where damage to the boss failed to register. This was remedied by a quick restart from the most recently saved game, but did momentarily stall the momentum of the game and suspension of disbelief.

Lastly, the game will sometimes challenge your patience with its controls. The "control arm" does not always grab items in the way that you would think, and running the remote-controlled missiles through a narrow gauntlet often tries your patience more than your skills. Still, when you do complete these mini-tasks there is a certain satisfaction to be had known you overcame these design quirks.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is fairly easy with only one difficulty setting, and should take about seven to eight hours to complete if you hunt after every power-up and backtrack for extras like semi-hidden Concept Art collectibles. There are two multiplayer modes, but the single-player campaign is the real draw here, and is a wonderful experience for anyone that enjoys exploring, collecting powerful weapons, and epic boss battles.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Bozanimal reviewed Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet for the PC..." was posted by Bozanimal on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:43:46 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/insanely-twisted-shadow-planet/user-reviews/798092/platform/pc/ Sun, 29 Jul 2012 12:52:58 -0700 gbrading reviewed L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/l-a-noire-the-complete-edition/user-reviews/797958/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

The late 1940's are such a fascinating period of modern history. The Second World War was over and most of the soldiers who survived the horrors of the conflict had returned home to their families, but there was still unease in the air, not least because the Cold War was just beginning to hot up. The Second Red Scare in the form of McCarthyism was taking root; with the trial of possible Soviet spy Alger Hiss in 1948 and the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating alleged Communist subversion in the Hollywood. In 1949, the Soviet Union would test their first atomic bomb, plunging it and the United States into both the Arms Race and the Space Race. But alongside these weighty political and worldly affairs, the late 40's were also a time of great prosperity in America. After being the centre of the Allied arms manufacturing during the war the American economy was booming. For the first time, families could afford to buy a house, a car and even a refrigerator. In particular, the growth of the automobile shot up after the war. The car, alongside television, is certainly one of the most important inventions of the last 150 years. It stands for personal mobility and independence: The ability to drive wherever you like whenever you want, with the world at your feet. Advertisements on radio, television and newspapers showed Norman Rockwell-esque wholesome images of well-fed, healthy people driving down neat streets with white-picket fences, fully embracing the long-sought after American Dream. It is directly into this heady, interesting and dynamic world you are plunged within L.A. Noire, an adventure game with action elements from Team Bondi, published by Grand Theft Auto makers Rockstar Games. L.A. Noire is unlike any game you have ever played before, and I would go so far as to say you are unlikely to play a game quite like it ever again. While there are several elements which occasionally hamper your immersion and enjoyment, overall this is one of the finest narratives video gaming has ever produced and you owe it to yourself to experience what L.A. Noire has on offer.

The setup is interesting enough. You play as Cole Phelps; a former US Marine turned Police Detective who was awarded the Silver Star during the war for his heroism during the Battle of Okinawa. Returning from active combat he got a job as a Police Officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, and most of the game consists of following Cole's progression up through the ranks of the LAPD policing the mean streets of L.A. You start on Patrol and are soon promoted to Detective, working your way across several different crime desks covering everything from Traffic cases to Homicide and Arson. Phelps is a straight man who plays everything by the book and whilst he believes firmly in the rule of law, that doesn't mean he isn't willing to bend a few rules if it means getting to the truth. Indeed, this is partly what makes him such an interesting character. Throughout your journey you encounter an absolutely huge cast of supporting characters, the size of which wouldn't be out of place in a Hollywood blockbuster, all of whom are interesting and unique in their own right. The plot if L.A. Noire is certainly its biggest strength, feeling richly detailed and defined. The way the game progresses is in episode format, so each individual case is self-contained but forms part of the over-arching narrative which spans all case desks. This means that it is a game which can be played in bite-size chunks, but can also be played over longer periods if desired and thus has quite an addictive nature about it. The acting from every front is superb and thanks to the second-to-none facial animations, you can actually see the emotion in the actor themselves, and not simply hear it in their voice as in most video games. My only criticism with the plot would be that the very, very end of the game is rather anti-climactic and doesn't resolve things properly, but the path leading there is immensely enjoyable. Truly, if you value story in a video game it doesn't get much better than this.

Gameplay mainly consists of police procedural work. You will normally be given a case and then need to drive out to the crime scene with your partner to investigate. The crime scene will usually have a number of clues scattered around which you must look at and manipulate, which Cole will then respond to. This will help to fill in different aspects of the crime committed and allow you to start to piece together what happened. When examining a clue, you often have to physically manipulate it by moving your mouse around until the view zooms it to examine a part of the object, to which Cole will then make an observation. It's a simple technique but a surprisingly good one, which helps to put you in Cole's shoes and make it feel like you are examining the evidence yourself, rather than just accepting what is given at face value. After gathering preliminary evidence and, if there is a dead body, listening to what Coroner Malcolm Carruthers has to say, it's time to interview the witnesses. During interviews you have a list of questions to ask the suspect, to which you then must ascertain whether they are telling the truth or if they are lying. Thanks to the incredible facial animations, it is normally quite easy to guess when something is lying due to their facial mannerisms or the way their eyes move, although as you progress through the game people will get progressively more adept at lying or planting false leads.

Alongside the interviewing, crime scene investigations and clue examining, there are also the Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar Games staples of driving and shooting. Both of these are executed in a very similar manner to GTA, but the emphasis rests in different places. Most notably, here you are on the right side of the law, so doing anything illegal will detract from your case rating and may stop the investigation all together. So although you can drive like a maniac around Los Angeles smashing into everything you can see and trying to run over the pedestrians, it isn't advisable if you want to get a good score. Similarly, most of the time when walking around the city, Cole doesn't have any weaponry and doesn't pull out his gun unless the situation calls for it. If you shoot a civilian or fellow police officer it's game over and you'll need to restart from the last checkpoint. GTA this is not. Shooting sequences are satisfying and the period weaponry Phelps has access to packs quite a punch. Getting into and out of cover is handled in the same way as in GTA IV, so you stick to the side of cars and can shimmy around before firing out around the side or over the top. Driving also feels similar to GTA IV in that most cars have quite floaty handling, but this means you can do some very impressive cornering during a high speed chase. Possibly the most interesting thing about the shooting and driving sections of the game is that if you fail them a couple of times, you're given the option to skip them entirely. This is a great option to have included, which means that people who just want to see the story through but aren't good at shooting can enjoy the game as well.

The Los Angeles of 1947 is easily, by and far the most detailed digital representation of a city ever created in a video game. For one thing, the area covered is vast, covering eight square miles and ranging from Downtown LA in the east to the glitzy realm of Hollywood in the west. The attention to detail in the recreation of period Los Angeles is obsessive almost to the extreme. A perfect example is Union Station, where the entire interior concourse has been fastidiously recreated, yet you visit it perhaps only once in the game. Whole other buildings with interiors are lurking in the city which you may never go inside during the course of your playthrough and as far as I can tell, the whole district of Chinatown isn't visited at all. Almost all landmark buildings which were standing in 1947 have been incorporated (including many of which are not labelled on the map, such as the Hall of Justice or the LA Stock Exchange), and the street plans accurately mirror those of real life LA. Hundreds of other buildings have their own unique signage and advertisements, which you wouldn't notice unless you drove by slowly or wandered around on foot. Aside from one or two inaccuracies taken for the sake of artistic license (for example, the set of D.W. Griffiths' 1916 silent epic "Intolerance" was actually torn down in 1919, but in the game it is still standing), LA feels like a living and vibrant city where it is a joy simply to drive around admiring the scenery.

When it comes to sound, on the voice acting front I would be the first to recommend L.A. Noire for an Academy Award. Considering the complicated facial capture that when into creating emotive and believable faces for all the characters, this can perhaps be considered the first game where the actors haven't simply voice-acted, but acted in person. Kudos must naturally go to Aaron Staton for his portrayal of Phelps, as well as many of his fellow cast members from the TV show Mad Men. There are only one or two minor characters who can't quite act as convincingly, but generally speaking you can see the emotion in the character's eyes when one is told that his wife was murdered for example. Solidifying the sense of presence the game establishes so masterfully is the horn-laden orchestral score, which sounds right out of a James Cagney film, and the in-game radio station KTI. Unlike the GTA games, L.A. Noire only has one radio station, and its content is not overtly humorous. Instead, it intersperses genuine radio programmes of the era (such as the sitcom The Bickersons or The Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show), as well as news bulletins featuring clips from stories which were hitting the headlines at the time (including a speech from President Truman). Although the announcer and KTI itself was created for the game, the old-time sound quality merges seamlessly with the genuine radio elements, and the faux adverts for products like Cola King and Alaco Gasoline could easily be believed to be real. Throw in some period songs and you have a typical authentic 40's era radio station, and that is utterly marvellous.

If I had to level criticisms at L.A. Noire, they would be incredibly minor ones. Considering there is a functioning Pacific Electric Tramway system operating around virtual LA, it's a disappointment that you can't actually use it. The same can also be said of the complicated bus system, which have a number of terminals dotted around the city and which you go to in a couple of missions. This is merely me talking as a role-player though, only because I want to feel like I'm in Phelps shoes. There is also a big narrative jump in pacing between the Homicide and Vice desks, but that may be because the integral plot of the Homicide desk is so strong that it's difficult for Vice and the cases following it to live up to expectations. When you consider that two whole investigation desks (Burglary and Bunco) were removed from the game when development time was running out, you can see that Team Bondi originally planned the game to be even longer, and this is already an epic length game to begin with. In terms of the quality of the PC port, there are no problems to speak of. The game runs smoothly aside from a couple of hiccups here and there, and there is a plethora of options to either tune up or tone down the graphical settings to your whim.

When it all comes to it, the thing which really makes me adore L.A. Noire is its fastidious attention to detail. A perfect example is that during one case, Phelps is on his way to interview a witness and is in the car chatting to his current partner, Rusty Galloway. Rusty casually mentions to Phelps whether he has heard the news of what's happening in the China: The Chinese have been selling off the food aid the US has been sending. Phelps says he has, and that the Chinese are selling the food aid because they're trying to fund the war against the Communists. Phelps mentions that armies still need food to fight wars though, and remarks that he thinks the Communists will win because the ordinary people going hungry will turn against the government. This indeed does happen in 1949, when the Chinese Communist Party overthrew the Kuomintang and forced the nationalists to flee to Taiwan. This small conversation, which happens just once during the game, perfectly encapsulates the central issue of the Chinese Civil War whilst also being a character-building moment for Rusty and Phelps. L.A. Noire is stuffed full of such moments, and this is a big part of what makes it such a joy to play through. There probably will never be another game quite like L.A. Noire, but goodness knows I sure hope there will be.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"gbrading reviewed L.A. Noire: The Complete Edition for the PC..." was posted by gbrading on Sun, 29 Jul 2012 12:52:58 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/l-a-noire-the-complete-edition/user-reviews/797958/platform/pc/ Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:27:22 -0700 Bozanimal reviewed Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/superbrothers-sword-and-sworcery-ep/user-reviews/795671/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 4.0.

Superbrothers: Swords & Sworcery EP (S:S&SEP) is a unique take on the adventure genre. Your avatar is the Scythian, a Monk sent to complete "a woeful errand." At its core, you must steal and destroy a powerful, evil artifact. Along the way you are given three identical sub-quests that comprise the bulk of S:S&SEP: Uncovering and mastering the "trigons" of power, a clear tongue-in-cheek reference to the Triforce (of Zelda fame).

As it happens, everything about the game is tongue-in-cheek, and S:S&SEP often gets lost in its own witticisms. Like someone that laughs at their own jokes, it finds itself so clever that the developer felt it necessary to integrate Twitter functionality so that you might Tweet its script at any time. You will either find this whimsical and cute or insufferably pretentious.

This is not to say that the narrative is lost or the game unplayable. You are compelled to move forward due to the pressing nature of your quest. Your woeful errand takes you through ancient ruins, dark forests, across a vast ocean, to the top of a mountain, and even into the heart of a gigantic tree. You will feel as though you are on an adventure in a strange land, with rolling waterfalls, arcing rainbows, thundering storms, and woodland creatures grazing in the forest that scamper away at your approach. Then - without warning - an evil spirit appears and threatens to cut-short your adventure. It gives the game an edge and presses the player onward. Capybara Games does an excellent job of creating an alternate world. If only it all weren't so blurry.

The feeling is akin to looking through a lens out-of-focus. It's pixelart, meant to evoke nostalgia for the Atari and 8-bit eras, but the Scythian's hands look like potatoes. It's often hard to tell what is happening at all.When she performs her "Sworcery" is she holding two candles? Are those her fingers? Who knows; the chunky, pixelated art is a deliberate design choice and something gamers will ultimately think wonderful or annoying.

The score is just the opposite of S:S&SEP's visual art direction: Focused and clear, compelling and moving, atmospheric and haunting. Every chase scene, dream sequence, and boss battle are given weight and tension by Musician Jim Guthrie's score. Guthrie plays a supporting role in-game as well, both figuratively and literally, which is difficult to describe without spoiling later sections of the game. Suffice to say, you will either smile to yourself at its randomness, or roll your eyes at its "look, I'm so clever!" quirkiness.

While many of the aesthetic decisions are something loved or hated, the PC controls are decidedly annoying. S:S&SEP is point-and-click, and not in a quaint, Sierra Quest adventure game way, but in a adapted from a tablet way. You click, double-click, or click and hold to do everything in the game. If you need to move somewhere you click twice, or hold down the left-mouse button and the Scythian follows your cursor. You click on object environmentals to interact with them. Clicking a bush or tree causes leaves to rustle, the water in the lake to splash, or a sheep to look up from its grazing.

It's impossible to miss that S:S&SEP is ported from a touch-screen device, as a result. Many puzzles require that you "rub" and "touch." Combat involves clicking on one of two buttons that would be much more intuitive on a tablet, or if commands had been mapped to actual keyboard buttons. In fact, S:S&SEP might be the first game where you lament the lack of a touch-screen because it would be so much more intuitive.

Despite some annoying control decisions, the puzzles are all relatively easy to solve. If you stumble, have difficulty determining which way to go, or fail at a particular combat juncture, the game provides a narrative to guide the player. There are, however, times when the game provides zero guidance at certain critical junctures, or where its too clever for itself and the clue is lost in the game's own humor.

There are other times S:S&SEP's wit not only feels forced, but interferes with progression. The game is impossible to complete in a single sitting because it is artificially gated by the phases of the moon in the real world. In order to progress the player must wait until either the moon is in the proper phase or manually adjust their computer's clock, in which case the game becomes impossible to "complete," meaning a 100% completion rate as measure by the game itself.

If every annoyance and complaint were instead a more subtle accent to its narrative, S:S&SEP would indeed be mirthful. Instead, its overbearing quirkiness becomes more forced than a Zooey Deschanel sitcom. A giant record looms in the sky for no particular reason. An unidentifiable creature is dancing naked in the woods. A dog gives you directions.

Further, you have to backtrack frequently because, though the narrative is straightforward if you knew where you had to go next, it is not often clear to where you are supposed to be headed. The game provides hints, but the hints are often designed to be clever- but not necessarily clever to the gamer so much as the creator. This might not be so bad if your character could instantly move or even run from screen entrance to exit, but you are forced to watch the Scythian powerwalk from one side of the screen to another, even though you might need to be several screens away to progress. There will often be no change in scenery or combat to break up the extended stroll, either.

All of this compounds to make S:S&SEP an ugly, pretentious, "I'm so funny and clever," exercise in poorly adapted controls and muddy graphics for the sake of art and silliness. The adventure has whimsy, certainly, but it is difficult to forgive all its shortcomings in order to enjoy yourself.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Bozanimal reviewed Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for the PC..." was posted by Bozanimal on Mon, 11 Jun 2012 13:27:22 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/superbrothers-sword-and-sworcery-ep/user-reviews/795671/platform/pc/ Fri, 04 May 2012 06:00:24 -0700 GeekyDad reviewed Waking Mars for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/waking-mars/user-reviews/793068/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Waited for the sale before jumping onto this one, but I had my eye on it since it was first announced. I knew the game would be interesting, but man, I wasn't expecting to be quite this impressed.

In many ways, Waking Mars is one of those games I've been waiting my whole life for. Like Animal Crossing or LostWinds, the focus isn't on killing stuff; it's a true role-playing game, one that immerses you in an experience based on science and imagination.

You play as an astronaut exploring the caves of Mars, and your discovery of organic life leads to an incredibly engrossing adventure that constantly keeps you glued to your touch screen. However, the actual gameplay focuses on...well, farming of sorts.

You'll need to capture seeds from existing plant-like life in order to grow more plants that will cause biological reactions to organic gateways that block your path to further investigation. The premise is quite simple, but the different plant life and how it behaves and reacts will force you to use your ingenuity in fun and clever ways.

The game is both fascinating and fun, as well as beautiful and dangerous. Though there are no shootouts with Halo-esque aliens, there are other dangers you'll need to be weary of.

Unfortunately, dying offers no real obstacle or punishment, which can take a bit of the edge off of exploration. Luckily, the game's real challenge comes from figuring out how to progress, rather than staying alive, and the story is incredibly well written.

Waking Mars is also amazingly gorgeous, both visually and aurally. There is a realistic beauty to this game's version of Mars that is wonderful to discover, and the music and ambient noises are unbelievably atmospheric.

Personally, I can't recommend Waking Mars enough. I can see how it wouldn't necessarily be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're looking for a true adventure that doesn't rely on constant shooting (or any shooting at all, actually), then you owe it to yourself to nab this iOS masterpiece. The controls can take getting used to and I wish dying came with a steeper penalty, but those minor quibbles aside, this is absolutely my Game of the Year so far for 2012.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"GeekyDad reviewed Waking Mars for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by GeekyDad on Fri, 04 May 2012 06:00:24 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/waking-mars/user-reviews/793068/platform/iphone/ Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:02:42 -0700 c_rake reviewed Serious Sam: The Random Encounter for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/serious-sam-the-random-encounter/user-reviews/791642/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Man, this game is hard.

Thousands of enemies, all clustered together, rush forward. Three muscular men, evenly spaced apart between each other, run backward, attacking the approaching alien forces while deftly weaving through onslaughts of gunfire. Their range of movement is limited, however, able to shift only a few steps up and down. So you take the brunt of the enemy fire, it whittling your party's heath and armor down to zero steadily.

Damn, this game is hard.

You die. You try again, and die again. You try again, and this time succeed. Then you face another hoard and die in seconds, exhausting your continues.

GOD DAMMIT! This game... so hard. So mean. And then you pick yourself up and try yet again.

That's Serious Sam: The Random Encounter in a nutshell. Vlambeer's effort in last year's Serious Sam Indie Series combines the hectic, overwhelming action of the shooters with a turn-based battle system with minor interactivity. It's a weird but successful concept, blending the two gameplay types brilliantly and intelligently.

The premise is simple: you're Sam. Sam is a on a mission to eradicate the alien forces of Mental. Sam fights Mental in the past and future, because for some reason, the aliens can perform time travel. So Sam chases them through time, shooting them en mass wherever they may be, this case being the future. Along the way in this particular mission, you find a couple of allies. Specifically, a cowboy and a dude with an afro dressed in a pink leotard... or something like that. Their goal: Shoot Mental in the face.

You and your cohorts move through nine desert-themed stages fighting through Mental's seemingly endless armies at random intervals. Battle is a mixture of turn-based and real-time action. Every five seconds you get set orders, such as the weapon each character is using (you can choose from such guns as a rocket launcher, a laser rifle, a minigun, and a shotgun) and the line of fire. Once set, the game starts moving. Enemies advance from the left while you dodge them by moving up and down on the right side of the field. At first, avoiding damage is easy, as you only have one character. With the full party assembled, however, the movement range decreases drastically, meaning you can't just sustaining wounds entirely. No, instead you must endure, keeping a constant eye on your party's health and armor status to ensure no one is about to keel over.

It's important to keep your whole party active because a single loss can be the difference between triumph and failure. The game moves so quickly that any time spent not attacking gives the opposition the upper-hand. A single opening in your defense is all it takes for the hoard to overtake you. Your team doesn't last too long, either. All three have only a hundred hit-points and can have up to a hundred points of armor, which mitigates damage but drains quickly. You can't increase those values, however, as this isn't a full-on role-playing game. The most you can do is refill your health and armor as needed, but the items that do so a rare sight. All items are, in fact.

I mean, you pick up consumables frequently. It's just that you don't any one thing more than another. Healing supplies, armor refills, speed and damage boosts -- all arrive in small numbers. By the end you'll likely have only a handful of items combined.

Although that's just part of the fun. Having to conquer enormous waves of foes with limited supplies adds an extra tactical element. Because the attacks of enemies are seriously powerful, you're often placed in situations where items are the only way to victory. But at the same time, you have to conserve those items for the bosses, i.e, when you really, really need them. So you're placed in a constant conundrum: use them now to make the path to finish line easier, or hold on to them until the most dire circumstances arise?

Battles occur every one to three steps. The levels are small, not containing anything in the form of exploration save for a chest or two. It takes, at most ten minutes to complete a level, so it doesn't take long at all to get through Random Encounter. And, really, that's for the best. It's just long enough to demonstrate its idea, but not so long that it outstays its welcome.

There's an endless mode, as well, which, I imagine, speaks for itself and is unlocked by beating the story. I wouldn't know because, as of this writing, I still haven't finished the game because of that last god damn hellish boss and his impossible-to-kill lackeys. ARGH! Hate that guy.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter is a cool game. Like so many other genre-blends, it takes two completely different flavors and creates something new and great. Vlambeer has done an outstanding job converting the action of Serious Sam into a turn-based battle system. It's a bit on the short side, sure, but hey -- it's only $5. So if you're one to look at it from a hours-to-dollars perspective, it's well worth it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"c_rake reviewed Serious Sam: The Random Encounter for the PC..." was posted by c_rake on Sun, 08 Apr 2012 21:02:42 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/serious-sam-the-random-encounter/user-reviews/791642/platform/pc/ Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:30:06 -0700 Bozanimal reviewed Angry Birds for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/angry-birds/user-reviews/790398/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Angry Birds is a two-dimensional, turn-based slingshot game with some puzzle elements. In essence, you fling birds - which are indeed quite upset - at pigs that have stolen their eggs. You win if you kill all the pigs before you run out of birds. The more birds you have left, the better your score.

Developer of Angry Birds Rovio was first established under another name in 2003 by a group of Finnish students for the purpose of developing games for mobile platforms. The firm muddled along until 2009 when it released Angry Birds, which has since become something of a modern-day fad. Angry Birds has sold about 12 million copies, and has reportedly been downloaded over 500 million times, and counting. By comparison, Super Mario Brothers 3 sold 18 million copies, The Sims 16 million, and the original Halo sold eight million copies.

It is easy to see why Angry Birds is so popular: With one finger you control trajectory and velocity of the bird, activate special abilities, and rain avian death on the villainous swine. Though the birds are ill-tempered, the artwork is bright and cheerful, and the sound cues are great: Birds mutter angrily, pigs snort, and it's all very cute. The game has no language barrier, no learning curve, and is immediately engaging. You can pick it up and bang out one or one-hundred levels and feel satisfied. Anyone of any age can play: Even my three-year olds (granted, they can also play a mean Mario Kart Wii).

The difficulty is just right, as well. A stage might confound you for a dozen attempts until you get the trajectory and timing just right, and nail it. The difficulty also ramps up with progression, as you gain access to birds with additional abilities, and the obstacles placed between you and your bird-friends become more complex.

Despite its endearing qualities, Angry Birds is still fairly shallow. Older gamers might remember the multiplayer "Tank Wars," a turn-based artillery game from the early 1990's. Angry Birds is almost the same game, except it is single-player-only with a new coat of paint. Or you might consider Worms, the popular turn-based, projectile trajectory title that was and continues to be quite popular. Only Worms has more variety in its maps, arsenal, and multiplayer capabilities. As a result, it is surprising that Angry Birds has no multiplayer component given its basic premise and multiple existing templates on which to model, especially considering it was initially designed for connected, mobile devices.

Further, while you do gain access to additional bird types that emulate remote-detonated bombs, cluster bombs, and bunker busters, it is still very limited even once you've unlocked most of the stages compared to other titles in its genre.

Angry Birds has a lot going for it, and there is no denying both its charms and subsequent popularity, but considering the story is nonexistent, there is no multiplayer gameplay, the existing gameplay is repetitive, and its lack of originality, it's difficult to understand why it became as popular as it did for what is, at the end of the day, a fun - if average - game.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Bozanimal reviewed Angry Birds for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by Bozanimal on Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:30:06 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/angry-birds/user-reviews/790398/platform/iphone/ Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:01:05 -0800 GeekyDad reviewed Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-revelations/user-reviews/788612/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Just put the finishing touches on my first playthrough and I'm now well into my NG+ for the no-herb run. That right there should offer a clear indication of just how much I enjoyed the game, but let me detail exactly why–

I've been following Revelations closely like many of you – drooled over the screen shots, got hot and bothered by the demo included with Mercs 3D, and the second demo sealed the deal. This was obviously going to be the complete package, and the production values have an instant "wow" factor.

There is one thing, however, that, early on in the adventure, kinda stumped me. The Genesis scanner, which I envisioned adding another layer of gameplay depth on par with the Metroid Prime series, wasn't quite as fleshed out as I'd hoped it would be.

Instead of using the scanner to find out info on enemies – weaknesses perhaps – you're just scanning them to earn herbs/missions or scanning environments for hidden items. In a sense, it works a bit like the Riddler mini-game in Batman Arkham Asylum, and to that end, it's enjoyable. Though the design choice the developers opted for wasn't a game-breaker, I was concerned that perhaps the entire adventure was going to be watered down.

Luckily, that isn't the case here. The pacing of both the story and gameplay are tight and polished. Revelations isn't nearly as scary as the early Resident Evil games, but it's certainly more entertaining than what we've seen in the recent past.

What the game lacks in horror it makes up for in atmosphere. Revelations also introduces some pretty strong characters, one of whom you'll likely fall in love with before the end. The game's divided into episodes, which works great for 3DS, and each episode feels uniquely challenging.

At some point early on in the story there were some exchanges of dialogue that were pretty off-putting. I simply chocked that up to typical RE silliness. The actress who portrays the character Jessica delivers at least a few lines conspicuously bad. However, by the end, things that seemed a bit cheesy shine in a different light. The story is surprisingly nuanced and wound down a path I wasn't quite expecting. Pro tip: stick around after the end credits.

I took on the Normal mode for my first time through, and for the most part, Revelations was a very challenging game. There were quite a few segments that required multiple stabs, and often I would end an episode out of ammo, out of herbs, and seeing black and white. Oddly, though, the end of the game feels less harrowing, though the finale will absolutely give you a run for your money.

As a quick aside, I'd like to tally where I feel the game fell a bit short. As mentioned, I was a tad disappointed by the Genesis scanner, and there was also a fair bit of backtracking. I think most folks – myself included – were unhappy with the way Capcom tried to hide loads. When riding elevators or waiting for certain deck doors to open, the framerate suddenly dies. Of course, it's no big deal, since the game is actually loading during these moments, but it kind of kills the mood. It's also a shame there aren't any bona fide puzzles or riddles to solve.

Now, with all that being said, the game Capcom did opt to create is a fantastic adventure. Like RE4, Revelations might not be the Resident Evil game every fan was hoping for, but it's inarguably an excellent ride. There's tons of content to unlock and earn, either through Raid Mode or in the campaign, and the online co-op works quite smoothly. Raid Mode stages and equipment are doled out at a steady pace – there's always some incentive to keep you coming back for more.

The online isn't perfect, though. Occasionally, it's difficult to find rooms, and depending on your connection to the person you're matched with, you can experience quite a bit of lag. Most of my sessions have been enjoyable, but that's also dependent upon the community itself. There are a few trolls who will sit back and let you do all the work, and one stage in particular is inherently flawed.

There are a total of 20 Raid Mode stages, with one bonus stage called Ghost Ship. Ghost Ship is already somewhat infamous amongst the community, as it's generally used to farm missions. Each time you play co-op online, you receive a mission that can earn you some pretty fat loot. Unfortunately, Ghost Ship is designed in such a way as to allow players to end the stage early in order to farm these missions. In theory it's kind of a neat side effect, but folks who actually want to play through the stage – which can clock in at over 30 minutes a run – often end up getting the shaft. If you do ever manage to find someone to play through it with, Ghost Ship is an awesome, challenging gauntlet that could almost count as its own mode.

In spite of my complaints, Raid Mode is still a tremendous boon for RE fans. I won't say it's better than Mercs, but it definitely offers something more substantial to sink your teeth into. As you level up through play, you gain access to better weapons, perks, and other gear. There are also three difficulty settings, each unlocked consecutively. Unfortunately, there's no chat feature – which really, for an M-rated game, chat should be included as a basic function of online play. There are also occasions when doors that are supposed to open won't, likely due to extreme lag between players. In these instances, all you can do is quit out of the stage.

I have to give a special shoutout to the game's water levels. Not everyone is a fan of swimming gameplay in action-adventure games, but personally, I really enjoyed them here, and I've had lots of fun replaying them in Raid Mode. Though you're not working through puzzles or anything, the control of the characters in Revelations reminded me of Ninja Gaiden (Xbox). It takes a little getting used to at first, but there's a lot of cool stuff going on in the game's underwater sequences.

I won't bother commenting too much on the visuals, as they're obviously top of the heap. What you've seen in screenshots is pretty much what you get. The 3D effect is expertly executed, but to be honest, I turned it off by the second episode. I have a hard time keeping my system still, and I really just want to relax when I play the game.

The sound design is equally stellar, with some of the best soundtrack music I've heard in a good, long while. The main theme will quickly stick in your head, and the clarity is pristine – this is a game you'll want to experience with earbuds/headphones.

Resident Evil: Revelations has some design elements that aren't necessarily my cup of tea, but the package as a whole is amazing, nonetheless. I've been having such a great time with the game, both in campaign and playing Raid Mode. The story will keep you rapt from start to finish, and once you've completed the adventure, don't be surprised if all you want to do is start right back up again. There's a boatload of missions available to take on – a to-do list, if you will, to unlock an almost never-ending supply of goodies. Though the early 3DS line-up was kinda paltry (Mercs 3D included), Revelation is the real deal – the full Monty.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"GeekyDad reviewed Resident Evil: Revelations for the 3DS..." was posted by GeekyDad on Sun, 26 Feb 2012 08:01:05 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-revelations/user-reviews/788612/platform/3ds/ Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:52:28 -0800 c_rake reviewed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/user-reviews/788082/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

There's a moment I encountered early on in Skyrim that I think best encapsulates the craziness the fifth Elder Scrolls game is capable of.

I was walking along through a forested mountain ridge, heading off to one of the nine holds of the province. As I set off from my fast-travel destination -- a small wheelhouse by the river -- a roar erupts from above. A dragon arrived, seeking to make me its dinner.

So I pursue it till It lands on a slanted path just a little ways from the shack. I dash in and get a few good strikes in with my sword before the winged reptile takes off again briefly. I take this time to heal my wounds. My healing session is interrupted, however, by the sudden appearance of a couple of bandits.

"Great," I think. "Could they have possibly picked a worse time to show up?"

I move in to take them down. Only the mage gives me a bit of trouble. Just as I finish them off, the dragon lands. Again I turn my attention toward it and get some swings in. Only, this time, a bear arrives to join the fight. By the time I notice, however, I'm on the very verge of death. Just one hit-point remaining.... Through sheer luck, I manage to bring up my inventory and drink a few healing potions in time to keep going and slay the ursine menace.

"Whew! That was a close one," I thought. "Now I can focus on the dragon. Finally!"

Except not. Immediately following the bear-killing, ANOTHER bandit comes out of the woods, charging in, swinging his axe just after the dragon took to the skies again.

"Oh, come ON!" I scream. "Give me a break already!"

He doesn't take long to defeat, being just as much of a pushover as his fallen comrades. And then, finally -- FINALLY -- I can focus my attention on the dragon. On its last legs now, the best falls easily. I then move onward, reveling in my victory and wondering how the hell that all just happened.

* * * * *

Vignettes like the one above are what I find best distill the experience Skyrim harbors, because everyone's journey is completely unique. Everybody has some extraordinary anecdote or two to tell, as the game is constantly unpredictable. You could be taking a stroll through a mountain ridge when a burglar suddenly tries to mug you. Perhaps encounter a giant engaged in battle against a small troop of bandits while chasing after a dragon. Anything is possible. Literally. And it's that which makes Skyrim amazing.

Sure the vast open landscape and limitless quests are grand, and the sheer amount of work put into building the world and its lore is astounding. But the things that stick with you after you've long said your farewells to Skyrim (assuming you ever do) are the absurd, the epic, and the downright silly. The things that seemingly happen out-of-nowhere and end up being the most incredible experiences you have the pleasure of participating in; that is, the real set-piece moments.

Maybe it's a case where an NPC is somehow duplicating himself (which actually happened to me). Maybe a large-scale battle between a dragon and you, with the guard and townsfolk all supporting you. Or maybe it's a questionable reward from a quest (say, a human heart). Whatever it is, something unexpected is sure to occur and stay with you.

In a time where scripted set-pieces are what strive to be the most memorable scenes in today's games, something like Skyrim with its unpredictable nature is refreshing. Few are likely to have the same experience, whether it's the order one takes on quests in or the many events that occur at random. You just don't see that happen in games often. Many make such promises, but few deliver on them. Skyrim comes the closest yet to making good on that promise, and it's all the better for it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"c_rake reviewed The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by c_rake on Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:52:28 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/user-reviews/788082/platform/ps3/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:38:39 -0800 Bozanimal reviewed DragonVale for the iPhone/iPod... http://www.gamespot.com/dragonvale/user-reviews/787417/platform/iphone/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Dragonvale is one of the highest-grossing, most popular gaming apps on the iOS platform (which includes iPads, iPhones, etc.) as of February 2012, and it's easy to see why. The game is free, but you can pay real money for most any in-game item, including items that would otherwise be extremely rare. The game occurs in real-time, so certain events you would have to wait for can be accelerated by using "gems," most easily acquired with real money. Further, it can all be tied in to your Gamecenter and Facebook network, if you so choose, and there are tangible benefits to doing so, including the aforementioned gems.

You play the part of Dragon zookeeper. You maintain the park, construct buildings, feed dragons, monitor dragon eggs, breed the dragons, decorate the park, and keep the place clean. There is a huge variety of dragons and decorations to be had, though a fair bit of chance comes into play when breeding dragons, meaning what you get when you put a plant dragon with an earth dragon varies.

The game takes place in a 3/4 view of a flat, semi-circular, floating island that allows you sufficient space to build your first few habitats and buildings. A portal - through which visitors will come and go from your park - is already in place, but can be moved around. Dragonvale gives you a few "starter gems" to accelerate the construction of buildings and rapidly hatch dragon eggs at the outset. It is worth noting here that there are three types of currencies, each with different functions and all of which can be purchased with real money in large quantities. You will place and construct those initial buildings, and the dragons will begin to attract visitors. Each dragon draws a certain amount of gold per minute. Gold can be used to build additional structures, habitats, dragon eggs, and decorations. Different dragons earn gold at different rates, and each habitat has a "cap" on the maximum amount of gold it can hold at any time. Because all of this is done in real time there is a direct benefit to popping into the game frequently to clear out cash that has accumulated in each habitat, since it will not award additional cash beyond the cap.

Much like SimCity, Dragonvale is a sandbox game. It does not have a final goal, and you cannot "beat" the game. They joy is in acquiring new dragons and decorations, and using them to populate the landscape. There is great satisfaction to be had due to the time required to clear the landscape of obstacles and construct your world, as well as the wide variety of dragons and decorations with which you are rewarded as you gain experience, breed dragons, and acquire money.

You are given complete freedom to build meandering pathways lined with flowers and trees, and populate your exhibits with dragons that match thematically, such as earth and plant dragons. Or you can create highly efficient parks with wall-to-wall habitats. Or you can eschew taste for outlandish, contrasting decorations with volcanoes next to frozen mountains. The fun is in generating a unique park to call your own.

You can also visit parks of a friend or random players, if you so choose, and gift gems - for free - to other players. In this way it encourages players to recommend the game to friends, and to participate in the gem-giving activity since it generates additional gems. Gems are extremely valuable because they are the only way to acquire certain items and upgrade key buildings.

The artwork is also a wonderful, bright and cartoonish 2D imagining that feels somewhere between Disney and Six Flags. The dragons all have their own unique flavor, breathing fire or snow depending on their breed. You can zoom in to view park-goers, which include princesses and wandering wizards porting in and out to wander the park.

There are some misses, though. The game is unusually shallow. The game encourages player to explore the wide variety of dragon breeds and decorations in order to attract park visitors, but additional visitors have zero effect on the player. Whether every aspect of the park is piled atop one another without a road in site does not impact the amount of currency being earned. Park visitors neither benefit nor detract from the gaming experience, though they can look pretty near wandering around the landscape.

The player can place one dragon every 24 hours in a Colosseum match, with the potential reward of gems if the dragon does well - the only way to win gems exclusively inside the game. However, the outcome of the Colosseum matches are almost entirely random. A Fire Dragon might win a Cold event, or a Fire event. Higher level dragons might do better, but the results seem almost entirely random. For an event that has such a highly desirable currency this randomness, combined with a 24 hour restriction that also monopolizes the dragon (dragons in the Colosseum are not earning money since they are not on exhibit), makes the Colosseum a bit frustrating.

The music and sound effects are also repetitive and limited. A light-hearted medievel diddy plays in the background on eternal repeat, and little noises from the dragons are sparse relative to the sounds of gold clinking as you clean out the habitats (ka-ching!).

It is also almost too-easy to plunk down real-money accidentally, since the game ties into your account. Once you learn your way around the interface it's not a problem, but in the initial stages of learning your way around as a player it might seem as if almost every link points to a purchase.

That said the game is a great distraction and offers a cutesy, pleasant gaming experience for time-strapped gamers and bored travelers. You can pop-in and move a few exhibits around, collect your gold, and even build a couple decorations in the span of five minutes. Those actions can also yield tangible long-term benefits, making Dragonvale a rewarding game over the long term.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Bozanimal reviewed DragonVale for the iPhone/iPod..." was posted by Bozanimal on Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:38:39 -0800
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