and Hotline Miami,

initially didn't like it but eventually gave the game a serious shot and no regrets

also short, around 3 hours.

FLY'N

boy, what a game! looks beautifully, it's super witty and I love the music.

But the best part is these challenging levels. What a variety! Boss fights are great, all the levels are well thought, a bit difficult though but that's what it makes this game uber good! highly recommended.

No GTA 5 reviews?

nobody truly finishes that game

no minecraft reviews?

Beyond Two Souls is incredible, been waiting for it since its first look e3 trailers, and finally got it today, easily my choice for GOTY, it's only my opinion and its definitely not a game everyone would be in to, since its mostly story driven and most people are just shooter junkies.

Game play although minimal is still very very good and satisfying, CG is probably the best I have seen in a game for some time, if not ever, and some of the environments are breathtaking, I seriously do think they have perfected the genre. My opinion might be a little biased since I love Ellen Page and am a big fan of Willem Dafoe but they both play their roles extremely well and I think the game is exactly what story telling should be like in games.

Highly recommend it to anyone who isn't an FPS/sandbox geek that doesn't like cut scenes/slower games

9.5/10

Doing a replay of Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines

This game was made in 2004. It is buggy (but there is an unofficial patch that fixes a lot of it). The graphics are a decade old and it shows. Other than that this game is incredible. This is a chapter based game with choices that have some impact and lots of side quests off the main line. The voice acting and dialog choices are better than most games. There is some pretty good attention to detail to the surrounding area, too, but it is somewhat limited due to engine that was available at the time. (For instance, there are several prostitutes, but only two models of them. Potential johns will talk to them occasionally, but it is hard to hear. Usually they say not tonight or something, but occasionally you'll see a hooker walking with one to a back alley and give him a BJ.) Needless to say, the setting is pretty seedy. The world is not huge, but it is very dense. Almost every place you see has a purpose at some point in the story, and there is tons of information about minor characters on computers and such. The world has a lot of depth in that regard.

I guess if I had to compare it to anything I have played, it would be Deus Ex Human Revolution (only one in the franchise I have played), except much more gritty. The mechanics are interesting, and you have lots of choices for how you spend experience. (You only get experience by completing tasks, not by killing or anything else, though there is a fair amount of that).

I would love to see this game rebooted with a better engine. If they could keep the mechanics the same, and the dialog / choices / story that would be fine. Better still would be to leave a developer kit for making more games in the franchise. This is just a game done right, except on an engine level (and I think they were just over reaching their technology or resources or something). I think I picked up this game at 75% off a couple of years ago. Also, it is not a short game. It has 4+ chapters, each of which has a lot of game play (and you can go back and forth between chapter areas; new places just open up to you).

This is one of my favorite games of all time. If you like this sort of RPG at all, definitely check it out.

Mass Effect 3

Warning this review contains spoilers

Having said I wouldn't I ended up playing it in the end.
My initial impressions were positive. It felt like a continuation of the story unlike ME2. The Combat has been further polished and is the best in the series. Enemies now use grenades to flush you out of cover and try to flank you. Crouching safely behind cover and going for a pee is no longer an option. Elevation plays a much bigger role and having the high ground is a big advantage. It's a pity more combat arenas don't have split levels.
There's also a much richer variety of enemies to keep thing interesting.
Other improvements include the graphics which are very impressive even if they do cause a bit of slow down now and again. The equipment upgrade system which strikes a nice balance between ME1's micro managing and ME2's hands off approach, And The loading screens which a slightly less lengthy and disguised by cut scenes.

Sadly that's it for improvements but there's quite a list of negatives. The largest of which is the narrowness of the gameplay. It's been reduced to combat and talking with only a hint of exploration and scanning. Talking about which, why am I the only ship's captain without detailed star charts? It makes it a pain in the arse to get anywhere.
One of the high points of ME2 was its one puzzle mission, there was only one puzzle in ME3 and all the mini games have been removed.
The story and pacing are also questionable. In the middle period the game seems to meander and all sense of urgency is lost. You don't seem to be involved in a war despite everyone talking about it.
Where ME1 had a clearly defined villain ME3 has three candidates but none are particularly engaging. The Reapers have no personality, The Elusive Man seems too remote and Kai Lang is introduced too late and does too little.
I was also disappointed that my decision in ME2 not to help Legion to save the Geth from being taken over by the Heretics and his death seemed to have been papered over by the inexplicable creation of a Legion AI on a reaper ship that allowed the story to play out as if Legion had lived through the events of ME2.
Not sure which ending I saw but I wasn't horrified by it just annoyed that I chose to integrate myself with the Citadel to save the relays but they were destroyed despite it being made clear that that was the price to pay for killing the Reapers.

7.5/10

Somewhat different review here.

Played through, definitely a lot of similarities between this game and The Last of Us. Expect a lot of reflecting on death in this game, after completing it i sat back and thought about it for hours after beating it.

So yah, powerful, depressing game about death with small bright spots.

9/10

If you wanna see someone play it: http://www.twitch.tv/thecreatures/b/468547723

I've read some reviews since I played it, and there seems to be a very polarizing reaction from gamers, people either love it or hate it, I personally loved it, but that might have been because it gripped me, since I had been waiting so long for it, and I loved the cast, I don't really like David Cage personally but I like what he's doing with games.

I know reviews of games are usually more or less the same but this game is different, so if any of you play it and think my reviews ******ed keep that in mind.

I would probably score ME3 the same, but for me the highlight of ME3 is the story line with legion and the geth. If ever you feel motivated to play it again I would recommend saving Legion from the heretis. That said I have no idea how similar the content is in the arc you choose. Do you get to play the tron level where you go inside the AI itself?

Yes I did and it looked cool but I'm not sure I'd call it playing, it wasn't very interactive and didn't require any skill.
Getting Legion killed was hand waved away when I found this AI Legion 2.0 on a Geth ship with no resnoble explanation of why they would need it. It was clear to me that if Legion had lived I'd be playing the same level with minor dialogue differences and a different skin on the AI Legion.

Wat shooting the yellow data blocks was hard.........

I'd give the series a 9.5 myself.

But I'd agree that this was the defining point of the series for me. Having done everything in my power to help the Geth it was hard to watch

No other game has put me in a position where I have to make the tough choices that have actually affected me on such an intimate level. I also thought the control ending was perfect for what I wanted from the story and lined up with my personal preferences for Human-AI relations.

This is the scene I was talking about. I'm sure very few players saw this on their initial playthroughs but that's what makes the game special in my eyes. The only thing wrong with the video is that it doesn't have femShep.

but if you don't save tali, you don't get to hear about the emergency induction port.

I got it on my second playthrough and I had no idea about it so it was pretty awesome. It was also pretty sentimental because in that run my Miranda was dead.

Testament of Sherlock Holmes

Approaching 500 steam games, about time I finish one of these...
Only reason I forked over the $6 for last week's humble bundle b/c of my own curiosity about this game.

I felt the story was good and there were a few great moments in the story. The puzzles were a little frustrating at times (had to faq a few and I still don't know how I was supposed to figure out one of them on my own ever...) especially the one I knew the solution a long f'ing time ago but they wouldn't let me put it in b/c I had missed a clue, which was looking at something completely irrelevant. You can skip some puzzles in the game if you wish to save time/faq/frustration if you wish. It's also nearly impossible to get lost (when you were done with what you were doing, they usually tell you where to go next right away). well you might turn the wrong way but you can't get too far out of the way.

Score
7.5/10. I think it's worth picking up (on sale of course like every game) if you're a fan of the general sherlock stories and enjoy the point and click adventure/puzzle game style. If not, it's fine to skip this one.


ME3, yeah I remember dying under cover and then going let's try YOLO and that worked out better that way, for me it ended up some were better in cover, some YOLO strats were better, that's rare for a game. I'd give that a 9.5 tho, quality was nuts all the way around no matter what ended up happening. I even played multi a fair bit, probably sunk 80ish hours. (tho, I knew people who maxed out every gun and everything obv, ridic)

Dear Esther

what a weird game, it's an adventure game and that's it. If you had told me what it was I wouldn't have played it after hating Proteus ( never figured out wtf to do). You can't click a thing just move.

It's not too bad for getting out of the way as it'll dead end eventually and force you to turn around, as long as you don't go back the way you came you'll be fine. Story is weird as hell, music didn't bother me at all so that was nice, scenery was good, but how the f'ing hell did they get 1 million lit candles and that much chalk on a completely dead island?

If you like adventure games like a proteus it's a little over an hour run through (might've ended up closer to two) and visuals are good then this is a good game to run through (it's often in bundles and severe discounts (I think it's a buck and a quarter on gmg atm)). Otherwise, this is a pretty easy skip, while I don't regret playing it, I'm not going to jump into my time machine and tell my previous self to play it either.

Score
6/10

The Walking Dead

The game is like an interactive film, in which the player is constantly made to make tough decisions to guide the main character on his path. Limited in actual gameplay, the experience is extremely robust in it's agonising yet beautiful storytelling, and it's truly wonderful cast of diverse and authentic characters, and also in its ability to test a player to his limits by giving him extremely difficult choices to make and questions to answer. Playing this game, your emotions will be harassed and tossed constantly by the lovable, yet helter-skelter community of characters who you befriend and protect, of whom you genuinely develop a deep and warm bond of kinship for. The game forces you to choose their fates as you advance through the zombie apocalypse and this brings with it a constant state of agony for the player as every decision he makes has positive, negative and deadly knock on effects for the group and himself, and this will leave him emotionally exhausted and strained to breaking point under the weight of responsibility. Only the most psychotically closed person could not be touched by this masterpiece, and especially by the wonderful and peerless ending at which most will be deeply moved. The game is set-up to constantly agitate your feelings and make you reflect on your past actions, but never does the game judge or discipline you for those actions, you are forced to float in contemplation, the game acting merely as a mirror to reveal your own reflection in which you are ultimately left to judge yourself.

All in all, the game is an excellent adventure in a similar style to Heavy Rain and The Grim Fandango, and easily surpasses those games. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys excellently crafted storytelling and a deeply immersive experience.

As a storytelling experience, I give it 10/10

But the real question is

Yes, I most certainly did. I was essentially taking his advice, after he told me in episode one to

Finished Walking Dead recently. Agree that the story, and the way it forces you to make hard choices, is very good. But it doesn't get as much criticism as it should for its lack of real gameplay. I wouldn't compare it to grim fandango or any adventure game as there are no puzzles to speak of. It would have been a much more fulfilling experience if there was any challenge in progressing.

Assassins Creed 3

I have to say that they really did brake the boundaries in this title, the graphics were just simply amazing, the free flow fighting was really really impressive, they have improved since the very first title back in 2009, when I was playing the first game I was then on hooked. The father and son story was really good, although he knew he had to kill his father I believe that there was some part of him that didn't want to kill him.

The ship battles I was amazed by due to the fact that this was the first time they introduced this sort of game style for assassins creed, and I really liked the storm system too.

I'mn giving it a 9.5/10

Silent Hill 2

The controls are aids, graphicly it's aged horribly badly, the combats shallow and the puzzles are annoying and often illogical, Important objects get lost in the background and the voice acting is sometimes very poor. Which should mean I hated it but doesn't.
It's got atmosphere which counts for a lot the story's intriguing. It does just enough with new enemies and locations to keep you interested and the sound designs great. It really is unsettling and spooky which is hard to do in a video game when you know you can reload if you die. The story also makes sense and comes to a satisfying conclusion something horror films frequently fail to do.

8/10

Mario Kart Wii

Ok so I played it solo. You know what if it's a multi player game and its unfair to judge it on its single player then they shouldn't have included a one player mode should they. No one complains when people criticise good single player games for having tacked on multi player elements.
The driving mechanics are solid, it looks and sounds ok and all the control schemes I tried worked well. Which makes it's faults more annoying because the bulk of a very good game was in-place.
I have three major complaints first the new tracks are OK but mostly forgettable only Wario's Gold Mine can stand comparison with the classic tracks. Giant jumps that basiclly stop the race and allow you to take your hands off the controls for five seconds are horrible design.
Bikes are a nice change but the wheelie mini boost is too powerful and makes them the default choice of a ll time trialers.
More problematic are the weapons and power-ups which are designed to ensure close races regardless of player skill. Blue shells and Bullet bills are the worst they reduce the skill to required to win to virtually none it becomes a game of snakes and ladders. I don't know why they couldn't have multiple modes a fun mode where gran can beat the kids and a restricted mode where weapons are limited and the emphasis is on racing. But then the whole game feels a little rushed the menus are sparse and ugly and the replays limit you to watching the whole race from a fixed camera.

5.5/10