[Lucien21]

Call of Duty 4

They say size isn't everything...but when the quality is this good I nearly believe them.

Finished the single player mission on Normal level. Including the bonus level after the credits (No Harrison Ford in the bonus mission though- Shame)

It is a Very Very Very good game that is Very Very Very short game. It took about 5-6 hours to complete the single player game.

It was fun. There are some excellent missions in the game. My personal fav was the sniper mission in Chernoybl, however the helicopter gunship levels (There are a LOT of helicopters in this game) were not bad and the opening level on the ship was cool.

Basically the single player is lots of fun.

It also unlocks an arcade mode where you can play the levels for points. Everytime you shoot a bad guy a +10, +100 type score appears.

I also unlocks a cheat mode depending on the amount of intel you collected in the game you can play COD Noir (i.e in Black and white) or a variety of other cheats.

The multiplayer is fun which is just as well as £44 for 6 hours of single player is criminal. (Actually i'm starting to notice a pattern. Halo 3 and now COD4 had VERY short single player games and are only saved due to extensive multiplayer games. Personally I'd rather have the longer single player experience.)

8/10 The actual game experience is 10/10 but knocked 2 points of for lack of length.

[Melanie68]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

8/10 The actual game experience is 10/10 but knocked 2 points of for lack of length.

This sentence makes me think of this opinion piece. I thought you'd be interested in reading it (and I'm not knocking you for knocking off two points for length).

[Lucien21]

It's a balancing act between leave them wanting more and outstaying your welcome.

Portal imo was the perfect length for what it offered. Level packs etc will come, i'm sure, but for the narrative etc it was the perfect length.

I marked Call of Duty down because I got all excited and it was over too quickly. I'm sorry it's never happened before. Maybe if I try it again it will last longer.

[stepurhan]

Originally Posted by stepurhan

Nox

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

Conjurer Campaign and Wizard Campaign
I'm upgrading it to 9/10 (still the linearity and handling but I'm getting over both to some extent)

The reason for the upgrade? As I already mentioned, the different campaigns actually offer entirely different levels for some parts. Even the levels that are the same (in a geographical sense) offer something new most of the time.

As an example, the central chunk of the game involves you retrieving parts to a super weapon that will help take down the forces of the undead. Part of this is held in the Wizard's Tower at Galava Castle. The three campaigns handle it thus

1. Warrior Campaign - Fight your way through the wizard occupants as wizards and warriors have a long-standing rivalry
2. Conjurer Campaign - Fight your way through a horde of monsters which have overrun the tower.
3. Wizard Campaign - Get given the part straight away. Get rerouted teleporting to your next destination to an entirely new map.

The icing on the cake has to be the final battles though. Each campaign has it's own entirely separate map for the final conflict with different support troops for the lead villain in each. You then get a closing cutscene that is tailored to the class you were playing at completion.

Warrior campaign was good for brute for and ignorance. Wizard campaign required the most clever strategising (most things could kill a wizard with a blow or two) Completing all three campaigns was a great gaming experience that was well worth a full price for a modern game, let alone the £2 it actually cost me.

And there's multiplayer support as well apparently. Anyone know if this team have done anything else since?

[Endosanity]

Finished:

Devil May Cry 3 - PS2 - As Vergil.

[MadTricks]

Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
Sad. Story is great...but the gameplay and puzzles were below average for me. Too much running around.
I would give it 8/10 still.


+And Today I completed Indigo Prophecy/Fahreinheit.
YAY!
Better than Dreamfall, I think. For me, Dreamfall and Indigo Prophecy are pretty comparable and similar games.
For this game, I would give 8/10 too.

[Lucien21]

Sam and Max : Ice Station Santa

8/10

[MdaG]

Bioshock 8/10

Great game which became a little less great towards the end, but still good. This game is really a spiritual sequel to System shock. I short, great game, not as great as promised, but still great. Best graphics yet on the X360 by the way.

[simpson_yellow]

Crysis



Despite ridiculously high expectations, Crytek have absolutely delivered the goods with this one. The end game is a bit of a let down, but the sheer amount of unadulterated awesomeness leading up to that point more than compensates.

Crytek still seem to lack maturity in the story telling department, but it's at least a step or two up from Far Cry.

All in all, a mindblowing achievement, and recommended to anyone that didn't hate Far Cry (the basic gameplay is, for the most part, very similar) and has a halfway decent PC.

9.5/10

[JKR]

Chibi Robo DS
Four and a half out of Five Stars. I really loved it more than I thought I would.

[Endosanity]

Finished:

Fatal Frame - PS2 - Kind of a depressing ending. Now onto Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly. Let's see if this game is as creepy as they say.

[Lucien21]

Uncharted Drakes Fortune Demo

Tomb Raider meets Gears of war in a lush jungle.

Uses the cover system from gears and the platforming from Lara to make a short but sweet demo if the new PS3 franchise.

REALLLY looking forward to this one now.

[Lucien21]

Assassin's Creed

You don't understand. It coulda had class. It coulda been a contender.

So close to being game of the year.

Extremely nice graphics with the odd problem (PS3 version froze like a deer in the headlights far too often for my liking), the animation in particular was superb.

A truly amazing sense of freedom within the 3 main cities, it is a never ending joy finding ways to clamber up buildings and jump across rooftops. Trying to find flags etc. The crowd mechanics are handled very well and the chase scenes through the streets and over the rooftops is exhilirating.

A decent script which is tied together at the end, but leaves it wide open for a sequel *spoilers*

Spoiler:

I would love them to move the game through the ages as assassins in different time periods. Ninjas would be cool or eventually a Hitman style modern day game. The memory Animus storyline could certainly fit it in.

The major problem I have with the game is that the missions are not varied enough. By the end I was seriously bored of the same types of eavesdrop,beat up or pickpocket missions. They were fun for a while but they start to grate. I also got a bit tired of the same responses to the save citizen missions.

The combat was fun and esp towards the end you were thankful for the one at at time attacks. The difficulty curve in combat seemed to be fairly flat until level 6 and then went through the roof at times. (The assassination in the Graveyard towards the end caused my PS3 controller to fly across the room and hit the wall. Now it has something rattling inside it. Paul )

Anywhoo it's a long winded way of saying that Assassin's Creed is an extremely enjoyable game that is seriously let down by repetitive missions and lack of variety.

Close, but no Bioshock.

8/10

[CrimsonBlue]

Assassin's Creed (PS3)

It started out well, with the blindingly beautiful graphics (that somehow felt like it was degraded over time, but then after playing the Uncharted demo, pretty much everything seemed avarage in comparison), and the worst kept secret "plot twist" of all time explained. First couple of hours gave me a good impression of the game, combat was decent, climbing worked flawlessly etc.

Then it went downhill from there. And unfortunately, I'm not talking about the technical issues (uneven framerate, vsync problems, occasional freezing). The illusion of freedom are quickly removed once you realize the investigation part of gameplay is really just a collection of set mini-games. The kind that would be considered minor sidequests in for example GTA. The worst offender here is the eaves-dropping. Which basically involves sitting down on a bench and watching an in-game cutscene. Yup, that explanation is actually the long version.
Combat works, but is oh so shallow and repetetive, just like the missions. Climbing is the best part of the game, but even that is shallow and repetetive. That said, climbing the highest points in the game, like the cathedral in Acre, is great fun. Well, it is the first time you do it.
There's also a few collectables in the game, as well as a "save the citizen" sidequest. Collectables in the form of killing all of the "hidden" templars in the game (there's about 60 of them), and finding all the flags hidden throughout the cities and kingdom.

I lost quite a bit of the storyline in the game because of the lack of subtitles. Yes, I know english, but it's impossible for me to actively listen to the the spoken dialogue all of the time, and when I miss a line or three because someone's speaking to me, I'm not inclined to reload for to hear if I missed anything important.
Anyway, the story seemed decent enough. What I didn't like however, was that the game relied completely on a sequel or two. Actually, I'm not even sure there WAS an ending in the game. But the most important part was that there was absolutely NO satisfaction in completing the game. And as if the game wasn't repetetive enough, you are given the opportunity to play through any of the missions (or memory blocks if you will) after you complete the game. Ironically, one of the few games that have it, but also one of the games that needs it the least. Because you'll be sick of the game before you get half way through it anyway.
I was fully set on completing the game, 'cause I wanted to see the end. I should've concentrated on brushing up my PES skills instead. Or getting further in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria.

It was a 7/10 the first two hours, but then it fell down a point by the time I saw the credits. Underdeveloped, unpolished and not nearly satisfying enough. School-book example of a how to mess up what could've been the best game of the year. The game ended up not even being game of the month.

6/10

[MdaG]

Metroid Prime (9.5/10)
It started by being a disappointment, but I was told to stick with it and boy am I glad that I did. There is not much to complain about in this game. The controld feels a little awkward the first hour or two if you're use to the setup in other FPS like Halo or Gears of War, but in the end it works fine and help simulate the feeling of being inside a metal suit where you can't crane your neck like you want due to the suit. Where games like Bioshock and Gears of War are really good, they at the same time felt incomplete. Metroid Prime on the other hand just oozes of quality and there is almost nothing missing from the game. I'm pulling half a point from the total score due to the short ending sequence. Sure it gave me closure, but I wanted more after this action, puzzle-adventure. It's makes me all giddy knowing that I have Metroid Prime 2 waiting for me in the book shelf.

Mission score: 92%
Time: 18.5 hours

[Monroeski]

After 59 days and over 100 hours, I finished Persona 3 the other day. Freaking excellent game, I loved every minute.

Then yesterday I started and finished Portal in 4-5 hours. Also a pretty good game.

[SamandMax]

Kane & Lynch seems to have it's detractors (everyone else who has played it) so I'm going to try and defend it. Yes, it has numerous problems with gameplay but it also has some amazing set pieces and a fantastic storyline. Most stories give you anti-heroes you learn to love, that is not the case here. Kane & Lynch are two despicable evil criminals with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And the ending, which I've already heard people say they hate, I just thought was absolutely perfect. It's the only possible conclusion:

Spoiler:

The two worst people in the entire story, Kane & Lynch, are the only ones left alive. Even after Kane tries to do the right thing their team ends up getting killed and his daughter is dead. The only other person alive with him is a cold heartless bastard even worse than he is. There's no happy ending, there's no redemption, they're just two evil men sitting on a boat with a dead girl between them and then it cuts to the credits. How perfect is that?

So I really liked this game. The gameplay has lots of problems but with such great characters and storyline, you learn to deal with it. I'd recommend it.

[Lucien21]

Uncharted Drakes Fortune

The PS3 has it's first superstar. Nathan Drake part Indiana Jones, Part John Maclane, part Lara Croft and all round action star. Naughty Dog have come up with another set of memorable characters (Crash Bandicoot and Jax and Daxter now Nathan)

"Dude Raider" as the game has affectionally been nicknamed borrows from the Tomb Raider games with the Tomb Raiding Storyline and the athletic climbing and jumping sections. It also borrows the cover system from Gears of War and fuses the two elements together with some cool characters, a decent story and sublime visuals to make ONE HELL OF A GAME.

Nathan Drake starts off the game looking for the grave of Francis Drake (who he claims is an ancestor) with his buddy Sullivan and a sexy reporter Elena. Soon they come across Dead Nazis, Ancient Treasure, a lot of ancient ruins, Spanish Gold, a British Villian and a whole heap of henchmen.

I liked the mix between platforming and action although it's more weighted towards the action end than any of the Lara games. There are some stunning set pieces including my favourite, the race through the jungle with Elena driving as you use the mounted gun to keep the pursuers at bay. Other set pieces like the jet ski level is less successful.

The locations are varied and extremely lush (except for a drab base level near the end).

The animation and graphics are stunning for the most part and are really brought to life with some superb voice work for the main characters.

It also uses a reward system which is very familiar of you have an Xbox 360. The "Achievements" are doled out for finding treasures along the way or for killing a set amount of enemy with specific weapons or tactics (I got the 100 headshots one pretty fast). Pretty good incentive for playing it again.

A superb game from start to finish. Watch out Lara there is a new guy in town.

9/10

[Jatsie]

I just completed Super Mario Galaxy.

Well, I say finished, I defeated Bowser and got the end credits, but there are still more stars left to collect, so I can keep playing on for a little longer.

[RLacey]

I finally finished BioShock (because I didn't play it during term).

Good story, nice design, rather dull gameplay by the end.