Good Game With Too Much Scavenging, Derivative Story
344306
As good a game as Bioshock: Infinite is, I do not think it quite lives up to its hype.

The gameplay is average.  The controls depart from the "standard" FPS controls established by games like Call of Duty, which can be a minor nuisance for players who are accustomed to CoD style controls.

There is quite a bit of scavenging around in the game, which personally I found annoying.  You have to constantly search desks and lockers for health, salts (i.e., mana), ammo and money which entails running up to every desk, trash can, barrel and crate in the game to see if it "glows" in game, meaning that it is searchable.  You also have to carefully scan the environment for small lockpicks to unlock doors that lead to more scavenging opportunities.  Around a quarter of your time playing the game is spent scrounging around for stuff, which disrupted the flow of combat and the story.

The different gear you collect throughout the game does a fairly good job of creating opportunities to test out different "builds" and experiment with different gameplay styles.  However, I did find that one particular piece of gear (Winter Shield) was rather overpowered, as it grants you temporary invulnerability in circumstances that are easily repeatedable/exploitable.

The story is good, but I didn't find it quite as engrossing as the first Bioshock.  The plot is rather derivative.  Without giving away spoilers, if you watched a certain TV series from a few years back, you might accuse the Bioshock writers of minor plagiarism.  The characters are interesting enough and are well voiced, though the dialogue sometimes goes into B-movie territory.  As an aside, if you are Christian and somewhat overly sensitive you might take offense from the fact that the game could be interpreted to suggest that Christianity is the origin of the pathway to evil.

The best and freshest aspect of the game would have to be Elizabeth, your partner throughout most of the game who is implemented very well.  Throughout the game, she serves as a timely sources of health, salts, ammo and money.  As far as I can tell, she is hard-programed to be invulnerable to enemy attacks so you don't have to worry about bad AI getting her killed.

The game is short--it can be completed in 10-12 hours.  I managed to finish the game in a week (albeit with the aid of a three day weekend).  So, in terms of value, if you pay full price you may be disappointed.

Overall, I'd give the game 3.5 stars out of 5.
4837497
Predator Concrete Jungle sets up a new storyline with you playing the role as one of those great hunters.  Seems you screwed up on Earth 100 years ago and left behind technology which the humans have now had a chance to figure out and use to build a great futuristic Metropolis run by street gangs, Voodoo Priests and other unsavory types.  Your Predator clan now sends you back to Earth to clean up the mess.  This is a third person actioneer where you play the predator and go about hunting down various objectives, killing them and taking parts as trophies.  Unfortunately while trying to make a game that wasn't linear they succeeded in making one that was very confusing as far as figuring out just where you're supposed to go and who to kill.  Now there are lots of neat abilities and weapons at your disposal as the Predator like plasma guns, spear guns, wrist blades and upgrades can be found throughout the game.  You can also pull off a fairly wide variety of attacks and combos.  This all leads to some cool, but ultimately repetitive animations of skinning bodies or beheadings which lose their cool factor pretty quickly after a few dozen times.  You also have the Predator's stealth skills and cloaking at your disposal as well.  There's even a pretty sweet voice mimicking trick you can use to lure your prey.

Graphics are fairly average.  The scenery of the levels are a bit on the dull side although the Predator himself is quite awesome to behold.  The sound is also somewhat average.  It's not horrible but nothing stands out.

Overall it's just an ok game.  It's not horrible in any one area but neither does it stand out in any area either.  It's another fairly weak licensed game from a franchise that has never had a great game and may be time to retire.
1592589
Peter Molyneux, the main brain behind this game, has a tendancy to create games that look flexible from the outside.. that look like there may be different ways of playing the game. Indeed, Fable does offer it's share of variety. For one, I've seen a few other games try to offer the concept of getting married but fail in some way. Fable does do a little better in this respect, but once you're there you're like.. is that it? There's more even, such as buying up other houses and buildings, renting them out and returning later to collect rent. An interesting concept few other developers have explored. But, again, there's not much to it and you're again left with a desire to find more substance out of this game.

The combat system reminds me a little of the Dark Cloud series on the PS2 and the Zelda Wind Waker game from the GC (if you play more of a melee type in Fable). In this respect Fable is not that original. It is more involved than those titles, yet this is also a bit of a downfall. It was a system that could've accomplished more actually with a little more simplicity and common sense.

Another downfall is leveling up your character. You can make your character more skilled or powerful, however you wish to view it. But, by doing so, your character gets older. If you get too old, you die. I think Mr. Molyneux has forgotten that there was a reason why RPG makers left out aging and dying of old age in RPGs so long ago. Not only did Molyneux forget it, he tied the "dying of old age" concept directly to one of the main reasons why people play RPGs- character building. Remember, every time you level up you age. I'd like to be able to work on my character and make it better without worrying about being punished for it later on.

This brings me to the worst part of Fable, but this is mainly my opinion (I say that because I don't see many people talking about this next part). Molyneux's worst tendancy is to create a game that offers different things to do, but one that will harrass the player if that player just isn't playing the game the way the designers or Molyneux himself intended. I saw this trait in Molyneux's old games, such as Dungeon Keeper 2 and it's very present in Fable. If you decide to divert from the main storyline for a while to explore other possibilities (getting married, being a landlord, etc) you are harrassed with the following message:

"Ah, there is an important quest card at the guild for you."

"Ah, there is an important quest card at the guild for you."

"Ah, there is an important quest card at the guild for you."

Over and over and over again, every so many minutes and there's no way to shut this one thing off. No, it doesn't seem like very much at first, not while the game is still new to you. But, it wears thin quickly. That may not be much of an issue to some people, but I found it irritating enough. When one considered everything it was simply the icing on the cake, as the saying goes.

Peter Molyneux's titles always leave me with the feeling that he's more interested in being different with his games than anything else. Creativity and diversity are the main reasons why I prefer RPG titles to any other kind of title. However, things such as getting married or being a landlord are just spice. There's a lot of spice in Fable, but Molyneux needs to realize that adding tons of spice to a rotten dish doesn't make it any less rotten.
1050080
The Force Unleashed made an excellent game.  The story was pretty compelling for something in the action genre.  I really enjoyed the cutscenes and the character development.  Unfortunately the book is pretty much just an amalgamation of all the cutscenes from the game.  It's hard to turn a fairly railroaded action game into a compelling novel.  There are a few changes and obviously there are differences with the game since the different game versions also had differences.

The neatest thing about the book was that it was mostly from Juno Eclipse's point of view.

I enjoyed reading this book, but if you've played the game, you're not gonna find much new suff here.
2926168
Game was slightly disappointing compare to the other two harvest Moons I've played
3830842
Oh, poor Myst. I guess even the greatest series can go on too long.  Things have been going downhill since Uru and Myst 4, and while both of those games (and this one) are good, something was lost on the way.

Fortunately, the series manages to end with some shreds of dignity.

Graphics: Gorgeous! Yet again, Myst comes out ahead of every other game I can think of in the graphics department.

However, there are some serious letdowns. The people are no longer live-action, and while their avatars are fairly good they lack the finer detail and expression that only life can bring. Also, there's not much wildlife. A few butterflies, some snakes, some weird little bird that hisses at you. That's it. Unless you count the Bahro, and I have a hard time telling if they're supposed to be rocklike or buglike or furry or what.

Story: Eh... Unfortunately, there are many aspects of the story that remain hidden to me- and I've played all the Myst games and read the books. Somehow you're locked into this "Quest" to retrieve a tablet which is somehow important to these critters called the Bahro, who link around and alter Ages at will.

Yeesha (Atrus's daughter) pops up early on, spouts some cryptic stuff at you, and disappears til the end. This other guy, called Esher, will be your nearly-constant (read: annoying) companion throughout the rest of the game, popping up at inopportune moments to lecture you about... whatever it is he talks about. Unfortunately, he doesn't tell you anything really helpful, which makes me wonder why he thinks I'll cooperate with him when he won't even throw me a bone to make my job easier.

Something I've noticed over the past few Myst games is the transition from machines, objects and so on being relatively scientific in nature (lost, inexplicable science, but a science somebody used to understand) to (apparently) being mystical or at least pseudomystical in nature. I love a good fantasy as much as the next guy, but it doesn't feel like parts of the Myst world are being unveiled: rather, it seems as though the developers have lost sight of their original universe.

Puzzles: Mild. Compared to previous titles, most of the puzzles in End of Ages are a cinch. The hardest part is drawing these images on slates so the Bahro will do things for you. Yeesha calls the Bahro "the Least" and I can only assume she means the least artistically discerning beings ever, or maybe they're all just really farsighted. Even if the picture looks right, they'll warp in, scratch their heads at it, and warp out, leaving you to try again. Or they'll count your drawing as a completely different one that you haven't even seen yet (I accidently skipped to the end of one Age this way.)

Sadly, fantastical machinery is not really prevalent in End of Ages. This is especially shameful since the devices in previous Mysts would have made Jules Verne jealous.

The Ages seem short and rushed: you wander about on an island or two doing whatever it is you need to do. Even the original Myst Island felt, I don't know, bigger somehow than these little Ages.

Verdict:

Myst 5 isn't quite up to the standard set by its predecessors, but it manages to end the series on pretty good note. I suspect Cyan wanted to hurry up and be done with it so they could put the series to rest at last, and it shows. Still, I wasn't too disappointed overall.

To all of Myst, I say: Farewell. It's been an awesome ride.
2315693
The Blood Omen series is very different from its sister series Soul Reaver (which I highly recommend). Don't get me wrong, this game is pretty cool at times. But I have a hard time getting past the lame combat system ( you have to hold down the left trigger and then press ONE button to attack). The blood drinking is cool, but the meter gets annoying. You have to constantly drink blood or the meter will run out and you'll die. This is also a very linear game, you have one path to go and thats all you can do, go forward down a straight path (I have a hard time believing in a huge city there is only one road or alley). BUT, this game is alot more accessible than the Soul Reaver series. People not familiar with the Legacy of Kain saga can pick up this game and have a good time. Soul reaver focuses more on building on the plot while Blood Omen focuses on action. If your a fan of action games with a good story I would definetly recommend picking up all of the Legacy of Kain games (Blood Omen and Soul Reaver tie in together). Start with the first Blood Omen, as is the start of this engrossing tale.
3733903
Many people having chosen to slam Operation Raccoon City just because it was produced by Slant Six Games, having played this game, I'd say it's worthier of carrying the name of Resident Evil or Bio-Hazard than some the previous releases (Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil Revelations and these were actually made by Capcom). For the first time in quite a while I found myself buying a game where I was interested in the playable character(s), instead of buying the game to see a cameo of Jill, Wesker, Ada or HUNK. While sadly in story mode/campaign you cannot play as Jill Valentine, HUNK, Ada Wong, Barry Burton, etc.; you get the new delta squad/The Wolf Pack, replacing the last gas-mask wearing Delta soldiers who died in Resident Evil 0. SPOILER: The squad being Lupo, Spectre, Beltway, Four-Eyes, Bertha, and Vector, a protege of HUNK :SPOILER. So in other words you don't have to play as Leon, Chris or Claire in the main story. Speaking of which, the story is pretty damn good; as the title implies the game takes place during Resident Evil 2 & 3, featuring the classic B.O.W.s, including the zombies (I for one was getting tired of all that "Las Plagas" crap, give me a T-Virus outbreak or G-Sample heist any day over groups of rejects from "The Crazies").

PROS:
Great Graphics.
Plays well.
Sound really puts you in the urban hell Raccoon City has become
Zombies, Umbrella, Classic Bio-Organic Weapons.
Interesting change in point-of-view

CONS:
The weapon switch function is pretty sensitive.
Spec-Ops/Leon/Claire manage to make the zombies an almost unfair advantage for them pretty fast.
For B.O.W.s such as the T-103s and Nemesis, you pretty much have to either figure out how to defeat them by yourself or go online to find someone who already has.
3000635
I knew going into the game that it was shallow with a lot of QTE (quick time events) and a lackluster story. With that being said, I enjoyed the game for what it is (glorified PS4 graphical demo). I hope they pursue a sequel and improve on some of the aspects of the game.

Graphics- Very good looking game, a few glitches and some textures looked bad up close. Overall one of the best games I've played on console

Gameplay- The shooting was simple "hallway cover" type gameplay. The weapons had some variety although ammo availability didn't always seem balanced. There were a few puzzles and a small amount of climbing sections that were boring and repetitive.

Story- The story had some cool lore but generally fell short for me. The voice acting was done well and the cut scenes were seamless and were fun to watch. The ending was predictable and the aux characters left more to be desired.

Replay-ability- There isn't much reason to ever replay this game.
2253283
With a hugely absorbing plot and some beautifully-executed, long-overdue in-game enhancements, 'Final Fantasy X' ought to have been the standard-bearing Mega-Game that we all expected it to be.
Sadly, thanks in no small part to a VERY limiting control system and very little room for gameplay freedom, FF X instead descends into the Bargain Bin of Pretty Games Sans Substance.
Players control a young man named Tidus, a blond-haired juvenile-voiced Blitzball player, who, after his city is attacked by an evil force called Sin, his guardian Auran takes him to another world to uncover his heritage and save the universe from Sin. From there you get to recruit bigger and better players and there is, as always, a multitude of nice extras and side-quests that. in theory, add colour and excitement to the game.
First, the good points. The graphics are astounding, with large, beautifully-detailed characters and bad guys maintaining a very impressive frame-rate on-screen. Music is fairly standard FF fare, stirring battle tunes and o-so-sweet ballady tracks adding much atmosphere to the proceedings. The voice acting has been unfairly criticised, it's good, and a hugely welcome change from endless reams of text to wade through. It's also easier to remember plot points when you hear them, and there's no danger of skipping over them with a Cancel button. However, this is customisable, and you can have the audio with or without subtitles.
The plot, on paper, is one of the best FF plots around - detailed and complex, without being confusing, it's the stuff of solid games legends.
Unfortunately, though, none of these points can save FF X from the in-game mechanics, and this is where FF X fails badly. The shrines and cityscapes of FF X are beautifuly detailed and bear exploring, and the fact that one can learn the language of Al Bhed are excellent points, both worthy of exploring at one's leisure. However, thanks to the hugely restrictive game-on-rails nature of FF X, it's oftentimes impossible to go where you want to go, or to prepare for the bigger battles. This affects the storyline, too, as major events for the first part of the game are few and far between, and so fighting beasties to build up your levels becomes such a chore.
Plodding along, you very quickly get a sense of not having much to do with the game itself, that you're just there to watch events unfold and press the X button intermittently. And for some gamers, that's fine, but aftermagnificent titles like FF VII and FF IX, it's not really good enough for a FF sequel. Also, Blitzball is possibly one of the most over-complicated side quests ever, really worthy of being a game in itself.
A disappointment that could so very easily have been an unequivocal classic, FF X is really a rent-before-you-buy title.
1748551
I really enjoyed this, but the lack of expanded basing, as in the original, and a bit too much "forced conformity" left me wistful for better customization and open ended game play.
1030368
I picked this up on a whim after seeing it on sale and hearing the game praised by a lot of users despite the poor critical reviews.  The game is decently fun to play, but in the end feels thoroughly uninspired and clunky.  Most of the gameplay consists of standard hack n' slash, though the lack of a lock-on button hurts a little.  The majority of the enemies are things called Shades.  They're extremely repetitive; think Heartless from Kingdom Hearts except there's only one kind with slight variations like size or armor.  Occasionally you'll fight something else like wolves or robots but most of the time it's just Shades everywhere.  Speaking of repetitive, there are only a couple dungeons in the game.  To prevent the game from being too short, you have to do the same dungeons multiple times, just with stronger enemies.  I can't think of a reason for this beyond lack of budget, which wouldn't be a surprise.

There a couple things done to break up the repetition like a dungeon composed entirely of puzzles, a short portion of the game that's entirely text-based, or sections that change the camera angle, but they don't make much of a difference overall.  The high point of the game are the boss fights, which often shift between gameplay and action sequences as your character rips apart whatever giant monster you're facing piece by piece, though they're still hindered by strange "if you don't kill the boss now it's going to regain 25% of its health" elements that got old fast.  There's also a lot of side quests to do, but most of them offer only cash as a reward, which I never really ran low on.

The graphics are mediocre; better than most PS2 games but I can't say much good about them beyond that, and the presentation tends to be poor too.  I laughed how at one point one character was dying while another yelled "There's so much blood!  I can't stop it!" when there was no blood visible.  The soundtrack on the other hand is great and includes a lot of vocal pieces that do an excellent job of setting the mood.

The premise of the game is that a girl has a rare, deadly illness and her father (you) sets out to somehow find a cure.  Along the way you encounter some truly bizarre companions including a pompous book, a foul-mouthed scantily-clad woman, and a young boy with powerful magic.  The story was decent but left a lot of things open.  I expect most of them were explained after you replay the game and get the other endings but after beating it once I didn't feel up to doing it again.  For a seemingly low-budget JRPG the voice actings is actually quite good, though besides the four main characters there are very few others that actually say anything.

Overall I'd give this game a 5/10.  It does one thing (soundtrack) very well but everything else is either mediocre or poor.
2091127
The Assassin's Creed Chronicles games are interesting. One one hand, they play as beautiful, stealth 2.5d sidescrollers, while on the other hand they can be repetitive, tedious, annoying games that like to test your patience.

A note to those buying these as fans of the Assassin's Creed series. These are not very similar at all to the main line games, with no real resemblance besides the overarching story and a few cameo appearances. Just because you like Assassin's Creed does not mean you will like these games.

Story: The story for each of the three protagonists is basic at best. Most center around the general stories of revenge, betrayal, and needing to find a mysterious object. Cutscenes generally just provide the justification for what is needed to do next, and only through the database's entries can you really flesh out the story. 3/5 stars.

Visuals and Audio: The visuals for this game are very good. Each different story has a different location, and while the gameplay is generally the same, the environments differ from eachother greatly. Cutscenes are done in a comic-book style way with vibrant colors and ornate designs. Each environment is beautifully crafted and very detailed. As for sound, the noises sound realistic and authentic, although the odd one out will sound fake. Overall the visuals and audio are one of the better parts of the games. 4/5

Gameplay: This is whether or not you will really enjoy this game. Some decisions were made regarding gameplay that can make the game very tedious and boring. If you didn't like following someone in the main line assassin's creed games, chances are you'll like it even less here. Do you enjoy instant fail stealth situations where it seems almost impossible at times? Even worse though is the combat. If you do happen to get spotted, the frustrating combat will make you want to reattempt the scenario so you don't have to go through the impossibly hard combat. (The combat itself isn't too hard, but the waves of enemies that come when you are detected makes it almost impossible to get out alive.)

As far as the gameplay, the chronicles series isn't bad as a stealth game, being patient and waiting for the correct time to strike. However, if you come in thinking you can counter kill your way out of every situation, you are sadly mistaken. The platforming is also surprisingly well done, and the game functions well in that regard. 4/5

Would recommend if: You're a fan of stealth games, you're patient, enjoy a challenge
Would not recommend if: You would rather kill everyone, you get frustrated easily, and you play games to relax.
169604
This is a good Swan Song for the 360 (next to AC Rogue). It has all of the elements of a "worth the money" campaign extending for a good 30+ hours. Additionally, there is a high replay factor given the leveling system - changing weapon runes and character upgrades will have dramatic effects on game play. Game play which does not get old given the scalable nature of the upgrades + finishing options. On the down side, the 360 version of this game does suffer from lack of CPU - utilizing the select/start screens is a 5 minute commitment and any cut scenes seem to cycle once or twice before kicking in. Moreover, the Wrath & Ranger dynamic can be confusing in both the story and the game play. There simply is no overlap between the stories or play styles - you will feel like disjointed strangers flip flopping between stealth and frontal attacks. Overall, the story is thin; but, chatting up Golem was enough to keep me interested. It is an interesting game with a lot of quality mechanics; however, the environment (basically Mordor) is barren, desolate and an all around downer.
1553727
The gameplay and visuals are amazing. There is enough action to keep you busy and the controls are simple to get around. After about three hours of playing this game I noticed alot of the missions are generic and repetitive. I am taking the good path this time around, and next time will try the evil. After that I think it won't have any replay value whatsoever. Check it out though, very much fun.
4602717
Pluses:  Good graphics, helpful map, variety of unique scenes, reasonably interesting story line, nice length, will enjoy playing again sometime, and currently - great price!

Minuses:  Not sure who all the characters were for quite a while..., and IMO it is not recommended that game writers nag the player with such remarks as "I'm wasting time!" when we might decide we are indeed 'wasting time' playing their game (now 'our' game since we bought the danged thing).  Another and on-going gripe is calling razor blades "razors", but then they all do that.
1207928
There's a good game lost somewhere in the maze of often-boring puzzles and confusingly huge map areas that is 'Primal'. An excellent, original storyline, likeable characters and a good control system can't save it from its flaws, however, and unfortunately this game never gets past Mediocre.
In terms of general atmosphere and game-environment the closest comparison I can make is with 'Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver'. Like LOK, Primal has an involving, gothic storyline, and lush, detailed areas to explore. The addition of a 'Buddy' system in Primal is also a welcome change, particularly since you can change between Jen (the protagonist) and Scree, her gargoyle companion, at any time. Similar to LOK, the game employs a Warp-Gate system because of its vast size, and to a point, this also works will, becuase the map system is so good. The graphics are sumptuous and the sound and voice acting is top-notch.
So far, so good.
Where Primal fails is in its over-ambition. It's a huge, sprawling game, and the first half of it is full of dangerously-difficult enemies and confusing arenas. This is remedied somewhat by the inclusion of a save-anywhere feature but I defy all but the most dedicated players to complete Primal without resorting to a wlakthrough. Also, because the difficulty levels are so steep (until Jen gains any kind of power worth mentioning) the enemies are sparse, and this is somewhat boring. The puzzles are plentiful, and none are too difficult, but a few more bad guys to waste would have been a great addition. Technically, there are some minor glitches, but in a game of this size, it's no big deal.
I can really only recommend Primal to people who love a good story and are willing to put up with some very dull gameplay to hear it. It's a beautiful, original game with some excellent qualities, but sadly can't compare to LOK in terms of action or interest.