Where WE review our games

Sounds like they stayed fairly true to the first Mafia game which is also somewhat linear and has lots of driving (although its kind of fun). I bought it off Amazon in December and haven't had tiem to install it, which I'll probably do soon.
 
I actually tried playing the original Mafia, but the terrible draw distance and utter LACK OF A MAP ruined it for me. I simply couldn't deal with using the crappy compass and try crossing rivers without knowing where the bridges/tunnels were located, which is a shame since it looked like a promising game.
 
I created a little mini-review for the thread so I decided I might as well post it here.

Terraria:


At first glance it looks like a 2-D rip-off of minecraft however you soon realize it's anything but. Sure it's pretty obvious it took some inspiration from the sandbox we all know, but that inspiration pretty much ends with crafting. Terraria is more or less a dungeon adventure game that places you in a randomly generated 2-D world and let's you do whatever you please. This usually entitles battle monsters(including boss monster), and getting rare and powerful loot. This is one of the first games in a little while where I've felt like I really had to earn something good. For example one of the best guns (yes there are guns as well as "magic") requires you to, if I can remember correctly, defeat at least one boss, cause a series of event to occur that drops a meteor then harvest that meteor, then survive long enough in the underworld to find a hell forge to craft it, and that may not be everything. The only problem I have so far is some interface and GUI options, other than that it's a fun game that is definitely worth the $10.

Score: 84/100
 
I'll review some dlc. Yes I know dlc isn't a real game, but it does cost real money. And if I can save someone some cash on something they may not like, it's well worth it. I feel we must speak with our wallets to enforce a certain standard for DLC. We can't expect them to shovel crap at us, and get us to pay $10 for it.

I will review Fallout New Vegas Dead Money dlc, and Honest Hearts.

Dead Money: Overall the length is pretty good, the companions are excellent. The companions are the best part of this dlc, they seem really interesting. Unfortunately, you don't get to spend as much time as you'd like with them, and I have found no way to take them outisde into the regular FNV game. The poisonous gas is a serious pain, along with the speakers, radios, and drones. I'd rather have a game with more challenging combat, rather than gimmicks to artificially increase the difficulty. I didn't mind the scarcity of supplies. But the vending machines are stretching reality a bit too much (much like replicators in Star Trek- too far fetched). Not to mention holograms that can hurt you. In the FNV thread I gave it a 65% originally, but that's too harsh I think. I'll give it a 70%. It's worth playing through once, but I'm not sure I'll have the patience to play through it again.

Honest Hearts. The companions in this game aren't as interesting as FNV or Dead Money. And they don't spend a lot of time with you. Not to mention they have the nasty habit of shooting people when I'm still sneaking into position. Dead Money did this too, I can't remember if FNV companions did this. It's annoying. I wish I could tell my companions not to shoot until I start combat first. I like some of the comments the Chalk guy makes, but for the most part I tell him to stay put, as he just messes me up sneaking behind enemies. The story seemed lacking. I guess they spent a lot of time creating a large outdoor area, but not much time on a detailed story. Which is a shame becaues Joshua and Daniel are interesting characters I would have liked to seen more of, and interacted more with them. Final score: 80%

edit: I just wanted to say I figured out how to get your companions to stop shooting before you engaged the enemy. It has been a while since I played FNV. It's under tactics when talking with your companion.

re-edit: Okay my companions still shoot people even when I tell them not too until I initiate combat. This is clearly buggy. I also have more slow downs with Honest Heart (still not bad though), and buginess with the mini-map not showing unexplored locations (some of this may be intentional to make certain locations hard to find).
 
I'm reviewing the Mount and Blade expansion, will post when finished.
 
I created a little mini-review for the thread so I decided I might as well post it here.

Terraria:


At first glance it looks like a 2-D rip-off of minecraft however you soon realize it's anything but. Sure it's pretty obvious it took some inspiration from the sandbox we all know, but that inspiration pretty much ends with crafting. Terraria is more or less a dungeon adventure game that places you in a randomly generated 2-D world and let's you do whatever you please. This usually entitles battle monsters(including boss monster), and getting rare and powerful loot. This is one of the first games in a little while where I've felt like I really had to earn something good. For example one of the best guns (yes there are guns as well as "magic") requires you to, if I can remember correctly, defeat at least one boss, cause a series of event to occur that drops a meteor then harvest that meteor, then survive long enough in the underworld to find a hell forge to craft it, and that may not be everything. The only problem I have so far is some interface and GUI options, other than that it's a fun game that is definitely worth the $10.

Score: 84/100

My own review of Terraria (after about 12 hours of playing):

Imagine a retro NES 2D platformer (e.g. Castlevania) merged with a very lite version of Dwarf Fortress, and throw in that the levels are completely sandbox mode with near 100% freedom to destroy and build within the levels. Throw in a dash of the retro PC game Boulderdash and add in a simple physics model (falling sands, falling waters) with the goal of collecting rare minerals (gold, gems) and crafting from them and you got Terraria.

By day you roam around in horizontal and vertical planes, digging, looking for burial pits, trying to level up your gear to kill special monsters, and eventually descend a dungeon, or to hell, or to just build a groovy land where NPCs can move in and trade with you. By night, creepers come out and track you down (like minecraft). Woe to you if you haven't build at least a shack, or aren't clever enough to seal yourself in a pit (hint).

Pros: Great merger of classic old games. Great crafting system. Interesting tactical selection of monster creepers (some our blobs that hop, so are worms that burrow, some are zombies, some are fliers, and very challenging bosses that fill up the screen. Unique items and the ability to level abilities (hitpoints, mana, and gear---swim flippers, grappling hooks) through exploration makes grinding fun. Mining is not as simple as digging, as the physics model provides challenge (hydrodynamics model, sands fall, you fall, you can drown), and high value minerals require methodical surveying to find).

It also has a team and PVP internet game that requires a server, and I haven't tried it yet. Rumor is that infinite players can attempt to connect to the same world (potentially MMOs could form from this).

Cons: Very weak on plot and story, to the point of being in alpha mode in that regard. Could use more of what it has in all aspects: more NPC types, more bosses, more themed regions, more detailed crafting (a la Dwarf Fortress), more unique items and features. Also more influence from Boulderdash (falling rocks, exploding rocks).

Other thoughts: Looks worth watching for expansions and development patches. Room for expanding along all of its influences (Dwarf Fortress, rogue-likes, etc...)

Score: 89/100. Great bargain bin indie game that is technically infinite fun.
 
Thanks for the review it's pretty good. I'm still quite close to getting it, sadly the negative you listed "could use more of everything" is exactly what is holding me back right now. I'm actually afraid to buy the game, discover that there are only 20 or so types of monsters and get bored with it within 5-10 hours, then never coming back when it is actually filled to the brim with more content...

Minecraft manages to stave this off by making building stuff as entertaining as exploration, so when you know you've seen everything there is to see in terms of items and monsters and biomes, you can still have fun making up towns and such. Terraria doesn't look like building is that fun. It seems way more focused on loot and exploration, which in theory is actually more like my kind of stuff, but can get very hurt by a lack of content.
 
I don't think either of us stated that free content updates are promised.
 
I don't think either of us stated that free content updates are promised.

I'm quite aware. I expect the content, I'm just "scared" of having been bored off from the game before it's released...

I'm actually afraid to buy the game, discover that there are only 20 or so types of monsters and get bored with it within 5-10 hours, then never coming back when it is actually filled to the brim with more content...
 
Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale (Xbox 360 edition)

Overall score: 4.5 / 10

Don't buy this game yet. It's bug-ridden. (You can permanently lose skill points, equipment, spells, abilities, etc - so you'll get to level 10 but you'll only have one or two powers left to use, as all your other points have vanished.) Wait for a patch at the very least, preferably wait for multiple patches and a drop in price - it's not worth $15 as it stands currently.

Daggerdale is a generic hack & slash dungeon crawler. That genre appeals to a lot of us, but this is a bland example of it. It's D&D in logo only - you do have trappings of 4th Edition in your character screen, but none of it actually matters much - in Daggerdale, you just walk around in caves and hit monsters until treasure comes out of them. The story is bland and the gameplay isn't remarkable or innovative in any way.

Multiplayer is supposed to be a big draw for this game, but there's no lobby system - and co-op has its own share of bugs (like merchant inventories disappearing completely for certain players). The game increases the challenge in co-op by doubling or tripling the amount of enemies you fight, which can make some early battles with low-level characters almost impossible. If you're just playing with one other friend, and neither of you is a cleric, this results in a ridiculously grueling battle of attrition where every point of damage you take brings you closer to having to flee back to camp to restock health potions and get a free heal. (Good luck with that, though - merchants only carry 5 potions in their inventory, and that's shared across 2-4 players.)

The health / death / save system is awful. You don't regen health between battles; you can't rest or eat food or bandage or do anything to replenish your health outside of combat other than drinking healing potions, which replenish maybe 20% of your life bar. When you die, you are penalized XP and gold and you respawn at the nearest safe area. That in itself isn't a problem, but you also lose all your quest progress, even if you "saved" your game 5 seconds prior to dying. (For example, if you need to collect 5 keys and you die after collecting 4 of them, you lose all your progress and restart with 0 of 5 keys collected, forcing you to replay the whole quest.)

All in all, the game has potential but it's currently a buggy mess. Avoid it until and unless it gets fixed and the price drops to $5 from the current $15.
 
The Witcher 2 review.

Overall this is a great game, but there definitely are some interface issues. When creating potions you have to make sure your best ingredients (some used for quests later on) aren't being used up automatically. You also can't compare your equipment to what you already have when selling items (a minor annoyance really). Despite many complaints of the interface, I quickly got used to it. It's adequate to get you through the game. The biggest annoyance is there is no junk tab in your inventory. And despite tabs to separate your inventory, you'll still end up with so many items that it takes a long time to sort through to lessen your inventory weight.

Combat action is very good in this game, but it can be unforgiving if you are the type of gamer who can't move around very fast. The combat action is exciting and a good improvement over TW1. It's fun to roll around and dodge enemies and tactically retreat to get your shield back up. Enemy AI can be good at times, but they don't pursue you when you retreat which seems like a weak point of the AI.

Roleplaying is pretty good in this game despite playing a character not created by you. There are a lot of cut scenes however, and the prologue is fairly linear. But you will find meaningful impact of some of the choices you choose.

The story is very good, although maybe a bit overly complex at times. They may have tried too hard to create a very complex political situation. It's a bit difficult to keep track of all the names of these rulers, sorceresses, and other NPC's. Sometimes dialogue goes so fast and you are like "who did what?" It's a lot of different people and political situations to keep track of. Overall it came to a satisfying conclusion at the end.

Boss battles are maybe what you hear complained about most in this game. It shares some characteristics with MMO boss battles. In that bosses have certain mechanics, once you learn these mechanics they become a lot easier. So this does mean multiple reloads. If you don't like this sort of thing, then you will hate boss battles. The boss battles in the end weren't bad, however, as my character was max level and very powerful. Overall, I like the challenge and feel it wasn't too unforgiving on normal level.

The auto save in this game isn't the greatest, and sometimes it won't save after long cut scenes before a battle. Your first fist fight in the game is one example. I didn't know how to fist fight yet, and had to repeat it a couple of times before I got the hang of it, but I had to skip past a bunch of cut scenes due to no auto-save. There are a couple other long sequences with no auto save (and you can't quicksave either), but overall it's not too bad.

I felt like the ending was a little short or non-existent. Did they run out of time or money perhaps? I would have liked them to have wrapped things up better.

pros: More great Witcher action. If you like an adult game, this is for you. Although sometimes I think these guys are a little too obsessed with sex LOL. And the bad language seems a little out of place, but for the most part it works. I feel a medieval society can be pretty brutal and un-PC, and this game shows that.

cons: interface issues, can't review conversations to find out what plot point you missed because you don't know who so-and-so is.

score: 92%
 
yeah I never played Zelda games. I guess I'm used to Bioware/Obsidian/Bethesda type games.
 
Borderlands PS3 Review​

Overall Score (Core Game) 85%

Overview
Borderlands is an FPS with some RPG-esque qualities, but admittedly has more emphasis on just shooting and looting. The game begins with a cutscene in which you are introduced to each character and must choose one of the four. After this a basic tutorial and the likes. AFter this it is a romp through Pandora doing various tasks for different NPCs with the ultimate goal of reaching "The Vault" where untold treasure is supposedly held.

Plot 60%
The plot is, in my opinion, very thin and at times confusing, thus moving emphasis away from the plot and onto gameplay, which is good because the gameplay is wonderful (more on that later). The plot lacks a backstory on the characters' lives and seems rather hashed together to provide a sort of beginning, a shaky middle, and a fairly boring end (in my opinion).

Gameplay 95%
This is where the game shines, the gameplay. The controls are a bit to get used to at first, but can be changed to more Call of Duty-esque settings, although far from customizable. While the RPG elements are evident with different class modifications and skills, it seems like it could be more in depth and unique. The random loot generated will sometimes leave you drooling and sometimes disappointed with having beaten a hard enemy only to get bad loot, but as they say, "random loot is random". The difficulty can range wildly depending on difficulty level and number of players, where more players equals higher difficulty, although the game never seems too difficult to handle. However, the game can become very easy alone and overleveled until you beat the second playthrough, after which enemy levels scale to provide a better challenge. The game is probably best played co-op if possible (although not necessary) to enjoy the laughs and challenges together as you take a ride through Pandora.

Graphics 85%
In my opinion, the graphics in this game are very good, although unorthodox, as games are becoming more and more realistic, Borderlands takes a more cartoony approach, which, to me, is satisfyingly fresh. However, the desert landscapes loose their appear quickly and the enemies lack a certain flavor to each area that could be improved. All in all, a welcome change from the dead serious graphics of other games while still lacking diversity to really make it amazing.

Replayability 90%
This game seems made to be replayed with 2 playthroughs and 4 unique characters to use with countless possibilities for specializations and skills. The plot does wear thin the second playthrough but then again it isn't the main point of the game. The sheer amount of loot and variances of guns is enough to keep killing enemies and looting chests to find that one gun for hours. Overall, a great game to play through multiple times to get a unique experience from each character.

Simplified
+Unique Graphics
+Tons of loot
+Great replayability
+Good gameplay
+Low price ($40 for GOTY edition)

-Lousy plot
-Environments get old quickly
 
Time for an oldie review:
Age of Empires II and Age of Empires II: The Conquerors.
AoEII

Basically the same game as AoEIII but in the Middle ages. There are tons of factions (ranging from Arab to Turk, and it's got Byzantines). Each has their own Unique Unit which can be recruited at the castle and has one upgrade - the Byzantines get Cataphracts, Heavy Cavalry with Trample abilities, and the Brits get Longbowmen, seriously powerful, while the Turks have an early Gunpowder edge with the Janissary. With the upgrades, these things can kill. There is also light cannon, and of course the inevitable muskets.
The Units are varied, from the militia in early game to the musketeers, cannon and hussars (hussars with wings!)
There are also campaigns, as well as random maps. Each Faction has a few leaders (Alaric of the Goths is right there beating Suleiman) for random maps. Campaigns usually give you a few scenarios (capture this, reach that etc.) and a set amount of units. I suggest you turn off sound in such cases, it gets annoying to hear some random unseen person to say "where are you going? Jerusalem's the other way!" the whole time (in the Saladin campaign).
There's also a "chat" system. It can be used in Single player, to ask for stones and to ask what Age your friends are in, and let's be fair, it's awesome to insult the ai with things as "My granny is better at conquering than you" which is never, ever true. they will always have catapults, so stagger formation is a must. They also bring hordes of skirmishers with a bonus against archers.
There are also technologies, such as the Chemistry which allows gunpowder and (personal favorite) more damage for siege units, giving a new meaning to the phrase "great balls of fire". 5 trebuchets hurling burning things at you does that.
I suggest playing with the speed cheat (aegis). for something fun, there's a cheat that allows you to be the deer, pigs and wolves of the map :p Boars CAN attack town centers, and it's hilarious to see one maul a town center.
Graphics can play weird on better graphics cards.
Also, Goths cannot create Stone things (Stone Wall, Gate, Stone Tower, Cannon Tower etc.) and each country has a few greyed out areas on the tech tree (Brits cannot build camel warriors).
Overall, enjoyable with a 80%
Summary:
+ awesome units, and unique units that KILL with their Upgrades
+ Trebuchets. With the aegis cheat these things are beautiful. a horde of these is slow and immobile, but the range and ability to destroy forests can wreck the enemy.
+ ability to play as animals
+ Holy Factions, Batman!
+ Gunpowder!
+ Longbows.
+ Ability to build the Great wall (stone wall-stone wall-stone wall is a wall 3 walls thick)
+ Genghis Khan Campaign
+ Tutorial campaign as Scotland and William Wallace
+ Introduction to Campaigns (a short presentation, includes country details. Did you know Mongols took their victims skulls and put them into a pyramid? and Saladin actually cared for non-Muslims?)
+ Funny chat system

- Musketmen (need to be close for a guaranteed kill)
- Goth Faction - Seriously? No defensive measure? But the Huscarls...
- Saladin Campaign
- Johanna of Arc Campaign (Burgundy...)
- Why the Vikings deserve 2 Unique Units is beyond me.
- Did I ever mention that boars are a good source of food, provided you don't mind wasting all your villagers on one?
Conquerors expansion
This adds the following factions: Aztec, Maya, Hun, Korean, Spaniard. The Aztec and Maya Factions do not get the scout but a spearman (eagle warrior). There's also the Wonder victory condition, which takes a while. There's also Unique Upgrades (Huns can lengthen the time to win by wonder by 100 years, Goths can create Huscarls everywhere. Continuing from the Viking 2 UUs, Korea can build war wagons (sort of like a moveable box with weapons in it) and Turtle Ships. Korea has something with Armor. Sadly, Eagle warriors and Spearmen are removed by these. Hard. And did I mention the Huns have a second Unique Upgrade?
There's also some new campaign: Attila the Hun, El Cid, Montezuma, and a bunch of Conquests (from the Battle of Tours to trying to save Oda Nobunaga, stopping for a quick lunch break at the battle of Lepanto or Agincourt.) These are hard at times (you try gettin' Oda out of evil Kyoto with 3 samurai while the rest is somewhere else or taking out the Ottoman fleet that easily). There's also a bunch of fascinating real world maps. I've lost track of how many times I've built a new Hedjaz or created a Bothnian state, although why Texas is surrounded by water is beyond me.
There's a slight bonus to the Huns, who don't need houses.
Overall, a good 90%. Great addition.
 
Reading that was very disappointing since you list 2 '+'es related to cheat codes. Also, i don't remember anything particulary bad about the saladin campaign.

Also the vikings deserve 2 UUs because vikings are that awsome.
 
Also, Goths are awesome. No true man needs silly walls to hide behind.

Really? I've always found Mongolians to be pretty decent, even when hiding behind a wall.
I've found that a simple palisade will ALWAYS close off the opening. So you're stuck.
EDIT: Heretic_Cata, I just noticed your post. The Animal faction cheat is seriously fun. You need the aegis cheat at times. Even if it's just to make easy harder.
and I'm always stuck on the first mission of the Saladin campaign, since they seriously can't choose where I need to go.
Anyway, MY OPINION. I'll edit out the car cheat though, stupid things on their own when also using the aegis cheat.
 
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