DME

A well put-together platform game with some intricate mechanics and a high skill ceiling. Levels that initially seem very long and difficult will seem shorter and easier with each re-run. An excellent choice for speedrunners.

The online mode is a lot of fun, especially with friends. But the solo modes are nothing but a bunch of awfully boring and tedious time trials. The game just feels empty and lifeless. Also, there is no split-screen multiplayer, which is disappointing.

One of the worst Zombies maps in the entirety of the series. Once the neat and familiar aesthetic wears off, you're left with a tiny map offering little room for strategy. Just head to one of the two available backyards and run in circles for hours. There's no traps, no unique events, no special weapons, and just... no variety.

Borderlands 2 is a beautiful, content-filled game, with plenty of intelligent design decisions, interesting characters, and a lot of variety. I normally don't like RPGs (Skyrim included) due to their extreme complexity and overwhelming amount of stuff. Borderlands 2, however, somehow manages to be just as complex without ever being overwhelming. And of course, the game is just plain FUN. You can tell that the developers put a lot of thought and care into the making of the game. (Disclaimer: I have never played the original Borderlands, so I can't compare the two games. Also, keep in mind, everybody will have a different experience depending on who they play with. Online play with randoms seems disastrous and solo play feels lonely and limited. I played through the game in offline splitscreen mode with a buddy. We only played with each other and neither of us ever played without the other. I do believe this was the best way to experience the game.)

The graphics and environments are great. The story is excellent, so long as you have the mind to make sense of it (it increasingly becomes more complicated). However, the ending to the story, while satisfying, just wasn't paced very well. The combat is a lot of fun, especially with the SkyHook. Unfortunately, though, you're restricted to being able to carry only two weapons at a time, which I believe was a poor design choice. Weapon and Vigor upgrades are useful, but unimaginative. Now, the most damning part of the game is frequent moments when your immersion is broken, due to contrived character behaviors. For example, Elizabeth will have an emotional scene where she is very angry and confused, but then suddenly become happy again the moment the scene is over. It also bothered me how a lot of unimportant NPCs many times don't acknowledge you. They just ignore you as you loot drawers and trashcans and jump up and down in front of them. You can't interact with them very much, and I feel it takes you out of the game. Also, the whole concept of "stealing" in the game was implemented horribly. Nobody bats an eye if you raid their desks and cabinets, but if you grab a certain item that the game decides is not okay, then suddenly 50 people start mowing you down with guns (because apparently, stealing is punishable by death). But problems aside, Bioshock Infinite is a really awesome game, but it's just far from perfection. If you can look past its faults, you can really enjoy this title.

Apart from some bad dialogue and unfitting drama, Bulletstorm is a great deal of fun. It's very unique and just a blast to play, all due to some very intelligent design decisions. For one, you can reload while you attack or run, which keeps an empty clip from stopping the action. You also have a variety of quirky weapons, similar to weapons found in the Ratchet-&-Clank series. The arcade points you get are used as currency rather than just "score" to be posted on leaderboards. The campaign is varied, environments are interesting, and the game also throws some cool boss battles into the mix, too. Due to the arcade nature of the game, the campaign also has a good amount of replay value. I can see myself going back to play it a second or third time, increasing the difficulty level. Anyway, Bulletstorm won't teach you anything worthwhile and you aren't going to be a smarter individual for playing it, but it sure as hell is FUN.

"Absolution" is a great game, but it's certainly not the Hitman game many were expecting. It plays a lot more like the Splinter Cell series. The game is much more polished then previous Hitman games, with almost zero glitches and bugs to be found. It controls wonderfully, too. Even though I much preferred the freedom of the previous entry "Blood Money", I found that I could not go back to it after experiencing the huge technical advancements that "Absolution" has over it. The levels are very well designed (except for a couple) and there are plenty of ways to achieve your goals. The levels are smaller and less interesting than the levels of "Blood Money", but they are still well designed. If you like the idea of a more cinematic experience and welcome some major changes, then you'll certainly have a lot of fun with this game. I know I did.

It's more of an interactive movie than a video game. But, if you're okay with that, it has an excellent story and great voice acting. Lots of cool moments and it's especially interesting to see how your choices affect them. The only flaw I found in this game is it's persistent framerate drops during cutscenes. (In other words, the animations lag a lot).

Retribution is by no means revolutionary, but rather a solid competitive shooter, completely balanced and free to play. People crying "pay to win!" have no idea what they're talking about. The game is fast-paced, polished, and fun to play. However, Blacklight does suffer from one major problem. Patches to the game are ridiculously huge and take upwards of 10 hours to download. Worse yet, you can't pause the update in the middle of the process.

Yes, it's similar to past Call of Duty games. But what do you expect... disco dancing and magic abilities? The [

In short, MW3 is a solid game, but not as good as Black Ops. The campaign isn't memorable and multiplayer has it's ups and downs. The survival mode, however, is a lot of fun.

Slender fills you with relentless fear with it's creepy atmosphere and setting. However, the game lacks replay value as the horror elements quickly become less haunting and the actual gameplay is rather boring.

BioShock is one of the greatest single-player games I've ever experienced. It's not quite as good as Half-Life 2, but it's up there. I played BioShock with a wired Xbox 360 controller so I can't comment on the PC controls, which many reviewers have complained about. The game has a few annoyances, though. The lip-syncing for the Little Sisters is atrocious. The actions of refilling EVE and reloading weapons both use the same key, which may cause you to randomly throw away precious EVE when you meant to reload. Death doesn't punish you, because damage dealt to enemies remains persistent between lives. And the last annoyance I have with BioShock is how the game likes to screw everything up when you try to minimize it or switch windows while it's running on your computer. Apart from those four problems, BioShock is very engrossing. Great narrative and voice-acting, great level-design, varied gameplay, and awesome atmosphere. I even liked how the game kept ammunition and supplies very scarce. It forces you to conserve what you have and think before you act. All-in-all, I highly recommend BioShock,

It could of been spectacular. Unfortunately, this game lacks much polish. But, it's still a lot of fun. Cops are much more aggressive than the original Hot Pursuit. As a result, chases are very exciting. Spike strips, armored police cars, SWAT trucks, and road blocks are all present. Races are fast, intense, and challenging. There's plenty to do, the city is designed well, and graphics look nice. Soundtrack is varied, with rap, rock, alternative, and electronic selections. The new EasyDrive menu allows for quick destination selections and vehicle modding. No, you cannot modify the look of your car, but you can modify it's performace (no fine tuning, though). As for the game's flaws... The mini-map is useful for evading pursuits, but it's just awful for navigation. I've ended up taking wrong turns plenty of times due to the fact that the routes I was supposed to take appeared on the mini-map too late. And if you take a wrong turn during a race, you're pretty much screwed and will have to restart. In cop chases, crashing doesn't end the chase (and it shouldn't), but respawning is so unpredictable. It can either screw you over or give you an unfair advantage. Sometimes you'll pick up right from the spot you crashed and sometimes you magically teleport far away from the group of cops that were chasing you. But here's my biggest complaint: Getting busted doesn't do anything. You can have an intense 30 minute pursuit and then finally get trapped, but it doesn't even matter. There's no consequences. You just respawn in another area and get to continue the game without any punishment. That's annoying. Players are better off letting the cops pull them over because the pursuit will end quicker and there's no punishment for it. Two other flaws are the game's limited views (third person and bumper only) and lack of manual transmission. Now, while these flaws seem heavy and game-breaking, they really aren't. I experience the same emotions with Most Wanted as I do with Call of Duty: I'm having a lot of fun playing, but at the same time I'm constantly criticizing it.

Reloaded is a good game... It's just a horrible GoldenEye game. For a "re-imagining", this game carry's absolutely no resemblance to the original. No nostalgia at all. They've replaced the original "pick up a gun and add it to your arsenal" style of play and thought it would be a good idea to take away all of the player's health. Yeah, there's loadouts, too instead of searching the map for weapons. The maps themselves are very generic and unappealing. They also have way too many vantage points and feel confined. Multiplayer can still be fun, as long as you've never played Call of Duty before. Cuz if you've been a part of the CoD series, it will be impossible for you to play multiplayer without comparing... And trust me, CoD wins by a long shot. The only redeeming quality of Reloaded (I refuse to call it "GoldenEye") is the Single Player. The Single Player offers entertaining stealth and spy gameplay as well as a fun Special Ops type mode. But even so, it fails to impress.

I bought this game due to the high reviews it's been getting and what a mistake. I hate nearly everything about it. Camera is annoying, the controls feel all wrong, voice acting and cutscenes are laughable, and the animation is poor. And the things is so freaking repetitive... The only redeeming quality I could find was the graphics, which, unfortunately, doesn't work for this game. I want the time and money that I spent on this game back.

Engaging, varied, hilarious, and just plain fun. Even in 2012, Paper Mario still entertains far more than many new releases. The story and dialogue was written exceptionally well and it's turn-based combat system is still unmatched (apart from Paper Mario 2). I found only two flaws in this entire game: The introduction was very boring and you can't save your game after defeating the final boss.

The visuals are beautiful, animations are a lot of fun to watch, and the stereotypical voice acting can be hilarious. And on top of all that, the controls are near-perfect, every battle feels significantly different, and the bonus exhibition challenges will give diehards a run for their money. My Nintendo Wii has been collecting dust on my shelf every since I invested in an Xbox 360, but Punch Out was the game that brought me back. Highly recommended.

Lacks very many features that it's PC counterpart has. Unfortunately, in order for players to play on a world, the world's host must be signed in at all times. This is actually a much bigger deal than most people would think. If you and a whole team of buddies get together and build a huge world, nobody can access it unless the Host player is online. Still, it's a decent port to the Xbox 360 that functions well with few glitches and bugs.

Sandbox-junkies will find a lot to do, but players looking for a game with goals and objectives should steer clear.

It's too short on content for the high price it's asking for and the new graphics aren't anything special. The worst part, though is the lighting effects. Nearly every level is very dim and poorly lit. If you are in a position where you can just buy the original Tony Hawk Pro Skater games, then that's what you need to do. However, if your N64/PS1 is inaccessible now, then you really can't go wrong with this. If you never played the original games, then this game will most-likely hold no value to you and I would not recommend it.

It's fun to free skate, but challenges feel repetitive. If you have a lot of friends with this game, it becomes a ton of fun online. However by yourself, it just becomes a time killer when you are bored with your other games. I can't say a single bad thing about graphics or audio quality, however the music selection could of been better. All in all, Skate 3 is a game I rarely play now, but yet I am reluctant to sell it.

Literally unplayable

Team Fortress 2 has gotten a really bad rep for making some huge mistakes. However, these mistakes have been resolved. All weapons are balanced again, including the unlockable ones. Cosmetics do not drastically change the appearance of a player. Players no longer trade things in the middle of a match and are actually playing objectively now. Spies can no longer attack while invisible. And the biggest part, there's no longer massive updates every week. So you can spend more time playing and less time downloading things. With all these fixes, TF2 is an amazing and deep strategic shooter with lots of content, servers, and players, yet surprisingly remains hacker-free.

The cool thing about Spelunky is its randomly generated levels so that you have a different experience every time you play. The platforming itself is well done and the controls are very responsive. I have yet to die and blame it on the game. But dying is so easy. One careless mistake and it's game over. You have to be constantly aware of your surroundings and plan your every move. There's also a shop in random levels. I initially liked the idea of how you could rob the shopkeeper and have him hunt you down for all future levels to come, but unfortunately this idea was executed terribly. The shopkeeper acts as though you just slaughtered his whole family and bounces around the place like an idiot firing his shotgun the second he sees you. There's also a time limit on each level, forcing you to act quickly and make hasty decisions. The graphics are very nice and the audio compliments. Lots of replay value. If you have any interest whatsoever, I highly recommend downloading the demo on XBLA, as it offers a very deep experience for a trial.

Homestar fans will be pleased to an extent, but all the sarcasm and witty humor can't save a game that is just plain boring. All you do is walk around the place doing small tasks. This would be perfectly acceptable if only the tasks felt redeeming. The story itself is disappointing. It's simply about one character (Marzipan) throwing a party and Strong Bad not getting invited. However, the humor is enough to make me want to see what's in Episode 2, so I'll see if that's any better.

If you ever have the misfortune of coming in contact with Drake, please do whatever you can to get rid of it. But, please have a heart and don't sell it or even give it away for free. This isn't a video game, people. This is torture.

Very nice graphics and a near-flawless combat system make this one of the best fighting games for the 360. Unfortunately, there is a lot of repetition and a stubborn camera. Also, the game is not for casual players. You have to be a devoted and competitive player to get the best experience out of NG2... And don't you dare play on the easy difficulty.

While a load of fun, the lack of mid-mission checkpoints really kills it. Some of the missions are pretty long and to have to start all over because of one stupid mistake really ruins it. Also, the A.I. can be really dumb sometimes. Not "dumb" as in easy, but "dumb" as in "lacking intelligence". On the very first mission, I was supposed to take a crate of baking soda into a room. I brought it past a guard who made sure I had the crate before I could enter the next room. I then entered the room and put the crate down. I decided to leave the room, like the guard expected me to. Then I turned around and went back in and the guard suddenly pulled out his gun asking me where the crate is. Really? I just put the crate down in the room you let me enter 30 seconds ago. Long story short, he killed me over a crate of baking soda.

Half-Life 2 was one of the greatest games I have ever played. It's very diverse, immersing, interesting, and just plain fun. One of the coolest things about it was the way you could manipulate the environment in crazy ways to complete your tasks. Unfortunately, the game has one drawback. It has an appalling ending. But, everything leading up to the ending is such a blast, it's forgivable.

I was severely in love with this game when it first came out, but my opinions have changed since then. First off, speech is WAY too repetitive. You will often here the same lines repeated 10-15 times in a single match. Another problem is you can't create landscapes like you could in Open Warfare 2. Single-player is mildly entertaining but nothing special. It's a fun game, but it will grow stale after a while

Portal 2 is one of those games you will remember for years to come. It's quite simply a masterpiece. The voice acting is perfect and the dialogue is downright hilarious. There's also plenty of eastereggs scattered throughout the game and a very challenging cooperative mode. The only downfall is the retail price. If that's the problem, then rent it or borrow it. One cannot simply pass this game up.

RotMG feels very simple at first, but there's a pretty good amount of depth buried within. Pros include permanent deaths, exploration, trading, balanced classes, challenging dungeons, and assortment of items. Only cons are the fact that it's difficult to tell how valuable an item is without playing the game for a long time, and you can expect some lagging (some days there's no problem and other days it's borderline unplayable). But overall, it's a smart, charming, and awesomely addictive game. I'll be spending a lot of time with it. [Steam version]

Story mode is too short and incredibly cheesy, with bad voice acting. The live-action was cool, though. The one-car-per-character thing was dropped and that was a huge disappointment. There's also a shortage of characters as well. I was expecting them to screw up the helicopter's controls, but the developers pulled it off really well. But, I did have lots of fun playing splitscreen coop and deathmatch (lots of customization) and the online multiplayer was well balanced and lots of fun. There's plenty of maps, although they aren't as memorable as older ones. And original soundtrack was replaced with real licensed music (which I personally didn't like). Control system is a lot better than previous games and I especially like the D-Pad being used for special attacks. But even with all of these negative points, I still felt the same excitement I did with the older Twisted Metal games and became addicted fast. One of the game's strongest points is variety in game modes, include death races, boss battles, etc. It's definitely worth playing if you have a splitscreen partner to join in, but may not be as much fun by yourself.

If you don't care for the 4 classic maps, then this is a tad harder to recommend. But do keep in mind that Moon is an incredible map that is bigger and more complex than all others. There are loads of new features and it's a beast of a map if you are a zombies fan.

The campain was nothing short of epic. It had a great story, interesting characters (Reznov was my favorite), and plenty of variety. Zombies is back and better than ever. But it has it's letdowns... No highscores for offline or private match play. So if I get to round 42 on Solo, nobody is gonna believe me unless I take a picture of the TV screen and show it to them in person. It also takes to long to find a match for Zombies. But Kino Der Toten is an instant classic and the dialogue (while repetetive) is hilarious. What's left? The heart and soul of Call of Duty... multiplayer. I am happy to say that Black Ops has the best multiplayer of any CoD game I've ever played. Everything (well, mostly everything) is balanced. Perks are well thought out. Weapon choices and attatchments are good. The sniper rifles are no longer over-powered. My only gripe is the FAMAS. The FAMAS is the most popular weapon because it is too accurate for the damage is does. Take away two bars of accuracy from the FAMAS and all weapons are balanced. Private Matches can be customized to a surprising extent. Maps are exceptionaly designed, but sometimes visualy-unappealing. And the 4 new Wager Match modes delivered even more fun. Killstreaks are better, but I wish there was more interactivity with some of them (eg. Attack Helicopters and Attack Dogs). I also wish we had the Predator Drone back. But the best thing about multiplayer is that Treyarch is keeping the place clean of hackers (yes, you may stumble upon one or two). The game is free of glitches (due to frequent updates), and has fast matchmaking. Overall, you can't go wrong with Black Ops. This really feels like a great end to the CoD series. But we all know Activison won't stop until they lose their customers. And after this, I don't think it will be happening soon.

Terrible graphics, watered-down gameplay, pathetic crashes, and collision problems and glitches make this the worst Burnout in the series. The new game mode 'Pursuit' is nothing more than Road Rage with only one opponent. And Single-Card multiplayer is seriously boring, as there is no traffic or AI and you can only race on one track. The music in the game is tolerable but very limited. Reviewer "Mike S." says it all. I'm returning this and buying Mario Kart.

Drive-In is fun in private matches but not as much online. Hangar 18 does well all-around and sems to remain awesome through every time of game mode (haven't tried CTF, though). Silo is my favorite. It's very large and there are a ton of places to explore. It delivers great games of TDM and S&D. The last map, Hazard, is awful. Sorry Treyarch, but i hate Hazard so much. It is my least favorite map in the entire Black Ops game. It's too open and it seems that there is a lot of spawn-killing (obviously from distances). And it doesn't work well for snipers because there is no where to hide. I can see people liking this map, but I personally don't. As for Shangri-La, this is my favorite zombies map of the three DLC. I love the scenery and overall design. And the Time Travel Will Tell achievement actually gives you a worth-while reward for playing through. The Napalm Zombie is awesome because you can either fall to its might, or use him as an advantage. The Shrieker managed to be different without being boss-like. The only problem I have is this map isn't as big as the others. Overall, it's a pretty good map pack. However, I'm not so sure if it's better than First Strike. But it is better than Escalation.

Stockpile is terrible, Zoo is decent, and Hotel and Convoy are excellent. Then we have Call of the Dead, which is easily the best part of the map pack. This would have gotten a higher score if it wasn't for the $15 price mark. This is worth $10, no higher.

It's shocking to see so many unfair, negative reviews. Most people seem to base their reviews only on the online multiplayer. While important, it isn't everything. Modern Warfare 2 delivered a pretty good campaign. It's a bit linear and the story is full of holes, but the action is non-stop and there is plenty of variety. The Special Ops mode is the sweetest part of the whole package. While a bit dull by yourself, it's great fun with a friend or sibling. Then there's the online multiplayer. Everything you love about Call fo Duty is there: Prestiging, upgrades, attatchments, killstreaks, etc... But for some reason I hated MW2 multiplayer. The maps are designed decently well and graphics are very nice, but it's the balance and overall gameplay that seriously sunk my opinion towards it. So, the campaign gets 8/10. Special Ops gets a 9/10. Multiplayer gets a 6/10.

Epic Campain, extremely balanced multiplayer, incredibly deep Forge Mode (even though it is difficult to use), lots of customization for private and offline matches. The only problem I have is that there is hardly anything to buy with the credits you earn besides armor. Reach is awesome fun with friends and decent when alone.

The maps are cool new additions but the fact that both Berlin Wall and Discovery are both snow-levels kind of annoys me. Because if you add Array and Summit... that's FOUR snow-levels in Black Ops. But looking past the scenery, I LOVE Berlin Wall and Kowloon (those are my favorites) Stadium is fun but very grenade-friendly and Discovery is a decent map for any non-deathmatch game. $15 is overpriced for the four maps... luckily for Treyarch, Ascension saves the day. Ascension is a wicked zombie map with new weapons and a more futuristic setting. Love it. So, if you are a Black Ops fan, then please download it. Otherwise you can avoid.

Team Fortress 2 is the only game of the five that I don't really like. Sure, the PC version is freakin' awesome but this XB360 version is definitely not. Portal was awesome and left me disappointed when I found out how short it was (about 4 hours worth) but even so... Half-Life 2 series is the best of the bunch with a great story and great gameplay. The only thing that's not top-notch about HL2 is it's sound effects, which I found poor at times. But don't let the small gripes outweight the incredible package that this game is! $20 is an AMAZING deal for this game. If you like FPS games... The Orange Box is for you.

It's a lot of fun and designed very well. Rockin' graphics, fun special abilities, good sense of humor, awesome multiplayer, etc. The only problem I have with Castle Crashers is that it's extremely repetetive.

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX is definitely a fun turn on the traditional Pac-Man games, but I found it to be a bit over-priced. If you are a Pac-Fan, then by all means... download. The graphics are nice, sound and music are more modern (and not annoying), and gameplay blends old and new together quite nicely. And the developers added one feature that will always be a favorite: Matrix-style slow down right before colliding with enemies.

[MILD SPOILERS] Okay... so you play as a raw, bleeding cube of meat that is trying to rescue a female cube of bandages that was kidnapped by a fetus in a jar wearing a tuxedo... You can see how serious this game is. The levels are short, which is good because you will be consistantly spilling your juices all over the place and having to start over. The game manages to be retro 80s challenging whithout being rediculously impossible. And besides the standard challenges, there are cool bosses, hidden minigames (warp zones) unlockable characters (I love you Gish!) and an entire "dark world" which is the same game you just played only modified to be even more challenging. The game is also filled with hilarious cutscenes (don't you DARE skip them!) and contains other elements of humor. Also, let me say that this game is nothing like "I Wanna Be The Guy". In games like IWBTG, memorization is the key to winning. But in Super Meat Boy, the key to winning is straightforward skill. If you can't win, it's YOUR fault. (like the game N+) Simple as that. So... uhh.... I love meat.

The cop chases are amazing fun, making this game worth a buy. But actual racing is very repetetive. Customization is great, graphics rock, music selection is okay if you like rap. The speed & control on your car is pretty cool. Buy this for the cops! Better than the new Hot Pursuit.

Brilliant! I love it so much I cannot wait to go online. It's challenging, great music, awesome "specials" and sweet, sweet violence. Replay value is very high. Highly recommended.

Mario Party 7 was the highest point of interest for the series. It was probably the best game EVER for GameCube. Following the success comes Mario Party 8, which is a huge disappointment and a waste of time. It's all about luck. If you are in dead last with only 1 or 2 more turns, it's possible to jump all the way to 1st place and vice versa. That ****. There is no skill invlolved! It's all just chance! Nintendo needs to fix the errors that Hudson made and release a memorable ending to the series. Then, NEVER create a Mario Party game again. The minigames were good but most of them were things that have already been done before and getting pretty boring.

Red Steel 2 lacks variety. It's basically the same game all the way through. But even so, I had a ton of fun with it. The motion+ works great. I love the ability to switch from gun to sword and back to gun in seconds! It's cool. The futuristic-desert-western-comic-style graphics are appealing. The only things that I didn't like about this title is the short single player mode and the lack of replay value. Definitly worth renting.