First off, I’m not a tennis fan. I just like playing the occasional game, such as Hot-Shot Tennis. I just like the competition and the strategy behind it. You need to trick the player into going where you want so you can set them up for failure (or, at least, I think that’s how you play tennis). I don’t know! I’m not a pro player! Secondly, Virtua Tennis 4 isn’t the best tennis game I have ever played; it’s very dull and lacks any excitement or flair. It doesn’t need to be a crazy arcade-type game, but give us more than just green, two players, and a ball.
The game is very confusing to start. The career mode is pretty lame, and I didn’t like it. You move around a world map with a piece of paper and markers. You get random move cards instead of dice. Some spots are for training; others are clothing shops, tournaments, face-offs, and various other things. Every time you get into a match, whether it’s for training or not, your condition decreases, and this apparently affects how you perform. I honestly didn’t notice a difference, or the AI was just so bad that it didn’t affect anything. This board game idea is nice, but it’s so dull. The menus look like absolute crap and are flat and lifeless. There’s no tutorial on how to play, and each move pretty much felt the same. The only one that felt different was the lob.
During a match, I felt every player played the same. You serve with a power meter, and I could never figure out where my ball was going. Some sort of reticle on the ground would have been nice. I would smack the ball for 10 minutes, and nothing would happen. It was so hard to trick the AI into doing what you wanted, and it took so long. I wound up losing match after match trying to outbeat the AI; otherwise, I was stuck in an endless volley. The matches themselves, outside of swinging, are boring. There’s no commentary, the characters look horrible, the pros don’t look like their real-life counterparts, and the graphics look about 5–6 years old.
I understand this is supposed to be a tennis sim, but you can still make it fun. Even after playing 10 tournaments, I still didn’t unlock any new clothes; my character was taking forever to level up, and it just felt like the same thing every freaking match. It felt like it would never end. During career mode, the stupid reps and managers would pop up with lifeless dialog that you just didn’t care about. The only real way to go is multiplayer, but no one is playing online at all. I just feel that the game is a huge, boring mess with terrible AI and lifeless characters. The controls respond pretty well, but I didn’t feel a difference between any of the hits. The game could have been so much more. As it stands, this is the worst tennis game I have ever played. Even major tennis fans will be disappointed in this lifeless borefest.
I love psychological thrillers, and this one is fantastic. It really grabs your attention early on. If that crazy cover hasn’t gotten your attention already, then nothing will. The story is about a psychologist who uses an infamous serial killer for a brand new experiment to find out how to cure murderers by making them feel empathy. His theory is that all these criminals are lacking something in the brain that makes them feel empathy, and he swears he can find a cure. This is a fantastic concept, and throughout the story, he explains it in more detail, and I almost couldn’t help but nearly believe it.
The funny thing is that the main protagonist is a female actress who gets tricked into partaking in this experiment. The psychologist and a producer from Hollywood have set up a believable world out in the middle of the Nevada desert. He doesn’t know any of this is fake, and when he starts to attack people, he is tranquilized on the spot. She’s not a very interesting character because she’s not seen much, and she’s always in character. We don’t get to see her much when she’s herself, but the villain, Alexei (the producer), and the psychologist are really the main characters. It’s just great to see everything come together in the end and see how this sicko’s mind works behind the scenes.
There aren’t many comics out there that delve into the human psyche, and I find these more interesting than superhero comics. Everyone knows what a superhero is, and they aren’t real. The human mind is very real, and this sick, crazy stuff is possible for any human. Syndrome reminds us of this and how some people just can’t be cured. I can’t reveal too much because there are a few twist surprises thrown in, but I didn’t put the comic down once. I was very engrossed. The art style is very detailed, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Syndrome is a great comic, and any horror fan should pick it up.
I honestly have to say that Lexian Chronicles is on Game of Thrones status. Maybe Game of Thrones Lite. I haven’t been this engrossed in a comic for a long time. The story was perfectly paced and had enough twists that it threw you for a loop. That is so satisfying about comics. The mystery between all the excellent characters just built up into one big crescendo, and then a finale of fireworks erupted towards the end. I was satisfied at the end of the comic, despite a small cliffhanger. The story leaves you completely clueless about the big picture until the very end. I was shocked.
This story is about a girl named Reena, who is the daughter of the Phoenix Tribe. It starts out with her as a young girl, and the first six issues build up the plot to the meat of the story. The Phoenix Tribe has had a long-time enemy, the Leopards, for generations. Everything seems fine and dandy up to this point until the leader shows up at their front door. He asks for help and support to help rebuild his tribe in a passively threatening way that leaves Reena’s father no choice but to follow. She is to marry the son of this barbarian, or he will raze the entire village to the ground. Her father is able to stall by saying she isn’t of age yet. The dialog going on here is fantastic. I was sucked in and never set the book down. It is so cleverly written and teases constant uneasiness that you get through the whole comic. This Phoenix leader seems like he’s legit; he really does want to mend the broken ties between them. But he says things that just hint at betrayal, but you aren’t quite sure.
That is beautiful writing, and I loved every bit of it. The characters are really likeable and very memorable as well. The tension between the tribes picks up in the back half of the series, and everything is really shaky. You can feel it through each panel as things just start going wrong. I can’t reveal too much without spoiling, but let’s say things go terribly for poor Reena. Because of this, you grow extremely attached to her towards the end of the series. This cave that she has found with ancient runes also leads to this tension. Throughout the whole series, she keeps going back to reveal more, and then the ending just brings all the loose strings together and ties them up for you. It’s very satisfying, and I couldn’t have been happier with it.
The art takes some getting used to. The opaque and saturated art style is a bit weird, and the characters are drawn oddly, but the quality is there. The art may not be for everyone, but the story is just amazing, and I hope everyone goes out to buy this masterpiece of a comic.
There are better keyboards out there, I won’t lie. However, if you have an Alienware computer, this keyboard is perfect. It mainly has to do with AlienFX. You can sync your FX with your laptop or desktop along with the keyboard; non-Alienware owners may not care for this. With that aside, this keyboard is great. The keys are nice and deep, the ergonomics are very comfortable, and the keys are fairly quiet. The design is just so appealing, but any keyboard has a few flaws.
Firstly, the keyboard isn’t separated into zones like the Alienware laptops are. There are only two: the keys and the media bar up top. I also hate that the alien head logo doesn’t do anything. I was hoping it would open the Command Center before I got it, but alas, it’s just a logo. There’s a dedicated mute button that sits above the print screen button and a gaming lock switch that disables the Windows key and menu key during gaming. Some may find this useless, but it’s there for those who need it. The big thing about this keyboard is the TactX keys. There are 18 in total. You can switch between three different profiles. With these, you can open programs, set weblinks, and set macros. There’s even a macro recording button! They are lined upright on the left side of the keyboard, which is a nice and neat line. The optional palm rest is really nice, and there are feet standing underneath as well.
The key placement is just perfect. I tested it playing Battlefield 3 and Max Payne 3, and I didn’t have to look down once. My fingers fell right on the keys they needed in the heat of the battle, and that’s the important thing. The keys are much deeper than most keyboards and even laptops, but it feels nice because you get responsive to feedback. While the complaints are minor, I would have liked to see other features, like an LCD screen of some sort for shortcut applications. For $80, you are getting a pretty sweet keyboard, but that may be just me being picky. You also need two USB ports; this may be a deal-breaker for some who are limited. Those with desktops probably won’t care, but laptop owners may. You need one for the lights and one for power.
Alienware fans should be perfectly happy with this board, and even non-fans can enjoy this thing. I just love the key placements and how nice they are to press. I haven’t had a keyboard this nice before. The software is simple and easy to use, and it gets the job done well. It also comes with a command center for non-Alienware owners.
A good monitor doesn’t just look good, and every monitor looks different to other people. You need features, stability, and clarity. A very bright monitor isn’t exactly good. The models in the store are in torch mode, which means the contrast and brightness are set all the way up. This is to make the monitors look bright and vivid, yet when you come home with them, they aren’t. The Dell S2740L is all of the above. Crisp, vivid, and full of features. When I saw the install disc, I rolled my eyes. Some crappy buggy software is thrown in as a gimmick or to “help” control the 2 USB slots that are underneath the unit. I was surprised that the software auto-controls the presets for when each program is opened. This shocked me. You can drag exes into the window and decide what preset you want for them. You can also turn it off, but I prefer this method. The monitor is crystal clear through both DVI and HDMI. However, the factory settings are terrible. Turning the image enhancer on makes everything look like it was overly sharpened in Photoshop. I actually thought something was wrong with the monitor; I had to switch out the DVI cables to see. Once that was off, the monitors looked so crisp and clear.
The software allows you to arrange grids on each monitor you have. When you drag a window into that region, it will auto-resize it for you. This is great if you are dragging and dropping around folders or switching between programs a lot. The software also allows you to easily make separate settings for each monitor. Even with great software, a monitor can still suck. This monitor was tested on movies and games, and the colors just popped. They were so bright and colorful. Once you get used to the brightness, you can start turning it down bit by bit to save energy. There is an energy meter when you turn the brightness and contrast down. Eventually, you can get it down to 60% without it bothering you.
One thing that did annoy me is that the ports are too hard to get to. They are directly underneath the unit in the back, so you need to crouch down, pull the monitor towards the edge of the desk, and fiddle around until you get the plugs in. This was a bad spot for the USB ports as well; why couldn’t they be on the side? One thing you may wonder about is the gap between multiple monitors. It isn’t seamless like an edge-to-edge display, but it isn’t so bad either because the monitor is completely flat without a plastic bevel to bother you. There aren’t many issues here except the initial setup, and the ports are in weird spots.
For the price, this is a damn good monitor, and I highly advise you to get a 2. I have two myself, and they are gorgeous. I can’t explain how beautiful this monitor is unless you get one yourself. This may be one of the sharpest 27″ monitors out there.
It has been a long time coming, but I finally got a surround sound system. I had never really heard of one before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. After opening the box and seeing about 20 cords, it felt pretty daunting. Thankfully, the Alienware X51 that I hooked them up to had 5.1 audio jacks, and the colors matched perfectly. There’s also only one power cable coming from the subwoofer, which is really nice. I thought I had to plug every speaker into the wall! Once you get everything set up cord-wise, you then have to position every speaker. There are five in total, so you’re going to need a lot of room. Plan ahead of time and decide where to put them. Some probably should be on a shelf above your monitors; the subwoofer can sit nicely next to your desk, while the center speaker should be in front of you. It’s the rear speakers that are tricky. They are supposed to be on either side of you, but most people don’t have that kind of setup. Thankfully, I had a bookshelf and table on either side of me, so the trickiest part is positioning these monsters.
Once you get them plugged into Windows, they should automatically set your sound to 5.1. Once I started playing music on Windows Media Player, I was blown away. It sounded like I was in a theater, and these speakers get really, really loud. During gameplay, I heard enemies coming from behind me (literally) and crashing off to the side like you are in a theater. The same goes for movies as well. Being surrounded by all these speakers, it feels like the sound is coming from all angles. The speakers have great clarity as well and don’t rattle or sound tinny like some cheaper models. For $100, this is a great deal.
My only issue is that there is buzz and hissing when no sound is coming out. This is pretty common for speakers, but you need a well-grounded home or an expensive surge protector to prevent this. I tried a few methods, such as plugging it into the wall by itself and turning the volume up high and the device volume down. At least the buzzing stopped once I started playing something through them. This will drive you nuts, though, and you will resort to turning them off if you aren’t listening to anything. On the other hand, there’s a headphone jack on the front speaker, so you don’t have to use your PC jack, and the power button is on there as well. No reaching behind the subwoofer to flip a switch.
With all that said, the Z506 are fantastic speakers for the price. They blow you out of your house and are of great quality. The only problem is the constant buzzing and hissing if you don’t have good grounding. It takes a little while to get set up and seems daunting at first (even for someone who’s knowledgeable about all this stuff). Once you get everything set up, it’s well worth it, and you won’t be disappointed one bit.
It’s been 3 long years since my review of the Alienware M17x-R2 laptop. I love the thing, and it can still play the latest games, but it is starting to show its age. I wasn’t too fond of Alienware laptops because they used to be so expensive. Since their redoing of their entire lineup, they have become much cheaper over the years. With the new 14, 17, and 18 laptops and the Area-51 desktop being dropped for the X51, they have come a long way. They still offer the monster Aurora desktop, and maxing it out won’t cost you $6,000 anymore. The X51 is a console-sized, compact, small-form-factor desktop that is very affordable yet still offers a lot of power for gaming.
My specs for this setup are as follows:
Motherboard: Intel H87
CPU: 4th-Generation Intel i7 4770 @3.9Ghz
GPU: Nvidia 2GB GTX 670
RAM: 8GB DDR3-1600Mhz
HDD: 2TB @7200RPM
That’s a pretty powerful rig for something the size of an Xbox 360. The chassis itself looks amazing. It’s all about the custom design; what sets gaming rigs apart from others is the chassis; the more unique, the better. The AlienFX slits on each side give it a sleek look. The beveled top and front plate make it look sleek. The rotatable alien head on the front gives it that extra little bit of uniqueness to set it apart from other rigs. There are plenty of ports here as well. 2 DVI and 1 HDMI, 8 USB 3.0 ports, surround sound hookups, a headphone and mic jack in the front, another HDMI port on the onboard chip, and a projector port. That’s a lot of ports in one small tower. While looks are important, performance is even more important, so let’s see how it stacks up to the most graphically demanding games today.
Metro: Last Light
Advanced PhysX: On
Quality: Very High
Resolution: 1920×1080
SSAA: 4x
Tessellation: Very High
Texture Filtering: 16x
The game hovered around 15-20 FPS on these settings. That’s pretty much unplayable. You’re probably wondering why the GTX 670 can’t handle these settings, and it was from one simple setting: SSAA. At 4x, the scene is aliased quite heavily, and you need two cards to be able to handle the load. Once you drop it down to 2x, the frame rate shoots up to 35. On FXAA, the frame rate is even higher, but it looks a bit blurry. That’s pretty impressive, as Last Light is one of the most graphically demanding games out there, right next to Crysis 3. The 670 was obviously designed to handle stressful loads in DirectX 11.
Tomb Raider
Anti-aliasing: 4x SSAA
Depth of Field: Ultra
Exclusive Fullscreen: On
Fullscreen: On
Hair Quality: TressFX
High Precision Lighting: On
Level of Detail: Ultra
Post-processing: On
Reflections: High
Resolution: 1920×1080
Shadow Resolution: High
Shadows: Ultra
SSAO: Ultra
Tessellation: On
Texture Filter: 16x
Texture Quality: Ultra
That’s everything at its absolute maximum. I was getting the same frame rate as Metro at 10–15 FPS. Once again, it was the 4x SSAA. That is really for 2 cards to handle, but once I dropped it to 2, it went to 40 FPS. The game looks amazing, and the frame rate stayed pretty steady and didn’t jump around too much. If you turn off tessellation, the frame rate goes up to around 50 because tessellation is pretty demanding. Surprisingly, the TressFX will give you a 5–10 frame hit just for Lara’s hair.
Batman: Arkham City
Ambient Occlusion: Yes
Anti-aliasing: 32x CSAA
Detail Level: Extreme
DirectX 11 features: MVSS and HBAO
Distortion: Yes
DX11 Tessellation: High
Dynamic Shadows: Yes
Fullscreen: Yes
Hardware Accelerated PhysX: Yes
Lens Flares: Yes
Light Shafts: Yes
Reflections: Yes
Resolution: 1920×1080
Here’s another GPU-demanding game. Arkham City is one of the most tessellation-heavy games out there, and the 670 runs it like a charm. Here’s a game where you can run everything higher than GeForce Experience tells you. It says to put the anti-aliasing at FXAA, yet I can run it on 32X just fine with 60 FPS. This just goes to show the true power of the 670 and the 4770 working in tandem.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings
Anti-aliasing: Enabled
Bloom: Enabled
Blur Effects: Enabled
Cinematic Depth of Field: Enabled
Dangling Objects Limit: Disabled
Decals: High Spec
Depth of Field – Cutscenes: Enabled
Depth of Field: Gameplay: Enabled
Fullscreen: Enabled
Light Shafts: Enabled
LOD Distance: Far
Motion Blur: Enabled
Number of Shadowed Lights: Ultra
Resolution: 1920×1080
Shadow Quality: Ultra
SSAO: Enabled
Texture Downscaling: None
Texture Memory Size (MB): Very Large
Ubersampling: Enabled
Vignette: Enabled
Wet Surfaces Rain Effect: Enabled
This is a game where, when it came out, you needed two GPUs to turn on Ubersampling. My 5870 on my laptop has a hard time running the game maxed out, even without Ubersampling. The game has a smooth 60 FPS with all the above settings; not a single hitch was seen even in huge open areas.
Crysis 3
Anisotropic Filtering: 16x
Anti-aliasing: 4x TXAA High
Fullscreen: Yes
Game Effects: Very High
Object: Very High
Particles: Very High
Post-Processing: Very High
Resolution: 1920×1080
Shading: Very High
Shadows: Very High
Texture Resolution: Very High
Water: Very High
Another game where the anti-aliasing stressed the 670 a bit too much. Using Tessellation anti-aliasing drops the FPS by about 10; in fact, any high version of the AA drops the FPS by 10. Medium is by 5, and there’s almost no drop in low on any of the three AA options. You really need two cards, or a 680/690/Titan or 7xx series card, to get high FPS with those AA options. Everything panned out well, especially since the water tessellation kicks most cards’ butts, is very tessellation heavy, and the shadows can really bog down most cards. The 670 was able to run all this at around 40 FPS. That’s damn good for just one card.
During all this testing, the X51 stayed nice and quiet; I barely heard it. After 3 hours of steady gaming, I felt the back of the tower, and it was barely warm. That’s some damn good cooling in such a small space. This means you don’t have to worry about games crashing or shutting down from GPUs getting too hot or the CPU overloading with heat.
Alienware computers always come with their own awesome suite of software, the Alienware Command Center. Command Center 3.0 was launched in February and features AlienAdrenaline. Say you like drawing a lot, and you listen to music or your favorite YouTube playlist in the background. You can create a shortcut that will launch Photoshop, your playlist web link, your media player, and even change the AlienFX to match the mood with a single click. That’s really awesome. Adrenaline also has system monitoring in real-time and allows you to record it. Of course, AlienFX allows you to change the colors on your tower, but I was disappointed here. You can’t morph or allow pulsing like with the laptops, and the alien head marquee on the front isn’t a hard drive light. The light is on the back of the PC, and I like to know when my computer is active. You can change each side of the tower and the head marquee individually, but I would have liked more options available. On top of that, there’s AlienFusion, which allows you to change all your power settings, which is great.
In the end, the X51-R2 is the perfect balance between power and compactability, as well as price. The 670 is a very powerful card, and the 4770 is an awesome CPU. The 8 threads make a huge difference over the 4 thread quad-cores out there. If you want a pre-built desktop at an affordable price, the X51 is the way to go.
Forget about the last Shadowrun FPS. That game was a disaster. This HD remake of Shadowrun Returns with a great story, but the combat is lacking just a bit. You are basically a runner who watches a tape of your best friend before he dies. You suddenly become his insurance collector, and you need to find his killer. The story is pretty engaging, and I was sucked in from the beginning. You basically just follow mission after mission, unraveling this mystery.
Of course, you get to pick your class at the beginning. Go from ranged weapons to melee to magic. There’s also a fourth decking ability that makes you stronger during hacking battles. Once you complete some missions, you get to The Union, which is your underground hideout. You can buy weapons, cybernetic enhancements, magic, first aid, weapons, and various other things. Make sure you take plenty of health with you and stock up on the latest before the next mission. Usually, you have to hire out mercenaries to help you in a fight. I found the majority of the story fairly challenging, but later on, it got downright unfair. The biggest issue is the unfair savings system. The game is autosave only. The game will only save at the beginning of each level, so if you die, it’s game over. This is so infuriating towards the end when you have really long and tough fights.
The combat is fairly decent. You can select between ammo types (or magic types), special powers, and items. With this variety, you are sure to win battles. I was just so upset at how often I missed. I could be at point-blank range, and I would miss three times in a row. The accuracy and rate at which you hit enemies seem completely random, and I hated that. Decking battles are interesting but boring because they aren’t as deep as regular combat and there are only a few types of enemies. Once you complete the mission in the hacking area, you have to run all the way back to the opening. If no one’s out there defending you, the enemies shoot up your body, and you can die. That’s really frustrating, and it drove me nuts.
I also wish there was more exploration, but you’re stuck where the missions take you. Sure, there are a couple of side missions, but you can’t explore anywhere. This is a really interesting world with interesting characters, but you’re limited to where the story takes you. That will turn a lot of RPG fans away, but the entertaining combat and story should keep you for a while. I also wish there were more powerful weapons and armor in the game. Even when I was almost done, the same armor from 10 missions ago was still the best. The game is pretty unbalanced, but some may overlook it. The graphics are decent, but nothing special. They won’t make your system sweat.
In the end, Shadowrun is a fun RPG for fans of Fallout and earlier top-down RPGs. The story is great and is a fun murder mystery, but the combat feels too thin, and decking just isn’t fun. The real deal-breaker here is the unfair and punishing save system, and some may quite early on because of it. If you can stomach the unbalanced gameplay and save system, you will be in for a great story.
Mass Effect made such a huge impact on me and the gaming world that no one probably expected. To create such a vast universe of fans of Star Wars is just incredible. BioWare pulled it off, and each game is very memorable. Mass Effect 3 pulls all the punches this time around and is the epic climax to the Reaper invasion that is sent to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy. Of course, Commander Shepard is supposed to fix this along with his or her recruits that you brought along throughout the series. Never before has a game spread so much across a trilogy. I have never kept a game save so sacred as I have my Mass Effect save because every choice you make carries heavily throughout the whole series.
It was obvious in ME2 how choices carried over, but ME3 is huge. Main characters will die; some that died in the last games will have an impact on how ME3 turns out. Instead of going around recruiting people like in the last two games, you are recruiting entire war assets for the War on the Reapers. You are trying to bring whole nations together and making huge decisions that will impact the galaxy for the rest of time. Things like whether or not you should cure the Krogan genophage, help the Council, help Cerberus, or just say screw it and make everyone’s lives hell. You have choices here, and they will make you think a lot. Never before as a shooter have I cared about seeing certain races die or get hit. Seeing the Turian homeworld Palaven get creamed left me feeling sad and determined to make choices that helped them. In this game, some civilizations actually get wiped out due to your choices. Some are just as subtle as helping someone out on the Citadel with a side mission that decides whether the Elcor, Hanar, Batarian, and Volus survive or not. This game is so big and bold.
Aside from the obvious story, the gameplay has improved a lot. The action and shooting are more refined and feel better. There are whole new weapons, a cover system, as well as a dodge and roll mechanic that comes in handy. Everything just feels tight, and weapons hit heavy. Speaking of weapons, you can now customize them by adding mods to improve damage, stability, accuracy, and even clip capacity. You can now buy mods through shops on the Citadel in Normandy instead of running around on every planet trying to get what you need. You can also buy armor and have more customization options for your character, which is very welcome. You also can’t carry every weapon with you anymore. I guess the goal was to balance the game more. Each weapon you have will add weight, which can be reduced by upgrading weapons. Carrying every weapon with you will slow you down and reduce the recharge speed of biotic powers, so choose carefully.
The overall structure of the game is just more streamlined, less messy, and less annoying. Small side missions are usually stuck in the Citadel, where you have to find an item for someone during space exploration. Exploration in space still isn’t fun, but it’s a lot better than scanning every damn planet for resources. They have completely scrapped this time around, so everything is just bought with credits, which is how it originally should have been. You can still scan, but you do it on the map, and EDI will tell you if she finds something. Certain planets will have a war asset or an item someone on the Citadel is looking for. If you scan too much, the reapers will come after you, and you have to high-tail it out of the system before they catch you and come back after a mission has been completed.
Almost everything you do in this game is big, and I can’t think of any mission that felt small, like in the last two games. ME3 is just huge in scope, and there are some memorable and impressive moments. The story is very cerebral, but here’s the catch: If you have never played a Mass Effect game before, go back to the first one and start from the beginning. You just won’t appreciate every decision if you jump right in. The comic that explains the last two games isn’t enough and doesn’t do this excellent and amazing sci-fi series justice. Only fans who have played through the last two will appreciate this game and truly feel that every decision is personal.
The controversy about the endings is understandable. I got to use the Extended Cut DLC while playing this, and after some research, the ending would stink without it. Without any spoilers, the ending gives you three choices at the end this time around instead of two. The choices are explained more, and there are some extra shots stuck in the endings to make more sense of it all. The original endings were just sloppy and, to be honest, lazily put together. BioWare did everyone a service by offering these endings for free.
Overall, Mass Effect 3 looks amazing, plays well, and has some of the most memorable choices I have ever had to make in a game. This is about all life as we know it, not just some city or civilization. This is about all organic and synthetic life, and what ME has done for the gaming world is a huge feat that I haven’t seen since Star Wars. This is a true sci-fi masterpiece that all fans of the genre will love. If I did have any complaints, it would be the original endings, and there are some issues like collision detection and linearity; the game feels shorter than the last two games; and the space exploration pretty much stinks. These are minor, though, and don’t really bring it down much.
Zombies are everywhere these days, but Zenescope took a different approach. This is one of the most unique takes on zombies I have ever seen, and I wanted more. The comic starts off as a murder mystery. The narrator grabs your attention right away, literally, but tells you to pay attention or you might miss it. A man walks into a store to get wine and gets hit by a car. How is that related to zombies? The four issues have such fantastic pacing that it never misses a beat. You follow two detectives who pick up the case and are actually likable characters. They are both smart-mouthed and make funny cracks at each other, so you are always entertained. This eludes the boring “cop dialog” that other comics tend to have.
After this initial setup, you will be hooked. You also follow a homeless-looking man who keeps his zombie daughter chained up. They keep flashing back to him to grab your attention. You want to know what’s happening here. Children make everyone feel vulnerable. As the story picks up, you meet a couple other people, and then the zombies come. These zombies don’t just mindlessly eat everyone; they come back from the dead to avenge their deaths and then die. That has to be the most original use of zombies ever. Of course, New York City is freaking out, but later you find out what this homeless man is all about.
You also find out who’s narrating the story by the end of the 4th issue, and it all comes to a satisfying close. It’s very hard to get an open and closed story that’s memorable in just four short issues; that takes talent and skill. The Waking may not surpass the popularity of The Walking Dead, which is remembered for its fantastic characters, but the originality is something that people should look into. The art is gorgeous by Zenescope standards, and surprisingly, there’s full-on nudity here. Usually, they censor it somehow, but it was nice to see an adult-only comic actually be adult-only. The writing is spot-on and fantastic; I can’t really say anything bad except that I wanted more.
thebinarymessiah.com 
Clearly you have been blocking everything you or haven't played the game at all. Maybe pay attention to the story…