[wicked]

Vampyre Story 7/10
Most things about the game have already been said, i gave it 7/10 because it felt that it ended where the middle of the game should have been, because of all the bugs i experienced and some strange gameplay decisions. But overall it was a satisfying experience.

[Denaron]

Originally Posted by MdaG

Mirror's Edge

I'm halfway through chapter 5 now and I don't think I'll be finishing it. While the game is really pretty to look at and have some of the most intuitive controls I've experienced in a First Person game, it is to say the least... repetitive. I'm going sell this one off as soon as possible. My grade based on what I've played so far.

Mediocre. 5 / 10

Same here. You know when you just finish a game to say "I'va finished that!" that's it, i've just finished mirros edge today. It looks pretty clean with cool graphics but kinda boring and repetitive.

6/10

[tsa]

Moment of Silence 6.5/10
I thought this was a good game. The puzzles were not too hard or illogical although I needed a walkthrough for some of them, especially the last one. The story was quite good, although it seemed like the solution at the end was a bit unbelievable. Fortunately something happened right in the end that made the story more realistic again.

[Denaron]

I've finished sanitarium today. That's a good, and hard, game. HAd to use some walktroughts to solve some little problems while i was playing.

I'll rate 8/10. The end was o.k but, dunno, don't liked it pretty much!

[TiAgUh]

Originally Posted by Denaron

(...)and hard

No it's not, you're just a lazy bastard.

And yeah, the ending was kinda disappointing, only saved by the awesome remix in the end.

Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGNy_oRynMI

"my name is, my name is ... not meat!"
"do do do my ears decive me!?"

I love this song.

[kuze]

World of Goo

Oh well, a nice little puzzle game, fun and a little artsy, but not taking itself too seriously. It did run on my Powerbook, so that is officially the first game I ever completed on a Mac.

7/10

[Terramax]

Originally Posted by Denaron

I've finished sanitarium today. That's a good, and hard, game. HAd to use some walktroughts to solve some little problems while i was playing.

I'll rate 8/10. The end was o.k but, dunno, don't liked it pretty much!

Yeah, this was not a hard adventure. This, along with Myst III, are the easiest adventures I've come across so far. But at least it was incredibly enjoyable.

True, the ending was over too quickly. But there's not really much more to have been said at the end. No other loose ends to tie up.

Spoiler:

although maybe a scene where he leaves some flowers at his sister's grave, and accepting her death wouldn've been a bonus.

[Denaron]

No it's not, you're just a lazy bastard

Yeah, this was not a hard adventure. This, along with Myst III, are the easiest adventures I've come across so far. But at least it was incredibly enjoyable.

Really dudes? Maybe i've missed some hints because of my limited english, then got stuck many times!

It's a shame we don't have much games in portuguese! Hehehe.

Well, i've finished Bioshock today!

Awesome graphics, nice storyline and a fun gameplay! A really good game, too easy even on hard mode, but a really good game!

9/10

[bandidoquest]

Finished Prince of Persia today. Good game (the best since Sands of Time, imo), but not without its problems, I didn't have a lot of problem with the "can't die" feature as a lot of people seemed to have, my really problem with the game was the combat, I found it very boring, and the fact that the Prince was absolutely slow during combat didn't help.

On the positive side, the visuals are absolutely stunning, Elika is a really charismatic companion and the platforming is, as usual, top-notch. All in all, a promising start to a new trilogy.

8/10

[Chrono-Serge]

The Secrets of Atlantis 7.5/10

[TiAgUh]

Originally Posted by Denaron

It's a shame we don't have much games in portuguese! Hehehe.

I was amazed to see that Resistance 2 is in portuguese, speech and everything like Uncharted. Portuguese portuguese, not brasilian portuguese.

[Guyra]

Finished Beneath a Steel Sky today. Great game. 8/10

[JemyM]

Singles 2: Triple Trouble
Well, this is an unusual title for me, I can say that much. The game is like a "grown up" (or non American) version of The Sims. The main goal of the storymode is to get a couple back together after a not so happy breakup. In the typical Sims-style interface, this is done by building up your apartment, earning experiencepoints by making friends which allows you to buy useful skills that makes life easier. Even if I felt pretty little replay value, playing the story was pretty addictive. There were always something to do which just required a few days work.

[Lucien21]

Gears of War 2

This game takes the first one and turns the testosterone up to 1200%.

Big brash and completely stupid. But ONE HELL OF A RIDE.

The combat system hasn't changed much from the previous game, which is great as it is the best cover based shooting system on the market. Tweak it slightly with some melee attacks, use the enemy as meat shields and the ability to attach large weapons to the cover and hey presto shooting perfection.

Set 6 months after the lightmass bomb of the previous game, it now sees the Locust hit back by sinking whole cities at a time (How they are doing it is a surprise in the game, but it rocks), basically just an excuse for lots and lots of carnage (there is an achievement in the game for 100,000 kills - I got about 1,200 in the game so far). The dialogue is hilariously over the top, the main plot deals with loss (Esp Dom's wife storyline) and is certainly deeper than the previous game (although it won't win awards).

There are some REALLY great levels, some that mirror the original (replacing Razor hail with the bats of the first game), some that rip off other games (Resident Evil 4 lake monster) and some that are just plain FUN FUN FUN (vehicle sections)

The ending is a tad disappointing with the final boss being a a huge letdown, obviously it leaves it open for a 3rd game in 2010 probably.

Overall it's probably the most fun you could have on an Xbox360 this year.

9/10

[SoccerDude28]

Prince of Pesia:

When I first started this game, I was really looking forward to getting back into the Prince's shoes, and saving the magical world of Persia from some new evil. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful art style that oozes from the screen. I was definitely in for a treat I thought. Little did I know that art does not a good game make.

Where should I start?
How about a prince that is more wise ass American punk who has not hit puberty yet than noble Prince. And it is not the voice actor's fault that the prince's acting is a downer in his own game, but more the choice of the wrong voice actor for that specific role. The voice actor is the same guy who did Nathan Drake in Uncharted, and he was brilliant in that role, but Nathan Drake and the Prince are two very different characters.

Everything in this game has been simplified (I really prefer using the word "dumbed down") so that it can be played by the casual crowd. Platforming is a series of simplistic button presses instead of the elaborate control scheme of the Sand trilogy that made you feel like a gravity defying acrobat. To make things worse, YOU CANNOT DIE in this game. If you fall to your death at any point during the platforming, you are revived by Elika on the last platform you were on. This sucked the fun out of the game for me, because I could just keep jumping into the same pit a 100 times in a row, and not get penalized for it. Why should I invest my time in a game that wants to play itself for me? That's how I felt after a while. And instead of trusting in the intelligence of the players, and let them try to figure out how to get from point A to point B (what was known as environmental puzzles in the old trilogy), you can simply press a button now and it tells you exactly where you need to go.

Fighting has been simplified as well. You can avoid most fighting all together, because you can kill most generic enemies before they even spawn. In case you are not fast enough to kill them, you dual with them in a one-on-one showdown. Get hit several times in succession, and you have a chance to "Save" yourself by pressing the random button that appears on the screen, no penalty what so ever. Miss-pressing that button, and Elika will save you, with a small penalty of regenerating a portion of the enemies health. Woo how challenging To make things worse, the areas where you fight the enemies are very confined. Press them against the border of the fighting area, and strike them and you get an instant kill. There are boss fights, but they are also not challenging at all.

Unlike the Sands trilogy there is a lot of forced backtracking in this game, because of the "open world" nature of it. It also becomes a collectathon after a while since you need to collect a lot of light seeds to open up new areas, and we know how "next-gen" that is. Not to mention a horrible ending that made NO SENSE what so ever to me.

Ubisoft has found a way to take a great franchise and dumb it down so that my grandmother can play it. Too bad my grandmother would be playing the Wii if she was interested in games. You know what the irony is? the game is not even out for the Wii, so all they will be left with I believe is a lot of disappointed core fans, and probably no newcomers.

6/10

[SoccerDude28]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Gears of War 2

This game takes the first one and turns the testosterone up to 1200%.

Big brash and completely stupid. But ONE HELL OF A RIDE.

The combat system hasn't changed much from the previous game, which is great as it is the best cover based shooting system on the market. Tweak it slightly with some melee attacks, use the enemy as meat shields and the ability to attach large weapons to the cover and hey presto shooting perfection.

Set 6 months after the lightmass bomb of the previous game, it now sees the Locust hit back by sinking whole cities at a time (How they are doing it is a surprise in the game, but it rocks), basically just an excuse for lots and lots of carnage (there is an achievement in the game for 100,000 kills - I got about 1,200 in the game so far). The dialogue is hilariously over the top, the main plot deals with loss (Esp Dom's wife storyline) and is certainly deeper than the previous game (although it won't win awards).

There are some REALLY great levels, some that mirror the original (replacing Razor hail with the bats of the first game), some that rip off other games (Resident Evil 4 lake monster) and some that are just plain FUN FUN FUN (vehicle sections)

The ending is a tad disappointing with the final boss being a a huge letdown, obviously it leaves it open for a 3rd game in 2010 probably.

Overall it's probably the most fun you could have on an Xbox360 this year.

9/10

Glad you liked it. I just bought it and can't wait to try it out

[DustyShinigami]

Personally i find the Gears games overrated. That's not to say i think they suck, but it puzzles me when they get top marks like 9/10 etc. Even though there's a bit more plot in the sequel, i still found it pretty meh. There's never that much character development or plot in the Gears games. But then, who plays them for a story?
After playing for a few hours straight, i did feel a tad bit bored. It's pretty much the same thing over and over really. Get from point A to point B and kill any Locust in your path. After that, there's little reason to hang around (unless your trying to find the tags/documents). In BioShock, you clear a room of enemies, leave and go to another, come back and you'll find more Splicers/Big Daddies lurking around to keep you on your toes. The other problem i have with the single player mode, just like in Gears 1, is that it feels too linear. Apart from the achievements, i don't have much desire to play through the campaign again. With some other games i've played, i never have a problem playing the story-modes again. After 1-3 playthroughs of Gears however, i get a bit fed up.
Multiplayer's been improved and i find it much more fun to play (unlike in the first Gears). The achievements are more bearable to get and some can be got in both single and multiplayer. Like Seriously 2.0 - kill 100,000 enemies, which i have. It still takes a while at times for the game to connect you to other people to play with/against. The waiting has led me to some frustration. But at least in some of the matches you respawn and have another go, unlike Warzone which annoys me to be honest. And Horde is a load of fun, providing you have friends to play with, which i didn't the majority of the time.
Some of the new weapons/enemies are pretty cool. The Mulcher is one of my favourite new weapons. It soon makes short work of enemies including the bigger ones. The Mortar gun on the other hand can be a bit tricky to take enemies out. The poison granades are so-so, but i can't beat the usual frag granades. I don't remember if you could stick them to surfaces in Gears 1, but it's great that you can use them to set traps and is even more satisfying during a multiplayer match.
Some of the new levels are great. A favourite being inside

Spoiler:

the giant worm.

And even though there are a few more driving sections, i found the controls a bit fiddly.

Good Points:

+ Great graphics
+ Great cover system
+ Great and entertaining combat
+ New, bigger and badder enemies
+ New, bigger and badder weapons
+ New and entertaining levels
+ A bit more plot and character development this time round
+ Multiplayer has been tweaked for the better and is more fun to play, with the addition of Horde
+ Achievements (especially the multiplayer ones) are more bearable to obtain
+ More vehicle sections
+ A few more bosses than before - the Leviathan being a favourite

Bad Points:

- Gameplay tends to feel repetitive after a bit
- Game feels too linear to warrant replays
- Frame rate issues during multiplayer
- Game takes too long to connect people up
- Voting system for the multiplayer maps is a mixed bag, especially when there's a particular map you want to play
- Disappointing that the only way you can complete Horde from start to end, is via a private match, which can only be played with your friends. If you have no one to join, you'll find it very difficult to play through to the end. As i found out.
- The final boss is a push over
- The story and character development isn't in-depth enough
- Controlling some of the vehicles is a bit on the fiddly side

Overall: 4/5

[Lucien21]

Originally Posted by SoccerDude28

Prince of Pesia:

6/10

I havn't finished it yet. (Was a xmas pressie). However what I have played so far seems to fit what you say. Smart-ass prince- check, stupidily dumbed down-check.

I can't believe the developer had the cheek to say the other day he was disappointed nobody was giving them plaudits for "high level risks" that he thinks were unappreciated.

[TiAgUh]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Overall it's probably the most fun you could have on an Xbox360 this year.

9/10

I really don't see what's so great about that game, maybe the mp? I've only played a bit of the sp ..

Spoiler:

in a city, then in the rooftops where you have to bomb a ceiling, then in some tunels .. or is it the other way around? Can't remember too well..

1st the graphics sucks imo, gray+brown all over, then sometimes it's too dark.. you know, the part with those little exploding monsters (also .. gray) jumping at you and stuff. Only slicing people is fun.

Now, I know Gears is a Tps .. but I have to say that Halo 3 and Resistance 2 are oh so much fun AND have better graphics (R2, Halo 3 was just oh look at the pretty bloom). Only the yellow shields look stupid in R2 .. and the plants and stuff should be able to move when you pass through them like in FarCry2 (what a crappy game that one is) .. and Nathan Hale's face, god! .

I have to say it again: I love the fact that R2 is all in portuguese, yay.

[Lucien21]

Well each to their own.

Personally I though Halo 3 was pish. Seriously overrated. I can't be bothered with the story or the game (Can't even force myself to play it for more than 5 mins).

Resistance 2 was ok, but very very average.

Gears 2 has better graphics, better weapons and is miles more fun to play than either of those.