Game review: Borderlands 2

Make yourself comfortable as you once again take stride as a vault hunter on the planet Pandora, where you will kill, loot, purchase and sell, loot, chase and be chased by Handsome Jack and his minions, loot, and blow shit up! …and loot. Oh, and did I mention loot. LOOT!

Yes, Borderlands is back, in its entire looting and gun-crazy splendor! It's been 5 years since the end of the last game and in that time, a certain joke-cracking villain (who constantly refer himself as the hero) by the name Handsome Jack has appeared. He became super-duper rich by mining the strange mineral known as eridium that poured out of the planet when the vault opened at the end of the previous game. He has then used that fortune to make himself head of the Hyperion corporation and has been up to all kinds villainy and whatnot.

The game opens with an intro video introducing the four playable character types: Gunzerker, Commando, Siren, and Assassin chasing Jack, and gets blown up in the process. As you start playing, the hilariously irritating little robot Cl4p Trap finds you in the snow and “helps” you out in the beginning.

From there on out it’s a never ending barrage of killing and looting as you try to find and stop Handsome Jack.

Just started (sort of): Dragon Age II

I didn't really like Dragon Age: Origins - And yet I've started playing the sequel. Bad move.

Ok, technically I haven't "just started" playing Dragon Age II. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm over the halfway point. But I figured that I should at least make a post saying that I am in fact playing it. A big reason as to why I want to state that I'm playing it is because it has been eating up a whole lot of my time. Time better spent elsewhere to be honest. Mainly because I have so damn much I SHOULD do. Like watching anime, writing reviews, studying for my C# class, continue studying C++ or for the CCENT, or looking for actual work.

But no, instead of doing any those actually important and useful things I'm playing this mediocre RPG. So why do I do it even though I think it's mediocre? Because one thing it has gotten right is the addictive aspect. It's easy to think "I can play a little while longer" every time I beat a group of enemies or finish a quest - even if I didn't really enjoy doing those things. This is what I like to call "braindead gaming".

However, I'm not sure wether it's better or worse than Dragon Age: Origins yet.

Game review: Bayonetta (Xbox 360)

Killing angels have never felt - and looked so good!

Bayonetta is a third person shooter centering around a sexy four-gun wielding witch named Bayonetta who spends her days killing all kinds of angels in the most stylish manners.

What did I expect from Bayonetta before I began playing it?

I had heard that the game's pace was very fast, the visuals were cool and the heroine - Bayonetta herself was smokin' hot. That's about it.

Did it deliver on these aspects? Hell yeah it did! That and more!

One thing I hadn't heard about it that I love is the immensely entertaining "combo fighting style" the game uses, which I consider to be a mix of a fighting game and a hack n' slash. Or maybe most hack n' slash - like God of War and Devil May Cry - are like this. I haven't played many games in this genre. But if they're like Bayonetta, then consider me a future fan of those two franchises :)

Dishonored live preview

I'm watching a live streaming preview of the first-person stealth assassin game Dishonored at gamespot.com.

I have read a few articles about Dishonored in LEVEL (a Swedish gaming magazine), and from those articles, it seemed like a pretty badass game. My impression of it has only strengthened from watching bits of this preview. Generally I'm not too fond of sneaking games. I did somewhat enjoy Deus Ex: Human Revolutions - which I stealthed myself through. But besides that one... nah.
Dishonored however looks really fun, intense and challenging. I am definitely going to play this (although it's gonna be a while until I do that because of othergames I still haven't played) when I get the chance.

Just started: Bayonetta

I recently started playing Bayonetta - the game where you're a witch (who is a total babe) that hunt angels and demons. 

What I had heard about it before I started playing it was that it was a very high-paced and stylistic action game. That description is completely spot on! The story and characters may not be anything to cheer for. But the game oozes style from every part of it's being. And the speedy arcade style battles are furiously entertaining and addictive. Despite that I've only played through four chapters so far, my need to improve my own score and increase my halos (the game's currency) has gotten me to re-play those chapters several times.

I just hope that I won't get sick of this game before it ends. But right now I absolutely love this game!

Game review: Timeshift (Xbox 360)

Despite being quite entertaining, it was quite bland and forgettable. You'd think that wouldn't be the case with a FPS shooter whose game play centers around bending time to your will, but unfortunately it is. However, it was not only bland, it was also a bit of a copycat. The main character is a "silent type" hero who's a physicist that a lot of the time dukes it out in a repressed modern city where the antagonistic ruler appears on huge monitors throughout the city babbling about various stuff.

Sound familiar much?

Unlike the struggles of Gordon Freeman, the story and characters here were completely boring and uninteresting. Hell, they're practically nonexistent. Even though I played through the entire game sober ( which wasn't the case with games such as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Fable II) I had no idea who the antagonistic was or what he was after. There wasn't a single character in the entire game I can with clear conscious call an actual character. Not even the playable protagonist. That can't simply be filed under lazy writing. No, it's so much more than that. That's either incompetence or the creators just didn't care. Personally, I believe it's the latter, because there didn't even seem to be any attempt at it. They only seemed to care about making a fast paced shooter with cool time altering abilities. And in that regard they... somewhat succeeded. I say somewhat because while it was pretty entertaining, I can't help but feel that they could have done so much more with their set up. For instance some more difficult puzzles or battles which would require some strategic thinking. Unfortunately, there wasn't any of that in this game, resulting in an overall mediocre experience.

If you're interested in this game, then my advice is to leave your brain at the door and just enjoy blasting some soldiers in slow motion or completely frozen time.

5/9