Armored Core: For Answer Review (Xbox 360)

Graphics - 8

Sound - 6

Gameplay - 7

 Story - 6

Overall - 6.75









     Alright, now that I'm back to reviewing, I feel kind of sad to have chosen this game as the first to review. It wasn't the greatest in my eyes, but I'll write what I can.

     Armored Core is just one of those games you have to love in order to enjoy. I mean you had to have loved it when the series began. This is the first Armored Core game I've played, and it will most likely be the last. I can see how fans of the series will enjoy it, but I don't see where it has much drawing power for those of us who are new to the game.

     The graphics are kind of nice, not great. Even on an HDTV it looks kind of choppy at some points. I noticed while customizing my mech that the body seems a little...off. The edges aren't quite smooth. The ability to customize color on every part of your mech is a plus though. There is also a fair selection of patterns to choose from, either with preset or custom colors. This allows you to create a unique paint job for every mech you build. There are several types of camouflage patterns, as well as a couple ''fun'' patterns. You can also design decals and emblems to paint on to your mech, although you'll be hard pressed to find a place where you can actually apply your decals. Some parts of the body will not display your emblem, while others will only show parts of it, despite the angle you apply it from.

     The gameplay is hard to get used to. Controls get kind of confusing. The default control scheme is pretty bad. IF you customize them, you can make gameplay a little easier. You can have several weapons in a battle, but can use only two at any given time. This means you have two buttons devoted to firing, and two devoted to switching. There's also a button to control your 'extra' weapon that fires simultaneously with certain shoulder weapons. Once again, more confusion. Only certain shoulder weapons trigger your 'extra' weapon, so if you equip yourself with an extra weapon and then use shoulder weapons that don't fire it, your carrying extra weight for no reason. Movement in the game is also just horrifying. No matter how much you play, you can never maneuver your mech the way your opponent does. When it comes to mobility, you will always find yourself at a disadvantage.

     The sound in the game really disturbed me. Gunshots, explosions, etc seemed to be out of sync with what was actually happening. Voice actors, few as there are, seemed to be speaking out of a can. I only started to enjoy the sound once I muted in-game audio and played my own music in the background. At least at that point I was allowed to envision the game as a bad anime instead of a bad video game. The sound was bad. There's nothing else to say here.

     The storyline is there. Kind of. It's hidden beneath vague cutscenes and scarce dialogue. Basically, there are two powers battling for control over what's left of the planet. When you begin the game, you choose a 'sponsor,' which in all actuality just determines your starting mech and parts. Realistically, depending on which missions you choose, you take a particular side to the war. If you play through the game more than once (not likely) you'll find yourself battling certain enemies one time, and then the next time around they may very well be your allies. The ending wasn't exactly climactic for me. I thought it was just another mission until the credits started playing. I must say, it was somewhat of a let down. If ever I play another Armored Core game, I pray it's much better than this one.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review (Xbox 360)

This review will include The Knights Of the Nine and Shivering Isles expansions.

Graphics:9


Story:10


Gameplay:9

Sound:9


Overall:9.25




Well to start off, before you even create your character and such, the video shown in the beginning is inspiring and makes you want to just jump in and start hackin' and slashin'.

Then comes the ‘create-a-character.’ While you choose from 10 different races, each with their own special set of skills, there is a race for everyone to play with. Whether you like to sneak and shoot, mage and rage, hack and slash, or like to mix it up a bit, there is a race and a class just for you. Well after you make your race, there is a short little part where you go through the tutorial and learn your skills.



Then, off to your own start of an adventure. The true beauty of this game is that you don't have to do the quest prescribed to you. You are free to explore, fight and play through a totally open world where you do what you want to do. Believe there are a lot of quests in this ever changing world. You can go loot a random castle, fight through a cave to claim its treasure, join a guild, slay a malevolent being, or go buy a house and relax, the possibilities are near endless.

Another great thing: the game levels up as you do. The equipment you find will increase in durability, value and strength as you do. It makes it all the worthwhile to level up your Destruction to get that spell that does 100pts of fire damage. And the end of the game? Trick question it never ends. So my overall view of the game? Great! A must buy in my book. So go try it out and start your own epic adventure worthy of song by the bards, or how about go be one? It’s up to you. The fate of Tamriel is in your hands brave adventurer.

Now with the Knights of the Nine, I won't reveal any secrets, buuuut, it adds a whole new twist to the gameplay. You get new access to a brand new set of armor, weapons and spells. Even a cool new place to call home complete with blacksmith and beds. Plus an intriguing story on the first ever warrior to slay a demon-god. Get to it young Paladin.

The Shivering Isles. Home of the Daedric Lord Sheogorath, King of Madness. His realm is split into two warring sides of madness that you will have to explore, unite and tame. Why do this array of quests? For the Ultimate goal: to become a Daedric Prince. But there is an epic battle and grand adventure to go through to claim this right, so be ready for anything.

Halo 3 Review (Xbox 360)

Graphics - 10

Sound - 9

Gameplay - 10

Multiplayer - 10
Story - 9

Overall - 9.6





Well, it's the final game in the Halo Trilogy. Of course we know now that it isn't the final game. But it is the end of this story. I can honestly say this is the best Halo game to date. Not just because it's the newest one, sometimes the older games are better (Red Alert, anyone?) I got this game the day it came out and still play it a couple times a week. Still working to beat Legendary, getting closer every day :)


The story is wonderful. If there is ever a time in which our planet meets an alien race and unites to fight a greater enemy, I see it being done Halo style. If this were a movie, it'd be a box office hit. You begin having crashed on our planet, falling out of orbit. You immediately jump into battle, following the Arbiter through fierce firefights. The story takes you through saving comrades, defending your home base, to eventually having to come back and blow up your own home to prevent the flood from getting information out of it. If you follow the story, it can get emotional at some points. I won't ruin it for anyone who has somehow not played it yet, but trust me, it's amazing.

The graphics are GREAT. The level of detail in the game is simply amazing. Many designers nowadays are really stepping up on the visual aspect of their games. But it comes down to little things, like the shotgun shells expelled from the gun after shooting. Take a look in theater mode, zoom in on bullets. The shells have ridges, look blown open, and even have the logo and gauge number. That's right, Master Chief uses an 8 gauge. Some rifle bullets have 'Chief' inscribed on the ends of them. Check out the rocket launcher which bears two messages, "Point this way," and "Not a toy." While not significant to the gameplay at all, this is still pretty cool. But besides that, the graphics are downright gorgeous. Each map and landscape are beautifully detailed, and the days of falling through a map are long gone. You can still fall off, yes, but no longer through the ground. Another nice touch is the changeable armour style for your online character. All armour styles and colors translate nicely onto the Spartan and Elite's bodies.

Multiplayer in Halo 3 opens up a whole new method of gameplay. Or several new methods. Of course there's matchmaking where you can competed in ranked matches or unranked social matches. There are a few basic modes in each, from Big Team Battle to Swat Team to Team Doubles. But custom games add endless possibilities. You can play Rocket Races, Zombie, Catch the Ninja, and many more player made matches with custom rules. Multiplayer gets a nice 10 because you can always find a match, people will almost never quit a match, the ranking system is crystal clear, and theres never any connection issues at the fault of Bungie. If it doesn't work, its because your internet needs a check up.

Halo 3 controls/gameplay are awesome. The controls have been changed slightly to accomodate the new Xbox 360 controller, but it still feels natural to play. Left trigger shoots left gun, right trigger shoots right gun, etc. I personally don't dual wield weapons, but that's just me. You will probably find yourself dying along with your enemy many times until you learn to play at a faster pace. By this I mean changing your camera sensitivity so you turn and aim faster. Until you do this, most of your PvP battles will end in both of you being beaten down. There are many sites that offer advice on how to improve your online Halo skills. Just Google it, you won't be disappointed.

Overall, Halo 3 is more than worth the buy. It's not just a game, it's the end of an epic storyline that everyone loves.

Tom Clancy's End War Review (Xbox 360)

Gameplay - 8
Graphics - 8
Sound - 8
Story - 8
Overall - 8













Tom Clancy is known for great games such as Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, and Ghost Recon. Well, they've done it again with End War. This is the first game of it's kind that I've played. The voice input feature is great, although it CAN get a little tiresome. Depending on your playing style, you may either want to do everything using voice commands, or you may not use it at all. I must say, voice command makes you feel like you are really commanding troops, not just computer generated images. But enough praise for the headset, on to the game!

(And no, this review does NOT include a headset. That is for game purchases only :P )


The setting of the game is right before WWIII. It's 2013, America and Europe have signed a treaty which makes nuclear war a thing of the past, with missiles being shot down in the outer atmosphere. For a whole year, countries enjoy peace. But all is not well. Climbing oil prices and low supplies of it cause conflict between nations. Alliances are formed, and the US and Europe enter a space arms race. The US announces its plan to have a space station in orbit by 2020. This causes tension worlwide, as the station would also house 3 companies of marines able to deploy anywhere in the world in under 90 minutes. Modules of the space station ascend into orbit. Then, on the day that the final module is to be launched, multiple attacks take place across nations from a terrorist group known as the 'Forgotten Army.' All attacks are repelled, but the damage has been done. When the module launches, a virus implanted by the terrorists registers the unit as a ICBM and it is shot down by a European defense satellite. The US sees this as an act of war, and thus is the beginning of WWIII.


End War has a compelling and somewhat in-depth story, depending on how much of it you pay attention to. The fights between nations gets pretty intense. Your first two missions are fairly easy. After that, you need to strategize. Every unit has strengths and weaknesses, there is no power in numbers. Multiple units of one type can easily be taken down by a single superior unit. Pay attention to each unit's strengths and weaknesses.


End War graphics are pretty good. You shouldn't expect to be stunned by anything, but they are definitely up to par with other games in the genre. If you have played Command & Conquer or Red Alert, you'll see an improvement here. The landscapes are nice, units could use a little bit of work, buildings are okay. The only leniency I'll give is to take into account the amount of units that can potentially be on a map at any given time. You want to keep a high frame rate. Overall, the graphics are nice. Tanks blow up, soldiers bleed, buildings collapse, etc.


Gameplay is not entirely new, but your strategy will be. The voice command brings a new level of reaction to each event. Using the voice command, I can command several different units to do several different things in a space of about 7 seconds, whereas using buttons it would take close to a minute. Theres a nice map overview if you'd rather see things from a commander's viewpoint, but I personally rather stay on the battlefield and watch the action. Once again, the voice command factor is purely how much you like that kind of thing. Some people would rather the traditional button system. Luckily, you don't have to pick one. Both systems are in effect all the time. There's no pausing and switching over.


The campaign is turn based, in a way. Similar to Risk, you choose different territories to attack next turn. You then play through the battle for that territory. While there is no proof of this, it is believed that the better you do in your personal attacks, the better your nation will do overall in the campaign. That may be obvious, but what I mean to say is that while you may attack 3 territories in one turn, you only actually fight one battle. The other two outcomes are left to simulation. Supposedly, if you win your battle, your nation will also win the simulated battles for that round. I won't argue over this, if you want to find out if it works, try it yourself.

While there isn't much to elaborate on sound-wise, it's still very nice. Explosions, bullets firing, buildings collapsing, and other favorite wargame sounds make this an immersive game. Although the exploding tanks and humvees might not knock your socks completely off, they'll certainly have them hanging from your toes.

It all comes down to this: If you like Tom Clancy games, get End War. If you like having every word you speak obeyed, get End War. If you like war games in general, get End War.

The End

RuneScape (PC) Review

I know some of you may be thinking "Why is he reviewing a free game?" Well the answer is that RuneScape is a free game, but you may also pay a fee each month to become a Member, which is sort of an expansion to the free RuneScape. Anyway, on to the review!

RuneScape is arguably a MMOAG, or Massive Multiplayer Online Adventure Game. Some people refer to it as a MMORPG, which is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Don't worry about the minor details though, no matter what the game is classified, it is all around great. You begin the game (after signing up) on what is known as 'Tutorial Island.' Here you are taught the basics of gameplay, including fishing, mining, cooking, smithing, fighting, and more. The game has over 20 different skills, so its a bit of a lengthy tutorial. For more advanced players restarting a new character, or for those who simply want to skip it, there is a way to leave the island before it is completed.

The game has no central storyline, you are your own story! There are many quests to do, some short, some very long. What you decide to do shapes your character. The good thing about RuneScape is that you are free to do what you wish. You can make a living mining and smithing armour and weapons, catching and cooking fish, chopping wood and making bows, crafting jewelry, building furniture, creating potions, crafting magic runes for wizards, and so much more. The map appears to be a vast landscape, and it is, but an experienced player can traverse the land quickly using teleportation spells.

Combat in RuneScape can get a tad bit frustrating later on in the game, especially if you fight monsters that are much too strong for you. Some creatures are meant to be attacked in groups, unfortunately if you are more of a lone-wolf type then this is nearly impossible to do. If you're lucky you may find someone recruiting a group to fight team-monsters, but this usually takes more time than it's worth. Combat is fairly straightforward, though. You simply click monsters you wish to attack, and then you begin fighting them. Depending on which kind of fighting you are doing (Melee, Range, Mage) your character may run up to the monster or simply attack from where you are. The 'Combat-Triangle' governs fighting. Mages beat Melee'ers, Melee beats Rangers, and Rangers beat Mages.That is to say, if a person who is level 60 in magic was to attack someone who was level 60 in range, the range person will usually win. Usually.

I won't get too in-depth with each skill, because to do so would require many days of writing, and also reading on your part. Here's a look at the major skills most commonly used in free world-

Mining - This skill is used to mine different ores, used in Smithing. Higher levels allow the mining of higher level and more valuable ores.

Smithing - This is the skill used to combine ores and coal into useful items, such as weapons and armour. Higher levels allow smithing of better items and therefore better profits.

Fishing - You guessed it, the fishing skill is for fishing. Depending on your level, you can catch anything from shrimp and anchovies to salmon and cod to lobsters and swordfish.

Cooking - While this skill is used mainly for baking and creating things from scratch, it is also used for cooking the fish you catch and the meat dropped by animals when killed.

Magic - This skill, besides being used for combat, can be used for alchemizing items. That is, convertin items into gold. MANY people see this as a great way of making money, epsecially combined with the smithing skill.

Crafting - This skill can also be used with the mining skill. Gold, silver, and clay ores are used for jewelry and pottery. You can also craft leather from cows into archer armour. This skill is usually not very profitable until later on, in the mid 60's.

Woodcutting - Probably the easiest skill to train, woodcutting is used far and wide for its money making capacity. It doesn't yield much until later levels, but its very easy to get there.

Most other skills are kinda just there. Of course you have to train combat, but I would think that speaks for itself. Kill monsters, level up.

All in all, Runescape is a great game to play, recently, the powers that be saw fit to rework the game to shorten the length of Tutorial Island, and have made all non-essential skill tutorials optional. This lets you jump into the game faster. But if you've taken the time to read this whole review, you might as well give it a go! Signing up is free and easy, no confirmation emails, no credit card numbers. Pick a name, password, login and play!

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility Review (Wii)

Gameplay - 7

Story - 8

Graphics - 8

Sound - 8

Overall - 7.75

Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility is a pretty nice game. While I'm not a fan of the series, I'm pretty sure that this is the first game in the series' 10 years to have a real, solid storyline. It isn't the greatest story in terms of dramatic turns and plot twists, but it's still a nice piece of work. You begin the game and you are on your way to an island. Upon arrival, you discover that the island has very few inhabitants. This is because of the island's guardian, the "Mother Tree," has passed away. After the death of the tree, the island experiences frequent storms and there are horrible currents throughout the surrounding ocean, making travel almost impossible. Your job in Tree of Tranquility is to restore the island to its former glory and revive the Mother Tree.

Graphics in Tree of Tranquility are good by Nintendo standards. The style is a bit storybook-ish, which makes for a nice addition to the game. Animations for harvesting and other various farmwork are pretty cool as well. Little things like the soil getting darker after being watered have always been in Harvest Moon, yet it still helps to throw a little realism in there. Although the game's graphics are well suited to it, this wouldn't be the one you buy because it looks gorgeous. Animations are smooth though, with no laggings or tearing, no cuts in the scenery, and no mysterious pop ups while playing. Everything is detailed fairly equally and in 3D. Even in this advanced graphic age some games like Oblivion still have the old trick of 'rotating 3D' where a 2D object turns with the camera to seem 3D. Harvest Moon is totally 3 dimensional, right down to the grass itself.

Sound in the game is a bit lacking. There is no spoken dialogue in the whole game, save for the various quips and remarks your character may make while working or petting an animal such as "There, there," which tends to get quite repetitive, since he/she says it every single time. But the music is nice, and changes with the seasons and the areas, so it's always different. Not much else to say about it, but just know that if you put great thought into musical aspects in games, then this one will satisfy you. The music always suits the time and place, which makes for a somewhat immersive game.

Gameplay is basically the same as all the other Harvest Moons. There are optional Wii Nunchuck movements, but the game can be played without them using the Nunchuck controller or with a Classic controller. You may use the motion control for a while, but once you play for a bit you'll revert to good ole joystick and buttons. A couple of things may get a little frustrating, such as learning exactly where to stand to target an object, but you learn pretty quick. Controls are simple, of course. Walk around/run with the joystick, do everything else with the A button. It's amazing how much fun you can have with a game that has two or three basic controls - Move, Accept, Deny. There aren't any fancy button combos or sequences to memorize. Harvest Moon always has been and still is a very relaxing game to play. Growing crops and raising animals is fairly simple, and won't have you racking your brains to figure out how to keep something alive. There are also in-game books you can buy to explain everything a little better, not that you'll need it.

This game is great for all ages, and will keep you entertained for hours on end, and it can always be picked up again later on. There are many different ways the story can turn out, if you choose to follow it. It's worth playing through a couple of times, for reasons I'd rather not say for fear of ruining the game. Just try it, you'll like it.

Two Worlds Review (Xbox 360)

Graphics - 8/10

Gameplay - 7/10

Sound - 8/10

Multiplayer - 6/10

Story - 7/10

Overall - 7/10

Just to start out this review on the right track, please remember throughout reading this that this review is for the Xbox 360 version of the game. It is a considerable factor when making decisions about this game, so read on for a detailed explanation.

First, I would like to say great job to South Peak and Reality Pump because this is the first RPG they have attempted. This is a sort of downgrade to Oblivion, and considering that Oblivion is the fourth in a series (Elder Scrolls,) I think that Two Worlds is a decent start. There are a few things I personally haven't seen in an RPG before, such as combining identical weapons and armour to increase their stats. In comparing this game to Oblivion, it is better in the sense that it has: a larger world, dual-wielding weapons, combinable weapons and armour, and considerably less glitches in the main storyline.

The graphics for the game are detailed. Not overly-stunning, but very good nonetheless, especially when you think about how massive the game world is. The towns, villages, characters, and monsters, are all gorgeous. A real problem, though, is that it is extremely obvious that the entire game was designed for a computer monitor. Much of the text is hard or impossible to read, even on a large TV. This can slightly affect the storyline and quests in the game, as sometimes you can't read over your next objective. Even menus are optimized for mouse use, such as your inventory having to be scrolled through each and every time you open it. Just another reason that I say to only refer to this review for the Xbox 360 version of the game.

The game's storyline is nothing new. Your sister is missing, you are a mercenary who couldn't care less about the ongoing war between Orcs and Humans. If you're looking for advice on completing the game, do not attempt to beat it without doing a lot of side quests. The standard difficulty level is quite high enough, and even if you play it on easy you will still need a bit of help in the exp. department to get through the story. With that said, for those of you who are hardcore RPGers, you may find one of the endings overly easy to beat, while the other is a tad bit harder, regardless of difficulty level. The story is delivered well, and if you manage to read the text, you shouldn't have a problem following along. One of the sad things about this game though, is that you can ignore the story completely and still beat it in the same amount of time. Everything is staightforward. No going back and checking over things to look for solutions. This is another aspect different from Oblivion, where you must figure out many of the problems yourself.

Sound in the game is nice. The voice actors may have tried a bit too hard, but the overall effect works. You can play most any song along with this game from your Xbox and it will usually work. I've gone from country to techno to rap and everything in between. Now this of course, depends on your personal music choice and doesn't affect the sound score really, but I thought it was worthy to add in. Anyway, the sound effects are pretty cool, with a nice variety in clips. In game music goes along pretty well depending on which place you are in at the time. Not much else to say, unfortunately.

Two Worlds gameplay is also nothing spectacular. It works, but just know that if you are a fighter, every sword swing is the same. Every pike thrust is the same as the last, and each spear slice is nothing new. I know you are thinking "How many ways can you possibly swing a sword?" Well you can definitely add in different combos, style, or something of the sort. Combat amounts to about the same as washing your hair - Swing, backstep, repeat. There is no dodging, evading, rolling out of the way in a glorious lifesaving manuever. Nope. Not one. Just basic button mashing glory. The customization system is different, at least. Weapons and armours of the same type can be combined to increase their stats, or to combine abilities. Uniqueness is nice, as just about every piece of equipment in the game is different. For example, the copper armour you find in the beginning of the game will be different from the set you find later on. Both are the same, but the stats are slightly different. I guess you would say that there are different qualities of armour, although there's no actual declaration of it.

The big disappointment of this game, though, is the almost non-existent multiplayer. Things now may be slightly better, but at least for the first two months after the game was released, playing online would more likely convince you to go out and buy a book than play online ever again. There were also high amounts of hacking and glitching in the online game, as the PC version and Xbox versions were played on linked servers. This made it really hard to join in as well because anyone who hacked in could generate large amounts of health potions, or anything else for that matter, and would be rendered near invincible.

The overall concept of the game is cool. The graphics are pretty nice, and the gameplay will be loved by some, hated by others. The customization could have been more in-depth, and the lack of real classes is a downside. Sometimes it's hard to determine what skills you should train to be a certain type of fighter. Two Worlds is a solid 7/10 for the Xbox, but again, this rating would definitely be higher on a PC.

Fable 2 Review (Xbox 360)

Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 9/10
Gameplay - 10/10
Story - 10/10
Overall - 9.5/10

Fable 2 was definitely one of the most anticipated games this year. And with good reason. The original Fable was a great game, albeit with a few flaws. Fable 2 corrects many of these imperfections, making for a very good game.

As you can see, I didn't give the game a full 10/10. There are a few things there were taken out of the game, such as the lack of armour. The game IS set 500 years later, but it is still in an age where swords are the dominant weapon. Therefore, armour would still be required. The sound clips from the villagers tend to get repetitive quickly, just as in the original Fable. They also seem to play at awkward times as well. For instance, you can be sweet-talking your wife, trying to seduce her, and leading her up to the bedroom for some night-time activity. Out of the blue, she'll mention that she absolutely LOVES traveling to Brightwood.


But enough of the small things. The graphics in Fable 2 are much better than the original, although your character still has oversized hands, and the still slightly cartoon-ish design may be a damper for some people. But generally the attention to detail is nice, and the quality is certainly noteworthy. The Will animations are very nice, and I think that the character scars are more noticeable. Depending on your alignment, you either get a halo and blue body markings or horns and red markings. Both are equally visible, whereas in Fable 1 I sometimes had trouble seeing how my character actually reflected his alignment.

The gameplay is great, just as in the first. The only thing I don't like is the removal of armour and a lack of variety when it comes to clothing. The storyline is deep, although I can see several repetitions of the original. You must save a woman from a group of thieves, win an arena tournament, your family is killed by the villain, etc. While it isn't an entirely original plot, it's still fun to play. The Xbox 360 controls might be a bit confusing at first, especially if you're used to the PC version. You'll notice that your character runs a bit slower, and turning takes a wee bit longer. But the real estate portion of the game is much better. In the original game, you had to travel to each house/shop to collect rent. If you made the trip before rent was due, you would have to return again some other time. And if you wait too long, it would build up to the max and you couldn't collect anymore. This time around, rent is collected every 5 minutes, whether you're playing or not. There are MANY more shops and buildings available to be bought, all of them, in fact. You can even purchase the temple of light or temple of shadows. Upgrades to your shop or house will yield a noticeable increase in rent prices, which are adjustable.


The sound in the game is great, with many witty remarks from NPC's. The Will and Skill sounds are nice, and theres even a good blood-squirting clip for beheadings. As I mentioned earlier, the only drawback I can find is that some villagers will repeat the same thing several times in only a few moments of play. The women who fall in love with you are also a bit too convincing. Not to mention nagging. Every woman you pass with a heart over her head will profess her unyielding love for you, unless you don't buy her a ring. This is a topic that is overstated in towns where you are famous.

Overall, Fable 2 is great. While not quite perfect, it's definitely a must-have. I recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a good RPG/Adventure game. I've even persuaded a few people who have NEVER played an RPG to buy this game and they absolutely loved it. Pick this one up next time you pass a Gamestop, if you haven't already.

Gears of War 2 Review (Xbox 360)

Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 9/10
Gameplay - 9/10
Multiplayer - 9/10
Story - 10/10
Overall - 9.5/10

Ok so I figured my first review should be on a really great game - Gears of War 2.

When I first played the original Gears game, I was amazed. It was a game that was breathtaking with its graphics and gameplay. The storyline was like watching an action movie, and the best part was that I controlled it all. I replayed the campaign several times and even with Gears 2 out I occasionally replay a chapter or two.

Gears of War 2 is no different from the first. Now I don't mean that it's the same game rehashed, but I was once again amazed at the gameplay. The storyline, while only being about 9-10 hours, still feels like I'm in the middle of a theater watching the newest action movie. It's that intense.There are great plot twists and many events that I never expected, such as one of your fellow soldiers being tortured to the point that he takes his own life.

The games control scheme is great, reloading is easy and switching weapons on the fly is a snap. It's not like other games where I'm not sure which weapon I'll switch to next. I can go from my pistol to sniper rifle to pistol again. Or I can go from pistol to grenades, then shotgun. I think this is much better than some other games "cycling weapons."

The graphics, as always, are intense and gorgeous. Despite advances in technology, sometimes you'll still play a game where there are great graphics for cutscenes, and when play begins you are left with tearing, choppy graphics. Gears isn't like that. The graphics are wonderful all around, and there are times when I didn't even realize the game had switched over to a cutscene. Now I realize that the game is on the Xbox360, and you are supposed to be able to add your own music. I also know that with the way the story goes in-game music may be a little out of place. But how about an option to have some really fired-up rock playing in the background? Try playing this game while listening to "Down With the Sickness," you'll see what I mean.

Last but not least, the multiplayer is much better this time around. Each team can now support 5 players, and that makes for longer games and more teamwork. The only downside is that some people "flame" too much. Literally. The flamethrower is more aggrevating than anything else. Some days I've quit just because of an annoying player that just couldn't bear to use actual bullets. Besides that, multiplayer is a great experience.

Overall, Gears of War 2 is a great game, and although the story has left me with more questions than answers, this just assures me that Gears 3 will be even better. If you love shooters of any sort, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of Gears 2.