Rage, 2011, PC

kind of says alot about the game already seeing is that i got it when the game came out (oct. 2011) and only just recently finished it. had a ~12 month hiatus from the game when i was about ~80% through the main story. rage was one of those games for me which promised alot, but ultimately failed to deliver.

the setting for the game, while somewhat overdone in the genre, was well presented. there was a wide variety in settings, and the game was at it's most beautiful when exploring the environments like the barren deserts, the maze of sewers or destroyed cities. the storyline itself was rather cliched and pretty weak tbf. you play as a superhuman character of sorts, and only you have the power to save humanity from an evil faction trying to take over and rule the post-apocalyptic world (haven't we heard this before). despite some missions which are super-intense, alot of fun and pulled off very well, the story line just seems old and predictable with no real effort to attempt something groundbreaking in this genre. side missions are cool, especially the racing element which was actually a big highlight, and they can almost double one's playing time, but it's actually a relativel short game at 15-20hrs with all things considered.

game play is no different from many rpg/fps games out there. there are tons of cool toys/elements which keep things fresh, and there are enough of them to collect and get rewarded with, but other than that the game play is standard. character AI is predictable, and after a while just ends up as mindless mowing down of spawning mobs. some NPC's do take a bit of thinking to get past, but these are the exeption rather than the rule.

the biggest gripe with this game is its stability. this has to be hands down one of the buggiest and most graphicaly unstable games ive played in a while. this was a big disappointment from a game coming from a studio as big as bethesda and id software. i played this on a desktop which destroys bf3 for 60fps, but in this was getting numerous graphics glitches, freezes and such other things which range from a mere annoyance to making the game unplayable. several "fixes" have been patched, but the core crappiness of the pc version remains.

rage does have it's pluses, and there are alot of "wow" moments spread through the main mission, but at the end of the day the pc version is a stuttery mess which fails to deliver on the pre-game hype.

4/10

BioShock 2 - PS3

I read a review of this recently that was lukewarm and implied that the Rapture in this game was a lame attempt at recreating the magic of the first game. I disagree. I thought the setting was great. Much of it is "more of the same" yes, but places like Pauper's Drop and exploring what is essentially an abandoned 1980s Epcot ride in one area are really cool.

I'm going to describe a bunch of the game's problems, however I still largely enjoyed it. The last few hours were not as fun for me, because the locations had by that point grown stale and the game could have been shorter. Seventeen year olds seem to always wish games were longer, whereas at 31 I'd prefer them to be shorter in most cases. Our time here is not unlimited. This would be moot of course if a game kept delivering a varied experience throughout.

It's too easy. I played it on Normal, and yes you could always argue that I should have switched it to Hard. But I don't do that, and in fact played FPSs on Easy until recently. I dislike difficulty levels in general, and feel that the developers should be able to balance things better. I don't understand how playtesting did not unearth the fact that by the end of the game you're overpowered and almost don't have to do any fighting at all. Just call a couple of security bots and go open up drawers while they kill everybody for you.

Opening up drawers is another problem. I did a meticulous playthrough, trying to see every nook and cranny. I don't like that, but I feel that the world is designed in such a way that it was necessary. It's not so huge, like Grand Theft Auto, that you cannot and should not be exploring every square inch of the game world. But it's also too cluttered to make exploring fun. If you don't do it, you'll miss out on audio logs as well as valuable ammo and supplies (early-mid in the game).

Exploring in FPSs is troublesome to me because it's so much more tedious than it would be in real life. IRL we have peripheral vision and it doesn't take long to scan a room. In a FPS whenever you enter a new room, you have to move the camera all around, up and down, etc. to make sure you aren't missing anything important. It's a hassle. Holograms and VR helmets and such should solve this in the near future though.

Or maybe it's just my personality. Did other people go through BS2 and just kinda fly through certain areas without fully exploring?

The final thing I'll say is about choice. Choice in games should not be a binary "either save this little girl's life...ORRRRRR...rip her head off!" Especially not when the consequences are meaningless. With these good/evil choices, developers need to make the evil option REALLY appealing from a player reward perspective.

Choice in the original Deus Ex vastly changed how the game was played. You could sneak through back ways, go in the front door guns blazing, hack all the computers before going in, etc. In BS2 you're playing basically just one way on one path except I used electric powers whereas you may have used ice.

Still really solid though and I will definitely play Minerva's Den, the single-player DLC.

7.5/10

FTL: faster than light

i won't write a whole huge review, but if you havent played this game play it!
Amazingly fun take on the roguelike genre, check it out if you're a fan of roguelikes, space games, or just general awesomeness.

9/10

I hope FTL comes out for iPad. Star command also looks good

Gravity Bone (PC Freeware)

Really interesting game with an interesting aesthetic (everybody has square heads and it's cartoony) using I think the Quake 2 engine. You're a spy having to carry out missions and it plays with various spy movie tropes. I really can't get into it much more than that. Definitely worth a play if you're interested in indie games, and it's not going to take up much of your time (15-20 minutes).

Available here:

http://blendogames.com/

There is a commercial sequel, Thirty Flights of Loving, which I'll get around to at some point. There's also a forthcoming game by the same people where the gameplay revolves around being essentially a 1990's hacker, which really gets my blood pumping.

So whats the review?

just finished hot shots golf: the newest one on ps3

solid gameplay, too easy

probably spent 50 hours on it, and easily worth the 20 bucks I paid for it

similar to the old tiger woods' games, but better graphics

Anyone ITT played "Sleeping Dogs" for xbox?

I have and I highly recommend everyone does the same.

Have a look at the dedicated thread http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/75...-dogs-1166119/

Dead Space III - PS3

I finished this after about 19 hours which included most (but not all) optional missions. I was a fan of the first two so maybe I am a bit biased but I found this game to be fun as well.

It is more action paced then the first two and doesn't necessarily have the same horror feeling...even though there are several tight quarter instances that do live to that hype. The graphics are good, nothing ground breaking but definitely solid. You will definitely need to use your stasis much more in this game (which is a good thing) to survive unless you get a monster weapon. I played the single player and not the co-op so now the Mrs and I are going to play it together (now that I know what to expect playing with her lol).

The weapons creation system seems a bit confusing at first, so I didn't mess with it much. Basically you get two weapons with two firing modes for each. I stuck with a standard machine gun/cutter combo for one gun and then a line gun/grenade launcher for the second. There are a lot of possibilities on creating weapons so I look forward to that playing it a second time through.

The story is "ok" and you will be lost if you haven't played the first two, but be honest...are you really playing this for the story lol? I beat it on normal, died a few times but nothing major so I think the difficulty was a bit easy but not too bad for a "normal" mode. There are harder modes for the more experienced gamer to mess with.

Negatives
- Less 0 gravity stuff as well as less actualy in space with the oxygen countdown stuff to do. There weren't many bosses as well. Finally, the save option now sucks as there is no save station, AND you can't save during an optional mission. You will have to play the optional mission completely over if you save part way through.

Conclusion...If you liked the first two even though this is a bit different on some aspects it is still Dead Space fun. I look forward to messing with creating different guns the 2nd time through as well as the co-cop which has some side missions only available this way.

I give it about an 8...good game, but nothing of a "wow" factor...here is hint to help when you are swarmed with necromorphs.

Next up is GOW IV which has been pre purchased...looking forward to playing that one !

Portal 2: Xbox 360

Without a doubt one of the most memorable an enjoyable gaming experiences I have ever had. It ranks up there with The Walking Dead in terms of story, and the gameplay is a ton of fun. Add on top of that some great voice acting (Like, really really great... I haven't encountered a stronger voice acting cast) and you have one of the most revolutionary, and no doubt best, games of all time.

Cave Story+, PC

Tried really hard not to stop a game without beating it going forward from several games ago, but couldn't help myself.

Cave Story+ is an 8-bit-ish platformer rpg where the power of your weapons is directly proportional to the experience you gain (or lose) by killing creatures and picking up the xp drops. I got maybe a couple hours on it but it just failed to grab me like other indie titles have. These 2D platformer indies will be the tough ones for me to get through, they just don't offer the same excitement and intrigue as others. That's just me however, it's an obviously popular game and many people have given it a fair shake and liked it, but it wasn't for me.

Killer 7 PS2

I was drawn in by a weird David Lynchinen presentation and subject matter. You play seven hired killers who share a strange existence inhabiting the one position in space but able to swap persona at will. Guided by the ghosts of those you have killed you're tasked with defeating the heaven smile a group of terrorist demon like entities who kill people by shambling up to them and exploding.

It plays like a light-gun shooter except with out the light-gun. You advance down predetermined paths stopping to shoot.
There are puzzles but on normal difficulty the map gives you so much information its just a question of going to where you the next puzzle is and using the item shown.
Its also ugly. Despite being cell-shaded its aged much worse then the other cel shaded ps2 games I played recently.
The story goes completely off the rails and I defy anyone to follow it. I don't mind it not making complete sense much of David Lynch's work doesn't but this is a mess.

It is always interesting though and never predictable. It totally ignores video game convention in places but not always in a satisfying way. One boss battle can be won in one shot but that's OK because once you have worked out the trick why make you do it three times when the skills in knowing what to do?
But another boss battle is nothing but a cut scene interspersed with button pressing.

It is original and does have some excellent music in places but overall its a frustrating experience. 4.5/10

Machinarium (played PSN version) - 9/10

Old-school 2D point-and-click adventure game. Excellent atmosphere with beautiful artwork. I see words like "beautiful" and "gorgeous" thrown around about 2D adventure games quite a bit, but this is one of the few times it's true. The game would fit right in with the best of adventure gaming's Golden Age.

Machinarium solves one of the huge problems I have with more modern adventure games - dialogue. Game dialogue is usually poorly written, poorly acted and overly verbose, so it's often a damper on otherwise decent games. There is no dialogue in Machinarium. The "story" is told by actions. When characters need to convey an idea or speak they do so by little cartoons in speech/thought bubbles, which is really effective and great.

This is also one of the better adventure games in terms of gameplay. There are both traditional inventory puzzles and "sliding tile" type puzzles. Over the last 15-20 years the trend has been towards more linear adventure games, as opposed to the wide open "solve anything at any time" style of the early King's Quests etc. Machinarium does both. There are several areas where you're just solving puzzles in one room and can't leave until you do, and there are other times where you have what feels like a fairly vast area to wander around and figure things out.

Story by the way is about a robot (you) trying to rescue his robot girlfriend. It's in a dystopian city that's been taken over by bad guys, etc.


I then played Samorost (PC, free and browser based) since it's by the same company. It's 9-10 years old and is playable at their website. It's about 10 minutes long. It's an adventure game of sorts with a really interesting hybrid art style, and amazing sound design and music. Worth playing, even if JUST for the sound.

http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/

Super Mario Galaxy

I haven't played a Super Mario game in about 15 years. I just recently got a Wii to play the 3 Zeldas I've missed, and while I was waiting for my Gamecube controller to arrive to play Wind Waker I decided to give Galaxy a go after consulting with one of the runners of the game on twitch.

I said "It looks so much like a game for kids, is it any good?" to which he replied "Don't avoid playing a game just because it looks childish. It's the gameplay that matters"

SMG is a very sugar coated game. It's quite straight forward and very sweet, feels a little weird to get into something like this being a heavy metal guy pushing 30 years of age.
However I have to say, I did get addicted quite fast. You gather stars by completing certain tasks in a level, very much like SM64 which I last played when I was 13 and it feels quite similar. You get enough stars and unlock new levels and areas. If you don't like a level, you can skip them and play another one for the most part.
Movement is generally intuitive, the twist is the form of "4D" for a platformer, that you can sometimes walk upside down and up and down walls on some levels. This is fun but can be very confusing with the controls sometimes. Before getting used to this, Mario would generally not walk in the direction I wanted to and it was quite frustrating. However, when you "get it" it works quite well

Level design is amazing. There's a ton of variation and you rarely feel like you're doing the same thing over again. There are a LOT of worlds to explore and it's very fun doing so. Some motion control based levels, they work well too.
The game on an average play through is however really easy. The bosses are for the most part easy and won't take you many tries and sometimes I got the feeling that "this should have been harder" if I finish a level on the first try with full health and so on. Actually I think anyone over 5 years old can complete this game without much trouble.

However there are a lot of extra levels and side quests. In fact, double the amount of missions which require you to finish the game. There's a lot to do and it's fun doing. These vary a ton in difficulty and there are about 5 missions in the game that are just quite challenging, and one that is ridiculously hard (I haven't managed to complete it yet)

The story in the game is kind of vague and irrelevant, it doesn't matter much, save the princess from bowser kind of thing that I guess is in all games.

Overall this was surprisingly good and a very fun experience. It's pretty much a game for everyone, I can't think of a person who wouldn't enjoy this game regardless of age. The only downside I can think of is that the game is too sweet and not very dark at all and that the majority of the missions are really easy. Super Mario Galaxy, although can't quite reach what Super Mario 64 was, is a very entertaining game that you definitely should check out if you have a Wii.

9.1/10

I like SMG significantly more than SMB64 - the controls and challenges are way better

it is probably my favourite SMB

I much prefer SM64 because I liked the large wide open levels as opposed to shorter linear levels. Supposedly SMG2 is better and harder than SMG1, but I haven't played it yet.

^Will give Galaxy2 a go in some weeks/months, I've heard it's supposed to be even better as well. Just completed 100% for this now. That one level (it's a purple coin level) after a few tries is like "you gotta be kidding me". I started wondering if I was missing some special ability as it's significantly harder than anything else in the game. Took about 30 tries or so and was extremely frustrating, but nice to finally get!!

On to Wind Waker, Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword I guess that will lock up many weeks

The level with the tile floor right?

Walking Dead: Episode 2

This game was very popular and was up for many GOTY awards. I don't recall seeing a thread in here about it which seems odd. Much of the attention is based on "choice" - there are major choices to be made in all 5 episodes and they have a huge effect on how things play out. I've heard that the overall story remains mostly the same (not sure about that), but lots of in-between can change. There are major character deaths that could happen in Episode 1 that would effect the entire series.

One decision this episode I made out of anger and immediately felt bad about (although the game kinda hammers you on the head with an attempt to make you feel that way). Going to put this next bit in spoiler tags, but you can safely read it unless you really want things fresh.



So good job by Telltale I guess.

Anyway, tough to give a real rating at this point. I'll see how it all pays off.

SMG2 is probably the best game on wii. Nintendo showed off their amazing design skills for this wii series, pure design no gimmicks. It's too bad they can't do that for Zelda. I am half way through skyward sword and it just feels like it is lacking the inventiveness of previous entries in the series. Not bad but it's probably the worst of the 3d Zelda's (obviously they are all good). The Zelda series is in serious need of a reboot, I am hope in the wii-u one can push the series forward.

(PC) Spec Ops: The Line

I never finish games, even short ones, especially single player shooters. I heard enough about this one to get me interested in the story even though nobody ever says anything positive about the gameplay.

First of all, this is a console port. You can tell not a whole lot of effort was put into the port because when the game is taking you through the first 20 minutes or so it tells you all the commands in 360 buttons. After my third time having to stop for a few minutes hunting for the correct button on the keyboard(the controller settings don't offer much help here), I just said **** it and grabbed my usb 360 controller and played it like that. If you're even passable with a controller for shooters then your experience won't suffer. I did really like the graphics.

The game plays in 3rd person, Think Gears of War meets COD. I have mixed feelings about the gameplay. The ability to command your two squadmates or whatever works pretty well, even though I didn't really start using it until about 3/4 of the way through the game. Despite what I'd heard I actually enjoyed the gameplay quite a bit, but it suffered from some very frustratingly poor design at times. I died usually 2-3 times every chapter because you find yourself in a lot of situations where you're surrounded and its difficult to figure out where the primary threat is coming from before you die to it once or twice. There are a few parts where it isn't clear exactly what you're supposed to do, where you end up dying over and over trying to fight your way out of something because the game doesn't make it clear you're supposed to just hold your ground until *something* happens. The game doesn't take long, and most of the chapters are fairly quick, so I didn't mind it, and to be honest it is surprisingly varied. That said, if the story wasn't so strong I probably wouldn't have finished it.

The game takes place in Dubai during a catastrophic sandstorm that has buried the city and destroyed almost everything. This added a lot because it creates a fantastic setting. I don't want to ruin any of the story, so I'll just say I loved it. You have to make a lot of choices along the way where you're never sure which is right and wrong(There is one part where the game sort of pigeonholes you into doing something you probably wouldn't if you were to reload the chapter, but you don't actually have that option). The character development is impressive. The pacing is good, and while the game only lasts about 6 hours I felt it was about the perfect length for the story.

Can't recommend the game enough.

8.5/10

The first couple big daddies are tricky but can be taken down without use of the vita chamber by using some of the 'natural' obstacles in the map.

A big +1 for Hotline Miami. I don't tend to play games anymore and most blockbuster titles feel the same to me, this however was great I just couldn't put it down. Addictive gameplay, quirky interesting story and an amazing soundtrack, perhaps a little short but really cheap on Steam anyhow.

9/10

Gemini Rue (PC) - 5/10

Old-school adventure game (but made just a few years ago). It has a great Blade Runner-esque rainy cyberpunk dystopian atmosphere. You're mostly reading text for descriptions, but there is some voice that is done fairly well.

There are a couple of different narratives going on, one about a hard-boiled investigative type guy looking into some stuff, and another about a guy in some strange "rehabilitative" prison. They eventually intersect of course.

I don't know why I'm not rating it higher. It just didn't feel satisfying to me. Steam says it took 9 hours so that's not the problem. That's more than enough for an indie point-and-click. I guess the story kinda devolves into cliche, and the environments in the later portions of the game are uninspired compared to the rainy urban environments towards the beginning.

It's officially coming to PS3 now. Can't wait.