This shoot 'em up was one of the first titles to be released for the Xbox Live Arcade at the beginning of the year, and while not an epic game by anymeans, it's still enjoyable. It plays like a cross between Forgotten Worlds and R-Type, which, with that description, you can tell you'll die a lot in this game. But that was part of the fun of playing Omega Five, memorizing areas that seemed tough at first, and then become a piece of cake the more you get through the areas. It's a short game, unfortunately, but it's a fun ride while it lasts. Too bad a lot of people seem to be forgetting about the game already, 11 months later.
While the violence in this sequel is brutal (you see a bunch of people explode and little kids get killed), it's not as over-the-top as the last two sequels in this series. It's not really much of a popcorn action flick, either, so don't watch this with a bunch of people seeing it for the first time and expecting First Blood: Part 2. Still, for being the fourth Rambo, it's pretty impressive, like Rocky Balboa was.
I was going to take it easy this year, after the amount of reviews I pumped out last year. However, I somehow managed to pump out 36 reviews this year (don't forget the ones in the Other Reviews section!). Damn, I rock. Don't know about the count next year, though, depending on a certain choice I might make.
I only knew about this game a week before it was about to be released, but when I saw the great-looking screenshots and found out that the same people who created Pac-Man: Championship Edition made this, I knew I was getting it. Legions ended up delivering fast-paced gameplay and impressive visual effects that almost draw you away from the action. It's almost like a mini-version of Ikaruga, sans the polarity system and the tough-as-hell diffuculty.
This was a title that I wasn't even looking forward too. After the trainwreak of Sonic '06, I wasn't expecting there to be a good Sonic game in a long time. However, once the game came closer to its "release date" (Sega basically just released the different versions whenever they felt like it...), I decided to buy it. Before I got a chance to play Unleashed, I was already expecting to write a bash review for it. Even as I was playing the game for the first hour or so, I was thinking up negative things to mention in the review. However, I got the biggest surprise this year: I was enjoying Sonic Unleashed. I was enjoying a new Sonic game. The high-speed, Day stages were a blast to play, prompting multiple playthroughs of each stage. The Werehog, Night stages, while they didn't have the same replayability as the Day stages, weren't bad themselves. The platforming in the Night stages actually got pretty hard as you progressed through them. It's really a damn shame this game is getting a lot of negativity from both the press and consumers, who seem to get off on bashing new Sonic games when they evetually come out. Hell, some people are saying it's worse than Sonic '06. Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you people?
Hell to the yeah.
The original Condemned was quite an interesting game since it was a first-person melee, horror title. It had its problems, but it did a pretty good job of keeping you tense for the entire game. Condemned 2, however, was a disappointment. It tried to be like the first, but somewhere along the way, it then thought "Fuck it, let's do this instead...". It's not as scary as the first, you actually have a bunch of guns and ammo laying around, destroying the feeling of being almost defenseless, and the plot does a Jumping the Shark moment towards the end of the game. I wouldn't be surprised at all if Condemned 3 ends up being more like Breakdown if it ever gets made.
I liked the game, it was a pretty entertaining sequel. However, I'm amazed at the amount of love the game is getting from people, who are proclaiming it to be the best game of the year. I think the nostalgia factor hit people a bit too hard with this one, because it really is just a standard Mega Man sequel.
Kojima, you nutbag, just approve a 360 port of MGS4, already. Actually, Konami, screw him, just do the port.
I'd be honestly shocked if this system somehow manages to win this generation in the end.
It's better than Sonic '06. Hell, it's better than Sonic Adventure, and about equal to Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes, so I'm just at a loss for words why so many people are treating this like it's the worst recent entry in the series. It's almost like it's the cool thing to bash new Sonic games, since, to many people, aren't as good as Sonic Adventure 1. Which is mindboggling, since that wasn't even a great Sonic game. What's even more disturbing is when people are thrilled when they get the chance to read or listen to a review that bashes a new Sonic game. It's one of those cases where people need to experience the game themselves instead of relying on reviews. And no, playing a short demo and then judging the entire game based on it doesn't fucking count.
Quite a number of sequels that came out this year where disappointments, or frankly, just sucked. Condemned 2 had so much potential, but jumped the shark, Commando 3 was an amazingly easy title compared to the original and Mercs, Guilty Gear 2, while having an interesting change of pace, wasn't executed well, and Gears of War 2 comes off like an expansion pack of the first game (with a shitload of caves). There are some good sequels that came out, like Sonic Unleashed, but this year went to the original titles.