Breakdown has always had low ratings because the audience expects it to be a competent first-person shooter. They realize the guns don't work in a conventional way and drop the game after an hour, which is understandable. Breakdown is not a good FPS. Instead, Breakdown excels as an extremely ambitious, immersive, and downright insane first person beat 'em up made by the Tekken development team. Breakdown is more of an action beat 'em up than a FPS. It is important to understand that the game is all about punching, blocking and dodging rather than shooting and reloading. Once you get into the right mindset, you are experiencing one of the most surprising gems of the sixth generation.

people often naively complain about the state of the game industry and how overly saturated it is with generic, cookie-cutter garbage - then in the same breath they'll start panning and ignoring the actual cutting-edge titles that most push the envelope with innovative ideas

enter breakdown - a wildly misunderstood first-person genre mishmash with addicting combat, kickass powers, and a totally off-the-rails storyline. open your mind to its unconventional control schemes and you'll be met with one of the most creative, peculiar, and downright fun games you'll have played in years

the infamous final stretch also isn't that bad. it was doable on hard (albeit with a lot of trial and error) so i can't imagine normal being too tough considering how much softer the enemies hit

Armored Core 2 is one of the rare games where it does everything and more compared to its predecessor. Better world building, more plot, more AC customization, and the arena.
Without spoiling too much of the plot, the story is basically Char's Counterattack, but with all the mistakes in the movie fixed.

Fighting for corporations and the earth government has never been more fun, and with that comes the arena, a place where you can take on other pilots one-on-one for some extra cash to either upgrade your armored core early or keep yourself out of debt. Every pilot in the arena is fleshed out with a backstory, and you can see their personality even in the way they fight. At 60fps, combat is just perfect. On top of allowing you to rebind buttons, it makes for a fun and intense combat system lifted from the first.

If you couldn't get into Armored Core 1, go ahead and give this game a shot. With the improvements above and the added arena, this is definitely the easier entry to get into. I also see that most people who try Armored Core 1 don't know about the plus system. Once you hit 50k debt, your handler sends you off for upgrades, and it restarts your game. This allows for the game to be a bit easier, and each time you hit 50k debt, you get another upgrade and restart.
Although with the additional arena, debt isn't as much of a worry, and most should be able to get through the game fairly easily on the normal difficulty without the plus program.
Overall, this is a perfect mecha action game and one I highly recommend.

Great game and definitely worth a play-through, which I managed to do in two sittings. The biggest issue really is just the presentation, which could have been done better, but since you're a mercenary, context and story doesn't matter too much, does it? It's a perfect level of challenge, as by the end of the game, I had only lost five missions. If you find the controls hard, just give it another hour and really experiment with the customization; after that, you will be over that hurdle easily. The variety of missions and how short they are will keep you coming back, and the flavor text before each one really immerses you that much more to just keep pushing forward. 

"I'LL CRUSH YOU"

~me to ANYONE who talks shit about jack garland in any fucking capacity. the protagonist to surpass caim has arrived

EDIT:

ok here's an actual review - this is the best action game to come out in well over a decade. play on hard with party disabled and you'll have a thoroughly challenging experience with some of the best boss design the genre's seen period. come for the stellar combat; stay for more of it plus a godlike narrative. jack garland IS the best protagonist in ff

and he did it HIS way

i fucking hate 7th gen xenophobia so much

it's a huge shame that this got immediately factored out en masse as a "gears of war clone" when the similarities are fundamental and superficial at best. initially it feels like a tongue-in-cheek parody of gears - right down to having some fodder, wannabe COG-like nobodies following you around - the whole identity shifts as soon as filena, syd's main partner, comes into the picture

as a tag team, the two of them do more damage with their arms and legs than their actual weapons. couple that with the ability to toss filena at enemies to stun 'em and you have a game that is very much an action hybrid of a shooter. similar to titles like vanquish and resident evil 6, if you're actively taking cover, you're playing the game wrong (especially considering syd can sprint, roll and melee while reloading.) if you're roadie-running, then you goddamn better be following it up with a haymaker

that's not to say the weapons themselves aren't kickass - in fact, some of them rank up with my favorites among all shooters. the rapid-fire grenade launcher, stun-locking plasma caster and wall-bouncing energy rifle immediately come to mind, but there's nothing that really feels like a peashooter. even the base rifle is a pretty reliable mainstay

also, i'd be remiss not to mention that this game often decides it wants to be a platformer. despite some jank in getting the hang of those mechanics (it can be unclear what you can/can't do at first) that generally works very well. certainly makes the set pieces feel a hell of a lot more organic than any dime a dozen tps with a helicopter turret sequence or whatever other nondistinctive gimmick the 7th gen found itself obsessed with

level design is pretty solid all around. more so than anything in the actual stages, my critiques aim at a few checkpoint placements. in particular, i have a personal message directed at the person who designed a certain lategame enemy gauntlet: what the fuck is wrong with you?

anyway, another thing that surprised me - more so than that gauntlet - was how gripping the narrative actually ended up being. cool backstory aside, syd and filena's chemistry is spot-on and the dub is fuckin' great. shoutout to steve blum especially for voicing syd's (keith ferguson, btw) main rival. i'll spare additional details and just say that the finale gets hype as fuck

if you've got a 7th gen system or a computer that can emulate it reliably enough, play this fucking game - preferably on hard mode - that way you'll be forced to utilize the combo mechanics instead of hiding behind cover constantly

when i was 12 i thought this was pretty damn good! then after 2009 i heard it exclusively referred to as an infamous ripoff - despite them being released literally two weeks apart - and i guess somewhere down the line remembered prototype as "that game i liked as a kid that prolly wasn't really all that great"

nah. if anything it was better than i first thought. this fucking destroys infamous. enjoy your grey sewers and tps lightning bolts (or lightning grenades if you really wanna switch it up!) meanwhile i'll be elbow dropping tanks, throwing cars at helicopters and ripping fuckers in half

It's hard for me to think of a more unfairly maligned game in recent memory than FFXIII.

The first (and only) mainline Final Fantasy game to release on Sony's PS3, XIII distances itself from its predecessors by taking a much more streamlined and linear approach to its design, to many fans dismay at the time. Gone are the towns, the shops & npc's, the overworld and many other jrpg genre hallmarks, in favour of a more direct and cinematic experience that somewhat redefines what a 'Final Fantasy' title can be.

Border-line avant-garde, seemingly dedicated solely to the premise of presentation above all else, XIII is a graphical and aesthetic tour de force. A daring synthesis of old and new, endeavouring to be different and drive the series in to uncharted territory, in a time when a safer follow up in the style of FFX would have been much easier pill to swallow for purists of the series. A ballsy move no doubt, but with hindsight one that I think pays off in spades.

Quite possibly the most breath-taking game ever made from an audio-visual standpoint (no small claim but something I stand firmly behind), FFXIII combines a kaleidoscope of beautiful sights and sounds to feast your senses on- from its jaw dropping backgrounds and lovingly rendered character models to its sweeping, luscious musical score and out-of-this-world FMV cutscenes, there's rarely a moment in this stunningly crafted title that fails to inspire awe from an artistic standpoint. These production values extend all the way down to the gorgeous UI and menu screens, which are animated with little visual flourishes that makes the presentation feel so polished and refined, making even the simple feat of navigating menus feel lavish and memorable- just look at this, and this.

So damn sexy.

Featuring a leaner, more responsive and dynamic battle system than seen before thanks to the new 'Paradigm' mechanic, which assigns each party member an offensive, defensive, or healing role and allows you to switch between them on the fly by executing 'Paradigm Shifts' to create various combinations of the three, combat feels immediate and exciting but also layered with strategy and easily rivals the best of the series previous offerings. These advancements to the battle system ultimately result in a delicate dance between you and your foes, with rhythm and timing playing key roles to victory. It's a seriously fun and addictive gameplay loop that rewards experimentation and finding optimal setups for each encounter. Helped further by the various quality of life changes, such as auto healing your teammates in and out of battle, and a generous checkpoint system, the game feels slicker as result and cuts out a lot of busy work, making tough battles and boss fights more forgiving and approachable overall while still retaining the strategy and challenge the series is known for.

And what of the story? Undoubtedly one of the most important aspects of the series. Well, it may not quite reach the heights of some of the heavy hitters in the franchise, but the world of Pulse is actually remarkably unique and offers a great canvas for the narrative and characters. Unfortunately, the story fails to completely land and at times character actions and motivations feel awkward and confusing- not helped by the fact the lore is buried under mountains of text and data logs. The characters are a mixed bag but generally likeable, and it's notable how their relationships actually evolve and change convincingly throughout the course their journey- shout out to Sazh in particular who steals the majority of scenes he appears in. The main antagonist is pretty forgettable by Final Fantasy standards but does at least offer a few particularly challenging boss battles. So really then, the uniqueness of the setting, some decent character moments and the fantastic presentation helps make up for any shortcomings I had with the story. The feeling of awe when landing on Gran Pulse after hours of navigating long, linear sci-fi corridors and being greeted by a vast open expanse of nature to freely roam around was a masterstroke of game design imo and well worth the long pay off.

I'll be the first to hold my hands up and say- I was wrong about this one and wish I hadn't listened to the general consensus for so many years. Maybe if people hadn't complained so much about XIII the series wouldn't be in the rut it is now, struggling to find an identity in the current gaming landscape.

I adored this game.

Disclaimer: The words 'fal'cie' and 'l'cie' will be etched in to your brain by the time the credits roll.

Bully is a game that really surprised me. I really admire how Rockstar was able to create a pretty unique spin on a formula quickly gaining traction in early 2000s gaming, rather than just slapping a school uniform on top of it and calling it a day.

There are so many aspects of this game that are so well thought out:
- The varied minigame aspect with classes, and the in game rewards that going to class gives you, while not completely stunting you if you decide to skip.
- Small school things implemented into the gameplay like how you use the controller to open lockers, bikes/skateboards/buses in exchange for cars in quick travel, and forced stealth aspects (being able to be bad as a kid involves A LOT more sneaking than for adults lol).
- Popularly stereotyped high-school cliques, with unique challenges based on their individual aspects: having to get a video game high score for access to the nerd base, beating the preps in their country club sports for their respect, etc.

The humor is very 2000s Rockstar, with many of the jokes still able to stick the land, while others are just straight up uncomfortable. I think the biggest thing I couldn't stand was all the vomit and piss in the game, but again, it's a 2000's Rockstar game, I knew what I was walking into. The greasers were the only clique in the game that had me scratching my head on why the hell they added them, but the game itself even pokes fun at the choice with comments like, "Do those guys know it's not the 50's anymore," towards it. I personally think a group like "The Emos" would have been more fun to have, but that might have been just a bit too underground for Rockstar to pick up on yet.

The ending for Bully was really fun, with all the cliques in complete chaos. My only nitpicky complaint would be not seeing Gary for a fairly long time (think he's last seen with the greasers at the half-way mark), only for him to reappear as the ultimate villain, because I mean, did you expect the kid that dressed as a Nazi for Halloween to NOT be? His final boss battle is great though, building up the suspense and drama of FINALLY being able to beat up the kid that acts like all the worst people on online forums, and man, it feels fucking AMAZING when you finally do beat the snot out of him.

I had a lot of fun with Bully, and could see it being a game I try and 100% at some point! Some of the humor and relatability is a bit of a miss for me, but that's just something to expect not being the target audience for the game. Even then, I really enjoyed it, and think it works great as an example of some of the PS2's best of the bests.

4/5