nananananna

Otogi is really in a league of it’s own on Xbox. The closest game to it is probably Panzer Dragoon Orta, not because the action is similar but because both games deliver such a unique audio/visual impact backed with challenging, addicting gameplay.

I think of Aria as SotN-lite - a wonderful experience, one of the best Castlevanias of all time, yet it ends far too quickly. If you’re thinking about purchasing it, you’ll have to ask yourself whether or not you’re willing to shell out 30 hard earned dollars for 8 hours of fun.

Brute Force would benefit so much from more open level designs. Your tactical options would exponentially increase and your enemies could do something useful like flank you, or ambush you, bringing much more excitement into the game.

This isn't a basketball sim, the players don't behave like real players. Shaq will hit the occasional shot from behind the arc, little Allen Iverson will throw down 360 dunks. Just about any player in the game will hit a mid range jumper with at least 80% accuracy, so getting points on the board is pretty simple

Conflict Desert Storm has plenty of those exciting moments that you just can't find in other genres. You're low on ammo, separated from your squad, relatively hidden in a small group of boulders. There's a tank rolling towards you on the left, enemy infantry overrunning your position. What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO??? I live for these moments - CDS delivers them in bunches.

In about every racing game out there, speed is the most important thing. You drive fast, you get to the finish line first in order to win. And that makes sense, right? They ARE racing games after all. Project Gotham Racing is rather different. You still have to win races, but driving like a badass is just as important as driving with speed. It’s really as much a driving game as it is a racing game.

Munch’s Oddysee takes basic platformer elements like running, jumping and item-collecting and combines them with intelligent puzzles. Abe and Munch both have different strengths and weaknesses, so getting through each puzzle requires cooperation - you can switch between the characters with the press of a button.

Battle Engine Aquila is yet another game in the ever growing line of mech titles in the Xbox's library. It'd be easy to overlook it in the deluge of mech games out there, but it'd be a mistake to do so. It offers unique things the other mech games don't.

Serious Sam was released on PC a few years ago to (mostly) great reviews. I recall one major PC magazine review saying something like “Doom is back!” and generally saying that Serious Sam hearkened back to the old days of first person shooters, and felt a lot like Doom. I disagree. There is obvious Doom influence on the game, and it DID seem like the gameplay had just walked out of a time machine- but not from the Doom era. From even farther back than that. It feels closer to games like Ro...