I can never really say I was a Sonic fan. I enjoyed the Sonic X anime, I loved to death Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the GameCube, and even saw the diamond in the rough that existed beneath Shadow the Hedgehog. But something changed after that. What happened? Well, Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) was released, and it was such a heaping pile of trash at release, that I've pretty much steered clear of the Sonic franchise since. Now that I'm older, I've gotten my hands on a copy of Sonic 06 and wanted to give it a fair shake. I was soon to realize my mistake.

The first thing that hits you in the face like a truck is the tonal shift from the opening cutscene, to the Soleanna hub world. Like a complete 180 in tone, it's actually baffling. But that's not all, since this area has a couple issues. First and foremost, when you begin your journey, you're hit with about 4 loading screens all for the same hub world. And they're not short loading screens either, and this is installed onto the Xbox 360 hard drive. I trudged through, completing the pointless ring gathering to get my first 1000 rings, to spend on a Light Dash, to be able to access the first stage.

My god, this game controls like total ass. Sonic is sluggish, and the camera is actively trying to kill you at every turn, especially when you get to the Tails portion of the level, and have to somehow navigate to the hidden switch to complete the objective. This is a terrible introduction to the game, and it honestly confuses me why the first stage in the game doesn't have the tiniest bit more polish. You would think that this would be the most polished, mechanically sound stage in the entire game. Look at Sonic Adventure 2 for comparison, Escape from the City is one of the best levels in the entire 3D Sonic era. It's a fantastic level, and an amazing introduction to the game. Sonic 06 does not have that going for it at all.

First boss battle is not much better. Once again, the camera is actively harming you the entire time and the responsiveness of the controls just aren't what they should be. The next stage isn't any better. I honestly thought that there was just a hole in the geometry causing me to fall out of bounds, but no it's an intended gimmick mechanic.

Now we get to the Silver boss battle. Once again, the camera gets you killed, and this time it's actually required to be able to see where Silver is the entire time, since he can sneak up behind you and use his psychic power to toss you around the arena like a doll. Better yet, if you get caught while in the air, Silver will just juggle you until you're dead. The only coins that spawn in the arena are ones that are directly in front of Silver and a single bubble worth 5 hidden off to the right. I assume you're supposed to hit him when he's doing his little psychic thing holding up random objects, but it's not obvious when he does it, and it's not like the camera will work with you to keep both Sonic and Silver in frame so you can actually plan around this. I don't even really have a problem with Silver's mechanics, it's the fact that I can't ever see him because the camera actively fights against me the entire time. I'm really not sure what the devs were thinking, this god awful camera has hindered me at every step and they never bothered to fix it?! A flagship Sega franchise and no one bothered to even attempt to fix some of the shortcomings with the game?

I'm sorry but I can't do this. I really did want to try to play through this start to finish, but I cannot stand the camera. I was able to finish Kane & Lynch and that wasn't a very good game either. But Sonic 06 crosses a threshold I can't tolerate, and unfortunately I'm going to have to abandon the game.

Long ago when I was but a wee teenager, around the time of the 7th console generation, I distinctly remember a friend of mine telling me about how Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was a good game. My recollection is hazy, but I believe this was around the time that the sequel, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, had released. As soon as I find out who it was, I'm going to tear them a new one.

My problems with Kane & Lynch: Dead Men begin with the story. It's actually not a bad concept, although something I think was better explored in Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto V, in that you are a criminal trying to fix your life up for the better, but get reluctantly dragged into some bad stuff with some bad dudes. In this instance, you are broken out of jail during a prisoner transport, and forced to work for your former employers, the criminal syndicate known as The 7. Not sure why it's called that since you only ever see like 4 of them max, but that's besides the point. You're tasked with retrieving some macguffin that you stashed away before going to prison, or else they'll kill you and your estranged family. You're given a week to do it, and a handler; enter Lynch. The both of you (this is a co-op game after all) then travel across the world hunting down the suitcase that contains the mysterious macguffin, and then halfway through to exact your revenge.

I don't hate the story's core themes or concept, I just think it was poorly executed. The character models look like Play-Doh (which was par for the day), and the voice acting fairly low on the quality spectrum (also par for the day). It's a shame the movie adaptation got stuck in development hell and never went anywhere, because I think it would actually do well as a movie with wide audience appeal.

But then we have to talk about the combat in this game, and boy is it a doozey. The combat mechanics are all out of whack. The bullets barely go where you want them to, and grenades bounce around like they're made of rubber. The frag grenades are barely worth using, and the tear gas grenades literally useless. Just an excruciating time trying to actually play the game. If I went to the range and the guns shot like they do in this game, I'd never go back to that range again because clearly they're not taking proper care of the guns and I don't want to get my head blown off from a malfunction.

So, the shooting is bad, but the aiming is worse. It's like Kane dipped his arms in molasses and then jammed them into a blender. The aiming in this game is dog ass slow as all hell, even with the sensitivity and acceleration cranked to their max values. Good luck with the on-rails sections towards the end. It also feels like this game has whatever the opposite of aim-assist is. Just an absolute miserable experience overall. I am glad that stealth is optional, that would have certainly gotten the game some points back in the day, but it doesn't do it any favors looking back.

There's not really much else to say, it's a short romp of a game with bad shooting, bad aiming, bad voice acting, poor writing, bad graphics, etc. etc. I imagine it's fun to play and complain about with a friend while drunk or high, but otherwise I cannot recommend enough that you absolutely avoid playing this game today. It has not aged well at all, and I am obliged to say this: Jeff Gerstmann did not deserve to get fired over his review.

I've finally gotten around to experiencing Lethal Company with friends, and I am thoroughly enjoying what I've played so far. While content is a bit on the thin side, there's a lot to unpack with what is available.

Lethal Company, for those who don't know, is a co-operative horror game made by indie developer Zeekerss. The game has genuinely frightening moments, but also genuinely hilarious ones too, sometimes at the same time. The proximity chat means it's easy to get lost and separated from the group, and not being able to communicate while dead turns your death into a mystery for the group to solve: What creature did this? And is it still around to get us?

The wide variety of enemies truly makes the game what it is. There's no worse feeling than being ambushed by a spider, and no better feeling than outsmarting a Bracken when you've been cornered, riding that high all the way to bank. Enemy design is very good, and well thought out. Nothing feels cheap, nothing feels completely unfair, if you can't get away from an enemy, it's probably a skill issue.

The moons are designed well. It takes a few runs to get the feel of them; a couple of the moons feel like they blend together a bit. Overall the outside areas are varied enough to keep things interesting from run to run, while allowing experienced players a sense of mastery with knowing where the main entrances and fire exits are located for each map.

Inside the building however, is another story. Each building draws from a limited pool of tile sets, and randomly generates a labyrinth of rooms, traps, and enemies for you to navigate, similar to how Warframe generates its maps. While it can be frustrating to wander a maze to only reach a dead end (or worse, to use up a precious key to find out on the other side of that door was just a wall), it adds to the tension and urgency of the gameplay, driving home the fact that you don't have time to sit around and collect everything, you gotta go.

This is further compounded by the quota system. There seems to be two main strategies to make it through the game: Either you sell everything at the end of the quota period, allowing for nice juicy overtime bonuses, or you save some items, scraping by the quota just enough to make the next round easier if you have unfortunate accidents.

I'm exciting to see where the game goes. The game is Early Access, so hopefully that means more content is on the horizon, and with the modding community flocking to this game, there won't be any shortage of content for weeks, months, and hopefully years to come. I highly recommend everyone try this game out, and have fun with your friends.

If Far Cry 5 was the black sheep of the franchise, Far Cry New Dawn is the redheaded step-child. I've seen a lot of complaints about the changes New Dawn makes to the Far Cry formula, including the RPG elements sprinkled in. Here's an overview:

Some of the base gameplay systems have gotten an overhaul. Outposts can now be scavenged to allow enemies to take them back, which then allows you to attempt to retake them at a higher difficulty. Weapons now also have an explicit rank, indicating which corresponding enemy ranks they are effective against. For example, a level 3 AK-47 will shred through any level 3 or below enemies, but a level 2 AK will give you a harder time. I've seen some complaints about these RPG-ification elements, and while personally I dont mind, if you do care about them, it might be worth your time to think carefully about picking this game up.

Personally I think the changes are fine. Retaking the outposts can be annoying since you can't discern the alarm towers ahead of time, and Ethanol is probably too scarce, but I managed to get the most important upgrades before taking on the final bosses. There were only a couple times where I needed to go scavenge items to craft a weapon I felt I needed.

The story is a bit hit or miss. The antagonists aren't particularly charming, and I feel like the previous game presented the taunts from the antagonists better. It also feels like the 4 of Far Cry 5 are better fleshed out than personality and lore-wise than New Dawn's twins. I sincerely cannot tell the two apart.

Additionally, the game plays upon the assumptions you had from the previous game. You're sat there listening to the story and at some point are presented the following thesis: What if Joseph Seed was right all along? You already get a sense of that at the end of Far Cry 5, but here it really challenges your notion of wrong and right, and if the ends justify the means. What is God's plan, actually? Was it good to have mowed down Joseph's siblings in the previous game? Do the ends justify the means? There are interesting questions here, and no clear answers.

The environments are just as beautiful as before, with some pinks and purples sprinkled about to spice things up. Clearly the environment team worked hard on this version of Hope County, even if it feels like they stopped talking to the environment team for Far Cry 5 about halfway through development.

The Guns for Hire mechanic returns, although you can no longer have two at a time. The roster is well balanced, and I didn't feel like I wish I had a companion from Far Cry 5. I did however, have an issue with one of the missions to recruit a GFH.

One of the worst missions I've ever played has to be the mission to recruit Gina: "Mo' Mommies Mo' Problems". An absolute nightmare of RNG hoping that she and the AI enemies don't ram into random explosive barrels, failing the mission. Just awful, took me legitimately 20 tries to kill all the enemies before Gina's car randomly explodes. Including the time the mission bugged out after killing all the enemies and just soft locked itself. Very frustrating, but luckily this is optional, and the only mission I really had a problem with throughout the game.

Another thing to mention are the map changes. Not sure entirely, but the map feels smaller than in Far Cry 5. The outpost count is significantly reduced, and a good portion of the map (The North) goes unused except for in 2 missions. This is explained away in the story as the dam having burst during the collapse, flooding the surrounding lowlands. In addition to that, the area is covered in Bliss, making passage impossible except for a select few.

The music selection is... fine. Nothing too special, a couple oldie hits here and there, with some odd choices from the late 2010's added for good measure.

Overall the game is fine. It serves as a good followup to Far Cry 5, and thematically feels more like a less buggy Fallout game than it does a Far Cry game. Is it worth the face value of $40? Hard to say, I'm sure I've paid more for worse. Is it worth picking up on sale? If you're a fan of Far Cry, definitely. If you're disappointed with Fallout 76, this is a good post-apocalyptic alternative. For everyone else, I understand if you chose to skip this one, but I definitely think it's worth a playthrough. I powered through in only 17 hours and had fun, for the most part.

I think Far Cry 5 got a lot of unfair flack from the community. Being this far into a series, the gameplay isn't going to be anything groundbreaking. What it is, though, is polished and fun.

However, I still have some issues with it. The AI is very strange, and sometimes you'll be minding your business when a technical shows up and mows you down in 3 hits. The gameplay itself is pretty nice to play, and very easy to control, I just think the health and AI aren't keeping pace.

The boss fights are actually quite good. My favorite has to be the dogfight with John Seed. Jacob's fight is a sniper hill, easily completed with 2 RPG shots, while Faith's fight was the most technical of the 3; kinda feeling like I was playing Destiny or Borderlands for a little bit.

The story is miles ahead of the previous entries. Joseph Seed is an absolute menace, and his siblings are just as frightening story-wise. You begin the game as a Deputy of the Hope County Sheriff's Department, executing an arrest warrant for Joseph Seed, leader of the Eden's Gate cult that has taken over large areas of the county. Shit promptly goes sideways and you're separated from your teammates, left to fend for yourself in hostile territory; the typical Far Cry experience. What's different is that the world is divided up into 3 parts, and you can tackle them in any order you desire. Once you're done, you take on Joseph and the ending begins. I have to admit, despite knowing about the next game in the series, I was still sitting there jaw agape as the credits began to roll and "We'll Meet Again" began to play.

Speaking of the credits, the music selection is actually very good. There are a total of 2 Creedence Clearwater Revival songs, and neither of them are "Fortunate Son"; a remarkable achievement in my honest opinion. "Only You" is setup well in the story, and by the end you'll be joining the many other gamers who are now traumatized by that song.

The side missions, on the other hand, fell flat for me. One too many forced stealth missions rescuing hostages than I would like. As I said earlier, the AI is strange, and Far Cry AI has never been amazing in the first place. This turns those hostage rescues into a slog of resets until the AI cooperates. Just not a fun time. The Gun For Hire missions were on the opposite end of the spectrum, each and every one was enjoyable in their own right.

Overall, despite having it shelved for many years, I actually quite enjoyed what Hope County had to offer, and I kind of want to play Far Cry New Dawn just to find out what happens next.

The gameplay is repetitive, the story pacing is sloppy, and the fluid mechanics add essentially nothing to the game. I found myself yawning often while fast paced music attempted to keep me awake. I don't usually regret buying games but this is one of those rare moments where I wished I had done some research beforehand.

I played a fair amount, enough to give me a very good idea of how excited I'll probably be if I decided to beat it. Obviously it wasn't a lot of excitement, because I decided to write this review instead of finishing the game.

Don't bother with this game unless you need to take the express train to Snoresville.

Written on September 25, 2012

I bought the first Borderlands back in January 2011 when I had the urge to play a Shooter-RPG that would take my mind off of things. I played Borderlands almost everyday with my best friend in split screen co-op for hours at a time, and for even longer on a separate save. To me, playing Borderlands by myself was always a lot more boring and felt more like a chore than the pinnacle of fun it was in co-op. Sadly, since that time my best friend and I are now attending separate Universities, so I had to go through Borderlands 2 alone. However (and luckily for me), Borderlands 2 is just as much fun alone as it is with another person or a group, which should speak volumes to how it has improved over its predecessor.

Much like in the first Borderlands, a vault reveals itself on the planet Pandora after the original four Vault Hunters opened the first and were greeted with a fist (or tentacle) full of disappointment. Since the opening of Pandora's "box," a new substance began appearing across Pandora that attracted the attention of the Hyperion Corporation, dispatching the Interplanetary Ninja Assassin Claptrap, which goes awry as you should know if you played Claptrap's New Robot Revolution DLC for the original game. You play as one of the four new Vault Hunters who travel to Pandora in search of the new vault. Upon arrival, Handsome Jack attempts to murder you via exploding train, fails, and that's when the game actually starts.

I'll be frank here, I love the story of Borderlands 2. It has such a nice balance of seriousness and off-the-wall humor that no other game that I've played before has achieved; not even the original Borderlands. The main antagonist is a condescending dickbag that attempts to take potshots at your self-esteem every chance he gets (telling you countless times to just go kill yourself). In fact, I would go so far as to draw a comparison between GLaDOS and Handsome Jack. He's just one of those likable villains that the original Borderlands didn't have (Commandant Steele was a bad villain). The other two lovable characters that were consistently funny or amusing were Claptrap and Tiny Tina (voiced by Ashley Burch of Hey Ash, Watcha Playing?).

The storytelling is also leaps and bounds ahead of the original. Whereas in the original game, most of the backstory to missions were told in long dialogues shown only in the mission details page, Borderlands 2 gives you a short, single-sentenced snippet of the context of the mission, and then the characters will tell you all about it either in person or over ECHO. Not having to read in order to understand the story is a definite plus here. For once I actually felt like I was a part of the Borderlands universe, something the original game couldn't do. It also helps that the writing is tremendously superior to the original game, including childish humor for us to giggle at, which is always nice to have.

Much like the original, Borderlands 2 has you doing quests for experience, loot, and money. Leveling up allows you to use better weapons and armor, find better loot, and finish mission objectives within a reasonable difficulty. This time around, Gearbox added some new gameplay elements. The original Borderlands gave you Weapon Proficiencies where the more EXP you gained while holding a certain type of weapon, the better you got at using that weapon. Though it made sense, leveling up your proficiency proved difficult later in the game when training to take on Crawmerax the Invincible (more on that later), especially if you were trying to level up Eridian proficiency because the weapons were fairly weak and only began showing up in the middle of the game.

As a replacement, they've added in the Badass Rank system, where instead of giving EXP, completing challenges gives you Badass Rank points which will earn you Badass Tokens and you can then redeem those tokens for stat increases that carry across all your characters (you have the option of turning off these bonus stats). Since challenges are kept on a per-character basis, you could theoretically use Badass Rank to increase your Gun Damage stat to +100%, but it would take some time as you're only given a choice one stat from five per token, of which there are a total of fourteen. At the moment of this writing, my Badass Rank is 6589 and my Gun Damage stat is at +6.4%. These stats are also only increased in fractions of a percent.

Leveling up also gives you upgrades to your Action Skill, which is similar to the Action Skill system in the original, but more refined; allowing you to do more with your skill and your character (like being able to use the skill while downed in Fight For Your Life mode). However, ammo regeneration is no longer a perk to the Soldier/Commando class, forcing you to constantly buy ammo or use an absorption shield to absorb enemy ammo. Additionally, there are no more shields that regenerate health over time, but there are class mods and skills that allow you to regenerate health over time.

The level cap is currently at 50 and the final boss is around the early-mid 30s. Completing the game unlocks True Vault Hunter Mode, which is analogous to the Second Playthrough in the original Borderlands. However, the enemies in TVHM are much tougher and far more varied than the first playthrough. Playing this mode, you will actually encounter new versions of enemies that don't appear the first time around, like Armored Maniacs (Psychos) and corrosive Bullymongs. I see this difficulty increase as a challenge to my badassitude, and I accept. It's a good thing enemies stay dead when you respawn from a death.

Additionally, they added a new Invincible creature for you (to attempt) to defeat. Much like Crawmerax in the General Knoxx DLC, this creature is at a level beyond the cap, which you cannot match. Allegedly, it was designed as a boss for four level 50 characters to tackle together. So if your friends are either dysfunctional or non-existent, I wish you the best of luck.

Verdict
I liked the first Borderlands, and this game really stands out as a testament of what a good sequel is. The 30+ hours I've spent playing Borderlands 2 were more enjoyable than the 100+ hours I spent on the original. Everything that bothered me in the original was fixed, and everything I liked was kept the same or made even better. I highly recommend getting Borderlands 2 and either playing it alone or with your friends, despite the distinct lack of the promised 96.5% more wub wub.

Written on August 9, 2012

I've played the ever-loving crap out of both Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. I absolutely love the whole first-person open-world RPG thing, but for whatever reason, playing Oblivion was never something I fancied too well. I borrowed it from a friend and eventually gave it back because I complained it wasn't "as good as Fallout." Luckily, Skyrim is a huge improvement over Oblivion.

Gameplay
Much like Oblivion, Skyrim has multiple character races, each with their own specialty stats (but you can still learn whatever you want, race doesn't affect that). Leveling up is achieved by doing things related to the skill; smithing, doing damage with bows, doing damage with magicka, gaining damage to heavy armor, etc. The main difference here is that Skyrim allows you to level up at any time without having to seek a bed to sleep in. Additionally, the actual level cap is 81, where in Oblivion the level cap was varied as it depended on how you leveled up (a glitch from a poorly thought-out game mechanic).

Also new to Skyrim is the use of dragon shouts to help in fighting a battle. As the player, you can go and find certain word walls with a word of power for you to learn, which is required for a predetermined shout (you can't create shouts, however). The popular shout "Fus Ro Dah" (known in the game as Unrelenting Force) is composed of the Dragon words for "force," "balance," and "push" that must first be found throughout the game before the full shout can be used.

Fighting dragons is also great. There is nothing more challenging or satisfying as having an epic battle with a damn dragon. When I first started the game, I had a few difficulties with dragons, but as the game progressed and I became better with a bow, dragons were much more easily conquered, while still maintaining a satisfying challenge. It also becomes easier when after playing through the main questline, as you learn a shout that forces dragons to land and stay grounded for about a minute (which you can then keep spamming to keep them grounded).

Except for the new running mechanic, the ability to fight dragons, and using dragon shouts, not much is new compared to Oblivion and the Fallout games. However, what is here is much more refined than in the previous games and comes together feeling very well put together. For example, instead of having a bounty across the entire game world like you would in Oblivion, Skyrim has individual bounties for each administrative hold of Skyrim.

Story
Taking place 200 years after the events of Oblivion, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has you in the shoes of the fabled "Dovahkiin," a warrior born of dragon blood right at a time when the dragons have returned to Tamriel and their leader, Alduin, wishes to do some very bad things to it.

You survive execution thanks to Alduin's dragon attack, but unfortunately Alduin is the bad guy and you need to go stop him before some serious shizz happens in the land of Skyrim. To make things worse, you're caught in the middle of a civil war between the local Nords and their leader Ulfric Stormcloak, and the regency of the Empire of Cyrodiil, located to the south. You can of course, choose your priorities in how you will handle all of Skyrim's problems; you can for example take out Alduin immediately and then focus on the rest of Skyrim, or take your time with the main quest and explore as much as your heart pleases. It's all up to how you want to do things.

Additionally, a lot of time and effort went into creating the dragon language; dragons speak their own language to each other, and they have their own cuneform-like writing script. The language was well thought out and has quite the list of words and some grammatical differences, though still similar in construction to English. Hell, even the game's main theme is sung entirely in Dragon, and actually rhymes in both English and Dragon.

Here's the first verse of the main theme in both Dragon and English as an example of what I mean by "they both rhyme":


Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin, naal ok zin los vahriin,
Wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!
Ahrk fin norok paal graan fod nust hon zindro zaan,
Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal!

Dragonborn, Dragonborn, by his honor is sworn,
To keep evil forever at bay!
And the fiercest foes rout when they hear triumph's shout,
Dragonborn, for your blessing we pray!


Verdict
Skyrim has been an immensely enjoyable experience throughout. I've already poured 150 hours into a single save (for comparison, my Pokemon saves are between 70-100 hours only, and that is over the course of years). There isn't a part I don't like about Skyrim, unless it's being torn to shreds by dragons early on in the game. It's currently only the second game I've been motivated enough to get all achievements, before the DLC came out and messed that up for me (but I'll have them all again soon). The story is good, the gameplay is great, and overall the game is fantastic. A lot of work went into this game, and glitches were very sparse, the only major one I came across involved a sidequest that asks you to steal an item from a house that becomes inaccessible after the Civil War questline. Overally, Skyrim has definitely become one of my new favorites.

Written September 17, 2011

For the past 9 months I have been playing Borderlands. After acquainting myself with its niches and quirks, playing through all of the Downloadable content, searching for the best guns, grenade mods, shields, abilities, fighting through every boss, and doing the best I can to defeat the single most difficult enemy in the entire game (it's impossible to do it on your own), I can now comfortably review Borderlands in its entirety. Though it can be played as a single-player game, Borderlands is best enjoyed with at least one other person. Playing by yourself is the least interesting way to play Borderlands and is not recommended at all. Part of the fun of the game comes with dicking around with teammates and making wise cracks at your friends about how much they suck at the game. I'm serious.

Gameplay
I have been known to describe Borderlands as the inverse of Fallout. While Fallout is mostly an RPG with Shooter elements, Borderlands and mostly a Shooter with RPG elements. And that's where the comparisons to Fallout end. Borderlands is quite unique in its execution of gameplay. It's a fast paced Shooter with a fair share of explosions, vehicles, alien creature things, Challenges for killing X alien creature things or killing X enemies with X type of guns, class-specific skills, leveling, and Critical Hits. The game controls much like a Call of Duty title, in terms of button layout on the XBOX 360 controller (and yes, I only reviewed the XBOX 360 version. Owning multiple copies of the same exact game on different systems is for people who hate having fun), and needless to say it works. The only thing that would be new to a CoD player would be the Action Skill, which is Class-specific and bound to the Left Bumper, and the D-Pad used for weapon swapping between (up to) 4 equipped weapons.

Each class has his or her own Action Skill. The Soldier deploys a turret that, with upgrades can shoot a barrage of bullets, shoot rockets, heal players, regenerate ammo, and help up a downed ally. The Siren's Action Skill turns her invisible, allowing her to move at an incredible speed through enemies. She can also use the skill to attack an enemy with a Force Push-like melee attack. The Hunter summons a Bloodwing (which is a very deadly bird) that attacks an enemy by basically mauling their face off. The Berserker's Action Skill will not only heal him, but cause him to -- you know, go berserk. In Berserk mode, you can run up to people and punch them in the face repeatedly until they go plop. Each action skill can also be upgraded to have elemental effects from Artifacts.

Guns can also have elemental damage. Every gun you find in the game is randomly generated on the spot (except for a few key weapons, but even then those have variations). In addition to the random chance for certain guns to have scopes, or large magazines, or low recoil, they also have a chance of doing elemental damage. Every gun has their own manufacturer and each manufacturer has their own special rules to their guns. For example, Maliwan only manufactures elemental guns, while Jakobs never manufactures elemental weapons. Certain manufacturers will have certain styles, like white guns from Atlas, or red guns from Hyperion. Often times I simply can't find the a gun with the specs I'm looking for, but once I do, I never let go... Until of course I find a better one.

Grenades and shields also have their own traits based on the manufacturer. There are various grenade types, though Transfusions are very helpful in stealing enemy health to replenish your own. Additionally, healing shields are good, but often times have low amounts of actual shielding. There are also class mods that can add to your Class' skills depending on the type of Class Mod.

Story
The story is nothing special and isn't really necessary to enjoy the game, but I could never feel like I was actually part of the Borderlands universe. Missions are given and you can accept them, but any backstory is written in text, and this being a fast paced shooter and all, I simply couldn't be bothered to do that. All I ever really did was go to where the checkpoint told me to go, finish the checklist, return to the quest giver, and collect my rewards. I never even knew why I was doing the missions or for what reason they needed to be done, I just did them. No, I will not go so far as to say that it's a social commentary on how people will take any job so long as there is a reward. I will not excuse Gearbox for not including a "Read This Text To Me Because I'm a Lazy Bum" option.

Downloadable Content
There are 4 pieces of DLC for Borderlands. The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned, Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution. A main issue I have with the DLCs is the pure lack of a Fast Travel system I had grown accustomed to using throughout the main game. Monotony is an understatement here. There is nothing I enjoy less than traveling for 15 minutes in a video game to pick up a quest, only so I can travel 15 minutes back to do the quest, and then another 15 minutes to hand it in. Then there's Mad Moxxi's lack of a save feature, forcing you to either complete the round, or be forced to restart that entire Colosseum. Not to mention that an entire Colosseum play through of just 5 rounds can last a good 3-4 hours. And the "It Stopped Being Cool 50 minutes ago" Moxxi theme song doesn't help. To be entirely honest, the only reason I bought Moxxi was because of the Bank feature which lets you store some of your items. Oh, and you get no experience for killing enemies either, so if you thought Moxxi would be a good, easy way of leveling up, you were wrong.

Verdict
As long as you have someone else to play with and go 50-50 on the DLC (unless you're not like me and waited for the Game of the Year Edition, and in that case I hate you), I recommend Borderlands and most of its DLC. The game can be fun if played with others and is satisfying when your weapons don't suck.

Written on July 3, 2010

Scribblenauts is a new IP from 5th Cell, the developers of Drawn to Life on the DS. Scribblenauts allows you to let your imagination go wild, by letting you do almost anything (provided it fits within the borders of the E 10+ rating). You'll love the game, and yet hate it at the same time. An amazing game with glaring flaws.

In Scribblenauts, you can guide the main character, Maxwell through 220 levels, split into 2 categories; Puzzle and Action. You can type in anything you can think of (provided it's an object, non-vulgar and non-copyrighted) and use them to achieve the level's objective. You're given a scenario and a hint, given the reins to control Maxwell, and then on screen objects as you see fit. This is what 5th Cell prefers to call “emergent gameplay”.

The game is limited almost exclusively to your imagination, although I found it hard to be creative once I found a good easy way to clear a level. Many times I'd conjure a Minigun touting Abraham Lincoln to clear away enemies, a narwhal to cross water, or a helicopter and some rope.

Not to mention not every word summons something different. For example, ManBearPig will summon the same creature as Minotaur, and adjectives added into the word combination of objects just summons that object that the game thinks is different (an easy way to cheat for Gold Stars, if you're that uninspired).

The controls in the game are also very clunky. You move Maxwell by touching in the general direction you wish to move him, preventing precision control and making some levels harder with added frustration.

Despite its flaws, Scribblenauts is still very enjoyable. I have spent countless hours messing around in the title screen. I've also made some amazing discoveries. Nukes kill all, the LHC creates a Black Hole, Ninjas are better than Pirates, etc. The fact that you can show off the game and do everything in the game right in the title screen makes those flaws a bit more overlook-able and make the game enjoyable for what it is. A game that can't be taken seriously and that provides enjoyment, even when you do fall into that lava pit from clunky controls. Now to just wait for Super Scribblenauts and all that adjective goodness.

Written on July 2, 2010

Mirror's Edge is a First Person Platforming game for 360 and PC. It is developed by EA DICE, the same creators of the Battlefield series of games. The game bases its gameplay off of Parkour (Pronounced Park-or), which is a form of discipline of moving from one place to another as quickly and efficiently as possible. The game takes place in a dystopian city where the totalitarian government monitors all information which forces people to use runners to deliver information from rooftop to rooftop.

You play as Faith, a female runner. You begin with a simple delivery after being out of commission for a while. On the way to deliver, you come across the Police who usually don't bother with Runners but decide to make a special case for Faith. As the story progresses, Faith's sister ends up being framed for their father's death. Faith must then set out to uncover the truth, which she does by the end of the game.

Playing Mirror's Edge is like one of those "Easy to play, hard to master" set ups, although the difficulty bar is set slightly higher than usual. I found myself easily controlling Faith as she jumps around from rooftop to rooftop with the good ol' keyboard and mouse. I did find myself remapping the 180 button to Mouse 3 as Q is just slightly out of reach for me, but you will get frustrated when you can't get your timing down and you keep dying. At times like these I found it best to throw my mouse around and scream into a pillow.

Mirror's Edge is not based on combat. You can disarm Police and Militia and take their guns, but you can't actually holster the weapon and keep running. You have to discard it. That doesn't mean there aren't parts with combat, but if you buy Mirror's Edge thinking it's a First Person Shooter you'll be quite disappointed.

The game does have an Online Component, but it's simply just Time Trials and Ghost Challenges. A fantasy I have with this game is if they could've possibly added a sort of Tag game using Parkour, but I could see how the game could be limited in such a way that makes this impossible. The game does however have DLC for all the supported platforms (as of writing both 360 and PC, along with PS3). Also, although the PC version isn't Games For Windows at all, I still recommend it as it comes with the Mirror's Edge Remix CD for a price of $50 new. The CD has remixes from famous techno artists such as Benny Benassi, Paul van Dyk, and more.

Overall, the game is extremely satisfying and fun to play, by yourself or even with people to laugh at your miserable fail. If you're looking for a Platformer that breaks away from tradition, this is your game. If you're just looking for a First Person Shooter, don't expect this to satisfy that need.

Written on June 30, 2010

In Crysis Warhead, you assume the role of Jason Statham Psycho on his solo mission that takes place elsewhere on the island. His job is to find out what the KPA is secretly shipping and why is it such a secret. The story is much shorter than Crysis, comparable to Halo 3's single player. When I bought it was cheaper than Crysis and came with Crysis Wars. You don't need Crysis to play it either, as it is a standalone expansion.

Crysis Warhead is more action-packed than the original and is a bit harder with tougher aliens, and more Alien Hunters to boot.

Crysis Warhead presents various fixes to the original. It not only looks better, but with tweaks to the engine, it even runs better than Crysis.

Crysis Wars is the online component to Crysis Warhead and is much improved over the Multiplayer of Crysis. Crytek has recently opened up Crysis Wars to modding, allowing for possible implementation of a Single Player mode if they really needed one.

Written on June 30, 2010

In 2002, Crytek debuted their CryEngine to the world. Crytek developed the original Far Cry for PC using the engine. They however didn't develop any of the spin-offs & sequels, Ubisoft did. While Ubisoft was releasing spin-offs and a spiritual sequel to Far Cry (because Jack Carver's not even in it), Crytek worked on their next engine, CryEngine 2. The flagship title for this new engine was Crysis, which boasted the world's best graphics and could barely run on high-end systems. To this day, nothing has been able to compare to Crysis' level of graphical detail.

Crysis puts you into the shoes of First Lieutenant Jake "Nomad" Dunn. You're a member of the elite US Army Delta Force unit, Raptor Team. The team is racially diverse. Major Laurence "Prophet" Barnes is your Black commander, Martin "Jester" Hawker who is also Black, Harold "Aztec" Cortez who is Hispanic, and Sergeant Michael "Psycho" Sykes who used to be a British SAS Op who looks eerily similar to Jason Statham.

Your team is sent into the Lingshan Islands to investigate the take-over by the North Korean People's Army. Your primary mission objective is to locate hostages and neutralize the enemy, while your secondary objective is to uncover why the KPA are there to begin with.

Your team eventually comes across a frozen ship, stranded deep in the middle of the jungle. You soon find that there are also aliens on the island with the ability to freeze things that are emerging from the middle of the island. I won't spoil the whole story (that's what Youtube's for), but I will say it's a bit compelling.

What makes your team special and sets it apart from the other teams in the Army, is the secretive Nanosuit. The suit can make you harder, better, faster, & stronger. Armor mode can stop bullets and quickly regenerate your health. Speed mode can make you run much quicker for a short period of time. Strength mode can allow you to jump higher, throw farther, and it can also reduce recoil when using firearms. Cloak mode refracts light away from the suit, making you appear invisible but can emit noise that can be heard by young children and those trained.

The nanosuit is a game element like no other. It allows you to make a choice between running into a base Rambo style, or sneak in Metal Gear style. The HUD's mini map will even provide the alertness level of the enemy, but it all boils down to Veni, vidi, vici, unless you decide to sneak past the enemy all together.

If you find that a bit unfair for the Koreans, you'll be glad to know that the KPA have their own nanosuits. They're extremely annoying as they have the same abilities as you and more likely than not out number you, making a rushed, all-out attack nearly impossible. I have spent 2-3 hours in one level sneaking around trying to find the ideal area to take out the 3 remaining nanosuits who were in high areas.

2/3rds of the way through the game and everything changes. After leaving the alien space ship, the aliens unleash a large orb which engulfs half the island and freeze everything instantly. Not only is there a completely new environment, but there are now completely new enemies to worry about. There are Troopers who can take quite a few bullets. Then there are larger Scouts. These require a lot of bullets as well. Then, there is the Alien Hunters, large alien exosuits that require quite a few RPGs to take out.

Crysis may not be a groundbreaking FPS, but that's not to say it isn't unique. The Nanosuits, graphical detail and real-time weapons modification set Crysis apart from the competition. Although some mods make no sense, such as the ability to put a scope onto a shotgun, but the fact you can do that makes it better. Weapons can even be set to Automatic to Manual (for example the SCAR and SMG), or from single-fire to double-fire (pistols), or even change the burst in the shotgun.

The Crysis series has a pretty large modding and map making community at crymod.com. This is where PC games shine, allowing for infinite replayability through custom maps anyone with enough knowledge can make by installing the Sandbox 2 Editor found on the Crysis disc.

The music is composed by famed composer Inon Zur, who has made music for various large titles, such as Fallout 3, Prince of Persia & Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

Overall, the Crysis series can and has provided plenty of entertainment and near endless creativity. The games are fun and I enjoyed them.