Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3)

Gameplay 4/5

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is your typical third-person adventure game. You can shoot, throw grenades and hide behind walls for cover. You jump and climb over a variety of structures to get to the next destination. All the controls are right where you would expect them to be making this a game that is very easy to pick up and play.

Story 4/5

Full of interesting characters and a story that feels like the old 1930's adventure seeker films. Uncharted's story never felt out of place for me. It introduced elements as they became relevant and didn't ever rush the story or have any glaring plot holes from what I could see. The only real disappointment came from the two main antagonists, who just felt a bit plain compared to the rest of the cast.

Graphics 5/5

Visually, this game is one of the best I've seen. All cutscenes were done using the in-game character models which make the transition from cutscene to game essentially seamless. Character animations are also very well done as are the facial animations, which display an impressive range of emotions. The environments look very realistic as well. Plants and water in particular look and act very real.

Sound 4/5

The music in Uncharted is adventurous when it needs to be or eerie when the situation calls for it. The voice acting is also extremely well done. The background noises also help to make the environments seem very much alive.

Difficulty 2.5/5

Uncharted's weak enemy AI make most battles pretty easy to win, even on "Crushing" difficulty. The final boss is one of the easiest battles in the game. Once you figure out his rather simple attack pattern you then hit him with a few melee combos and he's done, regardless of the difficulty level.

Overall 4/5

Overall, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is a great game. I've played through the games multiple times over and it just doesn't get old. Though you could easily beat the game over the course of a rental period, I highly recommend buying this game.

Heavy Rain (PS3)

Gameplay 3/5

Over the course of Heavy Rain, you get to play as four characters and they each have the same simple controls. R2 makes you walk. Left stick tuns your character. It only gets a bit complicated during the quick time event sequences, where every button and Sixaxis motion is used. The character, Jayden gets an action unique to him. R1 while using the ARI glasses creates a kind of evidence radar allowing him to take a closer look at anything suspicious.

Story 2.5/5

The first time playing through the game I was actually very impressed with the story. But it left me with a lot of unanswered questions that arose throughout the course of the game. I played through the game a few different ways, but the answers never came. In fact, the more times I played through the game, the more inconsistencies I found and the story impressed me less and less. Also not very impressive is the depth of the characters you play as. You learn their quirks, but other than that they are all pretty shallow, with the exception of Ethan Mars who has the most to lose throughout the game.

Graphics  4.5/5

Graphics were done very well, though only two of the main characters actually seem to express more than three emotions (Norman Jayden and Scott Shelby). The rest only seem to switch between worry, fear or happiness. Lack of emotions aside, the character rendering is extremely well done. The best example being Scott Shelby, who very closely resembles his actor, Sam Douglas.

Sound 4/5

Voice acting was also done fairly well, with only a few slip-ups resulting from foreign actors putting on American accents. Music also gets a plus from me as it helped to set the mood for the game. Action scenes get more fast paced music while the dialogue heavy scenes have a slower, more depressing sound to them.

Difficulty 2/5

While the quick time events can be a bit much at times, the game is in no way difficult. It is impossible to get an actual Game Over screen, because even if a character dies, they still get an ending.

Overall 3/5

Heavy Rain is a pretty intense game. So much so that even getting the best ending left me feeling a bit depressed. Honestly, after playing this game a few times I can only recommend renting this one. The story, while well executed, really needed to answer all the questions that arose from the game and not attempt to plug up the plot holes with DLC.

Mirror's Edge (PS3)

Gameplay 2/5


The platforming aspects of this game handle surprisingly well for a game where you are stuck in first-person view. Running along the rooftops and performing wallruns, speedvaults and various other parkour moves is pretty fun. Running builds up momentum which allows these moves to send you farther and faster and keep your momentum up. Where the gameplay falls apart, is with the combat system. It's a system designed to kill you if you engage more than a single enemy at a time. This isn't a problem early on since most enemies only carry a pistol or uzi and can be taken down with a quick combo or ignored altogether. Later however, the enemies tend to always travel in groups of two or more and are equipped with shotguns, assault rifles or heavy machine guns. These enemies require a bit more than a couple punches to take down and while they can all be disarmed with a single well-timed button press, their friends are usually done killing you before the disarming animation is finished.


Story 3.5/5


I actually wish the story was fleshed out just a bit more as it was rather good. It moved too fast for my liking and I didn't really feel like any of the characters got any development besides Faith. It's a bit of a shame there won't be a sequel really.


Graphics 4/5


The game is actually quite beautiful to look at. As opposed to most video game cities, which are dark and dirty, this city is vibrant and clean with solar panels on just about every rooftop. The 2-D animated cutscenes are also quite nice but almost all of them take place at night or in the shadows making them dark in comparison to the rest of the game. Only major concern with the graphics is that the enemy characters only have a few character models. One for each enemy type in fact. A few variations for the basic pistol packing officer would have been enough to make me feel like I wasn't beating the crap out of the same person ten times per level.


Sound 4.5/5


This is where the game really shines for me. The music in this game is amazing. The sound effects are incredible as well. The footsteps all sound as heavy as they need to be and when you get up to full momentum you can hear Faith catching her breath when you stop. Even the sound of falling from a rooftop and hitting the ground sounds sickeningly realistic.


Difficulty 4/5


This game is not a first-person shooter. It is a first-person platformer with guns in it. When you acquire a gun, you get no indication of how much ammo you have and you cannot climb or move at high speed. The game pretty much wants you to never fire a gun unless you have to, which I was fine with until the end of chapter 8 where you must fight a downhill battle against enemies that travel in twos with increasingly powerful weapons as you descend. I died so many times on this level simply because I didn't want to have to use a gun to complete the game. After making it past the uzi, shotgun and assault rifle enemies, I was greeted at the bottom of the staircase by two heavy machine guns. No matter what I tried, I just could not get past them. After that I just used guns and breezed through the rest of the game. If you use guns, the game is just a bit too easy. If you play the game the way it's meant to be played (no shooting enemies), it can be frustrating beyond all reason.


Overall 3/5


Mirror's Edge has its good points as well as its bad points and I can't help but feel this game just wasn't meant to be played on a console. I love the visuals and the audio but the combat aggravated me to no end. I definitely recommend this game for anyone looking for a challenge or just something that looks and sounds great. Rent it if you want to play it on a console. Though if you want to buy it, get it on computer where the controls would be easier to use.

Front Mission Evolved (PS3)

Gameplay 4/5

Overall, pretty easy to figure out. Fully customisable controls would've made it perfect. Took me some time getting used to the R2 button firing the weapon in your right hand as opposed to the R1 button, which instead fired the right shoulder weapon. Movement and aiming was also pretty good, especially with the A.G.I.L.I.T.Y. backpack; which lets you zoom around in any direction during Skate mode. Without it, you are limited to Skating forward or backward.
Another thing I found kind of cool were the missions where you fight on foot as opposed to in your Wanzer. I just wish there was more fighting enemy Wanzers on foot in the game. Sadly, there are only two such battles in the game.

Story 1.5/5


Average at best, the story could have used some serious work. It seems like something I've seen far too often in various media involving multiple factions at war with each other. At some point, they have an unsteady peace and everything seems cool. Then this other group of guys comes in and stirs everyone up by destroying some monument or other building of importance from each nation. The writers also employ the age old method of creating drama and tension by killing off various characters. Only one problem though. At no point did I actually care for any of the characters in the game. I can deal with a clichéd story and I can deal with bland characters, but not mixed together.

Graphics 3.5/5


During gameplay the graphics hold up fairly well, but during the cinematics they don't look quite as good as you'd expect from a game released within the last year.

Sound 4/5


Only real complaint for sound is having to listen to the voice actors reading off the terrible script.

Difficulty 3.5/5

I'll tell you right now. I'm not very good at playing mech games. This one is no different. Though I did manage to beat this one so that's something. The EDGE system, which slows your enemies for a few seconds, didn't really make the fights that much easier. I only found it helped me during one boss battle where you fight four overpowered mechs at once.

Multiplayer ?/5


Sadly haven't gotten around to playing online yet.

Overall 3.5/5

I had fun with this one. As far as mech games go, this one was alright. Pretty difficult later on when they start forcing you to use certain parts and weapons that don't really fit with your play style. The story really hurt this game. Gameplay was really the only thing that kept me going until the end. I recommend it for a rental over purchase.