25 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.
For everybody out there hoping to get their crazy on with Just Cause 2's down loadable content, I give you this warning. Buyer beware.... Because Just Cause 2 can be a bevvy of insanity, consider the DLC limiting. The jet is unfortunately the most valuable. This plane is really quick, and for those of you out there trying to cover a lot of ground for the 75% achievement, it can be absolutely helpful in the endgame.…
Chime is a pretty good example of the direction I’d like to see games take. A charitable donation is made from spending your money on the game, which isn’t half bad. I could never write a lengthy review about something that barely warrants this much. Having never played Lumines or variations of that, Chime is like starting fresh in my world. A new iteration to some of gaming’s best puzzlers. I really like to play it…
I don’t think it really comes as a shock or anything less than expected for Capcom to continue supporting the gamer through traditional franchises. The same is to be said for Super Street Fighter 4. I’d not give it more credit than I would any other re-issue, but to add ten characters and then balance it….the amount thought behind that goes way over my head. The ultimate juggling act that I feel most fighters pull…
It finally came. I waited for a long while on Just Cause 2. I recall it being delayed, then pushed before making it into the box. The final product turned out to be far more than I expected for a sequel. You consider the first game was just on the outside of that weird gap between console generations, and Just Cause went across both. It was an okay looking game at the time. Very wonky controls, but also incredibly…
This open world thing is easily the thing of 2008. Far Cry 2 is a solid game but it has some very hardcore-type ideas buried inside. If Far Cry 2’s competition during its release is Fable 2 and Fallout 3 then it does stand on its own as a quality game. Questionable design decisions aside it still has some pretty interesting things going for it. Fire is absolutely a great new idea that is being used so well here. If…
It sure took a while for an ATV game to get it right, eh? Pure isn’t quite what I was looking for in a racing game, but 2008 was kind of a slow year for good racing games in general. 2009 should be better, but Pure’s accessibility is a nice diversion. I’ll credit it with feeling very different from the other off-road racers. I finished Untamed this year and that is a perfect contrast to this. Where Untamed did many…
There is no better indicator of what kind of year 2008 was with releases of shooters that treaded new ground in platforming, role-playing, and the infected taking over the world one campaign at a time. In the latter’s case, it also pushed multiplayer into an interesting direction. Credit to Valve for not only making a technically impressive game, but for proving that a game could be built around multiplayer without…
Behold gamers, the most overlooked and underrated game of 2008. From top to bottom, a complete experience. For the small price that keeps dropping as I write this. You know what is the worst part about it? People wanted something else. Where Banjo succeeds, I can’t recall any other game doing. It could be how it looks, although it couldn’t look any better. It might be how it controls, although it couldn’t control…
Do you ever get that feeling that a franchise or genre has evolved right past you? I think with Rock Band 2, music games have certainly given me rhythm gaming fatigue. The soundtrack is disappointing for me and my personal tastes. Sure, Rock Band 2 is still the great game its predecessor was but I’m definitely at my limit with what Harmonix and Activision decide is good music for a group of people to play. These…
Writing a review for Halo 3 feels like I’m just echoing 360 fanboy rants over the internet. I became a fan of the first Halo after it came with a special edition Xbox and I haven’t really looked back. I’ve never understood the point of view that it’s just an average shooter. Using that logic everything is an average shooter. Halo certainly feels like nothing else. And it definitely doesn’t look like anything else.…
The rental of rentals, never have I been so sure that a game should never be purchased. This game whose title will remain unspoken, practically begs to be played through in a day. Without playing this game, I wouldn’t have been able to appreciate the dark and grim style from Gears of War. No dreadful aesthetic can truly be appreciated until you spend time with something even more baffling in its disgusting and…
Generally, a remake is what, a 3-D re-imagining of the source material? This is the impression I’m under, that developers are afraid of taking two steps back when they put out games because they think the market won’t accept anything less than full 3-D. And one look at Sega proves that a once celebrated game developer can lose that charm and quality that was lost in translation from 2-D franchises to 3-D versions of…
Under the radar is the understatement of 2007 with Project Gotham Racing 4. This game was hardly covered by any major media outlet. After the first reveal in early in 2007 by Peugot, people mostly forgot about it. Even after a release date was given, nothing. The game went gold, still nothing. Hands-on articles were tough to come by. Released so soon after Halo 3, and in a year when we had Forza 2, Mass Effect, Rock…
I’m a huge Lost fan. It’s my favorite show of all time. I really do have most of it memorized as far as plot lines, locales, and characters. I never have and probably never will follow anything as close on TV again. So I was pretty excited for a game that had infinite locales, ideas, and storylines to pull from. Lost is a game that was looking pretty good at one point, as I remember. But it seems like adapting any…
Who’s to say that a game without flaws isn’t perfect? I struggled to even point to an area in Call of Duty 4 where I felt it wasn’t good enough. The game is certainly difficult. And the game can be summed up in only a few sentences. But just being a first person shooter should never reflect on the quality of the product. Its basic element does not also imply that it’s basic. In a genre with rules it’s still pretty…
My thoughts about Bioshock are a little mixed compared to the general consensus. I’m not exactly breaking news here, but personally, I found the game to be somewhat overrated. It’s not the visual style that deters me. It’s not ideal but I don’t mind depressing dark places so much. It’s just that it feels like the video game part of it is hit or miss. I have to hit on the controls, an area where unfortunately…
As far as downloadable content goes, Geometry Wars 2 is about as good as anyone can get. I remember getting the first Geometry Wars based on my time with the original in Project Gotham Racing 2 and it was a really great game. The price was right, particularly versus the other games that were available during the 360’s launch. It was a nice simple way to show off a new high definition TV. This is the perfect sequel…
So far, as difficult games go, I think it would be fair to say that Tomb Raider: Anniversary ranks up towards the top of my list in terms of hair-pulling, controller-throwing, spastic yelling that only some games can really offer. And as usual my tendency to enjoy masochistic-style video games continues. This is one of those games where you don’t use a guide because you want to complete it knowing that you did it.…
I have to say, I think fighting games are impressive because the community around them can be so devoted. I don’t consider myself a die-hard player in the genre but I’ve spent many hours on Street Fighter 2 and Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast. Both of those games have been my introduction into the genre. Street Fighter 2 is really my first fighter, and Soul Calibur is my first true commitment to one. There is no…
After two years of hype I finally got to play through Assassins Creed. A game that has surprisingly refined controls if you ask me. It feels like Spider-man meets Prince of Persia with a little GTA thrown in for good measure. But it doesn’t outright copy any single part of those titles. And those parts add up to something great. It has flaws but I feel like the game is owed something positive after being criticized…
Grand Theft Auto 4, wow, it was a slow burn for me to like it enough to say it’s a good game. I started out pretty skeptical and ten hours in my doubts grew. The other GTA’s aren’t paced well enough so 4 is notable for that feat alone. Sand-box style games usually don’t work well in that sense. But I wasn’t exactly feeling the characters. From the story perspective I started out liking Niko. If you read most of the…
Let me preface this first by saying that I like my structure in racing games. I don’t get a kick out of sand-box style driving because it’s stressful and time-consuming. I like to have that linear feel that allows me to more or less memorize the tracks. I can name a long list of titles that I enjoy, that restrict you in what you can actually do. Paradise really sums up the reasons for loving that open world freedom,…
Moto GP 07 is a niche racer for hardcore players. Seriously, no clich é here. It’s probably the best motorcycle racer to date. Not that there is a whole lot of competition out there. Hang-on and now this! It’s really a difficult game. You have to go into it expecting to get beat up a lot. The biggest disappointment the game has is that it barely changed from Moto GP 06. What they really did was clean up the game and…
The trailer for this movie looked incredibly uninspired when I first saw it. I didn’t watch it. I think Hayden Christiansen is a better actor now then he was during The Clone Wars, but the plot looked uninspired. Another movie licensed game couldn’t be bad right? Talk about a complete turn-off for a movie through a game. Now I really don’t have any interest in Jumper. First of all, the game gives you control of . I…
It’s been over a year since the release of Forza Motorsport 2 I can say, unequivocally that it is my favorite racing game of all time. And, for what it’s worth, the best sim racer ever made. It’s a game that cannot be summed up by simply reading the list of bullet points on the back of the box. That isn’t to say other games in the genre pale in comparison. There happens to be a lot of competition among racing games.…
