Recent reviews by GoldenSama

If you remember the absolute classic that is TMNT: Turtles in Time, and you enjoyed that game, you will absolutely love this game. It's old-school, arcade style Beat 'Em-Up Glory at it absolute best. Sixteen stages to fight through, lots of fun bosses, a surprisingly robust amount of varied enemies that keep combat fun, and some absolute BANGERS on the soundtrack! The music is top notch. It's full of references to the 1987 cartoon series and it's just plain fun to play.

I'll be honest, I didn't grow up with the Tomb Raider series. I vaguely remember hearing a bit about it back in the Playstation days, but my first experience with the adventures of Lara Croft was this game, the Reboot.

It was a pretty damn good experience.

Tomb Raider is a mostly excellent game, featuring a strong and likeable lead protagonist in Lara. She definitely has a bad few days over the course of the game, but for every stumble and set back, she makes up for it by kicking ass and taking names.

Survival is a major theme of the game. Surviving the shipwreck, the elements and the numerous psychotic cultists who want to kill you. The game makes good use of this, and has a nice progression in features. At the start of the game all you have with you is a rock climbing pick, which makes for a poor melee weapon and almost useless tool - but as you go along, you'll find a bow and a variety of firearms.

In the early parts of the game, stealth is critical. Sneaking up on enemies to kill them or sneaking past them. Running from hungry wolfs and hiding from deranged killers. Yet as you progress, gain weapons and learn how to fight, you slowly go from frightened survivor to unmitigated badass, fighting not just the wild creatures and savage cultists, but supernatural samurai.

The story is pretty solid too. Lara is extremely likeable, and the other characters all have flavors of their own. Some can be a bit plain, but Jonah, Sam and a few others are pretty well-written and enjoyable. Plus who doesn't love fighting crazy undead samurai?

However, this game is not perfect. It suffers from an abudance of horrendous Quick Time Events that can turn what should be fun segments into boiling hot frustration. There's also an issue with the death animations - some of them are especially graphic to a point that it feels explotative. I'm far from squeamish. I have no problem with crawling through the gore pits at the Stormguard's temple, because it adds to the narrative - but the brutal deaths Lara sometimes endures does not, and feels cheap. Maybe it wouldn't bother me as much if not for how many times I had to see them because of the Quick Time Events.

Seriously; Quick Time Events are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Stop doing that.

Those complaints aside, the game is fantastic, and I've replayed it several times.

I never asked for this; but boy am I glad I got it.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of those rare gems that can be played multiple times and still be just as fun as the first experience. In some ways, it's a game that gets better with replays.

Assuming the roll of reluctant cyborg Adam Jensen, the game allows you a high level of freedom in how you deal with problems. You can always take the direct approach and let your guns do the talking, but there's a great deal of fun in exploring, investigating and using clever dialogue choices to find alternative routes to accomplishing your mission.

The plot is pretty solid too. An intriguing mystery, blending cyberpunk dystopia with conspiracy theories. The characters are memorable, and it's easy to get sucked into the story and become eager to unravel the strange happenings and find answers.

There's a heavy stealth mechanic in the game, which I always enjoy, rewarding players for sneaking around and finding alternative routes. You can avoid combat in almost every instance if you want to, but the game doesn't really punish you if you decide you want to go in guns blazing. It allows for a high degree of replay value, as you look for alternate ways to deal with the quests.

All in all, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is well worth a play.

Dishonored is an addictive game that offers multiple ways to play. The missions are complex, and all can be completed in several ways. You can sneak through the game and dispatch enemies non-lethally, or hack-and-slash your way through the game. The story is well-crafted, and the characters are interesting. It is a game I will be replaying again and again, experimenting with different ways to play and enjoying the different outcomes.

By far, one of my favorite games (as of the time of writing this, 1-2-2011). Fallout: NV has everything that made me love Fallout 3, and a LOT more.

In FO3, there were very clear good guys and bad guys. The Brotherhood of Steel were the valiant defenders of the weak, and the Enclave was an evil group hiding behind false promises with a goal of domination. While I loved the morally ambiguous choices you could make, FO3 played a very standard good or evil path.

Not so with NV. In FO3, your karma was all-encompassing. In New Vegas, there's various factions, and your dealings with one faction impact your reputations with others. If you're accepted by the NCR, you're hated by the Legion. If you're good with the Brotherhood, the NCR wants you dead. There's still "good" and "evil" karma, but the reputation system adds a new layer of depth to the game, and adds replay value!

Sure, FO3 was fun with having a good, neutral and evil character, but in NV you have even MORE reason to replay!