Fat_otter

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell was a surprise smash-hit that came out of nowhere. And the sequel definitely lives up to the original despite the lack of multiplayer. This time around, Sam Fisher has a wider selection of gadgets, visits more exotic locales, and has even more fearsome enemies to deal with! The story is about a guerrilla terrorist who wants to take over the world with smallpox bombs unless he gets a bunch of money and other stuff, so it's up to you to stop him. Pandora's graphics have been updated and look even better in the more exotic and exciting international hotspots you visit. Whether you're infiltrating a terrorist camp in the middle of the Indonesian jungle, climbing under a high-speed train in France, or skulking in a terrorist-held TV studio, the game always looks nice. Fisher has some new gadgets to play around with this time and has some new lethal moves to use. But beyond that, there isn't much new about Pandora Tomorrow. You're still sneaking around heavily-guarded areas, grabbing people and interrogating them, defusing explosives, saving people, ect. But the new features in Pandora tomorrow are enough to make it a purchase. The biggest downer of the Gamecube version is the lack of multiplayer which became an instant hit with the hardcore Xbox Live community. But in the end, Pandora tomorrow is still worth looking into if you enjoyed the first Splinter Cell.

Call of Duty 2 was a somewhat surprise hit during the Xbox 360 launch when everyone expected Perfect Dark Zero to dominate the launch sales. But a strong campaign and addictive multiplayer was what made Call of Duty 2 such a success. But after its launch, Infinity Ward wanted to spend an extra year on what would be Call of Duty 4 which is the reason Treyarch developed the third installment in the Call of Duty franchise. Unfortunately, there isn't anything that makes Call of Duty 3 a very original game. The single player campaign keeps the Call of Duty tradition of letting you see the war from different perspectives. In this case, through the eyes of an American, British, Canadian, and Polish soldier. The campaign focuses on the Normandy Breakout, which is basically the events that place after D-Day with the allies trying to take back France. The missions remain traditional with you completing various objectives on linear missions. Call of Duty 3 does manage to let you see different types of combat, ranging from more traditional urban warfare as the Americans, to the smaller scale commando missions as the British, to the firefights in France's rural farmland, to the epic tank battles as the Polish. Call of Duty 3 runs off a great game engine that provides excellent graphics with a framerate that is as smooth as butter. Ragdoll physics also make an appearance as you see barrels and bodies fly through the air! The sound of Call of Duty 3 is excellent; making it seem like war is in your backyard. The explosions are fierce, and the various weapons roar. But the biggest change in Call of Duty 3, for-better-or-for-worse would be the multiplayer! The player limit has been tripled from 8 to 32 players, the maps are larger, vehicles (motorcycles, jeeps, and tanks) are now fair game, and a new class-based system has been added. You now get to choose between various classes such as rifleman, light assault, heavy assault, scout (sniper), support, and anti-tank. The classes are well balanced and they all play out well on the battlefield. The vehicles control relatively well, if not a bit arcady-feeling. And when you combine the multiplayer with a solid single-player campaign, you have a sturdy gaming package that is Call of Duty 3!

To this day, I still don't know what got me into Splinter Cell. Was it the fact that I like spy stuff, or maybe the intriguing modern storyline? I don't know, but Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell is still one of my favorite action games. You play as splinter cell agent Sam Fisher, splinter cells are so secret that if they get killed, their files are erased and they end up looking like they practically never existed. The story involves the newly elected president of Georgia (the country, not the state) threatening the U.S. with a nuclear suitcase bomb. As Fisher, you have to stop him and his terrorist buddies from completing that task as well as stopping other threats. You missions will take you around the world from Georgia to Myanmar (Burma) to the CIA headquarters. Splinter Cell is not a shooter, yes, you do have a silenced pistol and assault rifle, but the game encourages you to knock out opponents with choke holds as supposed to bullets. Sneaking around is also essential, for if your seen, and alarm will be sounded and you will have to deal with more alert and well-armed guards. You also have a variety of athletic moves at your disposal including somersaults, rappelling, and the famous split jump. Splinter Cell's graphics are top-notch (for the time) and have lots of detail. Despite that the Gamecube version of the game came out later than the other versions, it came with GBA connectivity that lets you use your Gameboy Advance as a camera as well as a detonator for remote mines. On the topic of gadgets, you have a wide selection to use such as your multipurpose rifle which can not only shoot bullets, but knock out opponents with stickyshockers, an optic cable which lets you look into rooms without physically going into them, sticky cameras that you can shoot around corners and see what's there as well as other gadgets. And with all the other great elements of this game, Splinter Cell is truly a game that any action fan should try.

Brain Age seemed like a really good idea at the time. An educational videogame that let you do simple brain exercises to keep your noggin thinking. And while it's fun for a few months, you'll end up not caring about it in the future. In Brain Age, you create a profile by giving some personal information, and then doing some brain exercises to determine your "brain age." (How old your brain really is compared to your own age.) You have a friendly Japanese doctor and college professor help you along and give you tips. He's probably the coolest thing about this game. He'll even fall asleep in the options menu, tell you about your birthday, and gets angry when you haven't been playing for a while. But that's the problem about this game. It expects you to play every day, doing simple exercises ranging from simple math, to reading literature aloud. But the whole routine-thing is not something gamers are used to. We're used to turning on the game when we want, and play until we want, but we don't expect a game that tells us that we NEED to play, which is the ultimate reason of why this game is aimed toward casual gamers. If you are a casual gamer, or not even a gamer at all, feel free to pick this game up, you'll probably enjoy it, but if you're a hardcore gamer like me, and prefer to stomp on Goombas and kill aliens, you won't get much out of Brain Age which is why my score is somewhat low.

Boom Boom Rocket is a great example of a casual Xbox Live Arcade game that the hardcore can enjoy as well. The game's goal is simple-detonate the colored fireworks to the rhythm of the music. You got four different colored fireworks (green, red, blue, and yellow based off the 360's four face buttons.) that you blow up in various cycles and combinations with the songs rhythm. There are about 20 songs to play and most of them are decent. Many of them though are really just techno versions of classical songs which don't always work out, but the stylish, jazz tunes are my personal favorites. You also do your firework show in front of a large and nicely detailed city that looks like a cross between Singapore, San Francisco, and Chicago. Rocket has three different difficulties for new and experienced players so that anyone can play. There is also a visualizer that allows the fireworks to go to the beat of your own tunes although you can't play along, it's just for show. So for 10 dollars, you might want to give the game a trial before you make the full purchase simply because not everyone will like it. But if it clicks with you, Boom Boom Rocket is a solid game that nearly anyone can enjoy!

Let's accept the fact that WWII shooters are dead. But 2.5 years ago, there was a WWII game that was worth playing, and is still worth playing today. And that game is Call of Duty 2. The single-player campaign lets you see the war from three different perspectives- An American, British, and Russian soldier. While the campaigns all play out the same, the Russian campaign looks the nicest graphically with a great snow effects. The British campaign is the longest and features intense desert combat as well as a two-level tank campaign that is fun, but is over way too quickly. The American campaign has to be the best with an extremely intense D-Day mission, as well as some other great moments. Call of Duty 2 has excellent enemy AI that actually knows how to take cover and shoot back. Unfortunately, your allies aren't nearly as smart, and whenever they kill an enemy, it feels like they're stealing your kill rather than helping you. Call of Duty 2 also has solid multiplayer. While it only supports eight players and doesn't feature any unique game modes to play, it's still a very fun and engaging experience. Call of Duty 2 is a great game that manages to put in a great, lengthy, intense campaign as well as fun multiplayer which makes this game a great package for any Xbox 360 owner!

The WWII shooters thing has been truly overdone now, and Infinity Ward has picked up on that, which is why they decided to make Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Forget everything you know about Call of Duty, because you are now no longer fighter in war-torn Europe, but now the Middle East as well as Russia. The single-player campaign is relatively short, and takes around four to six hours to complete, assuming you've played shooters before. The missions are diverse and always feel new. You'll find yourself defending a tank in one mission, and then sneaking around in ghillie suit in 1992 Chernobyl in the next. The story is about a man who has risen to power, and wants to take over the world. Relatively simple stuff, but the story is a lot darker than in most games, and feels like it was taken from a Tom Clancy novel or something.
When you do beat the campaign, you unlock the arcade mode, which lets you play through any mission and get a high score by killing enemies and other actions. But the real treat upon completing single-player is multi-player. Up to twelve people can duke it out online on nearly 16 maps. Arguably, multi-player best feature is "create-a-class." This lets you pick your weapons as well as perks, which are traits that give your character special abilities on the battlefield, such as high conditioning (longer sprints), RPG x2 (a rocket launcher with two rockets), last stand (pull out your pistol right before you die to get a last-minute kill), and eavesdrop (listen to your enemy's chatter over your headset.) You can only carry three of these, so you must choose wisely. Fortunately, none of them feel overpowered. As you continue playing, you get XP (experience points) and the more XP you get, the more you can level up which unlocks more weapons and perks. With the combination of a short, but powerful single-player campaign and multi-player that never get old. Call of Duty 4 is nothing less than perfection, and is a no-brainer purchase!

Mario Kart has always been the king of the kart racing genre. Its always featured the creativity, speed, and overall addictive gameplay that sets it apart from all the other kart games that clearly rip it off. And the Nintendo ds addition to Mario Kart is nothing short of awesome! You get plenty of tracks new and old to play on. All your favorite characters (including one surprise), and to top it off - online multiplayer! Yes ladies and gentlemen, this is Mario Kart's finest installment. For a Nintendo ds game, the graphics are quite nice, Mario and his pals look just as good as they do on the consoles and the tracks (especially the new ones) look very nice. Most of the new tracks are nice to play on, although some of the "classic" (not all of them are) are quite boring and not exciting to play on. You can play in circuit mode with three different kart speeds, as well as a mission mode, free-race mode, and battle mode, which is plenty of game to keep you busy for weeks. But once you've finished them all, or just want something different, you can race friends (and rivals) over Nintendo's (new at the time) Wi-fi Connection. (WFC) All of matches are lag free and fun, although there are a few draw-backs. You can only do a standard race mode with 4 players, (instead of 8 in single-player), you can only race with the 50cc karts (the slowest tier), you can only play on select tracks, and joining matches can take a long time. (Keep a book handy.) Other than that, online play is solid and addictive. Mario Kart is a perfect purchase for any Nintendo, Mario, Racing, or Gaming fan.

Team Fortress was a multiplayer mod for Half-Life released back in 1998, and quickly became one of the most popular pc multiplayer games ever. And a few months after its success, a sequel was announced. But several problems and flukes got in its way, and ended up being delayed for nearly a decade, but now it's finally out, was definitly worth the wait to the hardcore TF fans. Most gamers probably forgot that Team Fortress was the first game to introduce "class-based" multiplayer. You have 9 classes to choose from, and you duke it out on several maps with different modes of play. Classes are divided into three groups- Offense, Defense, and Support. Offense is made up of the Scout (runs fast, captures controll-points faster, but is weak.) the Soldier (runs slow, but has a rocket launcher and shotgun) and the Pyro (wields a short-ranged, but powerful flamethrower.) Defense is made up of the Demoman (has a grenade launcher, and sticky-bomb launcher for setting traps.) the Heavy Weapons Guy (slow but powerful with a mini-gun.) and the Engineer (can build auto-turrets, dispensers and portals.) And Support is made up of the Medic (can heal teammates.) the Sniper (has a sniper rifle) and the Spy (can cloak, and stab people with a deadly knife, as well as disguise himself as the enemy.) All of the classes are well balanced, and all have counters to them. There are only six maps, so you'll feel like you've seen everything fairly fast, but if you like deep, team-based shooters, you'll be satisfied for a long time. There are 3 modes of play, which vary on which map your playing. There's capture-the-flag (steal the team's flag), control points (capture all of the control points on the map) and attack and defend (one team tries to capture the control points, while the other team defends. One of the biggest changes in Team Fortress 2 is the art style. The cartoony, Pixar-like look is definitely a love-it or hate-it experience. The levels pay homage to lots of old action movies as well, and has a purposely cheesy feel to it. On one map, each team's flag is in a underground lair where you can see a giant computer screen, which looks like something out of James Bond or Austin Powers. If you like deep, team-based shooters, you're going to be getting a lot of bang for your buck out of this one.

Portal was a game announced at E3 06 and had everyone talking. The concept is very simple. You have a gun that shoots two, different-colored portals (orange and blue), and when you walk through one, you come out the other. You'll find yourself solving puzzles that range from elementary-grade simple, to bain dramageing. Your ultimate goal for completing each "test chamber" is getting to the exit. But don't expect it to be a walk in the park. You might need to activate a swich, carry a "weighted companion cube" (I'm sorry I incinerated you! Play the game to find out what I mean.), or put an energy ball into a slot that can be several hundred feet away. The game runs on Valve's incredible Source engine, which even three years later, still looks and runs better then most of the stuff we're playing today. When you move a box or knock a turret over, it looks incredibly realistic thanks to the awsome Havok physics engine. But what might send Portal over the top is GLaDOS. This robot with a stereotypical female robotic voice guides you throughout the game, giving you tips, telling you storys, and telling you other random junk. Portal is jam-packed with tons of Valve-based inside jokes. (Told by GLaDOS.) Unfortunatley, The Orange Box is my first Valve game, so I didn't get any of the jokes, but I still had some laughs which rarley come when I play games. While there isn't any story to Portal, there is still a "rising tension" and climax to the game which would make my english teacher proud. I won't spoil the ending, but lets just say that something unexpected happens. So in the end, Poral is nothing short of genius, and is something you can expect from noone else but the brilliant minds of Valve.