aadms

The Witcher 3 is perhaps the best RPG ever in loot, equipment, sidequests, upgrades and size of map. It's a huge world to explore and there are more quests and storylines than any other rpg to date. However, story telling is both great and sometimes flat. Most voice acting was done exceptionally well, and the animation and graphics are top notch. Yet, when I put in a game from a couple of years ago, Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, I realized that The Witcher 3's graphics were mundane. The controls in picking objects up, or jumping could be better. Yet I still enjoy The Witcher 3 for its overall presentation.

A score of six is definitely better than the last Madden games which have ranked near zero for the last eight years. I recommend it because of the sound, graphics, and game atmosphere that is presented in this iteration. The graphics alone are worth the jump to "next gen". But.................this game still needs more love and polish before it can become a good football game. Starting with animations; it's not fluid enough to make you feel like they're actual players. They still look like lumbering robotrons. The next-gen in this case would be to make the players have more realistic motion. Another thing is realistic crowds. While there are more different types of fans in the stands, when you're blowing a team out, the stands are still packed full cheering away in the waning minutes of the 4th quarter like its the Super Bowl. Plus, there are no cutscenes of fans reacting, no weather conditions, nor any special recognition if your team is playing in the post season. These add up to a very weak season presentation. Next, Franchise Mode: Franchise mode still **** because it cares little about the feel and atmosphere of a football season. Commentary in "tweets" is all you get about what is going on in the season. And if you constantly choose alternate uniforms for your team to wear for each game, that's the only "tweeting news" you get for your team. It's stupid. You can't make new players for the draft, and you can't customize uniforms except switch around helmets and jerseys. Customization of players and characters continue to be woeful inadequate as you can only choose from the same damn twelve character models you have to choose from that we've had for the last ten years. Worse, they decided that you'll be tied to either a specific head coach, or just a player, and not the entire aspect of the team for the franchise mode; so it shouldn't be called franchise mode but Coach or Player Mode. Finally, you can't select other teams' games to play them during the season. Your stuck selecting if Home or Away teams win. This is another step back in franchise mode. Bottom line: Best Madden game since 2005 in the fact it took a huge jump in graphics and sound and game atmosphere, but needs to take the "next-gen" step in animations, bring back customization. They also need to get back to creating a fun and engrossing franchise mode that lets you play the franchise and not just get stuck with one head coach or player. Yes, I got stuck being Jim Caldwell and there was nothing I could do about it. If 2k was allowed to put out their own version of NFL football, I'm sure they still would blow this EA iteration away

I found this game to be much more entertaining than the new AC Unity I played last Spring. And, more believable in the sense that you play as a former Assassin that really doesn't believe anymore in all the killing and destruction that they do in order for "freedom". I found out that I'm really a Templar at heart. Sorry Ezio. The graphics are a let down compared to the newer generation, but very acceptable. The game play is smooth, and I want to belief that the combat is actually smoother this time around, where the other last two games; Unity and Black Flag. I felt very frustrated with the combat of those two other games most of the time. Maybe Shay, the hero of Rogue, is just the better overall fighter. The minigames of sending your "fleet" out in the campaigns of the British French War of t he 1750s is weak. After I finished the game I had no desire to get 100% on anything. And I don't know why, but I just have no desire to look for buried treasure. The main goal of getting Shay strong enough, and his ship, the Morrigan, sea-worthy enough to withstand battle, took a lot longer than I thought because you have so many place to visit to find the blue prints, resources, or animal parts, for these upgrades. I haven't had much time for video games anymore, so the game took me about two and a half months to finish the main story. Still, I did enjoy the game very much.

The game is played in the spirit of Telltales' Walking Dead and Game of Thrones, except you don't get to choose dialogue, but more like reactions. The animation and graphics are pure next-gen on the level of PS4's other exclusive, The Order: 1886. But, unlike in that game, in this game you actually are required to interact and use the objects that you pick. Not just look at them then put them down. The sound is excellent. It's better to play it with headphones on. The game play works just fine for the type of game it is. However, I didn't like the "don't move" aspect of the game, where you are trying to keep the controller as still as possible and it's pulsating in your hand. Most of my characters died because of this one poor game function. Overall, loved the story. This game is going to be a classic "must play" in time to come.

The great with this game is the polished combat, gorgeous graphics and animation, strong story telling and voice acting. I found the overall story quite satisfying, game play very fun, and highly recommend this game to everyone. They added enough new entries into this third (don't count Batman Origins) game, that it doesn't feel like it's "just the same game" we've been playing for the last six years. I was very happy that the story wasn't the usual six hour long experience as was one of my biggest gripes about this series. Instead, the storyline lasted at least 15 hours for me. But, if I have to sum up this game in a few simple words it would have to be "a bit too much". It has a great story and adds to the cast of villains you'll encounter. It's great that instead of just mini-games you'll get mini-stories. But in the context of trying to get everything done in one night, it seems out of place having that many side stories where you ask yourself, "Shouldn't the sun be coming up now?". The addition of the Batmobile is great as they knew how to utilize the vehicle, but it's size is a bit too big so when you traverse the streets you are running objects and people over constantly. It literally is "The Bat Tank". In one particular race you have to finish, the size of the track is so small and intricate with objects in the way, and the big mobile so unwieldy that it was more frustrating than fun. Not since the Mako has a vehicle been so groaned over by me. And the use of the vehicle, although used smartly a few times, was mostly overused as a good 40% of the game is repetitive missions of chasing cars down or fighting of drone tanks of the Arkham Knight. The city of Gotham itself is great and it's huge to explore being divided up into three islands. Gotham archipelago? Yet, being completely devoid of people except for thugs and drone tanks, and nothing to do but chase criminals down and fight off numerous checkpoints, it's too big. There was just no reason, as I was gliding around town, for me to want to swoop down and take out these areas of criminals because there was no one to save; the city was evacuated within the first few minutes of the game. What a bummer. It's not really an open world without people to interact with. What kills the game at the end is trying to finish the final piece of the story, "Kinghtfall Protocal", by getting 100% of the game. It'll take you hours and hours of mindless minigames of collecting riddler's trophies (247) and fighting off the Arkham Knights drone tanks (1,434) to reach it. I gave up after about finding 40 some trophies and 600 some tanks. Enough is enough! Just watch the two minute sequence on Youtube. It should have never have that much effort to watch the very end of the story and that's why I dropped my score down and extra point to a seven when it should have been an eight.

Remember that first feeling you had in Oblivion or Skyrim when the world open up and you could write your own story? Yeah, you're not going to feel any of that in this game. It's an MMO! You can expect mindless fetch quests, bad graphics, bad combat, and a boat load of people running around you in the crypts and caves like you're at the amtrack station. It's an MMO . It's suppose to be boring and it's suppose to make you wait for long periods watching load screens. The inventory is a mess because everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is lumped together in "inventory". I actually pulled out Skyrim and began enjoying that because there is just enough resemblance here that makes you wish you were actually playing a real Elder Scrolls game. Did I mention it's an MMO?

Am I suppose to rate each episode? I'm sorry, but I'm rating the whole series at this point, with two episodes to go. The game is near perfect. Playing in the world of Game of Thrones is exactly the type of game that Tell Tale does the best. Excellent partnership here. I hate QTE during combat, but considering that this is a storybased driven game, it fits perfect with the cinematic feels. I realize that I only hate QTE in the combat games where you excel at your own skills only to have it taken away from you as you watch a battle. That's why I detest QTE generally. But in this game it works. And making decisions playing the game of politics is very intense. I recommend this to everyone.

Let's be honest here. The difficulty level in this game is mostly the clunky combat. And even when you have that done to a fine art of clunkyness, you have to go to your campfire and reset the whole level while you rest your weapon. Yes, your weapon isn't very good for a while so you have to take your time, attack the same enemies, rinse and repeat. It has its moments of satisfaction, but those time are literally few and far in between. Plus, the Japanese have a very strange sense of story telling. Not bad, just strange. It's like watching one of their commercials. Not a bad game overall, but I just don't have the patience to go through hours of boredom to finish this game.

Bottom line is that if you own a MLB The Show 2011 or newer, you don't need to purchase this one. In fact, this game is wanting in some areas compared to the older versions. If you don't own any MLB games then I recommend getting 2013 compared to all of these or if you need one for the PS4 that badly, then the 2014 is just as good. Into the next-generation on my PS4, I was looking forward to a new iteration of more improved graphics, added commentary and animation. But that's not what I got. It's the same graphics, same animation and practically the same commentary. The differences however, where bad in a way that they actually took away things I enjoyed in my '11 version and added things I don't enjoy. I don't enjoy baseball trading cards; they're useless to me. I don't enjoy collecting useless items like rocks. Seriously, rocks. I also don't enjoy MICROTRANSACTIONS to help you level up faster. And I don't enjoy that it takes longer to earn points to level up in the first place thereby putting an emphasis on the need for SPENDING MORE MONEY. I don't enjoy that they took away my option to add my music into the game for walkups and relieving; but left me with about a dozen generic songs. And I most certainly don't enjoy the bland pitching style that they introduced at some point from now since the '11 iteration. Instead of placing the pitch, you just press "x" for the windup, and then hit "x" again for the release. It's like Madden NFL kick offs, except not as fun. And worse still, you don't start 0-0, but the game gives you a predetermined count of 1-2, or 3-1 for you to take over from. WTH? I'm the one who is suppose to be playing the game, not the computer. It doesn't feel like a realistic baseball game at all. In trying to steamline the game to make it move faster they took away animation of the crowd, other players and coaches. I want to see more cutscene animations of the ball park, and let me decide if I want to skip to the action. The Show just doesn't feel like a baseball game on tv anymore; which was what had the greatest appeal for me. Also, there is way too many frame drops here. This isn't suppose to be happening! This game can't be any more graphically challenging to my PS4 than the "11 was to my PS3. And I never suffered through frame drops on the PS3. It's pretty horrendous and it's definitely a game breaker. In fact, I'm going back to my '11 because the newer version isn't any better graphic wise, and it certainly doesn't compare in game presentation. Cue up the AC/DC Back in Black song, boys! I'm stepping up to the mound to shut 'em down!

Stealth games are so boring, especially in first person view where you can't see all you awesome moves. You just have to imagine it. The controls are mostly a struggle. Below average graphics and characters appendages go through walls and floors. Small ugly world, short-boring-run of the mill, dystopia story. I can see why this I.P. got dumped by Bethesda.

This is a review of playing Unity AFTER THE 6.5 GB PATCH. In my time playing the game any bugs or glitches were very few and non effective to the actual playing and enjoying the game. But, in my time of multiplayer, I noticed issues of lagging, unable to connect, unable to perform basic attacks, being dropped out, or being the only player showing up for a 4 player co-op mission. As for the game, Paris is my new favorite city! It's huge and more alive than any other AC city before it. The people in the crowds have many different personas from arguing with each other, having simple discussions, kissing, holding hands, staring off into the distance, laughing and carrying on with their own lives. Truly impressive city to interact with. Graphically, Paris seems to have a haze to it, although I'm not sure if this was done on purpose, reflecting the artwork, or else just the failure of the PS4 system to render it more crisp. The detail on the city buildings look awesome, yet the character themselves look rather bland until you bring the camera in real close to look at all the detail on the skin and clothing. Much like what I noticed in Dragon Age 3. Sound is just fine. I took advice from some people to use the French language option and use English subtitles, which feels more immersive with the history and location. So I'm not listening to these heavy Scottish and British accents in the middle of the French Revolution. Of which I have to say that the French Revolution is one of the best time periods to have as a backdrop in a video game. You can really sense the anger and demand for change in the people of Paris as you move about. The stories play out quite dramatically in regards to the Reign of Terror, the Fall of the Republic and rise of Napoleon. And they are not done in the God-awful way they were in AC III by playing stupid mini-games to enact history's greatest events. Instead, the protagonist is much affected by events as he is trying to carry out his story. But, Arno, the hero of the game, isn't much of a protagonist. He is more of a plot device reacting to the world. This game certainly doesn't match Ezio's story archs in ACII and Brotherhood. The gameplay itself still suffers from the wonky combat and movement that has plagued this series since ACIII. Nothing is more hilarious than watching an Assassin try to enter an open window; jumping up, down and all around until he finally goes in. Or, trying to hit the basic attack button, but being too close to a wall and its the same button to hide. Enemies have a field day wacking away at you while you try to figure out if you're going to fight or hide in front of your enemies. Arno has to be the worst fighter in Assassin history. Most times you are stuck in long animations of weapon swings and cannot break of contact to concentrate on multiple enemies. Killing Templars is easy enough with three good strikes; but, guards are much tougher as it takes five good hits to take them out. Get surrounded by three or four guards and you are in trouble while you are very busy blocking and attacking one guard, while another aims his pistol at you taking out half your health with one shot. And speaking of shooting, when a guard or Templar shoots at you, they are very accurate even before the days of rifle barreling. Running into a crowd to avoid getting shot does very little as they are able to place a bullet between your shoulder blades 90% of the time. What is a slap in the face is that Ubisoft seems to have made the combat intentionally difficult so that you can purchase short term upgrades to make you a better fighter. THESE ARE TRANSACTIONS TO PURCHASE ENTICING YOU TO USE REAL MONEY. And I deducted another point for pulling that pay to win **** But, when everything moves smooth with the right timing of your button, the combat and movement is a beautiful site. Too bad this happens less than half the time. Ubisoft should study Shadow of Mordor's combat and movements since they improved upon the AC concept. There was one horrible boss battle that involved horrendous QTE. Being a game were you develope your fighting skills, it's sad that you don't get to use it on your own terms. QTE must GO!! That said. I loved jumping into Paris whenever I could. I generally hate multiplayer, but this multiplayer is all about co-op and its fun...when it works. With the patch work they done, this game delivers an enjoyable time

This isn't my cup of tea. Ha-ha. The game play consists of scanning the area and pressing "x" over glowing circles that tell you where to go, what to look at and who to talk to. You have a special scan mode by pressing "R1" that turns the world gray while the clues glow gold for you to click on, then Sherlock Holmes tells you what you are looking at. Interrogations with suspects consists of you selecting all the question options and scanning up and down the person and the immediate surroundings. Then you click "x" when Sherlock is suppose to give his response to the person or persons to tell where this investigation is going. So, it's point and click to unlock the story. God help me, I was so bored. Below-average graphics, below-average voice acting. Horrible loading times invade you when your asking questions! What? Considering this game is only 3.5 GBs, expect a low-low budget experience. This belongs in the "B" game bin,or the $5 bin. I can't imagine what the people on the PS4 thought of this experience.

This is an updated grade for something that I would have given a zero if I was posting on metacritic back in 2010. I bought the game five years ago and was stunned when I got home and learned what the "online connection requirement" was needed really meant. I had to download it on my 12 kb per second connection! Two Days later....I get to finally play.....just to find out my graphics card was seriously out of date and that the spec requirements was a, at that time, $500 graphics card. YYYEEAAAARRRRRGH!!! I had whoafull looking characters moving on the screen, not even moving their feet, just floating along with bland backgrounds. I cried that day. And I played and enjoy TW: Medieval so much. That was a zero for this game. Now...about a half a year after buying a brand new computer with a top of the line processor and graphics card, I remembered this game and finally played it. It plays like all the other Total War games, so expect the same experience. I liked the ship movements and building fleets to control the seas. I did not like the slow tedious ship battles, so I just clicked the resolve immediately button every time. The A.I. is a little suspect. When I attack someone, even if they are out numbered 10 to 1, they will just march forward to attack me which allowed me in every battle to employ the same strategy. I did not like the "gentlemen" who are suppose to help you town make improvements faster, because, it didn't seem like they did that at all. They could be use for research, but only one research can be down at a time as I found this out thinking I had three smart gentlemen researching only to find out I was just researching the last one I clicked on. Useless. I played Sweden and hurried as fast as I could to the New World to establish colonies, only to discover that in 1718 all the land was colonized. Great. The campaign doesn't even start until 1701. Heck! Sweden did colonize New York in the 1600s but no, I have to play when the British were firmly established there. They should have started the campaign in the early 1600s. Other than that, its Total War: A Game Five Years Ahead of Its Graphic Card and stupid DRM through Steam.

Valiant Hearts is a 2-D side scroller that incorporates gameplay in the fashion of puzzle solving to progress through a very well told story set in World War I. The story is told in comic book style with no animations for their cutscenes. The narration is very well done, and the music selection with contemporary pieces is beautiful. It took me about four hours to play, however, that took about a week's worth to get through as I found myself only playing in 15 to 30 minutes spurts. Perhaps because the mind can only go for so long solving puzzles before it needs to move on to something else. The developers did try to interrupt these puzzles with different type of game mechanics, such as those found in classic arcades like "Space Invaders" and "Dig Dug", as well as newer game mechanics like "Angry Birds" and "Guitar Hero". However, I think these mechanics didn't work very well in this game as they did in those games that I mentioned above. If you don't like history or education, you may not appreciate all the items you find to unlock the history of World War I and the reading that goes along with them; which I actually loved. It gave me a good sense of understanding World War I's history much better and the people who lived and fought during that time. It made me care about these characters in the story. Excellent overall story presentation and puzzle solving, however this game may not be to some likings as it game length and reading requirment.

Do I look like a freaking **** who just wants to push buttons for the sake of pushing buttons? Why would I want to play this over simplistic, cheap, boring game with a clumsy strategy system? You can find a more rewarding game by dusting off your old NES cartridges. I don't know. Maybe if they made this into an actual story game with a longer play through it would be worthwhile to play....what's that called again? Oh yeah, motivation to play the game. I don't even know where I'm at, who I am, and why I'm fighting.

This hurts giving out this score because I was so excited for this game, as it looked like it was taking the next-gen step of quality gameplay graphics blending in with quality cutscenes; and it does do that! However, The Order isn't a good game. In fact, "game" is pretty questionable in describing it. Game is suppose to be a form of playing, sporting, an activity or business, meaning the "player" is actually doing something. In The Order you're mainly watching cutscenes. The player agency is so far removed from this game that you even watch cutscenes of you walking to another place. Why on earth would they add extra cutscenes to show different point of views of someone walking? The one thing that the game did delivered on is the seamless quality of graphics from game play to cutscenes. The Graphics and detail are the best yet to be seen on next gen, but you'll won't be able to wander around the city on your own and explore as you only traverse hall ways or corridors. It seems The Order has everything going for it to be a blockbuster game with its unique weapons; yet, the shooting is in the form of gallery shooting. Take cover and shoot the enemy as they pop up their heads. The problem with the shooting also is that the camera is in so close that you are looking over your third-person protagonist's shoulder. With this type of close screen shot you are unable to get a good view of the surroundings that you need to clear of enemies. I had werewolves charging right at me, but I didn't see them because my big head was in the way! I wished they would have pulled the view back so I could have decent sense of awareness. As you're walking around you'll find that you can't pull out your weapons, aim or waste rounds. You don't have that ability until the actual shooting gallery starts. You'll generally fight with one other partner, but they don't kill anybody. You'll have to do all the killing as their rounds mysteriously are in effective against the enemy. Fighting werewolves turned out to be incredibly disappointing as you use the exact same method in order to dispatch them one at a time. Shoot them so many times, quick-time-event. Sadly, you don't deal with them much in this game, as you'll spend more time walking corridors, opening doors, picking up and looking at objects. Yeah, it's definitely not a thrill ride. I finished the story in about six hours on medium difficulty. I suppose if you don't mind not playing this as a game but as pushing buttons every once in a while to keep the story going, broken up by small amounts of gallery shooting, then you just might like this game. Since the "game" mostly wants to be a movie, I wouldn't pay more than $20 for this, or better yet, just rent it for the weekend. One thing is for certain, QTE must die in this next generation. I understand it's used to give cinematic quality to final boss battles, and those **** bad enough on their own. But, using QTE to play the whole game through just makes me nauseous.

So, you play a thief whose job is to steal everything that has a square on it......What? No ****, no. You get to save the world from an evil while you are stealing......What? Thanks, but no thanks. Mediocre graphics, really terrible sound and voice acting. Horrible movement, uggh! I just can stand to play another minute more of **** its Free!.....Trust me. There is a reason this **** game is free from PSN.

If you enjoyed the first Infamous games, you may like this one. My problem with it is the dull, sluggish combat. You blast the same enemies, this time neon-light instead of lightning, while they shoot back massive volumes of fire at you. It just seems incredulous how many rounds you take while you sluggishly blast back at them. Anyway, the whole game is this type of combat from one place to another as you unlock a very well told story. There are two side missions you can do in the open world of Seattle; racing and neon graffiti. Racing was dull, while graffiti was interesting, although painful with the return of the "sixaxis" motion that reared its ugly head again. These side mission give you easy points to help make your character more powerful. Graphics and sound are pure next-gen. One of the very few games this past year that blew me away. If you play it, play it for the story. After completing this game, it suggested I buy Infamous Second Son, which this is a dlc for, however, the dull game play gives me no desire to spend anymore money on this type of game.

First off, you'll need to be able to connect to the EA servers to activate this game to play it. Now, if you were hoping for the sequel to Dragon Age : Origins, give it up. In fact, they handled the situation so poorly with The Warden's absence (sorry, yes everything I hold dear is dying, but I'm not interested, here's a worthless belt you can sell for 18 gold) and Morrigan's presence during this huge threat, that it'll disappoint you (if you chose the Dark Ritual in Origins you're really going to be angry). Overall, I played the game for 121 hours and I found the whole Inquisition plot not very interesting. The power and respect you're given is forced too quickly without seeming to earn it. Rulers of Orlais and Ferleden don't care if your raising an army and fighting by yourself in their territories, and concede to your will automatically. You tend to stand around more in the game listening to people talk about adventures than actually having one. Unless you count fetch quests as adventures. The plot itself isn't very big, but it meanders around causing the game to drag on for hours and you to lose focus on what is important. It's not like Origins' more intense, focus plot. Dealing with the Mage and Templars. isn't anymore fun than it was in the last game. The use of the word "Inquisition" doesn't make much sense considering your job is to do people favors, find things and build an army like a ruler; not torturing people to admit to and rooting out heresy. I wonder if someone was just so in love with the title that the developers were forced to keep it regardless of the storyline or gameplay. But mostly, the problem with this game is its over numerous side quests that are straight from the MMO format of checklists; find twenty of this, find forty of that, kill these, kill those. It is a lot like that game Kingdoms of Amalur: 1001 Dull Quests. I'm also disappointed that all your decisions from the previous game, when you load them up on the EA web site, really don't matter but for conversational pieces, codexes and lackluster cameos. As part of a series, it's disappointing. What started out so great with the first game and had so much potential going forward, just falls flat because there's no payoff in progression with your decisions or characters like in the Mass Effect Series. It is another stand alone version as DA2 was. You could say that this game undoes everything that happened in Origins. Which makes replaying through the series useless. There are some issues with this this games overall performance. Glitches in the "save game" can corrupt and freeze you out of playing any further. I recommend alternating between two save files. It certainly isn't the prettiest game that has graced my PS4. Much better graphic wise than the first two, but far shy from where graphics are today. It must have been a rush job trying to port this game from last gen to next gen because the frame rates in the cutscenes and during conflict drop. Overall, the graphics just aren't that good as some things look great, like a rolling sea in the background or dragons that'll chomp you to bits, and yet others look bland and void of texturing. You see people losing their feet through floors and ground, people walking through each other, weapons disappearing in people (and not in a good way), and disappearing/reappearing objects or people as you walk around certain areas. I guess I found the whole animation just plain ugly. Nice facial features and more detail to characters wardrobe and weapons, but overall ugly looking npcs and the bodies that look like marinates. My dwarf just looks like a walking barrel. I hope when they retool Dragon Age 4 that they decide to put their effort into art animation like they did in their other series Mass Effect. The sound is most excellent, as you can hear many noises and conversations occurring a the same time. As for Gameplay, combat is like DA2 not Origins, except you'll squeeze the trigger instead of pushing a button. There is no auto-attack where it needs one. And they're missing the Origins cool finishing moves, AGAIN. They added the "tactical view" but that doesn't work very well because it is way too sluggish to operate. Why didn't they take advantage of the touch pad for the PS4? What I really dislike about the combat is that enemies will respawn in certain areas like the game is an MMO. I also believe that they wasted their effort on making mounts to ride, for it is just as quick, if not simpler, to walk through the game. Leveling up has sadly changed as you can no longer put points into your attributes like strength and wisdom, but only in which type of attack you can have on your hot buttons. And it certainly has the most complicated, with the most numerous steps in craft making that I have ever played. Overall, huge effort in making this game, but lack of direction and poor choices makes a lackluster game and ruins the series. Multiplayer? Ppphhhttt

As in the first season, The Walking Dead series gives the best narrative interactive game out there. Sometimes I pine for the fun action combat like Shadow of Mordor, killing in grizzly, beautiful fashion, yet this is a game more grounded in actual real life choices and **** a zombie world, of course. I found the second season to be more engrossing than the first because of certain characters who return and being pulled in different directions in acting in such a way as to be practical vs pure loyalty. I found myself looking forward to progressing the story every chance I got. I recommend this and the first series very highly.

I really would like to give this more, but I have to admit the combat in this game, a mixture of button mashing and tower defense, leaves a lot to be desired. The story is written very smart, humorous and somewhat engrossing. The extra love they give this game in its nostalgic look, sound, and heavy metal references didn't go unnoticed. The animation was good, the voice acting great with special congratulations for the more than satisfactory voice work by rock stars Ozzy Osborne and Lemmy Kilmister. Jack Black really sells the story most of all with his timed delivery. So, Enjoyed the story and nostalgic music, but the fighting and battles wasn't fun.

The story is on the level of the series best so far, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. It' protagonist is by far the best in the series, however the game doesn't really have an antagonist to combat through the plot, unless you count the protagonist himself. Sadly, the gameplay and animations are from the clunky ACIII version, which can become frustrating when you're doing racing mission to capture someone, or trying to escape, and you get hung up on a wall or decide to crouch on a pole, allowing your enemies to freely shoot you or whack away at you with their swords. At least they toned down the number of enemies on the rooftops so that you can move through town without setting off a hornet's nest. Overall, when movements are performed flawlessly, it looks great. As far as the overall graphics, it's the best so far being in 1080p with no frame drops. The open world is the biggest, without being bored to tears, as you have fast travel, plenty of ships to meet an plunder, or castaways to save and islands to explore. I easily put in a hundred hours playing this. Pirate combat is tough at first because you need to speed resources and money to upgrade your ship. At the end of the game, my ship was not fully leveled up, but I was finally a terror on the seas that I was hoping for. (A good terror because you can't attack innocent vessels without going out of sync+all your assassin contracts are for evil, bad people who are slave traders, smugglers, and those who prey on the weak). Excellent voice work and music all throughout the game. The time I spent in Black Flag was very enjoyable because they hit the 18th century caribbean atmosphere perfectly. Just clean up the wonky combat and animated movement and this game would've been a ten.

This game does justice to Tolkien's world. Without going into deep narrative, many items are found and characters are met throughout Mordor that tells the Silmarillion up to the events beginning The Lord of the Ring. The characters aren't top-notch realistic, yet the graphics, animation look great, especially in 1080p. The combat is more like Batman than like AC, although it does borrow AC's scaling walls as well as the rooftop strikes, but you level up your combat combos and skills like the Batman Arkham games. But, this game goes beyond what Batman offers in the combat scheme as the addition of "Wraith" skills makes combat something incredible to see once you get all the nuances down. The "nemesis" system is an awesome innovation that I would love to see more open world games utilize. I found myself getting caught up more in cleaning out orc strongholds and bending a makeshift army to my will, then searching out the story line in this open world. Sadly, while there is an emotional charged story, with both Tailon and Celebrimbor as your duel protagonists, it never really comes across compelling enough to get caught up in. Such as shame, because the voice acting and animations are very well done. And the last sad thing about this game is the final end battles with Sauron's servants that were very anti-climatically done. Think Tomb Raiders last game disappointing boss battle. But even with those issues, I found myself engrossed in the world of Mordor and quite a willing participant to rid Middle Earth of orcs in flourishing style.

If any game ever deserves a "meh", it's this one. Great graphics, sound, and gameplay, but very shallow and repetitive. I was expecting more of an epic battle game involving taking back the solar system with many other guardians holding and pushing back the hordes, but what I got was a very small MMO format summed up with either choosing PvE or PvP. In fact, you don't see many other guardians fighting along side with you as you progress through your missions most times no one, maybe one, maybe three, and that's it. For each planet, you get one large map and you traverse this back and forth until you finish five mission. Most glaring is that there is no story. At one point, more than half-way through the game, you think you started an actual story, but then you realize it's nothing more than just an embellished fetch quest which will play out just like you other fifteen missions did. Multiplayer is just like any other. Fun for about twenty-minutes, then you're bored. At least for me. I do know people who play multiplayer games 24/7, so for those, you might enjoy this game quite a lot. And multiplayer is important in this game because it's the only way you can get the points necessary to purchase new items once you reach level 20. One item will cost you 25-50 points, which means you need to win 25-50 multiplayer matches. For me, I would have to play over 200 multiplayer matches to buy one cape. So to sum this up, the game has been as good as an experience as any other multiplayer aspect ****; good for a few days, then I'm bored with it. I'm a little disappointed.

GOTY, GOTY, GOTY. I know it was already GOTY last year! But it is that good ****. Best thing that I've played on PS4 so far. Which I already played this on PS3, but it died a few months back, and since there are no games for PS4 out there, this was worth a return to play again, and besides I never played the DLC...... Anyway, I'm rambling. This game is told very well, very intense, very emotional, it **** you right in. Sorry Xbox fans ( I have an Xbox360), but you'll need to get a PS4 or PS3 to play this, play this, play this.

I was so excited to be able to play this game with my upgraded computer only to be highly disappointed in its presentation. It plays exactly like WoW, which, to me, is a boring and outdated game experience. The characters and their animations are laughable, as well as the graphics which look pre-2005. And it runs at horrible framerates with lagging and disappearing. If they are running this game at such low resolution, I don't understand why they're having this problem. Of all the MMOs out there, this one is the ugliest and plays the worse. This game looks and plays worse than the beloved KOTOR from 2004, so why is it being touted as a game today? Because EA wants to cash in on the MMO market, but like everything they touch, turns to dry dust. No excuse to make this bad of a Star Wars game. Why anyone would pay a subscription to play this is beyond me.

The motivation to play this game is very low. Apparently, I play a supernatural character, Death, who is trying to exonerate his supernatural brother from a crime of, oh nothing much, just total annihillation of the human race! And to do that, I have to do a very un-death like thing of restoring all of humanity again, as if it never happened. What? And to do that I have to go to the mystical tree of life, which turns out to be a Nordic version of the rainbow bridge to all worlds, which is blocked by "corruption", which to unlock it I have to do favors upon favors, upon favors, upon favors, upon favors....what am I trying to do in this game again? Safe my brother? Exonerate my brother? How am I suppose to do that again because I got lost in all of the favors for other npcs. After 37 hours, I quit playing because my motivation to unlock one more corridor was gone. I can only go down so many corridors, beating down enemy after enemy and solving puzzels for so long before I expect to see progression and payoff. The big problem here is that the game is not so much "big" as it is "LONG". Too long for a hack'n'slash to not have a progressive story to go with it, and what little they do have in story takes waaaaay to long to unfold. Graphics look good, combat is smooth as you'd expect for hack'n'slash a la God of War, although the platforming is a little tricky, riding a horse that causes it's own damages is nice, so the game has all of that going for it. In fact, I would say that this game is the ultimate accumulation of games from the PS2 generation. It's just that they adopted the more open world size maps from the PS3 generation without realizing that those type of games are designed for you to interact with the world and the environments, not just to have space to slay enemies while you make your way to the next checkpoint. In conclusion, it's a game without a plot that kills any motivation to spend much time with satisfying combat and puzzels that become too repetitious. Knock yourself out if your thinking about playing it.

Several years after it has been released, I found the game to still have some bug issues, but nothing game breaking to keep you from playing it. I didn't get into Fallout 3 because the game was so boring as it was not on the interactive level of Bethesda's TES, nor was it on that level of graphics and artstyle. Fallout New Vegas is just the same as Fallout 3 in these regards. And unlike, TES series, you don't level up in this game as you spend more time doing certain attributes. You have to wait until you get enough XP and then put points into those skills. Also, it's not an easily traverseable area to roam in. This sandbox seems to be more restrictive in roaming as you find yourself having to traverse a U shaped map with small corridors along the sides. I just couldn't get excited about playing this game as it takes forever to level up and, just like Fallout 3, I felt like the loneliest person in the world. Ho hum, guess I'll be heading back out collecting bottle caps and ashtrays. Maybe kill a stray mutant, or two along the way.

Would you have liked a few more levels to the original The Force Unleashed game? Well here it is. Very short, pretty much the same environments that you'll be traversing, and repetitious QTE to the max. Overall a dull gameplay experienced. I kept getting distracted by other things in my house while playing this game, and took days to get back to continue it. Although you can finish it in one day if you have six to eight hours. I did enjoy jumping back into the Star War's universe, but the story upsets the Star Wars lore and leaves a lot of questions that won't get answered. Can you actually clone Jedi? Is that really Starkiller you were playing? The first game/story handled the issue of having the most powerful Jedi ever by killing him off as a martyr. Now how are you going to explain how the most powerful Jedi in the universe is alive during the time of episode IV-VI? Where was he? What happened to Gen. Kota? This game demonstrates that, to fans, lore matters a great, great deal and handling it poorly makes a poor reception. The good? You get more light saber crystals that are easier to find. Bottom line, it's overall play feels like a weak dlc that goes on too long.

The game has a very interesting plot about the future technology of downloading others' memories into our brains. The memories themselves have become the next drug of choice and is controlled by an evil corporation. You'll play the agent to take them down. It has good graphics with its cutscenes, but poor voice acting. But, graphics are only icing on the cake **** game. You can put icing on a stale piece of bread, and it's still not cake you're eating. This game is not good because of the actual gameplay. The combat is a button mashing combat of the Japanese genre. Your running and jumping is very unnatural as you look like a speedy cartoon instead of having more realistic animated movements. It's has very linear simple path that you have to follow in a Neo-Paris, that mimics games of the sidescrollers of thePS2 era rather than the more open worlds of the PS3 era. So with the poor voice acting, boring linear progression, and weak combat, this game is one of the worst games that I have played in a while. Congratualations Capcom.

Metro: Last Light is a satisfying first person shooter; yet it is way too much on rails to be a stellar game. It sort of reminds me of Bioshock Infinite; a great story, so-so game play, and the cutscenes takes over too much in order to progress the story. Still, there is something satisfying in enter a room in the cover of darkness and dispatching the enemy off one by one; a la Batman. However, that is in the underground where it is safe to breath. The missions above ground forces you to scrounge for extra filters for your gas masks (or you'll die very quickly), and fending off several versions of mutated beasties that come at you continuously. This gameplay is more stressing than fun. Further, the amount of creatures that you deal with can be overwhelming. At one point, while waiting for a ferry, I set the difficulty level to easy because the horde of creatures coming at me had me dying about six times before I said enough was enough. A better menu system in switching your bombs and claymores would have been appreciated. The encounters with these creatures are less than satisfying than compared to the human enemies. Still, Metro gives a better number of different enemies to fight than Bioshock Infinite. Again, a good game that satisfy the shooter urge. Just expect a storyline on rails that takes over a bit too much.

Yeeearrgh!! That's not the sound of fear from playing this game but the sound of complete frustration in dying for the sixth time and having to start all the way back to some predetermined checkpoint where I'll have to start sneaking in the shadows for another twenty minutes and hope that I go in the right order of rooms and hallways the next time. Don't get me wrong, the game is incredibly scary and consistently tense. It makes Silent Hill look like Luigi's Mansion. It's just that the "save" system seems to be not working. I wonder how this game would be if it did work and I can actually progress at a decent rate. It's a shame that we can't kill our opponents, or at least defend our selves. It takes about four hits before your dead, and with a large number of objects that you need to jump over, your adversary will get all of his four hits on you rather quickly. It's scary as hell, but not fun and too frustrating.

WARNING: PS4 CONTROLLER JOYSTICK PEELING DUE TO THE USE OF THIS GAME. It's a Sony design problem with their controllers that millions are discovering after use, but this game will make the problem appear faster. Also, THIS ISN'T NEXT-GEN. The graphics and art look no different from 2k13, the loading times take 30-60 seconds to load up, and the patches that you need to download before you can play this game proves that this is a PS3 port. . The controls are a bit wonky for new gamers coming into this franchise and it'll take a few days of practicing before they become easier to command, but the atheletic animations look great when you to time your actions on the court just right. I enjoy the interaction you have in the "My Career" mode where you get to choose responses with those you interact with. This gives this sports game heart and soul and makes you more immersed into your game beyond what any other sports game can give you. The interaction has a long way to go in improvements, but there are plenty of games out there that 2k can immulate to keep improving. The bad with this game is that the leveling up progression for your player is painfully slow as you have to earn "VC" in order to upgrade and outfit your character. It seems 2k is following the absurd f2p system of making it hard to intice you to pay real money to level up, so it becomes quite frustrating as the season progresses. The other bad is the online DRM and is why I dropped the game's score this much. The online DRM causes problems in your menu system that you can't access if the 2k servers are down or you are having problems with your internet. My recommendation is skip this game if you are looking for "next-gen" and hope that they won't saddle the new one with the hindering DRM. But personally, I can't say that I'm all sorry that I have this version because it is still fun when you have access

I really enjoyed playing this game. They did a most awesome job with the animation as Lara moves smoothly from shooting to melee combat, and traverses obstacles with ease and grace. Switching weapons is perhaps the best I've seen in any game nowadays. Graphics are great, voice acting superb and the storyline is engaging. Collecting salvage was actually enjoyable seeing how you are a survivor and everything you find is needed makes sense, not just senseless scavenger hunts that I detest in most games. The only problem I had was that the QTE was overplayed in some boss battles for dramatic effect instead of letting the player decide how to fight. Overall, bravo! I hope this series continues in the next-gen!

The only game out of the PS4's launch bundle that is worth downloading. It's a very original formula of platforming and puzzel solving that you'll adjust your shadows or time the shadow movement just right in order to progress. It has an ingaging storyline, set in the 1920s, that is told out in a "bioshock" formate that also blends in well with the dreamscape world that you are interacting in. Graphics are up to date. looking excellent on my brand-new PS4, and the voice acting is very well done.

Because I trust user reviews over magazine reviews, I waited close to a year before purchasing it in the bargin bin. I wasn't disappointed. This was the worst game of the series. At times the story felt exhilerating and epic, but mostly it felt lame and dull. The large expansive world that they added falls flat when they give you such a large area with nothing interesting to do in it. For a game to have been out for a year and still be as buggy as this game makes no sense. It was as bad as the very first Assassin's Creed, yet that one got a pass because it was the first...this is the fifth game of the series! Way too many redcoats in town that prevent you from stealth. If you jump up on a roof, it's like you ignited a hornets nest and spend most of your time running for your life. Combat it ridicolous now because you regenerate your health very quickly, and so does your enemy apparently as it takes about fifteen hits with your tomohawk to kill them. Some assassin, can't stealth and can't kill. Such a shame because the did a great job with the graphics, Boston and New York, the ships, and the voice acting was the best of the series.

If you like facebook's Mafia Wars, Farmville, etc., then you might like this. Me? I stay far away from games like these that are constantly enticing you to spend real money for leveling up and upgraded equipment.

It's a shame that Xbox only gamers can't play this game because it truly deserves game of the year title. The story is an emotional, most dramatic struggle to escort a young girl across the dangerous wasteland to safety. It's a game that adult gamers like me are always looking for, yet they are so few an far in between. Combat is tough with very little room for mistakes. Some might be turned off by this who would rather play games that allows them to sustain massive amount of damage, but I believe in a genre game like this, the combat fits in perfectly. Naughty Dog was already the masters of great graphics, but this game really tops everything they've done so far from the graphics, texture and lighting, it's all marvelous. I don't do multiplayer, so I can't comment on that aspect. But basing the score on single player ****'s an easy ten.

Not much in the graphics department. Rather a dull shooter that feeds you the same enemies over and over and over agian, much like in the Killzone series. The story is somewhat engaging and tense, but then you have to actually play it with clunky controls to get to the next cutscene and it loses interest real fast. Still, I liked the main character very much. Bottom line is that I can't recommend this because I could barely get myself to finish it.

So I'm guessing that most of the negative reviews on here are about Tropico 4 hardly being any different from Tropico 3? Well, I never played Tropico 3, so I can say that I really like playing Tropico 4. It scratches that building simulator need that we all have, it is challenging as SimCity, has many scenarios to play out, humerous and addictive. The drawbacks that I found in the game are the road making ability, the lack of altering terrain, and the fact that your workers are trucked to a work site but end up walking back. When all is said, I'll be keeping and revisiting this game on my Xbox for a long, long time.

This game should be renamed Kingdoms of Amalur: 1001 dull side quests. Even the main story itself unfolded as nothing more than going on simple scavenger hunts, on after another. There was nothing compelling storywise, which is a shame because the premise of the world of Amalur is very interesting. but not when you present the saga in a MMO format. I'm not here with my friends on line just to level up and gain loot, I wanted to play an epic solo rpg. But, after 19 days and 102 real game time hours, Kingdoms of Amalur has left very little impression on me. I stayed away from this game originally because of its characture artwork and oversized weapons because I just couldn't take a game too seriously when it looks like a cartoon. But with the drought of rpg games this past year (Mass Effect 3 rpg of the year. LOL) I downloaded the demo and was intriguied. I have to say that this world is impressive with the artwork, lore, the writing, the voice acting, and all the side quests they put into it; yet, as far an entertaining solo-game is concerened, it doesn't come together. The missions are so simple and non-eventful that it becomes dull after so many hours. Amalur plays like a game where The Elder Scrolls had a one-night stand with War of Warcraft and left their offspring on the doorstep of Fable to be raised. I recognize the effort they put into this, but the direction of how it was to entertain me falls short.

I haven't played a game with so much emotional interaction and player's choice as this one in a long time. The game play is rather simple in such a way that you locate objects and interact with them to progress through the game as cutscenes play out. Conversation is also an important role as you and your fellow survivors begin to bond or become antagonists along the way. I've read some who say that there isn't any real player choice, and yet, having to choose who to save and let the other person be eaten is a very profound choice that you'll find yourself making. Considering the price for the overall series and the payoff in entertainment that you'll receive, this game is a must have.

The story is quite extraordinary, and that's what carries the entire game but the frustrating game mechanics and shooting is below par to give this any higher of a score. I recommend this game as a rental, or buying it half-priced. It takes about 15 hours to play (I died a lot on normal setting), which is better than the average first person shooter, but its ending is such that you'll never want to play it again. The first person camera frame is too narrow to get an appreciation of your surroundings when you are being attacked from all directions. I haven't seen a camera frame this narrow since Dead Island.. The floating islands of the city are quite spectacular, but your path through it is linear. The populace in the city are all the same and non-interactive. The bottom line is the story is great but is it a fun game to play? No, not really.

As the credits rolled by at the end of the game, something passed by that made sense. Copywrite 2006. El Shaddai was a game that was made at the end of the PS2 cycle in Japan and rereleased five years later in the US for the PS3. And here I am two years after that release playing it. Ha, ha. The game has an inticing story line using the bibical non-canon story of Enoch and the Fallen Angels. Although it uses Canaanite mythology, it offers a real sense **** "of all ages" by allowing out of time nuances to enter the game, such as cell phones, motorbikes, and modern clothing. As compelling to story is though, it feels disjointed and has a lack of understanding for what is going on. In fact, when the game was over, I was left waiting for the final boss battle that never materialized. It's almost like the developers just got tired of working on the game and left it as is with a thirty second conclusion movie that says "And Enoch saved the Earth". As far as game play, like I said, it was a game designed in 2006. It's a simple platform experience, with a slight rise in difficulty due to the camera angle changing on you as you progress and messing up your depth perception in jumping. El Shaddai is also a fighting game in the true sense of "button mashing". So if you like slightly hard platform games, with button mashing fighting thrown in, and a half-hearted, yet compelling story, then this game is for you.

Hack n' Slash, dull story line and characters. You are led by the hand through an extremely linear game that you would expect in rpgs from the PS2 or PS1 generations. Hard to believe this game was released in 2010 because it looks like it was designed in 2004. You can't zoom in close to your one of four pre-made characters as you are kept at a sizable distance. Your AI companions only seem to come along with you just so you can constantly revive them. You'll waste your time in disappointment on this game.

I really like the authentic plan models from WWII vintage, the taking off, the realism of keeping your throttle down to keep from stalling, the landing, and ....that's about it. The missions themselves are simplistic, brief and rather unexciting. The combat is extremely difficult even on their "simplicity" level It takes forever to catch up to the multiple enemies and when you do you have to lock on with the L2 button while at the same time keeping your plane's nose leveled with the L stick. This targeting design is incredibly awkward. The target will keep floating away on you so you must constantly adjust your L stick which is extremely touchy causing you to fly by the target without getting off a shot. Your rounds are limited so you can't waste your rounds by strafing the target to knock it out of the air or else you'll end up without any rounds for the other planes and fail the mission. The overall presentation of the game's storyline is weak. I suppose the problem is that the game is a simulator with major limitations. The game is lacking in so many other attributes that today's war games have that you shouldn't be paying more than $15 for this experience. Because of this, it's a rather dull **** flight.

I'm basing this score on buying this game for around twenty dollars and the percieved value of enjoyment I got out of this. I learned awhile ago not to buy these shooter games for the full $60 because I found out that I really don't enjoy playing multiplayer. So this score is also reflected mainly on the single player experience. Ahem....That was incredibly short even for a Modern Warfare game. The final game to what turned out to be an over-the-top storyline trilogy was over before it even began. It didn't even take me four hours. I still run around like a chicken with my head cut off getting barked at for going the wrong way, or taking my time taking out a tank, or **** its still a fun first person shooter. Lots of increadible destruction graphics, struggling to get out of debris or from falling from dizzying heights. Again, the story line is over the top and doesn't make much sense or have any realism to it, but it is interesting as any Darkhorse comic out there that ask us to suspend disbelief. Fun game and worth it for twenty dollars, no more, but still could have fleshed out the storyline and should have made it a bit longer than 3 and a half hours.

Dragon's Lair's game play was designed back in the days when computer graphics were in their infancy. What it did was give you the only way to have stunning graphics, by hand drawing them out as a cartoon. This left no "free choice" for the game players' movement, but instead relied on timed joystick movement or pushing a single button. If successful in your timing the cut-scenes would play out in a semi- continuous way until the end of the story. When I was growing up, I was always fascinated by this arcade game; however, after dropping in $1.00 and only having thirty seconds of game play, I left it mostly alone, wondering what type of storyline would unfold but forever out of my reach. Well, after just purchasing this game online, I've gone through the whole story and, considering how games have evolved todays, I was left very unimpressed. The cutscenes are poorly edited together, the flashing signals used in front of you, sort of blend into the background leaving you to have to view the game using your peripheral vision instead of enjoying the animated art work, the sound system and music is poor, the same scenes get played over repetitiously but in a opposite view to make you think you are advancing to a different part of the dungeon (Maybe this is were Dragon Age II received its inspiration from?) and in the end, the game is just extremely short. I finished it in less than twenty minutes. The only good thing about it is that I can now feel good about myself from avoiding putting more coins into this arcade when I was a kid. I probably saved myself $40 worth.

A very enjoyable game for about $15. You play the force of nature helping inhabitants survive the,... well, forces of nature. It's actually a puzzle game that uses simulation of nature for solving. It's very original, challenging, and beautiful graphics and sound. Sometimes it would have been nice not to work so fast and enjoy your creation as you work, as when you are in close up view for better detail, your work progress goes twice as slow. Also it could have served better to have a "skip" on those opening sequence cut scenes every time you had to restart your puzzle. But an extremely worthwile game to download to your Xbox.

Just in case you haven't played it yet and you were wondering if the game is still worth playing even though it's five years years old now. Yes. This game is so detailed and more expansive than anything else on the market as of today. Even though the animated characters aren't on par with today's models, the voice acting is top notch and the storyline pulls you along for quite a raunchous adventure of betrayal and revenge. You'll be looking at a total of 90 missions, give or take, so expect a game that will take you a month to play. I found myself liking all of the characters that my protagonist associated with and the main character himself. Outstanding game that only has a drawback on the "save game" issue where if you have to start a mission all over again, you can expect to spend a lot of time just retracing your path to start the mission again. If you haven't played it, now is a perfect time because you can get the two expansions with the main story for only a quarter of the cost of a new game.