Ok, I’m really liking this game but I have some problems with it, some big ones that almost makes the game unplayable but I love the aesthetic and the setting too much to leave it.

First, I like to talk about how awesome the game is, I picked up on a Steam sale for the half of price and this was one of the game that I really wanted to play when it was released, after the usual months that Rockstar waited for the release I got it and happily started. It was pretty awesome, starting as a cop and getting promoted was really good, the narrative was awesome, the acting was flawless, the way that the gun is fired was top notch, the driving was Rockstar finest, even with the GTA 4 hard driving, this wasn’t bugging me at all, actually I really liked GTA 4 driving style. Everything was really, really good.



The first case, being a cop with a partner that didn’t care too much about being better at his job was a perfect start to show how the game would be. After the firsts cases to show how the game works, Cole got a promotion on Traffic, and now that the game game really starts. After this part the game is a rollercoaster about trafficking, assassinations and drugs putting thieves and crooked cops on the subject. Being a fan of Law and Order and any TV police show this game was my dream to play it.

But, nothing is perfect, and for that matter was only great, unfortunately only great. I encountered my first problem about it as soon I start playing it, I was getting a huge lag and stuttering problem. After playing two hours in a unplayable game I decided to look on the interwebz a solution about my problem.
After some research I found a site that shows how to fixes some problems, and noticed how many problems the game had, and I was lucky to have just this one. I find out that I needed to deactivate anything that could make my game slow, so I deactivated my random stuff on the workplace and put every spec to a minimum choosing “performance” over “quality” and tried out even that my PC can run the recommended specs. Still stuttering and lagging.



Ok, I’m going to go again to that site and find another solution, after a half hour I find it a command line to put In the game to deactivate a part of the useless processing that the game was doing. Booted up the game, subscribed to Rockstar Social Club and was ready to play my game.

This whole process I made with the game shouldn’t be obligatory, when I pay for something I don’t need to fix it myself, It supposed to be installed and played like any other game. And in these days PC gaming is having that kind of problem more and more often, Companies releasing unfinished games and patching it over days later. Of course that this isn’t PC gaming only problem, a lot of people hates over the fact that Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim won so much GOTY’s (including our own Dtoid Community Choice) being a broken game on the PS3.



LA Noire shouldn't be the case, the game was released months after the console, the game should've been a great port just like Sonic Generations was and the other ports that was released this year. My obvious guess is that LA Noire was ported just to calm PC players, since GTA 4 was not that good of a port, and Red Dead Redemption didn't even got released for the PC, it is normal for them to make a game just to ease the PC players by saying that they still remember that part of gaming. But they failed horribly.

But I am being too harsh on it, this game is really good and is worth playing, but if they didn't wanted to release on the PC they shouldn't released.

The game itself makes me complain a little for the way it meant to be played. For a Rockstar game, it is too restricted for everything, the game makes you go on the way they want you to go, find the clues that they want you to find and walk the way they want you to walk. The game always start by going to the crime scene, finding clues, talking to people and finding the guy who did it, of course that it meant to be played like that because they want you to follow the story, the Ascension and The Fall of Cole Phelps, how a normal cop is getting promoted and facing a job as a detective how in the same time he needs to fight it's inner demons about the past and fighting the greedy police force being a honest and well thought person. But sometimes looks like the game is playing by yourself.

(Spoilers ahead, but I will make it less "spoilery" for you guys)

There's a part that you need to go to a certain place to find a letter and then you need to decipher by looking the places that you find throughout the game, after you go to the place you received another part of the letter telling to go to the another place. This part is pretty good but it lacks in one thing, after a while the game itself shows where you need to go. This part makes you the bystander while Cole thinks where he needs to go and you, the player, just makes him go there. The game gives you the chance for yourself to look where you need to go, but only works if you travel trough the city, a thing that the game doesn't tell you to do. And I think that would be better if they unlocked all the places that you need to go, but doesn't tell where is next one, this could make the player happy by thinking that it is smart by deciphering the letter.

(Spoiler time is over, is safe to go out now)

LA Noire is a awesome game, but it's too afraid to let the player do what he is meant to do, play the game. While Heavy Rain tells a history by putting you in the middle doing a lot of a timely pressing of the button, LA noire makes you play the game like any Rockstar sandbox, but lacking the optional and secondary things that normal sandbox games let it. A example of that its GTA 4 that has innumerous side missions to do, relationships that you can do, random persons that you can meet throughout the city and random missions that you can make, while L.A. Noire only have the Streets of LA that you respond to police calls to win experience. The Streets of LA is a wonderful part of the game, just because of the different missions you make, but it isn't enough for a sandbox game.



That's basically all the things that I don't like on LA Noire, but the game is so good that this doesn't bother me so much that makes doesn't want to play the game, and for this the game for me is one of the best of the year, but unfortunately It can't be said that it is a actual game.

Well, I won the code at Dtoid so I will make a nice little impression of my of the game so far.

The Perfect World guys, and Developer Zombie announced the sequel to Blacklight: Tango Down, after some time Blacklight: Retribution is getting a closed beta experience. After the Core Client install, I downloaded and installed BL:R. The Core page and system resembles Steam and Origin interface, with the normal upper bar with the settings but only for only their games. It's pretty simple and user friendly showing the stuffs that needs to download and only that.


Pretty simple, right!?

I've never played Black Light: Tango Down so this is a whole new experience for me, and iI believe it was a good one but with some minor problems.

I entered the game, created the character and played the tutorial. And right after you can start looking for a browser, or play around with the character and weapon customization. The first I entered the customization process I got confused, i didn't find a lot of instructions to begin with, specially being a new gamer to this. After 20 to 30 minutes looking around with it I got used with the system and started to play with it.

But I finally got to understand it, when you play a match you win points for killing people and for doing mission objectives, that i only played the Post Control one, that is a Capture The Flag but with mechs putting in a basic sense of this style. When you win points it can be spend at the shop, but you rent weapons, gears, moves and even announcer voices instead of purchasing it, I believe is a good idea in the situation that you buy a equipment that you toughed that was good for you but in the end it was a bad call, so instead of having it for the rest of your life you can leaved at that and rent another gear. And it is a F2P game, so they need to win some income and their way is using the ZEN points, basically is their system for buying magic game money with real real hard working money, they have a whole guide for buying for the first time, but looks pretty simple just like putting money on a Steam Wallet or buying a game from a digital distributor. You can buy the items with your game points, or coughing a some bucks to get that gear faster.


DAMN HIM!!!!

After some time customizing nothing, because I didn't have any money, I started playing. BL: R has a nice FPS aesthetic with normal commands, shoot bad guys with the mouse, running with the "shift" command, using "WASD" to move and then numbers, or the mouse wheel, to change your currently weapon, but the game brings some nice things that differentiates with the other shooters.

The first is the HRV, it is a visor that every player has. It gives you the ability to see trough everything, highlighting the enemies and your teammates, but only for a period of time. It gives a nice, and new, strategy view from the game giving you a time to stop, look, and see what is the best route for you avoid or to going in to the battle in the beginning of the match.

The second advantage it's the mechs. I can't say if it is good or not because I didn't get to play with one yet, but I sure noticed how effective they can be in a battlefield. If a match ha one team with two mechs and the other with zero, you almost win automatically, if the guys playing with mechs are good, for so strong a mech can be, and they are really cool to see it mowing down a group of enemies in a couple of seconds.


They are pretty rad!

They are using the Unreal Engine 3, and it's actually pretty good to look at, sometimes I got annoyed with that glow like on the object, because I've seen it so many times in other games, but it covers the basics like it should. I am playing on medium graphics and I'm satisfied with it.

In the end, Blacklight: Retribution is looking to be a nice F2P game, i think it won't make a whole in the F2P FPS genre, specially with Tribes: Ascend coming, but it is a nice game to play with. And the have freaking mechs! So go play it!

I am a big fan of Sonic, it was the first game I played in my whole life on Master System and Sonic 2 was my first game played on the Genesis, but I stopped after Adventure and never got into play the newer ones. When Generations got announced it was my wet dream, giving me tears of nostalgia from every video that got released. But like everyone, I was suspicious from it and was very skeptical about it. When the reviews were up it got me a lot more relieved but no one make a PC review, so I went buying recklessly and this is one of the best mindless buy I ever got.



The Hedgehog got a lot of bad reputation and Sonic Generations is here to fix it, it's his twentieth birthday celebration and this game is the best way to celebrate it. Generations starts with the old Green Hill Zone from Sonic 1 totally revamped but still giving the nostalgia that everyone wants, Generations feels good right from the start giving addicting nostalgia shots with every resemblance from the tiny, cute, old school Sonic. The game has fourteen stages, being almost one for each game (that was good) released, There are Green Hill Zone, Rooftop Run, Chemical Plant Zone, Crysis City and a bunch of other iconic stages. I wanted to be more classic stages but only three make it for the game, being one for Sonic 1, another for Sonic 2 and the third for Sonic & Knuckles and I know that they will make DLC about it . But at least we get to fight against Dr. Robotnik and his Robot and against Robot Sonic. The other stages are from the tall, green eyed, eating chili dogs Sonic era. Starting with Sonic Adventures and finishing with Sonic Unleashed.



Each stage has five challenges, being five for modern Sonic and five for old School Sonic. There are normal challenges like finishing faster than your doppelganger, making it to the stage with only one ring, passing the challenge using the Lightning, Fire or Bubble shields from the previous Sonic and one that you need to bring the Finish Pole from the start to the finish, being the most creative one. When the challenge is finished Sonic needs to jump on a bell to make a music note appear, you need to pick that up in twenty seconds, but if you can't just jump again make the note reappear . The music note unlocks art and soundtracks, a lot of the soundtrack is put in the game, music from the older and newer Sonics.

Each stage has two Acts, one classic and one modern, each becomes very different from its original being a great fun to watch Green Hill Zone in 3D or Rooftop Run in full 2D. Both ways are fun, Modern Sonic fits well in older stages and Old School Sonic fits well in the newer stages, making it a good experience in both Acts. And watching Sonic speeding through the grass, jumping on platforms and getting rings again is really nostalgic.



In every three stages we unlock the fourth stage, being a boss one. The first boss is Giant Robot Robotnik being able to only play with the 2D Sonic, the other bosses are from the 3D era. There are three mini-bosses fights that can be find next to the challenges, being Shadow, Silver and Metal Sonic.

They are fun and completely new from the original bosses putting more length to the boss. Sometimes it's frustrating when I was speed trough the stage a million miles per hour with Sonic, one jump that could be a little higher makes him bump in the wall getting rid of all the momentum that the speed gives, leaving me to redirect Sonic to its normal path, but is crazy fun when the stage the fully mastered and finished flawlessly. The 2D Sonic gets some problem too, his jump sometimes can get really useless because of the platforms being too far from each other, and sometimes looks like the game wants you to get hit by a enemy, no matter what you do the enemy will be one foot further in the exact place that you'll land. Making it really frustrating losing the rings all the time.



The PC game play is really good, but the game will only be playable with a controller, with the keyboard in nearly impossible especially with further stages that uses the triggers excessively. They let some good options to chose how the graphics will be.

The way to tell the story is really simple and expected this way, a time warp is created and both Sonics gets together in a timeless place with all the stages to enter and play it, it's a normal story and we shouldn't expect deep meaning storytelling in this kind of game. All these challenges and boss fights are only to make a bigger game, I could've finished the game in eight hours, but with so much things to unlock, it's really good to finish everything and unlock art and music with over 100 artwork and a lot of soundtracks.

The game is a well worth one, being a PC gamer that loves Sonic from the bottom of its heart, Sonic Generations is one of the best games that happened on PC, being a well ported game with well responding controls and better graphics than the consoles, if you can run it, and the best thing: It's only 30 dollars making a cheaper and a wonderful game.

A overall score of 9.0

I was a big fan of MMO's, I was used to play a lot of Ragnarok: Online and RF: Online, but the time passed and i was not having more time to play a MMO and a normal game at the same time, but DC Universe Online went Free 2 Play this Tuesday and i'm bored. But a lot of people has gotten in the game, I'm downloading right now try it out, but the download it's freaking huge and my stupid connection doesn't help.

But with this happening we are seeing a lot of other games (especially MMO's) using the F2P form.



The biggest game we got to see this year was Team Fortress 2 getting it's own F2P form, of course this wasn't a surprise, being a Valve game and for it's huge price drop on special Steam events. Of course in the end Valve was gaining more money putting the game free with it's Mann-conomy selling system, but a lot of people started to bitch about it being too much noobs playing it and it was gonna make the game worst and more laggy. They were half right for people not knowing the game, but Valve and other sites made a lot of tutorials for people don't suck at it. After a couple of weeks Team Fortress 2 was the number one game played on Steam, putting Counter Strike behind it.



Now it's the MMO's time to get F2P, Planet Side, DC Universe: Online, Lineage II, Age of Empires: Online, Neverwinter Nights, Lord of The Rings: Rise of Isengard, Need for Speed: World, Tribes: Ascend and bunch more. They are making good decisions for being online, putting inventive ways to make money while the game is free. Team Fortress 2 made the Mann-Conomy, DC Universe: Online made the game with a premium account, so if you pay five bucks you'll get more character slots and more inventory slots, and it's for a lifetime, if you pay a little extra you'll get the Lantern Pack and if you pay monthly you'll get the the Heroic with a lot more of things to do. That's the better way to make a F2P game, putting extras for people to pay but not making the game overpowered fro those people, and for the new comers can still get a good time with it without paying, but in the same time making them wanting more to start to cough up those dollars.

But in the same time this can be a bad thing, DCU:O is getting a lot of servers problems. They put a F2P form but they don't put more servers for people to use, making the game unbearable to play, Sony was stupid to make such a big move without working with the servers, people at South America (like myself) are complaining with it's poor server. Of course Sony will upgrade their servers and make the game better in some time this year making a good time for everyone that wants to try it out.



But the big question is, does a game needs to be F2P to succeed at life? I think not, we have games like WoW that has a lot of years on the business and always being a paying every month kind of game. Of course Wow makes a lot of expansion packs that feel like a brand new game, and who plays it get instantly addicted. But they make the move being F2P for the first twenty levels. It's a bold move for them but we see that this only got to make more money for them. Star Wars: The Old Republic will be making it's debut in the same play for a monthly feed system. i'm sure it will sell well but does it gonna be for a long period the same way? I think not (again), one day i'm sure Star Wars will be F2P in some form, the same way i'll see World of Warcraft F2P in two or three years (won't be in one year because of the Annual Pass, Get Diablo 3 for free promotion).



In the end I think that F2P is a good thing, but only if done correctly with good servers and good ways to treat a old and new costumer. Now let me wait for my DCU:O.

I was eleven, twelve years old (I have eighteen now) and a good friend of mine borrowed me a CD with a lot small games and some programs inside. I looked at the CD with enormous curiosity seeing written Soldat on it. I inserted the CD on my computer and saw some screenshots of the game, a bunch of little guys fighting to the death destroying others with guns; it was all I ever wanted in a game. And boy, it was fun.

In that time, Quake was a game that I'll never even hear of, so this was pure glorious killing fun for me. The game was side scrolling action, the player takes the control of a character the he created, and it was a range of color pallets, different kind of hair styles and hats, and a lot of jewelry and accessories to put on your character. And yes, the game let you put Mr. T hair and his gold chains, this was a giant plus for me.



The game gives ten primary guns and four secondary ones, there were Desert Eagles, shotguns Spas 12, Miniguns and of course, the Chainsaw. Each gun has their good and bad points, the Desert Eagle were deadly but it only have seven bullets, so we were always reloading it, the Minigun is fast and deadly, but take it too long to start shooting and to reloading it. The Chainsaw was my favorite for obvious reasons, with swift on the enemy and the guy was instantly mutilated and left to pieces. It was insanely fun to do some mayhem with a chainsaw and a couple of grenades.

Besides the weaponry we get some power ups throughout the game, there were Cluster Grenades that was divided by a serious of other grenades when it hits the ground, Berserker Mode that make the player kills with a single shot/stab, the Predator Mode made the player invisible for a few seconds, the Vest was, a vest and Flame God make your gun into a freaking flamethrower!

LOOK AT THIS!!! ITS AWESOME!!!

There were seven types of game: Death Match, Rambo Match, and Point Match, Capture the Flag, Infiltration, Team Match and Hold the Flag. Death Match was the normal, insanely killing fun time. Capture the Flag was a competition between Alpha and Bravo; each one has to bring each other's flag to their base. Point Match works just like Death match but the difference is that there was a flag in the middle of the map, if the player pickups the flag he would make get the double of the points. Team Match is the battle versus four teams, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta, the team to score more points wins. Infiltrator Mode, one team needs to get the black flag e brings to their base, while the other team needs to defend it. Hold the Flag the two teams needs to get the only flag to win,

And the best mode was The Rambo Match, the premise is a simple Death Match but no one wins points until someone gets the Rambo Bow, when the player picks up the Rambo Bow (somewhere random on the map) he gets a Bow with flaming arrows and guess what, they explode! It is the best game mode I’ve ever played; it’s fast and deadly and wicked fun.



There were three modes; Realistic that makes guns more deadly and susceptible to recoil and falling from big heights make injury. Survival Mode was the same as realistic but everyone spawns together and if someone dies they only respawn on the next round. And Advance Mode made the primary guns locked, and it was progressively opened trough time and kills. One of the best and important things was the killing; it was fun and gruesome with triple, multi kills and other crazy acrobatics moves, making really a dynamic game.

This game is really huge, with a lot of maps and map editor, players, guns and a lot of gruesome kills; it was a teenager wet dream. Soldat brings a lot of Quake, Doom and others kind of games. I love Doom and Quake but Soldat is something special for me that brings some of the first PC memories. In the end I think this is one of the games that were really memorable for me, because it was one first bloody good fun game I’ve ever played, and I still got fond memories with the chainsaw.

The Binding of Isaac, game created by Edmund McMillan (half of Team Meat) and Florian Hilms has a simple premise but a complex one. Giving a homage for Legend of Zelda and references of games and Internet memes, but this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Isaac and his mother lives happily in their house, Isaac playing with his toys and his mother watching Christian television. Until the day that God tells her to take away everything that is sinful, so his mother takes everything away, even his clothes.

God calls her for a second time and tells that he needs protection; the mother locks him in the room. For the last time, God tells that he needs a sacrifice, and Isaac is the sacrifice. His mother devotion makes her to get a butcher knife, when she is on the way Isaac sees a trap door and jumps right inside it and now the game begin.



Binding of Isaac counts with four chapters with eight different levels. The game looks small, but it has enemies, levels and random bosses, more than eighty power ups to improve Isaac, more than fifty unique enemies and fourteen different bosses. This gives a serious amount of hours of gaming.

And the game is hard as hell.

Anyone that played Legend of Zelda and roguelike games you can feel right at home, Isaac goes trough dungeons confronting enemies , he kills them with his cry, but it has other weapons in the use, like the bombs and a third power used with the button Space that recharges from time to time. Isaac wins his power ups entering rooms with golden doors, making extremely satisfactory to discover every each one of them and how it goes against its enemies. From time to time Isaac encounters one of the Seven Sins, each one with a special power e because of this it has to change the whole strategy of each sin.



Everything is random, weapons, powers, items, enemies, dungeons and bosses. I played for five hours and i haven't seen on dungeon like the other. Binding of Isaac does a satire with the christian obsession and other references can be found. But in all fun the game gives the sense of sadness from Isaac, and the horror is always there with bosses like the Gemini that is a baby attached to a big guy, but the baby stays normal while the big one goes running at Isaac, when the big one dies the baby comes at him trying to kill it, it's really a freak show with demonic tendencies. But totally in a fun way.

Edmund and Florian also brought Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy soundtrack) and i tell you on thing, the soundtrack is amazing, it brings sadness and despair but also brings excitement and adrenaline. And it doesn't get tired by hearing more the one time.



In the end The Binding of Isaac is a addicting, hard and extremely fun game. Edmund, Florian and Danny makes a perfect trio for making games, and i hope that they make more in the same format. It has a price of five bison dollars on Steam and the soundtrack for one buck, and it's worth a lot more than that, making almost infinite hours of the game, especially if you suck at games like me.

A overall score of 9.5