Attempting something for the first time is usually difficult and could possibly lead to bad results. FireRed and LeafGreen were the first Pokemon remakes, improved versions of Red and Blue respectively. The standard Pokemon gameplay remained, the story was expanded from the original games, and all discovered Pokemon since the game's release date were included, not only the 1st Generation Pokemon.
GAMEPLAY:
FireRed and LeafGreen was not different than any other Pokemon game in terms of basic gameplay. Catch Pokemon, make them stronger and eventually become the Champion. They had expanded gameplay compared to the original Red and Green games, with an additional storyline after the end of the game, and also the opportunity to play with a female character. Despite being very simple, this kind of game can get really addicting, so expect FireRed and LeafGreen to take up quite a bit of your time. Even after finishing the entire story, you'll still want to get your Pokemon to Level 100.
GRAPHICS:
A 2D game doesn't have much room to show off graphics. FireRed and LeafGreen's graphics are decent, somewhat enjoyable while not anything special, but not bad either. There were complaints about the games not having much improvement in this department compared to the previous Pokemon games, Ruby and Sapphire, however I disagree, as the improvement is noticeable immediately.
SOUND:
While containing some bright tracks and well-remade music from the 1st Generation, the soundtrack of FireRed and LeafGreen suffers from huge repetitiveness, like any other Pokemon game. Expect the battle theme to get very frustrating after some time, when that happens muting your game would be a good idea. However, be sure not to miss the bright tracks mentioned above, especially the great Gym Battle theme.
VALUE:
If you like this game, it will take away very much of your time. Any game that you'll spent many dozens of hours playing and still not get bored is a great buy.
TILT:
While mashing the A Button can occasionally get annoying, this game is an enjoyable experience. Don't worry about anything, just venture into the game world and do as you wish. FINAL RATING: 7.6, Good The Bottom Line: Suitable for everyone, but if you want much variety, you should stay away from this game.
A Nintendo Direct recently aired on Nintendo's website announced the newest Pokemon games, Pokemon X and Pokemon Y!
For the first time, the games will be released on the same month all around the world, October 2013. So, until then!
To watch the Nintendo Direct video in which the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, tells about the history of the main series Pokemon games, compares each generation and then presents the game's trailer, click here.
Or you can watch just the trailer by clicking here.
The most notable new feature so far is that the games are now in 3D!
Below are pictures of the starter Pokemon, taken from the trailer. Thanks to Serebii for them.
As it has been for the last few years, EA's FIFA franchise has outshone Konami's Pro Evolution Soccer games, and FIFA 12 is no exception building on the Superb FIFA 11 to make the best football game out there.
GAMEPLAY:
As with any game, gameplay is king and this is where FIFA 12 really excells, over 10 years of EA tweaking the gameplay has not gone to waste and FIFA 12 is a perfect example of how a game realeased every year can adapt and change. Pre-release there were 3 very important changes to the game engine, dubbed the 'Holy Trinity of gameplay changes' by line producer, David Rutter. These 3 changes promised to revolutionise FIFA and in some ways they have.
The first change was the 'player impact engine' which after two years of development has been implemented to convey more realistic collisions between players. This feature was the weakest of the three gameplay changes, it was very hit and miss and sparked a whole host of 'fails' videos on youtube. Despite the player impact engine working the majority of the time, when it didnt work the results where unexcuseable for such a big release like this. The main concequence of this (aside from looking extreamly ugly) was match officials often making wrong decisions which somewhat ruins the gameplay, especially when you lose a match due to a wrong call by an official.
The second change, the 'precision dribbling' feature was the least hyped of the three, and it was a nice feature and worked well. However it was rarely useful and at times you forget it is even there. It seems to be a tool only used by the higher skilled players to manipulate the ball more deftly; however for the average player it is totally unneccesary, though it can be fun at times.
Last but not least is the new 'tactical defending' feature. On the face of it, it doesn't seem like it changes much and was overlooked. But that was until you played the demo for the first time. In previous FIFA's defending was a one button press system, which made your player hone in on an attacker with no skill involved. But tactical defending changed this. Defending became a real challenge to master and provoked uproar in the FIFA community. For offline matches, players can turn the defending back to the somewhat crude 'legacy defending' but online there isn't an option for this, forcing players to use the new tactical defending, so it is unadviseable for players to do this if they want to play offline as well as online.
Overall, the gameplay is almost perfect, as you could expect from EA Sports' biggest franchise. The experience is very enjoyable, which is only helped by the seemless controls. One thing of note is the fact that I play FIFA 12 on my laptop, and a gamepad helps a lot, personally I recommend the Xbox Controller for Windows
GRAPHICS:
The graphics of FIFA 12 are excellent, with fluid and vivid animations. The little touches are very thoughtfull; from player warming up before kick off to getting frustrated after a decision hasn't gone their way, FIFA 12 looks amazing (aside from the unfortunate moments when the player impact engine doesn't work well, but this has a comedic affect so that somewhat makes up for it). Suprisingly, the graphical specifications are not too high for the PC versions of the game - which for the first time are identical to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, and personally I can run the game on its highest settings with my £400 laptop.
SOUND:
Being a sports game, it is hard to excell in the sound department. The in-game music is as ever excellent and is an excelent background when scrolling though the menus of FIFA 12. The commentary team for the first time is taken over by two sets of commentators (for the English version) and both handle their job without any trouble. Occasionaly, they try to make the commentary more realistic providing in depth anysis. However after playing with the same club or players for a few months, you bound to get repeats which can't be helped, but aren't the best either (for example there is a piece of commentary on Man City's Yaya Toure which I have heard at least 5 times, which gets annoying very quickly).
VALUE:
The one advantage of the PC is that it is generally cheaper, with a fairly steep difference in the price bewteen the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. which seems quite steep. But the amount of gameplay from FIFA 12 is immense and endless and it is still great value whatever price you pay.
TILT:
Being a massive football fan, I enjoyed the game immensely and I'm sure any other football fans will as well. I am glad that EA respect the PC gaming market and porting the next-gen FIFA games for PC gamers to enjoy.
FINAL RATING: 9.0, Superb
The Bottom Line: The Best Football Game of All Time has Gotten Better, a Must Buy Despite its Minor Flaws
(review was written by Parasect4win and polished by Rigas)
Making a sequel to Oblivion was going to be a big challenge for Bethesda to pull off right. With all the hype this game had before release it may have been susceptible to "Overhype" syndrome, fortunately for Bethesda, I try to ignore all hype before a game's release and take everything as it happens. I am glad I did this for Skyrim...
GAMEPLAY
Bethesda hit the payload when Oblivion was released gameplay-wise. With visceral First Person combat with swords and spells coming out of your ears and an easy to navigate world. Skyrim hasn't exactly changed much, though now Spells are mapped to each hand instead of being used with your standard kit and Bethesda have implemented dual wield of 1H weapons and said spells.
Dual wielding weapons (I used swords for my playthrough) increases output damage by double,
if using the same weapon on both hands that is, and balances itself out by the inability to
block. Same thing happens with Spells, except after certain perks are purchased in the
destruction perk tree (more on leveling later) you can combine 2 destruction spells into a
deadly combination. This added depth is great for the combat in Skyrim, and with each
attack having slightly more weight to it, it feels a whole lot more brutal.
One of my quarrels with Oblivion has been completely fixed in Skyrim. No longer do you have
to micro manage which skills you raise each level to max specific stats, they've dropped
stats all together and weapon/spell damage is based on the skill tree it falls under. Minor
and Major skills have been removed as well, meaning every skill increase goes towards your
next level, and with the removal of Acrobatics and Athletics, you won't receive random
skill increases just traversing around the world. Each skill has a perk tree associated with it. Each tier has a skill requirement, and are generally great for creating the character you want to play. Lockpicking's tree is a bit less useful with the change to Fallout's style of Lockpicking, but Bethesda could have removed the tree all together and added with sneak to fix that.
Exploring the world and taking quests couldn't be better. Bethesda have discontinued being able to Fast travel to every city straight away, but have replaced it with a taxi service (horse and cart) that costs 20/50 gold to travel to the cities instantly, though once you've been there once you can fast travel as many times as you like. The map of the world ingame does start out a bit confusing. It's 3D layout confused me for the first 30 hours or so though when I became more accustomed to it I could traverse all the mountains and such by swivelling the map around to get different angles of said mountains. Its a great little map for fast travelling with the locations marked clearly and having objectives in its own menu with the ability to switch them on and off helps with clutter issues.
Overall the general gameplay of Skyrim is second to none. If you loved Oblivion, I can see no reason why you wouldn't thoroughly enjoy exploring and killing in Skyrim.
GRAPHICS
Oblivion's graphics were incredible when it was released for the PC in 2006. Skyrim's graphics take it to a whole new level. The environmental effects are superb, I thorougly enjoy trotting about in the rain and staring off into the distance watching lighting strike various places. The draw distance is great, though with the save file bug you see these popping in more often when you have a large save file. It's not exactly game breaking but it slightly detracts you from the experience.
Character models are great. Oblivion had round faces and ugly women, Skyrim has more detailed faces with a combination of hideous (in a good way) and attractive women and men living in the cities. Armor looks great, Bethesda combining cuirass and greaves has been useful in making most well armed characters look good. It also helps remove some of the random combinations of clothes which can be good and bad, but it's for the greater good. The amount of characters on screen has improved dramatically because of this change, and cities barely have frame drops because of it.
SOUND
The sound in Skyrim is phenomonal. I get chills whenever I'm exploring and I hear some wolves howling to alert its comrades of my presence. All monsters have their quirks, I don't want to spoil all of them for you.
The weapons sound meatier than in Oblivion. Each strike sounds like its hitting something solid now unlike the sound of hitting leather in Oblivion.
Oblivion's voice acting problem of too few actors has been fixed. There are at least 70 different voices from what I can tell, though generic characters of each race all share the same voice which isn't that bad.
The soundtrack sets the mood really well, with heart pumping action beats and tranquil
sounds when exploring the roads and cities.
VALUE
I like to judge games value by how many hours you get per dollar. I spent $110 on my limited edition copy, have 70 hours so far and I can see MANY more to follow. If you want a game thats going to last you months, GRAB THIS GAME.
TILT
Bethesda have struck gold again with Skyrim. I enjoyed every minute of it. I can foresee nothing to detract me from my gameplay, this game is that good.
FINAL RATING: 9.8, Superb
The Bottom Line: Masterpiece, Well Worth The Hype
(review was written by Galblade and polished by Rigas)
No game will probably ever achieve the same level of gameplay San Andreas achieved, besides another GTA game.
The game is something... well... AWESOME! You have the best world ever and you are free to do anything! And the best of all: it's in a modern age! You don't have to play these fantasy-medieval games anymore! San Andreas is THE game. The best story, expect the unexpected, travel around, kill for fun, get hunted by the police, customize your vehicle, steal an airplane, find a top-secret military base in the desert, bet your money on the casinos, play arcade minigames in bars and much, MUCH more.
The game certainly lives up to the reputation of the Grand Theft Auto games. In fact, it is arguably the best game in the series.
GRAPHICS
While I've seen many people complaining about the graphics, I believe they are good. Textures are well designed and realistic. Graphic glitches are very rare, animations are top and in the end, it just feels right. Keep in mind it's a game from 2005.
SOUND
The best part of the game's sound are the radio songs you can hear while driving vehicles. Nice collection, and it certainly helps make the game more realistic. The voice acting is excellent, realistic and with emotion. The cast is also notable, featuring even Samuel L. Jackson. Weapon sounds are slightly repetitive, but that's not gonna bother you much.
VALUE
Of course this is a game worthy to buy... for anyone.
TILT
The enjoyment levels of this game are skyrocketed all the way to the top. Every second is an incredible experience.
FINAL RATING: 9.6, Superb
The Bottom Line: Just Incredible, Never Stops To Be Fun
The Chicken Invaders series is one of my personal favorites, and I consider it the best videogame series from Greece. The new installement of the series, Ultimate Omelette, left me pretty satisfied. Without further delay, let's move on to the review.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is standard to the series, and it is fairly good. It was not expanded much from Revenge of the Yolk, with only a few additions, though most of them were very interesting, like the addition of Satellites. However, the unlockables system was overhauled. Instead of unlocking unlockables by completing missions, you must earn keys which are randomly found in the game and spent them to unlock the unlockables. It also features some new weapons, like the Boron Railgun.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are great, much better from the previous installment of the series, Revenge of the Yolk. There are many new visual effects, and everything looks better. Some of the effects are very well desinged, and the textures are detailed. Animations are also fairly good, though repetitive.
SOUND
Typical Chicken Invaders music. It does have some bright tracks, but they aren't anything special. Sound effects were relatively good, but no voice acting.
VALUE
Great for fans of the genre, but can also be suited to other players. The game isn't a must-buy, it mostly depends on what kind of videogames you like.
TILT
How much you'll enjoy it depends mostly on you. The game was an enjoyable experience for me personally.
FINAL RATING: 7.4, Good
The Bottom Line: Worthy Trying, Depends On What You Like
To put it bluntly, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is and will be one of the best games ever.
The game follows the classic gameplay of the Elder Scrolls series. You are given a huge, detailed, lavished world and you are free to do anything you want.
Morrowind was a really good game, not an easy act to follow. But Oblivion did it.
The world is huge and detailed. You can do anything you want anytime you want. There are tons of interesting places to explore, forts, mines, caves, forests, cities, villages, mountains, farms, everything been unique. It is really a huge achievement. There are tons of quests, everyone been interesting. The quests vary from helping an old fisherman collect money for his retirement to avenging a farmer's dead wife to rescuing a ship that was hijacked with you on board. You will never be bored by the depth of and amount of the quests.
The characters, apart from the generic guards, are all incredibly detailed, each one having their problems, job, schedule, e.t.c. The Radiant AI helped a lot to make the characters even more interesting. However, it has some flaws. For example, you can break into somebody's house at night and wake them up. You can chat with them normally, though if they don't like you enough, they'll call the guards and you'll end up with a fine.
GRAPHICS
It's very simple: This game was centuries ahead of it's age in the graphics department. No matter were you go or what you do, you will always be charmed by Oblivion's beautiful graphics. Everything is incredibly detailed, the textures don't glitch and there are some incredible views, such as looking from Dive Rock or seeing the Imperial City from above. EVERYTHING in the game looks incredible!
Of course, if you are playing on the PC, it means you are gonna need a fairly strong one. However, the requirements aren't that big. Remember, it is a 2006 game after all.
SOUND
2 words: Simply amazing. Jeremy Soule, the master of videogame music, created some absolute masterpieces, like Wings of Kynareth (video to the right).
The voice acting is great. Though you may be disappointed by the small variety of voice actors, the acting is realistic and has emotion.
The sound effects are also very interesting in their own, like dropping an item and striking something with your weapon. Though there still isn't much variety, it remains realistic.
VALUE
You ask about value? The game is more than worth the few bucks/euros/pounds you are gonna give to get it. Such an incredible game must not be missing from the library of any video games fan.
TILT
Just read the rest of the review. I believe you'll find everything there enough.
This game was the first attempt to simulate to magical sport of J.K.Rowling's famous Harry Potter series, Quidditch. The result? Not good.
At first look, the game looks good. Nice menus and sound. But as everybody knows, the first look often gives a wrong impression...
I went to the tutorial to learn the game. It shortly taught me the basics of the game, how the game works and the game modes. The gameplay I saw at the tutorial seemed empty, but that was fixed when I saw the cards system, which I liked.
I went to play my first match against Ravenclaw. It sucked horribly. The gameplay consisted of simply
1: Tackling the enemy to get the ball (which you can do even if you are 20 feet away, and it never fails)
2: Going in one of the posts the goalkeeper doesn't guard
3: Shoot and score.
I was bored to death. All that impressive stuff I saw at the tutorial, nowhere! I got bored when I reached a 280-0 lead and I quit. I got stuck with the feeling that this "game" is only good for taking up space in your hardrive. So, it was off.
GRAPHICS
The graphics are by far the worst thing in the game.When you are not playing, they don't seem to be that bad, but when you play, your eyes bleed. It was horrible. They aren't that bad in the menus or the game, but the cutscenes are terrible. Not to mention stupid animations. The characters look unrealistic as well.
SOUND
Contradicting to the rest of the game, the sound is good. The background music and sound effects are good, and the commenting makes the grade. It's passionate, and it's the only reason I kept playing until I reached a 280 points lead.
VALUE
This may be the only Quidditch simulator, but it ain't worth it. There are tons of great games for every genre out there. Do you have to buy this mediocre game? Unless you are a hardcore Harry Potter fan, I strongly suggest not buying this game.
TILT
I couldn't get much enjoyment of this game. In fact, I was mostly bored while playing this game, despite having played it for less than 2 hours!
FINAL RATING: 4.8, Poor
The Bottom Line: Not Worth It
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FireRed and LeafGreen was not different than any other Pokemon game in terms of basic gameplay. Catch Pokemon, make them stronger and eventually become the Champion. They had expanded gameplay compared to the original Red and Green games, with an additional storyline after the end of the game, and also the opportunity to play with a female character. Despite being very simple, this kind of game can get really addicting, so expect FireRed and LeafGreen to take up quite a bit of your time. Even after finishing the entire story, you'll still want to get your Pokemon to Level 100.
