Team Fortress 2 review

TF2 has been under development for a long time. The first game was a free mod for Quake and was soon adapted for Half Life 1. Soon after that, Tf2 was announced. Now, a decade later, its out.

The most obvious thing about TF2 is the art style. It looks like a Pixar movie with guns. Since there is no way to describe it, here is a picture

The graphics actually have a much more practical application then just looking cool. They are designed so that each class has a distinct out line. In most games most classes have different skins, but animate the same. While this system is fine for seeing what class a certain player is up close, it fails utterly from afar. In TF2,  since each character has such a distinct outline, you can see who's who from a distance. While this may not sound game changing, it allows you to see who is around you very quickly at any given time, this is essential when things get chaotic.

The nuts and bolts of TF2 gameplay is about class warfare. Each class fills a niche, and some will be entirely ineffective against certain classes whilst others will excel. The game is roughly based around supporting the offensive classes with defensive classes to slowly inch your way forward. The game does a great job of having a frontline mechanic, as sentry guns provide a very strong disincentive to go to far in into enemy territory. 

The only real problem with TF2 are them maps. A few have certain instances where a single engineer can just absolutely dominate with a sentry gun, and pyros never really seem to do okay. They either laughably fail completely or kill the entire team. It makes playing them frustrating. 

overall 9/10

Half-Life 2 Episode 1 review

Half-Life 2 was utterly amazing, an left you with a real cliffhanger. But rather than make a Half-Life 3, Valve decided to produce a series of episodes with a smaller amount of gameplay and a 20 price tag. Each episode is just that, an episode. Each has a fairly self contained story , but they also add a little bit to the main  plot.

Episode 1 picks up right where Half-Life 2 left off. You awake in the ruins of the citadel and are greeted by Alyx and d0g. You are almost always accompanied by Alyx. She helps out in firefights and gives you hints for puzzles. The only real new game mechanic is that allot of times enemies will keep spawning until you have solved a puzzle, or blocked a door. In these times you are forced to leave Alyx with the enemies and find a solution. This leads to the real problem with her: dying. No matter how hard you try, Alyx will never die in combat. All this does is give you a easy way out of every situation where Alyx is right next to you. With her, hiding behind a wall is almost as effective as firing.

To counteract this, Valve beefed up the opposition. There are just more enemies then your used to dealing with. In the encounters where have to solve a puzzle during combat, you have to almost completely forgo firing, and just hope you have enough health to take everything they throw at you.

Besides this, Episode 1 is a blast. the pacing is great, there are no bugs, and few sections are downright brilliant. Most of the enemies are zombies, and the game does a great job of making them feel a bit more scary this time around. You really have to think in order to survive these attacks, rather than just shoot them before they get to you. There are no new weapons in Episode 1, and the environments are the same as the end of HL2. The sound is much better,and there is noticeably more music this time around. The only new enemy is pretty cool, but I wont spoil if for you.

Half-Life 2 episode 1 is a great game, and it leaves you  wanting more at the end. 8.5 out of 10

Super Smash Bros Brawl Review

  Super Smash Bros is a side scrolling, multiplayer centric beat em up action game. These have always had single player, but thats never been the focus. One of the series key points is huge amount of depth concealed in this while still being easy and fun to learn. 

 Not much (if anything) has changed in Brawl. Up to 4 fighters still desperately clamber to knock opponents off the stage, but it feels allot better then melee. Most of the balance issues are fixed and the game feels a bit more floaty, but this is a good thing as melee was a bit overprecise. The stages are good, but allot of them are just too random.

 And this brings up another point: Brawl has been made for the newcomer. Roughly half the stages try to kill you, and most of those are just frustrating, not another threat to watch. Take spearhead. Sometimes the stage flips upside down, and then your controls get inverted a by a second effect. This almost always leads to death. Another thing is the smash ball. Its a little orb that comes in and floats around until some hits it enough, then gives the person that broke it an awesome move. If these were balanced, they would be great. But many of them cant get a kill in ideal situations. Lucario's and Jigglypuff's  barely do any damage, and Metaknights does damage but not much else.

 Overall these complaints don't take much away from the game. Its great fun and anyone who owns a Wii should check it out.

9 out of 10

Ghost Squad

Ghost Squad started off as an arcade game, probably in Japan. The basics of the gameplay is that you shoot terrorists, and then move around then shoot some more. The game supports the Wii Zapper, and that works quite well with this game. In true light gun fashion, you move the cursor to the edge of the screen to reload.

Now the game forces you to shoot quickly, but there's little payoff for accuracy. Simply spraying a hail of bullets orks better then a precise head shot. And since you have unlimited ammo, the game becomes more about how quick you can reload rather than how your gun skills are. Another fault is the terrorists logic. In one restaurant scene, you go prone under some tables to shoot people in the legs. Rather then run behind you and shoot you, they prefer to hurl themselves directly into you line of fire. Then they get their buddies to the same thing. The way the terrorists move and shoot could have been handled better, but it does not hurt the game too much.

Over all, Ghost squad is a decent rail shooter, but it only last about an hour and a half. 7/10

Wii Zapper

The Wii Zapper is one of those things you think you might need, but then realize you don't. While it's not critical to nay of the games that use it, it greatly enhances them anyway, even if it makes it a bit harder.

It's priced right at 20 dollars, and at that comes with Link's Crossbow training. While this is definitely not a full fledged game, in short bursts (30 minutes or so) its great. It's basically a shooting gallery, with some movement thrown in. Each level is a mix between a few different game modes, the most prevalent one being target practice which lets you shoot targets. This works well, emphasizing accuracy over blind firing, which makes the game very precise. Firing quickly but inaccurately will get you nowhere. For each successive hit, your multiplier go's up by 1.

There a few more game types, but the standout is ranger. Here you walk around the map firing at enemies. While the controls are a bit unwieldy it's quite imersive. It's also a bit too hard too find all the enemies so that holds down this one. The is overall a cut above average, and it's worth your time to play it if you pick up the Zapper.

The Zapper is compatible with most recent Wii Fps's, notably Ghost Squad and Medal of Honor Heroes 2. With a little bit of mucking around in menu's you can get it to work older game's too, like Metroid Prime 3. This is a bit harder to control then normal, but it works overall.

I give the Wii Zapper an 8 out of 10. This is the rating for the casing itself, not the compatible software. Links Crossbow Training is a 7 out of 10, and perfect for half an hour or so bursts.

Strangle Hold review

Strangle Hold is an unrealistic third person shooter. I'm just getting that out of the way, just because I had to suspend disbelief so many times just to slightly enjoy this game. But taking a few hudnred bullets and having bloodstains all over you won't go away with a single medkit.

The basic gameplay elements of Strangle Hold revolve around slowing down time and doing cool moves to finish of enemies. One scene has you sliding down a rail while shooting down air condition systems and signs to crush enemies. Its over the top, but surprisingly not very bloody. So tequila time lets you slow down time and perform stylish kills, but you can only have that active for about ten seconds. Its gauge refills slowly. So you can leap through the air, ride rails, and back flip off walls. The next thing is is that the environments blow up quite nicely. A bullet could take out a chunk of a concrete pillar, while ten could take down the concrete to just re-rod.
A shotgun shell could demolish part of a wall. My favorite is when the house start blowing up. That was awesome.

The final part of this formula is the "Tequila bombs". Get enough stars (from getting stylish kills) and you fill up your tequila gauge. Then you can heal your self, fire off 5 clips worth of hot and be immune to damage for a few seconds, get a single precise shot and last but not least spin around and kill all the enemies in the room.

While Strangle Hold may sound like a blast, it has its fair share of flaws. Bad AI causes the enemies to just sit there firing until they get hit, and the signle player campaign is short and a little repetitive. Beside that, a nitcable lack of polish make this game feel a little rushed.
7/10

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare review

I remember back in the day when Call of Duty (cod) came out. It as amidst a ton of cruddy WW2 shooters, and it really stood out. And I remember all the rumors when that first trailer came out for this game... Anyway, the final result is spectacular.

When I first got this, I wondered how the CoD formula would translate into the modern period. Well, it dos. Same intense CoD formula, just an ak-47 replaces the Thompson. But now you can call in air strikes, use flash bangs... The CoD formula has been updated and improved in this rendition. One of the key differences is the amount of allies you have. It's now about 12 vs 20 or 30, but your guys are allot better then the enemies. The next change makes a huge impact on gameplay: shooting through walls. You standard infantry gun will go right through a wall and into an enemy. While this might sound like a minor change, it really makes the game feel allot more realistic, while adding tactical depth. So while the single player campaign is great and all, the multiplayer is even better.

A variety of game modes give enough variety, but the customization system gives the game some legs. You can choose your weapons from submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, and assault rifles and a pistol, followed by another piece of equipment. This could be an rpg, or some claymores, or a few flash bangs. The final part of this formula is the perks. These give your trooper a leg up over he competition. They can give you more health, a better fire rate, more ammo, more damage... All the basics are here, but a few ones that you would not expect show up. On top of that, you can get attachments to your weapon. All of these factors lead to a few interesting classes, like a sniper that will pin you down then hit you through the cover, or a stealth class that never shows up on a radar and just knifes people. while some perks feel a little imbalanced, overall theres no clear winner.


Call of Duty 4 is an intense first person shooter that, while not perfect, provides some great times with an addicting multiplayer experience. This is one of the great games of the year, maybe even a little better then Halo 3.
9.5 out of 10

Assassins Creed review

You move through the roof tops, searching for your target. You see him. Your alerted to a guard behind you. "your should not be here". You whirl around, and a blade concealed inside your gauntlet reveals itself, finding its way into the guards neck. He falls onto the street below, causing a panic. What do you do next? The choice is yours.

Assassins Creed is different. It set the path for the stealth game of the future. In that game, you hide in plain site. No more shadows. No more hiding. This type of gameplay is clearly on display in Assassins Creed, and looks good in Splinter Cell: Conviction. In AC(Assassins Creed), you can do allot. This simple thing is what sets apart this game from the rest. The period is th middle ages, in the middle of The Crusades. You play as Altair, a man who works for the Assassins. These people are not like the Assassins of today. They are not for hire, and strive for peace by killing anyone who prevents it. This may sound brutal, but it's really not. The game strives on shades of gray, mostly by making you wonder if you person you just killed is really that bad. This works, but the way of presenting feels forced. You and your victim have a tense conversation after you have stuck a blade into his neck.

So enough about the story. The gameplay is incredibly immersive , as there no true load screens and no non-interactive cut cutscenes. There might be one, but that's about it. In order to kill your target, you must first gather some information. This is done by intimidating the target through violence, pickpocketing, eavesdropping, and talking to informers. This works, but the method of gaining information is chosen. So you HAVE to eavesdrop on a conversation, instead of maybe pickpocketing. Luckily, the order is not chosen for you. This creates some real freedom, but that is an illusion, albeit a skillfull one.

So an average information mission might go like this: You scan the area for a high point. Upon finding one, you go ot it and climb it. You scan the horizon. The missions and view points are now on your radar ( a view point marks missions, but you can stumble across them through exploration). You drop down and once again take to the rooftops. You eliminate him, hoping no one else notices. Then you artfully bound from rooftop to rooftop. Closer to your objective, you get down from the rooftops to start preparing. You scan fro guards. Upon seeing one you grab him and stick the hidden blade into his throat, and slowly walk away. Now your ready. You listen intently to your target, and when he's done, you silently stalk him. You reach out your hand, and grab the contents. You slowly walk away, hoping he won't notice.

Now dos not really describe the stealth part. Simply put, you try and disappear in the crowd. You can gently push people out of the way, and you can even pretend to be a scholar. The guards are not trigger happy, so you can get away with a bit before they attack. You have three states: Anonymous, which is ideal and means guards don't suspect a thing, yellow means that they now something is up, red means that they are informed and will attack on the slightest disturbance. This system works well, but I found it a bit hard to shake a guard who was on yellow and red. It's realistic though.

When everything said and done, Assassins Creed is a great game, if a little repetitive. 9 out of 10.

Halo 3 reveiw

Well, it's here. I have logged more time then I am willing to admit,mostly on the superb multiplayer mode. I'm two thirds of the way through the campaign. I have ranked up allot. And this game has really impressed me.

One of the thing's that I think really sticks out about Halo 3 is the wealth of features. Out of the 5 or so offered, all of them are extremely great with lots of options variants. The only one that I think drags a little is the film, but it is still pretty good. I can't really reveiw this game normally, so I will just review each feature individually.

campaign

The campaign mode of Halo 3 is one thing short of perfect. It feels unique enough to establish it's own identity in the Halo series, without alienating existing players. The options for weaponry and such are large, but not overwhelming. The enemies have great AI.Now the AI is really interesting in this game. One of the thing's I have always liked about this series is how the enemies interact with each other. The brutes will make ruthless,and often quite lethal, charges once the forces they command have been wiped out. The are often backed by more brutes, and its a great to barely survive a conflict with several groups if grunts and jackals, only to be charged by several ruthless armored gorillas wielding all sorts of spiky weapons once you thought it was over. One of the cool things about this is that you are confronted with a choice every battle: You can try and pcik off the brutes and send the enemy forces into confusion, but you could be picked off by Jackal snipers or overwhelmed by the grunts. Or you can nail the weaker grunts first and then close in a lethal melee on the jackals, then focus on the now enraged brutes.

It's a delicate balance, and one that will have to be made at the start of every encounter. And moire tactical decisions such as these abound in the campaign. Like balancing your ammo, which you will run out of really quick with a Battle Rifle. Ton's of little pieces of strategy are hidden in Halo 3, and it all changes with the truly amazing 4 player online co-op! It is a little on the short side.

campaign rating:9.9 out of 10.

Multiplayer

Muliplayer has always been a key part of the halo experience, and it has not changed in this iteration. up to 16 players can be playing, and the end result is madness. Grenades are being flung, assault rifles are almost always being fired, and cars are exploding. Everything is madness. In just a few short seconds, you could be dead. the weapons are basically the same, but with allot more maulers. One of the coolest things is just how fast everything can go to peaceful and secure to you staring at your own bullet ridden corpse and swearing into the mike.

The gameplay remains the same: Kill enemies while accomplishing cetain objectives and managing your armory. Sound simple? Well it isn't. You start with an assault rifle, which takes takes an entire clip of ammo to take someone out. It has an average melee and is short in range. It's just a peashooter, but works fine against other crappily armed enemie's. From that original spawn in, you have started a never ending quest for weapon. The battle rifle and carbine are useful and much better then an assault rifle, but it's easy to find. The best overall armory is probably a sniper shotgun combo. The sniper is the most effective anti infantry gun, as even a miss can cause jumpy players to stay in cover, letting your teammates flank for the kill. The shotgun is for any enemies sneaking up behind you.

All in all, the multiplayer is well balanced and the maps varied. The one flaw being that the assault rifle (which is almost always the default starting weapon) takes a bit to much to kill someone with. But slightly better weaponry is commonplace, so it's not too much of a flaw.
multiplayer rating: 8.9 out 10
The Forge

The most ambitious of Halo 3's features, The Forge is a map editing tool. While not allowing the user to make maps from scratch, the large amount of maps allow for a a lot of variety, and stuff you can do makes up for that. The amount of item you can put in makes for some maps that really play differently. From adding a few battle rifles to Snowbound, to making a mongoose racing map, the forge is an amazing feature, and already a large community has formed around making these types of maps.
The Forge rating: 9.3 out of 10

Theater
Another new idea from Bungie, the theater allows you to veiw the last 25 games you played, multiplayer or otherwise. You can fly around and stop time, take screenshots, and play things in in slow motion, the they play at a normal frame rate. As if this was not ambitious enough, you can save and send film clips. It's a really nice feature that will finally show if you lying about that triple headshot.
9.5 out of 10

You can even make your own gametypes. I won't spoil all of it, but theres allot of game variants beyond the minimal settings in most other games.

Overall 9.7 out of 10

Bioshock review

This game is amazing. There's just so much to explain. I don't know where to start. I guess I'll start with the story.

Welcome to Rapture. Biggest hellhole in existence. Andrew Ryan built it to escape the looming nuclear war around the time of World War 2. He invited the greatest artist, scientists, and pretty much the cream of the crop. Anyway, he didn't want to deal with the "Parasites" so he built the city underwater. So everything went fine and dandy until they discovered Adam. Adam allowed someone to modify their genetic code, it transformed one's genetic code into something that could be shaped to the shapers vision. So you want to get stronger? Just use some Adam and rewrite your code. At first people used it for major things, like cancer and other serious illnesses.
Then vanity kicked in. They used it like makeup. It's use got more and more trivial.

Until they used it as a weapon. You could freeze someone with naught more then a couple hand gestures. People shot electricity out of their hands, Emperor Palpatine style. And then, the shit hit the fan. As it turned out, if you use Adam, you need even more Adam to keep it from exploding in your face. The people that used Adam as makeup had their faces butchered. 9 out 10 people in Rapture had their minds and body's destroyed. Everyone looked like this:
Rotting bodys? Check. Sycopathic minds? Check. Genetically modified dna? Check. Yeah, well they look like zombies. Some of them are exactly like zombies, at least tactics wise. But the others do triple backflips and dodge bullets. Great. Splicers, as they are called, are very varied. They nail you with bullets, hack security drones( and no, that's not scripted. They will hack security bot's and get them on their side. It's pretty amazing) and climb on ceilings. They work with each other, at least until you get the enrage plasmid.

Speaking of plasmids, if Adam is blank paper, plasmids are the paint. Plasmid is just a codename for super gene modifying weapon. So, basically, you stick yourself with a needle and shoot fireballs out of your hands. So think about what happens if you have a crazed junkie that needs a fix and can fry you like your in an electric chair with his mind? Now you know what went wrong with rapture.

So you get in a plane crash. You swim to a lighthouse. You get to Rapture. You use some Adam. You become a goddamn Splicer.

One of the things that Bioshock do's good is screw with your mind. You don't actually have to get Adam, but you find yourself-not your character, but you! YOU get addicted to Adam(I'm not joking)- and you to choose how far you will go to get Adam.

How do you get Adam? You get it from Little Sisters. There these ghoulish little girls that walk around, jabbing dead people with huge needles and eat the fluid that comes out. It's even grosser then it sounds. They have the Adam. Everyone want's it. You need it. And there only defense is a...

TWO TON METAL HULK. A jules verne era guy in a diving suit armed with a huge drill or a rivet gun. Half your healths gone if your hit. It's insane. This adds another element of unpredictability to the game. Imagine a roaming boss battle that go's berserk if a stray bullet hit's a little sister. The last thing your experience is a huge roar before your pounded into a wall and get your face drilled to a bloody pulp. So he walks around, protecting the ghoulish little sisters as the continue their unyeilding search for adam.

So, I haven't really saidmuch about the basic gameplay yet. Well that's also amazing.

So Bioshock plays like a normal fps. You have to save your ammo, maybe think abit about tactics, and just keep in mind what enemy is vulnerable to what. But, in most fps's, your only option to take down enemys is to bury lead into them. Not so in Bioshock. You can turn them against each other, or set traps with proximity mines and cyclone traps. You can electrocute the water their standing in, or you can set fire to them and watch as the room turns into an inferno.

Or you can set the security forces of Rapture against them.

In order to be succsesful in Bioshock, you can't play it like a shooter. You really have to think. You really have to think outside the box, while most shooters force you inside the box. And I can't really explain the feeling of absolute freedom that I get when I play this game.

But, Bioshock is not perfect. I think, close to the end, the combat get's a little repetitive. If you really did no homework(didn't read some tips, just ignored the game until it came out) then you will be lost in a sea of innovation. So if you really don't know how to play and use the games awsome tutorial( there isn't one. The game teaches you while you go along and do's it really well) and take the advice to heart, you might feel like your being force-fed the game.

The game's atmosphere is amazing, but this is one of the creepiest games I have ever played. The game do's a good job of making your enemys feel human, and this just get's creepy. By the end of the game, you will feel like you could be a splicer if you were in the same city as them when it hit the fan. And Bioshock is the first game to do this.

Overall 9.9 out of 10

Crackdown review

Crackdown, places you in the shoe's of a super cop(Really. This guy eats superman for breakfast) and task's you with the cleansing of the streets of criminal scum. I think that allot of the fun of Crackdown comes with just screwing around. This "screwing around" usually involves parking tickets.

Now, if you a parking ticket in real life, you get fined $50 dollars or so. In Crackdown, a parking ticket is one of the following:
1: The super cop shoots out all the wheels on the vehicle, get's in, and drives around town while being shot at by gangsters. It also involves a unhealthy amount of driving into large building's at high speeds. And a lot of failed stunts. The "Parking ticket" usually culminates with the being comepletly and utterly destroyed.

2: The second punishment, is a rather effective way of taking out criminals. You drive towards them, then jump out of the, sending it speeding towards a group of criminals. You then shoot the gas cap, and watch the resulting explosion from a safe distance.

3: This punishment is for less serious violations. Have you ever played the game "kick the can"? Well, you do that, but to a car instead.

Now, I will let you in on a little secret. There are no parking violations in Crackdown. You just do that when you get frustrated.
8.5 out of 10.

Call of Juarez review

I rented Call of Juarez a couple of days ago. I must say that I am not blown away by this western fps. It's mainly about two people: Billy and preacher. I forget preachers name, so I will call him preacher. Anyway, Early on, Billy murders his parents and preacher go's on the hunt for him. Both of them encounter many hardships(mostly bandits and Apaches). Typically, Billy will go through an area, then preacher will chase him through that area.

The main twist to the game is that you play as Billy and preacher. This gets interesting. You emotions really get toyed with. One second you want revenge as preacher, the next you want survival with Billy. And with these differences come differences in play styles and ability's.

With Billy, stealth is important. He dies's allot quicker the preacher, and thus relies more on stealth. So, while playing as Billy you get a formula like this:
Stealth,stealth-kikll,stealth-kill, big battle. Rinse and repeat. And,for the most part, this works. It gets tiresome eventually but then you get the preacher formula:
Concentration mode kill, big battle.big battle with concentration mode, big battle ,run around trying to figure out what to do next, big battle. Once again, this works on a basic level.

Now, to preacher. He plays exactly like a normal fps. You grab some guns, blast some people, and do some more fighting. The fighting as preacher is actually pretty fun. It;s normal fps with one twist: Concentration mode. Each gun gets one cursor, and they are moved around the screen with the analog sticks. Time go's into slow-mo, but you don't. Your bullets move at a normal rate, your guns move pretty slow though. When an enemy gets hit,he die's really slowly(because it's in slow motion).

Once you get past the setting, you have a pretty standard fps.
7/10.

Super Smash bros reveiw

When I got a game cube, I had this game. I still played it a year after that.And the year after that. And I still play it now. It takes a rare kind of game for me to play it that long( The only other game that that replay value was Gears.). And that's exactly what Smash bros is. Not only is it of a dying genre on consoles, it's also nearly perfect in it's own right.

What makes Smash bros special is that it takes many elements and executes them nearly perfectly. Your chosen character fights in one of many arenas, each with it's own unique style( not many simple retexturings here folks- almost everything is original) and wins it by killing the most enemies. You kill a hostile by smashing him to point where he flys off the map, resulting in a spectacular beam of light shooting up from where he died.

How do you hurt enemies? Your warrior has attacks in every direction, executed by hitting A button( not any button. Only the A button on the controller. Its for the game cube) and a direction on the analog stick. It's not quite perfect, but it's easy to use. Your character performs more powerful moves,usually ranged or something different then a melee, by hitting B button and an analog direction. you can use more melee attacks with z stick, and once you master these, you have nearly mastered the game. Combine these moves with a z button grab, and you have a fairly polished fighting system.

But all the fighting system polish in the world could not save a game from mediocrity by itself.
And this is where Smash bros suceeds even more. Everything about the game is polished to the point where the world shines on the disc. You have many unique maps, a TON of characters, and a lot of different items and game modes that add a level of randomness to the game.
All in all, 9.5 out of 10.

Pokemon Pearl reveiw

Note: This should cover Diamond, as they are pretty much the same.

My thumb hurts. Not because of natural causes, not because I hit it with a hammer repeatidly yesterday, not because I am typing this. It hurt's cause I scrolled through a tidal wave of text while playing my copy of Pokemon: Pearl. Like, half the time you play that game is spent hitting the a button. Not to say Pokemon Pearl sucks, but that particular button is useed far too much.

Pokeomn Pearl ahs good parts and bad parts, and it switches between these quite frequently. One second you will be runnig along enjoying yourself, and the next you will be uttering things that I cannot and will not utter here. Usually this is because of the fact that the weakness and resistance systen is never very clear, and some pokemon, while appearing to be quite strong, are actually useless peices of dirt.

Then that useless pokemon will evolve into something unimagibly powerful. Like, into a slightly bigger form of it's self. of course, it will learn some good moves, and it will be overpowered till it gets nerfed again. Besides the rapidly changing level of enjoyment, Pokemon Pearl is remarkably similair to ruby and saphire. The layout is basicly the same- who am I kidding , it's the same thing. The teams behave the same way, the citys are the same, and the only thing that changed are the pokemon.

The formula is still the same. You wander around till something happens. You take care of that soemthing while levelnig up your up your pokemon. Wneh your pokemon are high enough level, you fihgt a boss. These battles are easy enough, assuming you have at least one pokemon thats is super effective. Then you can evolve pokemon, buy items, get in contests and that evens out the game.

All in all, Pokemon gets a 8 out of 10.

Rise of nations reveiw

You hear the sound's of battle as your troops swords collide with those of the enemy's. Trebuchets fire their payload and huge rocks hit enemy building's. Then you realize tht your infantry are being beaten by the enemy's. You let them keep fighting and begin pulling out other troop's. But it is too late. You infantry are killed and you retreating troop's are cut off anbd slaughtered by the enemy. Your invasion is a failure.

Skip foward a hundred year's or so. Your troop's now have gunpowder weapon's. You have made peace with the enemy by bribing their officials before they march on your capital.
But that old conflict erupt's when the enemy ( Ottomans ) attack your allie. This time you have the advantage. That last attack hurt the enemy. He do's not have gunpowder weapon's. You use this to your advantage. You create a horde of infantry and charge past their initial defenses at the border and slaughter their swordsmen in their streets. Cannon fire on their base. Many men are killed. You take out their barracks and stables first, denying them military power.

The rest of the battle is childs play, with you large force killing any survivor's they encounter. You quickly capture all the enemies cities, and sack their capital. The day is yours. For Now.

All this and much more can happen in Rise of Nation's, a rts from big huge games.
In this game, you take one chosen civ from spear's to nukes. Throughout this you will crush empires, destroy armie's, forge and break alliances and possibily trigger or survive a nuclear armegeddon. That, plus your army's ussually have a lot guy's ( around a hundred ) make for some high qaulity rts action unlike any other game's.

At it's most basic level, Ron (rise of nations) unfolds like this:
Emperor noobface hates you. Emporer noobface declares war on you.You train some units. Their is a big battle. It is a draw. Emporer noobface retreats. You counterattack him. He wants peace. You denie it. You destroy his capital. He loses. You win.

At it's most complecated level, ron plays like this:
You assighn villagers to mine and chop wood. You protect their camps with a series of towers and entrenchged military units. One age later, Emporer noobface declares war on you. Your scouts confirm he is going to come through the narrow valley pass in the backdoor of your base. You set up some defensive positions and assighn troops to spring a trap. A easily killed by melee cavalry unit of archers is deployed at the bottom of the valley pass. several units of counter cavalry or counter tank units are at eather side of the valley. once the attack arrives, the trap springs killing many cavalry in the process. You reset the trap, but this time set the bait for oneother unit type. This time, the entire enemy army attacks. But there is a problem. The enemy is one age ahead of you! His troops are extremely effective, your's are extremely dated. Luckily for you, clever tactics win the day.

Emporer noobface negotiates for peace, and you accept nkowing that it is beneificial for both civs. Now what I just described is noly a glimpse of the gameplay of ron. All this good tactics and diplomacy and strategy make this game on that, while not perfect, is still extremely great and cannot be missed.

8.5 out of 10.

Viva Pinata reveiw

This is a breash of fresh air for me, as most xbox 360 games feature big guys with big guns. This game has big pinata with big candy. While this game is definitely rooted for the younger audience, it is also a great animal sim 9 or pinata, I guess).
It's gameplay is not very complicated, at least on a basic level. I'd guess a 5-year old could figure it out. Basically, you have a patch of land you must turn into paradise. By makeing, for example, a lot of soil, you will attract Whirlms which will then attract Sparrowmints. The Spparowmints will then eat the whirlms, and the whirlms will reproduce. Thus begins the circle of life. Eventually bigger pinatas will come, like this Syrupent (above) and 60 or so more.

This is Viva Pinata at a basic level. Thing's will quickly get more complicated as pinatas can get into fights, and there are also sour pinatas which will do bad things to your garden. Alas, Viva pinata is not perfect. It has one major flaw: repitition. Whenever your Pinatas mate, you have to play through this minigame. It's like a maze, but it's top down ,making it very easy. You have to play it every time a pinata is born.

All in all, Viva Pinata is an amazing game, but older gamers won't like it as much. For this , I give it an 8.5 out of 10.

Unreal Tournament 2004 reveiw

While thinking about the upcoming Unreal 3, I remembered this old gem. Its's out for the pc, and you should be able to run it.

Ut2004 is basicly like the arena in Oblivion, but you ue guns instead of swords. And while the guns are not extremely new, they each pack a satisfying punch. While you will quickly develop a favorite ( flak cannon ftw!), you will quickly realize that Unreal is ultimatly about tactics, like picking which weapon to go for or whether not to engage in another firefight. Then you will come to your senses and realize that it's all about the reflexes.

But whether or not you think its about strategy or reflexes, there's still alot more to this game. There's a currency system which you ue to make bets, join matches, and pay for doctors. You will also get to pick your team, and asighn positions atthe start of the match. If none of this stuff sounds appealing to you, then there's always instant action. But by adding this sytem, Ut get's a whole new layer of ownage.

Now about the actual gameplay. Basicly, you spawn in with a weaksauce gun that barely has enough power to kill someone. Then you head of to find a better weapon and pray that you encounter no one along the way. One you have some real firepower, start looking for your favorite gun. Once you have that, it's time to start shooting stuff.

Even though it sounds pretty basic, the aforementioned strategic depth help flesh out the experiance. You can also customize the matches, albeit only in instant action.

With all this stuff, Ut becomes on of the better shooters on the market, but slowdown questinoble spawnig make this game fall just sort of classic.

Overall 9 out of 10

Full Auto reveiw

Your car shakes as bullets ping and bounce off it. A beeping sound alerts you to the fact that your back armor just blew off. You pull a trigger on you dashboard and a mine drops out of your car, immediately getting rolled over by another racer. Perfect, you think. The mine detonates and destroys the car. You look back to see the ensuing destruction, but an explosion hits close by your car, sending it off course. You hit a large rock at 70 miles. Your car is sent flying 100 feet in the air, and other racers zip past you, and you open up with two 50.caliber machine guns mounted on your hood. The bullets find their target and rip another racers car to shreds. Then you car starts flipping in mid-air. You land on your side and keep sliding, the grating of the metal producing an awful sound. Your car comes to a stop on its side. Another car smashes into yours, wrecking it and killing you.

All this and more can happen in Full Auto, an over the top car combat game where you must race to be the first to cross the finish line with your car in one peice. The actuaal gameplay is like what I described earlier, but with one big twist: the ability to unwreck stuff. Lets say you crash and burn. A quick tap of the right bumper (this game is for the 360) brings you a couple of seconds back to before the crash. Add this to the aforementioned car combat, and you have a winner. Well unless you manage to screw it up like Sega did.

To many times you will be cruising along and an explosion sends you flying killing you. You unwreck it, but some guy shreds you with bullets. Again you unwreck it, but someone rams you and kills you. It seems that once you get killed, but unwreck it, the game concentrates all its efforts on you and kills you. It's ridiculous.

And I really wanted to tweak my ride. As it is, you can choose your car and weapons, killing almot all customization. But besides all this, Full Auto is still extremely fun. You can destroy anything you want Including buildings, it has great graphics, and some extreme gameplay. So this game is definetly fun, just rent it before you buy it.

Overall 7.5 out of 10
note: This game is extremely fun and you should give it a test drive, but some features are broken and frusttraing, which is why it only gets an average score.

Oblivion review

Obvlivion sucks. Do not get me started on this thing's faults. Well, to late I already got started. Anyway here is a list of why Oblivion sucks:

1: Someone screwed with the thermostat in the plane of Oblivion, so it's now blisteringly hot.

2: everysingle item, quest, person and thing in Oblivion is sucktacular. Don't ask me why, they just are.

Man, bet I had you thinking Oblivion was a really bad place, eh? Well the place is, but the game does not ( that was a reveiw for the city of Oblivion, in the small country of Hell.). Anyways, this a review for the game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Luckily, that game is nowhere as bad as the city it named after.

Elder Scrolls Oblivion reveiw

So heres the review you probaly are reading this for:

Oblivion is massive. As in mind-numbingly huge. As in nearly as big as The Elder Scrolls Morrowind ( great game, get it now). Your brain would pop out of your skull just thinking about how big it is. It probaly takes around 200+ hours to beat.

Will you play all those hours? Probaly not. Id say you will probaly beat about 50 hours or so of the game. The gameplay consists mainly of talking to peeps, killing monsters, doing quests, and LOADS of other stuff. The combat is pretty enjoyable, as are most of the quests. There's so much to say on this game, I'm just gonna list the stuff:

Pros:

Combat: Combat in Oblivion is throughly enjoyable. All the weapons hit with a nice thud, but it gets repetitive when you fight the same enemie again and again, which happens alot in CENSORED FOR SPOILERS.

Magic: is done pretty well, but most spells look the same. There's a good amount of them, but they all feel too similair.

Monsters: Pretty good. They all feel and fight pretty well, with some good sound effects.

Quests: Each one is great, and there are tons, so this area of the game is quite good.

Characters: Usually pretty bland, but the major ones ( mostly quest givers and important figures ) are all extremely memorable.

Tons of other stuff: most of the other stuff is genarelly pretty well done.

Con's:

Oblivion: everything in the plane of oblivion is pretty craptacular.

not really to much else.

Overall, Oblivion is a pretty crappy city. But a great game. So if you have held out on buying this installment in the Eldar Scrolls, I strongly urge you to buy it before I open a gate to Oblivion in YOUR living room.
Overall 9 out of 10

Half Life 2 reveiw

In case you do not know now about Half life ( highly unlikely ), it is a popular fps series. The first game took ai to the next level, with enemys covering there squadmates, chucking grenades, flanking you, and many more manuvers. It also happened to be one of the best games on earth. If you do not own it, get it. Like right now. Get out of your seat and go to your local gamestore and buy it. If I had to rate that game on a scale of 1 to 10, it would get at least a 12 ( note: it you look at my top five list and see GoW at the top, it is because I play that the most now).

So can the sequel measure up? Definetly. Is it better then the origanal? No way. So anyways, here is the reveiw:

To start off, one thing Hl2 does right is atmosphere. Valve has always been good at making atmosphereic fpses, but this takes it to the next level. From the moment you boot up the game, you feel immersed in an oppressed world. You watch as citizens are interrogated for no reason, and Civil Protection officers harass you and then beat you with stun sticks. And the plot only adds to this.

Apparently, aliens known as the combine have invaded, enslaved, and oppressed the people of Earth. You job is to topple there empire. Suffice it to say this game's plot, while it sounds cheesy on paper, is one of the best in gaming. I do not want to spoil anything, so I will just leave it at that.

Also worth mentioning are the characters, who are memorable and realistic. You can really see there expressions, and this is digital acting at it's finest.

And Hl2 does not stop with all these story elements. The gameplay, while standard for fps gmaes, is executed with alpomb. Enemies realisticly react to the enviroment and zombis will throw debris at you, while Combine chatter on the radio and call for reinforcements. And, suprisingly, they will come. Not scripted, but Combine will pull out a flare gun and shoot off a flare. This will draw more Combine to the area, making you life a hell of a lot harder.

All in all, Hl2 is a masterpeice shooter.
9.5 out of 10.
( note: While you are at the game store, buy this too. You will not regret it.)