46 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.
Metro 2033 (the first game in the series) has in my feeling a relatively slow start but picks up and turns into a very enjoyable shooter with varied level design, and gameplay sequences. The style and tone is very well established from the beginning of the game, and the upgrades from the original are very noticeable.
I went into this game with relatively low expectations, but it does a magnificent job of building on what was great about Conviction and making it better in pretty much every way. The fact that both my single player and coop progress help towards my same set of upgrades, the grading of your play style between ghost, panther, and assault. Finally I'm as big a Michael Ironside fan as anyone but the new voice actor for…
I went into this game with relatively low expectations, but it does a magnificent job of building on what was great about Conviction and making it better in pretty much every way. The fact that both my single player and coop progress help towards my same set of upgrades, the grading of your play style between ghost, panther, and assault. Finally I'm as big a Michael Ironside fan as anyone but the new voice actor for…
I just wanted to chime in and recommend this game to anyone still hoping to get some use out of their Wii, or even want a good solid game for their Wii U. The Last Story is a great JRPG. It's fairly linear, but I appreciated that it doesn't get stuck into the typical trappings of some Final Fantasy games where you're forced to spend hours leveling up between missions in order to advance. The game has a nice smooth…
Despite the fact that RAGE isn't throwing a +100 points notification in your face every time you shoot an enemy there is still a lot of game here. The combat missions in the game are for the most part simplistic linear shootouts that are maybe at times a little too reminiscent of Doom 3, but they aren't the only thing RAGE has to offer. The towns in the game offer a variety of mini games, races, and side…
3on3 NHL Arcade is in my mind somewhat underrated, it's a very enjoyable arcade hockey game that's easy to pick up and play, with more depth and strategy than some might realize. There is some negative points however, in order to get a full match with 6 human players you need 3 players locally on each side, and it does not allow for human controlled goalies. There is no support for roster updates, and there is also…
So to get two things out of the way, I am a skateboarder in real life and I do have a long history playing the Tony Hawk series. I really do greatly appreciate what skate. tried to bring to the genre -- a bit more realism and authenticity. But I admittedly just struggled far too much with the controls that in my opinion really asked you to be a little to precise at times for my liking. I found myself really not…
Having not played the original game, I really wasn't sure what to expect from The Darkness II, but after having beaten it I was actually quite impressed and pleasantly surprised with it. The story is relatively straight forward, but engaging enough to keep you motivated through the action to see what happens. The two extra arms you sport feel surprisingly natural to use. Oddly enough though, my favorite part of the…
Admittedly my first 20 minutes with this game were almost a deal breaker, the game's intro attempts to put a humorous spin on war to an almost offensive degree. After starting the first level I also appeared to run into a few bugs with team mates randomly stepping directly in front of me as I fired upon the enemy. Fortunately though I managed to tough through it and really start to enjoy the game. The gameplay is…
I didn't take a huge liking to Ghostbusters when first picking it up, kind of felt like a bit too frantic for my liking in an action game, but as you progress you start to realize some of the subtleties to the game that make it enjoyable. I'd say your enjoyment of this game is still going to be directly tied to how much of a Ghostbusters fan you are. Either way, here are my quick bullet points: All the mechanics…
Turtles in Time Re-Shelled is a pretty basic 3D re-imagining of the original SNES one, and while it didn't translate perfectly you'll get some enjoyment out of running through it for the low price tag. Combat can be confusing at times as your player will shift great distances on the screen when striking and you can often lose track of which turtle you are. It's sometimes difficult to hit in the direction you want,…
Read the full review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time Re-Shelled
I've been a pretty big Socom fan since the originals came out on the PlayStation2 and became my primary online shooter on the system, and recently had a chance to complete Socom 4, here's my quick bullet point thoughts: I was pleasantly surprised by the voice acting performances and story as the game progressed, it's not exactly Shakespeare, but it felt really solid and sincere by the end of it. The squad management…
Some games take me a bit longer to take a liking to, when I first tried Red Dead I just couldn't get a feel for the shooting, never liked how the missions seemed to play out, and didn't like how much time I had to spend on a horse commuting from place to place. Things changed eventually, and I really started to appreciate all the finer points of the game: I don't think I've EVER been so impressed with environment…
Not having played the original Crysis I came in with almost no expectations for this game, and while the first 20 some odd minutes didn't exactly have me sold, I eventually got into the rhythm of the gameplay and started to enjoy it. Generally speaking I feel like you get some of the most unique environments in a first person shooter here, not many games let you fight on skyscrapers, jump between buildings, or…
Admittedly my level of excitement over the Splinter Cell series has dwindled since the first release that seemed to take on a more realistic style than its main counterpart at the time (Metal Gear Solid), which is why I appreciated it so much. I also miss the original Sam Fisher that was meant as more of an aged/retired character coming back to the CIA for one more mission, and in every sequel he just seems to get…
I still remember seeing the first video for Street Fighter IV thinking "I wish us Mortal Kombat fans got treated this way" (while looking at the prospect of the upcoming MKvsDC). But finally this was announced and I was extremely pleased to see the direction they were going with the series (back to its roots so to speak). My first disappointment is primarily with the Story Mode, which is still actually my favorite…
I went into Medal of Honor with high hopes, doesn't help that right off the bat I find out the single player doesn't support the "Legacy" control scheme, which is always an annoyance when playing FPS' on consoles. Fortunately though once you get through some of the early levels Medal of Honor feels like it starts to show it true colors as a very solid military FPS. It's very odd, but the multiplayer feels like a…
From playing Homefront I find myself thinking about how much more interesting it could have been. I actually enjoyed the campaign quite a bit (even despite its short length), but somehow having what I can remember as 100% identical controls and shooting mechanics to Call of Duty makes it feel like more of a copy cat then something unique (fair or unfair). It's a small note, but the controller vibration was done very…
Just doing my typical quick bullet point review: The enemies in the game suck out some of the fun as you're constantly trying to track them as they jump between various parts of the cave ceilings. The destruction of buildings felt right at place in the open worlds of Guerrilla as you took out entire installations, but definitely feels out of place in the really confined cave environments that make up most of this…
Assault on Dark Athena is a pretty good package, giving you the original Escape from Butcher Bay, as well as a new (relatively short) campaign. What I would say is that if you're a hardcore shooter fan, I'd give it a whirl, as they've got some pretty cleverly designed gameplay sequences that you simply will not find in other popular shooters like CoD or Halo. Aside from just a few interesting gameplay sequences,…
Read the full review The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
After having played through Star Wars The Force Unleashed II I can't help but feel like there was some missed potential. On one hand the game has what I consider to be some pretty amazing/impressive graphics, set piece moments, a decent enough story, and force powers that are of course pretty fun to use. The issues are really how it's all tied together with far too much repetition, whether it's defeating the same…
I played Final Fantasy XII (and beat it) just this year in 2010, I had been putting it off for a while, but was extremely glad I finally got the motivation to play through it. For a PlayStation2 game, the graphics are very good, and the game really does have a fantastic visual style. The new combat system is actually a lot of fun, and not being sucked into random battles was definitely a welcome change for the…
To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from Halo Reach, with it being released only a year after ODST (a game that was nice, but was essentially just an expansion without many new gameplay improvements). I have to say though, i've pretty thoroughly enjoyed almost every minute I've played of Halo Reach. The campaign has some really cool levels, and is definitely best played 4 player coop over Xbox Live. Sure the…
As someone who isn't a huge fan of the strategy genre, I was a bit hesitant to go pick up Starcraft II, think it would eventually just be pitched aside after a few days. But I'm of the opinion that this game truly fits perfectly into the "easy to learn, difficult to master" description. Even if you're complete new to strategy games you'll find the core concepts very easy to grasp when starting as Terran, and will…
I by no means found Alan Wake to be a bad game, it's got a fairly unique and interesting story, and some solid gameplay that generally consists of some pretty tense walks through dark forests where you have to use the combination of your flashlight and pistol to take down enemies. The big problem with the game is variety, at one point in the game, you kind of have to defend a spot against zombies, and another you're…
Heavy Rain is by no means a perfect game (if you even want to call it that), but despite its small flaws it's a unique experience and anyone who appreciates strong storytelling in video games should check it out. Quantic Dream's previous game "Indigo Prophecy" set a bit of a precedent for this title with it's heavy use of Quick Time Events, and Heavy Rain improves upon the non traditional gameplay formula in almost…
In all the years I've played video games I don't think I've ever seen a sequel improve upon it's predecessor in such a vast way. As good as the original game was this was simply completely outdoes it in almost every way. First of all I think one of the strongest points to mention is that the game essentially has no filler action. Every sequence of the game feels purposeful and well designed, and you almost never…
I'll be the first to admit this isn't a hit game, the gameplay is showing its age, the graphics don't look particularly "next gen", and level environments are often re-used. But if your a fan of past Tenchu games then there is still some enjoyment to be had here (just hopefully at a discounted price). The game throws a few interesting missions into what is for the most part a grind to get through them all, but there…
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune isn't going to throw anything new at you that you haven't seen in a video game (or a story) before, but the game does have its charms. The gameplay for the most part consists of gun battles and platforming sequences intertwined with each other to keep things interesting. The gun play for the most part is good, the enemies sometimes feel like they can take a bit too much damage and don't…
You really can't go wrong picking up Critter Crunch at its $6.99 price tag on PSN, the game features a nice lengthy adventure mode; and even features offline and online multiplayer. The Adventure mode is played by completing areas on a map, each area typically consists of a few main adventure levels, coupled with a puzzle and challenge game type. While the main game type is easily the most enjoyable, the other two…
Wii sports resort is the follow up to the original game bundled with the Wii at launch. I'm sure everyone remembers playing Tennis for the first time and raving about the Wii before the novelty eventually wore off and we were left clamoring for infrequent good Wii releases mixed in with mounds of "casual gaming" shovelware. Well fortunately this game brings the Wii back to doing what it does best, which is using the…
Wolfenstein on the Xbox360 is a decent game, it's got a fairly lengthy single player, with some enjoyable missions, but is tied together with a somewhat annoying structure. You receive missions in town by speaking with various groups and then heading out, but unfortunately that just means traversing the same parts of the city with re-spawning bad guys between shorter bouts of fun (the missions themselves). The town…
WET is a very stylish action game, with some "interesting" production values. It looks like the creative people were given some free reign to take the kill bill style as far as they wanted, and one could argue they even went a little overboard here. Either way, that's something I can get past, as for the most part the whole art style, and attitude the game has is pretty cool. Where it falls flat though unfortunately…
Halo 3: ODST is a very nice follow up to Halo 3 from a couple years back, offering a slightly new approach to the series, while still keeping in tact what you enjoyed about past Halo games. The game offers up an interesting storyline for the most part told through flashbacks that you'll play through as you uncover hints throughout the city. The campaign is relatively short, but is an absolute blast to play with…
As someone who was a fan of the original dead space, I really wasn't all that excited when I heard the initial announcement that it was making its way to the Wii, but when I heard it would be a "guided experience" (rail shooter) prequel it actually got me kind of excited, I figured it'd be a nice way to get some use out of my Wii, and would provide some nice back story to the main game. After playing through a good…
Chances are if you enjoyed plowing through Doom 3, you're going to enjoy the expansion. Overall the gameplay is still just as simple, and just as fun...but some new interesting gameplay sequences have been plopped in to break up the action a bit. This doesn't exactly fix any of the main problems with Doom 3, so if you were one of the nay sayers of the original then there is really nothing for you here. What the game…
The easiest way to describe Mass Effect, is that it’s like Kotor…on crack. For better or for worse though there are a lot of similarities to Bioware’s two previous games, Kotor and Jade Empire…fortunately though this one for the most part does not disappoint. I definitely had a love/hate relationship with this game through the first half of playing it, going from moments where I felt it was the greatest thing since…
I originally played the PS1 version of this game, which was…for the most part plagued with various problems. It had poor control, mediocre graphics, and some extremely frustrating jumping sequences, and a bunch of glitches which just didn’t make your time playing the game any easier. But when I got my Dreamcast I decided to give the game a chance again, and immediately became hooked. The graphics were significantly…
Read the full review Star Wars: Episode I - Jedi Power Battles
Oddly enough my first experience with the Tony Hawk series was playing the Marseilles demo of the THPS2, which ultimately led to me purchasing the first game. Of course though, the second game in my opinion just completely destroys the first, it included from what I know…more real life skate spots, had twice the number of objectives per level, added the manual, 3 new skaters (including my favorite…Rodney Mullen). On…
It’s only suiting that the very first video game I ever owned makes it in…the first video game I ever played was still the original Mario on the NES…but I missed that train and my first console ended up being the SNES (packaged with Mario Bros.), something my dad bought me when we moved to Winnipeg in 1993. This is really the title that started my obsession with video games. To this day it still holds up and I end…
While the Gamecube version of Metal Gear Solid wasn’t quite as well received as I’m sure the developers hoped, I still consider it to be the better version of the game. The cutscenes were redone, and really aren’t as good as the originals, but having Gamecube quality graphics in 480p, as well as a lot of the Metal Gear Solid 2 gameplay features added into the game…I’d just rather play this version then go back to…
STAR WARS games during the Xbox/PS2/GC era were for the most part very mediocre, and were starting to have a bit of a stigma attached to them. Having been disappointed previously with Obi Wan, Bounty Hunter, Clone Wars, and Racer Revenge I was still slightly skeptical that even Kotor would live up to the hype surrounding it, a great STAR WARS video game was just too good to be true. After picking the game up on…
Final Fantasy VI is and always will be my favorite game. It was the first game to really capture my short attention span for a long time and had me ignoring nearly every other game I owned for months and months. FFVI just had an amazing combination of great story, music, and characers all built upon some of the nicest visuals ever to grace the Super Nintendo. Square somehow managed to have far more characters then…
I find most vehicle based games end up suffering from the same problems, the mission design doesn’t end up having enough variety and the game becomes very stale after a short period of time. Well, that wasn’t the case with Ace Combat 04, which offered the best mission variety of any vehicle based game in existence. I’m sure many of you understand the concept of a tightly shot movie, where every scene seems to have a…
After a long and arduous release I finally got to sit down and play Star Trek Legacy. For the most part it’s a very competent enjoyable game with a large number of small faults that add up and to some degree ruin what could have been a much better game. The gameplay in Star Trek Legacy is nicely paced, it isn’t as fast as games like Ace Combat, but it doesn’t have the slow methodical pace of a typical strategy game…
In September 2002 Epic and Digital Extremes released Unreal Championship, which similarly to Unreal Tournament on the PlayStation2 was more or less a port of the PC version. This time around Epic has opted to create something just for consoles. Instead of being another run and gun shooter like its predecessors this latest installment in the Unreal series has added in some surprising new features, namely the third…
Read the full review Unreal Championship 2: The Liandri Conflict
