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"Shooter," in this case is used to encompass all game genres that focus
primarily on running and gunning down your enemies, usually from the
first-person (FPS) but also from the third-person as well. Some games
(such as Dark Messiah: Might and Magic) not technically of the "shooter"
genre are also included due to their run-and-fight twitch-based gameplay
and first-person perspective.
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Version(s) I own:
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Rating:
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Short Review:
I'm sure you've heard the usual quip from the anti-Halo-ites: "Halo
is overrated." When Halo 2 came out, I was caught up in all the
hype, and then it ended up moderately disappointing me... so I could
somewhat agree with them and see their point of view. But I am here
to say that: these people need to sit back, relax, and play Halo 3.
If that doesn't change their minds, nothing will. Because Halo 3 is
amazing. It manages to take the best aspects of both Halo 1 and
those of Halo
2 and combine them into an amazing final installment for the
trilogy. The graphics are smooth and sleek, at times even
breathtaking - a vast improvement over the chunky, overly
bump-mapped models of its last-generation predecessor. The musical
score is a return to the fast-paced yet instrumental style of the
original Halo, without the pumped-up rock guitars ruining the epic
vastness of the story with their screeching din as in Halo 2. The
story is at times confusing, but is presented on such a grand and
epic scale that you will easily lose yourself in it and ignore its
inconsistencies. Some gamers prefer the gritty, dark atmosphere of
more "realistic" shooters, but personally I'd much rather be a part
of the sweeping space
battles of this sci-fi epic. You never know what might happen next:
how does a gargantuan capital-size starship zooming down into the
atmosphere and lowering a huge platform covered by three Scorpion
Tanks sound? Now how about three individual players each jumping
into those Scorpions and rolling out the armor together
cooperatively? Yes, Halo 3 finally introduces 4-player co-op, and
despite being too easy at times (thankfully this can be at least
partially fixed by turning on the unlockable "skulls"), it's the
blast I've always been waiting for, and I bought a second Xbox 360
just to enjoy it. And ultimately that's what it boils down to: the
gameplay in Halo 3 is just plain undeniably fun. It's the same
fast-paced run-and-gun shooting and vehicle driving as the other
installments, so if you're looking for a more strategic experience,
look elsewhere. That said, many of the balance issues from Halo 3
have been corrected, so that now dual-wielding is not the only way
to go and jumping on a vehicle is no longer pure suicide. And if you
can jump into a Brute Chopper and ram through an enemy-filled
warthog, blowing it into a fireball and laughing as you come out the
other side unscathed, then you are just incapable of having fun in
the first place. Perhaps my only big complaint about the game is
that the single-player campaign was far too short (I would have
welcomed a bit of repetitive level design just to drag it out,
personally), but I still
enjoyed it enough that I would gladly pay another $60 just to play
it again, so I would say it's worth it. And with the unlockables
(skulls and armor types) and many new game modes like Forge and
movie replay (all of which can be done multiplayer), Halo 3 provides
nearly endless variety and fun that will keep you playing again and
again. I can now safely say that this is my favorite first-person
shooter, both hands down... and both thumbs up. Ow... that kind of
hurts. |
Related Stuff:
Halo Fan Art &
Fan Fiction -
Halo LEGO
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Version(s) I own:
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Rating:
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Short Review:
I'm not the kind of person who bought into the Halo series just
because it was popular. Personally, as soon as I saw the BOX ART for this
game, I knew I had to buy it, which in itself is a very rare thing
for me. Like many, I bought an Xbox just so I could play Halo. The sleek, sci-fi weapons, characters, and vehicles; the
beautiful yet alien atmosphere and scenery...
all of that sucked me right in, and it still remains my favorite
thing about the game. Who would want to play a game taking place in
some war-torn city or wasteland when they could play in this? Not
me. The game, from the environment down to each and every weapon, just looks COOL. Not garbled and disgusting or "gritty and realistic" like most FPS
games. In short, I love Halo's art style. And I also love Halo's gameplay style. It's fast-paced
and action-packed, with just enough strategic thinking involved
(deciding which guns to carry, since you can only carry two, when to
take cover, etc.) to keep it challenging. It's realistic in that respect, but it doesn't
go realistic to the point of losing its fun factor. And boy is it
fun. Did I mention that? The vehicles are still the most enjoyable
I've ever driven in any FPS game. And as much as people like
to fault the game's "repetitive level design," this is
only really noticeable on one stage (the Library) and on the others
it never bothered me
a single bit in the around 10 times I have played through this
game co-op with my brother and sister. The story is like
something from a great "space opera" style sci-fi flick, and the ending is an awesome climax, built up to by the absolutely perfect musical
score. Multiplayer is a blast as well. At times, the gameplay can
seem unbalanced, as some weapons and vehicles dominate the field.
But hey, we're not playing a board game here; this is WAR! And
overall it's still one of the most fun games out there. Perhaps
I may seem like a hypocrite here, since I will nitpick over the
details in most things, especially RPGs, but Halo is one of the few
games whose sheer fun factor actually DOES make up for it. It does
and then some. With only the possible exception of Halo 3, this is
my favorite FPS of all time. |
Related Stuff:
Halo Fan Art &
Fan Fiction -
Halo LEGO
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Short Review:
This is the game that, for some reason, made subsequent developers
decide to change the name of Star Wars's number 1 first-person
shooter series from "Dark Forces" to "Jedi Knight." Why? Perhaps
because it remains one of the best Star Wars games to date. If you
ask me, Jedi Knight beats out any Star Wars FPS that has ever come
before and since. The single player storyline is engaging and
well-told, with alternate Dark and Light endings available to boot!
The gameplay is a great blend of guns and lightsabers and Force
powers that does not render guns completely useless in favor of the
latter two, unlike its sub-par sequels. Another thing the game has
going for it is the scenery - the landscapes are huge! They are much
bigger than anything you see in modern games, and with plenty of
variety as well. The graphics were quite good for their time, and
the worst thing about them remains the ugly lightsaber and laser
effects. But fear not! There are plenty of mods out there that can
improve on that particular issue, adding glow effects and trails and
everything. Just search for "Glowsaber." In fact, one reason I still
feel as much fondness for this game today as I did when I first
played it is because this is one of the few games I've ever truly
been part of the community with. I kept up to date on the latest
mods and levels, made my own at times using the fan-made editors for
the engine, and even maintained my own online gaming clan in
cooperation with my brother. That clan, "The Saber Clan," was where
part of this website's name originally came from. This is the game
that made me Saber-Scorpion! How can I not like it? And it really is
a very fun game. If you are a Star Wars fan, don't let yourself miss
it, no matter how old it seems today. I still enjoy the heck out of
it. |
Related Stuff:
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"Dungeons & Dragons TC"
Modification -
Jedi
Knight 1&2 LEGO Minifigs
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| MotS is less of an expansion
pack as it is a sequel... a very, very crappy sequel. Gone are the
live-action cutscenes of the original Jedi Knight, telling the story
of Kyle Katarn as he becomes a Jedi (or Dark Jedi). Now you are put
in the shoes of Mara Jade, who apparently trained under Kyle for a
while at some point. While this is an intriguing story to be sure,
there apparently isn't much to tell. The plot, advanced in crappy
in-game cutscenes, is pretty much just an excuse to run around the
Star Wars universe and kill things. Oh well, it's fun, right? Yes,
it is... but not as fun as Jedi Knight. Add to this the fact that
many of the sounds now sound really muffled for some reason (or at
least they did for me), and multiplayer has been totally screwed-up
by some kind of class-based gameplay system (which is why no one
ever played MotS online back when the games were popular), and there
isn't really much in the package to make it worthwhile. However,
there ARE some new resources for modders: MotS introduces such
things as colored lighting and cutscene-camera controls that make
single-player level creation much easier. I guess this is why MotS
has the best single-player mods. If you want a really fun game, even
better than the original MotS campaign, go to
www.massassi.net
and look for the "Birth of a Mercenary" and "Tales of a Mercenary"
levels, which explore Kyle Katarn's pre-JK history. They're really
awesome, and actually make MotS worth buying all by themselves. |
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Short Review:
I don't think anyone out there will try to argue too much with me
when I say Half-Life is one of the greatest FPS games of all time.
And for once, I won't try to argue with them either.
This game really is great. From the moment you begin the
single-player storyline, you become Gordon Freeman, seeing
everything from his eyes, and everything you see is real enough to
keep you believing, right up until the end. The storyline unfolds
before your eyes instead of being told to you, and it's decent
enough to keep the game full of variety... which it is. In
Half-Life, you never know what might be waiting around the next
corner. It begins by dropping you into a gondola ride with a
narrator describing the Black Mesa Facility like a Disney World
ride, with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor present as you explore the
scientific facility and cause a little mayhem here and there. Then,
after an experiment goes awry, all hell breaks loose, and you have
to run and gun for your life. Aliens appear when you least expect
it, you're constantly encountering new types of enemies and having
to rethink your gameplay strategy to match them, and all of this is
pervaded by a fantastic atmosphere that makes you really believe
you're in the middle of this facility, all but alone, fighting for
your very survival. This is what makes the game, in my opinion,
still far superior to its sequel, which too often has you fighting
the same enemies over and over, with a host of talkative allies at
your side. Some criticize the last few levels of Half-Life, but
personally I found them greatly unexpected, and an awesome "end" to
the storyline, at least for the first game. When it's all said and
done, there's still the huge online community to explore, including
the countless mods that have been made for the game, some single and
many multi-player. Simply put, if you haven't played Half-Life, you
haven't played an FPS... and you don't know what you're missing. |
Related Stuff:
Half-Life
LEGO
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| These two expansions take
place at the same time as the original Half-Life, but you now get to
play out the Black Mesa Incident from a different point of view...
In Opposing Force, you're one of the invading soldiers. In Blue
Shift, you're one of Black Mesa's friendly security guards. First, I'll admit that I
never actually finished Blue Shift. I only watched my brother Ryan
play it. With that said, it did look to me like the lesser of the
two expansions: it's shorter, and the atmosphere is not quite as
tense as the original Half-Life. It just doesn't feel the same. In
fact, it actually feels more like Half-Life 2, which apparently they
were already moving in the direction of. That said, however, it's
still fun, and the graphics-enhancement package that comes with Blue
Shift is worth the price just for the boost it gives to the
appearance of all the other games (the original Half-Life included).
It's nice to have hi-res non-blocky guns, and scientists who look
like actual humans. As for Opposing Force, it's without a doubt one
of the best of the Half-Life titles, from the "boot camp" tutorial
level right through to the end of the main storyline. It's too bad
none of the sequels ever expanded on the story of your soldier
character, Shepherd. I submit that a sequel should be made in which
Shepherd and the army fight against the invading Combine before,
during, and after the Seven Hour War (or whatever). So that someone
can finally fill in that huge gap in the storyline between the Black
Mesa Incident and the point where the entire planet is under the
control of an imperialistic interdimensional species. Who's with me?
Valve...? |
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Short Review:
Portal is not really a first-person shooter, but a puzzle game
played from the first-person perspective. You have a gun, but it's a
gun that shoots portals that stick to flat surfaces and allow you to
instantly transport yourself or other objects between them. The
object of the game is to use these portals to bypass various
puzzles, traps, and obstacles using the game's strange portal
physics. All in all, Portal has a lot of flaws: It's pretty darn
short, about half of it is ridiculously easy, the graphics are a bit
dated (it runs on Half-Life 2's aging Source engine), and it has
little real replay value. But you know what? None of that matters,
because the game is just too downright fun for you to care. Part of
this is because of the head-scratching puzzles (the kind that make
you almost laugh out loud once you figure it out), but the majority
of it is because of the fantastic atmosphere and storyline. Like most of Valve's
FPS titles, Portal drops you straight into the world in a
first-person view, so that you become the main character - a
female human guinea pig being used as a test subject in a vast, cold
scientific complex. As you run the gauntlet of tests, a robotic
female entity named GLaDOS speaks to you, and it is her personality
that gives the game most of it's dark yet charming, deadpan sort of
humor. Besides GLaDOS, there are also the bizarre messages left on
the walls of the complex by another former inmate (hinting at its
predictable but amusing "dark secret") and the shiny white tripod
machine gun turrets that make friendly comments in a tinny, cheerful
little voice as they hose you with bullets. Not to give too much
away, but eventually the storyline comes to a fantastic climax and
closes with an absolutely perfect credits song sung by GLaDOS
herself. Afterwards, there are some far more challenging bonus
levels available to players who just can't get enough, although they
feel rather hollow without GLaDOS's comments. Still, the main game
is simply fantastic, and the whole experience is so enjoyable that
it would be almost impossible to rate it less than 5/5. |
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Short Review:
This game was hailed as a revolution during its development, and
upon its release... well, it was still hailed as a great game, but
the game itself was not quite a revolution. With its amazing physics
engine (more commonly seen today than it was back then), Half-Life 2
was worth buying just to be able to play with the gravity gun and
make things go flying and bouncing around, and breaking stuff. The
realistic character faces were also pretty amazing. So, graphically
and technically, the game is brilliant. But what about the actual
gameplay and the story? Well, yes... but to a slightly lesser
extent. The gameplay is certainly fun, with a wide variety of
weapons and ways to kill your enemies, and some vehicle sections,
but the enemies and situations aren't quite as varied as they were
in the original Half-Life, and I actually think many of the new
characters detract from the overall atmosphere of the game. The
storyline is an undoubtedly dark one, yet all of the characters seem
strangely happy and optimistic, even if they're trapped in a Combine
concentration camp or being shelled by headcrab bombs that can turn
them into zombies. One particular character really
annoyed the hell out of me. Still, that said, the atmosphere of
the game isn't totally ruined, and with its fantastic graphics
engine, a few areas really suck you right in (the underside of the
bridge was always one of my favorites), and the combine, while not
offering as much variety as the aliens of HL1, are quite a
mysterious and fearsome enemy. By the end of the campaign, you'll
certainly have had an enjoyable FPS experience, if not quite as good
as its predecessor. And then you can enjoy the downloadable content
and moddability that the game offers as well... if you can stand the
highly-annoying program Valve forces you to use called Steam. One
game per computer instead of per household, with no way around it?
Check. Mandatory
download of updates before playing, every single time, even if
your Internet connection is terribly slow? Check. Ridiculous load
time as Steam "prepares to launch the game," with no indication of
what it's actually doing? Check... I swear, if the game
wasn't so good, I would never have had the patience to put up with
it. |
Related Stuff:
Half-Life
LEGO
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I'm not sure how to include this crappy "episodic content" in my
regular review/rating system, but I guess entering it as an
expansion will work. First, I'd like to fuss a bit about the whole
"episodic" system... It's a real drag. The "episodes" still take
ages to come out, and when they're done, they're actually shorter
than most expansion packs, so it's a blast of disappointment. Since
the Episodes always run on the same engine and don't really
introduce THAT much new material, what on Earth takes them so long
to come out? Doesn't that ruin the whole purpose? Also,
they don't feel as much like an epic experience as a whole new game
would... they're more like just a
regular TV show compared to a movie. And personally, I prefer
movies. Anyway, Episode One is okay if you're really dying for more
of the same Half-Life 2 gameplay (in other words, killing Combine,
Antlions, and Zombies over and over and over again in various
familiar locations). If, however, you're more like me and you
primarily want to
advance the storyline, then you won't miss very much by skipping this
title. Basically here's the story (highlight to read):
After the G-Man Deus Ex Machina saved Gordon
at the end of the last game, the Vortigaunts then came in as the new
Deus Ex Machina and saved both him and Alyx (unfortunately).
They then fight their way out of the citadel, picking up a message
from Judith Mossman on their way out. Then, Gordon and Alyx and Barney escape
City 17 as it blows up. Okay, that's it. Really, that's the whole
story. So now there's no need to drag through this silly
not-even-an-expansion-pack. |
Apparently Valve heard the cries of those who (like me) found
Episode One to be dull and uneventful, and all-too-familiar. So they
decided to actually do some new stuff with Episode Two. Kind of
reminds me of Neverwinter Nights's two expansion packs, actually...
Anwyay, needless to say, Episode Two is far superior to its
predecessor. Although you still have to run around with the
highly-annoying and talkative Alyx Vance ruining the atmosphere, and
you still have to save her life over and over again, there is at
least some new gameplay to go along with it. New enemies in the form
of Hunters, new weapons in the form of "Magnusson Bombs," and a new
character in the form of the bombs' inventor, Dr. Magnusson himself,
who I am here to say is easily my favorite character in the series
now. It's such a huge relief to finally have someone who isn't
smiling and nice all the time, and takes his job seriously in order
to get things done (and he really does get things done). Add to this
a LOT of vehicle driving and new gameplay elements (including
unlockable achievments), and you've got an Episode that's actually
worthy of the name Expansion Pack. Although, it's still not quite as
good as the original Half-Life expansions (especially Opposing
Force), and not as long, so you're better off buying it in a box set
(The Orange Box) rather than paying the slightly steep full price
for it individually. |
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Short Review:
This is basically one comprehensive review for the entire Rainbow
Six series. I've never played the original much, but I was crazy
over the second one (Rogue Spear) and played it online a lot, and I
enjoyed number three (Raven Shield) quite a bit as well. My brother
Ryan was really the one who kept buying the games and convincing me
to play them, so he could probably give you a better review than me.
Basically, Rainbow Six is one of the most realistic tactical
shooters of all time. I enjoyed Rogue Spear for its tactical
squad-based combat, mission planning, and tense real-time shooter
gameplay, which was made suspenseful by its realism. That is, if you
pop around one corner and a terrorist spots you, you're toast. Just
a few shots in the right place and you're down. This means you have
to be cautious and play it smart and safe in order to finish the
mission. The storyline in all of the games is like most Tom Clancy
games; it exists, seems to be a pretty decent and realistic tale
about terrorism and such, and... you can completely ignore it.
Whatever. The game is still fun, either when you're finishing the
missions in single player, or playing the cooperatively, or fighting
against other players online. Raven Shield basically upped the ante
with a much-needed graphics improvement (you could finally see the
gun you were holding, for example), while still keeping the gameplay
almost entirely the same (although it did have some stability
issues). After this, however, the entire series began going
downhill. As it moved more toward a console basis and became less
PC-oriented, the developers (probably different ones) decided to
"kick it up a notch!" in the action department, while letting the
strategy and realism slide (sometimes even removing the ability to
lay out plans in the planning stage entirely). This removed the
primary thing that made the game unique and enjoyable compared to
other standard FPS titles. It's a sad and shameful tale of what has
basically befallen all game series that have shifted their emphasis
more toward consoles: the dumbing-down of gaming for the masses. As
far as I've seen, Rogue Spear and Raven Shield remain the best
titles in the Rainbow Six series. |
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Short Review:
Get ready for the nitpicky review of a Halo fan...
It's hard to think of a game I anticipated more than the release of
Halo 2. After enjoying the first game seemingly to no end, and
seeing tons of hi-res screenshots for its sequel, Halo 2, I was
drooling in anticipation. So I guess it was predictable and perhaps
fitting that I would end up disappointed. Although the game still
delivered on much of the fun of its predecessor and improved it in
SOME respects... it just wasn't a better game than Halo 1. The first
thing that struck me were the graphics. Once they were shrunk down
to Xbox resolutions, gone was the impressiveness. Bungie tried way
too hard to put next-gen graphics onto an aging console that
couldn't handle them, so they were forced to cut corners - instead
of actually putting high-polygon models in the game, they simply
covered low-polygon models in a huge ton of bump-mapping to make
them LOOK high-poly, and as a result, they end up looking chunky and
unrealistic. It totally ruins the sleek look and feel of the
original. And they still put a strain on the Xbox - the load times
are slow, and often the surfaces won't load at first, forcing you to
see how ugly the models REALLY are for a few laggy seconds until the
bump-mapping suddenly "jumps" into place. The single-player
storyline also takes itself less seriously than the original, with
Sgt. Johnson reduced to pretty much comic relief, and the
constantly-advertised "earth invasion" sequence never really taking
place. Also, a couple twists in the story didn't really come across
as believable. The single-player (and multiplayer, actually) maps in
this installment are cramped in comparison to Halo 1's wide-open
areas. Speaking of multiplayer, it's a bit more balanced now (though
the Battle Rifle practically takes the place of Halo's M6D pistol as
the reigning weapons-king), but the ability to dual-wield guns puts
a whole new strain on gameplay as players who start out with a
single one-handed gun are pretty much screwed until they find a
bigger weapon or a second gun to go with it. Now, after all this
nit-picking, I'm sure I probably have you convinced that I hated the
game. No, nothing of the sort. It does earn its 4-star rating from
me. Although Halo 2 has its flaws (which I just listed), it's still
a great game, and I would rather buy it and play it a dozen times
over compared to most tired FPS titles that the industry cranks
out... because it still does retain a large amount of Halo appeal.
In other words: cool sci-fi stuff and fun gameplay. It does have
some really good moments... personally, I loved being able to play
as an Elite character through half the game and experience things
from their point of view, even if the developers wimped out and
never let you actually fight humans... and the level designs are
sometimes a bit more inventive than Halo 1's, if not as scenic. But
in retrospect, now that the entire series is finished, the main
reason to buy Halo 2 is to bridge the gap (and not completely at
that) between the two superior titles, Halo 1 and Halo 3. The game
itself just doesn't quite cut it compared to those two. In fact,
perhaps the thing I appreciate most about Halo 2 now is that it was
NOT as epic as the other games, thus making Halo 3 seem all the more
mind-blowing in comparison. Hot Tip: If you plan to play through
Halo 2's storyline alone in single-player, get the PC version of the
game if you possibly can. It's a much better experience, as the
somewhat cruddy graphics are not nearly as hideous on a
high-resolution computer monitor. |
Related Stuff:
Halo Fan Art &
Fan Fiction -
Halo LEGO
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Short Review:
This game defines itself as an action-RPG, but it's actually much
more of an FPS. It runs on the Source engine, the same engine as
Half-Life 2. And the game really is pretty decent. It's got a fun
application of the swords and sorcery style to the FPS genre,
something I love to see. Up-close fighters can concentrate on their
skill with swords and shields, distance fighters can concentrate on
bows and archery, mages can concentrate on staves and spells, and
roguish types can concentrate on backstabbing, sneaking, and picking
locks. Or you can mix and match these skills as much as you want,
adding great variety to the gameplay. Playing this game will make
you wonder "why aren't the Elder Scrolls games more like this?"
Oblivion could learn a lot about how first-person games should
work from Dark Messiah. It also makes much better use of its physics
engine. Oblivion only had a few traps that relied on physics every
now and then... Dark Messiah lets you make use of them nearly ALL
the time. In fact, sometimes a bit too much... there are almost too
many convenient traps, and use of the kick ability can send enemies
flying to a sometimes disappointingly easy death. As for story, Dark
Messiah definitely presents its tale better than Oblivion, and makes
it more exciting... but the story itself is as cliché as they come,
and you'll find yourself cringing at many of the corny lines that
the mediocre voice actors are asked to pull off. Only the option of
two different romances and endings saves it from being totally
cliché. You get a choice between a hot, seductive demoness named
Xana who has sworn her service to you and saves your life at least
once or twice during the story... or a squeaky-voiced somewhat ugly
damsel in distress who is constantly putting you in danger and being
generally worthless and annoying. This may be one of the only times
where I chose the more "evil" path with the demon lady and never
regretted it in the slightest. I tried the good ending by banishing
Xana, but then I felt like a total jerk for abandoning her despite
the fact that she's saved my life multiple times and I usually
agreed with everything she said. If you decide to do this, then
you're a real asshole. Wow, I sure have wandered off on a tangent,
haven't I? Anyway, suffice to say that the story is interesting and
varied enough to keep you from losing interest, thanks to the fun
gameplay. At times the game feels a bit cheap, but hey, it's still
good solid fun, and it gets extra points from me for being a
medieval/fantasy FPS, a rare sight that I always look forward to. I
recommend playing it. |
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Short Review:
When I heard they had ported FarCry from the PC to the consoles, I
rolled my eyes and thought "yeah, well I hope they enjoy that
sub-par game with the graphics that were the only good thing about
it now being lowered to fit the PS2. Hah!" What I didn't realize was
that they had completely rebuilt the entire campaign from beginning
to end. Only when it came out for the Xbox 360 as FarCry: Instincts:
Predator (which also includes the campaign from the Evolution game
for the PS2) did I finally see what an improvement over the original
it really was. Admittedly, the first FarCry did impress me more,
especially graphically. Of course, it was new at the time, and now
its graphical engine is quite dated, having been beaten by so many
next-generation titles. However, the improved gameplay and storyline
of the Instincts campaign made up for it. It's nothing stellar - the
basic plot is still the same, and so are the character names,
although the characters themselves have been changed considerably.
Thankfully, the story can be taken much more seriously now, with
better voice actors and less campy personalities. The plot has a new
twist in it that also introduces a whole new aspect to the gameplay:
you get injected with Dr. Kreiger's super-soldier serum far earlier
in the storyline, and gradually gain new animal-like "feral" powers
(such as the ability to run faster, jump higher, and "see" scent) as
the story progresses. Along with the more varied enemies, weapons,
and vehicles (though the driving engine is still sub-par, especially
compared to Half-Life 2 and Halo), this makes the campaign much more
compelling, and luckily it's incorporated into multiplayer as well,
along with a fun map editor that's included with the game. The
storyline of the "Evolution" campaign isn't quite as good, but the
gameplay itself is actually even better, with lots of vehicle
sequences and broader landscapes and scenery. My main complaint
about the game as a whole is that it's kind of hard to control on
the Xbox when compared to the mouse & keyboard of the PC. Still, all
in all, the game offers more than enough to make it worth the price.
Give it a try. |
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Short Review:
This is another case of a game I bought because the cover intrigued
me. Normally First Person Shooter games immediately look like they
would bore me, and that impression turns out to be correct. Another
World War II guy in a bucket helmet screaming while holding a gun,
with planes and explosions overhead? Snore. That's been done a
thousand times. But when I saw the image on the cover of FarCry,
showing the protagonist sneaking through the water as a settlement
on the tropical beach behind him exploded in flames, I was
intrigued... A graphics-intensive shooter that actually uses a
beautiful tropical island setting? Sounds fun to me. I've heard some
reviewers complain that FarCry is a decent shooter, but the sunny
and beautiful setting detract from the game. I couldn't disagree
more: FarCry is a decent shooter that is made much MORE entertaining
by the breathtaking, sun-soaked beaches and shining blue waves. If
it weren't for the scenery, I never would have bought the game. As
for the game itself, it's mediocre. You have a basic set of guns,
some sub-par vehicles you can drive, and the enemies are all pretty
generic. The storyline is cliché and campy as hell, with
over-dramatic, terrible voice actors playing a set of stock
characters that you won't really care much about (the protagonist in
particular acts like a total moron). The game takes a steep drop
downhill when a group of Doom-esque zombie-like monsters are
unleashed due to a failed scientific experiment, and the atmosphere
suddenly changes from sunny to sunset to pitch black and unpleasant.
When you are done with the anti-climactic battle with the evil mad
scientist in his dark lair (on the side of a volcano no less), you
probably won't feel the incentive to play the game again and again.
Still, it's pretty fun the first time around, mostly because of the
scenery at atmosphere. I enjoyed it - but don't buy it with the
impression that it's great. |
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Short Review:
In case you didn't know, Star Wars: Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight was
always one of my favorite games of all time. I used to play it
online multiplayer for hours on end. Then Jedi Knight II came out
and brought an end to all of that. I won't say the game is
terrible... but it's not as good as the original either. The single
player story is decent... continuing the tale of our rogue mercenary
turned Jedi, Kyle Katarn, as he flies around fighting Sith and
constantly rescuing his partner, love interest, and constant
damsel-in-distress, Jan Ors. Aside from the fact that it never
seemed as compelling or had as many cool characters or levels as the
original Jedi Knight (I think JK1 had a better engine... the levels
and environments were much more vast and accessible), the single
player isn't too bad. I could nit-pick about how Kyle's new ship is
really ugly and he was cooler with a more unique yellow lightsaber
instead of yet another blue one, but oh well. At least the saber
fights were cool... aesthetically, that is. The saber is actually
pretty hard to control and unpredictable, and this is largely what
made multiplayer boring (although it would later be outdone in this
respect by Jedi Academy). Ah, multiplayer. There's the rub. In JK2,
multiplayer is just so fast-paced and arcade-like that it loses all
of the customizable play-as-you-like appeal that I so enjoyed when
playing the original game online. There's this constantl blaring
music in the background as you race through each level, running from
gun to gun as you gun down or chop up your enemies. Speaking of
which, the gun spawn points really annoyed me. I thought it was bad
in the first game the way the guns rotated on the ground instead of
just lying there like real guns, but in JK2 they are actually these
huge hovering holograms that you run past to "pick up." Forget
realism: this is just a game, pure and simple. Still, I guess it's
an okay SW FPS, as they go. |
Related Stuff:
Jedi
Knight 1&2 LEGO Minifigs
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said EXPANSION. Because that's all Jedi Academy is: an expansion of
JK2. There are a few new things to do, new arenas, and new fighting
styles (ridiculous lightsaber dual-wielding), or what I like to call
"expansion." However, since the engine is still the same, the
graphics are still the same, and it does not advance the main story
of Kyle Katarn in any real way (you don't even play as him...), I
don't consider this game a valid entry into the series. It's not
even on the same level of quality as MotS, and that's saying
something. Perhaps the worst aspect of the story is the main
character: Jaden, a generic customizable guy or girl whose voice
only changes with his or her gender, not race. So you can have a
Rodian speaking perfect English like any everyday human. It's
laughable. The story itself is perhaps the worst one ever to come
out of a Star Wars game: to prove that redemption is impossible,
Tavion (the villain Kyle spared in the last game) comes back to be
the main villain of this one. Now she has a magic staff that can
suck the Force power out of different locations. Seriously. Now
it's Jaden's important job to travel from place to place doing
menial tasks that have little or nothing to do with the main plot!
Exciting! One thing slavering 12-year-old Star Wars fanboys will
love about this game is you start out with a lightsaber, so you
aren't forced to use a blaster and wits to survive... you can just
slash mercilessly through practically helpless enemies armed with
guns until you finally get to other lightsaber-wielding foes... only
to find that saber versus saber completely lacks any actual strategy
or technique: you just wildly swing your two lightsaber blades (you
undoubtedly are going to get two - who wouldn't?) and hope for the
best. It gets very old, very quickly, much like this whole game.
Perhaps the only variety to be found is the cheap swoop-riding
segment, which is so poorly-done that it makes the vehicles in most
original JK mods (which were always awful) look like Halo... and the
alternate endings, which are both nearly identical and equally
corny. In case you couldn't tell, I don't like Jedi Academy. |
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Short Review:
I remember when Ryan and I first played the original Ghost Recon. Both of
us reacted almost immediately with: "Ugh, this game is terrible!" and
promptly resumed playing Rogue Spear instead. I never even played
the original Ghost Recon
enough to give it a fair review. Luckily, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (the rather silly-sounding name is often abbreviated as
the equally strange acronym "GRAW") is almost nothing like its
predecessor. And luckily, my brother and sister and I were able to
play it cooperatively, which is probably the only reason I played it
as much as I did. The game's primary appeal in my opinion comes from
its somewhat futuristic setting, although it's not futuristic enough
for me to give it a higher rating for being sci-fi. Otherwise, much
like in the Rainbow Six games, it's brutally realistic in the manner
that you can only carry a few guns and you'll get killed if you take
so much as two or three shots from an enemy. Also like Rainbow Six
and most other Tom Clancy games, you'll find yourself thinking "Why
can't I use that guy's gun? Or drive that vehicle back there? Or
jump over obstacles?". However, unlike the Rainbow Six games, there
is less variety to be found in GRAW in terms of both environment (it
all takes place in a dusty city), mission types (you basically just
run around and shoot people), and guns (the selection is very
limited). The graphics are great, but that is expected in a modern
game... while the gameplay falls flat, which is also pretty standard
in a modern game (why can't they ever make them like they used to?).
As for the story, it's lame and ignorable (as expected), as are the
poorly-voiced and non-lip-synched characters that communicate with
you and give you your objectives. In the end, it's just a somewhat
entertaining but still mediocre tactical squad-based shooter that leaves much to be
desired. |
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Rating:
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Short Review:
A rather silly but I guess occasionally fun FPS. On the
main menu, you'll see this stereotypical communist dictator type
guy, with the usual crisp uniform, military hat, and Stalin
mustache. His name is Sopot, and it quickly becomes apparent that,
much like in Half-Life 2, the storyline of the original game (which,
in the case of Red Faction, was about a mine on the planet Mars) has
apparently been completely forgotten in favor of some kind of
rebellion against an oppressive regime. The whole time you're on the
main menu, you listen to this silly propaganda speech given by Sopot.
Clearly, he's quite a villain. ERK - WRONG! It's no real spoiler to
tell you that he ends up being killed anticlimactically less than
halfway through the game! Then you end up fighting your old buddies
from your team - a twist that was, in my case, entirely predictable.
Largely predictable because the cheesy exposition given by the
over-acting voice cast (who sound almost as terrible as the
atrocious musical score) leaves nothing to the imagination: the
leader of your rebel group sounds so evil he could never be anything
else. Thankfully, the story is pretty short, and before long it's
over, leaving only the equally-mediocre multiplayer. Red Faction 2
is your typical FPS - flashy and violent but quite dull at times.
There are a few clunky and poorly-implemented vehicles in single
player, but none in multiplayer, whether that is a blessing or a
curse. In the end, it's just a sub-par FPS that doesn't even take
advantage of the main thing the original game had going for it (the
destructible walls). Unless you're just looking for another shooter
to play multiplayer at parties, pass this game by. |
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Short Review:
What can I say? It's a crappy James Bond game by EA. The story is
cheesy as can be. It's reasonably entertaining but painfully
mediocre, and I finished the main storyline so long ago and it was
so dull that I've pretty much totally forgotten it. All I can
remember is that it was really cheesy, and the main girl died (even
though her death was sort of ambiguous and hardly even mentioned).
And that kind of annoyed me, but not enough to actually care. The
cheese culminated in a battle that literally took place in outer
space, which I heard was actually taken from one of the movies. This
is one reason I've never watched any James Bond movies, ever. As for Nightfire, I mostly played the game multiplayer. The MP mode is as
mediocre as single player, but I only played it because it was a
reasonably new game to try when company came over. I recall that
it's hard to aim and sometimes hard to tell whether or not you
actually hit someone, because the whole game is so second-rate. Oh,
and by the way, I have to mention this: on the main menu, Pierce
Brosnan, or whatever is name is, looks like a flat picture, but he
sort of sways and blinks at you.
It's actually kind of creepy. Okay, moving along... |
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Rating:
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Short Review:
When this game was first announced, it was advertised as artistic
and original. Often the ads were just solid black with the word
"black" in the corner, and screenshots were kept under lock and key.
Gamers began to expect something revolutionary. But guess what? This
is EA Games we're talking about! All that was just marketing hype.
The game itself is a dull, formulaic FPS straight along the
road-mapped lines of every other FPS ever made. Black has perhaps the most appropriate
and self-descriptive box art in history: a big pile of bullets. Because that's all you do in this game: shoot.
You run and you shoot things. They die, or they blow up.
That's the full extent of the gameplay. As you proceed through the
game, it will throw greater and greater numbers of enemies at you at
once, culminating in a huge battle in a warehouse against a
veritable army that you have to survive. If
grabbing supposedly "realistic" guns (though in reality they are
quite pumped-up and over-detailed, not realistic at all) and gunning
down hundreds of stock enemies in dark, drab, grimy, boring environments
like this intrigues you, then this is your game. If you're looking
for something more compelling or original, or even a storyline of
some sort, look elsewhere. In a game with NO MULTIPLAYER (that
brought it down at least half a star, since I expect at least to
have multiplayer in a crappy stereotypical FPS), you'd expect a good
single player story, but no. The story is this: You're a "black ops" guy, and it's your job to enter
enemy territory all alone and kill everyone there. The entire story
is told in retrospect via live-action cutscenes filmed with choppy,
blurry, terrible camera antics in order to seem dark and stylish.
These cutscenes successfully go nowhere, as they all take
place in the same room as one guy interviews another guy. It may be
a spoiler, but I consider it more of a warning: nothing ever happens
in these cutscenes. The plot ends pretty much the same way it began.
No climax, nothing. Congratulations, you did your missions and
killed a lot of people. I hope you had fun because that's the full
extent of this crappy snore-fest of a game. |
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Short Review:
My brother Ryan got this game for free, and it's lucky he did,
because it's truly not worth paying for. I've heard people rave
about the awesomeness of Goldeneye 007 for the N64 and rant about
how EA Games ruined the James Bond series. Even though I never
played the original and never owned an N64... I can sympathize with
these people. Why? Because I hate EA Games with a passion and
because Goldeneye: Rogue Agent is terrible. I mean, this game is
absolutely pitiful... so pitiful that we never actually finished it.
It begins, and you start shooting people. No sneaking, as you would
expect in a James Bond spinoff title (or at least I
would...). It's pretty much just a straight-out FPS. The graphics range from
mediocre to astoundingly bad, and the gameplay is pretty much
standard yawn-inducing shooter fare. The weapons are limited in
variety and everything feels cheaply slopped-together as heck.
Seriously, I've seen user-made mods that exceed the quality of this
game by lightyears. The point where we stopped playing was when Ryan
stepped out onto a balcony and looked back at the skyscraper behind
him... to see the room interiors actually drawn onto the building
texture. Yes, three-dimensional room interiors presented on a
two-dimensional texture on a 3D object. Words fail to describe how
laughable it looked. You would have to see it to understand. It also
shows how lazy, uninspired, and doubtlessly underpaid the developers
obviously were. This is just another crappy game dished out by EA's
massive money-factory on the hopes that the name alone would sell it
(as with nearly all recent games by EA). Don't get near it. Run.
Far. Away. |
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Halo 3
Halo: Combat Evolved
Star Wars: Jedi
Knight: Dark Forces II
Half-Life
Portal
Half-Life 2
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 2 (Rogue Spear) & 3 (Raven Shield)
Halo 2
Dark Messiah: Might and Magic
FarCry
Instincts: Predator
FarCry
Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter
Red Faction
II
007: Nightfire
Black
Goldeneye: Rogue Agent