=(eGO)= reviews.....

BlackMesaSouth

BlackMesaSouth

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It is safe to say that everyone here is a gamer. And in todays market most games cost in excess of $50 so it a decison that requires some deliberation. Perhaps we could use this thread to review any game on any platform to help our fellow gamer make an informed decision. Also we could try to stick to a format something like this:

GAME NAME(Platform)(denote if it is MP or Sp only or All portions)
Quick summary #/10 rating

(Body of review)

short recap
#/10 score again.
One more thing when reviewing an 'M' rated game. Use some common sense and keep the particulary disturbing bits to yourself. AND NO SPOILERS!

Games reviewed so far:
Gears of War (PC)(SP Only) 8/10 Pg.1
Command and Conquer: Kane's Wrath (PC) 8/10
Pong
Dark Sector(360(SP Only)7/10
Team Fortress 2 10/10 Pg.2
Assasians Creed (PC) 8/10
Earth 2160 (PC)(SP, MP with LAN or TCP/IP info) 7/10

If you would like a second opinon you are also UGLY. But really for a second reference here are some links to professional reviewers.
http://www.ign.com/
http://www.1up.com/
http://www.shacknews.com/
http://www.gamepro.com/
 
I hope I can get Dark Sector finshed tonight so we canget this ball rolling. Maybe if we make a good show of it the mods will make it all sticky and what not.
 
Gears of War (PC)(SP/MP)(ESRB M)
The game centers on the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the fictional planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as the Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier. The game is based on the use of cover and strategic fire for the player to advance through the scenarios; a second player can play co-operatively through the main campaign to assist. The game also features several online game modes for up to eight players.

8/10 rating

This game was originally developed for the 360 therefore it uses some of the same controls for the PC version.

GOOD:

Sparcity of GUI
Graphically Intense
Good game play
Excellent Firing Tactics

BAD:

Graphics are very hard on PC GFX cards. (I was running a Quad and a SLI of 8800GTS at 320MB apiece and I still experienced lotsa gfx lag even when they were set on low.)
Possible High learning curve for a 3rd person Shooter
Storyline is a little vague

Good challenging game. Love the Lancer Chainsaw Bayonet. Get close to a enemy and cut him in half. Just makes you want to grin. :)

8/10
 
Command and Conquer: Kane's Wrath. PC ESRB: M
The expansion to Command And Conquer 3, Kane's wrath features new game play modes, armies, units, and maps, for the futuristic RTS. Play as the United Nations esque GDI, the highly religious NOD, or the Alien Skrin, and try to take over the world. 8/10

Good:
* Some fun new units to play around with
* A ton of new maps
* New subfactions add variety.
Bad:
* Disappointing, disjointed campaign
* New Global Conquest mode isn't very compelling
* Some of the new units and subfactions are underwhelming.

Great continuation to a great game, a must have if you enjoy RTS
8/10
 
Pong: rated E for Icantbeliveimplayingavideogameonmytv

Players try and hit a square ball past the other player to score points, think of tennis but WAY cooler.

Good:
*amazing graphics, never seen before
*plug it in to any tv and have fun for hours
*you now have a 4th channel for the tv, the Pong channel!!!

Bad:
*None, nothing like this has ever been seen before

The next generation in home entertainment. Goodbye boardgames.




Sorry, i had to. anyone over 30 will laugh hard at this.
 
Very nice xosniper. I had another idea. I'll try to stay on top of this thread and every so often edit the op to contain a list of what games are in this thread so people can see if anthing they are interested in are in here.
 
Dark Sector(360)(SP Only)
A good fun game that had it's low points. 7/10

Dark Sector is a 3rd person shooter set in present day Russia. Only this Russia is infested with mutated creatures known only as 'The Infected'. You play Hayden who works for somesort of U.S. special ops organization "The Agency'. You are sent in to stop a bad fellow from trying to spread the disease across the world. Naturally along the way you end up infected.

Dark Sector does a lot of things the same as other 3rd person shooters. Where it sperates it self is the uses of the Glaive. This three bladed weapon quickly becomes your all-purpose tool, the Leatherman of an infested Eastern Europe if you will. At first it is just a standard boomerang like giant death star that can behead your enemies. As you progress it gains several different powers. You can use it to grab out of reach items, it can be charged so it can break harder items as well as slice enemies in half with a single throw (It usually takes two), it can be 'charged' with fire,ice,and electricty and later can be used to blast these elements into the immediate area. But the best is the Aftertouch. Holding the button after tossing the Glaive lets you pilot it like a remote controlled frisbee of death. It is a good thing it can do so much beacuse any military weapons disintigrate 10 seconds after you pick them up due to 'Infection Regulators' that have been installed.

Enough about the Glaive. Graphically I was staisfied,most of the time. When the Glaive (Just can't get away from that thing.) is charged it provides some nice lighting effects. Where I was satisified was teh cutscenes. The characters facial animations looked strange and were often out of sync with the voices. I kind of wanted to look away at points. I may just be spoiled to the Half-Life 2 facial animations though. The environments looked good, and really made you fell like you were in a city being eaten alive by the Infection.

Another good point was the audio portion. Music was minimal, if any at all I can't remember hearing any, so the soundtrack was the sounds of the fight at hand. All the weapons had an appropriate sound and the Shotgun sounded as lethal as it was. AS much as I complained about the cutscenes the voice acting wasn't terrible though so they kind of redeemed themselves.

The A.I. was okay. Your enemies would use cover,providie covering fire for one another and try to flush you out with grenades. The bad thing is the Glaive made it a null point. You could simply set up shop behind a corner and cut them down before they could do anything

Now the low points. There were two things that caught my eyes way to much. First enemies
sometimes seemed unsure if they were dead. They would fall, stand, walk a few more steps, and fall again. Second an enemy would often move from cover to cover,but would move only glide. Stuck in whatever animation they were previously in.Then we have the boss battles. These were disappointly easy and terribly drawn out. There is a Black Market where you can purchase weapons but there is only enough money lying around to only buy one or two and when you complete the game they don't carry over, didn't like that at all. Also there is the story, or lack there of. It never really felt like you were accomplishing anything. The whole game felt like a really long arcade game. I kept expecting to see a combo meter when I tossed the Glaive into a group of enemies.
At the end I didn't have any feeling like I had done anything. The level design seemed a little off a times. One point that comes to mind is a buildign that had absolutley zero enemies. You go through several rooms and all you do is burn these big black gobs of Infection stuff covering the doors. The environmental puzzles were a nusiance. They served no purpose othen than slowling you down and dragging the game out. Which it didn't need as near the end it was all getting old.
7/10

Overall a fun game. Some parts were a bit annoying and near the end it was all getting monotonous.
 
After reading xosniper's post, I felt like doing a (joke) review of TF2. At least you can get my impression of the game. Sorry if it's not appropriate to post a game that everyone owns.

Team Fortress 2 (Multiplayer Only)
10/10
Rated M for Mature

This game has two main aspects that contribute to its success. The actual gameplay itself is excellently designed. There are nine different classes that each have special abilities that make them unique. The classes are also designed to encourage teamwork, which is a core element of this game. For example, this game doesn't have grenades because people would spam grenades instead of using their special abilities; the teamwork aspect would be ruined.

There are various maps. Some maps, like 2fort, are capture the flag maps. 2fort in particular is very enjoyable because there are various routes to reach the enemy intel (flag) room. Underneath the map lies a path through the sewers that can be used to infiltrate an enemy's base. Other maps, like dustbowl, focus on capturing points. Again, the map is well designed to allow players to take multiple paths to reach the goal, so both the offensive and defensive teams have to be alert and ready to respond to anything.

The game's artistic aspect is definitely worth discussing. According to wikipedia: "The art style for the game was inspired by J. C. Leyendecker, as well as Dean Cornwell and Norman Rockwell. Their distinctive styles of strong silhouettes and shading to draw attention to specific details were adapted in order to make the models distinct, with a focus on making the characters' team, class and current weapon easily identifiable. Silhouettes and animation are used to make the class of a character apparent even at range, and a color scheme that draws attention to the chest area brings focus to the selected weapon."

This thematic game draws upon many different cultures and stereotypes to create its character classes. For example, the engineer is portrayed as a Texan, and the spy is a Frenchie that wears a pin-striped suit and smokes a cigarette. Meanwhile, the heavy is a large Russian that names his gun "Sascha."

From my perspective, the game itself portrays the various aspects of American history. Most importantly, the game draws upon America's wild west. The red team in each map has a base that looks like a farm, and the maps are situated in desert-like settings. It is especially important to note that one particular map is named "dustbowl" which refers to a drought that occurred in the American West. The Blue team on the other hand is viewed as the big businesses of society. The blue team is a building corporation (BLU stands for Builder's League United), and while the red team's base is constructed primarily with wood, the blue team uses metal. In the map "well," each base is a separate corporation, and the thematic differences are apparent.

The game artistic style is cartoon-themed, yet the game has its fair share of blood and gore. The juxtaposition of these two opposite concepts imbues irony in the game that makes it even more humorous.

Finally, I would like to add that the characters themselves have hilarious voices. For example, once I played as an engineer and when I killed somebody with a sentry gun, the engineer yelled "Take it like a man, shorty!" I invite you to discover all of the humorous details that Valve has carefully crafted.

By combining excellent gameplay with a brilliantly engineered artistic style, Team Fortress 2 deserves a 10/10.

Oh yeah, may I mention that you can also get the most out of this game by joining a clan. Here is one in particular that you may be interested in: http://www.edgegamers.org

:)
 
[quote1208629075=xosniper]
Pong: rated E for Icantbeliveimplayingavideogameonmytv

Players try and hit a square ball past the other player to score points, think of tennis but WAY cooler.

Good:
*amazing graphics, never seen before
*plug it in to any tv and have fun for hours
*you now have a 4th channel for the tv, the Pong channel!!!

Bad:
*None, nothing like this has ever been seen before

The next generation in home entertainment. Goodbye boardgames.




Sorry, i had to. anyone over 30 will laugh hard at this.
[/quote1208629075]

Ah!! The memories! :D My sides were splitting on this one! !amazed
 
[quote1208654590=MrQ]
Gears of War (PC)(SP/MP)(ESRB M)
10/10 rating
[/quote1208654590]

There I fixed your typo MrQ... grrrrrr...
 
I've been thinking of buying Assassin's Creed for PC. I've played it on the PS3 and I loved it, but I'm afraid that it's not going to feel right on PC and I will regret buying it. If anyone out there has any insightful knowledge please post :)
 
[quote1208662308=Mega]
I've been thinking of buying Assassin's Creed for PC. I've played it on the PS3 and I loved it, but I'm afraid that it's not going to feel right on PC and I will regret buying it. If anyone out there has any insightful knowledge please post :)
[/quote1208662308]
Torrents are your friend
 
[quote1208669007=project113]
[quote1208662308=Mega]
I've been thinking of buying Assassin's Creed for PC. I've played it on the PS3 and I loved it, but I'm afraid that it's not going to feel right on PC and I will regret buying it. If anyone out there has any insightful knowledge please post :)
[/quote1208662308]
Torrents are your friend
[/quote1208669007]
Please dont post illigal ways of getting games, I believe its against the site's policies also
Thank you
 
How many reviews are we allowed each? I've got Assassin's Creed, so here goes my attempt at a 'review' xD

Assassin's Creed (PC)(SP)

Quick Overview: 7.5 or 8/10

Instead of typing out paragraphs and paragraphs, its much quicker and more efficient if the pros and cons are listed separately so the reader can decide if the benefits outweigh the negatives enough to justify the purchase of said game.

Pros: Decent stab at a 'unique' story
Running across rooftops, climbing etc, very exhilarating
Fantastic animations
Superb visuals (lighting, shadowing, texturing, all top notch)
Alright voice acting, performances from NPCs
Fine choices in music, ambient sounds (Crowds)
Controls are effective, especially with a 5 button mouse. Gamepad recommended though

Cons: Arduous number of steps required to exit the game (6 or 7 mouse clicks O_O)
Poor choice of main character voice actor
Noticeable pop-ups outdoors
Cluttered GUI (Can be switched off in Options)
Repetitive, simplistic gameplay. Lack of variety in investigations
Weak ending
No choice of aspect ratio (16:9 native, meaning black bars at the top and bottom of screen for 4:3 and 16:10 monitors)
Unskippable cut-scenes! >=( (


You'll also need a relatively up to date PC if you want to crank everything up. Any 8800 or 9x000 from nVidia and HD3850/70 or even the HD2900 from ATI will allow you to max everything out. (Assuming you've got a 19 inch or larger screen) A 7x000 or 1800XT/1900XT might require you to drop the shadows and other settings down a notch or two. This game also benefits from a C2D or X2 heavily, especially if you have the 'Crowd Density" option set to the highest. E8xxx and Q6/9xx from Intel or the Phenoms from AMD should allow you to max out the 'Crowd' option.
 
Earth 2160 (PC)(SP, MP with LAN or TCP/IP info)
Quick summary 7/10 rating

I miss Starcraft! The RTS genre has never been the same since Brood Wars was released nearly ten years ago. Despite this, however, Earth 2160 does the best it can with limited resources. This is a very fun little RTS, especially for $5 bucks. There are four playable races, with different campaigns. The faction differential could have been wider as far as ethnogenics is concerned, but the technology and the building style are very different for each race. Building is simple, as is combat. The controls and the general style plus objectives are a kind of amalgamation of StarCraft, Dawn of War, and Command and Conquer. C&C players will have a VERY easy time getting into this game. SC players will miss the ease of click that enabled players to be at the top level without ever using keyboard binds. This game game basically REQUIRES them if you're playing a skilled human opponent or normal - to - hard level computer opponent. Resource gathering and construction take some figuring as well. The sounds also leave something to be desired, but it works in the end. On the upside, combat is crisp, you can rotate the screen by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse, the construction is quick, and combat is favored over expansion and construction. The graphics are tremendous, the units are cleverly designed, and the LAN settings are very simply compiled.

The price adds a point or two to this games' score, as it does not take much of an investment to test 'er out. However, this is a fun little RTS that definitely gives you a nice change of pace from the dynamic world of FPS.

***7/10***
 
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