[HaroldO]

Pata Pata Patapon!

Really cool game, though it can bit a little to much challenging at times. A simple addition like a shop where you can sell obsolete equipment and materials and buy new ones would make Patapon a lot better for those looking for a quick fix. Instead you're force to grind repeating boss battles. Also, there's no way to repeat the stages where you fight the Zigotons which were my favorites.

[Denaron]

Finished Gabriel Knight: Sins of fathers with the community. It was the second time I've finished it. It's amazing how many things I've forgot since my first playthrought, about 2 or 3 years ago. It was very good to "refreeesh my memory" playing it again.

Awesome plot, voice acting, music. Everything in this game is pretty cool. Definately in my top 10 Adventures. Highly recommended!

4.5/5

[Little Writer]

I fully agree.

[DustyShinigami]

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Positives:

+ A really well written and engrossing murder mystery story with plenty of twists and turns, dark themes, history/facts and background information thanks to a lot of heavy research that has been poured into the game. The story starts off slowly but gradually builds up as the days progress and becomes more darker and intriguing.
+ Likeable, interesting and deep characters that have their own personality and backgrounds.
+ Solid and believable voice acting from all the cast. For the most part, Tim Curry's performance is pretty good, but does sound a bit false and overdone occasionally. I did find Gabriel and the Narrator's voice a bit grating when I first played the game, but thankfully, I've become a lot more adjusted to them. The only area where the Narrator annoys me the most is when you're exploring the inside of the Snake Mound in Africa. She constantly comments/repeats 'that Gabriel has the feeling he's being watched' or that 'he sees a flicker of something in the corner of his eye'. It's not only repetitive, but she always says those things right when I click on something - cutting her off mid-sentence before I've realized. As for the rest of the cast, they play their parts fantastically and show/use the right kind of emotions, mannerisms and emphasis on words etc.
+ Thanks to the characters and voice actors, the solid, well-written dialogue is brought to life.
+ Although pixelated and dated now, the 2D hand-drawn graphics are still packed with a lot of detail and they still have their charm. Character close-ups are a perfect example of the level of detail and animation, along with the comicbook style cutscenes, and objects that are placed in the backgrounds and foregrounds of scenes etc.
+ Fantastic, catchy and memorable MIDI music composed by Robert Holmes. There's not one bad piece in the entire game. All the tracks fit the mood of each location and the scenarios. And you can't beat the gothic-tinged theme music.
+ Puzzles have a difficultly level that's just about right - some are pretty straightforward whilst others are harder - but they're all pretty logical. Tied to this...
+ The investigative gameplay is really good fun. This is all thanks to: a chime that'll play when you've done something correct, uncovered something new, and scored some more points, being able to, not only examine, but perform a wide range of actions for every object/character in the game, which will elicit an informative response from the narrator and/or Gabriel himself, and by asking (and even to keep asking) a wide range of questions, depending on what you've learnt, when interrogating someone.
+ The game has a decent length, which spans a total of ten days, and there's usually plenty to investigate and learn throughout each day, or some set tasks/objectives to complete.
+ Thanks to a score system, this gives the game a bit of replayability. A perfect opportunity to revisit the characters/story and possibly uncover more clues/information that may have been missed.

Negatives:

- Suffers from audio issues. I guess you could defend it and say that it's an old game. True. But...! Even though the game was done way back in 1993, it was developed by Sierra, who were one of the leading developers in adventure games, and had done quite a number of them and must have had plenty of cash under their belts. But the voice recording equipment they used was pretty... pfft. Although you get used to it and forget about it throughout the course of game, the actor's lines suffer from pops, whistles and hissing sounds either at the beginning or the end of their dialogue. What puzzles me, is that other, smaller developers that made games back in '93 - like Adventure Soft's Simon the Sorcerer - don't suffer from these audio issues. So just what audio equipment were Sierra using?
Sadly, these aren't the only audio issues though. The one that annoys me the most is the music glitch. Whenever I, or I presume anyone else for that matter, turns the music level down, you can guarantee when you reload your saved data the music level will come back louder. Even if you've turned the music bar down to the half-way point, or lower than that, reloading saves keeps causing the music to come on louder. And it always ends up being louder than the speech and sound effects. In order to fix this I have to keep bringing the options up and clicking randomly on the music bar to make it return to the level I set it at. Under DOSBox, this issue only occurs if you reload your saved data, but under the Windows XP installer, it happens when you reload and save. It did for me anyway.
Miscellaneous audio issues: when you examine things in Wolfgang's bedroom the Narrator's voice/lines seem to delay for a second or two. You can usually tell if you have the subtitles enabled. They'll appear before she speaks, and because of the delay, they'll disappear before she's finished speaking.
The face-off with Tetelo at the end... that music glitch seems to affect this scene everytime I've played it. The music always plays more louder than it should, and the speech always seems to be too quiet. Without the subtitles it makes understanding what the characters say a bit more difficult. There's a similar problem in the Voodoo Museum - this time involving the sound effect of the fan when Gabriel turns it on and the snake starts banging in its case - Dr. John and Gabriel's voices play too quietly. And apart from that, although thankfully it's rare, some lines can get cut short.
- Because of the pixelated graphics, first time players will have to suffer pixel hunting. Usually, important objects stand out in the environments, but there are a lot that don't. And because the hotspots don't cause the cursor to change it can make it a tad confusing at times. There have been a couple of occasions where I've tried to examine or interact with something, but it turned out to be something else or was the result of being a few pixels off. Unless you examine pretty much everything, and closely, you could easily miss something if you're not careful.
- Suffers from speed issues. Even if you're using the latest patches, DOSBox or the Windows XP installer, there are times when Gabriel, as well as other characters, animate/walk either far too quickly or too slowly.

Overall:

This is a classic in every sense of the word and is in my Top 10/20, or whatever, favourite adventure games or games in general. The Beast Within is my favourite in the Gabriel Knight trilogy, but this comes at a close second.

[Denaron]

Dark Void

It's fun to fly around and shoot some robots in the beginning but it gets too repetitive after a while. Most of the enemies are basically the same, changing only in quantity. The plot isn't very original and it's hard to get used to the controls when you're flying. In my opnion it's regular, could have been a lot better.

2.5/5

[Crunchy in milk]

Dead Space. Late to the party again

This was a gem. At first I was a little miffed at the lack of exposition to the plot, but in the end the game is true to survival horror tradition. Being stressed out goes hand in hand with not knowing the how or why. Just enough information to make you wary, not enough to think your way around the problem.

The sound work was amazing and the gameplay a blast. Setting the game on a deep space mining vessel kind of limited the potential enemy types (given the nature of their origin), so hopefully this will be addressed in the sequel.

Ultimately I have higher hopes for the sequel because there's hints they'll address the other gripe I have with Dead Space. Playing as Jacob or his girlfriend Elizabeth (from the logs scattered about the USG Ishimura) would have been far more terrifying. Isaac really came in too late to experience true horror and the loss of hope.

Spoiler:

by the final chapters all I (as Isaac) really had left was anger and despair. I was weirded out by Nicole from the start, and when you finally get within touching distance, she's just fucking creepy.

Apparently Dead Space 2 will see Isaac take a front row seat when a human settlement (on a space station) gradually succumbs to the necromorphs. Is it wrong that this has me giddy with anticipation?

[Lucien21]

Mass Effect 2

Seriously in running for Game of the Year 2010 and it's only February.

Superb from start to finish although the resource mining is a tad tedious.

This is one of the most cinematic and emotional games ever. With the entire game focused on the crew of the Normandy you really get to know the characters. Find friends, comrades, warriors, one night stands and even lovers as you strive to rid the universe of the collectors.

They have improved on virtually every section of the game. The graphics no longer pop in, the combat is streamlined and they got rid of the Mako (although I did miss it a couple of times).

I took me 35 hours to complete it and I loved every minute and was distraut when

Spoiler:

Tali and Samara didn't survive the last mission

This game had me thrilled, it made me laugh at some of the strange conversations and I want to go play it again.

9/10

[JemyM]

Bioshock 2
Is individualism good or bad?

In Bioshock 1 we played a character who's plane crashed in the ocean and acciently found the underwater town known as Rapture, a society gone mad, partially because of genetic research that caused it's inhabitants to become zombie-like enraged "splicers".

But beyond the surface of a zombiefilled steampunk, Bioshock explore the philosophy of extreme liberalism, or Ayn Rand, where taxes and wellfare was just tools of the "parasite". Rapture was meant to be an utopia for people who wanted to be truly free to do as they wished through getting away from all that. Scientists who wish to work without ethical restriction, artists who wishes to do their work without censorship etc. But there's a line between being concerned with freedom of self and freedom of others, a tyrant is one who are foremost concerned with the former.

Bioshock 2 takes place after Bioshock 1, with a new story that explores the direct opposite philosophy. Being so concerned with freedom for all, that individualism must be abolished as the ultimate solution. Like the prequel the story is expressed in taped recordings found throughout the world and often the two extremes are pushed against eachother, making both sometimes appear reasonable, only to fall over to the absurd conclusions when they are stretched.

Bioshock 2 also place you in a very different character, now you yourself are a Big Daddy, the large towering hulk dressed up in an old scuba suit. As it is soon revealed, this is also a very special Big Daddy. If you played the first game you know that the Big Daddy are the caretakers of the "little sisters" and in Bioshock 2 you also have a very strong bond with one particular little sister who calls out to you to find her.

Throughout the game you will meet and interract with a couple of characters, sometimes with a moral decision whether to forgive or revenge on those who done wrong to you.

Gameplay
If you played the first you get right into the second. In fact, there's very little new gameplay in the sequel. There are some new powers to try out but personally I used only electricity throughout the entire game.

Perhaps the most noteworthy new mechanic is also the most boring one, since you are a Big Daddy now you can recruit Little Girls and make them work for you, collecting Adam, the stuff you buy special powers with. This mechanic is rather boring. You know exactly what to do and exactly what happens everytime you do, which makes it feel like a MMORPG grindquest when doing it over and over again like ten times or so throughout the game. The number of bodes to collect is fixed per level, so is the number of sisters, and the same event will happen everytime you collect a body.

There are also new underwater sequences added to the game, but theese are just interludes between levels. You have no enemies in theese sequences, you can't use your weapons or powers, you are just supposed to follow an arrow pointing your direction.

I cannot help but feel like I did in the first game, that the in-game humans (not splicers) look very bad for a 2010 game.

Graphics & Sound
The game looks exactly like the first one, although with a couple of new maps ofcourse. The first game looked great ofcourse, and so do the sequel. The art direction is great and the sound is good so there's little to complain about here.

There are a couple of more water effects, such as water pouring in over you, which seem to use particle effects. If you are used to 3d you know that water often look like very thick plastic fluid, and it's that kind of water you will see here. It actually looks quite bad.

Final Conclusion
Bioshock 2 is for those who crave some more Bioshock 1. You get what you expect, the mechanics have been tweaked somewhat, there's more plasmoids around and there are some brief underwater levels, but I have to say that some of the magic have been lost. Bioshock 2 is still an enjoyable shooter, but I would have wanted some more variation. There were very few surprises this time around.

[D.C.]

Mass Effect 2:

I completed my first play through of Mass Effect 2 over a week ago and decided to hold off posting, so I could contemplate the experience a little. I really shouldn't have waited though, cause I kept on coming back to the same conclusion. I truly believe this is BioWare's finest game to date and that's really saying something, since most of their games rank highly as some of my all-time favourites.

From the moment I imported Shepard I felt completely immersed, like no time had passed at all. It didn't take long before decisions I made in the first game began to impact the story in surprising ways. I enjoyed following the consequences of Shepard's earlier actions, but I also felt a strong need to consider every move I made even more carefully knowing the effects could be wide reaching. The ability to play as the same character over the course of the series is ambitious and implemented exceptionally well in a way that can only make you feel more connected. It's something truly special, though that basically describes Mass Effect 2 in general.

The story is incredible and hits the ground running, picking up almost immediately after the events of the first game. It's not long before things get complicated and Shepard finds himself thrown into a whole new predicament. The way Mass Effect 2 advances the passage of time after the prologue without disconnecting you from the character is extremely well thought out. A lot of things have changed, but you witness them through the same perspective as Shepard. It's all new to him too.

Shepard’s now working with Cerberus, something that would have seemed unacceptable in the previous game – at least for my version of the character. (Things might be perceived differently depending on the type of character you want to play, which is the beauty of the game. Your choices actually matter.) He’s surrounded by people he wouldn’t usually have crossed paths with and is entirely out of his comfort zone. The only thing keeping them together is a common interest, one with galaxy spanning implications. Things feel a whole lot darker this time around, there’s a real sense of urgency.

It’s not like things were black-and-white in the first game, but there's even more shades of grey to be found here. Although I tried to play purely as a paragon character, there were times when you would just have to go with a renegade decision. There are a whole lot of murky moral decisions to be made. It's a weird thing to say, but as the game progressed I'd actually have to step back and remind myself who Shepard's working with. You get comfortable. That's pretty much a testament to the strength of the game's writing.

Mass Effect 2 has some pretty damn incredible party members too. After every mission I'd make a point to wander the decks and talk to each of them one-by-one exhausting every line of dialogue. They're recruited for specific reasons that become apparant as the game progresses too. Each of them has a unique quest, giving them much more depth. By the end I felt a strong connection with each of them, deeply protective too.

The worlds featured in the game are great and diverse. Omega for example feels straight out of Blade Runner. These locations are full of so much attention to detail, brought to life through exceptional graphics and art direction. Just like in Uncharted I'd stop and make a point to take in the scenery along the way. So much atmosphere here. Pretty much every aspect of the game is polished and well realized. The production values are incredible -- amazing voice acting, a spiffy soundtrack, not to mention so many awesome little touches like the ability to read Shepard's e-mail. (Space hamsters too. )

Some of the game play has been streamlined this time around, which took a little getting used to at first -- though everything simplified has been done for a reason and most definitely makes sense. There's so much added to the game play as well. I especially loved the ability to customize my armor. (I would have liked to do that with party member armor too, though that's only a minor nitpick. )

The combat here is still a whole lot of fun.

I felt severe withdrawal when I finished the game, in fact I still feel it now. I can't help but wonder how the decisions I made will impact the next game. There's a whole lot more to say, but that's enough for now.

Mass Effect 2 is incredible.

[Little Writer]

Prince of Persia 2008 - great fun with the plates, though I kinda miss the fun combat of the other series. And the ending was way frustrating, but kinda fitting. Gathering light seeds was a pain. But great atmosphere, totally love Elika.

Mirror's Edge - the gimmick was wearing out. Too many indoor levels for my taste, and the combat wasn't all that either. Fun to play for short periods. No idea what the story was.

[TiAgUh]

Another Code: Two Memories
the ghostkid had a nice story but other than that it was all meh, some puzzles where kinda cool i guess.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee
This was far more violent than i thought it would be . Addicting game, i really loved the bad guys and how i could make them jump off a cliff or murder their own dogs

Policenauts (with the english translation patch)
It's just like Snatcher, only 99.9% more perverted. Loved all the references from other games\movies and the cameos, especially THE cameo. And, of course, just like Snatcher the story was really nothing special.

[JemyM]

Golden Axe Warrior
I saved a walkthrough for this game 2004 with the intention to play it, but it's first now I really did. The primary reason to do it now was to try out a new Sega Master System emulator on the PSP with a rewind feature, while my main computer was preoccupied with other tings. Also, spending 3 hours per day on a bus gives me more reason to dust off my handheld.

I lived up in the 8bit era, yet there are very few games that I would consider playing beyond those that have some kind of key recognition, such as a famous franchise or tremendous praise.
If anyone haven't heard about the original arcade game Golden Axe, it was one of the best known sidescrolling beat em up games in the end of the eighties. Three heroes, Ax Battler (male barbarian), Gilius Thunderhead (male dwarf), and Tyris Flare (female barbarian), took on the evil giant Death Adder that use the magical Golden Axe to enslave the king. The Amiga version of Golden Axe was my first game on Amiga 500 so you may say I have a special relationship with the title. Recently a new Golden Axe known as "Beast Rider" was released, starring Tyris Flare, but it flopped.

Anyway, Golden Axe "Warrior" takes most key elements from the story of the original game. You do not play the characters from the first game, but you do meet them, and when you do the music from the Arcade game actually play in the background as an added touch. Beyond them giving you a couple of lines and there are some villagers to speak to there's not much story going on.

Gameplay is completely different from Golden Axe though. GAW is one of the most thorough clones of Nintendos Legend of Zelda ever made. Not surprising considering Sega Master System wanting to copy Nintendos most sucessful game, more surprising was that SEGA wasn't sued their asses of for it. They even later made a blatant copy of Zelda II for Game Gear known as Ax Battler, but that's another story. In GAW you walk around on an overland map, kill monsters for loot, and search for ten mazes which need to be beaten to finish the game. There's also special equipment to be found that unlocks new abilities which usually means going where you couldn't go before, a long with upgradeable weapons, more health and more magic.

So is it worth playing? I say no. If you are curious, you should probably play Zelda instead. Not because Zelda is a better game, no, they are almost identical, but because Zelda have sequels, some of which have been tauted "best game evah". But do play Golden Axe 1-3 on Sega Master System if you like retrogaming. They are overall more entertaining.

[JemyM]

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
A few years back I made a decision to try some of the more esteemed game series out there. Some of them include Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy and Resident Evil. Another series I wanted to continue was Zelda, and since I already played Zelda I it was Zelda II next. I begun to play Zelda II on a Pocket PC emulator, but eventually I grew tired of the game, dropped it and decided to try it again later on.

Thanks to the new rewind features in recent emulators I decided it was time. I had saved the savegame and I was able to move it over to the PSP. I was about half way through and I played the rest today. The Rewind feature made an almost impossible game very simple.

So was it worth it? Not really. Zelda II is a bit too old. There's almost no story development in the game. You can talk to villagers, but they are usually just giving you a badly translated oneliner. However, now I can move on to Zelda III without feeling bad about leaving the second game unfinished.

[AndreaDraco83]

I finished Mass Effect. Finally, I may add, since it took me three months to surpass my original resistance to the game and see the end credits roll. Anyway, here are my thoughts.

Story
While the overarching story - Saren, Sovereign, the Reapers - is certainly well thought-out and nicely polished, it wasn't groundbreaking or mind-blowingly fantastic, nor it really surprised me in any way, despite many attempts at shocking moments and developments. It's a good starting point for a series, that's for sure, but even if it is nothing exception, what is really great about it is the huge amount of detail behind the actual plot, the incredibly vivid background that sustains the entire setting. Thanks to this thorough background, the galaxy feels real and alive and every race unique and interesting (my personal favorites? Quarians and Turians). The political system - the Council, the embassies, the delicate balance between dominant and client races - is perhaps the jewel crown of this setting and without a doubt that thing that intrigued me the most about it: believable and deep, it added a great profundity to the whole plot, maybe because I'm a sucker for political intrigues or maybe just because it was really well written in a way that reminded me of some political coucils that predate World War II (the same listlessness, the same obstinacy to ignore the threat, the same asphyxiating bureaucracy).

Characters
This is the weakest aspect of the game, at least in my opinion. I may be spoiled by Dragon Age, where every character, even the ones that seemed more stereotypical at first slowly but steadily revealed a believable, well-rounded personality, but I found many companions flat or a tad uninspired. I'm thinking of Wrex, for example, who's pretty streamlined, or - despite my fondness of her - Tali herself, who's little more than a plot device, at least at the beginning. I liked Ashley, mainly because she had a surprising twist to her (by the way: wonderful choice of poems. Kudos!), and Garrus, who is the only character who undergoes a serious development during the course of the game. I guess that they were the poster-characters for a reason, no? After Dragon Age, the relationship between Shepard and the characters (and between the characters themselves) seemed to me a bit stiff and plain, and I certainly missed not only the party banter but also the long, meaningful dialogues the player character could have with them at any given time, while here the progress is articulated pretty rigidly by the plot developments (new conversations after every planet; dull repetitions everywhere in between). As a side note, it may be because of Seth Green's wonderful voice work, but, aside from the companions, Joked is undoubtedly my favorite character!

Gameplay
Even if I'm still not particularly fond of the actiony approach to the gameplay - I certainly prefer Dragon Age tactical system -, I came to like it and to find it really fun, in a frantic way. I learned to rely less on the active pause and to enjoy the tight pace of the combat itself. As for the quests, I obviously liked the main ones (especially Noveria and Ilos), but I even enjoyed the side assignments and - apart from the surveying missions (find n metals, find n asari writings, find n prothean artifacts), which I found boring and quite dreadful - the exploration of different planets with the Mako was pleasingly relaxing after the more tense main quests.

All in all, I'd rate Mass Effect something like 8/10, maybe 8.5/10, and it currently sits at the bottom of my personal BioWare rank (1. Dragon Age, 2. Knights of the Old Republic, 3. Jade Empire. I can't talk about NWN since I'm still - and slowly - playing it).

[Roper Klacks]

Originally Posted by AndreaDraco83

I finished Mass Effect...

I pretty much agree with everything you said. I think you'll enjoy a lot more the characters in Mass Effect 2.

[AndreaDraco83]

It should arrive next week - Monday, I hope - and I'll play it right away

After hearing so much praise about it, I have really high expectations.

[nonax]

Colin McRae DiRT 2. Nice game, not to serious and not to arcade-y.

[Denaron]

I've just finished:



In my opinion, It's as good as the first one. Outstanding sound, graphics and effects. I'm not a great fan of FPS but this game is very fun. The atmosphere is similar to the fallout series with this "retro-futuristic" style. The plot still very interesting.

4.5/5

[[toj.cc]Phantom]

Finished;
Mass Effect 1 (had to replay it, because I lost my saves)
Mass Effect 2

Playing;
Torchlight
Planescapse: Torment
Resident Evil 5 (PS3)

[JemyM]

Ishar: Legend of the Fortress (1992)
Ishar is a "Dungeon Master" or "Eye of the Beholder" clone. You see the world through the eyes of your characters as you take on hordes of enemies, delve into dungeons, gather gold and experience and save the princess. Unlike DM or EotB, most of Ishar takes place above ground on a couple of Islands. Having tried to produce artwork for a game like this myself I have to say that it's well done. It's much easier to draw dungeon walls.

You start the game with one character but can recruit others at taverns you come across. You can have a party of up to five but thanks to a couple of quests you probably need to keep one slot free until the end of the game. All theese characters can die, including the one you begun the game with. Some you hire might leave when sleeping at a tavern as well, so Ishar is a game in which you aren't meant to stick around with the same characters for long.

Amiga 1200 promised a 256 color palette, just like the PC, which was a great upgrade from the 32 on Amiga 500. Unfortunately, there were very few games that used this advantage. The Ishar series was ofcourse made for PC, but I decided to play the 1200 version instead. This allowed me to use savestates and also allowed me to remap the keyboard. This saved me some of the hassle playing the game, because it's really hardcore.

This is a hardcore game. There are tons of ways you can make the game impossible to finish and tons of dead ends that require preparation to get past. Preparation you probably don't know of before you failed once. I used a lot of help from internet sites but I was still forced to replay some bits due to minor mistakes.

My primary reason for playing the game was so I could go on with Ishar II.