[Marte]

Last game I finished was Operation:Wintersun. Was okey imo.. what I found funny was the voicing. When the character screams "NOOOO!" and it sounds like he's bored to death it does sound lame. Other than sucky voicing the gfx was good..and puzzles was a tad easy and it had some pixelhunts. I'd give it a 5.5/10.

Now I'm busy with Runaway 2. Go go go!

[MdaG]

Halo (7/10)

Enjoyable ride, but I was a bit disappointed by it. Critically acclaimed from most professional reviewers, but I fail to see what's so special about it. I can't see what makes Halo stand out when there is Half-Life or FarCry. Granted Halo does have REALLY nice outdoor areas with vehicles battles and a really good soundtrack. Still I'm disappointed by it. Maybe I too would've been lyrical had I played it 2001 when it came out.

The reason for my disappointment sums up to

1. The enemies. The grunts add a comic relief which I don't welcome in this epic sci-fi adventure. The Flood with its Alien rip off concept fall flat when I see those crawling "balloons" and compare them with face huggers (or even Half-Life's superior face crabs).
2. En indoor environments are so repetitive (and reused) that it didn't take long before I learned most of them by heart.

Still it was fun. Bungie really knows how to make one forget about the real world.

[Christian IV]

MdaG, I agree re Halo, it was a disappointment after some wonderful game play when i got to the totaly overhwhelming alient invasion settings i just got totally tired of having to blast my way through repetitive swarms of those icky monsters, the depth of the game was good up until that, but after that I lost all interest and after i found out the end scene was a timed run, I do NOT PLAY timed runs for any game ever....and wont......i did not finish it.

It was too bad, as there were many fine features of this game, at times the feeling of the overall environment really starts to have magic, the space settings of the orginal ship, the landing on the planet and the way the shuttles take you from place to place and expand the sense of interior space, some of the battle scenes set in the little valleys and settings of the planet, they are awesome and beautifully done.

I have not played 2 or 3, as I plan to wait for them to release them on PC, which hopefully will happen before the heat death of the universe. I hope and pray that develpers and publishers realize that we MUST rmaintain a standard in the games industry and PC is it, the various new platforms are wonderful for many reasons and I am glad eveyrone enjoys them but we MUST keep PC as a standard or things will disolve into chaos. IMHO.

[MdaG]

Originally Posted by Christian IV

...but after that I lost all interest and after i found out the end scene was a timed run, I do NOT PLAY timed runs for any game ever....and wont......i did not finish it.

It took me five tries before I finally got through that timed sequence in the end. I only had two seconds to spare as well. Geez, my heart was racing.

Originally Posted by Christian IV

I have not played 2 or 3, as I plan to wait for them to release them on PC...

Halo 2 is already released on PC.
I'm holding off Halo 2 and Halo 3 until I'm done with Darkness and Bioshock. Then I'm going to finish the trilogy

[lumi]

Originally Posted by MdaG

ICO 8/10
A pleasant ride. The weak story is compensated by beautiful visuals and probably the coolest enemies in gaming history . A really good ending as well. I can recommend this to anyone who enjoy games like Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia.

Finished this earlier today. It was fairly easy, and the puzzles weren't developed very much. The gameplay was fun, however, and the art and atmosphere helped create an immersive world.

[stepurhan]

Nox

Warrior Campaign

A very nicely written RPG with some good mechanics and decent voice work. Every chapter has a gloating death speech from the head villainess (I died a lot) which is over-the top but in a good way. The special skills of the warrior are nicely thought out to allow you a modicum of strategy beyond "hit monster with pointy thing" which is the usual choice for warriors. Beating it felt very satisfying.

8/10 (couple of points off for linearity and handling issues)

But I may yet mark it up again. I've just started playing as a Conjurer (the second of three classes) and, rather than playing exactly the same story but with different skills, the game is offering up some entirely different missions altogether (as well as some that overlap with the Warrior campaign) The start point is the same (arrive as newbie) and the ending presumably ditto (defeat Hecubah) but the route is different which is a big plus in the replay stakes.

The lead special ability of conjurers is neat as well. They can charm creatures they know about (I wondered what all the beast scrolls in the Warrior campaign were for) making them fight on your side.

[RLacey]

Have you played Nox in multiplayer? If you have the budget rerelease you can't, since they put the same serial code in every copy, and the servers may be down now, but I had great fun with deathmatch and the Gauntlet rip-off mode called Nox Quest.

[stepurhan]

Can't say that I have. I only have the CD but it looks like an original version rather than budget rerelease. Maybe I'll look into the multiplayer options some time.

[Christian IV]

Re Halo 2, I should have said PC Windows, not Vista. I think that Halo 2 is only available for Vista and I dont have that nor do i intend to get it, ...if i am wrong on this would love to see H2 but for now all i could find when i shopped for it a while ago were vista versions. thanks

[Dale Baldwin]

Yeah, you're right. Halo 2 is Vista only (although, it can be hacked to work on XP - just don't ask me how).

[MdaG]

The Darkness 8/10

Superb game from start to finish. I haven't had this much fun with a FPS since Half-Life. The story and atmosphere is to thank for this. I LOVE the Hellraiser/WW2 themed other world!. Animations are beautiful too.

Downsides are: Stupid A.I., disappointing graphics, too easy (even on hard), too linear, boring side quests.

Spoiler:

In the end. Is there an alternative to killing Paulie?

[Lucien21]

Heavenly Sword

Artistically superb, the voice acting, graphics and facial animation in the cutscenes are utterly amazing.

The main game is a bit hit or miss. The main sword combat gets a bit samey after a while. Even with the 3 stances and combo moves you end up just mashing the triangle button as it counters with instant kill.

The combat does occasionally gets fun in the various boss battles (Bohan was a pain in the ass in his last encounter) and the you verses 2000 battles towards the end. My favourite parts were Kai's missions with the sixaxis controlled arrows and the cannon levels.

The game was also Waaaaay to short.

Overall a sumptous visual game that looks like a blockbuster movie and is reasonable fun to play. Roll on Heavenly Sword 2.

7.5/10

[GageBlackwood]

I recently finished Gears of War, which, while an excellent game, felt... Somehow lacking. The graphics were nice, the game played well, and the story, while kept at a rather superficial level, was quite enjoyable. Treating 5 as the midpoint I would give it a 7. I'm currently playing the Open Source "Battle for Wesnoth", which is great fun, despite it's numerous flaws.

[Nelza]

I just finished 'Phoenix Wright: Justice for All' and I can't decide which I prefer, the first or the second! The final case really did have me on my toes. I am still amazed that they can have such a great plot in a Court game!

I think I'll give it a 9/10 - there were a few contradictions in the second case but I didn't even notice until someone else pointed them out.

[JemyM]

Half Life 2: Episode Two (8,5/10)
This is the first game I have finished in months since once school hit in, it was impossible for me to keep playing like I used to. This first break I decided to begin with a shooter since they do not require as much effort as the RPG's.
I was not a fan of the original Half-Life 2. Overall it felt rather repetitive, running through the same landscape, shooting the same combine soldiers/zombies over and over again. The physics were great but that was the only thing special about the game. The story in the original Half-Life 2 was almost non-existant, the NPC's not that interesting (except Dog) and overall the game felt like a rail-shooter in it's ultra-linear gameplay. Episode One was not much better.
Im happy to say that Episode Two managed to improve my opinions about the Half-Life 2 series. This time there was variation in the environments, there are more monsters now which brings HL2 closer to Half-Life 1. The story is much better and I started to get more in touch with the NPC's. The story in Episode Two also adds emotion, which is almost required for me to appreciate a story.
Still, Half-Life 2 Episode Two is a completely linear experience and the "Doctor" Freeman still never speaks, neither is his personality brought forward at all. He's supposed to be a scientist, but he's mostly a grunt. Since Episode Two is by no means an unique or outstanding game, I have to score it 8,5 which means "solid game, a little better than average but can be missed".

[Endosanity]

Finished:

Narnia - GC - Laugh if you want but this is a really good family game. I wanted to laugh when my 7 year old daughter yelled "That is so CHEAP!" whenever one of us died for some silly reason. Yeah, it's a Disney game and sure you can retry a level as much as you like but I enjoyed the few hours I spent beating the game with my little girl as my partner. I even had to joke at a few levels when I had to play as a girl and said "What's this? I have to play as a giiiiirl... what a bummer" and she'd say "I have to play as a stinky boy sometimes so you can be a girl!" I can't argue with that logic even if it did make me laugh my ass off.

After it was all over she looks at me and says "So, you want to go through the game again?" And that folks is $11 well spent.

[MdaG]

Halo 2 (8/10)

I don't understand why some people were disappointed with this sequel? It basically improves on every aspect of the first game.

Pros

• You can now wield two weapons at once.
• There are new additions to the different types of enemies.
• The environments doesn't feel recycled anymore.
• The enemy is given a face and purpose. No longer are you fighting a foe without cause.
• The story is more fleshed out.
• The graphics have improved to a level matching early titles on my X360.

Cons

• Evil cliffhanger ending (not that it matters much since I already have Halo 3 in my shelf )
• The story is somewhat incoherent. I had a hard time keeping up with what was happening.
• No subtitles!

There are some issues with the story I'd like to know.

Spoiler:

1. What was that creature that dragged Master Chief and Arbiter down?
2. Why did the Brutes fight the Elites and what factors made the other races choose sides?
3. Why did the Covenant go to Earth in the beginning of the game and then leave for the second Halo?

The pacing was so high in certain areas of the game that I didn't catch the mentioned parts above.

[Nelza]

Halo 3 8/10

Played co-op with my boyfriend and it was a lot of fun! It felt really short though, we managed to complete it in only one day on 'Heroic'. It would've probably taken longer if it were single player though.

I'm not sure how to compare it as I haven't played the first two games. LOL!

[Marte]

Started re-playing The Longest Journey this saturday evening.. finished it on sunday evening.. and no need to tell everyone what a great game this is I love it!

[MadTricks]

Friday the 13th (mobile adventure)