The unofficial game review thread.

[Veho Nex]

I thought I'd make this thread because from what I can tell there really isn't a user created review thread for games that they have played. To start things off I will post my review of a game that I recently got addicted to.

K.O.T.O.R. 2

I'm sure allot of you have played this wondrous game but for the people who haven't it's full name is StarWars Knights of the old Republic II: The sith lords. It's a turnbased(to an extent) RPG where you are a jedi(of course).It is out for the xbox and the PC and I have had the pleasure of playing both versions.

Content: The game has a multitude of powers weapons armor and of course light sabers that can be utilized to defend your beliefs. You can choose to be a sith(Lord, Marauder, or assassin) or you can choose to be a Jedi(Master, Watchmen or Weapons master). You gain either light side points or dark side points based on the actions you choose. You can choose several different colors for your lightsabers including silver, orange, blue, viridian(a type of green) and so on. The armor you also choose gets bonuses based off what you use, force powers, lightsabers, whether your dark or light side. There are plenty of secondary characters you can choose to use in your party each one with the ability to be influenced by your actions and motives. So out of ten I give the content an 8 for in the character creation screen there isn't to much to choose from. 8/10

Gamplay: The tutorial appears every so often through the game making the learning curve quite easy. Though it is hard to get anywhere if you totally decide to disown the force or lightsabers. Its a little slow to start but after that the game really gets into the complex dynamics which are easy to understand until you actually look at them from an outside view. So out of ten I give the gameplay a 9 for its really close but not enough value in the gameplay to bring it to a ten. 9/10

Story: Now this is where the game truly shines. The story is superb, or at least in my mind. You start off as an exiled jedi who is unconscious on a ship that has suffered heavy damage from a recent space battle. If you decide to play the tutorial you can go around as a utility droid gain some valuable experience, items, and backdrop to the main story if you haven't played KOTOR 1. After you repair the ship you wake up in the med bay of the peraugus mining facility where you are woken by a strange voice. You are then off to find your way out of the facility picking up companions along the way. Then your off to explore the galaxy and find out your past. So for the story I give a ten out of ten for being really awesome. 10/10

Tilt: Has a slow start as for mentioned and has a good story. Lots of content and a nice easy learning curve. The system requirements are also low allowing even some of the more ancient computers to play it on relatively high settings. So the tilt is 8/10

Overall: 9.5/10 Because the game is that good. I recommend it to all the fans of the SW series and to fans of RPGs in general. If your new to the whole genre and series then this is the game to start on though you have to get through a slow beginning.

:2thumbsup:

[TevashSzat]

I guess I might as well write one

X-3 The Reunion

I would guess that this is a more obscure space similator game. It was plagued by awful bugs at first, but after multiple patches it has grown considerably better. A good idea of it is Freelancer except much much much more complex

Content This game has one of the most content that I have ever seen, including Oblivion and probably close to Morrowind. There are over 100 systems that you can travel to, most of them very populated. Dozens of ships are available, easily 30-40 unique types with several variations of each type. The ships that you can command range from a small M5 courier/scoutlike ship to huge M1 Carriers that can carry like 150 fighters and M2 Destroyers. For those who don't like to fight, you can establish a trading empire by buying your own stations to manufacture and sell goods. Advanced complexes can have more than few dozen stations all attached and you can even control your own system.

10/10

Story The campaign I didn't really particularly like too much since the biggest focus of the game is in its sandbox like mode. Essentially, it is more like a very long vague tutorial that gives you some much needed items (jumpdrives) and a very nice ship (nova) The new bonus mission packs require you to be pretty well established to begin, but you get a TON of goodies from it with a M7 and a Players Headquaters to name a few.

6-7/10

Gameplay This game is one of the most complex games I have ever played ever. That being said, the game has no tutorial. Nothing, nada, zip so the learning curve is quite high to say the least. What does help is alot of very helpful guides from the player community which includes a large 156 page PDF document compilation. To give you an idea of the scope, it is like going into something like Neverwinter Nights or classic Dungeons and Dragons RPGs without any knowledge of the system and without a tutorial.

8/10

Overall In summation, the game's depth is huge and you can easily spend hundreds of hours into it, but only if you appreciate playing in a sandbox mode(kinda) and can get over the learning curve.

8.5/10

[Craterus]

I thought I'd make this thread because from what I can tell there really isn't a user created review thread for games that they have played. To start things off I will post my review of a game that I recently got addicted to.

K.O.T.O.R. 2

I'm sure allot of you have played this wondrous game but for the people who haven't it's full name is StarWars Knights of the old Republic II: The sith lords. It's a turnbased(to an extent) RPG where you are a jedi(of course).It is out for the xbox and the PC and I have had the pleasure of playing both versions.

Content: The game has a multitude of powers weapons armor and of course light sabers that can be utilized to defend your beliefs. You can choose to be a sith(Lord, Marauder, or assassin) or you can choose to be a Jedi(Master, Watchmen or Weapons master). You gain either light side points or dark side points based on the actions you choose. You can choose several different colors for your lightsabers including silver, orange, blue, viridian(a type of green) and so on. The armor you also choose gets bonuses based off what you use, force powers, lightsabers, whether your dark or light side. There are plenty of secondary characters you can choose to use in your party each one with the ability to be influenced by your actions and motives. So out of ten I give the content an 8 for in the character creation screen there isn't to much to choose from. 8/10

Gamplay: The tutorial appears every so often through the game making the learning curve quite easy. Though it is hard to get anywhere if you totally decide to disown the force or lightsabers. Its a little slow to start but after that the game really gets into the complex dynamics which are easy to understand until you actually look at them from an outside view. So out of ten I give the gameplay a 9 for its really close but not enough value in the gameplay to bring it to a ten. 9/10

Story: Now this is where the game truly shines. The story is superb, or at least in my mind. You start off as an exiled jedi who is unconscious on a ship that has suffered heavy damage from a recent space battle. If you decide to play the tutorial you can go around as a utility droid gain some valuable experience, items, and backdrop to the main story if you haven't played KOTOR 1. After you repair the ship you wake up in the med bay of the peraugus mining facility where you are woken by a strange voice. You are then off to find your way out of the facility picking up companions along the way. Then your off to explore the galaxy and find out your past. So for the story I give a ten out of ten for being really awesome. 10/10

Tilt: Has a slow start as for mentioned and has a good story. Lots of content and a nice easy learning curve. The system requirements are also low allowing even some of the more ancient computers to play it on relatively high settings. So the tilt is 8/10

Overall: 9.5/10 Because the game is that good. I recommend it to all the fans of the SW series and to fans of RPGs in general. If your new to the whole genre and series then this is the game to start on though you have to get through a slow beginning.

:2thumbsup:

Sorry if you were hoping for review-only posts but I wondered which version you preferred? PC or Xbox? I've heard a lot about this game over the last few years but never got round to playing it. Also, is KOTOR 1 worthwhile?

[Zenicetus]

That was a good review of X3, it covered the main points. I tried very hard to like it, but eventually gave up, so here's the disgruntled player review. On the positive side, the spaceship graphics are very good, and it does attempt to combine a 4x empire-building game with cockpit-level space combat. Few game developers have tried that. Usually it's one or the other. So for me, this game gets an "E for Effort" but didn't hold my interest long enough.

These were my main gripes, and keep in mind that I only played the original version and haven't tried any later user mods:

* All the action takes place on relatively small, square 2D grids after you hop between star systems. It feels very cramped, for a "space" game. I miss the (relatively) large room to move around in, that you have in Independence War 2 and other space games.

* Combat is primitive 2-dimensional turn-and-burn Wing Commander style, with artificial speed restrictions, and *very* poor enemy AI. Maybe I've played too many games like this, but I just didn't feel challenged at all in combat, once I had a capable ship. That got boring real fast, and you can't play this game without tons of cockpit-level combat.

* The 4x game element is hampered by the fact that you don't start out as one of the major factions, and you can't become a major faction no matter how strong your economic empire gets. You can become dominant in the game, but you don't really "own" space quadrants... it's kinda weird that way, for this type of game.

* At first, I liked the fact that you can start with a small fighter, or a cargo ship, and work your way up to commanding capital ships. But the capital ships just feel like big, slow, unwieldy fighters in combat. There is no real sense that these are any different than an obese fighter... no crew to command, etc.

Maybe the user mods have fixed what I didn't like about the game, but I'm a big fan of space games, and this one just didn't do it for me.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

World In Conflict


Gameplay

World in Conflict is a RTT game, with multiple roles for the player to take on, such as support, air, armoured, or infantry. The object of the game is generally to capture and hold command points for a specific time or to get to a certain point. The controls are simple and intuitive, with a well mapped set of hotkeys. Cooperation is the key to victory, either with the AI (scripted, but well-done and it doesn't screw up) or with fellow humans in multiplayer. It's really hard to explain what makes it work. Suffice it to say that it just does.

Score: 10/10

Story

The story is probably what some would call a little lacking in this game, considering the cutscenes have still paintings in them about half the time. However, the voiceovers were excellent, the story kept it's continuity even after jumping through time, and it effectively balanced the gameplay.

Score: 9.5/10


Graphics

It's rare that graphics can be excellent without causing intense lag on a computer system. World in Conflict's graphics are beautiful, with nice water effects, stunning explosions, and amazing unit rendering. Having a tactical nuke dropped is just a work of art - and yet I have never experienced any lag on this game at all. Sure, there are better graphics, but since you spend most of your time zoomed out, you don't need them.

Score: 10/10


Learning Curve

Jump in and play. The beginning levels on easy mode are essentially a built-in tutorial. The perfect game to start anytime, and as for multiplayer - hey, practice makes perfect.

Score: 10/10


Final Score: 10/10

It's that good. Really, if you don't have it, buy it. The Collector's Edition is also probably worth it for anyone into Cold War history, with DVDs, a piece of the Berlin Wall, and a beautiful case.

[Veho Nex]

Sorry if you were hoping for review-only posts but I wondered which version you preferred? PC or Xbox? I've heard a lot about this game over the last few years but never got round to playing it. Also, is KOTOR 1 worthwhile?

Na non review post are perfect for this. It's here just to let people know what the writers opinion is about a game and maybe influence some new people into possibly getting the game/games

I preferred the PC version because its a little more straight forward with some mods of course. It may also be that I played the xbox version on a 14 inch screen when i was on the other side of the room. The controls for the xbox are allot easier though.

[Sarathos]

Also, is KOTOR 1 worthwhile?

Very, one of the best RPG's I have ever played. I much prefer it to KOTOR 2 (sorry Jkarinen), I just don't think Obsidian does as good a job as Boiware.

[OverKnight]

KotOR II, was good, but in many ways felt unfinished. Which shouldn't be surprising, I guess.

I remember feeling a bit let down in the ending. Seemed abrupt and you have an obvious allusion to a sequel, which alas will never come. Still better than 90% of the drek out there.

KotOR is still the game I judge other RPGs by. I await the PC version of Mass Effect with excitement.

[TevashSzat]

I would say Kotor 1 is much much better than Kotor II and is probably the best RPG out there if you aren't into the really hardcore DnD stuff like there is in NWN and Baldur's Gate.

@Zenicitus

While you don't become a major facton, you can in sense become one by amassing a huge trading empire and taking over all the pirate sectors. The game is more about scope I guess, you get a big sense of satisfaction when you clear your first Xenon sector with your M2 and host of M3/M4 escorts.

[Fragony]

I adored the first, loved the parts everybody hates, the endless battles on the starforge were fantastic. But KOTOR 2 was meh. It had some interesting idea's but it didn't go anywhere, and if I want to just watch a character plow through the hordes without any effort whatsoever I prefer a good movie.

[KarlXII]

I picked up an old game I think deserves more attention then it gets.

Battlestations:Midway

Gameplay: What makes Battlestations different is that its a mix of your ship wargames, and a somewhat RTS tactical feel. That is, you control ships, subs, and aircraft individually, but can give AI controlled units orders from a tactical map.

There is only a singleplayer American campaign (more on this in Story), and 9 challenges, three for ship, sub, and aircraft, and Xbox Live multiplay. The objectives of each level differs. You may be running through the Java Sea as a Japanese Battleship in one of the challenges, or be strafing at Coral Sea in the campaign.

There are 3 different categories of units: Ship, Sub and aircraft. For the sake of length, I will not go through each individual unit, I recommend you find a guide online for that. Anyway, each unit has its pros and cons. Subs are stealthy, launching torpedoes at ships, but can be sunk by depth charges. Surface ships are good for taking down planes, enemy ships, but are most vunerable to torpedoes. Aircraft are good at dogfighting and taking out ships with bombs or torpedoes, but AA can bring them down. 10/10

Story: The campaign in Battlestations focuses on an American naval officer, Lt. Parker. He progresses through commands, from PT Boats at Pearl Harbor to Aircraft Carriers. He is joined by his friend, a naval aviator whos name slips my mind. The cutscenes are good, somewhat short, but easily transitions the story through levels. 9/10

GraphicsWhat you would expect on a nextgen console. Lighting is good. Not much to say about graphics, they're solid, and the enviroment sticks out. You get a good feeling watching the burning hull of what was once that nasty enemy cruiser.

Learning curve Tutorials for each class of unit is given in the "US Naval Academy" missions. Each one can be replayed until you get the hang of it. Controls are not hard to learn, and I found myself able to coordinate a well planned attack on a convoy in a few days.

Final score: Overall, Battlestations Midway is the game you want to get if you are a fan of naval wargames, or just like playing games about the Pacific. The game could've used some expanding, but nothing major to cmplain about. 9/10

[Baby Boomer]

Europa Universalis III

Content: When thrown into this game you might take a while tp pick the pace. Once got the grasps of it you will be amazed, THe options avabile in this game will make any historian (at heart or professionally) or gamer into such massive stratergy games will wet themselves with glee. The historical accuracy is such that if in need of reseacrh you might even refer to EuIII. 10/10

Gameplay: The gameplay will take days to discover. Take any nation from the year 1453 to 1790 and lead it to victory. No; rather then taking the used line of (World Domination RTS Game) EuIII takes the line of (Become a powerful nation; but not the best.) The Diplomacy system is amazing. The system they've used is very good, you will believe your playing online most of the time. I can't even describe everything gameplay-wise avabile in this small section. It covers everything possible nationally and interntioanlyl (Trade, Economy, Military, Colonism, Spy stuff, etc, etc) 10/10

Basic Underline: there is a 3-D map with provinces, cities and armies. You take your armies and conquer other territories. You can wreck them any how iwth spies. You can take over markets with your merchant;s and earn more money. Juggle your econmy with taxes, income and more. Many more options as well.

Story: There is no Story. It is similar to TW in this aspect.

Graphics:When playing this game you do not judge the graphics. Compared to previous EU games they are great. 3-D figures, a 3-D map with topographical, political, diplomatic and economical version's avabile. 7/10

Learning curve: Very steep. The tutorials will certianly lessen the drop of the game but it will take you a few ruined nation's to get the hang of it. 8/10

Community: There have been 3 patches for Europa Universalis 3. I personally only tried the latest, 1.3, but that alone is very good. It adds new features for Spies, several tips which solved some question's I had (Like what ships you use for moving armies) Though (Very much like CA) They stopped when the Online Expansion came out (Napoleon's Ambition) which goes to 2.6


Final score: 9.5/10. This game provides so much fun that if you're a retired gamer you will be tempted to game again. The only thing which stops it from a 10, and defintely a con and pro, is the learning curve. it takes a while to get it (Which is bad; but also good as it means there is much content)


Pictures:

http://www.scubb.com/images/products/pc%20Europa%20Universalis%203_box.jpg
http://www.porse.cz/programy-img/Europa%20Universalis%203.jpg
http://a248.e.akamai.net/f/248/5462/2h/images.gamezone.com/screens/28/8/87/s28887_pc_35.jpg





I picked up an old game I think deserves more attention then it gets.

Battlestations:Midway

Uh; excellent game. I haven't bought it merely borrow it, but I was very suprised. Expecting a crappy game with awful graphics and a lacking system and was given a fun game.

I think you nailed it; but to add my opinion. The best parts in this game was the storyline, and the actual gameplay. Roaring around the pacfic in those American Hell thing's was very exciting.

[Adrian II]

Europa Universalis III

Content: When thrown into this game you might take a while tp pick the pace. Once got the grasps of it you will be amazed, THe options avabile in this game will make any historian (at heart or professionally) or gamer into such massive stratergy games will wet themselves with glee.Thanks for the heads-up. :bow: I think will buy this one.

P.S. I seem to recall that we had a sticky about the desired format for game reviews. That was a good idea. But people should be motivated to write proper, detailed reviews. Would Her Frogginess be inclined to find a way to sticky all such reviews, lest they disappear within a matter of days?

[Baby Boomer]

Thanks for the heads-up. :bow: I think will buy this one.

P.S. I seem to recall that we had a sticky about the desired format for game reviews. That was a good idea. But people should be motivated to write proper, detailed reviews. Would Her Frogginess be inclined to find a way to sticky all such reviews, lest they disappear within a matter of days?

Happy to serve! It won't let you done (Though if you like it, it gets a bit addictive I thought, maybe its just me:embarassed: ) Writing a review for EuIII is hard; you can't fit all you know about it in.

If your not into 1453 - 1820 (Wuth expansion) there is:
Hearts of Iron I and II (1936 to '50)
Victoria (1820's 1936)
Crusader kings (??? - 1453, though this game focuses on Character traits)

And a upcoming game Europa Roma I think. Can't remember but it is based upon Rome and the Republic and Empire. The Community for EUIII is great as well, the Paradox Interactive EU section of the forums are spelendid, though not similar to .Org they will be happy to answer questions.

[frogbeastegg]

P.S. I seem to recall that we had a sticky about the desired format for game reviews. That was a good idea. But people should be motivated to write proper, detailed reviews. Would Her Frogginess be inclined to find a way to sticky all such reviews, lest they disappear within a matter of days?
We used to have a sticky topic with some tips on game reviewing and a dedicated sticky review thread. I let them go in the first bout of arena spring cleaning; both topics were rarely used.

We'll see how things go this time.

[Veho Nex]

Well I guess for now I'll try and set a standard for the ways to do reviews.

Size 6 Bold Title

Content:(X/10)

Story:(X/10)

Graphics(X/10)

Content:(X/10)

Curve:(X/10)

Tilt:(X/10)

Community(X/10)

Overall: (X/10)

It may seem like allot but i think that covers everything. Of course your free to cut stuff out during the review like you dont have to do tilt or graphics or anything

[Baby Boomer]

I also suggest you add Community; for thing's such as if your having technical problems with a game how good they're support and forums are. And also for thing's like how active the Multiplayer is and how often their patches come out and how much content they feature.

[Veho Nex]

Company of Heroes: Gold Edition

Content:Stand at attention ladies!! This is your new commander speaking and I am no speakeasy. This game is not for the faint of heart. The heart wrenching cries of your men as they get pounded by artillary, the whizzing of the snipers bullets flying by your head, and the sound of your men cheering their hearts out as the enemy armor lies in ruins would make any real general proud! The vehicles and troops you will be facing on the field of battle will require the utmost care in choosing what you send your men against. The support fire missions, the flyby's, and the quick resource boost will make you jump for joy, knowing that your enemy won't stand long before you. The British infantry and mobile divisions, the American blood and guts, the German's air corp and powered up tanks, all are at your command. There a building in your way? send in a special forces squad or a mini Goliath tank to do some landscaping. Nothing is in the way.(9.5/10)

Story: Join your American brothers on the fight through Normandy to close the felaise gap, join your British allies in the battle for market garden, turn the war around with your German comrades. Its all there as you lead your men and they gain experience.(10/10)

GraphicsFor requiring as little as it does this game truly bring beauty to warfare. I still remember the first time I watched this tiny little tank come up to my fully decked out infantry division and seeing it utterly destroyed and just missing body parts everywhere but where they need to be.(10/10)

Curve:For the expansion it takes a bit more to get used to the rapid deployment than if your playing the original. In the end though, it's not as hard as it looked.(8/10)

Tilt:Love it and WW2 so this game gets and auto 10/10.(10/10)

CommunityWith an avid online community but too many patches to count this game gets a 7 out of ten for the community just because there aren't enough mods out there for it.(7/10)

Overall(9/10)

((I was running out time and energy when i originally wrote this in Word so thats why the quick ending. Like the beginning though? I kinda do.))

[TevashSzat]

Another space simulation game from me

Freelancer

Content:(8.5/10) Overall, there are tons of stuff you can do. Although it isn't as complex as one may hope, there are easily more than 60 systems and a full array of different types of ships ranging from small fights like the Dart to heavy fighters like the Titan or freighters like the Humpback

Story:(9/10) I felt the story was very polished. The voices were very well done, imo, and it does a fine job of introducing you to a large portion of the universe. You get to do a bit of everything, from working for the Liberty Police to being a hated Blood Dragon. The end of the story though, I thought was very cookie cutter and not extremely innovative

Graphics(8/10) The game came out in 2002 or 2003 I believe so it isn't exactly using a start of the art game engine. That being said though, the graphics looks much newer that they actually are. As a further plus, the graphic requirements aren't bad at all and you should be able to play it on any system you buy for cheap today.

Curve:(10/10) Tutorial is simply amazing imo. Its not too obnoxious and talks to you like you never knew that a mouse can control the ship's direction, but guides you enough so that you aren't left all confused. Time to learn most things: 30 minutes, tops.

Community(9/10) There is still generally a very active modding community left. There are some great mods that adds in things like battlecruisers and super transports as well as new systems and enemies. Because the single player game can get pretty boring quite quickly, playing online is recommended. Luckily, popular servers usually have at least some people on so you will never be left alone.

Overall: (9/10) One sentence to sum up the game: A more linear, less complex, story driven space simulation game that still allows for generous freeform play.

Don't know where to say this, but I just simply love the opening sequence. You don't want to know how many times I have watched it

[Veho Nex]

Audio Surf

First Looks:Looked cool, and so I decided to buy it and download it.(7/10)

Story:No story what so ever(1/10)

GraphicsNot the best but also not the worst, but for being the type of game it was it didn't matter to much.(6/10)

Content:Not to many characters, and the songs are only as big as your library is(9/10)

Curve:Easy to learn, Gets incredibly hard later on on the pro and hard levels(8/10)

Tilt:I liked it.(8/10)

CommunityYou can post your scores online to see how well you fared compared to the rest of the world(7/10)

Overall: Was good but could have been so much more(8/10)


Small game that really isn't worthy of a review but its been a while since I played a new one, get paid tomorrow, but wanted to bump this back up.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

That Audio Surf game is really sweet...

[Baby Boomer]

Mount and Blade

Content: This game has no end; litreally. Though far from finished it provides a fun experince. Your a Knight, Archer or Merchant in the fictonal land of Caladria. Your character can be leveled up in a number of skills, including weapons and charisma, and you can edit the look of your charcter and name. Your character is represented on a large map of Calardia where you and your party (WHoever you recruit) can enter battle, enter cities or escort caravan's and pursue mission's.

Entering a city enables many thing's. You can enter the tavern (Can't drink but is promised) and recruit some soldier's to fight with you, get info on enemy kingdom's, ransom people. You can walk the street's and find the Guild Master, who gives you mission's. Enter the Arena and fight other people with basic weapon's to earn money; or watch other's knock each other out and bet on the. Or go to the Castle and get mission's from the noble's, or swear allegiance to a King.

When you enter battle your fitted out with the stuff you equipped yourself with. THis ranges from a simple hunting bow to a mighty War Hammer or Pole Axe. You (And your Party) then engage in FPS combat with the other side.

There are a number of Nation's in the game,a ll with varying troops. They fight over the land's and you can help anyone, or a definte King. Also you can be assigned mission's. A favourtie of mine is the Assasaination mission where you hunt a individual down in one of the many village's scattered across the map; and then battle him as stunned villager's watch.
(7/10)

Story: For now no story clearly present's itself. There is promise's of a storyline in future release's.
(6/10)

Graphics: For now; okay. beforehand they were pretty avergae, but now several new feature's, such as ragdolls (When kiled a man in combat he doesn't fall over and become a simple pixel in the ground) Paradox Interactive just bought this Company owner out so it is set to improve.
(6/10)



Community: A rich community. The mods are aboslutely AMAZING! I have, honestly, skipped every single Vanilla version of the game and palyed the mod's. Right now is a simple fantasy Medieval thing. I've played Galipoli mods, Warhammer mods, Naploenic mods, Viking mods, Magic mods, Mods about the Spansh Invasion of South America, mods about the ACW and ARW. Mods about WWI and LOTR and even one for RTW!

The game is not retail. The Demo is good enough, but you stop when you get to level 9. A cheap price of $30 AUD though. (THat's how much I bought it for)
(10/10)

Overall: The game is good; it is likeable and present's a lost genre of FPP (First Person Player) combat for Medieval and something else other then WWII!!!!
(8/10)

[Veho Nex]

Dawn of War: SoulStorm

Content: There is alot to this game, strategy, corney characters, massive artillery pieces, you know the works. The only way to access it all in a multiplayer game though... is to buy the first three, or is it four... games. Now each going at about 30$-40$ a pop makes that quite expensive, hence the no 10/10(8/10)

Story:The story is open ended and you can pretty much do anything (as far as i can tell) You have a total war style map for your big campaign moves and a smaller but far more detailed battle field for your in game fighting. there is somewhat of a story as you try and purge the galaxy of the other races.(8/10)

GraphicsFor its time good, not company of heroes good but the explosions and everything else is godlike.(9/10)

Curve: Quite hard to get into if you've never played or even seen it being played before. I had many a quick defeat to the easy computer, and even a faster slaughter to the peoples of the internet. Took me a good hour or two to learn how to do most things and i still haven't learned everything(5/10)

Tilt: Because it was made by THQ and is a sick a** game It gets a 10/10 (10/10)

Community Don't let the game names fool you, there are some tough nubs out there, believe me my record is 16 games and won one by a technicality(the other guy dropped.)(6/10)

Overall: Overall it was pretty good, not to noob friendly though, but hey what the heck is. So in the end I would definitely recommend this game to all rts gamers out there(8/10)

[Ferret]

Rainbow 6 vegas 2

Content:a fair few new guns and lots of customisation for your armour makes this high, but lack of maps stops it from going too high (8/10)

Story:requires you to pay very close attention to know any of it and when you do know it you wish you hadn't bothered (4/10)

Graphics:don't decrease on multiplayer noticeably which is good. Other than that typical modern shoter graphics. (8/10)

Curve:if you played the first you only need to learn to use one more button but other than that I think ranbow 6 is one of the quckest games to learn and hard to forget how to play. (10/10)

Community:mostly nice people, a few boosters but they aren't hard to avoid. (9/10)

Overall: enjoyable and replayable (8.5/10)

[Kekvit Irae]

Condemned 2: Bloodshot

Story:
Agent Ethan Thomas is back... but so is Serial Killer X. Condemned 2 picks up a year after Criminal Origins left off at the "execution" ending. Thomas is now a lonely drunk, suffering in a bottle while the city keeps getting worse and worse. A chance encounter with Malcom Vanhorn (the uncle of Serial Killer X) in a hallucination leaves him dazed and confused, until his Special Crimes Unit buddies (Rosa included) pick him up and tell Ethan that a distress call came into SCU from Vanhorn. Now Ethan must not only fight the bums and trash of the city once again, but his own personal demons of alcohol and vice as well.

Content:
You have a wide range of weapons, from your old tasergun to assault rifles. Just like the original Condemned, you can (and have to) use improvised weapons from the environment. These weapons take the form of rebar, broken bedposts, gumball machines, medieval weapons, and many others. These melee weapons are complimented by firearms that range from the snub-nosed .38 to the assault rifle.
Most levels are skillfully crafted and very creepy, while others fall flat and suffer from FPSitis. Such poor levels include the Junk Barge and the Peninsula. Said levels are more Sci-Fi themed than Horror themed. However, the vast majority of levels are very creepy and very fun to run through. Sadly, none of the levels really capture the creep factor that the original Condemned had, especially Criminal Origin's Farmhouse level. Despite this, this is a really fun romp for anyone who loves a cross between CSI and Bioshock.

Gameplay:
Anyone who has played Bioshock will get used to the controls right away. Melee attacks are going to be your bread and butter up until the last few levels. Left trigger delivers a left-handed attack, right trigger delivers a right-handed attack. "So what?" you ask. Well, it's important because Bloodshot has added in a Combo Attack system where you can get massive damage from performing the right moves (3.0x damage for a right/left or left/right combo, etc). You block by holding down both triggers. However, this requires timing. If you just hold your block, you'll still take the damage. You need to time your block just right when the enemy attacks, and you'll be able to knock him off balance (and score a Parry combo attack if you follow it up).
Firearms are more rare in the early levels, and then get much more common in the later levels. Left trigger aims down the sights, and right mouse butter fires (you can fire from the hip, if you want). A single well-aimed shot is far better than spray-and-pray for two reaons: One, you'll be able to score an instant kill by hitting the head, and two, ammo is extremely limited. Except for a certain upgrade (more later), you can only carry what's already in your firearm. If you chance upon another firearm of the same time, you'll be able to take the ammo from that weapon and reload your current one, but you wont be able to carry any more than what your weapon can hold.
Ethan is a drunkard. His aim is HORRIBLE. If you aim down the sight, his hands waver a lot. However, being a drunk is not so bad after all. Drinking any type of alcohol will give Ethan a temporary "Hair Of The Dog" effect, steadying his aim without giving him any penalties.
The game has sparse CSI moments. This time, however, you will actually have to LOOK at the crime scene and choose from a set of responses that best fit the description of the crime. What type of wound is it; is it an entry wound or an exit wound? What room are you in; the telephone shows only a 9 as the last number, the room key shows 1-1, and the chinese food receipt is billed to room 161. Pick the right set of answers and responses to get a better mission score, which will eventually add up to either Bronze, Silver, or Gold rating. Rating is very important, as you'll be able to get upgrades after every level. The Silver upgrade for the first level is a set of brass knuckles, which adds power to your right-handed unarmed attack. The Gold upgrade, however, gives you a punch dagger to your left hand, greatly increasing damage and giving you the ability to knock back the enemy with just a punch. Little things like this make perfecting a level all the more sweeter.

Overall:
Overall, it's a wonderful game which horror fans will enjoy. Anyone who's interested in CSI or Bioshock will enjoy this game as well.

[Ja'chyra]

Supreme Commander Forged Alliance

Content: This is the expansion to Supreme Commander and includes all you get in the original plus a new faction with it's own set of units.

Story: I'd imagine most of you know about Supreme Commander but if not it's a RTS game on a similar vein to C&C and the successor to Total Annihilation, I think. In Supreme Commander 3 factions were fighting for control of the galaxy, the 3 factions being the UEF, Aeon and the Cybrans. The war has been raging for a millennium and all 3 factions have their strengths and weaknesses. Playing through the campaign has the aim of either building the Black Sun, if you’re the UEF, or capturing it if you’re the other 2 factions. When the campaign finishes it leaves you with a teaser that all is not as quiet and peaceful as you think, cue Forged Alliance. The idea is similar to C&C in that you build a base using your commander, or ACU, gathering resources, mass and energy, and progressing though the tiers of troops and buildings available, there are 3 levels plus experimentals (think big), and eventually wiping out your enemy. It uses strategic zoom, which is using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out at any point on the map. Took me a bit to get used to but when you do you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it.

Forged Alliance starts with the 3 factions forging an alliance, funnily enough, through necessity to fight against a new invader, the Seraphim. The Seraphim has corrupted the Black Sun and used it to launch an invasion on the galaxy forcing the 3 factions to band together if they want to survive, this also gives you the choice of which faction you want to play and adds some new units to each, it’s time to buckle up, lock and load, chocks away or whatever cliché you want to use but here the fun starts.

Graphics Graphics are very good IMHO, you can zoom in and inspect every vehicle and building, although I would like to be able to zoom in a little further. When you zoom out the units are replaced by markers which you get used after a time e.g. a triangle is used for aircraft, thin=fighter fat=bomber.

Community No idea as I never play online but the lobby is always busy with games and competitions.

Overall: What can I say, it’s kept my interest for months and that is no mean feat. The game play is excellent and hard, in some maps it is very difficult you build you’re base and survive the initial 15 minutes but once you secure your base it does get easier. The missions actually include multiple objectives and when you complete one objective more of the map is revealed, usually with an even bigger enemy base which you then have to defend against all over again, sometimes against a rush of over 100 tier 3 units plus experimentals. So, before you finish that objective you better make sure your base is strong enough to survive as 50 tier 3 gunships can rip through your base in under 2 minutes, did I mention it was hard? But just think of the pleasure when you weather the storm and start taking the fight to them.

Overall I would recommend it if you like this type of game and give it a 9 out of 10 as the AI could use a little more thought e.g. units will stick to their patrol path even if you have successfully ambushed 5 previous patrols on the same track, but patches are constantly released. Definitely worth trying.

Oh, this is my first game review so bear with me.

[pevergreen]

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Content:(9/10)
I'm a harsh critic, so a 10 is nearly impossible to attain. CoD 4 has enough to keep you coming back again and again. You beat the campaign, do it again and get the 30 cheats. Then use combinations of the cheats and arcade mode to get high score. In multiplayer new stuff is unlocked as you play (think Battlefield 2, except a lot faster and easier) as well as more challanges, such as get 25 kills with the AK-47, you get a silencer for it. Challanges are unlocked as you play, all according to your level. Only a 9 as the console versions allow you to receive a special symbol if you get to level 55, then revert back to level 1.

Story:(9/10)
Hoooooly ****. This would be an incredible movie.

Spoilers inside

You get so involved with this and you dont even realise. It was just a game for me until Sgt. Jackson went back to save that chopper pilot while the countdown until the nuke went off, you carry her onto your chopper and fly away only to be gotten by the nuke and crash. you then get up and see another wave of something come and Sgt Jackson lives no more. I actually cried. Then the last scene, youve disarmed 2 nukes already, what more can happen when you start getting beaten back, on a collapsing bridge, your target appears, your captain missed the assassination on him years ago. Gaz, one of the coolest characters ever is shot. The captain slides his pistol over to you and you take him out with a headshot...I cried again.

Graphics(9/10)
The best graphics I have seen in a game. I saw crysis on the same night as this, Crysis was run on a quad core, dual 8800 GTXs. And I think this looked better. With recommended g-card of only a 7700.

Content:(7/10)
Doesnt stack up to something like Super Smash Brothers, but has a lot to choose from, more than any fps i know.


Curve:(7/10)
Not hard, the intro level is pretty straightforward, and there is always button cues if you forget what to press.


Community(9/10)
Fresh install, over 100 servers playing the base patch. Patched to latest (2 patches) and over 9000 servers (that were not full, empty, passworded or non dedicated) (yes, there actually was)

Overall: (9.7/10) Overall, not an average
I dont think I shall be doing much else these holidays.

[Veho Nex]

LIVE!!

Age of Chivilary

Content:So its a mod for Half Life 2, who cares. It's fun. There are 3 classes with 3 weapons each. The first class archer, you can choose bow/Xbow/Javelin. Javelin doing the most damage and the easiest to aim but being limited to 5 throws. You can pick up thrown spears off the ground if you seem them while also being able to one hit other archers and two hit swordsmen. Sword men class two you can choose sword/mace/Halberd. The swordsmen is good depending on the situation and how you maneuver. Hally being great for one hitting archers and doing the most dammage to in game objects that you need to destroy, while the sword allows quick run around when facing knights going for the neck or head = fastest way to kill. The third and final class is the knight, cause what self respecting medieval game wouldn't have these powerhouses. They are the heavy armored panthers of the game blowing through opposition with ease... that is if you can catch up to the enemy. Being the most powerful definitely has its downfall and the short sprint and slow speed show brightly for these guys. having only 5 levels doesnt help out the content score too much, but being huge in size really help.(6/10)

Story: Very little but engaging to read for the first 30 seconds. WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER
Agatha knights have been in exile for years while the evil mason order has taken over and is tormenting the people. The agatha knights return and want their land back and then the fighting stars.(4/10)

GraphicsBeing the source engine pretty good. I like them.(8/10)

Curve:30-60 minutes. It takes a while to fully specialize in a class, and using the bow and taking out 4 knights before being speared shows true skill, while im only at 2 knights(6/10)

Tilt:I like it just because im a fan of medieval fantasy. There is even a pretty interesting severely unbalanced Helms deep map.(8/10)

Community:The game is only online and there is usually atleast one server with 8-24 people on it at anytime. you can always find a game even if it isn't that big(7/10)

Overall: (8/10)

[Veho Nex]

Sins of a Solar Empire

Content: 3 races, with mods that add more starting races. Dozens of maps, which all happen to be the same and different in their own unique ways. Dozens of ship choices. Multitude of strategies from getting the pirates to kill the enemy off to building a super gun capable of shooting cross galaxies, to just spamming the use of carriers and bombers and just sweeping across the map. This game will make most HC RTS games joy jump.(8/10)

Story:I haven't really played through the story yet, but from what I can tell the traders alliance people called the Trader Emergency Coalition has never had any warring needs for over 1000 years leaving them to specialize in economic standards. While out of no where the exiled Advent have come back for revenge and they are attacking swiftly. From the far reaches of space another group joins the fray, the technologically superior Vasari seek new worlds to repopulate their devastated numbers and fuel the next phase of their unending exodus.(9/10)

Graphics: Are surprisingly good for a game of this magnitude. When your capable of setting every thing to max its just fantastic to watch your ships goto battle or to watch your novalith round smash into the side of a planet.(8/10)

Curve:Whoa! this game took me a while to get into but the curve isn't too bad. What really got me addicted to this was playing it at a lan with 10 people across 5 galaxies. But it took me a good 2-3 hours to learn the essentials.(6/10)

Tilt:This game get way better when playing it at a lan with maxed players and 5 galaxies. You get treachery the space pirate raids. It is one of the most time consuming but kick butt games I've ever seen.(9/10)

Community:Have yet to play online, though the modding community is huge.(7/10)

Overall: It's a good game. There is so much potential and if they made an expansion I would be the first in line for it.(8.9/10)

[TevashSzat]

I'd like to offer a different perspective on my first post after the APs :2thumbsup:
Sins of a Solar Empire

Content: 3 races with units that are pretty similar. Only difference are the relative tech you need to go up to and their abilities. There are though big differences in the playing style of each race and the 5 capital ships which functions as heroes offer lots of potential combos/unique styles.

TEC are the rushers with a great early economy, but fails late game. Advent are the midgame/late powerhouses with now the insane iluminators and imbalanced guardian repulsion. Vasari are the late game dark horse. They're economy is horrible since trade ports are tech 4, but once they hit RA and have a few phase ports up, they're almost unstoppable(9/10)

Story:Veho pretty much summed it up. While the back story is interesting kinda, there IS NO CAMPAIGN. Everything is based off of skirmish play which may not appeal to some players and increase the learning curve(5/10)

Graphics: Graphics are pretty decent. It isn't state of the art stuff, but you can tell that its a new game. Whats the most impressive is that it can run on most systems very well. I have 1 gig ram/128mb ATI X300 and I can run the game at high settings and play through 500 ship battles easily(9/10)

Curve:Curve isn't too bad since the game isn't terribly complicated as it could have been. Tutorials are okay, but the lack of a single player campaign forces you to play through the first few times against an ai and watch as you lose horribly. I found the manual to be terribly dissapointing mainly because it doesn't explain what the capital ship's powers are. Furthermore, many research techs aren't terribly descriptive and you have to find out what they actually do for yourselves(6/10)

Tilt:Its Civilization in Space, in Real Time. Need I say more? Its defining feature are HUGE games that might literally take days to play through. My biggest game that I have finished was a 6 hard/normal comp player FFA that took like 8 hours.(9/10)

Community:There are usually enough people to play with online, but recently I've heard its getting sparse occaisonally. A modding community has already emerged and some pretty nice stuff is coming out(8/10)

Overall: If this game had a campaign, it would easily be one of my favorite games. Even without single player, its very satisfying and will eat up your time easily(9/10)

[Veho Nex]

So its been a bit but haven't played too many games worth reviewing. But was playing this little Jewl a while back.

Minesweeper

Story: So your this guy who goes around clearing a map that has mines placed everywhere. [10/10]

Graphics: The beauty in this game is the smiling and frowny face at the top that you have to click if you die. It's insane. [9/10]

Curve: Doesn't take to long to learn how to play but you can get main parts in a quick click or two [5/10]

Tilt: I love it. [10/10]

Overall: I enjoyed this game very much and when I am done installing The guild universe I will try it out and review it too. [10/10:sweatdrop:

[pevergreen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHY8NKj3RKs

The real minesweeper.

[TevashSzat]

Well I have nothing to do at work right now so I might as well write out some reviews.

Need for Speed: Carbon

Content:Well, there is a ton of stuff to do. The career mode is pretty long and even though I haven't finished yet, I would guess it would take you at least 15 hours even if you are good at racing games. After the career, there are a ton of challenges. The variety of race types are pretty great too with Circuit, Speed Trap, Sprint, Drifting, Checkpoint, and Boss Canyon races(9.5/10)

Story:Its a racing game. Don't expect a story that is as good as that of Half Life 2's. That being said however, the story is interesting enough and makes you want to get through the career mode. You basically spend the course of the career trying to find out what really happened the night you had to flee from Palmont City.(8/10)

GraphicsVery nice. I am running it at very mediocre settings since my video card (ATI X300) is pretty old and awful, but the game still looks very nice. You can get acceptable settings on even the most mediocre computer right now I would think and at max settings, the races would be a piece of art.(10/10)

Curve:The game is pretty straightforward. You drive faster than everyone else in the race. Above that basic level, however, you must learn how to use the time slower thing, nitro, wingmen, and how to tune up your car. Those things aren't too hard to figure out by yourself. The only hard parts I would say are the boss races. The first one, Wolf, is EXTREMELY hard. His car is better than yours in every single factor even if you have all of the upgrades up until that point. That means that you have to drive an almost perfect race, which is not easy considering that these boss races often take a LONG time to drive through(8.5/10)

Tilt:Umm...You get a nice shiny car and race with it in a city... The only really new feature is the territory system and wingmen which are, to me, wonderful additions. The system with the police has been dialed down imo and for the better too(9/10)

CommunityI haven't played online so don't askl meNA

Overall: Need for Speed: Carbon is a fun racing game. I would say it is a must play for those interested in racing games and a heavy recommendation for those who aren't necessarily great fans of the genre(like me) As long as you don't hate racing games, I can't see why anyone would hate playing the game(9/10)

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Content:There are tons of stuff for you to do. The storyline is kinda linear, but also gives you some freedom. I would say that its style is comparable to that of KOTOR's. There is a ton of replayability too. After the first run through, it is heavily recommended to play again at least as a Malkavian. You get alot of new content and you can appreciate any of the side missions that you might have missed before. The only dissapointment though, is that there is no multiplayer. (9/10)

Story:Pretty interesting story. You start off trying to prove your worth and then end up working with the Prince to get a sarcophagus. I would tell any more details, but there are some very very memorable places you go through. The Haunted Mansion part of the game is done extremely well(9/10)

Graphics:The game uses the Source Engine, but it doesn't look like it does. Graphic customization is basically limited to resolution which wouldn't be much of the problem had the game had better graphics. They are very mediocre, but passable.(6/10)

Curve:Very easy to get started. It has a wonderful tutorial and you learn how to do everything from the very start.(10/10)

Tilt:You get to play as a vampire. Also, the RPG system is not of the standard DnD thing that most serious RPGs have now. The system used is alot more simplistic, but also gives you alot of customization too. So if you want a good RPG but don't want to learn the DnD 3.5 rules, give this a shot(9/10)

Community:There is a small, but devoted community, but thats about it. The game is very hard to mod so player changes are most limited to different skins for characters. The only noteworthy player modification is the unofficial patch which fixes some bugs still left in the game and adds some minor things to the game(7/10)

Overall:Given the relatively low number of great RPGs out there, any RPG lover should at least give this game a try. The game is very very addictive and I doubt few will put it down after an hour or two (9/10)

[Abokasee]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl

Content:Its a unique blend between a FPS and a RPG, however it is more FPS than RPG, however, thats not a bad thing theres still quite alot of opptunities to explore, the weapons are very good, early game weapons are inaccurate and do very little damage, whilst later in the game you'll gain weapons that are overall better, there is no best weapon, which is good, especially playing online, becuase everyone tends to "whore" the sniper rifles, whilst in this, the sniper rifle is accually quite a off putting weapon, its slow to reload and trying to turn around with it is a huge problem, Suits are also a quite nice feature, with early game suits lacking in many things, whilst later in the game theres a variety of suits that you'll pick from (The Top 3 suits are (in no paticular order) : SEVA Suit (Good all round, reduces annomaly damage by 50% and has fair bullet proof protection, Exo-Suit (Brilliant bullet proof and Rupture (Creatue claws and knifes) protection, its anomaly protection isn't too bad, but it dosn't let you sprint, it does let you carry up 80.00, which is rather silly because the suit its self way 15!, Millitary Stalker Suit, this is a very good all round suit, it would certainly be my first choice) however, suits cannot be repaired Technically they can, if you can find enough batteries, or spring artifacts and gather enough so they provide you over a 100% protection, then if you used spring jump from a great height (the Trains at the Cordon or the Tower in blood sucker village), if you used batteries walk into a electro annomally
The enemies and allies in this game are quite intelligent, they'll take cover if they need to reload and they use some rough team work, but nothing to spectacular, but still more than the average AI in a FPS, the Mutants are also quite intelligent, for example dogs will attempt to chase you down, however if there taking too many casulities they'll run away, Blood suckers will stealth them selves on sight of you, and others will attempt to surrond you, unfortunatly there are much less mutants than there are Stalkers (humans), however there many mods that increase there numbers and enable the ones that where left out.
9.76/10

Story:Its pretty good, basically you were driving this "Death Truck", these come and go to the Zone with dead bodies, however they almost always tend to get hit by lightning or a sudden anomaly and kill the driver, you however have survived, and thus Called "The Marked One" (because you have S.T.A.L.K.E.R. written on your arm, other stalkers do not) and your task, although you'll never get to complete it, is to kill strelok, there are many different endings, 5 bad ones, which involve you going straight to the wish granter, and 2 good ones that involve you finding where C.Conciousness is based.
7.9/10

Graphics: VERY Nice graphic, its still prett good even today, (Im running on highest settings) although pre-placed corpses and some vegetagion (paticular those that in the water) are rather blur-ish

Curve: There are a whole host of minor technical glitches in the game (For example the Unique LR300 Sniper rifle scope, has a smaller zoom than the Attachment scope of a norm LR300, and Radiation reduction dosn't show up, its affects are there, I can confirm that) also theres no real point of doing the side missions, since you can explore most of the land by just following the main one, and plus you only get a bit of cash and some ammo + grenades for your missions (although there are some exceptions), also, the Dialogue options are very lacking.
7/10

Tilt: The game is still a fantastic experience even with these flaws, the Weapons are realistic, the AI is smarter than most (It beats crysis thats for sure), and the world is truely brilliant and irriy (The scariest places are X16 and X18)
9.8/10

Community: There is online play, however I was unable to connect to any of the games, as sidrovich would say: "What is this crap!?"
N/A

Overall: Its a brilliant and unique game, its Pros certainly out weigh its cons, but those cons are unavoidable unfortunatly, but otherwise, you really should buy it
9/10