jonnyohio

I'm not a big platform gaming fan, and I don't play all that many indie games. But you can tell the guy that made this put a lot of work into it. I saw the documentary on Netflix that featured this game and I cannot say that I was all that interested in it. But I kept reading things about it and it's only $10 on steam so I figured what the hell, why not try it out. I'm glad I did. The game literally put a smile on my face as I realized the developer was intending on marrying old-school graphics with a 3d effect that plays an important role in the game. He pulls it off nicely. You have to change views in order to progress to find the cubes. It's like a 3d puzzle. I played the first level so far and I'm impressed with the attention to detail. From the floating cube helper that tells you everything, to popups that give you hints, to the world map, it's as if the guy thought of everything to make the game more of an enjoyment that a frustration...a casual game is what I wanted and this is what I got. I really like the fact that if I die, I re-spawn right where I last was just before i made the mistake so that I don't find myself repeating things over and over and getting bored. $10 well spent!

This game was not even completed! The animations look unfinished, concepts are there but not fully implemented, almost everything seems half-arsed and rushed. There appears to be no optimization at all. Changing screen resolution and graphics options crashes my game to desktop followed by a bunch of error messages. It's as if this was an alpha build and some idiot in charge said, "Release this now!", and the developers gave up trying to explain to that person that the game wasn't completed. It should have spent a few more months in development. I don't even care that the graphics aren't the best I've seen, I was just hoping for a game that actually worked and was finished, and had all the ideas FULLY implemented into them that were talked about while it was in development; a game that put me into the walking dead world and was tense. I just hate to have to give a game such a low score, but the fact that it was released like this with a $50 price tag ticks me off, and I want everyone to know that they should avoid buying this game like the plague. I seriously doubt they can fix (finish) this game by releasing a series of patches. It's just awful. The one point I do give it is for the fact that they put in RPG elements and the ability to lean to look around corners as well as a few other little things. But these little things that might surprise you and make you say, "hey, that is cool!" are just overshadowed by the gut wrenching fact that they are inside of a big steaming pile of over-priced pooh.

This game was not even completed! The animations look unfinished, concepts are there but not fully implemented, almost everything seems half-arsed and rushed. There appears to be no optimization at all. Changing screen resolution and graphics options crashes my game to desktop followed by a bunch of error messages. It's as if this was an alpha build and some idiot in charge said, "Release this now!", and the developers gave up trying to explain to that person that the game wasn't completed. It should have spent a few more months in development. I don't even care that the graphics aren't the best I've seen, I was just hoping for a game that actually worked and was finished, and had all the ideas FULLY implemented into them that were talked about while it was in development; a game that put me into the walking dead world and was tense. I just hate to have to give a game such a low score, but the fact that it was released like this with a $50 price tag ticks me off, and I want everyone to know that they should avoid buying this game like the plague. I seriously doubt they can fix (finish) this game by releasing a series of patches. It's just awful. The one point I do give it for the fact that they put in RPG elements and the ability to lean to look around corners as well as a few other little things. But these little things that might surprise you and make you say, "hey, that is cool!" are just overshadowed by the gut wrenching fact that they are inside of a big steaming pile of over-priced pooh.

The story line reminds me of a low-budget teen film that is not all that interesting, and makes little sense. You play Jason who seems ready to crack under pressure at the slightest hint of a stressful situation, doesn't seem to know really anything, but is somehow transformed into a bad ass, tattoo-wearing warrior that knows his way around a gun and has developed ninja-assassin skills almost over night. Voice acting is good though, except for Jason. They didn't need to have him yelling, "I'm coming Lisa!" while trying to sneak up on enemies. It's an open world, so go where you want (mostly). You can go off on side missions, though they are not very fun. The Trials of Rakyat are the best, which have you doing missions on a timer. All missions earn you money and XP. XP gets you skill unlocks, but don't worry about which skills to get, because eventually, if you complete a bunch of side missions, you'll get them all anyway. The three main side missions: Medical supply drops have you race against a timer. Wanted Dead force you into using stealth to kill a pirate holding out somewhere. Hunting has you tracking down animals. The main purpose of hunting is for crafting larger stuff so you can carry more weapons, ammo, grenades, and money. Most people will want to craft the upgrades right away, so get ready for a few hours of boring hunting, because it **** running low on ammo, having no room in your sack, or only being able to carry one gun. The stuff you do pick up is pretty much pointless, and is only worth selling off so you can buy stuff for your weapons. But you don't even have to really buy weapons, because the game practically gives them to you free. All you have to do is climb some radio towers that are pretty much left unguarded by the enemy, and easy to climb (this also reveals more of the map). You can take over outposts to make regions safer for you, and less likely to run into enemies. However, this makes it boring in the long run because the enemies never try to take it back, and then the only thing you have to be wary of are the tons of animals that want to constantly eat you, and they can take a full magazine of bullets to the head before dying. Fortunately, you can choose how you want to take an outpost, and it can be a blast; use stealth, go in guns blazing, or blow the heck out of the place-- doing anything but stealth will result in an alarm going off and more enemies showing up that you can kill. It's also kind of cool that they made it so that things actually catch fire, though nothing really gets destroyed. As far as enemies go, they are kind of dumb (but not so dumb that they just run at you). The stuff they say is laughable at first, but after hearing a pirate say the same line for the 100th time about it hurting when he pees, it gets tiresome. They do at least run for cover, but often times that cover is right next to you and all you do is step around the corner and blow them away. Which is easy since you can see the enemy through walls. Yes, that right: if you spot an enemy (especially through your camera or scope) you gain x-ray vision, apparently. As far as graphics go, I think they look great on my rig, playing it in 1080p, setting the FOV higher than the default, and everything turned on high with AA on. What really brings this game down is the repetitiveness of most missions (which are generally very easy to complete), a horrible HUD that constantly pops up messages (supposedly a fix is on the way for that), how EASY it is to beat on normal, and some of the worst bugs I've ever seen in a game on release day. One of the most annoying bugs is a glitch in which a grenade, a Molotov, or other object gets stuck to your characters right arm, and it gets in the way when **** my case it is a grenade. I have also had a glitch where I see the enemy vibrating oddly, or a mission marker not going away after I've completed the mission. Some friends of mine told me they can't progress because **** bug they have ran into. Three patches have been released, the first couple attempted to fix some crashing issues, but the last one highlighted a fix for 32 core systems (who is playing this on a 32-core **** I'm not even sure the game-breaking bugs are going to be addressed. To sum things up: Far Cry 3 is a fun, but a very easy game to beat, that has some very annoying, and game-breaking bugs, and some boring elements to it. At this point, it is a gamble if you are thinking of buying it. Personally, I haven't had one crash or bug that broke my game-- mostly just annoyances. I haven't tried MP, but I bought this mainly for SP mode. I hear MP is trash anyway. I'm hoping a future patch will remove that grenade attached to my wrist, but I won't hold my breath. If I finish the game before then, it will probably sit and collect digital dust in my Steam library with some of the other subpar games I bought this year

There's some to like and much to not like about Hitman: Absolution. First, I feel the Instinct mode it's a better alternative than the overview map of the older games. They put in the option to increase difficulty to shut it off, which is good. One big let down for me, is there is no save system in the game, just a stupid check point system which really awful. In reality, only your position in the area is saved, though, not who you killed or anything else it seems. I found out that if you get guns in one area and then go to the next area, you lose everything you just got. There is not selection of guns when you start a new part either, and gone is the briefcase-- the sniper rifle just appears out of the thin air-- just terrible. That other NPCs you dress like are most suspicious of you sounds like a good idea, but it completely ruins the game because you have to constantly use instinct to try to avoid being detected or sneak passed them anyway. Because of this, you will probably just end up killing a bunch of people, and find yourself not really giving much care about using disguises...I found myself staying in my suit and just sneaking around, and using cover...which really got kind of boring. The game tells you that turning your back to someone will stop them from being suspicious usually, but that rarely worked for me. You can use certain places to 'hide' when someone is getting suspicious, but these places are too few. The AI didn't seem like it was very consistent either. Sometimes I would play through an area and everyone was suspicious of me all the time, and other times I'd play through the same way, and it was like I was just blending in without effort. The storyline is pretty good, the voice acting is good, and the graphics are good. The lighting seemed a little 'off'- perhaps it was the overuse of reflective surfaces that gives the world a sort of washed-out look sometimes. Some areas didn't seem like they offered many different ways to complete them, unlike other Hitman games where it seemed like there were many ways to complete an assassination (which kept you coming back and playing it over to try to figure out all the possible ways)-- here it seems like there might be 2 to 4 ways at most, and that is about it. It feels like a very linear game, instead of the classic sandbox style game Hitman has always been. The world you play in is not very interactive at all-- most of the objects are just for decoration and 47 can't mess with much or rig things up to have 'accidents' happen-- the choices seem limited, and very shallow. Many of the areas are not very large, and most buildings can't be accessed to explore. The Contracts feature was a bit of a let down. Instead of creating some unique locations for the Contracts, they just used the same areas and same people from the storyline-- hardly any real effort was put into it. Basically, Contracts is just a a boring 'social' element they added to the game, which feels more like an after-thought rather than something planned from the beginning. I am hoping that there will be DLC that will expand this game-- not just guns, suites and disguise packs either, and some patches to fix it up. In the end Hitman: Absolution is nothing but a mediocre game, that is good for a couple of play throughs at most. Well, if you can tolerate the check point system, the poor AI performance, the lack of options and linear game play, and the disappointment of approaching your target, only to watch 47 kill them in a cut scene. I can see myself playing through it again maybe one more time, and trying a few more things out. But ultimately it will end up being deleted from my local Steam library in the very near future. Maybe some DLC will resurrect it from the Steam Cloud and I can play it once more, or perhaps the game will get the Steam Workshop on PC, and provide hours of replay with mods and user created content, and improvements. I highly doubt that will happen though...still one can dream of better days.

First how anyone can review a title moments after it is released is beyond me. Did you idiots that gave it a low score even bother to try to play the game or read the forums to get help? There was a major problem with the initial download, and the devs are working on correcting that. That said, there ARE some bugs in the game, but isn't there bugs in all games on initial release? So my review is about the single player experience (since my MP player wasn't working and I didn't care at the moment). This is review is about the game, not about me crying about how disappointing that a certain thing wasn't in the game that I expected. First I'll start with the pros: zombie head bashing. There is a lot of that. I love that. Open word: I can go where I want and kill zombies wherever I want. I like that. Plenty of weapons and health lying around. I like that, because I hate dying constantly. Good graphics (but nothing I haven't seen) I'm fine with that. Seems like there are plenty of missions (including side missions). I like that too! If I were to sum this up positively I'd have to say this is almost like fallout has met the zombie apocalypse with a pinch of left of 4 dead added for spice. So far I have been enjoying the single player experience and the game is very well made. There is a variety of zombies that get harder as you level up. I like the idea of being able to mod my weapons. Now for the cons. The money system is kind of odd, but it works for this game, because the devs give you plenty of it so you don't have to wait long to start modding your weapons and upgrading them. The voice acting at times is LOL funny. Some of missions are quite pointless and off the wall stuff (luck getting a grown woman her teddy bear because she can't sleep), but they add to the time you get to run around exploring and bashing in zombie heads. I've hit a few invisible walls along the way but was able to get around them. At release multilayer over the internet was pretty much unplayable (at the time of this review), but a patch has been promised so soon I will get to play along side friends. Overall this game is fun, entertaining, game play is well thought out and enjoyable. I've played for several hours and it looks like I've just barely scratched the surface. It is just uncalled for giving this game a 0 or 1 because they accidentally released a dev version of the game on launch day. Most of the people doing that are trolls that have not even played the game yet. My advice though is wait until a week after launch then buy it. All this mess will be sorted out by then and you will have fun playing this game.

I'm behind the times I guess, because I just bought this game only a week ago. Well, I have already spent plenty of hours playing this game. The game world is awesome, the detail is stunning, and there are tons of things to do and explore besides the main storyline. The main storyline is not all that interesting, but it's enough to want to continue on with it once you get side tracked by a number of quests (which there are plenty of, even unmarked ones!). The only things I didn't like about the game are some of the bugs (occasional crashes and shoddy quad core support), and the fact that running feels like walking and the game doesn't come native with iron sites aiming. Thankfully the game can be modded, and a number of console commands can be used to tweak the game to your liking. Getting the iron sites mod with a few other complimentary mods to remove the auto-aiming and bumping up my run speed made this game almost perfect. As for the dialog and the NPCs they are quite cheesy in appearance and sometimes sound just down right annoying. The graphics are great for it's time, but the characters look unrealistic. But given the age of this game and the enormous amount of effort that went into making it engaging and entertaining, it's to be expected. You might get bored with it after awhile, but not before you get your money's **** if you do, it might be high time you go on over to Nexus and see what mods you can load up to add to the fun. One more thing: this is a single player adventure type game that can be ran in First-person or third-person (nice touch), so if you are aren't someone who enjoys SP adventure games this is not for you.

This review is for multilayer only since that is all I played over the free weekend on Steam. PROS: -Dedicated Servers -Bigger teams -Some new stuff -No quick-scoping(?) -You can now lean to peak around a corner -Lag? Well it's less laggy than MW2. -Zombies -You can play against bots. -Maps have trains that go by and other stuff, which I think was neat. -Less wait time between rounds. CONS: -The maps I played pretty much ****, most are too small for bigger teams (are there even that many included?). -Graphics don't look as good as MW2 for some reason even on high settings (isn't it the same engine?) -Overpriced map packs that you pretty much have to buy or you get rejected or kicked by most servers (well at least I did). -What happened to all the secondary weapons (I didn't see any machine pistols; did I miss something)?. -Interface takes some getting used to, seems a little too busy (why spend so much time redoing it?). -Why rename things in the game? Call them the same as they were called in MW2 -Why can't I change up my classes between rounds or look at new stuff I unlocked anymore? I have to exit the server/game I'm in just to do that? That is just dumb. -Sound effects seem cheap and poorly done (MW2's sound is so much better)...everything sounds almost muffled. -Weapons just don't feel the same as they did in MW2...overall it just feels like a cheaply made game. -What's with the long load times? MW2 didn't take nearly as long to load maps....there is always this hang time when the loading bar is at 100% for like 2-4 minutes. Overall the game is OKAY at best so I'm giving it a yellowish rating. It doesn't deserve an extremely low rating and it certainly deserves nothing in the greenish zone. This game is overpriced at $60, and even with the sale price on Steam over the weekend for $40, it's still overpriced. Given the fact that the game is not well made, it should have been priced at around $30-- especially since they price map packs at $15 that you pretty much HAVE to buy if you want to continue enjoying the game. Thanks for the free weekend Activision, but I'll save my money for a better game....MW3 maybe? Well given the fact that it just seems like Activision sees the COD franchise as a cash-cow now because fanboys will buy up any trash they spew out with the words "Call of Duty" on it, I won't hold my breath.

If I could describe Portal 2 with one word it would be: Masterpiece. This game is simply brilliant, and entertaining. How anyone could be disappointed in this sequel is beyond me. If you liked the original portal, you are out of your mind if you end up not liking this game-- in fact, you should immediately shut off your computer and go check yourself into the nearest mental institute. I do wonder if some people think they completed the game when they did not. 5 hours is quite fast for this game. I'm pretty sure I played single player for more than 5 hours and I'm pretty darn good at solving the puzzles, only getting hung up 2 or 3 times for a while trying to figure something out. I can see some people maybe getting frustrated, but if you put the game down and come back later, you'll eventually figure it out. As far as graphics go there is nothing here that is video card punishing, but the game looks beautiful, full of wide open areas of the complex and bottomless chasms to fall into. There are more technologies to play with in this game than the original, so there is plenty of variety. Some puzzles I can tell could be solved a couple different ways, but most are solved only the one way. What really sets this game apart from the others is the storyline and the characters. The humor can be laugh-out-loud funny at times, and should make anyone with a sense of humor laugh. I won't say how the game ends, but you may or may not be disappointed. I wasn't, and I laughed at the ending cut scene as it was a great joke. The game is certainly worth the money, and the addition of the MP mode where you can solve a different set of puzzles with a friend is a great addition to the game. Me and friend of mine solved nearly all of them in one night, but couldn't finish because it got too late. I look forward to seeing what DLC will become available for this game.

I used to love the Call of Duty games up until the industry decided that PC gamers just don't buy games anymore. Now many of the game designers just make games for underpowered and overpriced console systems, and younger PC gamers don't have a clue what PC gaming used to be like or what they are missing out on. Now we all get stuck with overpriced console ports that look like they have the same graphics that games on PC had 3 or 4 years ago, as if the PC version is just an after thought and a way to make some extra cash. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is one of those games. The first Call of Duty games were well known for their single player mode, and in Call of Duty 2, the MP was quite good for its time. I bought MW2 when it went on sale (which is not very often for this greedy company- it's still $60 on Steam even AFTER Black Ops came out!). I refuse to pay $60 for a PC game that is simply an after thought, and originally intended to be played on a limited console. First off, I wasn't very impressed at all with single player. It was short, and the story was very boring, as if it was just thrown in there to justify the price. Multiplayer was fun for a little while, but again I got bored because it seemed like there was the one or two guys on top that had the higher ranks all the time that would just blow the crap out of everyone else because they had the better weapons, etc. It didn't look to me like there was much of any match making built into this game, or, if there was, it sure didn't seem to work very well. As I got better guns and skills moving up in the ranks, things did get better for me and less frustrating, but it still got boring after awhile. Zombie mode was fun for a little while, but again it gets boring after awhile when you have no real goal except to see how long you can stay alive the next time you play. There are no dedicated servers in this game, which is just poor, but then this was just a console port and the PC version was an after thought. A couple of DLCs were released for the PC, which were just maps and priced at $15, which to me is just a ridiculous price for a map pack with no added features. What really bugs me is that people will actually pay that high of a price for a map pack! I mean come on, are people THAT stupid!? No wonder they don't give a crap about making a quality game, because no matter how **** they make it people will line up to buy it! Now COD: Black Ops is out, and I refuse to once again pay $60 for that game, after being disappointed with this. Even though Activision must have realized too late what they were missing out on when Steam announced they made a billion dollars selling PC games online, and added dedicated servers to black ops, I think it's too little too late. Activision, has alienated this PC gamer, but they can probably count on the sheep who like the abuse to keep buying your Call of Duty titles for a little while longer, until finally even they will get tired of it. And for years to come they'll have console geeks buying up overpriced games that have no clue what PC gaming is really like. Let us know when you have decided to care about us PC gamers again, Activision. I'll be first in line when a title that is actually worthy of $60 is released by your company-- even at the sale price I bought MW2 for, I feel like I was cheated.

Do most people on here only know how to give 10's and 0's? The game certainly doesn't deserve a perfect 10, but it does deserve high points. Portal is an innovative game because it brings a new concept to, um, FPS (it's not really a FPS, because there is no shooting). You start out in the testing environment where the concept and control are all explained to you in such detail you'd have to be stupid to not figure it out. Once you have completed stage 19, you break out of the testing area of the facility and begin to figure out your way (following clues) to the main computer's chamber where you have to figure out how to destroy with just the portal generator in your hands and the brain in your skull. To your surprise, when that happens, the game abruptly ends, and you will be saying, "Wait, that's all!?". But along the way you will get plenty of laughs (if you have a sense of humor), and the ending credits are just priceless. There are bonus maps and achievements to earn after you beat the game. That said, this game is very lacking. First of all, there is no multiplayer, and all the 'puzzles' can be solved with a narrow set of solutions. There are no multiple paths either. You simply go in the only direction available and when you get to a spot you can't go any further, you just figure out how to keep going using your portals. Overall, the game is fun, innovative, and humorous, but hours of entertainment it will not provide as the game is so short that you will be wondering why it even cost anything at all-- even with the bonus levels. If you can get it for a few dollars, I would recommend buying it., but one thing is for certain, this game does not deserve a perfect 10 as so many have given it-- it doesn't even deserve a 9. An 8, however, is just the right score.

One of my favorite games of all time, along with the sequels. Thief brought a breath of fresh air to 1st person 'shooters'. It has to be the best stealth game series I have played to date. You sneak around and hide in shadows and either knock people out or put an arrow in them. Your missions are almost always to get into someplace and steal something. And the storyline is just awesome. It's way better then that joke **** "Assassin's Creed"-- which I discovered was nothing close to what Thief was. I have yet to find any game that matches Thief in style. I found a website where a group has made an open source game that is like Thief (but it is buggy yet and relies on fan-made mission). Recently I read that Thief 4 is being worked on, but so far no release date! I only had one part of the game that I didn't like, and that was where they put zombies in the game. It wasn't that bad, but I like going up against people that seemed to have some intelligence not some mindless walking goon that made a noise when it saw or heard me-- but thankfully it was only in one part of the game so I can't really complain that much about it. Overall the entire series is just fun to play, and I recommend it to anyone that is tired of mindless shoot 'em ups that have weak or no story lines.

I've had this game for a few years now and have all the expansions. I have played through all the campaigns now a total of 3 times and still enjoy loading this up every now and then. It is perhaps one of the best rts games ever made. I really like the idea of being able to have my infantry take cover and get an advantage on the field. I really like not having to mine or collect resources. The fact that you have to take over territories and hold on to them is a great concept and makes the game much more fun to play. It seems that the all sides are good and balanced. The graphics and special effects look fantastic on a good gaming system. One thing that I find annoying though is the AI at times. Path finding seems to be good for the most part, but sometimes your troops will just stand there and take a beating from an enemy mortar team and you have to baby sit them (though they do have the smarts to go for cover when someone is shooting at them). It would be nice if they would automatically retreat back out of range when this happens instead of just standing there like a bunch of idiots (or lying down on the ground as if that is going to help). When playing against a computer player even on a normal setting the computer player seems to obtain far more resources faster then you **** if there is nothing in the way to slow it down (blown bridges) the computer will just run you over with wave after wave all the while taking all your territory from you faster than you say "cheatinsob!"....over all it is a great game to play if you like RTS games (especially World War 2 ones), and though I have yet to play against a human player I'm sure it would be fun.

l4d2 brings melee weapons and other guns to an instant classic. This has to be the best zombie game ever made for PC to date. The zombies move fast, run around corners, and climb over and under things to get to you. You play one of four survivors who are immune to the infection. With L4D2 more attention is given to the storyline, which is cool, but I really would like to see a good zombie game with a nice single-player mode that tells a good story. Single player mode is almost non-existent in this game. L4D2 is meant to be played online. You can play with 3 bots, sure, but the fun really isn't there until you go online. Starting off, you should play a campaign on normal with 3 other human players in coop mode to get the idea of the game and how it is played (Normal because easy is just way too easy). After playing through all campaigns, you might think that the game isn't worth replaying, but you would be very wrong. First up is versus mode. where you and 3 other friends play against 4 others ****, enemies and compete for the best score. Versus mode is probably the best part of this game and the most played game-mode. And if you get bored of versus, load up a campaign in advanced mode and then expert and you'll have a real challenge on your hands (play it online not in single player). Valve also added a realism mode that is even harder, so the game can be replayed quite a bit. In fact, it is one of the most played games I have. Where it also shines are the crescendo events, in which you'll find yourself running through an area with wave after wave of zombie hoards coming at you while you attempt to reach a switch or get to safety. Probably the funnest finale is the bridge crossing at the end of the last campaign where you must run to a helicopter while zombies are trying to take you down. Valve has been putting out DLC that is FREE for this game, and they keep updating the game almost weekly with 'mutations' (mods), updates, and tweaks, and there are plenty of custom maps to download and try out, and Valve has been featuring some of the best ones in their blog. Even though the game uses an older graphics engine (Source 2), it is still a fun game to play and definitely worth having in your collection. However, if you are not a social person and just like to play single-player, story driven games then this game is not for you. It is only worth playing on a PC connected to the internet, as the single-player mode is a waste and I'm not even sure why they bothered making one. I really wish that Valve would make another version of this, but this time give us a single-player mode that tells a story and is worth being in the game. But as much as I play this game, you'd think I'd give it a 10, but I can't because of these reasons: 1. It uses a dated graphics engine. 2. This is just l4d1 the way they wanted it to be but didn't have the budget for it. 3. No in-game download and install of custom maps/content. Consequently, there isn't a lot of people playing custom maps. 4. Single player mode ****. It may as well not even be there. Yeah, we get it that multilayer games are all the craze, but many of us out here still like a good story-driven single-player mode. The lack of such a mode gives me the impression that Valve was just in it for the money, and didn't really expect the game to make as much as it did. It is still in the top sellers list on Steam.

At first I didn't think I'd like this game, but when it went on sale I decided to give it a try. After all, some of my online friends were hounding me to get it and try it out, because they enjoyed it. I must say I did enjoy it more then I thought I would. Once you get past the cartoonish graphics, the game is actually quite fun to play. The game developers did a good job of giving you the ability to get from point A to point B quickly. As the game progresses, you go from using vehicles to get around in, to using the transportation system to travel almost instantly from one area to the next. One thing I did find good about the game is the match-making and balancing. In many games of this type we end up with bored older players coming in and just killing new players, who end up quitting because of it. But the developers made it so that you can't harm another player unless the other player agrees to a duel. Consequently, you can start fresh with a new character and play with new players at almost any time. Also, they made it so that newer players can't cheat by having older players give them weapons. They did this by making it so that you have to reach a certain level in order to wield more powerful weapons. Another nice touch is that you can play the game all over again a second time around with your character on a more difficult setting. What with all the fun this game can be to play you would wonder why I give it only a 7 rating. I gave it a seven for this simple reason: Gamespy. For whatever silly reason they decided to put Borderlands on Gamespy, which totally and utterly ****. Just how bad does it ****? Well really really bad. Lag is horrible in multiplayer unless you get a someone hosting the game close to you (I mean like from Ohio to Illinois close). I can play games hosted overseas through steam and experience little to no lag, and have a ping of around 200-300 max. In this game there is no way to see what you ping is, but it must be bad. All games are hosted locally, so you are at the mercy of the outgoing connection speed of the host computer, and if there internet goes down for a few moments you are done playing. Most of the games I tried joining, I couldn't join, and the ones I did join I ended up lagging out in. Once in awhile I would find a game that didn't lag, but when the person who started the game quit, everyone gets kicked back to the main menu and you have start your search for a good game all over again. For the most part, forget about using a mic. It seems that Gamespy cuts your audio off when you don't have a good enough connection (which is almost never), so everyone hears every other word. Me and my friends opened our steam chat and used it to talk over our mics and turned our in-game mics off. Steam worked perfectly transmitting our voices while Gamespy/Borderlands couldn't (go figure). All in all, the game is good, fun to play (even in single player mode), but with the connection issues and the decision to use crappy Gamespy, and otherwise great game has been ruined. I doubt it will last, and the community will die off. The game is already being sold at bargain prices. Hopefully if they make Borderlands 2 they'll use a better online service and hopefully setup some dedicated servers for it.

The graphics are great and Empire Bay is beautiful. The storyline kept me interested for the most part, and the game mechanics are descent for this type of game. If you don't take cover, you are dead. If you run into a wall at full speed with your car, you are dead. This is more realistic then other games of its genre. The shootouts can be great, and the idea that the city changes as the story progresses, is really cool. Now lets get to the dislikes. Driving. Lots of driving. Each mission is pretty much the same in this regard: You get up, you drive, you get a mission, you drive, you complete the mission, and you drive home. Sometimes there is even more driving! And that wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that there is absolutely nothing ... er, almost nothing to do in Empire Bay. Most of the shops are just for looks, and the people are far from interactive...unless you want to get into a fist fight. In that case, you have to walk up to them and push them and see if they will get into a fight with you. If they run you can either let them go or shoot them in the back. If you shoot them, the cops will no doubt show up, and the cops are all sharpshooters so you won't last long. There are some interesting things they did by making the city look more alive, but I would have liked to have been able to go into a shop, rob it, take a taxi, take a bus, and eat at some of the inaccessible restaurants. Though the game appears to be a sandbox style game, it really is not. You pretty much have almost nothing to do other than progress the story and do missions. You can steal cars and crush them in the junk yard, but that will only leave you desiring more, and when you find new locations forget about going back and messing around, because the game developers decided that after you enter an area (like the big hotel for instance, where lots of nice cars are sitting in the parking garage), you shouldn't be aloud to go back there ever again and explore-- so you'll go back to only find the doors all closed and locked. I have no idea why they did **** couldn't the buildings I went into before during a mission be accessible later? Would it have killed them let me go back in there and mess around some? One time I got a nice car and got out of it to do something and the car vanished before my eyes. That was annoying. Even more annoying is no in-game save feature. I racked up $6,000 stealing cars only to lose it when I accidentally lost control of my car (which will happen quite often in this game) and hit a wall. Now, sometimes if you hit a wall you will die, other times you will not. This time the game decided I was dead and I had to start back from the save point with my $680-- tough luck. I sighed and just went on to the next mission. So is it worth buying? Well, yes, if you can get it on sale like I did then go for it. It's a great game to play through solely for the storyline and shootouts. But be warned. There are missions that are mostly boring. For instance, one mission has you load crates into the back of a truck. Another mission has you handing out cigarettes. Fortunately these missions are cut shorter so that you can get to the action quicker, but, nevertheless, you will be wondering at times what the developers were thinking when they were making this game. I haven't quite finished the game yet, but I have read that the game is short. Judging by where I am in the game after only a few hours of game play spanning 3 days, it sounds like I'm almost finished. It was really disappointing to discover that I didn't even get to earn money to buy a house; there was just flash scenes of time progressing (maybe a few days or weeks, I couldn't tell) and suddenly I owned a house. When I first started playing I thought I was going to have to earn that house somehow. One more thing: I think the developers were trying to set a record for the most times the F-Word was said in a game, and the nude pictures found lying around (collectibles- yippie) look like models that are wearing wigs, most of which won't get you all excited but you certainly don't want the kids in the room when you pick one up. But oh well, I give it a solid 7. I guess I got my money's worth.

I'm not sure why anyone would give this game a negative review, but it looks like a couple people showed up to do so. Sure it doesn't bring anything new to the table, but it is based on a classic, and it is fun to play. If you just want to sit back and immerse yourself into a not-so-realistic time when **** were a threat to the free world, and you want a mindless shooter where you just run and shoot anything that moves, this is the game for you. I certainly can't give it a perfect 10 because there are flaws and the game just isn't THAT great, but it IS definitely worth buying and playing through.