38 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.
As the naming convention of the title suggests, Halo 3: ODST is an expansion. It tells a side story to the main story, and it utilises the Bungie style of gameplay that was in many ways the perfection of that generation of FPS style play. I mean to suggest that the next generation of FPS came with Modern Warfare and its snap-locking scope site style of FPS which is kind of the hallmark of this generation of FPS…
Dark Sector didn't strike me as a game that contained much substance to it. It felt like a game that developed a unique element to it (the boomerang style glaive, and the powers associated with it), and combined it to a relatively tried and true mechanic (namely third person cover shooter) and put it together to make a game. Unfortunately beyond that foundation, and that's really all that is, a foundation, the…
This game is a pretty good Star Wars fan boys delight. I wouldn't say I'm a big Star Wars fan, but I had fun playing the game. Unfortunately that fun was tempered by considerable frustration with the controls which were less than perfect. Having the ability to use The Force would as you expect lead to some pretty cool situations however the controls didn't feel entirely right and there were plenty of times my…
I went into this game looking for a fun split screen co-op game to play with my brother. Army of Two seems like a franchise specifically designed for co-op play, but what surprised me was just how disappointing a game it was. First of all, it uses vertical split screen and I hate that. The limited peripheral vision you get as a result makes the game, which already suffers from some awkward controls as is an even…
I should note upfront, I did not play Team Fortress 2, and I had previously played "Portal: Still Alive" so I did not play it here. I have only played Half-Life 2 and Episodes 1 and 2. I first played Half-Life 2 on the original Xbox, and at the time found it to be a quality shooter. Fast forward probably 3 more years and I played it again on the Xbox 360. My first thoughts were that the graphics, while of course…
GTA 3 remains my favourite video game of all time. I was absolutely blown away by the scope and depth of the open world and was amazed by the countless hours of gameplay to be had. Although I felt that Vice City was a superior game, GTA 3 had a special place in my heart for being so groundbreaking for its time. Although for many, GTA San Andreas took things up another notch, I didn't like it. I felt that it did "too…
Forget about the movies, this game is the definitive Batman. It’s remarkable that super hero video games are usually lame, when you consider how awesome the source material is. This game is a refreshing change. Batman is awesome, and most importantly true to form. What makes the game so good, is the fact that it tries to capture Batman as Batman, as best as it can. The result is that the game is awesome. The melee…
The Japanese style of video games has never really connected with me, and for the longest time I have avoided the Resident Evil series. However the hype around RE5 had me believing that this game was more in the mold of US style action adventures like Gears of War. This game is still very much Japanese in style, and while the production values are strong, it is ridiculously frustrating that you cannot move and aim…
Some games do not age well. Condemned was made back in 2005, a launch game for the Xbox 360 and it looks every day of its age. It looks like it was originally made for the original Xbox and the developers simply up-res'ed some of the textures. It has "innovative" gameplay involving mostly melee combat in a first person perspective, but I think the fact that few games have since tried doing this shows how successful…
Not that you would look for a game like this to have a good story, but it kind of did. Well, at least a coherent story that gave a sufficient reason for everyone to be fighting each other. The story was kind of like how in a porno people who meet have sex for the flimsiest of reasons, except of course in this game they chose to beat the crap out of each other instead. It is a strong Mortal Kombat game, and the…
This was the first non-GTA game of the sandbox variety that I’ve actually enjoyed. The twist in this game is that you play as a guy with super powers, namely the ability to manipulate electricity – so plenty of hijinx ensue. This game was more like Crackdown than GTA for me, with less real open world freedom and more constant mayhem. However unlike Crackdown, the controls are tight, the mayhem is fun, and it has a…
I’m a fan of the comic strip, but the conversion to a video game just didn’t work for me. The game is retro in many ways, both thematically and in it’s gameplay. Unfortunately the bizarre old school style just feels like it’s 15 years too late rather than having some kind of nostalgic appeal. With strange elements such as a turn based combat system that has each battle rolling a 20 sided dice for “initiative”, this…
Read the full review Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode One
After the disappointingly underwhelming “cliff-hanger” end to Halo 2, I was keen to pick things up where I’d left off and see how it all concludes. Halo 3 is pretty much Halo in high-def. It has the usual addition of weapons and vehicles you would expect from a sequel, and being on the 360 it has the prerequisite upgrade of visuals as well, which look beautiful. It may sound underwhelming to describe Halo 3 as…
Beautiful graphics, fast, frenetic and fun gameplay – what other game offers a machine gun with a chain saw bayonet?? Addicitive from start to finish. No wonder so many games are copying the “duck and cover” mechanics. This game rocks. The final boss battle was surprisinglyeasy, but that may have also been because I had a bit of help playing online co-op with my mate Jeff.
Made in 2006 this is a pretty old game that holds up rather well, but still shows its age. It’s a pre-Modern Warfare first person shooter, so it lacks the “auto lock” style zoom feature that has become prevelant these days and uses the traditional “shooting from the hip” Halo style of combat. That in and of itself is by no means a bad thing. I couldn’t help but feel that if I’d played this game earlier I would’ve…
Modern Warfare 2 takes all the strong elements of the original Modern Warfare and cranks it up to eleven. The quality gameplay is still there, but the story just goes over the top – in a good way. Any semblance to reality goes out the door in favour of jaw dropping sequences. This coupled with a really strong multiplayer element, including a co-op feature, makes it pretty clear why this game is so damn popular.
This game is an improvement in just about all areas of an already amazing game. The gameplay mechanics have been incrementally improved – enemies no longer absorb a ridiculous amount of firepower and the puzzles are more complex. The melee combat system has changed, though I’m not so convinced it’s an improvement, there was nothing wrong with it in the first place anyway. The scale of the game has gotten grander,…
This game put to rest any fears I had that the PSP couldn’t bring console quality games to a hand held device. This was my first foray into the God of War series, and it was pretty easy to see while it’s so popular. Given that this game apparently isn’t as good as the console versions, I’m left pretty eager to try them out.
This game is awesome. An incredibly cinematic experience, with fun gameplay, beautiful graphics, solid characters and an entertaining story. The sort of game you can really get absorbed in, and the sort of game that leaves you begging for more. An absolute must play if you own a PS3. The only gripe I have was that the enemies seemed to be able to absorb an unusual amount of gunfire before going down – it didn’t ruin…
Tools of Destruction left me wanting more, so I picked up Quest for Booty. It really seems like a game designed to simply tide you over before the release of Crack in Time. As a stand alone game, it really doesn’t add anything of significance new to the series and it is extremely short, probably 4-5 hours in length. In fact if anything it seems like the deleted scenes of the previous video game packaged together.…
Read the full review Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty
I’ve always thought of Ratchet & Clank as a kid’s game – and I’ve steered clear as a result. However, after I was given a copy of Ratchet & Clank with a strong recommendation to play I figured I’d give it a go to break in my new PS3. Ratchet & Clank is like the video game equivalent of a Pixar film; a kids game that appeals to adults. It’s a relatively simple game, but the gameplay is addictive and lots of fun. I’m…
Read the full review Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction
Crackdown takes the open world sand box concept of GTA and removes any semblance of story from it. It tries to focus exclusively on mayhem, and the result is a bland game whose objectives lack context and repetitive one-dimensional missions. The game itself has more dimensions to it, insofar as there are varied side missions, but I find that in general side missions complement the main story campaign of a game, and…
This unpretentious game surprised me with how damn good it was. The Battlefield genre is best known for online multiplayer, which doesn’t really excite me, but I came into this game knowing it had a single player story and figured I’d give it a shot. What I found was a game with a surprisingly strong story with well realised, charismatic characters that form the rag tag titular “Bad Company”. The game is hella fun,…
I’m a fan of the comic strip, but the conversion to a video game just didn’t work for me. The game is retro in many ways, both thematically and in it’s gameplay. Unfortunately the bizarre old school style just feels like it’s 15 years too late rather than having some kind of nostalgic appeal. With strange elements such as a turn based combat system that has each battle rolling a 20 sided dice for “initiative”, this…
Read the full review Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode One
Ah Fable, the game that promises too much, and can never deliver on such grand claims. The first Fable just seemed like it was incomplete, it fell so short of the game that was promised, but it had a charm about it and you could see the potential was there. Enter Fable 2 and while this game is clearly a more polished, finished product, its inability to truly be the game that it sets out to be illustrates the fact…
The side scroller isn’t dead – not by a long shot. Shadow Complex brings something fresh and interesting to a favourite old genre. It feels a little strange that the game should be side on whilst being a 3D game, but what might seem like a limitation ends up feeling more like a concentration of effort towards a very polished end product. The sort of game you can pick up and play for a few minutes or a few hours.
Ubisoft tried something a little different, taking a first person shooter and trying to make it open world. Unfortunately by not having anywhere near enough variety when it came to gameplay options, the game just ends up feeling unnecessarily long and drawn out. It lacks any really plot and while the visuals are fantastic as a package it really wasn’t enough to keep me engaged. By the end I was just burning through…
After playing this game – I now want a PS3. It’s a shooter, nothing unique about it I suppose, but it’s done really well. It’s slick, the graphics are fantastic, and it’s hella fun. Plotwise there’s really not much to it, but it really doesn’t matter. Definitely the sort of game worth buying a PS3 for. Four stars.
I was immediately impressed with this puzzle solving game, as its unique use of brain twisting gravity and physics makes for such ingenius and satisfying game play. A short game, but with lots of replayability it’s everything an arcade game should be. An absolute must have if you own an Xbox 360.
While being a good game, I found Prince of Persia to be incredibly repetitive. The objectives are straight forward, take your character to a certain point and as per the story “heal” the cursed land (by pressing a button). In order to get to the certain point you have to run, jump, slide and just generally parkour your way acrobatically across a beautiful art style landscape, with a boss fight when you reach the…
Bioshock a creepy game, but not actually scary. The visuals are beautiful and the story is quite intense. I found the FPS gameplay a little subpar but it’s not really “that sort of game” - it’s more than that. Towards the end I was really starting to get pulled into the world of Rapture. Definitely a quality game.
After finishing the game, my immediate thought was how incredibly repetitive it was. The game looks beautiful and the gameplay elements are simple and fun, the parkour aspects for example are great, but at the end of the day there isn’t enough to do, and the game makes you do the same things over and over again. But for the fact it was relatively easy to do and I was making decent progress through it I might’ve…
I don’t even know if this can really count as a “game”. It is very repetitive, and quite mindless. You are hand held the entire way, and it’s plot is drawn exactly from the Bourne Identity movie, except Jason Bourne does not look like Matt Damon, but some generic hero dude. The game involves lots of button mashing for melee combat and heaps of lame “quick time events” where you accomplish a lot of plot specific…
The Darkness is based on a comic book that no one has ever heard of, and drawing from it’s source material has a different gameplay take on the traditional first person shooter. Namely your character has two snake headed creatures that come out of your back and you can control them to do your bidding, such as eat the hearts of your enemy or summoned black holes. Bizarre? Yep. The unique spin on gameplay however…
Mass Effect is without a doubt one of the most immersive, richly detailed games I’ve ever played. The amount of detail in the game is absolutely astounding and I found myself completely absorbed. The best story of any game I’ve ever played. Can’t wait for the sequel
Thankfully GRAW is a short game. It was so so dull. You play as some high-tech US solider, but quite frankly what with all the sci-fi games out, it’s attempt to be pseudo-real means that the weapons don’t really seem all that high-tech at all. It was a cheap game that I bought second hand from a bargain bin - it’s a couple of years old and really shows it’s age. Seriously don’t bother with this one.
Has all the things that made the original so good, with some sharper graphics and a nice lean campaign. I haven't even gotten stuck into the multi-player component.
Holy crap this is a brilliant game. Amazing graphics, incredible sound design, this game scared the bejesus out of me. It’s not the most original game, you’ve seen it all before, but never have you seen it all done so damn well. If you like video games, you must play this one
