199 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’m going to start this review with a statement about myself: I do not play mobile phone games. I have tried to, but I never found the platform fascinating as a gaming device, even with all the celebrated releases. The fact is I simply don’t like the idea of being forced to use handicapped controls that deteriorate the overall experience. With that said, then, I am happy to see that some of the developers of these…
After Xseed Games released the Ys series on Steam, I was hoping that some of the other publishers with heavy focus on releasing Japanese titles in English would join in on the fun. Nippon Ichi Software (the guys that brought you the brilliant Disgaea series) has just released its first title on Valve’s digital platform. Called ClaDun X2 , this game is a port of the PSP game with the same name that came out last…
The transition from consoles to PC has been a mixture of ups and downs for Dark Souls . After the initial console release, PC fans wanted to experience the game as well, setting up a petition to Namco Bandai that actually pushed the company into porting the game to PC. After the publisher confirmed the game was coming (to much appraise), things did not go so well. It started with the announcement that Dark Souls…
I have just come from finishing the PC version of Sleeping Dogs , and one of the first questions that entered my head was “Why, Activision?” Now, I have no idea what state Sleeping Dogs was in before Activision gave United Front Games the kick out of the door and Square Enix picked up the publishing rights, but the final product is a fantastic open world game that improves many aspects of the Grand Theft Auto…
Subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) are in a bit of a pickle at the moment. Apart from World of Warcraft (which is not at its peak anymore – just look at the dropped users), most MMORPGs are seemingly having to turn to free-to-play methods to keep the income coming in to cover costs of servers and other expenses. Unlike before, gamers aren’t willing to easily give up money for…
I have always liked the idea behind Dungeon Fighter Online . The thought of Streets of Rage or Golden Axe mixed with the blend of RPG and dungeon crawling with online multiplayer is something I could immediately embrace. The problem is Nexon will not let me play the game since I live in the UK and Dungeon Fighter Online is not available to play in this country. I was happy to hear that the series was getting an Xbox…
Read the full review Dungeon Fighter Live: Fall of Hendon Myre
It seems even the Summer of Arcade can’t avoid the infestation of zombies that have plagued the games industry for the last few years. I don’t personally have any beef with zombies, but what I do have a problem with is how they are used time and time again in a familiar way that makes them just as exhausting to see as the modern war setting. Telltale Games brought some freshness to the use of the undead with their…
Featured in Microsoft’s esteemed Summer of Arcade release, Wreckateer is the only title out of the five that needs a Kinect to play. I assume Microsoft is using the game’s release to show that it still supports the device and feels it’s just as important as the rest of the Summer of Arcade games. The Kinect hardware has become a bit of a hate centre for hardcore gamers, due to its ability to not work as fully…
I normally have an eye out for anything Strategy RPG-related coming to consoles or the PC, but Rainbow Moon completely missed my radar until about a week or so before it arrived on Sony’s PSN as a downloadable-only title. I had no idea the game was developed by SideQuest Studios, the people that brought us the beautiful-looking and exciting-to-play Soldner-X series. My feelings were mixed towards Rainbow Moon before…
Most people know what to expect from a game based on the Olympics. The sport has been covered throughout the console generations, with high points like Konami’s Track and Field series and low points that often include budget games ( Summer Athletics …) that don’t even try to give a good representation of the sport. Sega has owned the official Olympic license for a few years now, using it to bring the fun 2008’s…
Read the full review London 2012 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games
Having a game define a genre customarily means it’s done something refreshing or innovative to stand out from the rest of the competitive market. These highly praised titles learn from the ideas of the past and build upon them to make games better – evolving the genre in the process. The developers at Saber Interactive have taken their inspiration for Gears of War by creating a cover-based third-person shooter that…
There’s no doubt that if you have an interest in this game, you’ve probably already seen The Amazing Spider-Man film. You might have enjoyed it or you might have hated it and preferred Sam Raimi’s vision of the web shooting hero. Either way, what really matters with this movie license video game adaption is if it’s any good. We all know most license games based on their respective films usually end up mediocre or…
The Wii is a console that most big companies would simply ignore when releasing a major entry in a key franchise. Companies didn’t trust that the games on the system would sell, and instead opt to put spin-offs on the system to avoid losing mass amounts of money. Capcom did this with Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles , both games that appeared on the Wii system as…
Read the full review Resident Evil: Chronicles HD Collection
Card games are hard for me to get into. I’m sure I am not alone regarding reasons why people decide not to pick up and play them. My problems are, firstly, is that I need to find people close to me who already play or are willing to buy some decks and play with me. The second is that I am a stingy git and I don’t like the idea of shelling out quite a bit of money (in my eyes) on expensive, shiny pieces of card that…
Read the full review Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013
I am always up for playing Strategy RPGs. Even though I started gaming when the Commodore 6 4 was introduced, I never got into Strategy RPGs until the PlayStation era. One of my first tastes with the genre was Front Mission 3 , a brilliant mech themed game that blew me away with its deep mechanics, multiple stories and amazing gameplay structure. Since then I’ve played most critically acclaimed masterpieces, such as…
Read the full review I simply cannot cough up a recommendation for this game
I love how the PC is allowing people to embrace its gaming history by constantly getting older titles updated to work on newer hardware and operating systems. Places like Steam open up a new world for recent PC gamers to dabble in these relics. Lately, it has also given gamers the opportunity to play previously Japanese only videogames in full English. Ys Origin (released in 2006 in Japan) is one of those titles…
This generation of gaming has sure seen its fair share of first and third-person modern military shooters. I’ve got nothing against these games; I just wish developers would change the themes and settings to something that isn’t part of this “genre standard” anymore. In all honesty, I went into 2K Games’ latest entry in the Spec Ops series with a bit of a meh attitude. I didn’t know all that much about it and…
With Diablo III out and still hanging in people’s minds – which is evident by the gamers still playing – you must have balls of steel, have something special or simply be mental to release an action-RPG dungeon crawler so close to Blizzard’s mammoth title. Fatshark has just done that with the PC exclusive Krater , a post-apocalyptic themed game that takes place in the country of Sweden, which just happens to be…
The PC version of Alan Wake hit on Steam a week before this sequel was bound for release on Xbox Live Arcade . For whatever reason, it took a long time coming for Mr. Wake to move his torch shining skills to the PC . As a game, I found Alan Wake to be a brilliant title that combined solid shooting, tight gripping atmosphere and a fascinating story into one package. It seems this time around PC gamers won’t have to…
The future for Sony’s PlayStation Vita might not be looking too bright at the moment as the games we know are planned for the system remain dateless. Luckily for Vita fans, Nippon Ichi Software has you covered with its latest Vita title, Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention . This strategy RPG series started back on the PlayStation 2 and was put on the radar as a game that prided itself with a comical storyline, amusing…
Read the full review Disgaea 3: Absence of Detention is one of the best games for Vita
The Dirt series from Codemasters has had an interesting evolution since the first title arrived in 2007. Originally Colin McRae: Dirt , the game was filled with different events that featured a range of vehicles, such as rally cars, buggies and hill climbing big rigs. The sequel moved away from the traditional sport setup and went into the field of extreme sports, such as the X-Games, where rally events didn’t have…
If you have a good memory, you might remember a mediocre hack and slash game that went by the name of X-Blades that came out in 2009 for both the PS3 and Xbox 360 . The game wasn’t any good as it suffered from bad repetition in gameplay, location designs and combat. At least the anime inspired graphics were nice to look at, and the main character, Ayumi, was created with a sexy, cute anime girl look with a costume…
It has been twelve years since Diablo II arrived on PC systems. Hitting in 2000, it was met with critical acclaim from the press, creating legions of gamers into diehard fans who succumbed to its addictive and rewarding gameplay. It was so popular that companies tried to jump on the bandwagon by creating countless copies of the formula, some good and some god damn awful. These games became known as Diablo clones,…
The arrival of the PlayStation Vita in February was a signal for the end of the PlayStation Portable’s (PSP) life support. Looking to the horizon of the PSP there’s nothing coming for the system, unless you’re a fan of Japanese RPGs that is. There’s still a few interesting titles to arrive and as long as they are released on the PSN store, both Vita and PSP owners can play them. I enjoyed the PSP because it allowed…
I simply love companies like Rising Star Games . They do their utmost best to bring us niche titles that big publishers simply would never touch. We have to thank them for bringing games like The King of Fighters XIII , the Harvest Moon series, Half-Minute Hero , Muramasa and Little King’s Story . Rising Star Games also deals with distributing Cave’s hardcore bullet hell shoot-em-ups. That’s good to know since Cave…
Sometimes I wonder how people come up with ideas. There have been spells in the past where games come out around the same period and are centred on matching themes or gameplay. We’ve had World War II, zombies and psychic power, and in 2009, Radical Entertainment released Prototype , a game featuring a lead named Alex Mercer who has superpowers that allow him to change his body into weapons or shapeshift into exact…
The summer blockbuster movies are trickling into cinemas now, so that means the videogame industry is about to launch their wave of movie license products based on these movies. It’s near enough common knowledge that most videogames based on these films normally end up being mediocre or terrible. Battleship , which is a first-person shooter based on the film (which is loosely based on the board game – confusing!)…
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and there’s no doubt that development studio Climax has been inspired by Sony’s God of War series for Bloodforge . It’s not just the gameplay that’s strikingly familiar; even the story is reminiscent of Kratos’ revenge against the gods. The star of Bloodforge is a hulky mountain of muscle that wears a antler-bearing skull helm and goes by the name Crom. He’s…
Telltale Games couldn’t have timed the release of The Walking Dead – a new videogame based on Robert Kirkman’s award winning series – any better for me. After the excellent finishing of The Walking Dead TV show’s second season, I was left with having withdrawal symptoms due to the lack of the weekly tune in with Rick and company as their story unfolds in twists and turns. The Walking Dead comic and television show…
It wasn’t long ago that I reviewed Silent Hill: Downpour, a new game in Konami’s flagship horror franchise. Downpour wasn’t fantastic, but the game was going in the right direction and in turn was better than the other HD console game, Silent Hill: Homecoming . Fans of the series normally agree that the pinnacle was Silent Hill 2 , with Silent Hill 3 also established to be a great game. What better way to celebrate…
Right now is a landmark moment in video game history as I tell you about the PC release of Ys: The Oath in Felghana . The game was originally released on PC in Japan and then went on to receive a port to the PSP in 2010. Thanks to Xseed Games , this port was brought over from Japan to English speaking countries. The Oath in Felghana is a remake of Ys III: Wonderers from Ys , an old action role-playing game from 1989…
I’ve said it once already in another review, but I am going to say it again: 2012 is going to be flooded with great fighting games. We’ve had SoulCalibur V, Street Fighter x Tekken and not to forget the brilliant ports that the Vita received at its launch. Looking to the future, we have promising titles such as Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Dead or Alive 5, Persona 4: Arena (I’m super stoked for this one, Persona fan…
It is surreal how fast time flies. It’s nearly a year since I bought a new PC to play The Witcher 2 on full settings. I personally felt that The Witcher 2 was robbed from winning the best RPG of 2011. Everyone seems to have given Skyrim the vote, but all that game did was give players vast areas to explore which were never truly that gripping. The Witcher 2 , on the other hand, had much more engrossing combat that…
I’m not sure why, but recently there seems to be an increase in combat based racing games. Twisted Metal just came out, and I personally reviewed titles such as Smash ‘n’ Survive and Wrecked: Revenge Revisited , both titles not exactly the greatest representation of the genre. I’m here again with another combat racing game from the folks at Gelid Games . Titled Wheels of Destruction (I’ll call it Wheels from now on…
Even though I’m not the greatest at playing shoot-em-ups, I find the genre’s gameplay thoroughly stimulating. I love the challenge they bring to me as a gamer, testing my skill to the limits of what my eyes and fingers can keep up with. Beyond a few massive titles, the genre never really sold when put in stores as a disc product. Yet with gamers having easy access to PSN and Xbox Live Arcade , the genre has found a…
When I was a kid I used to enjoy playing Micro Machines 2 with a few friends of mine. We’d gather together at the guy’s house – he owned the Mega Drive version that had a weird feature allowing you to plug joypads into the game cart itself – and get down to some four player sessions on the miniature top down arcade racer. It was a game that always resulted in laughter as you knocked and bashed your buddies off pool…
These HD collections that videogame publishers are releasing are brilliant ways for people to experience game series they never got around to. A HD collection should be the best representation of that videogame, but truth be told, some publishers see this as quick cash in or don’t put as much love into the conversion as they should do. Thankfully, Capcom have done a good job in making the Devil May Cry HD Collection…
There has been a shed load of Naruto games released since the anime started back in 2002, some good and some bad. It wasn’t until the series hit the PlayStation 3 , with Ultimate Ninja Storm , that I felt the games finally captured the spirit of the TV show. The power of the PS3 allowed the game to look and animate exceptionally well, to the point that people could easily mistake it for an episode at a quick glance.…
Read the full review Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations
This isn’t the first time that the Silent Hill franchise has been developed by a non-Japanese development team. Climax Studios and Double Helix Games have both had attempts with Origins, Homecoming and Shattered Memories . While I didn’t think much of Homecoming , I really enjoyed what Climax Studios did with Shattered Memories ; I felt that it was a brilliant retelling of the first game’s story, but they also…
From Software is on a high at the moment with the success of the brilliant Dark Souls . No one would have ever thought that a game that is so significantly difficult, a game that doesn’t hold your hand, would ever get such well-deserved popularity. Hoping to get the same success with their latest Armored Core game, From Software has changed the mould for the franchise and has instead focused heavily on the online…
The first H yperdimension Neptunia wasn’t welcomed with much praise when it arrived in English form. It built up a cult following from fans of Japanese games that liked its unique setting and story idea, but most people couldn’t get past the horrid frame rate issues, the slow combat and the overall poor execution that the Japanese RPG suffered from. This didn’t stop the developers going back to work; everyone…
2012 started off so bright for the Resident Evil franchise. In February, gamers were treated to the great Resident Evil: Revelations , a game that managed to bring tension and atmosphere back to the series, something that I felt was lost in Resident Evil 5 . Then you had the exceptional trailer for Resident Evil 6 . It’s causing some hype in the gaming community at the moment, gaining record preorders for the…
It’s not the first time a graphics benchmark company has experimented in making a game with their own engine. Futuremark (the developers of the benchmark tool 3D Mark) did it a few years ago with Shattered Horizon . Now Unigine Corp (makers of the GPU benchmark Heaven DX11) is releasing a game that uses their Unigine Engine. Titled Oil Rush , this real-time strategy (RTS) game available on Windows , Linux or Mac ,…
I hope you like water because you’ll be seeing a lot of it in Biart developed video game Deep Black: Reloaded . Biart is independent Russian studio that seems to have a portfolio of games based in or around this important liquid. This is my first experience with the company and what better way to start than with a game that has a focus on swimming in water, a feature that is often disliked in videogames, and also…
Read the full review Interesting water premise doesn't stop Deep Black from being crap
As this generation of consoles slowly moves into the home stretch of its lifespan, we begin to look back on the history and wonder if any franchises that were praised during the PlayStation 2 era deservedly got a sequel. We’ve ticked off some games on the chart already, like Grand Theft Auto IV , Metal Gear Solid 4 , and Deus Ex: Human Revolution , just to name some. One game missing that was highly praised is the…
When I was a kid, I used to love watching cars smash into each other. There is something satisfying watching an expensive car get destroyed in spectacular fashion. For me, there were only a few games that gave me that same feeling in digital form – Carmageddon II , Burnout 2 and Destruction Derby 2 . All three were brilliant at representing my needs to destroy cars and feel good while doing it. Smash ‘N’ Survive…
I am going to take a stab and guess that everyone who got his or her Vita on launch was super excited for the big names that came with it. You’ve got the likes of Uncharted , Wipeout and FIFA , just to name a few. What people must not forget is that the Vita has a digital store where you can get hold of some great classic PSP games, and also some fresh Vita games that you can only find on there. Tales from Space:…
If there’s one thing I do love playing in the world of gaming, it’s fighting games. I have a deep affection for them, and have played most of the franchises that dedicate themselves to letting you beat up the opposition in whatever manner is available. Amusingly, if you had asked me five years ago if a game would come out that would let you pit the best of the Street Fighter characters against that of the Tekken…
