CMcCon342

Mother of God this is a fantastic game. Mechanically, it is the best FPS I've ever played. Short of a few story missions that require you to use a direct assault method, the game is as tactical as you want it to be. A lot is made of good IA or bad IA or clever IA, but I'd say this game has the most fun IA I've ever experienced. The games rules work, consistently, all the time. This seems like it should be easy, but almost all other games fail. What I mean in this case is that you can accurately predict the outcome of your tactics and attempts to manipulate the IA and it is incredibly rewarding. If you are 500 yards away from an enemy base with a sniper rifle, you can wreck havok on them. If you are properly concealed by forest or bushes, they will not be able to spot you. I'd say the best comparison I can make for this game is Crysis 1 Just Cause 2, but better. There are a million things to do and all of them feed into XP or equipment, so everything is both fun and rewarding. The gun play, on top of fun IA and stealth options, is spot on as well. I'd give the PC version a 10 and the console version a 9, just because of the framerate (which is poor, but playable). Really, truly the best shooter of this generation. I can't decide if it beats Half-Life 2, since that is a bit of apples vs oranges.

Wow, this game owned my life for about 2 weeks. It would have been more if I hadn't 100%'d it. Some of my all time favorite games are Resident Evil 4, Batman AA, and Uncharted 2 (though the top spots go to Fallout 3 and Half-Life 2). Tomb Raider is basically a mash up of those 3 games. You have the dark mysteries environment with crazy people (RE4), the metroidvania exploration of Batman, and a very healthy dose of Uncharted storytelling and high impact, but controllable moments. I actually LOVED the combat in this game, it is a little loose, but hits that sweet spot of controlled chaos. Constantly upgrading weapons and equipment and lots of collectibles only fueled my addiction. Easily one of my favorite games of this generation, a culminations of a lot of the best game design that has evolved in the last 5 years. Play it!

Loved it! More Dishonored! I've completed every achievements (so I did a violent high chaos run and then a perfect stealth run). It is definitely more challenging than the original game for a perfect stealth run. They have a lot more scenarios where you'll have to figure out a way to drop 3 or 4 men all standing next to each other. A very tricky thing to do. It was very satisfying to solve "the puzzle" of it. If you were a big fan of Dishonored, this is a no brainer. I'm taking off 1 point for the story. It is not as direct and easy to follow as the main game, but this DLC is all about the gameplay and it doesn't disappoint.

A surprisingly enjoyable 5 hour experience. This game is clearly a budget clone of the Arkham series (especially Asylum), but that doesn't make it bad. The combat is rather excellent in fact. The story is simple, but it holds together and gives you a reason to keep moving forward. The game fails to capitalize on its semi-open world (more like semi-open castle place), but they comes down to 2 things that I'm sure would have been improved with more budget and time. 1) The environmental design leaves a lot to be desired. Lots of re-used assets that were boring to look at the first time you saw them. 2) They have jammed so many meaningless collectibles into the environment it is almost funny (if it wasn't sad). I can't blame the developer, in fact, I commend them. The game is good fun. They clearly picked their priorities with a limited budget and I'd guess they accomplished 90% of what they set out to do (knowing it was a move tie-in game). I can't think of a better movie tie-in game actually. I'd probably compare this to the Wolverine game that came out with the first Wolverine movie, but I probably enjoyed Captain America more.

Certainly has one of the best told stories in video game history and the world is incredible (imagine a Pixar world that has gone horrible wrong). I'd say the game is near perfect, but the combat, while vastly improved upon compared to the original BioShock, is still shy of fantastic. It feels splashing, chaotic, and arcade-ish. As many options as you have, the game never feels tactical. This is likely because there is literally no stealth element at all. Not that every game needs stealth, but being able to engage enemies and then evade and flank, etc. is part of the best shooters (Crysis 1, the Halo series, Far Cry 3). It is still excellent, but it is the story and setting that will stick with me for a very long time, not the gameplay.