Brothers is about two boys who travel across their land to find a magic sap from a very special tree. They need this sap to heal their father, who has come down with a life-threatening illness. That’s pretty much all there is to the story. However, that’s not the touching part. Brothers don’t really start hitting your feelings until the end. Brothers have a unique gameplay mechanic where you control each brother with an analog stick. It takes some getting used to, and you never completely get used to it, but using both brothers at the same time is a unique way to play a game.
The game consists of simple puzzles. They aren’t complicated and don’t take much thinking to figure out. Some puzzles only certain brothers can solve. There may be a gate that the smaller brother can squeeze through so he can lower a bridge for the bigger brother. Sometimes they have to work side by side, such as in the water. The smaller brother can’t swim, so he needs to hold onto the older brother. The only other buttons you use are the triggers. One was assigned to each brother for grabbing stuff.
There are some boss fights in the game that are a lot of fun. One early on consists of fighting a troll. The little brother needs to lure him into a cage while the older brother closes it with a lever nearby. There’s only one way in, so the little brother has to slip through bars to escape. It’s moments like this that make Brothers shine and make you smile. Later on, in the game, it gets darker and grimmer. Puzzles involve dismembering the dead corpses of giants. The gameplay ideas change throughout the game, like when they have a rope tied to each other and you use it to swing each other around cliffs. The game feels like a grand adventure, but it’s short-lived. You can beat it in 4 short hours, wanting so much more.
The game looks really good; while not technically impressive, the art style is great, and the game has many beautiful vistas. The story lacks any depth, but it’s the adventure that counts here. If you have a free evening of gaming, Brothers is one of the best indie games you can buy this year.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown was one of the best TBS games to come out in years. It had tightly coordinated tactical gameplay that packed a punch and kept you on your toes. The Bureau kind of keeps this idea while bringing you into the dice-rolled battles firsthand so you can control them. The game takes place after the Cold War, when agent William Carter is tasked with helping save the entire planet from an alien invasion. That is one hefty mission, but you have squadmates to bring alongside you.
XCOM is a third-person cover-based tactical shooter. It pretty much feels like a zoomed-in, more detailed Enemy Unknown. You will encounter some of the same enemies, and the art style is even the same. You can snap into a cove and order your squad to do things like lift an enemy up, heal, revive, throw out traps like mines, sharpshoot an enemy, etc. You can queue these up while time slows down and watch it all unfold. It’s a very powerful tool in this game and can get you out in a pinch. The shooting itself is mediocre. Weapons never feel all that powerful and somehow just feel off. Ammo runs out constantly, and you can end up weaponless a lot of the time in a hot firefight. At least the levels are well laid out enough for you to find adequate cover and plan your attack.
There’s really not much else to the game outside of shooting. You move from fight to fight, pressing switches or finding the intel. The game is a bit on the cinematic side, and the opening sequence is pretty awesome. Once you are back at HQ, you can walk around and talk to people, start side missions, and upgrade your squad and loadout. You get the same death penalty as in Enemy Unknown. A completely leveled-up squad member can be lost in battle if you don’t revive them in time; however, the revive time is way too quick to pass. It’s not enough time for someone to go to a battleground and save someone. This becomes frustrating since leveling up takes so long. When you do choose squad members, you can choose from snipers, close combat, medics, and various other classes. This mainly just determines their skill tree.
I also found it annoying that weapons are slow to unlock. 25% of the way through the game, I only found a few weapons and two alien weapons. There are various other blueprints or technologies you can find to turn into other things, but they’re not as deep as Enemy Unknown. What’s here is solid fun, but it gets repetitive and boring quickly. Every battle turns out the same; you get the occasional boss fight, but it just gets so monotonous that there would be more substance. The game looks pretty good on PC but looks very dated on consoles. It’s nothing special, but the attention to detail in the Cold War-era atmosphere is pretty awesome and engaging.
As it stands, The Bureau is a solid shooter that takes the tactical RTS gameplay and puts you in the driver’s seat. The atmosphere is well captured, and the skill tree system makes battles easier, but the frustration of perma-loss when a squad member dies is excruciating. The overall combat can get dull and repetitive early on, with nothing in between.
Codemasters have been leading the way for racing simulation since DiRT came out. They were well known for the TOCA Race Driver and Colin McRae series (which later became DiRT). GRID was a great circuit racing simulator that featured high-speed machines that weren’t seen in DiRT. Think of GRID as DiRT’s asphalt cousin. It had a lot of great features and modes, and that continues in GRID 2, but gone are the simulation-type controls and feel. GRID 2 takes a more arcade approach, which is both good and bad for the series.
You start out with low-end cars like the Ford Focus, a few muscle cars like the Mustang and Camaro, and even a couple of Subarus thrown in. You won’t start with the fast stuff right away. The goal of the game is to make WSR racing known worldwide and earn respect in different regions of the world. You will travel from the US, Europe, the UAE, and Asia. Racing games aren’t really well known for stories, so let’s skip that part. Once you start racing, you will immediately notice one thing: the cockpit view is gone. This is a real shame because DiRT was one of the first games to implement this at the beginning of the current generation of consoles. You are forced into the 3rd-person view or the hood view, which kind of sucks, but once you realize this is an arcade-feeling racer, you won’t mind so much. You can drift easily into turns like an arcade racer, and the sense of speed is great. There’s no turning your vehicles or upgrading them with parts; sure, you can customize the looks, but that’s about it.
Once you get over this shock, you will start noticing the variety of tracks and race types. Most are typical for a racing game and seen in many other Codemasters games, like elimination, stand-offs, regular races, and time attacks. There’s nothing really special here, but it’s mixed up enough to keep you from getting bored. You can unlock new tracks and race types by earning fans, but honestly, the game isn’t all that hard. The AI is kind of all over the place, so be prepared for the occasional frustrating race. You pick what kind of car you need based on an average setting, like drift type or balanced type; there’s also grip type, which tends to understeer a bit and isn’t so great for drifting.
At least the game looks amazing. The lighting effects are fantastic, and the textures look great, as do the cars. The new smoke effects from Intel’s new 4th generation CPUs look great, and the game even has a mode for laptops. Honestly, the game can look pretty nice even on low-end PCs, but when you turn the graphics settings to max, the game shines and looks spectacular. There’s a good 10+ hours of gameplay here, and the multiplayer is about average. I honestly don’t care for racing multiplayer, but if you want it, you will enjoy it plenty. There are a plethora of cars to choose from, and the more powerful ones start becoming available later on in the game.
Overall, GRID 2 is a solid, fast-paced racing game with a great selection of cars to unlock. It looks really good, the cars handle nicely, and there’s a variety of tracks and race types. The only sad part is that the simulation part of GRID got stripped away for a more approachable arcade-like style. This doesn’t really hurt the game, but hardcore fans of GRID or TOCA Race Driver may find this a turn-off.
Tiger Woods has been the standard golf sim since Jack Nicklaus left the PC scene. Each year doesn’t really bring much new, but 14 has a lot of new features to impress newcomers or any Tiger fan who hasn’t played the game in a few years. The new master’s mode and day/night cycles add a lot to the simulation aspect, while new online interactions make things feel more seamless.
Tiger 14 has a pretty deep customization suite for creating a golfer and upgrading all your equipment, from balls, pins, and clubs. You won’t be disappointed here. The first thing I dug into was the master mode. Playing as legendary golfers starting in the late 1800s is pretty exciting and fun. You get to use old-style clubs, and the game has an old-school sepia-toned grainy camera overlay to make it feel more like the time period. Everyone’s even wearing the appropriate attire, which is fun. There are two goals to get; one is the Legend Win. You have to score the same score that the golfers did back on that day. You play all the way through Arnold Palmer’s day to 2000, when Tiger won his first tournament. It’s very exciting to see all these famous golfers back in their heyday.
Aside from this huge mode, there is the regular career and online. The career is pretty vast and will take hours to complete. There are plenty of courses as well, but the main part about Tiger is the swinging mechanic. You use the analog stick to swing back and forth (or the Move, which wasn’t tested upon review). A new feature has been added, which is when you do fade and draw shots. You have to swing the stick diagonally, which takes getting used to, and you can never quite get a perfect swing this way. Depending on your controller’s analog stick, some people will do better than others. The swinging mechanic with the stick feels great, though, and has great feedback and responsiveness. Adding night cycles to the game increases the challenge, but honestly, any novice golfer can jump in and play this game. It is so streamlined and easy to learn, which is a great thing.
The game has replay value because you will want to perfect yourself on courses, and the wind variation is random every time you load the course. The difficulty is also tuned just right to where you don’t feel the AI is cheating. I was nailing birdies and a couple of eagles with ease thanks to the great course overview and various handicap options that can be turned on and off. Things like the putter guideline and grid can be turned on and off for added challenge or ease. Outside of all the gameplay are the graphics. Tiger Woods was actually demonstrated during the PS3 launch to show how powerful the console is. Looking at the series now, it’s lacking and looks dated. There are some ugly textures and character models, and the animations are wonky and don’t look right. The commentary is sparse and not very consistent; sometimes it will repeat itself during one course. Thankfully, the ball physics feels spot on, and the effects sound real.
This sounds like a great recipe for another great Tiger Woods game, right? Well, at least on the PS3, there are so many technical bugs that the game isn’t any fun to play. If you are using Dolby Digital on your speakers, the sound will constantly cut out, and the game freezes and glitches all the time. Not to mention the excruciatingly long load times, and even the saving is long! I don’t think EA will patch this either, which is a shame. This is solely why the game is scored so low. I spent most of my time listening to audio cutouts and restarting the game due to freezing. The menus are sluggish, they chug, and the game just feels like peanut butter shoved into your console. Some people may be patient enough to deal with this, but if you pay $60 for a product, you want it to work properly.
At the end of the day, Tiger Woods 14 is a solid golf sim and probably the best one out there right now, but on the PS3, the game suffers from severe technical issues that make the game nearly unplayable.
I’m not sure what it is with the Spider-Man series, but the movie-based versions are always the best. This is usually the opposite with video games, but it doesn’t deny this strange truth with Spider-Man. The best Spidey game, in my opinion, was Spider-Man 2, based on the Sam Raimi movie. The huge open world was unheard of in a game like this back then, and the graphics, at the time, were astounding. It felt high-budget, and despite copying the movie, it was really amazing. TASM follows suit as well, with some tricks up its sleeve.
This game is actually a sequel to the recent movie and is highly entertaining. You play as Spidey and are trying to take down the cross-species that Oscorp created. The bad guy here is Alistair Smythe, who runs this place, and this is how the movie ties in. Spidey needs Doctor Connors to create a cure, but he’s locked up in an asylum after the events in the movie. The story is entertaining, but none of the actors from the movie take it apart here, which is probably good. The characters resemble the movie characters but look a little different. This is how you do a movie-based game, right?
The game is more cinematic than previous entries just by the way the camera is angled. The combat is pretty satisfying with just one attack button, but the animations are so fluid and entertaining that you won’t care. Spider-Man doesn’t have a health bar but regenerates health. When you take too many hits (he can only take a few), you have to use the retreat feature, which has Spidey flying off into a corner away from enemies to heal. Use Web Strike to immediately go right back into the fight, which is awesome. Once enemies are stunned, you can use special moves, and all these moves are upgraded by finding tech pieces throughout the game. One of my favorite things is the stealth mechanic, which is done right for the first time in a Spider-Man game. Crawling on the ceiling shows a purple web radius under you, and when guards are on it, Spidey will drop down, wrap them up, and hang them from the ceiling. The health system makes you use this feature because you can’t dodge enemies with guns. Your spy sense will turn red, and this means the attack isn’t dodgeable. Use a quick web retreat and try the stealth again. Very satisfying and well done.
Of course, this wouldn’t be a complete Spidey experience without a huge open Manhattan to explore with side quests. Like Spider-Man 2, there are many missions like saving citizens from crimes, various timed side quests, collecting comic pages, police chases, and various others. They are a lot of fun at first but grow repetitive towards the end. Swinging around as Spidey is just so much fun, and the well-done animations help this a lot.
The only big issue is that the layout of levels repeats often. Disable this lock, take down these turrets, beat up these enemies, and turn this valve. It’s all very mundane, and even the boss fights are really easy with little challenge. Thanks to all the other elements being very solid, you can look past this enough to get through the game. At least the graphics are fantastic, especially on PC. Beenox took the time to give PC users higher-resolution textures and better-looking everything. This is rare in a movie-based game to see such attention to detail. There are some game-breaking bugs and glitches that were never addressed on PC, and that is a real shame.
Overall, TASM is a solid Spider-Man game and probably one of the best yet. This is how you do movie-based games, right? The story is entertaining, the combat is solid and fun, and exploring Manhattan is a lot of fun. The graphics are amazing, but I can’t help but feel annoyed by the repetitive level layout and easy boss fights. This is well worth a purchase, and even if you don’t like the movie, you will enjoy it.
Well, here it is folks. Probably one of the most anticipated games of all time. It’s breaking records everywhere. It has made over $1 billion already, it was the UK’s best-selling game of all time, and the list goes on. Why is such a “real” game-like GTA 5 so popular? Usually sequels and series are dead at their fifth iteration, so what makes GTA 5 so special? Love and care. Rockstar loves their franchise so much, they have put 5 years into GTA 5 to make it what it is, which is nearly perfect. There is so much freaking detail in this game that I could go on forever describing it all. So let’s start with the story.
You play as three characters this time around which is a first for GTA 5. Trevor, Michael, and Franklin are your average Joes trying to get rich quick. The game starts out differently than any other GTA. You aren’t starting out just outside of a car; this time Rockstar got a little cinematic on us. You’re in the middle of a bank heist in a small town. You end up fighting your way out, and the story fast-forwards 10 years. Right from the start, you get introduced to Michael, then Franklin, and Trevor later on. Each character is very well fleshed out, and you end up getting attached to all of them in the game. Of course, the other half of the great characters are people you get your missions from, and this doesn’t change here. While there aren’t as many characters as in past games, they are better designed and original. You end up going through the trials and tribulations of these three men as they get caught up in the mafia, street gangs, the government, and millionaires. Basically, Michael is trying to make amends with his family on the side while Trevor is trying to find out what he really wants—Franklin just wants to get out of the hood.
The largest problem with GTA has finally been addressed: the terrible shooting mechanics. GTA IV tried to fix this, but it felt too sticky and too clunky. GTA 5 is finally more refined and feels like a third-person shooter should. You can snap into cover, aim with precision, and do all that great shooter stuff. You can even change the reticle if you want; honestly, GTA 5 gives you more options on a console than any other game I can remember. While we’re in combat, you can finally customize your guns for the first time in a GTA. Add suppressors, scopes, extended mags, flashlights, new paint, etc. It’s not Call of Duty deep, but it’s a huge step up for GTA. However, the combat is still tough as nails. You will die in a few hits if you aren’t careful, and I restarted many missions a lot because of how hard the game is.
Secondly, the vehicles still control like you’re driving on syrup. You will spin out a lot and easily lose control. At least the cars look updated and are actually knock-offs of real cars. The Banshee looks like the Dodge Viper, and there’s a car in here that’s called the Coil. Figure out what that one’s based on. They look good, and you can customize them as well! Yes! It’s a lot deeper than you think. There are different levels of upgrades, and they make a huge difference in how they perform. Some missions even require upgraded cars. Car-wise, the game still shines and doesn’t disappoint.
While we’re talking about cars and combat, they all tie into missions, just like in previous games. Honestly, GTA 5 feels so polished and refined and is a perfect GTA game. The missions are a huge step up because you get to choose how they play out this time around. There are large heists that you need to perform, and you can pick your accomplices and choose two different routes to go. They are usually sneaking and going through the front, guns blazing. It’s a lot of fun, and you really feel like you earned your cash in the game. During some missions, you can switch between the three characters on the fly for an advantage. This adds a whole new layer to combat in GTA. The missions are much more varied than previous games and are just so much fun; honestly, I haven’t had this much fun in a sandbox game in a long time. You get rated after each mission, and there are side objectives to complete for gold stars.
Outside of those story missions are side missions called Strangers and Freaks. You meet weird people that you help out, and these characters are both funny and strange. On top of that, you have random encounters where you help people on the fly as you pass them. It really helps bring the world to life. While we’re on that subject, GTA 5 is one of the most surreal game worlds ever created. Los Santos is huge, and I mean just huge. There are whole mountain ranges, huge areas of the ocean, and San Andreas, as well as Los Santos itself, to explore. Even the ocean looks so real thanks to the great water physics and underwater effects. Scuba diving is a brand new option here, and yes, there are underwater missions. However, Rockstar took all this to a whole new level when it came to detail. You can hunt in the mountains, and the scenery gradually changes as you move around the world. It’s just so awesome that it’s hard to believe that this is all out of someone’s imagination.
Your cell phone, for example, is an expansion of the one in GTA IV. You can buy stocks and bonds online, buy vehicles to get delivered to your garage, and buy boats, planes, and various other things on the phone. You can now order a cab, and most messages are done through text and email. It helps bring GTA to the present and feels that way. The amount of detail in both the characters, world, graphics, and gameplay is just phenomenal. From the turbulence in aircraft to the way boats bounce off waves, GTA 5 has an unparalleled level of detail that is rarely seen in any entertainment medium.
At the end of your first day, you won’t want to put the controller down. With over 100 missions, GTA 5 is full of things to do and places to explore. Michael, Trevor, and Franklin are great characters, and everyone will have their favorites. Despite the ultra-violence, cursing, and nudity in the game, GTA 5 is gritty and raw, as it should be. Rockstar is one of the only companies that has the guts to show everyone their vision without being afraid of political backlash. I’m sure GTA 5 will have plenty of that (thankfully, Jack Thompson will be absent for this one). GTA 5 is one of the best games I have played in a long time, and I can’t find much wrong with it. Honestly, it’s just typical stuff like frame rate slowdown, some ugly textures, the online component being missing at launch, and a few bugs and glitches here and there, but other than that, the game is almost perfect.
Suda 51 is known for his crazy art style and weird games. He’s pretty much the Quintin Tarantino of the video game industry. You may know his other games, such as Killer 7, No More Heroes, Lollipop Chainsaw, and Shadows of the Damned. His latest work isn’t his best or his weirdest. Honestly, the game is very short and lacking in every department. Let’s start with the story. You play a hitman named Mondo, who works for a hire-to-kill agency and takes on different people. The goal for this is never explained, and honestly, the story makes zero sense. There’s no wrap-up, no climax, no real anything. You just run around killing people with no real purpose. There’s something about a guy named David who killed Mondo’s mom, and then something about taking back the moon from him. I can’t tell you any more than that because there isn’t anything else. The story could have been interesting, but it seriously stinks.
Suda 51 is known for having fun and flashy combat. The combat here is very flashy but very shallow and dull. You just mash square and dodge around a lot to hopefully trigger a slow-mo event where you mash the attack button and can do extra damage. Mondo also has a gun arm called the Musselback. There are 4 different weapons you can unlock through gigolo missions (more on that later), but I honestly never used any of them except the default machine gun attachment. Your arm works off of the blood that you gain from killing things, and this also fuels your blood drive. Holding R1 and pressing square allows you to instantly kill enemies that aren’t immortal or shielded. All of this sounds fun and dandy, and it may look awesome, but there’s nothing else to it. Upgrades are bare bones and only let you auto-heal and manual heal while giving you only 5 new attacks, which end up being useless. The combat is seriously flawed and simple.
Outside of that, there’s nothing else to do. The missions are varied, and the best part of the game is the boss fights and the visuals. The game has Suda 51’s signature art style, similar to Killer 7, but it’s technically dated like all his other games. The textures are blurry and ugly, and it just lacks any technical flair. Other than the main 12-chapter story, you can unlock side missions that are timed with various objectives, or gigolo missions. These are basically dating mini-games where you have to stare down at a woman’s body without her noticing. Once your “guts” are full, you can offer gifts to win her heart. Before you cry foul, there is a purpose: to unlock the Musselback attachments. However, doing these side missions that you unlock will feel pointless because, after you beat the short 5-hour story, you won’t want to come back. The enemies repeat often, there are very few set pieces in the game, you won’t care about the characters, and the story is confusing and non-existent.
Overall, Killer is Dead is Suda 51’s weakest game. It has the sexual spice, the visual flair, and the weirdness, but not in the good way that it has been put to use before. The combat is bland and shallow, the story stinks, the characters are lame, and there’s no reason to go back. That’s not to say it isn’t worth playing through. Only fans of Suda 51 will really get the game’s concept or general design and appreciate it from an artistic standpoint, but the average gamer will think it’s a load of garbage.
The PS Vita has been really struggling with great games lately, and with the dual analog sticks, everyone has been chomping at the bit for a good FPS. Resistance: Burning Skies was decent, but nowhere near the quality of the console games. Along came Black Ops II, which could have been an amazing experience but instead was a literally unfinished game and has been deemed the worst Vita game ever made. Now that Killzone has come along, we finally have the great portable FPS experience we have all been wanting. While it’s not exactly up to par with the PS3 Killzone games, it’s still a great game.
Killzone has never been famous for its story, but the whole universe of Killzone is interesting in and of itself. You play a mercenary working for both the ISA and Helghast; you basically want the war to go on longer for more money. The story picks up right after Killzone 3, but this isn’t a direct sequel to the events between the warring nations. The game also plays a little differently from other Killzone games. It feels a bit faster, yet still has the heavy-feeling weapons and gunplay fans have grown to love. The game is definitely optimized for portable play and for the Vita. You switch weapons with the touch screen (one secondary and one primary), as well as using grenades and your drone. The controls are actually cleverly laid out, utilizing the entire system without compromising comfort.
Weapons aren’t picked up via enemies this time around; you get access to a black market where you buy them and equip them. You earn cash by picking up ammo, stealth kills, melee kills, multiple kills, or any other way you can think of. This is a brand new feature to the series, and it works well. The only thing about the weapons that I was disappointed about was that they are the same ones we’ve seen through the entire series, and there aren’t that many of them. Even so, the campaign levels are very linear and mostly in enclosed areas, so you will stick with a shotgun and a sub-machine gun most of the time. Speaking of the campaign, there are only 9 short levels. While they are fun, they aren’t anything special and lack the epic set pieces of the console games. However, most people are going to pick this game up for the multiplayer suite.
Mercenary has a brand new valor system that uses decks of cards. You rank up and earn new cards by doing things in the game; most will be earned in multiplayer. This is to extend the longevity of the game and to keep you coming back. The online play is a bit more fast-paced than the PS3 games and is a lot of fun. This really feels like a console game in your hands. It’s so satisfying to sneak up behind someone and execute a brutal melee kill or start getting a kill streak going. Be warned: there is a lack of modes and maps here. I hope more are introduced through DLC, but what’s here is fun for quick bursts of online shooting action. Another new system introduced is drones. These are weapons that can launch missiles down on enemies, put up shields, make you invisible, or even be used as a mobile auto-turret. This adds a whole new level to the series and is a lot of fun.
The graphics in Mercenary are phenomenal. The best portable graphics to ever grace a handheld device. They look nearly as good as the PS3 games. There is so much detail everywhere that it’s nearly impossible to imagine how the Vita can render this or have this much power. Thankfully, the frame rate keeps up with the action, which could have seriously hampered the game. As it stands, Killzone is the best portable FPS game out there, but it isn’t the best Killzone game. It could have been a lot more with more time, but what we get is a decent package with an entertaining, yet short, campaign and a fun multiplayer mode.
Saints Row has done a good job of being the best GTA clone ever made. Each game added more ridiculous gameplay and a completely humorous story. Despite that, Saints Row does a very good job of entertaining us with interesting ideas. Saints Row IV is the zaniest of them all, with superpowers, alien invasions, and computer simulations. The Saints are now in control of the United States, thanks to the main hero being the President. Various Saints characters fill other roles, like Kinsie being press secretary and Keith David being vice president. An alien ruler named Zenyak bursts in and starts destroying the White House and the planet. You get captured, are thrown into a computer simulation of Steelport, and need to escape. You start by rescuing your friends and devising a plan to stop Zenyak.
The main story brings you through some interesting gameplay choices, like in previous games. Av Tron-like level, a 2D brawler, mounted gun and RPG on-rails missions, and various others. It’s a lot of fun but really short. The game is full of too much filler, which is repetitive side quests after you rescue each homie. Instead of going around and doing the side missions on your own, they are dealt out in quests, so you actually end up doing them all. Each character needs you to do three sets of these monotonous side quests; after about the 15th time, I couldn’t take it anymore. Thankfully, the unique loyalty quests are interesting. At least you get cool unlocks for doing things like suits, weapons, powers, and vehicles. Besides main and side quests, there’s nothing else to do besides multiplayer.
The entire game is completely changed thanks to these superpowers. To make it believable, you are in a computer simulation, and the times when you are out, you don’t have them. You can run at lightning-fast speeds, jump 30 stories, use telekinesis, earthquake stomp, freeze blast, and various other superpowers. They are awesome and, surprisingly, work well in the game. You feel so powerful, and the need for driving around in cars becomes pointless because you can run 10x faster than driving. To unlock more powers, you need to collect special power-ups, which are scattered everywhere, but the same upgrades via money are the same. Honestly, not much has changed from The Third besides the powers and the story. The guns are nearly the same except the alien weapons are exact copies of regular weapons; the only difference is that they overheat. There are a few interesting weapons, like the Dubstep gun, which shoots deadly Wub Wubs at enemies. The Alien RPG is awesome, and there’s a tentacle bat. There is not much else in the weapons department, though. There are a few new alien vehicles, but nothing so new and amazing that you will forget the similarities from the last game.
The lack of changes even goes into customization and the graphics. The game uses the exact same engine as The Third, and there are hardly any new clothes or items to customize your characters with. This really feels like Saints Row 3.5 rather than 4. The game looks fairly dated, with some ugly textures and jerky animations seen in previous games. At least there are all-new mini-games, which kind of helps a bit. There are various mini-games ranging from on-foot races to giant tower climbing stretches, various other races, and a few games that revolve around your powers. After a few tries at each, you will be pretty bored with them, like in previous games. The fact that all the side quests push you through them makes it a borefest after so long.
There’s just an overall lack of uniquity and originality in Saints Row IV. It tries to use the same tricks as the past three games, and you soon realize they don’t work anymore. The dialog isn’t as catchy or funny, and the missions (even the main ones) can get really repetitive in between the occasional unique and exciting missions. There are many bugs and glitches in the game, as well as severe difficulty spikes, which can be very frustrating. There’s a lack of enemy variety, and the whole game at the end just feels very repetitive and redundant. Honestly, Saints Row needs another reboot, or the series may fall by the wayside.
That’s not to say the game isn’t worth playing. After some side quests, you will blow through the main missions and probably be done with the game. This one is more of a rental than a purchase. Newcomers may find a bit more replay value, but Saints veterans will put 20–30 hours into the game and call it quits. I love the superpowers and the whole alien invasion thing, but the lack of originality and new ideas kind of makes the series take a couple of steps back. Even the lack of new content hurts it more; this really just feels like a giant expansion of The Third rather than a true sequel.
Lights, Camera, Action! The three cliche words that everyone knows from childhood. You will hear these three words over and over again as you restart level after level to itch that completionist OCD. Joe Danger is full of hidden items, trial runs, and fast-paced and tense levels. Joe Danger also has a fun-level editor, but the impatient may not find much in this mode. There are extra deleted scenes for PC users, as well as improved graphics.
First, I have to say, I hate Joe. He’s an ugly, unlikeable character, and I hated playing as him every second I was in this game. With that said, the game itself is a lot of fun and can be really addictive. As you fly through the levels, you get to use various vehicles. Bicycles, quads, dirt bikes, jetpacks, jet skis, snowmobiles, skis—you name it. They all pretty much feel the same, with just varying degrees of speed, but the jetpack is a lot of fun. As you’re speeding around the levels, you can collect stars, clocks for time trials, letters that spell out DANGER, bananas, hit certain objects, do simple tricks, jump and duck, and an assortment of other little moves. These all add up to exciting and tense levels, but the game doesn’t come without its problems.
Some levels are extremely difficult, while others are way too easy; in fact, most are really easy, but finding every object in the level can sometimes be nearly impossible. If you don’t get every item in every level, you can blow through all six episodes and all the deleted scenes in just a few short hours. The game is light on content. I also didn’t like that some levels can’t be unlocked unless you do other things in the game, like build a level. I’m not a level-builder; I don’t have the patience or time for that, and many other people are the same way. Why lock out content and force me to use a mode I may not be interested in? I also felt the trick system was too simple and just got in the way. I’m trying to duck, jump, dive, and maneuver my way around the level; I honestly don’t need to be bogged down with stupid tricks. I also felt many levels repeated way too often; no manner of rearrangement helped.
These are minor issues, but by the end of the game, you end up getting bored of it. All the tricks and fun run out about 3/4 through, and you end up moving on to the next game. Joe Danger himself may be an unlikable character, but the game is worth every penny for a couple of days’ enjoyment. People who are patient enough for the level editor will find even more value. The graphics in Joe Danger are actually pretty nice, and the PC effects look really good. You don’t need the most powerful rig out there to run it, but the additions are fine.
Overall, Joe Danger 2 is a fun motorcycle physics game and is perfect for people who think trials are too hard. There is enough content to justify the price, and there are plenty of hidden items to find for the completionist. The level editor is just icing on the cake. If the game wasn’t so easy, had too many unbalanced levels, and didn’t have too much repeated content, it could be so much more. The trick system feels like it gets in the way, and Joe Danger himself is a horrible character. Despite all that, this is a great game to relax with.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Yeah, it's pretty damn awful. Notoriously one of the worst games on the PSP. A 4 was actually being generous.…