Last finished game - your verdict?

[Takeshi]

It's kind of meant to be somewhat of a short "comment-and-the-game-you-just-finished". Helpful for me, hopefully for you guys too. There's this, but it's only for the games that have impressed you lately.

I finished Crysis last. Game was pretty good, but gave me trouble near the end:

That occurred during half an hour or something. Not sure what the problem was, not sure how I got it fixed, just disappeared again. The sound and graphics stutter incredibly, also, that continued however. Anyway, the only reason I played it was to get ready for the 25th when Crysis 2 is coming out. Maybe I'll touch Warhead when I feel like revisiting Crysis again, probably gonna need a better computer for that though. I have read somewhere that Crysis 2 is supposed to be better optimized for low to mid-end computers so that gives me a bit of hope. I sure was able to play Crysis 2 better even if I had to resort to a "not-1280x720-resolution".

Also, the story, I don't know, it seemed a bit easy put together, just like they said: "Okay, let's put koreans, aliens and a nano-suit together." I didn't get the, "holy shit, this is big" feeling about Crysis. Okay, that's a lie, I did at one time think "oh wow":

(click to show/hide)

When Strikeland sacrificed himself so we could escape, and that huge thing crab alien was left.

You can tell that their most important topic was the graphics, but yeah, they pulled them off well. I mean, at medium it was beautiful. Can't imagine if I had a computer that could pull off the game in near all settings put to very high.

[max_505]

This is a nice topic to browse through mini-reviews of games. Imma post one right now

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together

I consider myself more of an action-adventure gamer. RPGs and dungeon crawlers don't really catch my attention. But over the past few years I've played and enjoyed a little bit of strategy RPGs thanks to my first experience with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (for the GBA). A couple of years passed and I finished a couple more, with the most recent being this game.

After blazing through the game in 58hrs (that's quite slow, really), I have to say that it's a splendid remake of its original counterparts. The graphics are good and the Chariot and World systems offer some sort of extras in this already amazing game (although I personally didn't use the Chariot system).

The story's enough to keep you coming back for more until you finish it because of the occasional twists and some amount of drama. I have to say, I finished this game for the sole purpose of seeing the ending, but the bonuses (e.g. recruiting special characters, additional chapters after the ending, secret classes) are enough to help you reach 100+hrs of gaming time.

Here are some screenshots I took (it automatically has a watermark, silly Squeenix ):

[HiddenJumper]

Pokemon Black

Now, now I know what people are thinking. Why the hell am I playing a game from a beaten-to-death-series. Well for me it was all about nostalgia and I couldn't help but try this out. Went through the game in about 20 to 25 hours and proceeded on to fighting the Elite 4 for the second and final time (currently trying to get all 450+ pokemon; pokedex is at 280 seen and 90 caught and thats after 36 hours so far).

I have to say the new generation is a pretty solid release. While the pokemon are a bit ridiculous (seems like they're taking everything they can find now and making a pokemon out of it), however the game itself is a great upgrade. There are new types of battles: Rotation Battles and Triple Battles, while it brings in some much needed upgrades to the interface, how things are done, etc. The graphics are a major improvement. The pokemon sprites no longer just sit there. They have a constant animation in battle and even your character has an animation that it actually throws the pokemon at the start of the battle. Very nice indeed. The cut scenes, while limited, are still interesting to say the least.

Story-wise, its also more engaging than previous generations. Sure, its your typical "you vs whatever world-wide criminal organization", but the way they went about it was pretty cool.

Overall, the best entry into the pokemon franchise since arguably, the original, Gold and Silver. I think this game would be great for those who either like the nostalgia, like something challenging (meaning collecting all 450+ pokemon, that in itself is a feat to be honest in the new game), or just like plain grinding (my starter is at level 87 and I'm determined to get it to level 100).

[SCREENSHOTS SOON]

[kyzhucha n]

Mass Effect 2

I Didn't have the chance to play Mass Effect 1 and some ppl will think that My review is biased or whatsoever, but still.. here's mah review

I have to Say, Its the Game that most captured my attention, its probably because of its Stunning graphics, and story, relationship aaaand a Unique Gameplay..

I'll start w/ Graphics. Were talking about Hardware performance here, w/ my HD5770, a Full 1080p full graphics and using ATI Catalyst 4xAA, I didn't felt any lag on it.. although fraps were recording of spike between ~25-~40 at action-packed map, its still playable

Story: well yeah, You can get a looooot of possibilities on the story depending on your choices of answer while you play the game, although some part of the story is kinda blurred to me, but it is because In the latter part of the game, I was too focused in getting all Paragon points to gain better Relationship *I chose Tali though, in my second playT maybe I'll go w/ Miranda*

Gameplay: well yeah, its the most unique of all games, Bioware has combined RPG levelling style w/ 3rd person shooting w/ Team command and Environment items to explot, its probably the most realistic I have played yet..
although I was kinda bit Disappointed on my 2nd playthrough because you cannot change classes on it..

all in all, Its a MUST PLAY Game, Can't see any major flaw on the game that will stop me from Playing ME3 when its released

SCREEEEENS:

(click to show/hide)

[max_505]

@kyzhucha n : My sibling keeps on nagging me to play Mass Effect 1&2. I've heard a lot of good comments about it, and I particularly like what they said about the good storyline. Might try that out once summer vacation starts

[Takeshi]

@kyzhucha n : My sibling keeps on nagging me to play Mass Effect 1&2. I've heard a lot of good comments about it, and I particularly like what they said about the good storyline. Might try that out once summer vacation starts

Awesome games. A nice mix of rpg and action. They haven't gotten a metacritic rating of 94 and 89 for nothing. There are a few things Bioware changes that didn't really need to get changed, but I'd like to believe it's so they can make the best possible Mass Effect 3.

[Khundes]

Magic: The Gathering Tactics

A rather meh game, really. There's potential, but random critical hits and crushing blows and really no knowledge of game balance ruins the concept. I cleared the story mode and then bought the rest of story mode to clear that too. It was fine, but the last mission was bugged (This is a SOE game just so you know).

But the core of the game, playing against other players, is inherently broken. I've had some really good games, but most are a landslide one way or another. I did buy some cards(not doing that mistake again), it does give me a chance against most other people. (except those with Black Lotuses and Time Warps, gawd playing against people with those suck)

So yeah, final verdict: Good idea, bad implementation.

[temuchin]

i gotta admit an ardent console gamer in the past, in the last few years i have played few games.  
anyhow my latest one is Bayonetta.  i was looking forward ot this as i found Devil may Cry to be epic
in the gameplay/design departments.  

Bayonetta is fun and i especially loved her pseudo-naked transformation before leashing "special" attacks
some of which later on are quite sexy.  so a good fun game- imo.   note: the available artwork does the
game no justice.  

other than that i occasionally go back and play Ninja Gaiden II on a harder level.    

[Sosseres]

Defense Grid The Awakening, it is a tower defence game.

It struck a pretty good balance in how hard it was. You pretty much just played the map once to get the layout down and what enemies to expect. After that one could often complete it on the first try, but nowhere near any high score list.

Then there was a ton of extra modes on each map and a few extra maps outside of the story line. For a low price indy game it was worth the money. Just felt like there was too few different kinds of towers in the game after the UMS of WC3 and similar games have spoiled me.

[TMRNetShark]

Dead Space...

If you like the two games Resident Evil 4 and Doom 3... this a a PERFECT combination of the two. 'Nuff said.

[Takeshi]

Dead Space...

If you like the two games Resident Evil 4 and Doom 3... this a a PERFECT combination of the two. 'Nuff said.

I'm kind of afraid to be playing that right now. I played some Bioshock recently...

(click to show/hide)

and it got really scary all of the sudden getting all misty and then I was facing the wall, I was like "this is not where I stood before", then I turned around and then this person was right behind me, some kind of current literally went through my spine, damn! The first time a game has ever been able to scare me like that, totally unexpected! I needed a minute to collect myself before continuing.

Need some time before I start with such a game again. Still need to finish Bioshock also.

I finished Crysis Warhead last, a much better game than the original Crysis although it wasn't as long. But it certainly ran better than the last game. I finished Resident Evil 5 too, took about 10 hours on easy.

[Garret02]

Final Fantasy Tactics on the PSP. Great game, really liked the style of speaking and storyline. However storyline could be a lot better with only minor changes/additions. Still great though.

[Tatsujin]

Dead Space 2. Fuck that game. The last 3 chapters were a pain in the ass. Specially that undead dude and the countless of monsters that come at you.

I beat it, then loaded it back up again and remembered the awful scary memories I had from playing it just to see the RIG I got, which was a police RIG 1002 or whatever. Anyways, I'm done with this game.

[saidin1015]

I just finished my first campaign in total war shogun 2 (version 1). 

The graphics are REALLY nice besides a few rare glitches with the models turning monochrome or faces blurring(happened once-twice during my whole campaign).  The battlefields look great as well as the forts and castles when assaulting/defending them.

The battle system may take some time to get used to(probably my incompetence) but it feels great when you see your calvary shattering an enemy unit's formation.  A few personal problems with it are how capturing a castle/fort can be accomplished by sending all your units climbing over the walls and holding the keep for 60 seconds regardless of casualties on both sides. Another thing is the distribution of forces bar before deciding whether or not to auto-resolve the battle--It doesn't seem too trustworthy with naval battles. Also your generals can go up in rank which allows them to be given abilities and bonuses in a tree for you to choose.

Outside battles, you've got arts and diplomacy as well as clan politics.

Diplomacy is obviously how your clan deals with the others. It's got your usual options like requesting trade and alliances and declaring war, etc, etc. I did find it to be a nice touch when I saw you could send a hostage or arrange a marriage to improve the likelihood of a deal going through. My one complaint is that I haven't seen a deal go through that was given a chance of acceptance of 'high.'

'Arts' is basically a tech tree which allows you to build/upgrade buildings, give bonuses and allow some new units to be made

clan politics is just seeing the state of your family members and generals.  You can assign your heir, grant commissions to 1 of 4 offices as well as adopt a general as your son. Nothing too exciting although it makes it easy to check your sons' and generals' loyalty to you and convert to and from Christianity and Buddhism. Just don't convert unless you have a force in each province you own to combat religious unrest.
---
there are other things like ninjas(sabotage, assassination, etc.) and metsuke(secret police, bribery) but I didn't really use them too much on this first campaign though I used missionaries to incite rebellions.

The game tells you which clans are initially easy or hard but I recommend Shimazu for a first playthrough. Having played the first Shogun, I found Shimazu to be a great starting clan because you don't need to worry much about a two front war after you've secured Kyushu. Also, one of the provinces you capture early on has a port which trades with Europe and gives you gun access which is useful throughout the game.
---
There's some other minor stuff but you'll see the rest if you get the game.

[Gangster301]

Last game I finished the main story in was a recent playthrough of Pokémon Firered. Done on emulator with much use of the 10x speed function. Team on level ~50 after elite 4.
Love the pokemon games for simple fun, and seeing as the originals were the best, this upgrade on them is my favorite. ^^


Not that an image really is necessary for these games.  

[Takeshi]

Done on emulator with much use of the 10x speed function.

Such a nice feature, I wish such were available in the early games. Now a playthrough doesn't take 100 hours anymore.

I finished Homefront last. It ran pretty bad on my laptop, and it's not because it's a laptop. It runs bad for many others. 20 fps with everything on, 20-30 fps with everything off. Certainly not as good as it was advertised to be. Decent story? Yup, promising setting, that was there as well. Gameplay was okay as well. It took a bit of time to get used to it, but doesn't it always?

All in all, pretty decent FPS if you're looking for one. The battle on the brigde was pretty epic. And campaign lasted about 10 hours for me. No comment on multiplayer. Though I hear a lot of sniping is being done = not fun.

Just like Black Ops, gonna be way more fun when it's been patched, though Black Ops' fuck-up was worse.

It boogles my mind that developers are releasing games that are nearly unplayable until months later when the game has been properly patched. Aren't bugs and fixes supposed to be small issues? Now big ones are apparent at game release.

I'd give it 7/10, and finish this with "wait for a sale". Note, after it's been patched. It's probably only worth 20€ at its current state, and it currently costs 50€ on Steam.

[TMRNetShark]

Finished Crysis 2...

All I gotta say is, that was the longest shooter I've ever played next to Half Life 2. The aliens in the game are bullet sponges and refuse to go down or die after clips and clips of ammo. In general, the destruction of New York while your playing the game looks great and does a really good job immersing you into it. There are only a few minor pop ins and such, but the lighting/water/haze effects are brilliantly done. Every time I thought the game was over, there was another level, and then another one, and then another one... like basically half way through the game, you defeat a boss that you think was the last boss... it's epic, heroic, and you feel like a general badass as the cut scene goes and you expect the credits. Nope, the next level after that has the exact same feeling... then you think it's over again. Nope, you go to the next level and then the next one and finally the last level (which is VERY epic itself). First half of the story was like MW2, the second half of the story is something that is taken out of a good Marvel comic book.

Definitely say, if you enjoyed shooters like Half Life 1/2... you'd like Crysis 2.

[Sosseres]

Shogun 2

The game is a lot of fun. It is your normal Total War game, only done more streamlined in every way. It doesn't take ages to progress a turn without combat in the game, a big plus from many other turn based strategy games.

The combat is fun, having the same type of units on both sides of the battlefield means you don't rage at those elephants only one faction get. ^^

Was worth buying, will most likely play through it a few more times.

[Takeshi]

Spiderman: Shattered Dimensions

Apparently, it was released for PC so attempted to buy it first only to resort to piracy once I found out that it not only didn't have a digital ditrubution, it also exclusively got sold in America, one copy was available on Amazon. Console port, but better than most other. I did have several problems with glitches in the later parts of the story, but my laptop isn't feeling too well so I'm not sure what's to blame.

Gameplay is bloody generic, the only really interesting part of playing it is the different interpretations of the different villains, and that can pretty much be done from Youtube. The rest of the game is painstakingly boring. Noir does give it a different tone as stealth comes into context, but what you do in the Noir universe is also very generic. This game could have been much better, why not let two or three of them meet each other and have a bit of tag team? It's insanely predictable. Maybe this game is catering more to kids than Arkham Asylum did with its simplicity. This game is surely not Spiderman: Arkham Asylum, in fact it's a stretch to even consider it. I don't like it, to be honest, and I do consider Spiderman to be my favourite Marvel hero.

If only they had hired a proper writer.

[Garret02]

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura

I have mixed feeling about this game. Not only is it bugged (well, Troika Games, duh) to the point where even ending is bugged (when you beat the game with one of "good" endings you get to know what happened to certain people because of your influence and with each try I got different number of stories and people those stories described (though Maximillian and Loghaire stories were in each ending) but it has so much untapped potentail. Things that should be better:

• dialogs - There should be more dialog options and they should be written much better overall. There were many places where I though dialog options were insufficient, especially since I've been playing somewhat evil character. Eg when you're talking to the main villain, with some responses you have only one choice that deem the villain actions evil. The only "evil" dialog options will make you fight ~90% of Arcanum population - they say something rude(yes they started it) -> you also respond with a rude remark -> they say something rude again -> you say they should shut their trap or they'll die -> they attack you even when they are alone and avarage citizen and you have few heavily armed followers.
• NPC developement - The only developed NPC is Virgil and even then due to a bug (and no save close enough to change it) I couldn't experience his whole story. Others have sometimes few dialog lines in certain situations and sometimes a quest. The only interactions they have within themselves is refusal to let someone join the group. Also, one chick was clearly coming onto me and nothing came out of it.
• AI battle system and balance overall - There are two modes in which battles operate, real time and turn based. Real time is way too fast to do something more than attack with physical weapon and NPCs with a bow will shoot arrows like from machine gun. In turn based mode you have all the time you want to make decisions. However AI is very very dumb. NPCs will try to rush everyone (what's funny is that even NPCs with ranged weapon (like a bow) will try to rush enemies and shoot them at point blank range while in real time they shoot from a distance). What? You are a mage and don't have any weapon? Doesn't matter, I will use my fists, why would I use my spells? Enemy AI is pretty much the same however theirs target is limited in ~90% of instances to you. What? I'm on the other side of a room and there is weak mage right next to them? Doesn't matter, they will rush me.
  
  Also the game is tweaked in favor of mages. Playing tech character is way harder. If you play your cards right as a mage, at the end of the game you are pretty much invincible. If you have Disintegrate spell you can insta kill everything except main villain. If you became master of force magic you can throw spells from that school (Disintegrate included) for half the mana. If you did the Ancient Gods blessing quest, you get +100 mana/fatigue. You can see that this is already an overkill but if you also get Tempus Fugit spell which speeds you and your allies while slowing down everyone else you are pretty much immortal. On the other hand I really like the fact that once you hit a level cap as a mage you can be that powerful (this is what I've been missing from other games). It's just that the same level of tech character is much weaker (or at least I played the character wrong).

Had Troika made these things better this game could be on par or even better than Palescape: Torment but as it is now it is just good. However I love the "evil" ending