Video Game Review Thread *No Spoilers*

[Ty Burna]

I didn't see a dedicated thread for this, and if there is one, I apologize.

So this is the video game review thread, and yeah I know there is about 5000 review sites out there, but the "professional" reviewers are all corporate pawns and suck anyways, so let's have the real gamers' voices heard. Old games, new games, free games, whatever you want to throw in here.

I'm going to start out with a game I've been playing for a couple weeks now, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I will base my reviews off these categories: Gameplay, Graphics, Sound, Re playability, and Additional features (such as Co-Op, Online, Downloadable Content etc.). Gameplay will be worth 20 points, Graphics and Sound 5 points each, Re playability 15, and Additional Features 5. It's a weighted system so a shit game doesn't get a good score because it has shiny graphics or awesome sound. Now, let's get to the review.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Gameplay - If you've played the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance, X-Men Legends series, or any 4 person dungeon crawler, you have a good idea what you're in for gameplay wise. At your disposal is 24 Marvel super heroes, some of the biggest names in the comic book industry, and some heroes that most casual comic fans wouldn't have a clue about. Based on the storyline it makes sense for including certain lesser known heroes for them to gain exposure to the casual fans and also gives sort of a mark out moment for the hardcore comic book readers. I don't have a problem with the hero selection and more than likely we will get new character packs when downloadable content becomes available.

The in game action is what you would expect, flashy moves, colorful lights, and enough enemies to keep you going throughout whatever mission you are currently on. In fact at some points during the game there are too many enemies, but because of a new feature they included called Fusion Powers, disposing of massive amount of enemies is easy. These Fusion Powers are essentially what they sound like, you use the super power of two of your characters to clear an area of enemies or target one powerful one. You have three fusion power styles: Clearing, which clears the area of enemies, guided, which you can guide your two heroes towards whatever enemies you want, and targeted, which targets one enemy for a powerful attack. The only negative I have for the Fusion Powers, is they recycled quite a number of attacks for the different combinations, just with different visuals. Other than the addition of Fusion Powers, MUA2 is your standard button mashing dungeon crawler. Eventually you settle into the same three button combo in addition to your special abilities. For some that may get boring but with the amount of enemies you face in the game, you hardly notice it. One negative is you can get lost on where you're at during a massive amount of enemies on screen.

Another negative I have is the removal of certain RPG elements. In the original MUA, you would collect massive amounts of loot and equipment just like you would in a regular RPG. In MUA2 they've completely eliminated the equipment aspect, but instead replaced it with Team Boost Medals. These medals grant your entire team boosts such as +5 to stamina or adds 25 energy damage to melee attacks, and so on and so forth. Nothing wrong with the Team Boost, but taking away the equipment aspect left the customization part of the game a bit lacking. Leveling up abilities is pretty much the same as the original, you gain a point to spend in powering up your special abilities for each level you gain, and the XP you gain during the game is used to power up your character's boosts. What is interesting however, is once you pick a side during the game, you gain two boosts based on what side you pick. A negative I do have is the option to auto spend or have the computer level your character for you turns on automatically even after you turn it off. It's annoying when you want to go manually upgrade your character and it's all done for you.

As far as the storyline is concerned, the game takes the Civil War story from the comics, with some liberties taken of course. Not to spoil anything major for the storyline, but during the course of the game you get to choose a side, either Captain America and the Anti-Reg side, or Iron Man and the Pro-Reg side. As I stated above, you get certain boosts and abilities based on what side you choose. Also during the game inbetween missions and during cutscenes, you are given choices for responses during conversations. You can choose between aggressive, diplomatic, and defensive. Really your choice doesn't affect the story or gameplay, but you do get different responses accordingly. Also if you gain enough points in either of the three, you gain Team Boost Medals as well as achievements. There are different responses for each character. Personally Deadpool's responses crack me up.

Well I think I covered most of the gameplay, with some small tweaks and additions, it spiced up a normal dungeon crawler a bit, but not enough for anything innovative. So for Gameplay I"m giving it 13 points out of 20.

Graphics - The graphics are pretty solid in game, and the cut scenes make a comic book mark like myself, well, mark out. I know I've talked to Will about it, and he doesn't like the look of the costumes. I can see why some people won't like them, the colors for the costume are washed out. They aren't vibrant like you would expect from a comic book, but I suppose you could think of it as more of an attempt at a realist mature color scheme. I don't really think it's that bad, but with some of the characters with darker colored outfits, you can lose them in the background during fights. Otherwise I don't have any problem with the outfits. As far as the energy/fire/ice/etc looks, they look excellent and look like they would come straight from a comic book. They are bright and colorful, just as they should be. The backgrounds are decent at best, nothing spectacular about them, and the enemies never differentiate looks unless they are in different enemy classes.

For Graphics I give it a 3 points out of 5.

The sound is nothing spectacular in MUA2, you get your typical ambiance music in the background that doesn't add anything to the game. The voice acting is decent at best, noting to write home about as the majority of the time you hear either Nick Fury, Ironman, and Captain America. So those three are solid, others sound like canned voices more than anything with no real emotion in them. All the attacks have a good sound to them, and with a lot of enemies and attacks going on at the same time, it sounds like a real war is going on.

Nothing special here for Sound. I give it 2 points out of 5.

Re Playability - Looking at the amount of collectibles there are in game, not to mention the splitting storylines part way through the game, I can tell this is going to have a great amount of activity to go and play through everything again. Not only that, but with the addition of Co Op and Online play, It can make for a great game when friends are around, or going online and romping through it with others. I'm excited also for the downloadable content that will come out for it, hopefully additional missions/stories and characters. I have a very good feeling this is a game you can definitely get your money's worth out of.

I give Re Playability 15 points out of 15.

Additional Features - Well I've mentioned pretty much all the additional features during the course of this review, but I'm going to expand a bit on them further. Co Op allows up to four players at a time with each person handling their own hero. When someone levels up, the computer will take control while a player is busy adjusting his stats and allocating points so to prevent the constant pausing of the game to upgrade characters. I like that feature because it keeps the flow of the game going. You can also do Co Op online in the same way. I'm not sure what D/C they will have coming through the pipeline, but in a game like this, new missions, characters, and customes I would think are a necessity.

Additional Features gets 4 points out of 5.

MUA2 is a great button mashing dungeon crawler, and it has Marvel characters. Definitely good fun when running through it solo, even better when you have another person or more playing it with you, online or sitting in your living room. While some aspects became surprisingly shallow, it has great re playability and with the addition of downloadable content, it could keep you occupied for quite some time.

Final Score: 37 Points out of 50 or 74%.

 

[LSN80]

I friggin think resident evil 5 is the best game ive ever played due to its difficuly(you feel a sense of accomplishment when you finally beat it) style,(both shooter and you have to figure out some difficult puzzles, and graphics. Theyre amazing. Sorry so short but I dont want to overanalyze it or give anything away.

 

[Blade]

I wanted to throw my thoughts out on this game. Because I think it's something that people need to play, and Dave will back me up on this.

Mass Effect 2

Publisher: EA
Developer: Bioware
System: Xbox 360, PC

The video game industry is evolving at a fast pace. Both games and consoles have been pushing boundaries in recent years. And now, with the release of Mass Effect 2, the second in Bioware’s 3rd person sc-fi action trilogy, another step has been taken into the future of gaming. And what a step it is.
For those of you that didn’t play the first Mass Effect, you play as Commander Shepard, a human soldier with a troubled past. The storyline of the first game was a space soap opera, made up of betrayal, politics, and plot twists in a universe where other races of aliens are in charge and humans are still striving for respect. At the end of the first game, Shepard manages to earn that respect for the humans after a handful of daring missions and stopping the traitorous alien Saren. The second game, plot wise, is much more straightforward. Shepard’s space ship, the Normandy, is attacked by a race of aliens known as the collectors for no apparent reason. Shepard is saved by Cereberus, an extremist pro-human faction that brings him back from the brink of death. When he wakes up, he realises 2 years have passed him by and since then the Collectors, who attacked him 2 years ago, have started wiping out entire human colonies. Shepard goes back out into space to recruit a team made up of the best soldiers, scientists and engineers to help him get to the Collectors’ base to destroy them in what will most likely be a suicide mission, of which you are frequently reminded. But the game is paced extremely well, with plot twists that have you gasping and nodding your head at the cleverness of Bioware’s writers.
Like most games by Bioware, customisation and character development are major parts of Mass Effect 2. At the start of the game, you will create your own commander Shepard, customising his appearance and choosing what class of commander you are. Obviously, each class has its own strengths and weaknesses. One class make you an expert with guns, while the other end of the spectrum makes you a master of biotic powers, which are a technology that essentially give you superpowers but limits the guns you can use. With 6 different classes in all, you can easily find the right Commander Shepard for you. As you progress through the game, the RPG elements start to kick in as you level up and decide what areas of your character’s class to excel in. When it comes to the plot and Mass Effect Universe, there’s an “every action has a reaction” deal going on. You make choices in the game that affect the story and characters around you. In fact, there are 20-30 possible outcomes for the game’s ending based on choices made, your morality and your relationships with your team mates.

Speaking of choices altering the game, one of the main reasons this game has received so much hype is the unique and well done import system. If you played the first Mass Effect, you can import your save file from the first game. You keep the same character you had before and the choices you made in the first game change the world around you in the second game. You meet up with old team mates, who like you or hate you based on how you treated them in the first game, for example. This was an ambitious idea from Bioware that could’ve easily gone wrong. But if any developer could do it, it would be Bioware. Luckily they pulled it off incredibly well, and I’m looking forward to using the same feature for the third game of the Mass Effect trilogy.

The plot is simpler, but controlling Shepard has become a better experience. The gameplay has been taken up a notch, requiring you to incorporate strategy into every mission, whether the mission is an all-out multi-man dogfight or a stealthy infiltration. You’re given a vast array of weapons, whether it’s the guns or the biotic powers for any situation. During missions you’ll find yourself frequently switching between guns and powers while glancing around to make sure your squad members are in the right positions for your strategy. As much as a chore as it sounds, it’s surprisingly fluid and you’ll get used to it so quickly that you’ll automatically be doing all this stuff while successfully fighting off your enemies in later levels. When you’re not fighting enemies, you’ll probably be conversing with the many characters on the planets and on your team. The conversation system is mostly the same as the previous game, where you will have between two and six options for what to say next while talking to people, each based upon whether you want to be good or evil and how much information you want. But Mass Effect 2 has brought in a new innovation into its conversation system. Now at certain moments during some conversations if you find the interrogation isn’t quite going the way you want it to, just squeeze one of the triggers (left trigger for good, right for evil) and you’ll interrupt whoever you’re talking to with some action that will persuade them to help you out. While this addition doesn’t affect the game in a major way, it’s certainly a nice little innovation and it’ll be interesting to see how they expand upon it in the next Mass Effect.

The graphics and sounds also maintain the high quality of the first game; very rarely will you not feel the atmosphere of a planet or city. The second half of the game in particular will have settings that make you look around in wonder, hesitate out of fear and just plain creep you out. The graphics themselves aren’t a high upgrade from the first game, but they didn’t need to be. The first Mass Effect had some superb graphics, and the sequel doesn’t fix what isn’t broken. Likewise, the voice acting is fantastic throughout the game, especially the voice of Cereberus head honcho The Illusive Man, played by Martin Sheen.

But at the end of the day, no game is perfect and Mass Effect 2 is no exception. There are some technical faults with the game; specifically the occasional slow down during more frantic parts of the game. There have also been reports of the game crashing, although that did not happen once to me during my 25 hour play-through. Another problem that I found was the AI of the enemies and team mates. While the AI of the enemies is actually very good, as they too strategise, your allies are usually a bit slow on the uptake. This can include not firing at the enemy closest to them (i.e. the one that’s just about to attack them) and sometimes not even bothering to find cover. While sup-par A.I. doesn’t usually bother me, the fact that the comparison of the enemy A.I. and the team member A.I. is so uneven can be quite frustrating and make some parts of the game more difficult than they need to be.

Alas, as I’ve said already, these are mere technical difficulties, nothing to do with the core gameplay, story or graphics/sound, because there is practically nothing wrong with those aspects of the game. Mass Effect 2 is truly a masterpiece and solidifies the fact that Bioware are one of the best developers in the world. Buy this game, play it, then count the days until
Mass Effect 3 comes out.

 

[J-Dogg]

I have got Mass Effect 2, and even though i havent played Mass Effect 1, all i can say about ME2 is that its the game of the year for me, everything about it is so emersive and the universe and the little things you learn and pick up make it interesting. The characters are interesting, the graphics are great and the environments are enticing.

Another thing about ME2 is the abilities of the characters and how you can increase their rank makes for better combat, also upgrades help in combat in good ways. Its fun also to put those upgrades and levelled up powers and abilities to use in combat situations in my opinion.

I can go on and on about all the greatness of this game but i'd be repeating some of what you said Razor...but one of my final thoughts and praises is the downloadable content which in my view is worth getting, i have all the current DLC items at the moment and they are very useful.

My final praise before i repeat too much of what you have again said Razor is that of the soundtrack, Jack Wall did a superb job of it and makes the game even greater.

Again i cannot wait until Mass Effect 3 which will be awesome and add even more to the series which is highly replayable and totally engaging and entertaining.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

Over the past few months, I have been playing some games, both new and old. I thought I would share my opinions on them here.

Thie first game is Luigi's Mansion, Made by Nintendo in 2001. I had not been able to beat the latter part of this game for a very long while. But, when I tarted playing it a few months ago, I decided to start from the beginning. I learned, it's not as hard as I once thought.

Storyline: Luigi has won the lottery (Even though he never entered). For winning the lottery, he now owns his very own mansion. He and Mario decide to go check this place out. Mario goes to check it out first without Luigi. Luigi, not knowing where Mario is, checks it out for himself too. Only to find out, It was a trick to kidnap both Mario and Luigi. Luigi enters the mansion and is attacked by ghosts. He then runs to another place in the same area as the mansion.
Luigi then meets an old man named Professor E.Gadd. He has an invention that can get rid of the ghosts. It's called the Poltergeist 3000. It's a vacuum cleaner designed to suck up the ghosts. Luigi then goes back to the mansion full of ghosts ready to kick some ass.

Gameplay: This game seems tough at first. You really have to get used to the controls. In a room of ghosts, You need to aim at the ghost and click the 'R' button to suck them up. Sound easy? Well it's not. These ghosts have HP, some more than others. There is also a set amount of time you have to suck up the ghosts before they run away, only to return when you least expect it. In the beginning of the game, most of the ghosts have 10/20 HP each, however when you progress through the game, You face ghosts with 200/300 HP and sometimes even more. Don't worry, You gain HP too. Towards the end of the game, just as you're about to save Mario. The ghost of Bowser appears, he is your final boss, with 500 HP. Very hard to beat him.

Other than gameplay, The graphics on this game are pretty good. Remember , this is a 2001 Gamecube game. There was no XBox, Or 360, or PS3 at the time. So the graphics in this game really paved the way for other games.

The sound is great too. You can pretty much hear every little thing going on. Trust me when I say, the sound is more important to this game than you think.

Overall rating: I give this game an 8/10. This is the first game to ever focus on Luigi, and not Mario. There are some things that Nintendo should have worked out, but remember, this is from 2001.

More to come later.......

 

[Dagger Dias]

This is the first game to ever focus on Luigi, and not Mario.

Actually it was the 2nd. An embarrassment known as Mario is Missing was the first game focusing on Luigi. Just thought I'd point that out.

That was a good review and I enjoyed reading it. I really wish I could have gotten into that game. I gave it a chance and really wanted to like it.... but the controls were absolutely impossible to figure out. I've been tempted to try to find a used copy at Game Stop and give it yet another chance. The graphics and music were honestly pretty good from what I remember, the major downside though is the gameplay due to the terrible controls. When a life-long gamer cannot get past the first minutes of a game, then you know there's a problem. I somewhat agree with your review's score, but I would bump it down to a 7 rather than an 8 because even though other aspects of the game were good, it had absolutely terrible gameplay, and nothing about it was good enough to cancel that out.

I look forward to seeing more of your reviews.

 

[Dr. Stinger A. Zoidberg]

Thanks for the feedback Dagger, I appreciate it. Anyway, Here is my next review.

Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, made by Sega in 2002, is easily one of the best games I have ever played. There is so much to do. I got this game about 8-9 years ago, and I still havent beaten the whole thing!

Storyline: It depends on who you're playing as, for the sake of this review, I'll go through every character's storyline. I actually did a review for this game on Gamefaqs.com a long time ago, I will copy some of the stuff I wrote into here.

Hero Storyline:
Sonic the Hedgehog is captured by a secret military force under the code name: G.U.N. They say he’s being captured because he’s done some seriously bad things that can’t go unpunished. He says he done nothing and escapes a military helicopter in which he’s being escorted to a high security prison. He leaps down to the streets of a city in effort to escape. There, he meets a mysterious black hedgehog which looks ominously like Sonic for some reason. And on the fact, he has a Chaos Emerald in his hand and you’re in deep trouble. Meanwhile, unexplained incidents have occurred around the world at the hands of everyone’s favorite Sonic villain, Dr. Robotnik…err…Eggman, damn you Sega! Once learning that Eggman and the mysterious black hedgehog and Eggman are connected, he enlists the help of Tails and Knuckles to help him kick his ass again.

Villian Storyline:
While searching for a secret military weapon known only to him as Shadow, Dr. Eggman penetrates a high-security military base. Deep inside of the base, Eggman discovers that the weapon is strangely a black hedgehog called Shadow claiming himself as the ultimate life form. Shadow invites Eggman to the Space Colony ARK and reveals to him a massive weapon known as the Eclipse Cannon, which is capable of destroying the world. The evil genius wholeheartedly agrees to help Shadow in his conquest. Just as they start to do their plan, a female fat named Rouge offers her help as well. This begins the quest to take over the world…

Eventually at the end of the game, Once you have completed both storylines, A new one appears called "Last Story", This story takes place in space upon Space Colony ARK, Shadow and Sonic both have all 8 chaos emeralds and use their powers to become Super Sonic and Super Shadow. Once in their forms, you must finally defeat the final boss of the game, The Bio-Hazard, a giant snake like creature. The catch is, You can only last in Super form if you have enough rings, if you dont, You die.

Another perk to this game is Chao Garden, a place where you raise little creatures called "Chao." You can have them partake in races, and fights. Also depending on how you raise them, they can turn into different, more powerful kinds of Chao.

There is also a multiplayer mode, In this, you can play against your friends in a stage, to see who can beat it first. Or, you can go into battle mode, and fight to the death.

Overall, This is one of the best games I have played in my life. The sound quality and graphics are great in this game. Plus I like the fact that depending on which storyline you choose, It rotates around playing with 3 different characters.
Hero:
Sonic
Tails
Knuckles

Villian:
Eggman
Rouge
Shadow

Overall, I give this game a 10/10, as I've said before, It's been 8 years since I started playing, and I still havent beaten the whole thing. Once you beat a mission, you can go back to that place and complete little side-missions that are really quite fun.

(Sorry for the really big picture)

 

[Lee]

OK you struggled with Luigi's mansion and now Sonic adventure 2 battle ? Dude that is laughable.

How you can give Sonic adventure 2 a 10/10 is hilarious. It is pretty much adventure one with a few added gimmicks. 7/8 out of 10 tops. What else can I say? No innovation, the GC graphics on it weren't too flashy and the sound, well modern sonic games have annoying as hell sound tracks.

 

[Leafy]

This might be an old game but I just played it. Bioshock.

My friend let me play this and I really enjoyed it. In case you never heard of this huge game your inside an underground city called rapture and it's full of the insane citizens and things called Big Daddies that protect their little sisters. It's a FPS shooter with a genetic twist.

I really liked this game even though I played it on easy. I was going to give up at the beginning because I constantly ran out of ammo and was stuck with a wrench and no plasmids (your "magic"). I became committed and this game shined through its story and the fun of being all powerful. Once you start getting good plasmids and fun weapons, Rapture becomes your demented playground.

At the beginning big daddies were the equivalent of death at the beginning but near the end you can control them or destroy them with ease. Once I planted a whole bunch of trip wires and shot the Daddy and laughed as it killed itself. The story is full of twist and turns but I will only say it's a very enjoyable story.

The only problem was the boss fight was WAY too easy. It took me a minute to do and he was portrayed as an unstoppable monster. The other problem was a stupid one that just bothered me. Your character holds the gun very loosely. It bothered me the entire game.

All in all a very fun game I plan on beating on hard.

 

[HBK619]

I'm gonna do a game i've been playing recently.

Darksiders(know as Darksiders:Wrath of War in some countries)

Now the story here is that Hell and Heaven were fighting when a Council appeared and made a truce.To anyone who tried to break the truce the councils band of avengers(i guess)known as the Four Horsemen would stop them.Know during the war came man.The Kingdom of Man evolved and the apocolypse would occur on earth when hell and heaven fought again.So the game starts off with War,The First Horsemen being summoned.So you go through the first level learning controls and whatnot until the first boss.During the fight you are transported to the council.They accuse you of igniting the war.You(War)deny it but they have evidence.You set off to clear you name,stripped of all powers and armed only with your trusty sword Chaoseater.

Now the people are saying this is a God of War clone when it isnt.It looks the same but i can tell you straight up Darksiders is different.Different story,the gameplay is similar and the graphics are better in Darksiders.Darksiders isnt like God of War when its simply revenge,in Darksiders you need to search the world to take down the Destroyer who started all this.You can also upgrade you weapons by leveling them up and equip them with certain items that give the weapons special powers.

The setting is Earth,100 years later after the war between Heaven and Hell.Lots of places are grey giving it a dull tone.Demons and Angels still roam the streets so there is lots of action.The walls have holes in them,buildings have collasped,it has so much detail.Demons are the one thing that bother me though.They can be ridicously overpowered.I have fought a demon which has taken me out 4 times before i finally beaten it.You may think his just bad at the game but i'm not.The demon chases you if you dash away and you still get hit.

Overall i give this game 9/10.Its great and i love it but its just not up there.

 

[Frozentrash75]

So as some of you already know i am Frozentrash75 and i am an avid fan of video games i have a PS3, Xbox 360, and a Wii so it's easy to see i love video games and i do have knowledge about games so i figured why not help everybody out with there game selections by giving them a Review. So for my first review will be Bioshock 2.

So lets get started if you are a fan of the first Bioshock then you will be a fan of Bioshock 2. Now Bioshock 2 isn't as good as the first one and part of the reason is that this game also takes place in the city of rapture just like the first one so it won't be as impressive the second time around because you have seen it all before.

The graphics in this game are excellent the characters are clear and crisp and the environment isn't bad to look at either. This game has no frame rate issues it never froze up on me or slowed down which is very nice. The biggest difference between this game and the first one is that you don't play as a human this time around this time you are a Big Daddy which i enjoy because of the different weapons you have at your disposal my favorite one being the giant drill you have there is nothing funner then drilling a hole in the bad guys. Another new thing i noticed was a new character you will have to fight called a big sister which is basically a big daddy but it's slimmer and a lot faster.

The game has a very satisfying story but it's nothing amazing and probably not as good as the first games story but it's still solid none the less. Also Bioshock 2 has online multiplayer which the first one didn't have so that adds a little bit more replay value to the game it's not the best online multiplayer but it's definitely worth checking out. So to sum up while it isn't as good as the first one Bioshock 2 is still an amazing game one worth buying and definitely worth renting i give this game a 8.75/10

 

[Dave]

So as some of you already know i am Frozentrash75 and i am an avid fan of video games i have a PS3, Xbox 360, and a Wii so it's easy to see i love video games and i do have knowledge about games so i figured why not help everybody out with there game selections by giving them a Review. So for my first review will be Bioshock 2.

I am not trying to sound like a dick at all but I have no idea who you are. I am in this section a whole lot and I don't think I have heard anything from you. That being said, I so slightly recall your name and if your credentials are what you say they are, then welcome to the party. Post a lot in here and help us to make it better, which is a continual goal for everyone that participates.

But yes, on with the show.

Ah, Bioshock 2! A game that I am just about done with and have some very offhand comments to make about said game. Let's see if you and I are on the same page.

[/quote]So lets get started if you are a fan of the first Bioshock then you will be a fan of Bioshock 2. Now Bioshock 2 isn't as good as the first one and part of the reason is that this game also takes place in the city of rapture just like the first one so it won't be as impressive the second time around because you have seen it all before.[/quote]

I would have to disagree with that statement first and foremost. I would argue (and I think that many would agree), that the environment that is evident in Bioshock 1 and 2 is probably one of the best and most stunning features of the game. I think people, more often that not, are happy to see some continuity in a game that had Bioshock's initial success and I am pretty sure that, like me, people welcome the world of Rapture back to their consoles. Although people have seen something before, I don't think that automatically makes them cringe when they see it again.

The graphics in this game are excellent the characters are clear and crisp and the environment isn't bad to look at either. This game has no frame rate issues it never froze up on me or slowed down which is very nice. The biggest difference between this game and the first one is that you don't play as a human this time around this time you are a Big Daddy which i enjoy because of the different weapons you have at your disposal my favorite one being the giant drill you have there is nothing funner then drilling a hole in the bad guys. Another new thing i noticed was a new character you will have to fight called a big sister which is basically a big daddy but it's slimmer and a lot faster.

OK, let me do my own little run down of some of the features of the game. Yes, you are correct. The game has a very nice setting and the graphics are amazing. The first thing that struck me about them was how clear everything was and how nothing looked as though it was out of place. The characters are nice too. However, I do notice quite a lot of frigid motions from them that takes away from the crisp gameplay somewhat. It is not a big deal but it does tarnish what you said slightly. The frame rate statement is another thing that I will take issue with. You see, it must vary from console to console because I got multiple stoppages in my game and it is not my disk being in a porr state or my console being old because neither of them is correct. I found that when it was trying to load something mid-game, it took a little while to find it on the disk and make it happen. Again, it is quite a small issue and it didn't take away from the experience over all.

However, for everything that it does well, it does something equally as bad. I must make it clear that before a couple of weeks ago, I had no intention of playing this game or the original but after hearing all of the hype that surrounded it, I felt as though I should. Having played it to almost completion, I have a few gripes that I would like to get out of my system. The first of which being that this game is fucking boring. The story is not boring but the way they go about telling it definitely is. As I played this game, I had the recurring feeling that I was just doing the same thing over and over and over again. This is not helped by the fact that every single level follows the same basic formula that they stick to exclusively. There is nothing new on each level except for a new surrounding and a new boss to defeat. There is really is not a whole lot of variation in this game and if I had to put it into one word, it would be "boring"

However, it is not a bad game. It is repetitive and some aspects of the game could be mightily improved but I wouldn't go as far to say that I dislike it. In fact, I found it to be quite enjoyable building up my character and letting loose with a massive drill. After a few hours though of the same challenge, it become boring and tedious.

The game has a very satisfying story but it's nothing amazing and probably not as good as the first games story but it's still solid none the less. Also Bioshock 2 has online multiplayer which the first one didn't have so that adds a little bit more replay value to the game it's not the best online multiplayer but it's definitely worth checking out. So to sum up while it isn't as good as the first one Bioshock 2 is still an amazing game one worth buying and definitely worth renting i give this game a 8.75/10

Ah yes, the story. The story is probably the best part of this game. They tell it well and it is rivetting in parts. However, I cannot get away from the fact that they could have done it so much better had they added some more variation to the levels and challenges of the game. Sure, they have added multiplayer to this game but again, it is not very good. This game came at me in a whirlwind of hype and I feel as though I definitely missed something. I have heard great things about it and I expected a lot more out of it. That being said, it is definitely worth a shot but I wouldn't buy it. Rent it or play it somehow because it is worth that but I wouldn't pay for this game. It screams mediocrity at me in parts and some things just annoyed me, to be honest.

If I was pressed to give it a score, it would likely be 7/10.

 

[Dave]

Bioshock 2 review

The much anticipated release of Bioshock 2 has brought a world of hype to our doorstep once again. As was the case for the first instalment in the Bioshock series, this game comes with your general overstatements and well-oiled PR buzz. So, we at Zero decided that we would take a step back inside the world of Rapture and find out what all the commotion is about. At Zero, we have never bought into the hype and find that a game’s accomplishments should speak for itself. However, with a great predecessor, Bioshock 2 has a lot to live up to and all the early reports would suggest that it has lived up to what has been promised.

Bioshock 2 starts out as you take control of Subject Delta. Delta, as you will later be known as, is the first Big Daddy to be successfully tied to a Little Sister. However, it comes to be known that Sophia Lamb has taken control of Rapture after the death of Andrew Ryan. Lamb is quite different to Ryan in the way that she uses the community of Rapture to cause you problems. The first problem that you will encounter is her taking your Little Sister from you. Eleanor, as she is called, is professed to be her daughter and with the assistance of some sedatives and the use of words, Sophia Lamb makes you put a gun to your head and pull the trigger, right in front of your Little Sister.

On a happier, not so dark note, you will find that you are revived 10 years later thanks to a vita-chamber and inexplicably start to channel messages from your lost Little Sister who is all grown up. However, thanks to the early accounts, she has been captured by her mother and is being used as the salvation of Rapture. So already, the plot of the story has unravelled and you see a path of success put before you. As the game progresses, we are introduced to more and more characters from the world of Rapture that are just eager to help the friendly neighbourhood Big Daddy. As you progress, you will be introduced to more and more wonderfully panoramic and beautiful surroundings that really bring this title to life. The water effect, as you would expect, is pretty spectacular and on many occasions you are introduced to it first hand. The scenery is wonderful and at times, we would find ourselves stopping to look out on Rapture in it’s glory or admiring the water. The graphics are one thing that really ignite this game and I would be remiss if I did not comment on how good they were. Whether it is the blood on a shirt of a blood thirsty civilian or the gleam of the city on your helmet, this game is fantastically detailed and it is a joy to see.

As you travel through the game, you will come to learn that every level is designed wonderfully. None of the levels look similar and it takes away from the fact that every level is basically the same. Indeed, if you take away the new surroundings, you really have the same level over and over. You see, one of the main gripes about this game is that it is very repetitive. As we played through this game, we had the feeling that we had been here before. It was mainly because we had but he had all the progress of a dog chasing it’s tail at some point of this game. It is not something that is noticeable at the beginning of the game but as we travelled through every new surrounding, we were baffled as to why new challenges were not being posed by the game. You will come to realise that every level poses the same challenges and are nothing spectacular.

The Bioshock 2 Level Composition:

Step 1 - Ride train to “new level”
Step 2 – Something happens to the train *Shock*
Step 3 – Go try and fix the problem
Step 4 – Realise that the only way you will fix the train is by accomplishing a goal and encountering many Rapture citizens who lack a friendly welcome.
Step 5 – Adopt Little Sister
Step 6 – Defend Little Sister
Step 7 – Kill Little Sister
Step 8 – End level.

The main problem with this game is not the length of the story or the gameplay. No, the main problem is that it seems far too similar. The familiarity is two fold as you think about the original game and then the last level. Without surprises and new challenges posed, we found that we become bored by each new level and found the whole thing to be tedious. As you finish a level, you expect to be happy but we found it to be wholly unfulfilling and a chore starting the new level, knowing that it would more than likely be a carbon copy of the last.

However, we don’t want to drone on about the negative parts of this game. Rather, we want to give you all the information you could need and one such aspect that really gripped us was the sound of the game. Sound is a completely underrated part of any game and really adds to the environment. You can say anything you want to with a good song and when you couple this with the surroundings of each level, you have a meticulous environment in which to apply some hurtin’. Yes, the overall sound of this game is amazing. The music amps up as you are locked in deadly battles and really does add a wonderful mood the game. Sometimes, we thought it to be downright bone-chilling. With that being said, it does have it’s drawbacks. One flaw that we found in the game was that the tension built up, level by level, really didn’t subside very often. This is such a minor flaw but left us feeling as though we constantly battling and not being allowed to take in everything that was going on around us. At times, the game really needed to slow down and allow us to appreciate the feeling of dread and wonder that we were surrounded by. However, as has been said, the soundtrack is brilliant and is a stand out feature of the game.

A great feature of the new game is how far it has come from the original. So many new and improved features have been added to this game and it really does seem more polished and better put together. One thing is the ability to use plasmids and weapons at the same time. This may seem very minor but it adds to a control set that you never had in the original. The controls are intuitive and we never found ourselves fumbling for the right button. It is set out well and is quick and responsive. Another great addition to this game is the use of the Little Sisters. In Bioshock 2, more options are open to the player than the original, in regards to your little companion, and it really helps give a greater appreciation of where this game has come from. Initially, you can choose to harvest the Little Sister or save her and she will direct you to more Splicers, all in the attempts to receive more valuable ADAM. However, the repetitive nature of the game is once again prevalent as this is carried out. With 4 or 5 Little Sisters in one level, you become annoyed at the lack of originality. That being said, it is still a good improvement and something which is a good effect later on.

Yes, the great features of the original game have been upped in this one and it seems like a better deal overall. The best feature of the game is the story. Although we would have liked more time to digest it between levels and maniacal shooting, we did have a lot of fun with the story. All of the decision you make during the game will come back to haunt you as you further progress. Have you been harvesting Little Sisters for fun? If so, say goodbye to upgrades left for you by them later in the game. Have you been saving them and really being a great role model for the other Big Daddy’s? If so, welcome to the best ending. Without ruining too much, the ending of this game is fantastic. It is truly one of the joys of playing through this game and will leave you more satisfied than you have been throughout the levels. We got a very nice ending and something that had us almost in tears. It is touching and we are certain that if you play the game right through to the end, either one of the six possible ending will have you hooked. It is an outstanding addition to the game and leaves you hungry for more details.

Overall, this game is like any other. It has positive and negative features and of course everyone is not going to feel the same way about it as I do. Generally, this game lives up to the hype and expands on it’s predecessor fantastically. The graphics are special and the gameplay is pretty good. The sound to the game is wonderful and the story is great. These are all the great parts of the game that will have you enthralled. However, having played through the game, I had mixed feeling until the end. I have no doubt that it is a game that you should play at some point. Baring in mind that it will be full price for a while yet, I would like to take this time to warn you that the price is a little bit steep. For the fans of the series though, it is a small price to pay for another action-packed journey to the world of Rapture.

75 out of 100

EDIT: This was done as an outside project but I thought that I would let you guys read it.

 

[ZeroVX]

So, I just recently finished No More Heroes 2. I thought about it a lot, so I decided to write a review for it. Because, to be honest, I think I preferred the first one.

Now that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this game, because I did. The thing is, there were a few things in this one that the original just seemed to do better. In fact, a part of me even wonders if a sequel should've been made. No More Heroes had a unique storyline, eccentric characters, and excellent gameplay, and I felt that it stood up fine on its own. Still, it gained a bit of popularity, so I was surprised, but not upset, when a sequel was announced.

Story is something you shouldn't take too seriously when it comes to No More Heroes, but I'll talk about it a bit anyway. It takes place three years after the original. Travis Touchdown finished the last game as the number 1 assassin in Santa Destroy, but then decided to step down. Since then, corporations have started to take over, and assassinating as become widely popular. Travis has come back, but now has to start at the bottom of the ranks. In addition to that, his best friend Bishop, who worked at the video store from the last game, was killed, and the man behind it just so happens to be the current number 1 assassin.

Don't expect that theme to be too prevalent in this game. Like I said, you're not supposed to take it seriously, but the theme still seems somewhat absent from this. This may be due in part to what seem to be shorter cutscenes, but I'll talk about that in detail in a bit. Instead, let's focus more on the important part of No More Heroes, the gameplay.

For those who played the previous one, you'll be happy to know that not much has changed, at least not in battle. The A button still slashes the sword, while B still does punches and kicks. You can do high or low hits depending on how you're holding the Wiimote, Z still locks onto the enemy and blocks attacks, and you can still do finishing moves the same (swinging the Wiimote for sword kills and wrestling moves). But there's one big difference. The camera. Good Lord almighty, I hate this camera. In the previous game, it was always stuck behind Travis at all times. Now, it moves back and forth. I have lost count of how many times this has caused me to be trapped in a corner while being beat on by swarms of enemies. And it makes boss fights much harder than they should be. Fuck this camera to the deepest pits of Hell.

Outside of battle, though, quite a bit has changed. First off, your motel. You still use the toilet to save, can still use the closet to change clothes, and still watch TV (although there's really no point to it). Two changes are here, though. Instead of watching videos to learn wrestling moves, you read wrestling magazines. You don't buy these, they just pop up at certain intervals in the game. Then, there's Jeane, your pet cat from the previous game. She's gotten fat, and you need to get her into shape. I actually liked this, as in the previous game, you could play with your cat, but there was no point to it at all. Now, there's a reason for it, and an actual reward at the end.

As for outside the motel, the biggest change that players of the previous game will notice is that the open-ended world is gone. No more can you just hop onto your motorcycle and drive around town. Now you have a map to travel to each location. I don't really have a problem with this, as I rarely desired to just hop on the motorcycle and go exploring, mainly because there wasn't much to do. The downside to this, though, is that there's less extra stuff to hunt for. You can find extra gifts in the actual levels of the game, but they're more for decorating your room than anything else. The locations on the map are Airport 51 (clothes store), Naomi's Lab (where you buy new swords), Ryan's Gym (where you upgrade your stats), Side Jobs, and Revenge Missions.

Side Jobs and Revenge Missions are where you get your money. The problem here is twofold. One, you can only do each Revenge Mission once, which are more enjoyable than the tedious Side Jobs. Which leads into the second problem, in that the Side Jobs, as well as the tasks in Ryan's Gym, are tedious and annoying. In the previous game, you usually just ran around and picked up or cut down some sort of objects for work. Now, all of these have been replaced by pseudo-eight-bit minigames. The controls are widely different for each game, and very difficult. What's worse is that you don't earn much money from these. The game balances things out by you not really needing to buy much. Outside of two swords from Naomi, any money you get usually goes to feeding Jeane, working out at Ryan's Gym, and buying clothes from Airport 51, none of which are things you're required to do. Still, I would've preferred that money was something I could easily acquire, to make getting these other things easier.

One more thing I want to talk about is the boss fights. Make no mistake, all of them are different and can be fun. In fact, in comparison to the last game, the bosses here seem a lot harder, so if you're looking for a challenge, it's here. The thing is, none of these fights seem to be properly built up. In the last game, you would get the boss's name before the level began, and when you met the boss, they'd get one long cutscene before the battle, and one after, to properly build up their character. This made each of them more memorable, and helped emphasize the zaniness that the game was trying to show. Here, they don't get as much screen time to build themselves up. They only get a few minutes, mainly to show off whatever crazy weapon they have, and then after the fight, you kill them with little fanfare. It's because of this that none of the bosses really stand out to me like the ones in the previous game did, and that hurts the game a bit.

I know it seems like I've crapped on this game a lot, but I did enjoy it for what it did have. The same bloody nonsensical wackiness I've gotten used to from Suda 51. Overall, I give it a 6.5/10. Not as good as the first, but still enjoyable.

 

[SalvIsWin]

Starcraft II : Beta

Introduction

The Starcraft II beta has been out for a couple months now, and I have had the pleasure of playing it for said duration. Keep in mind that the beta is subject to change, how ever the game is being launched in July, so it's clear to me that the game is almost finished, and Blizzard has stated that they would most likely not be changing much else on the multi-player front.

If you don't know, Starcraft II is the follow-up the ever popular 1998 Starcraft, and Starcraft: Brood War. Possibly the most successful real time strategy game of all time, Starcraft has had legs for over twelve years and counting. In Korea, Starcraft professional players earn past the $100,000 mark, and there are regular tournaments still to this day with cash prizes of $10,000 and higher.

Graphics

Starcraft II beta is a graphically impressive game. The most impressive aspect is the scaling that the game has, a potentially beastly computer can produce a visually stunning game, while a poor computer can still run the game on low settings, this is especially key as Starcraft original is a very old game, and many of the potential fans do not have powerful computers.

A complaint early in development was that the game was too colourful, beginning to look too much like World of Warcraft in some respects, which is another Blizzard title. This complaints are without merit however, as the game in motion is smooth and can be surprisingly gritty, with different weather effects and map locations offering various looks on the same buildings and units.

Gameplay

The game is very much Starcraft. It's about controlling large armies with a lot of variety and deciding what you need at what time, and what you need to do in order to maximize your own goals. Starcraft has always been a thinking mans game over a mechanical mans game, meaning that knowledge of the game usually will trump a faster player who doesn't exactly know what to do.

Speaking of, there is a surprisingly large meta-game involved, where the game allows very defensive styles, or very offensive styles, or anything in between. A mark of an excellent RTS, and an excellent game over-all is that different controllable units are different in the hands of one player over the hands of another, also known as micro-management.

Blizzard spent a lot of time streamlining the experience as well, bringing a lot of modern RTS elements while keeping the familiarity of the old. A big challenge Blizzard has stated was making the game accessible to every one, but making sure there was depth for veteran players, and players who wanted to commit themselves to learning the ins and outs, and this is very much the case.

Other Aspects - Single Player

The beta as it stands right now is only the multiplayer experience, there is no single-player experience, or there is any looks in to it. You can find out more information about the single-player by reading articles online, and there are some short videos and images detailing some of the changes from Starcraft original, and from modern RTS' overall.

Overall

Very much a thinking mans game, Starcraft II definitely delivers as a very strategical game, remaining competitive while becoming accessible to a lot of new players. If you have played Starcraft original, or are just a fan of RTS' in general, Starcraft II retains the premier quality of the original and Blizzard once again shows how to do a RTS right. Must buy for fans of the series and genre.

10/10

 

[ZeroVX]

Batman: Arkham Asylum

When this game came out, everyone was showering praise onto it, and for very good reason. It's an amazing game, worth every bit of attention it's received. So let's get right into why.

The controls are incredibly simple and add to the fun of the game. X/Square is your attack button, and thanks to the "Freeflow Combat", you can attack in any direction, depending on which direction you push the left stick. Y/Triangle is your counter button. When you're fighting an enemy, blue lines will appear over their head when they're about to attack, and by pressing the counter button at this time, you can stop their attack and hit them. However, on the Hard difficulty, the blue lines don't show up, meaning you'll have to focus much more on the enemy's movements to see when they're going to attack. B/Circle does a sweeping motion with your cape, which stuns enemies and leaves them open to attack. A/X allows you to run when you hold it down, and do a forward somersault if you double-tap it. Double-tapping also lets you vault over your enemies in combat.

Outside of combat, A/X is your basic context-sensitive button, allowing you to open doors, pick up items, and talk to people. The right trigger/R2 lets you crouch, which allows you to crawl through small openings, enter small grates in conjunction with A/X, or take down dazed enemies in conjunction with Y/Triangle. The D-Pad chooses your weapon. When you start the game, you'll only have access to your Batarangs, but as you progress through the game, you'll unlock more weapons and items, which you select by pressing a direction on the D-Pad. The left trigger/L2 readies the selected item, while the right trigger/R2 uses it. Alternatively, you can just tap the left trigger/L2 and throw a Batarang without aiming at the closest target. The left bumper/L1 activates Detective Mode. The screen changes colour and you can see through walls, allowing you to see any enemies further ahead and prepare accordingly. Holding the left bumper/L1 scans whatever is in front of you, which is more for extra challenges. The right bumper/R1 fires your grappling hook, allowing you to perch on gargoyles or climb into vents high on a wall. Jumping is done automatically, like in Zelda, by running off of a platform. After you've jumped, you can hold down A/X to glide across the area.

In terms of gameplay, there are two main things you'll be doing when you enter an area. The first is beating up thugs. Standard beat-em-up formula, which more points awarded for longer combos. The second are stealth missions. You'll enter a room with armed thugs which you'll have to take down quickly and quietly without anyone seeing you. Despite Batman's awesomeness, he's not invulnerable to bullets, so if you just charge in looking to beat everyone to a pulp, you'll get gunned down pretty quickly. You can take down someone by either performing a Silent Takedown by pressing Y/Triangle from behind them without them seeing you, performing a Glide Kick in which you press X/Square from a higher platform when an icon appears over the target's head, or by just beating them up quickly without anyone else seeing you. Once you've done one of these things, you need to get out of the immediate area quickly so that no one sees you, usually done by grappling up to a gargoyle or hiding in a vent. Wash, rinse, and repeat until everyone in the area is beaten and you're done.

Now, if you were to just do this, you could plow through the game pretty quickly, even with some of the boss fights. There is however lots of extra stuff to do, thanks to my favourite Batman villain, the Riddler. Towards the end of the first section of the game, Riddler will call you up, telling you that he's scattered various challenges throughout Arkham that you need to complete, giving you lots to do. First are the Riddler Trophies. You basically hunt for these green question mark trophies hidden in various parts of the game. Next, the Joker Teeth. When you first find these, you'd expect them to be enemies, but they can't hurt you at all. You just smash them with your Batarangs without any trouble. Next are the Arkham Chronicles. The spirit of Amadeus Arkham, the founder of the asylum, has imprinted his soul or something into stone engravings with spider symbols on them. You need to find them and scan them to unravel a bigger mystery regarding Arkham's history. Next is my personal favourite, the interview tapes. In each area of Arkham are five tapes, each containing interviews with a particular Batman villain. Collecting them all not only completes challenges, but can give you insight into some of your favourite Batman characters. Finally, there are riddles, as expected from the Riddler. Clues are given for various sections of the game, and it's your job to decipher them and solve the riddles, usually done by scanning a room or an item.

Beating up thugs, solving challenges, and beating bosses all earn you experience points. You use experience points to buy upgrades to your fighting skills, your stealth abilities, your health, or your weapons. As you progress through and complete challenges, you also unlock profiles for many Batman characters. This is good if you want to review a character's history, or discover a character you've never heard of before. For example, before this game, I had no idea there were a pair of Batman villains called Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I thought Mad Hatter was the only Alice in Wonderland fanatic.

While the gameplay is definitely the shining factor in this game, the story is pretty good too. After Batman captures Joker following another one of his crimes, Batman returns him to Arkham Asylum, but follows Joker in, realizing that he captured Joker a little too easily. Sure enough, Joker escapes and traps Batman in Arkham along with him, meaning Batman has to capture him again while dealing with various members of his famous rogues gallery in the process. Standard Batman fare, so no real complaints, and it's actually loosely based off of a real Batman story, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, so that's a bonus.

The graphics are very impressive. The creepy dark tone gives that Gothic feel that Batman is known for, and there are one or two areas that can make the player a little uneasy, particularly in the hospital area. The character designs are nicely detailed and realistic, and are given plenty of focus. One good example is Batman himself. As you progress through the game, Batman gets more beat-up, showing bruises, scratches on his outfit, and tears in his cape. The facial expressions, at least outside of the cutscenes, are a little wooden, however. Batman always has a scowl on his face while other characters show virtually no emotion at all. A relatively minor thing, though, especially since most don't care about what Generic Cop A's face looks like.

The music/voices varies from excellent to decent to terrible. The music is usually very quiet and mellow, so much so that sometimes you don't even realize it's playing. It's well done in the proper situation, though. The boss fights in particular mesh very well with the overall theme going into them. The voices are great in certain cases, but also provide my biggest complaint with this game. One thing fans of the 90's animated series should note is that Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, and Arleen Sorkin all reprise their respective roles as Batman, Joker, and Harley Quinn. And make no mistake about it, they do an excellent job. This may be in part that fans associate the voices with the characters so much that we can't imagine them with any other voice, particularly in the case of Mark Hamill as Joker, who just owns the role no matter what, so that may affect one's opinions a bit. However, even they have a few bland moments. This may be more due to the dialogue they were given, which is nothing to write home about at all. Hamill makes everything he's given work, but Conroy and Sorkin have their moments, and pretty much everyone else falls flat. That's not to say they're awful, as the villains can be intimidating as they're supposed to be, but some of the lines they have are pretty corny. The secondary characters don't do very well in terms of delivery or dialogue, and the random person you run into can be even worse. Nonetheless, the main characters help the voices from being absolutely terrible.

All in all, an excellent, excellent game. Not only do I consider this to be the best game of 2009, not only the best superhero game ever, but I also feel it's one of the best games of all time. The voice acting keeps it from being perfect, but it's still one I can happily play over and over again. 9/10.

 

[ABMorales787]

MORTAL KOMBAT TRILOGY
​

Consoles: Playstation, Nintendo 64 (Varies from other versions), PSP (Via Playstation emulation), PC, Sega Saturn

Year Released: 1996-1997

Rating: Mature

Players: 1-4 (N64) 1-8 (Others)

Riaku's Completion Status: Complete

Story:

Spoiler

Fed up with continuous losses in tournament battle, Shao Kahn, who had lost to Liu Kang in the Outworld tournament, enacts a 10,000 year-old plan. He would have his Shadow Priests, led by Shang Tsung, revive his former Queen Sindel, who unexpectedly died at a young age. However, she wouldn't be revived in the Outworld. She would be resurrected in the Earthrealm. This would allow Shao Kahn to cross the boundary lines and reclaim his queen.

When Sindel is reincarnated in Earthrealm, Shao Kahn reaches across the dimensions to reclaim her. As a consequence of his action, the Earthrealm becomes a part of the Outworld, instantly stripping billions of their souls. Only a few are spared, as Raiden protects their souls. He tells them that Shao Kahn must be stopped, but he cannot interfere; due to his status, he has no power in Outworld, and Earthrealm is partially merged with Outworld.

Shao Kahn has unleashed extermination squads to roam throughout the Earthrealm and kill any survivors. Also, Raiden's protection only extends to the soul, not to the body, so his chosen warriors have to fight the extermination squads and repel Shao Kahn. Eventually with his final defeat, every human on Earthrealm comes back.

View:

The game features absolutely everything ever conceived in the Mortal Kombat franchise to that point. Every character, every stage, every finishing maneuver. Fatalities, Brutalities, Animalities, Babalities, everything. The game also introduces the "Aggressor Bar" . After it fills up from taking damage you get stronger. A nifty trick to fight those bastard boss characters. Unfortunately, the N64 has a few limitations. For one, the bosses can't be played. That means Shao Kahn, Kintaro, Motaro and Goro. Also you only have one versoin of Sub Zero. The masked one. Through cheats you can play as the bosses, but they are a hassle.

Gameplay:

The combo system here is great for beginners. Rather than having to pick from random buttons like with the Street Fighter games, the combos here are a straight combination of buttons. Memorizing the longest one can prove hugely effective. Plus they are pretty easy to learn. I can't say the same for the special maneuvers. Some are very easy, some a are annoyinly complicated. The finishing maneuvers are always complicated, but there are cheats to alleviate that and make the game fun.

Visuals:

The game is all 2-D. The graphics look a little cheesy, but think that actually adds to the ambient of the game. Fatalities revolving bones will always feature the unusual scene of your opponent leaving behind several skulls. Just how many heads did I bust?

Personal Opinion:

A great time killer and party game. A great pick up for fighting game fans as well. The game is a great challenge with its high level difficulty and learning of finishing moves. The game is old so I can assure you you'll come across veteran players that will kick your ass and drive you to vengeance. A true gem to have in any collection. Well, except a PG one.

 

[.]

Well allow me to start off by saying I'm a huge Clive Barker mark.

Clive Barker's Jericho

Consoles:Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Year Released: 2007

Rating: Mature

Completion Status: Completed

Story:

Spoiler

Certain Apocryphal and Gnostic texts speak of a being created by God, in His own image, before the creation of Adam and Eve; according to legend, this being was abandoned by its own Creator. Called the Firstborn, the creature was a singular being neither male nor female, dark nor light, both beautiful and terrible to behold. God was so disturbed by what He created that He banished it into the Abyss to be forever forsaken, forgotten and unloved. God then started anew and went on to create mankind, giving the species two sexes, feelings, and love. The Firstborn, too powerful for even God to keep from breaking into the mortal world, would make seven attempts to escape, each time taking back a piece of the earth to add to its domain and each time sent back to the Abyss. Fragments of time and space would form layers around this domain, linked to this world in the city Al Khali. These layers would entrap pieces of history within its walls, from the time of the ancient Sumerians to World War II. Over time, other great conquerors and civilizations would arrive to claim the city as their own. Eventually, the city was forgotten and buried by the sands of time.

The Department of Occult Warfare was created in the 1930s to combat the supernatural and unexplained. Another purpose was to meet Nazi Germany's own research into the paranormal. One of their most brilliant members, Arnold Leach, was recruited in 1962. However, his unscrupulous behavior and nature would eventually have him expelled. He was marked for assassination, and although the operation appeared to be successful, it seems that he may have survived.

The Jericho Squad is sent to Al-Khali to prevent Leach from opening the breach and unleashing the Firstborn upon mankind once again. The Jericho Squad consists of:
Captain Devin Ross: Formerly extremely skeptical towards all paranormal and psychic phenomenon, Jericho Squad Leader and accomplished war veteran Devin Ross was transferred to the Department of Occult Warfare after his own psychic abilities manifested during a botched raid on a Taliban safe house several years previously. As a psychic healer, Ross is able to revive fallen teammates, provided he is able to maintain visual contact. He serves as the main protagonist in the game

Captain Xavier Jones: Second in command, Xavier Jones is more of a bookworm than a fighting man, having spent most of his career at the DOW in an office before recently joining the combat division. He is skilled in astral projection and empathy, and the Jericho Squad look to him as some kind of enforcer. He carries a Patrioteer which is an HKG36C assault rifle with an XM26 semi-automatic mounted shotgun. During the game other beings have used him to translate their language to the Jericho squad.

Lt. Abigail Black:
A telekinetic sniper,Abigail Black persevered through a childhood of poverty and abuse to become one of the top marksmen in the US Army. She carries a sniper rifle called Flash Thought which also has an under-barrel grenade launcher. Her psychokinetic powers allow her to guide her bullets into multiple targets (Ghost Bullet). Her teammates pick on her somewhat, with Delgado in particular making jokes regarding her sexuality.

Sergeant Frank Delgado: His powers owing to a life-long pursuit of alchemy and shamanic wisdom. Delgado has only one useful arm on a mission—his right is encased within a protective shell containing Ababinili, a parasitic flame spirit of which Delgado was able to summon and earn the cooperation of after offering his arm as a sacrifice. His recruitment saved him from execution at the hands of the Chinese government. Accordingly, Delgado favors high-caliber firearms to compensate for his reduced dexterity. He carries a 7.62-mm mini-gun fed by a continuous ammo strip and a .50-calibre semi-automatic custom pistol with 6-round magazines. Delgado is a very hot-tempered individual who has little respect for authority, and often clashes with Rawlings. He is dating Church at the time of the game.

Sergeant Wilhelmina 'Billie' Church: A blood mage who serves as a point man for Jericho Squad.She can cast a blood ward and a fire ward to keep enemies at bay. Raised by snake handling fundamentalists in rural Tennessee and haunted by a terrible past (in which she was abused by her cult, raped by her father and then later taken in by the state, who put her in an asylum, where she attempted suicide many times), Church became somewhat introverted, taking up training in stealthy arts. Now skilled in ninjutsu, she serves Jericho as a scout and assassin. She carries a rapid-fire sub machine pistol with a 30-round magazine (Kenjuu) and a legendary Katana, which is lethal at close range (Nodachi). Due to her past, she suffers from paranoia and schizophrenia, and lives in fear of her cult tracking her down. She also has Ophidiophobia, a fear of snakes, also likely due to her past. However, since undertaking intense therapy sessions, she is now very extroverted and a lot more confident than when she was first taken in by the Department of Occult Warfare. She is dating Delgado at the time of the game.

Corporal Simone Cole: Cpl. Simone Cole is a genius and "reality hacker". Her vast intellect allows her to manipulate space and time using advanced mathematical principles, using this to maintain communications, scan areas for temporal distortions, and generally keep the team in touch and aware of their general surroundings, though her techno-babble often confuses them. Her time manipulation powers (by way of a wrist-mounted supercomputer) are used to explain the in-game checkpoint system, as well as explain how the team keeps their ammunition supplies high (she "rewinds" time in their ammo belts back to the point when they were full). She has mild autism and is an atheist despite knowing for a fact that the Firstborn, and therefore God, exist. She hates being touched, and suffers from claustrophobia and nyctophobia.

Father Paul Rawlings: A preacher with a troubled past and twin Desert Eagles complete with extended 15 round magazines. Serving as a chaplain in the military, he knows a great deal of history of the Jericho Squad and the hidden nature of their mission. He can heal members of the squad from great distances using Ghost Heal and can drain enemies health and distribute it among the squad by summoning Vlad's Curse. He is the oldest active member of the squad, and he is a veteran of war from his experiences in Iraq and Vietnam. He has a strong personality and sometimes assumes command briefly when it is clear he has more knowledge of the situation than Ross. His personality sometimes leads to him clashing with other members of the squad, particularly the hot-tempered Delgado.
Rating Out Of 20: 20/20

View:
The game offers alot of fun to a player with some small problems. The characters available are a hell of alot of fun with how differant they are considering it holds a fun mix of both serious and humorous characters and the fact that all characters have one distinct special ability which makes them stand out and fun e.g Black's ghost bullet. I have alot of praise for the squad based system and it's also alot of fun when switching between differant time periods. Also all the bosses are differant and pretty cool. One problem with the game is its linear and close maps.
Rating Out of 20: 17/20

Gameplay:
This game has some pretty great gameplay features but what there is some pretty awful aspects of it also. Throughout the game your Squad would remain the same but enemies would become more and more difficult with each level which i found to make the game very enjoyable. What else is enjoyable is the endless fun to switch tactics and experiment with different combinations of powers and weapons for crowd control. There are a few problems with gameplay. One is your squads A.I. Seriously half the time the character you are controlling is the only one that doesn't die within a minute of a battle making you have to revive them all and the the process will repeat itself. Antoher problem is the linear gameplay witnessed.
Rating Out of 20: 12/20

Visuals:
The visuals presented in this game is beautiful. The Gorgeously creepy visuals and sound are a standout. The great way gore and bood is shown is brilliant and really helps the game overall especially when the character must go face to face with the first boss Hanne Lichthammer. The monsters and bosses all are deseigned beautifully. The design of all the areas are top notch and look great. The creepy atmosphere works great and the sounds heard really increase the games value overall. The graphics are good not great but work for the game.
Rating Out of 20: 20/20

Personal Opinion:
Despite what i only see as minor flaws. It is a great attention grabbing game and is well worth the play.
Rating Out of 20: 20/20

Total Rating: 89/100

 

[Fuel The Fire]

Wii Punch out

Ok so here we go.

This is one of my favorite wii games. There are a few ways to place this game. You can use the Wii Controller and the nun chuck as boxing gloves or you can just use the Controller as a old Nintendo set which really brings back memories and adds that much more fun to the game. I played the game both way but I beat the game using just the controller.

I love how you can play the game more then once and find different ways to knock people out every time you play, buy finding different ways to get star power every time.

When you play the game you get stars to give you extra power behind your punch. You can save up to 3 stars and you a mega punch and give your opponent a hurt. But if you get hit then you lose what stars you have.

There's 3 different leagues in the game and each league gets harder. The Good thing about exposition mode is that it gives you the option to practice the fights before the big fight.

Nintendo really brought out a classic and done a fantastic job at bringing the wii into it and keeping the original vibe to it.

I suggest this game to anyone who loves old school games or even the boxing game "Lee , we don't need a comment on my love for boxing games lol".

This game will give you a challenge as the game continues and the fun never ends with it. Even though you can memorize the move sets with each opponent there a different ways to still sneak in and get that extra star to add to your power punch. So it still gives you that extra challenge to try and find it and knock them for a loop.

I give this game a 9/10
I would like the graphics to have more to them.
If you don't like boxing game then I suggest you at least rent it and try it out.