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5 (81) 4 (84) 3 (2) 2 (1) 1 (0) 4.5 starsAverage score of 168 user reviews
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Sam and Max: Beyond the Alley of the Dolls 0
The introduction to Beyond the Alley of the Dolls is great, featuring an homage to zombie movies everywhere as Sam deals with the slight conundrum of his friends taking a strange amount of delight in dispatching cloned, half naked versions of himself. The rest of the episode doesn't quite live up to this beginning, mostly because the puzzles were the least interesting and unique of the season. You were mostly using psychic toys you'd already played with before, and there wasn't much new ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Sam and Max: They Stole Max's Brain! 0
As I hinted previously, the third chapter of this season of Sam and Max's adventures doesn't quite crackle with the same energy of the first two, although it still has some good ideas of its own and some inspired moments. It continues like part two did, picking up exactly where the last part left things, with Max's brain stolen and Sam pretty angry about it. Like the clue scanning and reel jumping, this chapter introduces its own unique kind of gameplay, in this case, interrogation. The ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Sam and Max: The Tomb of Sammun-Mak 0
The second chapter of Sam and Max's third season is possibly the most inspired in the series. It all stems from the premise, which is rather brilliant. At the end of the first episode, Sam and Max discover what appears to be their own skeletons locked in a struggle, but they soon learn it's a couple of their ancestors, Sameth and Maximus, and find a series of films detailing their exploits along with a projector. Thus the game introduces its central conceit: you must play as Sameth and M...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Trine 0
It seems like if there's one way to get people to love your downloadable game this generation, it's to make it a side scrolling puzzle platformer. Trine combines that style of gameplay with a cute if typical fantasy setting and a heavily physics-based engine to create a game that's pretty fun, although not without its frustrations. So to start things out, the game introduces you to its three characters, which fit so well into standard fantasy niches that that's how they're named. You get...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
The Witcher 0
I bought The Witcher almost exactly one year ago, and played it off and on that whole time until I finally beat it a couple days ago. There's no particular reason why it took me so long, other than a general apathy towards gaming I generate every once in a while. But despite the protracted play through, I enjoyed the game for the most part. It's far from perfect, with a few things holding it back, mostly of a technical nature. While it was occasionally frustrating, it was still a very am...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Sam and Max: The Penal Zone 0
After two years off, Sam and Max finally return with their greatest caper yet. Telltale has done three other adventure series last we saw our anthropomorphic heroes, and they've clearly learned a lot in that time. They're finally nailing down the interface, bringing back arrow key movement, improving the inventory, and adding a notepad full of useful information. Add those changes with the improved graphics, and it's a pretty slick looking game. The characters are still cartoony, but the...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Tales of Monkey Island: Rise of the Pirate God 0
The fifth and final chapter of the Tales of Monkey Island series ends it with a relative bang. The true plot finally takes shape as the actual villain is finally out in the open, and all sorts of plot threads that have been strewn about are tied together to bring the saga to fitting and relatively tidy close, while still leaving a hook for further adventures with Guybrush. It's pretty well done, and very fun considering you spend most of the game dead. Not only do you have to return to t...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
ToMI: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood 0
After a couple of decent but less than stellar episodes, this was a nice little turnaround. It does reuse a previously explored location, but presents it in a different way that makes it seem fresh, and there's enough stuff that wasn't there before that it doesn't quite feel like a retread. And more importantly, the puzzles are quite good. There are two main phases, the trial and completing a voodoo recipe, both of which go beyond the standard "do three things" formula and require you to ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Tales of Monkey Island: Lair of the Leviathan 0
I've briefly mentioned the badness of this series' control scheme before, but I feel like I should give some more explanation. In typical old adventure games, you walk somewhere by clicking on your destination. Sometimes you can double click to run there or something, but basically it's click and move. Not terribly elegant, and it can sometimes cause issues, but it works. This is what Telltale did with earlier episodic games, and it was fine. Then with Wallace and Gromit's Grand Adventu...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Tales of Monkey Island: The Siege of Spinner Cay 0
Overall, I really can't say that the second chapter of this series was as strong as the first. It's possible that the first chapter was just extra beefy to introduce the whole plot, but Spinner Cay felt insubstantial in comparison. I don't mean just in length, because the first was actually a bit long in the tooth, but in having a fulfilling arc to the story and gameplay. It didn't have the real three act structure I've come to expect, and it's not like the puzzles that were there made u...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Far Cry 0
Far Cry was now released six years ago, and it's in a weird place in gaming history. It has some modern ideas, but it also sort of screams out that it's the last big shooter before Half-Life 2. Its mix of forward-thinking elements and artifacts of old school shooting seems strange now, and it ends up as a game worth checking out if maybe not playing through all the way.Graphically, it's a mixed bag these days. The environments still look really nice if you pump up the effects, with long ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Tales of Monkey Island: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal 0
Tales of Monkey Island is another in a long string of successful adventure game series based on another license, although this one purports to have more of a focus on a continued storyline than a bunch of loosely connected episodes. So much so that at first you could only buy the whole thing as a package deal, although now individual episodes are for sale. The first chapter is one of the meatiest and most enjoyable the company has done, and I got a solid amount of enjoyment from it. The ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Red Dead Redemption 0
Red Dead Redemption is sort of like the Bully of this console generation. It does the open world thing Grand Theft Auto does, and while the setting may be more niche than that series, there are some things it ends up doing better. It doesn't really have much to do with Red Dead Revolver, taking place decades later and sharing none of the characters. It's the story of John Marston, a former criminal-turned-farmer who's forced to track down his old gang members after the government ta...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Zeno Clash 0
Zeno Clash is a pretty one of a kind experience. The main game only lasts about five hours, and parts aren't that polished, and some aspects of its design are frustrating. But there's a sort of charm to its unrelenting weirdness, and it's pretty respectable for what is clearly a passion project for a pretty small development team.The game throws right into the action from the beginning, with a few mystical tutorials thrown in to get you up to speed. The story is half told in flashback, a...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City 1
I actually played these as downloaded content for Grand Theft Auto IV rather than on a separate disc, but there's not much of a difference besides an alternate selection of radio songs and it's a bit too substantial to shove onto a DLC post, so... I'm doing this. What was most interesting about these two episodes was the way they tied into Niko's story from GTA IV and wrapped up loose ends from that story. Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez are both characters that appeared or were reference...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Red Faction: Guerrilla 0
With the jump to current generation systems, Volition decided to take the Red Faction series in another direction. My only prior experience with the series was some of the second game's multiplayer due to some of my friends loving it for some reason, and maybe just a bit of the single player. When I heard they were making a new game, except it was open world instead of a first person shooter, I was skeptical, although the demo proved to be quite a bit of fun and word of mouth was pretty ...
7 out of 8 found this review helpful. -
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition 0
The Special Edition of the original Monkey Island isn't a perfect upgrade, but it's a very accessible one that adds full voice acting, redone music, revamped graphics that are mostly quite attractive, and a robust hint system that helpfully nudges you in the right direction before it hits you over the head with the solution. I've only ever played a few minutes of the original game, so this was a nice way to experience a classic adventure in a friendlier way.The game itself holds up for t...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Mirror's Edge 0
Mirror's Edge is certainly not a game without faults, and I can easily see how some of its problems could lead to indifference or even genuine dislike towards the game. But I found its presentation and unique take on platforming from a first person perspective to be an interesting and at times perfectly thrilling experience. I think what I really wanted was a lot of its ideas in a better considered game, but I had a lot of fun playing through it despite the very high number of times I mes...
4 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks 0
I've seen a fair amount of people call Spirit Tracks better than its DS predecessor from a couple years ago, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. I finished that game a couple months ago, and while that may have caused the tiniest bit of fatigue, I don't think it was significantly inferior. Spirit Tracks does have more devious puzzles and more unique items in its assortment of equipment, though it has its share of faults as well, and I see them more as nice complements for each other...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
God of War III 0
Anyone who goes into God of War III expecting a lot of new ideas and changes to the series is going to be disappointed. God of War's strength has always been its spectacle and the strength of its design and production in every area, not its innovation in the video game landscape. If the first game was more consistent, I might call it the best in the series, simply because the formula was still new at the time. But because of the general nosedive it took in quality in the final act, I pre...
3 out of 3 found this review helpful. -
Brutal Legend 0
It's a bit unfortunate, because Brutal Legend could have been a really awesome game, but thanks to its reliance on strategy gameplay that no one was really asking for, it's merely a pretty good one. I haven't really played Tim Schafer's older games, but from looking at them and having played Psychonauts, it's pretty clear his strength is in creating unique and interesting settings to go with good stories, and that's the best part of Legend, too. Jack Black plays Eddie Riggs, a roadie w...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Just Cause 0
It's a bit late to be playing this game, although I did it for a few reasons. Its sequel, which is coming out in a couple days, has a really fun demo out that got my appetite for some open world destruction up, and my free copy of Red Faction: Guerrilla still hasn't arrived yet. Over a weekend the first Just Cause was less than eight bucks on Steam, so I decided to give it a shot. It turned out to be a functional if unremarkable open world game, not great but probably worth the price I...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 0
I've been a fan of the Battlefield series, but as an online shooter and not a single player experience. I skipped the first Bad Company, so I came into the second game's campaign knowing very little about the story and cast other than a few fairly funny videos about the main squad. That core team of four guys make up the single player's strongest element, as they make their way through a mission that has its moments, but ultimately comes off a bit clunky compared to its direct competition...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Heavy Rain 0
I'm glad I managed to finish this before the massive failure of older PS3s last night. Here's hoping they fix it without too much trouble. Anyway, Heavy Rain is a different sort of video game. Its creators would have us all completely avoid the label if possible, preferring terms like "interactive drama". It's a video game though, that doesn't have to be a dirty word. It's a different sort of game than we usually play, but still a game. It's the evolution of what Quantic Dream tried a few years...
2 out of 2 found this review helpful. -
Darksiders 0
If you've heard anything at all about Darksiders, it probably involved its similarities to other video games. It's a bit lazy to rely on comparisons to other titles to describe a game, but in Darksiders' case it would be disingenuous not to mention it. So let's just throw it all out there. The overall game structure and use of puzzle-filled enclosed areas are reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda series and its temples. The platforming elements seem most directly taken from God of War, and the...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass 0
Phantom Hourglass isn't without its faults, but it's still a fun entry in the long-running series. Maybe if I had played it when it came out I would have had the same complaints about reusing the same items and general progression that Zelda games have had for such a long time, but since I haven't played a full game in the series since late in 2006, it was just the helping of adventuring I wanted. It features what I believe is the fifth instance in the series of the same Link from a previous a...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Peggle Nights 0
Peggle Nights is about what you'd expect - more Peggle. It's a fun and satisfying little puzzle game that will get you addicted if you let it. It has about the right mix of easy to learn and challenging to master that any simple game of its type should. I was a little disappointed by how similar it was to the original, though. There's one new character with an accompanying new power-up, a couple new techniques to earn bonus points, a new "aced" score for each level (I only achieved it a handful...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
inFamous 0
This was a bit of a tough one to figure out. In some ways, inFamous was one of the must fun and addicting games I played all year. But it screwed up in too many ways for me to say I really loved it. Some of those flaws could be fixed with a few more months of polishing, while others are just fundamental issues I have with the whole experience. I will say that this is one of the few instances when the story actually docked points for me. Before I talk about that, I'll go over the basics. inFamo...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Halo 3: ODST 0
ODST has caught some flack from various sources for charging full price for less than a full product. I can't totally justify speaking either way because I paid twenty dollars less, but I don't see how the game is worth less than others in the series. It might just come from the fact that there's a 3 in the title and the words "expansion pack" were tossed around early on. The game does feel like a side story, developing events that take place at the same time as the second half of Halo 2, and...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
PixelJunk Shooter 0
For the last couple years, Q-Games have been making the PixelJunk series of games, quick downloadable titles on the PlayStation Network that have apparently been improving over time, though this is the first one I've been interested in. The "Shooter" title was chosen in a contest, and I don't think it's quite an accurate name for what the game really is. Yeah, you and possibly a second player fly around in little space ships, shooting at enemies, but that's not the core of the experience. It's...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Batman: Arkham Asylum 0
I normally steer clear of licensed video games because of their general crappiness, but there are three reasons why I gave Arkham Asylum a shot. 1) The demo was pretty promising. 2) It had near universal acclaim from critics and friends alike. 3) It's not a rushed product meant to cash in on some movie or something, but a game made as part of the excellent animated series' universe, even written by Paul Dini and starring the voices of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as Batman and the Joker, respe...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Assassin's Creed II 0
A lot of people had issues with the first game, though I liked it quite a lot. Still, it had its flaws. Running around, climbing up buildings, and sticking dudes with your hidden blade was a lot of fun. But the amount of variety in the missions was extremely limited - none of the tasks were by themselves terribly boring, but when there's only a handful that repeat constantly, it can become a drag. This is where the sequel sees its biggest improvement - the main progression through the game is m...
3 out of 4 found this review helpful. -
Left 4 Dead 2 0
This is an unusual prospect for Valve - a full sequel, actually featuring more content than its predecessor did at release, being put out only a year later. Given that the Half-Life 2 episodes were supposed to be a quick way to continue the story yet we're still waiting for so much as a teaser trailer for the third one five years later, it definitely seems kind of weird. Still, the game is here, and improves on the first in a lot of ways. I wouldn't say it's better, because a lot of it come...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 0
Or just Modern Warfare 2, as Infinity Ward clearly wanted to call it from the fact that the words "Call of Duty" don't appear anywhere in the game or on packaging for special editions. MW2 is the follow-up to the last game the series' actual creators made two years ago, and picks up five years later. The fate of a few characters is left up in there, but main protagonist Soap returns as a grizzled veteran with a voice (Kevin McKidd's) of his own, taking Price's place as ally in the field and f...
7 out of 7 found this review helpful. -
Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time 3
I feel like I'm in a somewhat awkward position in regard to this game's place in the series. I think in some ways, it's an improvement on the last full release, Tools of Destruction. But that's true of almost every sequel they've done, and this is now the fourth console game to use pretty much the exact same formula, which was created in Going Commando six years ago. I still had a ton of fun with it, but it doesn't feel as fresh anymore. It's not exactly a knock on the game, because it's not...
12 out of 12 found this review helpful. -
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves 0
Uncharted 2 is the kind of sequel that all game sequels should hope to be - it makes you never want to go back and play the previous one again. Which is a bit unfortunate in this case, because I still intend to replay the first game for the trophies they later patched in, but just looking at footage of it makes it clear how far Naughty Dog has come in two years. Uncharted 2 is stunning, and easily the best game they have ever made. It's possibly the prettiest game ever, both in terms of technic...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Peggle Deluxe 0
My first Peggle experience came when they released a demo for the game as a part of The Orange Box, with levels themed around the different games in that package. I enjoyed it, but not enough to put up the asking price for the full game. Earlier this year though they had a deal for the game plus its sequel for only ten bucks, and I decided to give it a shot. As far as a casual game that's pretty much leading the charge for its genre, it's pretty good. If you haven't played it, there's a boa...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Obscure: The Aftermath 0
So my friend likes horror games, and now instead of waiting for new ones he likes to dig through the bargain bins and buy any he can find. He got this one, and after playing through the first part alone he decided to get me and another friend to play it with him. Because while the game is awful, its one feature that makes it tolerable is the ability to go through it in co-op mode, the crutch of any developer who knows people will wade through crap if they can do it with a buddy. And the co-op i...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful. -
Yakuza 2 0
Yakuza 2 is as direct a sequel you can make to a video game. There are a few alterations and additions, but you spend over half the game in the same area you spent the first, the combat system is roughly the same, the graphics are mildly improved at best, and the story spends a lot of time dealing with the consequences of the first game. It still shares a lot of the same flaws as before, like a failure to gracefully increase the difficulty as it goes on and several small, odd hiccups in the p...
1 out of 1 found this review helpful. -
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: The Bogey Man 0
The final chapter of Wallace and Gromit's newest adventures wraps up the series nicely, whether this was a one time thing or something they plan to do again. It was the most enjoyable of the games to me since the first, as the puzzle premises were as interesting as they've ever been. After the opening conundrum which I thought was actually the least intuitive of the episode, the meat of the story is Wallace as a detective, hunting down clues and solving riddles to save the local country club ...
0 out of 0 found this review helpful.
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