Recent reviews by BinaryMessiah

The Good: Rapture is fun to see again, more Elizabeth, great ending

The Bad: Only 2 hours long, more action than story, ending leaves more questions than answers, not really any new content

The long-awaited Infinite expansion set in Rapture is out and about. I honestly didn't know what to really expect from this other than more questions and fan service of Rapture. The story started out very similarly to BioShock 1 where you are riding down the bathysphere into Rapture. It brought back a lot of great memories and was happy to see the beautiful Elizabeth throughout the whole chapter. What I wasn't happy about was the length, the gameplay, and the lack of anything memorable.

u feels more like one level from a full game. The one level that is really just action more than story. It doesn't pick up at all until the last 2 minutes during the ending which is both shocking, expected, and gives us more questions than answers. The same Infinite guns are back but only one new power and that is Old Man Winter. Not much different from the freeze power in BioShock 1. It can freeze running water to make a bridge and that's about it. I ran around closing vents to draw Sally out (the girl who Booker must get back) and not much else. The ammo is extremely scarce so you will be scrounging for it more than any other moment in previous BioShock games. You also don't get the full arsenal in Infinite, and nothing much else has changed gameplay wise.

The setting is fantastic, however. The underwater city is memorable and it's great to be back before it went to crap from the previous games. We are seeing the calm before the storm here. The Little Sister program is starting and so are the new Plasmids. It's very interesting to see how things are happening when everything was prosperous and fun in the underwater utopia. Another great addition is the return of Sander Cohen who is probably the most insane person in Rapture. This section is memorable but dies out quickly to more boring shooting and getting lost in hallways.

Outside of the interesting ending there's not much else. This was a real disappointment for how long everyone waited. Gamer who just played Infinite and moved on shouldn't even bother. This DLC is mainly for hardcore fans actually wanting the ending in Episode Three rather than the tid bits from each episode.

~Score: 6/10

The Good: Great pacing, new stealth sections are intense and fun, great new weapons

The Bad: Story means nothing if you haven't played past games, lockpicking mini game is lame, still too short

Episode Two takes place right after Episode One, but this time we play strictly as Elizabeth. I love this move in perspective because Liz can't fight like Booker can and its noticeable right off the bat. Liz has to sneak her way around using crossbows, Vigors that turn her invisible, and ones that add extra armor. She only carries a shotgun and pistol but very little ammo. The new weapon is one that microwaves enemies but I was only able to use it a couple of times in the whole episode.

The story still doesn't make much sense unless you played both BioShock games. This DLC is really for the fans of those games. Elizabeth is on a mission to save Sally, the little sister you were trying to find in Episode One. With Booker dead, it's up to you to run from everything bad in Rapture to find her. This includes Atlas, Andrew Ryan, and even Suchong. These characters won't mean anything to anyone who hasn't played the first games. I loved the setting and the brief trip back to Columbia, but the atmosphere is really great in this episode along with less backtracking. Sure Liz can't fight off Big Daddies in this episode, but it makes everything more intense. The game is about twice as long as the first episode but can still finished in a few hours.

I really appreciated how the stealth sections were interspersed with just exploring and cinematic events, it felt balanced. Sneaking isn't just as simple as ducking and hiding from enemies. They now have an alert meter above their head while a new lockpicking mini game has been added but is mostly lackluster and just filler. You can even use this mini game to hack turrets to fight against you but there were maybe only two opportunities to do this in the whole game. The new crossbow weapon with gas, alarm, and sleeping darts comes in handy and the shotgun does a lot of damage. I felt the revolver was nearly useless though.


With all that said Episode Two really feels like an extension and slight evolution of Infinite in a good way, but anyone who hasn't played previous games will be completely lost.

~Score: 8/10

The House of the Dead was a hit zombie light gun game back in the 90's in the arcades. This huge Sega hit spawned a game called Typing of the Dead that featured Agent G and heroes wielding keyboards instead of guns. The game was highly addictive as words and sentences popped up on enemies. If you typed everything correctly the zombie would die. A reimagining using the Wii hit House of the Dead: Overkill takes the main game and turns it into a keyboard typing fest and it's a blast.

The story and voice acting is intentionally left to be cheesy to make fun of the absolutely abysmal voice acting from the original games. It adds a comedy factor. While it's not nearly as bad as previous games it's still enough to bring back memories. Agent G and Washington are after a man named Papa Caesar who has somehow killed Washington's father and released a zombie virus among the world. Along the way you meet various characters, but non of them are really memorable. The wacky story and over the top adult content such as swearing and gore is a blast.


The game is on rails like any light gun shooter. As zombies pop up you just type away with what you see. Each level is unique with its own themed zombies and bosses. The zombies are well done and the game can be some times down right gross. The bosses are both funny and disgusting to look at, but overall the typing portion of the game is only as difficult as your typing skills permit. Thankfully you don't have to include punctuation or anything like that. Just type what you see as fast as you can. Some times you have to save civilians for more points, but outside killing zombies there's nothing else in the levels. If you spam the Tab key you can get all the hidden extras which makes it much easier to unlock everything.

Thankfully this is only half the game. The other half is the actual light gun game using the mouse to shoot. Basically it's two games in one, but if you play through one it will be tough to get through another due to repetition. It's not like you can choose another ending or go down multiple paths. The game is really only good for one play through unless you are extremely bored. The extras aren't really anything worth unlocking either.

For what it is the game offers a lot of content for the small price, but playing through the game twice in different modes just doesn't seem appealing for the amounts of cheese the game layers on.

The Good: Streams in 1080p and 60 FPS, supports full or mixed wired/wireless streaming, 5 GHz bandwidth supported, has three USB ports, travel adapters included, light and easy to hide away

The Bad: Full wireless mode isn't a playable option even with extremely fast speeds, Steam Controller is the only real option here without going crazy with cables and dongles, needs more stability updates

Video game streaming hasn't really been a big option until the last couple of years thanks to Steam. In home streaming was possible to other computers, as this allowed computer or laptops that weren't all that powerful to stream from a computer that was. This was great for families, but didn't have much practical use for anyone else. Now thanks to Steam Link, anyone can stream their PC games right to their TV, but it isn't without issues.

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The Steam Link is a little confusing to setup at first. There's a wired and wireless option, but the quick guide (the only instructions in the box) who that the PC should be connected through ethernet to the router and then through ethernet to the Link box. You don't HAVE to have everything setup up wired, but it can all be wireless as well. This requires an extremely fast internet speed, 5GHz router, and a modern modem/router setup. Even then you will experience latency issues. The box includes power adapters for different parts of the world which is I guess good if you travel a lot, otherwise it won't matter. A 6' ethernet and HDMI cable are also included which is a nice plus. Once I had everything setup, the Steam Link just kind of turns on, there's no on or off switch. I then realised I needed a controller so I used a wired Xbox One controller, but realized I need a longer USB cable so I had to use a USB extension cord. Finally, I was ready to play.

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The software setup was pretty quick; the Steam Link had a software update and after about 5 minutes I was ready to go. I setup the Steam Link up through wifi via a 5 GHz connection and 100 Mbit/s. Steam on my computer launched in Big Picture Mode and I set the streaming quality to "Beautiful". I then launched Fallout 4 and had my first issue. Unless you have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and/or a Steam Controller there is no mouse emulation. I had to walk over to my computer and press play from the game launcher before it would boot. That was really annoying.

After playing the game for about 10 minutes I noticed there wasn't any video latency but audio latency. There were pops and crackles in the audio and it would cut in and out a lot. Every so often the picture would compress a bit and the whole picture would look pixellated. This wasn't going to be feasible so I ran an ethernet cable from my router, under my rug, and up to the entertainment center and then the audio cut outs stopped. However, the stream from my PC to the router was still wireless but that didn't seem to be an issue. I'm sure a software update could fix the latency for wireless streaming on the actual Link box.

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Using Steam itself was a breeze in Big Picture Mode, it felt like a highly streamlined console UI (in fact better than Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft has ever come up with) and I could easily access the store, friends chat, and my library without a fuss. Another plus is being able to access your own music and various other Steam features. This is actually the best way to get a Steam Machine experience without actually having to buy one.

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In the end, the Steam Link is a great buy, but you must have the right setup before bothering. Have a wired setup, or make sure you have a 5 GHz router and at least 100 Mbit/s connection before even thinking about wireless streaming. A Steam Controller is the best way to go here as it will connect to the actual Steam Link box directly, otherwise your only other wireless controller option is the Xbox 360 controller with the wireless adapter. Once the Xbox One wireless adapter releases it will be much easier, and we need some more stability updates from Valve before this is seen in everyone's living room. For $50 you don't really have much to lose here.

~Score: 8.5/10

Tomb Raider (2012) was a revolutionary game for the franchise and genre as a whole. It took the game industry by storm with its cinematic gameplay, fantastic visuals, huge open world, and realism. What could Crystal Dynamics do to top this you ask? It's pretty hard to top that and they didn't quite top it this time around. Rise of the Tomb Raider is more of what we got before and not much else but that's not a bad thing.

The game doesn't focus so much on Lara's survival to get back home but more on her treasure hunting. There's an item called the Divine Source that grants people immortality. It's something that her father obsessed on and ultimately got him killed. A mercenary group called Trinity wants this source so it's Lara's job to go and retrieve it before anyone gets their hands on it. The story is a little predictable and cheesy. It's the typical generic mercenary bad guy plot which I found uninteresting as Lara's character development was the center of the story in the last game. It's disappointing, but entertaining nonetheless.

The opening scene in RotTR is fantastic set in Tibet where you get to feel just how dangerous Lara's treks are and the environment around you. It's probably the best scene in the whole game as the developers slowly forgot what made Tomb Raider...Tomb Raider towards the end of the game like they were running out of ideas. You will notice right away the huge visual upgrade over the last game. Fantastic lighting effects, tessellation, gorgeous textures, and the character modeling is some of the best I have ever seen. The individual pores can be seen on Lara's face which is 10x more detail than the last game.

After the opening scene I realize not too much has changed from the last game control wise and the gameplay elements are nearly untouched just fine tuned. After I start trekking along in the first area I divert by exploring and finding all the hidden stuff. TR has a lot of hidden secrets to find and it's all about using your Instincts around you to find all the secrets that glow gold and finding the maps to reveal them on your map. I spent a majority of the game finding these secrets which are a blast to find however there's a Metroidvania feeling to this game. I had to acquire new equipment before I could enter certain areas especially the tombs.

While just playing the game in general I realized a few disappointing things about this game. Leveling up completely, upgrading all your guns, just like in the last game, means less this time around. The game is fairly easy, the mix between exploration, combat, and stealth are very random and spread out. I could honestly play the entire game with the pistol and I would be fine. The last game had enemies that required different weapons, but this time around Crystal didn't think about that. All the enemies are generic and there's no need to switch weapons. This is a huge blow to the games strategy that was so great in the last game. Ultimately this meant that all the side quests, gathering, and exploring could ultimately be skipped and it wouldn't make a difference. That's a really bad thing here.

Thankfully all the gameplay holds up to redeem this issue. Mainly this is here for completionists or anyone who wants to explore this gorgeous world. I think the developers forgot what was so great about TR between development cycles and it really shows here. The world was focused on so much that the stuff to fill it was pretty much forgotten. I have all these awesome weapons and upgrades, but...what do I do with them? I can craft special ammo for each weapon, but it didn't make a lick of a difference in combat. The only ammo that did was the new arrow types such as poison, explosive, and flame. Using them to take out a large group of enemies helped but that was it.

Lara also doesn't really develop more in this game. I thought the psychological stress on her from the last game would affect her here, but it's like it never happened at all. Her character is awesome as usual, but there's no more development and I feel the next game really needs to pick up on what made the first one so great. Franchise fatigue is going to set in quick here and many players may not be so excited for the next game if this keeps up.

In the end, RotTR is a fantastic game with a huge world to explore, a generic yet entertaining story, and more Lara Croft which is what we want. The biggest disappointment is there's no more character development for Lara and all these great upgrades and weapons feel useless due to the combat and enemies that didn't get any attention. The game is really easy and lacks a good challenge. The game is gorgeous, one of the best looking games ever made and continues to push PCs to their limits just like back in 2012.

NOTE: This review was written for the Xbox 360 version nearly 10 years ago when the game was released. Vanilla wise, the PC version isn't much different outside of performance and graphical updates.

The Good: Huge rich detailed world, astounding musical score and voice work, deep deep combat and magic, deep character customization is beyond anything, massive campaign length, tons of expansions add re playability, being able to direct the story yourself is rewarding

The Bad: Lots of technical glitches such as texture pop up, frame rate hitches, and annoying load times

By now everyone with a 360 has either played or owned this game. There's so much about Oblivion that it would pages and pages to describe it all in detail. The main story is you have to restore the Dragonfires so the realm of Oblivion can't come back to Cyrodiil. The story is very interesting and the sidequests add to this. To start with you make your character with an absurd amount of detail and you can even name and customize your own race, abilities etc. In each city in Cyrodiil you can choose to join guilds such as mage, fighter, thief etc. You complete tasks for the guild leader and you get a recommendation to the head place of that guild. You can train there to raise attributes and rest. Now when it comes to talking to people the game uses facial expressions to show you what the NPC is feeling. You can persuade people via a little mini-game that takes awhile to master.

Now let's talk about combat. The combat is very deep and simple at the same time. You block with LT and attack with RT. You can use magic, sword, bows, katanas, staffs etc. As you use your weapons they deteriorate and you can repair them with hammers or at weapon shops. Some weapons can have attributes like causing your foe to be paralyzed for 30 secs or something like that. You can use scrolls which are magic attacks for defense and offense that can be used once. When you level up you have to sleep to you can meditate on everything you learned. It takes a long while to level up in this game but it's well worth it.

The vastness of attributes is insane in Oblivion. The combinations of alchemy spells and everything combined just, literally, makes it infinite. Now lets talk about vastness. The game is huge...bigger than all the GTAs put together. Anything that you see you can walk on or climb. You can ride a horse there or just go there for the hell of it and discover something new. You can pick plants for alchemy, you can find new weapons...or just completely useless stuff like bones, cups, vases, quills, mops, shovels etc. Some stuff is worth thousands some stuff is worth nothing at all. You're probably wondering how you travel such as HUGE amount of land? Well the map lets you warp...thank God for that. Of course you can't warp inside a building but you can get the idea. Now the game can let you go good or evil depending on if you steal peoples' stuff, pickpocket, murder etc. Or you can choose to be rude to people during conversations. Technically there are some flaws.

The graphics are still pretty good to today's standards but show some age just a tad compared to recent next-gen games. The music is outstanding and the voice acting is superb. There is some texture pop up here and there and hitches. The constant loading is also annoying but with recent software updates that's remedied this some. You just have to get this game...it's so big and so deep you'll play this for hours and hours...also with all the expansions out there I wonder if there is an end. A note to casual players...stay away. The vastness and depth will turn some players off and will turn JRPG fans off.

UPDATE: After playing another 30 hours through Oblivion 3 years later I still had a lot of fun. While the game may look a bit dated these days it still has a rich story, great atmosphere, and plenty of quests to keep you busy for hours and hours. It's rare to have a game do that to you in which you can come back years later and put dozens of hours into it and still have the same great experience. Of course after about 30 hours I did start getting bored because it feels too dated for today's standards.

The music is still one of my favorite game OSTs to date and I listen to it even to this day. The music is just full of adventure, and you really feel like you want to jump into a fantasy when you listen to it. It's calming, empowering, and just wonderful to the ears.

There is so much to do in this game I came across items, quests, and people I never came across during my first playthrough. With a total of over 100 hours logged for both playthroughs and still coming across new stuff? Now that's a damn big game. If I were to give it a score for today it would get a 9 for me only dropping half a point because of the age.

~Score: 9.5/10

Well, 2016 seems to be a great year for the comeback of shooters. First Overwatch, now DOOM (well in reviewing order). DOOM could have gone so bad, so quickly. However, id Software went back to its roots, updated it for the 2016 technology, and gave the middle finger to all the rest of the stuff plaguing the genre. DOOM is by far one of the best FPS games I have played in over a decade. It's fast paced, challenging, fun, full of secrets for veterans, and is just plain old shooting.

The game actually does have a bit of a story and it's done just right to where it won't get in the way of the shooting. You play as Doomguy, a UAC Marine, who has to help a robot scientist, named Hayden, stop another researcher from bringing Hell to Earth. Amanda Pierce let the tech and religious aspect of Hell get to her and it overran the advanced Mars facility. Most of the story is told through logs which are actually the best way of keeping the story from getting in the way or becoming a train wreck. There are few cutscenes in DOOM, and when they play out, they are a nice break from the challenging gunplay. It's light and crisp and isn't stale ever which is great for the genre. Too many games, Battlefield, and Call of Duty, in particular, try to do this Hollywood sci-fi script of I don't know what the hell to impress the edgy gamers out there. It doesn't work, it's a train wreck, and those stories are a complete mess. The FPS genre is relying too heavily on story and not enough on gameplay.

With that said, DOOM is just like you remembered all those years ago -- forget about Doom 3. As soon as I took control of Doomguy I was in heaven. It's fast paced, controls amazingly well, and the guns feel fantastic. The slow build up of your arsenal makes you smile every time you acquire a new weapon. Seeing Doomguy pick up the shotgun brought a "Hell Yeah" smile to my face. Seeing the chainsaw rip through enemies just gave me a satisfaction in a shooter I haven't felt in years. There're a strong arsenal and not all classic weapons return; a majority are new. The chaingun is fun, the heavy assault rifle, and the gauss rifle is just so much fun. DOOM starts bringing the series into 2016 with weapons mods and Praetor Suit upgrades. These seem unnecessary at first, but the way the enemies are balanced and maps are laid out you feel you need them. Each weapon has two different mods which are incredibly helpful. The shotgun can get an exploding buckshot or a three round burst. There's no reloading ammo in the game so the R key is used for switching between mods. To keep things balanced, there's a mod switching animation so going into combat with what you want is necessary.

Let's talk enemies. The game is chalk full of them and all the classics return. Pinkies, Hell Knights, Cacodemons, Imps, etc. They look fantastic, blow up great, and the game is so gory and full of detail. The game isn't the most technically impressive as some textures are lacking, but the game has incredible lighting, and the games runs at a nice smooth clip at 60 FPS. It does require the latest PC hardware to run at maxed out settings with Nightmare textures needing a GTX 980 or higher as it requires 6GB of VRAM. If you have the rig, you're going to be in for a visual spectacle. I also have to commend the audio. The explosions, gunfire, enemy sounds and gory splats are fantastic. The game also has the good 'ol heavy metal soundtrack with a techno twist. This is one of the best video game soundtracks this year.

DOOM's level design is actually very old school and it works well here. Each level is made up of arenas with linear hallways in between. 50 % of the fun in DOOM is finding all the secrets thanks to the excellent map. Once you find the Auto Map all secrets are revealed, but they are still challenging to find. You might see a collectible floating in the air, but you have to find the right switch or path to get to it. I haven't had this much fun finding collectibles and secrets in a game in a very long time. It was done right here and not forced. Everything you miss can be reacquired by replaying levels. DOOM also features a new Rune Trial mode which are super fun mini-games of sorts that are quite challenging. I was able to beat them all through the first play through, but a few proved tough. You get timed to complete certain goals such as killing a certain amount of enemies under certain circumstances. They change up the pace and are a warm welcome to the series.

Multiplayer is a bit of a disappointment, but it's not awful. It's fun for quite a while, but won't have you coming back months later like other shooters. You have your classic modes and it's just plain old run and gun fun online. It just feels like it's lacking something or something needs adjusting. Hopefully, the next DOOM will address this issue or we get a stand alone DOOM multiplayer suite.

DOOM is a fantastic shooter and one of the best to come out in the past ten years. It does have a few flaws, I forgot to mention Glory Kills which are melee kills used when an enemy is stunned and flashing. Pressing F can launch you towards the enemy to acquire health and ammo, but it's overused quite a bit. Thankfully it's totally optional and towards the end of the game the novelty wore off and I only used it for health and ammo. The game does get repetitive towards the end, but not in an overly bad way. It's just part of the genre and series and is a staple that will never go away. Outside of these issues, the game is worth a full purchase.

The Batman Arkham games are some of the greatest things to grace the video game industry in the past decade. With the most advance combat system since God of War; and not to mention the best super hero video games series ever made; Arkham Knight continues this trend. While Origins was a bit of a snag, I don't count it as part of the Arkham trilogy. Arkham Knight is another masterpiece that any Batman fan will love.

Scarecrow and the new Arkham Knight are the main villains in this game, but don't worry, there's plenty of Joker as well despite being dead. Joker is a manifestation in Bruce's mind and he constantly appears everywhere putting his two sense into everything Batman does; it's great to hear him again. Arkham Knight is also probably the best structured Arkham game yet. Instead of a hodge podge of little repetitive missions everywhere the game has a Most Wanted mission wheel. Known Batman villains are to be stopped and captured through missions branches that are a blast. Firefly, Penguin, Two Face, and various other villains have their own little sub-plot. This brings Arkham Knight to a meaty and well balanced missions structure that the game desperately needed. The only other side things you can perform are AR missions that include fight and Batmobile challenges and Riddler trophies. Oh yeah, I said Batmobile.

It's finally here! The one and only Batmobile. It plays just like you think, controls like you think, and is as bad ass as you think. The Batmobile can transform into a tank allowing you to engage in battles with enemy tanks, but the best use of the Batmobile are puzzles. Sadly, the tank battles are probably the worst thing in the game. While they work, they are the same thing over and over and over again; nothing changes. Enemy tanks will have a white line go across the screen showing the trajectory of their shot. This allows you to dodge enemy missiles and shots. That's great and all, but why does combat have to be this slow? Towards the end the battles just get bigger with 50+ tanks in one area, that's not exactly fun in my book. While the tank battles aren't very frequent, they are happening often enough for you to sigh and wish it was over. As for the puzzle solving, the Batmobile fits better here. Using the power wench to crawl down sides of buildings, using the wench to power things up, ejecting out of the Batmobile to glide into tunnel. All of this feels just like in the movies and comics; no disappointment there.

Combat has been perfected in Arkham Knight with added moves to make an extremely complex fight system that is so simple to learn. Outside of the counter system that we are all used to, knew knock-out moves are introduced. Using your gadgets it much easier as the button combos for them are easier to remember. LT for Batarang, LT+B for electric shock to enemies with taser sticks, LT+Y for Batclaw, RT+RT for Freeze Blast. Very easy to remember and the controls pop up on screen to help you out when the option is available. Same goes for knock out moves, as well as fighting heavy enemies. These guys have their own system all to themselves. Do a fast punch combo, parry a guy behind you, a red exclamation pops up at a guy with a taser stick, LT+B, he's down, continue pummeling the heavy, three more counters, then knock the heavy out. All of this is one big combo and it's so fluid and fast and one of my favorite fighting systems I have ever used.

The second combat system to Arkham is the stealth part. This has been expanded exponentially in Arkham Knight. There are more gadgets introduced which allow more ways to take down opponents. The stealth areas are much larger and allow for multiple ways of taking people down. We're used to stealth take downs in various ways from hanging, grates, and gliding behind people. Multi-level grate combat is introduced as well as enemies being able to destroy grates so you can no longer use them. Using a voice synthesizer allows you to give commands to enemies and set up traps with your electric gun or disruptor. The disruptor allows you to sabotage weapons and drones to knock out enemies (yeah, can't say kill since Batman doesn't do that). The stealth combat is fantastic and so much fun and allows for strategy over beating everyone up.

Outside of these knew gameplay elements is the story. Arkham Knight has a long and well told story that you actually care about. There are some great moments in the game that really get you hooked and the ending is satisfying. I really felt the strengths and weaknesses of Batman come out through the story several times as well as the other characters. My favorite part of the game is the ending with Scarecrow, but I can't give it away except it's a first person shooter sequence. WHAT?! Play it to find out!

Let's talk about visuals. I know that the entire world knows how terribly optimized the game was for PC, however if you have a powerful rig it is very playable. Not perfect, but enough to not be really noticeable. This requires tweaks (there a tool available on the Steam forums) to the game settings to get it to work. Out of the box the game won't run very well at all. There are some nice new effects like RainWorks, Interactive Smoke and Fog, and various other effects. They look amazing and Arkham Knight is one of the most detailed and good looking games in a long time. However, a game should ship working and this is just unacceptable. Most people don't know how to tweak a PC game and will get frustrated and demand their money back (which happened and suspended the sales on Steam). The other issue is you need a very new and powerful system to get the game to run well. I tried and a GTX 670 and while I got 60 FPS when I was above the city it dropped below 30 on the ground. Interactive Smoke and Fog dropped the game to 5 FPS, however on a GTX 970 there were few issues. The frame rate will vary constantly. You will jump between 60 and 30 a lot, but the tweaks available make it less noticeable. Anyone running a GPU older than a year will have issues for sure and should play the game on a console for now.

As it stand, Arkham Knight is a fantastic game and the pinnacle of the Batman video game franchise and super hero games in general. Taking all of what made the series great and optimizing and compiling the best of what everyone loves. More villains, more story, more Batman. That's what we came to see and we got what we want.

Surreal adventure games are the next generation of the adventure genre, and if they are done right, can be quite memorable and mesmerizing. Journey was one of the first of this kind of new adventure titles. With minimal UI, gameplay, controls, and story, you are swept through a linear journey of emotions, visual beauty, and auditorial bliss. Some of the people from Journey are back at it again with Abzu, an underwater cinematic adventure.

You play as a character that swims around the ocean exploring trying to stop some sort of mechanical infestation from destroying all ocean life. The story plays out similar to Journey in which you figure out what's going contextually as you progress through the game via images and scenes. If you played Journey then you know what to expect with Abzu. What this game does differently is that it focuses more on an exploration of this beautiful world rather than pushing the player through a short journey and telling a quick story.

Right off the bat, you will notice how gorgeous this game is. Using the Unreal Engine 4, Abzu is bursting at the seams with color and saturated with detail. As you push through each large exploration area (there are about a dozen) your main purpose is to find hidden shells, activate various switches to open doors, and activate little pools that will add various new creatures to the game. While I mainly feel this was filler content to extend the game another hour, it forces you to explore the ocean floor and look around a bit. Seeing all sorts of marine life and plant matter float around you is just amazing. This game really makes you feel like you're swimming in the ocean and exploring what's under the sea.

The game's pacing is similar to Journey with an explorative area, then a cinematic on-rails section that shows off the visuals which this game nails. Having your character leap out of the water to a stunning vista or romp around with whales in the murky depths is something not seen in any other game. Not a single area is the same and I never saw the same sea critter twice. It's the small things that count in games like this, and the amount of detail packed in Abzu is triple that of Journey and I loved every second of it.

Now that's not to say that exploring between these cinematic moments is the best thing for this type of game. I thought Journey's pacing was spot on, but Abzu feels like a bumpy roller coaster with these cinematic scenes spread too far apart. There's only so many switches, chains, and doorways I can go through before I want something else. When you give the player very little to do, you have to rely on the senses and visuals to keep the player entertained. I feel this could have been an underwater Journey if the pacing was a little better.

Overall, Abzu is a fantastic adventure game and any fan of Journey must own this. The visuals are absolutely stunning, and Austin Wintory is back with another beautiful soundtrack -- one of the best this year. It's just a shame that the game suffers from poor pacing and exploration elements that are just there to force the player to look at everything. I feel I'm getting my face rubbed in the beauty rather than being allowed to soak it in as it passes by me.

NOTE: Review is for PS3 version during launch. PC version is exactly the same outside of slight visual upgrade and 60FPS.

The Good: Brings back classic 2D fighting, X-Ray moves are brutal and superbly done, all your favorite character are here, Fatalities are unique and brutal, looks and sounds amazing, lots of modes with great online play

The Bad: Still requires memorizing combos, online play requires a strong connection, no characters from MK4 and beyond

"Fatality!", "Finish Him!", "Flawless Victory!", "Get Over Here!". These are just some famous quotes from the infamous Mortal Kombat that everyone knows and remembers. What everyone mainly remembers is the fast paced fighting that has been missed since 1995's Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. It's been over 15 years since we got a really good and classic feeling MK game, but it's finally here and back with all its bloody gore. Yes the game is still in 3D, but its in what fighting fans like to call "2.5D". The game plays on a 2D playing feel and as soon as you start hammering away on those classic moves and combos you feel the nostalgia seeping into your blood.

The most surprising part about the game isn't the new level of gore, but the amazing story mode. Yes, Mortal Kombat actually has an awesome story mode that plays out far better than last generation's story modes. Instead of some ridiculous adventure mode or scrolling text we get a fully acted, scripted, and voiced story about the actual Mortal Kombat tournament and back story on almost every classic character. The voice acting is actually good and Netherealm Studios actually took the time to bring out each character's personality such as Johnny Cage's smart alack Hollywood attitude. Liu-Kang's eagerness, Kung Lao's jealousy, and Sonya's hotheadedness. The story is done beautifully despite picking up where Armageddon left off. Raiden travels in time to his past self to stop the destruction of armageddon. There are plot twists and even some seriously tense moments in the story that is quite gripping. I can actually say its the best story mode in any fighting game ever made.

However, fans came for the fight and this seriously delivers. Not only are the animations smooth and great to look at, but the controls are as tight as ever. The game responds without any delay and that's what a fighter is all about. Not only is the usual gore back, but the game just packs a serious punch and feels punchy. The hits transfer amazingly well into feelings and that's never been done in an MK game before. The newest things brought to the series are X-Ray moves. Fill you super meter up all the way and you can execute an extremely brutal move that shows your opponent in X-Ray vision and you can see bones crunch, snap, and organs burst. The anatomy is done superbly well with muscles, organs, and everything else in the right place. Each character has their own special skeletal structure so it stays true to the anatomy. I say bravo on Netherealm's part instead of doing it cheaply.

This super meter actually does one other things that I love and these are enhanced moves. Forget the crap from DC Universe completely. When you fill one section of the meter up (it fills up faster when you are getting your butt whooped) you can do the special move while holding down the "Attack Modifier" and it'll change the super move up a little bit and make it more powerful. For example: Doing Jax's Gotcha Grab will only do two hits, but if you enhance it he'll punch them five or six times and do more damage. Do Scorpion's Spear Throw and he'll throw two out for extra damage. These are great and each special attack has its own unique enhancement. This is great for strategists who want to give their fight a little extra kick. The second things you can do with the meter is the usual Breakers, but this requires two pieces to be filled.

For the first time Tag Teaming was put into the game and it works just as great as you'd think. Each character has a special tag out move and it makes the game more intense and just that much more fun. Of course the single player story mode will have you fighting against two people for a challenge, but when you play online or with a friend its an absolute blast. Of course this could have gone all wrong but the team learned from games like Marvel vs Capcom to get it right. This is just one more feature the team got right but could have gone horribly wrong or made the game too unbalanced.

The Fatalities are gory and each character has two plus a Stage Fatality combo. Each character's Fatality can be viewed in the move list in the pause menu, but you have to unlock the second one in the Krypt (more on that later). One thing I have to mention is that Babalities were brought back, but only certain characters can do these. These haven't been since since UMK3! When it comes to fighters there are no characters in here past UMK3. Classics only here and that's for the better. You won't see Kenshi, Kira, Drahmin, Hsu Hao or any of those guys, but there will be DLC add-ins later on so who knows. Each character is beautifully rendered and they fight just like you remember so fans can feel relieved about that. There is one new character and that is Cyber Sub-Zero to tie into the story mode, and he plays differently from the regular Sub-Zero and has some unique moves. Kratos is also an exclusive character for PS3 owners and he plays just like he does in the games complete with some quite time buttons and moves from God of War III. He even has his own unique stage with three different stage fatalities to choose from.

Mortal Kombat has always been known for adding a ton of content in since Deadly Alliance, but this time you're going to like the extras. The Krypt is back with just one type of kurrency this time around and the Krypt has five different sections. Each one has uniquely animated item containers and some are extremely gross, brutal, and gory. I won't spoil it but its very creative. My favorite extra is the Challenge Tower. There are hundreds of challenges that consist of fights that have different parameters such as zombies coming toward you and you have to use Johnny Cage's special Energy Ball move to kill them before they get to you. There's so many I would spend days explaining them but they are great fun and you earn kurrency doing them. One thing I wanted back so bad were the mini-games Test Your Might and Sight last seen in Deadly Alliance. They are back just as great as before, but two new ones were added. Test Your Strike is just like Might but you have to hold the meter inside a box for a few seconds before striking. Test Your Luck has you spinning a wheel and decides the fighter and fighting conditions for you.

Lastly Kombat Kodes were brought back last seen in UMK3, for people who don't know, each character gets three boxes during the loading screen and there are different codes such as headless combat, armless combat, dream combat, upside down combat, X-Rays disabled, blocking disabled, and it just goes on and on. These are used a lot in the challenge tower that I was talking about, but having them in VS is a blast. Lastly the online modes are a must have for any fighter these days and MK was the very first one and seems to be one of the best. While Tag Team and regular 1vs1 are expected a new King of the Hill mode lets you pick an avatar and puts everyone in a room that looks like a theater. The winner keeps fighting everyone in the room until he loses, but people can rate the fight based on a number score and can even cheer or boo the fight. This is a fun mode and is greatly welcomed.

~Score: 9.5/10