frag_1's GameSpot Friend's Reviews frag_1's GameSpot Friend's Reviews frag_1's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Tue, 21 May 2013 03:51:42 -0700 GameSpot frag_1's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Sat, 13 Nov 2010 21:25:39 -0800 filaria reviewed Call of Duty: Black Ops for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-black-ops/user-reviews/744908/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

The game is broken in terms of performance outta the box, too much of stutter to even enjoy playing through it. The recent patch, which by the way came after gamespots review, reduced the stuttering somewhat.

Great story, overly cinematic moments, intense fast paced action, good visuals, great voice acting, guns sound whimpy, brutal n gory..


***SPOLIER ALERT***


Following pertains to the single player..
Treyarch did take some risks with the general CoD formula, some worked well some turned out to be half-butted, for the first time in a call of duty game your character talks, u can even see him talk n there re cutscenes taking place from 3rd person view. They work well in bringing out the story n in character developement. Now there are also plenty of scripted moments where you cant control your character and most of the actions are just done automatically, a bit too easy, even the quick time events dont invlovle much effort, driving a car warrants u to hit the right mouse button to back up, the car goes into reverse backs up, turns into an alley and then hit the left mouse button n ur car goes speeding away, u dont even need to keep it pressed! Then theres this level where u get to fly a SR71 blackbird, the games asks u to press S to 'take off', even if u dont press it the blackbird takes off. This idea of babysitting the player through every setpiece becomes dull quick n mighty boring for anyone looking for a challenge, u get to fly a helicopter but no matter how u fly u can never crash into a mountain side although u can graze against it, i mean really come on!

This is also the first call of duty title to perform like hell outta the box, when it comes to optimization treyarch doesnt hold a candle to infinity ward, period.

The games still should be fun to play after the first patch atleast. AI is dumb as hell though, but for a run n gun shooter black ops does well enough.

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"filaria reviewed Call of Duty: Black Ops for the PC..." was posted by filaria on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 21:25:39 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-black-ops/user-reviews/744908/platform/pc/ Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:48:40 -0700 filaria reviewed Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-juarez-bound-in-blood/user-reviews/668115/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I had been longing to play a shooter for quite some time now, thus far this year not many a good titles have been out that were to my liking save fear2 but when i started playing this game i didnt expect much but got more than i could bargain for. The visuals were the first to catch my attention, they downright stunning n not too heavy on the system either, the gameplay didnt seem good at first, it grew on me gradually n I ended up loving it, the choice of playing as either of 2 characters each specializing in different kinds of weapon n having different approach to the situation was a great option, battles were intense but nothing too difficult nor was it groundbreaking, AI was fairly good, maybe not too smart but nevertheless they can hit you right between the eyes, the friendly AI was good too, i didnt encounter any situations where i'd have my comrade standing in front of me blocking my way or getting stuck somewhere while i went my way, to sum it, it aint buggy. The story's great, very cinematic, has a lot. of surprises, twists and turns up its sleeve to keep u hooked to it. Voice acting is good though the facial animations could have possible used a bit more work, faces look very static no matter when.. crying... laughing.. But that doesnt get in the way of the game, not much. On the downside the game is short, takes roughly 6 hours to beat on normal, but doesnt leave a bad taste in the mouth once the dust settles.. my favorite part about the entire game were the boss fights which were played out in the form of quick draw shootouts.. i havent played call of juarez yet nor any other western themed game, so i cant say how it would stack up against them but if you are a an FPS lover ur sure to love this.

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"filaria reviewed Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood for the PC..." was posted by filaria on Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:48:40 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-juarez-bound-in-blood/user-reviews/668115/platform/pc/ Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:15:16 -0800 filaria reviewed Dead Space for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/dead-space/user-reviews/637873/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Being a huge fan of horror games and reading dead space's rave reviews i definitely had a lot of expectations from the games and it definitely lived up to it. Great graphics, insanely haunting audio, tonnes of startling moments and a well executed gameplay mechanic make dead space a master piece, probably the best original title that i have played from 2008. Dead Space doesnt feature novel gameplay objectives and does involve backtracking but the developers executed all this pretty damn well, these issues hardly seem to matter once you get reeled in by the game, it has a pretty good storyline, the details being broken out to you via text and audio logs quite like the PDA system in Doom 3 or the telephone messages in FEAR but dead space manages to do it in a better and in a much clear way than any of those. The game doesnt feature a typical HUD so all you can see is just your player and the surroundings, one of the reasons why dead space can really pull you in. Dead space is easily the bloodiest and goriest ever made featuring a very uncoventional gameplay style that involves dismembering enemies with mining and engineering tools. The game has plenty of "Holy S***!!" moments. Boss Fights are relatively easier than some other nasty ingame moments.. bottomline, if you love survival horror games or just plain horror, you're bound to love Dead Space

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"filaria reviewed Dead Space for the PC..." was posted by filaria on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:15:16 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dead-space/user-reviews/637873/platform/pc/ Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:56:57 -0800 scarface46 reviewed Call of Duty: World at War for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-world-at-war-2008/user-reviews/634208/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Value: 8
Tilt: 8

World at War is the 5th installment in the Call of Duty franchise. In 2007, Call of Duty 4 was released and for the first time in the series it was placed in modern time. Still today thousands of people are playing its incredible online multiplayer. So how does World at War measure up to Modern Warfare? In my opinion, World at War is an amazing game, however as many predicted, it would not be as good as its predecessor. Moreover, the campaign was superb, with an outstanding and thrilling story which can be played through four player co-op. The cooperative mode consists of two modes, co-op and competitive co-op, which give you points for every kill, revive, etc. The online multiplayer, is great as well, but not as addicting as Modern Warfare. The weapons are quite similar, except for the flamethrower and bayonets. You still have nearly all the same perks, weapon add-ons, challenges, and game types. Overall, Call of Duty has returned to WWII in Call of Duty: World at War but it definitely is an amazing game; with many memorable firefights and some impressive new features, such as tanks in the multiplayer and the nazi zombie mode, which starts out slow but then turns insane.

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"scarface46 reviewed Call of Duty: World at War for the Xbox 360..." was posted by scarface46 on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:56:57 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/call-of-duty-world-at-war-2008/user-reviews/634208/platform/xbox360/ Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:26:03 -0800 scarface46 reviewed Battlefield: Bad Company for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company/user-reviews/634199/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Value: 7
Tilt: 8

Battlefield: Bad Company was an explosive experience. With solid firefights, the single player was fun. There were many vehicles to drive including humvees, tanks, helicopters, and boats. Also, there is an amazing variety of weapons including the AUG and SPAS15. Yet the best part of bad company was the ability to demolish anything and everything in your way (well mostly). Other than that the experience fell short. The story was okay and the graphics were fine. The voice acting was done well, where the soldiers on your squad acted like actual people with personalities. The multiplayer, on the other hand, is not for me. The maps are way to large for such a small amount of players. Overall, Battlefield: Bad Company is a good experience for fps fans and definitely for fans of the previous Battlefields.

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"scarface46 reviewed Battlefield: Bad Company for the Xbox 360..." was posted by scarface46 on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 22:26:03 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company/user-reviews/634199/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:41:21 -0800 dark_atlantican reviewed Prince of Persia Classic for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/prince-of-persia-classic/user-reviews/627914/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Prince of Persia Classic is a remake of the classic 1989 video game 'Prince of Persia' which could be found on almost anything and took the animation in video games to a new level.

The prince is an orphan living on the streets. One day he catches a glimpse of the princess and falls madly in love with her, she shares the same feelings towards him despite thier class differences. The game starts with the sultan of persia being called away to war in a foriegn land. Taking this opportunity the evil Vizier Jaffar gives the princess two options: marry him or die, so that he may take the throne for himself. He gives her one hour to make this life changing decision. Now the imprisoned prince must rescue her within the hour or thier love will be lost forever and Jaffars evil rule over the kingdom will begin.

Prince of Persia Classic is the perfect example of how to bring a classic game onto the next generation of consoles. It still has the same feel of the original game but with more enemies, updated graphics, and new puzzles. The princes clothes have also been updated to relate him even more to the newer looking prince of persia from the sands of time series that we all know.

The gameplay is an improved version of the original game so it's great fun!
The graphics are breathtaking for a remake of a game made in 1989.
The sound is good: the lack of in-game music shows you the seriousness of the princes situation and gives you the ability to make life threatening decisions without destraction.

Overall i would reccommend this game for a fan of the series. It truely is a perfect transition into the next gen.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/prince-of-persia-classic/user-reviews/627914/platform/ps3/ Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:13:18 -0800 dark_atlantican reviewed Dead Space for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/dead-space/user-reviews/627911/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

In space no one can hear you scream... yet the sound of an electric saw tearing through flesh, dismembering creatures of pure evil, can be heard extremely well.

Dead Space follows the journey of an engineer named Isaac Clarke who is trapped on a interstellar mining ship him and his team were sent to repair after their ship collided with it. The ship is dead and Isaac soon finds himself battling a polymorphic, virus like, alien infection called the corruption, which turns people into necromorphs.

Dead Space is one of a certain few; those horror survival games that we deem worthy of placing in our collections. It is full of nasty surprises that will keep you on the edge of your seat, with a gripping story to match. The game doesn't include any online capabilities other that the trophy system but once you play this game that won't bother you one bit.

The gameplay in Dead Space is good: Although it might take you a little while to get used to the positioning of the third person camera that doesn't effect the gameplay. The problems with the third person camera are minor but can still become quite the irritation at times, for example: the camera is sort of looking over Isaac's shoulder so at times it can be difficult to see things, like when the player is trying to read thier next objective from the menu screen floating infront of Isaac but can't quite reach it. Other than minor camera issues the rest of Dead Space's gameplay is perfect for a horror-survival game.
The sound is good aswell: it's clear and full of those freaky noises and little girls slowly singing songs we all know very quietly and scary like, the usual in a horror game. It works well every time.
The graphics are great: it's as if your watching a movie from behind the scenes, your always looking at the back of the protagonist from beside the stage. This impacts the games horrific purpose very well.

Overall i would reccommend Dead Space to those who enjoy Sci-fi or Horror, or those potential serial killers seeking a little dismemberment fun. It's a bloodbath out there...

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"dark_atlantican reviewed Dead Space for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by dark_atlantican on Sun, 30 Nov 2008 03:13:18 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dead-space/user-reviews/627911/platform/ps3/ Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:53:21 -0800 scarface46 reviewed Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/tom-clancys-rainbow-six-vegas-2/user-reviews/627844/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 8
Sound: 9
Value: 8
Tilt: 8

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is not the best sequel made, yet it is still a great tactical shooter. Definitely not better than the first of the Vegas series, Vegas 2 recycles the same weapons and gameplay that we all loved, but I would of liked more new weapons, attachments, etc. Though now you can create and customize your own soldier not only for multiplayer, but now for the single player as well. As you rank up, you will gain new camo, body armor, clothing, and much more. The challenging story is well thought out and consists of a surprising twist at the end. Terrorist hunt is back with new maps and if you download the free fan pack, you will receive some old maps, such as calypso's casino and some other gameplay tweaks. The multiplayer is not that great, especially because you don't have an aimer, unless your standing still or in cover. The co-op is a good addition but i would of liked to have the ability to revive my partners. The audio is superb and the graphics are o.k. (pop-in texture problems). Overall, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a great game, however, it did not feel so much like Vegas, as you will be mostly in or outside many warehouses and malls.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tom-clancys-rainbow-six-vegas-2/user-reviews/627844/platform/xbox360/ Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:31:52 -0800 VercettiTommyy reviewed Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/brothers-in-arms-hells-highway/user-reviews/622409/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!



Whatever happens, WWII was, is & will always be one of the most exploited times in videogames...strategy, shooters...whatever. It wouldn't surprise me if there would be a racing game taking place during WWII. Anyways, that's not the point. Even though there are a hell lot of first pirson shooters taking place in WWII, the tactical ones are few, the most remarkable being the Brothers in Arms & Hidden & Dangerous series. The newest addition to the series is Brothers in Arms- Hell's Highway, the much anticipated sequel, which impressed me so deeply to say that it's the best WWII shooter ever made. But let's find out how I reached that conclusion.

*****Story:10/10*****

Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway is set into just one WWII operation, & that's Operation Market Garden in Holland, by '44. It's nice that there is only one operation cause this way the producers managed to stay more focused on it. As we know from the history books, Operation Market Garden was the largest airborne invasion & also a great failure for the Allies. And that's what I totally like about it:it's not the typical "Americans fight hard & win by the end" kind of game. Americans die, British die, Nazis finally win. It's a vision with no compromises, & they also say it is inspired from real events, characters & locations. I can't verify that but it might be true. To make it short, it's the story of an airborne division, lead by Matt Baker, your character (also your caracter in the first game, Brothers in Arms-Road to Hill 30), Red Hartsock (the main character in the second game, Brothers in Arms-Earned in Blood), & also some other old characters like Paddock, Corrion or new guys such as Franky. The one thing that separated the Brothers in Arms series from all the other war shooters is the characters. They have their life which is sweet for them, they all have their own way of thinking & acting, their own feelings. They're people with personality, not just the random soldiers who shoot nazis & eventually die. Some really great cinematics between chapters present the soldiers' lifes when they're not fighting: they tell jokes, laugh, think of back home & their loved ones, smoke a cigar, make fun of someone, have their own thoughts & worries...& that makes it seem so real. The storyline is related with the previous Brothers in Arms games, so you would have a better experience if you've played the before. But there are flashbacks presenting those certain moments, so don't worry about it. All in all the story in Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway is easily one of the best in the genre, only beaten by the masterful scenery from Bioshock.

*****Gameplay:9/10*****

As I said before, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway is a tactical FPS. It's very similar to its predecesors but you could easily compare its sistem with Rainbow Six Vegas or even Gears of War. Starting with the guns, you have three cathegories you can carry: an automatic rifle (tommy gun, mp40, you say them...), a rifle or sniper rifle & the faithful pistol (it really is a story behind that damned gun, you'll find it out). While automatics rifles work well when fighting in interiors, short distance or when flanking supressed enemies, the rifle or the sniper rifle is always the option for a precise long-distance shot. I also love to use the pistol when I have to finish off one or two supressed enemies...it's great fun. Now to tell you about how the tactics work in Hell's Highway...it's simple enough to master it in no time. You'll almost always have two squads of the four types: assault, MG, main squad & bazooka team. When encountering enemies you'll need to send them to cover: you cycle between them by presing the TAB button, you point them where to go with a right click, releasing it to send them there. Then you go yourself to cover by pressin "Q" when behind any solid object. Yep, exacly as in Gears of War, but here the physics also come into play, so a cover like a wooden fence won't be a cover anymore after exposed to fire. Now the MG team is great for supressing the germans, maybe killing some of them in the process. What is this supressing thing? From time to time ,they pop out of cover & fire a few rounds. Now if exposed to constant fire, they won't dare to do that anymore. So now you can easily send your assault team sideways to flank them & finish them off, or you can choose to go yourself. If you've played the previous game you'll know the indicators: a red circle above each opponent, which turns white if he gets supressed. So see it's very simple...you'll get trough most of the confrontations by applying this strategy. However there are moments when the enemies totally have the tactical advantage & if you'll immediatly try to flank you'll be taken out by other squads, an emplaced MG or even a flak cannon or a tank. The game also provides you with a tactical map which you can study & plan your attack. Let's say you keep an assault squad supressed while your assault team keeps the emplacement under fire. You then order your bazooka team to take a shot at the emplaced MG, & without getting hurt you dispose of them. Then with the help of the assault team you dispose of the enemy teams, & finally use them to lure the flak cannon, while you flank them with the bazooka team & destroy it. There are of course more ways of doing all this, you just need to be inventive. The tanks are a really dumb cathegory unfortunatelly. They just move on the same route & try to shoot you. You can try to lure them & use the bazooka team to flank them or shoot their rear side, but I say don't bother, there is a much easier way. You just blindly run to them, place a C4 & run like hell back. Job done, enjoy the fireworks. Most of the time, the AI is embarassing. I really don't know why today, with the total exception of FEAR & Bioshock, the AI in FPS games is totally embarasing (see the fresh FarCry 2 for another extreme example of "intelligence"). The germans are totally stupid, they sometimes stand in line & just look at you before realising that they have to shoot you. There are some few moments when they get a little smarter but that doesn't happen too often. Your guys know to get to cover even if you don't tell them & that's nice. They also act more intelligently then the enemies, but they sometimes have dumb moments as well. For instance, my bazooka team just stood near a wall while jerry was shooting at them, they responded to my orders but just wouldn't move. Oh well... I almost forgot to tell you about the sections where you get to drive a tank. It's totally awesome & simple alike, you just have to fire the main cannon with the LMB & the machine gun with RMB. And you can also blow the hell out of buildings...hell yeah! The solo sections mainly take place indoors, it will be just you, your guns & the germans. Use cover & it will be a peace of cake...fun cake, that is!

*****Graphics:10/10*****

For the visual side of Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, Unreal Engine 3 is the hero. I'd say it's the best implemented in this game. The exteriors really look fantastic. That Holland landscape, with those fields with tall grass, flowers & windmills, with the specific arhitecture...all buil up in the finest of details. I really can't decribe how awesome everything looks, you'll have to see it for yourself. The apparent visual problem would be the interiors, which don't look that nice at all. Quite low-res textures, lack of fine details...mayne this part was a bit rushed,who knows? Fortunatelly it's not that much of a problem, because you mainly fight outside. And also, the deserted hospital interior by the end of the game looks fantastic & also quite depressing & scary, managing to remind me of FEAR, with its long, deserted corridors, with a broken wheelchair in the middle... One other bad thing about Hell's Highway is that the fire looks...horrible. Really. What a pity... Anyways, saving the best for last, it's the GORE!!! Most of the WWII games barely had blood, what to say about gore? Which is totally stupid, because war is horrible thing & should be illustrated accordingly in order to really describe it. And that's what Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway does, & it does it with style. Sometimes, when you manage to get a headshot, a killcam interfeers, showing in slow motion how the nazi is hit, blood flows from his head & part of his skull dismembers. Or with a well placed grenade you can see body parts flying all over...a hand here, a leg there, half a body there. This feature really contributes to the overall atmosphere.

*****Sound:10/10*****

The audio in Hell's Highway is also high quality. The environmental sounds, gunshots, explosions sound incredibly realistic & really make you feel there, in the middle of the battlefield. The music is also remarkably well chosen & greatly boosts the war feeling. But maybe the best thing about this game's sound is the voice acting: clearly done by proffesionals, they really manage to express their feelings trough their tonality. Matt's speeches are profond & great, Corrion's bad language & yells always add a bit of fun into everything...it's awesome. If I try to find a bad part into all this, it's amybe just the germans voices, which are a bit annoying, cause some lines are clearly repeated for too many times. But it's no big deal, trust me, you'll surely ignore that.

*****Overall Impression:10/10*****

All in all, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway is an excellent game, & you can't call yourself a FPS addict if you don't play it. Not only is it the best game in the series...it is also quite clearly the best tactical shooter ever released ,the best WWII shooter ever made & one of the best shooters of all time. It managed to get in my FPS Hall of Fame, alongside STALKER-Shadow of Chernobyl, Bioshock, Call of Juarez & Half Life 2. To make it clear: buy this game, it's totally worth it!

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/brothers-in-arms-hells-highway/user-reviews/622409/platform/pc/ Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:26:12 -0700 VercettiTommyy reviewed Crysis Warhead for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-warhead/user-reviews/619462/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

Without any doubt, Crysis was one of last year's best FPS games & enjoyed huge success, maily because its unbeatable graphics & action packed campaign. So EA decided to further make use of the Crysis game concept & created two games: Crysis Warhead, the single player experience parallel with the events in the original game, & Crysis War, the multiplayer component. We'll talk here about Crysis Warhead.

Storyline:9/10

Now Warhead's story takes place in the same Korean islands as in the original game, & also follows the original line closely. This time though, we won't play as Nomad anymore... we'll take control of our favorite character, Pshycho, the crazy brit. The events happen parallel with the ones in Crysis, so it's something like the FEAR-FEAR Extraction Point tie. Thing is the tie of events makes sense, you'll sometimes remember yourself completing a certain objective with Nomad in the original game while being reminded of it in Warhead by Command. Also, Warhead is a much more cinematic experience than Crysis, featuring some greatly done cutscenes & a couple of nice flashbacks. The story ain't much of a wander, but the pleasant way it is told made me rate it high.

Gameplay:10/10

The gameplay is pretty much the same as in the original Crysis, so I won't talk about everything all over again. Good thing is that there are some real improvements which stand for a better game experience. As you start, you will, of course, fight koreans. Their AI has suffered some improving, so that they won't be the sitting ducks they were in Crysis anymore. Of course, hell, it's a sandbox game, so it still can't be compared with the AI quality in FEAR for instance, but still it's an improvement. Now a thing that made the combat experience in Crysis quite dull was the fact that the koreans died much too hard. You could empty a whole clip into them before they fell, & that sucked the fun out of it. Fortunatelly, things are different in Warhead: two or three shots means a korean dies artistically & a headshot is a headshot, no matter what. Now in the second part of the game, after the ice & the aliens come out, things get a bit rusty, cause still fighting aliens is not much fun, but this too is improved from Crysis, where the aliens would just hover over the landscape & stare down. But I have to say, the alien bosses are fun to fight, & the final boss is...not much of a boss, against your superweapon...whatever. Speaking of weapons, there are some new cool additions: the grenade launcher is always a fun way to make them koreans fly, the new assault rifle is quite useful...then there are some new customizable parts as well, the superweapon by the end of the game & also some quite annoying emplaced turrents which blind you & take a great amount of energy out of you. But if you're the one using them, the tide turns. Some new APCs which totally smoke everything with their cannon, & if a minigun is emplaced...let the fun begin. And having mentioned miniguns, I gotta tell you about this rail-shooting experience halfway through the game...best of its kind. Shooting koreans, blowing up vehicles, buildings & gas stations while mounted on a minigun on a train running down the tracks...pure awesomeness.

Graphics:10/10

If you thought you can't see better graphics than the ones in Crysis, think again! Warhead not only looks a lot better than the original Crysis, but also runs significantly better... & if that ain't awesome,I really don't know what it is. The textures look better & more detailed, the lanscapes are incredible, everything is just so fotorealistic & perfect. Ok maybe the only thing I have to say against the visual aspect of Crysis is, once again, the fact that the day/night & weather cycles change much too sudden. Now it's totally dark, 5 minutes later the sun is high up in the sky. Seven more minutes pass & it's raining as hell. OK I understand, maybe there are ecuatorial influences there in Korea, but not get off... Good thing is these aspects really don't bother. You'll be too amazed by the graphics too see anything wrong.

Sound:9/10

As for the audio in Warhead, I've got a lot of good things to say. The sound effects sound incredibly real: gunshots are really gunshots, & the environmental sounds are excellent. The music is okay most of the time, it doesn't bother you, & quite surprisingly, in some sections it is really well placed in the context & goes along fantasticly with the game's action. The voice acting is mostly great, the americans sound good, Phycho does an excellent job & he's easily one of the funniest characters in the history of videogames. And he also has a personality, so you can really get attached to him. Unfortunatelly I can't say the same about the actors used to voice the koreans: they have once again done an awful job, managing to sound like some dumb retarded asian guys who are trying to immitate the american accent. They really manage to het on your nerves, but look at the bright side: you'll LOVE shooting the hell out of them.

Overall Impression:10/10

Overall, Warhead is a hell of a continuation for one of last year's best shooters. With the most intense & explosive FPS experience ever done, the game is comparable with Half Life 2 Episode Two. You can complete it in 4-5 hours, but at the end you'll feel you've had the greatest time ever. Believe me, it's totally worth it!

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"VercettiTommyy reviewed Crysis Warhead for the PC..." was posted by VercettiTommyy on Sat, 01 Nov 2008 02:26:12 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-warhead/user-reviews/619462/platform/pc/ Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:29:16 -0700 scarface46 reviewed NBA 2K8 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/nba-2k8/user-reviews/615963/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Value: 10
Tilt: 9

NBA 2K8 is another addition to the #1 rated NBA simulation. The gameplay is fast paced with challenging AI. This year there are signature style moves where the players shot is exactly the same as real life. Also, there is a mode called NBA Blacktop, which includes, a game of 21, pick up games (1 on 1, 2 on 2, etc.), and the newly added 3 point shoot out and Sprite slam dunk contest. Yet, mostly every game has a downfall, and in 2K8 the downfall is the create a player/team. Create a team has the same exact team icons as previous years and in create a player it is extremely difficult or even impossible to make a black player. When trying to make Michael Jordan, the face was horrible and the darkest I was able to get his skin was light brown. Furthermore, the highlight of NBA 2K8 that will make it worth the money and that will keep you busy for a long time is the amazing online modes. You can play a regular exhibition match or any of the blacktop modes without any lag. Overall, NBA 2K8 is a great addition to the long running series and is definitely worth buying.

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"scarface46 reviewed NBA 2K8 for the Xbox 360..." was posted by scarface46 on Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:29:16 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/nba-2k8/user-reviews/615963/platform/xbox360/ Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:14:27 -0700 LastStrider reviewed Crysis Warhead for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-warhead/user-reviews/611273/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

To be honest I hated the original Crysis and I got rid of my copy after playing a couple of hours. Crysis Warhead is just like Crysis in the term of gameplay but everything else is so much better. The story improved, the combat intensity improved, no more wandering around, not knowng where eto go and 2000 koreans come and rush your ass untill you have no ammon left. if you buy crysis warhead, the only good thing you are missing from the original crysis is the story, which you can read off wikipedia. Crysis warhead is just so much better and its cheaper.

For those who havn't played the original crysis. the graphic is amazing, everything looks awesome, you need a sick ass PC to run everything smoothly. you can achieve your objective however you want. you have a suit that has protect you, make yourun fast, make you strong, make you invisible really it is a good FPS

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"LastStrider reviewed Crysis Warhead for the PC..." was posted by LastStrider on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:14:27 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-warhead/user-reviews/611273/platform/pc/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:46:45 -0700 VercettiTommyy reviewed GRID for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/grid/user-reviews/607204/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

Nowdays there are two racing games series which are really worthy to be called "car racing games". One is SimBin's GTR/ Race series. The other one was the Colin McRae series, property of Codemasters. After Colin McRae died last year, it was obvious that DiRT, the new Colin McRae game, would also be the last. So that's how an extreamly successful & great racing series had ended. The big surprise was Need for Speed ProStreet turn into a solit & enjoyable racing sim,& then I said that ProStreet is king over street racing.How terribly wrong I was... In June 2008 I got hold of GRID,even if I didn't know so much about it, having seen only a very interesting trailer. Then I found out it was Codemaster's new racing game,so I got really excited & played it.The result... is obvious.

Gameplay:10/10 The similarities between GRID & Colin McRae DiRT are obvious even from when you enter GRID's menu. The menus, options, career concept, loading screens are very much similar, which proves that GRID is Colin McRae's series follow-up. For you to better understand what this game is, I'll tell you it's a combination of DiRT, Race 07, Need for Speed ProStreet & Need for Speed Carbon. Now I'd like to enlarge about each aspect,so we'll talk about the career, cars, tracks & some other unique things.So, let's start!

*****The Career***** If you played DiRT you'll immediatly recognise the career's system. At first the game throws you in a tutorial race where you are shown the basics of the game & you are free to compete in the race. Then you'll be taken to the Career Central. Here you'll be able to create a team & customize the cars' appearance, trims, colour, numbers & all that. You give it a name & that's it. After that you'll learn that there are two quite different tpes of events in which you can take part. The driver offers are the key for the begginers & for the teams without much money. Basically, you particiate in races by representing other teams. Now you get a fixed amount of cash if you complete the event & bonus money if you accomplish other objectives, such as finishing 1st, 2nd, 3rd , 4th ,5th... ,finishing ahead of certain teams, lapping in less than the specified time or hitting a certain speed. Now you'll start with these but after you've progressed a bit in your team you won't need them anymore. The second & the most important type is the "Race Events", simply said the career. It looks exactly like in DiRT, I mean it's a piramid of events each one with one or more races. You'll start & the bottom & go till the top. Simple as that. The difference is that the events in GRID are divided into three: USA, Europe & Japan, each one with their own specific cars & tracks. After you complete a region on a certain level of the piramide, you'll be given a head-2-head race with the even't champion, one of the guys from Ravenwest (the nr. 1 team). You should win those,cause you get some good dough out of them. After a while you'll be able to choose a teammate to come with you in the race. Each one has a certain speciality, skill bars & asks for a certain percent of the earnings. You can always hire & fire teammates,but a good mate is really important in your career. Now there are the sponsors. You'll put their decals on your car & they'll give you money after each & every race if you completed their requests...such as finish on a certain position, finish the race, finish without damage,etc. They're a really important income as you progress further into the game.

*****The Tracks***** Here we'll talk about how each & every type of race takes place. So take a look at the event list:

-Simple Circuit Races *These races can be touring cars races, prestige classes, prototype races & more. Basically ,in here you'll compete against several teams on multiple lap circuits. Simple enough.*

-Drift Races *Drift seems really popular these days & many racing games try to get it to perfection but I'd say only GRID managed to really do that. There are more types of drift races included, such as the basic drift on special tracks, drift races on improvized tracks (such as industrial districsts in Japan) ,downhill drifts (you know them from Need for Speed Underground 2) or a mix between a circuit race & a track drift (the one with most points wins, but the position also counts...when the 1st racer finishes the other's points go down till they pass the finish line). Now about the drift mechanics, you'll have to slide your car as artistically as you can to get points. You gain a lot of points from combos but a really important feature are the flags. Emplaced at tight corners, the closer you get to them, the more points you get. If you bautifully slide right near a flag & maybe get a multiplayer, it may be enough for you to win the whole damn race! Oh,& don't forget not to hit the walls or you'll lose your points. The drift races take place as championships, you know, with qualifying rounds, semi finals & finals.*

-Touge tracks *Now the touge tracks may be the most intersesting races in the game. They exclusively take place in Japan on hill sprint tracks, one on one. On one round,to the top of the hill, one racer is in front & the other one behind him. The one behind should stick as close as he can behind the one of front...hell,he is allowed to overpass him if he manages to do that. But he must not hit his car,or he'll get a time penality. The downhill round is exacly viceversa...the other one in front & the other in the back. The one with the less time in all wins. It's also as a championship.* *The midnight touge is a sprint race on longer touge tracks which takes place at night. It's also one on one, but here is only one round & if you want to win you must be first. That is, if you don't crash into traffic or if you don't fall down the canyon. This is pretty much Need for Speen Carbon-ish, just much much better.

-Head 2 Head Events *They vary from circuit tracks, touge sprints, downhill midnight touge, drifts ,prototypr & even the Le Mans track. They take place between you an an opponent from Ravenwest,either Nathan McKane or Rick Scott. If you really can't manage these, then try to take out your opponent. The simplest way to do that is crashing with your side in his front wheel while sliding at hight speed,he'll lose the tire & game over for him. Or just throw him in the canyon in the Japanese races! -24 Hours Le Mans *This is the toughest type of race in GRID. It is maybe the most challenging track, it's very long & it's got a lot of hard turns, & dangerous,straight portions where you'll go 400 km/h+ & you can crash at the slightest bump. As in every glass-based race, it's important to get a good spot in your class, ignoring the classes ahead of you. It takes place over 24 hours,that means day & night. If from the start in the morning till evening it is a quite hard competition to occupy better positions, everithing slows dofn during the night. It's quite hard to see the track so you & your enemies will slow down a bit. In the morning,about 2 hours before it's over,all hell breaks loose. Everyone goes as fast as hell, risking everything to overtake their competitors. In such times a tense music plays, making you even more determined to focus on your driving. Now about the specifcs for each types of tracks. The ones in USA have quite long portions of straight road, ussualy take place on streets downtown,with many obstacles & tight turns. The European tracks vary from long, pretty much straight tracks (Belgium) to true turn-challenges, with a lot of 180 degree cornering & serious braking (Nurbungring & Istambul Park). The Japanese ones take place usually at night, downtown big cities (the Shybuya tracks), on special circuit tracks without too many turns & in open field & the special hill sprints I talked about. Codies say the tracks are licensed & look exacly like the real ones; I took a look at some picures with the real ones & I have to say, they're perfectly similar. Cool,huh?

*****The Cars***** Let's talk about the cars now.I already told you the classes (Touring Cars, Prototype...blah blah blah),so now I'll speak about the 3 cathegories.The American cars,as you expected,have great acceleration posibilities & awesome track stability (on the track,that is). The European cars reach great top speeds & corner greatly. The Japanese ones not only corner greatly,but they slide awesomely & also have an extravagant look. You'll need a bit of practice in order to get used to properly control them, but then it will get an easy task & you'll increase the dificulty level. GRID is a mix between a racing sim with a bit of arcade part. The controls are as I said very realistic...the cars react accordingly to the speed,the turn's angle, the break/acceleration alternances & of course,the surface it adheres to. In most cases I recommand the short corner, a small break before getting into it, then without accelerating steer your wheels in that direction. When your wheels get back into forward position,push the acceleration as hard as you can & there you go... You can always use opponents to corner tight turns,but be careful & hanbrake a bit before that, so that you crash with your side,not the bonnet. Just don't try the same thing with walls, cause it's ouch for your poor car. And don't get on surfaces such as sand or grass at high speed with normal wheels, cause you'll spin out or roll over. You can do that with a car with larger wheels,such as the Dallara Formula 3 for example. The damage your car takes from crashes affects the performance. If you damage your cooling system it's bad, cause the engine will overheat & may blow up,or just go slower. Damaged suspensions means steering problems,& heavily damaged wheels mean almost no chance to stabilize your car once again. The damage engine is really spectacular,but the car parts physics was a little bit better worked in Need for Speed ProStreet. There is the concept of flashback, or rewind, call it as you like. If you crash you hit the flashback button & you can rewind the action to the spot where you fell like continuing the race. You then press play & try not to make the same mistake again.Of course there is a limited amount of flashbacks, depending on your difficulty level. The big problem of GRID is the car customiztion option...which really don't exist. As I said in the DiRT review, it's not really bad, but it would be nice to have at least a small variety of parts for you to choose the most appropriate one in different situations. Also I haven't seen meteorogical events such as in Race ,which would have seriously boosted the game's racing atmosphere.

*****Money & Reputation***** So,money is really imortant to buy new cars (either new ones or if you can find a good deal on eBay Motors) & to hire team members. You get them from completing events, driver offers, the sponsor's requests or team wins,which are really an income boost.You can try to do buisness on eBay but I don't think it's too profitable. Each team in the charts gains a certain amount of money in each race it participates in. You'll start only with a few thoulsand dollars, & by the end you'll be the top team in the chart, getting about 20 milion dollars per event. Reputation goes only on team members,not the team,& is build by winning events. You get a substantial amount on events (diffculty up means earnings up),but the driver offers don't Graphics:10/10 I'd say that the same graphical engine from DiRT was used in GRID,because they have a hell lot of similar aspects. But in GRID it's clearly improved, the result being not only the best graphical quality in any racing game up to date, but maybe one of the best-looking games of all time. The tracks look incredibly detailed, with high-res textures & all that, really well modeled & also painted in very appropriate colours. The asphalt is asphalt, the sand is sand, the grass is grass...& that's even with the lowest settings on,which is incredible. Not only that it looks better than DiRT but it runs better, getting smooth frame rates on high level of detailes even on a medium specs computer. The cars look the most impresive, with an excellent level of details & everything. As you crash the paint will fall off & the car's body will get a number of scratches. The only "flaw" that GRID's graphics have is the damage engine. Of course,it's spectacular & quite better than in most other games,but the problem is that the damaged parts don't really have physics of their own. Remember Need for Speed ProStreet, where a broken side mirror would keep balancing over the window, sustained only by a couple of cables? You won't see this in GRID. Fortunatelly,that doesn't matter so much, cause the racing atmosphere in this game is absolutely fantastic. I don't remember feeling so tense in any other racing game, sitting on the edge of the chair & praying not to crash in the last turn.

Sound:10/10 To start with the music, I have too say it's not in a large amount & it might get a bit repetitive after a time. It's mainly electronic music,which won't bother you at all. At least they didn't go down with low-grade music,which is unfortunatelly present in a lot of racing games lately. Also,when the implementation of music during the races is done very very well. At low speeds there will be no music, as you speed up the music starts playing really silent. At high speeds or in intense situation the music will go out loud, determining you to focus more on the road, which is absolutleey great. The voice acting is not proffesional, but it's good enough & fits well,so no complaints about it. The best part is the one with the sound effects. The car engines all sound realistical & different from each other, the crashes also are really well done... I won't get into detail here,but I tell you this: you will be amazed.

Multiplayer:10/10 DiRT's great problem was the lack of a competitive multiplayer, only allowing us to race trough single-races by comparing the checkpoint time with the other players. The guys over at Codemasters learned from their mistake & gave us one of the most satisfying racing multiplayers ever made. As intense as the single player, but one thing is beating the AI & another is beating your neighbors. Be sure to try it! OVERALL:10/10 All in all,GRID is the best racing game of all time. Combining spectacular arcade with hardcore simulation, GRID pleases both sides of the gamers. If you also consider the amazing graphics, great sound effects & the very competitive multiplayer, you won't be able to stop playing it. Trust me...

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"VercettiTommyy reviewed GRID for the PC..." was posted by VercettiTommyy on Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:46:45 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/grid/user-reviews/607204/platform/pc/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:30:43 -0700 VercettiTommyy reviewed DiRT for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/dirt/user-reviews/607197/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Those aren't too good days for the racing genre. While we get some great racing simulators from the masters at SimBin, EA ,after the awesome Need for Speed Porche Unleashed, seved us a couple of cheap & extreamly arcadish tank simulators (okay,the Undergrounds were good, but Carbon was simply crap). True, they gave us a good ProStreet, but they couldn't do it as good as they did with Porche. The FlatOut series, Burnout series & Crashday delected us with some grade A destruction derbies & insane street racing. So we needed some high quality offroad racing, ain't I right? Who doesn't want to take out a 4X4 Toyota & get it on top of a hill, trough the dirt roads? So Codemasters gave us the next killer game in the Colin McRae series, first named Colin McRae DiRT, then after his death (may he rest in peace) the name was simply reduced to DiRT. Let's find out about the last game in the legendary racing series...

---Gameplay:8/10---

As I said before, DiRT focuses on offroad racing, which means that half of the tracks are dirt roads,& the other half narrow & dirty asphalt roads going on top of hills, trough forests or deserts, or on some special circuit tracks. Now,I'd love to say more about the cars, but it isn't too much to say. There are from simple rally cars (with special mentions for the Toyota & Subaru vehicles) to buggy cars & even some huge trucks. Now you can change some parameters for these cars, the way the parts will come along together, but you can't really change the parts theirselves, which is not really cool. The only thing you can do for the exterior look of your car is to buy some sponsor layouts for them...which only differ from stickers & colour, nothing more. Now about the races themselves, we'll first talk about the career mode, which is obviously DiRT's top component. You will see a huge pyramid built up from events. Now these events might have one, two or more races in them. Thing is, you'll start at the base & you'll advance to the top of the pyramid. It might look like a lot of racing to do but trust me,it's not. It won't take you more then 8-9 hours if you are a good driver. Now there are several race dificulties... the easier ones will help you out in some situations but you'll get less money out of the events you race on that difficulty. You get the point... but don't worry,you can change the difficulty setting for every upcoming event & the computer will even tell you when he considers your driving good enough to make the step on the next level. Okay,now let's see what's with those events anyway. There's a variety in them, so you won't get bored of a certain type of events. Now I'll devide them in two big cathegories:rally & cross.

***RALLY***


-Rally (the classic rally) is a sprint track with a lot of turns which takes place mainly on a dirt road. You will be alone on the track & only compete against your opponents by the total race time. You'll see your race time compared the the opponents' ones when you pass trough the checkpoints, but the only one that matters is the last one, the rest being just orientative. You'll also have your co-pilot along you, & he will guide you on the track.

-Rally Raid takes place on a rally track, but on both dirt & tarmac, & you'll race against your opponents directly on the track, so to win you'll just have to stay ahead of them. Quite simple.

-Rally Cross is the combination of rally & cross. It takes place on a mixed rally circuit on multiple laps, with the pilots racing together on the track, so the objective is the same as in Rally Raid. Unfortunatelly,here you won't have the co-pilot to guide you trough the track.

-Hill Climb is basically a classic Rally race, the rules & objectives being the same, with the only difference that in here you'll have mixed surfaces & one way:up. You'll have your co-pilot with you, which is of great help, because a wrong turn can make you end up falling down the hill. And you seriously don't want that to happen, trust me!

***CROSS***

-Carr races take place on special circuits during multiple laps, & the players start all together in a straight line. You don't have the co-pilot but you won't need him here. These are possibly the most boring races because they're so much like like all other races in most racing games.

-Crossover are unique & very interesting races, by far my favorite type in DiRT. It's a head to head challenge against one opponent, & you'll race on two different tracks that will start as parallel & at some point they'll intersect (don't worry, one on top & the other one under it). When you finish your track you'll get on the opponent's track & he'll do the same with your first track. Whoever finishes both tracks first wins the race,as simple as that.

-Rally Cross, as I mentioned earlier, are the mix between the rally & cross race types. I told you before about it, so I won't repeat myself.

Okay, now that you know about the cars & the races I'd like to tell you about the co-pilot's instructions, because they're really important & are imperative on the higher difficulties. He will tell you the distance till the next turn (60 for 60 metres, 200 for 200 metres) & the degree of the turn (6 means only a slight turn, while 1 is an 180 degree turn), along with the direction of the turn (left or right, geez). Yeah, you'll have the minimap on every race,but the co-pilot may prove more helpful than that.
Alrighty, now let's touch on the final aspect of the gameplay, car control & damage. DiRT is a cute mix between arcade & race sim, so the controls are pretty much a mix between those too. The cars respond realistically to your controls, whatever you'll use as a controller (keyboard, joystick, steering wheel). Not as realistically as in the Race & GTR series or in Richard Burns Rally, but cool enough. They will take the turns according to the surface they're racing on (don't even try I sudden turn at high speed on a dirt road, cause you'll most certainly regret it). Now the damage is made depending on the speed & force of impact, & wil technically affect the vehicle's performance accordingly. Sometimes is really annoying when you slightly bumb into a small, thin pole & both your front wheels will fall off, but you'll get used to that after a while. There are more components of the car which take damage, & will affect it in their own way. If you'll damage the exterior or the cooling system you won't feel a big change too soon, highly damaging the engine, driveshaft, suspensions or wheels may get you to a lost race. Between two races you'll be given the chance to clean & repair the vehicle. You'll get an hour, & considering that each component's repair takes a different time, based upon the degree of damage & the component itself, you'll be the one who'll distribute the time & will decide which components should be in mint condition for the following race.

---Graphics:10/10---

The graphics are certainly one of DiRT's strongest aspects. They're simply awesome. You'll have your share of breathtaking views from all over the world: Australia, Italy, Great Britain, Germany, France, USA, Japan & others too. High-res, extreme quality textures for both the tracks & the cars make a visual masterpiece out of DiRT, something never seen before it. Not only that everythings looks absolutely fantastic, but it also gets more fantastic during the races, if you know what I mean. The dirt on the tracks will get on your car, which looks dirty very cool &... realistic shall I say. Also when you'll crash you'll have to say some of your paint goodbye, plus that the dents look really really awesome... especially if they're on your opponents...:). But because there always is a high price to pay for graphical masterpieces like this one, the system requirements are quite outradgeous if played on maximum settings. Of course, low will work even on the weaker computers, but even the high end computers will experience huge frame rate drops on maximum settings, & yeah, I'm talking about 2 or three frames per second, whcih is definitely not cool at all.

---Sound:9/10---

The sound of DiRT is good, but it ain't awesome at all. I mean the sound effects, like the car engines, bumps, crashes sound really cool & realistic, but nothing more. The voice acting is really nice & the co-pilot's tone really makes you feel in the middle of a rally. Unfortunatelly, the music is not good at all. As hard as I try to remember I can't recall it being cool or contributing to the atmosphere... it was rather annoying.

---Multiplayer:6/10---

Multiplayer is unfortunatelly DiRT's biggest problem. You can't race directly against other human opponents, the only options being Rally & Hill Climb, played trough ghosts, that is only by the race times. It's such a pity, what a great multiplayer this game could have had...

---Overall:9/10---

With a great singleplayer component, awesome graphics, a good variety of atmospheric races, the only apparently big problems of the game are the very high system requirements & the way multiplayer has been implemented. But if you have a great computer & will play in singleplayer, DiRT will easily be one of the best racing games you've ever experienced.

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"VercettiTommyy reviewed DiRT for the PC..." was posted by VercettiTommyy on Mon, 15 Sep 2008 05:30:43 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dirt/user-reviews/607197/platform/pc/ Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:07:36 -0700 scarface46 reviewed F.E.A.R. for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/f-e-a-r/user-reviews/606604/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Gameplay:6
Graphics: 7
Sound: 7
Value: 6
Tilt: 7

F.E.A.R is a horror themed modern first person shooter, that gets extremely boring and repetitive half way into the campaign. A Genetically engineered psychic named Paxton Fettel takes command of a battalion of telepathically-controlled super soldiers. You will play as a solider part of F.E.A.R, First Encounter Assault Recon, a special forces group specialized in dealing with paranormal threats to national security. The story is quite hard to understand, as the rest of the story is explained through voice mails left on telephones around the levels. As for the levels, they are all dark and gloomy, which will make you want to fall asleep. You will go through mostly offices and warehouses with the same designs from previous levels and with repetitive/unsatisfying fights. The horror in the game, isn't all that great. All you will see is a little girl in a red dress slowly walking in front of you and also a guy who first talks for a little and then quickly disappears. As for the graphics, it may of been alright for 2005, however, for 2008 it is disgusting, especially for a 360 game. The audio on the other hand, is fine, nothing special though. Furthermore, the multilayer is finished, it is a ghost town, probably less than 20 people play online. Overall, F.E.A.R is one of the worst 360 games I have played so far, I would not recommend it if you haven't played it already.

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"scarface46 reviewed F.E.A.R. for the Xbox 360..." was posted by scarface46 on Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:07:36 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/f-e-a-r/user-reviews/606604/platform/xbox360/ Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:31:36 -0700 scarface46 reviewed NCAA Football 07 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/ncaa-football-07/user-reviews/605247/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Value: 8
Tilt: 8
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NCAA Football 2007 is the first of its series to hit the next-generation consoles and it is a great college football sim. It has solid gameplay, with many fun but mostly easy achievements to unlock. The graphics are fine, players look good, some rather bigger compared to real life and the stadiums are nicely designed. As for the audio, it has good "college football" music and the commentary is well executed. Overall, NCAA Football 2007, which was my first NCAA Football game, it seems to be a great addition to its series.

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"scarface46 reviewed NCAA Football 07 for the Xbox 360..." was posted by scarface46 on Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:31:36 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/ncaa-football-07/user-reviews/605247/platform/xbox360/ Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:14:20 -0700 scarface46 reviewed Combat Arms for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/combat-arms/user-reviews/602890/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Value: 8
Tilt: 9

Combat Arms is a online modern first person shooter created by Nexon. It was released in July of this year, meaning it does not have many levels, weapons, etc. However, only being released for nearly one month, the future of combat arms looks amazing. Nonetheless, there are 7 large maps to choose from, as well as 4 different mission types, which are, search and destroy, One Man Army (Individual Deathmatch), Elimination (Team Deathmatch), and capture the flag. Moreover, like other online PC games, you must sign up and create an account. Once that is done, you can customize your character by adding body armor, helmets, uniforms, and backpacks. Each increase a different ability or even lower abilities, for example, if you purchase body armor, you would increase your damage but lower your speed. As for weapons, there are dozens to choose from, such as the AK-47. Most weapons can be modified by adding a muzzle, scope, or a larger magazine. But remember, every purchase has an expiration date; so the longer you want to keep the weapon, the more GP it costs. Overall, Combat Arms is a great new online first person shooter, that will be updated hear and there with new levels, weapons, modes, and customization items. If you played and enjoyed Warrock, then combat arms should not be any different.

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"scarface46 reviewed Combat Arms for the PC..." was posted by scarface46 on Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:14:20 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/combat-arms/user-reviews/602890/platform/pc/ Sun, 24 Aug 2008 07:29:54 -0700 dark_atlantican reviewed Condemned 2: Bloodshot for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/condemned-2-bloodshot/user-reviews/601961/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Keep it quiet and attack anything that moves with anything that you can grab, its the only way to survive in this messed up Horror/FPS.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot is one of a rare few horror based video games that make it out alive in the marketplace of the video game industry.
It's pushed ahead of most other horror based games because it knows how to show off its stuff, the game shows multiple different traits that are seeked after in a horror game. These include: The ability to use basically anything in the surrounding environment against your enemy to beat them into a bloody pulp, you can grab your enemy and interact with the enviroment for a gruesome kill, it sets out the whole horror scene very well while adding supernatural pieces to it, the camera is directly through the protagonists eyes so you can see everything as if you actually were that person, and one of its unique traits; you get seperate control over each hand, right and left, giving you the ability to perform some killer combos... literally.

The online gameplay may not be as great as the single player gameplay but its still worth playing (especially if you have a friend your just dying the kill).
There is a limited amount of game types online and the only one that seems to be played is the 'crime scene' game, thats if you can actually find anyone online, most owners of the game seem to stick mainly to the single player mode and once you play it you wont blame them.

The graphics are good but could have been improved just that little bit more: character mouths dont move properly and the look of the characters is too... video gameish (with a Playstation 3 were aiming for more of a movie look).
The sound quailty is amazing, it really makes you jump out of your seat at all the dark surprises lurking throughout the game, waiting to slice you open and devour everything inside (especially with surround sound, its absolutely perfect).
The overall gameplay is also great, it makes good use of every single one of the games traits and really throws you into the horrific environment it holds.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot is definitely a game worth getting if you love being scared and freaked out by muderous freaks and supernatural activities, i would highly recommend it.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/condemned-2-bloodshot/user-reviews/601961/platform/ps3/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:10:56 -0700 VercettiTommyy reviewed Condemned: Criminal Origins for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/condemned-criminal-origins/user-reviews/600458/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Once upon a night, in a creepy deserted dark building...


So do you like dark, deserted places? With all those objects & walls falling apart? With blood spilled all over & strange noises coming from all directions? Did you ever dream to beat up someone to death with a water pipe or a desktop? Did you ever dream to rip apart somebody's jaw with your bare hands? Did you enjoy F.E.A.R? If you answer "Hell yeah" to most of those questions, than it means Condemned-Criminal Origins is the perfect game for you. Let me explain...

Story:9/10

You're special agent Ethan Thomas, FBI. You are sent to investigate a crime scene, along with two other police officers. It soon becomes apparent that the Match Maker is again responsable for this "nicely arranged" murder. He always kills young women, lays them down on the floor, surrounded by male manequins with their faces torn off. Some hoods stuble on you, kill the two cops with your own gun, then trow you off a window. Now, when the forensic teams show up they identify your gun & that results in you being wanted by the cops & the feds. Nice... only that a computer specialist, Rosa ,will decide to help you in your pursuit of the serial killer while guiding you as best she can to avoid the law enforcers. A british guy, apparantly helping you for no reason,gives you some leads to follow, which further on prove quite precise. As you investigate, you will keep posted regarding a strange paranormal event that occurs at the same time. Entire flocks of birds fall down dead while hitting certain areas of the city. Later on the hoods go mad,so that police officers are sent to deal with them. After an extended exposure to those parts of the city, perfectly healthy people, the cops also go nuts. Something strange is happening, & you also start having strange & creepy visions which leave you wandering if you're not going crazy yourself. When you finally find the Matchmaker... dead, you realise that there is another killer, the Serial Killer X, who killed only other serial killers in the exact way they'd kill their own victims. So you'll pursue SKX, until you'll realise that he is but a small pawn in the game. I won't say more...just that Monolith screwed it up a bit at the end.

Graphics:9/10

If you played FEAR, you'll know what to expect from Condemned's graphical style. The are made with the same engine & have a lot of common things & looks. I'd say that the textures in FEAR were a bit more detailed, but Condemned compensates with its creepier,more spectacular shadow/light show. It's really creepy & not recommanded to go trough the whole game without your flashlight, because most of the time you won't see a thing in the darkness. The flashlight's light fascicle reflects accordingly, throws light on the close-by objects while only makes the far away objects barely visible. It also creates the spectacular shadows arond you, which hugely contribute to the game's atmosphere... because, as I said before, the biggest part of the game will be played in complete darkness. Another thing which the producers focuse on is the blood: how it spills, how it pours & the fact that it's a liquid substance were seriously taken into consideration. Also,it is very exciting to see how the blood spills on your weapon, be it a hammer, an axe or a paper cutter. The environment and the surroundings have also got a lot of attention from Monolith's team. As I said in the intoductory part of the review, Condemned isn't taking place in the clean (but nevertheless scary) office buildings where the action in FEAR was localised. Criminal Origins is placed in a small town, and you'll find yourself only in the deserted & most creepy parts of the city. An almost abandoned train station, a deserted school, a devastated library, a long-closed manequin store, a creepy barn house... it's all there. The thing all these locations have in common is that they were once industrial, cultural, economic centres, but now they're all falling apart. The train station has the abandoned trains laying in ruin, the school has its emty classrooms, corridors, the library has its bookshelves, & the barn...the barn has everything a creepy lonely deserted barn would have. Now if you introduce mad, grotesque people in these quite common places, your fear level will cerainly increase. So that's what I'm trying to tell you...wandering in all these deserted locations, perfecly designed, gives you the feeling of an abysal anxiety... something which seems a common place,but in fact it's not.

Sound:10/10

Now the sound might easily be the best element of Condemned Criminal Origins. The music is simply perfect... creepy, hair-raising ; & it fits perfectly in those deserted places you wander trough.It contributes a lot to the game's atmosphere, it's a key factor that really gives you the sensation that you're there, in the middle of the action. Now thw voice acting is ...let me explain. Both Ethan & Rosa's voices are a bit too indiferent, don't exacly seem to be experiencing the thrills which the game's action shows us.They're not bad but not too bright either. But as if the producers wanted to compensate that flaw, the enemy voice acting... that accent spoke almolst with horrifying ,mad joy, is really really scary. At moments you'll thing that hearing those madman talking is the scariest thing in the world. The smallest sound in a oasis of quiet will make you jump on the edge on your seat, hit escape, & try to recollect your nerves. And if that isn't a positive thing in a horror game,I don't know what is. The sound effects are also high-quality ...the weapon hits, the shots sound incredibly realistic... everything is gratly done & greatly recorded. All hail Monolith, once again!

Gameplay:8/10

I told you in the previous paragraphs about the story, about the locations where the action takes place & about the game's atmosphere, so now I'll speak about what you'll need to do in order to progress in the game. You'll have to beat everyone up to death. The end. Well, you'll get to use from a huge variety of melee weapons, mostly improvized (fire axe, jackhammer, meat cleaver, harpoon, pipe, paper cutter, desktop, a plank with bolts, manequin arm, cloathes drier piece ...basically everyting that looks & can be used as a weapon), & of course, some fire arms (pistol, revolver, pump-actioned shotgun, sawed-off shotgun, sub machine gun ...things like those). Now the melee weapons have some indicators, the most important being damage , speed & block. A big fire axe obviously does more damage & blocks more efficiently than a small pipe, which will istead be easier to hanlde & faster in attacks. Now nobody will stop you if you want to smash a guy's head by hitting him in the face with the shotgun. I always wanted to do that. Because Condemned wants to be a very brutal game, when you'll stun your enamies you can either finish 'em off by hitting them in the head with your weapon or by applying one of the four finishers you have at your disposal. They're cool, they're brutal, but they might get repetitive after a time. Now the enemies aren't very different from each other but you'll never get bord of fighting them. Plus that you'll encounter a couple of grotesque humans which crawl, jump on walls & eat human meat... very similar to the snorks in Stalker-Shadow of Chernobyl.
The rest of them are the ususal human enemies:some will wield fire arms, but most of them use melee weapons. The AI is quite good... for instance if you kick their weapon out of their hand they'll run & get another one,even if that means grabbing a pipe from the wall. Or if they see you, but you don't see them, they'll hide against a wall in your path & suddenly surprise you by a hard & unexpected blow. The puzzles resume to finding a fire axe to break a door or a hammer to break a chain with a lock on it. Oh, and finding the medpacks of course, which you'll need in order to survive. You can also try to find the dead birds & metal pieces scattered toughout the levels, if you want to get some achievments.But beware, some are really well hidden. At crime scenes or when you find evidence you'll have to use your forensic tools. Photograph some evidence, scan for fingerprits...things like those, which you'll execute manually, & that's a really cool feature.

Conclusion:9/10

Condemned Criminal Origins is a really good game. A different kind of FEAR, consisting in brutal melee fights & some very scary & disturbing scenes, Condemned is a must-have for horror/thriller fans, for crime investigation fans or for the ones who loved FEAR, & would like the idea of a more brutal FEAR with melee weapons. So go ahead, close the drapes, turn off the lights & start playing Condemned Criminal Origins. You won't regret it, I'll tell you that!

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"VercettiTommyy reviewed Condemned: Criminal Origins for the PC..." was posted by VercettiTommyy on Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:10:56 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/condemned-criminal-origins/user-reviews/600458/platform/pc/ Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:35:17 -0700 scarface46 reviewed God of War II for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/god-of-war-ii/user-reviews/599439/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 9
Sound: 10
Value: 8
Tilt: 9

God Of War II is an incredible game all around. With an incredible epic story where Zeus betrays the God of War himself, Kratos. Kratos being the blood-thirsty killer he is, decided to take matters into his own hands by finding and facing Zeus. And so, you will go on a quest for revenge that takes you through many challenging puzzles and levels. You will also experience many mind-blowing boss fights. Throughout G.O.W II, you will receive more and more weapons, combat moves, spells, and magic. There are many beastly moves that Kratos can perform, such as, snapping there necks to stabbing your enemies with your two blades and then ripping there arms off. Moreover, the visuals are one of the best for the PS2 and the audio is remarkable. Overall, God Of War II is a must play for any PS2 owner as it is one of greatest hits for the platform and one the best games out now.

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"scarface46 reviewed God of War II for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by scarface46 on Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:35:17 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/god-of-war-ii/user-reviews/599439/platform/ps2/