AlekKolchak

After an initial neutral reaction, this game grew on me. It first comes across like a combat version of the "sims," Incredible customization, minimal depth. What bumped it up from a 5 to a 7 was the sense of humor and decent storyline that went into the game. I finished it with a sense of satisfaction and will probably play through again.

More of Tropico 3, but with slightly improved graphics and options. Despite a varied set of objectives, you will end up setting up the same buildings in the same order, like Tropico 2: Pirate Cove. Sound is slightly less memorable: the new Latin music is slightly less upbeat this time, while the Penultimo/Sunny radio show has less clever moments than the Penultimo/Betty Boom banter from T3:Absolute Power. I would recommend this game if you enjoyed Tropico 3 (I did) but the novelty has worn off a little.

Pros: The excellent story and paranoid atmosphere of the original is replicated here, with the benefit of a much improved "metal gear style" combat system. XP rewards for the harder stealth and non-lethal approaches. Cons: Good but not great soundtrack compared to the first. Ending is not as climatic. Unlike the rest of the game, boss fights force stealth or social players into straight combat. The hacking minigame, while originally interesting, becomes repetitive.

Have only played the single player campaign. This is a very worthy sequel to the creative Portal 1. The core of the game is still solving puzzles, but they have added a number of new mechanics. The length is much longer, the storyline is better and the humor is even sharper than the original. The environment is improved beyond the sterile laboratory setting (although you'll still see plenty.) Voice acting by Ellen McClain, Stephen Merchant, and J.K. Simmons deliver some excellent and memorable lines. Cons: not much. The experiments occasionally become repetitive, while the new game mechanics- gels and light constructs- do not seem to be used to their full advantage. Level design outside the test chambers occasionally becomes confusing, a trade-off of Valve's tendency for realistic level design. Although you might get tired of the puzzles, this time around you'll keep playing for the dialogue and story.

In a time when the gaming industry is becoming more and more dominated by developers unwilling to take risks, this is an independent gem, clever and inspired. The best way to describe it is "lego world," but that does it a disservice. It is simply hard to put a label on the game. You start off in a randomly generated world, no weapons, no items. Your first action will be to punch a tree. From there you have ten minutes of in game daytime before night falls. By that time you should have built a shelter and have torches for light. If you survive your first night, the rest is up to you. You can dig a mile below the earth or build **** up to the clouds. Tools can be shaped to build better tools. You can build waterfalls, glass windows, chests, farm wheat, sugar, cactus, boats, docks, music blocks, switch operated doors and traps, elaborate transportation systems, underwater glass bases, lava pits, gates to hell, skywalks across forests or deserts or snow-covered hills or plains. The world is yours to shape. Just watch out for creepers.

With the fifth series the developers made some radical changes for the civilization series, including some bold new choices. I spent a long time playing the game before commenting as it is difficult to review a classic franchise. The best improvement is the combat system. Combat is now on a hex system. One army per hex. Ranged units can fire from hexes away but are generally weaker from attack, making the organization of your army critical. Non fast units move as fast like scouts in prior game (2 hexes over open ground, 1 hex over rough terrain), which makes terrain important. One bad change, and a baffling design choice, is the UI. In Civ 4 the UI told you everything you needed to know. You could tell how you were doing in points, and could hold your pointer over a resource to instantly know how many you have. No longer, for some reason. Advisors are back, but they only give general advice that most experienced civ players should already know. They are not an adequate replacement for Civ 4's excellent information screens. Cities take much more time to produce both buildings and units. Which means you must be selective about what you build. I can see why this was done, but the effect is that the game feels much slower than its predecessors. Happiness is now an empire wide trait. Instead of having happy and unhappy cities, every city has an equal amount of happiness which rises and falls together. Unfortunately, this means that a game of conquest and annexing conquered cities (which is now much harder, as cities take several turns to fall and can defend themselves with ranged attacks) can cripple your entire kingdom. This also slows down the game. I'd give this game a hesitant recommendation. I would also strongly advise having a very fast hard drive if you wish to play on any map beyond the smallest.

Honestly, Bioware's first bad game and a poor successor to a great first game. All strategy has been taken out of combat, making it a "point and click" game until all waves of enemies are destroyed. The role playing aspect has been cut, leaving the player with only the ability to select one of three dialogue choices: "peaceful, humorous, aggressive." This has no affect on how the game plays out. Environments are rarely as detailed as the first game and are recycled to an amazing degree. Most of the game play is uninspired delivery quests. Loot is random and you cannot equip armor on the other team characters. The main story feels more like an expansion pack. The pros? Good graphics and excellent voice work. Hopefully player created mods will eventually add the content that the developers did not. Still, it is sad to think that EA has purchased and eliminated another creative game company.