Grand Theft Auto V Review

GTA has long been heralded as one of the best franchises in gaming but was not always considered as such starting off as a simple top down 2d game with a pseudo open world that was all about stealing cars. But became something more with the release of Grand Theft Auto 3 which revolutionized what people thought was possible in a video game, with a massive (at the time) open world where it seemed that you could do anything. Then Rockstar pushed it farther with the release of GTA IV which was the first time an open world game felt like it was full of life. Now Rockstar is pushing the boundaries by expanding on what GTA IV had to offer but also by including three protagonists

Michael a former bank robber who left the life for his family is now miserable and fed up with his family, but through some rather unfortunate circumstances is brought back into the life. Once back in he meets Franklin a small time hood trying to make it big. Then is reunited with old partner Trevor who has been spending his time recently cooking meth and running guns as well as being an all around psychopath.

The story is centered around these big heists with an early example of one being a jewelry store robbery part of what makes these heists work is that they allow one to have choice in how the heists are executed. Such as procuring and storing a getaway vehicle that can be placed in multiple locations around the city or by picking what crew comes with you on the job but be mindful cheaper crew means less experienced so they're more likely to screw up.   But while the story of these characters focuses on the bigger heists each of them has their own set of individual story and side missions.    

The three protagonists can be switched between at any time off mission by holding down the left bumper and selecting which of the characters you want to switch to with a short load when off mission that happens when the camera pulls out to a top down view and pans over to the character you're switching to but on mission the switch is instantaneous. Rockstar uses this switching mechanic in a lot of interesting ways chief among them is now you always feel like you're always in the middle of the action. Also when you switch between the characters off mission you will be treated to these characters doing something such as Michael having an argument with his family or Franklin hanging out with his friend Lamar, this helps give the illusion that these characters have lives independent of when you aren't controlling them.

but the heists really shines with the only chance that you have to impact the way missions play out, which is kind of the problem going from this masterfully created open world but then being thrust into this mission structure that for the most part doesn't allow you to deviate from the way that Rockstar wants you to play them. But with the heists you feel like you can do want you want that you have some meaningful input it's a shame that they just don't have enough of them.

But one thing that GTA V gets absolutely right is the shooting, flying, and driving mechanics. Shooting actually feels responsive which is incredible seeing as how without lock on GTA IV was unplayable, and now you could conceivably play this game without lock on. but with the driving is where it really becomes apparent that Rockstar when to great lengths to fix the problems from GTA IV. In GTA V the roads no longer feel like they are made of ice, yes that is correct the cars no longer swing wildly around when going around corners and even though I did actually like the driving in GTA IV I do appreciate the changes. But one thing I didn't like at all in GTA IV was the flying of helicopters anytime I got into one I felt like I was constantly fighting to keep the thing from crashing into a building, but with GTA V this is no longer the case. But not just helicopters are in this game no GTA V has the triumphant return of planes and this is where I find I had the most fun just flying over Los Santos and just looking out across the sky, this is where the scale of the game really became apparent.

But that is the thing about GTA V the world and scale of the game is the most impressive thing about the game just wandering around Los Santos was by far my favorite thing about this game and that is on top of a fantastic story with wonderful and unique characters that actually change the way you play. So the thing that was incredibly weird is that after I finished I just couldn't figure out how this game ran on my Playstation 3 which just shows that life still exists in this current generation of consoles.

10/10



    

Crysis 3 Review

Crysis 3 picks up some time after Crysis 2 with Psycho ( protagonist of Crysis: Warhead) who has recently been taken out of his Nanosuit storms a CELL facility to free Prophet who has been captured. Once freed you take control of Prophet who along with Psycho enters the New York Liberty Dome to take down CELL. But then Things go crazy and the alien race from the other games known as the Ceph return and Prophet must once again stop the world from being destroyed. The Story while not great is definitely the best in the series. This is primarily because Crytek has decided to make Prophet more than just a husk that the player inhabits. Although sometimes the tale told can get way too melodramatic. But I the story doesn't really matter because it's still bogged down by the other games continuity, so it still just winds up being nonsense.

Crysis 3 as you probably already know is absolutely gorgeous especially the over grown areas of New York City. For Crysis 3 Crytek has decided to go for a healthy medium between The wide open world of the original Crysis and the guided nature of Crysis 2, with the beginning being more guided and the later stages becoming a lot more open with multiple paths and plenty of areas that are off the beaten path. Crysis 3 has you going from wide open sections of an overgrown New York City and the completely unremarkable structures set up by the Cell corporation, with the later seeming to be the majority of the game. Crytek has also added an incredibly boring driving sequnce in the middle of the game. 

Crysis 3's gameplay is all about the choice of playing stealthily with your cloak or going guns blazing with maximum armor, but since neither is done incredibly well it just leads to the game being a bit boring. The really big addition of Crysis 3 is the bow and arrow which allows you to stay cloaked while firing, but since it's a one hit kill it just winds up being overpowered if your playing stealth. Meaning all you'll do is enter an area mark all of the enemies in the environment and pick everyone off with the bow, then go and collect your arrows and do it all again in the next area. If your playing guns blazing then the bow becomes absolutely worthless because of the slow firing rate.

Once done with the single player you can jump into the multiplayer which is proficient if not soulless. Coming packed with the standard multiplayer fare. The only mode that is interesting is the Hunter mode which has two players as guys in Nanosuits with unlimited health and a bow going up against a group of cell operatives who as they fall become Hunters.

This game is an incredibly successful tech demo that gives a look into what the next generation will look like, but lets hope that Crytek lets Crysis go and does something else. But Crysis 3 remains a consistently well made game if not one that is incredibly uninteresting.

6.0/10  

        

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Review

Metal Gear Rising is finally here after a rather interesting development time, including the project being canceled at one point and changing devs from Kojima Productions to Platinum Games. The story of Rising is one that doesn't make a lot of sense but hey it's a Metal Gear game. But anyway here's the basic idea the game starts off 4 years after MGS4 with Raiden working at a PMC called Maverick, which has him protecting Prime Minister N'mani. N'mani is then kidnapped and murdered by a group of terrorists and this then leads Raiden down a path of revenge and vengeance, which is how you get the awful tittle Revengeance. Where Raiden finds out that the groups main goal is to kidnap children and turn them into cyborgs. My main complaint is that the new characters introduced are really boring and flat. Also Why is Raiden a cyborg again after having the seemingly happy ending in Metal Gear Solid 4. Its not awful they just don't do a good job of catching you up on whats happened over the last 4 years but it's still nice seeing some of the characters from previous Metal Gear games.

Platinum Games has managed to make one of the coolest looking games I've seen but with some small problems when it comes to control. First off this game is nuts but peaks really early with the first level being the highlight with a fantastic boss battle with Metal Gear Ray. After that the game while still incredibly cool still seems to constantly be trying to get back to that level of cool. 

But the main problem comes with the games horrid parrying mechanic, which has you tapping the light attack button and holding the left analog stick in the direction you are being attacked, this all feels incredibly imprecise. Rising also has plenty of camera problems that doesn't help the parrying problem constantly being caught in awkward positions. Also the combat isn't very deep and just becomes random button pushing at a certain point. But aside from the simple combat the main gameplay mechanic Blade Mode is always fun to use. Blade Mode allows you to enter a state that slows down times and allows you to control your sword with incredible precision. The game also features some great boss battles besides the aforementioned Ray battle with a particularly fun final boss. Platinum has done a great job of injecting their crazy over the top action into the Metal Gear universe.

With all that said I still find Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance a welcome addition to the Metal Gear universe and I feel as though the sequel to this game will be great. Metal Gear Rising is a game with some minor control problems that never stops looking cool.

7.5/10  

Dead Space 3 Review

In 2008 EA’s Dead Space game was released.  Then, some spin off games came out and then the second Dead Space was released. The Dead Space series has been one of my favorite series ever since the first one came out. Now in Dead Space 3, the story takes place 2 months after the events that occurred in Dead Space 2. Isaac Clarke teams up with Earth Gov and has a new mission. Now venture in Ice planet Tau Volantis to destroy the marker once and for all.

 

The game has the same controls as the other 2 Dead Space games. But instead of buying weapons, you can build your weapons by finding parts. You can build the classic weapon as well.  A couple of new features include getting scavenger bots, which can help find parts. You don’t have to face the necromorph sprawl alone; you have the option to co-op with a friend online.  I really like the build your own weapon system. You can be creative and you can share blueprints of weapons you built with your friends.  The co-op is a lot fun too. There are some missions that you only do in co-op and you find out more about the second player’s character named Carver. This game is very well developed. The graphics are really well done and the necromorphs are grossly detailed. There are not many glitches in the game that I have encountered. I don’t like some of the armor design that well in this game. I like Isaac’s snow suit, it looks awesome and Carver’s Special Forces suit is nice too.

But overall I think it is a great game. I recommend playing it especially with a friend.

8.5/10