Borderlands-PC Review

OMG!! 87 BAZILLION GUNS...???? IS IT REALLY TRUE?? FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF.

As the first title in an all-new sci-fi action franchise, Borderlands combines the best elements of Gearbox Software's first-person action titles with player customisation and vehicular combat. Borderlands features a unique content generation system allowing for near-endless variety in missions, environments, enemies, weapons, item drops and character customisation. Borderlands is a cooperative experience, allowing for multiple players to share the same game experience simultaneously online. Players can freely join or leave each other’s games at anytime, or choose to play in the full single-player mode. Borderlands features life-like character animations, impressive real-time physics, and customisable vehicles.


Presentation

Stunning Visuals

The world of Pandora combines cartoon like art visuals and distant environments look stunning and amazing. It has a dusty, run-down feel, yet it manages to be vibrant and eye-catching at the same time. The art style features black-line borders and a colourful palette that give the game a not-quite-comic, not-quite-cel-shaded look.well it certainly leaves a memory for us to remember.

Eye catching 

About the game
On the hostile, bandit-ridden planet of Pandora, there is one thing that draws off-world attention: The Vault. This mysterious alien structure is rumoured to hold treasures of fantastic power and wealth, and so it attracts fortune-seeking corporations and individuals alike. In Borderlands, you are one such individual, but the satisfaction of unlocking the Vault's secrets pales in comparison to the rollicking good time you'll have on your way there. Borderlands is all about the journey, not the destination, and like most trips, this one is much better when you have some friends along for the ride.


You'll start out with rusty weapons that look as though they've spent a better part of their existence at the bottom of a bog and it won't be long until you find new weapons that not only look better but have improved functionality. As you progress through the game you'll find shotguns, sniper rifles, submachine guns, handguns, and rocket launchers that glow with elemental effects like fire and lightning and can eat enemies alive with corrosive effects or hit with such an impact that it pulps a target into a gruesome mess. There are even more bizarre and powerful alien weapons towards the later stages. Moreover, as you use a weapon, you'll become more proficient with it, further enhancing the sense that your character is gradually but inevitably becoming a ferocious fighter who can shoot, shatter, and burn all obstacles in the way. 


Well what is borderlands? Its RPG combined with FPS. Ha ha isn't it fun? In Borderlands players take on the role of one of four characters who, like many others, have come to Pandora searching for, among other things, the riches rumoured to be in the Vault. Before trying to attempt this however, they'll first need to pick up some weapons, equipment, and most importantly experience. Labelled by developer Gearbox Software and a Role Playing Shooter, Borderlands contains all the hallmarks of a first person shooter with in-depth role playing elements. This includes experience, levelling, skills, and abilities that enables the player to customise the characters to their liking. The gamble to add this much RPG elements to a FPS pays off and works excellent without sacrificing the action packed nature of a FPS.


Cast of characters
There are four different characters to choose from in Borderlands, each with their own set of skill and abilities that can be mixed and matched to provide a level of character customisation seen mostly in computer RPGs. (hence the labelling of the game as a Role Playing Shooter). Each of the four characters also has their own unique back story and three skill trees to choose from. Borderlands even allows you to reallocate your skill points if you're character isn't turning out how you envisioned.
The four characters include Lilith "The Siren", Mordecai "The Hunter", Brick, and Roland "The Soldier". Each character has their unique strengths and weaknesses but for the most part the skills and abilities surround one basic premise. To cause damage.


What about the enemies in borderlands?

Having some friends on your side makes things a lot more pleasant, given that about 99 percent of life on Pandora is your enemy. Human enemies range from bandits that are smart enough to wear shields and take cover to psychos that light themselves on fire and sprint toward you, screaming about rending your flesh from your bones(ha ha). The local wildlife is universally hostile and includes skags (toothy dog-beasts), spiderants (armoured insect monsters), rakks (raggedy death bats), and scythids (wriggling prehistoric grubs). Like guns like enemies.in borderlands you come across varying type of enemies.each time you return back to the same place you encounter a different type of enemy( i mean you face a more skilled enemy) Every type of enemy appears in various incarnations, ranging from young and weak to badass and on fire. These variations are generated anew during each encounter, so even when you kill a clutch of enemies in that same gully for the fourth time, it will be a different bad-guy load out. 
You'll fight hundreds of each enemy type throughout the game, and the fact that groups are varied goes a long way toward staving off repetition. The two-seater vehicles also offer some locomotive variety, and many of the areas are much more fun to traverse on four wheels than on two legs. You can conjure the lone vehicle type from the many Catch-a-Ride stations. The touchy handling takes some getting used to, and you can run into some exaggerated physics problems when crashing into rocks. However, there's nothing quite like vehicular homicide to stave off bandit-killing fatigue. In or out of a vehicle, the simple act of killing enemies is pretty fun, and since you're constantly reaping loot and experience rewards, even repeated encounters have some incentive attached to them.
I felt the presentation of bosses really different and funny ha ha.
There’s a core campaign which is playable in single player and in co-op. It's fully open to exploration and bespeaks a design that fluctuates between preferring the single player and multiplayer approach. Huge portions of the game are as straight and narrow as a state border, allowing very little variation in a co-op approach, while some battles are difficult enough to almost require a second, third or fourth player.


Character abilities
The most important difference between characters is the action skill, which is a special ability that can give you an edge in combat. The Hunter can release a vicious bird of prey, the Soldier can throw down an automatic turret flanked by shields, the Siren can turn invisible and speedy, damaging all enemies in the vicinity, and the Berserker flies into a damage-resistant rage and delivers brutal punches to his enemies. You unlock these abilities after playing for a short while, and not only are they all fun to use, but each one can be customised in a couple of strategically distinct ways. You can tweak and upgrade your ability by investing skill points in appropriate skills. So, for example, upgrading the Hunter's bird of prey not only can increase the amount of damage it does, but can make it attack multiple targets, steal health from them, slow them down for easy sniping, and cause them to drop more loot. Expanding your action skill makes you more deadly in combat, and it's one of the most rewarding parts of leveling up. Killing enemies, finishing quests, and completing in-game bonus challenges earn you experience points, which in turn earn you a new level. Leveling up boosts your overall fortitude and grants you a precious skill point to use however you see fit.


You can also spend your skill points on other improvements, and each character has three different skill trees that highlight different tactics and abilities. So the Soldier can essentially become the team medic by developing the skills that allow him to shoot teammates to regenerate their health and that make his turret create a healing radius. Or he could choose to become more deadly, increasing his turret damage and combat rifle performance. Though your weapon proficiency improves based on how much you use a given weapon type, different characters have skills that favour different types of guns, so it's to your advantage to play to your character's strengths. The Berserker can certainly become proficient with the sniper rifle, but his melee-focused action skill and preference for rocket launchers make him a better choice for wading into the fray. Though the branching skill trees offer intriguing ways to specialise, your initial character choice has the biggest impact on how you'll go through the game. Fortunately, each character is fun and deadly in his own way, so you can't choose poorly, and you'll probably want to experience what each one has to offer. Playing cooperatively allows you to enjoy and benefit from the other characters' abilities, something you don't get to appreciate when playing solo, unless you start a new game.

Boss Fight

Expanding your abilities and leveling up is one of the main ways that Borderlands consistently rewards you. Loot is another. Loot can be found in containers, dropped by enemies, or given to you as a quest reward. It includes money, ammo, shields, mods that boost and alter your grenades, mods that boost your skills, and, of course, guns. Guns are classified in familiar categories: pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, combat rifles, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, and so on. Each class feels distinct, and the shooting mechanics are well tuned and satisfying, which makes it fun to blast baddies. Base damage, clip size, fire rate, accuracy, and bullet spread are just some of the variables within each class, and some guns have more exotic features, like bladed pistols that increase melee damage or a shotgun that also shoots rockets. They can also do elemental damage, which comes in a variety of flavors that put a special kind of hurt on and can even do damage over time. Equip an incendiary gun if you want to burn flesh, or a corrosive gun if you want to deal extra damage to creatures with tough hides.


A real danger for this type of game is having all these items, all these methods of customisation, and all this content, and then giving you nothing interesting to shoot at. That's not the case with Borderlands. Amongst your enemies, you'll start off against basic bandits who shuffle between cover spots and fire back at you. Some larger bruisers are more aggressive and carry bigger weapons, and others charge directly at you, sometimes while on fire, to hit you with sharp, rusty weapons. Smaller bandits carry shotguns and get thrown onto their backs whenever they fire, some snipe from a distance, some have shields and others don't, and the way they all move around as fights progress keeps the action fluid, frantic and exciting. Occasionally you'll wind up in absurd situations where you're unloading a string of head shots while standing toe-to-toe with foes and still not bringing them down, but such is the nature of games that favour health bars over realism. 


Missions & Quests
The missions and side quests can be quite rewarding in Borderlands and allows characters to score all sorts of loot and weapons to help them accomplish the game's main objective. I was a little sceptical when reading the pre-release press about Borderlands and the "bazillion guns" available but after playing the game my scepticism was proved wrong as there's a virtual limitless supply of guns. Guns of all different shapes and sizes; scores of different pistols, machine guns, rifles, shotguns, bazookas that vary based on rate of fire, accuracy, damage and more.


While the missions and quests are fun to play through for the loot and experience that's earned, they do become somewhat repetitive. There's not a lot of variety and the technique of taking down certain enemies becomes second nature to the point where you feel like you're going through the motions just to get to the loot. With that said, Borderlands does a nice job of keeping the missions challenging enough by leveling up the creatures and encounters as your character increases in level and ability. The final mission and boss fight are a little disappointing and fairly easy to beat, but that should not leave you with a deflated feeling as the rest of the game is simply too much fun to think otherwise.
There's this something called fast travel. Using this you can travel from one part of the map to the other part of the map. Though this is quite useful and time saving,i couldn't help but notice there aren't many of these devices in the map. Man that can quite frustrating at times as you have to travel a lot in foot.
At times i found that in some places the vehicle station( where you can get vehicle from this location) are also quite scarce. Well if you like exploring and killing enemies to gain xp you might find it better to travel than go for ride.


Borderlands Co-op!

Multiplayer-Really an adventure....

Man, is this one of the best multiplayer i have ever played? WOW. In fact I feel one should play this game in co-op for maximum fun as it is meant to be played that way. While the single player campaign has the same storyline it's nice to be able to have a teammate there to back you up or help you on a tough mission. Also, being able to share in the experience of the game with others is sometimes half the fun. It's inevitable that there will be times when one player wants the same piece of loot. While there's nothing to stop anyone from just grabbing a piece of loot, there is nice a conflict resolution tool built into Borderlands that can be used to help mediate things. Players can enter an arena and fight it out in duel mini-game, with the winner taking the spoils, so to speak. Technically the duel doesn't force anyone to give up a piece of loot but it's nice to Honor the premise behind the system. The pleasing rhythm of killing enemies, gathering loot, and cashing in is punctuated by fighting bosses, completing quests, and leveling up. As a solo merc, this rhythm is slow and methodical, but as a team, the pace quickens to an invigorating clip and pretty soon you've spent hours having a riotously rewarding time.


In the multiplayer co-op mode up to four players can choose any one of the characters and play through the same single player campaign. Where you are in the story is driven by the person hosting the game, but experience, leveling, weapons and more transfer and are persistent back to the single player mode and other multiplayer co-op sessions. You don't have to worry about earning all these rewards in an online game only to have to re-earn them in another online session or single player. Bottom line. To cause damage.


Borderlands has so much to offer in terms of game play, rewarding missions, loot, and fun multiplayer that once you start playing you won't want to stop. The game's minor drawbacks of an underwhelming finish and the repetitive nature of some quests are only a minor bump in the road for a game that is going to rank up there with the year's best.


Why the anticipation and success?
It’s a co-op centric game. It has “87 bazillion guns”. Despite the comparisons to a Halo and Diablo, it's these statements which have really bought Borderlands oodles of anticipation. The game also provides other type of fun by having you to compete with your friend online or LAN gaming in places called arenas. It this where you can see who's best.


Final comments
Gearbox's Borderlands is without a doubt a slick, satisfying hybrid title for those who know what to expect. If you're a shooter fan curious what the world of Pandora is all about, then you should know that this is a product built on a foundation of statistical progression, character customisation, and one that holds item acquisition high above interesting quest structure and narrative. At the same time, it plays like a shooter, requiring twitch skills to dominate the droves of enemies that stand in between you and your search for a mysterious vault. With the opportunity for up to four to join together for co-operative play, four character classes, a dizzying array of firearms, around 20 or so hours of content for a single play through and the option to restart with stronger enemies and loot, there's plenty of content here.The game is very big in terms of map area and it can frustrating at times to travel to get to the destination. Though there is isn't much of a story you need to stitch the tid-bits of missions to understand what you are doing. 
Also i dint actually like the climax part( involves killing "The Destroyer"). If i may suggest some points to improve i really would like to have some story and also include many vehicle and weapons stations :P (i am just jokin). i would like to suggest more better and varied character skills as in here skills do match somewhat. Well one thing is for sure though this game has suffered some minor bugs or glitches in story/character development etc etc i found it exciting to play. It's a thoroughly enjoyable journey that offers a steady stream of rewards that remains convenient and accessible. It's something action role-playing game fans looking for an experience more up-close and brutal than genre entries of the third-person variety should have a blast with, and one of the more memorable products of 2009. Well what are you waiting for? Grab those tons of weapons and start shooting.....


My rating would be 9.0

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Devil May Cry 4-PC Review

Its Back....again..


Smashing demons with flashy, extended combo chains has been Devil May Cry's draw since the original came out on Sony's PlayStation 2 back in 2001. For any PC gamers out there, you probably haven't been following along since then. Devil May Cry 3 did come to the PC in 2006, but the game didn't exactly make a smooth transition to the platform. With Devil May Cry 4, which came out on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this past February, Capcom has done a much better job bringing the franchise's blistering action gameplay to PC with smooth graphical performance, a new difficulty setting, and a turbo mode to speed things up even more.


Gameplay
Gameplay in Devil May Cry 4 is similar to previous games in the series. The player must fight through levels called "missions", occasionally solving puzzles or gathering items.The game's overall structure isn't all that complicated. You walk into a room, the exits are blocked, and enemies spawn in. Your job is to use all available offensive options to deplete their health bars and snag the orbs that drop once they're vanquished. The higher the difficulty setting, the more damage they can absorb. Stringing together combos without taking damage, completing levels quickly, and snagging as many orbs as possible increases your score at the end of a level, giving you more points with which to buy additional moves and combos. 


Performance in a mission is graded from D being the bottom grade through C, B, A, and S being the highest grade. Grades are based on items used, Red Orbs gathered, time taken, and the amount of Style Points accumulated. Each Style Point grade has its own tag-word. The stylish grade shows up on the side of the screen and starts at "Deadly"(D); progresses through "Carnage"(C), "Brutal"(B), and "Atomic"(A); then, progresses through one last bar of grade containing the phrases "Smokin'"(S), "Smokin' Style"(SS), and lastly "Smokin' Sick Style"(SSS). Stylish combat is the main focus of the game, which is conveyed through unbroken combos of varied attacks while avoiding damage. The player must avoid enemy attacks to continue performing combos, often by memorising attack patterns.The Devil Trigger is a super state that enables the player to become more powerful adding a slow but steady health regeneration, with increased damage done. Devil Trigger can be activated by pressing the button to trigger it when the minimum amount on the gauge is filled.

Dante is back and is much tougher than before....

Some changes introduced into Devil May Cry 4 are the presence of two playable characters, Dante and Nero, and a slight modification to the shop system. A new currency, Proud Souls, is used to buy new abilities while Red Orbs are used to buy items. Proud Souls are rewarded at the end of missions and the amount varies depending on how well the player performed. Cost of abilities also increase with the purchase of other abilities, though all abilities can be sold back for the original price.


The player plays as Nero throughout most of the game. He starts and ends the game with his Red Queen sword, Blue Rose revolver, and the powers of his Devil Bringer (his demonic right arm). The Red Queen features an Exceed Gauge that can be charged up, allowing for subsequent attacks that are more powerful than regular slashes, until the gauge empties.
Nero also has the powers of his Devil Bringer, and can use it to pull himself towards enemies or vice-versa. The Devil Bringer may also be used for context-sensitive throw attacks, leading to high damage and various effects depending on the enemy.


The player plays as Dante through seven missions, taking over halfway through the game. His gameplay is similar to that of Devil May Cry 3, with him having access to multiple melee and ranged weapons which he gains after boss battles, and being able to cycle through them freely in combat, being no longer limited to equipping two weapons of each type as he was in the previous game. Dante also starts with his four styles (Trickster, Royal Guard, Sword Master, Gunslinger), each of which grants him different abilities. He also gains the Dark Slayer style near the end of his appearance. Styles must be upgraded like other skills in the shop screen in between missions or at statues. Dante can also enter Devil Trigger; in his Devil Trigger he gains most of the benefits that Nero's Devil Trigger has, though, as he does not have the Devil Bringer, he gets animation and property changes on some of his normal attacks instead.


Boss Fights

Berial Boss Fight.

To break up the routine slaying is the occasional boss fight and some light platforming and puzzle sequences, and not all of these work as well as the standard DMC monster killing action. While the boss encounters are entertaining and can vary depending on difficulty setting, with a few you wind up fighting the same creature three times, and considering they're all behaving according to pre-set patterns, the experience loses its appeal rather quickly. 


Fighting Dante is really tough and exciting. The puzzle sequences aren't all that complicated, but they are annoying in some cases (fountain maze, disappearing platform section, mist warping in the forest), preventing you for no good reason from engaging in the much more enjoyable combat. some times it becomes frustrating to solve puzzle and the scarecrows (which are the like pests) turning up can make you lose your patience. 


Nero over Dante
Nero plays quite a bit differently. Like Dante he brings swords and guns to battle, but his most unique feature is Devil Bringer, his glowing blue arm. With this thing he can snatch enemies from afar and perform powerful grab moves which differ depending on the enemy type. Standard scarecrow enemies are simply body-slammed but some, like the game's ice demons, are flung around and smashed into the ground several times, damaging others in the area and acting as a sort of impromptu shield.
Another technique useful for Nero is his sword's charge-up ability, called the Exceed system. By hitting the right button just after a sword swing you can increase the sword's damage output, and with the correct power-up you can even max out the charge. So, theoretically, if you're good enough it's possible to have a fully charged Red Queen for nearly every swing. Good luck getting that timing down, though. It's not easy. If you really get in trouble, you can also activate Devil Trigger mode for added damage and a slow health regeneration effect. 


Instead of Dante, Nero's the star of the show this time around. He gets wrapped up with the mysterious Order of the Sword, a religious group with suspect intentions, chases after his love, Kyrie, and battles demons for around the first half of the game. Then things transition over to Dante which, given how differently he plays, is a little jarring.I myself took a lot of time to get used to his controls :P.
But then Dante was way much better than Nero.


Presentation/Graphics
DMC4's visual presentation is also fantastic, in higher resolution on the PC and in DX9 or DX10 modes.Sometimes you just want to enjoy the visuals around you. In addition to the action, you're also treated to some fantastically directed in-game cut-scenes that flesh out the story and show off slick, stylish action sequences. 

For sound, you'll mostly hear grunts, item pick-up effects, gun shots and sword clangs during gameplay. Character voice-overs are generally well done, but why oh why does the battle music have to be so awful? With every fight you're assaulted with trashy electro-rock that really just needs to go away. 
Sometimes this is really frustrating.


Wait....?!! Is it really good?
Well, if its a game one can always find some bugs in the game or story.
The level design in the game is strange, which basically forces you to retrace your steps in the second half of the game(by Dante), bringing you back to the beginning. You fight through the exact same arenas twice, which is, in addition to a painful dice game sequence near the end, what accounts for all the repeated boss encounters. Devil May Cry 4's story doesn't feel much like a quest at all in this respect; it's more like a tumultuous shopping trip. And at the end it becomes frustrating as you have to fight boss three times and they are much stronger than before. After playing as Dante you will realize that you actually played to get back from where Nero left off. As Dante is much better you may regret as you are not given many missions to play as him. You might feel like he was just used to complete the story. Well also final boss is also defeated by Nero, while Dante is much deserving.


It's also unfortunate that Nero is the focus here, as he's nowhere close to as strong a character as Dante. By the end he comes off more like a kid chasing a stolen juice box than a fearless hero in pursuit of his girlfriend. When Dante steps into the action, he's so endearingly arrogant that he even manages to soothe some of your concern regarding the challenge ahead. 


And now onto some of the particulars of the PC version. With a game like this so focused on twitch elements, control is a primary issue. With DMC4, you basically have to use a game pad. There's really no way around it. The first time i played i didn't find controls really easy and stopped playing it but who can stop when someone has a thirst for games ;).


CLOSING COMMENTS
So are you going to enjoy Devil May Cry 4? People who are expecting different action every time they play aren't going to care as much about the wrap-around level progression and repetitive encounters as they'll likely be busy replaying stages for the highest ratings.  If you're one of those who are just looking for a one-shot action experience, then you should probably enjoy this franchise. Regardless of how much weight you put on each category, the action gameplay is accessible and possesses quite a bit of depth if you're willing to put in the time. The higher-resolution graphics on the PC shine and flow smoothly, and the fact that a game pad is the best way to go shouldn't turn you off. This type of game couldn't really work any other way. So while it's not without flaws, it's still one of the better pure action experiences on the PC platform. 

My rating would be 8.5

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Modern Warfare 3- PC Review

Another big hit from Activision , Call of duty:Modern Warfare 3 continues to sell its copies(Cd's) and fun of playing it is increasing exponentially world wide.
It pretty much starts off with where modern warfare 2 left(Makarov) but wraps up as if this is the end of modern warfare.Though the story is a bit hard to follow,the game is very exciting to play.

Here's one question i wanna ask "can it pull off the same fun as before?".Let's see.....

"...Count me among the minority that's thoroughly disappointed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is, like MW2 and Black Ops before it, a carbon copy of CoD 4." When I finished up MW3's roughly six hour campaign, I dreaded writing this review. As stated above, it's Call of Duty. I've had a number of friends ask me what I think of MW3, and that's my verbatim response: it's Call of Duty.


If you've played any of the games in the uber franchise since Infinity Ward's 2007 masterpiece, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, you've played Modern Warfare 3. It looks the same, it feels the same, it zigs when you expect it to zig, and it zags when you expect it to zag.Forget the hype,ask yourself this: do you want more of the same? If the answer is yes, Modern Warfare 3 should be on your 'Buy' list.


Modern Warfare 3 comes to us by way of an older engine, but still looks great. Sure, it's not among the very best out there nowadays, but it performs well. At any given time the screen appears ready to burst with effects and visual madness. Entire battles are waged before you; buildings burn and crumble while a steady flow of explosions batter your senses. This is Call of Duty, and Modern Warfare 3 collects these moments of boom in abundance, presenting them in all their 60 frames-per-second glory. 


Modern Warfare 3's single player campaign hits many of the same highs and lows as its predecessors. Amazing set pieces serve as backdrops for giant firefights yet again. This is no understatement. Few games retain the crazy roller coaster pace that this does level after level, with brief moments to breathe set between the next eruption of gun play. The shooting feels extremely responsive and well-tuned, and the battlegrounds challenge your awareness at all times. You're always given different situations that mix-up the game play just enough to keep things interesting. The game presents a formidable challenge, as always, on the Hardened and Veteran settings – something that the more hardcore players will want to delve into.

Great visual effects

Just like in modern warfare 1 and 2,you get to ride on various vehicles and it is pretty much fun.And coming to the climatic campaign,the climate perfectly suits the occasion and sometimes serve as camouflage against enemies.And the visual effects the game provides it very good with high detail endorsed still at 60 frames per second to give a better quality with smooth maneuvering of mouse and controls(i mean the game doesn't lag :P)

If single player is good, then Modern Warfare 3's multi player is fantastic.I would say better than its competitor-Battlefield 3. Like the other Call of Duty games before it, this entry pulls you in with its persistent leveling system and frantic combat. All of the sixteen new maps are fun to play and, with a whole new slew of challenges to complete, rewards constantly pop up and keep you hooked with the next little endorphin rush.Call of duty elite tracks all your records where u died and who killed.It basically stores your stats.


But back to my original question: is MW3 -- is more of the same -- still fun? It is. I'm disappointed there's nothing new, and it's nowhere near the experience CoD 4 provided, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it.
Hate on Activision all you like for churning out clones, just remember they're doing it for a reason: it works. And if there is one thing that's slightly different about MW3 that actually adds to that tried-and-true recipe, it's a bigger sense of scale. From New York City to Paris to London to Hamburg(even India-Himachal Pradesh :D), MW3 takes players on a journey to some of the world's most iconic cities, and it shows them off with the most massive -- and impressive -- set pieces the franchise has ever attempted. In particular, raiding a Russian sub in a New York City harbor filled with warships, jets, and helicopters is a sight to behold.


Though the set pieces are fantastically laid out the enemy AI seems a little poor.The enemies feel they are hidden while they are actually out there in the sun to just give us an opportunity to shoot them.Also there are some glitches like you hit an enemy in the leg he dies,while soap even after series of bombardments never dies..:D .Finally weapons.There is no change in the quality in the weapons we use and ammo in the some of the guns run out quickly.

 Even with these flaws, Call of duty modern warfare 3 is a fantastic game to buy and play(though i dint buy :P).The multi player is hands-down best it has ever been, with more features,more modes and many new levels.


My rating would be 9.3...(it deserves it)

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Blur-PC Review

Welcome to world of powered up racing!!

BLUR developed by Bizarre creations,produced by Activision is a ultimate powered up racing experience.


Career mode is split into 9 different groups and at the end of each group is a boss fight. To face the boss, you must first meet certain Demands that will change from one boss to another boss. Once all the boss' Demands have been met, you will unlock a new car and be able to face the boss in a One-on-One race. You will only be able to use the car that is similar to the car the boss uses. To progress through the Career, you need to earn enough Lights to unlock groups. In Race and other events, there are only 7 Lights that can be earned. In One-on-One events, 8 Lights can be earned. You can earn Lights in Race events by finishing in the Top 3 (5 Lights for 1st, 4 for 2nd, and 3 for 3rd), earning enough Fans, and successfully passing Fan Runs. In One-on-One events, all lights can be earned by defeating the boss. By defeating the boss', you will receive the boss' car with the boss' livery on it. You will also receive a Power-Up Mod(except the last boss)that can be equipped to your cars.


The game progresses through the following
Proving Grounds
City Slickers
Fan Favorite
Crash and Burn
Ruthless Aggression
Midas Touch
Double Damage
Loose Cannon
Show Down.

At the start Shannon (first boss...) explains how to progress through the Blur career.You might think Shannon is a easy chick to beat,but you will find out only in the end what she is really capable of(i don't want to reveal it here).Everything seems OK till the stage 1 but as u progress the demands get tougher and challenging.Each Boss has a speciality in a particular field and that means you need to be totally good.


Power-ups...
An icon like thing which hangs in the air can be very useful.How useful? you can jump from 20th place to the 1st place by using couple of them.There are have three slots for using them.There are a total of 8 power-ups which add spice to the game.(some of them being very dangerous :P).Even though you are out in front you need to careful as opponents can wreck your car from behind leaving you no "light".That is what a power-up can do. :D

Though having the best power-ups can be helpful,treacherous tracks and tight corners can leave you behind.Hence, you need to tame your car and yourself :P


You might want to stare at the beautiful sky lit with crackers and colours by the sea side.Graphics in the game are awesome.
.

Oh! yeah i forgot! Fans..Fans play a huge role in Blur.Fans unlock better cars.Each race has 8 lights to complete and can be only done if you complete fan run and fan targets.Watch out for the "Fan Favorite" his demands can make you work.


Type of events 
There are three types of races. In addition to what you would think of as a “standard” race and a “time trial”-type race, there’s also a destruction race in which you shoot drone vehicles with nothing but Bolt power-ups for points. Each of the major competitors has four requirements you must complete before you can compete in a one-on-one race with them. Win the race and you unlock their car and get eight lights and an upgrade.


You can only equip one upgrade at a time, but you can change upgrades at the start of each race; one lets you fire four Bolts per power-up instead of three, for example. You gain Fan points for almost everything: a clean lap, a good drift, hitting someone with a rear-launched Shunt, hitting someone with a front-launched Mine, hitting someone with all three Bolts from a Bolt power-up, hitting multiple cars at the same time with a Barge power-up, and so on. Gaining enough Fan points unlocks new cars in career mode, and additional modes in multi player. In career mode, you can repeat any race any time you want, and even select a different vehicle each time (though it still has to be a vehicle in the class defined by the track, from Class D up to Class A).


Music Tracks
The style, look and feel of Blur is a solid match for the type of music Ninja Tune represents. The eighteen tracks selected form an awesome soundtrack for the chaotic, high-octane on-track action.
A soundtrack is always key to enhancing the atmosphere of a game, and we feel our music reflects the frenetic tone of Blur, making the whole experience more intense and exciting.
The music in Blur plays a huge role in the overall game play experience, making players feel like they're right at the heart of the action.


In the online game, choosing the right car for the right track is the key to winning. Specific cars in your garage can also be leveled up to gain additional abilities, and you can choose a combination of three bonus traits to suit your play style. Unfortunately, because you still have to earn fans to unlock better cars, higher-level players are always at a distinct advantage over lower-level players.


I do have a few complaints about Blur, though. The most obvious one is that there are only a few race types, and each time you play one, the same power-ups appear in the same place every time. This can, and does, get repetitive after a while. The cars are beautiful, but there’s no customization beyond changing the paint color and choosing one upgrade that you’ve won in career mode; many of them sat unused when I played because I quickly picked favorites and stuck with them. You have no way of previewing a track before playing it, so the first time you play a particular race, you have no way of knowing whether a grippy car or a drifty car is best. And, finally, in the single-player career mode, you max out your Fan points long before you actually complete your career, so you reach a point where the only reason for continuing to try to get the maximum number of lights is to unlock achievements (called “stickers”).


Blur is fast, chaotic, and flashy. It may not be particularly original or memorable, but it could make for some great post-bar silliness with your friends on par with a bad kung fu movie. Like a skittish commitment-phobe, as soon as you start to take Blur too seriously, it all falls to pieces. For all its apparent style and class, Blur really just amounts to fast cars racing around shooting missiles at each other.So long as you don’t expect anything more than that, you won’t be disappointed.


Blur is mindless fun \m/ \m/....so ready for some powered up action..??


My Rating would be 8.3...

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Portal-PC Review

Shoot two portals onto a flat surface and walk through one to appear out the other...Read through to understand what i meant...


Set in a mysterious scientific facility, Portal introduced players to new ways of moving through the game world that challenged their perspective and flexed their spatial awareness. 


Although a science testing facility is hardly the most imaginative setting for a game like Portal, the drab labs and white-tiled walls of Aperture Science belie an engaging and entertaining atmosphere.
The female robot narrator "GLaDOS" guides you throughout the tests,though not at the end(:P),where you need to fight the boss.Through her hopeless attempts to inject humour and humanity into the testing despite her dense corporate-speak and exaggeratedly broken photo-booth voice, the show-stealing GLaDOS ironically does succeed in injecting humour and humanity into Portal. Skilfully appropriating the "robot with logical emotions" archetype, she soon becomes the deadpan conduit for just about any kind of humour "Valve" wishes to throw into the mix, be it a boorish reference to organ donation, a sly gaming euphemism or a totally incongruous Smash TV sample.


The tests are the most crucial part of the game designed in such a manner you feel excited about what would happen next....Initially though the GLaDOS helps you through the first tests,the main challenge of the game lies in solving the remaining 14-15 tests.There are a total of 19 tests to keep your neurons working.Although the tests are smart,as the player progresses,he should concentrate more and more coz the tests become tougher and better.


In the game you might come across what are called as           "turrets"--fast shooting machine robots. Don't get fooled by their sweet,childlike voice,they are more dangerous than tanker with a bazooka(ha ha).Once caught prey in their sight it doesn't even take time to see yourself dead in a blink of a eye.They are not only important testing obstacles but are also used to protect restricted areas of the facility as well as in the testing of Military Androids and the Portal Device.

Turrets

OK! Here's the main twist in the game, the female robot narrator which helps through the test,goes on to the become the boss.The boss fight is really exciting and easy. You get a lot of time to figure what to do and defeat her.

The BOSS Fight 

Although the portal satisfies the quench for your brain,the game ends very soon.But don't be disappointed after the game is done new challenge levels are unlocked. These extras are six levels that you've already played. The difference is that they have new challenges associated with them. You'll have to see if you can complete the puzzles in a certain amount of time, a minimum number of footsteps, or using only a certain number of portals. These challenges are really interesting because they make you consider puzzles that were somewhat simple to figure out in a different way. You'll learn that the obvious way is definitely not the shortest and you'll bust your brain and may become obsessive trying to figure out the best possible method.


CLOSING COMMENTS
I personally feel that this is the best game for keeping your brain working. Portal does its job within the Orange Box compilation, taking a brilliant left-field idea and successfully merging it with Valve's universe over an entertaining few hours of gaming. And in its own right the game lives on a little longer in the taxing Bonus Maps and the Achievement targets that will no doubt prove furiously addictive to those with the requisite gaming genes.


Pros and cons
1.The best game for solving puzzles.
2.Presented in new style,everything fits together as neat as a button.
3.Though the game is exciting the initial puzzles are a child's play(too   bad there aren't many levels to play).


My rating would be 7.9....

The cake may be a lie ,but the fun isn't.....

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Dirt 3-PC Review

Did you ever drive on the snow in a Ford Fiesta @190 kmph?. To be honest, I'd be terrified to cross into triple digits on roads so narrow. But to be able to experience such a feat in a safe environment is divine. Dirt 3 delivers this power, reminding rally nuts what a fun ride this series is.


You need not worry about the terrain you are driving on, since dirt 3 provides 6 tune-up options to sustain your ride on any type of terrain. Driving through Finland, Michigan, Norway, LA, Kenya, and Monaco feels superb. Cars respond effectively to the slightest control touches and the need for tight braking stands out. The addition of rain, snow, and nighttime driving is not simply cosmetic – headlights are required, wipers stay busy, and tires are tested. 

On the event side, Rally gets the maximum count. Apart from Rally there are many cool events present. The main tour is split into four seasons, but as the podiums add up, six discipline-specific tours emerge, pushing the total race count to even higher numbers. The locations, track variations, and event types make this a ride that lasts a long time. And with so many time-specific events, repeating races is a surefire path to longevity.


Codemasters made an odd choice with car collections. Out of many cars, only some are best known. So before you take on any race you need to take a test drive on the track, not to mention it is not present. But don't get me wrong there are also some cool cars you would want to ride on. Regardless of their organization, the full set of cars is impressive. You have cars ranging from the 80's to S2000's and many more..

Dirt 3 is the best looking Dirt game to date. If you want to experience full power of the game, you need to have latest graphic card, baby!!. Cause the details laid out are so intricate and superb, it feels as if you are really driving the car. Graphics are not cosmetic. Car bodies collect dust and snow buildup, and the shiny gleam of rain on the windshield sets the tone of a muddy race. Several adjustments can be made to smooth the ride. Whether you opt for performance or awesome graphic display, it is in your hands.

In Dirt 3, triangles are the design center of the menu presentation. These unfolding shapes reveal events, seasons, tours and freeplay options. Even the menus of the four seasons are made of pyramids. The pyramids open up to display the events in them.

You know what is one more cool feature about this game, Youtube. Yeah!! Youtube. You can upload your ride onto the youtube. But as we know every good comes at a cost, the race clips are limited to thirty seconds. Replays also can't be saved, so unless you upload a small clip online, all records are lost. 

Coming to most coolest thing of all, we have Gymkhana Grounds. In Gymkhana, you can spin,roll, do a big air time, smash blocks, jump high in the air, do donuts and many more. You have a entire menu dedicated to that.--Parking Lot.

Got bored of the races, then go to enjoy the dirtier ride. You have totally 3 parking lots. There are certain missions associated with them. Mind you it is not easy to complete the missions, though you can quit the race at any time and enjoy the dirtier "DIRT 3" to your heart's content. 

CLOSING COMMENTS

I would say Dirt 3 is a ultimate off road racing experience. It’s a superb racing experience and shouldn’t be missed. It is a place for those who are new to off-road racing and those pros who want some hardcore competition. While the agent isn’t the best leader through the tour, and the garage is limited in its operation, the solid gameplay, variety of tracks and events, and overall fun factor make this a terrific game. what are you waiting for? Get some wheels and drift your to real time off-road experience...


The reasons which led to its success:
1. Awesome graphic display
2. No other racing game was in the market during its release....
3. Very good game play


Some Drawbacks...:(
1. Get a good processor as it takes plenty of time to load the content
2. you need to have latest graphic card for real time experience....


My rating is 8.7....

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