Reviews, Page 5
Resident Evil 5 Review
For years, Capcom has been at the forefront of the survival horror genre with Resident Evil. When the first game in the series came out in 1996, it left its mark on the video game industry, leading to countless other attempts at the genre, such as Silent Hill. They redefined survival horror, and gaming in general, again in 2005, when Resident Evil 4 was released. The latest game in the franchise is Resident Evil 5, and while it doesn’t...
Dead Space Review
The survival horror genre really came into its own when the first Resident Evil came out. What followed was the likes of Silent Hill and Condemned hitting the market. Thankfully, Dead Space was released in 2008 to provide the survival horror genre an excellent new franchise to build upon. If you haven't played Dead Space yet, then now may be the time to acquire it, especially with Dead Space 2 coming out January 2011. Click the image to view...
Battlefield Heroes Review
Battlefield Heroes is a free online FPS that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Basically a trimmed down version of Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Heroes is browser based and completely free to play. The game is relatively simple; it consists of two teams, Royal and Nationals, which bear more than a passing resemblance to the Brits and Germans of World War II. The game mode is capture the flag -- you have to raise your flag over the other...
Battlefield 1943 Review
DLC at its very worst can be a prime example of money grubbing tactics that deliver little content with a not-so-little price tag. However, at its best, it’s the perfect example of a quick burst of gaming with a fair price. Battlefield 1943, sequel to the Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield 2 PC series, is a near-perfect blend of functional price and substantial content -- whether you decide to play a few quick matches or devote your time...
Minecraft Review
A new genre that hasn't fully established a name for itself is soon becoming a new craze on the PC platform. It's for anyone who has ever played with Legos or MegaBloks, or simply any gamer looking for something new. At heart, Minecraft is a first-person sandbox game, similar FPS controls. It's a game about building and surviving. It's about collecting. It's also about blocks. Lots and lots of blocks. The land is made of blocks. Leaves are made...
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Review
The market for the FPS is similar to the fighting game market of the early '90s, a time in which companies pumped out fighter after fighter in an attempt to cash in on the success of big titles such as Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Some were met with varying forms of success, but most were destined to be forgotten and abandoned as the juggernaut titles continued to dominate. Click the image to view screenshots In this generation, there...
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 Review
Remember the good ol' days of video gaming? Remember when Sega ruled the world with Sonic the Hedgehog as its king? Those sure were the days, weren't they? Back before the deluge of 3-D Sonic games hit gamers upside their collective heads and caused the Sonic franchise to fall stunningly from grace. Wait, what's this you say? Sonic is back in a new 2-D game? A new major 2-D game? Not just a mobile game but a downloadable game for all of the...
Vanquish Review
The third-person shooter has largely been thought of as being related to only a few titles. The Gears of War series comes to mind, with Ghost Recon and the SOCOM series being other well-known titles. Despite the setting, all play largely the same, follow a very similar mission structure, and feature very similar multiplayer action. Even the most hardcore third-person shooter fan would have to admit the game play is becoming a little stale: Run...
DJ Max Portable 3 Review
There are 2 types of music games in the world. There are those you break out at parties, which allow you to sing horrible imitations of popular rock songs and have a good time with your friends. That would be the Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and DJ Hero camp. Then there’s the other music game, the one that requires hours of dedication to complete a song, eagle eye accuracy to make sure you match up notes with only seconds available, and...
Red Dead Redemption Review: Take 2
Sandbox games produced by Rockstar have a common failing that the company has never managed to address – or, really, even admit to. Namely, once you’ve run around for a bit, causing mayhem and destruction and making a general ass of yourself, there’s not a whole lot of reason to keep playing. Sure, you’ll pop Grand Theft Auto in every once in a while, if for no other reason than to kill some time by engaging in some...
Fat Princess Review
Every week, new and exciting games are released digitally for gamers to enjoy. Whether it’s PSN or X-Box Live, many of them offer variety and a new, unique experience. One of those unique experiences is in the form of Fat Princess, a very strategic, but simple online game on the PS3. Click the image to view screenshots Fat Princess is simply an interesting twist to classic Capture the Flag, but instead of a flag, you’re fighting to...
Halo: Reach Review
Every creative developer has that one project out of all his other projects that really stands out from the rest -- the one that is remembered long after the project’s inception. I call it the "lightning in bottle." Click on image to view screenshots For Bungie, Halo: Reach may very well be that lightning (on in Halo’s case, a couple of plasma grenades and fuel rod cannons). Everything about the project is well polished, from its...
Red Dead Redemption Review: Take 1
Red Dead Redemption is commonly referenced to as the “Ye Olde” version of Grand Theft Auto IV. And to be completely honest, I agree. (For the record, I'll be calling it RDR to save my fingers.) RDR is your standard sandbox shooting game, with cowboys and Mexicans thrown in. You ride a horse, shoot a few people, annoy the law doing so, get chased, die, rinse and repeat as necessary. But that isn't all. There are quite a few other...
Madden NFL 11 Review
Every year, EA brings its latest Madden squad to the video game gridiron. For the most part, each new installment adds a few minor tweaks to the gameplay, along with the expected updates to NFL rosters. This year, however, there was more of an effort to make things a little different, and a bit more interesting. Click to view screenshots The biggest addition in Madden NFL 11 has to be Gameflow, which was designed to let you play through an...
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Review
Some of the best memories (as far as gaming is concerned) of my early childhood were days spent at the arcade, pumping quarters into The Simpsons Arcade Game. You remember it – unless you’re not old enough to have experienced an arcade; in which case, I pity you. You’d put your quarter on the edge of the machine, reserving your place in line. And your place was reserved; nobody (except the occasional jackass) would violate that...
UniBall Review
One of the joys of playing games on PC is stumbling across little gems that otherwise go unnoticed. If not for stumbling around and searching, I would have never been introduced to games such as Cave Story or Super Mario Crossover. The internet truly holds some fantastic games, which unfortunately (more often than not) get overlooked by the bigger, flashier titles. Click on the image to view screenshots. UniBall is an independent title created...
Dead Rising 2: Case Zero Review
If there’s one thing I dislike the most about this generation of gaming, it’s the constant micro-transactions which have become the norm for the genre. When done right, it’s a great way to extend the life of a game. Fallout 3 and Burnout Paradise are prime examples: a decent amount of new game content with a fair price tag. However, there have been many examples of downloadable content done wrong this generation -- either...
Spelunky Review
As well as spiders, bats, and skeletons, oh my! You'll hate them even more when you play Spelunky, an indie game made for Windows created by Derek Yu. Spelunky is freeware but don't let that lull you into thinking that the game has any lack of depth - it's simply full of it. Spelunky is possibly the best indie game I have ever played, and it's free. You play a spelunker, named, interestingly, Spulenky (his real name isn't given). Your quest is...
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Review
It’s difficult to honestly review a game like Starcraft 2. On the one hand, Blizzard Entertainment has a long history of really solid game design, peaking with (of course) Starcraft, and it would be a disservice to myself as a journalist and you as readers to act as though this were an opportunity to get my licks in simply for kicks. On the other hand, the desire to stir the ant pile with a stick and enrage the Blizzard fanboys is tempting...
Beat Hazard Review
Independent companies often have smaller budgets, which means cheaper, lower quality games, but of course that depends on how you see it. A trend I noticed is that, usually, it's these type of games where you won't find gameplay of its kind anywhere else. Preety colorrrs. Beat Hazard, made by Cold Beam Games, is an arcade twin shooter. You've probably played these games before. Robotron, Geometry Wars, Zombie Apocalypse, etc....
All Points Bulletin Review
Ever since Grand Theft Auto 3 was released, the gaming industry exploded into a whole new industry of open world games. It also brought itself along a lot of unwanted controversy, but that's another story. Enter All Point's Bulletin, a game that's title at first sounded really odd to me, (until I actually looked up the term, sorry I don't know local police vocabulary), and is made by RealTime Studios, also makers of Crackdown. APB takes the open...
MLB 10: The Show Review
Every year, a new batch of updated sports games get released for all the major consoles and occasionally, the PC. With these new editions come updated team rosters and the occasional new mode or play mechanic. Well, the latest in Sony’s Major League Baseball games do just that and then some. MLB 10: The Show brings all of the features from previous entries and brings much more to the plate. The gameplay in The Show is pretty simple and...
Final Fantasy XIII Review
Final Fantasy is a game series of legend, now with its thirteenth iteration. Gamers have seen the good and the bad come from this series as time has gone on, so does Final Fantasy XIII deliver? Well yes, it does. But it's not spectacular. You may be asking yourself something along the lines of "Why such a late review of this game?" Well, aside from the fact that OMGN does not represent the day job for any of us, we also want to be able to play a...
Uncharted 2 Is Off The Charts
Every summer, a couple of movies stand out as the “blockbuster events” of the season. Rumors circulate of their over-inflated budgets, high-profile celebrities and abundance of explosions. In recent years, the hype hasn't necessarily translated to a quality movie: Transformers 2 was (in my oh-so-humble opinion) one of the worst, overly hyped movies of the last decade. In the world of video games, however, you can...
Batman: Arkham Asylum Delivers
The general consensus among gamers is that movie- and comic book-based games do not measure up to their primary counterparts. Poor titles are littered all throughout video game history, such as Transformers The Game and Iron Man: The Video Game. Thankfully, Batman: Arkham Asylum is not among them. It is one of those games that occasionally comes along and offers up new hope that games based on a movie license or comic book license can indeed be...