MikePushkin

Medal of Honor: Airborne (MOH:A) consists of 6 missions tightly packed with action and some interesting ideas - like you being able to drop with the parachute almost at any position of the map you can reach, checkpoint saving using which you will drop with parachute again but you'll save your progress and realistically behaving weapons and sounds of gunfire. In a way it is kind of a sandbox shooter, where you are allowed to do tasks one at a time and then start doing something else, but in any order you desire. So, you have to destroy Flak Cannons, Enemy tanks and secure the strategic building - you do it your way, paving your path the way you want it. In MOH:A there are about 10 to 15 weapons, including M1926 Thompson, Colt M1911, Kar98k, Gewehr 43, Mauser C712 and several others, which all have 3 levels of upgrades, each unlocking minor upgrade for the weapon. Very nice, exluding the fact, that some of these upgrades break the weapon absolutely! Take G43 - first upgrade is high-capacity mag (20 instead of 10), then its optics and after - GRENADE LAUNCHER... Why would I need my sniper rifle to become a GL? Not only previous two upgrades become useless but the GL itself is much less effective than thrown grenade! Add to this several bugs in which you stuck in interior and exterior and you get somewhat interesting at first, but very buggy game, which will hardly stay on your HDD for long.

I loved Origins. Great game, a game in which you feel the weight of your decisions, you realize what you are doing, you realize that you are responsible for major changes in Ferelden. I expected something similar from DA2, but more refined and deeper. Sadly, what we get is an unfinished game instead of a masterpiece like the first game. It took me 20 hours less to beat Dragon Age 2 compared to Dragon Age Origins. It took exactly 40 hours. Just like Mass Effect 2. Or Mass Effect. You know what, that feels strange, like Bioware is trying to adjust the length of its games to 40 hours. Anyway, on topic, the game is better in almost every aspect than Dragon Age Origins: we have better combat system, better RP system (not simplified but adjusted) now warrior gets benefited from investing a point or two in Magic. Design of new inventory makes a lot more sense and is much more helpful. Quests are numerous, yes, but not very much unique... Graphical part is better than Origins in every way, but the fatal flaw of Origins never got rid of in DA2, - same locations. This is very sad part, actually, because it kills the unique feel of locations you visit and destroys the atmosphere of what's happening. In DA2 the decisions you make, don't feel the same way as in Origins. Storyline in general seems weaker, but its personal opinion. What's not personal is the way story is told. 10 bloody years. What the heck?! You do something important, a couple of years passes. You do something again and another couple of years passes. WHAT DO YOU MEAN?! What's he sleeping or something in between?! Conclusion: A very good game with nice combat system, nice graphical part, more intuitive dialog system, improved RP system, better design overall, great voice work BUT with poor storyline, poor locations, the blasted Kirkwall over and over and over again, abundance of DLCs, more of a popular product than a work of art. Sad. 7/10

Game's great, make no mistake, but there are some fatal flaws that make it awful or not lasting long enough. Here I'll try to devide + and - in sections: + Innovative gameplay, the difficulty rises slowly at your decision letting you get accustomed to the game. + Many minigames within one package, arcade naval warfare, arcade fencing, tactical assault of the cities, treasure hunting. + You can do many things in SM's Pirates, do quests, rob caravans, follow rumors, collect valuable items, romance royal women, upgrade your ship, board and capture other ships, represent one of 4 nations or meddle in their business and become a notorious pirate, give and receive gifts, share collected gold with your team, etcetera, etcetera... - Controls on the tactical map are just awful... Sometimes you hit Page Down instead of 7 and you automatically retreat from a fight. - The game is way too repetitive. The good experience will not last very long. - It's a sandbox arcade game. A good sandbox game is a game in which you have overwhelming amount of possibilities and everything is happening at random, making up for more fun! Although in Pirates, events are happening at random, randomly generated, they are getting old very fast, due to your limited possibilities e.g. you put your money in a bank, you have some items, but you don't have a character's doll, so at some point (very fast actually) all of the items are applied to your character and this aspect disappears from the game. Moreover, fencing challenging it may be at first, get's overly easy later on due to your equipment. Ship upgrades can only be made in specific cities (What?), so you'll have to sweep the damn Caribbean if you want to find them all. Back to the idea, all of your possibilities uncover VERY VERY fast, after that you don't discover anything new, everything else is just repetition of thing you did one hour ago. = Conclusion: A great game it may be, but it's way too lengthly for an Arcade and way too shallow for a Sandbox. While trying to get the best from each, SM's Pirates end up being none and losing it's greatness somewhere along the way.

This game is just a lot of fun! Game is based around rolls, acceleration holding balance and other physical puzzles, - by controlling little black ball (it's our little protagonist) it's up to you to get to the end of each level. Nightsky is not very challenging, but you really can stuck on some of the levels for a while. As a resort from "rolling" through levels, some levels offer an opportunity to "drive" different vehicles - little cars, helicopters, catapults and so on, while having this little black ball in the basis of it, representing an engine of the construction. This levels make the game great, in my opinion, they could just remove everything but this levels and the game wouldn't lose one bit of fun in it. The game can be played several times because it introduces two difficulty levels and collectible stars which you will be able to use in the end of your journey. Although there is not much to say about the graphical part, Nightsky's design is very well-made (If you can say that about everything being black). It's quite basic, but it doesn't tire your eyes and quite well fit into level design of the game. (As the name states, your journey is occurs during the night). The other side of the medal is storyline. There is really nothing to say about the storyline, but I suppose a game of that kind doesn't require strong story.

What is Braid? Braid is well-crafted platformer, which uses a time-manipulating system on which puzzle-solving is based. It also has great music and graphical content, as well as amazing storyline, both inspiring and a food for thought. For me, game was a little bit hard on some of it's parts, but I have to say, even if you are not a fan of this genre (I'm an RPG-player, mostly), you should try Braid at least for it's story, well-done 2D drawings and music.

Bulletstorm is fun at first, unusual approach to killing, you have to use weapons in special manner to earn Skill Points, and so you slowly make your way through game, listening to countless alcohol-inspired lines. Well, it wouldn't be so bad if you had to use your guns in exactly specific way, for example, with Revolver you have to attempt one-shot kills, with shotgun you have to approach in exact vicinity or with the sniper rifle, each kill from which looks ENTIRELY same. Add to these graphic imperfections (you can see light-blue squares from time to time) and the storyline, which in particular doesn't worth much... If you decide to buy this game, don't expect much, this is just your average shooter.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

If you are going to buy this game, remember something. When Starcraft 2 came out it costed the same money and it offered you a great lasting campaign and a level WCG multiplayer. When Civilization V came out it costed the same and it offered you insane depth and game mechanics out of this world. Now, this piece right here, costs EXACTLY the same, offering you HEADACHE, FRUSTRATION and a free dictionary of all the F*** words you know. Wanna buy it? Be my guest. Why dont you pay G. Newell more money, he cannot get enough to become a billionaire. ON YOUR TAB.