If you've never played Farcry and own a 360 - get off your happy ass get pick this up. You've never been so deserving. I played the original Farcry on the PC back in 2004. Although the graphics and sound implored you sit up and take notice, there were some serious flaws in the story line and missions which ultimately took away from the overall experience. Can you say mutants with rocket launchers on steel girders? Regardless, it'll go down in my personal black book as one classic title. After the release of Farcry on the Xbox, the 360 port delivered the same game with the added bonus of HD support and an additional story line campaign. Quite a value if you missed the first two and are looking for a killer FPS on the 360. I remember at GDC2004 while wandering the halls of the expo I came across a booth with a massive screen displaying some of the most intense firefights and visuals I'd seen in a game. Lush islands, crazy draw distances, water, boats ... I mean complete inverse of all other FPS's on the market. It happened to be the Fort level of Farcry. I immediately went home and downloaded the demo. And waited in quiet anticipation for the imminent release of the game. I ended up playing and designing levels for this game the remainder of 2004. I tell you this because that's the feeling you'll experience while playing through the entire game. The graphics and sound are great and save feature is seamless. Immersion factor is high. You're always discovering new skills which are constantly reinforced throughout both campaigns. It's just fun. And the cussin is great, you dirty sailor! The control scheme makes this game a joy. And this is coming from a die-hard PC gamer. I've refused to play FPS titles on consoles for years until I sat down for a few levels. It was intuitive and fun to play. I was comfortable with the control mechanism 15 minutes into playing. Unfortunately there's always a little blemish to be found beneath pristine surfaces. And Farcry Instincts Predator is no exception: Level size - Ok, they're insane ... but like a run-on sentence you never know when they're going to end. Honestly at hour 20 I'd wish they would have been more terse in their story lines. Bring it home already. By the way, the level design in both campaigns is some of freshest I've seen in this series and by far trumps the original PC version. The feral abilities add a dimension to the game play sorely missed in the original. There are some very difficult choke points in this game, To the point of frustrating. You know something is wrong with the flow of a mission when it takes multiple deaths to pass specific points in the level. Not good when the person playing just wants the level to end. That said, thank god for a forgiving save system. A great title for the 360 and a value to the wallet. Enjoy. On a final note - load screens can be used for more than repeating imagery. These guys got it wrong and drove me nuts the entire experience. Why not show the status of the loading data ... how about delivering some background to the level you're about to play? Please tell me there's more to a load screen than repeating a dozen or so images and bland copy over the course of 30 hours?

The experience World of Warcraft provides is so unique, engaging and fun, genre no longer has meaning. 2004. I remember the weekend. Thanksgiving weekend. Quite possibly the best weekend of the year for any gamer. I had 168 hours to fill, and besides the 15 minutes to consume the 7 course meal put before me, the remaining 167 and 3/4 hours was mine. And I chose to dive into and explore a new world, that of Azeroth. I dove, and dove deep not surfacing until 18 months later. I came off that game (yes addiction is the appropriate verb) with 3 epic level 60's and a handful of mid-level alts to my name. There was a huge community I played an active role in; raiding, assisting newbs, managing people. I understood the market of the Auction House and profited handsomely. And I'm nothing out of the ordinary. My tale is average. And that's my point. If you can invest that much time into a game and simply be average one of two things is true. First ... there's a hell of a lot of people playing the game, or second ... the game is deep enough for you to exist in to such a degree you're practically living a parallel digital existence. Either one is a pretty good indicator on how good a game it is. So how does one encapsulate that into a few paragraphs of descriptive text with a tiny little number to accurately and objectively detail the quality of the game? You can't. I only gave it a number because I didn't have a choice. :) Do yourself a favor buy this game. It doesn't matter if you're an FPS, RTS, console gamer, or whatever other acronym used to describe you. The experience that World of Warcraft provides is so unique, engaging and fun, genre no longer has meaning. It helps to have a decent system to enjoy all that is WoW. Although the engine runs great on older hardware, as you progress through the game and start making instance or raid runs, or just hang out in Ironforge there's so much going on the screen at any one time - it can bring a decent system to its knees. Memory is key here. The control mechanism is easy to get into and it's customizable. Stick with the default UI interface. I don't recommend UI mods unless you have a special need in-game. Blizzard designed and optimized the game to be played without the need of modifications. Besides, keeping up with the versions and compatibility is a torture game in itself. Play with friends if you can. If you're like me, and have no gamer friends, be social and open to random encounters in-game. That's what makes this game so fun. That's why I stuck with it for so long. It's a big world and you can interact with literally thousands of players at any one time. Especially if you befriend a few of them ... that can lead to a lifetime of fun in the game. The only reason I'm not giving WoW a higher score has a lot to do with the end-game material. It's geared towards hard-core players who enjoy repeated instance and raid runs requiring a lot of organization and patience. Patience to do the same content over and over again for very little return. Trust me, you'll enjoy the game until 60 - at which you'll need to dedicate even more time to see better returns. It really saps the excitement and enjoyment you initially get out of the game. In the end, There's really not much for the solo player. All the epic gear (which defines your character) require high level instance runs which can be detrimental to your constitution if the pick-up group you're taking into the dungeon doesn't know their asses from their hands. A little frustrating when you spend 30 minutes assembling a group only to see it wipe multiple times and the repair bill on your equipment saps your bank stash with nothing to show for it. That said ... A classic game, totally accessible, constantly evolving, beautiful to look and and hear and a treat to the senses.

Old school console charm. Fresh update to a classic. Masterpiece I declare! A masterpiece! How else can I describe a game that takes 14 years of franchise history and elegantly wraps it in some of the most fresh, rewarding, addictive, and memorable gaming in recent history ... Ok, maybe that's a stretch. But nonetheless, playing this game as I have for the last 2 months on my DS, have I harkened back to the day I plopped the original SNES version into my console for the first time. That feeling of cool summer mornings wasted away while my brothers and I compete toe to toe for the title of the lone badass mario karter. A game that can bring back that emotion, has won me over. Hands down. Balanced. Plain and simple. Regardless if you know the secrets to boost or evading that dreaded red shell ... this game can help even the sorriest karter level the playing field. Luck plays more of a role than you can imagine. It's not just mad skills. Free network play. Imagine connecting to a global network of karters who are available to get owned ... it's easy and a complete blast to be kickin ass from the toilet. The sound. Each level has a song, all replicated in their original forms from their consoles of origin. Elements in the race have associated sounds that will haunt you in your sleep. Believe me when I say , I awoke from a nightmare where the haunting was the dreaded flying blue-shell. arrrrgh. The amount of detail and attention put into the sound is impeccable, and quite memorable. Classic material here. The levels. All faithfully replicated from their original versions. Quite a treat. The only thing holding my score back is the fact it's a re-make of a classic. There's no revolution going on here in terms of the advancement of the art of gaming. More like ... a compilation. The best of what they've got. That said, if you own a DS or DS lite, do yourself a favor and go get Mario Kart DS. Even if you're not a 30 something who's always looking for the emotional hooks to relive his childhood you could do worse by not entertaining this distraction. Guaranteed.

Farcry was an absolute dream to play. It broke new ground in the FPS genre by introducing a lush tropical paradise. Large open expanses, insane draw distances, and intelligent AI made you stand and take notice. The sound effects reinforced the visuals and pulled you into the action. The music was understated, felt dynamic yet immersed you further into its world. Although the 'Mutant human experiment gone wrong' script has been killed to death in gaming - the areas of innovation in graphics and AI make up for its few weak points. A solid FPS. For the Creative Beast - The game shipped with an amazing sandbox editor to help you extend your fun with Farcry by designing a level of your own and share it with the extensive online community. Both of these elements stretch the replay of this game into the hundreds of hours as it's easy to spend many of them pouring over maps and mods released through the community. I can attest to that as I spent months learning the mapping tool and writing my own level. Going through this process I found a new respect for the designers and scripters of Farcry. http://www.michaelkosmatka.com/farcry.html A highly recommended title. Gamers will be reference back to this game for years as a benchmark in FPS gaming.

A classic genre defining game which in its time went under appreciated. but to this day remains a masterpiece. Initially, it was a challenge to control with a steep learning curve. It payed back with depth of simulation, gameplay and interaction with the environment. Taking queues from Ultima Underworld (same developer) your character starts with nothing and very little information to go on - but the overall feeling of being overwhelmed at the task before you. You find yourself crawling through a creepy space station littered with dead people; the only human interaction being data discs and email files to advance the story and your character. The hallways are haunted with the moans of the diseased and a little computer program named Shodan. And she's quite a **** If you can get your hands on this title - I recommend it, still to this day. It's been close to 10 years since I ripped open the plastic on that box, and I haven't yet forgotten.

Well ... it's been 2 years, but it's finally complete. Earlier this year I open-sourced Mischief in Paradise, a single-player map to the community in hopes someone would either finish or iterate on what I initially had started. Chimella took up the challenge and has finished the level. He took it from being just an SP Map to a full fledged Mod. Amazing if you ask me - and he even maintained the original storyline. So here you are folks. May I present Mischief in Paradise. It's been a long time coming - now it's here for you to play. Enjoy. http://www.michaelkosmatka.com/farcry.html