Here's a couple reviews I wrote about two years ago. Lemme know what you all think.
FAR CRY REVIEW
.....A Far Cry.....from fun.
Yeah, the graphics are great, yadda, yadda, yadda. I'm well aware of the popularity of this hellishly annoying game called Far Cry but in my opinion, trying to play it is worse than chewing on tin foil! And what I found particularly annoying was the videogame developers' decision not to give us the freedom to save whenever we damn please! I mean, and I hate to sound chintzy, but for almost fifty smackers, is it too much to ask for the one thing us happy little gamers want most? The question is: Is it worth it? Well, only if you like grinding your teeth to oblivion and getting the sudden urge to put your head through the monitor.
Jack Carver is his name and surviving dense forest growth, swarms of painfully intelligent mercenaries and extremely dark underground tunnels is unfortunately NOT his game. (Or mine.) The setting is on a beautiful uninhabited tropical island where a lab experiment has gone awry. You spend the first few missions in broad daylight which seems very intriguing at first, but just when you think you are about to reach a checkpoint (which are placed in assinine spots) some merc will see you and all hell breaks loose. Choppers fly in from nowhere and soldiers attack from all sides so at this point, the only thing to do is run or hope there is a spare set of wheels lying around for making a quick get away, but even that doesn't really work most of the time. While you do have a variety of vehicles to choose from, both land and sea, most of them aren't worth taking. The jeeps and trucks are clunky and hard to navigate and I won't even mention the hang glider.
Once you complete a small number of outside missions, your next point of entry is to descend into what I like to refer as "The labyrinth of Hell." It's darker than the inside of Jessica Simpson's head and you now have to face a new foe called Crygens. Very ugly, infuriating mutants boasting foot long, razor sharp claws that will hack you in two if they get close enough. Springing off walls and having the uncanny ability to know when you're re-loading a weapon are some of the other talents these beasts have. You spend what seems like an eternity down in these tunnels with a cheesy flashlight that does more harm than good and mayhem ensues once battles commence between soldiers and mutants in an almost pitch black environment, all the while with you right smack in the middle of it. You can wait if you want, then venture out and hope that the ceaseless waves of attacks are over. Throughout the game, you do acquire a fair amount of weapons, health packs, ammo, grenades and other goodies, but the majority of supplies are quickly used up especially when you encounter the other un-friendlies like the Hollowman on speed armed with a rapid fire machine gun who is only visible with the use of very limited night vision (arrogantly named Cryvision). Even worse are the supersoldiers (ala Wolfenstein) that relentlessly fire rockets at you from a prosthetic arm. They're slow but it takes almost a full clip of ammo to take them down. NOTE: This was all played on the "Easy" setting. The first of FIVE difficulty levels.
Call me a whiner but this game is simply way too unfair. Thankfully, I did manage to use a "save-game" cheat code that enabled my own quicksave option. And unless you own an ubermachine, expect tons of stuttering, sputtering, occasional crashes and very long load times. Sorry Crytek, but playing a game that gets my blood to the boiling point and forces me to invent my own line of expletives is really not my idea of enjoyment.
MANHUNT REVIEW
MANHUNT IS KILLER!
There was a game I really wanted to play but it was only available on PS2. So, as soon as I saw it on the shelf for the PC, I snatched it right up. But before I played it, I heard so much about the controversy surrounding it and how it was labeled, "The most important game of the year." And now I know why.
Simply put, if you threw a psycho version of Splinter Cell and an even harder version of Hitman in a blender, out would pour an evil cocktail called Manhunt. This game is filled to the brim with bloody, gratuitous violence and the "scenes" as they are so appropriately called, are very trying but fiendishly fun.
The main character is James Earl Cash, a death row inmate who escapes execution and falls into the hands of Lionel Starkweather, (voiced by Brian Cox) a deranged snuff film director that not only videotapes Cash's every gory (and I do mean gory) execution, but also devilishly cackles and gives him goulish props after every kill Cash pulls off. This is the major selling point of the game and is activated by holding down the mouse button every time Cash sneaks up on his victims. The longer you hold down the button, flashing yellow and red markers will indicate how "gruesome" or "violent" the execution triggering a brutal cut-scene that depicts in full detail the slaying of some unfortunate slob otherwise known as a "Hunter". Throughout the game, Cash is thrown into deadly situations were he has to murder, at Starkweather's orders, a variety of thugs and other undesirables of the world. Stealth and tactics are the key to survival but it seems that the 'ol try, die, repeat routine comes in to play a lot because I died.... a lot.
The levels are sometimes frustrating but the constant pulse of Cash's heartbeat (which beats faster every time he runs) and the eerie soundtrack make for a creepy and tense atmosphere. You rely mainly on hiding in dark corners and shadows in order to stay out of harms way and the A.I. is well....ridiculously smart and dumb at the same time but some of the explicit one-liners that spew from their mouths are hysterical. Weapons, painkillers and checkpoints are scarce, so performing "stealth kills" are essential to surviving the game.
The sound quality is excellent, load times are lightning fast and you don't need a beefy system to run it. Plus, if you have a decent video card to boost the resolution a tad, the graphics are actually pretty good and gives the game an immersive, gritty feel. Truthfully, I found Manhunt to be a bit disturbing, yet enjoyable, and at times a little intense. This game is NOT for the squeamish, but if you are someone who's looking for a dark, twisted game that invloves viciously deep-sixing maniacal gang members and really irritating cops, then this game is for you.