Metalsand

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Extremely cool game, but suffers from F2P money grabbing. I've played War Thunder for almost a year now. Mostly it has been great, solid gameplay nice variety, **** until they changed the research tree to slow down progress of players. Now, instead of choosing how research points are allocated, you choose a plane to begin researching, and even researching a tier 3 plane (out of 5 total tiers) takes nearly 100 battles to obtain, and because of game mechanics you'll want at least 3 of those planes researched. As battles can take 10-20 minutes each, the game expects you to play 50-100 hours just to go up ONE TIER IN ONE COUNTRY. Yet, it only costs $5 USD to research that same plane with "free" research points. They turned an excellent simulator into an obvious money grab, and it is unacceptable. Playing to unlock new planes is nearly pointless now. Gameplay would make this an 8 or a 9, but the money-grab tactics bring that down to a 6. Only get the game if you love pumping at least $100 into a game to make it playable.

A fun game of card-chess for anyone to play, not just serious card game players. It takes all the convoluted, and unnecessary rules within most card games and throws them out the window in favor of easy to learn, hard to master gameplay. The only card-game I've ever truly had fun with and had some strategics thought of with. One of the oddest parts is the F2P element, which is somehow fit into the game. Decks are based on a few token cards that you include in nearly any deck you can, but some of these token cards are night impossible to obtain unless you play 100 hours+ or pump over $100 into the game. Overall though, I really like it a lot. A good player can win with a bad deck, and a bad player can lose with the best deck, it really is up to the person itself just as much as it is with the deck they make.

Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map. Helps to have a map.

I am unsure why so many people are so negative about this game. It had more than a few updates, albeit calling it HD was a bit uncalled for. For starters, I don't know how many of you tried to use your old AOE II disks recently but...unless you find a user-made patch on the internet, they don't WORK on modern machines. They also increased the resolution the game can run at, and reenabled internet play on AOE II, since GameSpy or whoever else originally hosted multiplayer connections does not do so, and has not for years. Finally, they added steam support to the game, so that using "Join Game" from the friends menu would pop right into the game, which was a nice feature, and added Steam Workshop integration, which is AMAZING in comparison to the old style of manually installing files, finding them on different sites, etc. Now that it is out of the way, let me move on to the actual review... The game is exactly how it was, but with fixes to work on modern PC's which is what I **** just not fro $20. It seems like a massive rip-off that they are selling a game that has a few tweaks and modernizations for the same price. $10 would have been a much more reasonable price, and I bet less people would be pissed off if it were re-sold for that price with the fixes included. Overall, I liked AOE II when I was younger, and while due to their fixes I can play it on modern **** price is very exorbitant, and it feels like they are just trying to use my nostalgia to make a quick buck. The game itself is perfectly fine however.

The planes were cool, the gifts were good especially considering the price, but of course, this is about the two campaigns included within the pack, as that is the real content here. The campaigns...well they are HARD. The first two missions are a tutorial of sorts, but then...after those missions, the game goes on hard mode. The third mission in the American campaign was impossibly hard the first couple of times I played it, to the point where I wanted to smash my keyboard to bits. Then I looked up on the forums some suggestions for it, tried again, and 5 more times after that and actually progressed in it. Then, I came back to random battles, and suddenly I was MUCH MUCH better at the game, because in that mission, you have to actually aim at PARTS on the enemy bombers to kill them in time, rather than shooting at random. As a result, I believe the missions are more of a hardcore training mode, where you can practice and hone your skills against impossible odds until you become proficient enough for high tiers of gameplay. If you are getting the campaigns for the money and xp however; don't. The XP is good if you are tier 0-3 in that nation, and the money is decent if you are tier 0-1, but as the missions become more and more difficult, the rewards become more of a "Good Job learning X technique" rather than a reward for completing a level. The premium planes will net a much larger amount of money/XP, especially when combined with premium. The German Wellington is a great money maker, so long as the crew is sufficiently leveled, and the player is at least somewhat familiar with the game. Overall, the purchase is worth it if you are serious about this game. If you are casual, or still unsure if you will play this game a lot, save this pack for if it goes on sale, or if you reach about tier 9-10, as the bonus planes you get from the campaign are useless, if you don't have the skill or diversity of the same tier to back it up.

More like a movie than a video game, Mafia II still has solid gameplay and good feel, with plenty of twists and turns in the game, but with Mafia II, they sacrificed a bit of freedom and open-world feel to make the story fresh and interesting with good gameplay. Like many people reviewing, the first thing I have to say is that the game is short, without any extra depth to the side missions, so if you are buying this for the replay value, don't. The game may be fun, but after you complete the campaign, there is nothing left to do, hell, even during the game there are few options to do side-missions, and even then, the extra money can't be used for a whole lot, and because of a plot development, becomes useless. Additionally, auto-saving can be a bit of a pain in the ass, since it only autosaves before a big fight, rather than after mission objectives are completed, so if you crash, you're and have to replay several minutes of gameplay at least. Despite this, I love this game, because the plot kept me hooked. I went into this game expecting GTA mafia edition, and came out feeling like I finished a good movie. Additionally, this game went with a balance leaning towards realism, albeit keeping game elements in. For instance, if you get into a fist-fight with a random bystander, the police won't run over to you and cap you for it, but rather they will tell you to break it up, and keep the fighting off the streets. If you are speeding, they will attempt to pursue, but if you go around a corner they pretty much stop caring. Likewise, if you steal a car, or kill someone, they could take down your description or license plate, so those would have to be changed too, either by a new outfit, or buying a license plate from a shady garage. Overall, I loved this game, and wish there were more like it. Too many games sacrifice plot and MEANINGFUL gameplay for appealing to a wider audience. This might be the part where I'd say I would definitively play again, except I already have.

One of my favorite games of all time, although it hasn't aged well. Back in it's day, it was brilliant, and revolutionary. Having AI that would respond to your decisions and being able to do whatever you wanted, hell, being able to STEAL from shops was revolutionary in itself. Now though, the gameplay has become somewhat of a staple of any action/RPG, and the animations for mouth movement are...dated to say the least. Overall, if you are REALLY into action/RPG's, get this. Gameplay is very solid and feels very good, RPG elements are very balanced with the gameplay; you could beat the whole game without ever leveling up your skills if you really chose to do so, though it would be extremely hard, but if you are picking this up for anything but the gameplay, there are better examples of aciton/RPG's out there nowadays.

Quite a decent game, however it is shaky at best in beta. Best described as WoT in space, it does things quite different from WoT and I do like what it does differently...mostly. The things that differ which are nice are the combat, research structure, and modules. The combat is relatively fleshed out: there are small Interceptor ships, Fighters, and Frigates all with different abilities and different available special abilities. Interceptors are essentially quick sabeteurs, Fighters are general purpose which can be used as a Interceptor/Frigate hybrid to put it simply, and Frigates are tanks or snipers depending on the Frigate (also support). Research is done by simply buying what you want as long as you are the right level for it (which you generally are since leveling up is typically done faster than gaining currency). There is no owning ships, but you do have to buy a preceding ship if required. The game does allow you to skip ahead with some ships but you'd still need the level to buy that ship. Now, what sets this apart from WoT the most are the modules. Similar to equipment in WoT, except more diverse, you can customize EVERY facet of your ship as you gain more advanced ships. For instance, you could put focus on your hull then put a kamikazi secondary on your Interceptor that has a plasma gun. This would let you drop the enemy shields, then if you are taking a larger percentage of damage, go all out on a suicidal explosion which would do more damage than a regular death explosion, possibly killing the enemy in the process. Or, you could slap lasers on a Frigate, to keep it versatile and medium **** you still don't have to. And even then, it gets more diverse. Do you want burst lasers, which do less DPS but have no overheat timer? Do you want close range lasers which have a lower operational range than long range, but max DPS? And this is merely scratching the surface. The biggest flaw Star Conflict has is simply that it is in Beta. For instance, I saved up while casually playing for a week for a new starship, only to see that they raised the price from 850,000 to 1,250,000! This really put me off of the game for **** when it comes out, they should have this sort of stuff fleshed out. Overall, this game is good as it is, but it has a massive potential due to the ridiculous level of customization possible, and fun combat.

While not perfect, this game is nearly a perfect blending of story, immersion, and game play, the latter of which is it's only flaw, albeit a minor one. Not since Skyrim and the original Bioshock have I been so immersed within a game world, and been surprised at the twists and turns of such a unique game. The world is fleshed out, the characters have emotion (something somewhat lacking in Skyrim, made up by a massive amount of lore), and the game play...well it's not bad. I liked it in fact, but I've had better. Unlike Fallout 3, or Skyrim, I would not play BioShock Infinite again anytime soon. The story was amazing and so were the **** that was it. The game play, and therefore the replay value was somewhat bland. In the original Bioshock, they offered the ability to hold ALL of the weapons, so you could switch to whatever weapon was appropriate for that situation. In Infinite, not only are you restricted to two weapons, but your companion will GIVE you ammo, health, salts when you run low. Not once did I have to rely on my abilities or a unique strategy to handle a boss, I just had to press 'F' to succeed in whatever category I was in danger with rather than adapting to the situation. Sure, it was nice to have a companion that wasn't useless, but it could have been done so much better. For instance, maybe she could offer only pistols (since how the hell do you carry a rocket launcher under that dress)? Or maybe she can carry health and salt remedies when you run low, sort of how you did in the original Bioshock but with a companion? Long story short, Bioshock executed good game play, great story, and excellent immersion, while Infinite made decent game play, excellent story and great immersion, and I'm glad they made it, since it makes up for Bioshock 2 deviating so far from Bioshock 1.

I loved the first game in the series, the base building, while less than most other RTS games, was still solid, and balanced with the game play. It was, it's own game. I LOVED it. Then this game came out. Absolutely HATED it, they took everything I loved from 40k, and just threw it right out the window. Lets take out all the base building, most of the vehicles, and EVERY single element that could even be close to macro-managing in favor of uselessly elongated matches. And the campaign...they decided they'd make a bunch of 1v1 maps, then just port them all into the campaign. Want interesting match-ups? Too bad. Wanted to do a space marine rush/push? Too bad, because you have to work with 4 squads of 3, which entails sitting around for a long time waiting for them to kill massive spam of enemies. Worst RTS I've ever played, by far.

When I first saw the user ratings, I thought maybe a group of players were just being overly dramatic. I was dead wrong. While Bioware did a decent job on story, most of it was just reusing previous material from the first and second games. Unfortunately, this is the only good thing I have to say about this game. Combat feels like if I played the COD4 campaign 4 times in a row. The first and second times would be fun, but the third and fourth are just the same things over and over again, and it feels like with all game combat, depending on which part of the story you are on, they would use copy and paste more. The last battle was RIDICULOUS. It became a test to see how long I could hold down the left click button, with 30 enemies plus 5-10 mini-bosses coming all at once, and sooner or later, the sheer spam would always back me into a corner, where 5 of the minibosses would keep on using stun attacks to keep me from running or even firing back. The sheer length of the combat fights is terrible as well, it would be safe to estimate that over half of the fighting you will be doing in this game is just filler, especially the last mission. In only one small section of the last mission, I'd go up against waves that would take around 20-30 minutes to complete, with over 4 waves to complete. This is one SECTION which is 100% combat spam that takes more than 2 hours to complete. So you just shoot for 2 hours straight at the same enemies, using the same weapons and same tactics. I've watched chick flicks with women that not even including the benefits of the woman are MUCH more exciting than the combat in this game. It is a sad state of affairs when Bioware games turn into a giant grind instead of story, and the whole game feels like it was made by a 3rd rate developer that had no clue what they were doing and instead mashed everything together and called it a game. Bioware has been on the decline since ME2 and Dragon Age 2, but with the release of ME3, it is safe to say that they are a dead company now.

Like every TES game, Skyrim comes back again, takes a good look at it's predesessor, and vastly improves upon it. Everything is pretty, combat mechanics are MUCH better than Oblivion, and the 70+ voice actors compared to Oblivion's 12 is astounding. I couldn't have asked for more from Bethesda.

First of all, the game isn't all that great. They have you running around in a city for about 20 hours until you actually get to the meat of the quest. That's when you realize that there is no meat, only more walking around. Plus, I really don't care about any of the characters, they are completely unlikable. In the first game, it was a companionship, but all of the new characters are lanky or annoying. I don't like a single one, I barely even like the main character. On top of all of the **** of the game, two employees had the GALL to come on here and vote it a 10 and say it is perfect, which lowers my score down another 3 steps, simply because they obviously don't realize what a ****ter this is. I'd much rather replay oblivion for the 14th time rather than even complete the story on this garbage even once.