Kermie

Tense, thrilling, and scary...Outlast is a fantastic addition to the Run N Hide formula. You can't fight, and the only weapon you have is your smarts. Gameplay is tense and fittingly terrifying, with scary chase scenes and stealth sections to get your heart pumping. There's an incredibly tedious underlying design, though, always revolving around you going and turning knobs somewhere or finding a key, making the game feel a simplistic. The level design, though, is well done and the asylum itself is eery, sickening, and disturbing all at the same time. The story itself is very slow building, but once the final section begins the various notes, documents, and banter from asylum prisoners makes perfect sense. The ending twist is awesome. Lighting and graphics look great, and the camera really adds a great sense of tension and immersion to the game. The soundscape is well mixed, creating a horrifying atmosphere that is still in my brain. A fitting score from Samuel Laflamme keeps the tensions high, and produces a memorable theme for the adventure. Outlast is a horror classic. It combines everything I love about the genre; good scares, tense moments of fight or flight, and psychological thrills to create a memorable title. And for an indie, it's pretty darn polished too!

Persona 4 Golden is a phenomenal game. The characters are incredible, memorable and amazingly written and voiced. The story carries throughout the 75+ adventure, with some amazing twists and exciting developments. Combat is strategic and challenging... I could rattle on and on about P4G, but I won't. You can see, along with tons of other customers and fans, that P4G is a masterpiece. Absolutely a masterpiece.

The Wolf Among Us raises the bar for narrative and character all the same in this edge of your seat noir murder mystery. Without giving much away, this game features an incredbly unique world filled with interesting and often times hard to read characters and fantastic (and often times cheeky) lore. The first episode is gripping from start to finish, and truly demands some quick thinking and demanding choice making to make this adventure your own. It also talkles, in unique ways, many hard to convey themes; hopefully the series continues this trend of mature story-telling without being obscene. This is a dark and winding fantasy tale that any TellTale fan or gamer looking for something starkly refreshing should definitley give a shot; especially if you love fantastic art design, great character development and incredible worlds you want to explore deeply.

9.5 It's wonderfully surprising to play a game like Brothers. Where as the Xbox 360 has become the home of CoD and doritos/moutnain dew, Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons is the little indie darling of the year and a breath of fresh air for the Xbox 360. A playable fairytale, Brothers is as emotionally wrought as it is inspirational and heartwarming. Combing the depth of emotion with a core gameplay mechanic that reinforces the narrative and it's emotional highs and lows is unbelievably genius. Your journey, brought to life by smalltime studio StarBeeze, follows two brothers on an epic fantasy journey that challenges their relationship through perilous trials. A gorgeous score accompanies you on your epic journey composed by Gustaf Grefberg, equal parts chilling and heartwarming. Graphically, Brothers is middle of the road. But its art style, similar to games before it like last year's Journey, is top notch. A living Grimm's fairytale is the easiest way to describe it. The inventive gameplay and mechanics work and keep you very engaged in the action on screen. Controlling two characters at once is tricky, but getting the hang of it doesn't take long. Aside from a few presentation and technical shortcomings, Brothers truly is an emotionally charged experience. It's not as polished as I wish it was, but it didn't distract from the experience. The ending, themes within and visual metaphors throughout your journey all combine to deliver something truly special. This little indie wonder demands to be played. In a little over 4 hours and with no spoken dialogue, the adventure ends and the credits roll. You may think Brothers is a shallow and overpriced adventure. If you believe that in the end, then you're dead inside.

Warning: this is not a game for everyone. This is the most against the grain indie title I've played to date, with an incredibly distinct and weird (yet wonderfully surreal) art style. It's combat is still a wee bit floaty, but is vastly improved over the original. The world is left open for you to explore this time around, meeting all kinds of weird characters while completing strange side quests. All of it is incredibly endearing though, no matter how strange it gets. If you're looking for something wildly different from the same old same old, look no further than Zeno Clash 2. While it's not a masterpiece, it's hardly forgettable and will be one of the most loved indie series' in my mind simply because it dares to be completely different from anything else, and it (most of the time) succeeds!

9.25 Hilarious, polished, and incredibly challenging; this is a brilliant metroidvania that knows its inspirations and stays true to the formula. Combat is simple at first but quickly evolves into a challenging formula that is rather addicting. The sense of humor is also fantastic; it will make you laugh out lout more than once! The boss battles are also really fun and wicked challenging too. If you are looking for that next great metroidvania title, Guacamelee! is sure to please even the most dedicated of fans.

Aside from some issues with the context sensitive controls, it's a fantastic blend of quick reactions and great gameplay. The graphics are great and the art style is easy on the eyes. The gameplay is so incredibly strong as well. Aside from one or two hitches this game is a surprisingly fantastic stealth game. 2D stealth is an unusual medium, but Mark of the Ninja makes it work phenomenally well. 9.75

FIRST IMPRESSIONS Full Review to follow: Bioshock Infinite, despite it's lofty expectations and undeniably "sky high" promises from creative powerhouse Irrational Games, is an incredible achievement in interactive entertainment. From the incredible art style to the story, the well written script to Columbia itself, Bioshock Infinite is more than just a game on disc; it's an incredibly and thoughtfully created world quite unlike most games of today just waiting to be explored. Attention to detail is where it starts, and it only grows from there. The world feels alive, from the propaganda littering the streets to the way Elizabeth reacts to certain discoveries while you both slowly crawl around Columbia's cityscape. It's a game that doesn't hold your hand, freely allowing you to explore Columbia at your own pace. There's plenty off the beaten path, but it never forces the player to find it. You have to be invested, curious, and interested. Playing Bioshock just to get to the next shootout is not playing Bioshock Infinite at all. The gameplay, while I haven't had any major battles featuring the skylines, feels tighter and much more action packed, peppered by intense battles and a lethal arsenal. The level design is also incredibly unique, featuring some truly stunning moments even within the first few hours. Now, the game isn't without some faults. Flat textures abound on consoles, but it is a far from ugly game (far from it actually). Elizabeth also sometimes moves around way too much (I assume she is attempting to focus on the player's location, and the AI engine can't decide what to do), giving her a sense of a hyper curious person. It doesn't ruin the experience, but it is a little jarring as at certain points she is incredibly life like, and others feels like an NPC deciding where to stand. That being said, Elizabeth is impressive so far. Her animations are stupendous, facial animations are stunning, and the voice work (for everyone, at that) is spot on. I have yet to jump into the meat of the story, as I'm taking this game very slow, but so far the wait has been worth it. Well worth it.

This is one incredibly memorable stealth action adventure. Dishonored gives the player a handful of fun and exciting tools, all incredibly flexible for mixing and matching gameplay styles. They are hard to pick up, challenging to master, but incredibly fun once dash across a roof top, possess a rat, sneak up behind a guard, jump out of the rat, assassinate him, and teleport back up to the rooftop. PHENOMENALLY satisfying. The story is fairly interesting, but there are some inconsistencies and some rather poor design choices that mar the experience. The core of the game gets everything done right: first person assassination with a dose of stealth and run and gun. It's an incredibly exciting game, and a hard one to put down at that. The story is pretty exciting but simple, but it's the rich and dramatic world that will keep you invested for the 15-20 hour run time. There are a couple of truly unique levels, and playing through the game without killing anyone is a gleeful challenge (to an avid fan of Metal Gear Solid). The ending leaves much to be desired, though, as it proves to be sloppy and rushed. Fans of Assassin's Creed or Half Life will really enjoy this game, as it executes first person stealth, exploration, and gameplay very well. It's just the sloppy story and ending that leaves a somewhat negative impression. So, in the end, triumphant and polished gameplay, intriguing world building, but weak and lacking story.

An absolute tragedy. A shadow of the original, this is just BAD. Easy, Short, TERRIBLE DESIGN, TERRIBLE CUSTOMIZATION, AWFUL STORY, AGGGGHHHHH!!!!! I was a HUGE fan of the original, but this in not anything like the first. Just BAD. BAD BAD BAD. I'm sorry, but just save your money, no matter how cheap it becomes.

Ni No Kuni is one of the best JRPG'S I have ever played. Combining Studio Ghibli's incredible imagination with Level 5's polished and fun gameplay mechanics, Ni No Kuni feels like the JRPG'S of old while revitalizing a dying genre. It feels like Dragon Quest VIII (a personal favorite), mixing elements of Tales, Star Ocean, and Pokemon into one pot of pure bliss. And man, how I've missed an overworld! The story and world **** you in right quick, creating a sense of charm and wonder right from the get go. The opening is a tear-jerker, creating a sense of desperation and sympathy for our hero, Oliver. More than anything, Studio Ghibli's incredible ability to create such unique and real emotion in such with their animation is one of their strengths, and combining that with Level 5's sincere approach to the story, it works like magic. Right away, you meet Drippy, one of the most incredibly charismatic and lovable characters to ever grace a video game. The writing and script is top notch, filled with hilarious dialogue and wonderful characters (that feature some of the best English Dubs of any JRPG translation that I've played). Battles play out like a synthesis of Tales meets Pokemon. You gain control of familiars, small creates that have attributes (sword and shield, tank, fire, etc.) that do your fighting in battles. You can also take control of Oliver to command him to use various tools such as the ability to use items, heal, and run. Battles begin fairly simple with you fighting one to two monsters, but the progression exponentially increases and by no time battles become chaotic affairs that will test your wit and reflexes. The combat is incredibly addicting, rewarding constant interaction and movement on the battlefield. One of the best features is the real time aspect of the battle system. If you command your familiars to attack, defend, and use tricks (or special abilities) at the right time HP and MP orbs fall from your enemies, offering a quick heal. It sounds like a simple mechanic, but it keeps you constantly engaged while in combat, offering a fun, fast paced and exciting tug of war against your enemies. Story telling is, to put it simply, reminiscent of Studio Ghibli. A hero going on an epic adventure to save his kingdom, healing the people of the land of their broken-heartedness, all while trying to save your mother sounds, walks, and talks just a Ghibli presentation shoud. NNK can be enjoyed by a younger audience, but the elements here are consistently dark and mature, which comes as a major relief. Keeping it spoiler free, the game engages you quite well. It's a simple yet emotionally effective story that grabs you right away. Also of note is Joe Hisaishi's majestic, sweeping, and beautiful original score. Frequent collaborator with Studio Ghibli, Joe was (gladly) offered to compose the score, and man is it incredible. The overworld theme is still reverberating in my head as I write this. It captures the moods with gorgeous melodies and memorable themes. It allows you to explore and enjoy an already tremendous achievement all the more. They seriously need to release the PS3 soundtrack, because this is as good as JRPG and video game scores get. And speaking of outside influence, Studio Ghibli made a significant contribution in the art department. There are original animated cut scenes produced by Ghibli themselves (namely Momose) which are wonderful (especially in HD!), the monsters are original and cute, and the gorgeous colors used in the backdrops provoke the imagination. Everything is here, and it feels like Ghibli production combined with Level 5's JRPG mastery in full force. If there are any complaints (and these are minor grievances) it's that the draw distance is nothing to write home about. On the world map you'll see mountains "peel" in in the distance, and foliage in more graphically intensive areas obviously pops in as you walk through the areas. I also have experienced one or two werid glitches in which I had to restart the game. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is sincere, wholesome, and most importantly FUN entertainment that might just be the last push the JRPG genre needs to get its legs again in a predominantly "bald-space-dude-marine-bro" controlled market. Part homage to JRPG's and part fan service for Studio Ghibli lovers, it's hard not to like Ni No Kuni. If you love RPG's/JRPG's, this is a no brainer. If you love Studio Ghibli, this is a no brainer. If you've been looking to jump into the genre, you won't get a better chance. Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a steroid shot to the imagination, giving players freedom to explore one of the best adventures this console generation. It's a masterpiece that won't soon be forgotten.

A gem. The fantastic story progresses at a breakneck pace and is filled with excellent characters, exciting set-pieces and incredible and visceral combat. It's my personal favorite out of the trilogy, a remarkable achievement in science fiction storytelling and player driven world building.

I couldn't help but jumping back in and playing through the first game again. While the game's mechanics are a little archaic, Mass Effect is filled with imagination, a stellar combat (minus the wonky cover system), fantastic and memorable characters all woven into an amazing story. I seriously can't put it down. Again. This series is the real deal, folks.

It's a terrible game, to say the least. It's hair brained style is stupid, levels feature terrible design and touchy controls, and the story can't be taken seriously at all. The face that 3/4 of the game is also incredibly tedious and no fun at all, this game reeks. It gave us a good laugh (more than once actually), and the soundtrack is the best part of the game, but overall just reeks. It's a mess.

8.5 - DMC: Devil May Cry is fantastic, no doubt about it. Just finished the game today, and I have to say I am very impressed. I played 3 & 4, so I can't call myself an original hardcore fan, but I can definitely say that I'm a fan of this reboot. The new Dante comes across as totally unlikeable in the beginning - the opening cutscene is way too over top - but as the clever story progresses you begin to really enjoy his new style. He is still the same pizza chiming, one-liner too-cool-for-school hero from the past games but now he has a sense of humanity in his B-movie style antics. Like I said before, the story is surprisingly clever. It's not really groundbreaking, but more creative and cool. The places that you explore are hyper-stylized and fun to traverse; Limbo is one of the coolest creations of the hack n slash genre. The ultra-stylized visuals complement the game wonderfully, and the unreal engine pulls off some beautiful landscapes. The reboot also reintroduces the pivotal character Vergil, who actually makes sense and is a character that you feel for. Voiceovers are strong across the board, along with the digital performances. DMC wouldn't be anything remarkable without the fine-tuned dynamic combat. The combat in DMC is fantastic; animations are strong, pulling off combos requires thinking rather than button mashing, and the 7 weapons you eventually have at your disposal allow the player to pull off incredibly cool combos. The soundtrack, while I'm not a fan of metal or dub step, keeps the game consistently energetic and fun. There are some very cool boss battles, along with some incredibly creative level designs that really wowed me. The game isn't without faults, though. The Unreal engine sometimes has texture loading issues (nothing we haven't seen before) and there are some herby-jerky animations for Kat and Vergil. There are also a couple of sequences where there is no combat what-so-ever, where you are just running alongside of Kat or Vergil. Also, DMC has a bit of profanity (not as much as I expected though) that is inconsistent with the DMC name, which I felt was a mild turn-off. Aside from the gripes, DMC Devil May Cry was a hard game to put down. Looking at the metascore, it seems that fans were not pleased, but I also doubt many have even played the game. It's a reboot, and a much needed one after the atrocious DMC4. It's very creative and stylish game that really surprised me from start to finish. I can't wait for the return trip and going after those harder difficulties!

Incredibly unique world with incredible lore, incredible art style, and the best gameplay of any shooter I have ever played since Half Life 2. Bioshock is a one of a kind treat, filled with mature themes and a dark story. This isn't a wishy washy, unpolished shooting gallery. It takes brainpower to get through the environments alive, and the combat allows for much experimentation and player driven action. An absolute classic. Played through it for a fourth time on Survivor difficulty, no vita chambers as well. This is how it is meant to be experienced.

Bought it on the cheap to play through the campaign. I have to admit, after playing all recent CoD games since CoD 2, this is my favorite campaign. It features some really tough (albeit linear) choices, but they offer plenty of incentive to play the impressive and dramatic campaign. The villain is fleshed out really well this time around, and has plenty of personality as compared to past CoD villains. There are 3 or 4 really memorable missions, mainly accentuated by incredible set pieces or an incredible plot twist. Yes, the campaign is very good and requires a bit of brainpower to put together all of the relationships between characters and the multiple timelines. Strike Force missions, which break up the story mode, are both a success and major failure. The missions themselves are really interesting and it is incredible how they worked them into the overall story of the main game, yet playing them is a different story. AI in these missions is really touch and go, in which you either have to baby the squads through the map or just go completely Rambo and take down everything. The RTS element is really exciting, and I can see it working really well; but as it stands they are frustrating and unfun missions with incredibly spotty **** I really wanted to do is continue the stellar story. Multiplayer is still a love it or hate it affair. It does little to alter the formula, although the pick 10 system is quite ingenious and surprisingly well balanced. Never been a fan of Zombies, but Tranzit is fun, yet the zombie formula has been done before. I'm really hoping to see a huge leap in CoD because, deep down, I really do like the series. Blops 2 is less of a major step forward and more of a major refinement of the series, which is to be expected. Blops 2 is solid - excellent campaign, same old multiplayer, and stale Zombies - yet it doesn't wow or blow away expectations in all of its departments to truly create a stand out experience. 8

Absolutely terrific. There is no game quite like Dark Souls. Uniquely challenging yet ultimately rewarding, this incredible action RPG proves that superior design and unique world building triumphs over the simplicity of modern gaming that we have been force fed over the years. It has its blemishes (terrible frame rate in an area, strange clipping issues) here and there, but you'll let it slide. I have yet to play another game that is both terrifying to play yet so strangely addicting. This is for the hardest of the hardcore gamers out there, and you have to be a glutton for punishment. But once you beat that boss, get through that area, find that incredible weapon, or simply make it to the end of this sprawling, minimalistic, and epic adventure I guarantee you'll be hooked. 9.5

Simply put, it's outstanding. The campaign is an emotional roller-coaster ride that firmly embraces the deep and rich lore of the Halo universe, Multiplayer makes the right adjustments to keep up with the Joneses but more than maintains that classic halo feel, Forge is better than ever, and the new addition, Spartan Ops, is an absolute blast to play with friends! Tons of game and content here, and it is all firmly planted in classic Halo style. Sound design is absolutely fantastic, with a stirring score (although no where near Marty's mastery at Bungie) incredible gun sounds, and bar to none the best virtual performances I have ever witnessed in a shooter. The graphics are stellar, and the mechanics feel perfect. There are a couple moments during the campaign where the AI has a brain fart, or some weird graphical issue pops up, but aside from that this is an incredibly well polished presentation and package. Please don't listen to the trolls, Halo 4 is fantastic and the series is in good hands.

This is the Assassin's Creed we've all been waiting for. Incredible and focused storytelling, wonderful and engrossing new environments to explore, refined and visceral combat; ACIII is ambitious, huge, and very entertaining. The only thing holding this incredible experience back are the technical problems. I think that, with ACIII, we've finally seen what the Xbox can push out. ACIII is incredible graphically, but the poor draw distance, multitude of bugs, strange/annoying glitches and the fact that some mechanics just don't work is just inexcusable, especially coming from such a high pedigree. It's a shame that after four big console releases the AC team refuses to add that layer of polish that would have made ACIII no doubt one of the best games of all time. Not that it isn't a good game, AC3 is filled with content to explore, secrets to uncover, and story to be unraveled at an expert pace. AC3 is a rough diamond.

A terrific blend of social questing, incredibly flexible game mechanics that engage rather than bore, and a deep, beautiful, and magical world to explore is something we've seen from many games in years past. But take that and apply it to an **** do it incredible well...that is truly a remarkable accomplishment. It's fun, It's huge, and it's abounding with far too much content for a single human being to comprehend. The grind is there, but is masked by the ingenious social events and fun and varied quests that you accomplish. It's the art style that is truly wonderful, ranging from massive snow topped peaks to the depths of Tyria and everywhere in between. Jeremy Soule's score is, yet again, magic. I love it, and I hate MMO's. Consider me a believer; ArenaNet has produced a remarkable package, and if you pass for any reason you'll be missing out on an incredible adventure.

8.25 - A buggy and unpolished indie title, yet an incredibly memorable and immensely creative indie title. Papo y Yo deals with serious and mature themes, yet deals with them in creative, original, and imagineative ways. The story is heavy with metaphors, yet it maintains innocence in its character study. The underlying puzzle elements are incredibly simplistic, so don't expect to be challenged. What is neat, though, are the ways you manipulate the world around you to access areas to move forward in the adventure. I was wowed multiple times while playing. The creative design of the game is incredible. The soundtrack is also beautiful, a combination of Latin beats and gorgeous guitars and flutes and cellos that adapts and changes as you progress throughout areas. It is buggy though, so be forewarned. I had to jump out of the game once or twice, and had to help the game along sometimes. Despite its blatant stumbles, I really think papo y yo is an incredible indie title. I love how it deals with the heavy themes not frequently explored in games, and uses both metaphor and imagery to show the affects of substance abuse. It's edgy, profound, and wildly original, which is exactly what I love in my games. This is also a very good introductory title to the world of video games, becuase of the fact that it deals with such releveant themes in such a simplistic and ingenious way, and the simplicty of the game itself; i could definitly see people who have never played games before playing papo y yo and realize how far the medium of the video game has come. I wish the puzzles were more than simple chores and the game is missing a layer of polish, but Papo Y Yo is a genuine, one of a kind experience.

9.5 - While some of the latter game feels unnecessary and tacked on, this is what I've been wanting in a Wii title ever since I first saw the console. The controls are fantastic with spot on swordplay. The music is incredible and varied, not to mention absolutely beautiful. The story is excellent, and the many colorful locales you visit are full of life and character. There are an incredible amount of things to do and see, and everything is memorable, from the characters to the world itself. It's pure Nintendo magic at it's finest.

The mechanics may make the end game stumble a little bit, but the humor, story, character, and amazing world that Mr. Kojima has created is stunning, wonderful, and absolutely astoundingly incredible. One of the best games of all time in a series that stands as the culmination of phenomenal storytelling and incredibly unique mechanics. A classic.

9.5 - The trolls are coming at full force, which is nothing new. Anyway, this is an incredible new adventure. Incredible sprawling and beautiful world coupled with an incredible art style, similar to Skyward Sword. Presentation is classy and sophisticated. Gameplay is action packed, daringly bold, and wonderfully executed. The original score is brilliant and gorgeous. There are a few rough edges, such as a semi wonky camera and gravity falling onto a building at a weird angle, but looking around those minor nitpicks Gravity Rush is a near perfect adventure. High replay value, wonderfully charming and daringly original. If you have a Vita, this is a must, and vita-less gamers now have something to envy.

7.5 - It's big, loud, exciting, and epic, but the story doesn't really go anywhere exciting. There are glorious moments of terror and intensity peppered throughout certain levels, but overall the campaign misses it's marks. The biggest moments of the campaign are either frustrating, glitchy, or incredibly underdeveloped, with certain sound elements and design flaws rearing their ugly heads. This is Insomniac's most unpolished game. The fact that Insomniac also dumbed down your ability to hold all of your weapons to only two at a time is a shame, because the guns of resistance are the best weapons of any current gen shooter. Multiplayer is aces with gigantic matches and fun modes. There are more negatives than positives for R2, but the campaign is much improved over its predecessor, and the entertainment value, while lacking substance, is incredible. It is overall a decent sequel, but in the end it is an empty husk of a shooter, with no characters to care for, a story that is scatterbrained, and a main character that is empty and emotionless.

9.5 - Forget everything you know about adventure games and play Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. This is a remarkable and extremely phenomenal game. Castlevania is an astoundingly epic adventure that will take your imagination on a joy ride. The story is action packed and intense (a little sacrilegious at parts), balanced combat is deep and rewarding, and the boss battles can only be described by the carbon copy term of the decade: Epic. Castlevania is an absolute epic from start to finish, I can't stress that enough. It does suffer from some blemishes, such as some very strange camera angles leading to confusion on screen, some imbalanced and downright cheap moments during later battles, and iffy platforming. But to be honest, you can easily look past these blemishes. The graphics are incredible and the attention to detail is astounding. The art design and level design is bar-to-none some of the most genuinely creative, and the world that you journey in is an incredible feast for the imagination and the senses. Lords of Shadow creates such an intense sense of insignificance and smallness as you journey to the different and often gigantic locales, a feature that is missing from adventure games of late. A gorgeous original score accompanies your adventures, and the sound effects and voice acting are top notch. (Although it is sad to see Sir Patrick Stewart a...whoops spoilers!) The puzzles in the game actually require some thinking as well, a welcome change of pace for "god of war" style games. It may have it's blemishes, and they may even be frequent, but I could care less. This is an expertly crafted, intense, epic, and downright phenomenal game with a great sense of scope and imagination that never ceases to impress me. A must play for Castlevania fans, and a must play for any gamer looking for a refreshing twist on epic action adventures.

8.5 - Resistance is a fine FPS with a wonderful sense of scope. Playing for the first time almost 6 years after it's release, I finally understand the excitement revolving around the game. Great voice acting, fair character animations, and an intriguing (if unexplored) world and fiction. A fairly strong sense of pacing keeps this game from getting too dull, as some parts remind of the great Half Life 2. The incredible, versatile, and creative arsenal that you have at your disposal is a blast to play around with. Resistance truly gives the player tools of destruction to blast quickly through hoards of enemies, making each encounter blisteringly fast paced instead of a dull and boring. The most commendable feature of Resistance is the art direction. Aside from the surprisingly sharp graphics (that trump some games of today), the looming Chimeran structures in the distance and the incredible amounts of detail gone into the creatures and world itself is truly astounding. Browns, greys, and blacks fill the color pallet, but I only feel that this is frowned upon due to playing so many other "brown FPS" games in recent years. Insomniac has some brilliantly creative minds. There are times when Resistance begins to tear at the seams, and difficulty spikes near the end prove frustrating and cheap, but Resistance: Fall of Man is a highly polished and exciting FPS that delivers all the intensity, intrigue, and chaos of a top tier FPS. And it's so cheap now, it's almost a crime not to give it a try!

An incredible and rare stroke of genius for the first person shooter genre. Featuring an incredible sense of isolation, perfected storytelling and pacing, wonderful and memorable characters, and exhilarating set piece moments that stay with you for years, Half Life 2 stands triumphant at the pinnacle of the genre as the perfected first person shooter.

Quite simply, this is the best of the best when it comes to modern game design. The design of the Metroid Prime series is impeccable, requiring the player fully invest both quick reflexes and brain power to solve puzzles as well as the scan and remember key areas all though out the game environment. It's impossible to describe with words, because no next-gen game is quite like the Metroid Prime series. The phenomenal mechanics work 100% of the time, and the trilogy is polished to perfection, presented flawlessly, and effortlessly executed. The set is an incredible value, even though most copies are quite pricey now. Regardless of price, this is "required reading" for all gamers.

L.A. Noire is a phenomenal experience. Not only is it a unique twist on the open world sandbox game, but it is an unbelievably refreshing challenge. While the challenge of most games of today are about shooting and quick kills, gaining experience and killing bosses etc., L.A. Noire challenges the player to investigate, put together esoteric clues, and decide whether or not someone is lying or telling the truth during interrogations, via the ridiculously detailed facial animation capture technology. There are shooting moments, but they pepper certain moments of rising action. It's not a normal game by any means, especially coming from the controversial developer Rockstar. But this game is by no means simple; characters are mature, the material is mature, and the way L.A. Noire engages the player is far different than anything I've ever played. The way the story, the sub plots, every single cutscene, and cases all weave together truly engage the player to think as well as examine all aspects of what exactly is going on is masterful, if a little unbalanced. The gameplay mechanics may be a little wonky at some moments, and there are a couple glitches that occur, and the story may take quite some time to start getting good, but the positives more than outweigh the negatives. L.A. Noire is innovative, fresh, and most of all engaging and challenging, all in new ways. Rockstar and Team Bondi have truly crafted an awesome and riveting experience, one that comes fairly close to be crowned the "Citizen Cane" of video games, if it is a minor bit flawed. This is one game I definitely recommend to anyone looking for a now inexpensive and very fresh take on the sandbox video game. 9.5/10, rounds up to 10 on metacritic

Cabela's Survival is a surprisingly decent game. My friends and I rented it to play it for the laughs, and while it is laughable and silly, it's pretty fun too. The combat is plain ridiculous, the story is bizarre, and the characters are totally weird. But, in a way, this game is fun too. It's only a rent (2 1/2 hours max), but it's fun and simple and silly all at the same time. You can't take it seriously, but it is an enjoyable, if ridiculously repetitive.

Aside from some interesting concepts and interesting character progression, this game is a mess. Laughable dialogue, absolutely ridiculous and incoherent story, stupid characters, totally broken combat, abominable effects...This game is just in shambles. It has some interesting ideas, but the execution is **** man...terrible.

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is a very, very good RPG. Its world is especially unique to explore; it's a world that is filled with amnesty, intensity, radicalism and violence. But it is also a very lovable world, as it is filled with some of the best characters in any fantasy RPG. If Mass Effect is the king of Sci Fi characters, the Witcher 2 is the king of fantasy characters. The combat is also very refreshing; it's very tactical and very strategic, and one wrong move can make or break a battle. It keeps you on the edge of your seat constantly. The side quests, any fundamental part of an RPG, are probably the best out of any RPG I've played on the 360. They're meaty, quite long and moderately difficult mini-stories packed into a bite size chunk. And they are all very well done. The Witcher also sports some of the best eye candy on the Xbox 360; even though there are some framerate hiccups here and there, The Witcher 2 really looks positively unique and beautiful. The reason for an 8.5? The Witcher 2 is very, very rough around the edges. Common control issues, weird and frequent AI brain farts, and plenty of just random bugs that permeate the experience, both massive and little. And, despite the Witcher 2 only being out for a year now, it is already showing age. Some moments are shockingly archaic; the dragon scene in the prologue, for instance. It is incredible how much this game progresses past so many of its RPG brethren, yet stumbles and falls flat in other areas that games like Skyrim, Dark Souls, and Mass Effect have all done very well. Now, don't worry, The Witcher 2 is still a phenomenal game. It's mature in the sense that the story is about intense relations between kingdoms, and the game doesn't hold your hand to tell the story. You have to make an effort to remember characters and link personalities and such; it's a refreshing way to tell a fantasy story, and it's done really well. I don't care much for the nudity or the cursing because A) you don't have to have sex to make a mature game, without it (or at least conveniently censored) the Wticher would still be wonderful (BTW, for those wondering, you skip any scene with such content by pressing the X button), and B) they didn't really have the profanity that we have today back in the medieval times, which the Witcher tries to replicate. One thing I keep asking myself is why I continue to play the Witcher 2...I play games to escape from reality, especially RPG's, not get caught up in political clout and other problems in a medieval fantasy RPG. But that's just it; The Witcher's world is so finely crafted, it almost seems like a natural parody of our world today. So I must admit, The Witcher 2 is a great, great game. It requires a little more leniency in terms of bugs and glitches, and the mature content almost feels silly to have, especially in a fantasy RPG that tries to tear you away from the real world. Whatever you may think of the content, there's no forgiving a nearly one year old game for being buggy and glitchy. Despite the gripes, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings is well worth your time; the story is wonderfully told, the world is totally unique, the combat is stellar, and the game overall is a blessing to finally play. Thanks for the great port! 8.5/10 - rounds up to a 9/10.

I wanted to wait until I fully completed FEZ to write a fair review, but I just can't hold it in any longer. Fez is a spectacular Indie game, which features a mind bending perspective changing mechanic. Fez starts out as any other indie platformer would begin. But then, a few hours in you begin to see patterns, reach rooms which have no foreseeable solution, and have to turn back. That's the brilliance of FEZ; it takes the best of games like Metroid and Castlevania (in an exploration sense) and utilizes them to create an amazing and unique world. It's no only fun and challenging to explore, but it is also extremely intriguing and magical as well. The scope of the game is gigantic. Then comes the meat of the game, which obviously not one negative review could understand. What pretty much every negative review is claiming is that there are simple puzzles, ones which with a little manipulation are easy to figure out. Play this game to a solid end, people. The game just doesn't have platforming, but also very difficult puzzles that, if you care, you'll solve. I guarantee that the metabombers responsible for such a low score only played and explored until strange symbols block your path. While some of the platforming gets challenging, the puzzles are wicked tricky. I literally have a sheet with esoteric symbols and characters and decoders to be able to solve the puzzles in this game; something I haven't needed to use for a game since my first time play through tLoZ: OoT when I was a kid. It's brilliantly nostalgic. Collecting the cube is only part of the game. The major part of the game is discovering a long lost civilization and language. Doesn't sound like the negative reviews understood this game at all. It's incredibly challenging, wonderfully crafted, and has an absolutely wonderful and charming chip-tune score along with a beautiful 16-bit graphical pallet that is artful as well as colorful. The 16-bit world is wonderful to explore, and your protagonist, Gomez, is an extremely lovable character. Fez is a triumph. It's platforming is not what you come for, but to explore a rich and deep world that truly makes the player think and wonder about what happened to it, and what it was like before ****'ll just have to experience FEZ for yourself.

Journey is an amazing experience. To ignore it's brilliance is to be ignorant, and to pass it up would be a shame. From start to finish, it was an amazingly engrossing experience that is absolutely wonderful. And despite the length, I've never become so quickly attached to a world or main character in my gaming career. It's simple; you must play this game.

9.25 I really became fed up with Kid Icarus: Uprising when it was delayed multiple times. I had no hope, and thought that the game would end up just crashing and burning. This game does a complete opposite of just that; Kid Icarus is, by far, the best 3DS game to date. It is filled with content and has high replay value. It's gameplay is wicked fast paced and something new; just what the 3DS desperately needs. The musical score is absolutely wonderful, and the voice overs (which are mostly constant) feature some surprisingly incredible talent and excellent writing. The 3D is the most stereoscopic out of any other 3DS games, and the 3D truly accentuates the epic scope of the game. The only negative point I have is the controls. No that they hurt, but that they are so cramped and useless, mainly the dodge feature. On the ground, you can quick dodge attacks to earn a fast power attack and get more points to boost your score, but sometimes the action is too chaotic for its own good and the doge feature ends up being completely useless. Also, the fact that (unless you use the stand) the controls will start to cramp up your hand quite a bit and ghosting 3D will plague your experience. Other than those minor gripes, Kid Icarus is the very first game that justifies why I bought a 3DS more than a year ago. Not to mention, I've never charged my 3DS this much before. Overflowing with epicness, playfulness and originality, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a winner in every single way.

It's quite simply everything I could hope for. Amazing presentation, beautiful graphics, epic story and intense on-the-edge-of-your-seat gameplay. You won't be disappointed.

I had no faith in Rayman: Origins and felt like the price for the title was bound to make it fail. But surprise, the demo was awesome, so I went out on Black Friday and braved the crowds to pick it up on sale. Story is goofy, tons of unlockables, bountiful replay value, laugh out loud drop-in drop-out co-op, great sense of humor, very well done platforming and a beautiful hand-drawn art style makes this game a whirl-wind stand out title and the biggest gaming surprise of 2011. A friend who came over looked at me like I was a little weird in the head for buying ended up loving it. And personally I am NOT a big co-op gamer, but this game is so much fun to play with friends. This is pure nostalgia and it's just plain fun.

Quite simply put, a masterpiece. An RPG that truly stands out and above the crowd. First: The combat is much improved. While adding much more strategy to the fights as well as an increased "weightiness," the combat is improved over oblivion's floaty combat. Second: Exploration, a major part of any elder scrolls game, is expertly paced. Exploring the game world is much more difficult, with dragons and difficult enemies to kill you if you get too **** too confident. But it is much more interesting to explore compared to Oblivion's flat lands and rolling hills. Not to mention, visually gorgeous. Third, It is a stunningly crafted world. The detail in the world, NPCs, dungeons and lore is all something very special. It is a huge world to explore, with tangents aplenty. Minor pop in, low res textures and glitchy (very, very rarely) are the only flaws in my book. Nothing can stop me from loving this world, and every time I jump back into exploring the lands of Skyrim it feels perfect. Don't worry; Graphically, this game is ridiculous. The beautiful vistas coupled with the achingly beautiful soundtrack is ****'s so hard to explain because games just don't do what Skyrim does anymore. And a side note...This game has a sprawling and downright ridiculous amount of things to do. I won't spoil any of them for you, but don't worry. You won't be short of things to do. Forever, most likely. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, But it's mine. If you like adventuring, exploring, storytelling, lore, RPGs or anything in between, Skyrim has it for you. One question **** on earth did they jam all of this stuff onto one disc? So what are you waiting for?