spimp, I am assuming and hoping you've played all three Prime games.

Just the first one to which I liked. 2nd and 3rd worth a rental?

I've played Infamous and I really liked it. I enjoyed the story. I agree with your review. One of the decisions that Cole had to make really bothered me though. Anyone else who's played this game can probably guess. It bugged me so much I had to stop playing for the day. I had to research what would have happened if I made another choice. Will pick up Infamous 2 when it gets a bit cheaper.

Journey (PS3)

Just to add to the other review. Nice game. Hard to describe. It was more an experience than a game to "play." No competition, just land to explore. The sand graphics were a nice touch. Playing online provides the best experieBnce as you can encounter others on your journey. Definitely a game that sticks in your mind long after you've stopped playing. You don't need to be a gamer to get through it in about 2 hours or so. thatgamecompany struggled a lot to ship this game.

8/10

The Godfather:Blackhand Edition (Wii)
A game I found really cheap at GameStop while browsing.

First 60-70% of the game was a 9/10 for me, but to get to 90% completion of the game it became a 6/10. It may have been how I played it, but it sort of became a chore to play after I discovered the major parts of the game.

I liked the mob subject matter and the missions you needed to complete to move up in the Corleone family. If you're a fan of the movies, you may enjoy the game. It is dated though since it was a PS2 port. The Wii controls are quite good though. It's very much like GTA, but I preferred this over GTA 3 and vice city.

For sure. I played them quite far apart. I know for a fact that I enjoyed 1 more than 2 and 3 more than 2, but not sure if I enjoyed 3 or 1 more. And on a second replay (which I may never get to) I might enjoy them differently.

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (PS1) - 8.5/10

Really solid 3D platformer. It's somewhat non-linear. The worlds aren't as big and complex as Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie, but there are a lot of them and they're all varied and interesting. If you love those N64/PS1 era platformers and haven't played the Spyro games, play them. Despite outward appearance, these games are not for young children when it comes to gameplay and difficulty. The bosses can be pretty tough.

The choices in general in the Infamous games are awful. "Save this baby's life" orrrrrrr.... "go kill 50 cops!" It's so black and white. Many games are like this, and ultimately they're not really about making difficult choices as much as they are choosing the "good" side or "bad" side. We need more shades of grey and we need the game designers to not be judging our choices.

very nice review fanapathy.

Thanks man...will have to try it after I rent Darksiders 2 that just came out. Im also excited for Dead Space 3 to come out as well but that won't be until next year.

Only 8.5 for Spyro 2?

9.5/10 IMO

Spyro 3 9.7/10

Can't wait to play darksiders 2

****'s gonna be off the chain

Anyone have Sleeping Dogs yet? A game set in HK really interests to me.

MGS 3 Snake Eater
11/10

maybe one of the best videogame reviews i have ever read. bought my first videogames magazine in 1991.

Review your game upon 100. For example, 83/100.

Then divide your answer by 10.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
HD Collection PS3

Rating: 9/10

I was pretty sad to get scooped by ADK earlier in the thread, since I'd been working to beat the game at the time and couldn't wait to post a review. To make up for posting a repeat review I decided to complete a Foxhound run before writing. (No kills, no alerts, fewer than 25 saves.) I'm glad I did, because it changed the way I thought about the game.

I am a MGS fan, and had already played 1 and 4 before getting the HD collection. I watched some speedruns online to help me with some tough parts, and the difference between this and the PS2 version is incredible. It looks so much better, and I like that they changed the camera options. I think it would be really hard to play a few of the areas with strictly the overhead camera.

On my first playthrough I found the game a bit frustrating in difficulty and the controls a bit awkward. I started on Hard difficulty and wished I had done Normal because it would have helped me become accustomed the controls without so much pressure from the enemies. I'm not very good at FPS games, so it took me a while develop the quick aiming skills that are necessary for success in this game. Small mistakes snowball, but on the other hand there are always opportunities for fast and bold routes through an area or boss battle.

On my second playthough I began to understand enemy AI better, and know how to manipulate guard behavior. This really expanded my enjoyment of the game, since it made sneaking much easier and helped me correct mistakes like getting the attention of a guard or missing a shot and triggering a Caution.

Learning this and watching speed runs revealed to me the deep elegance of the gameplay. Seeing how close you can get to guards and what you can do without getting caught is amazing. Seeing how players come up with such different strategies for difficult boards is impressive, and what used to be a slowpaced crawl with the tranquilizer gun is turned into an impressive display of dashing and smashing, ducking and shooting.

Paired with the epic gameplay is the distinctly Metal Gear epic story. Some elements of it are the best in the series; Snake's adventure is the most classic here, and the tale of The Boss is twisty, surprising, yet satisfying. It has some downsides though, like the main antagonist Volgin being one dimensionally preposterous. I also feel like some of the decisions they made to create or ensure continuity were unnecessarily awkward, as was the need to try to explain every little detail of the series. This sacrifice of conciseness for comprehensiveness was dull and slow, but I think most people know by now whether they like the MGS style of story.

The only other problem I have is with how fragmented the gameplay can be. There are a few long low interactivity segments that precede difficult parts, and if you are working towards no continues/limited number of saves - which is a common goal - you are punished for essentially no reason. Restarting the game takes two minutes, which is a steep price to ask of a busy gamer every time they die. Having to burn a save just to insure against a five minute unskippable do-nothing is pretty lame. Becoming better during my Foxhound run helped mitigate this, and is part of the reason my opinion of the game increased compared to my first playthrough.

Overall this is a classic game and perhaps the best of its genre. Its depth makes it improve when replayed, giving it more staying power and relevance than most other games of its era. I cannot recommend it enough. I have Uncharted 3, Arkham Asylum, and Dead Space waiting and unfinished, but all I want to do is run through MGS3 again.

MGS 3 Subsistence (updated camera ftw) was my favorite of the series and a top 10 game of all time for me, i've got 10+ playthroughs and like you did no kill/alert/time limit etc games. agree that the game got better upon multiple replays, it was one of the few games i enjoyed more every time i played through it, i rarely have the urge to replay a game and when i do i often become bored and quit before finishing it.

Yeah it's fun to go through and try to beat your time/improve your stats. I am trying to get my saves down to zero. We'll see.

Spec Ops: The Line - 8.6/10

I'm not sure why I gave DX:HR only an 8.8 while calling it "one of the best games of 2011" (still true), cause I wouldn't say Spec Ops is in the running for the best game of 2012 or anything, but it is a pretty enjoyable experience that breaks a lot of narrative conventions of shooter games. It takes place in a Dubai overrun by sandstorms, where you're leading a 3-man recon team sent in to figure out what happened to the American battalion that was trying to evacuate civilians. You arrive to find a situation wildly out of control with martial law and atrocities galore, and start going down the rabbit hole yourself. The Zero Punctuation review sums it up pretty well without spoiling too much. The gameplay is fairly typical for 3rd person cover-based games, but is exciting and moves at a fast enough pace to keep you interested. It's been awhile since I've been motivated to play a game all the way through but thanks to the excellent story I plowed through this in about 4 or 5 days (prob 12 hours). It's still a little on the expensive side, but afaik it didn't sell that well after release so it's probably a couple months from being a $20 holiday deal and I def recommend picking it up at that point.

Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

This was easily one of my favorite games growing up, and I never even had a Super Nintendo. Me and another friend would several times a week go for a (long) bicycle ride to an older friend on the countryside who owned the game, just to watch him play it. We couldn't miss a session. That's how worthwhile it was. I still remember how we tried to figure out how to remove the heavy rocks to get into Kakariko Village in the dark world, and several of the tricky dungeon puzzles.

Having never actually completed the game myself, I gave it another shot after having played several older Zelda titles this year.
The weird thing about this was that I remember almost all of the puzzles from 20 years ago!! There was no internet at the time, so several weeks were sometimes spent to figure out the puzzles. And to call the Nintendo magazine help line as a last resort

I wish I only had good things to say, as this is widely considered one of the greatest games of all time. This game has aged. It's not as deep in neither story nor gameplay as the more recent titles (note: I have not played the GameCube/Wii titles yet).
As this is inevitable as games constantly evolve, some things are more relevant. It's inconsistent in that it's unclear what your current goal is. By this I mean, early in the game you get hints on where to go next or which item you need to proceed. You also get this later in the game (talking to trees/characters etc), but between some levels there's no information. This results in a lot of frustrating exploring, testing out a lot of things that don't really make sense and running around the worlds over and over again. This increases difficulty level, but sometimes what you have to do can't really be guessed (read: Monkey Island 2). Challenging puzzles can be great, trial&error for several hours is not. You can look up walkthroughs online, but it usually takes out a lot of the sense of accomplishment and ruins the experience.
Another is that boss difficulty varies and sometimes the boss is the easiest part, some are much easier than the previous ones and so on.
However what I think is perhaps the biggest "flaw" in the game (there aren't any real flaws to mention in the game) is that the same dungeon music is used in almost every dungeon in the game. The game has great music but this piece is not really that good and quite repetitive. In addition, if you get frustrated with a dungeon you might associate that feeling with the music and re-trigger that when entering a fresh dungeon, if that makes sense. The best musical composition in the game in my opinion (Hyrule Castle) is only used for a short portion of the game.

This game has a lot of clever puzzles that will reward you for being smart, especially certain heart pieces. It's pretty cool to figure out "How the hell do I get over there?" and then logically finding the non-obvious route using wits and special items. The opening is great, as is the story, you will get deeply drawn into this game and unable to quit until you've completed it.
I'd absolutely recommend this as the first game to play for anyone that has wanted to get into Zelda but who doesn't know where to start, and can handle the (pretty nice) 2D graphics. This game set the standard. Gameplay is great and it really makes the most of the SNES. A definite masterpiece at the time, however it has been passed by more than I thought it had.

Based on that, I can't work out a fair score. As a Super Nintendo game, it's absolutely perfect though.

PS
If you're a long time fan of the game or would like some nostalgia, I recommend watching the 100% current world record (every item, heart piece, bottle etc) run where 'Kryssstal' totally destroys the game in 1h45m. It's from August 2012; this game is still being played, and on a high level

Watch it here:
http://www.twitch.tv/kryssstal/b/327969931

Note: A lot of tricks are used that requires tons of practice and knowledge

Just finished Saints Row 3 with my buddy. Without a doubt it's the best co-op game i've ever played.

XIII (PS2)

Stealth heavy FPS with cel shaded graphics and comic-book aping presentation.The Cel shaded graphics means it hasn't aged as badly as a lot of other PS2 titles looking stylish if a little boxy.
This is a real old school game unlimited weapons, health packs and Bosses with health bars. The controls are just OK occasionally you will think you hit some one but it wont register at other times you get credited with a hit you thought missed. Its very reminiscent of GoldenEye with its mix of stealth gadgets and shooting action. The levels offer some nice variety with a couple of cool set pieces. The boss battles are nothing special and some of the latter stealth levels are infuriating pattern memorization tests. But its best levels like the hedge maze offer a tight tense experience where enemies show a little awareness and demand a little respect and caution.
Unusually for an FPS its story heavy. You wake up like so many game protagonists with amnesia and after surviving an ambush must start piecing together who is trying to kill you. The story's not great but its good enough to drive the action and along with the visual style raises this above the average PS2 FPS. 6/10

I played XIII on GC, I enjoyed it at the time.

Dead Space

I finally finished the final boss after about a year of being stuck. Yes its a RE4 clone and no its not as good but it's still great fun. Top notch presentation a creepy setting, a good upgrading system and tight controls all contribute to make it a very enjoyable shooter. It doesn't do enough with its few new ideas like telekinesis and zero gravity to make it really stand out but its pretty tense when hordes of shambling monstrosities are inching towards you while your fumbling to reload. 7/10

Faster Than Light

I could type up a review, but I think this is more telling..

If you liked the first one, you will like DS II. I am psyched for the third to come out early next year I believe. I'm still recovering from the disapointment after playing RE6...RIP RE unless you get your sht together.

This is is a $9.99 game people.