stvartak

If you haven't played the original Mass Effect, what are waiting for? Go play ****'s great. And if you disliked the original, you won't like this sequel any ****'s not that different. And finally, if you played and liked the original, there are numerous changes that you may find pleasing or annoying, but overall it's the same look and feel, the same world, many of the same characters, and an exciting progression toward whatever conclusion awaits in Mass Effect 3. It does suffer a bit from middle-child syndrome, as part two of any three-part series does, giving you neither the thrill of witnessing the beginning nor the satisfaction of a final conclusion. Still, ME2 has at least 80% of what you liked in ME1, so spend a few bucks for 40+ hours of solid entertainment.

Far Cry has excellent gameplay mechanics, looks wonderful even eight years after its release, and...well, I can't say what else, because I can't get past the training level. Yes, it's that freaking hard. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, I can't move one inch (literally, no exaggeration) within earshot of an enemy without being swarmed and shot to pieces within seconds. I'll give the game developers this much: This is the most realistic shooter I've ever played. This is really what would happen if I tried to infiltrate a mercenary camp or steal their truck or rob their tents. But I want to PLAY, and to this casual fan of shooters and action RPGs, this game is not play. It's work. Punishing, unrelenting, unrewarding work. In the game world, I've died roughly 200 times (literally again) and progressed roughly 500 feet. I give this game a 5, which is the average of 10 (because it's probably an incredibly fantastic game to the kind of hardcore gamer that I'm not) and zero (because that's what this game has been worth to me personally). I want to like it, but it's just so damned hard that it's not fun.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (or Dark Messiah: Might & **** publisher couldn't seem to decide on a name) is a fun action RPG with settings, characters, and story elements that are time-tested, if not particularly original, and truly innovative combat controls. With any bladed weapon you can slash (in two directions), stab, uppercut, or deliver a powerful overhead blow, all with a simple combination of a direction key plus a mouse button, a system that becomes intuitive almost immediately. There is also the "death kick" that, while perhaps a little too powerful to be realistic, sure is fun when you've got enemies backed toward the edge of a cliff or a rack of metal spikes. Other than innovative melee combat, most of Dark Messiah is standard dungeon-crawler stuff: monsters, various races, the usual spells, choices about how to develop your strengths, and of course the choice of good-versus-evil. I suspect hardcore FPS gamers will find Dark Messiah too easy; by the end your powers are pretty much god-like, and you can destroy most enemies with a single physical or magical blow. But if you are just looking for good, clean, bloody, hack-and-slash fun with a decent story and lots of cool environments, Dark Messiah definitely satisfies.

I recently bought a new computer and decided to go back and play some of my favorite older games with the graphics jacked way up, just to see how much better they look. When I did this with the original Bioshock, it reminded me of a few things, both good and bad, about this game. GOOD: The graphics are stunning, both technically and aesthetically. The art deco design of the underwater city of Rapture perfectly captures the look and feel of an era. With settings maxed out, Bioshock looks as good as any game I would hope to see today, five years after its initial release. Also, as a shooter, Bioshock is pretty much unsurpassed. Enemies are quick, smart, and well-armed, and level design provides plenty of cover and obstacles. BAD: Bioshock really is just a shooter. When it was released, there was a lot of attention paid to the "moral choices" involving the Little Sisters, but in the end, the choices you made painstakingly through hours and hours of gameplay culminate **** irritatingly brief cut-scenes, one if you took the good path, one for the bad. Yawn. And Bioshock's incredible visual style distracts from the fact that it is almost perfectly linear. Thanks to the many bits and pieces of backstory and Ayn Rand philosophy that are gradually uncovered as you progress, the game feels deeper and more nuanced than it really is. SUMMARY: Bioshock is worthwhile no matter what style of action-adventure-RPG you prefer, but I believe it will appeal most to fans of straightforward, Doom-style shooters who just want to get their blast on, albeit in some of the best-designed game environments in recent years.

It should tell you something that, 14 years after its release, Thief: The Dark Project still inspires awe and devotion in its fans. Story, voice acting, and level design don't age; if they're great at release, they're great forever, and so it is with Thief. All that remains to review is the technology, and this is where this game and its sequel, Thief II: The Metal Age, really shine. Even the best-conceived and -executed games of the late '90s put their advancing age on full display, with the exception of Thief, and here are the reasons: (1) After all this time, no game has made better use of sound. With headphones or surround-sound, you can literally close your eyes and know where every conversation, grunt, footstep, dripping fountain, and crackling torch are located and how far away they are. The sound design of Thief remains simply astonishing, and it's a critical part of the gameplay; you navigate through the sprawling levels and enthralling missions as much by sound as by sight. (2) Similarly, the use of light and shadows remains unsurpassed. (3) The NPCs have superior AI compared to most games, then and now. Their actions and reactions are varied, complex, and extremely sensitive to how visible you are, how much noise you make, how far away you are, whether you have a weapon drawn, how long you've been in hiding after once being spotted, and so on. And they talk like real human beings! I'm not sure there was a single line of repeating dialogue in the entire game. (4) Finally, the graphics, though limited by the technology of the day, remain surprisingly fresh because of the Dark Engine's unique, angular building blocks. Characters and environments are constructed from skewed polygons that make up for a lack of resolution with a slightly weird distortion, as though you're looking through a kaleidoscope, or perhaps on an extremely low dose of acid. That's not a perfect description, but suffice it to say that Thief looks quite like no other game. Thief IS like no other game. You can buy it cheap these days, and if you love gaming and are open to an experience that challenges your mind more than your twitch reflexes, it is absolutely worth the price.

Limbo is a side-scrolling puzzle game. It is not long. It has no color; in fact, it's not even in ****'s just black. It has no character development. It has the barest of stories (a boy is separated from his sister and has to find **** end). And when it was over, I wasn't even sure quite what had happened. But here are the things Limbo definitely is: Concise. (I finished in about five hours.) Efficient. (Every puzzle is completely fresh; no repetition at all.) Creepy. (It got my heart racing more than Far Cry and my nerves tingling more than Amnesia: The Dark Descent.) And finally, even though I didn't know what to make of the ending, I spent the next 48 hours thinking about it. If the developers of Limbo were going for the sense of dread, isolation, and bewilderment I've felt only in my darkest dreams, they nailed it. One point off for length: 9/10

Dreamfall may be the strangest game sequel ever. The gameplay, the graphical style, the character you play for most of the game, and the tone are all different from the original Longest Journey. And yet it is still very much a sequel, with some of the same characters (and a few important new ones) living in the same world(s), with enough common plot points and historical details to make it clear that you haven't accidentally bought the wrong game with a similar title. But still, it's a third-person 3D interface instead of point-and-click. It has little of the Longest Journey's snarky humor (except when Crow and Roper make their welcome reappearances), making the game feel somewhat darker. And because the humor is limited to characters you encounter, rather than the primary character you inhabit, the game feels a lot more serious overall. Also, the added freedom of exploring a 3D virtual world is offset by less interactivity; you have fewer choices, and your choices have fewer significant effects, than in the Longest Journey. Dreamfall comes close to being an "interactive movie," as other reviewers have described it. In short, I enjoyed Dreamfall very much, but not for any of the same reasons I enjoyed the Longest Journey. It is simply an engrossing story set in an interesting world with enough ties to its predecessor to feel pleasantly familiar. If you prefer combat and/or a high degree of non-linearity, look elsewhere.

I have the advantage of playing this game four years after its initial release, so I have not had any of the support issues some other users have mentioned. After reading all of the other user reviews, I think you either love or hate this game based on whether you are interested in story and adventure (love) or technical excellence and action (hate). This is a story-driven game with a lot of locations to explore and a lot of backstory that is revealed gradually through dialog and journal entries as the game goes on. To give you some idea of why I like this game, the last few games I really loved were the Thief series, Deus Ex, and Dreamfall. Here's a quick summary of what I think is good and bad about Mass Effect: GOOD: Deep story. Many characters to interact with if you choose, but only a few that you are forced to interact with to move the game along. Mini-game lock-pick system that is challenging but not frustrating. Tons of optional side quests, so you can skip them if you just want to cut to the chase, or do them if you're enjoying yourself and want to prolong the experience. Pretty good voice acting, in my opinion. Good third-person camera movement. Graphics were good, not excellent, for 2008. BAD: A bit glitchy; locked up on me three times during 50+ hours of gameplay. Some frame-rate lag, even with my 2012 graphics card. Less than perfect lip-syncing (but not terrible for a 2008 game). Most of the RPG elements such as level-ups and experience points are incidental to the actual game experience; you could blast your way through without paying any attention to your character's develop and not really miss much. Personally, I liked the "good" and wasn't bothered by the "bad," so I liked Mass Effect a lot and look forward to playing ME2.