64 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.
I enjoy the Assassin's Creed games. I don't love them, but I don't hate them, and I generally think that there are a lot of things that they do well, on top of a lot of things that are maybe not so great. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is more or less a continuation of that, but I have to admit that it is one of the most well executed and complete packages that has come out of this monster franchise. Brotherhood…
The first Dead Rising was a very stupid, yet somehow fun game that dropped you into a mall full of zombies and said "Have fun!". It didn't have a great control setup, the story and characters were laughably cliche and silly, and the mission structure of the game is almost set up to make you feel like you have to restart the game at some point. Dead Rising 2 is more of that, and is inexplicably still fun . Enter…
Goldeneye: 007 for the Nintendo 64 is a classic. Goldeneye: 007 for the Wii may not be a game-changer, but it is anything but a lazy cash in remake of a popular title - this game stands high on it's own. In a Wii market where first person shooters barely exist at all, Goldeneye takes everything that you love from other modern FPSs, and combines it with the strengths of the Wii remote to create a very satisfying…
Fable 3 is one of those games that is far too easy to spend long periods of time talking about every little thing that is so very very wrong with it. Partially, it's because there simply are so many things wrong with it, but mainly it's because the things that are bad are so excruciatingly obvious. Before I start down that road, I would like to say that Fable 3 continues many of the things that made Fable 2 a pretty…
Super Meat Boy is nothing short of a getting-hopped-up-on-drugs-and-having-your-teeth-kicked-in-by-a-horse experience. Sure it's painful, but that doesn't stop you from laughing, or really even enjoying it. This charming little 2D platformer is all about a good challenge, and just in general being hilarious. During the few hours it took me to complete Super Meat Boy, I would go from angry at the world to giddy with…
Scribblenauts was a bit of a letdown for me, because I thought the game was totally fun and interesting when it worked, but that was only about 5% of the time. Super Scribblenauts promised to improve on that, and give me an experience that was like that good 5% of Scribblenauts through the whole game, plus more. In many ways, this is exactly what happened, because the things that were most frustrating about the…
Describing the world of Bayonetta in any way that makes sense would require a whole lot more familiarity and understanding of just what the heck is happening in that game than I posses, so I'm just going to say that this game is completely bananas, and leave it at what little I do know. You take the role of a ridiculous, over-sexualized witch named Bayonetta who uses her dark witchy powers to fight against a horde…
Civilization V is an epic strategy experience that follows a lineage of games that hang delicately balanced between deep, hardcore gameplay and accessibility. Somehow, though, Civ 5 continues to refine and improve upon Civ 4, a game that I thought was probably as good as these games could get. Many improvements and additions make Civ 5 the most well thought out and well polished turn based strategy I think I've ever…
Comic Jumper is a deranged, ridiculous, and hilarious action side-scroller that could be considered absolute genius or possibly the pinnacle of idiocy. The real catch with Comic Jumper is that everything that happens is a joke of some form, and the intention behind every single second of the game is to make you laugh. Hard. And they pretty much throw every other objective out the window to achieve that. The hero of…
Alan Wake is both a story-driven horror story and a third person shooter, and takes it upon itself to really blend the atmosphere and horror themes with the gameplay in a way that hasn't been done a whole lot in video games. With a generally likeable cast and pretty decent writing and voice work, Alan Wake gets pretty darn close to the desired effect of creating a Stephen King style story that also works as an…
I've been an on-again off-again fan of the Metroid series, which really means I like most of the games in the series that I've played, but it's not really a franchise that keeps me yearning for the next one, so I tend to forget about it between releases that catch my interest. Nevertheless, when it was announced that Other M would take the series in a new, more action-focused direction I was definitely hopeful, and…
Halo: the franchise that almost single-handedly put an Xbox in millions of homes back when Microsoft first entered the gaming business has reached the final chapter under developer Bungie's watch. While I have played every Halo game (with the exception of Halo Wars) and typically enjoy them, I never really got into them long term. I usually play the campaign by myself, and on co-op once or twice, and maybe dabble in…
Waiting 12 years for a game builds expectations. Waiting 12 years for the sequel to what is probably the most highly praised and widely played strategy games of all time takes things to a whole new level. Well, with the wait finally over, Blizzard Entertainment has delivered not only a game worthy of the Starcraft brand, but one that is also one of the biggest, most well implemented strategy games period. If you…
There are few things in gaming that are as creepy and edgy as the world of Limbo, while still never resorting to simple "jump scares" and grotesque monsters displayed in graphic detail. When you're about to die in Limbo, a lot of times you'll see it coming for at least a few seconds, and the horrible panic that ensues causes you to flail around looking for an escape, but quite often you just aren't fast enough.…
I've had a pretty longstanding love for the Final Fantasy brand, originating from back on the Playstation with Final Fantasy 7. While not every game in the series has blown me away, I generally feel like they are well made adventures that continue to be unique even after so many iterations. Final Fantasy 13 kind of continues along that path, and delivers some things that are certainly unique, but the whole…
It seems that the style of the cheap, downloadable puzzle/platformer is becoming more and more popular, and usually these games do a lot to reinforce the ideas that innovative gameplay and general polish make great games. Trine seems to be in that vein, because it does offer interesting new gameplay mechanics, but suffers from a lack of really sound design on a few fronts, and its problems tend to drag down what…
Super Mario Galaxy 2 follows one of the strongest games available on the Wii - and probably one of the most well made games of all time. The first Super Mario Galaxy took everything you know and love about 3D platforming and Mario games and took it to the next level with brilliant level design, stellar visuals and music, and simple, yet effective controls. Following that act has to be one of the most difficult…
I think it says something about it's predecessor that Red Steel 2 completely disassociates itself from the first Red Steel in every way except in title. Having never played the first Red Steel, I won't comment on what is the same or different, but I will say that even though basically everyone seemed to be let down by the first, Red Steel 2 was a very enjoyable experience for me, and one of my favorite third party…
The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is an Xbox Live Arcade game developed by a new developer called The Odd Gentlemen. Winterbottom is certainly an odd gentleman, and the game begins with him stealing an obscene amount of pies, and proceeding to muck up a whole list of things in the process. Your progress through the game is measured both by repairing all the damage your selfish, pie-snatching habits have caused,…
Cave Story is a game that existed for quite some time as a freeware game before it was released as a WiiWare title with updated graphics and audio. The fact that it made the jump from a free PC game to a $12 Wii game may sound like anyone paying for it is getting ripped off, but this is such a quality product that not paying for it is absurd, and was only ever an option because it was made by a single guy with no…
Bioshock 2 follows one of the most memorable gaming experiences that I've played on the Xbox 360. The original Bioshock was set apart from other games because of it's immersive and terrifying world, stellar controls and gameplay mechanics, and really well told story. The second iteration in the Bioshock franchise doesn't quite have the same impact in terms of presenting a surprising and strange world, or in terms…
The JRPG genre has been pretty stagnant in my opinion since it's heyday through the PS1/PS2 era. Resonance of Fate still maintains a lot of that feel - you explore various town areas, talking to NPCs that say really weird, off the wall stuff, you visit shops, and you get into random encounters with strange looking monsters that look like they were pulled out of an M.C. Escher painting. And of course the plot ascends…
We watched as Kratos, the Spartan general, became the agent of Ares, and in his angry blood lust, killed his own family. Then we saw him, angrier than ever before, destroy Ares and take his place as the God of War. Kratos was still angry, however, and started smashing cities, and when Zeus tried to kill him, Kratos became, well.... angry. God of War 3, as you might guess, is about Kratos being very angry. Anyone…
It's hard to really convey what Heavy Rain is like. It is a PS3 exclusive murder mystery themed game that is really greater than the sum of its parts, and its parts are pretty impressive. This is really a game about telling you a story involving some very interesting characters in a very dynamic and dire situation. The most fantastic thing about this is that the story the game tells you almost completely depends on…
The first No More Heroes was one of the most celebrated 3rd party titles on the Wii when it arrived in 2008, so naturally there were high hopes for the sequel. Desperate Struggle is indeed a sequel, you play as the crazed assassin Travis Touchdown once again climbing the rankings to become the number one assassin in Santa Destroy, and once again his quest is pretty much fueled by the most stereotypical male motives,…
So, I'm a huge Zelda fan, and it is honestly the most likely pick for my favorite franchise of all time, but something about Link's latest DS adventure just did not sit well with me at all. A lot of the staples were there - dungeons, hearts, rupees, swords, but honestly very few of those things felt like they came from the Zelda franchise I know and love. The dungeons are the saving grace of Spirit Tracks, because…
inFAMOUS follows the open world philosophy to the letter, giving you a large area full of various props, enemies, collectibles, and missions to explore as completely or thinly as you desire. That sort of formula has been done numerous times, in fact, it has been done so many times that it is hard to justify ever playing these games without it having something significantly different or improved. So, I suppose the…
Vigil Games' Darksiders is a game that takes a whole lot of inspiration from some of gaming's greatest: The Legend of Zelda, God of War, and even Portal. It does this without apology, and really doesn't do a single thing to hide the fact that it totally took the idea right out of other games. In fact, it feels almost like the developers are staring back at you from your TV and saying "Yeah, so? Why wouldn't we use…
Assassin's Creed 2 was extremely hyped for fixing everything that was wrong with the first game, and glorious review after glorious review told me that it didn't matter that the I thought the first one was underwhelming, because this one was "everything the first one should have been". I can totally see where people are coming from saying that it is a more fleshed out experience in terms of characters and…
When a game like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves comes along, it almost frustrates me in a way. For some inexplicable reason, I wanted to find something wrong with the game, something significant to me that made me not love it as much as every other person raving about it. To my dismay, and leading to my immense joy, I found nothing of the sort. Uncharted 2 is one of the most well polished, perfectly paced, wonderfully…
'Splosion man is one of the games that makes me love the Xbox Live Marketplace. There's just something magical that happens when I enjoy a $10 game as much as some $60 games, and 'Splosion man is one of those games. It is an extremely simple, witty platformer that never takes itself seriously, all the while taking you as a gamer as seriously as possible. I'm not kidding - this game is brutal, although not really in…
Having never played Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, I still basically knew what I was getting myself into when I picked up Modern Warfare 2. I was pretty sure it would have crazy, competitive online multiplayer with a campaign that was short, underwhelming, and honestly felt a bit tacked on. And lo, those assumptions turned out to be completely correct. The game's single player was a short, intense, theme park ride…
Borderlands is a game that promised to merge the FPS and RPG genres, and it's success is largely due to the fact that the developers didn't allow the use of either genre to reduce the effectiveness of the other. While in other games one may outweigh the other, such as Fallout 3's robust RPG elements, Borderlands really shines because of the level of balance that exists between its two halves. Really, there are so…
New Super Mario Bros. Wii marks the return of 2D Mario games to consoles - I believe the first since Super Mario World. Although it is in some ways a return to the classic formula that made Mario the king of gaming, Nintendo does their staple move of taking what made those games great, and expanding it, making it a unique yet still immensely enjoyable experience. Obviously, the biggest change to New Super Mario…
Demon's Souls has gotten a lot of attention for being a very hard game. This is one of the most intense games I've played in a long time, and is definitely a challenge. That doesn't mean, however, that this game is overly frustrating or impossible at all. There were only one or two points in my near 40 hour play through where I got frustrated enough to stop playing for a little bit, and I'm sure many who played the…
Scribblenauts was a game that I had high hopes for because of the completely crazy, innovative way you interact with the game. The slogan "Write Anything. Solve Everything." seems to hold true for the most part. There are a ton of items in this game, and you access them just by writing their name. You use those items to solve stacks and stacks of puzzles across the game's many levels, and you'll be doing everything…
Halo 3: ODST is a side story in the Halo universe about a small squad of ODSTs that drop into the city of New Mombasa that exists somewhere in Africa. This title is intended to have a fundamentally different feel from the core Halo games, since the Master Chief is nowhere to be seen, and you take control of "ordinary humans" in the fight across the city. Thematically, this works well. The storyline is based on a…
The Beatles: Rock Band carries the weighty name of Rock Band, and the infinitely more weighty name of the Beatles - one of the most beloved music groups of all time. Fortunately for both fans of Rock Band and The Beatles, this game carries those names well, and ultimately delivers an experience that draws on the things you love and gives you something that is fundamentally original. Of course, this is a Rock Band…
Shadow Complex is a title found on XBox Live Arcade, that, realistically, carries more content and polish than many full retail games. This modern day "Metroidvania" style shooter has all the aspects of any good side scrolling action adventure, and brings a new level of production quality to low priced games. As you'd expect, this is a game about exploration and upgrades. Those 2 concepts can really sum up the whole…
Batman Arkham Asylum has a long legacy of comic book to video game adaptations behind it. Unfortunately, that legacy is one of shame and, to be frank, simply bad games. For that reason I was skeptical when I first heard of Arkham Asylum, but it didn't take long after actually seeing the game in action for me to hope against all hope that this game was actually going to be different. Different, as in, good.…
Prototype came into the world alongside the PS3 exclusive InFamous, which, upon first impressions, looked like basically the same game, but better. I'm going to get out the way early that I have not played one second of InFamous, and therefore this is the last time I will refer to it in this review. This game is, like so many games of the current generation, a whole lot of things we've seen before, put together in a…
Red Faction: Guerrilla is a game strictly about blowing the heck out of stuff. It's because of the very straight forward focus that you get all sorts of crazy ways to, well... blow the heck out of stuff. The first thing you do in the game is get your hands on some remote charges and through a tutorial session with your brother, you blow some stuff up. Unfortunately, your brother quickly gets smudged out by some…
EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis is the first what I would call "real attempt" at making a full scale tennis game on the Wii (tied with Virtua Tennis of course). Seeing that I haven't played (and probably won't play) Virtua Tennis 2009, I can't comment on which is the definitive Wii tennis game. I can tell you however, that Grand Slam Tennis is a wonderful package with a lot to offer to any fan of either the Wii or…
Just in order to get straight to the point, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if you liked Resident Evil 4 (and you should have) you will almost certainly enjoy Resident Evil 5. This is because the basics of the game are essentially unchanged for Capcom's newest zombie thriller. Everything from the way the game controls to the way the environments are set up to the way your enemies try to take you down is…
The Conduit is a bit of a hard game to pin. Sure, its an FPS, so you have a large library of games to compare it to, but there's also something fundamentally different about The Conduit. The most obvious difference is it's exclusivity to the Wii, meaning that this is the first definitive FPS done with motion controls. Being that its controls are the most talked about aspect of the game (maybe tied with its…
Banjo-Kazooie is a game that is near and dear to the hearts of many fans of the N64, so naturally, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts received a lot of attention. What people may not have been expecting is that Nuts and Bolts holds firm very few of the standout characteristics of the old games, at least in terms of gameplay. Of course the characters are all the same and the plot is similar, and it still has that crazy…
Ok, so I've put off writing this review for a really long time, because I really am not sure how to approach this. I did not enjoy SF4 very much, but I can't really say that it is the fault of this game in particular, more because of issues I have with fighting games in general. I generally write reviews 100% based off of the gut reaction I have to a game, and pay less attention to whether it is bringing something…
Klonoa is a remake of an old PS1 platforming game (which I never played), and it certainly carries that "old school platforming" feel into the current gaming generation, and does so with a nifty $30.00 price tag. This game is about as simple as they come, with you basically being able to move, jump, and pick stuff up, but it does what I love oh so much: it takes simple mechanics and puts them to use in every…
