[Game] Reviews
- Thread starter DraKon2k
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On the subject of reviews, this is how they should be done:
Short Review: Gears of War 2
http://www.eegra.com/pages/show/title/21_11_2008_Short_Review_gow2
(NSFW? Depends where you work
)
Short and to the point.
Short Review: Gears of War 2
http://www.eegra.com/pages/show/title/21_11_2008_Short_Review_gow2
(NSFW? Depends where you work
)Short and to the point.
Dead Space:
This is the best Horror-action game I've ever played(Condemned and Stalker in forests/underground labs coming after it I think). It's not so much the shock-effects which there certainley are sometimes, but the constant pure horror. This is real 'in your face horror', like pretty much the most horrific nightmare one could have. The enemy design is unique and em enemies look really awful, I hate pretty much any of the enemies cept for the fetus monsters as they're kinda fun lol.
Graphics are pretty much top notch and totally do the job. So much variety in weapons(I played with Standard Gun; Line Gun; that MG and flamethrower) and upgrading your stuff is awesome too(I upgraded my level 5 suit to full power). It took me about five months to finish this game because the obvious horror was actually really unnerving me so that I could over a time of 2 months not motivate me to keep playing. This sounds rather bad but this immense horror of the game really made me hate this game, and for a horror game that's one pretty damn good compliment I guess. Calling the last chapter 'Dead Space' was brilliant and made me realize what a ****ing masterpiece this game is, eventhough the mouse controls might be a bit awkward at first(after 20min you're used to it).
Generally the last level is pure awesomeness, inlcuding the last battle and the outro which obviously already announces a sequel(Dead Space 2 was already semi-announced by the developers and as it sold well to we'll DEFINITELY see a follow-up).
10/10
for 12 hours of brilliant horror entertainment. Anybody playing this through in one night has my deepest respect.
This is the best Horror-action game I've ever played(Condemned and Stalker in forests/underground labs coming after it I think). It's not so much the shock-effects which there certainley are sometimes, but the constant pure horror. This is real 'in your face horror', like pretty much the most horrific nightmare one could have. The enemy design is unique and em enemies look really awful, I hate pretty much any of the enemies cept for the fetus monsters as they're kinda fun lol.
Graphics are pretty much top notch and totally do the job. So much variety in weapons(I played with Standard Gun; Line Gun; that MG and flamethrower) and upgrading your stuff is awesome too(I upgraded my level 5 suit to full power). It took me about five months to finish this game because the obvious horror was actually really unnerving me so that I could over a time of 2 months not motivate me to keep playing. This sounds rather bad but this immense horror of the game really made me hate this game, and for a horror game that's one pretty damn good compliment I guess. Calling the last chapter 'Dead Space' was brilliant and made me realize what a ****ing masterpiece this game is, eventhough the mouse controls might be a bit awkward at first(after 20min you're used to it).
Generally the last level is pure awesomeness, inlcuding the last battle and the outro which obviously already announces a sequel(Dead Space 2 was already semi-announced by the developers and as it sold well to we'll DEFINITELY see a follow-up).
10/10
for 12 hours of brilliant horror entertainment. Anybody playing this through in one night has my deepest respect.
Depends on how you look at itEspecially since the average night is much shorter than 12 hours
lol - 10/10?
I don't know where to start - so I won't...Actually I will - how exactly does a competent but generally bland and repetetive "action-horror" get to be the greatest one ever? Granted it is a high quality production with excellent atmosphere - but that's all it is, once again. The story is a pretty run of the mill sci-fi horror affair, the narrative helped by Warren Ellis but the gameplay is so uninspired and lacking in variation it'd bore the socks off anyone who was looking past the shiny graphics trying to find the game inside.
And as for the finale - wow - a giant monster with obvious weak spots, followed by a suitably predictable ending sequence. I didn't realise it was 1992 and I was playing games on my NES.
Outside of STALKER (FPS/RPG) and Condemned have you played any others? The Silent Hill series perhaps? Resident Evil? Alone in the Dark?
I don't know where to start - so I won't...Actually I will - how exactly does a competent but generally bland and repetetive "action-horror" get to be the greatest one ever? Granted it is a high quality production with excellent atmosphere - but that's all it is, once again. The story is a pretty run of the mill sci-fi horror affair, the narrative helped by Warren Ellis but the gameplay is so uninspired and lacking in variation it'd bore the socks off anyone who was looking past the shiny graphics trying to find the game inside.
And as for the finale - wow - a giant monster with obvious weak spots, followed by a suitably predictable ending sequence. I didn't realise it was 1992 and I was playing games on my NES.
Outside of STALKER (FPS/RPG) and Condemned have you played any others? The Silent Hill series perhaps? Resident Evil? Alone in the Dark?
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(1) Because it's my subjective personal opinion?
(2) What I remember other than those: FEAR, HL2 Ravenholm, Resident Evil 2-3, Alone in the Dark(2008) which however was a very bad game, Jericho, Penumbra 1, Left4Dead
p), Prey, Vampire Bloodlines. Some of those game might be more action-orientated though. Never played Silent Hill, was only watching once.Next one which is already lying on my desk will be F.E.A.R. 2
Well, in my subjective personal opinion...
What is the point of reviewing games if all you're going to do is give your opinion without explaining the basis of why you think something is good or not? We all expect you to give games more marks than they deserve, but it'd be nice for you to quantify your opinion with an example or something...
You say that Dead Space is really "in your face horror" you haven't really said how or why it is.
Or is that because it really isn't? After playing it for about an hour anyone with half a brain will have learnt to tell exactly when and where an enemy is going to pop up, removing both all of the fear from the experience and the variation from the gameplay. And the needlessly effective weaponry means that even when an enemy does predictably pop out, you are more than ready to dispatch him with consummate ease.
If this is a masterpiece in your eyes then I'd hate to see what sort of a mess you'll make when you actually play something that combines the atmosphere and production values with good gameplay and better pacing.
What is the point of reviewing games if all you're going to do is give your opinion without explaining the basis of why you think something is good or not? We all expect you to give games more marks than they deserve, but it'd be nice for you to quantify your opinion with an example or something...
You say that Dead Space is really "in your face horror" you haven't really said how or why it is.
Or is that because it really isn't? After playing it for about an hour anyone with half a brain will have learnt to tell exactly when and where an enemy is going to pop up, removing both all of the fear from the experience and the variation from the gameplay. And the needlessly effective weaponry means that even when an enemy does predictably pop out, you are more than ready to dispatch him with consummate ease.
If this is a masterpiece in your eyes then I'd hate to see what sort of a mess you'll make when you actually play something that combines the atmosphere and production values with good gameplay and better pacing.
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So, you have anything else to do than constantly criticize everything? If you don't like the reviews then fine, you don't have to read or listen to them. And speak for youself. And since you obviously know so much better then why don't you write your own review.
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TES III: Morrowind
(with both expansions and the following mods: Herbalism, Better Heads, Better Bodies, Visual Pack, ASE + weather sounds for interior cells, a mod that changes how windows are lit based on day or night time, morrowind patcher and some smaller mods that aren't worth mentioning individually. I deliberately play without MGE).
Graphics:
The animations are horrible and to add insult to injury they only work for four directions so if you run diagonally it looks as if your character is skating. The walking animation is ok. Everything else is more or less ridiculous.
Previous weak points like faces and bodies are eliminated by the Better Heads and Better Bodies mods. Most clothing and armor looks alright as it is apart from some low-res textures and different armor pieces sticking into each-other. But for the most part, I think clothing and armor looks good enough.
The environment consists of a pretty bland terrain with structures on it. The terrain is rolling hill after rolling hill, so nothing to write home about, but the structures on it range from good to great. As with many aspects of this game, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but more on that later.
The special effects like magic spells and the like look horrendous, in my opinion. They look exactly as dated as they are. Maybe a bit more. The water and weather effects stand out though. The water looks great and has ripples from rain drops when it rains and the different weather conditions look very convincing and moody. Be it thunder storms, sand storms, blizzards, over cast days, sunny days, ... it all looks pretty much as good as it gets. Little details like your character shielding his eyes with his arm if you run against a sand-storm but him taking his arm down again if turn your back to the storm add additional atmosphere.
4/10 + 3 extra points for the attention to detail and for the "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" effect. The world is huge and there are gradually different styles vegetation, architecture, furniture, clothing, wild-life, ... depending on the area. It's all so fleshed out that it makes up for the occasional low-res texture (the Visual Pack provides "high-res" texture replacements for almost anything in the world of Morrowind, but it's still all just regular textures without specular maps, bump maps and what-not, so it still looks old) and the primitive terrain.
Sounds:
The music is superb. The voice acting is superb. Thanks to ASE the general sound environment is superb as well. The only aspects that are a bit lacking are combat sounds and the sounds of jumping and landing. Unfortunately those are some pretty important sounds you are going to hear often...
6.5/10
Gameplay:
The game offers a huge world and total freedom. Combat pretty much sucks as it's more about stats than about skills and the feel of the combat isn't really immersive either. It's hard to differenciate gameplay from atmosphere in this game, but if I were to grade the two seperately I would grade the gameplay very low.
5/10
Atmosphere:
This is where the game shines. I know my fair share of role playing games, from Baldur's Gate over Fable to Diablo, but I don't know of a single other game that even comes close to the depth of Morrowind's lore. If you play the game to finish it it's probably a rather bland adventure with obvious short-comings and clumsy gameplay, but if you are willing to dive into the game and absorb the huge world with all the incredible attention to detail, I don't think there are many games out there that do a similarily good, let alone better job than Morrowind.
10/10
Overall (not an average): 8/10. Subtract two points if you plan to play it more like an action rpg. Add a point if you are really into role-playing.
(with both expansions and the following mods: Herbalism, Better Heads, Better Bodies, Visual Pack, ASE + weather sounds for interior cells, a mod that changes how windows are lit based on day or night time, morrowind patcher and some smaller mods that aren't worth mentioning individually. I deliberately play without MGE).
Graphics:
The animations are horrible and to add insult to injury they only work for four directions so if you run diagonally it looks as if your character is skating. The walking animation is ok. Everything else is more or less ridiculous.
Previous weak points like faces and bodies are eliminated by the Better Heads and Better Bodies mods. Most clothing and armor looks alright as it is apart from some low-res textures and different armor pieces sticking into each-other. But for the most part, I think clothing and armor looks good enough.
The environment consists of a pretty bland terrain with structures on it. The terrain is rolling hill after rolling hill, so nothing to write home about, but the structures on it range from good to great. As with many aspects of this game, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but more on that later.
The special effects like magic spells and the like look horrendous, in my opinion. They look exactly as dated as they are. Maybe a bit more. The water and weather effects stand out though. The water looks great and has ripples from rain drops when it rains and the different weather conditions look very convincing and moody. Be it thunder storms, sand storms, blizzards, over cast days, sunny days, ... it all looks pretty much as good as it gets. Little details like your character shielding his eyes with his arm if you run against a sand-storm but him taking his arm down again if turn your back to the storm add additional atmosphere.
4/10 + 3 extra points for the attention to detail and for the "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" effect. The world is huge and there are gradually different styles vegetation, architecture, furniture, clothing, wild-life, ... depending on the area. It's all so fleshed out that it makes up for the occasional low-res texture (the Visual Pack provides "high-res" texture replacements for almost anything in the world of Morrowind, but it's still all just regular textures without specular maps, bump maps and what-not, so it still looks old) and the primitive terrain.
Sounds:
The music is superb. The voice acting is superb. Thanks to ASE the general sound environment is superb as well. The only aspects that are a bit lacking are combat sounds and the sounds of jumping and landing. Unfortunately those are some pretty important sounds you are going to hear often...
6.5/10
Gameplay:
The game offers a huge world and total freedom. Combat pretty much sucks as it's more about stats than about skills and the feel of the combat isn't really immersive either. It's hard to differenciate gameplay from atmosphere in this game, but if I were to grade the two seperately I would grade the gameplay very low.
5/10
Atmosphere:
This is where the game shines. I know my fair share of role playing games, from Baldur's Gate over Fable to Diablo, but I don't know of a single other game that even comes close to the depth of Morrowind's lore. If you play the game to finish it it's probably a rather bland adventure with obvious short-comings and clumsy gameplay, but if you are willing to dive into the game and absorb the huge world with all the incredible attention to detail, I don't think there are many games out there that do a similarily good, let alone better job than Morrowind.
10/10
Overall (not an average): 8/10. Subtract two points if you plan to play it more like an action rpg. Add a point if you are really into role-playing.
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But this is the Red Orchestra Gaming forum reviews thread, where else would I go for unbiased reviews of the lastest releases? Official Xbox Magazine? (which oddly enough gave Dead Space 6.5/10)
Trust me it's not just limited to this forum, it really would be nice if we could return to the days where games had to live up to their hype, and not have reviewers judge games on how big their fanbase is and how much money the publisher spent on marketing it.
I'd love to spend hours just playing and reviewing games, but I don't have the time or the money. That's why it'd be nice to have a reliable source for reviews.
Trust me it's not just limited to this forum, it really would be nice if we could return to the days where games had to live up to their hype, and not have reviewers judge games on how big their fanbase is and how much money the publisher spent on marketing it.
I'd love to spend hours just playing and reviewing games, but I don't have the time or the money. That's why it'd be nice to have a reliable source for reviews.
Grand Theft Auto 4
This is probably the best game of the last few years. It offers so many different things(the whole friends system with some many different places to go and so many things to do, mobile phone, internet, the incredible love to detail, etc.) and all on very high quality. I really like the car behaviour, I think it's a good mix between realism and accessibility, though at start it might take some time till you get used to it. Driving through Algonquin with a sports car and full bass(with your own music on Independence FM) is a good example of the awesomeness. Your friends really become important to you(SPOILER: when it turned out that michelle was an agent I was really surprised like 'are you kidding me' lol), though for some reason I always wanted to kill Little Jacob. The many different activities there are add even more variety to what you do, I really liked watching the theatre plays which are different every time.
The story itself is really cool and pretty unused as well(immigrant coming to NYC), and the end definitely throws out a question of sense. I don't know if there are different endings but I could imagine.
The mission structure is pretty cool at beginning, but later on a big part is about killing 10+ guys. That might not be the right thing for everyone. However it's still fun because combat is really accessible now. No more auto-aim, a very good cover system, different kind of weapons, blind fire(which is too accurate though), etc. But what really makes this game so great is the love in detail. When I first started the game and played for ten minutes I was surprised very fast. I went around a few blocks and saw people moving hecticly and smoking, people sitting on banks and reading the newspapers, guys repairing their cars, police checking suspicious cars, police chasing criminals. Something else that happened to me was that for some reason a car crashed right into mine, then the driver(a woman) and another person left the car. The girl was like 'oh ****' and her friend then called her a ***** and actually started hitting her LOL. And all unscripted.
There's just so much things you can do in this game. You should definitely try jumping off the empire state building lol.
The fact that you have to install/register GfW-Live and Rockstar Social club is really annoying first, but later on you really won't notice. Still unneccessary after all. Other to what I heard(game generally running like crap) it ran very well on my PC(Q6600, HD2900XT, 4GB Ram, Vista) on High settings, 1280x1024 and Range on 30.
Score: 9.5/10
Sorry if I look like a fanboy again, but it's not my fault that this game is as great as it is. Please don't directly compare this with my Dead Space rating.
This is probably the best game of the last few years. It offers so many different things(the whole friends system with some many different places to go and so many things to do, mobile phone, internet, the incredible love to detail, etc.) and all on very high quality. I really like the car behaviour, I think it's a good mix between realism and accessibility, though at start it might take some time till you get used to it. Driving through Algonquin with a sports car and full bass(with your own music on Independence FM) is a good example of the awesomeness. Your friends really become important to you(SPOILER: when it turned out that michelle was an agent I was really surprised like 'are you kidding me' lol), though for some reason I always wanted to kill Little Jacob. The many different activities there are add even more variety to what you do, I really liked watching the theatre plays which are different every time.
The story itself is really cool and pretty unused as well(immigrant coming to NYC), and the end definitely throws out a question of sense. I don't know if there are different endings but I could imagine.
The mission structure is pretty cool at beginning, but later on a big part is about killing 10+ guys. That might not be the right thing for everyone. However it's still fun because combat is really accessible now. No more auto-aim, a very good cover system, different kind of weapons, blind fire(which is too accurate though), etc. But what really makes this game so great is the love in detail. When I first started the game and played for ten minutes I was surprised very fast. I went around a few blocks and saw people moving hecticly and smoking, people sitting on banks and reading the newspapers, guys repairing their cars, police checking suspicious cars, police chasing criminals. Something else that happened to me was that for some reason a car crashed right into mine, then the driver(a woman) and another person left the car. The girl was like 'oh ****' and her friend then called her a ***** and actually started hitting her LOL. And all unscripted.
There's just so much things you can do in this game. You should definitely try jumping off the empire state building lol.
The fact that you have to install/register GfW-Live and Rockstar Social club is really annoying first, but later on you really won't notice. Still unneccessary after all. Other to what I heard(game generally running like crap) it ran very well on my PC(Q6600, HD2900XT, 4GB Ram, Vista) on High settings, 1280x1024 and Range on 30.
Score: 9.5/10
Sorry if I look like a fanboy again, but it's not my fault that this game is as great as it is. Please don't directly compare this with my Dead Space rating.
Resistance 2
To the people who played 'Resistance: Fall of Men': This one is a lot better. Pretty much everything has improved: More and more different locations, better story-telling, more kick-*** enemies, new weapons, etc.
The game continues right where Resistance 1 left and then brings you to America, where 2 years later you are attacked by the beasts. You mutate through the game, and the ending I can tell so much is pretty 'in your face' The game is completely linear 95% of the time which is fine however because it's very well presented and scripted. The level designs vary very much, from Island to Chicago to the marshlands of Louisiana. The highlight however is definitely the Chicago map(#6 out of 7 chapters, each being around 1:30-2:00), where you'll fight a so called 'Levithian' which is as big the skyscrapers around it and makes for an epic boss battle.
Generally design-wise this game is absolutely stunning. Each weapon has a distinctive sign to it which makes it obvious to identify whether it's an human or beast weapon. There's also various background/detail data on weapons(but also on missions) and achievements. Enemy design is just as stunning and the little american villages you'll pass by will remind you of Fallout 3.
One key word of this game is 'scale'. You won't believe your ices when you first leave the SRPA station in America(when you enter the battle for america) what's in the sky. Like I already said you'll fight several giant enemies, fighting them often doesn't need any tactics other than dodging and firing or sometimes shoot other objects doing them damage.
While in terms of graphic design the game is absolutely stunning, the graphics are not on say Killzone 2 niveau. They're still good and the colour palettes and various locations totally make up for it, but don't expect a Crysis.
The main reason why this isn't a 90+ title is besides the graphics(which I wouldn't judge actually, but official reviewers obviously did for some reason :/), the in my eyes pretty bad balancing. I played on normal and died incredibily often. Sometimes that's because enemys come from nowhere and then suddenly are right in your back or sometimes you have to fight enemy numbers that are simply ridiculously unfair. In the end you'll always make it after a few tries and when you've found your tactic, but overall it's just unneccessary and frustrating.
With my last words I think this is a perfect example of a very good console FPS. On PC this probably wouldn't be anywhere as good or difficult without any major tweaks, but on console with the very linear levels, not too smart AI(sometimes them beasts don't run away if you throw a nade in front of them, as in say FEAR2), pretty hitboxes it just works while not being easy or dumbed down. It just works.
8.5/10
To the people who played 'Resistance: Fall of Men': This one is a lot better. Pretty much everything has improved: More and more different locations, better story-telling, more kick-*** enemies, new weapons, etc.
The game continues right where Resistance 1 left and then brings you to America, where 2 years later you are attacked by the beasts. You mutate through the game, and the ending I can tell so much is pretty 'in your face'
The game is completely linear 95% of the time which is fine however because it's very well presented and scripted. The level designs vary very much, from Island to Chicago to the marshlands of Louisiana. The highlight however is definitely the Chicago map(#6 out of 7 chapters, each being around 1:30-2:00), where you'll fight a so called 'Levithian' which is as big the skyscrapers around it and makes for an epic boss battle. Generally design-wise this game is absolutely stunning. Each weapon has a distinctive sign to it which makes it obvious to identify whether it's an human or beast weapon. There's also various background/detail data on weapons(but also on missions) and achievements. Enemy design is just as stunning and the little american villages you'll pass by will remind you of Fallout 3.
One key word of this game is 'scale'. You won't believe your ices when you first leave the SRPA station in America(when you enter the battle for america) what's in the sky. Like I already said you'll fight several giant enemies, fighting them often doesn't need any tactics other than dodging and firing or sometimes shoot other objects doing them damage.
While in terms of graphic design the game is absolutely stunning, the graphics are not on say Killzone 2 niveau. They're still good and the colour palettes and various locations totally make up for it, but don't expect a Crysis.
The main reason why this isn't a 90+ title is besides the graphics(which I wouldn't judge actually, but official reviewers obviously did for some reason :/), the in my eyes pretty bad balancing. I played on normal and died incredibily often. Sometimes that's because enemys come from nowhere and then suddenly are right in your back or sometimes you have to fight enemy numbers that are simply ridiculously unfair. In the end you'll always make it after a few tries and when you've found your tactic, but overall it's just unneccessary and frustrating.
With my last words I think this is a perfect example of a very good console FPS. On PC this probably wouldn't be anywhere as good or difficult without any major tweaks, but on console with the very linear levels, not too smart AI(sometimes them beasts don't run away if you throw a nade in front of them, as in say FEAR2), pretty hitboxes it just works while not being easy or dumbed down. It just works.
8.5/10
I liked Resistance 2, but I have to ask, did you find that there was a bit of variation in graphical quality throughout the game? Like for example in some levels some objects and things would look great while others would be so low detail they'd stand out like dogs balls.
What I did like though was a shooter that had other colours than brown and grey!
What I did like though was a shooter that had other colours than brown and grey!
Well I didn't really notice that except for some textures in the levithian boss fights(when you run through various buildings). I could imagine that the more 'grey'ish looking missions like in San Francisco or Chicago seem not to look as good compared to the very colourful and strong looking ones like Louisiana or Iceland.