timbo0827's GameSpot Friend's Reviews timbo0827's GameSpot Friend's Reviews timbo0827's GameSpot Friend's Reviews en-us Copyright (c)1995-2013 CBS Interactive. All rights reserved. http://www.gamespot.com 20 Sun, 19 May 2013 01:00:21 -0700 GameSpot timbo0827's GameSpot Friend's Reviews http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/shared/promos/misc/gs_logo.gif http://www.gamespot.com 135 40 Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:47:23 -0700 zoostyle reviewed Grand Ages: Rome for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/grand-ages-rome/user-reviews/759155/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Although I just started playing this last week, this game does remarkably well in the whole City building genre. The graphics suit this game, and can be cranked up to your liking, it will suffer if your PC cant cut it though.

This and "Civcity: Rome" are the only citybuild games I have. I've seen the numerous predecessors to this game (Glory, Imperium Rom, etc) and if this is just another re-hash well so be it, they did a fine job on this version.

Zoom in on your citizens, go to ground level to look at a fountain u placed or if u choose observe from above like some latter day Jupiter. That is one aspect I love about any PC or console game: how is the camera control? If it sux then the game is shyte to me but if they get it right, loads of fun will be had. This game gets that right.

Your public buildings, arenas, barracks, monuments, and many other things are all here to be put into the city you choose to build. They look sharp and brisk whenever u zoom in (PC allowing) and the people look great and not one was a clone of another! Well maybe I'll see more clones later on.

Militarily does quite well, don't expect "Rome:Total War" level but it does keep u satisfied to a degree. The one thing this game has that RTW does not is naval warfare. In this game u can build your fleet as u like and u actually see the ships closeup. I have yet to do any battles or campaign so if naval warfare here is a wash, well then I will find out. Right now, I am impressed to watch my ships take from their shipyard and move across the water.

Land warfare is pretty meh, but what can u expect? At least it is tons better than alot of other roman warfare games I have seen, excluding RTW of course, which is not unlike a god to me!

Pick this one up, better to get it online for $4.00 or something, have fun!

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"zoostyle reviewed Grand Ages: Rome for the PC..." was posted by zoostyle on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:47:23 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/grand-ages-rome/user-reviews/759155/platform/pc/ Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:27:26 -0700 zoostyle reviewed CivCity: Rome for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/civcity-rome/user-reviews/759152/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 7.5.

This game is one I picked up about 3 years ago and played on my laptop for many an hour. It's a great little game u can play when u have spare time in your room or on the road. Recently I bought "Grand Ages: Rome" to play and that game knocks the pilum out of this city builder rather well.

Not to compare, I just noticed the difference on my Dell XPS playing GAR with all the settings up to high or ultra, I did the same for Civ and the game's graphics look pretty dated now. I mean when I bought "Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb" recently I noticed the game allowed for higher res and did look great on my gaming PC. Civcity Rome is newer than that but looks pretty dull, basically.

Once I got past that fact I played a new map game and I had to say I found myself pretty hooked again, trying to get my citizens the entertainment, food, and clothing as I could for about an hour and then I saved the game for later. If u can get past the dodgy graphics the game does pretty well. I hardly play city games but I love ROMAN EMPIRE themed games and I gave this one a try.

There is barely any military aspect to this game, and what is there is laughable.

Pick it up, online for a buck or something it does well but it is not GRAND.

"Ave Governor!"

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"zoostyle reviewed CivCity: Rome for the PC..." was posted by zoostyle on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:27:26 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/civcity-rome/user-reviews/759152/platform/pc/ Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:33:36 -0800 zoostyle reviewed Empire: Total War for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/empire-total-war/user-reviews/751285/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

I waited for a while to get this game, I had heard alot of the bugs made this game unplayable. Well I got it for Xmas this past year and I have to say I was very pleased with the end result. Dynamic is the perfect word for this game. Although I have just started playing it, this game continues the Total War tradition: Proud and True.

I've played about 20 battles from the instant battle option, all as the 13 colonies (USA). Just like many of the other TW games I've played, this one is right there with Rome and Medieval II, which happen to be my personal two favorites. Steam took forever when I initially installed this and all the discs to install it also took too long for my taste. But from the first second I saw the new battles I was hugely impressed.

I'd write a longer review but I have yet to have many hours so far with this but I strongly recommend it.

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"zoostyle reviewed Empire: Total War for the PC..." was posted by zoostyle on Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:33:36 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/empire-total-war/user-reviews/751285/platform/pc/ Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:12:44 -0700 l33tek reviewed Disaster Report for the PlayStation 2... http://www.gamespot.com/disaster-report/user-reviews/730796/platform/ps2/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Even in 2003, Disaster Report was without a doubt. Under-appreciated, under-rated and ahead of it's time. My overall opinion. Never rate a game based on graphics alone. As much as technology advances, so will game graphics.
Think about it. In 2003. 7 years ago, nobody was anticipating a game with worldly disasters. Much less playing a game that required you to survive unpredictable events. The possibilities this game showed the world went unnoticed. It didn't require you to pick up a gun and start blasting everything or everyone in sight. This game required you go against another enemy, Mother Nature. Surviving an earthquake. Using things around you to create a path to the next checkpoint. Untangling a mystery to why or maybe even how this all happened. You decide the outcome.
This game should be cherished for the simple fact, it stood apart from the norm that offered gamers a new, unique style to game play.
Honestly, I miss this game. I still have fond memories of playing it.

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"l33tek reviewed Disaster Report for the PlayStation 2..." was posted by l33tek on Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:12:44 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/disaster-report/user-reviews/730796/platform/ps2/ Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:32:59 -0800 KFrog reviewed Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/tom-clancys-rainbow-six-vegas-2/user-reviews/709772/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I played Rainbow Six Vegas and after some significant time between, I decided to pick up and play Rainbow Six Vegas 2. So far I'm having a wail of a good time. Either I'm out of practice (most likely) or this game is harder than the first. It's much the same as far as gaming mechanics but for me the enemies seem harder to get a bead on and kill.

I like the new upgrade feature where you rank up and get additional armor, helmets, weapons and other goodies. You can also get points for assault kills and marksman points for head shots among other things. I maxed out my guy with armor. Chest, shoulders, arms, legs and head best I could get... and I can still get kill with one shot. Oh well, at least I look cool :)

All the other great features of R6V are here. Character animation, sound effects, enemy AI, and dramatic scenery. The backdrops are not as pretty as R6V. There are more back lots, parking lots and industrial areas. But the all important gameplay is still satisfying right along with getting those all important head shots.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is another Ubisoft triumph as far as I'm concerned. I can't imagine what the next twist in the series is going to be. Splinter Cell Conviction and Ghost Recon Future Soldier have been announced with their next generation games so before long Rainbow Six should debut. I think we're done with Vegas so what will be next? Time will tell.

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"KFrog reviewed Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for the Xbox 360..." was posted by KFrog on Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:32:59 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tom-clancys-rainbow-six-vegas-2/user-reviews/709772/platform/xbox360/ Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:05:23 -0800 Legolas_Katarn reviewed Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/marvel-ultimate-alliance-2/user-reviews/701016/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

From looking at past games that I have played, I would say that it is usually a bad thing when a series, that has only been developed by one company for years is suddenly done by someone else, I consider the X-Men Legends games to be part of the Marvel series, making this the fourth game to come out. There have been some pretty big changes with this entry and I was surprised when I found the majority of them to be for the better. Even so, there were some areas of this game that did disappoint, which will stop this game from reaching the levels of those that came before it.

Story

The developers had talked about the game taking place during two popular storylines from the Marvel Comics, the first part being the Secret War and the second was the Civil War. It was later revealed that they would change some of the events for the Civil War in order to bring all of the heroes back together to face a new threat during the final act.

The Secret War is a shorter story, in the comics, that involves Nick Fury leading a small team of heroes including Daredevil, Spiderman, Captain America, Luke Cage, Wolverine, and the Black Widow to Latveria where the daughter of Doctor Doom, the new Prime Minister is selling high tech equipment to villains to use in America. Nick Fury, against the President orders, takes his team to stop her, a year later when the event comes back to haunt Fury and the heroes that accompanied him he goes into hiding right before the Civil War to avoid arrest. While a few events for this story are changed, such as the number of heroes that went with Fury, this part of the story is done well and makes for a very good opening act to the game and helps to set all the other events of the story into motion.

The Civil War was a much longer storyline than Secret War but with the exception of some changes depending on which side in the war you choose, pro or anti, you spend the same amount of time in it as you do in the other two of acts of the game. It is a shame because so many details are left out and some of the best points were considered to have never happened during this game or were just never shown. Not only are you missing out on some great story elements but on some possible new levels. Your choice between Pro or Anti really only effects your objectives in the three Civil War missions but keep you on the same map, the only other difference is that a few of the heroes have to play on one side and can't be used on the other. You also have different bases and unique conversations. In the comics the majority of the books having to do with the Civil War were excellent, so it is a shame to see such little detail for the Civil War part of the game.

I won't reveal anything about the last act of the game, besides saying that it is done well and brings the heroes back together in a believable way to fight against a much larger threat to the world. The ending is slightly different depending on the side you chose in the war, but the changed ending alone is not reason enough for a second play though if you didn't enjoy the gameplay.

Sound and Dialogue

The sound and music are done well and most of the voice actors do their jobs equally well. There really isn't anything amazing or bad in the sound area.

Throughout the game, most of the characters are given good dialogue. One nice feature of the game is that your dialogue choices are written like they were made for the character you have selected. While this changes nothing, not even the responses given to you, it is nice to see some of the different heroes personalities, it is only a shame that it isn't voiced. The game does have a few moments where your character will get unique voiced dialogue and conversations but these moments are rare and only last a few lines.

The characters have some great spoken lines while they are fighting that further shows their personalities, here are some that I liked

Gambit (if you are on the Anti side): "I've been on the wrong side of the law before....don't bother me none."

The Green Goblin: "This is more fun than throwing blonds off of bridges" (Gwen Stacy reference) "Am I off my meds.....yeah I am."

Deadpool: "Come on, I'm funnier than Spiderman right?" "You should have asked the developers for a bigger lifebar." "Deadpool, is about to die." (Gauntlet reference)

Gameplay

For the most part this is the same Marvel Ultimate Alliance/X-Men Legends beat em up gameplay that you know and love, or hate. The game is a top down beat em up style game, each of the games heroes has powers that they can use to attack, defend, or to effect something. The combat remains the same as the last game with you being able to do different combos to your enemies that can stun, trip, or knock them up in the air. The only real difference about the combat is the way that you throw your enemies, before you just grabbed a guy and would flick the stick the way you would want to throw him, or you could do one of two attacks against them, multiple punches or a hero specific attack. Those moves have been replaced with a button to pick the enemy up, which will let you walk around with them then throw them or you can do a series of punches. I preferred the old way but it isn't a big loss, even though some of the hero specific moves looked cool they were never that practical to use.

Each new entry for the series seems to remove more and more of the old RPG elements, this entry continues that trend. You are no longer able to improve up to four costumes for each hero to get different abilities, while almost every hero has two costumes in MUA 2, it is just for looks and does not affect gameplay. Items are no longer in the game, they have been replaced by boosts which allow you to equip three at a time to affect your entire group. Boosts are found on the map or by accomplishing certain requirements for the story or for each character.

The graphics have been improved, the environment, characters, animations, and powers all look much better but it is nothing that will really wow you. To go along with the better graphics, the camera has changed. It is now closer to the action and usually works for the better, it allows you a nice view of the combat while rarely getting in the way. The game puts many more enemies on the screen than before, you will often find yourself fighting around 15 enemies at once which works out great with some of the new additions to the game. The only downside of this is that I did experience some slowdown when there were a lot of enemies and power attacks filling the screen, annoying when it happened, but rare enough to not really be anything to complain about.

Hero powers have also been changed in some ways, I think for the better. In the past game most of the heroes were given about six attack powers, two stat increasing powers/or enemy stat decreasing, and a special move they could use when a meter fills up from fighting. In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 every character has four attack moves, while this may seem like a bad change, it stops you from worrying about changing your equipped moves all the time and, unlike some powers in past games, you will rarely find something that you aren't going to use. In this game you can use all four powers at any time, in the last you could only use three with one button saved for your special. In addition to leveling up your moves to improve them all abilities now gain added bonuses as you level them, up to three added bonuses. For example, a projectile attack might just do damage at first, then add knock back, then become faster, and then explode on contact as you level the move up. Although there are less powers to use, they are much more satisfying than many of the previous games abilities, the close in camera gives you a much better view of the improved graphics than the old camera would have.

To fill out the rest of their moves every hero has six passive powers that they can improve, just like the X-Men Legends games, there are two problems to this system however. First, many of the passive powers are shared between heroes giving you little originality. Second, when you have to choose a side during the Civil War the majority of the characters have two passive powers, unlock two for anti, and unlock two for pro, so you won't even be able to access them all on your first playthrough. When the heroes get back together for the last act heroes that were locked to one side during the war will only have two passives. For example, I chose anti, I always did like to be the good guy, so Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, and Songbird were missing four of their six passive powers. While annoying, this is taken care of with a new game+ which will give them all the powers at once as long as you have played each side in the war. While I believe the offensive powers have been improved, passive powers as well as the RPG elements that they brought to the Legends series has taken a big hit.

One of the biggest additions to this game is the new Fusion system, which allows you to combine the powers of two heroes for devastating effects. The fusion system is also a new way for you to heal, whenever you make the most out of a fusion attack enemies will leave behind a power up that will heal a character of your choice. The new healing power up causes you to think about the best time to use your fusions, especially on the harder difficulties. The way that fusion attacks are done is very simple, all you have to do is hold down the trigger and push the face button of the hero you want to fuse with. If you forget which hero is which, for as long as you hold down the trigger, the game shows you who each button will go to and which of the four types of fusion the two characters will make.

Every hero can do a fusion with every other hero, while there will be some differences between each hero, many of the powers end up being close to the same. There are four different types of fusions you can do one where both heroes charge around attacking everything in their path, one that clears enemies in the area around you, one where you move something around that usually sucks in or damages enemies, and one where a large rock is thrown at a certain spot or a hero is thrown by another. Storms power is a perfect example of how cool fusions can be, but it is also the perfect example of how similar most of the powers are. The majority of Storm's fusions involve her creating a tornado that you move around the map to suck in enemies, while she does that another hero does something to the tornado to damage enemies. Even though the actual attacks don't have much variety, the fusions are usually fun to use and will at least look different depending on the heroes used.

The 360 and PS3 versions of the game give you 24 heroes to play as, 25 if you can find a code to download Juggernaut. All characters can be fun to play as, my favorites so far being Gambit, Captain America, and Deadpool, and with the focus now only on four powers you will rarely find one power that seems like any other. An exception being the melee characters like Thing, Hulk, and Juggernaut. Even though some of their moves may seem similar, with the new engine, number of enemies, camera, and graphics the game does a much better job of getting their strength across than past games in the series have. It is very satisfying to rush with Juggernaut swatting away any enemy that you come across aside, and often over a cliff or off of a building.

The only other things to mention are that there are a lot of NPC heroes making appearances in this game, you might be able to talk to them, fight beside them, or fight against them as bosses. Stan Lee even makes an appearance in one scene, unfortunately he won't be doing any fighting or saving civilians from falling rubble. The boss fights are much better than they have been in the past but they still will not take that much strategy to take down. The last thing that this game offers is the ability to find many collectibles hidden on the levels. You can find audio logs to give you more insight on the story, artwork, and information on the characters in the game, as well as Nick Fury's thoughts on each hero or villain, even his thoughts on Stan Lee's character. If you miss some you are able to use the simulator to go back and replay past missions.

The game has the same new game+ feature as the past games, allowing you to take your leveled up characters through the game again on the normal and above difficulty levels. The only problem with this is that when you are forced to choose a side during the Civil War replaying the other factions missions is locked out of the simulator, even if you have played the game for both sides. While annoying you can just have two saves, one at the end of the Pro side and one at the end of the Anti once your heroes are leveled up all the way. This solution will force another playthrough though.

Multiplayer

The game allows for four person Co-Op either online or local. You use whatever saved game the host has and you use the characters that the host has, while playing through the game you are able to save all the collectibles you find but nothing else.

I have only played a few games of co-op online with four players, some games lagged to the point they were unplayable, some lagged a little, some worked fine. It seems to be like the last game in that way. Some ways that the game has improved is that the new camera will keep people from becoming stuck on objects and you are now able to apply boosts to your character and able to upgrade your abilities all in game if you push the select/back button. While you are making changes or upgrades your character will automatically follow the rest of the group. While this feature doesn't add much to single player it is very nice to have online as it saves everyone the time of having to go back and forth in pause menus.

When it works the game is a lot of fun playing with friends, or even random people you meet online. It is helpful to play with people that talk so you can decide when to best use your fusion abilities.

Conclusion

If you are a fan of the Marvel Universe, of co-op games, or of beat em up games, I happen to love all three, you should definitely get Marvel UA 2. If you are not a fan of any of those this game will most likely not do anything to change your mind. While it is a very good game it doesn't top the other three, as many of the fans were hoping that it would, especially with over three years of waiting. What the game does do is make some welcome changes to the series, and a few annoying ones. Let's hope both for a sequel and that this will be one of the few developers that keeps the good and improves upon the bad as future games come out.

DLC

Downloadable content has been released in the form of five new playable characters and some new simulator missions. The sim missions are fun while they last but they won't be bringing you back to the game if you've already stopped playing. The new characters are fun to use, have their own unique powers and have some impressive fusions. The new characters include Cable, Psylocke, Black Panther, Magneto, and Carnage. All characters are well made and I was happy to see one of my favorite characters, Psylocke, make an appearance. The content is priced at $10 As a separate download Juggernaut has also been made available, for $2 I believe.

There has been no announcement for additional content at this time

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/marvel-ultimate-alliance-2/user-reviews/701016/platform/xbox360/ Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:29:42 -0800 metroidfan220 reviewed Final Fantasy III for the DS... http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-iii/user-reviews/696858/platform/ds/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

An absolute classic and an addicting game for anyone who enjoys RPGs. You can tell that a lot of work has been put in - while the updated graphics are very similar to a lot of other DS RPGs, they are nothing to complain about - the gameplay is very entertaining, and the storyline is very interesting, with twists and turns at every corner (much like the good old RPGs many of us remember from our childhood.) It's a shame that this game never came over to the US originally, but this remade version has shown me that it definitely should have! If you've never played a Final Fantasy game before, this is definitely a good game through which to enter the series, because it has many similarities to many other RPGs (Dragon Warrior comes to mind) but at the same time introduces the basic elements that make Final Fantasy unique, like the job system and formation changes from front to back. I highly recommend this game to anyone with even a mild interest in entering the series - but be prepared for addiction.

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"metroidfan220 reviewed Final Fantasy III for the DS..." was posted by metroidfan220 on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:29:42 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/final-fantasy-iii/user-reviews/696858/platform/ds/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:38:29 -0800 l33tek reviewed Beetle Adventure Racing for the Nintendo 64... http://www.gamespot.com/beetle-adventure-racing/user-reviews/689785/platform/n64/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

My friend and I would play this game for hours and hours on multi-player, because it was just plain fun. The tracks were awesome and immersive especially when trying to find the short cuts. Crashing through buildings in the city and huts in the jungle. Racing through a volcano. Just pure fun!! 10 years later. We've talked about it several times, about we wish they (EA) would bring back the Beetle Adventure Racing experience to the newer consoles, rather than the original N64 console it was made for. Anyone who's anyone will remember this game and will possibly play it again. Since its an arcade racing game, bring it back on the Xbox360 console and post it in Arcade Games Marketplace.
Over XBL, multi-player races can then be on one screen, rather than permanent split screen, since the N64 didn't have online play in 1999. We ask EA(electronic arts), bring back the fun!!!

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"l33tek reviewed Beetle Adventure Racing for the Nintendo 64..." was posted by l33tek on Sun, 01 Nov 2009 08:38:29 -0800
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/beetle-adventure-racing/user-reviews/689785/platform/n64/ Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:33:48 -0700 l33tek reviewed Need for Speed: Shift for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/need-for-speed-shift/user-reviews/681468/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

I've been a NFS fan since the Playstation One. Disregard all the hype about NFS is all street and no glory. NFS has always been about racing, period. I am glad the Need For Speed franchise is tackling the professional racing circuit. I respect this game because this is possibly NFS best racing game to date. The fact that they took the game back to the track means the franchise is evolving and not stereotyping just one type of race style. The graphics are amazingly life-like. The tracks are also life-like.
My only disappointment was the car's handling, but that means it will require skill, focus and determination. As a race car driver would say, "It's not always the car. It's the one driving it."
As a NFS fan, this game is worth owning. Check it out, you just might be surprised like I was.

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"l33tek reviewed Need for Speed: Shift for the Xbox 360..." was posted by l33tek on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 09:33:48 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/need-for-speed-shift/user-reviews/681468/platform/xbox360/ Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:53:31 -0700 metroidfan220 reviewed Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/halo-combat-evolved/user-reviews/662620/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.0!

Originally, I thought all the XBOX players were just being elitist about their precious Halo, but this really is a quality game! This first-person shooter has been a fountain of surprises for me. The campaign mode has an immersive, well-written storyline that is nothing short of genius. Lots of challenge if you want it, or if you just want to play through the story mode, the easy difficulty is pretty simple for anyone to finish.
Also, the online multiplayer mode is reminiscent of such quality games as Quakeworld and Diablo 2, with a stable community based in the gamespy network, there's almost always someone to shoot at for a few hours. It's the online mode that's kept me coming back for more and more every day. All the hype is most certainly warranted, this is a quality game and I can't wait to play the rest of the series on my PC.

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"metroidfan220 reviewed Halo: Combat Evolved for the PC..." was posted by metroidfan220 on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:53:31 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/halo-combat-evolved/user-reviews/662620/platform/pc/ Wed, 13 May 2009 09:11:07 -0700 l33tek reviewed X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/x-men-origins-wolverine/user-reviews/658944/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

This review concerns only Single-player mode.
Of all the X-Men game series, X-Men Origins: Wolverine was the first one I played. As well as never seen the movie. From the title alone I knew they both were tied in. Calling captain obvious..
Being an avid game player for many years, I know when something is off, especially when today's games have surpassed life-like characters and enviroments. That being said, I noticed a few glitches myself. For example: When wolverine walks through blood, his feet doesn't make blood prints. Considering there are loads of blood being spilled, the blood mechanics are off.
Nonetheless, I'm not gonna cry over spilled blood because Activision didn't satisfy my taste for blood. Unless I was a spoiled teenager, which I am not.
This game kicks major enemy butt, the way Wolverine goes into a fight and maybe scoops the head off an enemy's shoulders satisfies my taste for graphic game play to a T.
I also like the camera view, a few blind spots, but still easy to use.
Lots of hidden stuff to find, keep your eyes peeled for those.
I had more trouble with turrets than I did with Boss's, call it one of those little things in a game that really gives me a challenge.
This game is great fun to play, I would recommend it to anyone. Considering wolverine can get shot at multiple times and doesn't die (if you watch his health meter), means one thing. You have one hella ride on your hands, see just how far you can go.
Like someone said, "Unleash Your Inner Beast!"

I never listen to critics. I play a game or watch a movie for myself. You should too.

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"l33tek reviewed X-Men Origins: Wolverine for the Xbox 360..." was posted by l33tek on Wed, 13 May 2009 09:11:07 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/x-men-origins-wolverine/user-reviews/658944/platform/xbox360/ Tue, 05 May 2009 09:48:19 -0700 metroidfan220 reviewed Space Invaders Get Even for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/space-invaders-get-even/user-reviews/657869/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 4.5.

When I first saw the game on the Wii Store, I was quite excited...now I'm just wishing I could make a Wii Return...I was disappointed by the lack of throwback to the actual game play...other than in name, Space Invaders Get Even has very little in common with the original Space Invaders. I would have been much more happy with the original game just switched around so I could play as the space invaders. Anyway, the game itself is difficult to learn when you are trying to think of the original space invaders in the process of playing and quite annoying overall with unnecessary dialogue and storyline....Nintendo really didn't think about their audience when they made this game. The people who played the original space invaders probably aren't too concerned with smooth graphics texturing and accurate 3D movement physics.

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"metroidfan220 reviewed Space Invaders Get Even for the Wii..." was posted by metroidfan220 on Tue, 05 May 2009 09:48:19 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/space-invaders-get-even/user-reviews/657869/platform/wii/ Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:25 -0700 zoostyle reviewed Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/rome-total-war-barbarian-invasion/user-reviews/653657/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

I took it upon myself to take on the barbarian hordes as the Western Empire and man oh man what a rollercoaster ride. I cannot offer any other advice than to read some walk throughs/game guides before you take the mantle of any of the various factions, especially the WRE cuz those bad boys have the whole world PO'd and gunning for them. I suggest to at least mod your game with one of the many mods out there. I use "DarthMods 8.1" for this, I want to play "Invasio Barbarvm" but it won't launch..... These mods take the vanilla game to new heights.

Needless to say you can play as I did as the Western Romans and from 363 A.D to the end of the game 476 A.D you are just battling to keep the empire from crashing down like it actually did. I was totally convinced playing as the WRE was supreme folly. I read advice from this site and others for strategy & tips and they worked, cuz the KEY to winning is stabilizing your economy in the first few rounds and slowly getting your field armies (Comitatenses troops) trained and assembled and where they are needed ASAP. The Huns are the biggest threat I thought and when they arrived in my empire there were like 8 or 9 "stacks" of them and the ONLY two strategies that will save you in battle with the hordes is either 1. forming a full army of yours into a cavalry square with archers in the center or 2. picking and defending a bridge and let the bastards come to you! I guarantee these both to work, I had nothing but victory after victory after suffering one major loss to the Franks (which horded after I took their only city-bad move). I used the square against everyone except the Huns, they have way too many horse archers and they would just wear down my infantry with their arrows. I defeated them in earnest guarding a bridge by a city named Equincum and they were finally neutralized, if not killed.

My other major tip to offer is DO NOT MESS WITH CONVERTING YOUR EMPIRE TO ONE RELIGION!!! Period. I did that around the year 428 A.D with about 8 of my provinces in Gaul and the next turn ALL of those MF's threw off the Roman yoke! Then it was like dominoes falling! The economic & political crash that usually happens in the beginning, happened way later instead but by my own doing. All those weak governors and disloyal generals switched on me and joined the Western Roman Rebel faction, I was beyond angry, I was catatonic! lol Here I had beaten the short objectives, won the game but kept playing and I was doing just great. Granted my Empire was fine for the WRE of 476 but paled to what they really did in 100 A.D at their peak. Even though I had beaten them like 99% of the times, The Eastern Empire is a hard nut to crack and their navy is too strong. I was stalled as far east as Alexandria with none of Asia Minor, Persia, middle east or any of the Sarmatian lands to the northeast taken at all. Of course, all the cities just don't produce $$ like they used to and the raising of huge armies costs alot and takes time. Plus you have the northern borders to constantly defend from the Burgundii, Lombardi and Saxons (My erstwhile allies, The Burgundii gets props from me I never got attacked by them and they acted as a fine buffer state between Rome and the Lombardi). I was happy that after a few turns more I had either re-conquered some of those rebellious cities with some nearby armies. A pleasant surprise was when three of those 8 came back and did a "loyalist revolt" which was sweet they came back to the empire.

At this writing the Empire is steady but not really expanding to my liking not like in RTW where you just go all the way to Parthia and northwards too. This game is all about, keeping those armies intact, getting your cash cow cities to produce more and getting those hordes to face you at the nearest bridge!

Have fun with this one! I know I did, a few heart attacks are standard though it seems!

"Rome's Finest!"

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zoostyle reviewed Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion for the PC..." was posted by zoostyle on Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:25 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/rome-total-war-barbarian-invasion/user-reviews/653657/platform/pc/ Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:09:35 -0700 Legolas_Katarn reviewed Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-5/user-reviews/651313/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

Good: Co-Op works very well and supports split screen. When you play single player the AI is smart enough to not be a hindrance. Incentive to play through the game over and over to unlock all of the extras found in the game. A large number of fun to use weapons to upgrade and unlock. Great graphics, character models, and excellent cut scenes. Excellent boss fights. New inventory system works well and ability to store weapons and items between levels is an excellent addition. Mercenary mode is back and is much improved with the addition of co-op and double the number of stages.

Bad: With the exception of co-op and the improved graphics this is not much of an improvement for the series. The game has a decent length the first time through but it is shorter than Resident Evil 4 and after beating the game once you will be able to finish it much more quickly, especially with a good partner. Gameplay is either love it or hate it, much like how the Resident Evil series has always been. I miss Leon's knife fights.

The story follows Chris Redfield's, member of the BSAA and upcoming Strongman contestant, journey into Africa to stop a black-market deal and to investigate possible terrorist threats. You meet another BSAA member, Sheva Alomar, who becomes your partner for the rest of the game. The pair soon encounters a town full of angry Majini, who behave roughly the same as the Ganados from Resident Evil 4. The two later learn that the threat is far greater than either of the imagined once Chris finds out that his old nemesis Albert Wesker is involved. If saving the world was not enough Chris has a personal reason for his investigation, trying to find the location of his old partner Jill Valentine. Until recently he had believed that Jill had been killed in their last confrontation with Wesker.

I never cared all that much for graphics and, while I can appreciate when a game looks good, you will almost never hear me mention a games graphics when talking about it. That said, even I can tell that this game looks great. You will find yourself in large, detailed, and varied areas through the course of the game. In addition to the games excellent character models you will find that the games sound is also up to par with its great soundtrack, sound effects, and voice acting.

On to the actual gameplay of Resident Evil. You will either love it or hate it, as little has changed about the gameplay or the controls from Resident Evil 4. You still move from a third person view, with the camera positioned behind you, Chris always taking up the left of the screen and Sheva taking the right. You can walk by moving the directional pad, the game adds the great ability to strafe left and right, and you can run by holding A or by holding the stick in. To shoot you have to hold L, which will prohibit all movement, you then have to aim with the left stick and fire with R, and I recommended that you bring the aiming sensitivity to fast to give you ample time to react to enemies. Enemies will react differently depending on where you shoot them; they may grab their arm, drop their weapons, fall over, stumble backwards, etc. Whenever the enemy is stunned you are usually able to perform a melee attack, which is done by getting close enough to your enemy and pushing the X button. Chris and Sheva each have six different melee moves they can use against enemies, depending on how the enemy is stunned and where you are standing. Three that are done when in front of an enemy, two done from the back, and one done when the enemy is on the ground. Some of Chris' moves are a falcon punch….or straight punch, neck snap, or curb stomp. Sheva has a roundhouse kick, stabs downed enemies, and can cut their throat. Sometimes you will be able to interact with the environment by pushing things, climbing, jumping, grabbing, knocking something over, etc, this is always done with the X or B button. As you travel through the stages you are given checkpoints that you can restart at whenever you die. Some stage end with a boss fight, all of which are done really well and all of them have a different method needed to defeat them.

Quick time events make their return, or events where you have to push buttons during gameplay or cutscenes to perform actions. Resident Evil 4 surprised me with how well its quick time events worked; it made the gameplay more interesting. It made cutscenes more entertaining by putting them in at the perfect times and not in a way that the commands were almost impossible to get right your first time through or in a way that they took away from the action. Resident Evil 5 continues that trend. The commands show up in the gameplay at the perfect times, they allow you to dodge and counter attacks while giving you a cool animation and letting you feel like you earned the right to see whatever happened.

The game has a large number of weapons, over 20, and has a selection of Pistols, Shotguns, Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Magnums, a grenade launcher with six different types of ammo, rocket launchers, and even some special weapons, such as the bow and gatling gun. Almost all weapons are able to be upgraded; you can improve their damage, reload time, ammo capacity, and a weapons special ability. Special abilities vary from gun to gun and may include increased critical headshots, piercing, attack spread, or scope zoom. Each weapon is fun to use and sounds great.

The way that your inventory is handled is one of the biggest changes to the Resident Evil series. You no longer have to pause the game and go into a menu to change your equipment, nor do you have to sort through everything and place it in a way to give you more space, it is now all handled in real time. You are able to carry up to nine items, four can be linked to the Up, Down, Left, and Right buttons on the D-Pad by placing them in the middle up, down, left, and right spots in your inventory. You can open a small inventory menu by pressing Y and can sort items around by moving the left stick and pressing X. Items such as grenades, eggs, and mines now stack, giving you a better reason to carry them around. Your partner is also able to carry up to nine items and you can exchange items simply by bringing up both inventory screens and requesting the item that you want or that you want to give, this is preferably done away from enemies. At the end of each stage, every continue, or a retry you are able to buy new equipment and upgrade guns, all done with money that you find in game or get by selling treasures that are found in game. You also have access to your storage where you can move any unwanted equipment to use at a later time with either character.

This brings us to the games Co-Op Gameplay. Chris and Sheva are together throughout the entire game, although they may become separated or one of them may get trapped on certain stages, both characters are still in the same area and will need to help each other survive. If you are playing with the AI you will find that they are more than capable of surviving enemy attacks and that they have excellent aim with the machine guns and sniper rifles. If you give them healing items they will almost always use them at the right times. When you are looking to conserve ammo you can let your AI partner hold ammo to guns that they do not have, you also gain access to a stun rod weapon not to far into the game that does not need ammo and that they do well with. You are able to give your partner grenades and mines, but they will never use them. When playing with the AI all equipment can be traded freely, if you are playing with a human player it works pretty much the same way but you are not able to exchange weapons. This isn't much of a problem because people will likely take their favorite upgraded weapons anyway, giving you no need to switch. All progress is saved when in co-op, so you also wouldn't want someone to get your favorite upgraded gun and then leave the game anyway. When a player loses all of their health their partner is given a short amount of time to get to their dying partner's side to heal them before it is game over. If you take too long, if the dying player is hit again, or if both players are in a dying state, it is game over. The games already excellent boss fights are made all the more better when working together with a friend to take the enormous monsters down. All treasures and money found while playing co-op if given to both players, there is no need to fight over who gets what.

Co-Op can be played through split screen or through Xbox Live. If a player joins you for split screen all they have to do is press start, this will take you back to your last checkpoint and to the inventory screen. The joining player over Xbox Live will have to wait for the other player to reach a checkpoint or to finish the level before they can join. While this can be annoying, it makes sense. If a player was brought into the action right away over Xbox Live they would not know which character they are taking over and would not have the right equipment. If you were to join and use the weapons on the character at the time of your joining then you would be using the items of the other player, which would probably upset many players. If you only want to play solo and not allow people to join your game you are given an option to make your room open, closed, or invite only whenever you start a game.

There are four difficulty modes in this game. The first two will likely be too easy when playing with a live partner but the third one should be just right for a first time through on co-op, the same with normal when playing with the AI. To unlock the hardest difficulty mode, which makes almost all attacks fatal, you need to beat the one before it. If the game ever gets too hard you can always go back to past stages to get more supplies. If the game ever gets too easy, say if you are playing through the game a second time with upgraded guns, you are able to store your old equipment and buy your guns in their stock form to give you a challenge again.

One of my problems with this game, and with Resident Evil 4, was that there just wasn't enough areas like the one where you fight your first horde of enemies. Once you get passed the first part of the game you will never find survival as difficult, you won't be running away, barricading doors and windows, kicking down ladders, desperately trying to find more ammo and herbs in drawers or crates, etc. As I went through the game I noticed some actions I could have taken to make fights easier, for example, in one area you are able to climb a ladder and kick torches down below you, which will then explode and act like your incendiary grenades. It is a good thing that I found some areas like that but the problem is that I always found them after I killed all of the enemies. It was always easier to hold my ground and kill them instead of running around trying to find something I could use in the environment, which is a shame.

It is hard to say how long the game will take you the first time through, it depends on your difficulty, partner, and how much of the environment you want to explore. A little over 10 hours is probably a good guess, if that wasn't short enough, if you play through the easier difficulties with upgraded guns you can easily beat the game in under five hours.

A great addition made with this game is splitting the campaign up into chapters and giving the player a level select screen, allowing you to go back to play through your favorite parts of the game for fun, to improve your ranking, or to get money to upgrade your equipment. You are also able to choose your difficulty for each chapter. Are you sick of playing the games main story? Don't worry, the fun isn't over yet.

After beating the game, in Single Player or Co-Op, you gain access to some great extras. Throughout the game you will gain points, depending on how well you did in each mission and depending on what difficulty that you played on, these points can be spent upon choosing a bonus option in the main menu. Even before finishing the game you are able to purchase little action figures of the games characters, those figures can be viewed and you can play short sound clips with them, while they don't really add anything to the game they are still a fun little bonus. I've already mentioned how you can upgrade your weapons over the course of the game, something I have not mentioned is the ability to buy, through the bonus menu, infinite ammo for any of the guns that you have fully upgraded. This is a lot of fun and allows you to use the guns that you like most without worrying about having the ammo, if you just want to play a normal game you can turn infinite ammo on and off before starting each game. The last two things that you unlock in the bonus menu is the ability to buy different costumes for Chris and Sheva, two each, for use in the Single Player game and you will unlock different color filters to change the games look. The second costume for the characters looks a little weird but if you think that Chris should be wearing his old STARS uniform or if you think that Sheva is wearing a little too much clothing, the third option is for you. The characters will even wear their costumes during quick time events and cut scenes.

You will also gain the ability to play through the game as Chris or Sheva, whenever you start a new game or choose a chapter to replay you will be taken to a character selection screen. The two play the same, with the exception of their six melee moves, so the only differences are that two of the games weapons are unique to each character, the gatling gun for Chris and the Bow for Sheva. The characters are positioned on opposite ends of the screen for your view, the same as in co-op. Depending on who you play as, character positions in some of the quick time scenes and cut scenes are changed and a few lines of dialogue are changed during gameplay.

By far the most fun bonus that you get from finishing the game is unlocking Mercenary mode, which makes a return from Resident Evil 4. You start off with two of the possible ten characters, Chris and Sheva, both characters have their own separate load-out. You choose which of the eight stages you want to play on, you start with only one. If you get a B or better rank on a stage you will unlock the next stage, if you get an A rank or better you will get a new character, you will also be awarded with more bonus points depending on your ranking. The objective of this mode is to kill as many enemies as you can as fast as you can. You start with only two minutes on the clock but will be able to increase your time by hitting time bonus statues found in each level, the time can easily go up to over five minutes. One of my favorite parts of this mode is that every time you get a melee kill you get an additional five second bonus to your time, making melee attacks important and not a waste of time. In addition to worrying about your kills you will also have to worry about staying alive, no matter how well you do, you don't get a score if you die.

While there are 10 characters listed, there are really only four with different costumes, Chris, Sheva, Jill, and Wesker. Each character plays pretty much the same, the only difference being their six unique melee moves and Jill's stab move with the knife instead of a slash. Although this is one less character than the previous game the different costumed versions of each character all have different load outs, which gives the game five more characters than the last. The amount of stages have also doubled from the last game and most stages, besides just looking very different and having different enemies, have their own unique features, such as zip lines, ladders, spike traps you can activate, and rocket launchers found around the level.

Agree or disagree with including co-op in the main story, you should be able to say that co-op in Mercenary mode is one of the highlights of the game. You are able to play this mode by yourself, with no AI partner, through split screen co-op, or online through Xbox Live. You and your partner will have to work together to keep each other alive, if one of you dies it is game over. Do you stay close and protect each other, split up and try to get as many kills and time bonuses as possible, and will your partner even be able to survive if you get that last time increase? Working together to survive by sharing ammo and using the right gun for the job makes this mode one of the most fun extras I have played in years.

Multiplayer was also added through downloadable content but I have no desire to pay for multiplayer in this game, and I don't know why anybody would want to. I don't mind it if they charge for content but hopefully it will be something that people actually want next time.

While the Single Player is not as memorable as Leon's adventure in Resident Evil 4 they added just enough to this entry to make it a great game. Co-Op is a lot of fun and playing through the game on harder difficulties with infinite ammo and playing mercenary mode will make the game last. Not perfect, but still an excellent buy.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"Legolas_Katarn reviewed Resident Evil 5 for the Xbox 360..." was posted by Legolas_Katarn on Mon, 23 Mar 2009 17:09:35 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/resident-evil-5/user-reviews/651313/platform/xbox360/ Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:29:32 -0700 zoostyle reviewed S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-clear-sky/user-reviews/610972/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 8.0.

Wow, this game delivers and then some. I love the whole dark and dreary looks of its thick overgrown swamps to the redone levels of the cordon and garbage levels. I have to seriously stop and look around like constantly, admiring the ugly. oops there's a mutant boar slashing at my leg, fire off a shotgun round and plaster that fugly.

I too have fallen too many times in this game, it is harder than the OG Stalker game but hey life is tough too you know, the economy etc etc.

Game bugs, glitches, freezes, CTD's they are all here in all their glory. The first game was a horror to keep running. My old PC running XP was able to handle it well before it stopped working on it. It runs on my new PC (Quad-core) with Vista sweetly now as it does this game.

I recommend this game. Word.

"What can I do for you, STALKER?"

Get the full article at GameSpot

"zoostyle reviewed S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky for the PC..." was posted by zoostyle on Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:29:32 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-clear-sky/user-reviews/610972/platform/pc/ Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:21:09 -0700 metroidfan220 reviewed Diablo II: Lord of Destruction for the PC... http://www.gamespot.com/diablo-ii-lord-of-destruction/user-reviews/610434/platform/pc/ ...and gave it a 9.4!

Diablo II will overtake every aspect of your life if you let it, or it can just be a casual hour a day relationship. Unlike some other Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, like World of Warcraft, you are free to play as little or as much as you want, and not have to worry about falling behind the rest of the world. Diablo II provides endless replay value, and the expansion set makes the game even more worth playing, finishing out the original storyline and preparing those of us who are waiting with baited breath for Diablo III. The 3 difficulty levels will provide a level of replay value that is almost unheard of in a non-online only game for its time. You will be entertained for months and able to return to this game for many years to come; I know it has for me! The original game is worth the buy, and the expansion set is more than definitely a perfect addition to it.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"metroidfan220 reviewed Diablo II: Lord of Destruction for the PC..." was posted by metroidfan220 on Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:21:09 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/diablo-ii-lord-of-destruction/user-reviews/610434/platform/pc/ Tue, 09 Sep 2008 11:53:19 -0700 metroidfan220 reviewed Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/dragon-ball-z-budokai-tenkaichi-3/user-reviews/605782/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 is an absolutely perfect game for Dragonball Z fanboys. That being said, so were the other Dragonball Z Tenkaichi games, as well as Budokai 3. However, this game makes vast improvements not seen before in the series, making it not just perfect for fanboys, but actually a pretty great game on its own. I would recommend it to any gamer; most especially to anyone who likes Dragonball Z. The immersive, all-inclusive and imaginative experience in the Dragonball Z world is everything we have wanted for all these years. I can't imagine what they would put in another game...but whatever it would be, I can assure you it will be exponentially greater than this; these developers really are learning what we want and building on that. From the very weak to the very powerful (and everyone in-between) almost every character that you ever saw in any of the 3 series appears here, even some you might not think are worth it. It's that awesome!

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/dragon-ball-z-budokai-tenkaichi-3/user-reviews/605782/platform/wii/ Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:57:03 -0700 KFrog reviewed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-advanced-warfighter/user-reviews/604557/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 9.5!

Just like Rainbow Six Vegas, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is a top notch game with graphics, audio, action and great tactical game play.

In GRAW you're Scott Mitchell and you team up with the Ghosts for a hot time in Old Mexico putting down terrorists and saving heads of state.

Once you put your team together and select your weapon load out you can move out. In some missions you will have use of a drone, a kind of eye in the sky to help you recon the battlefield.

You also have somewhat limited control of helicopter gun ships, Bradley fighting vehicles and M1A1 Tanks.

One thing I sometimes had trouble with was the visuals of the game. Sometimes there was high contrast lighting from bright sunshine which made it difficult to see. I felt I needed to put on my sunglasses at times. On the other side there where times when it was so dark I couldn't see where I needed to go. That was kind of odd. And last there are times when your HUD is "scrambled" by enemy forces and all you can see is static and scrambled scenes. After all this squinting my eyes began to get pretty tired.

Once I put a few drops of Murine in my eyes I found that I had a great game on my hands.

The visuals in this game are absolutely stunning. The detail and realism are a sight to behold. As is always the case with Ubisoft and Tom Clancy games, the graphics and sound effects are excellent. The action and battles were fun and challenging. It just doesn't get much better than this.

I enjoyed the maps presented in the campaign. They're large, varied and events take place during the day and at night.

This is another great Ubisoft title. I just want another one to come down the pipe sooner rather than later.

Get the full article at GameSpot

]]> http://www.gamespot.com/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-advanced-warfighter/user-reviews/604557/platform/xbox360/ Mon, 28 Jul 2008 17:34:28 -0700 Legolas_Katarn reviewed Battlefield: Bad Company for the Xbox 360... http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company/user-reviews/594633/platform/xbox360/ ...and gave it a 8.5.

I'll start by saying that this is a very good game and that only a few poor choice is stop it from having the best multiplayer on Xbox Live. The Battlefield series has allowed players to fight in World War 2, Vietnam, the future, and in the present. Bad Company takes place in the present, where a fictional war is going on between the United States and Russia.

Unlike past Battlefield games, Bad Company has a Single Player story that doesn't end up feeling like a series of bot matches strung together with some text or video separating each one. The main character, Preston Marlowe, has just been assigned to Bad Company after doing something that could have gotten him thrown in jail. Bad Company is where all the misfits in the army are assigned and sent on almost suicidal missions. The game starts with a bang as the convoy that you are riding with is hit by an artillery strike, what follows is many, many more bangs. That is because in Battlefield Bad Company, if you see it, you can probably blow it up. Trees, walls, roofs, or enemies are all able to be blown up in many different ways. Can't find that flank on a group of enemies? Why not just switch to your grenade launcher and go right through a wall, or three.

The story for the game is that you and the rest of your squad find out that a group of mercenaries get paid in gold. After fighting some of them and finding a gold bar on a body, they decide to go after the gold and ignore orders.Your squad is made up of some great characters that you will probably start to really like over the course of the Single Player game. Your squad leader is Sergeant Redford, a soldier that used to be proud to serve his country, also the only person to request a transfer to Bad Company. After being in Bad Company and being used like fodder by the army all he wants to do is go fishing. The other two members of your squad are the exact opposites of each other and spend most of their time fighting. There is ** (gamespot censors his name, WHAT?!), who doesn't like fighting but joined the army to get a scholarship. The last member of your squad is Haggard, he likes to blow stuff up, enough said.

While it is nice to see that the single player games has an interesting story with good characters most of it feels like training for the multiplayer. When you die you just respawn and can continue attacking making the game very easy, and while it doesn't feel like a bot match your enemies will usually do little more than stand still and shoot at you. It doesn't help that, even though you can find silenced weapons, if you take an enemy out at long range before going into an enemy base, the entire base will likely still be alerted and any enemy with a shot at you will begin firing. Enemy AI aside the Single Player does have it's moments and the maps are huge and offer you many different ways of getting to your objective. It also helps that each mission has many objectives and that after completing each one you will get a short in game cutscene with some dialogue between the characters.

While the Single Player is alright, it is the multiplayer that will likely sell the game for you and keep you playing. The game supports 24 players, more than most games, and I almost never have any lag. There is currently only one gametype for multiplayer, Gold Rush, in this mode one team must defend two gold crates while the other tries to destroy them. Gold crates can be destroy by planting a bomb on them or by hitting them with explosive weapons or shooting them. Once two crates are destroy the map expands and the defends have to defend a new base while the attackers must continue to push them back until they win. The attackers are given a limited amount of reinforcements and will lose if they die too much, they are given more with each base they take over. The game shipped with eight maps, although I am not a fan of all of them, the maps seem to be perfectly balanced. I don't usually see one side win more often than the other on any map, most games end with both sides being pretty close to one another.

The game has five character classes to choose from in multiplayer games. The Assault class carries a rifle, grenade launcher, grenades, and an item to that heals themselves. Demolition carries a shotgun, rocket launcher, grenades, and mines. Recon is the sniper class and is also the only class to carry a pistol, they also have grenades that act as motion sensors and they have an item that allows them to call down an airstrike on a vehicle, the strike must be guided manually. The specialist class carries a machine gun, C4, grenades, and a tracer gun that will show the location of hit vehicles and allow rocket launchers to seek them. The last class is Support, they carry a heavy machine gun, medkits, a tool to repair vehicles, and a tool that allows them to call mortar strikes down on targets. All classes carry a knife that is an instant close range kill.

The classes seem to be well balanced except for the specialist class, if there are no vehicles nearby to throw C4 on or if you haven't even unlocked your C4, this class seems to be almost useless. It also is very annoying when sniping at long range to see your target heal himself as an Assault or Support character before you can get off another shot. Using the Support class' mortar tool is a lot of fun, in the other Battlefield games where people used to hide in buildings for cover, you can now just blow most of the building up, as well as its occupants, with a well placed strike.

The star of the game is the explosions. While the shooting usually works well the damage doesn't always seem to make much sense. You might put 10 shots into a guy with a rifle at mid range only to be killed by one blast from a shotgun. Also, due to the explosions the developers must have found it necessary to give characters much more resistance to explosives than in most games. If you hit an enemy soldiers with a grenade from a grenade launcher or with a light tank shot the soldier will still survive. Again, the shooting usually works well, but this is definitely a game where people will complain about a guy killing them when he probably should have been dead.

On bigger maps the best way to get around is to use vehicles and the game gives you many options. Different kinds of jeeps, light tanks, heavy tanks, boats, and helicopters are used. In addition, there are also stationary guns that shoot bullets, rockets, or grenades. Some maps even have anti-air guns or big artillery guns that allow you to get a birds eye view of the enemy team's base before you shoot, and of the resulting destruction caused by your shots. The vehicles usually control well, however, I do have some problems with the tanks. That problem is that after knocking down an entire forest by driving your tank through it you are still able to get stuck on some small obstacles on the ground.

The online mode makes use of ranks, you can be promoted up to level 25. As you are promoted you are given credits that can unlock new guns for each class, as well as the
item that needs to be unlocked for each class in order to be used. Medals can also be earned in games for accomplishing certain tasks but those just help you to rank up faster.

Although there are many guns in this game, each class has one for each of the three armies in the game, and four unlockable guns, almost every class has one or two guns that are obviously better than the rest. Some of the unlocked guns have the exact same stats as the default ones, accuracy, rate of fire, and damage, except that one of the three is increased. When aiming your guns only the sniper rifles and one of the heavy machine guns use scopes, for the assault and most heavy guns it is an iron site view, for the machine guns and shotguns your character gets no sight just slightly better accuracy.

Graphics wise the game is not the best looking, but it is also not bad looking. Textures might look a little grainy but since you usually have so little time to stop and stare at a building or tree before it is violently destroyed, you probably won't care.

The sound in this game is excellent. From the bullets slamming into the wall next you, the roar of a tank or of a snipers shot, to the sound of the roof above your head being blown away by a grenade. The sounds is great and will almost make up for the sound that you probably won't be hearing at all, voices. If Battlefield goes out to prove anything other than blowing stuff up is a lot of fun, it is that one is not the loneliest number. In Battlefield the loneliest number is, in fact, the number four.

The developers, for whatever reason, made the horrible decision to split each team of 12 up into different squads. When you join a game you will be randomly put into a squad with one to three other people, even if you stay in the same game you will be in a new squad at the start of each new round. While this sounds like a good idea it is very poorly implemented because, for whatever reason, the game will only allow you to talk to other squad members. At its best you will just have to be careful where you call those artillery strikes since you can't warn your team not to go into that building, or you will be unable to ask them if it was your team you called it on in the first place. At its worse, which is what it will usually be at, you will go game after game not hearing anybody say a word save for the occasional, "Yay, I killed someone" or the more common, "**** this stupid game, I died".

The good thing about squads is that you will be able to spawn in your base or on a squad members location whenever you are respawning. The bad side of this is that you are unable to choose who you want to respawn on, if the guy it gives you happens to be swimming around in the middle of the sea away from either teams base, you are out of luck and will have to spawn back at your base. If you have to spawn back in your base you might find that other people have taken all the nearby vehicles, and with no way to talk to other squads, you will have to walk.

While the game does allow you to invite people to a party before you join a game so that friends can be in a squad together this doesn't always work right. Not many of my friends play Battlefield, and I am unable to make new ones, for obvious reasons. The one friend I have who does play this game often was able to get into a party with me, while the game did put us in the same squad most of the time, it would occasionally put us on opposite teams. This was likely done for team balance reasons but because the server you get into is completely random, the game doesn't even put you into the map you chose, you have no way of knowing how many people are in a game until you join it.

While Battlefield is a very good game a few bad choices have stopped the game from becoming the best multiplayter game on Xbox Live. The Single Player is only decent and while the Multiplayer can be a lot of fun it makes strategy almost impossible. Even if you get into a game with three friends in your squad you are still unable to talk to the other eight members of your team. If you bought this game there is a very good chance that you don't care much for strategy and that you just want to blow things up, if that is the case, you will definitely have fun with Bad Company. Still it is odd to see a Battlefield game with so little effort put into communication.

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]]> http://www.gamespot.com/battlefield-bad-company/user-reviews/594633/platform/xbox360/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:33:16 -0700 metroidfan220 reviewed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii... http://www.gamespot.com/super-smash-bros-brawl/user-reviews/583655/platform/wii/ ...and gave it a 10.0!!!

The innovation, challenge, and just plain old-fashioned fun provided by Super Smash Brothers Brawl is reminiscent of the late 80s, when Nintendo pumped out masterpiece after masterpiece, because they couldn't afford anything else. Brawl has obviously been worked on furiously to the point where there is little to nothing that an engineer, given more time or money, could do to improve it. Nintendo shows with this game their dedication to making platforms about the fun of gaming, instead of getting the easy sell with sex, violence, and rock and roll. Super Smash Bros. Brawl is fun for literally every gamer, from the casual 8 year old first timer to the hardcore 28 year old college student. Literally hundreds of hours will be spent playing before you even realize that you have been playing that much. I have, several times, looked at the clock after a "short time" playing, and realized that I had spent four or five hours unlocking challenge after challenge, without a second of boredom in between.

Get the full article at GameSpot

"metroidfan220 reviewed Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Wii..." was posted by metroidfan220 on Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:33:16 -0700
]]> http://www.gamespot.com/super-smash-bros-brawl/user-reviews/583655/platform/wii/