Post by MrShade on Aug 15, 2007 14:17:06 GMT -5
Just in case anyone left on the forums plays video games I'll give you some reviews of recently played games.
PC Games
Xbox 360 Games
PC Games
- Safecracker (8/10)
This is a remake of an older puzzle game. There's barely a story - you're applying to work for a locksmith and you have to crack 30 "safes" to get the job. Each "safe" is a puzzle residing in a mansion. As you solve each puzzle you get clues or pieces that go with other puzzles. An excellent game if you like puzzle games. - Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None (6.5/10)
This is based on the book but adds a character in and changes the ending. You run around talking to different characters and solving absurd puzzles. It's interesting for the story but there are too few puzzles and most of them are horribly contrived. A decent game if you like puzzle games. - Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express (6/10)
See above. Basically the same gameplay with better graphics but the story is not as good. - Evidence: The Last Ritual (6.5/10)
This is a sequel to Missing Since January. Basically there is a serial killer who has confounded the police in Europe and he has sent them a CD. The police group in charge of tracking him down has released the CD to a small group of people in hopes of them cracking the CD and capturing the killer.
The CD has 35 "levels" which are puzzles. Most of the puzzles require searching the Internet to get more information to solve the puzzles. After solving a puzzle a video clip is played of some of the people that the killer is stalking. One of them is a journalist from the previous game and another one is a woman looking for her missing brother who is possibly involved in some type of cult.
The videos are very well done and could pass as legitimate crime scene videos.
While the idea for these games is original and works fairly well there are quite a few issues. The first problem is that the screen resolution is static - 800 X 600. This isn't a problem with older style CRT monitors, but my widescreen monitor prefers 1440x768. This made the text, which is already extremely small, almost impossible to read in parts. The biggest issue with the game is the amount of Internet searching required. A lot of the puzzles require more than 15 minutes of Internet research which breaks up the pacing of the game way too much. Some of the puzzles aren't very logical and the ones that give you a textbox to type your answer in only accept one spelling - a big issue when you are looking at European locations that are spelled 5 different ways on the Internet. I would only recommend this to hardcore puzzles fans.
Xbox 360 Games
- Rainbow Six Vegas (7/10)
This is a "realistic" squad based shooter that takes place in, SURPRISE!, Las Vegas. This is pretty fun and has gorgeous graphics. Multiplayer for this one is not my cup of tea. About a 10 hour game. - F.E.A.R. (8.5/10)
Another FPS. This one is set apart by a psuedo-supernatural storyline involving pyschics and an army of clones. The story is decent and could have been made better by having subtitles available like almost any other game. You pick up pieces of the story by listening to phone messages and getting radio messages from your team. Unfortunately they are very hard to hear.
The gameplay makes up for the story - it's non-stop shoot-em-up and bullet time action. While graphically mediocre for a 360 game it has great effects and plenty of gore (pinning people to walls with a nail gun, blowing people in half with the shotgun). About 10 hours. - Lost Planet (7/10)
A third-person shooter on an ice planet. You fight aliens, soldiers and mechs (giant human piloted robots). The gameplay is decent but is hurt by your slow speed and lack of mobility, especially in the mechs. It does have plenty of well done cut-scenes to move the story along and features at least one boss battle per level (11 levels in all). While the bosses are pretty cool, the battles themselves tend to require luck more than skill and are very long. It usually takes about 3-5 minutes to kill a boss in the game and it usually takes about 10 tries to kill one. This artificially drags the game out to about 11.5 hours.