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For me, this game is Portal 2 all over again. As a game compared to universal standards it's awesome, but compared to its predecessor (I only acknowledge the first), it falls short. But it certainly goes pretty far to meet the bar set by the original Bioshock. The beginning is an atmospheric masterpiece, but after a minor complication with your first escape attempt the plot loses some steam. Later in the game, the plot turns upside down in typical Bioshock fashion, and though it's well executed I didn't much care for it. As always, the ending is mindblowing and anyone who uploads a video of it should be shot on sight. Graphics aren't ****, but the lip-syching and voice acting are phenomenal. Probably the best part of the whole game is the interactions between Booker and Elizabeth as their relationship changes throughout the story. Conversations are believable with just the right amount of ambiguity to keep you guessing about the story, and Elizabeth is by far the best videogame support character in history, barely nudging out Alyx Vance of the Half-Life series. This game should never be sold for less than $50, but I do take issue with the "pre-purchase DLC" scam they've got going on on Steam.

It looks like RAGE meets a scaled-down Battlefield 2, and plays somewhat similarly with exaggerated driving, a neat post-apoc setting, but poor infantry gunplay and overpowered helicopters. The leveling system is rather flat, points aren't very clearly earned or rewarding, the classes are only okay, weapons and animations don't tickle my gun fetish, and the occasional technical glitch might get you into trouble. That said, it looks good, runs smoothly, and adds up to an unrefined game, which would be acceptable for beta, but counts against this non-F2P release.

Buy this game. In short, it's Thief + Bioshock in a steampunk City 17. The stealth and world navigation is sufficiently challenging and rewarding. The combat flows well, even in large melees, with the omnipresent option to go non-lethal. The highly explorable areas are excellently done, with only a few sharp edges left unpolished in the later levels. There aren't points at which you're forced to stop and take a look at the beautiful place you're sneaking/slashing through, but dang there should be! I only ever encountered one major visual glitch, which was my held weapon staying in view when I used the mask's zoom on one level. The story is original with some generic features that are masterfully implemented so as not to draw attention to themselves, thus keeping it all cohesive. On the downside there, I felt the Outsider was a weak plot device used as a writer's convenience, which is closely connected to my feelings about the ending which didn't meet the expectations set up by the rest of the game, dropping my rating by one measly point (well, half a point, all things considered). Beyond that, the only pet peeve I had with the game was the fact that doors must finish opening to be closed again. And if that's all I had to complain about while progressing through this magnificently constructed world described in Deus Ex fashion, this game is truly one of the greats. Again, buy it.

Cryostasis is largely comparable to Bioshock namely for its approach to terror mixed with combat, but relies instead on jump scares over suspense and buildup. Conversely, the combat is clunky, which helps to make your encounters more frightening. It's heavy heavy on philosophy, told through a complex to assemble and albeit slow-to-tell story that's very satisfying to unravel, but some parts are very difficult to figure out in relation to each other, even to Portal 1 veterans. The characters are excellently portrayed, and the player's interaction with them through the "mental echo" ability is highly emotionally compelling, but sorting out who's who is difficult, partially due to the English dubbing. Animations are unnatural, but the graphics more than make up for it. And above all: the atmosphere. Like so many other games made in eastern Europe, it's all about immersion. And the arctic atmosphere really intensifies the unique health mechanic of keeping warm instead of popping pain pills or ducking into cover to regenerate punctured flesh. All that said, there are some bugs about, which makes it strangely reminiscent of STALKER. But don't even dream of an open world, as this one is a strictly linear story. In the end, I recommend getting this game on STEAM, and saving it for a nice autumn day where the wind from your opened window makes your fingers burn on your keyboard, because that'll **** you right into this fun, satisfying, and poignant story. Final note: the end "boss" has a highly difficult learning curve, and there are three ways to choose how to get to the same ending. All three are equally excellent!

The campaign was a missed opportunity to tell a poignant/choice-driven/realistic story, the epic graphics are ruined by crappy lens flare (to hide what few mistakes/shortcuts they had to take), weapon selection is a bland soup of point-and-click, Frostbite 2 is revolutionary but monopolized by EA, premium and DLCs by EA serve to support Marx's arguments (and EA's finances), Battlelog is a **** Facebook wannabe, and Origin is a pathetic attempt to compete with STEAM. But STILL better than Call of Duty (yes, I have to mention it) and most games being released anymore. Gameplay is smooth with small innovation (the parkour), vehicles run excellent and have well-balanced combat, personalization is fun but not overdone, and balancing features are decent (scope reflection). Honestly, it's worth the money to get the game vanilla, and only get the DLCs you see you'll like. DON'T GET PREMIUM. But if you're looking for a truly great place to spend your money, find a way to donate to the Black Mesa Team (legally impossible, since it's a mod). EA has become the evil empire of gaming, and is going to strangle us dry.

I played the Beta and didn't like where it was going. The changes I saw needing to be made were far too vast and extensive I didn't give the dev teams enough credit to face them. So I took a break and returned long after the game went live. And in short: it's still bad. Match-making seems to be better, the infinite customization potential is still there, along with (my favorite part) the loading screens. But GamersFirst (which is like calling a corporation "ConsumersFirst") proves itself to be every bit the dirty capitalist from the nightmares of Karl Marx. The in-game weapons are generally balanced, unless you count the sniper rifles laser-effective range of 0m to 300m without the FOV-limiting scope view, or the lag caused by being hit by a 20 rounds-per-second SMG at close range. But then there's the marketplace, where you must buy credit (which numbs the pinch of spending money) at $10 per 800 credits. With this money, you can buy (or usually rent) overpriced weapons that are much more powerful then the play4free-ers will get. Higher stats across the board make them appealing, but dispair not, for there is a cheaper way to get them (or so it seems). Premium members (and you'll never forget this, because it's advertised by GamersFirst at every possible annoying opporunity) can get free monthly credits, discounts on marketplace items, and in-game cash boosts, along with plenty of other goodies. For a monthly fee in this F2P game. If only between 3 and 10% of gamers have to pay for a free 2 play game to turn a profit, and if GamersFirst has several of these up and running, one has to wonder how much money they're making, and what they're doing with it all. Building a floating company headquarters out of old battleships and oil rigs?

Whenever someone thinks of PC gaming, they should think of Team Fortress 2. This game, along with Counter-Strike, has made the FPS genre as it stands possible. The theme is cartoony to match the tongue-in-cheek approach the dev team is taking to death with their sarcastic, satirical humor. Blog posts, shot comics, and constant updates add to an ever increasingly confusing and hilariously strange back-story with absolutely no practical application in game, except to give a base for community-made hats. Did I forget to mention hats, weapons, classes, community maps, mods, and the digitalized hide-and-seek mode of prophunt?

Some people give poor ratings to a game developer that rips off of what another has done. But when they do it seamlessly as an addition to the latter's game in question, it's tribute-worthy material. Blue Shift serves up all the awesomeness of Valve's Half-Life from another perspective and a couple of added-in dynamics. Plus, it gave us Black Mesa security guard Barney Calhoun, who was made so great by this game that Valve kept him on for Half-Life 2 and Episode 1.

PC gamer? You need to play this. Take all the great things that Valve does, like great map design, mood, satire, dark humor, fun humor, emotional pull, good dialog, driving gameplay, award-worthy story telling, guns guns guns, and physics!, and then go back to the roots. Here you are, now go kill some aliens with your PhD, crowbar and shotgun, because you're GORDON FREEMAN.

I'm hesitant to rate this, because I feel it's more a WIP then a full release, which could be attributed to executive meddling for fear of Fox News' take on a game where you kill cops. But it will always have a higher rating then MW2, for the exact reason that you still aren't allowed to kill civilians. And the cops are American. Let me say that again; a game where you're killing AMERICANS. Seems there's still hope for the game industry's maturing. But back to the game; some aspects do get in the way of a smooth experience for me. The gunplay seems a bit iffy, or hit-or-miss at best, the screen effects tend to get annoying, such as blood from a melee kill being mistaken for being wounded/directional damage/etc., and other things I just don't understand how to use. Once you take a hostage, what do you do with them? Leave them there? If you've got a group of decent players, nobody will be captured so there's no need to bargain. If you could take the hostages with you, that'd add to the dynamic. Other things, like the ability to take hostages, a quick command/spotting mechanic, multiple enemies, perks, the heist, dialog, and the very fact you're involved in a frigg'n heist (how awesome is that?!) make it worth playing, but I'm on the fence about calling it a good game. It's decent, but still has a few small issues to work out.

If you think Borderland's story was dry, 1-dimensional, and left a bad taste in your brain, but you still want the RPG, post-apocalyptic experience, this is it. Rage (now bugless!) mixes a feel of seriousness to go augment the great atmosphere with hilariously larger-then-life characters that make the game colorfully varried. The guns shoot, and you've got a lot of them, so unless you're in too much love with the two-weapon-realism, this half-life-esque armory you'll be carrying should satisfy any end-of-the-world-survivor. Facial maps of characters is top-quality, and the scenery through which you'll be trudging on missions is pure scenery gorn--the attention to detail by id Software to the decimated city you visit is mind-blowing, and a true reminder of Life After People. On the downside, when it does seem to be sandbox, it's not. And when it's not sandboxish, it's linear as the original The Houe of the Dead. But with the only sandbox game pulling off freedom and atmosphere being STALKER, a little guidance is welcomed for an absorbing experience, and even needed when you're going through areas with so much eye candy the makers of 2012 would be jealous. But above all, it's really fun when you equip rockets to your vehicle and go on rallies.

As a game, it's epic. Truly amazing. But as a sequel to Portal, it's a letdown. Great voice acting, spot-on humor, linear, moderately challenging puzzles, plenty of cute and fun moments, and a climax that made me scream at my computer screen for... epicness? Whatever it was, it was awesome. But the story's fed to you in this one like a regular game, as opposed to Portal's more easter-egg-like hints. The plot is seamless, but formulaic. The twists are easily predicted, but still excite when they happen. And Chell, whose name was never even mentioned in the first game, becomes less of an in-game projection of the player, but a bit of a character herself. Not to mention the sexying her up by the developers (not complaining too much, she still has a bit of a harsh face, which I'm quite glad for. But that still doesn't discourage all the fan ****, but now I'm on a tangent). My review, however, is only on the single player. I'll leave others for the co-op mode.

The best game made since Tetris. Surreal, complex, with all the goodies of an indie but the backing of (who else?) Valve, all but devoid of violence, with elements of sarcastic dark humor and relaxing cuteness mixed with fearful suspense and tongue-in-cheek moments of LoLs for a story you really have to dig at to comprehend. Short, yes, but there's only so much you can do without either becoming repetitive, becoming repetitive, or throwing the average and below players at a brick wall and saying "climb." Voice acting is all done by one person if you can believe that, and the song at the end is the very definition of a cult classic. And as Yahtzee said in his review of the sequel, the only real complain that exists is the annoying fanbase who can't keep their grubby little paws off of something in order to keep it sacred. Hobbes was right.

As much as I miss the characters of the first one, and am loyal to the original's originality and simplicity, I must give the sequel a higher rating if only for the upkeep of free updates and constant addition to the already varied dynamic. While this one feels less like you're running for your life to a fate uncertain through the decaying ruins of the recent and progressing apocalypse, it's got more dakka and gorn. Plus that much more story to go along with the grim path humanity took in late 2009. For more information, see my review of L4D and just throw in the fact that there are more guns, more special zombies, more game play modes, even more game modes, a crossover campaign with the original survivors that's explained in "The Sacrifice" web comic, the original campaigns (with all the second's goodies), and just more Valve. Game on, comrades. But I do suggest you buy the first as well, if just to ease into the second's complexity, while being able to see your legs.

Few games even make the effort to enforce teamwork. To most in the modern shooter genre, a team is just a bunch of loners with guns who can't kill each other, going up against a dozen or so loners with guns with the same constraints. Valve has a habit of challenging this, and the end result is Left 4 Dead, a game that not only requires you to work as a team, but outright beats you over the head with how helpless you are alone in this atmospheric, tense, tactical, intense, and, at times, hilarious zombie apocalypse. The characters and the hours of dialog alone are worth the buy, and don't even get me started on the fun and frustration that awaits you in the versus mode. You can play as the infected too! Alone, it's a damn good game and packs at least a hundred hours of gameplay, but its little brother quickly blew past in both the community and the developer's eyes. Before then, the limits such as weapon selection and special enemies didn't exist. But who can pass up mentioning akimbo assassin, probably one of the most fun achievements available in modern shooters, and the plane crash in Dead Air. Truly classic.

There needs to be a medal for three of this game's achievements, which is my only real complaint. It's HL2, but more more more and, well, more! They kept their precise pacing, absorbing story, enveloping atmosphere, adrenalin-pumped combat, and there's a driving section that, when coupled with one of the aforementioned achievements, becomes the toughest test for any hardcore PC gamer or achievement hunter. Good luck. Now did you get all the bugs?

Not quite as well paced as its base game, but still very compelling. The sections tend to blur together, which only a surrealist would appreciate for their representation of a chaotic conflict on the brink of apocalyptic mayhem. The ending hits you like a .22 to the side of your fiberglass placeebo helmet, but it serves its purpose: heading up to the next section in this epic series. Though, my favorite part of this one is actually the recap of it in the beginning of Ep.2. Followed closely by the dynamic dialog between you and Alyx.

Poor graphics. That's IT. A true benchmark for PC games, and an example all developers should learn from. Award-worthy story, overwhelming atmoshpere, dynamic physics, perfectly paced action and puzzles, intense firefights, good character development, surrealism in video game form, and one of the biggest moral plights in video gaming history; Gordon Freeman--the "badass normal" scientist turned soldier, originally intending to create and produce, suddenly turned warrior with all the paradoxis of killing to save, fighting for peace, and destroying to create that go along with it when he (technically was used) to start a chain reaction of events that ends everything he ever cared about. Which he only found out about after several years of being in limbo. If anyone's tragic, it's him. And he's never said a word.

As a PC gamer, it is my obligation to give this game a poor rating. Its primary redeeming quality, the non-stop, action-packed, high-octane multiplayer is hampered by the worst thing a dev--nay, a publisher can do to a video game: restrict it. No dedicated servers, no community content, no community content, no balanced games, no instant justice for hackers, no vote mechanic. Multiplayer was fun, but quickly went down the tubes to EA-knows-where and somehow still came off to them as a good idea, probably because of the console **** slaves. Oh, and there's no console. Swallow that pill, PC gamer. Single player, though, is fun but yet another shining example of the modern culture we live in where killing is good as long as they're not Americans or children, nobody takes prisoners, and one-to-four men can take out waves of attacking soldiers Hollywood-style. Co-op is very fun if you've got a friend in mind, so if you're planning on torrenting it, just buy it on sale for that part.

It's fun. While it's not game-changer, Brink offers a bit of question to the whole video game premise of following orders and doing your job, as portrayed through the two-sided missions. The conflict is truly polarizing and a real moral predicament. Gun selection isn't quite a Missouri veteran's closet, but gets the job done. The parkour mechanic was intended to add a dimension to the combat (as opposed to other games' parkour-only or segregated game play), but ends up being an upgraded sprint function that amounts to slightly amusing camera angles while you hold shift on your way to the battle. The lack of class distinction is a real pain, but the customization fun makes up for that. Voice acting is great, and the back-story really does a civil conflict justice.

Truly one of the greats. If you call yourself a PC gamer, you must play this game. CoD or MoH fanboy, it doesn't matter. This is one of the pinnacles of PC gaming warfare. Disregard single player. It doesn't exist. This game is meant to be played on a 4km-squared map with 64 players and a whole lotta planes, guns, automobiles, and enemy boats to be spotted. A respectable mix between individual combat (with just a little balance missing on that part), vehicle warfare, and massive strategy set in a surprisingly accurate conflict that (sit down for this) doesn't involve Russians*! Disregard price and dated graphics, you must have this experience. *Outside of Special Forces expansion pack

Any game that makes you think twice about killing, and later regret it needs to be played by any and all gamers. The story is unoriginal, clearly left-wing-bias (not to say it's wrong), dialog is rather hit-or-miss, combat is formulaic and the third person perspective kills me every time. But the stealth is in the top lists, character variety is awesome, and as I mentioned, you will regret some of the more radical decisions most games throw at you like Saturday morning pancakes in a country restaurant. And if you really like looking deep into something, you'll see an underlying philosophical theme of loyalty, orders, and "the mission". But you do have to dig intellectually for that part.

If you're thinking "Call of Duty", stop reading and go waste your money on MW3, 4, or whatever else has just come out. If not, welcome to the most underrated game of 2010. Medal of Honor's strongest point is easily the single player. World-class graphics, sound that you feel in your gut, compelling dialog, well orchestrated story, and epic attention to detail. Your weapon remembers the round still in the chamber between reloading! The ending was a real mind blower, and the atmosphere was rivaled only by games like STALKER and Metro. When the credits rolled, I just had a sense of wholeness. Now I'm convinced The Catalyst is about Afghanistan. My single problem was the "press any key to skip", which served as my only reminder of reality when I had to reload the section after accidentally right clicking out of tense instinct. It's that compelling. Multiplayer didn't deliver DICE's legendary game play standards, but it did give me an opportunity to appreciate yet another of the campaigns hidden qualities. My first experience as the Taliban in killing an American soldier left me with a sick feeling in my stomach. Any game that makes you feel bad about killing needs to be played by every gamer.

After I had finished Amnesia: The Dark Descent, I felt I could wear my victory as a badge of honor and experience against any and all horrors the video games industry could throw at me. For nothing could possibly compare to the masterpiece created by Norden and Frictional Games. These folks have fear down to a science. Suspense that makes you remind yourself (hopelessly) that it's just a game, scenery that's to die for, music expertly integrated into your nervous system, sounds that quickly match your heart rate, a story I can't believe didn't come out of a novel, and seamless game play between fleeing horrors your friends won't understand and Valve-worthy physics puzzles. The only hurtle for me was that this game did not immunize me to horror, but had by all means destroyed me. Thank you Frictional Games. Indie delivers again. It's a shame Amnesia was not made by Russians, because you don't beat this game. It beats you.