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Crysis 2 (PS3)
by The_Baron
You'll probably be most impressed with the graphics; it's how you imagined a shooter would look in the future when the PS3 was first released and you had to wait a while before you got it. This is how Crysis 2 looks, the graphics are defined, textures realistic and it looks like a true sci-fi game without being too cartoonish. Becoming ... invisible doesn't seem out of place, you feel more like Predator. Some of the dynamics can look a little unrealistic, like when you knock enemies across the map, but the detail of the enemies themselves, and how genuinely fun it is, makes this forgivable. The areas in both campaign and online are huge and varied, alien spaceships, destroyed buildings, muddy war zones, crumbling highways; these might sound very typical, but the size of the map, detail and realism make it look unlike any other FPS around. The facial movements aren't up to par with L.A Noire, but they still move realistically and add to the realistic feeling the game has amongst impossible feats and deformed aliens.
Graphics: 9.5/10
Much of the environment is interactable too; you can shove cars into enemies, climb in a couple tanks and of course there's the archetypal big red explosive barrels conveniently placed in the middle of every massive gun-fight, which no shooter is complete without. Your suit has two main functions to give you a big advantage: Armour and Stealth. A button press either makes you invisible for a limited time (for stealth kills, sneaking around or pu**ying out like a coward) or extra protected (for intense battles, falling big heights or pu**ying out like a coward). The shooting itself is pretty standard for a shooter, but the ability to barge through enemies, sneak around them, punch them to death in one hit make gameplay a lot more interesting. The guns are also highly original, sniper rifles, magnum revolvers, pistols, assault rifles, light machine guns, sub-machine guns, shotguns, rocket launchers are all based on modern weapons and tweaked to make them more effective and futuristic. One smg fires faster than any contemporary weapon could, the revolver can break through enemy armour in one shot and so on. The aforementioned level maps make the fighting a lot more interesting and your two types of enemy are human soldiers and jelly-based alien monsters, which often use large mechanical vehicles to fight you with.
Gameplay 8.5/10
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Mass Effect 3 (PS3)
by Hannard
It's Massive! It's Effective! It's... pretty clear I've got no idea how to start this review. Nevertheless, Mass Effect 3 is upon us, after being pushed back a good six months to the disappointment of many fans. But was it worth the wait? Yes, if you don't count the ending.. but more on that later. Mass Effect 3 takes place in a ... universe populated by a variety of alien species and, somewhat surprisingly, doesn't rip off Star Wars or Star Trek. While both Mass Effect 1 and 2 had their own storylines, the trilogy's overarching plot involves 'The Reapers', a race of gigantic sentient machines who apparently purge the galaxy of life every 30,000 years or so. And wouldn't you know it, 30,000 years is almost up. It's up to you, as space hero or heroine Commander Shephard - the game lets you determine your character's sex - to save the day.
Although you're not really in a position to do much as the game starts, however, since you've had your ship and crew taken away from you because you piloted an asteroid into a gigantic Mass Relay space-doohickey in order to stop the Reapers arriving even earlier. What, you don't remember that? Even though you played both Mass Effect 1 and 2? That's because said events happened in Arrival, a piece of chargeable downloadable content for Mass Effect 2. It's a bit odd - and cheeky - to have the game reference a piece of content you have to fork out for. And BioWare, the creators of Mass Effect, have outdone themselves as well, since there's another piece of downloadable content available for the game on day one. It's not all that great, though, so you can happily live without it.
In fact, you don't need to have played ME1 or ME2 to enjoy Mass Effect 3, since the game has a 'codex' system which fills you in on some of the game's characters. Though it does increase the emotional impact of some of the deaths in the game. Yes, deaths. Mass Effect 3 is very apocalyptic in tone since, within the game's first few minutes you discover the Reapers have begun their assault upon not only Earth but the galaxy as a whole. And so you hop on your ship in an attempt to gather the galaxy's species together in order to see the Reapers off. What this really entails is roaming around, mostly on foot, shooting anything that moves. And punching anything that doesn't. There are also a few moral choices to make as well, though the shooting generally comes first.
You're not alone, however, and you have five or six other squad-mates who can assist you, up to two of them able to accompany you at the same time. Your character can be a tech-expert, a super psychic bad-ass or a soldier type and the non-player characters have similar predilictions so it's a good idea to put a squad together that includes someone from all three camps. You can't just run in guns blazing - unless you've got the game set on the easiest difficulty level - instead you generally duck behind cover, fire a few shots and proceed. It's a little like Gears of War - and is also viewed from a third person perspective - except without the obvious steroid use.
While the game has you in command of a space-ship, there's surprisingly no ship to ship combat outside of the game's admittedly impressive cutscenes. But your ship does let you go on a variety of side-missions to help bolster the war effort. The game's main missions are, however, a tad linear in that they have to be tackled in one specific order. Mass Effect 2, on the other hand, let you complete the main missions in whatever order you liked. However Mass Effect 3 does pit you against a far wider variety of enemies than either of the previous games did which is a bonus. And the game's graphics are a little bit better than they were in ME1 and 2 as well - although be warned that the PS3 version of the game doesn't run quite as smoothly as the PC or 360 versions do, which is a bit frustrating at times.
Mass Effect 3 is essentially a shoot-em-up with RPG elements and as such it's a hell of a lot of fun to play. Aside from looking and sounding good - even though this game has a new music composer - it's one of the most emotionally engaging games I've played in ages. You really can see the galaxy going to hell as the Reapers start laying waste to everything. The last hour or so of the game, however, does disappoint a little. Fans of the Mass Effect series have been up in arms about the ending and if you just happened to watch the ending on Youtube or something, you might wonder what their problem was? I'll tell you.
The moral decisions you made in Mass Effect 1 and 2 weren't always clear cut - you rarely got to be good or evil - and your actions carried over to the next game. Similarly, Mass Effect 3 will import your previously saved game and change the game a little accordingly. However, when it comes to the game's ending, none of the decisions you made mean a damn. The ending itself isn't terrible, but you're basically offered three decisions, none of which are very appealing and your decisions in previous games have next to no effect on them. Given that Bioware has been reminding people to keep their old saved games, it seems like a bit of a cop out.
That said, Mass Effect 3 is still a good game and is one of the most epic RPGs out there and thankfully doesn't involve trolls, dwarves, elves or Jedi. If you're a sci-fi or RPG fan or are just looking for a game that'll keep you playing for a long time, then Mass Effect 3 is worth checking out. Is it worth buying? Probably not since no matter what you do the ending options don't change and it's currently only available at full price - it's worth definitely worth renting though. And you should perhaps consider a purchase when it's inevitably dropped to £19.99 in a couple of months time.
(review also posted on Freeola - I've given this three stars though it really deserves three and a half)
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