review
Review: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Score: Superb
Difficulty played on: Adept (middle setting of five options)
Time to beat: Between 10 and 20 hours for main quest line depending on how you play; hundreds of hours when all side quests are taken into account
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Loved the most: A massive world populated by dozens upon dozens of the most beautiful and varied dungeons I’ve ever seen in a game.
Hated the most: It clings to outdated notions of inventory management that can keep you out of action for more than an hour every time you boot up.
After putting nearly 80 hours into Skyrim, I feel informed enough to give a quality review. Having said that, I could very likely double that amount of time with the quests I have left to do. So I can’t honestly say that I’ve experienced everything this massive game has to offer, but I have experienced all of its core systems and hope that will be enough to give you a fair and informed opinion.
Author: Cody
Review: Batman: Arkham City
Score: Good
Difficulty played on: Normal
Time to beat: Around 15 hours with most side quests, though the Riddler quest line can add a substantial amount of time to this estimate
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Loved the most: Insanely detailed setting that you can glide through with speed and ease.
Hated the most: Doesn’t dare to do anything new.
In late 2009, developer Rocksteady burst onto the gaming scene with a licensed superhero game that, far from sucking, actually raised the bar for licensed games of any genre. Batman: Arkham Asylum defied conventional wisdom so thoroughly that many critics considered it worthy of Game of the Year honors. So here we are in 2011, and Rocksteady has finally delivered the most feverishly anticipated Batman experience since Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. This time around, the World’s Greatest Detective is in an open-world prison five times the size of Arkham Asylum–more of a slum really. But does bigger necessarily mean better? While Arkham City does offer some thrilling flights over the intricately detailed streets of Gotham’s disciplinary district, it really doesn’t bring much innovation to the table utility belt. In fact, it inexplicably suffers from almost every problem that blemished its predecessor. Batman: Arkham City is certainly an authentic Batman experience that any fan will enjoy, but the unfortunate reality is that it’s more of a sidestep than the leap forward we’d all been hoping for.
Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Score: Great
Difficulty Played On: Give Me a Challenge (Second hardest of three difficulty settings)
Time to Beat: 36 hours
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Loved the Most: Beautifully crafted, immersive world; exploration.
Hated the Most: Terrible boss fights; long load times.
The Deus Ex series is one that is defined by choice. Games that are revered for allowing you to play the way you want to. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is no exception to this rule and allows you a level of freedom not seen in many games today. It truly lets you decide how to play. However, while Human Revolution delivers on big promises such as choice-driven gameplay and an engrossing, believable vision of the future, it often falters on some of the more technical aspects: long load times, poor animations, and spotty AI can temper the otherwise fantastic experience of playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Author: RyanReview: Gears of War 3
Score: Superb
Difficulty played on: Hardcore (3rd hardest of 4 settings)
Time to beat: About 10 hours
Platforms: Xbox 360
Loved the most: Horde Mode, Beast Mode, Versus Multiplayer, and 4-player Campaign Co-op make this game a blast with friends.
Hated the most: The campaign’s quality is uneven.
In 2001, Microsoft launched the game franchise that would go on to define the Xbox with Halo. 2006 saw the company using Gears of War in much the same way for the Xbox 360. Both games set the standard for their respective genres and fostered die-hard multiplayer communities. And that’s why, despite the radically different play styles of the two series, there are a lot of comparisons to be made. For all intents and purposes, Gears of War 3 is to the Gears franchise what Halo 3, or perhaps a more recent example in Halo: Reach, are to the Halo franchise. It’s a game with incredibly refined and varied multiplayer experiences that have evolved from a multiplayer experience that was already AAA. It’s bigger, better, and more bad ass. But behind all of the many additions, the core gameplay hasn’t changed at all. Pretty much, it’s exactly what most Gears fans want.
Author: CodyReview: Mortal Kombat
Score: Superb
Difficulty played on: Normal
Time to beat: 9 hours for kampaign
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3
Loved the most: Without a doubt, the most gratuitously brutal game I’ve ever played.
Hated the most: Playing online is a painful experience for beginners and kasual fighters.
For many gamers who grew up in the ’80s or ’90s, Mortal Kombat became a staple of multiplayer gaming. Before Shooters had taken over the world, it was up to Sports games and Fighting games to offer up some friendly kompetition, and with its obscene gore and humiliating fatalities, Mortal Kombat set itself apart from more sportsman-like titles and gave the trash-talkers of the world a series worthy of their bravado. Unfortunately, the 2000s brought the franchise to the brink of obscurity until this latest entry (number nine to be exact) kame to kapture the over-the-top essence of the series and elevate it to new heights. Mortal Kombat is by no means a flawless game (in fact, it suffers from numerous little issues), but taken as a whole, it offers so much more than the other Fighters kurrently on the market that it will inevitably become the stick with which the entire genre is measured against.
Author: CodyReview: Bastion
Score: Great
Difficulty played on: No difficulty options
Time to beat: Around 10 hours
Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade, PC
Loved the most: Totally unique presentation.
Hated the most: Not enough incentive to activate difficulty modifying idols.
You’d be forgiven if you hadn’t heard of Supergiant Games before; after all, Bastion–a $15 downloadable title–is the studio’s first and only game to date. And frankly, if former GameSpot editor and fan favorite Greg Kasavin weren’t the team’s Creative Director, it’s doubtful that Bastion would have received anywhere near the press coverage it has. But if Kasavin and his team can keep up their devotion to utterly unique game-worlds that are both visually and aurally appealing, as well as continue to support them with simple to learn, hard to master gameplay, I have no doubt that we’ll all know this studio very well before too long.
Author: CodyReview: Outland
Score: Great
Difficulty Played On: No Difficulty Options
Time to Beat: 8 Hours
Platforms: Xbox Live Arcade, Playstation Network
Loved the Most: Excellent sense of movement and control that makes just moving from one place to another entertaining.
Hated the Most: Lack of checkpoints during longer boss battles.
Wading through the mass of human bodies; attempting to avoid blindness and deafness from the various sources of over-stimulation that surrounded me. This was the experience of navigating the show floor at PAX East 2011. Just as the tidal wave of cosplayers and geeks was about to swallow me whole, I saw a glimmering light in the distance. “Safety!” I thought. But as I approached, it became clear that what I thought my savior was simply a large Bastion booth that had sprung up overnight. “I’ve already seen that game, and with a smaller line too!” I thought, as the oppressing odor of gamers who haven’t showered in three days began to overwhelm me again, and I knew I was soon to find myself underneath the blue foot of some Liara cosplayer. “But wait! What’s that? Another glimmer of light! And a short line to boot!” This light was no mere mirage, either. My savior had finally arrived in the form of Outland.
Author: RyanReview: Machinarium
Score: Great
Difficulty Played On: No difficulty options
Time to Beat: 7 hours
Platforms: Windows, Mac, Linux (soon to be on PSN, WiiWare, iPad)
Loved the Most: Great atmosphere provided by gorgeous visuals and unique soundtrack; hint system.
Hated the Most: Poorly implemented mini-games.
The adventure game genre is one that is steeped in tradition. For good reason too. Many of the best games of the 80s and early 90s were LuasArts and Sierra adventure games. Games like Maniac Mansion, King’s Quest, the Monkey Island series, and Day of the Tentacle defined an entire genre and the experience of an entire generation of gamers. So to release an entirely original adventure game that doesn’t feel like a simple re-hash of those classics is quite the challenge indeed. And to release an adventure game today that actually stays true to its roots while also streamlining and improving upon some of the more dated mechanics found in the genre seems nigh on impossible. Yet, here comes indie developer Amanita Design to renew all of our faith by creating Machinarium, an absolutely gorgeous, quirky, cute, and clever point-and-click adventure game that does just that.
Author: RyanReview: L.A. Noire
Score: Meh
Difficulty played on: No difficulty options
Time to beat: 18-19 hours with a good portion of side-missions
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3
Loved the most: The seedy characters and story that make it a noir experience.
Hated the most: All of the gameplay mechanics are shallow and none of them are that fun.
The release of Duke Nukem Forever probably overshadows the realization of any other notorious vaporware this year (or ever), so it might come as a surprise to some of you that Team Bondi’s L.A. Noire was seven years in the making before it was finally printed on its three discs (360 version only) and shipped. Of course, Team Bondi received more than a little help from publisher Rockstar along the way, and this detective thriller oozes the distinct Rockstar flavor that the company has cultivated ever since Grand Theft Auto IV. So if you value obscenely authentic game-worlds and three dimensional characters over half-way fun game mechanics, then you’ll probably enjoy L.A. Noire; if you want to have your fedora and wear it too, then you might be left wanting more.
Author: CodyReview: Crysis 2
He's crying on the inside.
Score: Meh
Difficulty played on: Veteran (2nd hardest of 4 settings)
Time to beat: 11 hours
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC
Loved the most: Fine balance between feeling like a super-soldier and feeling vulnerable.
Hated the most: Every facet of the game lacks character.
Back in 2007, a studio that made its name on the open-ended freedom of Far Cry took that formula and applied it to Crysis, a game that many gamers still use as the benchmark for high-end graphics. Fast-forward to 2011 and Crytek has traded the tropical islands of their previous games for the concrete jungle of New York City in Crysis 2. But if the range of gameplay in this game reflects all there is to do in the Big Apple, then I’ve been severely misinformed about the city’s offerings. Quite simply, the urban setting has turned this once proud series into nothing more than a solid Shooter with a stealth option.
Author: Cody
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