28 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.
Ah Borderlands. How different a game could be just based on its art style. When they first announced this post apocalyptic shooter way back in the days of yore, it still had the same grimy art style as every other Unreal Engine 3 game that has ever been made. A few months later, and after a full on rebellion by the sounds of it from the art team, we instead got a new “concept art” style of graphics. Oh and a witty…
You know what people like? Zombies! Nearly everyone loves them and their brain eating ways. All the shambling around also makes them pretty good target practise for first person shooters and the sight of a crowd of them exploding? Poetry in motion. Borderlands, the FPS/RPG from Gearbox which I loved on its release, has just had its first piece of DLC released onto XBL and PSN and its rather good. The Zombie Island…
(The only potential spoilers within have been shown in various trailers and so therefore should not be class as spoilers - however if you think that you may have you enjoyment of the game ruined, I reccomend you skip past the second and third paragraphs. However you will miss some of the best writing in the entire thing) I feel sorry for developers who make hit games. Not only do you get some fat cat in a suit…
When you see a game from a developer who has no proven track record, you can feel a bit apprehensive in playing their game. In most cases this is a false feeling and instead the game is brilliant (see Spelunky). However in Darkest of Days that feeling is right on the money. Darkest of Days pits you as time traveling trooper, sent back in time to fix mistakes made in the time stream. You go back to various periods,…
(review originally posted at http://blog.hntdaab.co.uk) Its an undeniable fact – Halo is one of our favourite pastime’s landmark franchises, up there next to Metal Gear Solid, Mario and Half Life. It has sold over 27 million copies over all the games. In 2007, Halo 3 was released to “finish the fight” to a rapturous audience. Now its expansion/semi sequel is released to perhaps a bit less hype. After all the story…
Ah those Nazis. As if starting wars and genocide wasn’t enough, it also appears as the fiends were conducting supernatural experiments and creating new and deadly weapons based on science they don’t quite understand. Well that is what the team at Raven is insinuating. Wolfenstein is the latest in the series of first person shooters from id, going back to one of the first ever FPS’s, Wolfenstien 3D (predating Doom by…
Last year in the Summer of Arcade we got some absolutely brilliant games. Bionic Commando Rearmed, Braid and bringing up the rear, the phenomenal Castle Crashers, my all time favourite XBLA game. This year’s summer of arcade was less good. True we had ‘Splosion men at the start, but the other games were less exciting. I hate Marvel vs. Capcom, Turtles in Time doesn’t interest me and I have already played Trials on…
Ah, the Summer. A time for sitting outside in the sun, going to the pub or jetting away to parts foreign (though, as I write this its actually raining, but hey thats what you get in late August in Leeds). However, Microsoft missed the memo and instead thinks its time for us to be sat around our Xbox 360s playing a new set of the top of the range Xbox Live Arcade games. So they have the Summer of Arcade over 5 weeks.…
Developer – Tripwire Interactive Publisher – Tripwire Interactive Platforms – PC (Steam) Release – 14/05/09 I don’t know what it is, but I like zombies as enemies. There something slightly cool, yet also slightly scary about a horde of shambling undead coming towards you though the dark, uncaring about the slugs ripping through them. They are one of the archetypal enemies of our hobby. Left 4 Dead is one of the best…
About 20 years ago, Lucasarts released a game that would live forever as a classic and amazingly it wasn’t Star Wars related. It was, of course, The Secret of Monkey Island, the game that first introduced us to Guybrush Threepwood, Le Chuck and the chicken with a pulley in the middle. Recently, Lucasarts looked up from their shameless franchise destruction to produce a new and improved version of Monkey Island,…
New logo for a new series If there was one game I regret not playing until now, its probably the first in the Monkey Island games from Lucasarts. These classic adventures are held among many as an example of a time when gameplay was more important than graphics. So it was quite controversial when Lucasarts announced that Tell Tale (makers of the new set of Sam and Max games as well as Wallace and Gromit) would be…
Read the full review Tales of Monkey Island Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Developer – Bohemia Interactive Publisher – 505 Games Platforms – PC Release – 19/06/09 Anyone who is used to the conventions of other FPS games, its recommended that you leave your normal playing style at the door. This is because you are entering the world of the Milsim. ARMA 2 is the latest version of a game idea stretching back to 2002. Operation Flashpoint was released by Codemasters and developed by Bohemia…
Developer – Ubisoft Publisher – Ubisoft Platforms – PC (Steam or Disc) Release – 11/05/08 You know a games going to be good when it puts a warning label when its booted up. Assassin’s Creed a nice disclaimer mentioning the game is made by a multicultural team of different faiths. Translated it says “We can be as racist or stereotypical as we want because we are only insulting ourselves” Assassin’s Creed is…
Developer – DICE Publisher – EA Platforms – PC ( Download ) Release – 25/06/09 (Offical Release, but the beta was taking place for a long time before) Everyone likes free stuff. More people like free stuff that’s useful. And even more people than that like getting stuff that you should be paying for for free. Koreans especially. In Korea, most games are not sold in stores, but are downloaded for free and then kept…
The Dishwasher and a ...Chef? Hard games are not fun. That statement may make me sound like an idiot but, hard games are not fun. If I can’t sit down and play a game without swearing more than usual or throwing a controller through my screen, than that game shit. There are two exceptions. Braid (because my brain needed the punishment) and Dishwasher Dead Samurai, an old release off XBLA. Dishwasher is an arcade…
AHH. THERES ZOMBIES AND MUTATED PLANTS! Since when did Popcap make games people actually gave a f*** about? It used to be that Zuma or Bejeweled were games your mother played! Now Popcap games end up being one of the most talked about topics on twitter! Personally, I blame Peggle and its addictiveness. Bloody unicorns. But I’m going off topic. Plants vs. Zombies has a very intresting setup. Zombies are attacking…
Tom Clancy is the man for near future military action. If his name is on the book/games/film you can tell it will be a least way half decent. Does H.A.W.X. match up to this standard? H.A.W.X. is a arcade style flight combat game from Ubisoft Romania, those fine fellows who brought us Blazing Angels. And this shows, as the game handles very similarly. The A button is fire missiles, B is cannon, right trigger is…
Russian games are special. Being from a primarily PC gaming orientated country means developers can make some completely off the wall games, or use ideas that western developers would run away screaming from, crying for their mothers. We have seen overly ambitions games with real character (S.T.A.L.K.E.R.), traditional games with some truly entertaining plot lines (King’s Bounty), and now we see what would have…
If I had to name one developer to be inducted into a Hall of Fame, it would be Relic Entertainment from Canada. One look down the list of their games is a look into the evolution of RTS’s. Homeworld brought controlling units in full 3d, Dawn of War brought in cover and capturing control points and Company of Heroes introduced full cover and intelligent troops. So what does Dawn of War 2 bring to the table as where…
For those that don’t know, Fable 2 is an Action RPG, released exclusively for the Xbox 360 in October 2008. The game is the sequel to the original Fable, which was released in September 2004, on the Xbox, PC and Mac. I’d been looking forward to this game for some time. I played Fable on the PC a few years ago, and thought it was brilliant. It wasn’t perfect though, and despite Peter Molyneux singing its praises, it…
The best things in life are worth waiting for. Fallout fans have been waiting for almost 10 years for a true sequel to Fallout 2, considered by many to be one of the best non-fantasy singleplayer RPG's ever made. Now courtesy of Bethesda, makers of Oblivion Fallout 3 has arrived. Was it worth the wait? Most of the readers of this haven't a clue what Fallout is so I'll explain. The idea of the Fallout universe is…
Treyarch were rather busy last year. In one year they cranked out two, quite competent, FPS’s based on the COD 4 engine. One was the flawed but enjoyable World at War, whilst the other was James Bond’s latest offering Quantum of Solace. Or should it be called Casino Royale? Most of the missions are from Daniel Craig’s first operation. Or maybe even something different. Lets make an example. Do you remember the…
WW2 is a bit overdone by now. So many games playing the same few moments over and over again. By now I think that D-Day has been repeated 50 million times. But Brothers In Arms does something different. It actually has a decent story and a brilliant gameplay. Similarly, the setting and graphics put it aside onto a pile of brilliant games. First is the setting. This time the action is shifted from D-Day to what some…
Lets take a trip back in time to 2004. I had just started high school, and had just had my first birthday party with my new friends from Benton. John, in his wisdom bought me a game that would almost ruin my first year of KS3 education. This game was IL2 Sturmovik. Instead of the American leaning of Combat Flight Sim, IL2 was Russian made and focused entirely on the Russian Front. For once people used to P51s and…
The title is wrong. Its not Left 4 Dead. Its Left 4 MOTHERFUCKING ITS BRILLIANT Dead. Thats how good it is. Zombies and games go together like butter and toast. Its fulfils our desires to shoot something without that person being a human. Left 4 Dead transports us to various modern day apocalypses based around a location. A hospital, a riverside town, an airport or a farm. Just like the classic horror films you have…
Ah GTA. The stalwart if the British childhood. Ones of those things which you bought because you knew your parents wouldn’t want you to. And then showed to all your friends and laughed at the ones who couldn’t buy it because there parents actually gave a damn about what they were doing. I feel into the category of the non-GTA owners, so this is infact the first GTA i have ever owned. And what a GTA to start off…
Well in a time of big releases for the Xbox 360, mine decided to poo itself and die. So the last major game i played was Castle Crashers released on Xbox Live ages ago, back in August during the Summer of Arcade. Castle Crashers is a cartoon beat 'em up from the makers of Alien Hominid (a super hard arcade style game) and Newsgrounds (a website for posting flash vids on). Using the same art style as Alien Hominid,…
Far Cry 2 is one of the best games I've played this year. But ever time you think about giving it ultimate greatness the niggling doubts come and change your mind In Far Cry 2 you play as one of 9 mercs sent to an Unnamed African country to kill an arms dealer called the jackal. U need to work for both the factions and your buddies in order to gain diamonds needed to buy weapons needed to continue fighting the war.…
