Review Archives (All Reviews)

You are currently looking through all reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by Suskie and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.

Available Reviews
	The Orange Box review (PC) Reviewed on December 30, 2009 A year or two ago, I wrote a review for the console version of The Orange Box. In it, I threw around a few colorful adjectives for the first four games in the package, before coming to a halt with Team Fortress 2. I didn’t have Xbox Live at the time (and still don’t), and as such, I could merely say, “I haven’t really played this one, but I’ve heard it’s awesome, so there you go.” I have since spent more time with the PC rendition of Team Fortress 2 than nearly any other gam...	5/5
	Assassin's Creed II review (X360) Reviewed on November 23, 2009 I’d barely hesitate to call this to the most beautifully realized game world of all time, a feat attributed to both its considerable knack for detail and its incredible draw distance – prepare to be wowed the first time you see Ubisoft’s rendition of Venice circa 1484 unveiled before you. The very act of exploring these locations and admiring their beauty is so satisfying that there’s an entire game mechanic based around climbing to high places and enjoying the view. And whereas the three major locales of the last game more or less felt like the same set of buildings shot on a different color of film stock, visual landmarks and a genuine push to instill variety into each district gives every city in Assassin’s Creed II a uniqueness all its own.	5/5
	Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 review (X360) Reviewed on November 17, 2009 As I write this, I am giddy with delight. I’ve just beaten Modern Warfare 2 for the third time in the week since its release, and I want to tell you everything about it. I want to tell you about the twist one-third of the way through the story that puts a devastating and far more personal touch on the war against the Russian Ultranationalists. I want to tell you about the controversial assignment in which players go undercover as one of the head villain's cronies and are forced to answer ...	5/5
	Too Human review (X360) Reviewed on October 24, 2009 A more optimistic person than myself would probably assume that when a development team spends an entire decade on a pet project of theirs, they’re doing it for the love of the craft, to ensure that the final product is as perfect as it could possibly be. It seems infuriating that Too Human could wind up such a monumentally hollow bore after so much time on the workbench, until the realization hits you that good games only take a couple of years, at the most, to generate. When a ti...	0.5/5
	Kirby: Canvas Curse review (DS) Reviewed on August 05, 2009 I was going to say that Kirby: Canvas Curse does for the touch screen what Super Mario 64 did for the analog stick, but that isn’t right. The latter standardized the concept of movement in a three-dimensional space and is now the model for console games, whereas the former has been out for over four years now, and I still have yet to witness anything else like it. Rightly so, too – flipping Samus into perpetual morph ball mode and guiding her around the screen with a hand-drawn ...	5/5
	The Conduit review (WII) Reviewed on August 05, 2009 The Conduit most often feels like a light gun shooter that’s been ripped off of its tracks, which is due as much to the arcade-like nature of the level design as it is to the control scheme itself. There’s a light, frenetic nature in the way The Conduit unravels, and High Voltage seems okay with that. The game’s pace is fierce and the action is constant.	4/5
	Homeworld review (PC) Reviewed on July 22, 2009 The many skirmishes of Homeworld are punctuated by long periods of cold, dead silence, with the gentle hum of your ships’ engines contributing to it rather than breaking it. There is no sound in vacuum space, of course, and while Homeworld does break this rule, few other games are this adept at conveying such an appropriately quiet atmosphere. For as action-packed as the campaign often is, it’s the frequent stillness that stays with you.	5/5
	Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem review (GCN) Reviewed on July 15, 2009 I’m fairly certain that the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced in a video game happened in Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem. In one of the game’s many stops along the timeline of an ancient book detailing the history of a dark, unseen force, I found myself in the shoes of a Persian swordsman named Karim, who was journeying into the desert to claim a legendary treasure for his lover. The Forbidden City that Karim came upon looked startlingly similar to the one I’d explored as Roman sol...	5/5
	Shadow of the Colossus review (PS2) Reviewed on July 08, 2009 Shadow of the Colossus, more than any other game I’ve played, strives to be epic. The colossi, those enormous creatures that frequently steal the spotlight from protagonist Wander and represent the entirety of his opposition, live up to their name. With the light of his sword guiding him, Wander travels great distances to slay these foes, an act that he believes will bring his dead girlfriend back to life. Upon arriving at each destination, however, players are likely to be humbled by the...	2.5/5
	LittleBigPlanet review (PS3) Reviewed on July 01, 2009 LittleBigPlanet’s appearance and demeanor, right down to its voiceover narration by Stephen Fry, are so friendly and inviting that you’d half expect the game to be a product of Pixar itself. The levels, seemingly constructed out of found materials and building blocks, look as though they’re set in the confines of a toy box, and the quirky, episodic nature of the plots accompanying them give the impression that the adventure is unfolding within a child’s imagination. It’s only appropriate ...	5/5
	Metroid Prime 3: Corruption review (WII) Reviewed on June 19, 2009 With the arbitrary ranking of things being all the rage nowadays, I’d say that Metroid Prime 3: Corruption doesn’t even TOUCH the first game but lands head and shoulders above the sequel. But it didn’t start out that way, heavens no. No, I spent the first hour or so of Corruption writhing in pain and cursing the heavens for allowing Retro Studios to befoul their once glorious sub-series.	4/5
	X-COM: Enforcer review (PC) Reviewed on June 05, 2009 I’m in a habit of paying no attention to Steam’s frequent pop-up advertisements that bring to light the various discounts the service offers on games I generally don’t care about, but the announcement that all five titles in the renowned X-COM series would be available for something like fifteen dollars was difficult to ignore. That purchase was supposed to be my gateway to a series that I’ve been meaning to catch up on for quite some time, given that it’s rooted in a genre I’m fond of: t...	2.5/5
	Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat review (PC) Reviewed on June 05, 2009 I really, really suck at Insurgency. But I have an excuse!	3.5/5
	Elite Forces: Unit 77 review (DS) Reviewed on June 03, 2009 Considering that the enemies pose no threat, basic ammunition is unlimited, and you virtually trip over medkits around every corner, you’d think Elite Forces is an easy game, right? But it isn’t, simply because things go wrong. Maybe Bill will die because he got caught in front of a gatling gun and the constant stream of bullets prevented him from using a medkit. Perhaps Kendra will decide on her own to move forward a couple of feet and detonate a mine that T.K. was disabling. Weird flukes in the design and AI contradict Deep Silver’s effort to keep the interface clean and intuitive, and above all else, Elite Forces strikes me as a very inconsistent game.	2/5
	Professor Heinz Wolff's Gravity review (WII) Reviewed on May 31, 2009 The very existence of the sandbox levels leads me to believe that Deep Silver liked what they’d come up with and assumed players would be intrigued enough to want to explore the world of Gravity further. So why, then, is there no puzzle editor? With Gravity’s content as limited as it is, and with each of the challenges simple enough in basic design that anyone could make them given an appropriate tool kit, a true puzzle editor could have been this game’s saving grace. With online functionality, the possibilities could have been endless.	3/5
	Zelda II: The Adventure of Link review (NES) Reviewed on May 03, 2009 One could almost say that the serious gaming world can be cleanly divided into two groups: those who love Zelda games and would be devastated if Nintendo were to make any large-scale renovations, and those who gave up on the series a long time ago because it refused to evolve. I fit pretty firmly into the former category; Zelda is my favorite video game franchise, and while the formula has been repeated endlessly, it’s a formula that almost always works and hasn’t gotten old. Then ...	1.5/5
	Valkyrie Profile review (PSX) Reviewed on April 25, 2009 A thousand tiny voices rise up from Midgard, the realm of the humans. Each of them has a different story to tell, and all you need to do is listen.	4.5/5
	MadWorld review (WII) Reviewed on April 16, 2009 Here’s how amazing MadWorld is: As soon as I finished the game’s first level, I went back and played it again. As opposed to, you know, moving on to the next stage. Whether I was impaling my opponents with street signs, ramming them ass-first through spikes jutting out of the floor, or merely holding them in place as roaring trains violently chafed away at their flesh, I’d been having so much fun exploring the countless methods of bloodily incapacitating my adversaries that I didn’...	5/5
	Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars review (DS) Reviewed on March 31, 2009 Nearly everything you use the stylus for in Chinatown Wars – rummaging through trash, diffusing bombs, assembling weapons – sounds like a gimmick on its own. It’s the collaboration of all of these individual elements that makes Chinatown Wars work. As you explore this retooled Liberty City, you’ll notice that Rockstar Leeds poured detail into every facet of the design, fleshing out areas that most developers would simply shrug off. Obtaining Molotov cocktails, for example, is no longer simply a matter of picking them up off a designated location on the streets. You’ve literally got to find a gas station and play a mini-game in which you must “aim” the nozzle in response to the fluctuating flow of the gasoline, so as to get as many cocktails for your money’s worth as possible. It’s a wonderful way to make the most of the DS hardware.	4.5/5
	Fahrenheit review (SCD) Reviewed on March 23, 2009 I’ve been gaming long enough to know what I enjoy. It’s not like there are certain games I’m not into just because I’m unaware of them – the genres I don’t play, I don’t play for a reason.	0.5/5

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