113 public reviews
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Shattered Dimensions. Edge of Time. The Amazing Spider-Man. And now The Amazing Spider-Man 2. These are the games developed by Beenox since they became the go-to Spidey guys. None of them were truly great games, but at least the first two they got to stretch their legs a little creatively and do things you hadn't seen in a Spider-Man game before what with them capitalizing on the Spider-Men of multiple Spider-Man…
The Rad Captures the look of the show perfectly. Easy to grasp combat mechanics. Hilarity! If you like South Park. The Bad A fair bit shorter than your average RPG. Censorship is a little bit of a bummer. I couldn’t give you a concise reason as to why, but in general I’m not that big on JRPGs. So when it turned out they were turning South Park into one I was weary. But coming out of it now I gotta say this is…
The Rad Impressive amount of zombies. Tonnes of weapons and vehicles to maim said zombies with. Maintains series penchant for ridiculousness. The Bad It’s a bit too easy. That being said human enemies still take too long to kill. When it was revealed there was a fair amount of outcry over how grim and serious a tone the series was presenting but I can assure you this is still the same ol’ Dead Rising you know and…
The Rad Visually stunning. Solid combat mechanics. The Bad More linear than you might hope. So I got my Xbox One and Ryse was the first game I got going. I can’t say it held as much interest to me as say, Dead Rising 3, but of all the launch games this is the one that people say LOOKS next-gen. And boy does it. The visual fidelity is just mind boggling, there are times you’d swear you were looking at prerendered cut…
The Rad Well told story. Lots of stuff to do. Looks great, sounds great. The Bad Isn’t as funny as it probably thinks it is. Mission waypoint issues. I’ve gotta admit, I wasn’t particularly sure about it. I mean I liked GTA IV but it wasn’t without issues. And I feel like Saints Row was scratching the open world, crime game itch just fine, at least until it went delightfully insane and became something else…
The Rad Oozes style. OOZES. Solid combat mechanics. Boss fights are pretty rad. The Bad Mostly nonsense plot. Aggressively bad camera angles. If I see Suda 51s name on anything I have a few expectations. I expect it to be a bit rough around the edges. I expect it to be more style than substance. But I expect to like the style so much that I forgive its shortcomings. And like prior Grasshopper Manufacture games the…
The Rad Cool retro visuals. Rad, smooth jazz soundtrack Challenging puzzles. Funny writing The Bad Uhm…. Uhhh…. It’s a little short, I guess? Gunpoint is a stealth puzzler that puts you in the high-tech trenchcoat of a spy tasked with infiltrating various buildings and stealing various files in a wittily written, noir-esque tale. I like stealth games! I totally SUCK at puzzle games. And Gunpoint is probably more the…
The Rad Turn based combat ala XCOM. Can’t get enough. Very story driven and for the most part it’s well written. Old School look and feel. Love the setting. Rad soundtrack! The Bad Only checkpoints. No hard saves. A little on the short side. I’m sadly rather inexperienced in the Shadowrun universe. It’s quite a pity seeing as though it’s a fusion of my two favorite genres - Cyberpunk and Fantasy. I’ve never been…
The Rad Does a pretty good job at capturing Deadpools brand of humor. Serviceable melee combat. The Bad Gunplay not so fun. Game looks a bit like ass. Significant frame rate issues on the 360. I didn’t come into this thing expecting a game of the year candidate and we certainly aren’t getting one from it. I expected a lot of dumb-ass humor and serviceable gameplay and for the most part you get that. Except when you…
The Rad Top notch story with strong characters in an impressively fleshed out world. Brutal stealth combat with crafting mechanics that feed into it nicely. Interesting multiplayer that doesn’t feel totally tacked on. The Bad Not one to spoil anything, but seeing how strong everything else was I felt the ending was a little bit weak. It’s a good thing I don’t really cover story in these reviews because this is one I…
The Rad Has a cool premise. Nilin is a pretty likable protagonist. Cool art design. The Bad Combat isn't a lot of fun. There's a lot of combat for how little fun it is. Camera is fairly dodgy. Doesn't utilize it's better ideas frequently enough. Frame rate issues. I'm gonna be honest. I struggled to finish this. Not that it was especially hard (though I found the final boss to be a bit of a pain). No. I was just…
The Rad Emphasis on survival beyond simply killing zombies. A wide open world to explore. Procedurally generated content offers some amount of replayability. The Bad Rather minor technical issues, framerate hitches etc. Difficulty isn’t adjustable. In large part people are tired of zombies as antagonists. And while personally I’m not, I could see why you would be. They’re everywhere. But I feel like their presence…
The Rad Same great action-packed gameplay you know and love from Far Cry 3. Some genuinely funny writing. They do a good job of nailing the 80’s Sci-Fi/Action Movie vibe. Rad as hell soundtrack The Bad Games a little too dark in spots. Visually speaking, of course. Can’t reset Garrisons like you could the outposts in Far Cry 3 (After they patched it, anyway) This is gonna be a short one because when writing a review…
The Rad A crafting system that’s actually pretty fun! The world’s incredibly open and full of a good variety of activities. The shooting is super satisfying The Bad No particularly likable characters. Co-op is a stripped down version of the full game. Better late than never I guess! Finally wrapped up Far Cry 3. I’ve still got a bunch of side activities to chip away at. But I’ve wrapped up the story line at least.…
The Rad Solid feel to the shooting. Customizing your characters guns and masks is pretty fun. Uses the old protagonists of the previous games in interesting ways. The Bad Feels a little stripped down from the previous game. New main characters are totally devoid of personality. I know I’d be one of the only, but I really liked the previous Army of Two games. They were nice, dumb fun and the last one at least…
The Rad Abundance of singleplayer content. Punchin’ dudes in super-heroically fashion is satisfying. Good online. The Bad Unlockables are a bit on the weak side. Sometimes the visuals look a bit terrible. Just a bit. I find fighting games difficult to talk about. I enjoy them on the most basic level possible. I learn a couple of basic combos and some special moves. And when those don’t work I feel no shame in…
The Rad Excellent narrative and atmosphere. Improved combat. Great visuals. The Bad Occasionally poor frame rate. Checkpointing is a tad iffy in spots. I'm glad that story isn't really a thing I cover in my game reviews, because Bioshock Infinite's ending is making my head hurt. I'll just say as with the previous Bioshock games, the narrative and world are the main reasons to give it a gander. In previous Bioshocks…
The Rad Good balance of combat, puzzle solving and platforming. Good characterization, voice acting. Great visuals. The Bad Unnecessary multiplayer. Open world and survival aspects severely downplayed. Tomb Raider is one of those franchises that I don’t have a lot of experience with. When I was a kid I played the first game, but never got anywhere. Of course I’ve seen the movies, but the only Tomb Raider game prior…
The Rad Conceptually interesting interweaving of cooperative and competitive gameplay. The Bad Not much in the way of objective variety. Dumb enemy AI. A myriad of other technical issues. I don’t really have any history with the Call of Juarez franchise. I know the previous two entries were Westerns. And this shares at least some aesthetic similarity in that regard. But they bring it to the modern era. Which I’m…
The Rad Handles narrative better than most games of its ilk. Satisfying gunplay. Excellent voice work by Nolan North. Awesome soundtrack. The Bad Difficulty spikes to a frustrating degree around the midway point. Some visual roughness. People had said that Spec Ops: The Line was well worth playing for the interesting story and narrative touches, but that the gameplay left a lot to be desired. I feel like maybe folk…
The Rad Solid shooting and handling. Robot enemys are fun to dismantle. French robot The Bad Trust system is compromised by dumb A.I. partner. Voice recognition fails more often than not. I don’t feel like there’s loads to say on Binary Domain. It’s a solid, cover based third person shooter. It’s mechanically sound and fun to play. It doesn’t weave the greatest tale ever told, but you’ll meet some interesting…
The Rad Lots of good Aliens fan service. Handles decently enough. Co-op is fun! The Bad Not a memorable character in the bunch. Aliens aren’t as threatening as they should be. Unevenly polished. Utterly crap competitive multiplayer offering. Hella short. I profess to not being a huge fan of the Alien franchise though that is born largely out of ignorance to it than any particular aversion. I saw and liked the first…
The Rad Though not without fault I still found the narrative to be engaging and enjoyed the different take on some classic characters. Less punishing then previous games in the series. Rad soundtrack. Simple but engaging gameplay. The Bad With maybe one exception the boss fights weren't anything to write home about. Trivial puzzles do little but slow the action to a grinding halt. Finicky platforming sections. I've…
The Rad Simple, yet satisfying brawlin' gameplay. Awesomely over the top characters. Kick-ass soundtrack. Bots in multiplayer. Great variety of multiplayer modes. The Bad No one is playing it. The campaign is too short. With people being so into the likes of Devil May Cry, God of War or indeed - PlatinumGames own MadWorld and Bayonetta - I've always thought it kind of odd that there hasn't been any notable attempts…
It's been a while since the last Hitman game and since the outset people haven't had entirely high hopes for Absolution. A lot of the early promotional material made it look more like a shooter than the murder sandbox we know and love. And then there were sexy leather clad nuns parading about, which most thought kind of stupid and ill-fitting the tone of Hitman. On the former I've got to say that I believe for the…
Before Peter Molyneux came along and showed us The Movies, if you wanted to try your hand at virtual film making you had to be a Hollywood Mogul. Now I will grant you that you don't actually MAKE movies in Hollywood Mogul. Not ones you can really watch. It's not that kind of game. But if you thought the simulation side of The Movies was lacking, then you should give Hollywood Mogul a whirl. In Hollywood Mogul you…
Read the full review It might lack the flash of The Movies, but it's the better sim.
I suppose in the interest of full disclosure I should note that at the time I've writing I've yet to finish the game. I'm reckoning I'm over the halfway point at least, but I don't feel it matters none. I'm not scoring the game on it's story. A great game can have a terrible story, a terrible game can have a great story or anything in between and thus far I feel like AC3 is somewhere in between. But again, it…
It's a good thing I don't really discuss nor rate games based on narrative, because if I were gonna do that then I'd not know what to make of Hotline Miami. I believe I get the gist of it, but there's a fair bit of vagueness A lot being open to interpretation. One thing quite clear however is that Hotline Miami is totally rad. You play a dude who wears rubber animal masks. And he kills people. Why it isn't…
In the lead up to release I feel like Dishonored had a lot of hype. It was heralded as being in essence, a steampunk Deus Ex and I'd say it lives up to that. You're doing a lot of the same things you'd do in Deus Ex. There are security systems to hack. Such things aren't as prevalent here, but there are deadly light barriers and electrified turrets of sorts that can be either disabled or turned against your enemies…
So yeah. War of the Roses? Totally like Mount & Blade. But prettier. Which I guess is fine? It has essentially the same system of momentum based combat in which the damage you do is dictated by the speed at which you swing your weapon, which is increased or decreased by things such as whether or not your moving and your relative position to the guy you're hacking at. You can swing your weapon in many directions…
With little exception I'm not good at fighting games. At all. I'm just not good at memorizing commands and when I can memorize them I'm not necessarily able to input them accurately or quickly enough to make good use of them within the actual game. I'm the kinda guy that actually will play a fighting game for the story, daft as that might seem. And DOA 5 does the Mortal Kombat thing of having it's storymode be…
Sleeping dogs puts you in the shoes of Wei Shen, a police officer tasked with infiltrating a Triad cell and bringing it down in the neon-washed streets of Hong Kong. In traditional urban open-world game fashion this involves a lot of driving and shooting! And also a fair bit of kung fu. Whilst melee fighting options tend to be secondary in this brand of game the hand-to-hand combat of Sleeping Dogs is at the…
Another year, another Spider-Man game. Though this is the first since 2007's Spider-Man 3 to be tied a movie. And the first since 2008's Web of Shadows to be open-world. And whilst I enjoyed Shattered Dimensions (Gave Web of Time a pass) I'm glad to return to this format. Spider-Man games shine when they provide large, open environments in which to swing about in. And swinging about Manhattan is probably the most…
I tried playing The Darkness 1 in the lead-up to The Darkness 2 and I have no other way to say it other than it felt it's age. It didn't feel like a great game by modern standards, though I certainly recall enjoying what I played of it back in the day. But going back to finish it up so many years later it just didn't really click. I wanted to stay for the story stuff, which holds up well even now - but the gameplay…
Lollipop Chainsaw is a pretty simple game in most respects. It utilizes rather simplistic mechanics, it's humour often stoops to lowest common denominator and one could argue the games sexy, zombie-slaughtering lead character is just pandering as all get out. And I for one am all for it. Not every game needs be complex, needs to be clever, needs to portray characters in a realistic fashion. Lollipop Chainsaw revels…
Continuing a trend of mediocre, Sega published, Marvel movie tie-ins is Captain America: Super Soldier. The game puts you in the boots of the star spangled super soldier as he attempts to thwart the plans of nefarious Nazis Hydra! This naturally involves a lot of punching dudes in the fact. And if this game does anything well it's punching dudes in the face. Yes the game owes a lot to Arkham Asylum for it's combat…
It's been some time since the last Max Payne game and the franchise has since swapped hands, going from the folks at Remedy over to Rockstar. I know more diehard fans of the series have had concerns about what Rockstar has done with the game, but as a more casual Payne enthusiast I've got to say they've made what I feel is a spectacular action game. Rockstar has something of a tradition of poor quality gunplay in…
Saw the game puts you in the boots of Detective Tapp, played by Danny Glover in the films but looking decidedly un-Danny Glover here. It takes place after the first flick in which he is shot, but here is patched up by Jigsaw and put through a gauntlet of deadly trials. The game revolves largely around exploration and puzzle solving, with a little bit of combat thrown in there to keep you on your toes. You'll explore…
Will say right off the bat that I'm not going to cover story beats here. I will say that overall I enjoyed the narrative of Mass Effect 3. I will admit that I didn't get the ending I might've hoped for, but that doesn't mean it was BAD. And so much cool stuff happened along the way, there were so many neat little character moments, fan service-y call backs and whatnot that I find it hard to get too peeved about the…
I played the demo for Asura's Wrath and while I can appreciate the spectacle, I found it entirely too... QTE heavy. There was no way I was going to buy this. So I guess it's somewhat fortunate that my bro had more interest in it than I and picked it up for himself. With nothing else on my agenda I figured I'd give it a whirl. And the full game is still entirely too QTE heavy. Frankly I wish the QTE's weren't there…
I don’t know the best way to describe how the game plays.It’s part puzzler. There are blocks that you push and pull in an attempt to arrange them in such a way that you can climb to the top of the level and reach the exit. Blocks can have different properties. For instance there’s a heavy block that is much slower to move than a regular block, there’s an ice block that could potentially slide you to your death…
I know nothing of The Divine Comedy, but I have to assume that the poem never had Cleopatra excreting unbaptized children from her mouth-nipples that have tongues. Or maybe it does. I don't know. But regardless of accuracy the concept of taking the nine circles of hell and turning them into game levels is so simple, yet genius an idea that I'm surprised there isn't more of it. The gist is that upon returning from…
I bought UFC 2010 when it came out and almost immediately dropped it. You know why I dropped it? Deteriorating stats. Because no . I'm fine with some stat management. Picking what thing I want to dump points into over another, for instance. But if once I've dumped those points I start losing them over time then you lose me. I play these games for the fights! Not to crunch numbers. I will say out of the game that…
I haven't really played a Sonic game since 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog. Why? Because I played 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog. It was god awful. And word of mouth hasn't been too polite to most of the games following it since. But when I saw Sonic Generations staring up at me from the bargain bin I figured... Why not? Give that tired old hedgehog another chance. And while it isn't as awesome as the greats of the series from…
NeverDead isn't the best shooter in the world and it relies heavily on it's limb dismemberment, immortalprotagonist gimmick to get on by. But for as long as it lasted I enjoyed my time with NeverDead. NeverDead puts you in the boots of bland bad-ass Bryce Boltzmann, a demon hunter cursed with immortality and terrible one-liners. The game feeds you some back story about Bryce and his supporting cast, but it's not…
When Brotherhood came out a year after Assassins Creed 2 I was skeptical that all story aside the game play would simply be a retread of that second game, but it managed to tweak enough to be a worthwhile venture in it's own right. Revelations on the other hand doesn't quite live up to the title and while still a worthwhile venture for anyone already invested in the series, it doesn't really throw anything new into…
Saints Row 3 has dialed up the crazy from the last game. You all know about how the Saints are celebrities now and folk are asking them for autographs in the opening as they rob the bank. That's all well and good. But on the other hand it feels like they've dialed a few things back also. Now this review is honestly going to be me just ranting about the customization options mostly, because frankly I don't feel like…
I haven't got a lot to say about Uncharted 3 that I didn't say about Uncharted 2, if anything. Uncharted 2 was a fantastic game with fantastic set pieces, adequate shooting mechanics and enjoyable platforming. This is more of that - but with sand instead of snow! I don't mean to make that sound like a bad thing. Uncharted 3 is undoubtedly one of my favorite games this year, but of course in being more of the same it…
