Reviews by oliper

All reviews - Movies (3) - TV Shows (1) - Books (2) - Games (18)

Surprisingly good

Posted : 10 months, 2 weeks ago on 17 January 2009 04:50 (A review of In Bruges)

Black comedy at it's best here! I didn't know what to expect when I started this, but it turned out to be a very funny, yet very believable film. A rare, but great balance of humour and action, with some very realistic and believable characters. I recommend this fully!

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Chess review

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 01:40 (A review of Chess)

While gameplay is limited to one mode, the graphics on this game make up for that. Possible surpassing even the best CGI, the rendering of chess is practically photo-realistic. There is also a substantial amount of mini-games, inculding, but certainly not limited to, eating, sleeping and my personal favourite, breathing. Recommended

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You Don't Mess with the Zohan review

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 01:26 (A review of You Don't Mess with the Zohan)

Seriously, what is this crap? This is one of the very few films I actually turned off before finishing. Truly dire.

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Half-Life 2 review

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 07:28 (A review of Half-Life 2)

As best game of all time, there is very little to say. Buy it. Go on.

Great gameplay, featuring the first usage of the revolutionary gravity gun. A great universe and backstory, Half-life 2 is as fun as it was genre-defining. The coding has been the base of hundreds of mods, and its just plain great. Go on, buy it. You will not regret it.

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Need for Speed: Undercover review

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 07:21 (A review of Need for Speed: Undercover)

Do people not get tired of this crap? Thin plotline, lamer gameplay. This series just keeps going downhill. Get a real racing game

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Great space RTS

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 07:05 (A review of Sins of a Solar Empire)

Sins of a Solar Empire (SOASE from now on, I'm tired of typing ^____^ ) is a realtime space RTS, in which you take command of one of 3 races. Spanning up to hundreds of planets, each skirmish can take anything from 30 minutes to several hours. The gameplay is great, with graphics to match, and is supported by multiplayer combat superbly. Fleet battles steadily grow throughout the game, beginning with low level skirmishes, and ending up in massive fleet clashes, as your logistics level increases.

The game is easy enough to pick up on, but the best players can balance their economies and militaries perfectly, adapting to the enemy's tactics and keeping the war effort going. However, players can also persue a more diplomatic role for the start of a game, beginning proxy wars by funding NPC pirate factions and forming alliances and counter-alliances with other players. If it's a space RTS you're after, this is the one to play: fast paced and fun, it's a great buy

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1942 +1

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 06:54 (A review of Battlefield 2)

First impressions of this game were bad. Severely hindered by the game's login system, courtesy of the police state known as EA, it took a good while for me to even get through the starting screen. However, once I did, I found my effort was worth it.

Building on the standard Battlefield concept, the two opposing teams must steadily ground down the other teams tickets, or spawns. This can be done by controlling a majority of the points of the map, or simply killing them faster than they can kill you. Beneath this simple system however, is a very tactical game. Each team of up to 32 players is divided into several squads, a handful of soldiers who can spawn on their squad leader. The squad leader can also call on the support of the commander, a single player who can call in artillery strikes, ammo drops, and so on.

Composed of several distinct classes, squads must utilise teamwork to counter enemy threats. Support gunners can lay down suppressing fire, allowing the squad to advance, as well as keeping their ammo counts steady. Medics can revive fallen squad members and heal them, engineers repair vehicles, anti tank soldiers use shoulder mounted launchers to take down tanks and APCs, and assault soldiers form the tough core of a squad. Two classes remain, Special Ops and snipers, but these two classes tend to form specialised teams, attacking behind enemy lines and destroying artillery and radar installations.

Battlefield 2 makes for some great gameplay, especially when teams co-ordinate via external applications such as Ventrilo. For a solid, large scale tactical shooter, go with Battlefield 2. This is modern warfare at its finest.

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Nice idea, shame the game isn't so good

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 05:05 (A review of Guild Wars)

The main attraction to Guild Wars is the lack of a monthly subscription fee. However, it is severely let down. How? Well, the game just isn't that good. Graphically, the game is no great achiever, but this is to be expected with the majority of MMORPGs (other than EVE of course ^___^ ) However, the lack of any solid gameplay means the game doesn't last very long. Despite it being an MMO, there is very little community, with players being disconnected and generally completing missions on their own.

There is also barely any incentive to play. There is no clear definition of what you can do, little incentive to level up, and environments and combat are very bland and linear. Compared to other MMOs, Guild Wars falls far short. Even the one reason to play it, the lack of a monthly subscription, is effectively cancelled out by the torrent of expansion packs released. With those taken into account, you are basically paying the standard £7.50 monthly fee. Avoid and take a look at the other options out there.

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Codename Gordon review

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 14 January 2009 04:53 (A review of Codename Gordon)

Nice little side-scrolling game, found Steam could DL it for free one day. A good couple hours of gameplay, great alternative to internet games for when you're waiting for something :)

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Ultimate Zombie shooter

Posted : 10 months, 3 weeks ago on 13 January 2009 07:29 (A review of Left 4 Dead)

As a sci-fi fan, I spend approximately 50% of my time thinking about what I would do in the case of zombie invasion. (You have to avoid hospitals, they'll be disease ridden, and you'll be better off in small groups where you can observe the behaviour of your friends. No point fortifying your base if you'll get bitten in the back) Anyway, back to the point.

Set in the immediate aftermath of a zombifying virus, Left 4 Dead is a non-story driven team based FPS. Not to be confused with other 'team' games, in Left 4 Dead, if you stray from the group, you die. Requiring tight-knit teams to get past the toughest difficulties, there is a surprisingly long amount of gameplay time in the 4 chapters, each of which is composed of 5 levels. Increasing in difficulty, the final level of each chapter is a 'hold the fort' style game, in which you must defend yourself from the zombie horde until rescue arrives.

On top of this, there is the superb versus mode, in which two teams alternate between playing as the four human survivors and the special undead. The special undead feature in the regular game, but in versus they form deadly teams if the players work together. The hunter, the most common, is fast, and can leap onto you, incapacitating you until a friend can shove or shoot them off of you. The Smoker can wrap its ludicrously long tongue around you, hauling you towards it. Defenceless, you must wait for a team member to shoot the Smoker, or untangle you from it's tongue. The boomer is a rather rotund fellow, who will vomit on you and your team. Sadly, this vomit draws the undead, bringing the horde screaming towards you. And don't shoot it too close up either, it'll explode with much the same effect. Finally there is the tank, who only spawns once or twice a level. You'll see him on the game trailer, the big one. You'll see what I mean.

If you're looking for both great teamplay and zombie shooting action, this is teh game for you. Go on, treat yourself

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