Grand Assault's Games > Game reviews by Grand Assault

Jesus Cryst!

Posted : 1 year, 9 months ago on 7 February 2008 02:46 (A review of Crysis)

From the makers of the seizure-inducing Far Cry, comes a game that blows its predecessor out of the water. First and foremost, Crysis is an amazingly fun game to play. What I enjoyed from the off was the non-linear game play and the multiple ways you could set about achieving your aims.

If your machine can handle it (maybe you work for NASA or something) then it will literally feel as though you are playing through a hollywood film. If I stand still and am overlooking a huge harbour or something, I'll treat myself by throwing all the graphics onto full just to admire the scenery. I think my PC would burn a hole in the floor if I tried to play through the game on those settings though.

The plot line is pretty ludicrous. Set in the future, you and your uberteam of badasses are dropped in to rescue a bunch of archaeologists who have been taken hostage by the Korean People's Army on a remote tropical island. Set in the future, this time you have a technically advanced battlesuit capable of giving you bursts of ultra speed, strength, armour or a cloak with which to bead the badguys (instead of a hawaiian shirt).

While the game is extremely fun to play, I did begin to tire of the gameplay somewhat. They are clever in that they throw so many men at you at once that it becomes difficult to get bored of playing, but at the end of the day it is easy enough to just stealth your way past entire patrols as you speed toward your next objective. There are also a few kinks in the game that are just immensely frustrating. For example, I managed to kill myself while throwing a melon with super strength at a wall of a house, which then knocked the wall down and the roof caved in onto my head. Likewise, while standing on a box, I picked up a box next to me and died (apparently crushed to death?). Now, I touch nothing in any of the houses whatsoever!

Likewise the vehicle segments, where huge HumVee jeeps will find it near on impossible to drive over a metal mesh fence that is horizontal on the ground. This segment could be vastly improved, as even my futuristic tank struggled over simple foliage. You also explode if you drive into anything at over 20mph or something similar.

Still, not to detract from the game, you can make your own fun in it. Whether you want to just Decloak-headshot-recloak every guy you come across with a pistol, or swim around the entire island for a laugh, it's up to you (watch out for the sharks though :( ). All guns blazing doesn't really work though, but hollywood-esque bailing out of a car as it ploughs into a house full of bad guys works a treat ;)

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Welcome back to the stage of history!

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 29 December 2007 04:35 (A review of SoulCalibur)

I still regard this game as one of the finest fighters I've ever played. This game alone was one of the only reasons I ever considered buying a Dreamcast. Comparing this to other fighters released around the same time is a no brainer. It puts the others to shame. The fighting is extremely fluid and impressive, while the moves are easy to pull off and thoroughly entertain you.

With quality weapon based combat, a great soundtrack and a bunch of unlockable costumes, stages and concept art to keep you busy, you can be sure that this game wont just rely on women with huge breasts to keep you playing.

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BED (the main female character) or Alive

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 29 December 2007 04:13 (A review of Dead Or Alive 2)

I remember reading about the production of this game, apparently some sweaty game designers spent two years studying breast mechanics to get the physics of mammaries just right. Well that's just fascinating. Maybe they should've just spent those two years coming up with some fluid fighting moves so that the game didn't feel like a turn-based fighting game.

Now the series is only known for the overflowing women and their revealing outfits. Nobody can surely take this game seriously as a result!

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Dino Crisis review

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 15 December 2007 06:06 (A review of Dino Crisis)

This game is made by the same survival horror masters who brought us Resident Evil, and while the gameplay isn't all that different, it just fails to captivate you in the same way that the zombie franchise did. I think my main problem with it is the fact that there isn't really an interesting back story. Resident Evil's biggest strength is the fact that an amazing story surrounds the events that are ongoing, whereas in Dino Crisis it feels like Capcom were bored one day and wanted an excuse to rip you apart in different ways.

Could've been so much better. There is something more terrifying about dinosaurs, they're quicker, more intelligent and harder to kill than zombies, but I never felt the same amount of dread.

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Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour (Expansion) review

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 15 December 2007 06:02 (A review of Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour (Expansion))

My main problem with the Generals game (apart from its extreme deviation from the Command and Conquer universe) was the fact that all of the superweapons just encouraged you to sit back in your base and wait for them to all become available at the same time, before you unleashed hell all at once. Then they release zero hour and apart from some unneccessary/lame new General types for each faction, the only addition to multiplayer gameplay is - you guessed it - more superweapons/superunits.

Generals came and now it has gone, please never ressurect it, it's such a third rate game!

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Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings review

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 15 December 2007 05:59 (A review of Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings)

Not really a fan, the Age of Empires series always felt vastly inferior to the Empire Earth series that was doing the rounds about the same time. EE always felt more epic to this game and I think it had a much more enjoyable single player mode.

The unit cap on this game was severely hampering, as well as some of the ridiculous cheats. Who could forget the photonman? I can.

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F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon review

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 15 December 2007 05:55 (A review of F.E.A.R.: First Encounter Assault Recon)

As first person shooter games go, I found F.E.A.R to be lacking something. The bullet time element is a tired concept that is executed better in other games, such as Max Payne 2, and the horror element was rather insipid as well (young girl with long black hair covering her face? How novel!). The storyline doesn't do a good job of keeping you in the loop and the ending of the game is far too rushed to make sense. I had to do some background reading to even realise what had just happened in the closing scenes.

Some of the combat was nice, but the weapon selection was limited and there was only so much fun you could have nailing people to the wall with the rivet gun. It never interested me enough to buy the add-on pack. I realised how unimpressed I was around the time that I pistol whipped the main bad guy in the game thinking he was just another eerie vision, before realising that I had just killed him without firing a single shot. Some of the gameplay was extremely repetitive, don't be fooled by the enjoyable opening scenes!

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Half-Life: Opposing Force review

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 15 December 2007 05:35 (A review of Half-Life: Opposing Force)

This game is essentially exactly the same as Half-Life, only the events at Black Mesa are experienced from another perspective - that of a marine sent in to clear up the mess. You get to see interesting snippets of what happened at Black Mesa and it certainly adds to the Half-Life experience. It's not too short like Blue Shift, and it's much more entertaining than its successor.

It also introduces a protagonist who suffers the same 'stasis' treatment at the end of the mission as Gordon Freeman, which begs the question of whether he'll ever see the light of day in the Half-Life sequels again.

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Call of Duty 2 review

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 15 December 2007 05:29 (A review of Call of Duty 2)

Essentially picking up where the original left off, CoD2 is an action-packed team based WW2 shooter that is an extremely enjoyable playthrough. This game introduces two new elements that I thought drastically improved the series.

First, you can no longer pick up medkits as you recover damage naturally. You need to take all of your damage at once before you die, which makes the gameplay much more realistic as you don't just bound into a house packed with Germans because you know there will be medkits in every corner. You need to rest amidst onslaughts.

Secondly, the soldiers communicate via shouting at each other, rather than just automatically knowing where you are. It's a more realistic system and while it does need ironing out, it's much more believable/less infuriating than walking round a corner to where a sniper 'just happened' to have his crosshair trained at head height.

Furthermore, the smoke grenades not only work but form an excellent alternative to fighting your way out of every scenario. When I pulled off my first successful smoke attack I was amazed! The game only really suffers only from giving your enemy too many hitpoints and the same 'dying' movements. The way someone gets hit will tell you if he will die or get back up again (which is extremely annoying, I'd stay down after three machine gun bullets to the gut). I wish there'd been more variety there.

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Call of Duty review

Posted : 1 year, 11 months ago on 15 December 2007 05:21 (A review of Call of Duty)

The final nail in the coffin of the inferior Medal of Honor series? I certainly hope so. Call of Duty is a slightly less predictable game that introduces consistent team-based combat elements to the WW2 shooter genre. Instead of single handedly winning the war off in some old villa or forest trainyard, you participate in major battles in which your team mates try and help you accomplish your goals. Upon completion of your goal you succeed in completing the mission rather than winning the entire war.

As a result, the game is much more enjoyable. The weapons are more realistic too and that makes the multiplayer mode a whole lot more exciting. Definitely superior to the MoH series in everyway. I don't think I can stress that enough!

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