292 public written reviews
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The Short Pros - Has the best, most realistic fire effects I have ever seen in a game - Soundtrack is pretty good - Graphics look decent - Filled with gobs of great original ideas Cons - Most of those original ideas are executed on a range from "poor" to "abominable" - Controls are clunky, muddled, and a mess - Tries to combine genres (open world, driving, horror, third-person combat) with horrid results - Has…
The Short Pros - Fast paced, bloody third person shooting - Glaive throwing is fun and violent - Uses glaive with environmental elements for puzzles, attacks, etc. - Melee and glaive-play is fun - Graphics still look decent, if a bit dark - A good way to relieve stress and kill time Cons - Repetitive - Apes a bit much from Gears of War without doing much original - Story is stuuuuupid - Game can be really glitchy…
The Short Pros - Fast paced, visceral experience with a mix of shooting with guns and using the titular Darkness - Voice acting is fantastic throughout - While script gets wonky at times, it is extremely solid - One of the few games that knows when to slow down for its emotional scenes - That being said, there are some genuinely heartbreaking scenes in this game - "Open-world" with a variety of side missions,…
The Short Pros - Successfully apes the Zelda formula in an adult setting - Terrific art design and graphics - Dungeons are clever and have unique puzzles, including one that uses an honest-to-god portal gun - Wide assortment of weapons and side weapons that flow well in combat - Loads of secrets to find (ala Zelda ) - Suitable story paired with some exceptional voice acting - Ending is FREAKING AWESOME - Killing…
The Short Pros - Keeps the same precise detection from the first game and makes it better - Now you can dance with two players! - Adds voice control/options from the menu - A new career mode - Gives you the option to remove that silly "freestyle" option - Over 40 songs on disc, can import the 32 from Dance Central , and plays all DLC - Improved Break it Down mode fixes the minor issues from the first version - New…
The Short Pros - Back with six new sports: Skiing, Baseball, Darts, Tennis, Football, and Golf - Golf is pretty great and has a decent selection of courses - Utilizes voice commands to get through the menues that actually works pretty good - Still has the same "minigames break off from the main game" as the first one - Graphics still look very nice, and your avatar is back for more SPORTS Cons - I swear somehow…
The Short Pros - Six one to two player events: Volleyball, Soccer, Boxing, Bowling, Table Tennis, Track and Field - Over a dozen minigames based on these events; minigames are 1-4 players - Kinect system works well with nearly every sport, and especially well with minigames - Uses your Xbox 360 avatar and looks good - Can give you quite a workout - Better than Wii Sports if only because you can use your feet/whole…
The Short Pros - Lots of exercise options available - Includes routines with and without weights - Has a handful of fun games - Has both yoga and kickboxing segments - Can set a lot of personalization options based on the Kinect being able to actually detect your body - Tracks overall calories, progress in specific activities, etc. - Interface is clean and looks good - Has both girl and guy trainers, which is…
The Short Pros - Gorgeous game with a totally unique art style - Plays extremely well with the Kinect, better even than the optional controller support - Combination of music, rhythm, and visuals make for an entrancing experience - Can be played either simply (play just to complete levels) or with a surprising amount of depth (chaining combos with a rhythm, etc.) - Each stage as a distinctly unique visual theme,…
The Short Pros - Full body dancing game with real moves - Actually works well on the Kinect . 100% as advertised - Doesn't throw a huge fit if you stand outside of its range - Has the best menus of any Kinect game (the way they do it has quickly become standard) - Excellent soundtrack of dance music, spanning many decades - "Break it Down" mode is superb at teaching you advanced routines - Graphics look fantastic -…
The Short Pros - One of the few Kinect games that actually plays as advertised - Can be played sitting down - Easy controls: left hand jumps/moves, right hand aims/shoots - Good mix of regular running/gunning, taking cover, driving stuff, etc. - Can play two player with a second shooter - Absurd, goofy story - Stylized graphics with a hilarious mix of FMV - Massive number of unlocks including themes and different…
The Short Pros - Pack-in with the Kinect, so essentially it's free - Five minigames and a few bonus ones - Uses your in-game avatar - River Rafting and Reflex Ridge are pretty fun and control decently - Graphics looks surprisingly good for a freebie Cons - Space Pop, Rally Ball, and 20,000 Leeks aren't particularly enthralling - The tech, overall, doesn't recognize you particularly well - All five games get dull…
The Short Pros - Co-op duel stick shooter - Visceral and violent, with great graphics for an XBLA release - Lets you shoot up Orks and Tyranids - Follows the Warhammer 40k mythos, which means all the space marines look awesome - Four space marines to play, each with level-ups, perks, and gear upgrades - Has a difficult "survival" mode after you beat the game - Fun powerups remind me of Smash TV - Gives you an…
The Short Pros - Lots of completely absurd, insane action - Three weapon types (slow and heavy, medium, fast and quick) - You ride a motorcycle up the side of a building only to throw it down into a falling diesel truck into the mouth of a giant mutant worm for a massive explosion. While 500 feet in the air. - Controls a decent hybrid of God of War and Ninja Gaiden II Cons - 90% of this game is quick time events.…
The Short Pros - Has atrociously easy achievements - Reminds you of how good Gears of War is in comparison - Co-op? Actually, it makes the game harder. Never mind. Cons - Short - Looks awful - Plays like an drunken third-person shooter - Only about three enemy types in the whole game - Turret sequences are overly difficult - Weapons aren't fun to use, don't carry over between levels - None of the voice actors come…
The Short Pros - Adds both harmonies and keyboard to the music mix - "Pro" mode for all instruments can teach you how to actually play a real guitar, etc. - Full tutorials designed to teach you actual guitar, keys, and drums - 83 songs, lots of fantastic classics in here - Restructured unlocks with hundreds of challenges that unlock during quickplay, career, etc. - Simplified career/road tip mode that doesn't force…
The Short Pros - 47 songs, including the albums Dookie and American Idiot in their entirety - Excellent, fun charting throughout make songs a blast to play - Drum and bass parts are especially enjoyable to play - Three part harmonies are back, and usually simpler than in The Beatles: Rock Band - Exportable to Rock Band 3 , complete with harmony support - All songs are unlocked in quickplay from the start - Menus…
The Short Pros - Game featuring (and only featuring) what is widely considered to be the greatest band ever - 45 songs, with full albums available for download - Three-part harmonies for the singing is fantastic - Beautiful design and style; extremely faithful to The Beatles legacy - Clearly made with care and reverence to the original band - Lots of bonus content (videos, images, etc.) for fans - No Fail is…
The Short Pros - Songs include Queen, Bon Jovi, David Bowie, and Elton John - All family friendly songs: can play it with your kids without fear of "bad" lyrics - Tons of stuff to unlock - Your score = money, which is a brilliant idea and should have been done before - Lego "Rock Events" where you play Ghostbusters to fight off ghosts, etc. are clever and fun - Lego aesthetic makes up for a lot; even the notes are…
The Short Pros - Refines the Rock Band UI down to a perfect shine - Tons of new, awesome songs - Character creator is much improved and a character can play multiple instruments - Menu selection for songs becomes fantastic - Charting is better for all instruments, especially bass - Introduced the Rock Band Network, where people can create and submit their own songs to sell - All songs (like Rock Band ) exportable to…
The Short Pros - Full band experience: Sing, drum, play guitar or bass - Both solo and band career mode - Make a customizable rocker and unlock stuff for them - Excellent soundtrack of mostly original recordings - Added unison bonuses, where if you play segments of the song perfectly with a band you get bonus Overdrive - Solos with guitars, fills with drums - Can sing with a mic or a headset - Has a distinct sense…
The Short Pros - Absolutely gorgeous graphics - The music, while not the usual Castlevania fare, is still fantastic - Finally a 3D Castlevania game that isn't utter garbage - Patrick Stewart narrates and voices a character in the game - Some of the bosses, the Butcher and Grave Digger especially, are fantastic - Did I mention this game looks good? It looks really good - Enemies are difficult even from the beginning…
The Short Pros - Takes every complaint I had about Persona 3: FES and fixes it - Tons of really fantastic voice acting throughout - Has probably the most distinct, uniform art style of any game I've played - Speaking of style, this game has it in buckets : music, graphics, character, etc. - Same unique, deep turn-based combat as Persona 3: FES - Tons more dungeons, and each has a unique and entertaining theme -…
The Short Pros - Fun, complex combat system - Ability to change between normal heroes and their "Dragoon" form - Multiple battle songs that change throughout the game - Lots of party members with unique combos and abilities - Music is actually pretty good - Really good looking CG cutscenes - Decent in-game graphics for the PS1 era Cons - Story is absurd and idiotic - While the game does have some voice acting, it is…
The Short Pros - Essentially a mix between an excellent turn-based JRPG, a high school dating sim, and Pokemon. - Lots of interesting characters with deep and compelling backstories - Tons of fun (and funny) events and activities - As much a time management sim as an RPG - Also has practically a "breeding" game with regards to merging Personas - Extremely addicting, very easy to sink 100+ hours into - Music has a…
The Short Pros - Beautiful, hand-drawn graphics and animations - Excellent midi music - Play as two different characters, a first (and last) for the series - Refined controls from the previous games make it much easier to pick up and play - Puzzles are the best crafted in the series, many with multiple options - Excellently diverse side characters - Areas you visit are fun, unique, and extremely varied - Final…
The Short Pros - Funny, bizarre story by Al Lowe of Leisure Suit Larry fame - Hand-drawn art and animation looks good, made by an animator who later quit Sierra to work at what is now Pixar - Voice acting is well done throughout - Sidekick "Boogle" adds some flavor to interesting puzzles - Weird, hilarious characters. Nobody in this world is freaking normal. - Travel into the planet through five unique worlds -…
The Short Pros - Hybrid turn based / real time strategy - Part country sim, part resource management sim, part siege sim, and more - Music is fantastic - Battle against AI or over "Modem Network" (works on modern networks, too) - Tons of scenarios, adding the "Siege Pack" throws even more into the mix - Lots of unit types, each with their own strengths and weaknesses - AI opponents are fully voiced and say some…
The Short Pros - Lots of totally over the top kills - Stealth sections where you play as the dog, Shadow - Can command your dog to go all feral on dudes - Cover based shooting is satisfying, slow-mos for headshots - Story is so completely stupid it's hilarious Cons - Looks terrible - Controls are just barely passable; Gears of War this ain't - Voice acting and story are awful, so if you hate B-Movies you will hate…
The Short Pros - An expansive theme park sim - Build shops and rides, hire entertainers and handymen, and much more - Actually build your own coasters in "design" mode - Dozens of missions (more with expansions) - Loads of coaster types and rides - Insanely addicting Cons - The formula for building a good coaster can be difficult to figure out - Easy to "cheat" your way through the game with cheap exploits - Ride…
The Short Pros - All new single player set during Halo 2 but on earth - Play as somebody other than Master Chief (finally) - Handful of new weapons - New Firefight mode - Story is a very different approach than the other Halo games - Nathan Fillion does a voice in it - Includes a disc for the complete Halo 3 multiplayer experience Cons - Story is stale and doesn't pack promised emotional punch - Firefight is friends…
The Short Pros - Goofy, zany platformer - Excellent animations and art design - Lots of crazy levels with tons of variety - Launch cows Cons - Some spotty and floaty controls - Water level is stupid difficult - SNES version is missing a level that was in the Genesis version COW LAUNCHED The Long Earthworm Jim is the 90s. Spawned from a generation infatuated with Animaniacs and The Tick, Earthworm Jim is a goofy,…
The Short Pros - Perfect blend of action/horror - Grisly violence and gore ramp the tension up to insane levels - Fantastic UI; everything is displayed in the game world. No HUD. - Sound design is exceptional - Unique method of dispatching enemies; "strategic dismemberment" rather than headshots - Graphics are gorgeous and the steller art design leads to some true monstrosities - Story is interesting and reminded me…
The Short Pros - Absolutely beautiful soundtrack - Charming 16-bit "RPG" style graphics - Fantastic, emotionally riveting story - Lots of interesting plot twists Cons - Gameplay elements seem unnecessarily tacked on - Walking from place to place can be boring and uninteresting - Very short (3-4 hours, no replay value) - Story is good but seems to back off just short of being magnificent - I can't decide if the…
The Short Pros - Compelling storyline - Superb soundtrack - Mix of Mass Effect and Greek mythology - Leveling up / skill trees proceed in a very unique way - Dedicate yourself to three gods, in both dialogue and fighting, and be rewarded appropriately - Fun combat; multiple weapon types to use - Voice acting is excellent Cons - Very, very glitchy - Not as much combat as you'd think; mostly lots of dialogue - Not…
The Short Pros - Has "2112" by Rush in its entirety - Has "Wish" by Nine Inch Nails - Has "Uprising" by Muse - Returns to Guitar Hero "roots" with harder guitar parts Cons - Does nothing to improve the Guitar Hero/Rock Band formula - No harmonies - Career mode where rockers turn to "beasts" is unbelievably stupid - Weak setlist that is completely all over the place - Good batch of discs shipped with unreadable…
The Short Pros - Gorgeous graphics - Dark continuation of the Resident Evil franchise story - Co-op for the first time in the series - Option for duel-stick aiming - Roller-coaster of awesome setpieces and scenes - The perfect length: not too long or too short - Mercenaries mode has been improved and also has co-op Cons - Co-op with AI is atrociously unfun - Takes all the "B-Movie" greatness of Resident Evil 4 and…
The Short Pros - Fast, fun four player defense game - Four unique classes with differing abilities - 8-Bit throwback style - Sticks to the retro theme with awful Engrish translations - Multiple levels of difficulty, including a survival mode - More goblins than you can shake a stick at - Only $3 on Xbox Live Indie Games Cons - Not a whole lot of depth - For the best experience you need four players - Harder…
The Short Pros - Gritty, dark survival/shooting game set in Russia's subway system - Guns look appropriately makeshift and old based on the theme - Monsters are creepy - Lots of really cool ideas - Really plays the whole "struggling to survive" aspect better than most other games in the genre - Fantastic UI - Superb sound design, particularly in ambiant noises and voices - Visual theme is uniform and fantastic…
The Short Pros - Unique horror RPG from Squaresoft - Good graphics for early PS1 era - Innovative and unique battle system and weapon upgrade system - New Game + encourages multiple playthroughs - Fantastic soundtrack - Interesting story combining science with fantastic elements - Multiple endings - You fight a re-animated T-Rex skeleton in the Museum of Natural History. Serious Dresden files vibe. - Only $6 on PSN…
The Short Pros - Blend of Zelda , rogue-likes, and duel-stick shooters - Hundreds of unlockables: items, characters, power-ups, levels, bosses, and more - Dark, disgusting, and with a unique art style - Incredible soundtrack - Addicting and ideally suited for short bursts of gameplay - Only $5 on Steam Cons - Can be incredibly difficult - Success is often based heavily on luck - Disturbing characters and themes…
The Short Pros - Two-player top down and side scrolling space shooter - Uses regular shooting and bombs ala Xevious - Has "State of the Art" and "High Resolution," according to the box - Lots of good powerups and secrets - Decent music - The cover is a picture of an angel dude with one shoulder pad holding a future space gun Cons - Like every other space shooter on the NES - The whole "cross legged pink guy" thing…
The Short Pros - A JRPG from the original creators of Final Fantasy - Old school, turn based RPGs with several unique twists - A well crafted premise and story - Fantastic music by Nobuo Uematsu ( Final Fantasy 's composer) - Caps level grinding so bosses stay challenging and fun - Unique skill learning for Immortals vs Mortals - 30+ hour adventure - Some genuinely touching moments in the story - High class voice…
The Short Pros - 3D Platformer on the NES - Created by Square (as in, the Final Fantasy guys) - Music by Nobuo Uematsu (aka, the Final Fantasy composer) - Eight worlds, but to quote my friend Davy "Nobody makes it past level 3!" - Easy to play, extremely difficult to master - If you press select and have red/green 3D glasses, you can play in REAL 3D! - Can pick it up for about $2-3 Cons - Gets really difficult…
One of the biggest XBLA indie games of the year, Super Meat Boy is an exceptional example of difficult gameplay done perfect. It is easily a must-buy for the system. What did you love about the game? : - Perfect controls - Fantastic, 8-bit soundtrack - Funny nods to older game series - Dozens of hours of content (300+ levels, with more coming all the time) What did you hate about the game? - Exceptionally hard -…
One could argue Resident Evil 4 brought about the next-gen beginning of the third person shooter genre, and Gears of War solidified it as a solid action game. Shadows of the Damned is a third person shooter. You press a trigger to aim, you can dash around, and you have an assortment of weapons and you look over the shoulder. But it is completely different from any other third-person shooter you've played. Mostly…
My life loves our iPod Touch, and I can't blame her. There's tons of games coming out for the thing, and when $5 is considered "pricey," I know the system is going to stay well within our price range. Fruit Ninja was a popular game I actually never bought, but I played the "Lite" version (essentially a demo). It costs $1 but even then I was too cheap to get it, gleaning enough satisfaction from the score-limited…
Cursed Loot is the re-naming of the indie game Epic Dungeon , which I bought back during the "Indie Games Revolution" last year. For those who already guessed it: Yes, this is an Xbox Live Indie game, not an XBLA game or a retail release. I actually was on the fence buying Cursed Loot because I already had Epic Dungeon . Then I realized the game was a freaking doller and was being updated frequently, had tons of…
