Monday, January 24, 2011

Top Ten Family Animated Movies

In no particular order:

  1. Shrek (1 and 2 are best, although all are worth watching)
  2. Lion King (all of them)
  3. Winnie the Pooh's Grand Adventure (Most watched movie from my childhood, saw it again recently and loved it just as much)
  4. The Emperor's New Groove (Kronk, that's all I'm saying)
  5. The Road to El Dorado (Hans Zimmer and Elton John's brilliant soundtrack over a touching and hilarious story)
  6. Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (Anyone who doesn't cry at the end of this movie has a heart of stone. Beautiful animation, a great story and a brilliant and powerful soundtrack from Zimmer and Bryan Adams)
  7. Any Hayao Miyazaki movie, at the very least Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle.
  8. Chicken Run (It's Aardman at their finest. "I don't want to be a pie, I don't like gravy")
  9. The Nightmare Before Christmas (Painstakingly stop-motion animated, Danny Elfman, Tim Burton, what else is their to say? Also, check out Corpse Bride. It's got Johnny Depp!)
  10. Up! (The first five minutes of this film is the most beautiful movie I've ever seen. So is the rest.)
Please, all of you out there with children, there's so much rubbish these days, don't let these classics die (sure, Shrek might not be a classic yet, but give it a few years).

Honourable mentions:

Aristocats, 101 Dalmations, Hoodwinked, Kronk's New Groove (More Kronk!), The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Robots, Monsters, Inc., Tarzan, The Adventurers Down Under, Despicable Me

Think I've forgotten any? Disagree? Leave your comments!

Monday, January 17, 2011

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Review

Well, a recent geek out session with a few of my mates about how much we’re all looking forward to Skyrim reminded me that I’ve been meaning to review Oblivion for some time now. So here it is. I must warn you to bear with me if I lose my impeccable eloquence at times, this is a difficult review for me and I don’t want it turned into some whitewashed, edited wishy-washy missive.

Story

Ok, I’m going to start with the easiest part to review. The story. So, basically, your character starts off locked in a prison cell with no memory for some reason that’s never explained. This prison cell just so happens to house a secret escape passage out of the castle that the Emperor, who’s being chased by assassins, and his guard must go through. So, as fate has it, you are the Chosen One of destiny, or something and so begins your epic journey to save the world from evil. Or something.

Basically, the story is rubbish. I’m sorry, it is. When there actually is any attempt at story, it is weak and clichéd, but most of the time the weak story takes a sideline, which is good, because it allows the game to do what it’s best at, but we’ll touch on that later. The dialogue is the usual High Fantasy cliché but for the most part its well voice acted, but again we’ll touch on that later. What I do want to say is that I hated how irrelevant the story lines are. For all the work you do, whether it be in the main story or the side quests, it leaves very little impact on the world. Finishing the main story just results in you being proclaimed Grand Champion or some such shit and you get a statue and some armour. Whatever. Oh and some NPC’s will like you more. Until you do something bad, then they won’t. My favourite thing I ever did was in my second playthrough where I finished the expansion Knights of the Nine first, which makes you into this holy knight and crusader for good, then I became Arch-Mage of the Mages Guild, and basically everyone loved me. Then I murdered someone and rose to Speaker of the Dark Brotherhood. And now, whenever I talk to an NPC, they are so heartbroken. “I used to think you were some sort of Holy Knight!” It amuses me, what can I say? But back on track, story: weak, clichéd, boring, unimportant. Tsk tsk. Bad Bethesda.

Gameplay

Quick warning, there’s going to be a lot of text here. So if you fear reading or your eyes fall out of your head if they have to work too much, you might just want to skip to the summing up at the bottom. Anyway, allons-y!


At the start of the game, you are greeted by a deep character customisation screen. You can customise down to a mathematical value every aspect of your characters face. There are a heap of races to choose from, each one with a unique playing style which makes every playthrough remarkably different. Then throughout the tutorial you choose your class and birthsign, both of which affect your starting stats and skills. Oblivion relies on a two-tier level up system. The first tier is Skills. Skills, like blade, acrobatics, sneak etc. increase the more you use them. So hitting a guy with your sword a lot increases blade, being hit a lot increases the relative armour skill, casting heal a lot increases your restoration skill, you get the idea. Skills are divided into two categories, major and minor skills. You get 7 major skills, which all start at apprentice level, whilst the rest of your skills are minor. Your major skills are defined by your class. Advancing your major skills will cause you to level up, advancing your minor skills does nothing so if you want to level up quickly, it’s smart to choose major skills that you use the most. The other tier is Attributes. Once you’ve advanced your major skills enough to level up, sleeping in a bed brings up the attribute screen. You then choose three attributes to increase. Attributes increase by factors of 1, unless you have been using one particular skill more than any others. So if you mainly used blade, your Strength skill, which governs Blade, may increase by 2 or even 3 upon level up. In theory it’s a pretty clever system, but it makes levelling up a very uneven affair, especially if you’ve chosen a broad spectrum of major skills. If you only advance one major skill at a time (which is a pain to do but possible) you can basically fly all the way through to the high twenties with no problem. But if you play more evenly, you may level up to about 15 really fast, and then levelling up from there can take forever. I would prefer a system that used XP for levelling up, personally. But enough on that.

I mention classes and birthsigns before. You have a large selection of Birthsigns to choose from, each suited to a specific playing style. They are not customisable. Then there are the classes. There are a tonne of classes, most are well balanced, but the best path to go is the class creation option. You choose three main attributes and seven major skills, so you can basically play to your strengths. It’s a lot of fun. The first playthrough, I played as Dark Elf called Braedum Extor. He was born under the sign of The Thief. I chose skills focused on archery and sneaking, playing to my race strengths, as well as some minor magic skills. Unfortunately, it turned out my character wasn’t all that well created and towards the end of his journey became almost completely useless. You either need to focus on magic or alchemy if you need to be a fighter as there are a lot of tough enemies out there and I specialised in neither so by the end I was basically defenceless against the big enemies. So I let him die and created my new character, a female Breton Mage Elayne Whiisp. She was born under the sign of The Mage and class Soothsayer, focusing on magic, alchemy and sword fighting. This proved a much better option as being skilled in magic helps you take on some of the nasties early in the game, allows you to cast spells to quickly heal easily, and basically rain hell on higher level enemies with all sorts of destructive might. And once you learn the Invisibility spell you are all but unstoppable. In conclusion, character customisation great and varied, but can require trial and error.

As you step out of the tutorial level you are greeted with a massive, and I mean massive, world. I still remember my first time. I’d just never seen anything like it. I was lost and terrified, I had no idea at all what to do. Thankfully, a concise map and journal system with clear mission goals eases your transition and fast travel to all major towns saves you from dying helplessly alone in the wilderness. As you become more and more familiar with the world you begin to stray of the trails, explore the ruins and caves and just admire nature. It’s just such a shame that this incredible game world is let down by two things. Combat, and repetition.


The combat system is not broken, in fact it’s a great idea. To a fault. The game is played from first person (there’s a third person option but I’ll touch on that later). Left click attacks with the equipped weapon, right click blocks, C casts spells. There’s an 8 button hotkey system, but it can be really limited. I really wished for either more hot key slots, or the ability to cycle through hot keys. One for spells, one for weapons, one for potions. Or one for exploration and one for combat. As it is, you’ll be jumping in to your inventory, a lot. Back to the combat. The combat works well against a single foe, out in the open. Sure, the AI is dumb as shit, the animations are robotic and clunky, but it works. Unfortunately, a lot of the combat is in cramped dungeons against multiple combatants. So you basically end up standing there just clicking away hoping to god you’re hitting something and trying to block when you can. Wonky hit detection doesn’t help. It’s even worse with an ally. Seriously, they just somehow always end up in front of spells arrows and swords. A few hits on them, and suddenly they want to kill you, too. I just found it really disappointing overall. I hope they develop the idea though, because it has potential. Better AI, better animations, smoother hit detection and potentially the implementation of a combo system to shake things up, is that too much to ask? Word is that Skyrim will have autonomous hands (ie dual weapons, dual spells, spell and weapon, spell and shield, like Bioshock 2’s weapon/plasmid system) so hopefully that will make things smoother.

And now we come to the part I’ve been avoiding. Repetition. The world of Oblivion is massive and littered with dungeons, caves, ruins and old forts filled with treasure just waiting to be explored. So why, oh why, oh why, must every cave look the same? That’s not déjà vu you’re feeling, you really have walked through this room a hundred times before, only last time there was a skeleton of a trap here. They all look the same, they all function the same, they are all littered with pointless, easy to avoid traps and a bunch of random enemies. If the random loot wasn’t so interesting and useful, we wouldn’t bother. The exterior is an improvement, but not by much. There are three areas: forest, swamp, snowy mountain. That is all. The cities are uninspired, and whilst they are brimming with life, they still feel empty. The radiant AI system is clever, but still has some kinks that need ironing out. I won’t go into them, I’ll let you discover them for yourselves.

So here’s the wrap up:
Character customisation – deep, but trial and error
Combat – clever idea but badly implemented
Exploration – huge world, but filled with cookie cutter boring dungeons
So a mixed bag on the gameplay front.

Graphics

The graphics engine is nice, but surprisingly system intensive for its age. My top of the line system struggles to get it above 30FPS at during exploration and combat. Granted I’m running at 1920x1080 HDR all settings Ultra, but still, the character models are bland and sometimes downright awful. The environment is gorgeous however, but has a lot of pop-in, if that sort of thing bothers you. Also, the HDR isn’t very well implemented. I ended up putting the Natural Weather and Environments mod on, which utilizes the HDR a lot more and makes the gorgeous. Seriously, watch out for some screenshots of sunsets. Unbelievable. My biggest two complaints about the graphics either aren’t the usual ones.

Firstly, why let us spend so much time crafting our character’s features if the only time we ever get to see them is on the inventory screen? Seriously, the camera in TP mode stays behind the character at all times. I want to admire my character, not stare at their arse the whole time. Their square blocky arse. Shudder.

Secondly, third person mode. Why? One or the other. Don’t include it if it doesn’t work. Sure it’s nice to check out the armour, but we can do that in inventory if we want to. It doesn’t work in combat, or at all really. It gets stuck all the time indoors, it’s clunky and unresponsive and only serves to further show off the god awful animations. No Bethesda. Fix it, or ditch it. Games like Hitman have successfully implemented the TP/FP system by creating the game as a TPS, then adding FPS options. And that’s how you have to do it. You can’t make a first person game and then just stick the camera behind the character, it doesn’t work. Ok, rant over.

Grahpics:
Environment – god, but use Natural Environments mod. Seriously, do it.
Characters – yuck. Just…no. Bad animations, bland features, just no.
Third person camera – fix or ditch. Do it.
And just quickly, let’s see some more flashy magic in Skyrim, please? I want my fireballs to blow shit up, not just be a pissy little ball of red. I want to shatter frozen enemies. After playing games like Dragon Age and Final Fantasy XIII, I have high expectations of magic in RPGs.

Sound

Oh thank you. The sound is brilliant. The soundtrack is gorgeous and soaring and even at its most repetitive, I didn’t mind. The soaring orchestral soundtrack provided me comfort as I road through the endless open fields on my horse. It’s like the companion you never get. The sound effects are the usual fantasy affair, but are done well. Spell sounds are again a little weak though.

Voice acting is very good, but inconsistent. There is only a small cast, one voice actor for the male and female of each race. Oh and Patrick Stewart, who lasts about five minutes. And Sean Bean. The problem with the voice acting is difficult to explain, so I’ll give you an example. In your journeys you will meet many beggars. They all speak like weak old people. However, if you choose the Rumor dialogue option, they will deliver a stock rumour, in the usual character voice, before returning to their weak beggar voice. It is, jarring, to say the least. Also a guard might call out a random friendly greeting, but upon talking to him, he will arrest you for a crime you did forever ago and forgot about. It’s just, inconsistent. And the random character chatter is really forced and awful. And due to the random nature, often complete nonsense. Whilst it does often reveal side quests, it has little value and can sometimes result in about ten characters all talking to each other at once.

In conclusion, the soundtrack is awesome, sound effects are ok, but the voice acting needs consistency and variation. Bigger cast. Don’t waste your money on big stars we don’t need, just give us a hundred randoms.

The Verdict

Well you did it, you made it to the end. I’m sorry it’s so big, but Oblivion is huge. I’ve poured over a hundred hours in to it already and I’ve maybe done a third of the quests and discovered and tenth of the world. However, my time with Oblivion has reached its conclusion, I grew bored. I am now playing the total conversion mod Nehrim, which I will review soon. Look, all I can say is if you’ve never played this sort of game before, this is a great place to start. I was caught up in the awesomeness of it all for at least 60 of those 100 hours I did not notice a single flaw. If you are a fan of Elder Scrolls, then you’ll love this. I think. However, if you’re an RPG veteran, you might want to miss this one. Go for Risen, or the Gothic Series. But you guys already know where to look.

Summing Up:

Story – 2/10
Not really one to speak off, but it does allow a lot of freedom.
Gameplay – 7/10
So many great ideas, but sloppy execution, repetition and bugs drive the mark down. Lots of replayability and customisation options.
Graphics – 5/10
Great environments, but they lack variety. Third person camera completely broken. Horrible character models and animations.
Sound – 8/10
Gorgeous soundtrack, ok sound effects and great, if limited and unreliable, voice acting.
Overall – 5.5/10
A flawed game, filled with so many incredible ideas but let down by sloppy presentation and bad design choices. Still worth checking out though, there is a lot of fun to be had here. Maybe a rent first, see if it’s your thing. I played the Game of the Year version which includes a tonne of DLC, a lot of which are great additions. It’s worth checking out.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Splice Review

It's been a long time since I've been really excited about a new movie. But when I heard of Vincenzo Natali's new film, Splice, I got all jittery. Being a huge fan of Natali's previous work with Cube and it's Kafkaesque psycho-horror and Cypher with it's twisted Sci-Fi paradoxes, the idea of a new sci-fi horror from the master is enough to get me baying at the leash. And after finally getting the blu-ray release, I have to say: I was not disappointed. This is a fantastic, surprisingly deep, intelligent, moving and ultimately terrifying experience.

The basic premise of Splice focuses on Clive and Else (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley), gene-splicing's "rock star" couple. After just inventing Fred and Ginger, two organism engineered to create cures in livestock, they are pushing management for the opportunity to create the first human-animal hybrid. Of course, management denies, pushing for more revenue. They close down the gene splicing lab and turn it into a chemical manufacturing plant, leaving Clive and Elsa frustrated and rebellious. So they do what any good scientist does and create a human chimera anyway. What Splice does that is so different to any other genetically engineered monster movie is it looks for the humanity, not only within the "monster" but within it's creators. Natali uses the creature, Dren (Delphine Chaneac), as a kind of mirror on humanity, revealing our greatest flaws and triumphs within one innocent creature. The horror, funnily enough, does not come from the creature, but from the humans, as the relationship between creator and creation shifts through some horrifying aspects, from Elsa's maternal instincts to Clive unhealthy affection. To say anymore would be to ruin the best surprises. While the script is fantastic, the ending does leave a bit of a bad taste in your mouth, although there really doesn't seem any other way he could have ended it, it's still a little disappointing.

The performances, however, especially those of the three protagonists, are briliant. Brody, as always, provides a heavily nuanced performance, showing once again he is not out of home anywhere on film. Polley's Elsa at time feels a little forced and underdeveloped, but that is as much the scripts fault as Polley's performance. The real star of the show, though, is Delphine's Dren. She finds such innocence and humanity in this creature. A kind of isolation and confusion, that feeling of being alone in the universe, the only one of her kind and just trying to find somewhere to fit in. The rapid aging of Dren means she is a perpetual child, trapped within an adult's body and Delphine brings such nuance to the creature that she is often more believable than her human counterparts. Unfortunately, the supporting cast is underacted and underwritten, but in the end, this is Dren's story, wo it doesn't matter too much.

The sound is for the most part forgettable. The score is well written and suitable, but nothing overly memorable. The audio is clear and well mixed, especially on Blu Ray.

From the moment the enigmatic opening titles roll, you realise that you are in for something completely unique with Spliec, and that's what you get. It's not perfect, but yet again Natali as created a unique masterpiece in a world so full of imitation. This is a brave piece, a bold vision, a shocking vision even, made more terrifying but just how close it cuts to home. If you're a Natali fan, a sci fi fan, a horror fan, or you just like a good movie; this is the film for you. Unique, brilliant and terrifying, Splice is a must-see.

MUST SEE

Saturday, January 8, 2011

The Grand Theft Auto Rant

WARNING: Contains nostalagia, unfounded claims, hyperbole, over-opinionated ranting and strong language. Rockstar Games does not support, encourage nor condone the activities contained within.

I don't know about you, but I clearly remember the very first time I picked up a Grand Theft Auto game. In my case, this game was San Andreas on the PS2. Thus began an endless quest for completion through one of the most fun and rewarding games I have played to this day. And what mde it so fun? It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. The world was yours, a massive sprawling world filled with life an colour and just limitless stuff to do. The story was incredible, insane and never once took itself seriously. You were CJ, an ex-con, runaway who returns to his home city of Los Santos (medeled brilliantly after LA) after his "moms" is, um, put down. And what starts out as a simple goal to reunite your family and reclaim your 'hood soon leads to a madcap adventure filled with daring casino robberies, secret army base break ins, weed burning, skydiving, and just about every other bit of insanity you could think of. And though I never made it all the way to the end, I still feel bad about not completing the game and recently purchased the PC version to try again. Oh and did I mention it has Samuel "Motherfucking" Jackson? and James Woods? Seriously, every moment spent with Woods' Torino is gaming gold. It will never be beaten. Also, Peter Fonda's drugged out conspiracy freak the Truth is epic, too. Oh hell, it's all epic. Wu Zi, the blind leader of the chinatown gang who drives like a sun of a bitch, OG Loc, the failed gangsta rapper who can't catch a break. I could go on, but I digress...

San Andreas lead to Vice City, which nearly beat San Andreas with it's brilliant cast of characters and incredible story and location. And GTA3, which I never really got into.

Anyway, all this leads up to my recent purchase of GTAIV. After hearing so much hype about the game, the perfect 10s, blah blah blah I figured this just might be the game to knock SA of it's pedastal. And from the moment I picked it up, I really had my hopes up. The story was so interesting and unique, the game looked and ran incredibly, the new cover system was interesting and the characters were really well developed. And then the tedium began. The never ending sameness of the missions. Get a car, drive here, kill some guy, leave. Go to start a mission, something goes wrong, kill some guys, escape the cops, leave. Go somewhere, kill heaps of guys, escape from the cops, leave. It never ended. The only thing keeping it mildly worth playing were the characters and story, especially Niko's plight. You couldn't help but care. But then, the greatest tragedy of all, the story vanished. All of a sudden, for hours upon hours of samey quests, there was no story. It was just, go to this guy, get a mission, with no reward but some money which you always have an infinite supply of because there's so little to buy. And then you realise that the city, for all it's size and glamour, is empty. Looking at the map that came with my package I saw a few icons spread out across a huge sea of nothingness. I felt betrayed. So after a hard a few more hours of boredom, I gave up and packed it away.

However, on a whim I put in The Ballad of Gay Tony and discovered everything I've been missing, so I'm hoping, oh god am I hoping, that this is not a tease and that I can soon have a review stripping SA of it's hard earned crown. If anyone has played this game, or disagrees with me, please, leave your comments either here or on my soon to be uploaded rant video at youtube.com/youreviewau.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Crysis Review

Computer Specs:
ASUS G73JW
Intel Core i7-740QM, 1.73GHz
nVIDIA GeForce GTX460M 1.5GB
WIN7 Premium
17.3” FHD Display
8GB DDR5 RAM

Game Specs:
1600x1024
All settings High
No AA
~30-45FPS

Introduction

Well after spoiling myself with a new laptop, I figured it was time to really put it to the test. So here it is; my review of EA and Crytek’s Crysis. Is it more than just a pretty face? Let’s find out.

Story

Crysis, like Crytek’s previous offering Far Cry, takes place entirely on a fictional island in the middle of the ocean. You are Nomad, a member of an elite SpecOps team on a mission to liberate a group of archaeologists after the North Koreans take over the entire island. Exactly why the North Koreans invade and not another country is never really specified, though I guess if you’re going to pick an evil Asian nation, North Korea is on top of the list. Anyway, from the minute you arrive on the island you realise something strange is afoot as bother your team and the Koreans are being picked off by something unseen. Something huge. Something…alien.

All in all I really enjoyed Crysis’ story. It’s told in a very non-invasive manner using both interactive and noninteractive first person cutscenes. The pacing of the game is balanced perfectly, the start is more cerebral, focusing on large open areas with smaller amounts of enemies, while the end levels ramp up the intensity, taking you from one insane battle to the next. While the story isn’t anything new or fantastic, I really enjoyed it and found myself interested in what was going to happen. The cliffhanger ending is brilliant, too. Unfortunately, it is a little on the short side, the whole campaign took me less than 8 hours on normal, but there is a lot of replayability options.

Gameplay

Here is where Crysis really excels. Gameplay. Like Far Cry before it, it’s all about the freedom. But Far Cry feels merely like Crysis BETA. The game is sandbox to a fault. It’s not free roam like GTA or Just Cuase, the entire island is not available to you, you are limited to levels. However, the levels are massive, offering countless gameplay possibilities and scenarios, greatly encouraging strategy and replayability. Heightening this freedom is the NanoSuit. As a super-secret badass soldier, you are of course equipped with the latest and greatest tec. This includes the NanoSuit, a suit that basically turns you into a one man fighting machine. The NanoSuit has four settings: Maximum Armour, Maximum Speed, Maximum Strength and Cloak. Maximum Armour is the default setting ad absorbs bulletfire until the power runs out, very useful in firefights and surviving falls and explosions. Maximum Speed increases your movement speed and allows you to unleash a short super sprint. It’s mainly used for environmental transversal and for escaping hairy situations. Maximum Strength allows you to jump really high, break down doors and walls and pick guys up and throw them around like paper dolls. That’s right, pick them up and throw them. It’s just as fun as it sounds. Maximum Strength is a lot of fun when you get the chance to use it in combat, but outside it’s mainly used for the occasional environmental puzzle like a jammed door or high jump. And finally, my favourite, Cloak. Cloak allows you to turn invisible for a short time. Firing a weapon instantly disables it, whilst running and sprinting saps the power really quickly, but nothing beats the feeling of stalking a patrol through the jungle, picking them off one by one as they run around, desperately firing into the trees. Or sneaking up behind a group, switching to Maximum Strength, grabbing the guy at the back and throwing him into his three mates, killing them all. The possibilities are endless. There’s even a tank and airplane level later in the game, just to shake things up.

Of course, all this freedom would mean nothing if the AI sucked. Thankfully, it doesn’t. Dare I say it; this is the best AI since Half Life. The soldiers react exactly how you would expect. They’ll call in reinforcement under fire, use cover, hide in the environment, split up and flank you, switch to melee if you get too close, they even react like human beings when one of their guys mysteriously winds up dead. Occasionally they get stuck on environments, or spot you behind a tree or through thick grass, but for the most part, the AI never feels cheap or broken. Even the friendly AI is useful. The grunt soldiers are pretty hopeless, but your SpecOps members will blow the shit out of anyone who messes with them, just like badass soldiers do.

Graphics

Ah yes, graphics. It really doesn’t need to be said that despite being over three years old, Crysis is still one of the best looking games available, period. The environments are gorgeous and realistically destructible, the lighting effects stunning, the character design almost human, the water effects glorious etc etc. Also, a lot of love for the alien design. The romp through the alien ship is one of the best parts of the whole game, the design is simultaneously organic and metallic. Truly wonderful and it extends to the creature design too.

Unfortunately, it really isn’t refined very well. I had a lot of trouble getting a consistent framerate. It was consistently above 30fps, but no matter what I did, it flailed between 30 and 40 for no reason, which can make the picture really jumpy. There were occasional pauses and frame rate hitches, too, mainly during heavy combat. It’s a testament to just how much of a system hog this beast is that 3 years later it still rapes your computer.

Sound

The voice acting and sound effects in Crysis are stunning. The guns sound sufficiently powerful, the explosions will rock your world if you’re too close, the enemies (at least at Delta difficulty) chatter away in their native tongue and the voice acting for the most part avoids the usual clichéd supersoldier bullshit. Credit should be given to our own Claudia Black (who voiced Nate’s other love interest in Uncharted 2) as Helena Rosenthal, giving a real believability to her unfortunately underused role. Nomad’s voiceovers are great, too. They are very realistic and never interject where they shouldn’t be. His running commentary during the alien spaceship is wonderful. Unfortunately, some of the characters, like the Admiral, fall into the cliché bin, but you forgive that by the end. He gets what he deserves.

Final Impressions

If you’ve got the hardware to support it and are in any way a fan of Sci-Fi FPS, then you should definitely play this game. I got the entire Crysis bundle for $5 on Steam, so it’s not going to put a hole in your budget. What few flaws it has, it makes up for by making you feel like a total badass, giving you unrivalled freedom to play the game your way, and never failing to blow your freaking mid. Seriously, my favourite moments: the sunrise as you reach the top of the hill on the first level and look out onto the beach, the alien spaceship, and the final battle on the aircraft carrier.

Seriously, you’d be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t get this game. So stop reading and go get it. Go.

Story: 8
A few clichéd elements and the relative short length let you down in the end, but the pacing is superb.
Gameplay: 10
Unrivalled freedom, brilliant AI, massive levels, awesome weapons and the NanoSuit. Just badass.
Graphics: 9
Serious machine hog and lack of optimisation mar how perfect this game looks.
Sound: 9
Some clichéd voice acting and blah music, but the sound effects are awesome
Overall: 9/10
Buy it, rent it, steal it, whatever. Just play this game!