The last game you played

[Grudge]

...as in the last game you finished.



Condemned: Criminal Origins - 7/10

You may say it's a mix between Se7en and CSI and with a whole bunch of violent splatter thrown in, but I found it surprisingly satisfying to whack hobos and druggies in the head with steel pipes, planks, shovels and fire axes.

The close combat is bloody and visceral with great sound effects and animations. The "criminal investigations" parts are a bit so-so - you mostly just go through the motions as you are instructed, but they provide a framework to hang the story from, which is ok. The story is good (for a FPS game at least), and the mood and setting is generally well crafted.

With the sequel already out, you could easily tell by the end of the game that this one is meant to be the start of a new franchise (which original property game isn't these days?), it even says so in the name - "Criminal Origins", so I'm looking forwards towards the PC release of the sequel now (although it seems to have recieved a bit of mixed reviews, Zero Punctuation even said it literally, 50% of the game is awesome, 50% is shit).

All in all, a solid first person whack-em-up that may not be as stylish as F.E.A.R. (also by Monolith), but it compensates it well enough by a good proportion of solid, in your face, no bullshit, old fashioned ultraviolence.

[Transient]

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance - 7/10

I rented it through GameFly for the 360. Not half bad as far as an action game goes, but the story was dumb. The acting and animation was poor, and seemed to be there just as an excuse for the action (which isn't that bad).

[Foo]

GTA Vice City about 6 months ago - Still great but the main draw is still dossing around aimlessly in the city doing tricks on the motorbike

I haven't completed anything since then because a: I'm drawn to open-ended games and b: crysis got fucking DREADFUL at the ice levels so I stopped playing and c: can't seem to get my teeth into anything lately, nothing holds my attention.

[Fender]

Crackdown about 5 months ago. 6/10 kinda fun, but pretty repetitive by the end. Perfect rental.

[bork[e]]

Finished playing through GTA SA a few weeks ago, now just running around getting more "turf". Can't really play it for more than about 30min. at a time anymore, still fun to run around doing random shit like Foo said.

[GONNAFISTYA]

Crysis. 7.5/10

Mostly more of Far Cry but the special powers you have from the suit makes it more like playing the Predator from AvP. The environments were, of course, spectacular and the level design seemed to take advantange of it in some ways but - like Far Cry - it's a linear game pretending to be non-linear.

Still alot of fun though. To challenge myself I try to clear out each area without ANY enemies firing a shot at me...let alone actually hitting me. The tank section was a nice change of pace but not really "all that".

Plus...it's alot of fun to make a building collapse on an enemy without having to shoot him.
It opens up a shitload of tactical opportunities for the player and I'm assuming many more games will follow suit (unlike Red Faction's terrain deformation tech which doesn't really add to gameplay anyways).

[bitWISE]

Penumbra: Black Plague
7/10

Excellent puzzles, story, dialog, graphics, and controls. The only reason I'm scoring it 7 rather than 8 is because you can beat the game in 4 hours and there is almost no replay.

[Foo]

Drawing attention and getting enemies into a group, then throwing a large object high into the air to land in their midst never gets old.

[Silicone_Milk]

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
6/10

This was better than MGS 2 but a lot worse than MGS 1.
Being a MGS game, it still was enjoyable to play but I didn't like the theme of the game. The boss battles were a bit boring.

The first MGS seemed more plausible to happen in reality (even though clearly a work of sci-fi) However, this MGS seemed just absolutely rediculous and unfeasible. It spoiled it a bit for me because it didn't feel as critical to complete the game.

A plus is the ability to eat just about anything to keep your stamina up and to do surgery on yourself whenever you broke a bone/got shot.

Unfortunately it's not a game I would pick back up to do another run through.

[seremtan]

i think the last game i finished was COD4. never finished bioshock, got as far as the alien ship in crysis and thought "this is fucking weak" and didn't finish it

[MKJ]

Lost. no direction nor target audience was specified before they made this game. ending fmv makes it ok for losties, tho.

playing Assassin's Creed still after leaving it for awhile. Grindgame, sure, but getting expertise in the combat makes it a fun game. Taking on 15 guards is hardly assassin-like (i wish they made it more like splintercell), but satisfying nonetheless.

[+JuggerNaut+]

Ratchet and Clank - Up your arsenal on the PS2 like 2 years ago.

[axbaby]

Crysis .. excellent game .. more challenging then Farcry .. cheat mode ,give all was clunky to get working so this was the first game i never cheated on to finish.
the graphics are amazing , there is hope for PC's unless consoles can match the hardware required.

[SoM]

doom 3

got stuck with the geoff bug on the ship and didnt finish (crysis)

STALKER - maybe played through 3 zones.

BIOSHOCK - have finished that picture exibit thing, havent played it since.

[Captain]

Beat Assassin's Creed on PC. Story was excellent, gameplay (although fun) started getting a bit repetitive, ending was bleh. Obvious cliffhanger for Assassin's Creed 2 and whatnot.

Still playing CoD4 and BF2142 online, got back into Crysis and NFS: Pro Street recently.

[Mat Linnett]

Weirdly enough, I've just finished Condemned 2.
Takes what made the original great and adds more of it, but makes similar mistakes (the end devolves into a straight shooter pretty much), and also criminally adds quick time events.
I haven't seen Yahtzee's review yet, but I bet there's much wailing and gnashing of teeth over QTEs.

Don't be put off; it's one of the more satisfying FPS titles I've played on the 360, and I just don't get tired of beating hobos about the head with my trusty rebar.

[obsidian]

For something a little different, here's the current list of games I've started and have yet to finish and my rating based on my impressions so far.

• Bioshock - Not what it's cracked up to be IMO. I don't see how everyone gave it perfect scores. I'm near the end and I'm hunting down that Fontaine guy. 6/10
• Blazing Angels 2: Secrets Missions of WWII - 3rd mission. Looks good and is fun, but there's something wrong with the controls and getting it to work properly with my 360 for PC controller. I'll have to tinker with it. 6/10 (maybe a 7 if I can fix the controls)
• Gears of War - I'm at the final boss and haven't bothered to pick it up again. 6/10
• Lego Star Wars II - I'm done all the episodes so I'm kinda done, but takes forever to get all the secrets and bonuses. Fantastic game, lots of replayability! Good to just pick it up for an hour or two at a time. 8/10
• Medal of Honor Airborne - I'm on the 3rd mission and lost interest after that. Snnooore! 4/10
• Penumbra Overture/Black Plague - I'm on the first one, but can't play this game in long sittings. Kind of like Doom3 where it gets all intense and I have to pause or quit to keep myself from crapping my pants. 7/10
• Prince of Persia: Warrior Within - Just more of the first game, which isn't a bad thing. I just get that feeling like I played this one already when I haven't. I also have The Two Thrones (bought the Special Edition with all 3) to play after this one. 7/10

Part of the reason why I haven't been finishing these games is because I'm hopelessly addicted to ETQW and now Ikariam. I played Q3 today for the first time online since forever and totally owned. ETQW messes me up, I keep holding down the shift button and hitting the 1 button when trying to move faster only to find myself walking with a gauntlet.

I finished Clive Barker's Jericho a few months back. It's not as good as Clive Barker's Undying. Graphics look pretty good, but some of the characters are useless and those action sequences suck. 6/10, I'd give it a 7 if it weren't for those action sequences.

CoD4 and Assassin's Creed are on my list of games to play but not finish.

[vileliquid1026]

Never got to finish Assassin's Creed on the 360. The bf is playing all the time.

[Cory]

Didnt finish, but I was just playing I wanna be the guy ( http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/ )

Why do I suddenly feel like posting today?

[GONNAFISTYA]

Oh I forgot a few:

HL2 Episode 2 = 7/10 - Not bad. Not overly great considering the amount of time between releases but the story continues nicely. It's pretty clear what locations you'll be going to in Ep 3.

Portal = 9/10 - nuff said.

SWAT 4 "The Stetchkov Syndicate" = 8/10 - I finally finished all the missons. More of the same from SWAT 4 but insane "put-yourself-in-huge-danger" layouts, challenges and difficulty, (they basically started the difficulty the same as the last mission in SWAT 4) but the last mission in Stetchkov Syndicate was not challenging at all. SWAT 4 is a billion times more tactical than GRAW, R6 or any of the other tactical shooter games...simply because you have to follow police rules of engagement....a real challenge. SWAT 4/Stetchkov have a shitload of replayability. Everytime I play it it's different and new situations happen. The weapons in SWAT 4 are really tuned for "burst" style combat and will get away from you if you simply hold down "fire"...whereas ETQW is more towards Q3's style of direct combat and easier to control.

(Like obsidian, ETQW has fucked me up as I began playing Stetchkov Syndicate in the same "high speed" manner as ETQW...which in SWAT 4 will get you killed.)

[Peenyuh]

Duck Hunt, ol skool Neen10doe. Took a nap while I played.

[o'dium]

Condemned 2.

100% agreed with the Yahzee review. It starts off amazing, then it goes all... Strange...

But damn was it a good game. Not quite as good as the first, but then what is these days? Worth playing through just for the head shots.

[Grandpa Stu]

rockband while piss drunk on absinthe
10/10

the single song i cannot do on expert is green grass and high tides. my rockband guitar crapped out on me so i cant tap the solo notes and it's hella harder on the guitar hero guitars


guitar hero 3
9/10

not as good as rock band but my friends like the battle mode cuz it's pretty much the only way for everyone to be on an even playing field; and i concur.

[tnf]

I always thought the first condemned was a bit underrated...there were some great atmospheric levels there...the old department store level was great.

otherwise playing ffVII crisis core a bit here and there, going to be cracking into etwq here soon.

[o'dium]

Yeah, the department store was full of all kinda of win. I kinda hoped for a return to that in the second, but they just teased on the one level...

The second is a lot more action than scare tbh, which is a shame. The last level is pretty much run and gun, no spookyness at all.

There will be a third though. If there isn't, it wouldnt make sense. Kinda like some twisted world where George only made episodes 3 and 4 and just stops there.