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Rating: M for Mature
Summary: You play Gordon Freeman once again. The guy in the blue suit that "captured" you the last Half-life "wakes you up" once again because your "time has come once again." There is a much better storyline than the original game this time. In this episode you have to stop the old administator of the Black Mesa from reeking anymore havok on the world. In other words you play as a rebel. A kick ass rebel that everyone loves and adores. Most of the game is made up of saving either Alyx or her father from the evil clutches of "the administrator." From the original game to this one it switches from "KILL ALIENS!" to "RETALIATE! KILL THE HUMANS!"
Graphics: Are you kidding??? 5/5
Smoothness: Very smooth game play if your computer isn't so stupid that it has to freeze for a few seconds everytime is starts up the fan. 5/5
Camera Angles: It's a first person shooter. 5/5
Sound: The sound gets farther or closer with your movements. It echos when you're in the right kind of room. It's muffled if it's coming from behind a wall. It works. 5/5
Voices: Most of the characters are easily understood except for the Vardegons. Sometimes it's hard to hear what they're saying. 4/5
Music: Sweet! 5/5
Characters: There are four of five different civilian skins. There are two different kinds of police. About six different kinds of aliens. And every main character has their own face. All the characters faces have been modled after someones face in real life. 5/5
Controls: Much simpilar than the original game. Thank god they got rid of the long jump! 5/5
Glitch count: If you try to jump up on an object when you are in the water and then you don't land on the object you'll go all the way to the bottom of the body of water like you're not under water. When jumping from platform to platform sometimes you get stuck on the side of that platform. Sometimes you'll get stuck on the movable objects you are standing on or sometimes you die for no reason until you take the physics engine into account. You could very well have been impaled by a piece of wood or crushed by barrels. Yes, it's happened to me. It was weird. BUT THAT PHYSICS ENGINE HAULS ASS! Still this game has a much, much smaller glitch count than the orignial. Thank you Valve!!! 4/5
Fun: Yes! Yes! Yes! Object interactions are the best thing ever invented!!! 5/5
Things liked: The physics engine! They come up with some awesome puzzles that invovle physics! And I just love to play stack 'em and thow all my lugade at the black guy on the first level! I also like the storyline. It's so much better than the original game! The ending was the best! It was so awesome! I also liked they characters. They are very believeable and the voice actors are awesome! I especially like how they handled Alyx. They didn't make her this hott, half-naked, super star girl with humugus things sticking out of her chest. It not a game where they have to have super modles everywhere just to get someone to play there game like those STUPID VOLLEYBALL GAMES! Every girl in the game is handled the same way but Alyx is the best because she's got a cool robot named Dog.
Things not liked: It takes forever to load the game on your computer! You have to copy all the files from all five discs onto your computer and then you have to do all this crap with Steam. You also have to be online to play it. After you load it the game doesn't require a disc to play (at least I think so). Personally I think it would be a lot better if the game was a normal non-online game. It takes another fifteen minutes to do all the crap with Steam anyway.
Overall: This game definetly lives up to its title of best game ever made. 5/5
Sequel: I've heard a tiny piece about Half-life 3 but I'm pretty sure they're going to make one. The ending of this game left many questions in your head, and they just have to answer them in at least one more game. In Half-life 3 they are planning on making a character that follows you through most of the game but is not annoying.
Rating: T for Teen
Summary: You return to land of Eden once again as a God. After you get through a couple tutorial worlds you meet your people. The people are no longer the stupid, peace loving humans they used to be. They have resorted to war as a way to solve their problems. Sound stupid but they're slightly smarter. The object of the game is to bring the Greeks back to power by influencing the Japanese to join your side and then defeating the Aztecs. You can do all of this starting with a mere handful of Greeks. They breed like rabbits though.
Graphics: They aren't as good as I thought they were going to be but once again if you consiter the size of each island it really is amazing. I haven't seen a blade of grass since I started playing the game though. 5/5
Smoothness: The game is very smooth except for the game crashing every once in a while. It's not like the original though. 5/5
Camera Angles: You control the camera and the controls have been made somewhat simplier from the original game. 5/5
Sound: I lost the sound once during the Siren Epic miracle besides that the sound sounds pretty good. 5/5
Voice: The voices are very understandable. 5/5
Music: At one point in the game the battle music was stuck in a never ending loop. It was very annoying. The music stops and starts when you go from area to area. I don't really like that. The music morphs with the alignment of the area that your hand is over though. It also morphs with what is happening in the game (battle music during war for example). 4/5
Characters: The Japanese, the Greeks, and the Aztects all have three skins each: men, women, and men dressed for battle. The characters that have something to do with the plot have their own skin though. The characters wheather they are humans or your conscience are funny. More humorous than they were last game. They also have some amazing animation sets especially the consciences! They were right about the creature though. It's not as attached to the game as it was last game. That mostly because he so smart. You no longer have to walk him around on a leash all throughout the game anymore. You don't help him battle anymore either. All you can do is watch him and maybe throw rocks at the enemy creature to help your creature out.. All you have to do is pet him once in a while to keep him happy. At the beggining of the game you'll probably be slapping him a lot to let him know what he can and can't do. That's the only way you can train your creature in this game. That makes me very sad. There is also a menu where you can see what your creature has learned lately. You can select whatever he's learned and you can let him know you like or dislike his behavior by slapping or petting him. He has as many morphs in this game as he did last game if not more. One of the new morphs is from a young creature to an adult. You can really tell the difference in this game. Young creatures looks really cute and they make weird noises. The creature is also more... uh... creature looking istead of being made of polls. However, the creature's attachment to the game and the way you train your creature just... saddens me. 4/5
Controls: The controls have been improved from the last game. They are easier to use. I was even using the mouse more than I use the keyboard. I'm still using the keyboard though to move around but I use the mouse to pitch and look around and such. They switched the action button with the movement button so it's kind of hard to get used to if you played the original Black & White. Keyboard controls are all the same though. Even the leash button. 4/5
Glitch count: The gliches are actually even more noticable than they were last game. That also saddens me. However, not all the glitches are annoying. The most ammusing one is probably seeing an army of zombie old people marching into your village. Here's how it works. The neutral villages don't seem to reproduce so if you don't capture their village fast enough then they will be old (zombie old people) or the village will be small. If you don't have a fortified wall on some levels then the enemy armies will go right through your cheap walls. I think they're cheaters. The creature has preset sentences so to tell you something all he has to do is replace some of the words in those sentences with other words. Sometimes was he's thinking doesn't come out in perfect English. There are also giant black squares across most of the maps in some places. I think this is the places where there was supposed to be grass since I haven't seen a blade of grass since I started playing the game. This also makes me sad. I was really looking forward to seeing four million + pieces of grass. 4/5
Fun: It very addictive even for all it's downsides. Sometimes the only way to get unhooked to wait until your computer
crashes. 5/5
Things liked: I like to build cities! I like to see green smily faces everywhere! I like to see my enemies main city marching into my city in one giant mob! I like the Hurricane Epic miracle! I like to see my creature vomit rocks!
Things not liked: I don't like having to buy mircles that my creature can use. I wanted to be able to train my creature to use the miracles like in the last game. I like to train my creature and if I can't train him to do everything then I'm not satified. I don't want to buy the things that I want to teach my creature. Black and White Studios won't even have a chance to redeem themselves because they're not even putting the creature in anymore Black & White games. I don't like the fact that I can't see grass. I want to see grass!!! I don't like the battle music anymore. It looped too much on the last map.
Overall: I'm sad that I can't give this game a perfect. After the four years I waited for it the creature just brought it down too much. It was sad. I cried. Not really, that was a quote from Drugs of Metropolis. 4/5
Sequel: There is supposed to be three more games. It goes up to Black and White 5. I don't know if I'll stick around for anymore sequels since they are getting rid of the creature entirely. In case you didn't notice they are going through the history of time. Over time the people get more advanced until they reach where we are right now... maybe beyond where we are now. Every game the people believe in you less and less and it's harder to make them believe in you. That doesn't make me feel like a God at all. There reasons for getting rid of the creature? "Creatures don't exist in todays time. NUR!" Instead of a creature you get a high preist. Oh wow... don't I feel powerful. I have a brainwashing priest. Black and White 2 will have to do. It is much better than the original and a good ending for me and the Black and White series. I do believe it will keep me entertained as long as (or longer) the original did. Both of them have their faults.
Rating: M for Mature
Summary: Most of the storyline is the same as Fable. You start as a boy learning to use the controls of Fable when you family is killed or kidnapped. Then, you go to the guild of heros and start to become one yourself. Along the way you do many different quests either to find out about yourself or to kick some bad guy ass. You find out that Jack of Blades was behind the kidnapping and killing of your family for an ancient power that runs in your family and will make him stronger. There are more main quests after the original game ends but I'll let you see that for yourself. I found it rather confusing and stupid.
Graphics: Just as good as the original. 5/5
Smoothness: The part of the game from the original is pretty smooth. It's when you get into new areas that you get really bad skipping. 3/5
Camera Angles: I didn't get to use the first person shooter for the bow much because our good controller broke so the joystick doesn't press down anymore. From what I saw I'd have to say that they were better than the original. 5/5
Sound: It's there. 5/5
Voices: Wow... 5/5
Music: Woot. 5/5
Characters: They did a much better job describing who Briar Rose was in this game. She's a bitch. Oh well, she doesn't matter anyway. You can change your own character in many ways again in this game. There's still a horrible problem with scars and aging though. Grrr... Besides that I liked all the new tatoos and clothes and such. 5/5
Controls: The controls are still very easy to use when you have a working controller (which I don't). 5/5
Glitch count: Once again, the character ages way too fast. He seemed to be aging a little bit more slowly when I first started so I was like "Yay!" but before I knew it I was 65 and my mother looked younger than me. It made my character disco and look like his flesh was melting.
Also the new area in Darkwood called the something Bordello should not be pronounced "Bor-dell-o." If they were going for an Italian-like place it should have been pronounced "Bor-day-o" according to how it was spelled. If they wanted "Bor-dell-o" it should have been spelled "Bordelo." Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm going by how you pronounce a double "l" in Spanish and Italian and Spaniards have always been discribed to me as pronouncing things the same.
I didn't look into the "Hero Save" glitch. The glitches in the arena have been fixed somewhat. I can't remember any other glitches. 5/5
Fun: Yes! I love dancing! 5/5
Things liked: I love all the dances! I like the quests where you had to help stoners out. I liked the fact that all the new parts of the game were just big jokes. The pimp hat is freaking awesome! The only thing I like about the new main quests at the end of the game is the dragon. And I like how the Hero's Guild doesn't close off at the end of the game.
Things not liked: I don't like the new main quests at the end of the game and I don't like FIGHTING the dragon. I don't like any of the new monsters. I don't like aging. I don't like broken Xbox controlers. <-----This won't be counted against the game.
Overall: All the stupid things that added work for and against the game but overall... YAY!!! I LOVE DANCING IN MY PIMP HAT AND DRINKING BEER! 5/5
Sequel: There has been talk of a Fable 2... All I've heard is about being able to wield a weapon in one hand and use magic with the other or some other combination to that effect.
Rating: E for Everyone
Summary: You are asked by the mayor of town to work the farm for three years to bring the town out of the gutter. If you didn't the farmland would be turned into a theme park. To "work" the farm you can buy farm animals, grown plants, forage for food in the woods, fish, ect. Over the game you meet many different pixelated people. Most of them just ask you if you're still working the farm, you still meet them. You can also get animals and go to festivals and horse races and stuff... Yep, that's the storyline.
Graphics: Hmm... I'm not too familiar with Gameboy graphics actually... uh... N/A
Smoothness: Out of the many hours I've played any game on Gameboy (Yes, I own a Gameboy. I don't play all my games on REW) I've never seen a time where any game froze up except when you ran out of batteries. 5/5
Camera angles: There's only one, and besides, you're character can't go behind anything in the first place. 5/5
Sound: Bee booboo beebop. Bee booboo bop? I choose not to rate this. N/A
Voices: Where!!? N/A
Music: Pretty good for Gameboy. 5/5
Characters: You can choose your character to be male or female and also choose a four letter name for yourself. Believe it or not but the hospital in town does come in handy once in a great while. You're character can get colds if you work out in the rain for too long. Normally, your character will just stay in bed for the rest of the next day. There are a couple major illnesses though that I came across. The first one was kind of like mono where my character woke up really late everyday. The second illness was an ear infection where I couldn't hear anything. Both these illnesses are easily cured with a single visit to the doctor's office.
The first animal you'll probably get is either a cat or a dog depending on which one you tell Rosie you like. You can also give them a four letter name. They're probably the least annoying animal in the entire game so spoil them by letting them sleep in the house! The second animal you'll get will probably be the horse. Once again you can name him. He is rather annoying. He always gets in my way when I'm trying to get in the cow barn. He won't even stand still when I'm loading him down with vegetables. GOD! He's the most hyper pixelated character ever!
There are three different species of farm animals you can buy: cows, chickens, and sheep. You'll probably get chickens first. They can be really annoying when you're trying to feed them, but they grow up quickly and lay an egg everyday except when you don't feed them. Cows are the second easiest animal to get. They grow up slowly but then they produce milk everyday and later on in the game you can buy a couple machines that will turn the milk into cream or cheese which will give you more money. You can basically push cows out of your way so they aren't nearly as annoying as previous animals. However, once in a while they will walk on top of each other. Then, it's hard to brush, milk, and cuddle with a cow. You can name each of your cows as well. My cows names happened to be CRAP, SHIT, POOP, and KAKA. To get sheep you first have to buy a sheep pen which costs 70,000 Gold I believe. Sheep are much like cows only they move faster, and they don't produce a product you can sell every day. You can also name your sheep. Mine sheeps names were: DAMN, ASS(heart symbol), FUCK, and SUCK. Yes, animals can die if you don't take care of them properly. I remember my first attempt at beating this game a few years ago... One of my cows died and he was buried in the town cemetary. It was sad, and it took me a really long time to get the cow in the first place...
The minor characters include the townspeople. If you're not a workaholic (like I am) then you'll probably think these characters to be major characters. I'm sure there's a way to get to know them better if you show up to all the festivals and talk to them everyday. I didn't take the time to get to know the townspeople very well. I'll tell you one character I listened to everyday though. The newscaster! She is the best newscaster in the world! She gets the weather right every single day! She was only wrong a couple times, but those were days before festivals and she said that the weather was going to be bad (festival weather is never bad).
This may be the biggest section I've ever written for any of my game reviews. Even though I had a lot to say about the characters, obviously, I'm really not too impressed by them. They had no backgrounds really, no personalities, and most of them are just annoying. That includes the main character! 2/5
Controls: The controls are amazingly simple. After all, Gameboy's only have eight buttons. 5/5
Glitch count: There were only a couple glitches I noticed. The first is when you eat something and you're riding your horse or you're carrying something. Whatever you're holding or riding on will disappear and be replaced by an animation of your character eating or drinking something. Then, whatever you were doing will reappear. The other one is much more annoying. When you jump off your horse and you land in your plants or on top of your horse again you get stuck. You can just jump on your horse again but come on! That horse is freaking annoying! There was also a glitch where I was expecting a sheep to be born on the same day as the ending of the third year so I had a sheep named 0001 for a day. The next day you get to name the sheep though so it's not permenant. 4/5
Fun: This game will be fun to any workaholic. 3/5
Things liked: Well... I kind of liked the idea of getting new animals and buildings. Eventually I just realized the animals were annoying and the buildings just meant more work (I did like the hot house though!).
Things not liked: *sigh* The animals... and the people. The townspeople's festivals SUCKED!
Overall: I don't think the average joe could get hooked on a game like this. Only the obsessive cumpulsive and the workaholics could. Yes, this game had some high scores, but they were all in the wrong areas. Who cares if the controls were good or not if the storyline and the characters freaking suck? Take a look at Final Fantasy VII. The graphics are just BLAH, but the characters personalities and the storyline is absolutly amazing. Harvest Moon 2 is fun for a while, but soon it gets repetative and dull. 2/5
Sequel: Last I heard there was a Harvest Moon 4. I couldn't tell you much about it though beside that it's in 3D.
Rating: M for Mature
Summary: I'm sorry Halo fans but I didn't pay much attention to the storyline. Yes, I watched all the cut scenes but... I just don't get it. Maybe I should have played the first game first... Oh well... Anyway, what I get out of it is that there are giant Halos floating around in space and they're giant weapons. An alien race called the Covanent (sp?) believes that these weapons will bring... peace or something to their race. Humans know that the aliens are making a big mistake so naturally they hunt them down and kill them. It doesn't help that another alien race called the Flood is also out to kill the Covanent. During the game you get to play as a humans (I forget his name) and an alien known as the Arbitor. Apparently, if you betray your race you get to become the Arbitor and lead aliens into war. Once again, I'm sorry. I'll be sure to pay more attention to the storyline next time I play through this game.
Graphics: Good. 5/5
Smoothness: If a lots going on it may get a little choppy. 4/5
Camera angles: Not bad. 4/5
Sound: Splody. 5/5
Voices: Every character has a voice of some kind. Like Oddworld though many characters of the same species sound the same and every across different species they sound the same. The voices are in one of two different ranges: low and serious or high pitched and crazy. It matches the games split personality though. You'd be surprised the amount of crap the creators have hidden in each level. 4/5
Music: Second only to Final Fantasy VII. 5/5
Characters: I'm sure if I played the first game the differenet characters would have more background to them. There's a little bit of character developement in this game for the Arbitor mostly. Then, there's the random giant squid thing with bad breath that was thrown into the game. It's kind of hard to rate this consitering I don't know much about Halo in the first place. I'd say for a first person shooter the characters are well developed though. 5/5
Controls: Before I found Halo I said that the only way to play a first person shooter was to have a mouse. This game prooved me wrong. 5/5
Glitch count: OH MY GGGGOOOOOOODDDDDD!!! 3/5
Fun: I say the game is most fun on co-op but that's just me. Multiplayer and campaine are also pretty fun though. 5/5
Things liked: As I said before I like the co-op. I wish more than two people could play it. That would be so fun! The multiplayer is also really fun too. I've played the multiplayer for two years before I ever even decided to start campaine. Campaine really does help your fighting skills though. After I beat this game I could beat my friend.
Things not liked: The last few levels of the game. I can't remember the last time I got that frusterated over a game. Wow, it's been a while since I met a challenge like that before! That might be a good thing. Also when you play co-op on legendary mode and neither of the players can die or you have to start over. Legendary would be so fun if it wasn't like that!
Overall: I like this game more for the multiplayer but that might change after I play it through a few more times... maybe. I said I would revert back to Playstation for the summer to beat Final Fantasy VII and other games but that could change. 4/5
Sequel: The ending of the game did suggest a sequel. My sister's friend (a Halo master) once said to me that if there was anything beyond a Halo 3 he would destroy the world (or something to that effect). Yeah, it would be cool so see Halo on an Xbox 360 but beyond that... no... Everyone already told me that Halo kicked Halo 2's ass.
Update: I didn't agree with that! Go to Reviews 4 for the Halo review.
Last update: 2-24-07
Created by: Emily Palmieri