174 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.
I suppose I am lucky that I didn't play the original two, but I was in the mood for a hack and slash loot fest, so Dungeon Siege III looked like a good option. And it is not a bad game. It's a bit short (10 hours and I apparently missed one sidequest) but it does hack and slash well enough. It certainly isn't Diablo, but it is probably the best example of this genre I've played on a console, including Torchlight. I…
I'm not a long-term fan of Rayman. Rayman 2 was an OK game. The Rabbids were amusing, but didn't lead themselves to great games. So, I was trying Rayman Origins without huge expectations. I was FLOORED. Rayman Origins might be the best platformer of the last few years not named Mario and is up there in the running for Multiplatform Game of the year. There is nothing I can fault the game for. It is a game that is not…
It's not been a kind console generation for our friends at Silicon Knights. After some pretty well regarded efforts on the Gamecube, they came into this generation with some momentum. Tragically, the momentum is dead and Silicon Knights is morphing into one of those companies whose output becomes a huge concern before you play the game. Too Human wasn't openly terrible, just brutally sub-par in almost every single…
I've been really tolerant of Madden games for a long while. However, I think even I am about to join the naysayers. Madden is not quite Tony Hawk, but at this point, the changes are so minimal that I do not get the point of it coming out every year any longer. I hear, every season, that these changes in AI will make it a different type of game. I haven't noticed it. They make last year's money plays a little less…
Rockstar, who has become the most consistently amazing game developer out there, brought out the much-troubled L.A Noire at last. And, yet again, they make a game radically different than their usual fare. True, it is open world --- but this game has nothing in common with Grand Theft Auto. Doesn't have anything really in common with Bully. Obviously, drastically different than Table Tennis and Max Payne. That they…
Another year, another NCAA football title. Now, admittedly, it would be hard for EA to make me hate a college football game, but this game actually was somewhat less enjoyable than last season. I've played all of the titles thus far and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Even though they tend to use an updated version of the prior Madden engine, the atmosphere of college football is second to none and even coming close…
I actually like Q Entertainment's games. Rez was great. E4 was phenomenal. And Child of Eden is great. It's just that all of their games are so short with so little in them. CoE has you trying to save Lumi (first person born in space) in Eden (the internet) as you try to eliminate viruses that are attacking her. It is a gorgeous title with visuals that are second to none, a lead NPC that you can actually feel a…
Suda 51, for me, has been the most over-rated producer out there. Killer 7 was an abjectly abysmal game with horrific gameplay but odd visuals. No More Heroes were substantially better games, but they were relentlessly redundant. They did get better (the sequel was way more playable than the original), but they weren't terribly awesome games. So, I had a bit of concern when I decided to give this game a chance.…
I'll avoid the usual list of things that have happened since Duke Nukem Forever was announced (OK, just for giggles, I'll remind people that President Clinton got impeached since the game was announced, to give an idea how long this has been in developmental hell). Gearbox decided to pick up the pieces from whatever the heck 3D Realms was doing besides releasing games or finishing this…
I've been a fan of the Red Faction series from the get-go. I loved Red Faction I and Red Faction II...OK, it didn't crash a lot nor kill my PS2. Red Faction Guerilla was one of the sleeper hits of 2009. Red Faction Armageddon is a follow up to that earlier phenomenal title and, as long as you have the proper expectations from the get-go, will be a very fulfilling experience. First off, Armageddon is NOT Guerilla. Do…
This is the best movie tie-in game in a few years. This is also damning with faint praise. When your competition consists of a terrible Harry Potter shooter by EA, Sega's assorted crimes against Marvel movies, Battle: Los Angeles, etc, being the best is not exactly an accomplishment of the highest order. And that it is a DC game always leaves me concerned (thinking of all Superman games, Batman games outside of…
Crytek is back trying to match the success of their graphics show horse-cum-game, Crysis. This time, the game can actually be played on systems available right now and not ones that are just coming on to the market...several years after launch. They have simplified the engine a bit, but it still has large vistas and many ways to attack your foes. It just has one minor problem. For most of the game...it just isn't…
Ah, the first Lego game based on a property I just don't give a crap about. I'm barely aware of the existence of the cartoon and that isn't going to change unless somebody presents me a reason to give a shit. But Traveller's Tales' Lego titles have been a lot of fun and they seem to really be starting to diversify the game style. LSWIII:TCW actually is one of the more dramatic changes from the usual Lego game. They…
One of the more eagerly anticipated titles of 2011 is out. The minds behind the outstanding Painkiller series paired up with Epic as part of EA Partners to put out a new style of FPS. Gone are the days of precise aiming for head shots...and welcome Bulletstorm. Yes, there is a Gears of War 3 online beta but I didn't care about it before I played it and I don't care about it now. And this is from a guy who really…
Imagine if WWE and The Bigs franchise were combined. Now, stop imagining because WWE All Stars is that game. Created by the folks behind TNA Impact, All Stars is a major change of pace for wrestling titles, trading the sim aspects (yes, sim aspects for a worked "sport") of SD v RAW for a more arcade-y approach. They may have been aiming for the old AKI system, but they seem to lack the depth of that engine. Instead,…
de Blob 2I legitimately loved the original de Blob game. Sure, it had a definite "Tech demo" vibe for it...but, man, I thought the game was a lot of fun with a few issues here and there. When a sequel was announced, I was pretty darned excited. When they announced it was multi-platform, I was ecstatic. I was looking forward to seeing what the developer could pull off with the first one under its belt. The storyline…
Activision's latest attempt to kill a game (who can get the logic behind that nonsense?) is from Raven, the group behind the awesome Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1 game and the really good X-Men Legends games. And it involves time manipulation, which is one of my all-time favorite game mechanics (heck, I LOVED Timeshift, and nobody else can really make that claim). So, why did Activision try and kill this game? It's…
The first two MvC titles were enjoyable but insanely fast-paced. In many ways, it became incredibly frustrating. It was too many characters, too much random action, and too much speed. The third game, however, seems to really fix up the problems. MvC3 is a still-really-quick fighting game, but one that a less-than-gifted fighting game player such as myself can figure out enough to work, but that the most skilled…
Read the full review Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds
One of EA's biggest IP's in several years is back....but the founder of the studio that made it is not, opting to go make Call of Duty games for Activision (a move he will likely regret, based on history). Does this loss doom a promising franchise? As of now, Dead Space 2 does "survival horror" better than long-term dominator of the genre, Resident Evil, does. Dead Space, more than anything else, presents an…
I have thought the The Sims franchise was just like life...except a bit more boring and you seem to poop and pee a lot more often and at really inopportune times. Therefore, I didn't much like the series. I tried the original briefly and, well, hated it. I tried the sequel for a little more time...and didn't love it, either. I have no idea what drove me to try the 3rd in the series...but I actually rather enjoy it.…
EA, which apparently turned down the UFC license years ago, has crafted their own MMA title based, primarily, on the Strikeforce group. With UFC firmly in a position of dominance in real life and in the video game world, can EA's upstart new franchise provide an alternative? Well, yes. Yes it can. The biggest plus MMA has is that it controls significantly differently than the UFC titles. While UFC relied on precise…
The swan song of Bizarre is a really depressing thing. One of my favorite developers and the minds behind a series of outstanding racing titles (including The Club, which was way more of a driving game than a shooting game) and the best dual stick shooters on the market, Bizarre is not a developer that should've ever died. But Activision is singularly talented in sucking the talent out of companies and killing them…
The blood-soaked orgy that was this 16-bit series is given a much-surprising rebirth in this generation. A game that that is more infamous than fondly remembered is not the usual target for such relaunchings of series (do you see people falling over themselves to remake Carmageddon or Postal?), but perhaps the nearly 20 years since the series was remotely relevant to now can help people ignore some of the flaws the…
Fresh off the Wii, EA is bringing NBA Jam to the two upper end consoles. So, after a long hiatus, does this arcade basketball game satisfy your arcade hoops boner? Truth be known...no. The game was initially planned as an XBLA release to go along with the retail release of NBA Elite. When Elite got cancelled, they decided to switch it up and make this a full retail product. The main problem, though, is that they…
Multiplayer is brought to a game that seems really not well-suited to it. How well does it fare? First off, this game is a direct sequel to Assassin's Creed II. Literally, a total direct sequel. If you didn't play AC II, you likely will not really get this story at all. The Borgia family (who, historically, basically owned the papacy for a long time) has basically come back and almost wiped out the Auditore family…
Call of Duty: Black Ops What if every single story about secret happenings in the Cold War were true...and you actually did them yourself? You play Alex Mason, preternatural badass as you traipse all over the hot spots of the Cold War, from Cuba to a Soviet prison camp all the way to Vietnam. Which makes this the first good game involving Vietnam in history, which is nice. It's really difficult to discuss any…
After an uneven first title, SW: TFUII takes another swing at physics-heavy Jedi gameplay. Starkiller --- who, mind you, died in the original affair --- returns to exact revenge on his former master Vader. Now, let's go ahead and say that the story has problems. Yes, you died last game. Except, you have been CLONED. Yes, Lucas' lame storyline premise controlling the prequels is done to make the "good" ending in the…
Yeah, not exactly a new game, but as a fan of Pandemic's work before their demise, I felt I had to complete the game. And it was, completely, a Pandemic game. High level of aspiration with some bugs, but an overall excellent gameplay experience. The setting is the high point of the game. I can't think of other games set in World War II that took place in occupied France. Dealing with Nazis in a location that hasn't…
THQ and Yuke's is back, yet again, with their annual installment of SD v RAW, a series I have enjoyed less on an annual basis. THQ is constantly changing their engine (a lot more than a lot of critics want to give them credit for), but it seems that they are making oddly BAD choices in their changes. They have managed to eliminate one of the major annoyances of the franchise, but left other ones that are BIGGER…
Off the heels of one of my favorite games this console generation, Obsidian is holding court with Fallout New Vegas. Obsidian is an interesting company. They are basically remnants of Black Isle and have traditionally been asked to make sequels of beloved RPG titles. Its worked out well once (Neverwinter Nights 2) and less good in others (KOTOR 2). They are now taking a stab at Fallout after a less-than-stellar…
2K's venerable hoops title is back for another go and basically has the market all to itself with EA's announced delay for Elite. Having the gameplay formula down pretty well, it's up to 2K to improve other features enough to justify its existence. And, in some ways, they pulled it off nicely. One of the two main non-franchise mode modes is the Jordan challenge where you have to match or exceed his performance in…
OK, I will admit --- I was hardly fond of the first Dead Rising. I will say it is probably the single most bizarrely critically acclaimed 360 game to date. It had a wealth of abysmal game mechanics, an atrocious save system, and seemed to be based largely around the single most irritating gameplay mechanic in gaming over the last decade. It was a paean to escort missions, which is just a pain in the butt in the most…
Bungie's stewardship over their rather profitable Halo series comes to a close with Halo Reach, probably the pinnacle of this series. The storyline is abject crap (space marines repel the Covenant from Reach) and almost seems to contradict the mythos (Reach, if memory serves, went so poorly it got them to wake Master Chief up to fight the Covenant and the UNSC was basically routed and abandoned the planet). So, this…
The 2010 holiday game schedule opens up this year with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. Activision and developer Beenox decide to go back to the drawing board and rather radically alter how Spider-Man games are made. Here, we have 4 alternate Marvel Universes collide together as you control Amazing, Ultimate, 2099, and Noir versions of Spider-Man. I had barely heard of the 2099 universe and never heard of Noir, so…
Mafia II is the somewhat awaited sequel to the enjoyable, but flawed, Mafia. You are, as expected by the title, a member of the Mafia. You start off serving in Italy during WW II (ya know, the Italian front is basically ignored in gaming. Sure, the Italian military was a pathetic joke, but still, lot of ugly fighting there. Bob Dole had his hand mangled there). You come back home and try to make something of…
Crackdown has been one of my favorite games this generation. I was so up for it I had it pre-purchased before the Halo 3 beta was announced. It was pure, stupid fun and the idea of an open world game with superhuman powers seemed like the ultimate no-brainer. It seemed to be a brief blast of fun as MS seemed to have no desire to sequelize it and Realtime Worlds went on to make the rather-poor APB. Then, it turned…
The original Kane and Lynch was a game with a great deal of promise that just could never get it together. The characters are amongst the most unlikeable in gaming (people mention the socoipathic tendencies in Rockstar protagonists or the whininess of Square protagonists...nobody does characters you dislike quite like K & L) and it makes any connection to them nearly impossible. There was potential there, especially…
The original Just Cause was a fun romp with a huge problem that had the flaw of being barren. Your world was epic, but there wasn't a heck of a lot to do. Avalanche has rectified the problem many times over with the sequel. In fact, few games have worlds as packed as this. There are 360 something places to find and grab upgrades and destroy government property. There are 49 missions for 3 factions. Dozens of…
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian Let's get it out of the way...this is a game for Achievement whores only. It is extremely short, unbelievably easy, and edged out only by Avatar: The Last Airbender as the easiest 1000 point game in existence. You play Not Even Close To Ben Stiller, who is loosely based on Ben's poorly performed starring role in the movies which were way more enjoyable than they had any…
Read the full review Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
Originally scheduled to be released by money-heavy but talent-lacking developer Brash Entertainment (creators of such gems as the games Jumper and Space Chimps), Saw seemed to be DOA when the developer finally died under the weight of their suck. Konami, however, stepped in and released the game. And the game actually does the movie series some justice. It is a gory affair, with some rather unpleasant deaths...but…
Obsidian takes their crack at a game genre that has been amazingly underrepresented: spy-based RPG. After a somewhat elongated development cycle, Alpha Protocol has been launched. In this title, you are Michael Thornton, a blank slate you can develop into almost any type of character you desire. You can be a debonair ladies man...or an arrogant prick. You can be as sneaky as a ninja...or run into rooms, guns…
Disney has quietly worked to revamp their gaming division, ending their practice of outsourcing game development to THQ and, instead, hiring gifted developers like Warren Specter to build up an excellent studio. One of their first, if not their first, movie tie-ins is for the newly released Toy Story 3. And the game has a weak story mode...but a borderline inspired sandbox (well, toy box) mode. It doesn't seem to…
Out in close proximity to Blur, Split Second was the OTHER hot racing game released in the 2nd quarter of the year. The gimmick in Split Second is that you are on a TV show where you have to race through a few tracks and do battle with your opponents...except you cannot directly attack them. What you CAN do, however, is have the track itself attack your opponents. Construction equipment flies out of control. Parts…
DICE's console-centric Bad Company makes its return in the aptly titled Bad Company 2. EA has quietly built the best collection of FPS developers in the business. They have DICE, Criterion (who are still, allegedly, going to make a Black sequel), Respawn (the former Infinity Ward guys), and the upcoming Epic/People Can Fly gem Bulletstorm all under their banner at present. It's a Murderer's Row of gaming that has…
Blur is the latest release from one of the premier racing developers on the market, Bizarre. Their takes on racing, from the more traditional PGR series to the shooter-that-is-actually-a- Yes, Blur is, overall, a kart racer. Yes, it uses actual carrs, but the gameplay itself is pure kart racer. You have your power ups and a bit of rubber banding AI to keep the races close. You have opponents who will hold their…
Metro 2033 is based on a Russian novel dealing with life in post-apocalyptic Moscow, brought to you by members of the team that gave us S.T.A.L.K.E.R. And while the game has the same bleak atmosphere of their original major release, it avoids the major technical bugs it had. In Metro 2033, after the apocalypse, Russians live in the underground metro stations as the surface is totally irradiated and impossible to…
Alan Wake is the LONG awaited title from Remedy, who previously took forever releasing Max Payne last gen. Sadly, they've already started releasing DLC, so planned jokes about new episodes hitting in 2013 have been thwarted. The story is fairly complex. I could spoil it here if you would like, but I would advise against it. But I will say that even spelling out the story, it doesn't make a ton of logical…
The follow up for the excellent original title has been launched. Will the series fall into the usual sports annual release malaise of small, incremental changes being hyped up as being huge to justify a retail price? Fortunately, this is a new franchise (these seem to have little in common with the last gen UFC titles), so they have enough room to grow for a year or two. In this case, they've introduced a wealth of…
