Borderlands 2 Review

PC game review 

General game 

It seemed hard to believe that the advertisement for this game said it had over a bazillion guns, but it soon becomes a satisfying reality when the ground is cluttered with loot after a fire fight. In case you didn't play the first Borderlands, Borderlands is an fps rpg that has a unique loot system much like that of Diablo or Torchlight. Instead of giving you a few set guns that might be upgradable, there are just a ton of different guns all with random stats for you to obtain and compare. The game starts off with you choosing one of the four vault hunters who all represent the same classes that were available in the first game but with some nice new twists.

Zero: Is a sniper assassin who specializes in either long ranged, pistol, or melee combat. His action skill is called DeceptiOn, this makes Zero invisible and creates a decoy that enemies will attack instead for a short period of time.

Maya: Maya is a Siren, which in Borderlands basically represents a magic elemental type class. She has no specialization with a certain weapon type so she can really cater to any play style. Her action skill is called Phaselock, this basically creates a bubble around your target that will lift them into the air rendering them defenseless and an easy target. Maya can be played as a support type character by using her harmony tree (healing)

Axton: Is a typical solider type character with the exception that he can make turrets! He specializes in machine gun combat with typical things you would expect on a soldier like a few more grenades  bigger ammo clicks and faster reloading. Sabre Turret is Axtons action skill, he deploys a turret to aid in battle that can get some pretty bad ass upgrades.

Salvador: This character is a duel wielding Rambo that can use any gun type but is suppose to be a fast paced don't stop shooting bad ass. He has talent tree perks that make him more of the tank for your group and he has health regen to, to keep him fighting longer. His action skill Gunzerking allows him to pull out a second gun to fight with (duel wielding) while given tons of stat boosts while in this mode.

Combat

The biggest part of this game is the non-stop action that you will be thrown into with out having time to take a breath from the last fire fight. Borderlands does a great job of making you use everything that is at your disposal when you fight, you'll find yourself spamming your action ability while gun swapping and lobbing grenades in almost every fight.

There are a lot of ways to obtain guns in Borderlands, whether you are given one as a quest reward, it dropped off an enemy or you opened a chest. The world is full of weapons that all have different damage, accuracy,  fire rates, reload speeds, clip sizes, bonus stats, elemental damages, looks, and sizes. Something other rpgs need to note from this game is how easy it is to look at loot on the ground and compare it to the weapon you are using. The game doesn't make you pick it up, find it in your inventory and swap back and forth remembering numbers to compare which is better. Borderlands makes recognizing an upgrade take literally three seconds, "oh this weapon has a ton of green up arrows, alright must be better" then back to fighting.

Once you've found that weapon that has all those bonus stats it can always be interesting testing your new toy out for the first time. There are, more then often, some new interesting features on a lot of guns. Snipers that are burst fire, pistols with scopes, shotguns with explosive rounds, weapons that you throw like a grenade when you reload them. This really keeps the game interesting not knowing how the new loot you have will handle. Unfortunately this can also lead to upgrades not always fitting your play style and just becoming vendor junk.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in Borderlands has to be the greatest part of the game! You take on the campaign in a co-op mode, continuing where ever the hosting player has left off their story. The multiplayer experience in Borderlands 2 feels really smooth with almost everything you do. Even though you have more people in your game the missions or challenges don't become just simple pray and sprays.

Although you don't need to play multiplayer to get the full Borderlands experience its just plain more fun to do it all with friends, cars with guns, wacky dialogue, getting locked in an arena. It all just feels much better when there is someone else there to enjoy it with you. The classes can also play off each others strengths really well to. Siren offers a talent that can change her Action skill Phaselock into a Resurrection which wouldn't be useful unless you were playing online. Salvador can offer a very tanky build to allow someone like zero to not have to worry about getting focused when trying to line up perfect snipes.

Certain items in the game can benefit a particular character better then another, so if you play online and find yourself finding tons of sub machine guns on Axton and your friend plays Siren. You get the ability to trade with people in your party which can really help maximize your friends performance. With this being said there is a great little time sucker in the form of a slot machine, these machines can reward guns, Eridium (upgrade currency), or bombs. It can be great fun spending all your hard earned credits trying to spin for upgrades or getting your friends killed by scoring bombs with out them not noticing. This can become incredibly addicting, you've been warned!

The Little Things

A few other things worth mention would be that Borderlands is a very promising title to have replay value for everyone. Apart from the four classes that can all offer a very different play style to the game. Borderlands 2 really lets you play how you want to, whether this means that you dont want to do a zone so you might just play through the story missions there and move on. More then often you can stay in a certain zone doing the side missions that it can almost let you skip places completely. This is great if there is certain zones you just don't like. This being said the game gives you tons and tons of side missions to dive into. Upgrades and items that can change how much ammo you can hold, shield charge you have, how your grenades react or change the way your character looks are always fun features to.

Borderlands 2 is said to have multiple DLC as well to keep the story going just like the original Borderlands offered. The DLC doesn't just offer some new story and zone to play through but this means new guns! shields! grenades! and even new classes to play as.

Final Analysis
Game Score: 9.5

With Borderlands offering such an addicting experience its hard to say that its not the best game ever. There are almost no bad things to say about this game, a few glitches here and there can suck at times but that doesn't hold this game back at all. Whether its fast paced shooting, an fps rpg, a great story line, or a game with tons of loot, Borderlands has it all! The game complimenting to your play style or favorite gun type, this is defiantly a must have that any fps player can enjoy for hours on end. A highly recommend for anyone who wants a great game to dump hours into or something to have a blast co-oping with.

of course if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Torchlight 2 Review

PC game review

General Game

Torchlight 2 is an indie rpg game that comes off first as a simplified/cartoony version of Diablo. You start your journey off by choosing one of the 4 classes available; Bezerker, Embermage, Engineer, or the Outlander. Each class in this game has a very different play style and all offer a role if you choose to play online in a party. Much like the first Torchlight game you start off with one preset ability and as you level up will unlock talent points and attributes to spend. The talent trees in this game are done much better then in a lot of other rpgs. Torchlight allows you to spend points anywhere in the tree as long as you are the appropriate level. This can let people play the ultimate hybrid character that fits their play style with out wasting hard earned talent points in useless stuff at the beginning of a tree.

Each class has more then one play style which is a great bonus. Maybe you want your Engineer make robots but uses a two hander? or your Embermage to have tanky frost armor but chain lightning to kill their enemies. You can play almost any spec / hybrid you are interested in and use it when playing through the game on normal difficulty with almost no issue.

Combat

The combat plays almost identically to the last game but might just be a little smoother and faster paced. A great thing about the torchlight games is that they offer you an action bar to put all of your abilities on then you have the ability to key bind it to exactly how you want. Mind you most people will only use a couple abilities. The game still feels really smooth with the left click to move and right click to use a set attack if you want a simpler combat.

One complaint I would mention about the combat in the game is that quite often you can find yourself among a cluster of enemies and might want to move to the other side of them to have an escape route. I found myself just sitting there attacking instead of my character reacting to my movement command, due to auto attacking in the direction I want to move taking precedence over moving. There is a solution to this problem, the tilde ( ~ ) key is default set to "move where your mouse is" so by using this feature you can avoid the auto attacking problem. Its an annoyance that even though I am not clicking on an enemy I still auto attack, but this is quick fix!

Multiplayer

Multiplayer in Torchlight 2 is amazing, and awful. First off finding a server to play on is easy and joining your friends is simple as long as they have told you what they have named their game. You are able to have a friends list which is a nice feature besides the fact that the ONLY thing it does is tell you if that friend is online. Its unfortunate that they still haven't implemented a "join friends game" option.



Once you are in your friends game, there are a few great things about the multiplayer scene.
1. Twice as much loot! as long as everyone is willing to mention what dropped on their screen
2. A lot of passives and even some abilities are shared for the whole party. A great example of this is Engineers force shield ability which gives them a shield protecting them from a set amount of damage. This ability can shield everyone in your party which is great when your friends who are squishy and have no other way of protecting themselves.
3. Able to progress much faster since clearing high level mobs can be killed easier (with exceptions)
4. You have the ability to port onto anyone else in the game. This can be great when you die and have to go back to town (as a cheaper way to res) and are able to pick up exactly where you left off. Saving you a lot of running back through already cleared dungeons.
5. Its just plain more fun, when you have someone to talk to!

The only negative thing about the multiplayer is how the enemies scale when there are more people in the group. This has been a problem with some other online rpgs in the past since mobs (enemies) are given to much stats to counteract more players and player buffs in the party. I found on my play throughs with my friends on veteran difficulty that single player is do-able, two people is do-able and sometimes easier, three people is a nightmare, and four player is nice as long as people are bringing different things to the table like buffs.

A boss that I was able to solo in around 3 minutes took my party of three over 10 minutes with multiple deaths. This was just due to the amount of health and armor bonus the mobs are given when you have more people. Mind you, this is really the only bad side to playing online and as long as you play with two or four people this isn't a huge issue.

Gear and Items

The best part of most rpgs is that feeling of progressing your character through the game and getting gear upgrades. Lets admit it we all love seeing those plus stats despite how small the upgrade is. Torchlight does a great job of making sure you are always comparing and finding new gear! An awesome part of the game is that the weapons you use can actually determine your play style. A great example of this is the Outlander class which essentially plays like a hunter/archer type character. If you use bows you have max range, pistols are close range but fast, and cannons are slow but provide some splash damage. This really lets you not only compare stats but also keeps your play style in mind making finding that one type of weapon so much more satisfying.

Some items in Torchlight are class specific items, this can often lead to them having some awesome stats or charge boosters for that class. Even if you aren't that class the game has two stashes that you can access in almost any base. There is a private stash to hold things for that specific character you are playing on, and then there is an account wide shared stash. So finding that awesome two handed sword on your Embermage doesn't go to complete waste, it actually gives you some awesome upgrades to look forward to when leveling the next character.

Everyone who plays rpgs will know that its a never ending battle to have enough bag space to either carry all your gear, or keep all your expensive items until you can come across a vendor. The torchlight series has one of the greatest solutions to this issue I have ever seen. When you start the game off you pick a companion pet to join you, which one you choose plays no difference to how they work other then what they look like. Pets attack for and can be fed fish to transform them granting them other abilities in combat to help you out by tanking, damaging or maybe slowing enemies. Your pet offers you basically a second bag that you can store items you have picked up. You can then send your pet into town to sell what they are carrying in their pack, allowing you to keep on fighting and obtaining new gear with out having to keep dropping portals to empty your bags. These trips to town usually take your pet 2 minutes to complete depending on where you are. So even if you are dependant on your pet to fight, you aren't waiting for ever just to get that few hundred gold from your junk. Before you send your pet you can give them a shopping list for things like potions, portals, or scrolls which comes in handy when you are in desperate need of a refill!

Final Analysis
Game Score: 8.5

This game is defiantly a solid experience, the only thing that holds it back from getting a higher score would be the fact that this type of game is so much fun to play with friends. Which currently Torchlight just doesn't do the best job at allowing the multiplayer experience to be accessed and completed as easy as it should be. If the multiplayer was touched up a little bit I would easily say this is one of the top rpgs that has come out in a while. Torchlight does a great job at being a game you can play for hours with out getting bored, or come on and play for 20 minutes and still fill like you've accomplished something. Explore all the classes, mess around with specs, and enjoy all the never ending upgrades you will find in Torchlights NG+.

of course if you have any questions or suggestion, feel free to comment and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Halo 4 Review

Xbox 360 game review

General Game


Halo 4 has continued the epic story line that the series has brought everyone to grow fond of. Although this game being taken over by another company they did a nice job and picking up exactly where bungie left off. In this story Master Chief ends up on a new planet that has yet to be seen by the player introducing a new race the Prometheans. This race is a machine like bug type that brings a whole new set of weapons to the game that have some pretty good looking effects for them. To not give any spoilers I will say the campaign mode plays out much like that of the previous Halos where you fall into the shoes of the main story line character Master Chief and have that feeling of epic over powered-ness. I found a lot of the time you can actually play through the missions in vehicles, with the newly added mech suit type vehicle awaiting your slaughter in the later half of the game.

The campaign continues the story, and adds some twists that leaves everyone in awe, but the game itself really doesn't offer anything that we haven't already seen in another halo. There are some fun little trinkets that are given to you for a couple missions that stand out. Such as the ability to finally fly a pelican. Over all though it sort of feels like a recycled game that payed a little to much time trying to make a story rather then given players a new game.

Combat

Like all the previous halo games, this one plays just like any of the others. Players anxiously hoping that duel wielding would return were slightly let down but then given a whole new set of amazing Promethean weapons to quickly turn their interest into disintegrating covenants with laser cannons. We have seen the return of the armor abilities that were introduced in halo reach which play a nice part in the campaign when jumping around with jet packs to get on top of a 50ft vehicle.

As for vehicle combat, it really feels like they try to persuade you to using a tank or mech most of the time. Resulting with warthogs, wraiths, and ghosts feel disappointingly weak in comparison. Banshees being a wreck in the campaign leaving the few opportunities you have to obtain one giving you no space to fly or to many things to shoot you down.

Multiplayer

Even though this game was being taken over by a new company it still feels much like halo reaches online, you're awarded medals and commendations, exp to level, and credits to unlock armor upgrades that pose nothing more then an aesthetic customization for your character. Although meaningless they did a great job at making sure you had tons of variety when customizing the way your spartan looks. You can now also spend credits to unlock different weapons, equipment,  armor abilities, and the newly added perk system. Its disappointing to see customization with perks added to this game that resembles a lot of what call of duty does, but it has no great impact on your play style.  A lot of weapons and items seem to be a standard pick by all, due to the amount of power they do which is disappointing to anyone who likes to use almost anything besides the DMR.

Spartan Ops

The new feature added to Halo 4 is a mode called spartan ops, which is essentially a challenge mode where players can participating in an objective based mission which follows an engaging story line. Playing this mode offers the players something to do once they have completed the story line, and it rewards them with exp and such to further progress their online profile. The spartan ops story is said to be released monthly and will offer the player "episodes" to play through for an ongoing story mode at the gamers expense. These will be paid DLC after the first season of episodes.

Final Analysis
Game Score: 7

If you are a die hard Halo fan then you're likely to want to get this game to follow the story of Master Chief and play through the spec ops mode as new content is released. If Halo is something that you can live with out, and the multiplayer doesn't look that appealing to you. I would recommend this game just be one you rent or borrow as I found the five hour campaign to have next to no replay value, and the online to get very, boring very quickly.

of course if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Far Cry 3 Review

PC game review

General game

Far Cry 3 like the last two games in the series puts you stranded on an island with some sort of war you are forced to partake in. The story starts with your character Jason and his friends partying it up like typical teenagers when it all takes a spin for the worst. Your partying turns into you getting captured by pirates on the island who happen to be in the slave selling business. The main bad guy in the game Vaas starts your journey by taking the life of your oldest brother and scaring you off into the jungle. The games now main purpose is to free your captured friends from Vaas by any means necessary.

When Jason is introduced to a more sane civilization on the island he is brought on as a recruit to be a warrior on the island to help fight back the pirates lead by Vaas. Jason now has to go from the average partying teenager who has never killed anything, to turning into a full on killing machine. As you progress through the game and rescue your friends you become more and more okay with the idea of killing and are rewarded with exp and new combos to chain your kills with. For every new combo you unlock in the talent tree you earn a tattoo on your arm representing it, this helps secure your progressing rank as a warrior on the island.

Combat

One of the greatest parts of the game is the vast variety of ways to kill your enemies. If you choose to follow the path of the spider a more assassin approach with silenced weapons, bows and melee take downs is complimented by talents. Maybe you're more interested in going in guns blazing with rocket launchers and flame throwers though. The wide amount of weapons really allows you to handle every fight exactly how you want to. Progressing through the game, or just earning cash will give you the opportunity to unlock new weapons, add attachments like scopes or silencers and different paint schemes to them. This really allows you to feel like your load out are actually your weapons. The only thing you will dislike about this is only being able to take four weapons with you at a time.

Far Cry has added a fun twist to exploring, hunting animals in the jungle, which can offer many pros and cons. When you come across a dead animal, whether it was killed by you or not. You are given access to skinning it, using different animal skins in Far Cry will allow you to craft bigger back packs, wallets, gun holsters, grenade belts, and, quivers, etc. This makes hunting animals in your spare time just for fun, not only an addicting distraction but a progressive feature. Don't be fooled though, these animals aren't going to just lie down letting you shoot them for an easy reward. Lions, leopards, sharks, and a few others can kill you quickly if you aren't well equip to take them on. Whether or not fighting animals is your intention some prove to be aggressive and will attack you on sight which can lead to some annoying disadvantages when being in a gun fight and not always being able to watch your back.

Game play and Controls 

Far Cry sets you in an open world island that allows you to take progression through the campaign as fast or slow as you want. When you aren't playing through the story line there is plenty of things to keep you entertained. With every enemy safe house you take there are side quests and mini games unlocked such as, assassinations of generals, hunting challenges, poker games, medic drop speed challenges or a mission for a local in need of the islands warrior. When you feel like you want to take this break the island offers land, sea and air means of transportation, as well as zip lines, and fast travelling between safe houses. This can grant you fast access to non-stop action what ever that might be for you.

The game offers a typical feeling fps (first person shooter) controls you would expect. The advanced take downs you can spec into later on in the game are about the only thing that really feels sloppy. They have implemented a great cover system that works with fast passed game play or peeking around for that perfect take down. everything feels like it fits together really well with the game telling you how alert enemies around you are. There is this fantastic feature that lets you throw a rock to distract an enemy which can lead to great multi take downs no matter what your play style is.

Multiplayer

Much like Far Cry 2, this game doesn't really bring anything new to the table when it comes to the online aspect. You are given a pretty basics online fps game with team death match, capture the flag, attack and defend and a few other generic game modes which is pretty much what you would expect. There is still a bit of customizing which lets you feel like you're playing the way you want to play. All together it just isn't anything special. The game also offers a co-op mode that isn't to great either. You don't get that free roam feel and you are almost forced to play with a full party to have any sort of chance in lasting through the waves of enemies spawned. This really makes both sides of the online far cry has to offer feel pretty weak when put up against other titles recently released.

Final Analysis 
Game Score: 9.5

With almost no negatives to say about the game it scores one of the best first person shooters I have played in a long time. When Vaas isn't keeping you on the edge of your seat as you progress through the epic story line, this game offers so many other activities that don't feel like a typical simplistic mini game but really feel like a challenge or a part of progressing Jason on his path of becoming a warrior. Far Cry 3 is a must buy for people who want a great fps they can play through with enough options to fit everyone's play style. Despite the online not being very good, it by no means bottlenecks the single player in anyway, making this game a must play.

of course if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to comment and I will try to answer them to the best of my ability.