Sniper Elite 3 | PC, PS3/4, Xbox 360/One

Here's a follow-up to my review on Sniper Elite: V2. The game is more of the same with much better graphics, a lot more weapons, some new stealth gameplay options and some added weapon and loadout customizations. At the end of that review I said

I think everything except the plot got the attention it needed. The levels are varied, gorgeous and have lots of tactical opportunities with plenty of hidden optional objectives and methods of achieving them. Once again the plot is pretty silly and forgettable, something about trying to stop a crazy German general from building a super weapon.

The new stealth options also add a lot of strategy. You can now throw rocks to distract enemies, and I found myself using it a ton, either to distract guards patrolling towards me, or to position them for easier stealth kills. You can also now perform melee take downs along with the silenced pistol. Stealthing through the missions is really slow though as you have to crouch walk everywhere. Some of the mission areas are huge, and you can't really rely on your map compass to point out where enemies are, so running almost always results in alerting one or more of them.

There's also a new audible cover mechanic which gives you a few seconds to take a few shots or run when a gun battery fires near you, a plane flies overhead, or some sabotaged piece of machinery starts coughing. Again, this is fun up until you get frustrated at how slow it makes the game. You'll often find a nice sniping spot near some audio cover, use your binocs to tag a bunch of enemies, then spend ten minutes taking single shots in between the audio cover which can be spaced randomly up to about a minute apart.

If you take a shot outside of audio cover and are not visible to the enemies, you alert the area to your presence, and if you take one more shot they'll then converge on that position. You can relocate outside the area, and they'll eventually give up and go back to their AI routes. It's a little silly shooting a dude standing next to another, have that guy freak out and call in help, then watch them wander around for a bit before giving up and heading back to where they were like nothing happened. Just like in the first game, they have a little awareness circle around their head, which turns yellow if they're suspicious, and red if they're aware of you. They've made it work a bit better, as each awareness level fills up in an arc over about a second, and pops up at the side of the screen for enemies out of view, so you can almost always duck out of view before being spotted.

Aside from the slow pace of stealth play, the lack of punishment for alerting enemies is my biggest complaint. There's really no downside to randomly opening up and then repositioning. There are only a few levels with very obviously placed snipers, unlike in the previous game, so you're rarely in any danger of dying. Once I got fed up with stealthing in a level I'd just unload from far away, and only occasionally if things were getting too harry, bug out and reposition. If the enemies in an area would stay permanently at a higher awareness and also have better accuracy, it'd penalize that style of play and maybe encourage a more balanced approach to each level. As it is, there's really no need to stealth other than because it makes things more interesting for a bit.

Sound was great for the most part, although there was an annoying bug? where if the enemy is alerted, you can hear the actual guards run around and call out, but they also overlay an omnidirectional looping clip of non-existent enemies that persists until you've either killed everyone aware of you or they give up interest.

Also, one final complaint is about the aiming. It seems like the aiming in this game is very random if you're using the real physics option. Any given weapon will seemingly randomly pick a center point of fire at different points in the level. In the previous game, each weapon had its own unique horizontal adjustment you'd have to account for along with the vertical adjustment for range. In this game the random horizontal center makes it basically impossible to play with the real physics without using the cheat reticule that shows exactly where to aim. That took away a bit from the game for me, and I'm amazed it hasn't been patched yet.

All in all, a very nice improvement to V2, and hopefully they can refine some of these systems in the next iteration.

The Last Of Us will be my first platinum. Just have to get through Survivor-Plus. I only have that, GTAV, and Watch Dogs. Not sure if I'll ever platinum GTAV. The online portion is nasty to get trophies.

The Next Big Thing

I picked this up for like $3.50 on sale. This is a point and click adventure from Pendulo studios; it's set in a 50's esque world and has cartoon graphics and cut scene. The puzzles are about par for the course for this type of game, but everything else is really good.

The writing and voice acting are really well done. The game has a quirky sense of humor that works pretty well IMO. There is a lot of detail as well, like when you look at items there are multiple descriptions that the character you are controlling will use to describe them. The cast of characters is well developed and interesting. It's a pretty short game; I have 17 hours on it on steam, but I left it idling a lot, so maybe half that?

If you like point and click games, the production values on this are high, and I think it goes on sale a fair amount.

Bulletstorm Xbox 360 (also available on Steam)

I'd been eyeing this game for a while in the Gamestop bargain bin and finally decided to pick up the digital version on sale for $3 around Black Friday. Think the story-telling and characters of Gears of War (kind of macho cartoons) combined with the FPS gunplay of Rage, though in my opinion it surpasses both of those games given how much fun I had with it. The rub in Bulletstorm is that during the prologue, you get a "leash" that allows you to grab and pull enemies and certain environmental objects towards you. By combining this with your kick that propels enemies away and the game's excellent variety of weapons, you're able to manipulate and murder your enemies in a huge number of ways. By pulling off more interesting and difficult kills (skillshots), you accumulate skillpoints, which are used to upgrade your weapons, though the upgrades amount to ammo and "charged" ammo which is more powerful and allows for even more skillshots. The feedback loop isn't particularly satisfying since it can actually be something of a nuisance to have to buy ammo, but pulling off the skillshots is worth it on its own with the skillpoints basically being the gravy on top.

For the most part, the game feels great. When you leash or kick an enemy, time is briefly slowed so that you can arrange your next shot, though not so much that it pulls you out of the game. Environmental hazards that you can knock enemies into for more elaborate kills are liberally placed, though sometimes that game can be a little heavy handed with these (like placing a fan in the middle of the room and giving you no other ways to kill enemies, forcing you to figure out how to kick them all into the fan eventually). It has some of the more innovative weapons I've seen in an FPS, and even the more typical ones are presented in interesting new ways, such as a revolver that encourages Western-style quick draws or a sniper rifle that allows you to guide bullets (which the enemies will subsequently try to dodge). Finding the different weapons and their charged and skillshots really moves the experience along and I won't spoil anything else here in case someone decides to pick it up. It also helps that the hit detection is extremely precise and will pick up shots to different body parts, so a shot to the throat will react differently than a pure headshot. There is a decent variety of enemies, as well as some minibosses that are harder to kill and allow for some unique skillshots.

I would highly recommend this game if you just want a shooter that's pure straightforward fun. It's linear and the story is pretty typical of these types of games (hint: revenge), but the enjoyment comes from all the ways in which you can kill your enemies. For some reason, the developers included a lot of sequences where you're just kind of running from point A to point B and not actually killing anything, I guess to move the story along. I also wish there were more dynamic ways to use your leash, as there are a lot of points where you use it simply to move a predetermined environmental object in order to open up your path, rather than as something that can be used to unlock secrets. The voice acting is fine and the writing ranges from average to slightly annoying, unless you're really into bro humor in which case you'll probably enjoy it more than I did (I'll give kudos to them for throwing in a couple of "gay jokes" that manage to not be offensive).

If I had to rate this game, I think the metacritic score of 82/100 is fair, maybe a touch higher because I don't think played anything else quite like it. It retails for $20 on Steam but I've seen it at 80% off during sales. It probably ran me about 8 hours and the story doesn't exactly come to a satisfying conclusion, but it's definitely worth playing for the combat alone. I could actually see running through the story again at some point, and there's a mode that allows you to play just to accumulate skillshots, though I haven't tried it. To be honest, I was tired of grinding Diablo III and took a break to test this game out, then proceeded to play through it without ever looking back.

Ori and the Blind Forest - PC, Xbox 360/One

I really enjoyed this one, but I went in expecting it to be a bit of a snooze fest. There's not really anything new in the game, just a very polished super metroid like platformer. It plays a lot like Guacamelee, though the controls feel a bit more polished and satisfying than in Guacamelee. There's also more of a focus on movement skills and navigating the world than in combat, which mostly involves just spamming a single attack that you can slightly upgrade. The visuals and atmosphere are the best I've ever seen in a 2D game, while the story and music are both serviceable but fairly forgettable save for some very well done cut-scenes which still weren't able to avoid boring me. I would hope in 2015 we'd have finally learned that non-interactive cut-scenes are a bad story telling crutch, but here we are.

The PC version is fairly buggy in a few spots, mostly dealing with resolution and multi-monitor support. It either hard froze when I alt-tabbed, or took over my second monitor requiring me to go back in to the options menu and turn full-screen back on. It also crashed every time I tried quitting the game. And it doesn't seem to handle non 16:9 resolutions very well, when I tried putting it in my native 1920x1200 it went in to a weird letter-box mode with the rendered area being smaller than in 1920x1080.

At about 8 hours for 100% completion, it's a bit light for $20 but I don't feel ripped off. It looks like it'd be a fun speed running game if you're in to it, and I enjoyed it enough that I'll probably play it again some time soon.

Assassin's Creed Unity - PS4

This game got pretty poor reviews when it came out but now that I've finished it I have to say I really enjoyed it. It might be my favourite AC game (only played numbered entries 1,2, and 3) and I think it's entirely due to the new stealth mechanics and a greater number of interior areas. The game often feels like a modern take on thief.

It's kind of hard to explain what stealth mechanics adds to the AC series but basically AC never had that stealth anywhere mechanics. Now that it does, your options for eluding you enemies are that much greater. The game has that tense stealth gameplay of slowly creep and time your attacks for when the guards at at the perfect spot for an ambush.

What raises this above the typical stealth game is that it still has the great AC take downs. When you marry this to traditional stealth gameplay I feel like it creates a whole that greater that the sum of its parts. You will be sneaking around trying to find your spot and when you get it, instead of just sneaking behind for the kill, you make a mad dash from your cover, perform a running assassination, and run to a climbing escape as you are being chased by guards. The whole sequence of assassination is the most exhilarating it's ever been in an AC game.

In addition, multiplayer coop is just a ridiculous amount of fun. When you have four assassins running amok it feels like a multiplayer version of the three musketeers. If you can find some good players to play with you can't pass this coop up.

The downsides to the game are the usual AC downsides. You will get caught on the geometry a lot and it's can be very frustrating during the chase missions or when you are trying to escape. The game is also full of a bunch of random crap to collect but I mostly avoided it. I also couldn't tell you what the story was about at all but thankfully the outside the animus levels are completely gone.

All in all, I think if you are a fan of the AC series or a fan of stealth games you owe it to yourself to give this one a second look.

7.5/10

Thanks for the review. Hadn't heard of it but your review sent me looking for more. Question: What games do you think have really great music? You dubbed this soundtrack "forgettable" and I think it's just on another level. It's getting a lot of traction on Youtube as well as iTunes.

Yeah, I did the music a bit of a disservice looking back. It's very good and works well with the atmosphere of the game, but I can't bring any of the tunes to mind - so forgettable in that sense. So there's the distinction between good and fitting music for a game, and memorable, catchy music. In the latter category I'd put pretty much anything by Danny B. (SMB, Necrodancer, original BoI), the FTL soundtrack, Shovel Knight, Bastion/Transistor.

For me, orchestral and ambient music either slips in to the background and complements a game without really standing out on its own, or stands out when it's poorly arranged or performed, so I tend not to remember much about those kinds of soundtracks. We need a John Williams in the indie gaming scene to contrast with all the great chiptunes.

XCOM Enemy Unknown (xbox360) 7.5/10

The first Gollop brothers game I played was Lazer Squad on the Amstrad, which was incredible. I then fought with Config.sys and Autoexe.bat files to get UFO Enemy Unknown up and running on my pc and I loved that game too. Perhaps my familiarity with those games makes me a little jaded but my feelings about XEU are just lukewarm.

Very little has changed since the 1993 PC original and most of what's changed has been in the form of removing content. Squad sizes are reduced, movement is simplified, inventory management is striped back, Base defence is gone and shot type selection is reduced. There are some new features like bomb diffusion missions and VIP rescue missions which are nice additions and the core game play of small squad turn based tactical combat remains as captivating as ever but there are also a number of new problems. Balance issues between soldier types with Snipers becoming over powered towards the end. Bugs including the occasional crash bug and graphical glitches involving people firing through walls or facing 180 degrees from target while firing. It's also got pacing problems you're probably going to have completed all your base building and research long before your ready to assault the Alien mothership and for me the last few mission were a bit of a chore.

Overall however it's fun. It's the first game in a long while that I have completed. While my review might sound negative the combination of turn based squad combat and research and economic management works just as well as it did in 1993 and if you're not familiar with the first game you're probably going to enjoy it more. I also see that "The Long War" mod fixes a lot of my complaints for the PC version.

For me, Enemy Unknown was a little too basic (though still good!), Enemy Within expanded the content and made the game more enjoyable, and Long War completely changes it from a "puzzle" with where there is sort of a superior strategy (spam satellites and use OG snipers) to a bonafide simulation, though a very difficult one.

Wolfenstein - The New Order | PC, PS3/PS4, Xbox 360/One

I really enjoyed this one. The story is over-the-top, but had some interesting characters and a good mix of serious and silly. The game is pretty linear and heavily scripted, which I don't usually go in for, but I didn't find myself bored or frustrated at the pacing very often. The always unique and crazy level design and mission goals did a much better than average job distracting the player from their lack of agency or freedom. In particular, one mission has you launching to the moon to retrieve something from a secret moon base.

Like id's Rage, it uses the id Tech 5 engine, and has the same texture issues that had with pop-in, but even more noticeable IMO especially with close textures being very blurry and snapping in to focus over a noticeable few frames. I got used to it fairly quickly, but I can imagine it being a big enough deal to turn some people away.

As a shooter, it was just decent, and not nearly as fun as Rage. You can dual-wield any weapon including pistols, assault rifles, lasers and shotguns, but ammo is never a concern, and aside from a few large robots that needed some dual-shotgun loving, I found myself just sticking with a single assault rifle through most of the game. Rage on the other hand did an awesome job making each weapon useful, and ammo scarce enough to force you to balance your usage. Enemies were also far smarter, working together to flank you, taking cover from fire and to return fire, and falling back when pressed. There was nothing like that in Wolfenstein, though the AI was competent and never stood out as excessively bad. The pre-release coverage seemed to make a big deal about destructible cover, but aside from a few scripted sequences with wire fences, chains and clearly marked crates that can be cut with a plasma torch type weapon, it doesn't really play a part. Some of the railing cover can be shot through and there are a few fights where you have to abandon certain spots that get torn up, but it never was really a tactical consideration.

The difficulty was also super easy, I think I died once on the second to hardest level. Ammo and health drops are far too common, both from enemy drops and from destructible crates, though the StC wasn't shockingly low!. I should have switched to the hardest, and would suggest any FPS vet looking for a challenge do so. It was also fairly short, clocking in for me about about 11 hours.

Overall, much better than I was expecting, but after just finishing Dark Forces, I can't help but yet again complain about how simplified game design has become in these types of games. Set-piece levels and boss fights, and obvious linear mission goals may make the game more accessible to a wider audience, but they make for a much less memorable experience. And while Rage was pretty linear aside from offering you some overworld options on which missions to hit next, at least it had awesome gun fighting and enemy AI to fall back on, both of which are missing here. Worth picking up, but I feel the excellent script, story and area design were poorly served by the scripted linearity and boring gunplay.

The Last of Us

OK, I know I'm way late to the party, but I just bought a PS4 and it came with this game. I knew nothing about it going in other than that it won a bunch of "game of the year" awards, so I was pretty excited. My expectations were blown away, and this is one of my top 5 games of all time. For those who haven't played it yet, stop reading, because to discuss the game has to include a bunch of spoilers, and I don't feel like separating all of that text, so just stop reading and pick up this game if you haven't played it yet.

What makes this game so memorable is the story. The first 10 minutes gave me the same feeling from the first 10 minutes of the movie "Up." Such an emotional journey in so little time, but you already get a feel for the main character (Joel) and it really sets up his very controversial decision later in the game.

To sum it up, you play Joel for the majority of the game, a father who lost his daughter early during the outbreak of a zombie like apocalypse. After the events that led to her death, you flash forward 20 years to a hardened, grizzled, bitter man, looking to just survive to the next day. Through a series of events, he ends up transporting another girl across the country who may hold the key for the survival of the human race. She was bitten, but is immune to turning into a zombie, so her DNA may be what allows the humans to make a vaccine. Throughout your journey, you end up fighting not only the zombies, but government agents trying to take you down for being part of the rebel organization, and in the end you end up fighting the rebels as well.

The game play is great. It plays a little like a survival horror game in that resources are very limited, so you need to use your weapons sparingly and your wits to take down your enemies without wasting too much ammo. Along the way, there are plenty of new weapons that get added to your arsenal, and you are able to upgrade your weapons, as well as some other aspects of your fighting. The one downside to this game was I always felt obligated to make sure I scoured every corner of each level after wiping out the enemies to make sure I didn't miss some resources. I played the game on normal difficulty, and I never truly felt hampered by not having a lot of ammo, but it did make me conserve. I'm sure on the harder difficulties that it becomes that much more important to stealth when you can, and to head shot practically everything.

The fighting isn't just a button masher. The first tough fight of the game for me was a couple hours in, where you are in a museum, there's one clicker, and a bunch of infected, and it's early enough in the game that I didn't quite understand how these enemies acted, and it took me nearly a dozen tries to get through that sequence. As the game progresses, you end up understanding how each type of enemy reacts, and the best way to take them down. By the end, I was pretty comfortable taking down even a large group of enemies, and died very few times. Even when there were two bloaters, I felt pretty confident and only died once during that sequence (it was the only time the entire game that I used the flame thrower).

There were a couple awesome sequences that were a ton of fun, like getting caught in the trap and having to shoot a bunch of zombies upside down, mowing down a bunch of army guys and a tank with a sniper rifle, some of the chase sequences, and surviving the zombie invasion with David.

The graphics were great on the PS4, but I don't have a lot to compare it to as this is the first game I've ever played on the PS4, but it blew away anything on the PS3 if that means anything. The voice acting of Joel and Ellie was great. The other characters were hit or miss, but fine overall.

The last sequence is very controversial, but I was happy with how it was handled. This part I'll put in spoilers just because there probably are a few of you who haven't played it but really shouldn't read on.



Overall, this is such an amazing gaming experience, and I've never felt so close to any character in a video game prior to this. Joel is an amazing anti-hero, and Ellie was not just some annoying brat tagging along.

The downloadable extra episode, Left Behind, was awful and unnecessary. The game play was more of the same, without any great sequences, and the story was terrible. During the normal game, Ellie talks about her and her best friend Riley getting bit, and this episode goes through that. It's 2 parallel stories, one right after Joel gets impaled and Ellie has to go out looking for a suture kit (btw, I'm a surgeon, and sewing up that wound is the only thing he didn't need in that situation, but I'll let that slide), and the other story with her and Riley on the day they get bit. It's so hokey, corney, and just your typical bad video game dialogue that made me cringe. Fake playing that street fighter video game (those of you who've played through it will remember what I'm talking about) was one of the dumbest things I've ever watched. These are 2 girls who got exactly what they deserved, deciding to break into a mall, play with squirt guns, merry-go-rounds, and halloween masks as a little bit of foreplay to their very juvenile lesbian romance. It was a bad decision by naughty dog to expand this story. During the normal game, when Ellie tells the story, and says that Riley said "It'll be poetic, us losing our minds together," it was very emotional. When I actually saw it during this bonus episode, it made me roll my eyes.

Overall, I give the last of us 10/10
The bonus episode 3/10

Glad you liked it. It's now my favorite game of all time. I actually loved the DLC portion, but more so when I thought there was more. Since it's just that, I think it was a bit of a waste, but I still loved it. Having clickers fight hunters was so damn satisfying.

You definitely have to do it in Survivor mode. That **** is insane!!! There are a lot of spots where you'll wish you snuck past fights or did parts without shooting anyone. I hoarded ammo throughout and still had nothing left for the main weapons by the end.

Now, Grounded mode? Nope. Maybe some day when I have literally nothing to do I'll just consider it. But I made it to the Wharf, died at the end after 10+ attempts, then I started to realize what was coming, and knew I'd never do it.

Have you played Factions yet? It's pretty much nightly for me, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. It's my first console online MP, so I had no foundation of aiming with a controller. I'm pretty beastly in this though.

I actually REALLY REALLY hope there is a TLOU 2. But I don't want it to be with Joel and Ellie. Not that I'd complain really, but they've learned a ton on how to do a tactical MP so as sequal's MP would be outstanding.

If you to play some Factions, same user name. I play both sneaky/stealthy/shivvy and psycho/Aggro so whatever works for me. I do have one request and that is you don't use any shotguns. I hate them all and the people who use them

I've never played an online shooter ever, but I'll try it for this game. It might take me awhile to figure out how to actually get it set up, but once I do, I'll add you. Looking forward to it. And I agree, the one redeeming part of the DLC was infected vs hunters. Throwing a beer bottle to get half of the enemies killed was pretty satisfying.

Since it'll also be your first, you don't have any bad habits built up from other games. They're not bad habits in those games, but in TLOU, they're usually mistakes, unless your aim is godly.

There is a lot to unlock early on, so there's a lot of room to learn and adapt until you get to the point where you can create some actually usable load outs. I know an incredible amount of info on how to approach the MP, so feel free to ask anything. I don't have any real life friends who play this. So aside from the online friends I have, not a lot of tactical discussion happens with me. Most of those guys are some of the best in the Factions community, so they're way past talking basic stuff. They just go in and destroy everyone!! But those guys all agree that the MP is probably on the short list for the bast tactical shooter.

Singularity Xbox 360/PS3/PC

I don't remember hearing anything about this game when it was released, but I've seen it mentioned on lists of underrated games and was able to pick it up a new copy on 360 for a few bucks recently (to get an idea of its age, my disc case still had a promotional sticker attached for a free copy of Prototype that expired 8/31/10...I checked, it's definitely no longer active). It's a first-person shooter that gives me the impression that Raven and Activision saw Bioshock and decided to make their own version of an atmospheric, story-driven FPS. In brief, you are a soldier in 2010 who goes to investigate a mysterious island that was the home to Soviet experimentation on a novel element that turns out to be able to manipulate time. Humans on the island have mutated into horrible creatures, which gives the atmosphere a creepy vibe (I jumped a few times) though you'll also spend some time traveling to 1955 to fight human soldiers, which is when the titular Singularity was created. You also come into possession of a Time Manipulation Device (TMD), which allows you to age or renew certain items as well as manipulate environmental objects and blast enemies with a wave of energy. It's basically a one-trick pony but the trick is pretty good; it allows for some relatively easy puzzles as well as variation in combat outside of shooting.

Mechanically, the game is quite solid, with gunplay closer to something like Rage than Bioshock. Enemies are dismembered by shotgun blasts and your TMD impulse strikes, and the guns just feel right. There are a fair number of different enemy types, though a couple lead to some frustrating sequences that felt impossible to complete without some good luck if you are low on health packs (I will cringe if I ever hear the phrase "Radiation Ticks" again). Additionally, you don't have to vary up your strategy much, and you can largely get through the game cycling through the shotgun, machine gun, and sniper rifle so typical of first-person shooters despite the inclusion of a couple more novel items. Weapon upgrades are not too interesting, but there's a decent economy when it comes to upgrading your TMD powers and your character, though it would be nice to get more than one or two Perk slots when you end up with ~8 perks to choose from. Also there are not enough opportunities to spend your currency throughout most of the game only to have them bunched towards the final sequences when you don't get to enjoy the upgrades as much.

The overall story is solid and handles time travel gracefully (far better than something like Bioshock Infinite, to keep with the theme), though it culminates in a "twist" that you can see coming a mile away and for the most part you're just moving from one objective to another. To drive home the comparison to Bioshock, there are audio recordings and flashbacks scattered around the island that help fill out the story, but they don't enrich the world all that much. For a five-year 360 old game it looks damn good in my opinion, though the island environments become repetitive. I don't have any way to check how long the game took me to play but it was probably somewhere in the 9-12 hour range, which felt like exactly the right amount of time (I didn't realize I was getting bored of it until I could tell I was getting close to the end and was sort of happy to be getting done with it). It currently goes for $30(!!!) on Steam, but I'd listen to the reviewers who say to pick it up for 75% off, which seems like a much fairer price for a five-year old game. If you have a last-gen system you can probably get it for $5 used.

I'd say that this game qualifies for "hidden gem" status as it does a fair imitation of Bioshock, with some elements being superior (namely gun handling and graphics, as well as the creepy factor) while not quite reaching the overall excellence of that series. I was definitely compelled to play through the game from the moment I picked it up, which I find becoming rarer and rarer, especially in FPS that generally feel similar.

Never heard of this one but it's on my radar now, thanks for the review! I haven't played any Raven games besides Heretic and Soldier of Fortune from the 90s, but both were solid games.

I absolutely love Singularity. There weren't too many games out for Mac at the time, but this one was available. I've played through it probably 5x's. I was really surprised it was forgotten about (not as much as XIII, but close) and would probably play it again if I didn't have a PS4 to play.

Why do so many reviews not have a #/10? That's my favorite part. That determines if I read the post or not.

Can't tell if this is a joke or not but it's pretty much exactly why I don't like to post scores; people get too caught up on the number and not the content. If I had to put a number on Singularity I guess I'd say 8/10 to account for 1) it has it's flaws but 2) I didn't really want to put it down. If you like single-player FPS, this one is well-made and throws in some neat mechanics and at least tried to create and interesting atmosphere, so in that case I'd recommend it but a lot of people don't really care for the genre so the score would be different for them. Read Tevis Thompson's take on video game reviews and scores of you get time, he's long winded but will give you something to think about.

It's not a joke, although you're right that different people can read the # differently. To me, it's a 2-word summary of the post. For example, 8/10 = "loved it". If I see that someone loves a game, then that doesn't necessarily mean it's the greatest thing ever or that everyone else should love it too, but it's my first level filter and makes me want to read the post.

Dishonored. 8/10

I suck at the stealth stuff, so I ended up with a chaotic ending. Really well made game.

I also finished Fallout 3. 8/10. I liked the storyline more than Dishonored. Looking forward to Fallout 4.

I don't have a PS4, so I won't be playing Fallout 4 for a long time, probably.

Singularity is the only game that ever gave me motion sickness, just could not play it for more than 5 minutes before feeling sick.

Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

System: PSP

If you're looking for a great linear RPG with a riveting story line and great characters this is the RPG for you. I am a big fan of simple linear RPGs with great storylines and this game fits it to a tee. The combat system is very similar to Grandia and the Lunar series from the PS1, so if you're familiar with those RPGs this one won't feel too much different.

Gameplay: Very solid and simple combat system with some strategic elements. The combat system is much like the Grandia and Lunar series from the PS1. Characters are placed on a map. Characters have the option to attack, move, use arts, use crafts/S-crafts, use an item, or escape. If your character is too far away from the enemy and vise versa they may not be able to use a regular physical attack. To add a bit of strategic element to it, a turn bar is provided allowing to see who's next to act. This turn bar also allows certain bonuses to be gained by either ally or enemy. These bonuses include, gaining health, gaining strength for the turn, gaining EP and CP, and critical attack for the turn.

Arts are the spells in this game which use EP and do not recharge without items or staying at an inn. A challenge at times is that Arts a) take a turn to be casted and b) while waiting to be casted, can be cancelled by some enemies' attacks. The arts system is an advanced version of the materia system from Final Fantasy 7. Each character has an orbment, a grid with 6 spots to put quartz in. Each character has their own unique grid structure with orbment chains and the spells are created based on the combination of quartz that are inserted. The better magic users have easy and straight forward orbment chains, which allow them easier access to the better spells, while the poor magic users have erratic and numerous orbment chains. To make things a bit more complex, some quartz spots are restricted to a certain element of quartz that can be put in. If you want access to the higher power spells, the quartz need to be inserted in a way that the values of the quartz from the same element is high along with a high enough level supportive element. For example, if you want access to a very good group healing spell you need a character would need a water quartz level of 6 and a earth level of 2 in one of their orbment chains.

Crafts are the special attacks that can be used with CP. Each character has their own unique crafts and are gained by leveling up. CP is gained by dealing and taking damage. S-crafts are unique special powerful attacks that takes up all of the CP bar and is allowed if your CP bar is above 100. S-crafts are powerful because you can use them anytime following a turn by enemy or friend by pressing triangle + directional button of the character, and are the most powerful attacks available for your character. Obviously, a great strategy is to interrupt a turn using an S-craft, when the critical bonus is coming up next to prevent an enemy from receiving it.

Once you get the hang of the battle system, it won't be too tough to develop strategies to win battles faster, and it's fairly simple yet has a strategic element to it. The best way to enter battle is to touch the enemy with their back to your characters. Some of the regular battles are pretty tough, especially if you get engaged with your back turned to them. (9/10)

Sound: The soundtrack and music was very solid. It's not as memorable as the Final Fantasy sound tracks but it comes in with a solid effort. (8/10)

Storyline: An RPG needs a good storyline for it to be a great game. The storyline in this game is very well written with good pace and great characters. The female main hero, Estelle, together with her adoptive brother, Joshua go on a journey to become full fledged bracers, mercenaries so to speak. Their father, was a national hero, and one of the best bracers in the continent. The journey involves doing various tasks and quests to obtain recommendations from the various locations in their country. Along the way, they discover a conspiracy and meet friends and foes alike and all is not what it seems. (9.5/10)

If you love old-school RPGs, this is for you. Highly recommended if you enjoyed Final Fantasy/Grandia/Lunar from the PS1 days. (9/10)

A warning however, I don't like RPGs that span over multiple games, especially if they're not out yet here in the US. This game was released in 2011 and the sequel is slated for release this summer. Had I known this, I wouldn't have picked it up as I don't like to be left hanging like that .

I've been waiting more than a year for the sequel to come out, so you're not alone :P The good news is it should be coming soon, and the success of this game has led to them porting over a side game set in the same world (to be called Trails of Cold Steel apparently).

And pretty much agree with the whole review, I enjoyed it so much I went back and played it again as soon as I finished it, the world building and character development is top notch imo