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Darksiders II

This first piqued my interest when I heard it was a combination of prince of persia, zelda and diablo 2. Further to that I wanted to support THQ who are going through some tough times atm due to shitty management.

First off, the good - The game is massive, you certainly get your moneys worth. The level design is exceptional and the puzzles while sometimes being a little easy, are not frustrating either (at the moment anyway). The gameplay is also for the most part superb, and the game is very stable - all other areas are also pretty top notch; soundtrack, sound design, visual aesthetics ect

The game is really only marred by one thing, it's a console port and it's a very obvious one too. The UI can be a bit of a mess and while you can rebind keys you cannot change the sensitivity of the pan (which is to slow) and the sensitivity in aim mode suffers from obvious mouse acceleration. There is no official provision for AA,AF or any other PC bells and whistles and the textures are all quite low res when you get up close and personal. They have promised to address these issues but it remains to be seen if anything will actually be done about it.

However despite that I am still going to rate this game highly, the port issues are rarely a problem and I'm just having to much fun to care most of the time.

9/10 - Buy it

Talking about console ports, you guys might want to avoid Dark Souls unless you have a PC from the middle age, the thing has a locked 30FPS and 720p resolution FFS...

The resolution has been fixed by a modder already, but having played it on eggsbox 360 I have no need to buy it anyway.

Ion Cannon!, on 26 August 2012 - 22:34, said:

Still, nobody should buy a PC gamer that's such a blatant console port, otherwise it'll probably make them think people don't care, and other companies will start doing the same D;

I agree, but if someone has bought it at least there is now a fix.

CJ, on 26 August 2012 - 22:36, said:

how exactly could it not be a console port? because... that's what it is. no one ever said it wasn't.

the resolution problem is really the only issue and since it's so easily fixed for those that want to, i wouldn't even complain about that.

if any run-off-the-mill game was released for the PC with these kinds of issues, i'd honestly care more than with this game. the reason the resolution problem is so minor is quite simply because the game itself is nothing short of magnificent. aesthetically but primarily game-play wise, it's a gem. i played the game on PS3 first and had to put up with the low resolution, FPS drops andsoforth but honestly it was still great. having the same game on PC with stable FPS and high-res is just a nice little bonus. i would be just as happy with a low-res version since the game is just that good

It was pretty good, but suffered from an inverse difficulty, at the start the game is really really hard, nearer the end/middle you can smash most things very easily with uber weapons. I think my lightning scythe did 580 damage or thereabouts.

Black Mesa: 9.5/10

MR.Kim, on 17 September 2012 - 20:01, said:

...because?

What was good, what was bad, etc.? We want to know!
Edited by Chyros, 17 September 2012 - 20:48.

Because, I don't want any spoiler... ah what the heck!

It wasn't so bad after all. And, it's pretty much improve than original Half-Life.

Including voice actiong, bla bla bla and everything. Too bad can't go to last chapter(Xen's chapter is incomplete) .

Some more high scorers.

Torchlight 2 9.5/10 (No such thing as a perfect game)

This is a masterclass in how to create an engaging, rewarding, exciting hack and slash game. It blows diablo 3 out of the water in almost every conceivable way. Essentially the developers understand that people play these kinds of game both to challenge themselves and to find epic, interesting and sometimes ridiculously overpowered loot. You want to start on the hardest difficulty? go ahead, you'll die a lot but thats your choice, no grinding through 3 EZMode difficulties here.

The game is truly random, the only set areas are the towns and the boss fighting areas. Your second playthrough will be noticably different from the start to the finish, you may even be lucky enough to find special rare dungeons which won't always be in the game, usually these are themed around something specific and will contain lots of not so subtle references. With the first game it was obvious when chunks of an area repeated, but that is not the case here 99% of the time. Although the art style may not be to everyones taste, the aesthetics work magnificently and the level design is packed with detail, including secrets, references and even the odd optional puzzle. Further there is also a great variety in the locations themselves, and the monster selection is diverse, usually with different tactics required to defeat different mobs or collections of mobs.

Loot is definitely of the Diablo 2 styling. You want a lightning scythe that has a chance to spawn fireballs that come smashing down from the sky? Done. You want a piece of armour that has a chance to full self heal when you get hit? Done. You want interesting, meaningful loot which actually has a hope in hell of dropping? Done. Of course, with so much loot 75% of everything you find will not be useful, but there is so much that the 25% is enough. I haven't even managed to find the legendary tier items yet, but I have found a good 100 or so uniques throughout my first playthrough and act 1 NG+.

Further to this the game doesn't require an online connection and has no DRM, supports modding and only costs £15 to boot, there really is no excuse not to buy this!

Ion Cannon!, on 26 August 2012 - 22:05, said:

Forgot to mention, bought this for £12 in the Steam THQ sale... looking forward to being able to play it once I get ahold of a decent PC again.

Ion Cannon!, on 10 October 2012 - 14:46, said:

Have to agree here. 9.5 at least

Ion Cannon!, on 10 October 2012 - 14:46, said:

You hear that people? NO EXCUSE!

I can't comment in quite as much detail as Ion as I have neither the same amount of time invested in it as he has (yet), nor am I that experienced with the genre. What I can tell you is that I have spent every spare moment I have since I bought it playing and cannot wait to get back to my Outlander class for some more shooty goodness. For £15 it is criminal not to buy this game!

Chyros, on 17 September 2012 - 20:17, said:

Not for me to answer but maybe because it is the best mod you can see around for any game. Hell, it is better than what most game companies do with millions of bucks nowadays...

AJ, on 10 October 2012 - 15:02, said:

Have you looked at the system requirements? It will run on netbooks/ non gaming machines happily.

EDIT: Getting Torchlight 2 confused with Darksiders 2
Edited by Ion Cannon!, 10 October 2012 - 19:55.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted, I'll actually rate it later, for now I'll give it an 8/10 because it lags like hell on my PC, and it's far too easy to crash. It seems like customization is a bit more limited than what I hoped for, but it's deffinitely there. The gameplay is very similar to Burnout Paradise.

One this is that the controls are bloody annoying if you are using an analog stick for acceleration brakes :(. To start a race you need to press accelerate and brake at the same time. Which is impossible if you assign that to the same analog stick. Had to revert back to a button whenever I wan't start one which is annoying. Using Logitech Rumblepad 2 btw.

Dishonoured

I was initially reluctant to pick this up, as recent Bethesda titles have all but disappointed me. Thankfully, I did eventually grab it as it seems that despite being the publisher, it bears very few Bethesda fingerprints.

The dialogue is reasonable, the voice acting is superb (with actual proper actors/actresses as well!) and the writing is well above par (I enjoyed seeing/hearing a couple of Thief references). It reminded me a lot of Bioshock in many (good) ways – the art style is gorgeous and setpieces and environment are a treat to traverse. Despite the storyline being linear, there is plenty of player choice within each section. Since I chose the non-lethal approach I was disappointed by the lack of non-lethal methods, pretty much didn't use the sword or pistol the entire game. It also does get pretty easy once you get blink and agility to level two. Given this is the first game of what may well become a series I will give them some benefit of the doubt as this is the first run of the formula.

It really is a solid package, despite finishing it in around 14-16 hours. Considering I did pretty much every side mission and took the long way round in doing the stealth route, it probably could be done in 8-12 if you just bumrush through with the sword. Fortunately, the quality of the game more than makes up for the lack of length. Besides some niggling issues with the story (seriously, nobody since Bioshock has managed to do a game twist properly), a lack of character developments and some minor criticism of the length, it is leaps and bounds ahead of anything else released this year.

9/10, unless something jawdropping is released in the next month this will be my game of the year.
Edited by Alias, 06 November 2012 - 12:27.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted - 7,5/10

Let's get the basics down. This game has almost everything you could want in a petrolhead game - beautifully rendered, classic, licensed cars, great engine noises that seem as real as can get, an open world you can explore to find new vehicles to toy around with, etc. The setup is pretty fantastic tbh.

The player starts off in a Porsche 911 which, as the game's controls are quite realistic, is completely uncontrollable (for the same reason, all American cars have steerings set in heavy-duty concrete and feel like dumbfire missiles). Luckily, it's easy to find one of the many many vehicles parked around switch it for something more useful - first thing I found was a Mazer Strad which served me well 8) . Though the game's controls are realistic, they are just arcadey enough to not be annoying. My only complaint is that due to consolitis it is not easy to steer smoothly - the vehicles, especially the highly manoeuvrable ones, tend to lead to fishtailing if you are not careful.

The game is pretty challenging. The races consist of a variety of challenges including lap races, sprints, offroad tracks, and events with police in them. The races are tailored to the vehicle you drive (for example, using a big, slow offroader will lead to many offroad races against similar vehicles, while a speedy vehicles will tend to get road races against other fast vehicles in its bracket) and each race gives you some improvement to your car if you get 1st or 2nd. Though the starting races are easy, the later ones for each car tend to be quite hard, and the Most Wanted races - basically boss fights where you can unlock special cars in a flairistic 1v1 - are especially stacked against you as the police make life very hard for you but not the enemy - enemy vehicles are even immune to spike strips while one is enough to generally cost you the race. However, the game is, during these moments, just annoying enough that you want to keep going and and beat it, while the rest of the time, it's just a nice way to have fun with great cars.
Edited by Chyros, 17 November 2012 - 02:27.

Well delayed inputs aren't that much of an issue compared to the terrible optimization the game has. There are a lot of complaints about the frame rate. Criterion makes excellent games, but whoever ported this messed up terribly.

I turned down a few low-priority effects things like shadows and light effects and this solves the framerate thing quite easily tbh.

Civilization V ( Gods & Kings Included ) 7/10

First things first, game is like heroin, pretty addictive if you are into that kind of games. There is plenty of choice to make custom games, takes a lot of time to complete the game on higher levels but thats somewhat ok. Game mechanics are good, music as it should be with such kind of games, hypnotising
But it is not enough with the expansion, expansion doesn't add much to the game.

I think the game would be better if these things are added in the future :

* It will be extremely hard to depict entire leaders of a nation through history but having only one leader through all the ages is not nice. Atleast ffs do it a new leader for each age. Or an ability to choose from the list of leaders of a nation.
* Correct civilization starting point with each nation on Earth type map and unique wonders for that specific nation.
* Larger cities. Not only in tiles but as of height size aswell.

This game will be epic if these things are added :

* Random natural disasters, such as meteors striking earth, ice age, earthquakes, tsunami and ability to build shit to prevent major life loss on such events.
*Atleast one more age which will be very high tech, colonizing Moon or Mars will be possible and interplanetary war will go on
* Small unit sizes with small tiles to move and fight on.
Edited by General, 04 January 2013 - 12:32.

XCOM Enemy Unknown : 8/10

Well, gameplay was much better than I expected, but story was average, the way of storytelling is below average, but I assume focusing on story wasn't their intention but the gameplay, and they did well about it.
Difficulty is like chess at harder levels, it sometimes so annoying that I needed to lower the difficulty level, which I never done in any other game before. If you want challenge, this game probably best for it. But do not attempt to complete the game on difficult settings if you play it for the first time
Enemy characters are interesting and animation is good, and even fun.

Now all we need to make this game perfect should be adding a better storyline and even more wide range of selection of tech and weapons.

Euro Truck Simulator 2: 7.5/10

I was pretty criuous what is about this simulator game. The gole is running own business(or no need it) and earn some money to buy nice trucks or upgrade. But sometimes, it's pretty boring
keep driving long destination between GB to whole western Europe contries. Of course, it also hard earn some XP when job is done.

Still, it's pretty ejoyable to dirve with nice a big truck.
Edited by MR.Kim, 25 January 2013 - 01:04.

Borderlands 2 - 8,5/10

Humour in this game is well established. There was some parts that I literally lol at. Unlike in most games, enemies here do have a character, while in most fps games all you do is to fire at a target which is firing at you and they act exactly the same way and doesn't say a single shit as if its nothing happening around them. They are dynamic and funny.

There is just tad too much choice of weapons and they really do vastly differentite from each other.

And missions are always fun, not boring. I should've give this a 10/10 if it had a better storyline, which is not that bad but still when you done with the game, its all turns out to be a meh.But then I think making a serious storyline wasn't their intention all along. By seriousness of course I don't mean excluding all the craziness in the game, its what makes it good.