This was a nice surprise; From my memory, playing Quake 2 at 12 years old was the disappointing sequel following Quake in 1997. It was the first game I played that had somewhat of a narrative, along with missions that was not just, find the red key, open the red door, advance, rinse, wash repeat. There was a ton of backtracking but the maps were super confusing. The remaster adds a welcomed compass to the HUD that helps players navigate the confusing landscape.

The HD remaster does not add much in terms of aesthetics to the maps. They are still boring, unimaginative and tedious, especially when you play through the Ground Zero or Reckoning campaigns. The new campaign “Call of the Machine” is definitely worth checking out and works similar to how the Quake remaster added in their new campaign and adds in the new modern flavor of map design. It also throws a ton more enemies at you than what was possible back in the 90s. Quake is MUCH longer than this remaster however.

I cannot accurately put my finger on why this game does not work for me, just a couple of theories. It shocks me this game is not as exciting or fun as its spiritual predecessors Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2. Those games are A+ Co-ops. This game is developed by the same studio, minus the “Left 4 Dead” IP. It plays similarly, with strong emphasis on co-op and using the game’s AI director. The structure is similar, move from safe house to safe house in several unique environments. So why does it feel different?

It could be the card system- where players collect cards that will provide stat boosts so you can basically build out a character that is proficient in a certain weapon type, or defensive upgrade. That element adds a complexity to a formula that might not have been needed. Players also have to “BUY” ammo at safehouses along with throwables and medkits. So during your run you need to keep your eye out for coins to use as in-game currency. The campaigns also feel more tedious, some of them feel like they go on forever rather than having a campaign with four mains sections and fifth finale. Back 4 Blood splits the campaigns up into Acts, and then within the acts are different chapters. It just feels more confusing.

Finally the biggest problem with the game is it’s difficulty. Recruit, Veteran, Nightmare and No Hope. You think this would be similar to Easy, Normal, Advanced and Expert from L4D- but it’s not. Expert in L4D is closer to Veteran in Back 4 Blood and it shows how the developers really want you to grind out those cards so you can increase your characters stats to be able to service in No Hope. We don’t want to grind in this game Turtlerock. We just want to play it, sometimes with friends, sometimes with noobs. Grinding with people you do not know is a disaster recipe. We thought you understood this from the Evolve failure but maybe you will understand on your third try.

All this game does is make me want to play Left 4 Dead again.

It’s great. It’s exactly what you would expect to be. Fallout in Space. There are a billion things to do and its fun doing all of it. Last year, I played and loved No Man’s Sky. And in my review, I specially called out Starfield to make sure the un-fun things in that game, were not repeated in this game. For the most part, that turned out true. The ONLY thing No Man’s Skydoes better is space flight/landing/taking off. It’s seamless in No Man’s Sky; In Starfield taking off and landing is a cutscene. I’m sure they tried to get it to work but it’s OK that it doesn’t. No Man’s Sky is a Space Sim. Starfield is an RPG where the dialog is what drives the game. Space combat is still fun as VATs has found it’s way in the form of locking on an enemy ship.

There’s no co-op in Starfield, which was a tall order, but you can still build your ship, customize your homes, customize your outposts, there’s just no one to share it with (not counting screenshots of course).

The biggest negative that come to mind is the inventory system, which is awful. And I’m not even really referring to being encumbered 99% of the time. It’s when you dump all of your inventory into storage boxes, and then try to craft something that is in the same base as your inventory boxes, the crafting system does not recognize your inventory unless you are holding it. I’m sure that will be patched in, but it’s a huge pain in the ass right now.

Frankly, the fact that the inventory system is the biggest complaint rather than performance or bugs is a good thing for Bethesda. I have not experienced any performance issues (running 3080, Ryzen), just a couple of fun physics issues and an occasional game crash. Luckily the game excelles in every other area where these negatives do not ruin the game experience.

Pretty good. The telltale series is the perfect platform for this kind of property. Ensemble cast of characters, Humor, Marvel Universe... It's all fun. If found the decision-making process to be the biggest thing that lacks here. There's barely any decision to make and I couldn't tell if my choices changed the story all that much. I did roll my eyes a bit as the developers were basically take a page off of James Gunn's movie trilogy. The characters personality are almost exactly like they are in the MC. And the attempt at plucking some music that sorta sounds the same as the soundtracks was an OK attempt. If you love the characters, you'll enjoy this off-shoot of a story. I don't expect a continuation.

There are a ton of bugs. There are buildings that flat out don’t work. The Post Office Sorting is broken. Garbage Pick Up is broken. Cargo import / export is broken. CIMs behave irrationally; i.e. if you charge $100 parking on the street, and offer a $10 parking garage to park, they will still choose the street. There are graphical issues (things look blurry and flickery when zooming). Traffic ignores traffic laws and a lot of the easy, quality of life building that didn’t exist in the first game, exist here.

I am pushing through a lot of these bugs, and ultimately, I do not have the sense of enjoyment I had in the first game. We all need to remember we are talking about a game studio with a team of 30 or so developers; so I have no doubt these issues will be fixed eventually, but for right now, this is a thumbs down rushed launch.

Very late to the party on this one, but just reaffirming what everyone else has already said. Outside of the OG GTA games, this might be the most satisfying sandbox game I’ve ever played, simply because the traversing is so damn good. Web swinging from building to building in classic Spider-man form, heading to new missions, challenges, or Spider-man lore side quests was extremely fun. Insomniac has a winning formula here which probably was borrowed and modified from the Arkham games. If you have been patiently waiting for the next Batman Arkham game, this just might check all your boxes. Oh, and it plays wonderfully on the deck.

Obviously will be checking out the stand alone Miles game and Spider-man 2 when available.

Half-Life fans need to play this immediately.

You may not get to play as Gordon Freeman or see any familiar characters… but you’ll see plenty of combine enemies and crab heads. You’ll even get to use a modified version of the gravity gun giving the nameless player the ability to “rocket jump” to solve puzzles and escape enemies. The puzzle solving is definitely unique to “Half-Life” adding a stealth element allowing the player to sneak past enemies in the dark if they choose. There are two wonderfully setup climax battles in the middle of the campaign and the end- which by the end will leave you wanting more. Much more.

At first glance, F.E.A.R may seem like any other FPS with features that have "been done". Well its based on a modified Quake engine, "can't possibly be any better". "Nothing will be as creepy as Doom". "Bullet time, pfft…what is this Max Payne?"

Sure at first glance F.E.A.R has everything any other FPS has to offer; . F.E.A.R - First Encounter Assault Recon a secret military agency which you can probably guess by its name was assembled to deal with unexplained phenomenon situations.

It is extremely difficult not to spoil this game by describing the plot outline. The opening cutscene explains the game’s antagonist, Paxton Fettel loses his mind and takes control of hundreds of military cloned soldiers. (Why are they cloned? I have no idea). Fettel and his army of cloned soldiers go on a rampage through a small town killing dosens of civilians and seem to be looking for someone or something. Of course it is up to you, the player, to search the city, wipe out the cloned army and stop Fettel.

The kick to the story is sometimes Fettel will be talking to you from a ghostly apparition. He will appear suddenly at the end of the hallway, but disappear as soon as you turn the corner; there is also some strange connection between a small child in a red dress, creeping you out by appearing and disappearing in the strangest places while laughter and crying fills your ears.

The best feature of F.E.A.R is the weapon control and gameplay. Most FPS have a variety of weapons you can lug around throughout the game but usually do not distinguish recoil, change in ammo or a feel for power and weight. F.E.A.R's engine allows the player to feel all these features on every weapon. A simple right click on the mouse will allow the player to aim the weapon (much like Call of Duty) and at the same time change the speed of the character to a slow walk, becoming a silence killer. When an assault gun is fired, the recoil is felt, obviously not through the mouse, but on screen; the bullets penetrating plaster walls, wooden boxes, paper, fiberglass, tile ceiling, glass windows creating a cloud of dust and debris right in your face.

Among the series of weapons you can find during the course of the game including several assault weapons, dueling handguns, a nail gun, shotgun, rocket launcher and some sort of laser rifle, all carry very unique firing recoils and bullet wounds effects to your enemy. You cannot keep picking up weapon after weapon and continue your away through the game. F.E.A.R only allows three, including your handguns if you choose to carry them (I don't :)). You also carry along a series of grenades which all seem to come in handy at one point or another. A standard HE grenade, a proximity grenade and a very cool remote grenade. Use them wisely, they are scarce. If all these weapons and grenades weren't a lot to choose from, you are given the option of hand to hand combat. Whether it is the simple melee with your rifle, slide kick, punch or jump kick you can kick the crap out of your enemy instead of riddling them with bullets. However, be prepared to face well armored opponents who will not flinch to a weak kick to the face. I got a little jump kick happy and found myself falling out of a 50 story building because I thought I was jumping into the next office. Oops.

Aside from this enormous improvement in weapon control, F.E.A.R also gives the ability to the player to slow down time. Yes this is a beaten to death feature and can be seen in Max Payne 1 and 2 and The Matrix series, but when you combine the previous feature with slowing down time, you can almost see every single dust particle rendered by your video card. Also be very prepared when you use the time button and place your shotgun an inch away from your enemy for a giant red cloud of…well you know.

To go along with bullet time, F.E.A.R carries a great soundtrack with most impressive sound effects. How about hearing every single shell that hits the ground when you're firing your assault rifle while at the same time hearing the bullets pierce your enemy and the wall? Well that is exactly what you hear… but don't be freaked out by the whispers coming from the dark hallway when your flashlight goes dead and your radio hits a wave of static and your turn around to see a child crawling on the floor towards you.

The AI in F.E.A.R is not bad. Enemies will react to certain situations which I was very impressed with. If you throw a grenade, one of the enemies will call out. "Oh ♥♥♥♥ grenade." And the team will scatter. Same situation if an enemy throws a grenade, the rest of the team will prepare for a "fire in the hole". Also if they hear you running down the hall, they will turn towards the sound of your footsteps, but you can just as easily walk in a different direction, sneak up behind them and see them all staring at the original spot they heard you from.

The cons? Well there isn't much, but one thing is for sure, you better have AT LEAST an X800 to run this game on high. I've said this before about Doom 3 and HL2, if you're playing these games on low or medium quality; you are not getting much out of these games compared to what you see with a top of the line card, especially if you are turning off shadows. F.E.A.R is a CPU, memory and graphics HOG will truly test your system.

Bottom Line: F.E.A.R is quite easily one of the most unique, freaky, best looking games to date. With a combination of today's horror qualities most resembling the Ring, graphics that utilize today's best graphics cards and the best use of gameplay in FPS, F.E.A.R will fit in your collection with ease. I wish the surrounding environment changed more throughout the game like HL2; changing the time of day, or setting instead of the same warehouse, office building, sewer maps that even still look the same, but I hardly notice when I'm trying to figure out where those whispers are coming from.

The Pre-Sequel is the Return of the Jedi in Star Wars. Return of the King in LotR. And more aptly, it’s The Battle of the Five Armies in the Hobbit. It’s the third part of a trilogy that seems to have overstayed it’s welcome by losing a little bit of charm from the second installment.

For reference, I dumped 80 hours into Borderlands, 154 hours in Borderlands 2, and only 74 into the Pre-Sequel. Shame on me for thinking I would get the same experience in BL2. The Pre-sequel feels like a half-baked attempt at a Borderlands game.

Before getting into the game, I was already annoyed out of the gate when Gearbox didn’t offer a 4-pack like the previous two games. My three friends and I were planning on getting the 4-pack and play through as co-op. Instead we each shelled out $60 plus $40 for the DLC, which we also thought, (shame on us again) would be near the same level of quality as the BL2 DLC. Fans of the series I think would agree with me, that Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep was some of the best DLC BL2 and in recent memory. It was funny. Fun. Long. And unlike anything else we’d seen in BL. And this was just one of the DLC. Mr. Torgue’s Campaign was great. Captain Scarlette was great. But in the pre-sequel we get a bunch of packs and an Onslaught level thing. Nowhere near the level of quality in the previous game.

The game itself is riddled with bugs and graphical glitches and strange physics- which is strange because Boderlands 2 was like a rock. Here are five examples of bad QA. There was even a sequence where we fell through the map

And finally the story itself is just not as engaging as the previous games. It feels dull. Uninspired. And downright boring. The four of us made the best of the co-op experience, which I would recommend playing it that way if you choose to play this game. Playing solo would be like watching paint dry.

Knowing what I know now, if one of my friends wanted to play this over the slew of other co-op zombie games? Well the ranking would be like this.

1. Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve)
2. Left 4 Dead (Valve)
3. Dying Light (Techland)
4. Resident Evil Revelations (Capcom)
5. Nation Red
6. Resident Evil: Revelations 2 (Capcom)
7. Resident Evil 5 (Capcom)
------------Quality Drops------------
8. Dead Rising 3 (Capcom)
9. Killing Floor (Tripwire Interactive)
10. Dead Island Riptide (Techland)
11. Dead Island (Techland)
12. Resident Evil 6 (Capcom)



The problem is the gaps in quality from the games on the lower half of this list. Dying Light is by far the most technical superior game where it has very minimal technical issues (glitches), clarity in missions, user interface; these are all things that suffer from the Dead Island games and Dead Rising 3. Dead Rising 3 also has a time limit that distracts you from the fun of what could have been killing zombies with all the objects in the world. Why would Capcom want to limit you like this? The final boss is barely a final boss. If you happen to get the C-Ending or F-Ending, the game just ends with a text crawl and brings you back to the main menu with options of starting a new game (no new game+) or skip to a chapter. There’s no casual roam the world option.

As far as gameplay Dead Rising is fun as hell. It’s very satisfying killing zombies with vehicles and weapons you can create with the hundreds of objects. The drop in and drop out co-op option is pretty great too. This is a must for games like this and I’m saddened to hear Dead Rising 4 will not have this option. The story element is a huge miss with Capcom- it doesn’t have to be a stellar story, just make it seamless and have it make sense!

Edit: 12/31/16 - To make matters worse, Capcom, for whatever reason, decided to make the DLC unplayable in co-op. This means that 50% of the game is single player and 50% of the game can be played co-op. (took me 15 hours to play through the main campaign, and 15 hours to do all four DLC episodes) So if you purchased the game for the co-op element, and expecting to play with friends, you will be out of luck playing through the Four Episodes. Makes little sense.