92 public written 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.
You probably haven't heard much about World of Goo yet, and that is kind of a shame. It is easily one of the greatest puzzle games of all time, and the best 2D game to come out in this current hardware era. If you passed up this gem back in 2008, by all means, play it immediately. The best puzzle games of all time, (e.g. Lemmings, Lode Runner, etc) all have a few things in common. They start off relatively easy by…
With the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 pushing technology more and more each year, observers and both lamented and praised the Wii for eschewing the technology race and focusing instead on value and gameplay. A lot of Wii games, unfortunately, have failed to live up to the promise of delivering great gameplay to make up for the Gamecube graphics. Super Mario Galaxy is one shining example to the contrary. It won't be…
Dead Space was EA's entry into the survival horror genre and their return to the decidedly "M" rated game, after a long hiatus since System Shock 2 and Clive Barker's Undying. It is a game that takes few risks, opting mostly to lift its design and storytelling from other games such as Doom 3, System Shock 2, and Resident Evil 4. There are worse games to emulate, and to its credit, Dead Space is a highly polished…
I think that there are two crowds who will play The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. There are longtime Zelda and Nintendo fans who will gleefully greet another faithful entry to the series with full accolades. Then, there are players like me who are skipped most or all of the previous Zelda games and are eager to see what the fuss is about. As someone who fits firmly into the latter category, I decided I had to…
Before this game came out, Rockstar was one of the few developers that PC aficionados could always trust to provide the best possible content. Manhunt and the previous Grand Theft Auto games always put their best foot forward when it came to the PC version. In return for an extra six months of patience, you could play a game with better graphics and better controls. Sadly, that glorious trend has come to an end.…
Light-hearted humor, charming characters, and wacky weapons have made the Ratchet and Clank series a solid fixture of the Playstation platform. The first entry of the series onto the Playstation 3 is a resounding success. It keeps the formula intact while updating the presentation to take advantage of the advanced technology. Add stunning visuals and great physics to an already successful formula, and you have a…
Read the full review Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
If anyone tells you that video games aren't a valid medium for social commentary, then you might want to steer that person towards Sam and Max: Season One. On top of being a fun and competent adventure game, Sam and Max is one of the funniest games ever made. It also stands out as the only successful implementation of episodic gaming. Anyone with an interest in adventure games will enjoy it, and even if you aren't…
It doesn't take very long to see that Okami is unlike any game that you have ever played. The game oozes eccentricity and surrealism from the moment that you begin watching the opening cutscene. Soon thereafter, you find yourself exploring a bright and colorful cel-shaded world and restoring beautiful vegetation to the countryside by using a celestial paintbrush. It is only a few minutes into the game that you…
I am a huge fan of the first "Condemned". It was one of the scariest games in years and it had a very interesting story to go along with its intense, brain-bashing first person melee combat. "Condemned 2" tries to address some of the faults with the first game by adding a lot more variety to the combat while upgrading the forensics aspects of the game. They are noble attempts, but Condemned 2 ultimately fails. The…
Peggle is one of the finer casual games to show up in a long time. If you liked it, and you are tired of playing those levels, then Peggle Nights is exactly what you are looking for. It has a ton of new levels, one new green peg power-up, and some other minor additions to the gameplay that extend the life of the game. This package is a great grab for only ten bucks. Even if you skipped the first game, you might want…
If you are a Giantbomb reader and you are reading this review, then chances are, you aren't what could be termed a "casual gamer". You know the "casual gamers" -- they are the housewives playing Tetris and the frat boys who occasionally play Madden with their buddies. If you do not fall into one of these categories, however, you still may enjoy Peggle. It is the ultimate in casual, mindless entertainment. It is very…
There is nothing in "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" that you haven't seen before and in most cases, done better in other games. However, the combination of gorgeous graphics, great pacing, and solid gameplay make it a very fun action-adventure game. That is, up until you reach the absolutely terrible ending, which comes close to spoiling the entire show and leaves a bad taste in your mouth in the process. Uncharted…
As a PS3 owner, you are probably looking for as many games as possible that itilize the power of your new machine. As one of the most visually impressive console games ever made, Heavenly Sword fits that bill. It is beautiful both technically and artistically, and the stunning visuals are backed by non-stop action and solid hack-and-slash gameplay. This is an easy game to recommend, but more as a rental than a…
The standards for first person shooters are incredibly high nowadays. The genre has had many outstanding entries in the past seven years. Games like F.E.A.R., Rainbow Six: Vegas, Crysis, Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 4, and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. have advanced first person shooters with breakthroughs in AI, physics, tactical firefights, and level design. As a result, games that would have been great five years ago have become…
If you have played Rainbow Six: Vegas, then you have played Rainbow Six: Vegas 2., because this game is almost indistinguishable from its predecessor. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since the first game is easily the best implementation of tactical, cover-based shooting in the past few years. The short length and the sense of familiarity might be a turn-off, but if you enjoyed Rainbow Six: Vegas, you should…
Planescape: Torment was a hallmark achievement in role playing games, and if you never played it, you should go back right now and experience that masterpiece. The talent behind that RPG now populates Obsidian Studios. Some of their talents showed up on the fringes of Neverwinter Nights 2 and the thoroughly underwhelming Knights of the Old Republic 2, but those games just weren't as good. Enter Mask of the Betrayer,…
Read the full review Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
It is very hard to describe what makes Braid a great game. It is not enough to just say that it is a great puzzle game that involves a lot of time manipulation mechanics, because it is more unique than that. It is also not enough to say that it is an example of "games as art", because that makes it sound pretentious (which, to be honest, it is in places). The best description for Braid might be that it is a very…
No matter how much you like or dislike Bethesda's games, one thing that you can't say about them is that they don't try. Their huge, open-ended role-playing games are incredibly ambitious affairs that offer mind-boggling amounts of content along with gorgeous visuals. Fallout 3 is no exception to the rule. It is perhaps the most ambitious Bethesda game to date. It incorporates the major elements of other Bethesda…
I am a huge fan of the original Punch Out for the arcade. It was the first truly great boxing game and one of the finest arcade games ever made. It was with great enthusiasm, therefore, that I anticipated the release of this latest version for the Wii. I rented the game on a Friday, and I was done with it by about Saturday afternoon, having gotten everything that I wanted to get out of it. It is a quality piece of…
Nowadays, it is very hard for a first person shooter to separate itself from the pack. There have been so many advancements and refinements to the genre in the last five years that it's next to impossible to find a game that does something extraordinary to distinguish itself. As a consequence, you can find a lot of games that are decent and sort of fun, but not memorable or worth playing more than once. Killzone 2…
At first glance, Risen doesn't appear very impressive. In the first five minutes, you might get the impression that it is just another typical 3rd person action/RPG that starts you off with just a few gold coins and a rusty sword. On the surface, the game is wholly derivative. After playing it for a while though, it reveals itself as something quite different. It benefits from a focus on design and attention to…
"Casual fans need not apply". This is a sticker that would be appropriate on the box of "King's Bounty: The Legend", a remake of the classic strategy game from the early 90s. It is a solid remake that should appeal to hungry turn-based strategy fans. It is clearly aimed at the hardcore strategy crowd, which is both good and bad. Good, because it has the addictive and complex turn-based gameplay that makes these…
It isn't easy for me to heavily criticize a game like Cryostasis. It is a classic "underdog", a PC-only niche game that comes out of Eastern Europe. I wish that I could say that I enjoyed this game, but I can't. It makes a great first impression, but then it gets boring and repetitive. The one or two interesting mechanics that look promising at first get old before the game is halfway finished. The atmosphere is…
Monolith released some memorable titles back during the Golden Era of PC Gaming. Games like No One Lives Forever, NOLF 2, Alien vs. Predator, and F.E.A.R. established Monolith is one of the pillars of the FPS genre. Lately though, their products have been underwhelming. "Condemned 2" was a disappointing sequel, and "F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin continues the trend. It is a competent but forgettable effort from a once…
Have you ever wanted to be a superhero battling mutated bad guys in the street by shooting lightning bolts out of your hand and blowing up every vehicle on the block? If so, then you will quickly fall in love with Infamous, and even if this thought has never crossed your mind, you will probably love it anyways. Infamous is one of those games that everyone who owns a Playstation 3 should play, and it is the closest…
"Guided" shooters found a little niche on the Wii. Start with a well-known series like Resident Evil or Dead Space, take movement and camera control out of the player's hands, and take advantage of Wii motion controls to create a "point-and-shoot" game. There have been a couple of very successful games to implement this formula. Specifically, "Link's Crossbow Training" and "Dead Space: Extraction" have brought a new…
Dead Space: Extraction is an excellent translation of the Dead Space formula onto the Wii. The tense, noisy, bloody combat, and survival horror adventure gameplay have survived intact. The developers (Visceral) did a great job of figuring out what makes Dead Space special and unique. At the same time, they figured out what parts of the formula would work and wouldn't work on the Wii, and they designed the experience…
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is a very easy game to recommend. It takes few chances and it doesn't break a lot of new ground, but it packs a huge punch where it counts. It has its flaws, but none of them detract enough from the gameplay to make a difference. There are so many spectacular firefights and action sequences that it would be next to impossible to not enjoy this game. Add to that some excellent production…
Debate about the polarizing "Heavy Rain" often focuses upon whether a game composed largely of quick time events can even be considered a game. Reviewers are so busy either defending or condemning the game's mechanics that few people have had a chance to point out the game's biggest problem – mediocre story and writing. An adventure game like Heavy Rain ultimately flies as high as its fiction. In this case, it's –…
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Shadow of Chernobyl is one of the most criminally underappreciated games of all time. After years in development, it delivered an excellent FPS/RPG experience like no other. It was a great mixture of exploration, horror, and first person shooting delivered with a creepy, gritty, atmosphere and a misanthropic attitude. Still, its bugginess and rough edges left some room for improvement. Call of…
Some follow-ups to great games are also great, and some of them are pretty bad. Success or failure often hinges upon whether the developers understand and appreciate what made the original game great, and where it needed to improve. When they do, it results in excellent games like Half-Life 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat. When they don't, it results in fiascos like Deus Ex: Invisible War. Invisible War is the…
Once you play Batman: Arkham Asylum, you will wonder why it took this long to get a great Batman game. Arkham Asylum forever destroys any excuses that bad Batman games may have made. This excellent experience has everything going for it – awesome presentation, great gameplay, and the sense that you are the brilliant badass depicted in the comics and the recent Christopher Nolan movies. Even if you don't care about…
I absolutely love the first PixelJunk Shooter. It was an excellent blend of lighthearted shoot-em-up with great music, great puzzles, and an entertaining atmosphere. This sequel is a lot less fun. The new gameplay elements aren't a lot of fun, and that is for one reason, in particular – the game's brutal, punishing, and often unfair difficulty level. This wouldn't be so bad, were it not for another inexcusably bad…
Mass Effect: Galaxy does what it should do. It fills in a little bit of back story for two main characters in Mass Effect 2 with a good short-lived time waster. This game won't blow you away with its gameplay and you probably won't want to go through it more than once. It is a solid companion to the Mass Effect series though. What else did you expect for two or three bucks? In Mass Effect: Galaxy, you play as Jacob,…
Read the full review Good short-live time waster, priced appropriately
Right after Braid, people started looking for "the next Braid". Not having played the majority of indy games out there on Steam or Playstation network, I can't say whether or not that game has been found. I can tell you one thing, however. Despite what you have been told, Limbo is most definitely not it. It is an indy, artsy game with lots of puzzles. That's where the similarities end. The game is a mediocre…
Darksiders is generally described as being "derivative, but good". This isn't inaccurate, but it doesn't really do the game justice. Darksiders has a lot going for it. The combination of God of War style combat, character progression, and puzzle-based adventuring give the game a unique feel when you factor them all in. It borrows a lot from other games, but not enough to be a clone of anything else, and it typically…
The first Assassins' Creed was one of the most ambitious games ever made. The combination of unique settings, open-world exploration, cutting edge technology, and stealth/action gameplay made for an experience that was mind-blowing, at times. At the same time, the game was so rife with copy-and-paste design that, at times, it felt like a glorified tech demo with some elements tacked on so that it could be called a…
Sales numbers aside, it is my opinion that the Wii has been a disastrously bad console. It has given us an endless supply of garbage, with a handful of good or great games that fit into one of two categories: 1. Wonderfully designed games like Super Mario Galaxy that succeed in spite of motion controls and the Wii's crappy technology, and that would have been better on another console. 2. Wii Sports In some…
I wish that we could go back in time and see how the Wii would have turned out if it had more horsepower and if it had started with Motion Plus. It could have been a much better console. Instead, the combination of badly outdated technology and poor controls turned the Wii into little more than a Gamecube with a gimmicky peripheral. Wii Sports Resort and the Motion Plus came out too late in the life cycle for this…
With games becoming more and more focused on action and accessibility, games like King's Bounty: Armored Princess are increasingly becoming a relic of the past. This is a huge shame, because this is an incredibly fun genre when a game as done right, and this one is the best game that this genre has ever seen. There is variety, depth, challenge – everything that you hope for in a game like this. In addition, Armored…
Mass Effect 2 was a game that I very much anticipated playing. The first Mass Effect had such great potential, but it was stymied by horrible combat. Its problems were fixable though, and that is why I was eager to see how this game turned out. To my pleasant surprise, Bioware did a good job of addressing the big problems from Mass Effect. Unfortunately though, they also addressed some nonexistent problems, losing a…
Trine is one of the more interesting applications of physics in gaming to date. With some exceptions, realistic physics has been a mostly cosmetic feature of action-oriented games up until now. Games like Skyrim and Crisis have tons of realistically modeled objects and environments, but the game wouldn't be fundamentally changed without them. In a few cases, such as Half-Life 2, physics has also allowed you to use…
I was somewhat disappointed last year when Infamous 2 came out and was widely met with lukewarm reviews. The first Infamous is my second favorite game on the PS3, and I was very eager to see what would happen next with the story in Infamous 2. The first game had some flaws which were fixable for a sequel. When I heard that the second game wasn't as good as the first, I put off playing it. That was a mistake, because…
Alan Wake is one of the most unique AAA titles to arrive on the PC in some time. Unlike most big budget games nowadays, it was clearly made without the usual interference from the twits in the Marketing Department. You know these people – they are the airheads who make sure that every game has regenerating health, two weapons, a cover system, and tons of brown and gray. When making Alan Wake, Remedy designed a…
