Post by Gilvan Blight on Feb 14, 2008 16:16:01 GMT -5
A couple quick reviews as it's been quite some time since I have written any.
[glow=red,2,300]Mass Effect[/glow] - the latest RPG from Bioware.
Lives up to the hype. The best Sci-Fi RPG I have played. Like a mix of Knights of the Old Republic and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. Stunning graphics, great voice acting, solid gameplay and an amazing story. There are a few issues though: the stupid hit the button mini game is used way too often. It's used for opening crates, to dueling with AI's and you will be very sick of it, especially when you know you hit the right buttons but you fail anyway. There are also some collision issues. At least 10 times while playing my character would get stuck in a place where he could no longer move and I had to re-set the system. Even with these two major flaws I still loved the game. It may just be the first BioWare game I play through more then once just to see where alternate decisions get me. On a final note it's cool to see they did a morality game where you aren't necessarily light or dark, good or evil, you get points in both Paragon and Renegade and can work on developing both or either, they aren't mutually exclusive.
Overall - an excellent game with a few bugs that can be easily overlooked once you get involved in the story. Due to the FPS combat style though I can't recommend it to regular console RPG fans.
[glow=red,2,300]Just Cause[/glow] - GTA in the Caribbean.
This is an open form game in the style of Grand Theft Auto. When I first played the demo of this it felt like an Action movie video game. This was mainly due to the insane stunts you can perform like Base Diving, parachuting onto moving cars, standing on the roofs of moving cars and jumping from car to car, etc. Once in the game proper I found it less of an Action movie and more like GTA. You play an undercover American agent on a series of Caribbean Islands. These islands have recently been taken over by an Evil Despot and your overall goal is to kill the new 'El Presedente. Along the way to you will work with the local peoples army and help la revolution. You will also work two drug cartels against each other, and cause about as much mayhem as possible. The game is a mix of open ended sandbox and linear missions. Overall it's the most fun I have had with a car stealing run and gun game since GTA III. It has a lot of the same issues that the GTA series has though. Questionable collision algorithms being one of the worst. You also spend a long time driving or walking from place to place, so much so that it reminds me a bit of trying to get somewhere in Final Fantasy Online. Unlock-able vehicle drops help this problem, but you will still probably spend more time driving around the massive gameplay area then you will shooting people and doing missions. The biggest problem with this one though is the fact you can't save anywhere. You have to get to a safehouse, and they are fairly few and far between.
Overall - a fun game in the style of GTA, with a Caribbean drug war and guerrilla rebellion as back drop. I find it fun in small doses but can't play it all night. I'll pop it in, free a few settlements, complete a mission and maybe do one collect quest then turn it off, only to pick the game up a couple days later and do the same.
[glow=red,2,300]Mass Effect[/glow] - the latest RPG from Bioware.
Lives up to the hype. The best Sci-Fi RPG I have played. Like a mix of Knights of the Old Republic and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six. Stunning graphics, great voice acting, solid gameplay and an amazing story. There are a few issues though: the stupid hit the button mini game is used way too often. It's used for opening crates, to dueling with AI's and you will be very sick of it, especially when you know you hit the right buttons but you fail anyway. There are also some collision issues. At least 10 times while playing my character would get stuck in a place where he could no longer move and I had to re-set the system. Even with these two major flaws I still loved the game. It may just be the first BioWare game I play through more then once just to see where alternate decisions get me. On a final note it's cool to see they did a morality game where you aren't necessarily light or dark, good or evil, you get points in both Paragon and Renegade and can work on developing both or either, they aren't mutually exclusive.
Overall - an excellent game with a few bugs that can be easily overlooked once you get involved in the story. Due to the FPS combat style though I can't recommend it to regular console RPG fans.
[glow=red,2,300]Just Cause[/glow] - GTA in the Caribbean.
This is an open form game in the style of Grand Theft Auto. When I first played the demo of this it felt like an Action movie video game. This was mainly due to the insane stunts you can perform like Base Diving, parachuting onto moving cars, standing on the roofs of moving cars and jumping from car to car, etc. Once in the game proper I found it less of an Action movie and more like GTA. You play an undercover American agent on a series of Caribbean Islands. These islands have recently been taken over by an Evil Despot and your overall goal is to kill the new 'El Presedente. Along the way to you will work with the local peoples army and help la revolution. You will also work two drug cartels against each other, and cause about as much mayhem as possible. The game is a mix of open ended sandbox and linear missions. Overall it's the most fun I have had with a car stealing run and gun game since GTA III. It has a lot of the same issues that the GTA series has though. Questionable collision algorithms being one of the worst. You also spend a long time driving or walking from place to place, so much so that it reminds me a bit of trying to get somewhere in Final Fantasy Online. Unlock-able vehicle drops help this problem, but you will still probably spend more time driving around the massive gameplay area then you will shooting people and doing missions. The biggest problem with this one though is the fact you can't save anywhere. You have to get to a safehouse, and they are fairly few and far between.
Overall - a fun game in the style of GTA, with a Caribbean drug war and guerrilla rebellion as back drop. I find it fun in small doses but can't play it all night. I'll pop it in, free a few settlements, complete a mission and maybe do one collect quest then turn it off, only to pick the game up a couple days later and do the same.