mystic_knight's GameSpot Friend's Reviews mystic_knight's GameSpot Friend's Reviews mystic_knight's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Thu, 23 May 2013 23:18:20 -0700 GameSpot mystic_knight'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 08:09:22 -0700 biadesman reviewed Dead Island: Riptide for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/dead-island-riptide/user-reviews/810577/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

I'm not sure if any of you people who dislike Dead Island: Riptide read this or not, but the title has 'Dead Island' in it, meaning it is part of the Dead Island series. What I want to know is why people complain that it is very similar to the previous one? It's supposed to be isn't it, I mean that's why it's from the same series.
People want a game that is not Dead Island, which is weird and I do not understand why they had hopes for Riptide to be different.
Anyways, so far I have enjoyed it, the story is a little linear and the level system is still the same, which are the problems I had with the first Dead Island, I heard there were a lot of bugs with the quest system, I have only noticed one, but they already worked on it, so now that it is fixed, I do not see any other problems.
Thank you for reading, I did not mean to harm anyone with what I said, it's just that I think some people did not take everything in to account, and expected a little too much from this game.

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"biadesman reviewed Dead Island: Riptide for the PC..." was posted by biadesman on Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:09:22 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dead-island-riptide/user-reviews/810577/platform/pc/ Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:13:20 -0800 biadesman reviewed The Secret World for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/the-secret-world/user-reviews/805112/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

It's really fun, and it's different to the MMO-RPG genre, but there's just something about that is just not right. It is fun, but I think it gets a little repetitive and after 30 -40 hours it starts to get a little boring, yet you kind of want to keep playing. It is obvious that there are some problems in this game and it has potential to be even greater, but for the price it comes with, I believe it is still worth it as it is different and interesting compared to some other MMO's because it brings a bit of realism with the secret organisations like the templars, even though there are portals which lead to places with weird monsters.
If you don't mind having the odd secret organisations like illuminati, which you can avoid by choosing another one of the three, then you will realise there is a great storyline, with its own uniqueness that makes it better and more fun to those who want something different and new.

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"biadesman reviewed The Secret World for the PC..." was posted by biadesman on Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:13:20 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-secret-world/user-reviews/805112/platform/pc/ Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:24:37 -0700 Sagacious_Tien reviewed The Walking Dead: Episode 2 - Starved for Help for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/the-walking-dead-episode-2-starved-for-help/user-reviews/798907/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

The Walking Dead Episode Two: Starved for Help follows in the footsteps of Episode One: A New Day, but in terms of quality is leaps and bounds ahead.

With A New Day, Telltale introduced Lee Everett, a heretofore unknown character from the comics, and once again you will fill his boots in rural Georgia, skipping over areas and characters from the original source material.

The story is inter-woven with the canon already shown in the stories, but with Starved for Help, Telltale have bravely moved away from the somewhat cheesy inclusion of series comic relief Glenn and has become it's own beast - and it's all the better for it.

Although A New Day was quite open with it's violence and horror, Starved for Help takes it one step further, with the opening moments forcing the player to choose between amputating a guy to save his life (forcing you to repeatedly axe away at his bloody stump), and fighting for survival not just against the undead, but outside forces that may seek to do your ragtag group harm.

The story takes place three months after the events of A New Day, with the story tailored to choices made in the first episode. The characters have become somewhat contemptible, there is an undercurrent of cabin fever, and the addition of outsiders initially seems to bring welcome relief to our survivors. Of course, nothing is what it seems on the surface.

The player will be guided along a few minor puzzles, such as unlocking a certain room and putting together a swing set for their little urchin Clementine, but it is the dialogue and the tension of Starved for Help which lifts the game above its simple premise. A chance encounter will uncover some utter horror, and the disquieting and ocassionally disturbing gameplay will definitely keep you hooked.

With character conflicts being carried over from the first title (and the promise of this affecting future titles as well), this showcases some branching design and dialogue decisions that can promote some character morals and their relation to the player.

A smattering of fast paced events keep the action ocassionally frantic, and force the player to make tough choices on the lives of those around them - and even if they are involved in the deaths of other characters. Your actions, or non-actions, are sure to have lasting impacts.

The graphics are again an interesting use of comic style cel-shading and expressive emotional characters. Starved for Help goes better in it's depiction of larger areas and more variety, and there is heaps of the red stuff going around as well. Some minor audio quirks aside, the sound will definitely keep you on edge, with the music inducing some chills while you appreciate the superb delivery of the cast.

It's not all good news however. There are some technical issues with the game, some lip-synching and graphical hitching, but it is overall minor, and it doesn't take away too much from this otherwise well paced and designed game.

With whole heapings of atmospheric horror and despair, Starved For Help is a step up from A New Day, and a disturbing look into how society may just function when it breaks down completely.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-walking-dead-episode-2-starved-for-help/user-reviews/798907/platform/xbox360/ Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:53:24 -0700 jamesh-42 reviewed American McGee's Alice for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/american-mcgees-alice/user-reviews/795811/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

The PS3 version of American McGee's Alice is distributed as a single use code packed in with Alice: Madness Returns. While you can purchase the game on the PSN store separately, you probably wouldn't want to: the game is launched through one of the menus of Madness Returns, so you'd need a copy of that game anyway, and you can probably find the PC version for less money.

If you did receive the game when purchasing Madness Returns though, it is worth playing to understand the back story of the second game. Provided you accept the game as a product of the time it was created, it is quite enjoyable.

While the game looks like your standard third person action adventure game, it controls a lot more like a first person shooter. This is not too surprising given the background of the developers and the fact that the game was built on the Quake engine.

Unlike modern third person action adventures where melee attacks have a fairly wide strike, making it easy to hit near by enemies, the attacks in this game are fairly narrow so manual camera management is a lot more important in combat than you might expect. With attacks bound to both face buttons and shoulder buttons though, this isn't too difficult to manage with the PS3 controller though.

Another difference between this game and more modern ones is the scarcity of check points. The game will auto-save when you enter a new map, but that is about it: if you want finer grained checkpoints you need to manually save. This isn't too bad on the PC version of the game where you can use the Quick Save and Quick Load keys, but they didn't map these commands to any button on the PS3 controller so you end up having to pause the game and go to the save menu instead. For some of the later levels where a misjudged jump may result in instant death, this breaks up the flow of the game a bit.

Despite these niggles, the game is still fun to play. While the graphics are dated the level design is imaginative and varied through the game. The storyline is not particularly deep, but the re-imagining of classic Alice in Wonderland characters keeps things interesting. And a number of these characters carry over to the second game, so it is interesting to see how they have developed between the two games.

For the most part, the difficulty curve is fairly smooth: the only exceptions are one or two boss fights which can be quite challenging even on easy difficulty. But given that you can save during the boss fights (you could even save after every successful attack if you want), they aren't insurmountable.

Overall, I'd say the game is worth playing. If you have bought Alice: Madness Returns and never played the first game, then redeeming the code and playing the first game should provide a richer experience when you play the second.

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"jamesh-42 reviewed American McGee's Alice for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by jamesh-42 on Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:53:24 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/american-mcgees-alice/user-reviews/795811/platform/ps3/ Thu, 31 May 2012 21:05:33 -0700 jamesh-42 reviewed Assassin's Creed: Revelations - The Lost Archive for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-revelations-the-lost-archive/user-reviews/795128/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 5.0.

One of the new styles of game play added to Assassin's Creed Revelations was the "Desmond Sequences", which played out as simple platforming puzzles in abstract landscapes viewed from a first person perspective.

Without the ability to run and climb and only a vague sense of where you were standing exactly, it felt entirely unlike the game play Assassin's Creed is known for. The only thing that kept me playing through those missions was the information about Desmond's back story.

The Lost Archive follows the same pattern, although this time you are following the memories of Subject 16 (or whatever is left of him inside the Animus), and again it is the story that will probably keep you playing rather than the actual game play.

The memories cover the time period prior to the first Assassin's Creed game, detailing how he and Lucy infiltrated Abstergo. It will also clear up any confusion you may have had about the final scenes of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.

Game play wise, there are a few improvements over the Desmond sequences from the main game. There are a few new types of obstacles, and you can place a "jump" block in addition to the flat and inclined blocks. These blocks allow you to jump very high, which is key to getting through some of the areas.

When you complete the seventh memory, you are sent right back to the first memory again. To see the "true ending", you need to collect all the Animus data fragments and locate another exit to break out of this loop. If you have learned to recognise the sound that plays when you are close to one of these fragments in the Desmond sequences, you will probably have picked up most of these on the first play through. Unfortunately the pay off for finding this secret exit is a bit lack lustre, so you might wonder why you went to the effort.

The DLC also includes some extra content that was previously pre-order exclusive: the single player Vlad the Impaler's Tomb mission, and three new personas to use in the multi-player mode. I probably enjoyed these parts more than the main content of the DLC, but I don't think they would justify the cost of the DLC alone.

In conclusion, if you received this DLC as part of the Ottoman Edition of Revelations, it is worth playing for the story. Otherwise, you'd do better to save your money and look up the story details on the Internet if you feel the need.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-revelations-the-lost-archive/user-reviews/795128/platform/ps3/ Sat, 19 May 2012 11:12:03 -0700 ymaaaa reviewed Far Cry 2 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/far-cry-2/user-reviews/794152/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Well .. Like I said.. It's Only meant For true gamers.. Casual gamers might hate Fc2 Because Of the Hard Gameplay.. But that's What's Best in this game.. Storyline is Really Impressive.. Graphics Are not that good.. But gameplay is So polished that While Fighting You'll Just forget about Everything.. Starting could be a bit frustrating.. For normal Gamers.. But if ur a Pro.. Then u won't have anything to Worry About !
What's Good :D
1.Awesome Gunfights - The action And Fighting is neverending. You'll Be Placed In a 50km Sq. Map and You can do anything,i.e,Swim in the waters,Ride Vehicles,Scout check points.While roaming Around the Map,You'll Notice Cars And Heavy jeeps Patrolling an area,Check Posts Which Are heavily guarded By Armed Men With at least 3 Mg's and a Jeep(In Case Of emergrncy).Your mission is to destroy them.And there are about 100 Of checkposts.Invading them is So much Fun and the way Things Blast Is COOOOOOOOL.So Even After you'll finish the game,You'll have Plenty Of things To do. :D
2.Good Missions-Missions Are Interesting.It's Just like GTA sometimes.For A few Moments Your Working For One faction And After some time For other.But You shouldn't care About that.All You should Care about is The Payment ;) And your medicines.Them More Missions You do, The more respect and rewards you get.
3.Buddies-If U get Injured during Fight,Then there's nothing to worry,if u Have a Buddy.Buddies Can be Made By unlocking safe house or During missions.If u r Injured During a fight,your Buddy Will Definitly Come to save you.
4.Safe houses-There Are Plenty of safe Houses Around the map.But each Of them is Guarded By 2-3 Men Unless And untill U Kill them And The safe house is yours.Once you own it,U can store weapons in it,ammo and Jeeps will Always be there in front of ur S.H.(with an MG :D :D :D)
5.Guns And vehicles-There Are Plenty Of weapons And Vehicles Including Boats And Gliders in Far Cry 2.To unlock Weapons U'll Have to do Side missions Which The arms dealer Gives you. There Are About 5-6 Ammunation Shops in the map.Payment Is in diamonds.
6.Freedom To choose-Everytime You'll get A mission From A faction,You can choose Either to Do that Mission Or help Your buddy To make Profit from That Mission.Well,this Won't affect your payment.It'll Increase Your Respect and You'll Be able To use NEw Weapons.

NEGATIVE
1.Seems Dull-It Gets Boring at certain Stages When You Don't have any vehicleAnd you have to travel On foot from One part Of the map to another.
2.Weapons-Avoid taking Weapons From enimies.They're Weapons Are jammed And Will Break Down Any second.
3.Bugs-There are Some Bugs In the Game,(For xbox,ps3 and PC),like Corrupt Saves(PC) And The Biggest Disaster Is Sometimes Important Mission Characters Dissappear! :o
4.WORK-Cars And jeeps And Boats sometimes Get damaged During The gunfights.So If ur In a Hurry And Someone attacks You From behind with and Mg( Most Probably A jeep will ),Then u just have two options,Either to get down And fix ur vehicle Which Will Lead to Death And Is time Consuming,Or You can Fight Your enimies And then Fix Your car.
5.Slow-The game Sometimes seems to irritate.Like When You Travel By Bus It'll Always ask you wether Or not To save.If yes,it takes A lot of time.

Important Points :-
o You can carry 3 weapons At a Time.A Heavy weapon,small Arms And primary weapon.Best Combination if You Want to Fight Bravely And destroy Things
Heavy weapons - RPG or the Machine Gun
primary weapons - Ak47 Or Ar16(Comes With a Reflex Scope) Or a Silenced mp5(Good For Combat.. Prevents heavy Attack) or AS50(sniper)
Small Arms- Uzi Or Grenade Launcher
For best results you Should Have a sniper,Machine Gun and a Grenade Launcher !
Avoid Shot Guns!
Always Scout the Checkpost With Jeeps .. ( I mean Take The Jeep Get on top Of it and Use The MG )

The Game Has A very nice map.. Hmm.. Actually there are 2 maps..!

Multiplayer Is very Good But since the Game is a bit old There Are not Much Players Online ... But Still U'll be able To play with 12 - 13 Players. Online is really fun. Maps are Interesting and Always use A sniper or AK47 And Always have a grenade launcher With you During multiplayer !
I hope my review Helped You ! :)

Get the full article at GameSpot

"ymaaaa reviewed Far Cry 2 for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by ymaaaa on Sat, 19 May 2012 11:12:03 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/far-cry-2/user-reviews/794152/platform/ps3/ Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:59:38 -0800 chicknfeet reviewed Dragon Age II for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/dragon-age-ii/user-reviews/785660/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

I managed to finish Dragon Age 2 while doing as much of the side missions as possible, and as much as it pains me to admit, I had a good time with it. It definitely was watered down from the first one, but considering the direction Bioware has been going with their games, it was to be expected.

The overall story wasn't as enticing or exciting or grand as the first one and there were times I had no clue of the reasons for some of the missions. It seemed like the small details from Dragon Age: Origins was enough to warrant a full blow game with the whole bigotry issue being the main focus. For anybody that has played this game, maybe you will understand where I'm coming from. I didn't understand why killing a dragon would help the mages versus the templars. Also, exploring the deep roads to get rich seemed pointless since there was still work to do and gold to collect to buy items from the markets. Don't get me wrong. The missions were enjoyable enough to have me actually do them. There was never a time I felt I needed to step away from the game just to regather myself. I was always able to move forward in the story. There were just some missions I had a hard time tying their end result back into the main plot.

Another thing that caught my attention was the limited area you had to travel around in. I'm in no way saying it was less areas you had to explore versus the first game. The first game just made it look bigger by spreading points of interest out on a larger map. Granted it's only a trick that is strictly in my mind. However, seeing the same caves and markets and town over and over again just got a little tiresome. If nothing else, I was able to learn the landscape fairly quickly. Some more life in the town would have been a welcomed addition also, especially considering they limited their locations to one town and a handful of locations outside of said town.

Looking strictly at the art and graphics, it was definitely a step up from the first game. The character models were nicely designed and did a decent job showing their facial expressions. The art was cleaned up very well and the settings were sharp. There were a few instances where the frame rate would slow up a bit. Having a lot of enemies on screen seemed to tax the game's performance. The characters outside of your main group seemed to be very generic as well. Looking at faces from one person to another made the people around Kirkwall seem unimpressive. The faces on the elves were also a little odd to look at, especially after playing Dragon Age: Origins. It wasn't a deal breaker for playing this game, just something that was very noticeable.

My last qualm is really focused on the whole voice acting bit and the choices you were given. Granted, it is super difficult to come up with some believable dialogue trees that will make things flow seamlessly and i give these guys a lot of credit for doing what they were able to do. But I do take issue with being able to ride the fence on this major rivalry all throughout the game and at the very end be shoved into picking a side or following a decision path that you had previously opposed all before the end of the game. As geeky as it sounds, it just broke the whole fantasy of the game for me. It makes me wish that there was a better way to implement these types of things in games, especially if it's a technique a series of games relies upon so heavily.

When it comes down to it, I still prefer the first game over this game. Granted, I never felt like I was slowed down in this game and the missions were fun enough to keep me engaged from start to finish. If anybody were to say that this game were not fun, I would have to argue against that claim. However, the game seems to have had the role playing feel removed from this "role playing game" when being compared with its predecessor. Even when considering how much I hated the first game when I initially played it, there was just something more I was able to connect with from the first game that just seemed lacking in the second game. That, and the fact that they decided to water the rpg elements of the game down just left me with an indifferent feeling when the final credits started rolling.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"chicknfeet reviewed Dragon Age II for the Xbox 360..." was posted by chicknfeet on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:59:38 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dragon-age-ii/user-reviews/785660/platform/xbox360/ Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:41:08 -0800 UnrealLegend reviewed Assassin's Creed: Revelations for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-revelations/user-reviews/780530/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Warning: Mild Spoilers

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is the fourth main game in the franchise, and stays true to the formula that made the previous games so unique. Once again you'll be performing brutal assassinations in a historical context that is both unusual and immersive.

Following the events of the previous game, Desmond Miles wakes up and finds himself stranded in the animus, the revolutionary machine he used to relive the memories of his ancestors. Overuse of the animus has caused Desmond's brain to scramble the memories of his ancestors with his own, putting him in a coma. In order to wake up, he needs to synchronize with the later memories of Ezio Auditore.

Ezio's story begins several years after where Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood left off. Tired of fighting, he sets out on a journey to seek the wisdom of the great assassin, Altair. The pilgrimage takes him to Constantinople, which is where the bulk of the game takes place. The story initially starts out rather slow, but manages to pick up the pace by the end and ultimately becomes the most exciting and memorable Assassin's Creed story yet, and builds toward a fulfilling climax; something that Brotherhood failed to achieve.

Most of the characters encountered are completely new ones, which keeps the narrative fresh. Among these are the fellow assassin Yusuf and love interest Sofia. These new characters aren't as memorable as they could have been, but are still a welcome addition to the series.

One of the first things you'll notice when playing Revelations is how familiar it feels. There have not not been any major changes to the gameplay since Brotherhood, so those who were expected something new and innovative will be left disappointed. That's not to say there isn't anything new though. The combat controls have been updated, and the weapon selection wheel now has two separate sections; one for primary melee weapons and another for sidearms and lesser gadgets. The sidearms are now activated with the press of a separate button, meaning you can essentially have two weapons selected at once, eliminating the need to constantly change weapons manually.

A big draw of the series has always been the free running elements. Running across the rooftops of Constantinople is now faster than ever with the introduction of the hookblade, which is not surprisingly, a hook attached to a blade. The tool allows Ezio to grab onto hard-to-reach ledges that he wouldn't be able to grab otherwise, as well as a whole new set of brutal animations that will satisfy any cravings for violence. The hookblade is pretty unrealistic, but realism was never something the series was known for in the first place.

Now, onto the combat. Revelations once again uses the execution kill streak system that Brotherhood introduced. This did two things: 1), it made combat a lot faster and more satisfying because you weren't standing around waiting for the enemy to attack, and 2), it made the game a lot easier; possibly too easy. The game is still rather easy, especially against normal enemies, but the introduction of some nasty new foes that block most attacks complicates things a bit, and ultimately make Revelations the most challenging game since the original in 2007. And in large groups, these guys can rip you to shreds if you're not careful. Because of the increased difficulty, it means that you might need to resort to having your assassin recruits assist you in battle.

These guys can handle themselves quite well in a fight, and in fact the entire recruitment system is handled much better than it was in Brotherhood. Recruits now have involvement in the main story, and interact with Ezio in such a way that makes you actually feel like you're the leader. Additionally, it is once again possible to send your gang of assassins to other parts of Europe and Asia to fight the Templars for control of the cities.

As well as the main Ezio plot, Assassin's Creed: Revelations also sees the return of the first game's protagonist, Altair. Altair has recorded events of his life onto 5 mysterious seals, which give the player an opportunity to see further into Altair's character as we see his later years. These short missions are much more linear than what you'll experience as Ezio, but to fans of the first game, they're a nostalgic recollection of many fond memories.

The modern day assassin, Desmond, returns with his own set of unique missions. This time unfortunately, they're nothing to be excited about. You'll awkwardly navigate through mazes of pillars and beams of light in a first-person perspective, while creating blocks out of nothing to progress. They are thankfully optional, but still a disappointing addition.

And speaking of disappointing additions, a variation of Brotherhood's Borgia towers makes a return, and you are now required to defend them from the Templars in a stupid tower defense mini-game that feels ridiculously out of place. It's good that Ubisoft is making an attempt to add some variety, but these kind of additions are not welcome in a game that otherwise does so much, so well.

There are more platforming sections that are essential to the story this time around, and they do a good job of splitting up the pace during all the face-stabbing you'll be doing. Some of these involve some exciting scripted sequences with burning boats, falling rocks, and other things you'd expect in an action-heavy game such as this. Often when you search the dead bodies of enemies you'll find useful ingredients that can be used to craft bombs. There's a huge amount of possibilities when it comes to bomb-crafting. It might sound like another attempt to add something that really doesn't need to be there, but the many different kinds of bombs that can be created really adds another layer to the gameplay, leading to all kinds weird and wonderful situations. It also means that if you want to replay a mission, you can use different bombs to try and do something different.

There's also "random events" that occur on the street every now and then. They aren't as common or well-handled as they were in Red Dead Redemption, but they add a degree of randomness the gameplay. Nothing can be as tense as shenanigans taking place on the street while trying to remain hidden from the guards looking for you. Veterans of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood's multiplayer will immediately know something isn't right when they hear the familiar, creepy whispering as a murderer sneaks up behind you with a knife, and there's a lot of other small details that are so easy to overlook.

Not every single new thing that Revelations tries to implement is successful, but it's easy to overlook these annoyances when a game is this impressive. Assassin's Creed: Revelation's delivers a strong story, many memorable moments, and a huge amount of content that will keep you busy for a long time.

Pros:
-Fantastic conclusion to the stories of Ezio and Altair
-Large amount of content will keep you busy for hours
-Great musical score and voice acting
-Combat and free running are as fun as ever
-Bombs add a whole new tactical layer

Cons:
-Tower Defense and Desmond sequences are boring and out of place

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/assassins-creed-revelations/user-reviews/780530/platform/ps3/ Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:01:45 -0800 DBIZMO reviewed Gears of War 3 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/gears-of-war-3/user-reviews/780264/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

The Gears of War franchise that started back in 2006 has finally ended with Gears of War 3. It certainly felt like a series finale. This is a game you wouldn't want leave out if you're a Gears fan or you are a person that wants to find out the fate of Marcus Fenix and the rest of the COG against the Locust Horde. This game is definitely an improvement than the last two. Epic seemed to fix the many problems that plagued Gears of War 2 and then refined it to make sure both singleplayer and multiplayer would run smoothly. The strong storyline, the vast multiplayer and solid gameplay definitely makes the Gears of War 3 a recommended game to have for Xbox.

The storyline continues on after the events of Gears of War 2. Again, you take the role as Marcus Fenix leading the collapsed COG army against the Locust Horde as well as searching for his father and finding out the truth behind Emergence Day. However, during the singleplayer, you take a break from Marcus' view and play as Augustus Cole as well. Playing as Augustus allowed the player to find the character's origins, which was a great addition to learning more of the original characters. The storyline has a strong focus on what's happening, but if you're a player who is new to this game you might be a little confused on what's going on. There are new characters also in this game such as Jace Stratton and Samantha Byrne. However the development of these characters felt lacklustre. It seemed like these new characters were thrown into the game as some sort of filler and not much background info about them.

When it comes to gameplay, it still has that familiar feel from the last two Gears of War games. However, there are new execution moves that have been added and new various types of weapons that make killing grubs in Gears of war fun. There have been several tweaks in the gameplay. The roadie run animation has reverted back to the first Gears of War animatronics (which certainly looked better), and the characters movement has sped up a bit but it is really hard to see the difference unless you look closely. The graphics in this game still looks beautiful .Probably one of the best looking games in in this current Xbox console. The game doesn't seem to suffer too many frame rate issues, however the physics felt like it has been scaled down. For instance, limbs and corpses doesn't have too many ragdoll effects when you walk through them (Unlike Gears of War 2) and blasting enemies from point blank range with the gnasher shotgun makes enemies appear as if they were blown to pieces instantly rather than having a bloody mangled mess on the spot.

Horde Mode is definitely fun with friends. Instead of having to just kill of the Locust horde and try to survive 50 waves, they have added new features that add the longevity of the game such as spending money to build new defenses so that your survival on the wave will last longer. Beast mode is a new multiplayer feature where you play as the locust themselves and kill off the characters from the story. It is pretty much the opposite of Horde Mode.

As for multiplayer, it felt balanced. All weapons have its fair share of strengths and weaknesses. The Maps are fun to play on but there are some that felt too big and open and a lot of moving around that finding an opponent to kill became hard. Many people would agree that the sawed off shotgun with its instant kill in point blank range is overpowered. However, it felt that it has been balanced in way due to the fact of the slow reload speed and its single shot. At some point there are some players that continuously camp around corners until the opponent gets close enough for the sawed off to get the kill, which can ruin matches, but you can stop it by being just a bit more vigilant. The multiplayer has a much better ranking system along with the ribbon and medals for getting a certain type of kill and character unlocks, which adds more longevity to the game.

On the whole, this is pretty much the best Gears of War game I've played so far. Everything has improved from the previous two. The game really delivers and certainly one of the best Xbox 360 exclusive titles for 2011. The Gears of War universe has a great atmosphere that makes you want to know more about it and a great game to finish up the trilogy.

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"DBIZMO reviewed Gears of War 3 for the Xbox 360..." was posted by DBIZMO on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:01:45 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/gears-of-war-3/user-reviews/780264/platform/xbox360/ Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:08:01 -0700 UnrealLegend reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/batman-arkham-asylum/user-reviews/776797/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

There aren't many games that do everything so well that they leave you speechless after you finish them. And on the rare occasion that a game does this, it is almost never a licensed franchise such as Batman. Well here it is. Batman: Arkham Asylum is perfect in almost every aspect, and you don't even need to be a fan of Batman to enjoy it.

The game begins with an impressive cinematic that boasts the true potential of the Unreal Engine. Batman has just captured his arch nemesis the Joker, and is transferring him to where he truly belongs: Arkham Asylum; Gotham City's institute for the criminally insane. It just so happens that a large amount of the Joker's crew were recently transferred here, and when the Joker seems suspiciously relaxed about the whole situation, Batman knows something is not right.
Sure enough, Joker breaks loose and initiates his elaborate plan to take control of the asylum. Obviously, Batman won't let this happen. The story is told brilliantly. The creepy atmosphere and fantastic voice acting really push it forward at the perfect pace, and along the way, you'll encounter some of Batman's other foes, including Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Bane, and the Scarecrow. The plot is not overly complicated, but it's simplicity is part of the charm.

The gameplay can be split into two distinct sections: "Beat 'em up" and stealth. First of all, lets take a look at the combat. On paper, Batman's punching moves sound relatively standard. You'll tap square to punch, triangle to counter, and X to evade. When separates Arkham asylum form other games is the ridiculous speed at which the combat moves. There will constantly be enemies around you, and with proper timing you'll rack up satisfying combos in the midst of this combat that is fast, fun, and best of all, looks somewhat realistic. Everything is so well animated that it feels like you're watching an awesome Batman movie, despite the fact that you have complete control. It is possible to win fights simply by mashing one button, but to make the most of this brilliant system, every single one of Batman's moves must be put to use.

Eventually, You'll encounter thugs with weapons. Enemies armed with knives cannot be countered, and can also block most attacks. This is where Batman's cape comes in handy: flick it in their face and they'll be vulnerable. There'll also be goons armed with sticks of electricity which cannot be attacked from the front. These different enemy types mix the combat up a little, and are another reason why mashing square isn't particularly effective.

The game would become repetitive and boring if all it consisted of was punching guys in the face. Batman will also face enemies armed with automatic guns. Trying to take these guys out face-on would be suicidal, so this is when the stealth aspect of the game comes in. Batman can use a detective vision mode which highlights armed thugs and points to objects that can be interacted with; such as air vents and gargoyle statues. Hiding on top of a gargoyle is a great hiding spot, and performing an "inverted takedown" on a clueless enemy never fails to be satisfying. Of course that isn't the only way of picking them off; you can also create diversions, smash through windows, glide-kick into their faces, and more. Detective vision will also give the mental state of the enemies, and it's really cool watching them become increasing terrified as you pick them off one-by-one. It's a shame however, that detective vision is slightly overpowered. because there is no downside to it, there is little reason to not be using it constantly during the stealth segments.

Another fantastic aspect of the game is it's atmosphere. This is mainly due to the fact that you're in the midst of a twisted plan controlled by the Joker, but also because of the presence of the Scarecrow. Three times throughout the game, the infamous Johnathan Crane will infect Batman will his "fear gas", turning the asylum into a nightmarish platforming section crafted from Batman's psychological trauma. These parts a disturbingly creepy, and disturbingly fun. Going into any more detail than that would ruin the experience. During the stealth segments, the action can be extremely suspenseful which adds even more to the atmosphere. And speaking of suspense, at one point the game forces you into the lair of Killer Croc, where he jumps up and charges at you. These claustrophobic tunnels will make you paranoid.

So I've already covered some of the villains you'l encounter, but it is also worth talking about the challenges of one of Batman's oldest enemies, the Riddler. Edward Nigma will give riddles to solve, in which the solution is often a character in the Batman universe. Through these challenges, just about every single villain Batman has faced gets some kind of reference. These challenges are solved by scanning an object in the environment, displaying the game's huge attention to detail.

The only real letdown in Arkham Asylum is the boss fights. The first fight will be against Bane, a relatively good fight until the game throws lesser clones of him at you. The boss fights do improve toward the end, but the final fight is an underwhelming anticlimax.

Once you're done with the story, you'll have an opportunity to finish any remaining riddles or try out the challenge mode. There are two kinds: combat and predator. Combat makes you fight a punch of goons and rack up the biggest sore you can get, while predator puts you into a stealth sequence will very specific objectives, such as blowing up three walls which take out three enemies simultaneously. It is also worth noting that the combat challenges are without a doubt, the most difficult part of the game.

This small letdown isn't enough to stop Arkahm Asylum from being a genre-defining masterpiece. From the fluid combat to the intense stealth, Batman: Arkham Asylum is truely one of a kind.

Pros:
-Creepy atmosphere
-Fun riddles in the lavishly detailed asylum
-Fluid combat that looks amazing
-Intense stealth sequences
-Challenge rooms give greater lasting value

Cons:
-Detective vision is overpowered
-Final Boss is somewhat anticlimactic

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"UnrealLegend reviewed Batman: Arkham Asylum for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by UnrealLegend on Tue, 11 Oct 2011 18:08:01 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/batman-arkham-asylum/user-reviews/776797/platform/ps3/ Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:33:02 -0700 chicknfeet reviewed Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/shin-megami-tensei-persona-3-fes/user-reviews/775196/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Persona 3 is the story of 8 companions who attend high school during the day and battle a wide variety of monsters at night with their dark alter egos known as personae. For those that have never played a game such as this, check out the Gamespot review written by Kevin Van Ord. You play as a high school student who finds himself having a special power of being able to summon shadow beings within himself and experience a time during the middle of the night between midnight at 12:01 known as the dark hour. Along with your fellow classmates, an android and a very frisky dog, you spend every night during the dark hour exploring a tower known as Tartarus that appears in the place your high school sits, trying to figure out why the monsters of the dark hour are attacking people.

Going through the game, you notice that even though this game was released on the PS2, the developers really took the time to make this game look beautiful. The buildings in the town, the character models, the cut scenes, the monster battles and all of the personae...all very well done with such a rich array of colors and animations. Seeing a character cast a ice spell or slashing an enemy with a Hand of God is satisfying to watch. Even summoning a persona is exciting to watch albeit a little attention grabbing the first time you see it. Watching one of the characters pull out their evoker...which surprisingly resembles a hand gun...and shooting themselves in the head is as fun to watch the thousandth time as it is the first time.

The music in the game is a nice variety of Japanese pop and some slow instrumentals. There have been many times the music has found its way into my head while doing other things. Taking some extra time just to listen to the music playing in the background at the mall or switching to a specific BGM during your exploration of Tartarus will have you singing the songs to yourself when you aren't parked in front of the television.

The game play in the Journey portion is fun: plain and simple. You play the game in a morning, afternoon, evening and night time setting. Typically during the mornings and afternoons, you are in class and socializing with other classmates, teachers and potential girlfriends. You take periodic quizzes in class and attend after school clubs and organizations. Each school activity you perform and participate in will potentially put you in improved standings with your academics or social circles. During the evenings, you have the choice to spend time at the mall, visit a park or do a few other activities around town as well as stay in and study your school work. Night time is spent either getting rested for the next day or exploring Tartarus and having some monster-killing fun during the dark hour. Improving your social standings during the day helps to improve your potential to successfully explore Tartarus at night. Incorporating a good balance of life simulation and turn-based battling helps to keep things interesting.

A few things made the game a bit more complicated than needed such as managing your team and figuring out which skills your personae had. Trying to equip your characters while exploring Tartarus was an inconvenience at most, but still nothing that couldn't be worked through. Figuring out which of your persona to use during a battle based on their skills proved to be a little confusing at times as well, but again, nothing that couldn't be worked through.

The one major drawback to this game I have found is playing through the Answers mode. Though the story is compelling and does actually keep the same feel as the original game's fighting sequences, it tends to get tedious after a while. The Journey was good at mixing things up and not focusing so hard on one part of the formula. The Answers focuses strictly on fighting. Although it is still fun to watch these students call forth their personae and execute some very lavish actions, it just turns into a slow grind. Not to shed too much negativity on the additional content, there does seem to be a lot of answers provided to many questions you've probably never had.

Overall, the game is solid and the experience is nigh forgettable. You will find yourself cheering for your characters, singing the theme songs in your head, as well as sitting on the edge of your seat at times. If you are able to find a copy of this game at your local gaming distributor, pick up a copy since it is worth more than the value it is being sold for.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/shin-megami-tensei-persona-3-fes/user-reviews/775196/platform/ps2/ Tue, 13 Sep 2011 08:36:15 -0700 greenskittles reviewed The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D for the 3DS... http://www.gamespot.com/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d/user-reviews/774518/platform/3ds/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Editors note - This is probably better titled as a Lazy review. I assure you I have better grammar and techniques than this =]

Nintendo has released it's remake to the 1998 classic hit. Does it stand the test of time, the game revered by many as the greatest ever, can it still be considered perfect?

Ocarina of Time is about a boy called Link (you), a princess named Zelda and an evil guy who wants to take over her country, your job? Save it. It's a simple enough story, which you can take as a negative but you can't exactly fault it for not being Oscar worthy. In the end it is a heart warming, tale that will grow on you by the end.

The meat of the game is in the dungeons and temples which are quite large even by today's standards. You're job is to find and finish these areas which have enemies, puzzle and boss fights. On the combat side you have standard lock on mechanics which Ocarina helped introduce back in the day, the sword play is pretty basic with a couple of dodge moves. You'll also receive some neat weapons and equipment like a boomerang, flaming bows and ... a bottle! With these items and gear you can use them against enemies and used to solve puzzles.

The best part about the game are some of the truly ingenious puzzle designs. They really really creative, so many games today are no doubt influenced by some of the level design of this game. I'm astonished how I sometimes feel so many action/adventure/puzzle games still really haven't moved away from this magnificent blue print.

Yet this supposedly remake really is just a port. Anyone today will be able to tell this is a game from different time. On a technical level there are some fine textures, and when compared to the original completely trumps it. Unfortunately it's really just textures, color, some new animations and new 3D depth which is new. It's not pushing the hardware at all, it's can still be nice to look at but for a AAA Nintendo game you'd expect more. Enemies also constantly re-spawn after you leave a room and come back, and for the newer generation this will feel very odd to them. The game can lack direction such as when some puzzles aren't clear enough and having to trudge through levels all over again just to fight the bosses can be incredibly irritating.

Ocarina is a game that does truly stand the test of time and will probably still play fine in the future. Nintendo and GREZZO have done a solid job in remastering (not remaking) this title but you can't help but feel they tried a too hard to keep faithful to the 1998 version. In the end you still get a lengthy adventure, with a bunch of side-quest, a nice little story and a wholly satisfying game. It's definitely still worth it after 13 years.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Presentation - 8 [Interface and menus are clear and simple. A story that's engaging enough]

Graphics - 8 [Good textures, 3D has some decent depth. Everything else mostly is directly from the N64 version]

Sound - 8 [Great soundtrack. Gibberish voices acting and sound effects are appropriate]

Gameplay - 8.5 [Much of the games level designs is still great by today's standards. Yet there is still some instances of archaic design but it can be overlooked quite easily in the long run]

Value - 9.5 [You could potentially go past 40 hours on a straight play through. Plus there's some cool challenges and a Master Quest which adds a twist on the games original puzzles]

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d/user-reviews/774518/platform/3ds/ Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:35:52 -0700 UnrealLegend reviewed Crysis 2 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-2/user-reviews/773706/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 6.5.

Ever since Crysis 2 was announced, I was extremely eager to play it. After all, the is was the sequel to Crysis, a game that not only looked almost photo realistic, but had some of the most enjoyable and satisfying gameplay seen in a First Person Shooter.

The issue is, Crysis 2's plot and structure is so disjointed from its predecessor that if it didn't say "Crysis 2" on the cover, you probably wouldn't even know it was in the same series.

The game starts with an impressive-looking intro where the player character, (going by the generic call sign "Alcatraz") escapes from a submarine only the find New York under attack by aliens. Now this is a pretty massive jump from the end of the first game. Crysis didn't have the most original story, but in was still presented in an intriguing and unique way that made it an interesting experience. But when a game ends on a cliffhanger, you'd expect the sequel to address this and resolve any loose ends. Crysis 2 does none of this. Crytek is pretty much giving the finger to all the fans of the first game by setting the sequel 3 years later and giving no explanation as to what happened.

Even if you haven't played the first game, the story is still a terrible mess with no reasonable structure. And to make matters worse, Crytek went all Gordon Freeman on us and gave us a protagonist with no voice or personality.

Now, onto the gameplay. Crysis 2 feels like a mix between Call of Duty and Halo. You'll circle enemies with your gun, blasting away as they aimlessly jump between two pre-scripted positions. The guns feel very powerful, which is one of the few improvements from the first game, but this was an almost pointless design choice, since all enemies; humans and aliens, are complete bullet sponges. You could fire a burst of assault rifle fire into a clueless soldier, and they respond with no more that an "Ouch!" Crysis 2 might not be the only game guilty of this, but it's still inexcusable.

Much like the first game, you as the player are equipped with a nano suit that gives the wearer superhuman abilities. There's the neutral "weapon mode" which does nothing (other than not use up suit energy), the stealthy "cloak mode", which turns the player invisible, and "armour mode" which is pretty self explanatory. The speed and strength abilities from the first game have been morphed into the passive "power mode" which activates only when it's needed. The way the nanosuit behaves is quite similar to how it used to be, but a lot of potential is flushed down the toilet because of a few dumb design choices. First of all, the so-called "strength" is not strong at all. Throwing heavy metal objects at enemies does next to nothing, and even punch to face is surprisingly useless. It is possible to perform a "power punch" by holding down the melee button, but since the it needs to be held, it makes some slight delay which is usually enough for the target to evade the punch. The game also gives you very little motivation to do this, since a power punch drains all suit energy, leaving you open to be killed. So unlike the first game, there's no more punching trucks into gas stations and throwing table saws through tin shacks. Shame.

The biggest disappointment is the level design. Crysis dropped you into an enormous level where there were so many different options on how you could complete your missions. And this huge open world made the nanosuit especially fun to exploit, since it made the singleplayer almost infinitely replayable. Crysis 2 sacrifices this unique feature, and instead gives the illusion of an open world by forcing you through one wide corridor to the next.
The game also gives you "tactical options" that do give you choice, but absolutely minimal choice. Something along the lines of: "Go through the left corridor or go through the right corridor." All while this happens, you'll hear the usual generic military radio traffic of "Copy that, Echo Delta Bravo Major". The dumbed-down level design seriously affects how the game can be played.

The enemies honestly try their hardest to kill you, (which is obvious a good thing) but the problem is that they're usually not very good at it, because the AI is incredibly inconsistent. When it works, it works quite well; they'll flank you hide from you and do the usual. But when the AI doesn't work, it usually involves squads of soldiers running into chest-high walls or an alien that doesn't seem to mind that I'm blasting shotgun shells into his head.

The game isn't all bad though. The soundtrack is absolutely fantastic, and sometimes I boot up the game just so I can hear the menu theme. It also has an immersive atmosphere, and decent production values. And as stated earlier, the gun mechanics are actually quite good. Unfortunately, this is about all Crysis 2 has over that fantastic game known as Crysis. It is also worth noting the graphics. Much like the first game, Crysis 2 is very pretty to look at. In fact, I would argue it's one of the best-looking console games (I played it on both PC and PS3).

If it can be accepted for what it is, Crysis 2 is an alright shooter with a cliche and generic story, with the typical linear layout that most shooters are infected with.

Pros:
-Fantastic soundtrack and atmosphere
-Solid shooting mechanics
-Pretty Graphics

Cons:
-Restrictive gameplay
-Terrible story
-Level design is seriously dumbed down compared to the first game.
-The AI is about as intelligent as a brick

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"UnrealLegend reviewed Crysis 2 for the PC..." was posted by UnrealLegend on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 19:35:52 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/crysis-2/user-reviews/773706/platform/pc/ Thu, 21 Jul 2011 21:17:44 -0700 jamesh-42 reviewed Mirror's Edge: Pure Time Trials Map Pack for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/mirrors-edge-pure-time-trials-map-pack/user-reviews/770890/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 7.0.

Mirror's Edge was an innovative FPS game that primarily focused on movement rather than shooting. After finishing the main storyline campaign, there was a time trials mode that reduced the focus on gun play even further by removing the enemies and instead left you running over rooftop courses against a clock.

The Pure Time Trials DLC adds a new set of time trials courses and takes things even further by constructing the courses out of abstract geometric shapes floating in the air.

While this simplifies the appearance of the levels, if anything it has made them more complex since they no longer need to look like they were built according to the laws of gravity.

In short, if you liked the time trial mode in the main game then this DLC might be for you. If instead you found the time trials to be a bore, then you probably won't find this one much different.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/mirrors-edge-pure-time-trials-map-pack/user-reviews/770890/platform/ps3/ Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:32:00 -0700 jamesh-42 reviewed Mirror's Edge for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/mirrors-edge/user-reviews/770882/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

While Mirror's Edge uses the familiar first person perspective of many games, it probably won't feel like other FPS games you may have played. Rather than focusing on combat, it is usually best to avoid combat entirely in this game.

In keeping with this, a lot more thought has gone into character movement than your average FPS game. For instance, you can run a lot faster going forward than backwards or sideways. It will take some time to reach your maximum sprint speed, and you will lose speed if you take corners too quickly.

Most of the game is spent travelling over the roof tops of buildings using "parkour" techniques. For the most part you will only need to use three action buttons to perform these techniques: context sensitive "high" and "low" action buttons, and a "turn" button. For example, the "high" button will usually result in a jump, but may cause you to do a vault if you are running towards an obstacle. The "low" button may cause you to crouch when standing, slide under an obstacle when running, or perform a roll to soften the landing from a jump.

These actions can also be strung together: for example, if you are between two walls you might be able to climb them by running diagonally at one wall and using the "high" action to initiate a wall run, press the turn button to make a 90° turn away from the wall, the "high" button again to jump and grab the top of the other wall, and finally the "high" button to pull yourself up. With a bit of practice it is usually pretty easy to work out what you need to press in order to perform the desired move, while the timing requirements keep it challenging.

The first person perspective does have its downsides though: if you want to jump from the edge of a platform, the edge will disappear from view before you reach it. You could fix this by staring at your feet while running, but then you wouldn't be able to see where you're going. In practice though, once you get into the rhythm of the game it is not too difficult to pull off the jumps since there are few places where you absolutely need to jump at the last moment.

If you do miss your jump though, the most common result is a fall to your death and a restart at the last checkpoint (which are usually placed not too far from where you are likely to die). When playing the demo, there was virtually no loading time after a death, so I was disappointed when the full game had significantly longer load times. If you die a lot, this can be quite frustrating.

The game's story is set in a futuristic totalitarian city where large corporations have a large influence over the establishment. You play as Faith, a courier whose work involves delivering packages that clients don't want to put through the official channels. Her sister is set up to look like she has murdered a politician. The game follows Faith as she works to save her sister.

While the main storyline is not particularly long, it does open up the time trials mode. This mode consists of courses made from modified versions of the story levels where you are required to race through a set of checkpoints in a fixed amount of time. While some of the time trials follow similar paths to what you would have done in the story levels, you'll often need to find short cuts you would not have otherwise used to get the shorted times. This seems to be the mode that offers the most challenge, and if you like the parkour aspect of the game it may provide as much enjoyment as the main story campaign.

While Mirror's Edge has its faults, it does present something new and for the most part it all fits together as a great game. I hope that when DICE gets tired of making Battlefield games they'll remember Mirror's Edge and consider making a sequel.

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"jamesh-42 reviewed Mirror's Edge for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by jamesh-42 on Thu, 21 Jul 2011 18:32:00 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/mirrors-edge/user-reviews/770882/platform/ps3/ Sat, 09 Jul 2011 02:28:42 -0700 jamesh-42 reviewed Patapon for the PSP... http://www.gamespot.com/patapon/user-reviews/769930/platform/psp/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

At its core, Patapon is a strategy game where you control an army of creatures known as Patapons as they hunt and fight. Rather than directly controlling the army, you issue commands in the form of four beat "songs" performed using the face buttons.

At the start of the game you are only given songs to "move forward" or "attack", but as the game progresses you will unlock further songs. Due to the way you command your army, there is a delay before they act on your instructions. So rather than relying on quick reflexes, you will need to learn to predict what the enemy is planning to do. To compensate for this, the larger enemies telegraph their attacks in advance, giving you a chance to react in time.

There are three main types of missions in the game: hunting missions that allow you kill animals to gather resources, combat missions where you fight enemy "zigotons" and progress the story, and boss missions where you fight against a single larger creature. If you get stuck on the story missions, hunting and boss missions can be repeated to gather more resources and items. None of the missions are particularly long, so can easily be finished in a single sitting, which is good for a game on a handheld.

Between missions you will be given the opportunity to upgrade your army. As you move through the game you will unlock new types of units, which can be purchased using the money and and two resources. Each unit type requires a different pair of resource classes, and using rarer resources from a class will result in better units.

While you can easily find most common resources in hunting missions, the rarer resources are usually only dropped by bosses. Also, there are a number of mini games that can be played that effectively let you convert common resources into rarer ones.

While most of what I've said has been positive, my main criticism of the game is its uneven difficulty curve. There are a few storyline missions that could present problems and block your progress in the game. If you are not sure what you need to do to progress this can be quite frustrating. In fact, when I first started playing the game I got stuck on one of these levels and gave up in frustration, and only finished the game after starting over a few years later. If you do run into a problem level, I strongly suggest looking for a guide that has enough information to unblock you since the later parts of the game are quite fun.

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"jamesh-42 reviewed Patapon for the PSP..." was posted by jamesh-42 on Sat, 09 Jul 2011 02:28:42 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/patapon/user-reviews/769930/platform/psp/ Mon, 04 Jul 2011 07:55:21 -0700 jamesh-42 reviewed Enslaved: Odyssey to the West for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/enslaved-odyssey-to-the-west/user-reviews/769561/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

When I was growing up, one of the shows I loved watching on TV was Monkey Magic. It was an amusingly dubbed Japanese show based on the classic Chinese story "Journey to the West". This game is also loosely based on the story, but there are some aspects that seem to take their cue from the television show.

Rather than being set in historic China, the game is set after a war that has destroyed most of society. You play as Monkey: an experienced warrior who is being held captive through the use of a "slave headband" by a young woman named Tripitaka. The deal is that she will remove the headband once Monkey safely escorts her to her home in the west.

While this might make the game sound like a glorified escort mission, there are only a few points in the game where you are tasked with directly defending Trip: in most cases she will stay out of harm's way and let you do your thing.

You will very rarely encounter other people in the game, with the enemies in the game being various types of mechs ranging from simple soldiers that attack with blades up to larger mechs like the dog on the cover of the game.

For close combat, Monkey can perform various melee attacks with his staff that can be chained together in simple combos. Some enemies have shields or can block, in which case he can use a stun attack to temporarily lower their defences. For long range, Monkey's staff can shoot plasma blasts. As with melee attacks, Monkey can also fire stun blasts when faced with shielded enemies. In addition, Trip can also provide a temporary distraction to draw enemy fire if Monkey is pinned down. On normal, the combat is quite forgiving and you'll rarely die, so if you want a challenge I would suggest playing the game on hard.

During the platforming segments, it may initially feel like Monkey's movement is a bit too fast, making it feel like you'll walk off a ledge or miss a jump. You'll soon find out that Monkey will only jump when there is somewhere to jump to and won't walk off cliffs. Once you realise this, you'll start making your way through the environments a lot faster, which also shows off the game's fluid animation.

Graphically, Enslaved is everything you'd expect for a game from Ninja Theory. The motion capture and facial animation is top notch, with beautiful character and level design.

While the game is not particularly long for an action/adventure game, but at the same time the story does not feel padded out. Unfortunately there isn't much replay value either: the only things left to do is to replay levels to collect any orbs you missed and purchase the remaining upgrades.

Overall, I found the game worth the time it took to play and is definitely worth the money at its current price.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/enslaved-odyssey-to-the-west/user-reviews/769561/platform/ps3/ Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:16:22 -0700 UnrealLegend reviewed inFamous 2 for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/infamous-2/user-reviews/768995/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Several recent sequels this year have turned out to be festering disappointments, but it is pleasing to say that inFamous 2 is in many ways, a vast improvement over the first game. Now, what exactly is inFamous I hear you say? It's a fast-paced, story-driven superhero game that puts you in the shoes of the former delivery boy Cole MacGrath.

After a brief recap of the story, inFamous 2 begins with the arrival of "The Beast"; an all-powerful monster teased at the end of the first game. Our protagonist Cole is forced to travel to the town of New Marais; where he can supposedly find a way to amp up his powers so he can face the Beast. Only thing is, there's a bit of a problem: A faction known as the militia are present in New Marais, and they are bent on exterminating all super-powered individuals, thus cleansing the town of "freaks". Even though in the main part of the plot Cole is supposed to be on the run from the Beast, it often feel disjointed from the Militia side-plot which gives the game an odd pace. But regardless, the story is both complex and engaging. Cole's best friend Zeke (who was often regarded as one of the most annoying characters ever), is actually incredibly well-developed and sympathetic this time around. But of course Sucker Punch couldn't release the game without an annoying sidekick, which brings us to a new character named Nix. Nix not only has an extremely annoying voice, but her character lacks believability.

As an extremely powerful conduit, Cole has the ability to create and manipulate electricity. The core gameplay mechanics remain nearly identical to the first game; which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The combat plays similar to a third person shooter in that Cole uses bolts of lightning to combat enemies, with other attacks such as lightning grenades and rockets available as well. It isn't as jumpy or button-mashy as similar games like Prototype are, because much of the combat relies on tactics as well brute force. This is because enemies often appear in large groups, forcing you to make decisions on when to use certain powers and where. This is further complicated by the fact that Cole is essentially "a walking battery" and is required to recharge from electricity sources scattered around New Marais. Doing so also restores Cole's health, which not only eliminates the infamous black-and-white screen of "you're nearly dead", but also allows you to be reckless if you know there's some electricity handy. On of the bigger improvements in inFamous 2 is the new feature that allows you to select different powers via a "quick select" menu system. Each button has a certain power type associated with it, and pressing the button will toggle between the different powers available. For example, standard bolt powers are linked to R1, so pressing R1 in the powers menu will quickly switch between different bolts. Although it can be annoying when you accidentally select the wrong power, it gives a lot more freedom and variety than the first game offered, especially when about halfway through the game you're given the choice between ice and napalm powers; adding even more variety. Cole is also equipped with a melee weapon known as the "amp". Most of the time melee is not a very effective way of fighting (save for a few certain enemy types), and all it really involves is pressing square until you can pull off some some impressive finishing moves that simply look awesome.

There is also a great deal of enemy variety. Rather than have three differently skinned factions like in the first game, inFamous 2 has different factions that all fight in completely different ways. The militia mentioned previously are standard gun-wielding goons that simply shoot Cole until he's dead. "The Corrupted" are a bunch of monsters that use mainly melee attacks, and the final opposing faction is the Vermaak 88; a faction of soldiers that are obsessed with constantly jumping around and displaying their agility like a bunch of show-offs. Some of these factions have boss enemies of their side, and while epic at first, they are eventually repeated, leading to the same enemy being faced multiple times. On the other hand, they are at a much larger scale than the boss fights of the first game, so it is always satisfying taking down a huge enemy.

Traversing the city of New Marais is a lot more involved and satisfying than it was to do in the first game's Empire City, thanks to several new powers. In particular are the improved static thrusters, a gliding ability that gives a small but noticeable boost of height. Others include the lightning tether, which is essentially a bolt of lightning that acts like a grappling hook (I'm no scientist, but don't ask me how the hell that works), and my personal favourite; the ice launch. The ice launch gives Cole an enormous vertical boost, which can be used to jump over small buildings with minimal effort.

For a game released in 2009, inFamous had a rather ugly visual design and it's graphics have not aged well. Thankfully, inFamous 2 looks leaps and bounds better with more detailed textures and lighting effects, and some much needed colour. Aside from a few jaggies, inFamous 2 is a pleasant game to look at, and is easily on par with some of the best-looking open world games like Just Cause 2 and Red Dead Redemption. Unfortunately, inFamous 2 suffers from similar visual glitches that the first game had. During melee combat, some of the finishing moves can make Cole appear to be swinging right through a brick wall, and some powers; particularly the ice powers that leave shards of ice scattered around the battlefield, seem to defy physics by refusing to make any movement. This leads to some awkward moments with chunks of ice floating in the air after the object they were on is destroyed. It's nothing major, but certainly noticeable.

The game also features a morality system much like it's predecessor. It's nothing deep that causes strong moral dilemmas, but an incentive to play through the game twice. The choices are very black-and-white, and it's obvious that this is what the developers were aiming for. Some mission icons are colour-coded red or blue to help the player distinguish the difference between good and evil, so it's clear that Sucker Punch had no intention of giving the morality system any grey areas. In fact, most of the moral decisions aren't even decisions like they were in the first game. Rather, they play out as small events happening in the city (ei defuse the bomb or let it explode). Again, it isn't really a very deep system, but it gives plenty of reasons to give the game a second playthrough, especially since your there are two different sets of powers attached to your karma as well as two completely different endings to the story. Some of the main missions play out differently as well, the notoriously annoying Nix guides the player through evil missions, and a character named Kuo will supply the good missions.

Another new feature is the addition of user-generated content. It's a powerful feature that allows players to make their own missions. Although the vast majority of the missions out there are simply terrible, there are a few great missions out there that are on par with the ones that come with the game. The UGC tools seem daunting and complex at first, especially since there is no in-game tutorial like the one in LittleBigPlanet, but after a while it is fairly easy to make some interesting missions.

inFamous 2 is one of those rare sequels that manage to improve and expand upon what made the original great. The core gameplay feels very familiar, so those who didn't enjoy the first game might not like this one either. On the other hand, fans of the original will not be disappointed by this ambitious sequel that is superior to the first game in almost every way.

Pros:
-Great story and production values
-New powers are awesome fun
-Heaps of enemy variety
-You won't be done with all the content anytime soon

Cons:
-Glitches
-Boss fights are repeated

Get the full article at GameSpot

"UnrealLegend reviewed inFamous 2 for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by UnrealLegend on Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:16:22 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/infamous-2/user-reviews/768995/platform/ps3/ Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:44:19 -0700 protaganist20 reviewed Duke Nukem Forever for the PlayStation 3... http://www.gamespot.com/duke-nukem-forever/user-reviews/767338/platform/ps3/ ...and gave it a 5.5.

Duke Nukem 3D was one of the first adult games I ever played. I felt so naughty playing it and keeping it a secret from my parents who most likely wouldn't have approved of Duke. Which was half of what made it fun for me, the other half was of course the classic game itself and it's hero who was a gaming legend at the time.

So fourteen years later after a seemingly endless time spent in the deepest pit of development hell the king is back! The game begins with a remake of the final boss battle from 3D and then moves to Duke enjoying some R&R with two blonde twins in his penthouse, So far so good. His sense of humors intact, OTTness you bet, Sexual Innuendos? Oh yeah! There are some really hilarious one liners and segments at the beginning, happening across a Christian Bale style rant backstage a talk show is one of many. When the alien Bastards turn up things really start to heat up but unfortunately from there things only reach mild temperatures.

The first major let down for me was stepping out onto the strip for some outdoors action. It's here where I really started to notice how dated the game was compared to its modern day counterparts. It's just so poorly detailed and the vehicles look like something you'd find in the original soldier of fortune. Visually this game probably would've been pretty good five or so years ago but it just doesn't hold up. The humans and NPC's aren't as detailed as we've come to expect either but there not difficult to look at.

The shoot-outs can be quite fun, I really liked the shotgun it felt like it had some real oomph behind it. But many of the other weapons are a little underwhelming compared to it. The quieter moments in the game are fairly dull but there's some fun to be had hanging out in a strip club and playing some fairly decent mini games and watching a porno that has a disc read error at a really inconvenient moment.

The bosses look pretty cool but I don't imagine many will have trouble defeating them and there are only a few tricky moments in the game. But these moments are made much worse by the load time, quite possibly the worst I've seen this gen. One thing I really didn't like was the under water level, you don't see many of these anymore. Hell Bioshock a game which was set under the sea had less underwater moments than this. I think their something best left forgotten as far as FPS's are concerned.

The CoD generation might not get what all the fuss is about. I'm sure they'll be entertained by the potty humor but I imagine it won't be long before there back to newer games.
All in all despite its faults it's good to have Duke back, he's still a highly entertaining tongue in cheek character but I've gotta admit I might be being a little genorous giving it a 7. Much like another famous monarch there's some stutters here and there but not in the speech but the gameplay. But if you enjoyed Duke back in the day I'm sure you'll find something to like about this game.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"protaganist20 reviewed Duke Nukem Forever for the PlayStation 3..." was posted by protaganist20 on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 06:44:19 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/duke-nukem-forever/user-reviews/767338/platform/ps3/ Fri, 27 May 2011 15:12:08 -0700 Goyoshi12 reviewed Portal 2 for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/portal-2/user-reviews/765873/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

In 2007, a company by the name of Valve had finished one of its greatest achievements in gaming history with Portal. Portal was a simple puzzle game but with a unique twist; it was in a first person shooter perspective. Automatically it made headlines, a puzzle game in a first person perspective? It was insane. However, the geniuses of Valve did it and not only did it deliver a great puzzle adventure with clever dialogue, it also established a puzzle complexity and fluency that was to be the comparison of other puzzle games. Valve continued on through the years, creating Half Life Episodes, Team Fortress 2, the Left for Dead series, Alien Swarm, and even an Xbox-360 take on Portal called Portal: Still Alive. After four years of being MLA, Portal has now returned in this new integration to the series. Now, the series returns and not only did Valve return with greatness, it brought with it the Half Life 2 of the series as Portal 2 expands on the Portal premise and delivers more puzzles, more action, more robots, more witty dialogue, and more "You Were So Smart Until You Played Portal," moments.

You return to the Apeture Science laboratories and are awakened by a new announcer, one who is NOT GLaDOS. You soon learn that you have been under for several years and apparently, in those years a robot known as Wheatley has served out his days tending to all the "smelly test subjects" and after a good time has passed he decides to break out. Meeting you he figures he can use you to help with his escape plan and perhaps the both of you can escape. After breaking through the walls of the test subjects "room," you are soon thrust into the game beginning where Portal began. Through a trip down memory lane you and Wheatley reunite with the Portal gun and after some clever dialogue Wheatley professes that in order to escape, you and him must go through "her" chamber. After you and him make a leap of faith you find the main breaker room; Wheatley attempts to help by finding an escape pod but needs light to find it. Once he flips the light switch he bumps the rising platform button and soon all levers are switched to on; reactivating°"her." GLaDOS is reawakened, kills Wheatley, and sends you down the garbage chute to find the Dual Portal device. This is the beginning of your Portal 2 adventure and what a journey you shall take on it. Like other Valve games before it, Portal 2's story is played out via in game "cut scenes". This usage of immersion is able to keep a constant feeling of surrealism; you start out without much knowledge of what's going on but overtime you soon piece together the mystery with the help of your friends GLaDOS and Wheatley. The story is one to write home about but it wouldn't be amazing without the characters, the setting, and the voice work and Portal 2 nails each one in the head with not a hammer but a crowbar. The characters of Portal 2 are immensely likeable and just simply downright funny to listen to as the writing of Portal 2 is superbly clever and laugh-out-loud funny than any 2011 game and could almost be better than Portal itself.

The settings also take a spotlight as Valve has realized that if you return to Apeture Science laboratories in about, what? 50 days/ 500 years; then it would look VERY different. So Valve has given a destroyed and degraded look of Apeture Science to convey the feeling of age that your return to Apeture Science. While Portal 2 runs on the 2004 Source Engine that made and powered Half Life 2 the engine gets the job done and it is a very impressive feet. The physics engine still makes for wonderful visual flair such as debris from crumbling sites and the destruction of objects when they pass through the Emancipation Grill. The voice work is also a superb stand out with everyone being noteworthy. Ellen McClain returns as the evil maniacal yet funny, incredibly charming, and likeable GLaDOS. Stephen Merchant comes in as a newcomer as Wheatley the, "wants to help personality core but ends up being not so nice" core. Even the disembodied voice of Cave Johnson as played by J.K Simmons is also a well spoken role that has emphasis and emotion in his vocal performance. Overall, the story is a superbly written, well voiced, immersive, laugh out loud funny, and exciting to progress through to see just what could be next that these charmingly funny characters have to say. Not only that but without out-game cinematics to break up the flow the game goes along incredibly smooth and without a hitch in narrative and also provides some of the best scenes any game with in-game cut scenes has to offer.

The audio of Portal 2 is also a superb stand out among so many other amazing things in this wonderful game. The ambient sounds and music create a true experience of atmosphere and tension, the musical score is simply wonderful as when a situation gets tense it gets TENSE. What's also able to stand out in Portal 2's soundtrack is its unique use of the music; when you're solving a puzzle such as a laser oriented puzzle once you put a laser into one of the laser holes an ambient music note starts up. Once all the lasers are aligned with the holes the ambient notes all pile together to play a little tune that is Portalesque and well crafted. The sound effects are also stand outs such as the gel sound effects or the strange surreal sounds of the funnels. The squishes and blob like sounds of the gel has a convincing realistic sound to it and the surreal funnel sound is simply mesmerizing. The portal gun also sounds good as portals sound like they did before and the portals bouncing off of non portal placement tiles still sounds quite good. The voice acting is top notch and the robotic sounds within the recorded dialogue sounds incredibly realistic. Overall, the music and sounds of Portal 2 do their job extremely well; immersing you into the adventure of your Apeture Science Laboratory return into a world that has been degrading and destroyed yet still is able to keep you happy in the process.

Portal 2 is a very story driven game, the characters are given more lines of witty writing, there are more characters, the setting is diverse, and the voice acting keeps on changing but still keeps their charm. However, Portal was made amazing not by incredible story telling but on its game play mechanics of being able to combine puzzle and first person shooter mechanics together. The innovative feel is gone this time around but the game still has the tricky puzzles and the moments of, "I am truly stuck, I don't know what to°wait, if I shot a portal there°OH! I'm a genius." The puzzles this time around are challenging and if played out of order somehow would just mean certain death for players. However, Valve has been able to smoothly ramp up the difficulty, at first you get down to the basics and then the game will have you changing up your ways and then using those ways to solve the new puzzles. The system works incredibly well, people who have never played Portal will still be able to learn the mechanics of how to use Portals and understand the Apeture Science Heavy Duty Super Colliding Super Button. The new diverse array of equipment in Portal 2 has been upped and features new items such as repulsion and propulsion gels, light bridges, and excursion funnels. These new test chamber puzzle equipment goes smoothly with the old and creates an experience that is thought provoking but again through a smooth difficulty curve it is also satisfying and fun. Every new mechanic flows into the next and you can never really stop being amazed at how your brain works. One second there are turrets, excursion funnels, propulsion gels, and a cleverly made map that has you stumped but once your mind starts working and thinks of "what would happen if this was there." Portal 2 can look like an incredibly hard, difficult, and unsatisfying puzzle game if the difficulty curve wasn't smooth, if the game wasn't fun, and if there really was no satisfaction. Yet there is in this big sequel and Portal 2 does something that games never could do before, it makes you feel smarter. Still, puzzles aren't plentiful and while they offer challenge there isn't much for Portal veterans. You may find said Portal veterans in the newest area of the Portal 2 universe; the Cooperative Game.

Portal was a unique experience but it was incredibly short, Portal 2 addresses this issue by including a Co-Op game that returns you to Portal in a nostalgic way. Portal 2's Co-Op challenges are more head though provoking than that of the Portal 2's single player campaign but that is due to the fact that it's Co-Op. You play as Atlas or P-Body, two robots working together towards science to achieve the goal of the head of Appeture Science Laboratories; GLaDOS. With two people in the Portal universe now, Valve increases the complexity of the puzzles as you and your Co-Op partner obtain a Portal gun with two Portals each. Once again, the difficulty curve is smooth as you start out with the fundamental basics and then progress into a much more challenging turf. Co-Op supports microphone chatting and chat boxes but even with these two well known communication tools, Valve utilizes an interesting form of communication using a tool called the Ping Tool. People who have no headphones or are afraid of just typing out words to communicate need not fear as the Ping Tool is an incredibly useful, easy, and well understood communication tool. With it you can tell your partner to look at a wall, stand at a certain spot, initiate a countdown, go through portals, go through portals via momentum, or to press a button. This system works well with real people as even if you just say to look at a spot and not even indicate what to do with it they will understand what you mean. The Co-Op is a blast and not just through the complexity and satisfaction of puzzles but again from the smooth difficulty. The fun mechanics of the single player campaign are implemented into the Co-Op but are spaced out in the same way as the single player allowing you to get into the gist of things easily. Co-Op also features another Portal story however, this time it is after the end credits of the single player version.

The story is that you, P-Body and Atlas, must find a secret vault that contains a network of clones that can be engineered for testing. Sadly, in order to get to the vault, GLaDOS must make sure that you are able to be trusted and understand the mechanics that will be awaiting you. So you must be put through your paces like the single player version yet again. Wheatley is no longer at the lab but it doesn't matter. GLaDOS still has her usual charm and wit among her and even though you are robots and she can't make fun of you being a human anymore, she still is able to wisecrack about the humans and about your "becoming" of humans. The story isn't as depth as the single player portion as this time it returns to Portal roots and therefore lacks any sort of dramatic emotion and you know what? Dramatic emotion is for sissys, the story may not be as complex and amazing as the single player but you won't be minding that when you're laughing at GLaDOS' taunts and wise cracks about humans and their "unique" features. P-Body and Atlas throughout the story are an incredibly funny and charming couple of robots that are just doing this because their programmed to. However, their charm is not only limited by the opening and ending cinematics but is emphasized through Valve's new take on emotes. P-Body and Atlas have a certain feature that in game you can perform Apeture Science's take on emoticons. The animations are hilarious to watch and add more humor to GLaDOS mix as doing an emote in front of her cameras will make her bite back with a snarky comment on the gesture. Co-Op's mix of puzzles, its own brand of humor, and more longevity make it an outstanding part of Portal 2 and not just some "tacked on" version.

Portal 2 has great game play as the puzzles are challenging and the smooth difficulty will never make them incredibly hard and the rewarding story, dialogue, and ending all pay off to make it an amazing adventure. However, one stand out of Portal 2 is actually in its graphics. Valve refuses to upgrade and therefore Portal 2 has been created under the power and capabilities of the Source Engine that powered the aged masterpiece, Half Life 2. Yet somehow, even though over 7 years have passed since Half Life 2 was made and the Source Engine was introduced; the graphics of Portal 2 look superb. The settings your puzzles take place look astounding, the Apeture Science Laboratories is currently overrun with plants after the events of Portal many, many years ago. The plant life looks good and the shadows they emit and details on them look amazing. Not only that but the lighting of Portal 2 also steals the show, it was only seven years ago when Half Life 2 graced the scene with it's amazing flash light shadow and light feature and it's a good thing that Valve has kept that tradition with Wheatley's built in flashlight. Testing rooms in the Apeture Science Labs don't look all that amazing as they are created with simple and rather bland textures; but it is to be expected given that it does stay with the charm and tradition of regular testing chambers not exactly having a wide range of amazing colors. Still, the test chambers are to be commended for their size and depth. The test chambers have been expanded to a much larger playing field giving way to some incredibly clever and dynamic usage of puzzles. While the test chambers do look bland and dull the sheer size, lighting, and puzzle solving portions of Portal 2 should more than make up for the lack of color; not to mention you do have your own color to add due to the Portal gun. What is also another simply amazing stand out is the use of the source engine's physics. The physics have been well integrated into the experience of Portal 2 as the opening scene of Portal 2 is one to remember with its amazing humor to start you off, its tense sound tracks, and the physics system in motion during the room destruction. Physics also return in terms of Portal's puzzle component; momentum. Jumping into a Portal and coming out the other with more momentum is still a well conceived mechanic cleverly integrated into its puzzles. Compared to other games, Portal 2 doesn't have good looks but what it lacks in looks it more than makes up for with its smooth animations, its impressive lighting techniques, its varied settings and colorful wall art (thanks to the Ratman), and its clever characters. You probably won't even notice the surroundings while you're bursting in tears from the previous room where Wheatley finds a bird.

Portal 2 is simply a masterpiece in every sense; this big and bold sequel offers a much larger game than what Portal gave us. Portal 2 delivers an incredibly clever story and writing, more memorable moments than any game ever created, clever and challenging puzzles with a smooth difficulty curve, a Co-Op adventure that contains everything the single player has and more, and a cast of likeable and charmingly silly characters. Portal 2 lacks in only one area that makes this game a masterpiece but a bittersweet masterpiece; its replay ability, there is really not much to do after the main single player campaign. The only whiff of replay ability is in the achievement collecting, developer commentary listen in, and for the good spirited people: helping out newbies to the Co-Op campaign. Still, the witty dialogue is somewhat diminished but still enjoyable to listen to. The puzzles are varied and challenging that if you (do what I did) stay in one section of the game your puzzle skills in the other areas will decrease and you'll find yourself resolving the same puzzles with the same feeling of accomplishment that you had before. While the replay ability isn't high there really is never high replay ability for many of Valves "masterpiece" games.

Pros:
-Great sense of immersion
-Dialogue is witty and wonderful to listen to
-An English robot
-Puzzles have a smooth difficulty that allows everyone to play
-Characters are great and go amazingly well with the Portal setting
-Portals
-Speedy things go in, speedy things come out
-No more cake, thank the lord
-Puzzles are challenging but not too difficult
-Co-Op is more Portal than Portal 2 leading way to more clever puzzles and great times
-You'll feel smart, never saw THAT coming did ya?
-Best. Jokes. EVER.
-Emotional depth and complexity makes the story even better
-Immersion, like you feel as though you are there
-Credits
-After credits
-Music is simply amazing
-Great sound effects
-For 2004 graphics they really do look amazing
-Long awaited return of the Source Engine
-Appeture Science Emoticons
-GLaDOS, DOY!
-Achievements are clever and well made
-Team Work is required; I'm looking at you trolls
-Lots of shocking moments
-THE MOON!
-Feels great to help out the newbies
-Portal charm
-Ping Tool is great for communicating
-Turrets
-Different puzzle mechanics combine together great, even new mechanics
-Developer commentary allows you to understand what the team was dealing with
-Super 8? Oh°just wait

Cons:
-Little to no replay ability
-Some textures aren't that good looking
-WHY (will not say as it is a mega huge spoiler) WHY!?
-It gets annoying working with a rookie
-Close, but can ANY song beat "Still Alive"
-Isn't the original Portal so no surprises here
-Rated E10+ so kids will play it and we all know how kids receive challenging things
-Frequent Loading Times in-between sections

Portal 2 isn't a game, it's an unforgettable experience that creates an immersive, well developed story that allows you to understand the witty and wonderful characters through a journey that if missed for any reason, makes you a horrible person. That's what it says, a horrible person, and I don't even know you.

Real Score: (9.8)

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Goyoshi12 reviewed Portal 2 for the PC..." was posted by Goyoshi12 on Fri, 27 May 2011 15:12:08 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/portal-2/user-reviews/765873/platform/pc/