The game is a genre starter. You could say a mystery game. You could say it was a role-playing game. You could say it was an action game. At heart, it would be an “interactive “Choose Your Own Adventure” visual novel” game. There are many games that claim that “every choice affects the game”. But in truth, these games have choices that either make very little difference to how the game plays out or just one major choice that just affects the ending of the game. Even the predecessor to this game, Indigo Prophecy , was basically just that. Most games that have this have this bullet-point on their boxes have nothing on Heavy Rain. I went into the game with high expectations, and I was not disappointed.

I know for a fact that many of the seemingly miniscule things that the you do in this game have just about as much of an effect as the major choices in the game. I wish I could go into detail, but that’s something for you to experience yourself. And if you want proof, ask a friend to play at the same time you are, and ask each other about your separate experiences with the game. I swear that the game will play out almost completely different for each of you.

I walk into a room unnecessarily while investigating this house, and get clocked in the head and end up trapped in a basement. Unlike my friend, who went in, got what she needed, and got out. My OTHER friend accidentally got drunk and ended up having his character experience a premature death.

And that was only a glimpse of the possible outcomes of ONE level. It could end up being very short and simple, or it could end up being very drawn out and risky. It all depends on what kind of player YOU are.

Yes, the game does lead up to a certain final event, but the way the event plays out takes into an account almost EVERYTHING that has occurred through the whole game. Certain characters might not be there and certain characters will either succeed or fail(and they can) in their missions.

Many points of the game are super-intense. Every event of the game occurs in real-time most have a lot of player involvement, meaning that you are given many choices, even during the cut scenes, that you need to make, and you aren’t given an infinite amount of time to make those choices. There are many quick-time events that usually give you very little time to react, keeping you tense every second of the game. Also add the fact that your character has many chances to die during the game. That’s right. Each character you control can DIE at almost ANY point in the game.

My experience with the controls came to me like second nature, but for some others, it may take some time getting used to. If you aren’t a fan of Silent Hill/Resident Evil tank controls, you might have a bad time while playing. Other complaints that I heard other people voice revolved around some scenes that require you to hold down a combination of many of the buttons on the controller to do actions. With some of the situations, it seems very fitting. The character is doing something that requires extra precision, and these controls is the game’s way of having you experience the same pressure.

And of course, the major point of the game, the story, is fantastic. You could either really care, or really hate some of the characters. It’s so fantastic that I won’t tell you anything about it other than the game has some awesome twists…

Now, buy or rent? Well, the game is definitely worth a play through. You HAVE to complete this game ONCE. But after that, you learn that the game is definitely surrounds a few number of major plot points, but once you’ve experienced that, the thrill really disappears. You really only play certain points of the game just to see how they can play out differently. The game is a must play, but not really a replayable game. A definite rent. A fantastic game, but I don’t know if you should spend your hard earned money buying and keeping the game.

You might see that this review is shorter than most of my others, but that's because I accepted the idea that reviews are impressions and opinions. Unlike my other reviews, were I explain unnecessary mechanics like controls, or go into things like graphics if they don't need to be brought up, I just say what needs to be said: What I thought of the game. If the graphics stood out that much, I would've mentioned them, but they really aren't anything special. If they were outstanding or terrible, than that's when I would mention them.

Heavy Rain is a different kind of game. I don't think I've ever played a game quite like it. Not even Indigo Prophecy is close to what this game is. That's the first challenge.

The second challenge is trying to play the game without spoiling anything. And even if I didn't want to spoil anything, the game is so personal that everyone will experience the game differently.

The third challenge is that the mechanics of the game outside of the story telling are very simple is that there isn't more than maybe two paragraphs to be written about them. You also can't talk about the mechanics without going into the story.

If I wanted to talk about my experience with the game and my opinion about the game, that would be easy. But trying to do that without spoiling anything, that is hard. The main statement I would like to say about Heavy Rain is that "Even if you and someone else who had played the game had made almost all the same choices, that game can play out VERY differently."

This review is going to be HARD to write...

To bring breath back to this lifeless blog, I've decided to bring back my old reviews back from Gamespot that I posted about 2-3 years ago. They were slightly amateurish, but hey, they are good filler as I decide what I could do to make this blog worth it again. UNLIKE MY OTHER REVIEWS, this one was never posted on Gamespot. Instead, this was posted a couple of months after this blog was made on a separate website. This was my final official review of a video game, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.


I got COD:4 for Christmas and I’ve had high expectations for this game, and I wasn’t disappointed.
First, I’ll talk about the single player mode. The story is pretty much fighting a war and trying to end it. Now, I’ve had the game for about 4 days now, and I’d like to say the game is so hard, that even for a five-hour game, this will take a while to beat. The good thing is that there are 4 levels of challenge so it’s good for both pros and people that have never played a first person shooter before. And for a five-hour game, the campaign feels a lot different from other first person shooters. Most games try to make a place feel dirty by just adding lots of broken stuff everywhere you look, but it just feels like something has gone terribly wrong(don’t worry, you aren’t reading a BioShock review). I wouldn’t say that the characters are very deep or interesting, but they have great voice acting which really keeps you in the mood of what is going on in the game. The soundtrack doesn’t give the game an emotional feeling, but more of a dramatic mood. The enemy AI of the game is very smart, but you won’t see you allies helping you very much. I mean, they don’t shoot walls or anything, but they take cover most of the time and when they do pop out, they usually on shoot about 3 to 4 bullets and most usually don’t hit anything. Another thing that I don’t find bad, just very unrealistic, are scripted enemy pop-outs. I mean, you could sit in cover for about 4 to 5 minutes and then go out and more enemies will come out. But you could also take about 10 to 15 seconds in cover then come out for the same effect, so the game makes it feel like they only come out when you are open. Another thing that gives the same effect of unrealism is respawning infinites enemies that only stop respawning when you get from one place to another. Like in one level, I could spend the whole day killing enemies, and then get shot and die, or just run as fast as you possibly can from one place to another and not shoot ANY enemies and they will stop respawning. Sometimes I think of my allies as distractions more than actual allies. There is one level where there is a helicopter and there is a barn I have to get to. Once I waste almost all my bullets trying to kill the gunner, I desperately run towards the barn to get inside, only to find a scripted gunner come out and shoot me. I have been working on the same level for hours and hours and I still have not passed it.
One thing I would like to say though is that this game actually good use of special grenades(unlike most games), like a flash bang is very helpful at getting enemies to daze of while you start aiming at their heads. Or while enemies are coming you could throw a smoke grenade and place a claymore right next a door, then once the smoke goes out and they run through the door, BOOM. Sadly, weapons like C4s and Claymores are really only found useful in multiplayer games, whereas in single player mode they are usually only used for objectives like plant a C4 on something important and detonate it.
Now, even though the single player has different levels of difficulty to choose from, the multiplayer might not be the best place for beginners but something that someone will really get into. The reason I say that is this isn’t a game like Halo or Gears of War where there are weapons pickups and you will have to shoot a load of bullets to kill someone, Or if you have one weapon where even the inexperienced could get many kills. Nothing like that. This is a game where if you get shot by even a few bullets, you will die. It is a very fast paced game similar to Unreal Tournament but a little slower so that the sniper could be found useful XD. There is, however, the importance of having the right weapons at the right situations. Now that I think about it, it feels a lot like Team Fortress 2, except that you can mix them up to your play style. Something very rarely found in a first-person shooter is the integration of experience points. You get experience points for killing other players in multiplayer. The more experience points you get the closer you get to leveling up, like a role playing game. Once you level up, you unlock more weapons, attachments and perks. Perks are like bonuses to add onto your character. You can have three perks on your character at a time and you get to choose which ones you want. Like a perk called Stopping Power where your bullets have more damage, and a perk called Sleight of Hand where you can reload faster. There are also perks that let you hold more grenades. Attachments are like add-ons to your weapons to make them a little more useful, like a silence could be attached to make sure that you don’t appear on the mini-map when you shoot, or a red dot scope so you can aim better and not have to use the iron sights. The weapons in the game are very modern(hence the name Modern Warfare) and different from the weapons older Call of Duty’s had. They are split into 5 groups, Assault Rifles, Sub Machine Guns, Light Machine Guns, Shotguns, and Sniper Rifles. One game element which adds a whole lot of realism is being able to shoot through thin surfaces. So a bullet being shot through a very thick wall might not be able to penetrate a wall, or penetrate but it won’t be very damaging, and a bullet being shot through things like wood or sheet metal while lose a little bit of it’s damage but still be deadly. So now there is a difference between cover and concealment. There is also a system in the multiplayer called air support, where if you go on a 3 kill streak without dying, you can use UAV recon to have the mini-map scan for enemies for about 30 seconds, while if you go on a five kill streak you could call an air strike where a map of the level is shown and you could choose where you want to fire the air strike. So you could use an air strike in conjunction with a UAV to know where the enemies are and land a few bombs on them. If you get 2 kills from that or from your own fire without dying you go on a 7 kill streak where you can call a helicopter to come and support you(very useful too).
Just to include a little snippet about controls, you can hold down a button to look down the iron sights/scope/attachment, and fire. Or you could just press the fire button and fire directly from the hip, which is not as accurate(like Gears of War). You can also melee with you knife by clicking into the right thumb stick and switch weapons and reload. You can also crouch or go prone(lay on your stomach) by clicking the B button. And jump or climb over objects with the A button. Moving around is done by the left thumb stick and air support or perks(like RPGs, Claymores, and C4s. Don’t worry, other perks are passive) are used with the D-Pad. And the use the left and right bumpers to throw fragmentation grenades, flash grenades, stun grenades and smoke grenades(Sorry, but you can only have frags and one of the other three at a time).
Graphics are very cinematic and realistic(hehe, does that sound familiar to anyone?). The game also has a very cinematic feel. Just watch the intro and credits and it might remind you of a movie. And the final level(or the level after the final level) feels Soprano like. And the cut scenes give the game like an interactive movie, except deeper than that. When you get close up to sandbag walls though, it looks 2-d, but the environment looks very realistic, and the explosions are also very realistic. But there are some questionable rag doll physics, but they only popped up when I played split-screen games. You’ll see many people having their hands stuck inside a wall and hanging off of it in split-screen games. Though it destroys the feeling of darkness in Call Of Duty 4, it gives more of the feeling of hilariousness. Graphics look DirectX10 for computers but are still only DX9. Lighting also gives a great feel and realistic, though you will never see your own shadow. But these small mistakes are usually ignored because of the realistic graphics.
Sound design isn’t perfect, but is damn well close to it(also sound familiar for you G4 watchers?)! Bullets being fired, bouncing off of different surfaces and explosions being heard from afar are also very realistic. Music also gives this game a very dramatic mood, similar to the emotional mood in Halo 3. Voice acting is AWESWEEXCELENT! Even the intro of the game will make you say WOW! The voice acting gives you the feeling of being your allies but also makes you care about all of the characters in the game.
And now for the final verdict. One of the most anticipated games of the year did not let us down and then some.

Deep story, even for 5 hours(even more when you play on Hardened, a LOT for Veteran), fun and addicting multiplayer, not as much variety as a next gen game might truly have, but is still one of the greatest “interactive movies” of all time.

Gameplay: 9/10
Story: 9/10
Graphics/Design: 9/10
Extras/Variety: 8/10
Tilt: 9/10

To bring breath back to this lifeless blog, I've decided to bring back my old reviews back from Gamespot that I posted about 2-3 years ago. They were slightly amateurish, but hey, they are good filler as I decide what I could do to make this blog worth it again. Anyway, here's my review Oblivion!

Let's start with a summary of this review. This game is awsome.

Now let's actually talk about it.

The Gameplay is a real BIG improvement after Morrowind and is still keeps the fun of Morrowind and a lot more. The main quest will keep you playing for a few hours, and after that, a whole world of fun and intresting side quests awaits you. There is also a very cool and intresting thing in this game called radiant AI, where the AI seem like real life characters, going around walking, shopping, sleeping, talking to other NPCs, and even stealing for themselves. Combat and magic systems have been greatly improved. Instead of Morrowind's, swing and hope to get a hit, you will always get a hit, and something that adds to the real life combat system is block, not avaible in Morrowind. And now, instead of switching from your weapon to you pair of hands, you can use magic without taking the time to switch your weapon. The NPCs also add on the gameplay, all having different personalities. Also something that was not avaible in Morrowind is voice commentary. When you talk to someone, they actually say something, unlike Morrowind, where it was just text whenever you asked an NPC about something. Also, the voice syncing with the NPCs' mouths is phenominal. It is almost a complete match with what they are saying. The only thing that is bad about gameplay is loading. It appears frequently slows the game down a lot. But that's only a minor complaint. All and all, the gameplay is downright awsome.

Now the graphics, the graphics are great. Everything seems very realistic. Shadowing, lighting, coloring, everything. The only thing thats bad about the graphics is that they take very long to load, and they make the game very laggy and glitchy. The game is very broken, so you can find yourself walking into a big blue of nothing a lot in the game. Going through walls, jumping outside of the actual area, all that stuff. Now straying away from the laggy part of this game, NPCs look like real life humanoids/lizardoids/tigeroids/elfs. Buildings and animals are very detailed. Nature is huge with graphics, and everything responds to the lighting of the place. Water textures are great too, responding to you moving in it to raindrops falling into it. Pretty much this; The graphics are great except the lag made by all the detailed graphics. and the glitches really take away from the realism.

Morrowind had great music and so does Oblivion. The sound, both effects and music, are outstanding. The musical compostions really give some excitement and calmness in the game. The sound effects and voice commentary really give some realism into the game. From swords clanking and banging, to getting struck with and arrow and the sound of pain it makes. From the differents sound of footsteps on different terrain, to sound of fireballs passing by and the sounds the storms make.

Now the replay value. Once you complete the Thevies guild quests with a theif, you can make a new game and make a warrior for the Fighters Guild, or a wizard for the Mages Guild, or an assassin for the Dark Brotherhood, or an all-around player to try to beat all those quest lines including the main one, or be a barbarian and join the Arena, or just an adventurer going around town completing mini-quests. You can do it all and the intresting quests give this game a replau value so big, it might take years to days just to complete them all.

I had a very fun time with this game, And you should too. Everything is almost perfect. The only guys I recommened not buying this game are those people who get bored running around vast landscapes. All those other people though, are gonna have a awsome time with this game.

A 9.9

out of 10.



Originally posted Jul 8, 2007 7:13 pm GMT

To bring breath back to this lifeless blog, I've decided to bring back my old reviews back from Gamespot that I posted about 2-3 years ago. They were slightly amateurish, but hey, they are good filler as I decide what I could do to make this blog worth it again. Anyway, here's my short review of Lost Planet: Extreme Condition!

This game is good, good graphics, good story, good sound effects, (kinda) good music, just average gameplay.

You play as a amnesic guy named Wayne, and picks up his memory the more you play the game. You are on a snow covered planet E.D.N III infested with a alien type creature named the Akrid. And you have to save the planet.

Everything looks very realistic. The snow moves around like it should. It makes you feel like you really on a snow covered planet. Everyone also looks very realistic. The characters are very detailed. And the environments are very alive.

The sounds are very realistic. It really sounds as if your shooting a machine gun. It also really sound like an alien was screaming at your face. It'll be really be worth your money.

The only lacking thing. Gameplay. Running around the snow is kinda slow, even with a VS is just slow. I mean, some innovative things like hangin' and climin' a wall with a rope attached to a gun. But sometime (most of the time in multiplayer), you just don't feel as if your gun is actually damaging a player/Akrid. And it's just not for everybody. This game is good. But just not for everyone.




Originally posted Aug 8, 2007 4:17 pm PT

A game where you bounce on all the platforms and reach the finish with the most points possible. Sound like something that came out 27 years ago? Well, it's very damn similar. Artoon is like a revised version of Q*Bert, with slight twists. You are small bouncing ball and you must change the color of most of the platforms to finish.

Let's start out with the features that make this game different. There are a multitude of different levels with 5 different types of worlds the player can be in. Every world has a different feature or art style that makes them unique, such as; everything is neon in one world, if you looks towards one side of the world there is a large screen effect which makes it harder(not really, it's annoying, though) for you to progress, etc. Every level is pretty easy but it will take a little bit of work to get an A+ rank on all of them.

The bad things of the game are as follows, the style function is almost useless. If you can get every single platform in a row(which doesn't take a much of a while to figure out), then you already get the A+. That's another thing, this game is not very challenging. The levels with the screen effects are easy because you barely have to turn the camera around anywhere to beat a level. You could beat the whole game looking backwards if you have to.

All in all, I don't think it's worth $5. Something a little more worth your money would be Groov, which is $2.50. If you would like to try the game yourself, click here to download it to your 360.

The Xbox Live community games seems to be a very largely ignored part of the new Xbox dashboard update. This game seems to show how creative these games could possibly be. Groov is a new addition to the Xbox Community Games that has a very interesting concept. As quoted from the description of the game given, "Every action in Groov has a musical interaction", this game integrates the omni-directional shooter features very similar to games like in the Geometry Wars series with music makes for a very worthwhile play.

The gameplay is very simple and very similar. Left thumbstick controls moving, Right thumbstick points and fires your weapons, with the right thumbstick featuring the special weapon. Sounds similar, right?

The concept is very interesting, though. Every time you fire your weapon, it makes a different sound that syncs with the music in the background. Every time a bullet hits an enemy, the enemy lights up and explodes also making a unique sounds which also syncs with the background music. You are almost creating music while playing a very Geometry Wars-like game.

The music will basically decide whether or not you like the game. If you like the sound of an intergalactic jazz orchestra or something similar to the Geometry Wars soundtrack(I bring it up a lot because it's very similar!), you will like it. Every enemy mocks the sound of a different instrument. For example, every time you hit the "guitar" enemy, it will make a deep guitar strum.

These are the list of the things that make this game, overall, great.

*Every playthrough is guaranteed to be unique.
*Gameplay is very simple.
*It's $2.50. How can you complain?

But there are some downsides:

*There are only three gameplay modes, one of which I am unable to play because the challenge level seems to be a little too high for me to beat the second mode.
*Although every playthrough will be unique, a little over a straight hour of playing, they will seem to become very similar. This is not a long playthrough game. This is a play-in-short-spurts game.
*No options. There is an in-game how to play guide but there is no way to adjust the volume settings or change some of the controls.


All in all, this game is worth your $3. And once you play this game, you just can't help but to smile at the creativity of this game. You can go to the Xbox Live Marketplace and download a free trial of this game, or just click on this link and the next time you start up your 360, it will start downloading!