bugbear1

Got the XBOX 1 bundle w/Unity and the game is unbelievable and not in a good way. Screen-tearing is rampant; actually, almost constantly since Arno's introduction in the game. Imprecise controls with lots of wiggle-room. Obviously, I have not completed the game and, normally, I would have completed any game prior to any written op-ed pieces but this, this. . . . Glad it was free with the console is the "nicest thing" I can write at this point---- smh :(

Freakin' unbelievable! Following Valkyria Chronicles, gamers MIGHT have hoped for a next-gen full-3D strategy RPG to grace their new PS4 but NATURAL DOCTRINE is not that game nor will it likely ever be even with a massive 7+ gig patch that could rewrite the game's full install on the drive. From Valkyria Chronicles, Stella Deus, Fire Emblem and the full line of Disgaea games, this writer has stumbled through them all at great length and enjoyed each title for their individual focus and unique trappings and lore. BUT, NATURAL DOCTRINE, referencing theories of "natural selection" seems to render its own version of strategy gaming extinct even before the game reaches the end of its convoluted tutorials. A wonky camera and poor direction and stilted presentation are the GOOD points in this game. Monster-closets, vicious enemy AI that provides no respite from continual onslaught via unfair advantage will not contribute to your gaming fun. Issues of balance and fairness aside, many reviewers have cited the game's seeming linearity of "choice" when planning strategies and approaches to the game's myriad conflicts. One major issue of idiocy repeatedly occurred when the party would randomly advance into the fray without INPUT from the player; that is, after one sequence of linked-actions, nearly all members of the party would alter position on the field and, often, march into a hail of damage from many linked opponents and soon die. Imagine, as a player, meticulously setting up your pieces, staking out your territory, protecting your flank and channeling party-damage in the direction of the biggest baddie on the map only to watch in stark WTF amazement as the party rearranged their formation BY THEMSELVES when the end turn button was pressed. Some reviewers have alluded to the "deep combat system" of NATURAL DOCTRINE. Frankly, that's probably a smokescreen for simply not understanding its complexities. Understand that it is unbalanced, likely broken, deep like a cistern full of sewage and buyer's remorse.

Hmmmm, where to start? From the outset and RISEN 3's earliest frames, blocky textures, screen-tearing and framerate issues abound. Technically, at least on 360, RISEN 3 is a functional mess; it hardlocked my console 5 times while questing or opening my inventory during the first island's initial journeys. Almost shovelware, certainly broken and unfinished, RISEN 3 at full retail price IS, imo, a moneygrab, brazen and egregious. Will Pirahna Bytes fix their "hot mess?" Not likely, as the first and second RISEN games still have most, if not all, of THEIR broken issues still present at this writing. Many other reviewers, professional and consumer, have also noted RISEN 3's poor FPS, microstuttering, unbalanced gameplay, and uneven presentation combined with poor texturing, bad lighting, and general lack of polish. Moreover, many gamers have noted the "simple" dodge and roll combat mechanics while yet another word may describe the combat in a more terse way: "stunlock." Your player-character will become stunlocked and killed repeatedly on various difficulty settings; mobs will attack and attack and attack while your character will recycle animations as hitpoints dwindle to a visit to the reload screen. Additionally, the game purports to have an autosave function that marks your place at random intervals in the gameworld; although, commonplace and effective elsewhere, in most games, in RISEN 3 during combat, while securing a potion or two, the autosave will cause the fps to plummet to slideshow effect, often locking up my XBOX 360. CAN these seemingly random issues be fixed? Imo, hardware issues, gameplay design and poor coding will forestall RISEN 3's rise above the rim of the porcelain bowl. :(

In a word: "shovelware." Extremely disjointed and obtuse story elements compound the many problems of an already poorly written plotline; rather, a poorly localized plotline, marred by inconsistencies, contradictions and apparent fanservice that goes awry the minute the models start moving. Technical issues abound including many npcs clipping through each other to an increasingly staggering framerate likely due to a possible memory leak, poor lighting and poor collision only heighten the disjointed presentation. Square-Enix plastered "IT ALL ENDS HERE" on the back of the XBOX box for Lightning's return. . . . -Let's hope so! :(

By turns, "interesting" and "utterly broken" RISEN 2 for XBOX 360 is a technical mess with hitching, lockups, poor LOD, collision errors, toons walking thru toons, objects spawning within objects and other foibles. A late-cycle example of technical mastery, RISEN 2 is not; as an offbeat, more stylized RPG, the game's focused success, if any, is on pirate adventure with limited mystical overtones. Dev Piranha Bytes have a storied history with broken ports, underdeveloped GOTHIC 3 and its subsequent unauthorized add-on, including a nearly-broken (and not patched-to-completion) franchise-spawning RISEN on both PC and 360. It's difficult to recommend a game that barely runs and will most likely, NEVER be fixed nor patched to completion-

ROCKSTAR has done a fine job of envisioning Max Payne for a new audience; unfortunately (for some of us), it is NOT the Max Payne of yore. While the gunplay is frenetic, the hit-detection and collision must be a bit off at times as headshots often fail to keep adversaries on the ground. Stylistically, Max Payne 3 is a visual tour de force but with incessant cutscene interruption, gameplay takes a backseat. Other foibles, including Max often switching weapons after the conclusion of many cutscenes, forces the player to readjust and modify every approach. REMEDY, originally, made the player FEEL like Max Payne. (In fact, for this writer, the original Payne was the first game played from beginning to end in one melodramatic, grit-filled, approximate, 12.5 hour odyssey.) -THIS Max Payne game is not player-driven, has its own inertia and cadence, often forcing the player to "watch" much of the story instead of allowing the player to "become" part of the story. With future patches, any uneven gameplay may be smoothed-over, but this game is NOT "really" Max Payne. -It's a revisionist Max Payne for the new century, for a new audience, for a new aesthetic with a distinctly odd level of player-challenge and forced-variety. It may well be, that THIS Max Payne will be MORE about multiplayer or future DLC than any possible tense solo experience like its now-distant origins? BUT, categorically, wasn't the original Payne, a hardboiled noir experience that each player embraced which, in turn, contributed to rock-solid immersion, creating the iconic Max Payne experience? Wasn't the linear single-player trek of the original Max Payne, the film noir-like quality, the immersive gunplay and strong characterization wrapped within limited player-choice, the KEY to player-identification WITH the onscreen Max Payne? Sure, while it was an empowerment fantasy, the player BECAME Payne during the journey. With Max Payne 3, the player gets to "watch" a version of Payne, on rails, dynamically forged and sent headlong, careening into one fubar situation after another. Less player-driven and much more like a snowball rolling downhill at controlled speeds, this new Payne IS interesting but not very fun.

-An addedum to my earlier review resulting from, imo, poor observation of some user reviews. Some folks have claimed the the AI in Sniper Elite V2 is lame or idiotic, at best. True, sometimes, wehrmacht soldiers WILL fire into or at a wall where YOU, a sniper, was last seen. FFS, true to wehrmacht doctrine, those soldiers were SUPPRESSING your position while other soldiers began a flanking maneuver on your last know position. NO, they're NOT trying to shoot YOU through the wall! They are shooting AT the wall, to force you to keep your head down while others take you down from an oblique angle. The Germans INVENTED maneuver warfare and the devs of this game have included various tactics prevalent during the war. Sure, NO code is perfect; but consider the AI in this game; it has to SEE and HEAR and manage environmental obstacles, shoot, flank, cooperate with others AND, very importantly, be able to scan variable horizon lines. In other words, they are aware of ground-level actions and above-ground level actions while assessing threat, damage, and forcing closure. Next time some in-game krauts shoot at the wall you're hiding behind, better look over your shoulder right quick. Frankly, IF you play this game like a shooting gallery, you are doing yourself a disservice. A real-world sniper would never sit in one spot and hope to kill with discrimination and prejudice while expecting no reprisal. As far as soldaten going off protocol and disregarding control logic and wandering about aimlessly; that happens in real world scenarios as well; morale breaks down, confusion results, friendly-fire occurs, etc. It is NOT possible to replicate human emotion nor decision-making with AI control logic; it IS possible to abstract the result of percentages and known statistics, however, and simulate the uncertainty and chaos of war, which Sniper Elite V2 does very well with a minimal developmental budget. For what it is, and isn't, Sniper Elite V2 is solid, well-made, challenging and worth an install- NO, I do not work for the damn company, either. It's simply hightime that we get something that is more challenging structurally than a corridor shooter with simplistic player choice. What galls me, is the notion that Sniper Elite V2 should be judged against criteria that defines more simplistic games. Sure, the AI on a corridor shooter is more tight, scripted, and more defined with limited pathfinding, minimal choice, trigger points, etc. Events ARE triggered in Sniper Elite V2, to be sure, BUT how the situational AI responds to the random challenges players force through conditional-choice is wholly emergent and unscripted, except for plot-progression points, and, even then, the AI will alter its behavior and prosecution of player-choice and dynamics.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

SYNDICATE, for me, has got to be one of the WORST, frustrating games that I have EVER played. Instructions are minimal, incremental, and sparse; environmental puzzles are some of the more obtuse of any that I have every encountered. STARBREEZE has crafted a very frenetic, FPS with emphasis on 4-player co-op, although, there is a singleplayer component as well. With others, as designed, it may be passible. The singleplayer portion was, for me, horrible in almost every facet from graphics with excessive bloom, nonintuitive puzzles, and having the game autosave when I had little ammo while heaping-on adversaries so that my reloaded savegame would drop me into a heavy firefight with little chance. While many players might consider me "lame" and shout "go back to WOW" it's also true that I will NOT play a game that imo is not fun and a complete waste of money!?!

One thing, that completely boggles the mind, is the number of solid 10 scores for this game that have been written by reviewers with singular postings or less than a few, at this observation. While it's true, any number of postings will NOT validate opinion, nor assuage present bias, it MAY, however, raise questions as to motivations of those posters that have chosen ONLY to review this game. For comprehension of this line of inquiry, when evaluating any review, please also click "All this user's reviews" at the lower right of the review pane. --In this manner, YOU, the reader, might better evaluate any writer's credibility; or, at the very least, track their opinion-swings through a number of reviews in order to assay the weight of their stated views. *STAR WARS:TOR might be better named: STAR WARS: THE TIRED OL' REPUBLIC as the game hews fairly closely to timeworn gaming conventions and staid mechanics; which, under the present condition of the game, might be what retains subscribers, as familiarity often breeds complacency. In other words, with so much rehash going-on in SWTOR; rampant bugs, missing features, incomplete features and broken gameplay concepts such as SWTOR's PvP design, players would, nominally, leave in droves if it were not for the comforting constraints of familiar gameplay design abstracted from nearly every MMO released prior to SWTOR. Simply put, SWTOR attempts to crib nearly every worthwhile idea from practically every other worthwhile MMO that has been released in recent memory. Which, in the singular case of SWTOR is a magnificent conceit!?! SWTOR, in one sentence, might better be described as a "SINGLEPLAYER GAME with limited Coop, chat pane and a monthly sub." While it is true the world of SWTOR is heavily instanced, sharded, loaded with quest-hubs, and only linear, it does embrace the tenets of Lucas' constant micromanagement of the Star Wars universe. With limited player-choice, minimal exploration, linear questing augmented by timesinks and poor implementation of many mmo-style tools such as, practically, nonexistant guild tools, SWTOR raises the bar to enjoyment. Frankly, SWTOR runs poorly on much modern hardware, would NOT run well on an i7 with 8 gigs of DDR3 sys ram and a GT335 vid card with 1 gig of vram, Win7 64 bit. (This machine does run FFXIV on medium, RIFT on medium to high and WOW maxed.) On a tower, a Q6600 with 4 gigs of sys ram, GTX280 with 1 gig of vram, Win7 32 bit, the game ran with FPS in the playable range, although frequent swings were apparent. Screen tearing, artifacts, missing AA, glitchy with hitching, frequent CTDs and massive LAG are readily apparent, as well. Input lag, server lag, EVEN with 30Mbs ISP speeds strongly point to unoptimized netcode and client. Admitted memory leaks also plague the game. *The game's not finished, not optimized, feature incomplete and poor feature implementation marrs the fun!

My toon, originated as "deprived" and is now level 61 and capable of healing, fire, magic and also is fairly deft and adroit with spears and shields. After minimal patching, unlike some similar newer games of its ilk, DARK SOULS runs spendidly and has the full gamut of expected tropes and conventions of many dungeon-crawlers from yesteryear including a "difficulty level" that would make the Marquis de Sade cry. Ironically, buoyed by player-choice and an open world, DARK SOULS hammers home the challenges with brutal combat and spikes in difficulty that might hamper less hardy players. Great game and world. Tough to master, impossible to tame.

Mmmmm, many years in development and we get a hodgepodge or amalgam of game ideas that represent some of the finest ideas of yesterday, mashed together for lukewarm effect. . . RAGE lives up to its name IF pop-in, draw-in, flickering, muddy textures, hub-world style banal fetch quests and collection quests IRK you- However, the B I G G E S T pita (for me) was the DEV suggestion of possible EXPLORATION only to find on-rails gameplay, glass walls, distant impostors galore and a minimap that often only highlights the small navigable terrain with small slivers of BLUE splashed in smaller-measure across a larger map expanse which ONLY argued that the world is smallish and limited to predetermined treks. In fact, after DLing the sewer DLC at launch, finishing a few remaining introductory quests which also included a freeform exercise of clearing-out the Arc sewers, a job board tacked-up against the exterior wall of the Second Chance bar at Wellspring OFFERED THE SAME QUEST again, noting that it had already been done, but the muties had moved back in, so go do it once more!?! Recycled, barren, boring and less than impressive, overall, RAGE represents Id's best effort after a reported 6+ years of development?

Yes, it IS true that WKC got a few clean-up passes and remastered and then lumped with the conclusion of the tale as WKCII. As an RPG trek, the game will likely last dozens of hours, some of it fantastical and fun, others a royal PITA for a variety of recurring reasons and oddities that have made it into the final-cut of the WHITE KNIGHT CHRONICLES compendium. Sometimes gorgeous, compelling, and stellar, WKCII is the COMPLETE version with all chapters of the story included, remastered with better FPS, smoother animation, additional items, armor, and weapons. However, for every nuance that LEVEL 5 got right; other, glaring issues mar what could have been a superb journey from start to finish. As it remains, WKCII represents an older game design that runs afoul of its own aspirations. From the camera getting stuck in the scenery at times, to members of your party blocking a doorway or hallway, WKCII forces the player into some frustrating and controller-hurling moments with banal gameplay devices such as switch-hunting, frequently respawing enemies and not permitting saves in-between a series of 4 boss fights at the conclusion of chapter 4. With fairly large maps replete with many reused elements, whether textures, identical hallways or mirror-images of previous terrain or hallways, WKCII creates a seemingly large world with not-much of a story to fill it. To be sure, JRPG mainstays are clearly present with stereotypical characterizations and sophomoric dialogue, often repeated ad nauseum by the party while meandering through the countryside. Story-laden angst is overwrought or over-written and delivered by a voice-cast of moderate skill for minimal effect. By turns hilarious or grating, WKCII dialogue in cutscenes is often little more than adolescent banter dressed-up as artifice or a bridge between areas. Aside from story elements, quests are presented and segregated as "errands" or "bounties" including guild quests. These activities provide fodder for grinding, loot, in-game money, etc. All in all, WKCII is sometimes tedious, frustrating; yet, still fun and interesting, although many, other, better RPGs do exist. For a game that can run into 100+ hours with 6 member online party-runs, mucho solo content, village-building and more, WKCII often tries to do too much. The story, while silly and delivered-as-gospel is slow to build; but, certainly, pacing is hard to maintain over a lengthy game. A flashy barn-burner told in 6 hours could not be stretched for the dozens of hours that WKCII entails.

To me, it's extremely ODD that many posted user-reviews spend so much available text-space berating and reviewing OTHER user reviews. . . Any review is merely an opinion and to overtly and mistakenly judge that certain user reviews are more credible than others is, yet, another opinion. -"My dad can beat up your dad" argumentation is silly and does NOT contribute to any meritorious discussion about this novel, new mess from Techland via their half-baked Chrome engine. . . DEAD ISLAND is a buggy, often broken, beta-quality muddle of concepts and it, routinely, makes NEW VEGAS, at its earlier launch, look like a storied and pristine example of flawless game design and implementation. /cough. Trollery aside, with droll fetch quests bordering on the inane, erratic AI, pop-in, FPS swings, insta-spawing zombies in familiar places, repeat-spawning of cash inside treasure chests; er, suitcases, paying-a-workbench to upgrade a pipe, or whatever, DEAD ISLAND is DOA with its many bugs, glitches and half-done Q&A. Aside from the released Steam version being an incorrect XBOX beta version and then being patched so that users would lose their DLC, savegames, etc; the following PS3 patched-version would then erase all Trophy support and create yet another set of diverse oddities, while the XBOX patch is under review, prior to any release; DEAD ISLAND was shipped incomplete, beta-quality, shoddy. Some users have claimed that they have not experienced ANY anomalies with the game, minimal bugs, no weirdness, just grand game design all-around; although, if that were strictly accurate, WHY would so many diverse users on various systems report similar strangeness when encountering the same quests and traversing much of the same terrain? To be sure, as an open world, each player would find their own way, use their own weapons concoctions and approach questing in a random manner; BUT, why then does Techland's FIRST patch have nearly 40 admitted corrections and adjustments if everything is so wunderbar in Banoi? DEAD ISLAND will be soon forgotten, like BRINK. . .

Wholeheartedly agree, El Shaddai goes beyond what many players will expect when they unwrap this game. While the art design and visuals go far beyond the average game, the gameplay is uneven, unbalanced, seemingly broken in places, particularly with the platform elements. Imprecise jumping with a die-and-retry mechanic, locked-camera, and odd combat, El Shaddai might be one game that players either love or hate. For those gamers that thought that CATHERINE was a controller-hurling, puzzle-frustration, disguised as an anime, El Shaddai WILL evoke many religious assertions from players as they navigate the multivariable gameplay elements. Combat, platforming, puzzling beta-like inconsistencies all suggest that El Shaddai might've been rushed out the door. Or, more likely, El Shaddai (as a game) was envisioned beyond the contraints of the development team, whether money, time or talent. It's not bad, just maddeningly frustrating in many ways. The art is impeccable.

I'll make this short and sweet: Alpha Protocol "might" have been well-intentioned BUT caveat emptor BUYER BEWARE! This "game" is supposed to be an RPG with action-elements but after having repeated freezing, weird graphical anomalies, poor collision, extremely unbalanced BOSS fights, and just plain ol' sh#t-on-a-stick gameplay, Alpha Protocol trudges very close to "shovelware" and "coaster-of-the-decade territory. . . . -Tried playing this on both systems and encountered bugs aplenty. And, after nearly one year since its launch, there has not been (for this PS3 version at any rate) any patches nor is there any DLC to make it more playable. The devs at OBSIDIAN have suggested, in a recent interview following the launch of their latest opus Dungeon Siege III, that they'd LIKE to make a sequel to Alpha Protocol. . . Hope not. That would mean we'd, likely, have two versions of Alpha Protocol to toss in the garbage.

Let me preface this short opinion-piece on SNIPER: Ghost Warrior with an observation after having played the XBOX 360 version last year, at least 'til I encountered a gamestopper prior to the patch: yes, it's better; but, not by much. SNIPER is still bogged down by the leash of mediocrity and missed opportunities. Muddy textures, pop-in and other odd visual quirks are accentuated by often poor FPS. While the AI has been modified, op-for still perform like clowns at the circus, they either can target and hit your toon from across the map with an assault rifle or they stand mute, ignorant and complacent while you pop a melon right in front of 'em. Stiff and jerky animations prevail with your sniper getting stuck on environmental objects frequently. Op-for spawn into the level from out-of-bounds areas based upon trigger points and checkpoints can be triggered when your sniper is low on health or surrounded for a sharp lesson in "die and retry" savegame mechanics. What is odd, is that the rope and climbing bugs from the first version have been ironed-out and almost work, in a clunky, undesirable manner. And, while your sniper might rappel down the side of cliff overhangs, he simply canNOT mantle over small objects such as waist-high fences or foliage. Sometimes, a ladder might be climb-able and other times, not. Ladder climbing is a Half-Life affair as your sniper magically floats up the rungs of any ladder. Crawling is equally underdeveloped with your sniper's rifle floating, nearly stationary, while your toon fumbles about. However, the devs DID make it possible to crawl on top of a roof system and fire downward at odd angles for easier targeting. BUT, the most annoying idiosyncratic oddity with SNIPER (for me) will be your toon's incessant snorting, huffing and puffing while in scopeview. In addition to severe asthma, your sniper will wobble the scope to and fro, up and down without respite until you push the requisite button. More "game-y" and annoying, this minigame reminded me of a 4 year old waving about their first camera phone. Add to this frustration, the lensview of the scope suffers from major pop-in and muddy textures so that when sighting, you will have to wait while the textures resolve into something intelligible. Often, I would target some op-for and by the time he was redrawn for scope view, he'd changed position so I wasn't able to take the shot. The overall stealth mechanics of SNIPER are fiddly and unconvincing. Enemies do not seemingly patrol routes, they stand and wait. They never group their forces to hunt you down, either. One HUGE complaint is the many clipping issues that you will likely encounter. Targeting is hit or miss, pardon the pun, but while your sniper can occasionally target and hit through semi-hard surfaces, FORGET about tagging an op-for hiding behind a fern. Bullet trajectories, seemingly, cannot traverse environmental areas with a high density of foliage. No, not trees, -ferns and bushes. Correct, you cannot shoot through a fern. Op-for, in fact, will hide behind bushes and fern-like plants. So, for all the devs bravado over "realism" SNIPER cannot shoot through many of the plants on display. :( Sniper Elite for the first XBOX and later, PS2, WAS a very good sniper game with many similar mechanics. It's unfortunate that the devs of this new franchise cannot seem to meld CQB stealth mechanics with long distance sniping.

This game truly delivers what was marketed. Hunted, is a dark fantasy game ala Enclave from the early XBOX days. In addition to the stated co op play, players are able to edit their own maps and place monsters and loot to share play with others. -So, instead of being urged to buy DLC on Day 1, players have every opportunity to create their own limited content. . . . What also makes Hunted unique, in a addition to the dark fantasy presentation and architecture, was the cover-mechanic ala most FPSs. Both heroes can hunker down behind environmental objects and lean out or over and fire arrows/bolts at the encroaching enemies. To be sure, the most effective manner of play has the elf, at distance, **** adversaries with multitudes of arrows. -One of my great gaming, personal memories, happened while playing "Blade of Darkness" back-in-the-day on pc. My toon was hiding behind a short wall and was engaged in an arrow duel with a monster hiding across a small courtyard behind another small wall. Well, we'd traded arrows and, luckily, I stuck one where it belonged and the monster dropped the bow and keeled over. In Hunted, I encountered a similar situation where the elf was hiding behind a piece of debris and was getting shot at by a band of Wargar, similar to trolls, kobolds, mini-orcs, etc. While rising and ducking with each Wargar volley of arrows and bolts, the elf shot back and eventually took out all her opponents while her partner, Caddoc, swung his weapon into the mobs surrounding him. HERE is the novelty of Hunted that makes play much different than other, similar entries, E'lara, the elf, was rushed by several Wargar, back-stepping quickly, she had fired off several arrows in rapid succession into one of the Wargar. With each successive arrow hit, the Wargar reached for the arrow in its body, stumbled a bit more and eventually fell over and dropped its weapon. The arrows were sticking out of its body like a pincushion, with its blood sprayed all over E'lara 'cause it had gotten too close. By then, Caddoc had joined her and they eventually won. -Yes, for all slow-readers, I WAS pushing the buttons. Yes, it was my fault that they'd gotten overrun :) -Now, however, IMAGINE, my perverse delight when I had finally realized that E'lara could not only duck, hide, run and vault over environmental objects and terrain elements, but that she could also wield close-combat weapons, block with a shield, roll on the ground and cast limited magic, too. . . . While Caddoc wielded bigtime melee weapons and shield and also used battle-magic to great effect. Actually, Caddoc's magic works better in tandem with E'lara's abilities to do massive dmg while at distance. Yes, it's linear, the A.I. can be a bit spotty for single player, BUT when you watch enemies circle, bait, entrap and then retire to fire volleys of arrows/bolts at your heroes, then you know there's a challenge ahead. The puzzles are a bit esoteric, more like riddles with simple explanation and some environmental manipulation. What I find rather amusing is the mention that "graphics" are less than stellar. Um, NO, the graphics are fine; actually, quite good. Realtime shadows, blood sprays, arrow-hits, falling bodies, seemingly believable utter darkness. True, full-bodied with loincloth and jiggles might not be politically-correct for our female elf these days, but, frankly, sticking a dozen arrows into an enemy and watching while they cascade ragdoll-like off a bridge or tower garners its own margin of thrill. Or, watching while some unsuspecting Wargar takes one to the back of the head and topples over, weightless, bouncing down some forlorn cliffside. IDK, "if" you LIKE dark fantasy, horror, loot, betrayal, old-school dungeon crawls, spiced-up with modern-style combat, then you will, likely, thoroughly enjoy Hunted.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

After having tried to play the first XBOX version of this game and had given up out of frustration, I have hoped that the revised and remastered version would play like a fantastic new game. Sadly, while the newest version, after another year+ of incubation and revision, does have much better FPS, the game sorely lacks the polish promised and misses the mark yet again in many departments. During my first play session, the game locked-up my new slim XBOX 3 times while wandering the world and another time during a save game operation. Frustrated, pushing-on past my first-version quit-point, I soon discovered that while the FPS has been smoothed out somewhat, the game, itself, seems to have been modified in odd ways. Some quests omitted, others added with minimal effect, NPCs with poor pathfinding and collision, better-balanced combat with some new monsters, all seemingly undermined by typos in quest dialogue, non-synched NPC voicetracks, clunky UI and the list could go on and on, unfortunately. The artwork and textures look to be improved in some areas while completely gutted in other areas, presumably for better FPS and less stuttery performance, which "worked" for me, however. I wanted to give Larian the benefit of the doubt. Along with Focus Interactive, the game has been improved a great deal, although it is difficult to claim success due to the overall inconsistencies and odd occurences still prevalent in the gameplay and world. Personally, locking up the new XBOX 3 times and then, another, while on the save screen really tells the tale. Maybe other users will have a different experience, I hope so. . . . Frankly, instead of the artbook and included soundtrack disc, I would have much rather had the game that Larian, Focus and Atlus had promised us for the last year+.

What a POS. Repeated environments, insipid dialogue banter between party members, empty dungeons with practically NO detail and get this: you cannot swap out gear for your party! that's right, u CAN trade jewelry and such, BUT you cannot "tailor" your party at all. extremely short, with little to NO exploration, overall trash story with pandering cutscenes, recycled locations, insta-spawning enemy rogues that can teleport across the little maps and on and on-- this drek makes FFXIII "look" like the greatest game ever made- It's readily apparent that EA have finally converted BIOWARE to their way of creating games. -lackluster money-grab with no conscience and no-soul gameplay, DA2 panders to the ADD crowd with spamming, action-adventure combat, minimal RPG elements, and in-short: welcome to the ****!