68 public reviews
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When Guerilla Games showed off its first trailer for the second Killzone at E3 2005, it looked so amazing that people couldn't help but go crazy for the prospect of getting to play it themselves. It was to be one of those games that would show off the PS3's advantage in terms of power compared to other platforms. The trailer turned out to be pre-rendered, and as such the pressure was on Guerilla to crank out a game…
“Hasn't the zombie craze in video game design died off yet?” That's what I thought to myself as I saw the title “Undead Nightmare.” Red Dead Redemption's singleplayer expansion came out in July 2010. When it was first announced, many were slightly sceptical. There were zombie games all over the place with Dead Rising and Left 4 Dead, as well as plenty of undead-inspired mini-games and pieces of DLC such as the Nazi…
Read the full review Though its gameplay grows stale, UN's story is great
Rockstar are completely deserving of their name. Along with other great developers like Blizzard and Valve, the Grand Theft Auto masters belong to a tier of gaming visionaries who can essentially do no wrong. Of course, Grand Theft Auto was developed by Rockstar North whereas Red Dead Redemption was created by Rockstar San Diego, but the games are very similar in some respects. The biggest things both games have…
If there's anything Homer's Iliad has taught us, it's probably that every conflict has two sides to it. Both men wielding the blade against one another on the battlefield have their own reasons for doing so, and it is important not to diabolise either party until you have a full understanding of their respective ideologies. Dragon Age: Origins featured an excellent story that saw you, a valiant Grey Warden, beat off…
Read the full review The Darkspawn Chronicles are a mess, and not worth your money
Dragon Age: Origins was a fantastic game with an enthralling story. However, it couldn't help but leave a few unanswered questions, for better or for worse. One of them was the ultimate fate of Morrigan. Not all is lost, though, as the magic of the internet now allows you to pay for a piece of DLC that might give you the answer. You actually start the downloadable content by choosing to start a New Game in the main…
Read the full review Witch Hunt's lack of length and depth is disappointing
Return to Ostagar is a small add-on to Dragon Age: Origins that allows players to revisit the battlegrounds from the first major act of the game, where the Grey Wardens and King Cailan were slaughtered by Darkspawn. It runs for 400 points on the XBOX LIVE Marketplace. Aside from a couple of flashbacks and one gruesome souvenir of the battle, Return to Ostagar offers little in terms of new story or character…
Read the full review At 400 points, King Cailan's armour doesn't come cheap
Warden's Keep is a minor piece of downloadable content that adds about half an hour to 45 minutes of extra gameplay. The introduction to this small slice of Dragon Age pie is rather clever, though also a bit dirty on Bioware's part. A man by the name of Levi Dryden will show up in your camp before you've downloaded the DLC, and offer you a look at his wares, alongside a tale of a fortress that once belonged to the…
Read the full review Warden's Keep is way too short to recommend
1996's Tomb Raider is one of those seminal games that have spawned a myriad of sequels and essentially propelled a whole genre forward. It has since seen quite a few successes, but the Tomb Raiders of late has been rather flat, offering little beyond rehashes of that original formula and the occasional cup size change for Lara. Lara Croft: Guardian of Light looks to take the franchise in a whole new direction.…
After four entertaining episodes, The Tales of Monkey Island series ends with Rise of the Pirate God. It is the darkest episode out of them all. After the rather dialogue-heavy Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood, Rise of the Pirate is a fifty-fifty split between one last big puzzle sequence and an action sequence to resolve the main story thread. It's definitely a dark Chapter with some grim themes and…
Read the full review Rise of the Pirate God is a strong finish to a great series
Tales of Monkey Island: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood is the fourth episode in Telltale's revival of the Monkey Island games. This penultimate episode starts with Guybrush having escaped his rather tricky situation from the previous episode and immediately falling into another one. I wonder what happened to Murray... If you've kept up so far, you already know that The Tales of Monkey Island is a…
Read the full review Trial and Execution is probably the best episode yet
The Tales of Monkey Island is Telltale's revival of the classic Monkey Island series, point-and-click adventure games that feature Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate. The tale has been split into five chapters, and this middle chapter had me quite excited after the mind-blowing finish of its predecessor. The adventure gets ever more weird! Since these five games could essentially be counted up to form a single game,…
Read the full review Lair of the Leviathan continues to uphold the series' quality
“The Siege of Spinner Cay” is the second installment in Telltale's revival of the Monkey Island series, called “The Tales of Monkey Island”. The first episode ended with a bit of a cliffhanger that had players such as myself intrigued, and episode 2 picks up right where its predecessor left off. After being confronted by Pirate Hunter Morgan Leflay, protagonist Guybrush Threepwood loses his hand and replaces it with…
Read the full review Siege of Spinner Cay follows up on the excellent first episode
Mass Effect 2 was one of the greatest games of 2010, with a tale worth playing through, excellent dialogue trees and very able gameplay. When the game first came out, players who had bought the game new received a free downloadable character named Zaeed, who brought with him a loyalty mission and an extra room in the Normandy that was rather bland. With “Kasumi's Stolen Memory”, Bioware has essentially reused that…
Read the full review Stolen Memory is not devoid of quality, just devoid of quantity
There are a lot of first-person shooters out there on the market, so when I first heard about Borderlands, I was a bit skeptical. “It's just an another shooter, except with more guns that all feel the same.” I was delighted to find, however, that I couldn't have been more wrong. Borderlands is a focused shooter that melds RPG and shooter mechanics together to great effect, and offers a lengthy adventure that can get…
By now, we pretty much know what to expect from Telltale's adventure games. Featured within are lines upon lines of well-delivered and generally witty dialogue that accompany clever puzzles which reward thinking outside the box along with exploration. The developer has brought out another shining example of this with its revival of the Monkey Island games in an episodic format. Once again, Guybrush Threepwood,…
Read the full review An excellent start to the season that had me begging for more
A lot of good games come out every year. Then, among those good games, great games can be distinguished. And then there are those who stand tall above this highest tier of games and deliver a truly special experience that will be talked about for years to come and will be a considered an absolute benchmark for its respective genre. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is one such piece of entertainment. Once more, for…
Zombies seem almost too easy by now, don't they? Between Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty, Red Dead Redemption and Borderlands, lots of quality games look to the undead for enemy fodder. However, there was no doubt in my mind that Borderlands would make good use of the concept. Not only does Gearbox possess the ability to make genuinely funny games, something that comes in handy when dealing with such a…
Read the full review Dr. Ned's Island highlights Borderlands' strengths
What do these zombies think of all this? Dead Rising 2: Case Zero has a bit of an odd tale to tell. Before its release, many accused it of being a paid demo for Capcom's Dead Rising 2. At first glance, that sentiment seems justified as well: for 400 Microsoft points, you can download this sneak peek of sorts at the engine and new gameplay mechanics in that upcoming zombie party game, exclusively for the XBOX 360. It…
By now, the Uncharted series has amassed some serious fame. Uncharted 2, in particular has received critical acclaim for being one of the most exciting and best-looking adventure games in recent years. However, its predecessor, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is definitely worth checking out as well, and if you're wondering why this game is regarded a classic from the PS3's earlier days, I'm about to explain just that.…
Sony's God of War series has always served the company well: its high production values, epic scope and simple but fun gameplay have made it extremely popular among casual and more enthousiastic gamers alike. After the acclaim the first God of War received, many clamored for a sequel on the Playstation 3, but SCEA decided to make God of War II a final tour-de-force for the Playstation 2, a swan song, if you will.…
The game is laughing at you for sitting in your house instead of being outside While playing Flower, I frequently found myself wondering what I wanted to get out of playing a game. Was it frequently being amazed by huge set-pieces that allow me to crawl into the skin of every boy's favourite action heroes? That certainly seems what most developers think, and who can fault them for doing so? Flower, however, has a…
There are certain franchises that every gamer knows of. Final Fantasy is one of them, as is Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima's intricate brainchild. However, as well-known as the name Solid Snake is, the series has always divided the audience: a story that can be hard to keep track of with its numerous twists and turns, as well as gameplay that hardly evolved in a meaningful way between the first Metal Gear Solid on…
Read the full review Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-Batman-Batman-Batman! Batman has always been one of the most beloved of comic book franchises, and with 2008's The Dark Knight, such resounding success was had that even people who didn't care about any superhero shenanigans enjoyed watching Bruce Wayne doing his thing. In the world of video games, superhero games are generally looked upon apprehensively. True, there have been some good ones,…
As someone who has always harboured a deep love for the Devil May Cry games, Bayonetta seemed like it would be exactly the kind of game I'd enjoy. With Hideki Kamiya (the man who envisioned the first Devil May Cry ) behind the game, Platinum Games' effort is about that same third-person action with plenty of melee weapons and guns with infinite bullets. Aside from the insane, stylish action, Bayonetta is also filled…
Geometry Wars is a perfect example of a game with the simplest of concepts, that's executed well and ridiculously fun for it. In this dual-stick shooter, you take control of a spaceship and attempt to keep the hostile geometrical shapes off you. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved brought the nostalgic goodness into the current generation with colourful graphics. Now, its single mode has been expanded into six in the…
'Splosion Man is probably my favourite platform game of all time. It managed to entertain me for hours with its crazily complicated and awesome jumping sequences, its great sense of style and the hilarious antics that permeate the gameplay and cutscenes. If 50 singleplayer levels and another 50 multiplayer levels for up to 4 players, just about all of which are awesome, sounds enticing to you, I can assure you that…
When Too Human was announced in 1999 for the original Playstation, nobody expected that it would become infamous for an extremely long development cycle and a lawsuit filed by developer Silicon Knights over the engine. However, the game managed to make it to shelves nonetheless. Too bad its terrible gameplay negates any enjoyment you may extract from the epic story the game attempts to tell. Too Human stars Baldur,…
2K Games' hand is very recognizable in Prey. If you can imagine a Rapture-like atmosphere coupled with decidedly Doom-like gameplay, you have a pretty good idea of Prey is. However, the game is brought down by shooting action that lacks a punch, and levels that aren't always fun. Tommy is not prepared for what is to come Prey puts you in the head of a troubled Cherokee called Tommy. He lives with his grandfather and…
Fahrenheit is one of those games that you don't play, you experience them. It's essentially one big, drawn-out quick-time-event that allows developer Quantic Dreams to express their vision having without gameplay mechanics impeding what is essentially an interactive movie. If a game has no true gameplay, its narrative better be really strong, and thankfully, Fahrenheit's mostly is. However, while the story only…
You may remember the first Assassin's Creed as a game with some really cool ideas and great graphics, that was brought down by some significant flaws, like the fact that the entire game basically consisted of the same 5 mission types over and over again. I personally loved the previous game, being able to look past these shortcomings, but a lot of people did not. Thankfully, Assassin's Creed II intelligently builds…
Trials HD Review You may be familiar with the Trials franchise. It has you take control of a rider and his bike, and guide them through a series of 2.5D obstacle courses. With Trials HD, the series makes its first appearance on the XBLA marketplace, and it does so with great success. Trials HD jumps from being very easy to ridiculously hard over the course of just a few levels, and as such, it may chase away some…
If you've ever played Monolith's excellent Condemned: Criminal Origins, then you might remember that game for having a great atmosphere, a pretty intriguing plot and some truly psychotic enemies that you brutally smashed down with all manner of blunt and sharp objects. In Condemned 2, you can find all of those things, but the game has been cranked up a notch in terms of violence and overall craziness. If the first…
If a very atmospheric first person shooter is what you're looking for, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin is your game. Monolith's latest in a series of creepy first person games such as Condemned and FEAR is another success. Exciting set-pieces and some pretty entertaining attempts at immersing the player make this a really fun ride. FEAR 2 has more of a "Blockbuster" feel to it Whereas the first FEAR had you take control…
FIFA 10 is arguably the best football game on the market. It just does everything right. It has great gameplay, it has a tonne of licensed leagues, and it has a plethora of modes. If you are looking for a football game to sink hours of play into, FIFA 10 is the game you should get, easily beating Pro Evolution 2010, a game that, when played side-by-side with FIFA, feels decidedly archaic and clunky. EA's latest…
Valve has done it again. With fantastic games like Portal, Team Fortress and Half-Life, they are among the most successful and acclaimed developers around. And there's a new franchise on the block: Left 4 Dead, Valve's highly kinetic zombie shooter. There are quite a few games going around that feature zombies in some way or another, but Left 4 Dead gets it absolutely right. Playing through the game makes you feel…
Halo 3: ODST is not a full-fledged sequel to Halo 3, nor is it an expansion pack in the true meaning of the word. It comes packing with a decently-sized new campaign, and one new multiplayer mode, called Firefight. On top of that, it comes with Halo 3's complete multiplayer package, including all the downloadable content as of yet released for it. If you liked previous Halo games, you'll probably like this one, and…
Radical Entertainment's Prototype is bags of fun. The game clearly identifies itself as a Jack-of-all-Trades, which means that if you enjoy open-world games, you're almost guaranteed to find something you like in here. The downside is that Prototype may have over-stretched itself, because while there are many aspects to the gameplay, they all lack a certain degree of polish. However, if you're looking to have some…
By now, Tom Clancy has got quite a few franchises running in the gaming industry, and most of them are really popular. However, Splinter Cell has always stuck out even among these great franchises, because it does not make you play a random soldier in a greater conflict. In Splinter Cell, you play as Sam Fisher, America's best spy that's sent out to discreetly solve delicate situations that the government has gotten…
Read the full review Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Shadow Complex is awesome. If you've ever played a Metroid game, you should know what playing Chair Entertainment's creation is like. The gameplay focuses on exploring a huge complex and upgrading your character to unlock new areas. The constant sense and desire of progression, along with a pretty solid shooting engine make this game pretty addictive. Jason comes across the complex by accident. Thankfully, he's been…
The original Far Cry on the PC was something special; it successfully combined an open world to roam with great shooting action. However, when Far Cry Instincts and its expansion, Predator, were released, Ubisoft did away with the open world elements, much to the games' detriment. Thankfully, Far Cry 2 does not follow that example. It features a huge chunk of African savanna to explore by running, gliding, swimming…
F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon —which is one of the worst meanings Monolith could've come up with for that acronym—is a shooter that, inspired by Japanese movies like The Ring, incorporates horror elements into its gameplay. Random pools of blood are everywhere F.E.A.R. boasts quite an intriguing storyline, involving a ruthless man called Paxton Fettel and a mysterious girl with the same greasy hair as the…
Read the full review F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon
Let me start by saying that usually, I'm not too big on JRPGs. Their characters are just too over-the-top, too ridiculous for me to enjoy playing as. Moreover, the grindy gameplay the genre generally offers also makes me turn up my nose. Both of these things, however, did not make me love Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 any less. You will meet plenty of memorable characters along the wayThis Persona 's main draw is…
With Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time , Jordan Mechner's highly successful and revolutionary game series was reborn, and people liked it. Even if the stylistic changes in the sequel were not appreciated by everyone, the S ands of Time trilogy was still a resounding success. With this new Prince of Persia , the series receives its second reboot in a very short period of time, which is signified by its lack of a…
Last year, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter ( GRAW ) was one of the first true “must-haves” on the XBOX 360. It featured unbelievable graphics, a fantastic campaign and a highly popular multiplayer mode. Now, only a year later, Ubisoft has done it again. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 ( GRAW2 ) sticks very closely to the original GRAW 's formula, and as such it doesn't reinvent the franchise. But if the original…
Read the full review Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is another title to add to Star Wars' impressive game library. However, when working with such a big franchise name, developers tend to prefer getting their title out quickly instead of making sure it's a quality game. As a result, the Star Wars videogame library consists of a lot of terrible games with the occasional excellent one to shake things up. Obviously, the next question is…
DICE is primarily known for its popular Battlefield series. Because of that, it's surprising they are behind Mirror's Edge . This game isn't focused on gunplay at all. In fact, the game encourages you to avoid combat situations at all times, and the act of shooting a gun isn't satisfying either, which is weird, since the guns definitely packed a punch in the Battlefield games. Instead of being a shooter, Mirror's…
These days, EA is known as the company that does nothing but put out annual rehashes of its profitable franchises, such as Madden and Fifa. However, Electronic Arts has decided it wants to get rid of that image, and the way it wants to do so is to put out a number of new IPs. Dead Space is one of those new games that will likely turn into franchises, and it hits home. It's a sci-fi horror game that reaches…
Resident Evil is one of those long-standing franchises Capcom possesses that make fans go absolutely mad with excitement and nostalgia. However, with Resident Evil 4 , Capcom drastically flipped the wheel on the franchise, with gameplay that was very unsimilar to its predecessors. The game was hated by some, but became a huge succes overall. As such, it comes as no surprise that Resident Evil 5 is an exact copy of…
