Review that game

nice review, I see you like 8.0/10 a lot lol

I don't want to give a full review, but I finally figured I would give Oblivion a try for all of the fans that this series has. My final thoughts are wow, it is a huge world with a lot to do, I still feel like at points there are too many caves and the like however. The guilds are interesting, and probably the best part the game, the combat is good, but the leveling is stupid if you ask me. Graphics are ok, but how the character moves in third person is really off. Dialogue is ok, nothing great, and the main story was average, after closing my 10th oblivion gate or so, I was getting tired of that shit. I felt like the main storyline, was basically me doing a ton of shitty jobs risking my life, by myself, just to help the emperor, not to mention you start in a prison and you are never given an explanation as to why or who the hell you even are. Oblivion isn't a bad game by any means, probably a 7/10 for me, I just feel like the Dragon Age series offers so much more depth into the story and characters, with similar, if not better gameplay. Will I buy Skyrim--if it gets good reviews, in the end, I think some ppl just enjoy all of the freedoms that Oblivion grants you

Dead Space 2--360, PS3, PC?

Gameplay--9/10
The gameplay feature of Dead Space 2 picks up right where Dead Space left it, awesome. New features include some new weaponry, and the some boosters (somewhat like mini jet-packs) during zero G sequences. Some of the zero G sequences are the best in the game, and involve dodging large objects in space. The game also features the same goodies from the original. Stasis, which slows down your enemies for a brief period of time, and now it recharges automatically, which is a nice little perk. Also returning is your power of telekinesis, which you can now use to skewer your enemies to the walls. Power nodes continue to be the source for upgrading Isaac, and Stores return as well. Overall the gameplay flows together nicely, and just fits this game perfectly. However, I felt like the multiplayer aspect of Dead Space 2 was loosely thrown together, and it didn't hold my attention very long.

Visuals--9/10
The visuals look slightly better than the first, and I thought that the visuals from the first game were great. Character models look good, and the environments are sharp, and very creepy. My only complaint is the amount of blood produced from curb stomping enemies, which really isn't a big deal, who doesn't like a little blood, right?

Length/Replayability--8/10
The game consists of 15 chapters, each one took me close to an hour on average, meaning my first playthrough was about 15 hours. That being said, I took plenty of time, rarely ran, and enjoyed the scenery throughout the game, for someone looking to finish quickly, you could probably finish the game in 10-12 hours on casual mode. The good thing about Dead Space 2 is the new game+ feature. Something I think all games should have. This lets you start the game over from the beginning after you have beaten it once, but you retain all of your gear and weapons, along with stats. This helps boost the replay value of the game.

Story--6.5/10
This was really the only downfall of Dead Space 2 in my opinion. If you watched the movie, Aftermath, then it helps out a lot with the story, and the character of Nolan Stross, but without watching the movie, everything feels somewhat jumbled. You start off following one woman, then following Nolan Stross, some crazy guy, whom you have no background information on, and eventually following another woman, and the ending isn't bad, just a tad lackluster. Parts of the story are nice, including your moments with Nicole, but it just wasn't as good as the story on the Ishimura.

Characters--7.5/10
One more area that Dead Space 2 wasn't as good as the original, Isaac gets a personality, which is the highlight of the character department, but all of the other characters feel distant, and the only character you feel like you start to build a connection with is Ellie, and we don't ever learn a whole lot about her, other than she was a pilot, and the lone survivor of her crew.

Music/Sound--7/10
Not a ton in the music department, not bad at all, but nothing real memorable in my mind either. It's all about the sounds of the game. There are plenty of moments that will make you jump out of your seat again in this game, and I felt like the overall environment was creepier this time around from the crying babies, the necromorph stalkers, steam pipes bursting in your face, etc. I guess the only downfall here is you kind of know what to expect from playing the first game, so I didn't get as often as I did while playing Dead Space.

Overall, this is a great sequel, I highly recommend it for the gameplay and scary factor, but not for the multiplayer, I would give the game an 8/10....my number 23 fave game all time, right ahead of Halo Reach

Dragon Age II--360, PS3, PC

Gameplay--9/10
I think that the gameplay of Dragon Age 2 felt much smoother than the original, and a lot of people may feel like it is "dumbed" down or made too much into an action game but I disagree. It is faster paced, enemies are tougher, and how you organize your party plays a big role into your success of the game. If you want to slow the game down for strategy, the radial wheel is still there if you need it. The fighting just felt so much crisper on this game than the first. However, I didn't like being able to just change the armor of Hawke, as you will find out when you start playing, you find tons of loot and armor, yet all of your team members have their own armor, which gets upgraded through the game, but you can't change it yourself. This isn't all that bad, but it does take some getting used to, since the first game let you change everyone's armor.

Visuals--7/10
The visuals of DA2 are superior to those in Origins, however they really did a big no no in terms of recycling environments. In Origins you get to see so many places and different types of environments. In DA2, all of the places look the same even if they aren't in the same location. They simply take the same map, and block off some of the routes so you can't travel to certain parts of the map. Another problem is there is little to no change to Kirkwall and the players throughout the seven or so years of the narrative. I wouldn't expect drastic changes, but they could have made subtle changes here and there, or I don't know, get rid of some of the corpses that you killed three years prior in the story.

Length--9/10
The game has a lengthy play time with all the side quests and character quests involved. Took me about 40 hours to finish on my first playthrough. There is a ton to do on the side, but one thing that I was disappointed about was the main story. I felt like the end of Act 3 should have been the midpoint of the game, and the game ended a bit abruptly. If another 10-20 hours were put into the main narrative, the story could have been truly epic.

Story--7/10
The game has a solid story, with a great cast of characters, and even some cameos of previous characters as well. However, only a couple of the previous character have much of a role in the story. Basically, you play as Hawke, who arrives in Kirkwall as a refugee, and you have to work your way up through society. However, you do this very quickly, and before you know it your living in Hightown. The main plot revolves around the crisis that is the Qunari clan and a larger topic at hand which is the templars vs the mages. There were a lot of tough decisions to make in the game, and I loved that aspect to it, but I didn't like how the story would jump three years ahead in time, without ever really telling you what the characters were doing in that time frame. Three years seems like a long time to just be sitting around without much happening. As I said earlier, I also felt like the main narrative was just too short and that it ended on a cliffhanger.

Characters--10/10
I thought that the characters in this game were once again fantastic. This is probably Bioware's strongest area, there character development and voice acting. All of the characters were unique and had their own set of beliefs and values that were tested during the game. You get to know the characters all on a very personal basis, as they all have their own agendas and quests to go on. One thing I would like to point out however, is to be careful on who you choose to romance first, because there is a but at the moment, and whoever that first person is, will affect your game later on. In my case, I romanced one person, broke it off, and later chose to romance another character, yet I was stuck with that first person as my romance at a later narrative. It may not be a big deal in the long run, and I'm sure the bug will be fixed, but just a word of caution to those yet to play the game.

Music/Sound--7/10
Nice melodies and background music, some better than Origins, others not, so I thought it was a solid performance in that area, and I like I said earlier superb voice acting.

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Pros
--Lengthy RPG experience
--Fun and innovative gameplay
--Fantastic characters and great voice acting
Cons
--Repetitive environments
--Narrative feels unfinished
--Some minor bugs

Overall I would give this game an 8/10 and put it in my 17-20 range of favorite games of all time.

Zack'sCloud wrote:nice review, I see you like 8.0/10 a lot lol

ITS DA BETS NUMBRAR EVAR

I'll do another review soon. Maybe later tonight.

Final Fantasy--PSP

Gameplay--8/10

A classic turn-based battle system, I liked it a lot, although after going back and playing this now, I realize just how much I hated random encounters. Two steps, battle, three steps, battle, etc. I found it interesting how you pick the four character's roles at the beginning of the game, and it was crucial to your party setup throughout the rest of the game, so it wasn't something to take lightly. I liked the world map, and all of the towns you get to play through. You also get a nice little variety of vehicles to use in the game, however the game barely ever tells you where you should go next. This was really frustrating for me, as I'm not the type that just likes to wander around aimlessly for hours on end until I find the spot that I'm supposed to go to.

Visuals--7/10
Nothing fantastic here, but this game is quite old, so you can't really say that it looks bad either. Just average, and that's why it gets a 7/10.

Length--6/10
By far the shortest final fantasy title I have ever played. I beat the game in just over 17 hours. I'm sure there are some sidequests and such that I didn't do, but there wasn't a whole lot drawing me to explore more than I had to, with all of the random encounters and such.

Story--5/10
Story? What story? Final Fantasy barely even has a story. Four warriors magically appear to save the world and restore the crystals. Woohoo! Also, Garland barely registers as a villain since he only shows up for a total of 5 minutes of the game, what kind of villain is that? Your characters never talk, or even converse with each other, nor do they mention their names. Simply put, the story sucked.

Characters--5/10
Just like the story, the characters weren't any good. Gilgamesh, and Bahamut were cool, but that's just about it, nobody else had any life to them.

Music/Sound--8/10
Ahh, classic nostalgic final fantasy music. This is where it all started and it is refreshing to hear the old tunes in their original forms. One of the highlights of the game.

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Pros
--A great sense of nostalgia and good music
--A classic turn based battle system that can be fun to play
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Cons
--Pretty short game for a final fantasy title
--Story and characters were very bland
--Little direction is given to the player on where to go next or what to do
--Random encounters are a pain in the ass
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Overall this is an average game, but it did a good job in laying the foundation for future FF titles and provides the player with some nostalgic moments, I would give this game a 6/10

Time for a Special Golden Oldie Episode of Review That Game!

Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation)
Gameplay: 9/10
This is truly the only Third-Person style game I can play, simply because everything about it flows extremely well, and most of the time if you do it right, you don't even have to fire the weapon. The shining element in this game is Tactics, so it's basically like playing chess and choosing your moves ahead of enemies. Except, you are avoiding enemy contact as much as possible, while sometimes multitasking by either, transporting an item and can't fire your weapon, or you are protecting someone. The difficulty, like any game will increase exponentially by the end of the game, except for Easy mode, which is a joke compared to the other two difficulty settingd. Bosses always have unusual conditions to win. Hell, one boss requires you to plug the controller into port 2. Overall, a very decent game, and excellent for stress relief.

Visuals: 8/10
Given how this is a PlayStation 1 game, I am being somewhat lenient, but regardless, the visuals are quite stunning when compared to other games for the PS, even Spyro wasn't this impressive, altough Spyro could move his mouth. :/ The most compelling aspect is in cutscenes, they will periodically include a live-action clip of something dealing with politics, science or even war, which really added to prove the point of whoever is running the monologue at the time.

Story: 10/10
One of the most sophisticated, reasonable and mind-fucking stories I've ever experienced. Metal Gear Solid is never disappointing when it comes to good stories that truly make you question society, nature, and even reality. The characters' individual stories all connected in some way, and it all leads to a very calm and (depending on which ending you got) lackidaisical. :]

Length/Replay Value: 10/10
The MGS series is known for making pretty short games and for a very good reason, and that is all the specials you can receive by playing multiple times and accomplishing different things each time. For MGS1, the game cuts you a break for your second run through for each ending. If you get the FAKE ending with Otacon, you receive the Stealth gear, which makes things tremendously easier, yet with the radar, it doesn't really serve a purpose sometimes. Whilst if you get the TRUE ending with Meryl, you receive the Bandanna, giving you infinite ammo, which I only found useful against bosses.
P.S., to get the True ending, you have to resist Ocelot's torture. For the Fake ending, do the opposite.

Characters: 8/10
Hideo Kojima always includes a shit-ton of characters and ALWAYS has a role for them. For Metal Gear Solid, the only characters whose back stories were hinted at were the members of FOXHOUND, whom are mostly explained via Codec conversations. The most intimidating character is ironically the one who never makes an appearance and that is Big Boss. He is referenced here and there, but the way the characters detail him makes him out to be a very powerful person, you almost feel his presence even though he is nowhere near there. Liquid Snake is almost the same way before meeting him, and he is still somewhat intimidating. Ocelot proves to be the most badass in the entire game, but that's just a personal belief; he comes off as the smartass cowboy, I think. All in all, characters are all pretty memorable.

Music: 7/10
The only flaw I see in the music is the recurring use of the main theme, it's a good theme, but some variety would be nice. Otherwise, whenever you hear the music, it's either REALLY tense, or really, pretty soothing. That is, only when you hear the music, since this game needs your full concentration to do well, you need complete silence. :/

AWesome game. Gonna do MGS 2 & 3 as well.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona¬ 4 (PS2)

Two years after the cult hit, Atlus treated the PS2 (an otherwise dead system) to one last bang so dust off that system and give this game a shot.

Story: Following 2 years since the events of Persona 3, your life in this world is completely different than to what you experienced in the prior game. You, the Protagonist, is sent to a public school in Inaba, Japan to live with your Uncle Dojima, a detective of the Inaba Police, for the next year while your parents work overseas. Upon arriving, you make fast friends with Yosuke, son of the Wallmart-esque manager, and Chie, the kung-fu loving meat head. After a few days of living in town, there are a set of murders that happen to two inhabitants. That’s when you and your new friends learn that the murders are linked with a rumor of the Midnight Channel, a program on television that pops up whenever it rains and you leave the TV off at Midnight. It turns out the murder victims were found on this channel and the gang figures out that whomever pops up on the Midnight Channel will die after a few nights of heavy rain and a heavy fog surrounds the area afterwards. After some strange events, you discover that the victims were actually thrown into the TV. But the strangest thing is that you and your friends can too! So, with your new friends, you must figure out who is the cause of these killings and to rescue the victims from a grisly fate.

The main story aspect is very original and, at first, very drawing. As the game begins, you will find yourself drawn into the events of this world and you really want to know who the fuck is responsible for these killings. As each victim is drawn into the Midnight Channel, but as the game starts to conclude, you find yourself disappointed as what could be really great story telling has a very mediocre ending that promised so much hype towards it but unfortunately falls flat after the “Murderer” is found. Another disappointing aspect is the characters. See, in Persona 4, rather than having the characters evolve in the main events of the story, like in 3, the only way to progress them as characters is through the Social Links stories. This is very poor because the main group of characters are actually very fun and interesting! The only moment of character development you’ll get from each character is when you rescue them inside the Midnight Channel. Afterwards, there will be no development of them outside the main story events. During the Social Link stories, there are some deep conflicts each of the main characters are facing but even when they’re resolved, there’s still no change in the characters whatsoever. Another thing is, as hard as this game tries to be serious in its end game moments and through the encounters of the “Shadow Selves,” the game is very light hearted. Not to say that’s a bad thing. In fact, it’s a redeeming feature of the story because although it’s not as dark and gritty as Persona 3, to put in humor. Now like in the prior Persona, you are given choices in what to say to others which can effect how the people of Inaba see you. You can be a badass, a nerd, a douche, a wimp. Whatever your heart wants and the world will react to how you act in social situations. It doesn’t affect the main story but it an effect characters to respect you, admire you and even love you. The game can get down right hysterical making the story very fun to watch given that it is not that well compacted.
7/10

Gameplay: The main aspects of Persona 3 are completely in tact in 4. In fact, there’s not a lot that’s different in the gameplay except for a few minor tweeks. The game plays the day system from April of 2011 to March of 2012 and like in real life, when a day is over there’s no going back. The first thing to know is the main character’s social stats. In P3, the Main Character had 3 stats. Well, P4 has 5 stats to work on. Now that seems intimidating at first but the good thing is you can level up multiple stats at once and the rate to increase your levels is quicker than in P3 making it much easier to level your stats. The second thing you need to know are Social Links. Just as in P3, you will meet people from town and in school whom you can become close friends with. The list of friends go from kids you attend your sports club with to a seductive nurse to a student you’re tutoring. Each social link has its own character story that is interesting and actually moving as the characters feel like real people. When you hang out with your Social Link friends, you have a chance to level the links which increases the power of the Persona’s you get in the Midnight Channel. These are important in battling shadows in the midnight channel.

Planning is a huge part in this game because there are only 3 parts of the day to take part of and there’s only so much you can do in the given time slot. Biggest change to the system however is the Weather System. The Moon System, which was in every prior Persona game, is now changed. Rather than monsters reacting to the cycle of the moon, everything reacts to the cycle of the weather. Social Link Characters don’t like to hang in the rain and monsters become more violent in the rain but they are more prone to dropping items. The first part of the day system is School. You get up and head off to class where you increase your social skills and learn. When in class, a teacher or friend will ask you a question and if you get it right, you can increase your intelligence and other skills. Then, After School hits. During After School hours you have 2 options. One is to hang out with your Social Link friends and the other is to visit the Midnight Channel. The Midnight Channel functions exactly like Tartarus from P3 only a few tweeks have been added. Rather than scaling a 200+ floor dungeon with little to no breaks, the Midnight Channel is branched out into several unique locations that deal with each of the victims inside the TV. Whenever a victim is thrown into the TV, a new branch of the Midnight Channel opens up for you to visit at any time you want. For example, when Kanji is thrown in, the Sauna dungeon is opened and when Naoto is thrown in, the Secret Base dungeon is opened. The good thing with this game is that the dungeons no longer have ridiculous amounts of floors as each dungeon only has around 10-12 levels max. Although there is no warp function anymore. Remember how you can teleport out of the dungeon via a device on several of the floors in Tartarus? It’s gone in 4. There are 2 ways to leave a dungeon in 4 and that’s to either use an item called “Goho-M” or to walk out… of the Shadow infested areas… when you’re low on health and items… Good Luck. Everything about exploring the Midnight Channel is like P3. You go through the labyrinth style floors while looking for the stair case to the next level while shadows roam the hallways waiting for you. When running around, you can spot Shadows from the map or on screen as black blobs walking on the floors. When you run up to them you must either swing your sword at the monster or else suffer a preemptive strike from the enemy. Battle Wise, it’s the same. Every character and monster has a weakness and exposing a weakness grants the last attacker an extra turn. Knocking all enemies down results in an All-Out Attack which attacks all foes for massive damage. Each character, aside the Main Character, have their own special Persona to use in battle with it’s own skills and stats that add a variety to things. The main character creates Persona’s in the Velvet Room and can switch for one different Persona in battle every turn. Fusing Persona’s grants major level ups for the Persona to learn new skills and each Persona follows an Arcana. When you level a Social Link in the real world, you power up the leveling ability for the persona’s of the Arcana that leveled up. The only main difference in battle now is that rather than characters fighting however they wished like in P3 by giving them a tactical choice of being aggressive or passive, other characters besides the main character may be controlled by the player whenever you wish. This was a plus on my end because of the retarded results of the characters in P3 would do when we were in serious trouble or if I tried to start an All-Out Attack. When you’re done leveling in the dungeon you head back home for the day.

At Night, you are forced to stay indoors because of your overly protective Uncle. But there are still many things to do at home. First is you can still take part of Social Links with 4 people. That being the 2 people of your part-time job, your uncle and your cousin. Then if you go to your room, you can study, read or do other part time works that increase your social skills like envelope making or doing origami for charity. Then if your cousin went shopping, you can make lunch to share with a friend the following day to increase a chance of leveling your Social Link. Problem is that when you get back from the Midnight Channel, you’ll be pooped and can hardly do anything. You can’t work or study and making lunch ends up painful but you can still hang and chat with your uncle and cousin to at least level up their Social Links. Now shopping is important in all RPG’s because if you’re not well equipped, you are fucked. Good thing is you can get to your local weapon store and medicine store after school, every day. But the bad thing is two things. First is getting new weapons. See, rather than the store stocking up on new weapons and armor, you must find material from the Midnight Channel to take back to the store so that he may make new weapons. This is a pain in the ass for many reasons because without the right amount of grinding, you can’t get the materials to make these weapons to fight in the Midnight Channel and this game gets HARD. FUCKING HARD. The second problem is the prices for this shit is EXPENSIVE. I mean, getting healing items early on in the game is nearly impossible because of the steep prices and you must spend your money wisely on either new equipment or items to help in battle. That is the major flaw in this game is that you must grind excessively if you want to survive.

In my mind, a lot of the tweeks are great making the full gameplay experience of P4 much more easy and more fun to take a part of but because of the excessive grinding and poor money growth, you’ll find most of the gameplay more of a chore than fun.
8/10

Presentation: The look and feel to the game is good but one thing this game suffers from is recycling. From monsters to people, P4 heavily reuses models to the point where is gets annoying. In game character models are stale and don’t show that much emotion. Each character has defining poses that separate them from NPC’s but they constantly use the same traits over and over and over and over in the same scene, multiple times. What makes the game pop is the in game character pictures. Each major character gets his/her own facial portrait that shows their emotions and attitudes during every situation. You will have to get used to this because that’s the closest you’ll ever get to seeing a face from these characters. The game does have animated cutscenes that help show off the Japanese culture that this game excretes but they’re very short and the style of the animation doesn’t seem to fit the art style of the character portraits you grow to love through the game. Not to mention, the volume of the audio seems to get very soft in the cutscense which is annoying seeing as how loud the music and voice audio is during normal gameplay.

The Audio of the game is a mix of good and bad but it fits the characters and world of P4. The main characters, for the most part, are the most awkward sounding characters in the game. This is bad considering that you play as these guys. Some great voice actors take part of this game and lend their voices but some should have never been casted. Johnny Yong Bosch plays the rolls of both the Protagonist and Detective Adachi. As the Protagonist, Bosch does is usual murderous screams and howls but he has no speaking roll. In battle, Bosch sounds cool unlike Yuri Lowenthal’s performance as the Protagonist in P3. But as Adachi, Bosch sounds very boring and doesn’t seem to know what he’s saying a lot of the time and gives the wrong sense of tone when speaking. It’s quite annoying. Although I thought it a plus that he was no longer the Protagonist’s battle voice, Yuri Lowenthal does return this time as Yosuke but the thing is it’s probably his best role. Yuri actually does a good job as the character but it falls whenever he has extreme moments of rage where Lowenthal forces these screams that sound awful. Some worthy performances are by Troy Baker as Kanji, Laura Bailey as Rise and Dave Wittenburg as Teddie. Other characters, such as Naoto and Chie sound very awkward in battle and in story dialogue.

Last the music is what makes the presentation shine. The battle themes, dialogue scenes and dungeon themes are each unique and well composed. They’re all a J-Pop sound to them but they sound very good if you can mute out some of the bad “Engrish” dialogue in the songs. In the end, the game has a charm to it but it’s poor in game graphics dumb down the overall feel to the game.
6/10
In the end, Persona 4 made up a lot of the faults of the gameplay and the dungeon crawling of P3 so much more enjoyable but given it’s stale story and characters, it’s not enough to make the game anywhere close to as epic as it’s prior installment was. If you enjoyed Persona 3, then you will definitely enjoy Persona 4 for it’s great humor and fun gameplay but you’ll miss the down to earth characters and well written story.
7.0/10

L.A. Noire

Gameplay--8/10
Well, this is definitely a unique game when it comes to gameplay style. There is some action scenes thrown into the game which allow for car chases and some cover shooting sequences, but most of the game revolves around you investigating by finding clues, questioning suspects, and then charging someone with the crime. The game helps you by playing a melody and the controller vibrates when you get close to a clue, the music ends when all the clues have been found. If you want, you can turn this off in the settings area to make things more difficult. What is the most fun, is trying to read suspect's faces to see if they are witholding information from you, and accusing them of lying when you have hard evidence against them. The only downfall is that there is a lot of this, and it can get monotonous on long gaming sessions. Also the street crimes or "side quests" are kind of all the same and not too interesting.

Visuals--10/10
Not even so much for the environment which still looks good, but for the facial animations of all the different characters and NPC's. Everyone looks different in this game, and the faces are the most realistic in any game I have ever played. The expressions are lifelike and match the characters well. I was simply stunned when I first saw how good it looked on console.

Length--9/10
A lot of people have griped that maybe the game was too short, but really I thought it had a good length, much longer, and it probably would have felt like the story was dragging, which it did at times anyways. With the main story, and the side cases you can expect about 20-25 hrs of gameplay, and that isn't including looking for collectibles if your into that kind of stuff.

Story--8/10
The story is unique and entertaining throughout most of the game, and throughout some of the cases, you really get involved into the investigations and want to catch the criminal, and be right about it, it draws you in. The game follows the story of detective Cole Phelps, and his rise as a detective, and his hardships. You also see flashbacks from his time in the war, and it ties into his personality in the present. The downfall of the story is that at some points the story drags just a bit, and at other points you are reaching the peak of a good case, and then you get reassigned to a different area. Cole faces an embarrassment to his name, that you will discover later on in the game, and unfortunately you don't ever get to learn much more about what was going on. I also a bit disappointed with the last case of the game and the ending, but it wasn't necessarily a "bad" ending.

Characters--8/10
The characters were very well voiced in the game, which really brought them to life, you learned a good bit about each of the core characters in the game, but there were a few that felt somewhat left out such as some of Phelps' partners and his family.

Music/Sound--6/10
Some good 40's tunes, nothing really stood out to me, but it definitely wasn't of poor quality, that's for sure.

Pros
--Unique gameplay rarely seen before
--Each case is different and some really draw you in
--Facial animation is the best seen to date
--A solid story, and great voice acting
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Cons
--Can get monotonous during long play periods
--Not much to do after you finish the game
--Side cases are bland

Overall this game is innovative and brings a lot of new things to the table in the world of gaming. I would give the game a 8/10. My number 17 game of all time

Crysis 2

Gameplay--9/10
The gameplay of Crysis 2 is of course a FPS, but you have so many options to go about completing your objective. There is a bit of a learning curve to the system and to becoming comfortable using all of the tools that you are equipped with, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes a lot of fun. Some powers include the cloak (invisibility), an armor power up that strengthens your armor for a period of time, nanovision (think Predator) which basically gives you an infared heat vision to spot out your enemies. You can also you your binoculars which allow you to zoom in and set tactical approaches to different areas in your environment. Their is a power slide ability somewhat similar to that in Vanquish, and a power jump that allows you to scale tall structures. The game takes place in New York, and the beginning can start off a bit slow, but a few hours into the game, you will become comfortable with your powers and the action begins to pick up, which ends up being a lot of fun.

Visuals--9/10
Well this game boasts about the graphics quite a bit with the use of the Crytek engine, and it backs it up. The city and landscapes look great, as do the soldiers around you. It has impressive graphics, but to say that they are the best on console is a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

Length--10/10
This game has one of the longer campaigns of any shooter that I've played. On more difficult settings, the story will take you about 20 hours to complete. Crysis 2 also has a multiplayer function that is pretty fun, and is comparable to ones like Halo or Call of Duty. With the long campaign and an option to go back and do individual missions, as well as multiplayer, this game has plenty of replayability.

Story--6.5/10
Crysis 2 has a long campaign, but the story isn't all that interesting in my opinion. Half of the time is spent fighting other human soldiers who are out to get you because of the powers of the nanosuit, and the rest of the time you are fighting the alien race known as the Ceph, who is threatening all of humanity. Maybe, its just me, but I think that the humans would be smart enough to team up and fight the aliens that were destroying them. The story has a few minor high points to it, but it doesn't ever really draw you in, so it is a good thing that the action does.

Characters--6.5/10
The characters in this game don't have a ton of personality to them, and the voice work isn't all that great either. This is another game where the protagonist (Alcatraz) never talks, and you can never hear his opinion on things. The ceph don't have voices so you can't really understand their motives or thoughts. The characters you do talk to all have different goals concerning you and your suit, and they try to take you on different missions.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Pros
--fun and addictive gameplay
--pretty environment and landscapes
--a long campaign and fun multiplayer
----------------------------------------------------
Cons
--the game has a slow start
--the story and characters aren't all that great

Overall, Crysis 2 is a fun game is you love FPS and you are looking for a game with great gameplay and the opportunity to approach enemies with a lot of different option. You can go in guns blazing, or you can be stealthy and quiet. I would give the game an 8/10 and it fits in at #24 on my all time list.

Mortal Kombat

Gameplay--8/10
Mortal Kombat returns with the classic 2D style of fighting and it's great. It gives you the feel of playing the old arcade classics once again, including all of the great characters, and original stages to fight in. Fatalities, Babalities, Animalities, they are all here and better than ever. The new X-ray moves are great as well and just entertaining to watch. You have plenty of options to choose from when it comes to fighting including a story mode, the classic ladder tournament, a tag tournament, and some skill testing modes. The only real downfall is the spamming attacks that some characters like to hit you with. Namely Shao Kahn. You can formulate strategies to get around this, but it can be frustrating at times for the average player to deal with him. Also the online matches aren't all that amazing, since everyone you fight just wants to try and use the same move on you repeatedly which gets old real quick. Some matches show a bit a lag, but not too bad.

Visuals--8/10
The visuals look good, about what you would expect from a next gen console. They aren't lacking, but they aren't all that surprising either.

Length--10/10
This game has to get a 10 in this department simply because all of the things that you can do. It will keep you busy for a looong time. Not only are there the modes that I already mentioned, but you have the Krypt, which allows you to unlock new goodies for the characters including different outfits, artwork, etc. and there is the Neckropolis which shows you all of the things that you have collected in more detail and allows you to read character bios and things of that nature.

Story--8/10
The story of this game is basically a recap of the first three MK titles. It may be the same story that we have already heard before, but it is told so well, and in such a refreshing fashion, that you don't really care, and you really get into it. The story also forces you to fight with several different characters, so it tests you and enables you to get comfortable with the fighting styles of many characters, not just your favorite.

Characters--8/10
The characters are the ones that we all know and love already, but the game reminds you of their purposes to the story, and does a good job of explaining their backgrounds and histories.

Music/Sound--9/10
Classic MK music tracks and the brutal sounds return. It's great
----------------------------------------------
Pros
--Fun, classic gameplay with new innovative features
--Plenty of options to last you a long time
--Good storytelling and good use of nostalgia
--Great music and brutal sounds
-----------------------------------------------------
Cons
--Online mode can be frustrating at times

Overall this is a great game and I would give it an 8.5/10, and I'm not really even a fan of the fighting genre, but this is just a fun game to play. This game sits at about #14 on my all time faves

Chrono Trigger

Gameplay--9/10
The gameplay is a blast, classic RPG style with a turn based system, and the battle system is really easy to pick up. The weapon and magic system is very easy to pick up and get used to. You either buy better weapons, find them in dungeons or go on side quests to find some of the best weapons, armor, and accessories the game has to offer, no difficult or dumb weapon crafting etc etc going on here. The magic comes in the form of "Techs" or Techniques, each character has a specific set of techniques that they learn and each character is given an elemental attribute (Lightning, Water, Fire, Shadow, etc) Later in the game dual, and even triple techs can be used by different party members to create combos and dish out large amounts of damage. There is plenty to do as it is an open world game, and you gain the ability to travel through time relatively early in the game. The game also gives you the feature of a new game+ system which is one of the best things in gaming in my opinion.

Visuals--7/10
This was kind of hard to rate considering how old the game is, and some people may be big fans of anime and enjoy the dragon ball Z look of the game, however it was neither great nor a hinderance for me, so I gave it a score right in the middle considering that it looks good for the time that it was released.

Length--8/10
I felt like the main story of the game was a tad short (around 16 hours or so), but with all of the sidequests and the new game+ feature, you have some good opportunities to put in some more hours of gameplay and the replayability of the game is good considering there are multiple endings one can achieve through the new game+ system.

Story--10/10
Truly unique for its time, this story really takes you on a roller coaster, it isn't confusing, and it draws you in with some plot twists and exciting moments. One of the best stories in gaming, it is easy to see why Chrono Trigger is such a revered game. The idea of traveling through time to change the future is unique and innovative for the time that the game came out, and to this day, hasn't been replicated as well as Chrono Trigger did it.

Characters--8/10
Almost all of the characters in Chrono Trigger are likable and they all play some sort of role in the story of the game. The characters function so much better in this game than they do in the game sequel, Chrono Cross. The only real downfall is that you don't ever learn a ton about the protagonist, Crono. He is basically there to represent the player in the game, but the rest of the characters have good backstories and fleshed out personalities.

Music/Sound--8/10
Great music, classic feel to it, and some great tracks to go along with it (Frog's theme) is a great one.

----------------------------------------------------
Pros
--A great battle system that is fun and easy to pick up
--New Game+ system will keep your attention for multiple playthroughs
--A unique story that sucks you in and keeps you playing for hours
--Fun and interesting characters
--Music you will love to listen too
------------------------------------------------------------
Cons
--Main story is somewhat short
--Not enough information is given to Crono's character
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall, this game is a blast and one that shouldn't be missed, I urge any fans of the RPG genre to play this game as it is one of the classics. I would give the game a 9/10, and it is currently my #13 game of all time.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay to Deus Ex is the best part of the game, and it is what brings you back to playing the game over and over again. The game is meant to be played as a stealth styled cover shooter, however you can take a lot of different paths to finishing a mission. You and not kill a single person, and finish a mission, or you can go in and take out as many people as you want. Hacking computers is something you do a lot of in this game, and I found the hacking to actually be fun, as it is a small mini game in itself. The other big positive to gameplay are your dialogue choices, and your decisions on how you want to augment yourself. You have a ton of different skills that you can choose to unlock, and this allows the player to mold your character into someone that fits your playing style. This was the best aspect of the game in my opinion. The one downfall that keeps the gameplay from getting a score of 10 are the loading screens. Anytime you go to a new area, the loading screen comes up, and they are painfully long, and annoying.

Story--8.5/10
The story behind Deus Ex is very solid and entertaining. The story focuses around Adam Jensen, who is the head of security for a large augmentation creation company. After an attack on Sarif headquarters nearly kills Jensen, and the rest of the scientists at the building, Jensen must undergo augmentations to survive. He becomes stronger and more resilient, and now he is on a mission to find who was behind the attack, and what it is they want. The story has plenty of twists and turns to keep you on your seat, but unfortunately, I still had a few unanswered questions after the game. A lot of sidequests also provide good backstory to the universe of Deus Ex.

Length/Replayability--9.5/10
Simply put, there is a ton to do in Deus Ex, and it will keep you busy for weeks. One playthrough with sidequests included will take you approximately 30 hours or so, and there are four possibel endings to the game, which provide you more opportunities to play the game. Other reasons to continue to play the game are the different ways you can tackle objectives, or the different combinations of augs you can decide to upgrade.

Visuals--7/10
I wasn't really impressed with the visuals of Deus Ex. The character models seemed stiff and facial animations didn't have a lot going for them. The environment looked a lot of the same, the game plays off the theme of black and gold for it's color scheme, and this is cool for a while, but after that, it starts to get to dreery and kind of bland. Most of the environments are too dark, there is never a sense of day or night, and I just thought that the visuals could have been sharper given this generation of game engines.

Characters--7.5/10
The characters in Deus Ex are slightly above average, you don't get too much info on supporting characters such as David Sarif, Frank Pritchard, or Megan Reed. They could have done a better job of fleshing out these characters and providing a more dynamic backstory for them. Adam Jensen(the protagonist) and Faridah Malk are the two characters in the game that I felt like I learned the most about, but one problem with Jensen's character is the voice acting. He sounds like Christian Bale from Batman, and his voice never changes, it just seems a bit too gruff all the time. I didn't have a problem with any of the other VA's in the game, but then again, it is Jensen's voice you hear the most, so they should get it right.

Sound/Music--8/10
The sounds and main theme of Deus Ex, fit it perfectly, and add to the gameplay of the game, they mix very well, and the main theme is a memorable piece on it's own.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pros
--Some of the best gameplay in a game to date
--Fun ways to exploit different options of gameplay
--Augmentations make gameplay that much better
--Solid story with some good plot twists
--Great length and replayability possibilities
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cons
--Visuals could have been better
--Jensen's poor voice acting
--Loading screens can be annoyingly long
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall, Deus Ex is a blast to play, and if you can get over a few minor flaws, this could be one of the best games you have played in a long time. I enjoyed this game much more than I thought I would, and I don't usually like stealth based games. There is a lot of opportunities for the player to make their own decisions on how they want to play the game, and that is what makes it so fun. I would give this game an 8.5/10 overall, and somewhere in my top 20 favorite games of all time.

Singularity

Gameplay: 9/10
This is the highlight of Singularity. If you are a fan of FPS games, or if you are a fan of Bioshock's gameplay, you will probably love the gameplay of Singularity. Their are a lot of different weapons you get to use throughout the campaign, and each one of them has its own qualities that make it fun to use. Two of my favorite weapons are the Dethex Launcher (which allows you to guide a grenade and choose when it explodes) and the Seeker rifle, which allows you to guide the bullet after you shoot it, which is a lot of fun. Their are some small, simple puzzles scattered throughout the game, but nothing that slows down the pace or is too difficult. Fans of the Bioshock series are used to using plasmids in combat, well in Singularity you get to use a device known as the TMD, which has a seperate set of abilities you can use. This device lets you age your enemies to dust, shoot out an impulse of energy, lift devices off of the ground and launch them, and some other fun things. Singularity also has a multiplayer function to the game, but I was never able to experience much of it, since their isn't anybody in the lobbies, so it is hard to say just how good it is.

Visuals: 7/10
The visuals are about what you would expect from a next gen console. They work, but they aren't anything special, or anything that you haven't seen before. A lot of the environments look similar, and I don't remember anything that was awe inspiring.

Story: 7/10
The story backing this game isn't bad, but it isn't anything special either. It has a solid foundation, but the game never really uses it to its full potential. You play as a Spec Ops agent for the U.S. military, and you have been sent to inspect a secret research facility owned by the Russians known as Katorga-12. It turns out that there is a new element that has been discovered on the island, known as E-99, and it has had drastic effects on the inhabitants and the surroundings of the island. People have turned into mutants and monsters, and now you are fighting for your life. The story revolves around a group of people trying to help you go back in time and change the past, so that you can fix the future. This is all great, but it get's confusing and there are some plot holes, not to mention that you never learn much about the protagonist.

Characters: 7/10
Another average area of Singularity, you play as Captain Renko, but he never speaks in the game, so you don't learn much about his character. Other characters that accompany you in the game include Kathryn and Dr. Barisov, who are both trying to help you go back in time to change the past. We never learn much about Kathryn, other than she is willing to risk her life to help you. Dr. Barisov is probably the most fleshed out character, and even he isn't all that interesting.

Length/Replayability: 7/10
Singularity is your typical FPS with a pretty short campaign. The campaign maybe lasts about 10 hours and you don't have a whole lot of motivation to go through and play the story through again. The game does offer multiplayer, but I was never able to get into any matches because there wasn't enough people online to play, so take that for what its worth.

Sound/Music: 7/10
Some pretty good music that fits the theme and environment of the game. Nothing too exciting, but not poor quality either.
--------
Pros
--Gameplay is a ton of fun
--Variety of weapons and ways to kill your enemies
--Unique style of gameplay that is fun to experiment with
--------
Cons
--Story and characters are average
--Not a lot of reason to go back for a second playthrough
-------
Overall, Singularity isn't a bad game, it is actually a blast to play through once, and you will enjoy the experience. It is just one of those games, that once you do finish it, you won't have too much desire to go back and play through it again. I would highly recommend renting this game and playing through it, but it's not worth a full retail price tag.
***7.5/10***

Gears of War 3

Gameplay: 9/10
I feel like the gameplay for this gears game is about the best it has been throughout the series. There are new weapons, and they feel more balanced as a whole. The cover system is still here as usual, but multiplayer modes feel improved as well, especially horde mode. Horde mode is a blast to play, and you are given money in a system that allows you to upgrade your defenses in between waves now. Other modes include 4 player co-op for the game (a ton of fun), and arcade scoring mode version of the campaign so you can score against your friends, beast mode which allows you to play as the locust against humans, and of course versus mode which includes deathmatch, and capture the leader variants. One minor problem still remains with the gameplay and that is the strength of the shotgun, but that is one of gears' signature weapons.

Story: 8/10
The story is pretty solid, and ties up things nicely, but it also leaves you asking yourself questions and feeling a bit empty. I thought that gears 2 had a much more powerful story, and gears 3 story seemed a bit rushed. You knew the goal early on in the game, and never wandered from that goal. It definitely wasn't bad, but it could have been a bit better.

Length: 8/10
With all of the modes in Gears of War 3, there is plenty to keep you busy and make sure you get your moneys worth, however I felt like the campaign could have been beefed up and longer. With 50 waves of horde, 12 waves of beast mode, and unlimited amounts of matches in versus mode however, you have plenty to keep you busy.

Visuals: 9/10
Definitely the best looking gears game to date. The environments are more open in this game, not a lot of the same greys and browns that inhabited the previous two titles. Also, the previous gears games consisted of a lot of smaller corriders or buildings, whereas Gears 3 takes advantage of the openness and allows you to explore a bit more, you are never stuck in one area for too long, and you will enjoy all of the different scenery, especially the underwater battle scene you will have to endure during the campaign.

Characters: 7/10
This was the weakest part of the game in my opinion. Two new characters are added to the cast as Sam and Jace, but they never really seem to serve much of a purpose except for assisting in battle. Another disappointment is that Carmine is given enough attention, and as someone who loves his character, that was a letdown. You don't learn much more about the original characters except for Marcus' dad, and he isn't a playable character.

Sound/Music: 8/10
Music is great and fits the setting well
----------------------------
Pros
--Great gameplay that fits the gears series perfectly
--Addictive online play with a ton of options including fun co-op
--One of the better looking games to date
----------------------------
Cons
--Story seemed to be missing something
--Campaign could have been longer
--Some characters weren't fleshed out enough and didn't seem useful to the story
---------------------------
Overall this game is still a blast, and if you're a gears fan, you will enjoy it, if not, then you won't. Multiplayer is the highlight of the game, especially the co-op campaign, but as an overall package, I think I may like Gears 2 just a bit better. **8.5/10** (number 23 all time on my list)

Rage

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay for Rage is the highlight of the game. It is a FPS, similar to Borderlands, and loot is used to help create items that help you along the way. You can create different types of ammo, sentry bots or turrets, wingsticks (which are bladed boomerangs) using materials that you find in the wasteland. The wingsticks are a blast to use, and a lot of the guns are pretty fun too, especially with some of the different ammo types. Rage also offers races that although they aren't all that competitive, it is a nice little addition to the game. There are also mini games that can be fun to play including five finger filet, a card game, a dice game, and others. The multiplayer function of Rage includes racing and some seperate co-op missions. These are both mediocre additions to the game, and aren't anything too great. Another negative would be the long load times in Rage, and sometimes the game can cause your 360 to overheat. The PS3 version of Rage MUST be downloaded onto your hard drive to be played.

Story: 6/10
There really isn't much story to talk about here. You are a soldier who was cryogenically frozen before a meteor hit the Earth and destroyed most of it. You have been awoken to the new Earth which is a wasteland, and suddenly you must learn to survive in it. The protagonist doesn't speak, and you do a lot of chores for a lot of different people.

Length: 7/10
After the first 11 hours of Rage, and just finishing the first disc, I thought that the game had a lot to offer, however the second disc was only four hours or so, so maybe 15 hours total of playtime. That was disappointing, and sure there is multiplayer, but it isn't great and you won't stick around for that for too long. Another problem is that once you have played through the game once, there isn't too much of a reason to go back and play the game again.

Visuals: 10/10
There is no doubt about it; Rage is one of the best looking games on console to date. The environments look great, and so do the characters, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the game is great.

Characters: 7/10
The characters are forgettable in this game. The protagonist doesn't have much of a character since he doesn't talk, and the rest of the characters aren't around long enough to make much of an impact on the game. You run around from NPC to NPC and continue to do chores for them. The characters are voiced fairly well however, including one character being voiced by John Goodman.

Sound/Music: 8/10
This category gets a good rating because of the sound effects in Rage. I thought that they did a good job in making moments feel tense and battles feel important, unfortunately the audio did cut here and there during the game, not enough to be a problem, but a minor nuisance.
-----------------
Pros
--Fun, exciting gameplay
--Looks amazing
--Smart AI
-----------------
Cons
--Poor story
--Short length with little replayability
--Average characters
-----------------
Overall, this game was fun for the first 11 hours or so, but it ended in disappointment. If you like Borderlands, I think you would like Rage.
**7/10**

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Gameplay: 8/10
The combat in AA is a lot of fun, and the combos that you can string together make it even more rewarding, Riddler challenges give you collectibles to find and some fun riddles to solve, the only problem is that there is a ton of them, and they get boring to look for after a while. The added gadgets that Batman get as the story progresses improve the combat and provide you with more possibilities to taking down your opponents. AA also gives players who prefer stealth over brute strength some things they can work with as well, including a bat vision which allows you to identify your enemies from afar, and silent takedowns that help you remain unnoticed.

Story: 8/10
The story is solid, and one that a lot of Batman fans would enjoy, it takes place in Arkham Asylum, after Joker has escaped from Batman's grasp and has taken control over the facility, he then threatens Gotham with bombs set up across the city. It is up to Batman to stop him, the only downfall to this is that you are stuck on Arkham Island throughout the game, with limited areas to explore, and the story has very little for twists and turns. Simple.....stop the Joker.

Length: 9/10
This game has a surprisingly long storyline to it, and you get your money's worth simply from that, but you can also spend extra time gathering collectibles and unlocking secrets around Arkham Island that give you more insight into the lore of Batman. There is also Combat Challenges to partake in and you to test your mettle against armies of henchmen and other baddies. This adds to more reason to continue playing the game.

Visuals: 8/10
Not a ton to say here, about what you would expect from this generation of consoles. The only disappointment is that you don't get to see more of Gotham City, but the graphics are clean and smooth along with the character models.

Characters: 9/10
The voices for the cast in this game is great, the voices fit perfectly and bring the characters to life. I think this is one of the great selling points for Arkham Asylum, and true Batman fans will really appreciate just how well done the characters are.
-----------------------
Pros
--Gameplay is fun and easy to get used too
--Get more than your money's worth for play time
--Characters are well voiced and it brings a ton of credibility to the game
-----------
Cons
--Story is straightforward
--Stuck on Arkham Island
------------------
Overall ***8.5/10***

you mean Arkham Asylum?

ya Erel that's arkham asylum,,,,duh

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay in Skyrim is immensely satisfying and there is so much to do in such a vaste world. You can find someone to settle down with, cook some food, make potions, or go battle some dragons and clear some dungeons. The leveling system is great as well. You can play the game however you want (mage, warrior, thief, etc) and the game evolves around you, improving the skills that you use the most, and you are free to change your style of combat at any time, and the game will follow suit. This world is left open for you to explore, but none of feels like a chore like some previous Bethesda games do to me. In past games you might have seen recycled environments with the same enemies and similar treasures, but in Skyrim each area is unique and looks different, and there is always something new to be found. One downfall of Skyrim's gameplay is the occasional bug or glitch. I own the game on X360 and I have encountered dragons that fly backwards, some disappearing environments, and a quest or two that is glitched and I can't finish. Besides the glitched quests, these things aren't too troublesome. The third person outlook is improved from Oblivion which was terrible, but it can still feel a bit awkward, so I prefer to play in a first person view. I have heard more complaints about the PS3 version of Skyrim, so just be aware of that. Also killing dragons is a bit overplayed in this game, since I have killed over 30 dragons now. Other good notes about Skyrim's gameplay is that map markers help you find locations all over the world so you don't get lost, and each questline is different and has its own story.

Story: 8/10
Story has never been one of Bethesda's strong points, but Skyrim does a much better job than some of the past titles. The main questline is entertaining and most of the guild questlines are solid as well. I for one, enjoyed the Companions questline as well as the daedric quests the best. The only problem with the stories is that they are all interesting, but not that deep and by the time you are really getting into it, the story is over.

Length/Replayability: 10/10
There isn't much to be said here, playing Skyrim can easily net you 150 hrs of playtime on the easiest difficulty setting. If you are looking for a game you can get entrenched into for a couple months, this is it.

Visuals: 8/10
Some parts of Skyrim look great, while others look just ok, but that is something to be expected with a game so large. Environments change and skylines look beautiful, especially as Skyrim shifts from day to night or from dry to rain to snow. Characters and creatures look much improved, and the only flaws to be seen are when you approach structures up close such as mountains or buildings, and they appear blocky with sharp edges. Overall, probably the best looking Bethesda game I have played however.

Characters: 8/10
So many characters fill the world of Skyrim, some of them memorable, some of them not so much. The disappointing part is that there isn't really one character that stands out above the rest that everyone will remember for decades to come, rather there are a bunch of very solid, well voiced characters that make the world of Skyrim a very believable one. The only part that may get annoying is the repeated text of the guards and townsfolk around Skyrim, ex: "I was an adventurer like you once, until I took an arrow in the knee." I've heard that line maybe 1000 times now.

Sound/ Music: 8/10
I love the battle themes for Skyrim, as well as the music as you travel through the lands, great melodies, and soothing.
-------------------
Pros
--Fantastic gameplay that will keep you coming back for hours at a time
--Over 150 hours worth of exploring to do, if not more, all of it fun
--Solid in every category
------------------
Cons
--Some bugs and glitches can be an annoyance
--Repeated dialogue throughout many of the cities
--Visuals can look blocky up close
---------------------
Overall this game is a blast to play, definitely deserving of the GOTY 2011 title, and is a game that should be played by all RPG fans. This one will go down as a classic, and has so much upside that its flaws can easily be looked past.
**9/10**

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night


Developer: Konami

Platform: PlayStation, PlayStation Portable(PSN) and PlayStation 3(PSN)

Genre: RPG, Side-Scroller

ESRB Rating: T

Release Date: 1997

Overview:
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was the turning point for the popular side-scrolling series of thrilling difficulty. Unlike all the titles before, SotN stars the son of the game's antagonist Dracula, named Alucard. The story takes place 4 years after Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, and opens with a prologue starring Richter Belmont in the final boss battle of the game. After the prologue, the story shifts to four years later as you take control of Alucard, the enigmatic son of Count Dracula. Alucard infiltrates his father's castle in the single attempt to end the tyranny of Dracula, as well as to search for the vampire hunter Richter Belmont, who went missing shortly after vanquishing Dracula previously.

Gameplay - 7/10
Unlike most of the titles on the PlayStation at the time, Symphony of the Night kept the 2D graphics and utilizing the PlayStation's processing power to keep the tradition of side-scrolling action. Most fans noticed that SotN is played very similarly to the older Metroid games, with its map system, save point locations and earning power-ups in random locations, earning it the nickname, "Metroid-vania". However, the game has its own style of using swords, knives, spells, and familiars to attack, making it arguably more difficult than the Metroid series. There are also RPG elements, with shops, level-ups and equipment settings.

In my personal opinion, this is the most enjoyable Castlvania title ever to be released. The gameplay is thrilling, while at the same time, adaquately difficult. Bosses are all unique and exciting, though most of them aren't required to even complete the game. The map of the game may seem intimidatingly huge at first glance, but Alucard has so many skills to pick up by the end of the game, that you'll end up wishing the castle were bigger. The best part about the game, imo, is once you've cleared it once with Alucard, you can enter your name as RICHTER and play through the game the way Castlevania used to be, controlling a Belmont.

Music - 9/10
With the new age of CDs having much higher quality and potential than cassettes or cartridges, the PlayStation was a promise for wonderful music, and SotN did virtually nothing to disappoint. Every soundtrack that plays has a connection with the area or event that it is taking place. Lost Painting and Black Banquet are shining examples of this, with Lost Painting being very serene and soothing in the Inversed Chapel, and Black Banquet in the final boss battle with its intensity and dark atmosphere. The ending theme is nothing but a reward for all the hard work you put into the adventure, and revitalizes you for your next playthrough.

Voices - 2/10 (This is referring to the original PS version, not the PSP remake)
To be fair, voice acting for video games was very new in 1997, and not many actors knew how to portray a character simply through their voice. However, the acting as a whole in SotN is nothing short of unconvincing and above all, hammy. Robert Belgrade and Michael Gough are in particular, the worst voices. Robert Belgrade as Alucard had decent control of his inflection, yet his voice tone and accent were incredibly unfitting of Alucard's nature and upbringing. Michael Gough, to be blunt, simply couldn't voice act, being over the top in inflections and voice tones also unfitting of Richter's nature. Like I said, voice acting was new at the time, but the remake is leagues ahead of the acting in the original PS version.

Visuals - 10/10
The PlayStation was a truly remarkable machine in 1997, and still blows me away with the potential it held. The artist for the project, Ayami Kojima captured each character's personality and backstory perfectly in simple designs. The graphics are top notch for a 2D game, and the movement design for Alucard is particularly breathtaking. The use of 3D animation is used in scenes, and are all phenomenal. The monsters are all unique and most of the time, fearsome to behold, which is the theme held above all else in Castlevania.

General Consensus - 9/10
I can scarcely imagine a better game to have on your dusty, old PlayStation other than Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Everything from beginning to end is either to leave you in awe, or excitement.

Catherine- PS3/360

Yeah, a horror/errotic puzzle game!
...wait, what the fuck did I just say?

Story: You play Vincent Brooks, a lazy bar rat who thinks life is perfect as it is. He's got a boring job that doesn't expect much of him, enough money to pay the rent and get some rum and cola at his favorite watering hole. But his girlfriend, Katherine, wants commitment causing Vincent to panic. That night he meets a young girl at the bar named Catherine with a "C". Things got fuzzy and Vincent wakes up the next morning with the girl in his bed. And to top it off, Vincent has been having horrific nightmares where his dreams come true. And it turns out that other men have also been sent to this world, but appear in the form of sheep. Worst of all is if any of them die in their sleep, they die in the real world. Catherine is a very well written story with exceptional characters and plenty of twists. Throughout the game, Vincent tries to keep his life in the perfect balance it was before he started his affair. Depending on the choices you make, Vincent's inner monologue changes fitting to your answers, making him either commited to one of the two women or to break it with both of them. The world and environment of Catherine is not large but there's so much to do in the tiny places that it's hard to experience them all in one playthrough. You keep tabs on your friends at the Stray Sheep, Vincent's favorite bar in town, and make sure they're okay because they too suffer the same dreams. The story is humerous but very deep with great character development for not only Vincent but his pals too. Each character has a great and interesting background and deeply effect their reasons for being in the nightmare world. Saying the right thing in conversations greatly affects the story with 8 possible endings that'll keep you climbing to see them all.

Gameplay: Catherine is an odd puzzle game. The game breaks into 3 areas. First is the cutscenes where Vincent's moral plays. The moral meter has two ends with an angel on one side and a demon on the other. Throughout the game, Vincent is asked important questions that will affect his moral meter. Depending on where it is, Vincent thinks and acts differently greatly affecting the outcome of the story. The second part of the game takes place at the Stray Sheep. There, Vincent boozes up with his buddies and takes place in conversations and texts his lovers. Katherine is always worrying him and wanting to have nice conversations while Catherine sends dirty texts and date plans. His pals also affect the story because not helping with their issues will cause them to die in the nightmares. Also, drinking is an option and it actually helps Vincent in the long run.

The third part of the game is where the puzzle takes place. After Vincent passes out, he wakes up in the Nightmare world only wearing his boxers and rams horns. There Vincent must scale large walls of blocks to reach the next goal before the stages collapse on him and he falls to his death. The puzzles are extremely challenging, with an unreal difficulty even when playing on easy. Vincent must scale these towers by moving blocks to create stairways to the goal. Different blocks act differently such as cracked blocks break after stamding on them too many times, black blocks are very heavy and take more time to move, trap blocks like bombs cause other blocks surounding them to become cracked and so on. You rack up your score by being very fast and scaling for long periods of time without stopping. These give you a trophy indecating the level you play at. Once at the top, Vincent can talk to his sheep friends and learn and give advide on climbing the walls. Then, you visit the altair where you are asked one question that greatly moves your moral meter on one side or the other. Boss stages involve scaling without being too slow because these nightmarish creature have special skills to knock Vincent down. One huge issue however is the very poor camera when your playing the puzzles. Some areas require you to move back a row to avoid falling blocks and you can't see causeing many frustrating deaths. The puzzles also are very bland looking. Recycled blocks used over and over. Sure the background changes with each night's puzzle but not enough to forgive. Also, some of the moral questions kinda suck. Those who want to experience the Katherine or Catherine ending will get annoued at the answers of questions because some don't make sense if they're about commitment or freedom. But the puzzles are fun and challenging, so those who love a challenge will love the pizzles.

Presentation: Catherine is wonderful with greatly characterized people, great cell shading, wondeful animated cutscenes and a phenominal voice cast that will draw plays in. The voiceacting is fantastic with a well written localized that make the characters so much more fleshed out than other story driven games. Troy Baker leads as Vincent and does a terrific job making a voice that is very suiting for the character and the character arcs he goes through shed light on each of Vincent's sides which Baker gets down perfectly. Michelle Ruff plays the cold and sometimes bitchy Katherine. She's got a commanding tone that gets the player's attention but also has a very sweet and nurturing side to know how much Vincent means to her. Catherine is played by Baker's real life wife, Laura Bailey, who is very bubbly and fun but also crazy and manipulative. The supporting cast is great too but the Narrator will drive you nuts since he never stops talking EVER. The musical score is also very catchy and pleasing to listen to. With techno/rock remixes of Beethoven and Mozart as well as original tunes that have a flair of j-pop but not enough to scare away people who hate that style of music. It fits the scenes and levels well. The art style is sleek and fun to look at. It also tries hard to avoid stereotypes of anime character wear aside from the very horney Catherine. Everyone looks like they fit well in the world but also have a cartoonish style that helps drive the wicked sense of humor and the horror the game has to offer. Bosses are huge and disfigured with fucked uo shapes and weaponry that'll terrify anyone from Chainsaw weilding babies to horrifying butt monsters, they're horrifying to look at but suit the levels and moments of the game.

In the end, Catherine dared to be something different. With a great story and characters, the game sucks you in. The puzzles however will scare off most players for their unreal difficulty and recycled areas but the challenge is fun and the want to continue the story makes the puzzles a bit more epic.

+Great Story and Characters
+Challenging
+Great presentation
+Fun Multiplayer
+Tight Controls
-Stale gameplay
-Moral Questions are fucking stupid sometimes
-Awful Camera

8.2/10

Batman: Arkham City

Gameplay: 9/10
The gameplay in AC is awesome. I love the fact that you start out with all of the gadgets you had at the end of AA. Too many sequels make you have to go and reacquire everything that you had in the first game like you just magically lost it. The riddle challenges add some extra flavor to the game if you're someone who like puzzles or collectibles. I'm not really into either, so I didn't care much about them. The battle challenges in the game are also a nice touch even though I didn't play them much either. AC gives you plenty of options for gameplay and the core of the game includes plenty of sidequests that you can venture off into as well. The Catwoman addition was nice, and provided you with her own style of combat and perks. Probably the biggest improvement in gameplay from AA to AC is just the fact that Arkham City is open to you and you can go anywhere you want to for the most part.

Story: 8/10
The story for AC was solid. It could have been a bit more imaginative, but its saving grace was all of the backstory involved with a multitude of villains including Mr. Freeze, Poison Izy, Two Face, and Penguin, just to name a few. I still think that AA had the overall better main story, but AC was no slouch either.

Length/Replayability: 9/10
I mentioned this earlier in the gameplay section, but once again you can play Arkham City for hours upon hours. The main story should take you anywhere between 15 to 20 hours, and then you have all of the side quests that you can branch off and do. If you like collectibles, there are a ton of riddler challenges to tackle, and you have the battle challenges that return from Arkham Asylum. If you are a true fan of Batman and this series, this game could keep you busy for months.

Visuals: 8/10
Pretty much what you expected. Arkham City looked great, and there isn't a huge difference between Arkham Asylum and AC from what I could tell. To put it simply, it looks good. It doesn't blow you away, but you aren't disappointed either, the landscape and the city were artfully crafted and look just the way they should.

Characters: 9/10
Just like with Arkham Asylum, the characters in AC breathe so much life into this game. The voice actors are fantastic, and the characters are fleshed out and believable. Each one is unique, and has qualities that make you either love them or hate them. People underrate just how much good characters mean to a game, but to me, characters are only second to a great story and fun gameplay. If Arkham City was filled by some no name people to fill the voices of some exuberant characters such as the Joker, then Arkham City might have been a bust, but that isn't the case at all.

Sound/ Music: 6/10
Nothing special to note here, other than it is sometimes funny to drop in on some of the thugs' conversations about Batman and the things going on in the city of Gotham, as you fly overhead.

Pros
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--Fantastic Gameplay with tons of little gadgets to use and fluid combat
--Deep and interesting characters
--Keeps you busy for hours with a lot of replayability and a New Game+ option to challenge you
--An improved sequel of an already great game
Cons
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--No great music tracks
--Main story is good but not great
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Overall Batman: Arkham City is an improvement upon the Arkham Asylum game, and will keep Batman fans coming back for more. Other people should play this game even if you aren't a Batman junkie simply because it is a great game, and a lot of fun to play. This game is the 2011 GOTY runner up in my mind, and provides the player with a lot of fun hours to put into the game. My number 8 favorite game of all time.
**9/10**