35 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.
Having played Luftrausers for 31 hours i can say i got my money's worth. The game began life as a simple gravitational flight style arcade shooter and the retail version expands on that with a custom combination system that will have you swapping weapons, chassis , and engines to find new strategies and establish favorites for your personal play style. Lauftrausers' campaign is a collection of missions which are…
AS someone who's never played an Ace Combat game before the changes to the series are lost on me. From my perspective, as a newcomer, the air combat is a lot of intense fun and the DFM system (which i hear is new to the series) is decent. Outside of that the helicopter sequences, whether piloting or as a door gunner, are boring by comparison to the traditional game. If you're looking for an arcade based helicopter…
The Game Receiver is a game that mixes rogue-like random elements within a FPS, and adds simulation-like complexities to add suspense. The main goal of the game is to collect cassette tapes. Not just any cassette tapes, but tapes that promise to lead to some ethereal enlightenment...So self help tapes. Everything is glazed in a cyber-noir aesthetic that is minimalist but effective. The gameplay consists of exploring…
To be clear this review comes from the PC side, the console experience maybe different as the autolog feature can add a lot so if you're like me and you have only a few people on Origin then autolog leaves a lonely void on you. With that said, the single player is boring. It seems like it should be pointed out that if you're looking for a single player arcade style game avoid this one at all costs and just buy Hot…
For me, as someone who enjoys flight sims there's a specific time frame in this game when you're actually having fun. In the beginning you'll navigate ever so carefully only to create one false move that sends you to your frustrating death. Once you start to get a vague hold on the situation you start making every other cargo drop on the edge of your seat and you feel like a tar chewin grout spittin trucker...in…
I started playing this game as something to do as i listened to podcasts in the background. When the game isn't boring it's a frustrating struggle between shotty platform physics and shitty camera control. You play as a drop of water...that can jump...and without any depth perspective between platforms. It's everything you hated about early 3d platformers wrapped up in a quaint aesthetic.
Sideways is a novel 2d platform game that twists perspectives against the sides of 3d rendered buildings. You play a little graffiti dude who gets sucked into his art world and becomes the flat graphics against buildings littered with pipes, wires and windows to act as platforms. The twist is, when rounding a corner of a building, the perspective, and sometimes gravity, shifts. Unfortunately this possible puzzle…
There is a lot this game has to offer if you're in the market for horror games. the atmosphere and story telling is the best part of it but playing the game at this point in time you may be turned off by the poor gameplay and terrible game design. My main problem with the game involved the moments where you were required to shoot at enemies. Ammo is limited and the gunplay sucks. if the game played through it's…
Read the full review Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
I picked up Uplink in a pack on Steam, not thinking much of it at first...and now it maybe my favorite and most addicting game i own on Steam right now. As far as gaming goes, hacking has been broken down to a game of Pipe Mania or connect the dots but what you get with Uplink is a hacking simulator that feels authentic enough to immerse you in the role of an elite hacking agent. The gameplay is a stratagy of time…
A collection of various styles of Pinball machines, some old/simple ones and some later day convoluted ones ( i can still barely comprehend what the hell's going on in No Good Gofers but i enjoy it all the same ) The main highlight for my int his collection that sets it apard from other Pinball game collections is the table goal system...at it's core it's an achievement system ( reach X amount of score, max…
Read the full review Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection
Gravitar is a very challenging and very rewarding game when you can find the skill to master it's controls. It's a balance of conserving fuel, maintaining a resistance to gravitational pull whiles spinning around to get a shot at red platforms who are out to murder you. Unfortunately for those who own it through the Game Room service, the controls are incredibly flawed on the 360 controller. You have three options…
Batman Arkham Asylum is a surprisingly good game. After having played the Demo i thought, "...s'alright", but after having played the game i can tell you that it stands out as one of the best games of the year. What the demo doesn't show you is the "Metroidvania" style gameplay where you have to upgrade your equipment to get to the next area. The game is made of many parts; exploration, platforming, stealth and…
Mirror's Edge is an interesting premise but the frustrating gameplay severly lowers the game's quality. It's not a matter of a good gaming challenge either it's more of a game of trial and error. With the theme of the game emphasizing speed and flow, the grinding to a halt moments as you repeatedly attempt to pass a section tend to kill the mood of the game. As far as gameplay spacific problems, both the level…
I checked out No More heroes out of curiosity...i heard from others that it was an amazing game and looking at it i think to myself, "..i like art style..i like unique gaming experiences" but that can only go so far i guess as NMH was more of a repetitious time waster then an experience. The "stylized" graphics just looked awful at times and The zany over the top violence mixed with the purposely, almost…
...But still a good game in it's own right. This version of AvP feels much different from the first. It feels much more like every other FPS out there. that maybe good for you but for me it felt like a loss. It's still a good game but doesn't strike the same chord for me as the first one did. If you're fans of the Aliens or Predator franchises and find that the first one was way too difficult for you then this one's…
Read the full review A much watered doen version of the first...
So NOLF 2 is a prettier game then the first and really other then that there isn't much difference. it's still pretty much the same game and same ideas in a better looking game engine. I'd still have to say i enjoyed the first one more then the second as i guess i can get easily burnt out on franchises that don't take any new directions. All in all, still as fun and worth checking out.
What NOLF seems to set out to do is to simply make a fun and unique action game with style you haven't really played before and it accomplishes this quite nicely as you play in this take on 1960s spy action movies. With fun characters and a fun story it's sure to please and amuse.
Chaos Theory, The third game in the Splinter Cell series, Made up a bit for the second game's lacking single player campaign. With the game running on a new engine there's a fresh feel to it yet it maintains the Splinter Cell trade marks, but there in lies the problems with the game. Though it's a good game in it's own right, it seems it is very difficult to create a long lasting stealth action franchise without…
Read the full review Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
The second game in the Splinter Cell series was fairly short didn't leave you with the same feelings you had for the first. It seemed as though you weren't using your cool movies or cool gadgets as much, or ya just didn't care at this point ( not new and interesting anymore ). What was new, however was the multiplayer portion of the game. I never got to play the Multiplayer ( if i had maybe my review would be higher…
Read the full review Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow
The first time you played Splinter Cell, you were playing something special. At the time it looked phenomenal, it had lots of cool gadgets, and lots of cool moves that made ya feel like a sneaky bad-ass. In the end it was a game that left you wanting more...however, the more we got in the later years the less we started to care.
The Hitman series is one that i have enjoyed since it first came out, however, when i heard Hitman: Contracts was just a rehash of missions from the original Hitman i thought i'd pass on it. After having played all the Hitman games in the series, out of curiosity, i decided to check out Contracts and what i found was either the game was less then inspiring or i maybe becoming burnt out on the series. There are a few…
I'm still debating as to which Hitman i liked better; Hitman 2 or Blood Money. In truth if you like one you'll most likely enjoy the other ( Though, you can easily give Hitman: Contracts as miss). All in all Hitman 2 and Blood Money do the series the most justice and if you're looking to get into this franchise just start with either of these titles.
In the fist game in the Hitman series you were dealing with some fairly awkward controls and inconveniences in gaming design. The inconveniences were the lack of any in mission saves or checkpoint systems. You had to complete a job from start to finish in order to save your progress. Though, once you got past these issues you'll find a very unique, interesting and open ended assassin game.
If you are interested in the Hitman series Hitman 2 may be your best starting point for the sake of it's cleaning up the game controls from the first game. The Hitman series is generally about killin dudes...not ever last mother brother in the room but specific dudes and the game gives you a fairly open choice as to how you can go about doing the job. This is where the game shines as you can steal your enemies…
Having played the first two thief games, and loving them as much as i did ( ...even contemplated -gasps- writing fan fiction inspired by the first game), there just seemed to be something missing in this iteration. If you look at the games side by side this game defiantly looks far superior to the other two and really it plays just about the same but for some reason falls short for me. Don't get me wrong, i enjoyed…
Thief 2 gives players more of the same things they've experienced in the first game of the series. If you liked the first game then chances are you'll like this one just as well with feelings only slightly diluted from playing something that isn't a fresh new experience anymore.
Thief was one of the first stealth action titles i had played and i loved it. The game had a style and atmosphere i had never seen before and there were some incredibly suspenseful moments as you hide in the dark from your enemies of whom could whoop yer ass fairly easily when alerted to you. The only real problem with the game was the graphics ,which even for it's time were pretty bad, but this was shines over by…
Getting up delivers an interesting experience for gamers based around urban art and graffiti culture. You start out in the game a simple artist trying to make their name on the city and as you progress you find the "writings on the wall" reveal a deeper storyline then you would expect. The game also features a fantastic soundtrack, not just for the tracks available but for the way it was implemented throughout the…
Read the full review Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure
Immersive...that's a word...that needed to be invented to describe a game such as Bioshock, a hybrid FPS/RPG game. A game that ever takes you out of the head of the character you're playing. The game plays out like a novel meets the Universal Studios theme rides. Though the game, in retrospect, has many complaining about it's difficulty, or lack thereof, at the time playing it you flat out didn't care you knew it…
Deus Ex is the type of game that wants you to feel involved in the world it has created. In this world you have a verity of ways to approach many situations, stealthfully sneaking, hackerly hacking, or psychotically killing. Even at the time the gameplay took a bit of getting use to but once you got passed the playability you found a believable cyberpunk world that you could get into. One of the aspects i always…
System Shock 2 goes down as one of my favorite games of all time. An experience, at the time, that i had never had before and one of the scariest games i had ever played. In System Shock 2 you play a survivor in a massive ship that once housed a small civilization until a mysterious infection starts to take over it's inhabitants. Though your escape you run into zombie like baddies. Armed, at first, with only a…
Super Mario Galaxy is a masterpiece in game making taking the idea of what 3D platforming was and bringing it full circle in it's level design. It's a bright, colorful and imaginative joy throughout. Even in frustrating moments ( moments that challenged me with gameplay) i couldn't help but to be reminded, "...but still, this is totally a masterpiece". In it you must save Princes Peach, cause...she's prone to…
The Orange Box is a collection of Valve Software developed games which includes: Half-life 2 with HL2: Episode One, Episode Two - collectively almost the length of two whole games. The episodes help to expand the mythology that HL2 is introducing giving you a more epic feel to the universe. Though, Episode One is just kinda "so so" Episode Two picks up a great deal more and leaves you hanging in the end. Portal - a…
Portal isn't a very long game. In fact, after you know what you're doing you can probably beat it in 2 hours. I know this because i have played the game to completion more then a few times. This is a testament to how sweet those 2 hours are. Portal is a first person puzzle game in which you play a test subject for Aperture Science. The game starts you out as you'd expect slowly going over simple puzzles but mid way…
Grim Fandango is an adventure game inspired by Mexican folklore and told in a film noir-like style. You play Manny Calavera, a travel agent in the land of the dead cursed to selling travel packages to deadbeat recently departed clients who can't qualify for anything better then a walking stick. After finding, and losing, your prime client, Meche Colomar, the adventure begins in an effort to find her. What really…
