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5 (5) 4 (33) 3 (8) 2 (1) 1 (0) 3.84 stars 3.84/5 Stars Average score of 82 user reviews spread across 75 releases and 7 DLC
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Ambition can take you only so far 0
If there's one thing you can credit Resident Evil 6 for is its ambition. Whereas previously the action and story were relatively intimate with it focusing on one core ordeal and seeing characters through it; Resident Evil 6 is all over the map. Literally. With high production values, no less than 4 campaigns with an interwoven storyline that's quite impressive, every part of RE6 should impress you to its core. Except it doesn't, at least most of the time as the game seems to be in a weird state...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
An experience like no other... 0
Long in development, heavily guarded and anticipated arguably more than anything so far this year, Bioshock Infinite definitely had a lot to live up to. And while the original certainly left its mark on the gaming industry and while the non-Irrational Bioshock 2 was a good game albeit familiar, the idea of complete invention or revelatory "new-ness" is not quite what people were hoping it'd be. But regardless Infinite's use of similar gameplay mechanics or tropes is what makes it stand out and ...
1 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Leave this one out in the wastes 0
For a game as well-respected and influential as id Software, they're not exactly as prolific as they used to be. Known for frequent entries in the Wolfenstein, Quake and Doom series, the company seems more well-known for their graphical prowess than their multitude of games and with Doom 3 being their last big game, many were wondering what exactly were they up to. Enter "RAGE": a new first-person shooter set in a post-apocalyptic setting and featuring their brand new engine: id Tech 5. The god...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Violence and fun, oh my! 0
These kind of games generally don't interest me at all so why did I desire to see what Hotline Miami was all about? Word of mouth whether it's from the brutal violence, the stellar soundtrack or the addicting arcade-y feel, something about the game at least was calling out for a playthrough if nothing else. But when word spreads that a small indie game that looks like it was made on a shoestring budget is proclaimed "one of the best of the year" in the same breath as FTL, well it's hard to not ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
How the West was won over by the East 0
From a long development cycle to being outright cancelled and then being picked up by another publisher, the fate of True Crime: Hong Kong is certainly an interesting one. Renamed "Sleeping Dogs" and brought to shelves by Square, it's a success story of a game that took awhile for it to actually come out but unlike similar stories such as Duke Nukem or the recent Aliens game, Sleeping Dogs is actually a good game. It's such a remarkable game that it's funny the only real thing I can lobby again...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
The old model gets upgraded but little else 0
Despite games such as Spider-Man 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum, licensed games tend to fall into 2 categories: they're god awful and easily phoned in and cashing in on the latest movie or TV craze. And then there's the others where they're just decent and nothing too offensive but just enough to at least be playable and people can get some enjoyment out of it. High Moon made a surprising entry into the rare 3rd category where it's not only a good licensed game period but a good game just by itsel...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Birth of a nation, end of a saga 0
Back when the original Assassin's Creed came out, it was once lauded yet criticized for being really ambitious yet still not enough things to do. Strange how it turns out to be with Assassin's Creed 3 being really ambitious but give you way more things to do and yet still manage to be just as flawed. Well don't get me wrong, this one is clearly the better game as far as storytelling and more gameplay mechanics to throw at you and yet for all that the game does to entertain and even wow, it still...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
You ARE the tower! 0
Easy use of the Kinect tag-line aside, this very concept is at the core of Sanctum's gameplay. Combining tower defense with first person shooting, Sanctum comes in along with Dungeon Defenders, Orcs Must Die! and Iron Brigade where they try doing more stranger experimenting with what can be done in the genre. However where Sanctum's problem lies in that while it is doing something fresh and not commonly seen, the very heart of it is just "decent" and that it's not really exciting and yet it won'...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
No pun intended, this is a game that sneaks up on you 0
Bethesda as a developer can create some of the most beautiful and interesting worlds that just beg to have every corner of its map explored. While prone to technical hiccups and gameplay mechanics are not always perfect, they help support the exploration and sense of discovery those games provide. Bethesda as a publisher on the other hand is something else entirely. From the beautiful-but-gameplay-deficient Rage to the heavily disappointing Brink (the only game in recent memory I regret putting ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Better or worse, the Master Chief is back 0
If you're not mentioning Call of Duty as one of gaming's top-tier shooters, it's usually Halo. On the flipside, if the answer for the most overrated and/or overexposed shooter wasn't Call of Duty, it was usually Halo. Wildly successful and influential in showing console shooters can actually work, the franchise is now in the hands of a new developer, taking on a new storyline and in hopes, starting up yet another successful trilogy of games. An excellent campaign, a rather unique and potentially...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Torchlight 2 (or expecting the expected) 0
While I'm sure they didn't bear ill will, there must've been at least a thought floating around in one of Runic Games' members when Diablo 3 was released. Seems that long development times and endless hype doesn't equal unanimous acclaim but unlike the travesty that was Duke Nukem Forever, Diablo was not an atrocious game, just one reeking of disappointment for many. So with Torchlight 2, the more fully fleshed-out sequel and including many new and better features, the action RPG player must've ...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
A definite highlight of 2012 0
Like a lot of sequels, Borderlands 2 doesn't have to re-invent itself just to set it apart from everything out there. A shooter with RPG elements, class-based characters with unique skill trees and millions of guns is pretty far from what most competitors are doing. Yet at the same time, the familiarity of this series is always apparent yet somehow it never feels a copy-and-paste job or "phoning it in". Practically every issue (save one) has been addressed, story's more to the forefront and skil...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Still has some spring in her step 0
At this point, I'd expect you already have an opinion about what you feel concerning World of Warcraft. Literally the biggest MMO right now, the game is nearly 8 years old and subscriber base is still pretty high. And despite would-be "killers" that have entered (and quickly exited in some cases) the scene, the juggernaut that is WoW is still recognizable. But as Bono, lead singer of mega-hit band U2 said once, "it's easy to be the biggest in the world, we want to be the best". Typical Bono-esqu...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
A tool for beginners, an addiction for pros 0
There's 2 genres that I always considered my gaming "Achille's Heel": those being RTS and fighting games. While I understand the concepts for both, the strategy and the depths of knowledge of required seemed almost too above me and taking on something this complex seemed more daunting than say, a racing game. While it's easy to play the 2 genres and get a good feel for them, it's when you hop online battling against other players does the quote-unquote "science" of the genres show up such as bui...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Saving the day by hauling ass 0
There's the cult hit that was widely praised, near universally adored and yet at the same time failed to find much of an audience with many proclaiming as a gaming injustice. A game so amazingly awesome and yet sold so poorly is a sure travesty. Which unfortunately what Mirror's Edge is not, although you'd be a little taken back by the huge following the game received since it came out. Known for doing realistic large-scale shooters, DICE delivered a first-person action adventure platforming...t...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
A gorgeous step down 0
Weird story: back when I first bought a new laptop, I decided to buy the original Crysis since despite its notoriety for being hard to run, me (with no tech knowledge whatsoever) thought a brand new laptop can run a 2 year old game. Heh, nope. So when I finally got me a gaming PC and new video card, Crysis was the first thing I popped in. And while I already played Crysis 2 on consoles, this year was the first time I was able to play the games "as they were meant to be played" with fully maxed o...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Time to end it, Shepard... 0
Well, it's finally finished. Mass Effect 3 is in the books (sort of but I'll get into that). With a full trilogy playthrough of 75 hours, plus additional unfinished playthroughs, this series of games will certainly stand out as some of the best the current gen had to offer. And while individually the games had their weakness as well as their strengths, the totality of it all was quite huge. Which makes giving a final verdict on this game tough because of the multi-colored elephant in the room an...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Saving the world one click at a time 0
It's hard to imagine many other games having as much of an "event" status then when Blizzard decides to announce a game. An impeccable pedigree and an admirable-yet-frustrating love of perfectionism, it's hard to imagine living in a world where Diablo III actually is actually out. It had to come out eventually but the long running jokes about its lengthy development time, delays and Blizzard's tinkering with game mechanics left us excited and just as nervous about the sequel to one of the best a...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
The beginning after the end 0
Note: Until we know if GB will do reviews for individual episodes or the series as a whole, I'll update this review has new episodes are released.Despite my familiarity with the games of Telltale, I've only played 2...well, technically 2 episodes. My only exposure to their style of games has been the first 2 episodes of Tales of Monkey Island. Adventure games have never really been my thing since they usually have bizarre solutions for puzzles or hints so vague that upon consulting an FAQ I'd go...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Girls just wanna have fun (and kick your ass) 0
I should preface this review by saying I'm not a fighting "aficionado" and not even in the least bit skilled so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. Because Skullgirls seems like a game designed by a tournament fighter (which it is) but mainly for hardcore fighting fans. Now this is an indie game so it wouldn't have the huge budget of Capcom releases or the frequent entries of SNK with King of Fighters but in many ways, Skullgirls feels like it wants to and usually will leave a great...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
You wanna get nuts? Come on, let's get nuts! 0
The announcement and subsequent release of Gotham City Impostors brought with it pretty much a unanimous reaction: "wait, what?" A first-person shooter from the team behind such franchises as No One Lives Forever, F.E.A.R and Condemned based around the Batman universe? It is kind of an honest reaction though since the very concept is just so bizarre and in the multiplayer space occupied by Halo, Gears of War, Battlefield and the juggernaut that is Call of Duty, not to mention the countless me-to...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Fast action, stylish presentation, all awesome 0
I've been a big fan of games with distinctive art styles though I'm not really sure where it comes from. Maybe it's just interest in different forms of animation and painting but I'm always attracted that has a style that's distinctly theirs. The original Dishwasher, titled Dead Samurai, was a pretty good effort with some fast combat action, a bizarrely attractive art style and a rather incomprehensible plot. Oh but it had cool guitar solos in the form of a PaRappa the Rapper style mini-game. Th...
1 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
For once, things do end with a bang 0
If recent news stories turn out to be true, then it's too bad Insomniac might not personally make a new entry in the Resistance franchise because for all intents and purposes, they pretty much nailed what the franchise should feel like. From the tone and pacing of the campaign, to the graphics and the engine and to smaller but very important changes such as the return of the weapon wheel, Resistance 3 improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. But there is some unfortunate omissions and if...
1 out of 8 found this review helpful. -
Be more human than the human 0
I've read many articles about "games that need a sequel" and they usually involve long forgotten franchises or great games that never got a follow-up thanks to lack of sales or just simply because it would be cool to get a new game. So when Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the third game in a franchise where the previous title was in 2003, not only were expectations high but skepticism was likely on par. With one of the most important games of the last decade with one of the most polarizing, Human Rev...
0 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
A black sheep with a pretty coat 0
While it might lose me points with the "cool" crowd, the one game that actually turned me into "this is something I do for fun" to "this is a huge part of my life and interests" was Final Fantasy VII. Whereas previously I made occasionally pick up a game intended for the hardcore, for the most part I strictly relegated my game purchases to more "fun" titles. But Square's monolith of a game was what compelled me to focus more on games driven by story, character development and immersion rather th...
2 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
An intense, new yet familiar breed of horror 0
I could fault Capcom for the somewhat lukewarm release that followed (and still is in some respects) when Resident Evil 5 was released. The game was pulling away from its moodier environments, small ammo count and slow, shuffling zombies. In its place where high-octane action sequences, enough firepower to take on a military base and guys with tentacles for heads that more or less can make a break for you. Its trailers were lengthier and seemingly more easier to dissect (remember the identity of...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Emblems and Jill sandwiches: The Return 0
If Resident Evil 5 was the series' try at a more action-oriented horror, then the Lost in Nightmares DLC attempts to go back to the moodier, more atmospheric days of early Resident Evil. It's designed to be a throwback and to echo the game of 1996 but at the same time to bring the RE4/5 control scheme and make you wonder how a more horror-bent RE would work. And it works surprisingly well though I can sort of see this not working fully across long term as backtracking can feel a bit TOO much lik...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Bounty hunters, vampire killers....and a UFO? 0
Quite frankly, this is the part where I'd be going "it's like they went into my head and made a game for me!" since everything about Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (which will now be shortened to "ITSP" just for the fun of it) is exactly the kind of thing I love in games. The genre? The so-called "Metroidvania" style where you're given a gigantic map with interconnected rooms, secret passageways and hidden goodies and environmental puzzles that you'll need to return to once properly equipped. Th...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Perfect for fans, stunted for beginners 0
Even with a love of games and willingness to try out anything in hopes that it's good, I will admit that there is certain genres I just plainly suck at. The primary 2 are RTS (real-time strategy) and fighting games and unlike say, first person shooters which tend to rely on communication and teamwork, it's you and you alone and that makes it hard to get into these genres. So when I was playing Super Street Fighter IV and actually found myself losing several times against the AI....on Easy even, ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
A series that's best unpublished 0
Whenever a game gets too tough or a little frustrating, I tend to find my mind thinking of 3 things: A) I'm just terrible at the game and will admit. B) My reflexes aren't there and despite knowing how to play, that day inexplicably I'm playing like crap. And C: the game is just poorly designed. While you can improve on A and the "off nights" are common among anyone, it's C that becomes the hard part to narrow down and determine whether it is just you or whether it's the game. Unfortunately in C...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Taking a very long trip through the Looking Glass 0
Even with huge AAA titles like Infamous 2 and Mortal Kombat, I thought of no other game the most and the one I was going to own no matter what was Alice: Madness Returns. Having not played the original, that still didn't stop me from checking out every screenshot and video released. With some old-school platforming, a beautiful art design and creative use of the Alice in Wonderland license, my own personal expectations are high. So maybe it's because of this the game hit several sour notes, leav...
4 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
The game's devil really is in the details 0
This is the kind of game where the hype in the media is not enough to overtake the huge expectations from fans given the talent involved. Like a rock supergroup or the pairing of a successful actor and director, there's more than enough talent in Shadows of the Damned to think it'll be one of the best games of the year. Overseen by Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil 4, Vanquish), Goichi Suda or Suda 51 (Killer 7, No More Heroes) with music by Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka, how can you not get exc...
4 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
A pretty, sleepy adventure 0
Anything with an attractive and a vibrant visual style and I'm usually signed up on the spot. While you could praise a game for being more technically proficient and having realistic everything, there's something more memorable about something that you rarely ever see. It's really this reason that brought me to Lucidity, an adventure title done by Lucasarts with a beautiful soundtrack and an even more dreamlike art-style. But the presentation can only go so far as the actual game part can be one...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
1ackluster campaign with an 3xcellent multiplayer 0
I've always had a moderate interest in the Fear franchise as I find the Alma Wade story interesting yet the blend of typical FPS with horror always felt a weird mishmash as opposed to Condemned where it fit perfectly. But still, the release of Fear 3 was met with such frustration as no less than 3 times was the game delayed from its original Fall 2010 release, leaving one to wish Day One Studios (Mechwarrior series, Fracture) and Warner Bros. to just announce the release when it was actually don...
4 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
When destruction somehow manages to be boring 0
If one shouldn't grocery shop while they're hungry, should one write a review immediately after finishing it? Then after awhile, once the entirety of the game has settled into your brain and you get the broad overview of everything it has to offer, maybe you'll see the game differently if it had a disappointing ending. But here's the thing with Red Faction: Armageddon....there's not much to fully redeem it once everything's settled. What was once promising about the previous game, Guerrilla, has...
2 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
"Yo dawg, we heard you like infamous..." 0
I found it slightly funny that during all the craziness and official reveals of games at E3, Sony was releasing the sequel to one of their most successful franchises. It seems oddly fitting in that, aside from a couple of releases, the majority of E3 was a lot of sequels, closing of trilogies and iterations only for another sequel to be released that very week which is somewhat similar in design. Make no mistake, nothing about Infamous 2 takes on that incremental leap forward like Mass Effect, A...
5 out of 6 found this review helpful. -
Getting by with a little help from a friend 0
You have to feel at least a tiny bit sorry for Hunted: The Demon's Forge. The developer, inXile Entertainment, doesn't have a lot of big games under their belt, the only ones being A Bard's Tale from 2004 and the canceled Hei$t. The publisher, Bethesda, so far has had a spotty track record with their games from the okay-ish Wet to the meh Brink and the horrible Rogue Warrior. The release date? The week before E3 where everyone will be talking about the big games, the surprise announcements and n...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
"Let strength be granted so the world might be mended..." 0
You think that's hard? That's just the tutorial level, that's the next level over there! As a precursor statement, I'll simply state I hate difficult games. While I don't mind a challenge now and then, if a game feels programmed to always win despite the skills on the contrary, I start to get turned off. These can range from a first person shooter with enemy AI having pitch-perfect accuracy or a fighter with opponents a bit too good at countering my moves, games with unfair difficulties can be,...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Just like LA, not much substance but plenty of flash 0
If there's any game that's come out in the first half of the year that had a big question mark on it, it was LA Noire. Aside from Duke Nukem Forever which is more about the quality of the game given its long development cycle, it was hard to pinpoint just how LA Noire would actually play. Truth be told, I'm a little tired of the sandbox style of games Rockstar has been doing so when it comes down to it, LA Noire is kind of a hybrid between sandbox and old-school adventure titles so at least it's...
9 out of 12 found this review helpful. -
Ambition and innovation don't always a great game make 0
It's a sentiment that will either fall on deaf ears due to the extraordinary sales saying otherwise or just simply a "yeah I know but what you gonna do?" response but first-person shooters are starting to bore me. Gone are the days of multiple objectives, freedom to tackle a certain situation how you want or it's just the same basic formula of you, a gun and bullets trying to hit dudes. Brink puts its emphasis squarely on communication and teamwork whereas most other games have it be useful and ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Heads, and everything else, will roll 0
The latest Mortal Kombat seems designed to appeal to those select group of people who say "why can't they make <insert game here> anymore?" The series hasn't exactly been starved for new releases but after the lukewarm reception to "MK vs DC Universe", a refresher course was kind of needed, to almost remind people what made them feed so many quarters into arcade machines way back when. Granted, nothing much has changed and what has is either thankfully absent (stances, weaponry and 3D aren...
4 out of 5 found this review helpful. -
I'm tired of these mother......zombies in this mother...... game! 0
While I do consider Valve to be a very consistent developer in the vein of Bioware and Bethesda, the one thing the company doesn't do for me is have every franchise be something that I love to the core. While I'm a huge Team Fortress 2 fan and will defend any naysayers of Portal, stuff like the Half-Life series I just plain cannot get into. Sections go on longer than they should, the shooting is adequate but not exceptional (aside from the Gravity Gun of course) and I find it personally hard to ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
The Reapers are coming, but you knew that already 0
After the Lair of the Shadow Broker came out, it seemed Bioware's streak of delivering mediocre to decent DLC's for their games was over. After delivering rather bland releases for the first Mass Effect and okay-but-not-exceptional ones for Dragon Age, in came Shadow Broker and blew away everybody by being really awesome...and then it stopped. No more DLC but then news started appearing that what's supposedly the final DLC, "Arrival", was to come and now here we are, the mission that will get yo...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
No king of the hill, almost top of the heap 0
Last month, I played and reviewed Killzone 3 which had a campaign that I thought exemplified my problems with Guerrilla Games: they make great looking games but the "game" part is lacking. Crytek to a certain degree has been called this by others and while I don't have a computer that can run the original game (or Far Cry for that matter), Crysis 2 seems intent to being the developer's first major console release and a step forward for them. However the transition isn't as smooth and for every m...
2 out of 3 found this review helpful.
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