Reviews

Heavy Rain: An Interactive or Inactive Drama?

2010-03-05T06:09:37Z

Price: $59.99 | System: PS3 | Release Date: Feburay 23, 2010 | ESRB: M (mature)

3 Stars - Passable, a decent game (rent before buying)

(Extremely light spoilers, nothing "Heavy"...get what I did there:)

Heavy Rain is basically Seven: The Videogame. A crazy serial killer, a host of flawed characters, a horrible city filled with despair that's always raining, and the big crazy twist at the end. It plays sort of like an old school adventure game with a modern twist. The graphics in the game are phenomenal and besides which, the first two hours of the game are never boring. As you start the game it's pretty intense, thrilling even, as you barely escape dangerous situations, almost getting killed and shot at every turn. It's only once you fail do you realize you can't die and really don't have a lot of input. In fact you really can only die in about five different places in the game. The rest of the time the game gives you the illusion that you can fail; but really you can't. Sure, some times you can veer off the path, but no matter which direction you end up going, it will be the same direction everyone else who plays the game will go. Only the endings and a couple of little details change. Once you realize this simple fact, the whole “a game with millions of decisions” becomes "a game where only a couple of decisions really matter".

BioShock 2: You've Always Been The Caretaker

2010-02-20T20:22:14Z

Price: $59.99 | System: PS3,PC,360 | Release Date: Feburay 14, 2010 | ESRB: M (mature)

3 Stars - Passable, a decent game (rent before buying)

BioShock was kind of a fluke -- a first person shooter with a deep story, a moral system where you chose to kill or save little girls, and taking place in an alternate 1960's art deco underwater city. The game was to be the spiritual successor to System Shock 2, which Irrational games did not have the rights to. System Shock 2 merged RPG elements with an FPS: you would pick your class and then upgrade your powers via stations. You also could pick up anything from wine to rocks and use them or throw them as you wanted. BioShock took what System Shock 2 was and streamlined it for a mainstream audience, but still kept some of the RPG elements. But even doing that BioShock was still a kind of gamble -- it wasn't a Sci-Fi shooter (the space marine ala Doom) and it wasn't a military simulator (ala Rainbow Six). Even the game's creator Ken Levine was shocked when he found out BioShock was a hit. 2K quickly green-lit a sequel to a game that no one originally thought would appeal to a mass audience. The only problem was that the original team wasn't interested in making a sequel to the game, and so only a couple of original members worked on BioShock 2.

Please note that there are spoilers for the original BioShock after the jump ... You have been warned.

PixelJunk Shooter

2010-02-18T21:10:59Z

Price: $9.99 | Release Date: December 10, 2009 | ESRB: E10+ (Everybody 10 and older) | System: PlayStation 3

4 Stars - Brillant, short length prevents a 5-star rating

What should by now be familiar to you, dear reader, is that the PixelJunk prefix to this game means quality. You may know this from playing PixelJunk Eden or PixelJunk Monsters, or you might have heard a friend talk about PixelJunk something or other.

However you've heard it, Shooter is the fourth title from developer Q-Games in the PixelJunk series of games. As with all previous titles, Shooter runs native in 1080p resolution, presents an enjoyable gaming experience in only two dimensions and is exclusively available to download from the PlayStation Network.

So what then, is Shooter all about?

Mass Effect 2 (PC, 360)

2010-02-08T00:48:25Z

Price: $59.95 | Release Date: January 26, 2010 | ESRB: M | Review System: PC | Also Available: Xbox 360

5 Stars - Amazing, a must buy game

If you like, you can read Travis' impressions of the first ten hours of Mass Effect 2, before you get into the review itself.

BioWare's first game in the Mass Effect series was fantastic for the sole reason of how personal it was. You customized not only your character's looks, but their actions too – and these actions had a tendency to have a mass effect on the world around you. Your relationships, your choices; every word you said in Mass Effect changed things around you.

No More Heroes 2: A Better Game but a Worse Sequel

2010-02-02T05:38:45Z

Price: $49.99 | Release Date: January 27, 2010 | ESRB: M | System: Nintendo Wii

4 Stars - Worth buying but not perfect

No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is a better game than No More Heroes. If I was recommending the game to a friend who had never heard of the series before, I would tell them just to play or start with 2. It's a more appealing, more polished game. But somewhere while making a better game Suda51 (the creator the series) forgot to put as much soul into it. It still has as much crazy, over the top violence, sex, otaku, video game and Star Wars references as the first game...it just feels like it's missing something.

LTTP: PixelJunk Monsters

2010-01-28T13:32:00Z

Price: $9.99 | Release Date: January 24, 2008 | ESRB: E (Everybody) | System: PlayStation 3

5 Stars - Amazing, a must buy game

The PixelJunk series of games, which includes Eden, Racers, Monsters and the latest Shooter, has always been associated with quality products. They deliver innovative gameplay combined with cutting-edge original music. Monsters, the second in the series, has been around a while, and yet it's still fun.

Borderlands DLC Review: Mad Moxxie and Dr. Ned

2010-01-18T01:18:19Z

Price: 800 MS Points | Release Date: October 2009 | System:Xbox360

Surprisingly I haven't played all of the campaign of Left 4 Dead 2 or even started to play Modern Warfare 2 and normally I would be all over those games. The amazing art work, the millions of guns and the amazingly fun co-op of Borderlands has been taking up all my time and interest. I mostly play it with my girlfriend split screen, who, despite normally HATING first person shooters, she loves Borderlands and its thrill of leveling up or killing that next Skag to get a bunch of cool loot.

LTTP: Mushroom Wars

2010-01-14T14:00:39Z

Price: $9.99 | Release Date: October 15, 2009 | ESRB: E (Everybody)

4 Stars - Good enough to buy

Describing Mushroom Wars as a Real Time Strategy game, while technically accurate in the sense that it takes place in real time, and requires strategic thinking, will deter a lot of people from experiencing the game. It's kind of like describing something like Uncharted 2 as a third person murder simulator; while some may see it as accurate, it excludes a lot of the game's subtle nuances.

LTTP: Far Cry 2

2010-01-12T00:11:45Z

Price: 19.99 | Release Date: October 21, 2008 | ESRB: M (Mature)

Passable, a decent game (rent before buying)

Far Cry 2 is the sequel to the highly acclaimed Far Cry that was released back in 2004. Far Cry has had many off shoots and ports but this is first official “sequel”. Surprisingly, Far Cry 2 has very few similarities to the original Far Cry. New character, story, environment, play style, and even a new developer are all parts of the new Far Cry. Instead of Crytex (makers of Crysis) continuing with the series they created it was handed off to Ubisoft Montreal, and I must say, they didn’t do a half bad job.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Review

2010-01-09T19:02:26Z

Price: $49.99 | Release Date: December 8, 2009 | System: Nintendo Wii | ESRB: M (Mature)

5 Stars- Amazing, a must buy game

Read the first part of this review, on the history of Silent Hill, here.

This is the best story in a Silent Hill game since 2, in fact I am going to blow people's minds and say I think it comes close to even being better (comes close but is not). The characters are more believable and developed than 2 and you really care about them. By the end you will not know what's up and down and who you can trust if you can even trust yourself. Not many games surprise me, but Silent Hill: Shattered Memories totally threw me in a different direction then I thought I was going and I loved every second of it.