PC Game Review: Tomb Raider (2013)

TOMB RAIDER
Platform: PC (Steam)
Released: 2013
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Publisher: Square Enix
Buy on Steam

Tomb Raider definitely has a special place in my heart. I grew up with the Tomb Raider games on PC and Lara has always been a bit of an idol for me and an inspiration to follow my dreams and do what I want and not letting anything get in my way. The Tomb Raider games, from 1 to Chronicles, all share the same excellent gameplay that in a great way blended action with adventure and to this day they remain some of my favourite games. And while Angel of Darkness was an indisputable failure, TR Legend and onward all felt like great Tomb Raider games. However, for Lara's new adventure, she is reborn from scratch, given an entirely new look and personality. Square Enix has taken the chance to make a proper Tomb Raider reboot, giving her an origin story where she transforms from a shy bookworm into the bad ass adventuress that she is known to be. What they did was create probably the best Tomb Raider game yet and something entirely different from what fans of the series have come to expect. So naturally, going into this game with any expectations would not be doing it justice. You'll simply have to take it for what it is, and what it is, is one of the most gripping origin stories I've played recently.

Lara acts and looks a lot more natural than ever in Tomb Raider 2013.

One of Tomb Raider's strengths is that of storytelling. Trapped on an island with her friends and no way to get away, Lara has to learn to survive in a harsh environment and she is more than often forced into bad situations she has to escape, and you can see these situations all affecting her, toughening her more and more as she goes along. The game's main focus lies on Lara's evolution and dynamic transformation and pretty much everything centers around watching her grow and mature, with several subtle details showing it. For one, as she starts out, she'll act with regret when killing someone and doesn't seem used to it. However, as the game progresses, she slowly adjusts and even starts to enjoy it near the end. She'll look increasingly bruised and scratched and her clothes will start to deteriorate from damage and such. One of the most beautiful things about this game is that we discover Lara's latent abilities and instincts together with her naturally as we play and it builds a very strong empathic connection with her that is unlike most games I've played lately, and the game does so without ever putting you directly in Lara's shoes. The game is constantly third person and Lara will act smart enough to do certain things on her own, such as going into stealth automatically when enemies are nearby or light a torch before a dark area, regardless of whether you do it or not. However, she never does anything that seems counter-intuitive or intrusive and you are still very much in control of her actions.

Afraid of heights? Me too...

The gameplay is very reliant on quick time events and most actions require these to be performed in some manner, and whether this is a flaw or not depends entirely on your taste. The quick time events during certain boss battles did feel very intrusive and not very intuitive at first and ended up stalling the game a bit for me. I often died simply because I didn't time the events or perform them correctly, or quite simply didn't react fast enough. However once I got into the game these quick time events became like second nature to me and adjusting to them was easy enough. It's only a minor annoyance and nothing that broke the game for me, thankfully. Otherwise the game plays mostly like a third person shooter, similar to the old Tomb Raider games, though your weapons often fulfill more functions than just being used for killing, and some tools serve functions beyond what they're meant for. 

Most of the game centers on exploring the island and you get XP rewards for finding salvage, which  you can use to upgrade your weapons, hunting animals and doing challenges. These challenges differ but mostly center around finding a certain number of objects of some kind. Every so often you will level up and gain a skill point, which can be used to teach Lara a new skill. However, the most striking thing about Tomb Raider is that it made me rethink about killing my enemy. At one point, an enemy was crushed under rubble, dying from the wounds. I stood there, holding the machine gun I took from him, aiming at him, but I hesitated. I couldn't shoot him. I heard him saying "stay with me" and... I felt sorry for him. I lowered my gun and watched him die and after that I actually cried a bit. It was a very intense moment from the game that I will never forget. Later on in the game as Lara kills more enemies, they start talking about her as you listen in on their conversations and some of them even start to fear her. The game is just full of fascinating details like that. There is also a multiplayer mode, a first in the main series, where you can select several characters and compete in team deathmatches and other modes. While I haven't played the multiplayer extensively, what I played was fun and went smooth without any lag or dropouts. However, a part of me can't help but wonder who at Square Enix demanded this mode to exist. I mean, most people play Tomb Raider for the single player experience so why the multiplayer? It's obviously a bit of a tacked on afterthought to extend the game's life, although like I said, the multiplayer is done well and I have no complaints about it.

Lara's weapon of choice throughout most of the game is the re-curve bow, which serves several purposes beyond killing.

The graphics in Tomb Raider are simply outstanding and some of the best this generation. On high end PC's you can even enable TressFX which makes Lara's hair incredibly lifelike, each hair moving separately. At times the game is breath taking as the sheer scope of the island is enormous and the locations all have their own feel to them. It does feel like the old Tomb Raider games where Lara would go to different locations, however in this game all of them are centered on just one island so there's still a very unifying feel to them and you can revisit them as many times as you like, even after the main game is over, to complete challenges and such. One flaw is that the graphics are actually so natural and lifelike that you can get lost easily in this game. Unlike previous games, the level design can feel a bit confusing since it's supposed to look realistic. Of course, I actually kind of like this feeling, and after a while I instinctively began to look for clues in the terrain and ended up not really using the survival instinct key at all which is more or less a "hint key" in this game. The characters are all well designed and feel like they have depth and personality to them. The facial animation definitely holds up well and this game did manage to get a few tears out of me at times.

The voice acting is incredible too, especially Lara's voice actress. In the past, Lara has always been given a very cold voice, but in this game, she shows a much broader spectrum of emotions. The performance left quite an impression on me and is probably one of my favorite game roles of the year. The other voice actors do very well too and overall, the sound in this game is incredible. The music though feels a bit forgettable, especially when held up against the original Tomb Raider music. The game did a nice throwback to the original Tomb Raider theme, though most of it I couldn't even remember and it felt more like background ambiance. This is just a taste thing though. The music wasn't horrible, it just wasn't memorable.


SUMMARY:
GRAPHICS: 10/10
This is possibly one of the best looking games this year, definitely up there with Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite in terms of just featuring breath-taking visuals. The details on Lara's hair, outfit and the environment is incredible on a medium to high end PC and I strongly recommend playing this game on PC over consoles because of the increased detail.
SOUND: 9/10
An outstanding and unforgettably emotional performance from
Camilla Luddington lends Lara Croft some humanity at last and the sound effects all add to the atmosphere
of the island. The music is good but sadly not that memorable at all. It mostly serves to enhance the mood
rather than create it, which is the only thing I personally dislike about the sound and something I miss
from the older games.
GAMEPLAY: 9/10
The quick time events annoyed me a bit, but otherwise the game feels like a very good modern
action/adventure game, in the same vein as Uncharted. The incredible story kept me going until the end
and I loved every second of it.

FINAL SCORE: 9/10

This is one of the best games I've played and the best Tomb Raider game I've played. While the
unforgetable music and sometimes annoying quicktime events keep me from giving it a perfect
10/10 score, this game is SO close to perfection for me.
It's gritty, dark, emotional and feels like a true survival mission. Watching Lara Croft mature into the
legend she is and how she survives the worst odds is a fascinating and unforgettable experience and one I
plan to replay more than once.
If you're at all interested in action/adventure games, if you're a Tomb Raider fan or not, get this game. I
strongly recommend it as it is one of the best this year.

- Alyxx

PC Game Review: Aliens: Colonial Marines

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES
Platform: PC (Steam)
Released: 2013
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Gearbox Software
Publisher: Sega
Buy on Steam

"In space, no one can hear you curse."

I consider myself a pretty huge fan of Alien. Not just the first two movies but I can even say I find qualities about Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection that I like (the latter being Winona Ryder and I know how much everyone hated her in that movie but I thought she did great). Of course when it comes to games, I've always wanted a true Alien game. We've gotten plenty from the Aliens vs Predator franchise but never has there been a true Aliens game. That is until Gearbox announced they were working on what would essentially be the first true Aliens shooter and even a sequel to the hit movies Aliens and Alien 3. Seeing all of this I couldn't help but feeling the hype. I looked at what they showed us, what was told and I wanted to believe so badly that this game was going to be great. I wanted it to be the best sci-fi horror FPS out there, I think we all did. And that was the impression I got from the demo footage. I pre-ordered the collector's edition and paid about 90$ for it, placing my trust in these guys that they could make a game worth the price. In short... they didn't. However while others have been trashing this game, I still found some things about it I liked. But let's get the negative things out of the way first.

You'll most frequently find yourself dying from acid burn as the armor even at 100% capacity can't take it...

The most obvious flaw about ACM is the broken AI. Ranging from tolerable to outright frustrating, I frequently found my team mates standing right in front of their enemy just firing away and getting killed and most of the time they were utterly useless, or even just firing blindly at cover like a retard when an enemy was hiding. Playing this game offline is an experience in bad AI unlike most games I've played lately and even with the latest patch there are still glaring issues with it. The aliens themselves aren't even that frightening, most of the time they act completely like bugs even if the movies prove they have the capacity of independent thought. They are stronger in numbers since that allows them to confuse you and get the better of you. Facing one of them they usually go down in a few shots, which needless to say is the most disappointing aspect about this game. If you at ALL expect a sci-fi horror game, you're going to be majorly disappointed. This game is balls out sci-fi action all the way, even more so than the Aliens movie which was pretty action-focused to begin with. The levels are pretty much all about fighting hordes of aliens and surviving and there's barely any real horror to it. The aliens also can easily get very cheap kills on you due to the bad programming and I died a LOT due to either just getting acid on me or being meleed by an alien. It felt cheap and like I died because of the game and not because it was my own fault. This is obviously a huge issue that is hard to play around and avoiding getting close to the aliens is a must, or just balls out melee'ing them before they get the chance to do the same to you. In co-op most of these issues are further exacerbated by lag issues that causes the timing to get screwed and my co-op partners frequently died because of simply not being able to defend themselves against essentially teleporting xenos.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

The story isn't exactly great either, but it does the job and offers a few new interesting twists on the Aliens universe. It has you going back to locations from the first two movies while the Weyland Yutani corporation tries to screw you over by sending mercenary soldiers after you. This is another criticism I commonly find about the game, most people comparing this to "making the game like Call of Duty" however I actually like the mercenary soldiers. They definitely do a good job making Weyland Yutani a far more threatening force than in the movies, and the mercenary forces are far more powerful than the aliens in this game and offer most of the competition you'll find since some of them carry heavy weaponry and unlike the aliens, don't jump around or teleport as much, instead using cover and trying to outsmart you. It's an interesting concept, of course hampered by the bad AI, but something I enjoyed nonetheless as I feel the game would have been boring just fighting xenomorphs. I was very happy to see some roles return from the movie, such as Michael Biehn reprising his role as Hicks (he was my favourite non-Ripley character from the movie), and Lance Henriksen as Bishop. The other characters aren't as interesting sadly and most of them feel a bit like cookie cutter stereotypes. The lack of roleplaying also is a bit of an issue. You're essentially tied to the role of Winter throughout the single player campaign whether you play co-op or not and there is no option to choose which marine you want to play and you're basically just given one. And the ending is definitely a bit disappointing and leaving me with a bit of an empty feeling.

"They mostly cum at night... mostly..."

However all of the levels are done with a great deal of atmosphere, at one point you have to sneak around without weapons and this part actually got me quite immersed and felt scary as hell. And several times I just admired the locations and set pieces in the game, especially the space jockey and the derelict, which was probably my favourite level. The Giger-esque design is as timeless and alien as ever and it felt just like being inside the movie. The graphics have also been really improved by the latest patch and the lighting is really good. The weapons are also really good, all of them feeling part of the universe. Firing the pulse rifle the first time and hearing that modulated sound I had a small fangasm, I must admit and the guns all feel great to fire. And while you are limited to carrying a primary and secondary weapon as well as a sidearm, you can access a weapon menu wheel any time to switch out your gear in-game so you technically have constant access to all in-game weapons which I love. Other shooters should take note of this function! I also love the increased variety in xenomorphs, having not only the drones but also spitters, tanks and even a reprise from a new alien queen... The sound design is spot on with the xenos sounding exactly like they did in the movies, and as mentioned the pulse rifle sound is as classic as ever in this game and all of the weapons have very good sounds, especially the FWOOOSH of the flamethrower. Music is very close to how it was in the movies and adds a ton to the already thick atmosphere and I really loved it.

Oh crap...

The versus multiplayer is where the game shines. Taking away the bad spawning and unbalanced teams from AVP 2010, ACM offers a few interesting game modes and all of them feel fun to play. You can also here customize your character with skins and loadouts and thank god, I was able to play a female marine in this mode and customize her as much as I wanted. This is easily my favourite part of the game. If I want to blast some aliens with my friends, I just play some TDM in ACM and it works well. I have few complaints about this mode altogether and I think they did a great job with it. The xenos might feel a bit weird to play at first, especially if you're used to the controls from AVP, but I got used to them pretty quickly. The best thing of course about versus is that the AI is basically non existant since everyone are human players and it makes the aliens feel way more natural.

No thanks, not into Facerape, vagina-face.

SUMMARY
GRAPHICS: 8/10
With the latest patch, this game oozes atmosphere like alien drool. Lighting is great, and the locations from the movies are recreated and still manage to feel fresh and different. The only criticism are the character models who definitely look a bit flat and under-developed at times. For a game from 2013, this is really below the standard but it's tolerable.
SOUND: 10/10
Nothing bad to say about it. Everything is really true to the essence of the movies, from the xeno noises to the weapon sounds to the music.
GAMEPLAY: 4/10
This is where the game lacks the most. Everything is hampered by terrible AI, co-op lag issues, and just the fact the game feels both too easy and too hard at the same time and feels really unbalanced because of the many cheap deaths you experience. In multiplayer most of these issues are fairly non-existant though, which is the only saving grace.

FINAL SCORE: 6/10
I really want to recommend this game but for full price I can't. If you find it at around 10-30$ I'd say buy it if you're an alien fan. If not, you're probably better off staying away from this game as the terrible broken AI really ruins the overall experience. But there are still a lot of things in here to like if you're a fan of Alien and Aliens, and the multiplayer is something I enjoy about it. Overall the game is not bad, but it's not good either and falls just above average for me.

- Alyxx

Console Review: Sega Mega Drive / Genesis

A lot of people who grew up in the late 80's and early 90's undoubtedly remember the Genesis, or Mega Drive as it was known everywhere else in the world except for the US, and it's one of the 16bit consoles with the longest lifespan, together with the SNES. The reason I think is that it had a lot of great games for it, mostly pretty decent arcade conversions like Afterburner, Altered Beast and Golden Axe. And of course, we have the Sonic the Hedgehog games which in many ways I prefer to Mario games, but I like both equally.



Due to the popularity of the Mega Drive you can easily find it on eBay and other auction sites, and probably the odd second hand store and yard sale will feature one. It's very affordable and there are several versions of it. The model 1 Mega Drive is the biggest one and features a stereo sound headphone output which you can also plug to your TV to get proper stereo sound for your games. The Mega Drive II is a bit smaller, and doesn't feature stereo sound output, and the Mega Drive 3 is even smaller and also has limited compability with several addons for the console, such as the Mega CD and the 32X. There was also a version released by AtGames recently, which is basically just an emulator with a cart reader and gamepad ports, and features very lackluster sound output, also in mono. This one is not recommended if you're a fan of the console. In my opinion you should get the model 1 if you can.

What I like about the games themselves is that they are very affordable and easy to find complete in the original boxes. This is largely because Sega used plastic boxes for their games, kinda like the covers for VHS tapes. Nintendo on the other hand used cheap cardboard boxes that most people just threw away so if you want to find a complete SNES game it's probably going to cost you a lot more. Mega Drive games in general tend to be much cheaper than SNES or NES games so collecting for the console is very affordable, excluding the really rare games like Duke Nukem 3D and MUSHA.

There's a ton of different accessories for the console, and a lot of controller variations. There exists several turbo controllers, six button controllers and so on, even adapters that allow up to 4 players playing simultaneously, a must-have for party games like Bomberman. As previously mentioned you can also find the Mega CD addon which allows you to play optimized CD-ROM games and also regular music CD's, my favourite Mega CD games being Android Assault, Silpheed and of course Sonic CD. The 32X addon has a lot of games with advanced graphics such as Doom and Star Wars Arcade, but in general isn't worth having unless you're an avid collector.

While the Mega Drive might not have the legendary library of Nintendo, it does feature a ton of great games and it's a great console that I highly recommend to retro gamers as it's very affordable to collect for and finding complete boxed games is very easy.

- Alyxx

PC Game Review: Need For Speed: Most Wanted

NEED FOR SPEED: MOST WANTED
Platform: PC (Origin)
Released: 2012
Genre: Racing
Developer: Criterion
Publisher: EA
Buy on Origin

I grew up with the Need For Speed games. In the 90's, these games offered the perfect mix of great famous cars, fun gameplay and awesome music, all presented with sleek graphics and a lot of other neat stuff. Lately I feel the franchise has fallen down from grace a bit with titles like the NFS Underground games that were okay games but I just couldn't get into them. And don't get me started on Need For Speed Shift, which is just way too realistic and simmy for me. Although when Criterion, creator of the Burnout games (which are some of my favourite racers), were brought in and made 2010's re-imagining of Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit, I felt the franchise was back on track. Hot Pursuit 2010 was a great game with awesome graphics that brought me back to the 90's and reminded me of just how fun and simple these games used to be. You see, Need For Speed to me has always been about balancing fun and realism and that's always been the main draw for me to the franchise. And with the new Most Wanted, Criterion is back to bring Need For Speed into a more social realm, adding multiplayer and making Autolog a much more central feature, but still keeping what made Hot Pursuit such a great title. Is it worth it? Let's find out, shall we?

A lot of races start off with a stylish cinematic that adds a bit of flair to the game.

Most Wanted doesn't really have a story or plot per se, which is probably wise seeing as forcing plots into racers is something I usually disapprove of and most of the time I wouldn't give a rat's ass about the story either way. From what I gather though, the game is all about racing to become the Most Wanted, beating all the other 10 most wanted racers of the city and becoming the top by beating them personally. The game is fairly basic in that sense but there is still quite a lot to do.

Quite ingeniously, the game starts right off with you in your first car and you get a few tutorials to begin with that ease you into the game. I thought this was quite nice as each time you boot the game up, you just go right into it. The basic goal is to drive around, finding car hotspots to add to your collection, and upgrade these cars with new mods like boosts and tires and such by winning races of different kinds. In the game you have something called SP (Speed Points I think) and you get SP by completing races, doing challenges, getting milestones (basically achievements) and other nice things. In other words, the game has a wonderful sense of freedom about it, very similar to Burnout Paradise in a sense that you are free to roam about as you wish, doing takedowns on cops or just smashing through billboards and gates, although in order to progress the game you most likely have to do events.

An example of driving to an event and entering it.

 You find events by using the EasyDrive menu at the top corner, although usually when you get a new car and at the beginning of the game, an event is chosen for you. EasyDrive is actually quite a nifty feature as it keeps you in the game and you don't have to fiddle around that much with menus and can pretty much change cars, find events, customize your car, go into multiplayer and other things pretty much while driving, just using your d-pad. Once you pick an event, the event is marked on your minimap and you have to drive to it to enter it. Another practical feature is that you can sort of fast-travel to events you've already done so if you pick up another car and need to redo an event, you can do so easily by just quickstarting the race from the EasyDrive menu rather than having to drive to the location all over again. Once the event is completed you are pretty much seamlessly dropped back into the game world again and you can go on driving, pick another event and pretty much do whatever you want. All in all the single player is quite enjoyable and if you have other friends who play the game, Autolog keeps track of their achievements as well so you can compete with them. There is a discernable lack of visual customization in single player though which is a shame as I would love to be able to put decals and various paint styles on my cars and really make them my own. Instead the only way you can change the colour of your car (and also repair it if it's damaged) is by driving through pit stops along the way that are marked on your map and it's always a random colour. It's a bit annoying to be honest. Another thing is that while you can customize all the controls, I couldn't customize one certain key that is used a lot during the game and had to always press Right Control to use its function, quite annoying when I prefer using my gamepad for all the functions and I think most gamers would too. Another small nitpick I want to point out is that you'll crash. A lot. For some reason, traffic cars are DEADLY to you while other racers and cops can easily be taken down at high speed. But regular traffic can often make you crash violently. I have no idea why regular traffic cars are so extremely secure but it's kind of annoying. While crashing doesn't make the game stop or anything you get a small penalty with a "CRASHED" screen, so it is still quite annoying.

Some events are pure races, others are about losing the cops. Here it's all about maintaining the highest speed.

Multiplayer is quite similar to single player although it has quite a few differences. While I haven't played it as much as I probably should, from what I gather, you find a public server with other people on it and you can race around, doing takedowns on each other for points and as you get points, you can upgrade your cars (which are a fixed set from what I gather) and customize your signplate. In multiplayer, events are timed and you have to drive to a meet up, upon the players there will take part in the event once it starts and you can't leave it. I don't know if you can select which event you wanna do as it seems to be forced, so I really wish there was a way of choosing from multiple events or at least implement a voting system so that players could vote on what event they wanted to do. It's not always I wanna do takedown matches, sometimes I just wanna race. You can also create private games for friends although I haven't fully tested this feature yet, I assume it's similar to public matches only that it's limited to friends only.

Get used to seeing this a lot.

There is one major flaw about the multiplayer I would like to point out though and I am not sure if this will be fixed in a patch, but there is absolutely no options in the menu regarding voice chat and it's pretty much always on by default. The only way to mute it is by manually using the EasyDrive menu to mute your fellow players one by one and it's time consuming, unnecessary and shouldn't have to be done just so you won't have to listen to a bunch of noise while driving. This is a huge flaw about the multiplayer in my opinion and really puts me off playing it as it's quite annoying to go into a public match and just be bombarded by lots of noise and feedback, especially since it's utterly useless when you don't use voice chat yourself. There should also have been an option to use a text chat window for those who prefer that, especially on the PC version where players have access to keyboards. There's just a lot lacking in this department, and in a game that focuses so much on social activity, it should've been mandatory to include alternate ways of communicating. I really hope they do add more options for voice chat in a future patch because as of now, it really is off-putting and having to manually mute players as they join is tedious.

SHUT UP! I'm trying to hear Skrillex!

The graphics are quite nice and you get a lot of options to customize them to your PC, although for some reason I found that the game does not run above 30 FPS and is capped at 30 FPS for some reason. It's nothing major but for a racing game, I would love to be able to play it at full 60 FPS to get better reaction times, but this is nothing major. I also found that there's a lot of glare from the sun in a lot of cases which is a nice realistic detail but it does obscure a lot of the view and can be a bit annoying. Otherwise the game is practically steaming with atmosphere, the asphalt looks real, rain and water effects splash of it and smoke comes off your tires as you drift.

Soundwise the game does a great job. The engine sounds are all varied and very typical of each car and you get a lot of realistic sound details. The soundtrack is also quite varied with songs from a lot of genres, ranging from rock to dubstep and a nice little feature is that while using nitrous, the music sort of phaseshifts or something into a much higher treble and it feels really cool. There's not much else to say about it.

The graphics are really good at adding atmosphere and making the world feel real.

SUMMARY: 
Gameplay: 6/10
EasyDrive does a good job keeping you immersed in the game, the world feels big and you have a lot of freedom. Events are fun and have nice little cinematics that add some flair to them. Multiplayer on the other hand can be a bit forced and lack of options for voice chat makes it quite offputting when you hear a bunch of strangers talking when joining a public server and with no option to mute everyone. Autolog does a good job making the game competitive even in single player and for the most part the game is a great seamless experience and a very social game too. Elements from the Burnout series makes it feel like a lot of fun and keeps you playing even when doing bad.
Graphics: 8/10
As usual EA delivers a great looking racer with tons of atmosphere, weather effects, changes from day to night and so on. The only downside is the lack of changing the framerate so you're capped at 30 FPS which for a racing game is a bit of a shame.
Sound: 7/10
Awesome diverse soundtrack, great engine noises and support for Surround sound makes Most Wanted a very great experience sonically. The major thing that keeps it from being perfect is the lack of options for turning off voice chat which can really ruin the multiplayer experience.

All in all, Most Wanted is a fun and enjoyable social racer and takes what Criterion did with Autolog in Hot Pursuit and makes it a more central feature. The game is very immersive and seamless and apart from a few minor flaws the single player is highly recommended. The multiplayer is definitely ripe for improvements though and the lack of an option for turning off voice chat combined with forced events makes the multiplayer feel a bit lacking, although it is fun once you get into it and upgrading your cars is a lot of fun too and makes you feel like you are always progressing both in multiplayer and single player.

Final score: 7/10

- Alyxx

Top 10: Underrated Games

So I made a list of the top 10 games I find overrated. So I figured I might as well make a list of the games that I personally feel don't receive as much recognition as they deserve. Here's my top 10 list of underrated games!



10. TRON 2.0

While this game sort of branches on being underrated since it's actually sort of a cult hit, just like the movie it's inspired by, I feel it doesn't really receive as much recognition among FPS fans as it should. For one, the graphics, which were incredible back in 2003, are still pretty sweet today and with some fan made mods, you can run this game in full HD glory on your PC and it holds up incredibly well. It also felt like a better sequel to the 1982 movie than TRON Legacy was and in terms of style, keeps more in continuity with it too. As a movie-licensed game, it's one of the best I've played and as a game on its own, the gameplay just feels deeper and better than other FPS's of the time like Doom 3 or Half-Life 2 which relied far too much on gimmicks like horror and physics, whereas TRON 2.0 feels more like a proper FPS RPG hybrid set in the TRON universe. Multiplayer is also a lot of fun and if you ever dreamt of having a lightcycle match or disc game with your friends, you can do it here. If you're at all a TRON fan like me, you OWE it to yourself to play this game at least once and it still has a pretty active fan community.

9. Wario's Woods

When talking about puzzle games, you often mention games like Tetris, Bejeweled or Bust-A-Move. But rarely do I hear people talking about Wario's Woods on NES/SNES. It's definitely one of the most addictive puzzlers I've played and I remember playing it a lot in my childhood. You play as toad, going from tree to tree in Wario's Woods and the goal is pretty much to blast away rows of 2+ monsters either vertically, horizontally or diagonally using bombs given to you by Birdo. Birdo has a timer though and once it's run out, Wario will take over and start spamming more monsters to blast away and knock the tree to make a giant Thwomp at the top to fall down, each knock making it fall further and further down, making the game feel increasingly claustrophobic. It's a pretty good puzzler and can get quite hectic on later levels. Highly recommended!

8. Conduit 2

When talking about the Nintendo Wii, it's not often you talk about what First Person Shooters were good on it. Sure, the Call of Duty ports might have been decent if very stripped down and you did have Metroid Prime Trilogy on it which added a good amount of FPS action. But one of the franchises that I think did best on it was Conduit and Conduit 2 is definitely my favourite of the two games. It feels kind of like a mix of Halo and X-Files and does a good job getting the most out of the Wii hardware, even supporting surround sound and running in 480p mode. One of my favourite things about this game and that makes me prefer it over the original is that the protagonist is voiced by John St. John, famous for portraying Duke Nukem himself and he definitely adds a big cool factor to the hero. Conduit 1 and Conduit 2 are must-play games imo if you own a Wii.

7. Gunman Chronicles

When talking about Half-Life, I often feel like the game is kind of overrated. Sure, it did a lot of cool things and it is a good FPS but there is one game I actually feel is kind of superior to Half-Life and also used the exact same game engine. In fact, it started out as a Half-Life mod. Gunman Chronicles does a lot of really cool and actually quite inventive things that in my opinion made it a totally unique game and so much more than just a HL mod. For one, it gave you guns that you could customize, like customizing the spread and amount of shells to fire with your shotgun, or customizing your rocket launcher so you could make it into a grenade launcher if you wanted to, and use your grenades as trip mines if you set them correctly. Also, the setting of literally having cowboys in space makes it even more unique and I don't think I've ever seen a game have such unique and diverse levels before with such an interesting cast of characters. It's a really awesome mix of western and sci-fi and even cyberpunk that I think is incredibly cool. Definitely worth checking out if you can find a copy.

6. Syndicate

 

Syndicate is a game that sadly fell completely under the radar last year. Sure, it might have been a disappointing reboot to the fans and the heavy use of bloom might have thrown a lot of graphics-oriented people off, not to mention the PC port was kinda shoddy but this remains one of my favourite games of 2012 and favourite games of all time. It nails down the cyberpunk aesthetic and really made me hooked on the multiplayer. The more I play this game the more I just love how cool it looks and how well it makes me feel like part of a cyberpunk universe and I just can't help but think that I might be one of the few people who are still into this game. So yeah, I consider it kinda underrated.

 5. Eradicator

When you talk about mid 90's First Person Shooters, a lot of titles come to mind. Duke Nukem 3D, Doom, Quake, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone but me remembering Accolade's Eradicator. I remember playing a demo back in the day and just totally being sucked into it and since then I've just watched it fade into obscurity while better known games get all the credit. At the time, Accolade didn't have a good credit and granted this was probably their last really good game. It didn't help either that it used the Build engine and came out around the same time as Quake and failed to gather any audience since those who weren't into Quake were into Duke or Doom. Still it's a pretty solid FPS with a really good sci-fi atmosphere and worth looking into if you're into old FPS's.

4. Starfox Adventures

For some reason, Starfox Adventures is pretty much universally despised by the majority of gamers, especially Starfox fans. And while I guess I could see why since it doesn't really play like a Starfox game, actually it has more in common with Zelda than Starfox, I definitely don't agree that it is a BAD game. There is a LOT I love about Adventures, especially the whole atmosphere of adventure it has, that it takes time to set up a compelling universe and that it greatly expands upon the characters and mythology set by Starfox and Starfox 64. I remember reading about this game back in the day and actually being really hyped about it. I wanted to play a different Starfox game and to this day, I would still claim this game is pretty good. So screw the haters, it's worth at least one shot and you can get it cheap on ebay these days.

3. SiN

Oh... boy... you wanna talk underrated? Talk about fucking SiN. It's one of those games that I would like to call "Half-Life casualties", simply because it failed because it came out at the same time as Half-Life. Even though in many ways, SiN was a lot more groundbreaking in ways that Half-Life couldn't touch. SiN had actual missions where the outcome decided how your next level was gonna be like. You could enter it from another area, you could sometimes even find entirely new levels depending on how your mission went and for the time, this was mindblowing. Another thing that SiN did, WAY before games like Doom 3 made a huge deal out of it, was interactive in-game computers. That's right, in SiN, you could use computers. You could even go into a cute little DOS prompt and dig through the files to find passwords and hidden easter eggs and again, for the time, this was INCREDIBLE. I cannot even begin to state why I think SiN is probably the most underrated shooter of the 90's but there are lots of them. It's only sad that Half-Life stole the glory because I think SiN could really have taken it if it had gotten a bigger fanbase. To this day it remains one of my favourite games and I am still amazed at how much groundbreaking stuff they did back then. It also helps that unlike Gordon Freeman, John R. Blade actually talks and has a wonderful Duke Nukem esque attitude that just makes this game really awesome and in many ways, it feels like a lost Duke Nukem Forever. In fact, rumors has it that it started as a Duke Nukem game but grew into its own thing. Ironically, it got a sequel around the same time as Half-Life 2, using the Source engine. SiN Episodes: Emergence was the first of several planned episodes but sadly Ritual Entertainment got bought out and no further installments are planned in the series. I highly recommend checking SiN out because it's definitely an underrated classic in so many ways. It's so good, it's a sin.

2. Super Mario Bros. 2

SMB2 is often referred to as the black sheep of the original SMB trilogy. And why? Because when people found out that it actually is just a reskinned version of another game, they felt deceived. Thus, SMB2 is considered a bad SMB game. But hang on a sec, just because it's a reskinned version of another game, why does that automatically make it bad? I want to disagree here. I think it's actually a pretty good game and I've had a lot of fun with it. And for once, it was a game where you could play as several different characters, each with their own abilities and the difference between Mario and Luigi was much further established here and almost completely ignored in further installments were Luigi was reduced to a mere palette swap. It also introduced several other characters that are now canon as well as Birdo, the first transvestite in Mario history. Almost kinda fitting she comes from a game that is considered the freak of the franchise. Definitely an underrated game by all accounts.

1. Daikatana

 

With an ad campaign stating you were gonna become Romero's bitch, and with the hype train going insanely off track and with a development cycle that can only be described as total chaos, it's a wonder Daikatana even got released. And when it got released, it was an underwhelming game that looked really dated in comparison with other games of the time. Thus, Daikatana is widely considered one of the biggest failures in gaming and also one of the worst FPS's of all time. But personally, having played through the game and even writing a review of it, I would have to disagree. What Daikatana did at the time was simply mindboggling, it was trying to establish itself as a co-op FPS experience, something nearly no games to that point had tried. It was extremely ambitious and in a lot of ways, it sort of failed but this is definitely a game that I feel is incredibly underrated as I simply love how much variety there is in level design and weaponry, and how the RPG elements makes it feel like a deeper experience than Quake for instance, and how you build comradery with your companions. I really got immersed into this game and simply loved it and to me, Daikatana is the most underrated game of all time.

- Alyxx

PC Game Review: DOOM 3: BFG Edition

DOOM 3: BFG EDITION
Platform: PC (Steam)
Released: 2012
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: id Software
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Buy on Steam

The first person shooter genre is without a doubt one of the most prevalent game genres in the industry today and one of the games that truly popularized the genre and brought it into the mainstream was Wolfenstein 3D (of which you can read my review here). However where Wolfenstein 3D made the genre popular, DOOM was the game that for many years to come would define the genre for good and set the standards not only for the paradigms upon which single player shooters are made, but also the rules for how it would be played on the internet and being released with a much more open structure than its predecessor, DOOM was one of the first game to encourage its players to modify the game's content, to create not only their own maps but even their own games using the game engine. DOOM was in many respects id's first open game engine and it didn't take long before DOOMers all over the world started posting their own modifications to it. This practice was later perfected by id's game Quake, upon which the extremely successfull game Half-Life was based and the rest is history. With such a strong history in the PC gaming market and with such a strong connection the mod community, it is therefore weird to see id's focus shift towards a console audience and while this was definitely evident with their previous title RAGE which had probably the worst launch bugs I've ever seen with any PC game, rendering it pretty much unplayable the day I picked it up, and while DOOM 3: BFG Edition thankfully didn't suffer any launch bugs, it is evident that DOOM 3: BFG Edition is not aimed at the PC gamer crowd. What DOOM 3: BFG Edition basically is, is an excuse for id Software to release DOOM 1-3 in one package onto the XBox 360 and PS3 console, and thus the PC version ends up feeling a bit superfluous. This review will mostly focus on DOOM 3 although I will touch upon DOOM and DOOM 2 briefly.

The story in DOOM 3 is told quite efficiently. Similar to Half-Life, the game starts off like just another day at the job. You're an anonymous marine sent to Mars to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a worker, however you quickly notice that your employer, the Union Aerospace Corporation, are up to something fishy, diddling about with teleportation technology to some kind of unknown dimension, bringing back specimens and so on from this dimension. When you find the person you're looking for, who seems rather stirred up, all hell literally breaks loose as a portal to, you guessed it, hell opens up and lets in Satan's unholy offspring into the base. People start turning into zombies before your eyes, the base structure starts changing to resemble hell itself and all kinds of demon spawn are also popping up. It is pretty much a straight up rewrite of DOOM actually, although taking place on Mars instead of Phobos. The man responsible for the mess is Malcolm Betruger, who early on pretty much has a look that screams "badguy" a long way and you don't believe for one second he's not some kind of Satan worshiper so naturally, and this shouldn't be any spoiler to anyone since it's glaring obvious, it doesn't come as a big surprise when you realize he's in bed with the Devil himself and is responsible for all the experiments and teleports to hell and the whole invasion thing going on.  

DOOM 3 is still a pretty atmospheric shooter and light and dark plays a huge role in creating it.

DOOM 3 was originally released in 2004, to rather mixed reviews. While the id team had crafted a polished and stunning engine that powered a game that in all respects holds up well today in terms of graphics and atmosphere, it felt like the game tried almost too hard to stay true to its roots but also mixing in some modern survival horror elements. For instance, you were forced to use your flashlight as a separate item, and even if Half-Life already in 1998 had established a way to use a flashlight and weapon simultaneously, DOOM 3 did away with this and forced you to swap between the flashlight and a weapon and a lot of people, including myself, felt that this felt like more an annoyance than creepy as the game was dark, quite literally pitch black in certain places and I was probably not the only one who promptly downloaded a "duct tape" mod as soon as I noticed its existence. This is one of the key changes in the BFG Edition, as the id team has realized it was a mistake and now you have a shoulder-mounted flashlight you can use any time you want, although it has a battery, quite similar to the game F.E.A.R. (a game I plan to review later) which I personally think implemented a flashlight much better than DOOM 3 did as by having a battery, it does create suspense but it doesn't end up feeling as contrived as it did in DOOM 3. One reason I prefer the shouldermounted flashlight is that it makes DOOM 3 feel more like an action-oriented game, which it is at heart, being a remake of the original DOOM and the lack of a proper flashlight doesn't get in the way of the intense action. The BFG Edition also does a good job remedying the pitch black darkness that plagued the original game as DOOM 3 had quite an intense contrast filter that made everything either light or pitch black and with an updated engine, the BFG Edition has more soft lighting that makes the game overall feel a bit brighter, although it is still quite dark.

Another problem that gathered a lot of criticism was that you were more or less forced to listen to PDA's lying around in order to get codes for some lockers and such, and while I think it's usually not much of a problem, it does tend to get quite annoying, especially when I am in the middle of an audio log and there's suddenly an enemy attacking. I dunno, it often tends to feel like the game wants you to stop up and have a break but forces you to continue on and you get this conflicting nature of whether you should stop and listen to an audio log or continue fighting. The game is after all at its core made as a remake of DOOM and especially in the BFG Edition there is a bigger focus on non-stop action and more than often, I end up not listening to audio logs unless I absolutely have to.

Cacodemons are back, uglier than ever. KILL IT WITH FIRE!

A lot of people also criticized the game for being, well, a little too simple by today's standards. Where other first person shooters like F.E.A.R. and Deus Ex had incorporated a lot more functions than the average FPS, DOOM 3 does away with a lot and feels almost oldschool in execution. None of the weapons have any alt fire, there is no way to lean left or right, and there is no melee function (you have to manually switch to your fists or chainsaw in order to do a melee attack) or ironsights. While I do enjoy how simple and straightforward DOOM 3 plays as a shooter, I can see why this would annoy people who are used to more advanced shooters where you have more options. It is this reluctance to stick with modern standards that makes DOOM 3 feel rather dated today and it felt dated when it came out but if this is not a problem for you, you will definitely have a lot of fun with it.

On PC and the consoles, the BFG Edition adds Steam achievements and trophies not only to DOOM 3 but also to the original DOOM 1 and DOOM 2 games and this adds a little added incentive to play through the games again, at least for me. Another thing I love about the BFG Edition is that the original DOOM 1 and DOOM 2 games don't run in a simple DOS emulator but uses a proprietary emulator that runs a lot smoother. The controls on PC are similar to modern FPS games so you'll probably have no problem getting into the old DOOM games again.

DOOM is still a classic by all means and here's one of the iconic scenes: You, a shotgun and a room full of pinkies and barrels. A recipe for bloody awesomeness.

In terms of graphics, there is little reason to buy the BFG Edition if you already own the original DOOM 3 on PC. Like mentioned earlier, the BFG Edition is clearly aimed at console gamers and there is a notable lack of customization options in the menues for anything but the most basic stuff like windowed mode and resolution. Hell, in-game the textures definitely look a bit worse than they did on DOOM 3 in Ultra mode and the slightly brighter lighting does not help. If you are a total graphics whore, I strongly recommend getting the original DOOM 3 as the BFG Edition comes without any mod support too so there is no way original DOOM 3 mods work with it. It's sad that the game has been so heavily "consolized" that it's borderline impossible to make it look as good as possible. However, one good side to this is that the game runs at a guaranteed 120 frames per second and it feels delightfully smooth so personally, the graphics work fine for me as I care more about the gameplay, and the gameplay definitely comes first in this version. A huge update to the BFG Edition is support for widescreen HD resolutions and stereoscopic 3D so if playing DOOM 3 in 3D sounds tempting to you, this version is a must-buy. I haven't had a chance to test out the 3D yet since I don't own a 3D card but I hope to try it out some day.

SUMMARY:
Graphics: 5/10
Nothing groundbreaking, you can get much better graphics with mods and source ports on PC, although the stereoscopic 3D and HD support is pretty cool.
Sound:7/10
Thick atmosphere and a well integrated soundtrack makes DOOM 3 an intense sonic experience. DOOM 1 and 2 still have great MIDI soundtracks that are as awesome today as they were in 1993. The only downside is that the DOOM 3 weapons still sound a bit unsatisfying and lack that certain "oomph" they need.
Gameplay: 8/10
The addition of a shoulder flashlight definitely helps make the game feel smoother and more streamlined, without taking away the suspense. Otherwise, DOOM 1 and 2 are still more than playable and fun to pick up any time. DOOM 3 does feel a bit dated though in comparison with other shooters, but is still a lot of fun to play.
Story: 6/10
Nothing groundbreaking. It's still DOOM just with more depth. These are not games you play for the story.

Final score: 7/10

So, is DOOM 3: BFG Edition worth buying? Well, DOOM 3 is still a rock solid FPS that, while it isn't really that scary or frightening, is very atmospheric and really fun to play. It's very hard to recommend if you already own DOOM, DOOM 2 and DOOM 3 on PC as those games still have somewhat mod support (DOOM 1 and 2 can be played with ZDoom or similar after all), especially DOOM 3 and would look graphically more impressive with mods, but if you don't and want the ultimate DOOM experience on PC, PS3 or 360, I'd say buy it. If you're a total id Software whore like me who HAS to have a complete DOOM collection then yes, by all means get it! In my opinion it's totally worth the 15 bucks! The third "Lost Mission" and the ability to play the original DOOM 1 and 2 games WITH the additional DOOM 2 mission that used to be XBox exclusive, without the need for DOS emulation or any source port and just having it all in one place is so convenient and I think all the additions and good things about the BFG Edition, the updates I've mentioned, more than make it THE version of DOOM, DOOM 2 and DOOM 3 to own for any self-respecting gamer. However, if you like mods and want mod support, then I'd say get the original DOOM 3. I own both though and that works fine for me.

- Alyxx

Update 1-7-2013

Hello, readers! Your game girl Alyxx here with just a little update to let you know what is going on with the blog and so on...

So I've just written a review of the new Call of Duty game: Black Ops II which you can read here: http://alyxxgameroom.blogspot.no/2013/01/pc-game-review-call-of-duty-black-ops-ii.html
The review is quite big and indepth so you might wanna put some time off to read it. I hope it's a fair review although I'm a huge fan of CoD so it might be a bit biased.

I've also updated the Mega Drive/Genesis collection with some new games and a more recent photo: http://alyxxgameroom.blogspot.no/2013/01/my-sega-mega-drivegenesis-collection.html
I will continue to update my collections as I get more games and stuff. I've recently gotten hold of a Sega Dreamcast and I'm working on playing some games on it and building a collection for it as well.

I also encourage all people at the Accursed Farms Forums to vote in the "Best Game of 2012" poll as that game will receive the Accursed Award for Best Game of 2012  as voted by the Accursed Farms fanbase. You can do so here: http://www.accursedfarms.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5112

More reviews are coming. I'm currently working on playing through some new games although I might review some older games if I have no new games to write about. You can definitely expect a review of the F.E.A.R. games at some point as I have just played through F.E.A.R. 1 and 2 and I am now playing through F.E.A.R. 3 with Thadeus. Like I said though, I also have a lot of older games I could review as well so more reviews are definitely coming.

- Alyxx

PC Game Review: Call of Duty: Black Ops II

CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS II
Platform: PC (Steam)
Released: 2012
Genre: First Person Shooter
Developer: Treyarch
Publisher. Activision
Buy on Steam

When playing MW3, I thought the series couldn't get better. While MW3 had its flaws, it felt like a really addictive and polished title that I played a lot for about most of the first quarter of 2012. However, when I first saw the trailers for Black Ops II, already from the early trailers of the game, I could tell it was going to be something I had always wanted to see from the Call of Duty series: A future warfare game. It was almost on gut instinct alone that I preordered Black Ops II and the game more than surpassed my expectations. What I expected was MW3 set in the future. What I got was even better than I could imagine.

Starting with the story campaign, an aspect about Call of Duty games that often tends to be called the weakest part of them, this is the first time I can put my hand on my chest and honestly say the campaign is worth playing more than once. So far people have bought the CoD games mostly for the multiplayer and I can't blame you. After playing the MW3 campaign I felt little to no incentive at all to replay it other than to try it again when I bought MW3 for my Nintendo Wii. However, with Black Ops II I can honestly say that the campaign is one of the best aspects about the game, easily outshining the story from MW3 and even the original Black Ops. We are treated to great cinematic cutscenes that feature believable and relatable characters that thanks to great voice acting feel alive and human. The main problem with MW3 was that you never really built any close relationship to the characters. Most of them were just there to drive what little story there was forward and more than often, the story was not based on the characters, but more on political situations. Black Ops II attempts successfully to break this trend by limiting the amount of characters you play and centering the story on a handful of main characters that you grow to care about. The story feels a lot more personal and engaging in Black Ops II mostly because the villain for the first time is someone you can relate to. While he's an American-hating bastard in his own right, his reasons are more than understandable as his family has been ruined by American forces on several occasions and they've driven him to near insanity and he has nothing left but pain and anger, taking it out the only way he can, by forcing his pain on the US. While this is of course unforgivable, it makes him a really memorable villain in his own right and very fun and interesting to watch and I actually felt really invested in taking him out. 

Black Ops II features high tech weapons and gadgets in a futuristic warfare that spans several decades and countries.

 

The story goes back and forth between the near future and the 80's and the campaign does a pretty good job tying these different time periods together in such a way that makes sense as the game's past serves as a backstory to the game's present and explains a lot of motivations for the different characters. One of the main reasons the campaign has replay value is because you're given several key points during the campaign where you can choose different actions and paths you wanna take, giving each playthrough something different. This is something I feel added a lot of needed replay value to a campaign that can easily feel repetitive on repeated playthroughs due to its linear nature of going from set piece to set piece. However, the set pieces are at times quite spectacular. One standout moment I remember fondly is riding a horse while taking out helicopters with a missile launcher.

Gameplay-wise the single player is what you'd expect from a Call of Duty game, however you can choose the loadout for each mission, giving you freedom to have different weapons each time you play them, and story missions are often interspersed with special Strike Force missions where you take control of an entire squad of soldiers and bots in a sort of RTS-mode where you can see everything from a bird perspective and also control each individual unit in FPS mode. It's a fun little mode that adds variety to the gameplay when you feel bored of story missions, and while these RTS squad missions are not required to be completed, they offer some rewards.

Strike Force missions offer a nice change of pace during single player and feel like a mix between FPS and RTS.

The multiplayer mode is a lot better than it was MW3 and I really enjoyed the multiplayer in MW3 so I didn't really think they could improve much on it. Thankfully they did and Black Ops II in many ways feels more rewarding and fun to play than MW3 ever did. The first thing you'll notice is that Black Ops II offers a new game mode called League Play where you will be pitted against people of your own skill level so you can compete in worldwide leaderboards. This not only makes it easier to find people of your own skill level to play with so you avoid playing against uber players, it also gives newcomers a place where they can shine. Otherwise, Black Ops II has a custom emblem creator that gives a lot of freedom to create your very own logo or emblem that shows in multiplayer matches. You can also apply a clan tag in-game rather than applying it to your profile name like in MW3. Getting into the game itself, one thing you will notice is that you no longer have killstreaks. Instead, you have scorestreaks that in a bigger way gives players with a support role more of a chance to shine as streaks are given based on score rather than number of kills. In MW3 this was often a problem as the players with the most kills would get the best killstreaks and those who only played a supportive role was left in the dust and was a big reason I chose to just go as a Specialist and use perks and not give a fuck about killstreaks. However, in Black Ops II, scorestreaks makes the game much more fair to people with a different playstyle and therefore feels a lot more balanced.

The class creation system has been entirely revamped too. You no longer have the option of playing with support streaks or offensive streaks or playing specialist. Instead, you just have 3 scorestreaks to choose that fit your role, and you have basically 10 points to spend on what you put into your character slots, giving you a lot more freedom in class creation to create a class that is tailored to YOUR specific playstyle. While MW3 DID offer this with the different streak rewards, BO2 completely destroys the need for these rewards by simply giving you the freedom to have if you want it, just one gun but lots of perks, or few perks but lots of guns and attachments. It's essentially a dream to play and fun to play around with. While I haven't prestiged yet, you can already prestige your guns when they reach their max level, making it more fun and rewarding to stick to your favourite guns.

Otherwise from that, multiplayer is pretty much near identical to previous games although Black Ops II offers up a few new game modes. In the Core matches you now have multi-team matches where 3 teams can duke it out instead of just 2. The Combat Training mode offers you the chance to play against bots and is a nice option for those who are new to Call of Duty multiplayer. You also have party modes which are essentially Free-For-All modes with some new twists to the gameplay and unlike Free-For-All aren't limited to non-parties. Gun Game is a mode where you start out with just a pistol and for every person you kill using your gun you get a new one, getting increasingly powerful weapons. One In The Chamber is another twist where you get only one bullet, a knife, three lives and instant kills and receive a bullet for each kill. Sharpshooter is a mode where the guns cycle every 45 seconds, and killing several people in a row offers perks, similar to the Specialist killstreaks in MW3. Sticks and Stones, the final mode, offers you nothing but a Crossbow, a Ballistic Knife and a Combat Axe, where Combat Axe kills reset enemy scores. Another option added to multiplayer is CoD TV where people can post videos from matches and share them with others and vote for the best videos, a community feature that while I personally haven't taken advantage of, adds a nice way to watch how others play.

And of course, it wouldn't be Black Ops II without a Zombie mode and while this is the mode I have played the least simply because I am not a huge fan of it myself, it does offer a nice co-op mode if you have some friends to play with. Basically it's all about survival, killing zombies and getting more and more powerful weapons and perks so you can kill them more efficiently. You will have to work as a team to survive and reviving fallen team mates is often a chore you will have to do whether you like it or not as when everyone are dead, the match restarts. There are often Survival modes that take away perks and such that are way more sadistic and are definitely meant for more hardcore players. That being said, while I am not a huge fan of the Zombies mode, it is fun to blast some zombies with a shotgun now and again and it offers yet more content in addition to the excellent campaign and multiplayer.

A common scenario: Surrounded by zombies and slowly running out of ammo. You WILL be frustrated.

Graphically Black Ops II looks miles better than Modern Warfare 3. Cutscenes feature a lot of great facial animation thanks to mocapped actors that definitely add to the cinematic nature of the single player. It also has a very fresh palette compared to MW3 which often looked like someone threw dust and shit all over your screen while playing it, where in Black Ops II it is much easier to spot enemies since they no longer blend in so much with the environment thanks to a bad palette. The futuristic warfare style that pervades the game throughout is absolutely sexy and this is definitely my favourite game style-wise. There are thankfully tons of graphic options on PC you can use to make the game rival a lot of modern games, even Battlefield 3 and with a powerful PC, the PC version of Black Ops II looks almost a generation ahead of anything that's on consoles. I get a bit of lag with the shadows turned high though so running the game with shadows set to low doesn't really impact any of the graphics but makes the game run a lot smoother.

Soundwise the game doesn't disappoint either. The music is done by Jack Wall who many will recognize as the main composer of the Mass Effect soundtrack and here his blend of electronic sounds and orchestral score really fits the futuristic sci-fi feel of the game and it is by far the best score in the franchise so far in my opinion. The main theme was done by Trent Reznor who many know as the man behind the industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails and who famously made the music and sounds for the classic FPS Quake from 1996. To see him returning to the gaming industry is great and his theme does a great job capturing the game's futuristic suspense. Even Skrillex has a little track in there during a club scene and the ending credits, featuring a previously unreleased track "I'mma Try It Out" featuring OWSLA label mate Alvin Risk, and the band Avenged Sevenfold has a little surprise in the game for those who are patient enough to sit through the end credits... ;)

The voice acting is outstanding in this game and did a great job making me feel engaged in the plot and characters. Sam Worthington does a great job portraying Alex Mason, Hollywood star Michael Keaton takes over for Ed Harris as portraying Jason Hudson, and doesn't disappoint, James C. Burns reprises his role as Frank Woods and is definitely the most enjoyable protagonist in the game. I fell in love quickly with his attitude and his way of telling the story of past events. However, compared to these, Kamar de los Reyes completely steals the show as Raul Menendez and his portrayal is filled with so much emotion that it's hard not to feel his pain and anger and he's one of the best villains I've seen in any Call of Duty game just because Kamar does such an excellent job voicing him.

SUMMARY:

Story: 8/10

Giving replay value by adding path choices and shifting the focus more towards characters than international political warfare, Black Ops II does a good job with the story campaign, better than any CoD so far. It's still not perfect however and I felt a lot more could have been done with it, especially since quick time events often end up feeling a bit too cinematic and not really that interactive and these could use some improvement. The set pieces felt great though and it's a great ride from beginning to end.

Gameplay: 8/10

Taking what has defined the Call of Duty franchise so far and fixing what didn't work, Treyarch show they have been listening to fan feedback in order to make the most playable Call of Duty game so far. However, I simply feel that this is not going to win you over if you're not a fan of the games. It still is miles ahead of Modern Warfare 3 and keeps the polished gameplay steady.

Graphics: 8/10

Easily the best graphics of any Call of Duty game so far and with a great style that fits the sci-fi theme of the game. However the shadows does make the game lag a lot on my computer and on consoles, the engine is starting to show its age. This is still the best looking Call of Duty.

Sound: 7/10

While the score is excellent and the tracks by Trent Reznor and Skrillex and even Avenged Sevenfold help mix up the variety of styles, the soundtrack just isn't that memorable and I can't really remember any standout tracks. I would've prefered more memorable themes in there or even variations on the title theme. The atmosphere created by the music is great though.

Final score: 8/10

If you don't like Call of Duty, Black Ops II won't win you over, but if you're into these games, Black Ops II is a must-buy for any self-respecting soldier who wants to go into the Call of Duty of the future.

- Alyxx

Top 10: Games of 2011

Originally posted at Accursed Farms Forums on November 18th 2011.

It's late November and the year is finally coming to an end, and what a year. Though we haven't seen Gordon Freeman doing any return as of late, a lot of other heroes have been doing comebacks. Keep in mind though that I am almost 100% a PC gamer by heart, so don't expect to find any console exclusive titles here. And if your game isn't on the list, please don't whine about it, I can only really recommend games that I've actually played. So without further ado, let's get started!

10.
While it may seem like an outright Gears of War clone at first, Warhammer 40k SM is actually a very solid third-person shooter and personally it's my first Warhammer game as well. It has some good voice acting and solid gameplay, but a disappointing story and just the fact it becomes boring quickly keeps it from getting higher on the list. Definitely worth checking out though!

9.
A.R.E.S. is a great scrolling shooter in the style of Megaman and Metroid, and won't set you back much either as it only costs about 10€ on Steam and XBL. It features very nice graphics and has a delightfully oldschool feeling to it, reminiscent of the 16bit era games. The main reason I love this game is the music, an outstanding piece of electronic rock, which you can hear here:

8.
I have a soft spot for over-the-top action games and movies, and Bulletstorm delivers in LOADS. It has a very oldschool feeling to it and brings back some much needed humor into the otherwise serious FPS genre. If you want to hear memorable quotes while finding more and more inventive ways to finish badguys, this is THE game for you. The only thing bringing it down a bit is that the campaign is WAY too short and the multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired. Otherwise, I highly recommend this game as it's really fun to play.

7.
There's no denying it, the Sonic franchise has gone downhill steadily with the years. But lately we've seen it going up a bit again with Sonic the Hedgehog 4 and Sonic Colours. And Sonic Generations might be the climax we've all been waiting for. Dripping with nostalgia for all of us who grew up with the blue-fur blur, Sonic Generations gloriously remakes a suite of classic stages in HD and features probably the best music I've heard in the franchise so far. The controls feel spot on and, well, the game is FAST AS FUCK... like it should be. This is probably the definitive Sonic title of the later generation, bringing some much needed blast processing back to the series.

6.
While we didn't see Gordon Freeman return to our computers this year, Chell makes her delightful return in probably the best sequel ever. Portal 2, while clearly not as groundbreaking as the first game, not only continues the story of Portal 1, it also expands on the universe of the game and the story behind Aperture Science as a company. Delightful voice acting by Ellen McLain, reprising her role as GLaDOS, who gets a much bigger role in this game, Stephen Merchant as the seemingly helpful Wheatley and of course JK Simmons as Cave Johnson makes this game a very memorable sequel that greatly overshadows its predecessor. The music is also as great as you may expect, even taking part in the gameplay. And I don't care what anyone says, I still think "Want You Gone" is a better song than "Still Alive". The only drawback about Portal 2 is its linearity. There aren't really many ways to complete the test chambers and once you've played through the story once, there's really not much incentive to repeat the process. And while the game comes with a suite of co-op missions, you need a friend to play them. But otherwise, this is a must-have for people who want a different FPS experience.

5.
Probably one of the most anticipated games of all time, nobody believed we would ever see Duke Nukem Forever actually come out. But after 15 years of development hell, it's finally here. Love it or loathe it, Duke Nukem Forever, despite its flaws, is probably the game I've had the most fun with this year. It feels raw, unadulterated and over-the-top as hell and everything that Duke is supposed to be in my eyes. While it may have disappointed a lot of people, and it may not live up to Duke Nukem 3D's reputation, it's good to see Duke back in action. Hail to the king, baby!

4.
Wow, talk about a comeback from the guys who single-handedly popularized the FPS genre on PC's. Despite a lackluster launch with numerous issues on PC, RAGE is probably a game I will be playing far into 2012 if they release any DLC for it, which I strongly hope they will after the abrupt ending of the campaign. I love the attention to detail in this game, all the secrets, and not to mention the weapon selection. In many ways I also prefer RAGE to Fallout 3/NV because it actually has cars in it and has more of a Mad Max feeling to it. It's a great shooter that really shows that id still can create stunning engines as I would definitely call RAGE one of the prettiest games this year and also one of the smoothest as despite using enormous textures it runs at a smooth 60 frames per second.

3.
Well it was either going to be MW3 or BF3 this year, so I chose to go the CoD route. I can't really say much about this that hasn't been said in my review, so I'll put it short. It's an insanely polished shooter with a gloriously cinematic campaign and probably the best multiplayer out there featuring a ton of customization options and GUNS AKIMBO! While it may not be worth the hype it gets, it's easy to see why this is the best selling game this year.

2.
GREAT SCOTT! This must be a paradox! A GOOD BTTF game? Yeah actually. While technically released in december last year, BTTF is still a solid contender for best game of 2011. I really can't find ANYTHING negative to say about this game. The writing, the voice acting, the graphics, the music, the gameplay, EVERYTHING is solid gold here. I dunno what to say. Just play it. Now.

1.
I never thought it was possible to make the perfect stealth shooter, let alone a good Deus Ex sequel. However, Eidos Montreal clearly proved us wrong. The reason this is my number one game this year is... well... it has something for everyone. It's a RPG with a solid storyline that lets you customize your character, if you are into that, it's also a shooter with plenty of guns to keep you satisfied if you like THAT, and if you are into stealth games, then it has you covered too. Despite a few minor flaws, I would say this is the best game I've played this year and I give it my own "Game of the Year" award.