Right now I am actively playing a total of 10 games on and off" Battlefield 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks, Portal, Tekken 5, Ultimate Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. I would have added Call of Duty 4 to the list, but the game kind of sucks to me now and I uninstalled it, lol. My most recent "actively" has been with Battlefield 2, CS Source, Portal, and Day of Defeat.

Half-Life: Opposing Force, Half-Life: Blue Shift, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Half-Life 2, Mortal Kombat 4, Virtua Fighter, Day of Defeat: Source, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life, Battlefield 2, Mortal Kombat, Virtua Fighter 2, Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Portal, Mortal Kombat 3, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat Trilogy

As you can see the majority of my PC games are FPS. That's pretty much all I use my computer for. I can't stand using a game pad for aiming my crosshair in an efficient way like I can with a mouse. It's more convenient, and shooter games usually require more control buttons than a game pad has to offer. Plus to shoot, you need good sight and that calls for good graphics. PC's are where it's at for FPS (third person shooter type games too).

Armageddon: the culmination of a Mortal Kombat saga! Despite many complains, this game was well worth my money.

- Graphics:

· The overall graphics haven't changed much since Deception. They still look like plastic people and all the males seem to have the same body shape and height with the exception of characters like Bo Rai Cho, Motaro, the Shokan warriors, Shao Kahn, etc. I suppose this was to save on memory. Whatever, it'd still be nice to see some variation and unique looks for characters. Whenever character has the same exact muscle build it looks quite repetitive.

- Sound Effects / Music:

· The sound effects are the same from Deadly Alliance and Deception. No need making new ones if what you already have works perfectly and fits. A lot of the characters have the same voices though, which takes away from individuality. Sometimes there's a glitch where (I think it's with a Kreated Fighter) females have a male voice after being defeated in a round and moan/groan while standing back up. It's not that notable unless you're listening for it. The music is all right, not my most favorite soundtrack from a MK game, but the guys in charge of stage music always know how to make it be in accord with the environment. That's very important.

- Fighting Engine / Game Play:

· There are a few notable changes: the addition of Airl Kombat (aka Aerial Kombat), parries, and the reduced length of characters' combo strings. Air Kombat is exactly what it sounds like; when you hit your opponent in the air you can continue to juggle them or take the fight overhead. Because of this new addition to the fight, they toned down the length of many characters' combos which is a big let down to me considering I was a bad ass in Deception with Jade. Now it seems I am forced to fight the way the game creators want me to. Parrying is a joke in this game. It's another form of Deception's combo breakers but for noobs one level up. It takes absolutely no skill in being able to anticipate whether your opponent will attack low, medium or high. All they have to do is press the TWO BUTTON sequence and they can block any move you throw at them continuously. It takes no talent what-so-ever and the feature is abused ridiculously in online play.

I have to complain about MK's AI. It's getting old when they anticipate every move you make and find a way to counter it. This has been one of the biggest problems with MK all these years. The AI is not programmed in a way that there is a FUN challenge. It's either too easy or a BS fight. There's no reason the CPU should be able to parry and combo break my projectiles. That is absurd. If I can't do it, why the hell should it? Sure it's a glitch, but a TERRIBLE one.

- Motor Kombat:

· This game is fun when I play it with my lady friends and girlfriend because they used to play Mario Kart a lot back in middle school when N64 was the big hit. For some reason I don't enjoy playing this game with guys, even online. It's a cool game though, a lot of fun. But after a while the few stages and few characters makes this game seem quite repetitive. The biggest downfall to the game is that some of the tracks are way too easy to learn and can avoid crashing easily, so if you're first place there's really nothing about the track that will hinder you from winning. The only way you can lose is from the game's tendency to give all the "losing players" a faster speed than you to catch up. That's a bit unfair, but it balances the game out and promotes on kart battling.

- Konquest:

· Holy crap, what an improvement! This version of Konquest takes what was so cool about Deception's Koncquest and mixes in a few elements of MK: Shaolin Monks. What this game doesn't have are an extensive amount of combos and moves that can be upgraded and what not. But hey, MKA wasn't an action adventure game, so you can't expect each game mode to be fully implemented and blown all out. This game mode is what unfolds the story line and lets you know what is going on in this next chapter of the MK storyline. I was quite pleased with this game mode and I play it a lot.

- Kreate A Fighter:

· Probably one of the best features of this game that creates one hell of a replay value. The only annoying thing is that you can only have one KAF per profile. According to Ed Boon, this was not done because they thought it would be cool to limit you. They were having hardware failures with multiple KAFs on a profile so they stuck with what works. At least you have this cool feature. Creating your own fighter is great; there are a lot of attributes to choose from and customize, the variation seems endless (seems). After you play the game a while you'll notice how limited it becomes as far as making a COOL looking character that still looks unique. It's as if 90% of the female characters are either ninjas or women that dress like tramps because of the weak selection of female attire. Another downfall is the fact you can't choose your character's button sequences for combos. This was obviously implemented like this to prevent players from making 6 hit combos simply HP, HP, HP, HP, HP, HK (for example). But there are ways to program it so you can stop that, you know? It got old having KAFs use the same exact combo sequences. I felt like, ultimately, I have the same character just with a different look and set of moves. Despite these few drawbacks, actually going through the process of making a fighter and figuring out the best arsenal of attacks is a challenge and very fun. It's great to go online to see how good your character is against others.

- Additional Comments:

· Every time I play the Arcade mode, I damn near get the same characters to fight against in almost the same exact stages every time. Granted, occasionally I get different characters, but the stages are the same, and overall the characters never change from a distinct cycle. If I pick a certain KAF or a certain character, I get a set/predetermined opponents and stages and I never have any REAL variation. There are 60+ characters, why in the world do I see the same group of opponents in the same order every time? Half the stages I've unlocked, I don't even play in them! So I wasted my time unlocking them? It's always the same thing over again. Jarek in the Bell Tower......uggghhhhh!

And to top it off I only play against like 7 opponents and I'm already at the boss. Its way too quick, and it can get extremely boring. Hardly any replay value on single player. Online mode would be fun if people would stop picking KAFs and doing those 5 hit combos that take away 75% of my life bar and juggle me in the air constantly. I wish MKA had survival mode.

· People online abuse the chat room to a point where it's not all right. They chat their heads off and don't play the damn game. So many players sit there and reject my challenges and I hardly get challenges for that matter. There should be a "quick join" where idle players are automatically sent to another idle player to fight. Of course to control unwanted challenges, there should be a option that has enable/disable auto challenges or something of the sort. They need to start booting people out of the game room who talk too much and don't play. Or just get rid of the chat room all together or make a separate place for chatting and another for just playing.

· Despite my many complaints, the game down to the core is fun and was worth my money. I wish they had included Khameleon in the PS2 version, but like MKT, sony gets the male version (Chameleon) and Nintendo gets the female Khameleon... but what's unfair is that Wii also got Chameleon. I don't know what the MK Team's problem is... but treat different consoles fairly please.

Deception is to Deadly Alliance as MKII is to MK1. A great improvement on Midway's half.

- Graphics:

· The overall graphics haven't changed significantly since Deadly Alliance, they still look like plastic people, but you can tell the texturing was greatly improved. The males seem to have the same body shape and height with the exception of characters like Bo Rai Cho. Same goes for females. I suppose this was to save on memory. Whatever, it'd still be nice to see some variation and unique looks for characters. Whenever character has the same exact muscle build it looks quite repetitive.

- Sound Effects / Music:

· The sound effects are generally the same from Deadly Alliance. No need making new ones if what you already have works perfectly and fits. A lot of the characters have the same voices though, which takes away from individuality. The music is awesome in this game, a definite improvement from Deadly Aliance. The people in charge of sound/music always know how to make them be in accord with the environment. That's very important.

- Fighting Engine / Game Play:

· There are a few notable changes: combo breakers and a much smoother flow to fighting. Combo breakers are a bit cheesy considering the fact it takes two button strokes to perform and it ends up pissing off the player who worked hard to get the opponent into the attack. But it's limited to 3 a player which makes it more of a strategic process of determining when you should use it. I honestly don't use mine until it's the match to determine the winner. I don't mind going into round 3 quite honestly. I try to get the other player to waste his combo breakers so it can be a good ol' classic type match. I suppose this means I don't like combo breakers? No, that's not the case. They should have made the button sequence to performing combo breakers more complex or require the player to anticipate a low, medium, or high attack in order to break the attack off.

· I have to complain about MK's AI. It's getting old when they anticipate every move you make and find a way to counter it. This has been one of the biggest problems with MK all these years. The AI is not programmed in a way that there is a FUN challenge. It's either too easy or a BS fight. There's no reason the CPU should be able combo break my projectiles. That is absurd. If I can't do it, why the hell should it? Sure it's a glitch, but a TERRIBLE one.

- Chess Kombat:

· Only fun for a short while, quite honestly. It barely resembles chess except that you choose pawns, a queen, a king, and you're on a checkered board. Hardly any of the pieces have restricted moves like real chess and the strategies for both are completely different aside from killing the king. I don't play this game very often.

- Puzzle Kombat:

· What a fun and addicting game!!!!! I can't express enough how much fun this is. It's taking Tetris and giving it a real purpose to playing. This brought some of my lady friends back to play MK with me, thanks Midway, lol. The learning curve for this game is a little steep, because your initial strategies will not work against more experienced players or a higher difficulty in the AI. But that brings A LOT and I mean A LOT of replay value to this game. The only things I can complain about this game is when you're playing against the CPU, it sometimes cheats and doesn't give you the bricks you need and you can blatantly see that this is the fact and not just your imagination because you're losing. I wish there were more characters to choose from with a bit more descent special moves, and definitely they needed more stages.

- Konquest:

· Holy crap, what an improvement! This version of Konquest makes Deadly Alliance's version look like dog poop. A completely interactive environment with quests that are significant to the story line and side quests so you can discover cool secrets, find easter eggs (if you're familiar with gaming lingo), or just earn more coins on the side to unlock awesome features in the krypt. The one thing I'd have to complain about is that you can't really fight when In third person mode, but that all changes when you get into a conflict and it switches over to the fighting engine we all learned to love.

- Additional Comments:

· I'm getting less entertained with the types of bosses the MK Team choose to create. They are always some big buff guerilla type character who restricts you from using special moves and the attacks you normally would. They're always ridiculously stronger and take less damage from you.

· Deception is my second most favorite MK game with MKII being first place. This is one hell of a game and I can't see myself not buying it if I were to wake up tomorrow morning and realizing I didn't own it.

- Graphics:

· Holy hell, this is more than what I expected from "MK5." This is just beautifully unexpected. Transitioning from MK4/MKG to MKDA is like you're a Neanderthal waking up in the 17th century. The character designs are very original, detailed, and unique as hell especially the alternate costumes. The fighting arenas are mind boggling. This is a big step up and the MK Team should be proud of themselves. Deadly Alliance is the new Mortal Kombat 1.

- Sound Effects / Music:

· I am quite pleased with the sound effects! It sounds so much better than anything that came out of MK4. The music gave the game the right ambiance to the stages you fought in, or whatever part of the game you were in at the time (like the krypt or in konquest mode for example).

- Fighting Engine / Game Play:

· This game has a extremely addicting fighting mechanic. The speed has been toned down since MK4 especially due to the fact running has been removed from the game. But the combos are all back and they look bad ass especially with the authentic martial arts styles each character has. To expand a bit further, each character has two martial arts styles and a weapon, all of which you can switch in and out of to create a large combo string and do awesome juggling. Of course they implemented a way to stop players from performing "infinite damage" combos.

· I have to complain about MK's AI. It's getting old when they anticipate every move you make and find a way to counter it. This has been one of the biggest problems with MK all these years. The AI is not programmed in a way that there is a FUN challenge. It's either too easy or a BS fight. There's no reason the CPU should be able combo break my projectiles. That is absurd. If I can't do it, why the hell should it? Sure it's a glitch, but a TERRIBLE one.

- Test Your Might/Sight:

· The return of Test Your Might brings back great feelings of MK1. The same concept just upgraded to a modern age. Test Your Sigh involves you to watch moving cups to determine which one has the right coin, much like the street gambling game. As you progress, there are more cups and the speed is boosted. Both very fun.

- Konquest:

· This is used as a tutorial to the new game mechanics of Deadly Alliance. It can be a bit boring at times especially watching the transition to new stages of the tutorial. Not much really can be said.

- Additional Comments:

· This game took my expectations and threw them out of the window just to have me blown away by something fan-freakin-tastic. Deadly Alliance revived the MK series and proved a descent competitor to other popular 3D titles. Unfortunately we can't expect to convince those Asian-nerd-type gamers to convert back any time soon. They're still too busy dry humping the sh!t out of games like Tekken and Virtua Fighter. Give MK a few more years to gain enough 3D fighting game experience to develop a in-depth fighting mechanic and it will reign once again.

Mortal Kombat 4 was almost everything it was supposed to be. For being the first 3D MK, it was outstanding.

Mortal Kombat 4 was the first fully 3D Mortal Kombat game made. You have to admit, at that time this game's presentation was great. The only problem was they tried to sell the game in arcades when that industry was already crashing. Waste of money. A direct port to home consoles would have been the smarter move.

Visually, MK4 is good (on the arcade anyway) but home parts had choppy models and some disappointing textures. For some stupid reason the PC port was just as crappy as the PS version. There was no reason the computer version of MK4 couldn't support the graphics (or at least close to the graphic detail) of the arcades. It did not have to be chopped down to the Playstation version.

Thankfully, they got rid of stupid finishers and stuck with two fatalities per character and cool new stage fatalities that are a definite improvement to MK3's dust ball. Even though all the blood looked very unrealistic and there were no bones to characters when being chopped in half, they were still great. At the time, all that detail didn't seem feasible in a convenient manner.

The music went back to the good ol' MK roots and fit the fighting stages well. Not as disappointing as MK3/UMK3. The sound effects are a bit questionable, but not too shabby.

This game definitely had an interesting character roster, brought in some new fan favorites like Quan Chi, Shinnok, Reiko. And of course returning classics like Sub-Zero, Goro, Sonya, Cage, Scorpion. There are a whole bunch of other characters, take your time to view the screen shots.

The fighting mechanics are pretty basic, as usual. No real unique style for each character. The animations were not distinct at all, which was present in MK3 to make each character have their own martial arts style. But MK4 everyone fights the same with the exception to special moves. This is a very big drawback to MK4 - a stupid mistake to be honest. It takes away from potential eye candy that could make the game more interesting to play especially when it comes to replay value. If you master one player you can master the entire roster. That is not fun at all. But the pace of the fighting is very fast and enjoyable.

The weapon system kind of sucks, but it was their first attempt, so I suppose they did a good job considering the game came out a while ago. You can pick up and throw weapons as well as objects laying around in the stage. The only crappy part is the that it's very easy to disarm your opponent which makes it a bit frustrating to have cool weapon to weapon battles. In a way its good, considering weapons take off so much life - but that could have been balance by just toning down the amount of damage a weapon does.

One thing I have to point out is the terrible AI when on harder difficulty (which has been a problem and seems to be a problem that never gets fixed with MK games). Just like before, if you're trying to throw an opponent they immediately do a throw before you, the same thing goes with bone breaker moves. It is so frustrating to use the arsenal of attacks the game developers provide you when the poorly programmed AI overrides your every attack like it can read your damn mind.

Overall I was pleased with the games despite a few flaws which can be easily overlooked. By now, you won't want to play it unless you're an old fan who loves to go back to the roots of MK and play some of the classics that helped bring about the evolution of current MK titles. Appreciate this game.

A desperate attempt to score some extra cash by humiliating everyone's favorite character; Sub-Zero. Still fun though.

Graphics: Pretty sad and still 2D. They tried to give the effect that you're in a 3D environment but you're obviously not in one. I guess this was Midway's first baby step to 3D? Well the sprites on this 2D action adventure game aren't that impressive. Sub-Zero looks smudged and blurry, okay, the game just looks sad. I would have been happier to see a blocky 3D game than this, at least that wouldn't have made the game feel so outdated.

Sound: Okay I guess, but not that impressive. The grunting and hitting noises you heard during a fight are improved from MK but it still sounds kind of lame. The music is great, like with most MK games. They did a good job composing the music to fit the environment and MK is very good at that.

Game play: Frustrating. You have to force Sub-Zero to face certain direction even when fighting one boss. In the other MK games your character would do it automatically. In some cases its good (fighting multiple enemies), others its really annoying (fighting one boss character). The fighting system seems very weak and not as smooth as MKT. How the hell could you make it worse? The number of combos Sub-Zero gets is not very impressive. You get a descent amount of special moves though.

Acting: Watching the cut scenes has to be the most miserable experience of the game. The actors were terrible! It was more than obvious they were trying too damn hard and it was not convincing. It was like watching clowns argue in a circus.

Ugh, this game could have been great but it wasn't. For hardcore MK fans you might like it, but if you're a casual gamer then please don't waste your time.

The fusion of your three favorite fighting games into one... or is it? Lacking elements from MK1 and MK2 but still fun.

You would assume that MK Trilogy has EVERYTHING from MK1 and MK2 fused together with UMK3 right? Well, yes it does, but at the same time it certainly does not.

They brought back classic stages from MK1 and MK2 where you can battle, but some are still missing (Palace Gates, Warrior Shrine, the Throne Room - maybe a few others I forgot to mention). The biggest let down is they didn't take the time to create new animated sprites so you can perform the Pit II fatality! That was weak. There are quite a handful of glitches in the game, and the unorignality of this game seeps through the Mortal Kombat's pores. The fatalities that were missing for some characters in UMK3 are present here, but they aren't that great. The friendships and animalities for many new characters are the worst of all. I don't know the legal jumbo behind it all, but it would have been nice if they brought back sprites from MK1 and other characters from MK2 (instead of just Kano, Jax, Raiden, Kung Lao, and Baraka). I mean, I thought Midway owned the rights to MK so why can't they reuse old sprites? Just because the actors don't work for them anymore? Give me a break....

The sounds of this game for characters like Goro and Kintaro do not sound at all like their orignal selves in MK1 and MK2. They didn't bother giving bosses fatalities. The music for the stages in this game don't even match MK1 and MK2. So it doesn't really seem right at all.

The graphics just plain SUCK. This is a PC port, why the hell don't they think it can handle the graphics and sound quality of arcades? It made me feel like I was playing on a SNES emulator, I swear to god. This was the BIGGEST let down of MK Trilogy for PC. Not even the PSX had good graphics. What the f***?!

The only thing that makes this game good is the fact you get an ass load of characters (and a new character Chameleon) to play with and some (SOME) interresting new cheats. But none of the aewsome cheats from MK3 or UMK3 make a return here. (hyper fighting, all that good stuff).

After a while you will get extremely bored with this game. The wonderful AI will turn you off from playing singleplayer. This game would be great if they redid it with crisp and perfect Arcade graphics and sound effects, and released other 2D characers from MK Mythologies Sub-Zero (Sareena, Quan Chi, etc etc). They could have made this game awesome but they did the old fashion MK trick: great advertising, build up the hype, release the **** game.

It's fun when you play with friends... thats it.

UMK3 adds the characters that needed to be in the first MK3, but it's too late now; they already lost too many fans.

Short length review:

MK2 + MK3 = UMK3.

So UMK3 = okay.

Medium length review:

I already reviewed MK3, so I'm not going to say what I've already about the game. No big changes to the game play, so all I can really comment on are the new characters and the new stages. Everything else isn't significant enough to make the game worthy.

Stages:

A hell of a lot more interesting than MK3. Some of them brought that good MK feeling back to fans. Stages like The Subway, The Bank, and The Bridge just didn't cut it. Scorpion's Lair, The Kave, and The Lost (blue mk3 portal with MK2 bridge) brought that good feeling to you.

Those aren't the only stages that are new, so I'll leave it up to you to play the game and found out what they are and realize what I'm talking about.

New (returning) Characters:

Reptile, Scorpion, Kitana, Mileena, Jade... why the HELL were they left out of MK3 in the first place? The morons who made MK3 realized their mistake and put them back in, but it's too late now. So many turned their heads to better fighting games... that were THREE DIMENSIONAL.

Aside from that, they did a descent job with character moves, but for some they god rid of moves and didn't add new ones to make the characters more interesting. Their combos however were great; a lot better than the other MK3 characters in my opinion.

I was glad to see the classic Sub-Zero return, because the younger brother looks like some damn American in a torn up clown suit.

This game is great for only new characters, but it still has all the crap MK3 had (and when I say crap, you should read my review on MK3 to find out what I am talking about)

To fans, MK3 was a descent game but did not surpass expectations. To the average gamer, it was utter crap.

MK3 is the game that did not do justice to the title Mortal Kombat. It could not compete well with the new state of the art graphics found in revolutionary fighting games like Battle Arena Toshinden, Virtua Fighter, and Tekken. These games aloud three dimensional movement creating more interactivity. MK3 was stuck in two dimensional glue.

Although the graphics were a great improvement, I must say, the arenas did not seem to be very interesting. Although the fighting stages did fit accurately with the story of MK3, but it didn't give gamers (well, at least me) the great feeling of a tournament battle to save earth. Sure, MK3 was not intended to be tournament style, but it made MK3 not really have a style. Just a sloppy battle.

The sound effects were okay, but on a specific note; I loved the freezing sound effect for Sub-Zero in MK2, but in MK3 it didn't sound as cool. Other sound effects were fine, and they were realistic when the needed to be. The music was cool, and it fit the stages accordingly. Although the stages weren't my favorite the music was great.

Cast of characters and their looks... they sucked. I've never seen a group of uglier mother truckers. Although some fans have grown to love and accept some of the new characters (Kabal, Stryker, 3 Cyborgs, etc etc) I thought the cast looked terrible. If you look at the transition from MK1 to MK2 to MK3, between MK2 and MK3 you just have to ask "what the hell happened to the character designs?" It's like they hired somebody totally new to design them, which is not necessarily case - which is sad. Just look at what they did to Sub-Zero. He looks like an ass clown, and worst of all, he looks too American compared to MK2. Although I've grown up to like the 3 cyborgs, at the time they just seemed not to fit with the original scenario of MK. I suppose they tried too hard to modernize everyone.

The fatalities were okay; they did not have the same affect towards me and many other people who enjoyed them in MK2. The realism was destroyed when you started seeing 3 skulls and 12 arms result from an explosion when only one person dies. Stupid things like that, where the MK Team tried to make it "more violent." They obviously failed miserably. Worst of all, they made Friendships more stupid than they already were but without humor. Babalities were funny the first time (in MK2) but by now they are really retarded. Animalities looked stupid... they are stupid. It was a dumb idea and executed terribly. The stage fatalities weren't that great compared to MK2, especially the Pit 3 which didn't make too much sense, at least not the way they depicted how it "works."

The game play is smoother than MK2 and "dial-a-combos" were introduced giving characters different and unique attacks. The style of kicking and punching was unique to each character as if they have their own unique martial arts. This makes it look a lot better than MK2. BUT they all have the same setup - HP LP LK HK etc etc. Although it doesn't put emphasis on mastering a character, it allows for easy transition to learn every character.

Overall, I was not pleased with MK3. Some of fans' favorite characters disappeared from MK2 and did not make a return. Too many new and ugly characters, terrible fatalities and other finishers, boring stages (for the most part), and nothing drastically done to the game play aside from combos and the ability to run. It could not compete with new fighting games and it lost favor due to the fall of the arcade market.