30 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.
Nintendo may refuse to bring its games to mobile platforms, but it doesn't seem to oppose bringing the mobile experience to its handhelds. Pokemon Shuffle, now officially launched alongside the New 3DS, brings the worst of mobile games like Candy Crush to Nintendo's handheld. At its core, Pokemon Shuffle is a match-3 Candy Crush clone with a Pokemon blanket thrown on top and a couple of new mechanics. Each level is…
When I was a kid, I was "that kid." You know the one, the kid whose parents bought him M-rated games when others could barely watch violent cartoons. It's not that they didn't care, my parents just refused to believe the then-popular-now-disproven idea that violent games turned kids into serial killers. After all "there's violence on the news everyday." And that's how I came to own Duke Nukem 3D at the ripe old age…
What is it about evil little children that sends chills up your spine and makes you fear the playground near your house at night? Perhaps it is the bastardization of something normally so (outwardly) sweet and innocent that generates the same feeling of fear as when we hear about another Uwe Boll movie coming out. Then again, it could be how emotionless said child acts when bathed in blood and standing over a dead…
Read the full review F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon
I never managed to finish Saints Row 2 on the PC, so when I found out that copies of Saints Row: The Third on the Playstation 3 came with a free copy of Saints Row 2 (and Best Buy had the title on sale for $30), I found myself obligated to pick it up and finish the game. If you still have not picked up Saints Row 2, I recommend doing so on the 360 or Playstation 3, as the PC version has issues with 64-bit operating…
The Geo Mod engine allows for destructible environments. Stories like Red Faction always manage to put me off of the idea of space travel and colonization. Set in the year 2070, you play as Parker, a miner on Mars for the Ultor Corporation. Being so far away from Earth, Mars apparently has no government oversight whatsoever, because its officers make a daily ritual of beating, oppressing, and killing random workers.…
Postal 3 does to the Postal series what Duke Nukem Forever did to Duke Nukem: Managed to take concepts that couldn't realistically be disappointing, and manages to disappoint all the way to the bank. Like a pizza sundae, Postal 3 is a mixture of delicious ingredients thrown together to come out with a sloppy, messy concoction that feels more like a poor community mod of Postal 2's Apocalypse Weekend on the Source…
Ever since the Nintendo 64, Nintendo has shown a desire to have a Mario Kart game on every system, even if it means outsourcing the work to a third party company. Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the Gameboy Advance was developed by Intelligent Systems Co, who you may know best from Paper Mario, Fire Emblem, and Advance Wars. The problem with outsourcing a franchise like Mario Kart is that each new game in the series…
Hail to the king, baby. Duke Nukem is an episode taken right out of a children's television show, where a character becomes famous and eventually ruins their fame by taking what made them famous and running it into the ground through force and artificial means. Duke Nukem Forever is the result of self-recognition of what made the games popular, and forcing it into a meat grinder after around thirteen years of riding…
I broke my new game policy for Elder Scrolls: Skyrim for one reason: Because it is The Elder Scrolls. The only other company I will wait in line at midnight for is Valve, and thanks to Steam and digital distribution all I have to do is wait in line at my computer. In this case, however, I decided to forego my PC fanboyisms and give Skyrim a shot on the Playstation 3. If you never finished Oblivion and don't want the…
Borderlands makes me recognize my own double standards as a curator of MMORPG's, games that have for over a decade thrived on the concept of sword/mace/magic/axe/etc sponges populating worlds and carrying AI just slightly over the intellectual boundaries of "that guy different, me run straight line and smash." Borderlands has you playing as one of four characters (classes) as you take quests, kill monsters, gain…
Gun released in 2005, around the time that everyone worth their salt was scrambling to put together a Grand Theft Auto style game in another setting, a trend that arguably still exists to this day. Gun puts you in the world of the Old West, during the time of outlaws, Indians, gold, Manifest Destiny, and expansion. You play as Colton White, all around do-gooder, who finds himself in the all too familiar position of…
Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl is evidence that a small developer can make a big name for itself with the right product. Launched in 2007, Shadow of Chernobyl lays the tale of a world in which the Chernobyl power plant has exploded a second time, causing a zone to appear in its surrounding areas. Despite a military block, treasure hunters entered the zone in search of whatever was not bolted down, discovering…
Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening is lying to your right off the bat: There is no Zelda in this title. There is also no Hyrule. Link's Awakening DX was recently re-released on the Nintendo 3DS as part of the 25th anniversary of the franchise, and if you weren't around to play the game in its original incarnation, boy is it weird, it's almost a parody of Zelda. Link's Awakening, as mentioned previously, does not take…
Read the full review The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening DX
Raaaaaather...When American McGee released Alice back in 2000, the game caused quite a stir in the gaming community. The game was distinctly Alice in Wonderland, but with a gothic horror theme that managed to take a normally delightfully demented world and pervert it into something twisted and morbid. Alice fought to regain her sanity after the tragic deaths of her parents, eventually defeating the Red Queen and…
Michael Jackson: The Experience started out similar, for me, to Scribblenauts, and we all know how that review went, in that I had such great hope for the premise that I went out and bought the game on day one, only to be horribly disappointed. Especially as a long time fan of the Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan games, and even more so as a fan of Michael Jackson's music. Michael Jackson on the DS incorporates a…
Imagine you live in a game world where important characters can die. Not just the characters you meet in your travels, but your actions could cause your own squad to die. Now imagine that your actions will have an effect over not just the one game, but every game in the trilogy. Thus you have, Mass Effect. All screenshots are taken by myself. Mass Effect is a world that encompasses all we know and love with science…
I want to like this game, but it feels as if everything good about the game was borrowed from the other versions of the same title. If the Lego movie game brand is a family, than Lego Harry Potter on the PSP is the red-headed stepchild that even the Weasleys would keep in the magically secured basement. Lego Harry Potter borrows its cutscenes from the console versions, albeit at a lower resolution. The scenes…
Medal of Honor Heroes is an addition into the long running World War II series that closes loose ends, brings old heroes back to the front lines, and combines old school graphics with newer technology. You won't find any new ground being broken in this game, but fans of the series will find something to enjoy. Medal of Honor Heroes comes from Team Fusion over at EA Canada, the team that brought us PSP ports of games…
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 on the PSP is a prime example of why one should alway survey the environment before jumping in. For example, why the game has 0 reviews on Giantbomb.com, or perhaps why the game was on clearance at Target for $7. On the handheld, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is a game that can be summed up with "this would kick ass if it weren't for..." The game starts with a team of super heroes lead by…
Much like Doom 3 before it, Crysis is one of those games that comes around and would look absolutely beautiful if it weren't for the fact that the majority of our computers could not run at maximum settings at launch. Assuredly, in a few years the graphics of Crysis will be a thing of the past, as we reminisce in our photo-realistic graphics and virtual reality, to the days of bump-mapping and mouse-keyboard setups.…
Let's face it: Aside from the shock value, most horror games and movies have become relatively predictable and, as a result, bland and boring. The F.E.A.R series capitalized on this by taking all the horror elements of The Ring and The Grudge and sticking them into a video game, with a substantially more naked antagonist. Regardless, the regurgitation of the same mechanics (open a door and something pops out, walk…
Red Steel is a series that Ubisoft just can't seem to win on. The original Red Steel launched alongside the Wii to critical reception, due to the buggy nature that associates launch titles, yet the title sold over one million units. On the other hand, when Red Steel 2 launched earlier this year, the title sold around 270,000 copies worldwide, despite praising reviews over the original. In fact, the first thing you…
Goldeneye 007 is not a remake of its Nintendo 64 predecessor, but rather a re-imagining. There are a lot of changes that hardcore fans of the game will not be happy with, although overall I think players will enjoy the new offering by not-007-developer Activision. The first bit of information we need to get out of the way is: How many Bond people are associated with this game? Judi Dench (M) is reprising her role,…
Batman: Arkham Asylum begins with Batman driving a beaten and defeated Joker to Arkham Asylum (yep, you guessed it) after a suspiciously easy defeat back in Gotham City. Batman, accompanies Commissioner Gordon and a number of other guards into the asylum until the escort goes awry and The Joker escapes with the help of Harley Quinn. The island is put under lock down as Batman attempts to figure out one very…
In my original review of Kane and Lynch: Dead Men, I talked about how players should not be entering the story with any hopes of happy anything. Rather, as in stories like Max Payne, moments of tragedy and death are broken up periodically by scenes of running. There were no real "happy" endings in Kane and Lynch, and there is no joy to be had for our anti-heroes in the sequel. I should warn, if you are intending on…
Kane and Lynch portrays one of those stories that tugs at your mind and sanity, as you play through and watch everyone around you die because they became involved with the wrong people, or simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time, but you look back and question exactly what good came of it. The battalion of police officers you mowed down during the course of the game weren't corrupt officers, they were…
Professor Layton and the Curious Village is the first in a five part series of games to come out on the Nintendo DS, mixing brainteasers with a story that twists and turns enough to give you a nosebleed. The series is the product of Akihiro Hino, a man many DS owners will likely recognize as the producer of the recently released (in the states) Dragon Quest IX, a good idea as to the cinematic wonder that awaits you…
Read the full review Professor Layton and the Curious Village
This is your challenge: You just saw a man get struck by lightning while on his way from stealing a priceless treasure. Naturally, he dies. Your task is to contain the corpse and bury him six feet underground, using whatever tools you choose at your disposal. Naturally, you will choose to nuke the entire area, but first spawning yourself a teleporter so that you may travel to the moon with your ill-gotten loot.…
As Ghat, you start out the game in a bit of a pickle. You've just murdered your father-mother, a hermaphroditic creature, and now you're on the run from your multitude of brothers and sisters, all of whom want revenge for the death of their matriarch/patriarch figure. Going along with your companion, Deadra, you'll piece together what the hell just happened, in a series of flashbacks and randomly interrupted…
Brothers in Arms: Double Time is the first, and currently only, Wii version of the Brothers in Arms series. Double TIme takes the games Road to Hill 30 and Earned in Blood, and sticks them on a motion controlled system in a try to emulate war on a more personal level. Brothers in Arms: Double Time takes you through the storyline of the first two BIA games, following Matt Baker and Joe Hartsock, as you meneuver your…
