Ra-Qin

With roots reaching back to Asteroids and Geometry wars, Beat Hazard, the first release from Cold Beam Games, introduces a next-gen twist to on it's predecessors...Music drives the gameplay, and you pick the tunes! Beat Hazard provides a unique gameplay experience with every new track since various musical elements change the way the game reacts; tempo controls your rate of fire, the number of foes, and the way enemies attack. Slow songs don't have as many baddies, but you can't shoot as many projectiles from your ship. Meanwhile, up-tempo/club-mix tracks will have you on the edge of your seat as the screen explodes with enemies, but lends you a dazzling array of attacks to deal with the horde. If you want to play this on PC, Highly recommend using/getting an XB360 gamepad, it is a shooter, and the keyboard/mouse doesn't do it justice. Beat Hazard is available for both XBox 360 and PC. Go to the XB Live Marketplace to get it for 400pts, or head to Steam; ~$10. This game is a must-have for anyone who loves Audiosurf (another music driven game), craves a unique/addictive game experience, or needs yet another reason to pump up the volume.

While being years old, and now part of a recently release trilogy bundle, this game still holds it's own. Graphics are stellar (pardon the pun), and the storyline maintains the above par standards BioWare is (or was) known for when under the leadership of the good Dr's Zeschuk and Muzyka. The Good: Fluid controls, excellent mix of characters, 6 different classes to chose from, fully voiced NPCs, and an array of weaponry and talents exceeded only by MMOs or Borderlands. The Bad: No XB360 controller support, difficult to apply the DLC (to my Steam version at least), and hard to configure for those wishing to play on 16:10 displays. Overall - One of the reasons I did not play Mass Effect when I bought it in 2008 was that the story seemed to drag. Aside from the fact that I was hip-deep in WoW, I would have gladly played the game if it got off to a bang (like ME2 does; BioWare took notice of this flaw and fixed it in the second installment), but the game does not move or begin to make any sense until you are about 3 hours into it and taking your first mission away from Citidel Station. The greatest appeal for me was the ability to play he lead role of Commander Shepard as a female with a fully voiced role, supported by BioWare's multipathed conversation selections. I felt a connection with the character, and was able to see the galaxy from her eyes. It was also impressive that BioWare created an opportunity for the character to enter an emotional/physical relationship with with either male or female members of the crew. The male relationship can be meaningful or trite, and the female relationship was well written and classy; it did not come off as a twenty-something male's **** More than likely BioWare consulted women of experience to write those scenes. Mission play is great, with some missions affecting the main storyline of Shepard's pursuit/investigation of Saren, and other will designed side-missions to assist you with character development (more levels, money, guns, and skills are earned this way). Missions can vary in length from 10 mins (if you whiz though it) to 4 hrs. Additionally, DLC missions are available from BioWare's site; Bring Down the Sky is free and lasts 3 hrs, while Pinnacle Station costs $5, and allows you to develop your character in a holo-training environment. Both DLC packages are side-missions with no effect on the main story; you don't have to get them, but they are worth the $5. Aside from it's global appeal, Mass Effect has earned a rightful place in my personal gaming hall of fame. If you don't have it, go get it. If you do have it, take the time to do EVERYTHING the game has to **** stories and content are well beyond that of 99% of the games that are out there.

Never played a DeathSpank game? Well, treat yourself to a fun little button-masher called "DeathSpank" or the second outing "DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue". DeathSpank is a wonderful lead character who wears a purple thong in a quirky little world where everything is subject to becoming a bad joke or pun or **** that s a good thing. DeathSpank bumbles his way through various quests, much to the chagrin of the local populace...They don't trust him to get the job done, and even the chickens are not safe in DeathSpank; lay waste to 100 of the little cluckers, and you will be known as "Destroyer of Chickens". The game is over the top, sillly, and ****, simply put the gameplay ROCKS, and the first two titles are a great ride from start to finish.

Never played a DeathSpank game? Well, treat yourself to a fun little button-masher called "DeathSpank" or the second outing "DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue". DeathSpank is a wonderful lead character who wears a purple thong in a quirky little world where everything is subject to becoming a bad joke or pun or **** that s a good thing. DeathSpank bumbles his way through various quests, much to the chagrin of the local populace...They don't trust him to get the job done, and even the chickens are not safe in DeathSpank; lay waste to 100 of the little cluckers, and you will be known as "Destroyer of Chickens". The game is over the top, sillly, and ****, simply put the gameplay ROCKS, and the first two titles are a great ride from start to finish.

Love the game! The perspective is perfect for playing rugby, the controls work very well in simulating a VERY complex **** only errors I saw (on day one) were that players don't join Mauls 100% of the time (when you are mashing the button for them to do so), and the refs don't call offside as often as they should (typical rugby refs LOL). Pro level is tough, which means that the game will have playability for a long **** fact, it is so tough, that you can barely beat Romania with the All-Blacks until you've given at few goes. If you love Rugby Union, get on the e-pitch and scrum down with a friend!

Very disappointed. I purchased this title with great enthusiasm; the trailer was sharp, and the concept seemed sound/innovative. However, I had this sinking feeling things were going to take a turn for the worse very quickly once I got my game. Upon launching the game it failed to let me click on the button for registration. Once I got the registration done by manually logging into their site, the client locked up while trying to download my "Characters" which I had not created yet. That is an issue that has existed for over a month; related to their database provider underestimating the needs of the game (which are still obviously underestimated). Then I finally get in after retrying 6-8 times, only to find out that I cannot play a two player game, and that we have to wait until four are ready to play. The fourth didn't show up in the twenty mins that I waited DURING the Steam summer sale; only a total of 17 people were online and playing the game during what is likely to be the hottest time for the game since release day. What looks great in the trailers is a dog in the kennel. The game should have local servers, the game should support 32-bit Win7, the game should, the game should, the game should...a lot of should's and not enough do's in my opinion. This game is not going to **** much for my $10

John deLancie (aka "Q" from ST:NG) quides you through the tutorial, and pokes fun all game **** he will do in his well-casted roles. And who better to explain dimensional rifts, fluffy space, and the unavoidable indeterminacy of faux-quantum physics without the gamer becoming dizzy. Kim Swift creator of Portal and lead designer of this title puts Quantum Conundrum right in line for greatness; it's flawless, cheap, fun, challenging, well made, and laugh out loud funny. We need more games like this! If you love Portal 1 & 2, get this now. If you love puzzles, get this now. If you love to **** THIS NOW! BUY IT!!! BUY IT NOW!!! BUY IT NOW!!!

OK, really fast review time... ...A Karateka reboot is a very good thing indeed! Karateka was the first game Jordan Mechner created, and is the game that lead directly to the legendary Prince of Persia franchise. The 2012 version is true to the original, and the reboot is lovingly crafted into a artistic and intelligent fighter-game. Starting with the base hero, Mariko's True Love, you ascend the cliff to rescue the girl, and meat out some punishment on the minions and their master, Akuma. As you progress along the path towards your final confrontation, you deal with minions, bosses, and Akuma's pet falcon. Each fight is increasingly tougher, and the enemies have a variety of moves with which to attack your character. After every few fights, players are offered Mariko's Flowers to gain health, and should they fight well enough to fill their power symbol, they receive special attacks which shorten the fight. Gameplay relies on the fighting mechanic to propel the character along, and should players lose all health a cinematic death scene passes the story from the True Love, to a Monk character, and finally to a Brute as Mariko's rescuer should the player lose all heath a 2nd time. Victory is declared when Akuma is defeated, but victory sweetens as players compete for achievements and on leaderboards, ultimately attempting to fight a perfect fight to rescue Mariko without taking a single blow as the True Love character. The game is worth the money (only $9.99 on Steam), appealing to both male and female players, and a lot of fun to play. My only complaint was the lack of anti-aliasing feature on the PC version; it's a minor aesthetic thing. Button-mashers fans need not apply, as this is a thinking person's fighter. Jordan Mechner has triumphed in his goal to bring a near 30y/o classic into the modern era. Simple, elegant, smashing. ...patience **** way of the Karateka is achieved not by haste, but in keeping an ear for the sound of attack and watchful eye on the stance of your opponent. Always respect your opponent, never turn your back on him!

Having completed all three Dungeon Siege games, I can say that I like this one as much as DS2, but not as much as DS1. DS3 misses in a lot of places (controls being the primary), and as with Dragon Age 2, this game was not true to the original. This is not a dungeon crawler, since the maps have no areas to explore (everything is tied to being on a quest), and while this is a departure from the original series, the game makes for a decent action-adventure; not a great one, but a decent one. When the game is run on a gampad, everything makes sense, and the action is smooth and sometimes frantic. The camera for this game is lacking, two-views were not enough to take me to my happy place, and with the quality of the models in the game I really wish I could have zoomed in more. The fixed character development, smacked of action-adventure games, and it really didn't help me get engaged with my toon. Loot was REALLY random, at level 6 I found a high-level orange gun at a vendor, I was able to equip it, and I used it all the way to **** stats we easily gleaned from the retail price of the gear, so I felt no need to level my toon since they could use anything they found or bought, and I no reason to look at any loot below the price what I had equipped. The story was fine, and the boss fights were entertaining at normal and hard levels. This game is not a blockbuster, just a title that was released, had little thought put to it as a "PC Title", but had no bugs. Let's hope a patch comes out that allows people to overcome the controller issues. Now for a SLAMMMMMMM!!! I can definitely say I will be avoiding any game Obsidian makes in the future, they have a 'special ability' with sequels that makes my stomach turn, and are a big reason behind Bioware/EA not releasing KOTOR 3 on it's own...Obsidian effectively killed the series with KOTOR2. Obsidian is clearly not on par with great design companies like Gas Powered Games (pausing for a moment of silence), and Bioware. If you didn't like DS3, tell Obsidian with your pocketbook. ABOUT PORTS: Not all ports are bad, but all ports had game pads in their past. To everyone out there complaining about the controls, you should consider buying an XB360 wired controller for your PC, they worked great in this ****'s face it folks, many games get ported from consoles, and the only way to play these games is via the game pad. Mouse and keyboards are afterthoughts. If you don't like this don't buy console ports, or multi-platform released games (ones that share the release date with PC and consoles), because you will always be disappointed. ...and finally about misguided ratings... As for this game's ratings on meta-critic, the yays and nays are so off target that they are going to be ignored. If you rated a 10, but said something negative about the game, you blew it; and a 9 rating would have been hard to justify. If you rated this game less than a 3, then you are WAY off **** you want to see a game that REALLY deserves a 3 or less, then look to Tenchu: Dark Secret for the DS or Bethesda's original Terminator game for PC (gives me shivvers just thinking back to those days). When you've played 1000's of games to completion...then you can start giving out scores from 3 to 0 and know that you where right in doing so.