23 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.
Batman: Arkham Origins proudly tries to stand on the shoulders of giants, but ultimately falls short of its predecessors. Origins is the third installment of the highly praised Arkham series; a series that has shown Batman, at long last, finding success in the video game world. Rocksteady did a wonderful job making him a force to be reckoned with, as well as show his smarter, more investigate side of him. Also, up…
All three games in the Arkham series have done a good job at being “Metroidvania” type action adventure games. The same efforts were put forth with Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate, and although on some level it succeeds in that, the game as a whole falls short. The map structure is confusing, the mission objectives bounces all over the place, and the story is an utter bore. Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a…
WWE 2K14 is the first time a WWE game has released under a different publisher. 2K Sports picked up the franchise following the bankruptcy of THQ, the series former publisher. The hope for wrestling fans is that this new partnership will result in better produced games because under THQ it seemed the series was simply coasting along each year. This game adds to everything that was already there, making it better and…
The Grand Theft Auto series is one of the biggest in video games and Rockstar proves that a franchise doesn’t need to saturate the market by having a new game release every year. It has been five years sense Grand Theft Auto IV and although Rockstar has made other games in that time, the world of GTAV alone feels like they have been working on this game that whole time. As of GTA IV, Rockstar went for more of a…
With two analog sticks on the PlayStation Vita, we were all promised to finally have good first-person-shooters in the handheld market. Then games such as Resistance: Burning Skies and Call of Duty: Declassified come out all looks to be lost. Now we get Killzone: Mercenary, although it leaves the games mentioned beforehand looking like a joke and is the most fun in the Killzone series, it isn't without problems and…
The Splinter Cell series has always been fun, but unfortunately more fun than good. The stealth game play even has the Metal Gear Solid games paling in comparison, but the stories and characters have always been forgettable as they were wrapped up in mostly political jargon. However Splinter Cell: Convictions and now with Splinter Cell: Blacklist not only does the characters stand out more, but we get a good story…
Dark might look cool with its cel-shaded graphics, but that isn't enough to make this game good. Although it tries very hard at being a good stealth game, unfortunately it doesn't quiet get it right, just like everything else this game brings to the table. You play as Eric Bane who has recently been turned into a vampire, but he doesn't know why or by whom, because he has amnesia. That is when Eric finds out that…
I might not be the biggest Deadpool fan, but I have enjoyed his comics from time to time. The thing that made him a cool character was his fourth-wall-breaking, psychotic and crazy routine along with his sarcastic and perverse humor. However, you never had to actually hear him (or the voices in his head) talk, just read the talk bubbles. In the game you don’t have to just deal with a bad game in many areas, but you…
You can honestly say a game pulls you into its world when you walk away emotionally drained. That is what The Last of Us does, it pulls you in and doesn’t let go until the credits roll. You will not want to put the controller down. It shows that sometimes the right thing to do won’t be what keeps you a live. It is about survival, hope, endurance and commitment. However, Last of Us is not without a few issues that…
I have never played any of the previous Tomb Raider games. I have seen some of the first couple played from time to time, but nothing about them caught my interest at all. So I can not do any comparing really from those to the new rebooted Tomb Raider that has given birth to a new Lara Croft. Crystal Dynamics did what I think a lot of developers wish they could do with big budget well known game series. Not only did…
Assassin’s Creed III may be the third main title in the Assassin’s Creed series, but it is the fifth over all, that of course is not including any of the handheld games. Ubisoft has done a good job of stripping away some of the unnecessary fat that was starting to thicken up the series in game play and mechanics, but also leave the game with some new stuff to try and make Assassin’s Creed III a little different than…
I would have never believed in a million years that a numbered sequel in the Resident Evil series would ever be as bad as Resident Evil 6 turned out to be. You would think with so much money and talent thrown at it that it would be in contention for game of the year. With so many things wrong it is hard to pinpoint exactly where to begin, but I’d have to say it starts with the 600 people working on it. On top of…
I feel I should start this out by saying that Oblivion is not only my first Elder Scrolls game, but is was also my first Bethesda game as well and I fell in love with it instantly. It scratched an itch I had for so very long of wanting to play D&D (Dungeons and Dragons). I have never played Morrowind and apparently that seems to be the best of the series, or so the internet would have most believe anyway. So, I will…
It is rare for me to come across an artistic stylized game that doesn’t grab me. As interesting as Papo & Yo story and even back story is, something about it left me not caring to keep picking it up and continuing through it. A big part of that was the repetitive puzzle platforming game play, but even the characters felt kind of dull for the most part. Papo & Yo (Dad and Me) is based off the childhood of the game’s…
Everyone’s favorite webslinger is back in video game form and he has brought his open world hometown with him. That being something the last couple outing in Spider-Man games have let fall to the waist side. Having an open world back makes you realize just how much you miss the simple pleasure of just swinging around and site seeing. The Amazing Spider-Man also borrows some combat and gameplay material from the…
The development of Sleeping Dogs is actually a pretty unique one and is kind of interesting also. By all rights, this game should not exist at all. It started out as a new IP under publication by Activision and then they decided they wanted to make it the third installment of the True Crime series giving it the name True Crime: . After many problems and delays Activision shut it down completely. After that Square…
Spec Ops: The Line is actually a pretty unique game for me. I am pretty split on my feelings for it. For the most part it is a pretty standard third person cover based shooter. It runs like so many shooters before it did. That is not to say there is anything wrong with that. A lot of games take a lot of heat of playing the same way as other games of the same genera. In fact the game play is not were the majority of…
I never played either of the first two Max Payne games, they seemed to slip past me during a time that gaming wasn’t all that important to me on the PlayStation 2. So I came into Max Payne 3 cold and was somewhat afraid that I would be lost with not playing either of the first two games, but I can say with ease that Max Payne 3 seems to hold up fine on its own, which it probably would have to with it being almost a…
In 2008 I Am Alive was first announced and I was always intrigued by the concept of the game. For many years it seemed like the game was canceled and long forgotten about by the developers. Close to the end of last year however, it seemed like I Am Alive still had some life left in it when Ubisoft announced that it was still in development and due out at years end. It did not make the end of the year, but it has…
A good number of games this generation have had the problem of going flat by the third installment, Mass Effect 3 for the most part has fallen into that trap as well. It could be argued that this happens with games these days, because console cycles didn’t really ever last this long and by the time there was a third game, usually it was on a whole new system. Mass Effect 3 had a few exceptions that made it more…
When games like Journey come along, it proves without a doubt that video games can be art. Although putting this game into a category such as art game doesn’t really give it enough credit. It is easy to say from an artistic stand point Journey raises the bar for art video games to a whole new level that will be tough to match. I for one find myself getting pulled into video games very easily, yet no art games have…
It is arguable that the Resistance series is one of the best exclusives for the PlayStation 3. Although most would say the second game of the series is horrible. I on the other hand found the second game mostly enjoyable. Even though I do agree with some of the gripes people had with it, including the lack of a weapon wheel which should have never been taken out. With all of that said, Resistance 3 is by far the…
When the first Saint’s Row came out, it was very clear that Volition was making a complete rip-off of Grand Theft Auto. However as Rockstar has gone to great length to make their GTA games more down to earth and more serious, Volition has gone completely the opposite way with Saint’s Row. No longer is the Saint’s Row franchise just a mirror to GTA, it has become its own thing and with each game it becomes more and…
