75 public reviews
The views here are this user’s only and are not representative of Giant Bomb's thoughts and opinions on the discussed video game. GB's official reviews reside at giantbomb.com/reviews.
Strafe landed on my radar a few years ago courtesy of one very tongue-in-cheek trailer. It promised a cross between two of my favorite genres - roguelikes and shooters - and poked fun at the 90s with its over the top baditude. I put the game on my to-do list, then checked out for a few years, distracted by a mountain of responsibilities. Imagine my surprise when, several years later, I logged into the PlayStation…
Titanfall is Call of Duty scored to the Benny Hill theme song. The feather-light navigation and gunplay that made CoD such a hit with twitch shooter fans has been injected with amphetamines and dumped, twitching and shrieking, wholesale into Respawn 's first effort, an amalgamation of everything the team has learned from their decade-plus of experience and arguably the fastest, fiercest AAA shooter to come to market…
Little Deviants came packed in with every Playstation Vita First Edition Bundle. At first, it's easy to see why Sony would want this to be the first experience that consumers had with their Vita; much like Nintendo's Wii Sports, Little Deviants acts as an introduction to the system's numerous features. But after just a few minutes of play, it became abundantly clear that Little Deviants had neither the focus nor the…
After the announcement that Sony Bend was working on Golden Abyss in Naughty Dog 's stead, my expectations for the game dropped harshly. It would be near impossible, I thought, for a third-party studio to capture the charm and the excitement that made the console entries such a pleasure to play. It didn't help that the game sported gimmicky-looking touch controls and played with a B-cast of unknown characters. I was…
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is, at its core, a much better game than its predecessor. Many of the issues that fans had with XIII have been addressed in some significant way here, from the linearity to the slow-burn pacing, and Square-Enix has even made a few subtle improvements to the already fantastic combat engine to boot. These improvements make the overall experience of playing through this Fantasy a much more pleasant…
There was a time when Batman games were viewed with contempt. Like most of the licensed drivel that publishers would pass for games, these experiences were often short, under developed, and untrue to the methods of the world's greatest detective. It is for precisely this reason that gamers were so skeptical when Rocksteady announced Batman Arkham Asylum . Of course that game released in 2009 to heavy critical…
Aliens: Infestation would've flown right under my radar if it weren't for the pedigree of its developer, WayForward Technologies . When the guys behind the excellent Contra 4 and Bloodrayne Betrayal put out a new 2D game, I tend to pay attention. When said game takes its inspiration from classic Metroidvania games, I'm practically stumbling over myself to fork over my cash. Indeed, Aliens: Infestation has a…
Super Mario 3D Land is the game that should have launched alongside the 3DS. Unlike the rest of the games on the platform, it is of indisputably high quality and makes good use of the system's 3D capabilities. Although 3D Land falls a bit shy of the Galaxy games with which it shares a pedigree, it's still one of the most innovative and polished platformers on the market, to such an extent that it's almost worth…
How do you follow up one of the most perfect video games ever made? If you’re part of Naughty Dog , the answer is apparently to obfuscate most of the elements that made that game so great and break the rest. That might sound unnecessarily harsh, especially because Uncharted 3 is still a great game, but it’s hard not to be disappointed by what should be one of the best action games of all time when it turns out…
Saint’s Row The Third is easily the most ridiculous game I’ve played in a year that has already seen its share of mass destruction , dicktits , and Big Boners . Think about that for a second. This is a game so unrelentingly absurd, it’s sometimes difficult to tell the numerous glitches apart from conscious design decisions. But where so many other games grimace seriously through their campaigns, Saint’s Row The…
Quick: What's the first thing that comes to mind when I say Battlefield? For those of us who've been with the franchise since the beginning, it's massive 64-player battles and seamless vehicle integration. For others, it's the large scale destruction of the Bad Company games. But playing Battlefield 3, I couldn't help but think that there is now an entire generation of gamers who would answer that question with…
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is a game mired in controversy, its reputation tainted by questionable business ethics and internet flame wars. Look past the lawsuits, corporate mud slinging, and accusations of stagnation from a restless fanbase, however, and you'll see that Modern Warfare 3 is possibly the strongest of the Call of Duty games and a great shooter in its own right. Is it as shockingly innovative as the…
It's easy to have misconceptions about what RAGE really is. Word on the internet has pegged the game as a sort of bastard child in an illicit three-way between Borderlands , Fallout , and Doom , but to go into this game expecting anything resembling a role playing experience is to prime yourself for disappointment. This is an id game after all, and it's easy to see the DNA of their older works shining through the…
It's no secret that I held mixed opinions on Gears of War 2 . It felt like the game took the whole "darker sequel" thing a little too far, injecting a somberness into characters and worlds that frankly didn't deserve to be taken so seriously. With Gears of War 3 Epic has finally hit that sweet spot between darkness and bro-ness that the first two missed, and tuned their gameplay and graphics engines to a T to boot.…
The concept of Fruit Ninja Kinect is so simplistic it's almost hard to write about. Fruit gets launched up from the bottom of the screen. You wave your arms around like some kind of produce-hating Edward Scissorhands. The fruit explodes. Sure, there are permutations to the classic fruit chopping gameplay, but in general they all boil down to slicing as many of the targets as you can in the shortest time possible.…
Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I've never had as much reverence for indie developer Twisted Pixel as everyone else seems to. I found their debut effort, The Maw , to be downright boring, and while the 'Splosion Man games have a certain delirious charm to them the gameplay never drew me in. My favorite of their games, Comic Jumper , seems to be their least appreciated. So when it was announced that they'd be…
The concept of a B-movie, a piece of entertainment so bad it's actually kind of good, has been difficult to replicate in video games. Past attempts such as Swery 's Deadly Premonition have nailed the cheesy atmosphere and awkward dialogue, but stumbled when it came to the gameplay. That so-bad-it's-good quality has been so rare in games because awkward gameplay is a nail in the coffin, even in a dumb game. SEGA 's…
I love video games. I do. We've been together for a long time now, probably bordering on fifteen years. And while those years have been filled with joy, heartbreak, and triumph, I have to be honest: Video games, you've been getting boring. You just don't live in the moment like you used to! Remember the good old days of the SNES and Genesis , when you were so eager to please with new innovations like Mode 7 graphics…
I'll be honest: For the vast majority of the year since its announcement, Driver San Francisco was so far off my radar it might as well have been in a completely different hemisphere. Can you really blame me, though? The last two games in the franchise, Driv3r (I still throw up in my mouth a little every time I have to type that out) and Parallel Lines , were merely uninspired GTA ripoffs, and when word of this new…
It might be pretty obvious with the glut of 5 Star reviews permeating the site, but hey, I'll add another voice to the crowd: Bastion is good. Like, really, stupendously, inspiringly good. Even after watching Building the Bastion all the way through, I wasn't quite sure what to expect out of Supergiant Games ' first outing. I was rooting for the guys, what with them making pretty much the entire game from their…
Avalanche Studios is a developer oddly in tune with what I want out of my video games. It's almost creepy how closely their games adhere to my checklist of perfect action game staples. Last year, Just Cause 2 showed us how far off the deep end these guys can go, and this year they're bringing their brand of explosive action to the download scene with Renegade Ops . Don't let the mundane name fool you; this is one of…
Insomniac 's Resistance franchise might be the most inconsistant series of games I've played. The original game's dark and foreboding atmosphere gave way to cheesy male bravado in the second. The mechanics were significantly "overhauled," leading to fan outcry on the internet when the game ended up playing just like Halo . And then there was Resistance Retribution for the PSP , which was a third person cover-based…
Warhammer 40K Space Marine has no right to be as much fun as it is. Every time I saw the game before its release, I couldn't help but find the premise generic and the gameplay redundant. Now the game is finally in my hands, and although those complaints still ring true, they are mitigated by the sheer elegance of the gameplay. This is a game that transitions between ranged and melee combat with a grace that few…
As volcanoes spread their fiery wrath across one side of the map and torrential downpours flood the river basin on the other side, the desperate villagers march unfazed towards the large totem in the center of the world. Some of them are swept away in the floods, never to be seen again. Others are too slow, and are left burning in the lava as the stronger villagers push forward, never looking back. Finally,…
When Sucker Punch released the first Infamous , I was torn. On the one hand, the combat and traversal felt great, and the story was intriguing. On the other hand, Cole 's animations looked awkward, the characters were annoying, and despite being a so-called "superhero" (or villain) I never felt quite as powerful as the narrative constantly suggested I was. The Electric Man's second adventure targets many of the…
Duke Nukem Forever is a real product that can be purchased from store shelves. In a way, that seems like enough of a victory for the troubled shooter. The sad, but perhaps inevitable reality is that existence is one of the game's few triumphs. Everything contained within the package that is DNF can best be described as broken, boring, or bland; it's a relic from the 90s that, if anything, just goes to show how far…
It's been over five years since the last numbered SOCOM game, and the industry has evolved and shifted in untold ways since then. What may have been considered cutting edge in 2005 is now dated and generic. With that in mind, and fresh off the success of their massively multiplayer shooter MAG , Zipper Interactive have dragged their most famous franchise kicking and screaming into the next generation. Unfortunately,…
Dead Space 2 is not a horror game. Sure, the enemies are gooey and gross, the lighting is dim, and the ammo is scarce. But Silent Hill 2 (or even the first Dead Space ) this is not. In EA and Visceral 's sequel, jump scares and pulse-pounding action are the order of the day. The sense of foreboding that the original game did so well, that calm-before-the-storm feeling that made the hairs on your arms stand on end,…
The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile can initially be a bit of an off-putting game. It centers on Yuki , a troubled young woman who, under your guidance, must exact revenge against three businessmen who wronged her. During this journey, she will carve a bloody swath through robotic ninjas , zombies , robots , teleporting secret agents, mutants , and numerous other abominations. On the moon . And sometimes she will take a…
When it comes to shooters, I'd consider myself to be pretty jaded. With the market as saturated as it is, a game really has to work to stand out in my eyes. Consider it a testament to the strength of Homefront's premise, then, that I was genuinely anticipating THQ and Kaos Studios' tale of Eastern domination. The marketing blitzkrieg supporting Homefront claimed that the game would thrust players headfirst into a…
NIS games always tend to remind me of bygone eras in gaming. Their games on the PS2 , like Ar Tonelico and Disgaea , for example, bring to mind the Super Nintendo . Hyperdimension Neptunia, in turn, reminds me of the PS2 and Gamecube days, days that I consider somewhat of a golden age for JRPGs thanks to franchises like Xenosaga , Persona , and Kingdom Hearts . However, unlike many of those classics, Neptunia…
Dead Nation was one hell of a roller coaster ride from start to finish. Gorgeous graphics and disgustingly detailed audio contribute heavily to the hopeless atmosphere of the game, and the constant swarms of enemies will leave you gasping for breath after each encounter. Despite the game's excellent production values and taught pacing, I could not shake a certain feeling the entire time I played the game. At first,…
From the moment it was announced, Sony's DIY-platformer Littlebigplanet was a shining beacon of hope for the games industry. In a market all too devoid of new and interesting ideas, LBP was one of the rare games that looked to the past for innovation. Positioning a 2D - platformer as one of its major games of 2008 was a bold move for the electronics giant, but as more and more media was released for the game, it…
Thanks to games like Heavy Rain and Mass Effect 2 , interactive storytelling has taken some big steps forward in 2010. Indeed, it seems that many developers have recently been putting a great amount of effort into immersing you in dark and engrossing worlds, and gaming is overall better because of this. Luckily, PlatinumGames recognizes that not every new shooter on the block needs to be as emotional as it is…
Costume Quest is the ultimate childhood fantasy. The ideas of monsters being real and people transforming into vicious creatures are ones that most of us have probably entertained as children, and thanks to Double Fine and THQ , this whimsical fantasy is finally coming to fruition. Luckily, Costume Quest hits the perfect balance of intuitive game play and nostalgic subject matter to make for an excellent weekend of…
Way back in the day, Castlevania was a linear game. It's important to remember that while playing Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, because this is the most linear game the series has seen in years. Many fans of the series may be confused by this game's abandoning of the " Metroid -vania" structure that has served them well for years, but in this case a mostly straightforward path is indeed a better one. By taking a few…
Valve has been really good about keeping Left 4 Dead 2 relevant. Thanks to their dedication to releasing new campaigns via DLC and the new mutation modes introduced in their previous DLC, The Passing , the zombie apocalypse has proven itself to have some pretty long legs. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since the release of the original Left 4 Dead , and the formula has seen few changes since then. Valve…
In the war zone that is the autumn 2010 video game market, it's easy to overlook a game like Enslaved. This is a shame, because although flawed, the game is also quite unique. Backed by minimal marketing and releasing amongst a slew of highly anticipated games, Enslaved came out of left field to deliver an uneven but ultimately worthwhile experience. Enslaved starts with a bang, throwing the you right into the…
Dead Rising 2 may be destined to go down as one of the most divisive games of this console generation. On the surface, the game is a silly zombie -slaughtering romp through a teeming adult playground. Look under the inviting surface, however, and you'll find a game that was tailor made for the hardest of hardcore. Thanks to nerve-wracking time limits, maddening boss encounters, and the hundreds of collectible items,…
It has been a decade since the release of Halo: Combat Evolved, and still I think of it as one of the greatest first person shooters of all time. A true masterpiece of console gaming, Halo innovated the genre with regenerating shields, a two weapon limit, drivable vehicles, and console controls that didn't feel stiff and awkward. As groundbreaking as the game was, the FPS genre has come a very long way since 2000,…
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is not only the latest in Square-Enix's fan favorite series, but one of the greatest as well. For fans who may have worried that the series PSP debut might be relegated to spin-off status like the recent KH 358/2, you may rest assured that this is in fact a full featured KH release, complete with some fairly interesting ties to both the first and second installments. This is easily the…
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light marks the second time that Crystal Dynamics has rebooted Lara's image during this console generation, but this new face lift is a much bigger departure for the heroine. Although industry vets generally seemed excited for this new adventure, I thought that setting a Lara game as an isometric co-op title sounded a little crazy. Fortunately, my concerns proved unfounded, and GoL…
Most games recognize that in order to be entertaining, the odds must be tipped slightly in the player's favor. By adding features such as aiming assistance and regenerating health, and streamlining their controls, most games strive to be as intuitive as possible. Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is not most games. This game hates you. The first Kane and Lynch game, infamous as it is, was little more than a mediocre…
If there's one thing I can definitely say about Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game, it's that Ubisoft didn't feel any pressure to fall into the typical movie licensed game trap with this one. The comics were written with gamers in mind, and the video game adaption takes that theme to heart. The result is a hardcore, old school beat 'em up gaming experience. While Ubisoft certainly succeeded at creating a unique…
Despite frequent claims to the contrary, Monday Night Combat is more than a Team Fortress 2 ripoff. This quirky amalgamation of genres may take some getting used to for seasoned shooter vets who are used to gunning for the highest kill count, but those who stick with it will find a surprisingly deep and rewarding shooter under the candy coated visuals. The premise behind the latest Summer of Arcade release is that…
Left 4 Dead made a name for itself largely with the help of its AI director system. The idea was that the game would track what players were doing, and send in varying levels of zombie swarms and items accordingly. This system was a big success, and gave both L4D and its sequel great replay value. Before its release, The Passing was billed as the first Left 4 Dead level in which the AI director would take control of…
Read the full review A Surprising Expansion Makes L4D2 Even More Replayable
On August 21st, 2007, I took my first tentative steps into Rapture. The initial decent into the submerged metropolis has been seared into my mind ever since. After all, who could forget the feeling of wonderment as the tram descended through the sea, or the terror and curiosity of that first splicer encounter? In retrospect, it was mostly curiosity that drove me to attack Bioshock's campaign with such fervor.…
White Knight Chronicles is not a bad game. The graphics and gameplay are perfectly serviceable, and the customization options are great, especially for a Japanese RPG. The real problem with WKC is that developer Level 5 has failed to connect these elements in any meaningful or engaging way, making for a game that feels very inconsequential and yes, forgettable. As sad as it is to say, this game is not worth the long…
Read the full review White Knight Chronicles: International Edition
