Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff reviews for PC games. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the oldest 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.

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	Civilization V review (PC) Reviewed on October 18, 2011 And here’s a major place in which Civilization V seems to fall down. Maybe it’s just too long since I last tackled a Civ game, and I’ve simply lost my ability to play make believe within its boundaries. More likely, there’s a problem. Because for the life of me, I just could not even fool myself into being convinced by the diplomacy system.
	Dragon Age II review (PC) Reviewed on October 31, 2011 There have been complaints, and will be many more, that Dragon Age II is appealing for a more mainstream audience by removing all the fiddling of its predecessor, but I don’t think this is a fair accusation. There is very little that you could do before which is no longer possible. The difference is that the extraneous elements have been stripped away, giving the action space to breathe.
	Serious Sam: The Random Encounter review (PC) Reviewed on November 03, 2011 The Random Encounter ends almost as fast as it begins, but your five bucks get you a punchy, colorful, and vivid throwback to the heyday of the RPG, mashed up with all the violent insanity of Serious Sam. Fans who need their next fix would do well to check out the previous indie offering Double D in addition to this quickie, simply to serve as a great palate cleanser before jumping right back into the hotbed of ravenous monsters that is the Serious Sam universe. The Random Encounter is short, sweet, and certainly a breath of fresh air for what is quickly becoming a stagnant genre.
	Battlefield 3 review (PC) Reviewed on November 06, 2011 More than any other graphics engine today, it's a complete package, featuring scale, scope, spectacle, on-foot detail and in-airplane elbow room, multiplayer, meaningful destruction, and absurdly good animation. Absurdly good. The animation is so good you probably won't even notice it. Of course the characters move this way because that's how real dudes move. What's the big deal? You almost have to go back to another game with the usual animation to appreciate what Battlefield 3 does.
	Dreamfall: The Longest Journey review (PC) Reviewed on November 14, 2011 The central narrative arc is beautiful: this is a game which expands on its predecessor’s coming of age story, and presents something altogether more grown-up. If The Longest Journey demonstrated the progression from the naivety of youth to the responsibility of adulthood, Dreamfall is a game about taking that newfound maturity and giving it back to those in need.
	The Silver Lining Episode 4: 'Tis In My Memory Locked, And You Yourself Shall Keep The Key Of It review (PC) Reviewed on November 16, 2011 It fails on just about every imaginable level. The only thing even approaching a saving grace is the price: it's free. But even that's irritating because it means I can't even have the pleasure of angrily demanding my money back.
	Alone in the Dark 3 review (PC) Reviewed on November 24, 2011 Alone 3 tries to blend the first game’s unparalleled approach to otherworldly detective work, with the second game’s more lighthearted but equally smart MacGyver-esque sleuthing (and jacked-up combat), in order to arrive at a happy medium. To the credit of the developers, the mixture does reach a medium, but it’s not happy.
	Anno 2070 review (PC) Reviewed on December 02, 2011 The campaign, which has no time limits and almost no fail states, is just a primer. The core of Anno 2070 is the continuous scenario, which you can set up to be as competitive, goal-oriented, and punishing as you want, or as peaceful, open-ended, and forgiving as you want. This is the epitome of the sandbox game. Just start it up and build your little heart out. And the longer it goes, the longer you'll want it to go.
	Serious Sam: BFE review (PC) Reviewed on December 04, 2011 Serious Sam 3: BFE is Croteam's love letter to those of us who have been waiting for another glimpse at classic shoot-'em-up-ery in the vein of Doom, Quake, and even the original Duke Nukem, whose modern iteration failed to deliver. It's a machine gun-and-heavy-metal symphony that only hardcore shooter fans will want to take a stab at, and while its punishing difficulty at times may certainly be a turnoff for potential buyers, it's a satisfying throwback to a simpler time.
	Jurassic Park: The Game review (PC) Reviewed on December 16, 2011 Fortunately, such exploration scenes are relatively few and far-between and there are no time constraints or other pressures rushing you along, so you won't be punished for awkwardness or missteps. What you will be punished for, at least once in awhile, is blowing the QTEs. But this actually turns out to be one of the game's highlights - watching the characters die in hilariously awful ways.
	Fallout review (PC) Reviewed on December 17, 2011 I’ve found Fallout to be enormously irritating. It’s a grotesquely unfriendly game. Its interface is convoluted and confusing. Wandering through the desert early on will almost certainly get you killed by foes you’re totally unequipped to defeat... yet wandering through the desert is the only way to progress. You can complete some fairly menial tasks in order to become strong enough to tackle them, but - well - they’re fairly menial.
	Hard Reset review (PC) Reviewed on December 20, 2011 Hard Reset isn't quite able to live up to the high standards of mayhem set by Serious Sam and Painkiller, but it gets enough right to be a lot of wrist-snapping fun.
	Omikron: The Nomad Soul review (PC) Reviewed on December 30, 2011 In The Nomad Soul, you don’t play as any of the main characters. Instead, you play as all of them. Sort of. In fact, you play as a person playing a computer game, in which the player plays as a soul who can transfer between different bodies. Yes. And it’s all absolutely merrily acknowledged by the game. None of this is real, it tells you. It’s just a game.
	Planescape: Torment review (PC) Reviewed on December 30, 2011 Planescape’s fiction is perfect: it takes two intrinsic human fears, turns one on its head, and allows the other so much room to breathe. In Planescape, you play as a man who has already lost his entire memory, including that of his own identity, yet he can never escape this dreadful state.
	Quake II review (PC) Reviewed on December 30, 2011 Enemies dart and dodge, firing sprays of bullets in the final seconds of their lives, trying everything they can to bring you down, even if it means losing their own lives in the process. The range of enemies on display is perhaps the only area in which Quake II rivals the variety of its predecessor, too.
	Quake review (PC) Reviewed on December 30, 2011 Quake still absolutely stands up today. Its visuals might be pixellated, the environments often rather monochrome, as became the running gag. Yet the design of the world is tremendous, the levels balanced, structured and elegantly paced. The variety on display, despite the vast swathes of brown, dwarfs that of most modern games as well.
	Unreal review (PC) Reviewed on December 30, 2011 As a first-person shooter, it’s incredibly competent. Quake 2 might have had the tempo, and Half-Life the suspenseful pacing, but Unreal had the variety and the challenge. Its weapons drew criticism for feeling weak and weedy against the Skaarj oppressors, and it’s a fair comment. They often do. But I’m sure that’s partly because the buggers are so tough, right from the start.
	Defense Grid: The Awakening review (PC) Reviewed on January 04, 2012 Missions include special objectives that switch things up. Your options change depending on the scenario. In one case, you might be able to try a familiar stage with 99 waves instead of the usual 25 or 30. Elsewhere, you might be able to start with 20,000 resources but defeated enemies won’t drop any additional resources.
	Star Wars: The Old Republic review (PC) Reviewed on January 17, 2012 The Old Republic is fun, tells some interesting stories, and offers players a vast amount of things to do. But the game still suffers from the same things that hold back all MMOs despite the class storylines and voice acting.
	Unstoppable Gorg review (PC) Reviewed on January 19, 2012 Unstoppable Gorg is a tower defense game with a twist. That’s a claim that any PR person might make about any new offering within the genre. In this case, though, it’s an especially apt description because the twist is this: you twist things.

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