34 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.
The late 1940’s are such a fascinating period of modern history. The Second World War was over and most of the soldiers who survived the horrors of the conflict had returned home to their families, but there was still unease in the air, not least because the Cold War was just beginning to hot up. The Second Red Scare in the form of McCarthyism was taking root; with the trial of possible Soviet spy Alger Hiss in 1948…
It has been over a decade since the first Deus Ex rolled onto our computer screens and made us think long and hard about the way we approach player choice in video games. Before and since then, only a few games have managed to come close to giving the player the illusion of free choice (namely the likes of BioShock and Fallout 3), but almost none have successfully delivered an experience where your decisions display…
The post-apocalypse is such a contradiction in terms. The very idea of there being a post-apocalypse should be nonsense, since the apocalypse it meant to be “the end of things”. However, over the past few decades a rich seem of post-apocalyptic fiction has grown and matured, and the Fallout series has been leading the way in terms of video games in this field. In 2008, Fallout 3 brought the much-loved role-playing…
Super Meat Boy is, very simply, psychotic. That’s the only way I can even hope to start describing it. It was clearly designed by total sadists with the blackest of hearts whose days must usually be filled with reading about how to make cadavers in slaughterhouses be neatly and efficiently sliced by rotating blades, or instructions on how make normal people start foaming at the mouth. Let’s get this straight right…
If there is one thing Just Cause tells you, it’s that the Republic of San Esperito is a nation completely full of idiots. Its ordinary citizens are idiots. Its armed forces are entirely composed of idiots. Its tyrannical President, Salvador Mendoza, is a huge idiot. And their underground guerilla forces, the Ejército Revolucionario de Liberación (Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army) are the biggest idiots of all.…
There was once a game which set itself in an Art-Deco city, located deep beneath the ocean. The game was spooky, immersive and deeply entertaining; partly because the characters and plotline were so interesting, but also because the setting was incredibly unique. However, the founder of that city eventually realised that his creation was a disappointment that he had built upon a set of broken ideals. And in his…
I will admit right here at the start that I am what you might call an almost complete comic book novice. I’ve watched the occasionally film adaptation or two, and know some of the general details of certain more famous characters, but when it comes to telling the difference between the Marvel or DC universes, or remembering certain obscure events, places or people, I usually haven’t the foggiest. Not to mention, I…
In the nine long years since the initial release of Myst III: Exile, things have changed. Computers have advanced phenomenally, with console gaming systems gaining even greater dominance over the PC, and certain mobile telephonic devices have become even more popular than they already were. Yet, in all that time, there have been no games which are even somewhat comparable to those of the Myst series, and somehow, I…
It seems that the guys at Introversion Software just love to feel retro. The game they made after this one, DEFCON, recreated the 1980’s WarGames feel of tactical real-time strategy games. Darwinia however, manages to take you back to the good old days of the first ray tracing software, British ZX Spectrum’s and Acorn Computers, in a totally elegant and accessible way. The game itself transcends categorisation into…
If you have a highly developed and varied taste in music, then Audiosurf just might be the perfect game for you. The small, web-based indie developer "BestGameEver", despite having one of the worst and most clichéd company names ever, have managed to craft something which is psychedelically unique in its own special way. For a mere $10 (or just over £5 including tax) across Steam, you get a game which has a…
It can be safely assumed that it is not many people’s dream to devastate the world in a cataclysmic nuclear war. Well, Ronald Reagan and his Soviet counterpart may have been the general exception to that rule. After all, the idea is simply M.A.D. (Mutual Assured Destruction, or a lose/lose scenario), surely? However, that is exactly the situation which the players of DEFCON must face. Inspired both by the 1986…
Deus Ex is foremost a unique game in its field. It is really quite unlike any other game I have ever played. It shares territory with titles such as Half-Life and Tomb Raider, but also takes inspiration from some role-playing games as well. It seems to have carved out or invented its personal little niche in the game market, by mixing two normally contrasting game essentials. It manages to successfully combine…
Let’s be clear on this from the very start: I adore Star Trek. Deep Space Nine was rubbish, but the original series and Next Generation were great. So obviously, I’m bound to be ever so slightly biased in favour of any game that gets released about it. However, I can honestly say that Star Trek: Bridge Commander is a really great game… just so long as you are into Star Trek, or anything in anyway ‘sci-fi space’…
Starting at the very beginning, how can you beat a game with a title like 'Max Payne'? It is probably one of the best play-on-words for ages, and is definitely a great brand in the making. Luckily, the game is just as good, if not better, than the catchiness of the title. The game combines a fast pace, great plotline and excellent gameplay to create an experience that is at once immersive, and almost incoherently…
Since I was (until relatively recently) the only person who was mad enough to own this game (thankfully, I did not buy it, it was a Christmas present from a far-flung elderly relative, who obviously knew nothing about computer games) I feel reasonably obliged to write a short review condemning it for the entire world to see. Rome: Caesar’s Will is... well, truely abysmal. It is nothing short of a complete waste of…
The Sims is, as any sane individual should know (or at least, any reasonably informed sane individual), the definitively best-selling PC game of all-time thus far. It’s managed to ship over 16 million copies since release in February 2000. Following something which achieved such sky high success was obviously going to be extremely difficult. Luckily, the drive and determination of the guys over at Maxis has paid off…
The original Max Payne gave us a long enough taste of mind-bendingly exciting action and adventure to make us salivate profusely at the mouth with delight, and then quickly took it away before we got too greedy. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne takes almost the exact same approach, but gives us a slightly different game, as well as an even more engrossing experience. Although we all wish the game had been just a…
Illusion Softworks really did create a veritable diamond in the rough with Mafia. It's a game that received relatively little or no media attention, but which really excels in being enormously entertaining and engrossing. It has one or two negative points, but they are quite minor, and mostly easy to overlook. With a fantastic plot, spot-on music, memorable characters and a unique setting, Mafia is to-date the best…
So, I'm sailing through the North Atlantic on a cold, clear evening. It just so happens to be 1941, and I am a fearless and intrepid Nazi U-boat captain, prepared to strike hard at the Allies. My goal: to sink as many enemy ships as possible, without loosing my own boat. Sounds quite interesting from first principles, doesn't it? It's not often in a computer game that you get to play on the side of what are…
Unless you have been living on the dark side of the Moon in recent years, it is likely that you have already heard of BioShock. It generated enormous hype before launch, and has now gained one of the largest aggregate critical review scores ever (according to Metacritic with 96 out of 100, coincidentally the same as Half-Life 2). Whilst the game does have a number of minor flaws, including a final lacklustre ending…
Tucked away within The Orange Box, Portal at first doesn't appear to be anything particularly special. Considering that Half-Life 2: Episode Two and Team Fortress Two got most of the press coverage beforehand, it is somewhat surprising that Portal has been the most well received and critically acclaimed game included in the package. However, it deserves every bit of credit it has got. The game may be short, but is…
If the idea was just put onto a piece of paper, Blue Shift looks like it shouldn't fail in the slightest. To add another expansion to the original Half-Life; one which would play along the same timeline, but from a different perspective from that of Dr. Gordon Freeman and Corporal Adrian Shephard. Whilst Opposing Force did this with notable success, Blue Shift is not so lucky. The game has a solid storyline, but is…
When I was a bit younger, in a simpler and somehow more naive world, I used to play nothing but this game for days on end. If anything, I can credit Midtown Madness 2, along with Worms original and Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge, for introducing me into the world of computer games. Though the progression of time has opened my eyes to the various shortcomings of this game, namely the poor graphics and…
If you were to merely look at a game from face value, Shattered Union has a really fantastic image and back-story. The chronicle is that in 2009, David Jefferson Adams is elected as the 44th President of the United States following a tie-vote, and achieves the remarkable distinction of becoming the most unpopular President in US history (no mean feat, given the work of his predecessor). Over the next few years, a…
The film industry may be massive and sprawling today, but it is important to remember that it wasn't always that way. The rise of Hollywood is a story of style, money and glamour, mixed in with some fantastic cinema. So, here is a tycoon game which allows you to play through that rich history of film, from the roaring twenties all the way into the 21st Century. Also, I don't know about you, but I have always wanted…
Alright, let's try and get this over with as softly and smoothly as possible. Although I regret having to say it, when you compare Invisible War to the brilliant original of Deus Ex, the follow-up frankly falls painfully short of the inevitably large expectations which had been previously built up. A combination of small environments, a clunky inventory, lacklustre characters and storyline unite to present an…
Sitting behind a big desk in a tropical climate, dictating the daily running of an island nation has got to be one of the more enjoyable jobs in life. Look at Fidel Castro: he did a similar job for so long, eventually only his ill health could force him out of office (despite the CIA's more than 600 documented unsuccessful attempts to assassinate him over the years). It is thankful then that PopTop Software has…
To begin with, it is very clear that Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy in the US and Canada) has some extremely fascinating ideas, and an innovative style of gameplay which no other game can match, or for that matter has even attempted. Overall it is a distinctly strange game, there being nothing else like really it before or since. Whilst not all of this totally fulfilling (and can occasionally be quite frustrating),…
Being someone who sadly has not had the opportunity to play either of this game's prestigious predecessors, and neither having known the wonders Cyrodiil within Bethesda's previous game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (although this has now been gladly rectified), I approached Fallout 3 not knowing exactly what to expect, since I had no bar to judge it against. What I discovered was a game packed to the brim with a…
It has to be said, a lot of interesting things happened in the year 1989. For a start, it just so happens to be the year I was born, early in February. The Exxon Valdez ran aground of the coast of Alaska in March, resulting in a devastating oil spill. In June, there were demonstrations by students in Tiananmen Square, Beijing against the Chinese government. In video gaming, the Sega Genesis console was released in…
Let's be straight: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has received a lot of praise over the past few years, and is widely heralded today to be one of the greatest games of all-time. Whilst some of this may have been hyperbole or exaggeration, the game certainly deserves considerable recognition for its achievements. Oblivion is definitely a truly groundbreaking game; both in terms of style, gameplay and technical…
So, it's here. The bright, shining future we had all been waiting for. Games designed, not to be played by sitting on a sofa casually clicking buttons, but by actually engaging in some form of exercise. Or, is it? At heart, Wii Fit is really an extremely simple collection of various balance mini-games and physical exercises, but in reality it manifests itself as something slightly greater than the sum of its parts.…
Let's be clear: Saints Row 2 is certainly in the running for what could be called a GTA-clone. It lets you loose in a large, free-roam city to wreak havoc as you see fit. You have innumerable vehicles to hijack, and you partake in various street gang-related story missions. But instead of this being a derogatory comment against Saints Row 2, I mean it with the greatest of respect, since this title succeeds in doing…
Mars. The red planet has always been a fascinating setting for science fiction. H. G. Wells imagined green Martians who would invade and attempt to conquer the planet, whilst Philip K. Dick had humans eventually terraforming and colonising the surface. Red Faction is a series which has followed the latter approach, both in this game and one of the previous instalments. Guerrilla throws the bland, first-person…
