Quake 4
Publisher: Activision
Developer: id Software
Genre: First Person
Players: 1

Quake 4 is produced by id Software inc. for the PC and Xbox 360 Computer Entertainment system.



Quake 4 may not be as well known around as Doom 3 (even though they were made by the same people and company), but that doesn't keep it from being an all-around better game. Quake 4 looks to have incorporated all the needs that Doom 3 didn't have fullfilled, such as the flashlight-on'a-gun for one. Quake 4, when first shown at the 2005 E3 convention, fans flipped out of their minds for this game. The graphics, gameplay, and classic scenerio had many people, me included, waiting on the edge of their seat for this incredible FPS. We were waiting for gold...and we got platinum. The graphics, AI, weapons, and pretty much anything else incorporated in this game were much more advanced then the best up to this point. The gameplay becames highly repetitive after a while, though. The multiplayer is also a bit overused for various reasons.

The graphics for Quake 4 are the best I've seen until the time I bought it in 2006 as the first 360 game I got. I was stunned at the level of detail on each individual level. Textures were different for almost every part of the level, none repeated themselves through consistancy. Even when looking close to walls and sides, weapons and pretty much anything, the textures didn't became grainy or pixaled, for lack of a better term. They retained their smooth and shiny display from point-blank to distances half-across the level. The characters were almost life-like, having individual features such as a larger nose, bigger jaw, different eye colors, and whatever else there is to have on physical featuring. Such as the detailing in the next screen-shot:

The lighting is often very dark, which makes the light attachment for the guns come in very handy.

The AI in the game, both enemy and ally were nice, to say the least. It wasn't what I'd call an AI revolution, but the enemies often knew when to dodge and when to shoot, as did the allies. What amazed me is how id made the allie's movement. They used actual people with motion sensors to replicate movement into a virtual "skeleton". They used that skeleton as a basis for the movements of your buddies in-game. They add in textures and physical features of the characters and put them in-game. The result? An artificial ally thata replicates the same movements in the same style that the actor performed in reality.

Gameplay is the real deal in Quake 4. The gameplay features the standard shoot-and-get-shot style that all good FPS have and has made id Software famous. You, as corporal Mathew Kain set out with Rhino squad to break through the Strogg enemy lines to take out their central system called the Nexus. While along the way, you confront the Makron, the leader of the Strogg whom Mathew Kain killed in Quake 2. How hes standing in front of you is another story. You are shipped to a Strogg processing facuility where you are turned into a Strogg--literally. But before they have time to implant in your head the chip to make you obey they're every command, the remaining Rhino squad busts you out. Thus you, in your strogganized state go with the rest of Rhino squad to finish the job, and take Quake 4 features a great variet of weapons from both Quake 2 and Quake 4 introductees. This can range from the Rotosaw and the Nuclear pistol, to the clip-loaded shotgun and dark matter cannon(the Quake alternative to Dooms BFG9000) which creates a black hole, sucking in furnature and enemies alike.
While writing this my friend next to me said "I'd hate to be on the recieving end of that" when I showed him a shot of what it can do. Try being on the recieving end in multiplayer. It's not too fun I'll bet...

Multiplayer isn't near as good as it could have been. Still gun, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't utilize some of the nicer features of Quake 4. For instance, its maps are directly ported maps from Quake 2 with better graphics. There are very little parts of Quake 4 multiplayer that are original to Quake 4 and not the rest of the Quake series. Another bad let down is the fact that Quake 4 cannot be played multiplayer by 2 or more people on one Xbox 360. You can system link up to 8 Xbox's though for a game of up to eight players. You can also play online multiplayer through Xbox Live. The sad part is id seems to have forgotton all about co-op, which would be very nice in Quake 4 considering its dim storyline and levels. Heres a screenshot for the masses, although its shrunk so it doesn't show good detail.


Now onto ratings:

Graphics: 5 out of 5
I couldn't really ask for anything better. For its time up until this day, its graphics have proved amazing. Those shots ...

Dead Rising
Publisher: Capcom
Developer: Capcom
Genre: Action
Players: 1
Reviewed on Xbox 360 by gdf

Ah, zombies. The shambling, brainless undead. Long hunted down by many a gamer, they have created numerous great games over the years, most notably Capcom's infamous Resident Evil series. Dead Rising is another zombie game from the survival horror masters, but is in an altogether lighter, more humorous tone.

You play Frank West, a photographer who has hitched a chopper ride into a sleepy American town that has recently been blocked off by the army. Chasing the scoop, you land on a mall and have 72 hours before your lift returns. When you get down to the shop floor, you find survivors of the outbreak barricading themselves in and fighting off zombies using whatever they can find, and when the undead brain munchers break in, you must employ similar tactics. After the initial scrap, you are taken up to the security room, a safe haven from your enemies, and meet all manner of mysterious people. You can try to uncover the outbreak of the scoop, try to save survivors or just kill piles of zombies, the choice is yours!

To begin with all you have is a camera, a watch and the clothes on your back; however, if you can pick an item up, you can use it in battle. There are literally HUNDREDS of weapons to be found, from novelty masks, to lawnmowers to plastic lightsabers, and almost all of them are useful in some way. Though there is just one attack button, the range of items negates the need for complex combos and each weapon has several different attacks: they can be swung, thrown, made to do a special attack and more, depending on the weapon. Some of the weapons are highly inventive and excellent fun to use and can cut through swathes of enemies. Body parts go flying all over the place and claret pours across the screen as you hack into a crowd with the small chainsaw or bash them up with the sledgehammer. The action is great and there are thousands of zombies to be brutally dispatched in increasingly inventive ways (death by shower head anyone?), so it never gets boring. It's a far cry from Resident Evil: there's no wandering around the same locations for scarce ammo, code guessing, or saving the best guns for the really bad boys; just a huge amount of zombies and an unlimited stock of badass weaponry with which to pwn their sorry hides.

When you bring up your watch in game a list of missions will appear; some important to the story, most just survivor escorts. Escorting survivors is an absolute ******* as they seem to be willing to hurl themselves into large crowds of zombies and get themselves eaten. After a while you'll get used to it, but it's not usually worth the bother to herd a fat man across the whole mall whilst being pursued by a gaggle of zombified shoppers and psychopathic cultists. There is only one door to the security room and save points are scarce, so trying to take others there could result in the loss of an hour or two's play. Hardly fair. Another complaint is that you are extremely unlikely to complete the game first, or even second, time round as it is hard to keep up with the tight time schedule of story missions. You can, however, choose to restart any time but keep your previously earned abilities and level, something that will come as a relief to those who just kept running out of time after the medication mission on day two and saved an already failed game. We know Capcom like to make their games challenging, but this is a step too far. All of this makes completing the game close to impossible to the casual gamer, who is the market this game should really appeal to.

Once you do properly get going on story mode you'll have great fun, and the kill count will rack up surprisingly fast. You can, as previously mentioned, gain new abilities and improve your stats and this is done in a clever way. Instead of the usual killing stuff gets exp. points (prestige points in this game, or PP), here you do it by taking photographs. Each photo you take is ranked and counts up target markers or special events, such as the high ranking PP stickers, which can be taken at specific moments. Once your photo is done you get PP for it and certain types of photo get more than others. This system works well, as it is down to player skill, not just awarded for winning a battle or whatever. PP are supplemented by completing missions or successfully escorting those bloody survivors to safety, and when you level up you improve your stats, and get special moves, like the head-busting knee drop, or zombie owning wall pounce.

After the missions are done you can continue to play, but I can't say much more without ruining it. There are loads of achievements in the game and many can be done with simple tasks like: "walk ten metres over a crowd of zombies"; "hit 30 zombies with a parasol"; ...

Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Vegas
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
Genre: First Person
Players: 1
Reviewed on Xbox 360 by gdf

Rainbow 6 Vegas is somewhat a redemption for French developer/publisher Ubisoft. Two years ago, the Rainbow series took a turn for the worse with the terrible and shamelessly mainstream Lockdown. Hardcore veterans were left cold as numerous compromises were made and the game turned out more like Project Snowblind than a tactical, tough to beat Rainbow game. For its first next-gen outing the series has raised its game cosiderably, managing to please both the old guard and new blood whilst still proving a challenging and absorbing FPS; Vegas is a fantastic game.

The training is set in Mexico City (possibly a homage to GRAW, another big Clancy franchise?) and lasts for slightly longer than you would probably like. You are introduced to the mechanics of the game and the streamlined command controls prove much more accessible than those of GRAW. So for around three hours (told you it was long) you charge round the impossibly dusty town, tactically pwning those Filthy, Freedom-Hating Wetbacks. So far, so Clancy, and the game continues like that throughout, playing "Rousingly patriotic" music from time to time. America, **** YEAH(!) and so on. Just as you begin to wonder when it will in fact live up to its title and actually go to Vegas, you are whisked away in a chopper and dumped onto the Strip. From here on in it's all good.

The game feels familiar, reminiscent of Rainbow 3, yet somehow fresher and more accessible whilst retaining its depth. One of the things you'll notice, especially in the casinos, is the variety of ways you can complete the level. There are usually a few routes to each objective and when you reach a room filled with terrorists you can enter in numerous ways. For instance, you could set your men up dangling above a window and move round to a door, using the snake cam to pick out priority targets then giving the order to flash and clear while chucking in a smoke grenade yourself, throwing on your heat goggles and providing covering fire for your teammates as they crash through the glass and into the fray. All of this takes place in the space of around 5 seconds. It really is exhillerating stuff when you pull off a perfectly executed move and have the room cleared before you can say "Fourth of July".

A new cover system has been implemented and proves far more useful than the old leaning trick. For a start it actually works. Akin to, though not quite as smooth as, the system used in Gears Of War, it manages to let you see round and over the object, blindfire, pinpoint shoot, throw grenades and snipe from your position. How so you ask? This is a first person game, so it must be impossible right? Wrong. The camera cleverly zooms out into a third person view, retaining the crosshair and, magically, not disturbing your play at all. It feels like a natural transition, as if you are still viewing in first person. You'll never notice it, and it is second only to the mighty Gears.

The firefights themselves are intense as you try to second guess the enemy and outflank the scumbag without letting him do the same to you. Clever use of grenades works much of the time, but not as you would expect. Smoke and flash grenades aren't as impotent as in other games and often work better than a frag or incendiary, as your enemy loses his accuracy and you can pop out to shoot his face off quite easily. Though the game isn't gory, it is extremely violent, with blood splattering up the walls as a foe falls in an excellently mo-capped action. The same can happen to you just as easily however, especially on Realistic mode, as your enemies will go for the headshot and a few hits can be deadly. It isn't quite as punishing as GRAW, as you have a Gears/CoD vision blur thing going on instead of a health bar; just sit for a few seconds and you are good to go.

The guns are very well thought out, each handling in a different way. There are several categories of weapon too so it's good to mix and match. In the end I plumped for an MP5N Sub-Machinegun fitted with a rifle scope as primary, a pump action Shotgun as secondary and the Raging Bull revolver as my pistol. You can add different scoped and attatchments to your guns which helps you create your own custom weapon set. The graphics in Rainbow are great, Ubisoft's trademark excellent lighting used to good effect throughout. An improvement on GRAW is that the screen is less cluttered with markers and arrows etc. so even when you get a video feed to your cross-com you can see the cation perfectly. The sounds are convincing to say the least, though the music can get repetitive from time to time because of its annoying American patriotism.

Rainbow 6 Vegas is a stunning return to form for the series ...

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Genre: Sports
Players: 1
Reviewed on Xbox 360 by gdf

Where to start? Where on Earth can you begin a review concerning one of the most vast, ludicrously freeform games of all time? Well, you start by rambling on like this, then saying how absolutely immense it is. Yeah, that should do, because Oblivion is something of a phenomenon. Out on 360 and PC for just over a year now, with a PS3 version due soon, developer Bethesda Softworks has tried to reach as many people as possible with their game. This may seem at first like a ploy for more cash, but with such a masterpiece, it most definitely excusable and very correct of them to do so.

So what makes it so good? Well, for starters, it is the biggest game ever created, bar none. The sheer size is enough to give anyone a headache and to call this "Sandbox" or even "Free Roaming" is an insult to the game. It laughs in the face of even the mighty GTA, and though Oblivion has been surpassed in terms of square miles of game area, the games that have done this were much shorter (Oblivion is at least 100 hours if you stick at it) and usually had some kind of transport faster than a horse. Yes, Oblivion is very much a traditional text based adventure at heart, but is brought to life with great vibrancy. The Medieval esque world draws unashamedly from these ancient games, but can also give credit to LOTR and D&D. Hardcore beards will feel right at home, and will positively savour ludicrous character creation options such as "Nose Bridge Depth".

The level of freedom is astonishing. It is entirely possible to do whatever the hell you want, whenever the hell you want. I tend to go for the more murderous, thieving side of things, rather than the goody two shoes complete-every-quest-to-a-tee approach, and who can blame me; being a badass is fun! The game is deeper than the ocean and once the (slightly unconvincing) training level is finished you are thrown out into it. With nothing to keep you afloat. Carrying a dead albatross. Naked. The game really starts there and you can pursue the main quest, indulge in a spot of crime, chat with the locals or just run off into the wilderness. The locations are very well made and the vistas are nothing short of breathtaking. The draw distance is HUGE. On a clear day, you can see for miles and can sometimes spot several villages from one viewpoint. It is these times that the "Go anywhere" element truly comes into play. It is a joy to just pick a spot in the distance and head off for it, unsure of whom or what you will discover or what great treasures you will stumble across. Sometimes stalking a random stranger whets the appetite; Like the look of that guy's dagger? Follow him then stab him in the face when nobody's looking!

There are a few guilds to join that each have their own quest line. You try to go up the rankings by doing ever more risky missions until you are the guild master. Some will enjoy the Arena Battles or the Fighters Guild knight style missions, others will prefer to complete tasks for the Mages Guild, but for me it has to be the Thieves Guild and the Dark Brotherhood. As I said, I'm a sneaky, murderous kind of guy. Anyhow, completing the guild missions is fun, but I wouldn't recommend breaking the rules... (Anyone fancy collecting 20 Dragon Tongue to get back in the Mages Guild?). You can get missions from the public as well, through either talking directly to people or overhearing conversations. These all go in your quest log and can be picked up any time, great for when you get bored of another quest or just wandering about all the time.

Throughout the game there a few little minigames. The lock picking in particular is entertaining, with convincing (or bribing) people to like you worth an honourable mention. Even in the simplest task there are numerous skills and factors which affect your performance. Buying goods (even though stealing is better) can turn into a guessing game of haggling and bribing in order to get the best deal. As with all RPGs, the devil is in the detail.

The in game character menu seems daunting at first. It has four sections, each with several sub-sections which are filled with stats or items. After you get used to it, managing your character is a cinch and you can actually enjoy trawling through the list, deciding which items you should drop so you can carry that shiny blade over there. The weapons are a great part of the game. You have to maintain them yourself for maximum performance, but when you are wielding a fully magically charged Glass Warhammer of the Dynamo, that Faded Wraith round the corner doesn't seem nearly as much of a badass. The combat itself is fun and feels much more direct and enjoyable than most other RPGs. The game is a first ...

In the words of the immortal......screw it. Halo 3 f**ing rocks. End of story.

Or it would be, if I didn't want to explain why. Halo 3 as you know is probably the most highly esteemed and hyped game in the history of games, weighing in at a massive 1.5 MILLION preorders. Following the obviously badas* Master Cheif, the last of his kind of warrior-race, he and the rest of humanity continue their desperate attempt to finish the fight against the alien invaders, the Covenant.

Now as far as graphics go, they are pretty stunning. Great textures, framerate almost never misses a beat, and I have yet to see a graphical glitch. That said, they aren't as good as maybe Gears of War and Bioshock, but they hold a huge candle to pretty much any other game. Huge improvement over Halo 2, as character models are much, much, MUCH more detailed as well as the environment.

Sound...its Halo. You get what you expect, and what you expect, is pure awesome-ness. So you get it.

Gameplay, the greatest part (obviously) of the game. Plays almost exactly the same as Halo and Halo 2, but with revamped controls which I personally am not too fond of. Halo 3 brings the same excitement and thrilling addiction that the first 2 did, and as usual you just can't put your finger on just what makes it so fun and awesome. Well, it is. I could try to explain for 3 weeks and you'd still have to actually play the game to know what I'm talking about. And multiplayer....the only multiplayer yet holding a candle to this is Gears of War. No question. Still, expect people who can head shot with they're eyes closed. You get that from the Halo series which spawns tons and tons of people who live, breath, and eat Halo. Maybe even crap Halo, you never know. Guns are great as usual. Even though some are still lackluster such as the assault rifle, nothing quite beats the enjoyment of just smashing a brute in the face with the gravity hammer. AI is better then ever, such as the AI's new cover system. ya know, they cover and shoot around walls from time to time? Yeah. Your teamates are still dumb as he** and drive like they're drunk, but they're witty banter and helpfulness in combat more then makes up for it.

Well, conclusion time. Short, eh? Well, thats why its called a Miniview.



Like I said, its extremely hard to say just what makes Halo 3 so gosh-darn fun to play. Graphics are great, sound is great, replay value is off the charts, and gameplay is stunning. Whoot! :thumbup:

if you have a 360, don't waste time. Make your 360 happy too by buying Halo 3, and for cryin' out loud, Finish the Fight. ...

Let me first say that this is only the demo, as I'll be Miniviewing fairly often. Who knows what they will do with the full game...

The demo starts off nicely, with a cutscene that looks almost movie quality. Ya don't really know whats happening, only that Spiderman is getting ambushed by practically all his foes at once. After he's done thoroughly pummeling them (with the help of the New Goblin) he and the villians are surprised to find a new enemy--so called phantoms--appear. They are then teleported off to a ship or more of a UFO.

The begining of the demo doesn't go in-line with the cutscene in the least. Your sucked up into a spaceship then you appear in Tokyo with Venom as your sidekick. I didn't really care too much for that, seeing as I had an extremely low expectaion to begin with.

Then came the fighting. Let me again first say that for the passed few weeks I've been absolutely obsessed with God of War. And this game tries very hard to be God of War. And the surprising thing is, it starts to do it well. You have a good deal of combos you can use using the A and B buttons. However, thus far I have yet to see a cooperation between the 2. Ya know, like a combo involving both A and B? You can use charge attacks for all of you RB and LB web specials (Which really did come in handy). Another neat trick for some enemies is, after you knock em around a little, you'll be able to use a Button Sequance attack, identical to God of War. Like a little cutscene where Spidey messes up the enemy in one fell swoop. You also get temporary upgrades such a Max damage and invincibility.

Now for the problem with these combos: They lack flavor! They lack the punch and slam that we want. They are simply punch punch punch instead of BAM ZOOM BOOM! If you didn't catch my meaning, I mean that they really are not interesting in the least. Well, with 13 playable characters all with they're own combos, its does give the user quite a bit of variety, if bland variety. Now this is real annoying problem with this game:

You can't lose.

No matter how many times you die, it seems as though you just keep coming back again and again and again. ( Trust me, I launched myself off the rooftops more then enough times to know this)

But unlike God of War, this game has a really nice feature: drop in co-op. This co-op is exactly like Lego Star Wars co-op down to the nail. I don't know about you, but I liked that kind of co-op. But don't worry, no two screens needed. SMFoF has the camera like its a movie, also from games like Lego star wars, God of War and Too Human.

The graphics...could use work to say the least. But I don't really think they were going for an amazing style of design. It kinda looks like it came out of a comic book. I'm still wondering how Spidey landed in Tokyo, though...

Well, all in all, its probably a game I'm gonna rent at one time or another. I guess I'd give this game a 3.5/5. Probably too lenient but I really do think this title will deserve more then a 3...

Overall:

NOTE: Don't forget, this is JUST THE DEMO! We have no clue how the real game will be! ...

A most anticipated game from the creator of undying, a freak the **** outta-you horror shooter, Clive Barker. People have been really hoping that this title is more then a POS outcast with high production values. What did they get?.....Silver. Half gold, half silver, all fun as the place that the monsters you battle are from. Cookie to the one who gets that joke.

The story begins as you, Capt. Devin Ross, wakes up to a call, apparently to get together with the rest of the Jericho squad for a mission tougher then any they've ever seen before. You arrive at the ancient city of Al-Khali, which has revealed itself, that being a very ominous sign. Through the game, you, Cpt. Ross, is killed in action by Arnold Lech...leach.... whatever his name is, the evil guy. Dying in the hands of your teammates, you somehow manage to transfer your life force into fellow teammate Frank Delgado. In the game you can transfer your "soul" between your six teamates, utilizing their unique talents and weapons. You soon find yourself trying to find a creation-gone-wrong called the Firstborn. You'll fight Crusaders, demons, cut in half ghosts of children, and pretty much anything else you can think of freaky as he**.

This game is seriously fun, whether be you an action fan or a horror fan. Although this game can hardly be called horror, it has some things simply freaky. Not horrifying, but freaky. The enemies are the creepiest things in Jericho by far. In fact, I've never seen another game with the creatures as twisted or horrific as this. if you don't think so, just wait till you fight the ghosts of the children crusaders. The horrific creatures also translate into the story, as every detail of it is splashed with horrific ideas of impalings, demonic nazis, floors covered in organs, flesh and blood. Pretty much any hellish texture, creature or idea you can think of, so did they.

However, don't think for a minute that this means its extremely scary or far too freaky for you action fans, and not so much horror (if your a horror fan, trust me, this game will do it great for you too.) Now the reason this isn't the scariest game on earth is because the atmosphere just isn't scary. Some parts are a little creepy, others disturbing, but just not horrifying. there are a couple reasons for this. When you constantly have 6 teammates with you, and they are always cracking jokes or calling a certain sniper a lesbian, its really hard to get scared. Another scare less aspect is the music. The music is sometimes pretty creepy, but when it comes to the massive battles in Jericho, light rock plays rather then haunting tunes.

You can switch between 6 different characters at the blink of an eye during the game. Each character has his or her own special weapons and abilities. Before you say anything, no there are no weapons to pick up or swap out. Trust me, there is absolutely no need whatsoever for extra weapons. Each characters has a wide variety of weapons and powers to take out the enemies. From wielding a katana to slowing down time, to throwing out blood circles to trap enemies, this game truly has inspired weaponry from every angle you can look at. The jokes that keep throwing out help to bring up the spirit while getting attacked by hordes and hordes of monsters. The levels are a fairly simple design, but if you didn't know what it was, you probably would see a very diverse environment of levels. Some are slightly more bland, and others are extremely detailed. The levels are fun, nonetheless. A personal favorite aspect is how the screen moves depending on the actions you take. This doesn't sound like much at all, but it really gives you a better feel for the characters, more life-like. Every cut-scene you'll find, you will always be playing it in 1st person, never seeing it from a 3rd person point of view.

Graphics are fairly splendid. They aren't Gears of War or Bioshock (Nothing really is) but they are very nice, especially on HD. the blood splattered walls, the nailed to walls bodies and the organs on the floor, they all looks great. The character models are really detailed, with blood dripping from they're eyes and even missing teeth, the character models range from fair to amazing.

Long story short, If you fit the bill of an action fan, horror fan, or FPS fan, missing this game would be a crime. It isn't terrifying, but it is a game that makes the adrenaline rush from time to time, and can even creep you out quite a bit if you've got the right mood set...

Final score: I can't understand a lower score then this, unless I only have 3 hours left. (Which will greatly lower the replay value, not yet added into the score.) I've played about 6 hours so far, and I'm loving every second of it. For those of you wondering about replay, I don't think it has multiplayer, but I've "unlocked" characters, during the game. ...

Mass Effect is the start of what should be an RPG revolution, if RPG creators know whats good for them anyway. Mass Effect is a game set in the year 2148 after humanity discovers an advance called Mass Effect that successfully advances Earth's tech by 200 years. You are commander Shepard, male or female who had a past as deep as his/her future. It is soon placed upon you to save the earth from the geth civilization and Saren, they're "prophet". You will travers countless worlds, make decisions that will influence the universe. And this isn't a lie. This is the real deal.

This game is the peak of RPG evolution. Every choice, every action, every thing you do determines whether you, the universe, your friends, civilians, anybody and everybody, whether they live or die. In every conversation every choice you have is said in a full dialog with reactions fitting the choice you have chosen. Through words and a kind will, or threats and an iron will, EVERYTHING you do effects the world around you. You can became any character you can possibly imagine good or evil, or the often forgotten grey area that exists in the middle. You can even become romantically linked with others. This isn't your average romantics in a game. You have evry choice. You can talk to them, interact however you would in reality. However, unlike reality, you can actual get lucky in Mass Effect .

The visuals are absolutely some of the best out there. I have yet to see a game with such an amazing level of artistic design and execution as mass Effect. Textures and features are as detailed as they get, resulting in unbelievably realistic characters. Even the aliens look real! The problem: Slowdowns. Quite rare, and usually only during fight extremely explosive fight scenes, they are still there.

Gameplay is stunning. Gears style combat created extremely well, mixed with an RPG element that has no equal. The RPG allows you to became whatever you want, and allows you to effect the universe however you please. Combat is iffy at first, though, but you'll get the hang of it fairly quickly. Slowdowns annoy me constantly though, and glitches happen from time to time. Not enough to actually impact your experience very much.

Sound is just as spectacular as graphics. the loud booms of the ships, the sound of krogan warlord vying to attack or the haunting sound of undead creepers. Music is very fitting, as suspenseful sci-fi plays at points necessary as the adrenaline rush plays with intense combat scenes, and so on. The real deal is the dialog. The greatest voice acting a game has ever received since Bioshock.

This
Game
Rocks.

Final score:
This game is truly outstanding. This is a Pinnacle of the RPG genre, and there is as of yet not a single game with such innovation and choices as this gold in a DVD. ...