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Ghost of Tsushima is undeniably a beautiful game and an exceptional open-world game that can easily stand shoulder-to-shoulder with titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and LoZ: Breath of the Wild. This game is outstandingly gorgeous to the point that random screenshots of the game could easily be perceived as art. I'm not referring to the graphics, but rather the culmination of colors and environmental world design that makes the game uniquely appealing to look at. I've legitimately lost count of the number of times I was stopped dead like a deer caught in headlights in marvel of my surroundings and then took a screenshot, with the intent of using it as a wallpaper. The gameplay can be challenging, but nowhere near as demanding on the player as games like Sekiro or Nioh. As you get further in the game, more options open up as weapons, equipment, and techniques are unlocked. The game gives players the choice to play stealthy and rely on tricks (which the game will call you out on) or play honorably and fight through Mongol forces with nothing but your katana and your skill. The sword play is fast, but strategic. Hacking and slashing is quickly punished and parries and proper timing is greatly rewarded. Different sword stances are powerful against certain weapons/enemies. The starting stance is effective against swordsmen, while other unlockable stances will be effective against shields, spears, etc. Every once in a while, you'll get the chance to call out enemies into a showdown. Here, proper timing can allow you to kill your foe(s) in a single strike in homage to Japanese samurai films (think like the Eastern equivalent of an Old West duel). Pulling it off successfully is always satisfying, and the skill can be upgraded to chain together more strikes in a single showdown. Along with the ability to upgrade your stances and techniques, so can you with your weapons and armor. Throughout the game, cosmetic sword kits, clothes dye, and headbands/hats/helmets can be found to change Jin's appearance. Furthermore, different armor sets provide different stat bonuses. One set can increase how durable you are, another can make you harder to spot. Equipment is improved by taking the appropriate materials to a vendor, greatly increasing their effectiveness. Stats can similarly be buffed with an assortment of charms that can be found/awarded by either visiting shrines or completing side missions. With the right combination of armor and charms, any give play style can be greatly enhanced. A common problem with open-world games is that progressing through them often feels like a chore. As if you're merely checking off boxes after a while. I've never come across that feeling in Ghost of Tsushima. Instead, I've been near constantly eager to explore, charging on horseback through the fog of war to discover new, magnificent sights, and take on any challenges I come across. The game is packed with things to do, without feeling overbearing. I feel that may be due to the distinct and pleasant lack of a HUD. Instead, the game tries to guide players by using the wing to guide players to objectives/map markers while birds will lead you to undiscovered locations or side quests. This is a game where it's very easy to just take your time, pick a direction, and see what's in store for you. The narrative isn't as strong as Red Dead Redemption, but I did find it rather engaging and even compelling at times. The game starts with a massacre, with the samurai being all but wiped out. As Jin continues to fight, he begins to realize that the ways of the samurai might not be enough to defeat the Mongols. As he begins to adapt and start adopting new methods to fight from the shadows, Jin struggles with his upbringing as a samurai and the value of honor when faced against an enemy as dangerous as Khotun Khan and the Mongolian Empire. It's an interesting balance of internal and external conflict, which feels a bit cheapened as I continue to decimate the Mongol horde with my arsenal of explosives. In summary, Ghost of Tsushima is a fantastic game that is well-worth your money. The gameplay is fun, the setting is interesting, and the visuals are just drop-dead gorgeous. If you have any interest in Japanese culture, samurai films, or historical war pieces, then I can't recommend this game enough. It's a PS4 exclusive that's every bit as good as God of War, Spider-Man, and Horizon: Zero Dawn. You'd be doing yourself a disservice for skipping this one.

While it's not perfect, DOOM stands as one of the best shooters that I've had the chance to play in recent years. It returns to an old-school style of gameplay that fans of the original games remember fondly. To such an extent that, if you didn't like either Doom 1 or 2, chances are you're probably not gonna think of this game as highly as others will. First off, the game is gorgeous. The UAC facilities are gore-soaked and impressive, the landscape of Mars would make Mark Watney proud, and the level designs of Hell look like they were ripped straight from the album art of a '90s metal band. About the story... To quote John Carmack, "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." Just like in the original DOOM, the story in this game isn't the focus here, though the codex does offer some interesting back-story to many of the demons, weapons, etc. found in the game. The entire point of this game is killing demons and that's going to be what you'll spend most of your time doing with an arsenal of awesome weapons and the two meat tenderizers that DoomGuy call hands. Despite what the fast pace of combat may lead you to believe, there is some strategy here. The Super Shotgun is powerful, but lacks any range. And obviously, you don't want to be shooting off rockets at point-blank distance. Also, simply being aware of explosive barrels and high-ground can just as easily be as lifesaving as the all-mighty BFG. The key to the combat seems to be taking advantage of your surroundings, maintaining constant movement, and choosing the right gun for the job. One thing I greatly enjoyed about the game was the sense of escalation. You start off with the humble Combat Shotgun and only a handful of demons to use it on. However, as you progress, you find more weapons and bigger, stronger demons start rearing their ugly heads, hoping to get a piece of you. The level design is rather impressive. The maps are massive and secrets are tucked away in all of them, including a hidden room that's taken straight from the original games, in all of their 16bit glory. The arenas, in which you often fight many of the demons, are also well-designed and make for fun firefights that leave you with many options in which to approach the combat. Depending on the difficulty and how much time you spend looking for secrets, finishing up a single mission can easily take up anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour (I played on Ultraviolence). Finishing up the story would take up a good 15 hours or so. Though the campaign is the crown jewel, the multi-player is nothing to scoff at. Fans of arena shooters such as Quake 3 and Unreal would be right at home here. The combat is just as fast and chaotic as before. The biggest difference I can see being the decision of giving players loadouts rather than simply picking up weapons placed on the map. I have mixed feelings regarding this as it makes the game feel a little too much like many other modern shooters. However, it also keeps players from hovering around weapon spawn points on the map, which I've always found to be annoying in older online FPS games. Another great feature worth mentioning is SnapMap. Id decided to toss in a remarkably in-depth map-building system that allows for the creation and sharing of custom content, ranging from co-op maps, to survival builds, or even a return to the classic Doom deathmatch. In terms of content, there is a lot to play around with. There is so much, that I am completely comfortable with the $60 price tag. However, I can understand how some people would be somewhat cautious. If you're not sure about the gameplay, I'd recommend redboxing the game first and see if you like it before buying.

For the past 6-7 years, I've been waiting for this game to come out since it was first announced. I was amazed by the gameplay demo from E3. It looked genuinely terrifying. Marines were getting picked off from the shadows by lurking xenomorphs, the lighting was dark and atmospheric, you got to wield iconic weapons and equipment to fight off the monstrosities. The whole thing looked amazing. But then the game came out and I got the biggest kick in the nuts from any game I have ever played in my life. The final product is in no way similar to that magnificent demo we saw. In fact, it was much worse and practically unfinished. The textures are horribly outdated by at least 6 years. The adaptive lighting we saw was nowhere near as impressive as the demos. Even the AI suffered horribly. Xenomorphs mindlessly Zerg rush you rather than sneak around in the shadows, and your AI controlled teammates are practically useless. There's no real details on what happened, but the fact remains that Gearbox has somehow managed to rush a game that has been in development for over 6 years. To say that this game is buggy is an understatement. I've been left wondering if anyone has even playtested this prior to release. Probably the most damning of problems with this game is how easy it is to lose your progress in this game. Rather than creating a save file onto the hard drive like ever other game on the 360, ACM instead saves directly to your cache. This means that whenever you start the game without signing in to your gamertag, you lose everything. Campaign progress, multiplayer ranks and unlocks, everything, gone. You'd think it could be avoided by simply turning off auto-run and being careful to sign in before playing, but you'd be wrong. Mandatory updates for the game automatically sign you out before installation and are effectively a death sentence for your saves. I seriously hate calling anything a "COD clone", but what else can I say? Guns have attachments and different skins and half of the game is spent on fighting Weyland Yutani mercenaries. That's right, you fight other humans in an Aliens game. Sure, I expected Wey-Yu to make an appearance in the story at some point, but these guys show up on the second level and utterly destroy any sense of fear that the xenos built up in the introductory level. There's hardly any tension in the game as you carry all of your weapons on your back. So, whenever one gun is low on ammo, you just switch it out for another until you find more ammo for it. You'd think that since the game's story was approved by Fox as being the canonical sequel to Aliens and Alien 3, that the writers would go all out to make sure the story was amazing, right? Sadly that's not the case. Indeed, most of the game's plot seems like an excuse to just revisit locations from the movies. ACM hardly answers any questions from the movies, nor does it add anything exciting. They had even brought back a supposedly dead character from Aliens and handwaved the details of his survival with him literally saying, "That's a story for another time". If that's not a copout in story writing then I don't know what is. Even the characters aren't that interesting. They could be amusing at times due to their banter, but there's not much for the player to get attached to. The multiplayer is probably the only thing that's genuinely worthwhile with this game. Playing with your friends in versus mode is great fun. While playing as Marines, you organize together a survival strategy, and as Xenos, you work together to harass and hunt down the marines. It kind of like running a haunted house and feels familiar with playing as an special infected in Left 4 Dead. Fun aside, the multiplayer also suffers from it's share of problems. Just like the campaign, bugs are prevalent and quite common. Also, lag is a major factor that can severely break the balance of the game and make it almost impossible to play properly. All in all, I'd say rent the game if you are still interested in playing it. But if you insist on buying, please wait for the price to drop and more patches to be released. Because at this point in time, this game needs a lot more work to be worth considering spending money on. From what I'm seeing Gearbox is still working on more patches to clear up the bugs. They have already tweaked the AI, but probably won't do much to improve the graphics on the 360. If I notice any fixes worthy of changing my score, I'll edit as I deem appropriate. But for now, my score stands as is.

Finally got around to picking this game up, despite the shaky reviews on it. Used, of course. Oddly enough, my complaints on the game actually differ a bit on a few issues. First of all, unlike every other review on the game, I have no real complaint with the controls. If anything, I prefer this over the standard RE tank-style controls anyday. However, the cover system is kinda lame. It's set so that you take cover next to walls and debris whenever you walk into it. Not only does this create moments where you'd accidentally get stuck on a dumpster or something when you're trying to run away from a horde of crimson heads, but it actually pulls the reverse, where I'm desperately trying to get to cover and away from spec-ops gunfire, but my character decided that he'd rather just stand next to that car and soak up the bullets with his face. The melee fighting, while badass, is cumbersome and needs work. The enemy AI presents another problem. It really is a bad as people say it is, making it almost impossible to deal with certain parts in the campaign that would normally require a team to finish an objective. Everything's pretty much left up to you, alone. While the logical solution would be to take advantage of the online matchmaking and get a co-op campaign started, there's one obstacle in the way. There is absolutely NOBODY playing the campaign online. It was more than once that I started up a pre-game lobby, with the hopes of getting some players to help me get through this part of the story that I was stuck on. Instead, I'd sit there for over 20-30 minutes, without as much as a single gamertag popping up on the screen for even a second. I even once had it up for over an hour while I was on my laptop. I figure that anyone who has this game is probably playing the versus mode, if anything. Next topic. Here's a VERY common scenario that you'd often run into when playing through the campaign by yourself. You're going around kicking some zombie ass, popping heads like a professional, when all of a sudden, you somehow got infected. Now your health is draining and you have no anti-virus sprays in your inventory. But look! A glowing blue cylinder at the far end of the room! Perhaps you got lucky and a zombie randomly dropped an anti-virus spray? Maybe you can make it through this after all! You run past all of the zombies in a mad dash to keep yourself from dying when you finally reach your luminescent prize... Only to find that it's, in fact, a stun grenade (which glows a very slightly different shade of blue from the antivirus). Not only that, but you already have the maximum amount that you can possibly carry in you inventory as they're useless against zombies. Finally, you succumb to the disease and turn into a zombie. Game Over. The ease of contracting the virus in this game is staggering. Not only can you get infected by getting bitten by a zombie, but also when a zombie pukes on you, scratches you, or so much as looks at you funny. I'm also fairly sure that half of the BOWs don't even need to damage you to infect you. What I found really out of place, is that despite being put through the above scenario far more times than I'd like, a check through my records show that I have never once been bitten by a zombie. I probably wouldn't mind as much if infection wasn't an instant death sentence in single-player. But as it is, it makes playing through the campaign by yourself a nightmare. What really makes me sad is, that even though I really do enjoy the zombie killing in this title, this is one of the few games where I find that I'm actually forcing myself to beat the story. I don't hate the game, but there are just too many problems as a whole for me to fully enjoy it. I really feel that this game could've been far better if it was held in development for just a little longer. The AI could've been improved which, alone, would've greatly enhanced the gameplay. Maybe they could've also tweaked the melee fighting into better working order. Not to mention, smooth out the cover system.

Being a huge fan of the Wolfenstein franchise, and an often returning player to RTCW, I was hugely let down by this game. I'm not going to say that this game is bad, because it's not. It's actually a fairly respectable FPS with some good ideas and pretty good gameplay. My biggest problem pretty much boils down to it's detachment from it's predecessors. There also seems to be a lack of usable weapons in this as I couldn't help but lament about not having access to the Thompson and Colt .45 seen in the boxart and cutscenes respectively. They also take away your near-iconic knife for a couple of melee weapons you can find lying around maps but not keep in your inventory. Also, I'm not so big on the Thule medallion and Veil parts of the game as it feels like a stranger angle on the occult themes than what Wolfenstein is usually known for. Also, I don't like B.J.'s redesign, man belongs in a Rangers uniform. Then again, that's probably just me, and I'm not going to let that effect my rating. At the very least, the weapons here are cool and VERY fun to shoot. My favorite among them is the Particle Cannon, which gleefully reminds me of Ghostbusters every time I dematerialize **** with it. The gun is simply a joy to shoot and flat-out destroys any enemy you come across. Similarly, the Thule Medallion gives you access to a few powers to aid you in combat. You get the ability to slow time to make precision shooting a breeze, create a bubble shield to deflect bullets, and empower your guns to shoot through armor and do extra damage. However, there comes a drawback as power weapons aren't as restricted by ammo consumption as you would assume them to be. You can easily purchase ammo for them at the nearest black market shop, which means you'd have no shortage of overpowering weapons. To add to this, your health now regenerates whenever you're not taking damage. Many might not see that as a bad thing, but to fans of the series, this may feel like a slap to the face when they were expecting more of that old-school FPS gameplay. The combination of overpowered weapons and regenerating health severely drop the campaign difficulty. Which brings me to the story. To be perfectly honest, I have trouble remembering much of the games plot other than the **** trying to harvest the veil energy for their war efforts and Deathshead making his return from the previous game. I honestly think that Return to Castle Wolfenstein had a stronger plot than this one did, which is rather worrisome. At the end of the day, this is a good FPS game that can be very fun for it's action, but may alienize many fans of the older games. If you can find it for a good price, pick it up, or simply rent it to see if you like it or not.

Simply put, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is the pinnacle of old-school first-person shooters. Fast, skill-based combat, clever enemy AI (for the time), and a great variety of weapons and enemies to use them on. While the graphics may be dated when compared to modern FPS games like Crysis 2, everything is still presentable and easy to forgive as you mow down **** with your lightning (Tesla) gun. The controls are tight and easy to grasp, making shooting feel that much better. While I've never really thought much about plot in most Id games, RTCW actually does have a rather decent, though shallow, story that you'd expect from an 80's action movie. The **** have found the tomb of an ancient and evil knight and are planning on resurrecting him to turn the tide of the war. Catching on to this, the OSA sends in B.J. Blaskowicz, **** extraordinaire, to investigate and ultimately put a stop to their plans. The game sends you to a variety of locations as you ultimately ruin the day of every inhuman son of a (this includes ****) you come across. You'll be fighting zombies in ancient crypts, putting down X-creatures in Deathshead's secret lab, and of course killing every **** that crosses your line of sight. There are (de)briefings between missions to give you a run down of what you're there for and clipboards that you can pick up to give you some insight on the events in the game. You'll have no shortage of weapons in this game. In true Id fashion, you'll have access to a plethora of guns ranging from the boring and practical MP40 to the lead-spewing instrument of concentrated whoop-ass, called the Venom minigun, which can gib any enemy held under it's sustained fire. By now, this game should be relatively cheap to buy. If you get the chance, and have always been curious about old-school shooters, try it out.

Maybe it's because I knew exactly what to expect when going into this game, but Rage stands as one of the best FPS games that I've had the pleasure to play. Id proved that they weren't just messing around with the new IdTech 5 while making this game. The game is pretty. Which is kind of an odd thing to say about a game set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It is highly advised to install this game onto your hard drive before playing. Be warned, installing this game takes up about 22 Gigs worth of space, so you may need to make some room. At first glance, many would immediately compare this game to that of Fallout or Borderlands, which is just foolish. Unlike the aforementioned games, Rage has virtually no RPG elements and instead opts for pure action. As a shooter, this game handles nicely. The controls are smooth, the gunplay feels great, and enemies even react properly to being shot at. You shoot at a charging bandit, he'll reel back from the impact of the bullet and may even stumble and fall face first into the ground, depending on where you hit him. The enemy AI is also notable in that the enemies are actually pretty intelligent (save for the appropriately mindless mutants) and can use some rather clever tactics on occasion. Authority soldiers would stack up behind the guy with the energy shield, bandits are smart enough to kick over your turrets whenever they get the chance, and they all know how to take cover effectively. Being an Id game, you get to carry a large arsenal with you at all times. Some of these guns can become rather useless, depending on your playstyle, but each one feels and sounds like it has some weight to it when fired, which is nice. To add some variety, the game features a variety of ammo types ranging from miniature rockets fired out of shotguns to crossbow bolts that can allow you to control an enemy until he inevitably explodes. The enemies are also quite varied, the mutants are animalistic and would forgo any strategy and simply bumrush you, Authority soldiers use military tactics and higher-end weaponry, and each bandit clan has a certain specialty in combat, such as agility, tech, explosives, or just being hard to kill. A rather new gameplay mechanic for an Id game is the driving portions of the game. The driving is done very similarly in a combat racing style. In fact, there are even combat racing side-missions to upgrade your cars. Since you will be driving around the wasteland a lot, it's a good thing that the controls work rather well and that the vehicle combat can be both fast paced and fun. The story itself is rather forgettable. Nothing surprising to Id veterans, but others may want more. However, the single player campaign itself can be rather long if the player decides to go out and do every sidequest and race available to them. My only real complaint about this game is the ending, which isn't bad so much as non-existent. Uncharacteristically for an Id game, there's no final boss fight and the game practically ends with you pushing a button after you finish mowing down enemies with the game's designated BFG, which is given to you at the beginning of the mission. Depending on the difficulty and how much you set out to do, you could probably finish the game in about 15-30 hours. That said, there's even a multiplayer disc that comes with a set of co-op missions and competitive combat racing. So, even after finishing the main game, there's still plenty to do. For the current price, this game is at VERY good value, and could be found at prices ranging from $10-$20. If you like FPS games, I'd highly recommend for you to go out and buy this game.

Ever wanted to play a game where you can be minding your own business in a forest and a giant griffin would randomly fly by and attack your party? A barrage of magical fire arrows force the beast to the ground allowing you to climb up onto it's back to ensure that it'll never get out of range of your blade. You hold on for dear life as the griffin tries to shake you off it's back and attempts to take to the skies. When you finally manage to land the killing blow, the monster crashes back down to the ground and you simply walk away as if you just got off of some kind of twisted amusement park ride. Well, what I just wrote is not only possible, but has happened to me more than once while playing Dragon's Dogma. The game's highlight is the encounters with giant monsters, which feel like some sort of cross between Shadow of the Colossus and Devil May Cry. It sounds like a weird mix, but it's the only real way I know how to describe it. And it works gloriously. I do have a few minor gripes. This game only has one save file, so if you want to make a different character, you're going to have to save over your old game and start from square one. Granted, you can change your class at any time, but the only way to change your appearance is by some item that you have to buy that can only be used once per play-through. Another problem that rises from the single save file is that you can permanently fail side-quests and NPCs can die for good. So if you screw up, you have to live with it. I know the reason for the single save file ties into how the game uses Xbox Live to allow you to lend out your pawn, essentially your partner in the game, to other players so that they can bring back experience and loot from their time spent with other players. It's an interesting way to implement online features to a game and something I wouldn't mind seeing in the future.

Not so much a game as it is an interactive TV show. However, that doesn't make it any less enjoyable than some of the more gameplay oriented AAA titles out there. The Walking Dead does something that many other games fail to do. Make me care. Not only do I feel some form of emotional attachment to many of the characters in this game, with Clementine getting the strongest focus of the bunch, but I actually care what happens to them and give second-thoughts to my decisions. And this is coming from a guy that would typically get the worst endings in video games just because it was either easier or funny. I have to give credit to any writers that are capable of creating a video character that could bring out some level of genuine affection from players in this day and age. The story in this game is great, and lives up to the source comics grade of drama and horror. The voice acting is also worth some praise, for which I am thankful for as shoddy voice work could easily break a game like this as there won't be much else for the player to focus on. If you get the chance, by all means, play this game.

Great value DLC. For $5 you get a new set of missions available at the start of the game, a new gun, and more Mutant Bash TV. Not only that, but the DLC has the same-high quality graphics and gameplay that comes with the rest of the main game. In terms of price for quality, this is easily one of the best add-ons that I've downloaded.

Going into this game, I was already aware that the story was based on the book, The Heart of Darkness. Knowing this, my interest was piqued as I played through the campaign and was absolutely amazed by the plot of this game. As Delta Squad delves further into the city of Dubai, they are gradually changed by the horrors of war as their mission to save the civilians only gets worse. I'm not going to add any spoilers as I believe this is a story best told through the game itself. I'll just go right ahead and say this first. The gameplay is NOT the focus of this game. This is a thinking man's game in the sense that it has it's own message and acts as one big commentary on the modern war genre of shooting games. If you're coming at this game thinking that this is some extravaganza of guns and fun in the sand, think again. The gameplay does what it's supposed to and not much more. The guns feel rather "meh" with the exception of a few overpowered hand-cannons that you wouldn't want to drop if it weren't for the scarcity of ammo throughout the game. The AI is also functional but prone to moments of stupidity. You do have the ability to give your squad orders, but it's rather limited for the most part. Everything works fine, but it's easy to tell that it's the story that's the highlight of the game. As you continue to play the tones throughout the game gradually shift, turning darker, cynical, and more violent to reflect the squads' (especially Walker's) degrading mental states. The executions, which start as basic neck stomps and a quick shot to the head soon turn into savage beat downs and forcing a gun barrel into the struggling victim's mouth. Walker's orders also shift from being a professional to him breaking down to barking orders with no shortage of profanity. To put things simply, this game gets disturbing. You're often forced into moral choices with no positive outcome and you're made to live with the consequences. And boy, are there consequences. There are moments in this game that hit you like a hammer as the game brutally ( and mockingly) reminds you that everything that has happened is entirely your fault. The game even outright tells you to stop playing if you don't want things to get any worse. The ending in Spec Ops is one of the best of any video game that I've seen in a very long time. Despite being based off a book (that I've read, no less), it's still so well executed that I can't help but be amazed by it. Definitely not something you want spoiled for you.

I'll be honest. This is my first XCOM game. However, this is just one of a long chain of Firaxis game's that I've owned. Not to mention one of my favorites. Just like Civilization, this game is a glorified time-sink that'll draw you in as you fight aliens, manage your teams, research new weapons and equipment, and build your base. I lost count how many times I told myself, "I'll stop once I finish this research" only to keep going after being enticed by the discovery of new research projects. The combat is heavily strategy-reliant as this game outright punishes poor decisions. You have to be careful with picking what equipment your soldiers are going to use in a mission, choosing the best cover for them to hide behind during combat, even the order in which your soldiers fire at the enemy can be a factor. Believe me, there have been moments when I held off on having my sniper (by far by best soldier) pick off some easy targets just so he could be used as a precautionary measure to fight off any extraterrestrial threats that may emerge from the shadows to flank my team. Which brings me to my next topic. Difficulty. When playing XCOM, Murphy's Law is almost always enforced as any mission, no matter how well it's going, can instantly go horribly wrong. Personally I find that it adds tension to the combat, making each successful mission feel extremely satisfying, even moreso if you're able to avoid any deaths on your team. I would recommend this game to those who're looking for a good strategy game and would welcome a challenge.