My LIMBO Review

Originally written on 9/12/10

Wow. The best word used to describe LIMBO. I honestly think Limbo can safely be called a masterpiece. This won't be a long review because it's impossible to explain the experience you have while playing.

This game has not a single word of dialogue yet it is one of my favorite stories in a game. The story is completely open for interpretation, and it provides the tools for you to actually use that thing you have in your head known as a brain, to form your own ideas on what actually happened. the story, just like the gameplay, is a puzzle itself. All you are told is that you are a boy and you are searching for your sister. The rest is for you to figure out. There is plenty of hidden symbolism to look out for to help you form thoughts. I will post soon with my interpretation on the story and what I think it means.

I love the theme and style as well. Along with the lack of any music with excellent sound effects, it really sets a mood that makes you feel like you are alone in limbo.

The puzzles are unique and challenging, though nothing that will have you stuck for too long. It can take you anywhere from 3 to 5 hours based on your puzzle solving skill. I can recommend this game enough. 10/10

My Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review

I was slightly hyped for the release of Skyrim. Not as much as many others who were drooling with anticipation, but I was looking forward to playing it. Which is exactly what I did on 11/11/11. This review will be based off of the PC version of the game.

I'm somewhat familiar with the Elder Scrolls series. I've played through Daggerfall, I started Morrowind(never finished) and I played a little Oblivion. I enjoyed all of them to an extent and Daggerfall still is my favorite of the bunch (yes even over Skyrim). I did enjoy Skyrim though. I do however think it is very overrated. Here are my thoughts.

Playing this on the PC I had some trouble from the very start. First off the menus were clearly designed with consoles purely in mind. I was forced to downloads mods to fix them. They were poorly designed for PC. They were hard to use, disorganized and pretty useless. Mods fixed all that thankfully.

Right from the start you can tell the world of Skyrim is fairly massive. Not the biggest I've seen, not even for an RPG, but still a very reasonable size. So it's big, so what? It's whether or not the things in the world are actually interesting or not that's important. Well, it's alright. You got your mountains, your lightly treed forests, your snowy areas and....dungeons? I got bored with the world after about 40 hours. There was nothing that really surprised me (and trust me I looked EVERYWHERE). And although the graphics aren't really anything special, especially the ugly textures, horrid character models and horrendous animations. But the world somehow looks pretty nice, especially while looking over it from atop a mountain.

Now onto the story. Let me start by saying that the Elder Scrolls lore is actually pretty decent if you take the time to get into it. There are a lot of things that paint the picture of the setting. That being said, the general plot for Skyrim is meh. It's a story that could have been found in a 1980s D&D children's cartoon. I mean if you say the words 'Dragon Slayer' to someone who never heard of Skyrim, they can know the general plot of Skyrim from those two words. Even worse than the plot is the story delivery. For example: Within the first hour of the game, when you go to fight the first dragon (right outside of Whiterun), this is the first dragon anyone has every saw. Many people didn't even believe they ever existed, and people thought they were impossible to kill! So of course who do they send to kill a dragon? You and a few random city guards of course. Doesn't that sound like a suicide mission? Shouldn't they have assembled an epic team of the greatest heroes in Skyrim? Now that would have been cool. Another example is the Stormcloak war with Whiterun. Now the way they talk about this 'war' makes it sound huge. But when you actually go participate in the final battle, the taking of Whiterun, guess what? It's you and a few Stormcloak soldiers. Wow, what a war. Basically the delivery sucks.

Another thing that ruins the delivery and immersion is the dialogue. I could complain about the dialogue for hours. Show any decent author the dialogue and they will laugh at it. It's pathetic, it does things that amateur writers are taught not to. Not only is the dialogue writing bad, but the dialogue option are a step backwards from the Fallout dialogue options, providing much less choices. I can go on, but there are a few article you can find that go into finer detail. EDIT: Another thing I forgot to mention, the characters are boring, uninteresting and totally forgettable. Oh and boring quests.

On to the gameplay. The most important thing a game has to offer. In summary: it's bad. The melee combat was so bad I started a new character and became a mage. The magic system isn't very good either but it's less annoying than the melee. Both are boring though and have pretty much been the same since Morrowind. There are tons of bugs, some of them game-breaking. I once had a bugged main quest that i could not get around and I had to reload a 2 hour save. Very annoying to say the least. (SAVE OFTEN!)

One of the worst things about the game for me is the lack of enemy variety. Let's see there's Draugrs, Skeletons, Wraiths, Spriggan, Falmer, Wolves, Spiders, Giants, Dragons, Crabs, the Dwarven machines and a few others I'm forgetting. Overall there are less than 25 different enemies! That is terrible for such a big world and gets boring very quick. Not to mention non of them are particularly interesting to begin with. The dragons are fun the first few times but after that they just get boring and tedious.

Of course there are a few other things I didn't like that I didn't feel was worth mentioning. The game is good for awhile. It will suck you in for a decent amount of time and then you'll just stop playing. It was pretty fun while it lasted.

I'd give it a solid 7/10 based on my experience with it but I feel it more deserves a 6.5/10.

Duke Nukem Forever - My Thoughts

Duke Nukem has been in what people call, development hell, for the past 12-15 years. It has been canceled, delayed, and has switched developers many times. So when it was finally announced that Gearbox Software was developing it and that it would in fact actually come out, there was a question many people were asking: Would it live up to people's expectations? A solid question, I mean after 15 years it did tend to build up some hype.

Many major review sites, such as IGN, have been giving DNF below average scores. The main reason of this is because it did NOT live up to the 'hype'. Well I say, NO game can live up to 15 years of hype, its impossible. And why should that even matter? If Bioshock was announced 15 years before its release I'm sure people would have given it bad reviews, and would have dubbed it a 'let down' or 'not living up to the hype'. But Bioshock is in fact a great game. So judge the game on the actual game, not on how long it took to come out or the 'hype'.

In the time I have played DNF, I really have enjoyed myself. The game has great humor, many easter eggs, and pokes fun at a lot of other major games. Also, the game is fun. Isn't that the most important part? No, DNF isn't the most innovative or original game. It doesn't have the best graphics or physics and what not. BUT when you realize that non of that really matters as long as you have fun, DNF is an above average game. In DNF you kill aliens, blow up spaceships, ogle sexy chicks, and drink beer. Theres not much stress or frustration, although the harder difficulties will provide you with a great challenge.  But in my opinion the best way to play Duke Nukem is just for fun. You will never really get bored throughout the story, there is a lot of variety in the levels. One level you can be shooting a Gatling Gun at spaceships and the next driving a remote control car as mini-duke.

As for the multiplayer, well it goes well with the singleplayer. Its fun. Now they do happen to track your stats and what not, and also provide a good amount of unlocks and some character customization, but really if you stress yourself out about that stuff you won't have much fun. There are some pretty cool maps as well as game modes. It will provide a good amount of fun, especially if your playing with friends.

In conclusion, don't blindly listen to other reviews that bash the game, hell, don't even listen to me. Go and try it yourself, my opinion, you will probably have a lot of fun. My overall Fun Rating for DNF is a 9/10

Score a month after completion: 7/10
It's been a month since I completed DNF. While I still think the game doesn't deserve the hate it gets, I slightly lowered my score. Everything I said still holds true, its just the game started getting very repetitious towards the end and was a chore to play. I still enjoyed the game. 

13 BRINK Tips & Tricks for Multiplayer Beastliness

  Brink is a competitive FPS created by Splash Damage for PC, 360 and PS3. The main focus of Brink is the multiplayer, so here are a few tips(13 to be exact) to help you put forth rape in the online world. You can read the article, or if you prefer to you can watch the video below. 

 

1. Learn the Maps and Shortcuts
Brink uses a parkour-like movement system called S.M.A.R.T. To make full use of this it is important to learn the maps and the most convenient and fastest ways to get from point to point.

2. Use the Objective Wheel
Brink is all about completing objectives and the Objective Wheel makes it even easier. It will point you in the right direction of the main objective and other side objectives. Plus if you use the wheel and then complete an objective you get extra XP points.

3. Hip-Fire
Hip Firing is very effective in Brink and most of the time is a better choice than aiming down sights. You can also crouch to improve your hip fire accuracy.

4. Curb Stomp
Curb stomping is the time between when an enemy was killed and when he respawns. He is incapacitated on the floor, but he can still be revived by medics, so its important that if you have the chance, finish them off with either a few shots or a melee.

5. Pick your fights
You can't win every fight in Brink, but thats okay. Running away can actually be a very effective tactic, and not to mention it can save your ass.

 6. Knockdowns
You can knock down an enemy by either Melee attack, slide kick, or grenade blast. They will be knocked down for a few seconds but can still use their secondary weapon. A tactic I like to use is to charge them, slide, and then spray them.

7. Buff Boosting
When you lock onto a teammate to buff them, if they are ahead of you, you will speed up drastically. Very useful for quicker transportation, especially for Mediums and Heavies.

8. Kill Medics First
If you see a group of enemies, try to kill the medic first. If you don't the medic can easily revive anyone you killed, almost instantly.

9. Buff yourself and teammates
Buffing can either increase Armor, weapon damage, or health. A team all buffed up is extremely lethal.

10. Choose your class based on body type
Medics - Medium or Heavy. Engineers - Light or Medium. Operatives - Light or Medium. Soldiers - Light, medium or Heavy

11. Keep Moving
The more you move the less you die.

12. Spawn Wisely
The game has wave respawns. But you don't always want to spawn back at base all the time. Sometimes in certain situations it is better to wait around for a medic to revive you. (Ex. if you are near an objective and there is little time left)

13. Don't worry about Killing and Dying
Play to win by completing objectives. Don't stress the kill to death.


Be sure to check out my tips video for some visual learning as well:

Section 8: Prejudice First Impressions Pros/Cons

Section 8: Prejudice (XBLA, PSN, PC)
Developer: TimeGate
Publisher: SouthPeak, TimeGate
Cost: $15

"Section 8 is a first-person shooter developed by TimeGate Studios and published by SouthPeak Interactive. It utilizes the Unreal Engine 3 and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released on September 1, 2009, on the Xbox 360 and September 4, 2009, on the PC in North America, September 11, 2009, in the UK and Asia Pacific, September 18, 2009, in the rest of Europe, and on the PlayStation 3 on March 25, 2010 in North America and April 15, 2010 in Europe." Wikipedia


After many hours spent with the game, I will go over my Pros and Cons of the game.

Pros:
+Fast Matchmaking
+Balanced Gameplay
+Fun Gameplay
+Co-op Mode
+Plenty of Unlocks
+Can play against Bots
+Low Price ($15)
+Tons of content


Cons:
-Hard to join games with friends
-Friends sometimes end up on the other team as you
-Short Campaign mode
-Only 1 MP game mode (More coming soon)
-Weird Sensitivity



Overall: 8 Pros / 5 Cons


Check out my First Impression video with Gameplay and Commentary:

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