Bioshock, now infamous amongst gamers of all seasoning, shook the industry by proving singleplayer gaming was NOT dead. It proved Co-op was not necessary to be interesting, that multiplayer modes were not mandatory in an FPS, and that stupid plot lines and outrageous characters would not feel out of place in a serious tone. For lots of reasons, Bioshock was a great game, but for one, it killed the experience for me. Right now, I’m going to warn you, if you have not played the game, I cannot assure you I won’t spoil it. I’m going to talk as if you have finished it, so spoilers potentially start HERE.====================== (continue reading…)

I was once a young lad and when I was young I first started playing the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Among the plethora of games to choose from, the very first game I played was Super Mario Bros., which I enjoyed so much. I grew and played the Super Nintendo and the Genesis, grew some more and played the next generation, and the rest is history. Now as a full grown adult, I still play video games, I have friends who play video games, and my friends have kids who play video games – wee ones, at the age of eight.
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Sometime ago, there was this fast pace game with absolutely no need for story and the game was just pure action – you jump in, kick ass, and come back another time. It was the time for Quake III, this frag fest was all about the game play and action, and it still is with a new incarnation – Quake Live. Quake III was one of my favorite games of all times and getting into the Quake Live beta, I creamed my pants. But the closed beta is over, and the game is in open beta to all the public to play and for free.
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Ever since I finished F.E.A.R. 1, I’ve been itchiny myself to get into F.E.A.R. 2. Now I have! Well, I’m not sure I really feared Alma in the first place, more feeling sorry for her then fear. So let’s pick up where we left off with the previous article. F.E.A.R. was something to behold in it’s time, but as time went on, it seemed to be less and less impressive, there’s no real fault to cause that, it’s just how technology advance. The main question I asked myself while playing F.E.A.R. 2 was how much like F.E.A.R. 1 was it?

F.E.A.R. 2 starts out half an hour from where you finished in F.E.A.R. 1, so there is a great continuation in the storyline from another point of view. I personally admire the approach from a different angle, but it handicaps the story. The story in F.E.A.R. 2 is much like the first, in the way that it essential is the first. The whole storyline from F.E.A.R. 2 is essential F.E.A.R. 1 but without a backstory, and that really ticks me off. There isn’t much new content to low and behold.
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Once upon a time, I saw a friend playing F.E.A.R. on the Xbox, and I remember thinking “This is kind of creepy”, of course I was a couple years younger at that time. Here comes F.E.A.R. 2, and I decide to go out and get the first one so I can play the second one right after it. So after playing the game fully through, here’s what I have to say about it.

F.E.A.R. is in fact not a horror game, but a first person shooter with paranormal and horrific undertones, you’ll run into the occasional freaky occurrence here and there but it’s more shooter than anything else. That being said, the game is still pretty creepy with random occurrences of ghosts or demons popping up and voices being heard. However you don’t feel this creepiness throughout the game, actually when you are in combat, you feel none of it, the paranoia becomes fun for a while.

The scariest or creepiest parts of F.E.A.R. lie completely in the sounds, and the lighting. Even when you are not in combat there is intensive music playing, and often you’ll find yourself jumping at bit at sounds of yourself moving and sounds of the environment. There were many times throughout F.E.A.R. when I jumped because of my own shadow, it’s unnerving. (continue reading…)

Admit it, you’ve noticed the plethora of space marines tromping around in your favorite vidya. They are white, bald, gritty and probably don’t wear helmets so as to improve their peripheral vision, lower their wind resistance and generally improve their bad-assery rating. Every once and a while you may get one who is vaguely ethnic, or has some hair, but for the most part, they are all the same. And for a good reason.

Simply put, space marines kick ass.
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Now something for you well rounded Atlus fans, a First Person Fighter/Slasher/Melee, Maken X for the Sega Dreamcast. Maken X is about a weapon, as the protagonist; that’s right, you’re playing as a sword that takes control of people. As a sword you can’t really talk but everyone person around you will talk to you and for you, and at some points at the game give you a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ choice like “do you want to save the world or not?” To simply describe the story, you are made to defeat an evil entity because of some virus or something. It becomes really hard to pay attention to any of the story when the cut scenes are completely horrendous to watch. The voice acting is absolutely terrible and it doesn’t help that in the cut scenes, the dolls don’t move their lips to go with their bad voices – at least half the time, they tend to lip-sync when they feel like it.

The real appeal to play this game would not be the story but rather the gameplay. The gameplay is indeed unique, as you do not use a gun at all. Instead you get to hack and slash your way through enemies in first person perspective. For someone like me who plays every FPS ever just to go around meleeing everything I see, this was indeed a game for me. The melee is simple, move around, jump and attack – nothing much to it. Of course there is variety in weapon choices, or rather people choices. Can’t switch weapons, since you are the weapon, but you can take control of different people who have different styles of fighting and abilities. Every person you can ‘brainjack’ in the game has their own unique way of fighting, traits and abilities. But, before you can go taking people’s brains, you have to defeat them, which can be very fun.
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So you powered through Gears of War in a day or two with your friends on co-op (or by yourself, you poor lonely soul) on an energy drink rave with spare time on your hands. What next, an old question with an old answer, the sequel.

Gears of War Two, oh boy! Who doesn’t love the great Marcus Fenix, war hero or Augustus Cole the loveable and muscular ebony soldier of brute force….and Dominic Santiago their Hispanic friend. Oh yeah and Baird that really smart white guy, that almost every FPS has, like half-life and Gordon Freeman, or Call of Duty 4 and the entire British army SAS (Special Air Service) team. For all you Halo fans thinking about Master Chief, remember, he MAY be a black guy under that Spartan helmet.

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I’m going to start off by saying that scaring people is hard, do you want to know what is harder? Making a video game that is scary. Condemned: Criminal Origins is nothing short of terrifying and knocks the socks off any first person shooter out there. Now before I go on about how amazing it is, first I’ll talk about the story for those who haven’t had a taste of the cake.

The story begins with your average FBI agent named Ethan Thomas who has been after a mass serial killer known as “The Match Maker”. While on duty, Ethan encounters The Match Maker, who throws Ethan out of a three-story window. Later that night Ethan wakes up at his apartment not knowing what has happened. Still weak from the fall, Ethan is told, by a man named “Vanhorn” that he has been framed for the death of his partner. He also gives Ethan information about his past and how it connects with the total chaos within the city.

The has you running from the cops and abandoning all connections with the FBI while retracing your steps in a corrupt city filled with cracked out civilians. When I said that this game is scary, I meant scary as in the levels are based off of real buildings and environments.  Condemned has a little bit of every thing from investigating crime scenes, crisp next gen graphics that are stunning, and acquiring new weapons like the stun gun; which adds a cool feature that I’m calling the crack and stack system, where you are able to finish off the enemy but preforming lethal blows that will have your stomach turning. One of the main highlights of Condemned is the stare and tear engine which will leave you asking yourself, “Did i really see that?”

Another major pro to the game is that almost every item can be used as a weapon, such as a 2×4 on the ground with nails protruding from it. You’ll also find other useful weapons such as a sledge hammer, crowbar, and fire axe. Now don’t get me wrong there are ranged weapons – I mean, you can’t be an ex-cop and not own a gun or five. Now that we are on the subject of gun play, I must start off by saying that it’s almost flawless. In combat it is very important to have the melee and ranged fighting flow together smoothly and that’s exactly what Sega has done with this game. At one point in the game you are searching a rundown mannequin store. As if that wasn’t creepy enough during the level you will catch tiny glimpses of the mannequins moving, I know right? Farther through the level you reach a part where the mannequins appear behind you every time you turn away!

Condemned was more or less pushed to the side as the 360 got older, mostly because of the releases of Halo 3 and Gears of War. However, Condemned has garnered a cult following by gamers everywhere.

Ok so in all fairness Condemned didn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen before, but not saying that that’s a bad thing. Bringing back the basics for a good solid first person shooter is just what needed to be done, and Sega hit it right on the money. All in all I’ll leave with this: if you are looking for an affordable game of great qualities, then go to your game store and join the horde of fans that have been hypnotized by the intriguing and heart stopping story of Ethan Thomas.

Ok, lets get this out of the way first to clear everything up. Video games are, in the most broad sense, role playing games. You play the role of SOMEONE, because I know for a fact that you’re not a bad enough dude to actually do half the shit you pull off in video games. That’s all the roleplaying you’re going to be doing. Yes. Even FPSes.

In Doom? You played THE DOOMGUY. THE DOOM GUY.

Let me tell you a bit about the Doom guy. He has been into hell twice. One time was a cheap trap, one time he VOLUNTEERED.

Both times he ruined Hell. They gave him a stairway back to earth just so he’d stop destroying everything.

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