Recent reviews by Badger Al Gaib

Propably the best entry in the series. It intergrates strategic decisions that have huge impact in the game while keeping the beatiful sand-box / RPG combination that we were given in the first entry. Everything look more polished here and couple it with some texture mods and the Anno Domini mode it's propably one of the best medieval RPG games out there. What are you waiting for people? Go on buy it!

There are various sorts of space sagas (Star Wars, Star Trek... what else is there...?) but Mass Effect for some including myself, has a tale and a universe that stands above even what the film industry would call our 'greatest'. Think I'm kidding? No, I'm not. I'd honestly rather sit for hours at a time building the absolutely astounding tale of Commander Shepard and the Normandy crew than watch any of the Star Wars movies and yes, that includes the original series. I'll grant you this; that this game is enhanced by its sequel, and had it come out and been terrible I probably would not feel this way, but the point is that Mass Effect 2 did come out and it was spectacular and it made playing through this one all the better. Something that I believe is critically understated in the gaming community by GameInformer and the like is that this game sports what was, to me, the most intimidating villain I have EVER been presented with. Saren was a good villain, but in the scene where Shepard meets Sovereign for the first time, face to face, I felt more dread and more hopelessly outmatched than any final boss has ever made me feel. When hearing a description of just what Shepard is up against, it honestly had me wondering how this could possibly end well. The ending satisfies, but the only thing I regret is that the experience with Sovereign is so short lived. Still, the overall story does not end and I had a great time with the sequels that Bioware dished out.

How do you describe a game that is so extraordinary as Mass Effect 2? Where do you begin? With the superb graphics, that stand with the best today? Do you go with the gameplay that feels a thousand times more polished than the first with absolutely tons of available sidequests as well as Downloadable content? Maybe with the fact that this is the first story game that has allowed a player to carry over player-made decisions onto another game, and with this comes a promise that the character you crafted to YOUR expectations would be waiting for you in this story. (That alone is something that gamers like myself have been waiting years for.) And don't even get me started on the story and where the team at Bioware is taking this series. Not only are your character relationships you made in ME1 still intact, but now they have new and truly exciting avenues that they can take. This is doubly true for the Lair of The Shadow Broker DLC with character Liara T'soni. (Highly recommended, along with all the other DLC) Then there is Shephard. The hero who has a bit more personality than before, is forged through player decisions that can alter the state of your party dramatically. And forging him or her is another matter altogether. How exactly do you craft a character who is the most important human in the galaxy? And more, a character who knows it? These elements are sheer brilliance and the amazing experience gifted to us in the first is grossly intensified. The action feels real and livid. The romantic stories feel romantic (particularly with Garrus, Thane, Jack and Tali Zorah, who seem the slightly less than obvious choices) And the music (yes, I'm yet again, going into the music) composed by Jack Wall fits the situations of the game even better than the first entry. Some take issue with the mining and doorlock minigames because of their repetitive nature. To me, it is small potatoes considering the rest of the experience. By the end, you feel the weight of your decisions and their consequences on your shoulders, be they good or bad. The brilliant thing, though, is that you've felt this all along.

10/10

DO
NOT
TOUCH
OR
BUY

Sleeping Dogs, Max Payne 3, Halo 4 and The Walking dead should go for GOTY. Forget GTA! This is the new stuff. Something noone thought about was the involvement of The Triad. Quite innovating for a game to take place in Hong Kong and quite possibly the best game in its kind this year.

Failed me. No horror, no pure action, bad animations and mechanics...

Better than all the strategies out there. Great animations and storyline, beatiful visuals and quite possibly the best Strategy game of 2012 for me.

This game was so bad that in fact I do not give a ♥♥♥♥ about finishing it. Bad AI, Buggy stealth mechanics, poor animations and poor storyline combine the first failure of Square Enix.

A huge dissapointment. The worse entry in the series by far. Buggy, Unresponsive, hard controls and almost impossible to get used to, ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up aiming system, and terrible lip sync. The 2 Ubisoft kings (Far cry 3 & AC 3) proved the most dissapointing in my head. The dialogue would be much much better if they gave a damn fixed the lip sync (because the acting was great) and the animations are too damn bad.
In general it is just a poor conclusion in the series with a very bad gameplay element and a mediocre storyline (extremely boring until you play as the adult connor). Ubisoft you failed me

Where to start and what to comment. A masterpiece in its genre Rockstar maybe gave us their best game to date. Max Payne 3 is a hell of a game. Perfect soundtrack, awesome missions, great animations and voice acting. The dialogue was over the top and even better than the so called The Walking Dead which focused on dialogues. This game does everything right.
Gameplay? Check
Soundtrack? Check
Storyline? Double check.
I hope on one more game (which I hope to be as good as that)