Honest Review Thread.

[Mr Mystery]

How do?

So it seems there's allsorts kicking off in the nerd world, with accusations of 'very-well-paid-for' positive reviews for games and that.

I figure we should have our own thread, where we can waffle on about games we've greatly enjoyed.

Here goes, and it's an obvious, and not very controversial one.....

GTA V - Absolutely loved it. Trevor made the game for me, and the whole thing was a massive improvement on the rather lacklustre GTA IV, not least because the radio stations played a wider variety of music. Character switching isn't just a really cool gaming concept (and not an original one), but also really good fun - as anyone who has ever switched into Trevor, only to find themselves up a mountain in their pants for no apparent reason can probably attest to.

If you didn't get on with the other GTA games, this is unlikely to change that - the genre remains the genre. But if GTA IV was your first whirl, do give this one a decent airing - see if you can borrow it off a friend first though, just in case!

[Mr Mystery]

Deadpool.

Well, it's a fairly short game, kind of a Marvelesque take on God of War, starring everyone's favourite regeneratin' degenerate, the crimson comedian - Deadpool.

First up - if you don't like Deadpool, get your bargepole out. This is not a game for you.

But for those who do like Deadpool, get stuck in. It's fast, it's funny, it's fun, and it's....something else beginning with 'f' for the sake alieration.

Genuinely laugh out loud moments throughout, and not just the constant quips (DLC could be done to expand that vocab, as they can get a wee bit repetitive - not necessarily less funny though). Some puzzle solving involved, but nothing too headachey.

I picked it up off Amazon for £15, and good value for that - being quite short, you may want to track down a cheap copy too!

[Kirsten]

GTA was ok, but the torture scene put me right off it. it was gratuitous, and also totally unnecessary, the guy was willing to tell you everything anyway. a lot of people told me I was being ridiculous and it was GTA and what did I expect? but the whole point of GTA is that it is open world, you can run around killing random people, running people over etc. but you don't have to. to suddenly be forced in to torturing people was very out of character and jarring, killed the game for me.

[Mr Mystery]

I had forgotten about that particular bit to be honest. It is quite jarring, especially as almost every other mission, including the aftermath of that scene, does have choice as you said.

[Kirsten]

yup, as I said a lot of people told me I was being ridiculous, but I have never played GTA just running around killing random people, running them over etc. I actually drive properly and avoid hitting stuff, the low profile master criminal :p

[CoffeeGrunt]

Bioshock Infinite, Burial At Sea.

You get to pay as Elizabeth and it ties in beautifully with the first game bringing everything full-circle. It also reveals so much about the somewhat confusing ending of the main game, and ties off the story with a pretty sad bow.

Also it has a cringe-inducing torture scene.

[Wolfshade]

XCOM

Remake of the classic Micropose game. In a nutshell it is the classic, aliens invade earth and a small band of soliders attempt to stem the tide and prevent the alien invasion.

The game itself is split into two, the tactical game and the strategic game.

The tactical game, is an iso projection squad control, you play in arenas with fully destructable sceneary trying to kill of the alien menace. It is turn based and different actions enable you to do different things. Essentially, it is like the old bolters in 40k, move full distance and can't shoot, move half distance and you can fire and or do other actions. As your soliders gain experiance they get different specialities that opens up different game play options, e.g. a sniper will gain access to sniper weaponry and so will be much better at taking out hostiles at range. There are a range of missions, though essentialy they are clear out the aliens in each zone.

The strategic game is a resource game, balancing how you build your base in its limited space. How you respond to each member country/continent will affect your funding.

A brilliant game and there are some lovely hommages to the original game.

[CoffeeGrunt]

XCOM

Remake of the classic Micropose game. In a nutshell it is the classic, aliens invade earth and a small band of soliders attempt to stem the tide and prevent the alien invasion.

The game itself is split into two, the tactical game and the strategic game.

The tactical game, is an iso projection squad control, you play in arenas with fully destructable sceneary trying to kill of the alien menace. It is turn based and different actions enable you to do different things. Essentially, it is like the old bolters in 40k, move full distance and can't shoot, move half distance and you can fire and or do other actions. As your soliders gain experiance they get different specialities that opens up different game play options, e.g. a sniper will gain access to sniper weaponry and so will be much better at taking out hostiles at range. There are a range of missions, though essentialy they are clear out the aliens in each zone.

The strategic game is a resource game, balancing how you build your base in its limited space. How you respond to each member country/continent will affect your funding.

A brilliant game and there are some lovely hommages to the original game.

I love this game to pieces. The strategic complements the tactical immensely. You get excited for the missions, to collect resources and kick alien tail, but are also wary that one false move will see a valuable soldier dead. When you return, you develop better weapons and armour to kick even more tail and assemble a cadre of one-person armies. Not to mention Psyonics, nor the Meld in Enemy Within.

[Wolfshade]

It is when you have a mission choice and it is early in the game, offering 4 engineers that you badly need, or $200 that you don't really want but that country is on alert level 4 whereas the engineers mission is only at 1.

Do you go for what you want and hope you can get a satellite over them before month end or do you delay your entire campaign's progress for some cash that you have no engineers to build anything with...