The big selling point for Army Men RTS is definitely the theme. Running around backyards, basements, and various rooms as a group of appropriately stereotyped WW2-esque US soldiers, by itself, is amusing for the first mission or so. There's even a non-army-men faction to encounter later in the story missions in the form of ants and spiders. Unfortunately, the single player of Army Men RTS failed to keep me amused. Your options for controlling your units are almost the most basic I can imagine: you can move then, you can tell then to shoot certain targets, and you can make control-groups to allow for control of multiple armies. You can't shift-move to plan pathing (which I can usually survive without), and using your control-groups doesn't actually snap your camera between armies. And, this is the kind of game that will present you with scenarios with fail conditions so tight (enemies coming in from all sides while you also have to escort a group of defenseless NPCs) that you will dearly wish you had at least some additional control. But, no, denied, you fail, ha ha. Economy and units and buildings in Army Men RTS work much the same as they do in Command & Conquer, save that you'll need plastic and batteries instead of Tiberium. It should be noted that the CPU doesn't appear to be bound by the same rules as you, however, and will liberally spawn large numbers of units to throw at you and your base from all sides. The story amounts to little more than what a child would ramble out, and so doesn't provide any momentum or anticipation to your play. I'm being really harsh but, if you read between the lines, you'll see that Army Men RTS is actually completely competent. I never encountered any game breaking bugs while playing. However, Army Men RTS is far from perfect, and I just don't have fun when playing it.
Warhead is an OK standalone experience. There are fun moments that feature a mixture of human foes with the occasional alien to spice things up. Then, there are the moments when you die without having had the chance to react, plan, or do much of anything at all. There is a weapon, the Gauss rifle, which the AI can use to kill you in 1 shot. And, unlike explosive weapons, the Gauss rifle has a hitscan projectile. And, there is at least 1 level filled with tight corridors and low light where a number of enemy soldiers are carrying Gauss rifles. You can survive even gauntlets designed to kill you instantly with enough cloaking. The problem is just how long it takes to get through a level when you're waiting for a cloak to recharge. It's a pacing issue, and it's not the only one. The turret and defense sections in Warhead are not the worst I've played, but they were nowhere near as much fun as running around on foot. I spent most of my time in these sections just wondering when they would end. Speaking of endings, the biggest disappointment in the whole game is the ending. An encounter that should've been a boss fight is just a drawn out cutscene with 2 men grunting. 2 men grunting is all fine and jolly, but it was definitely not the bloody good time I was hoping for. Everything else about the game is decent. The basic alien is annoying, but together the various alien units force your to vary up your tactics and add some fun. And, being on foot is fun because it's the mode that allows you the most options. Anytime-you-want weapon customization remains, and works with your multiple armor abilities to give you a variety of approaches to any situation. Being a turret, where your only real option is point and shoot, is agonizing by comparison. I was led to believe that Warhead was a must play, and some've told me that it surpasses the original Crysis. I don't see it; only buy Warhead if you really want more Crysis 1.
Night in the Woods is a very compelling experience. The story, the atmosphere, the characters, and the sound, are all extremely well done. I highly enjoyed my time with much of the main story. Unfortunitely, many of the minigames were not up to snuff and impossible to practice unless you're willing to replay the game from start over and over. Some minigames appear once and never again. Maybe I would give the game an extra star if I didn't fail so often, but fail I did and my experience suffered immensely as a result. I'm glad I played this game from start to finish. However, I have no plan to ever do so again.
I played Mirror's Edge (hereon abbreviated as ME) on PS3 and 360 before this, and after playing the PC version it's clear to me that your enjoyment will center largely around your preferred control method. When I played ME on other platformers it was merely a decent runner with a bland story and interesting environments that was achingly close to being something great without quite making it. However, now that I can eliminate one of my previous complaints (the load times) and unexpectedly encountered my new favorite control scheme (keyboard and mouse), ME is suddenly the closest thing to Trinity escaping Agents in the Matrix that I've ever played. This is a good thing. Part of my enjoyment this time may stem from my completely skipping the story. The cutscenes that hide loading are not impressive at all, and the story as previously mentioned is bare bones police state blah blah. The environments, while possibly bland to some, are enjoyably uncluttered without feeling empty of personality. The music, which I adore, fits the soft tone of environments that are empty of people save for enemies. The parkour, consisting of a jump action, a crouch action, and quickturn, is impressive for how effectively it reduces the complications of the actions the player performs while maintaining a sense of speed. With the right control setup it becomes all too easily to string together a series of jumps, wall runs, and rolls with very little effort. I simply cannot help but recommend the PC version of this game. Too bad the sequel reportedly isn't good.
The best thing I can say about this game is that it runs on my PC without a hitch. The gun play, when there is some, is competent. Now, the reason I can't give this game more than 2 stars: I hate it. There are around 3 major tracks in the game that are played for every cutscene, and as a very story focused title Deadly Premonition has a lot of cutscenes and dialogue. The dialogue feels like it was written by a shut-in crime and supernatural-BS enthusiast. The fact that this game comes from a Japanese developer while being set in an American small town means there is a special kind of cringe added over the already questionable writing. Odd moments, like characters choosing to have a casual conversation in a storm rather than take those few extra steps to shelter, are jarring both for the apparent unconcern of the actors and the subjects they choose to discuss. There's an interesting layer of simulation in the way you interact with the world and perform mundane tasks. Unfortunately, some of these aspects, such as the driving, end up feeling as clunky as the writing. This game was made for a very specific audience. I bought it because I heard good things, it was on sale, and I didn't want to spoil the mystery. I've tried to get into it, but I just can't. Research this mess before you buy.
A good, short game that ends on a cliffhanger is still a game that's ended before it could even get started. In 3 hrs I beat the Steam version twice. The Fall is a puzzle game with occasional action sections that boil down to cover-based shooting in a 2D environment. Most puzzles are intuitive, but there's no real help in game for when they aren't. The puzzles are chiefly inventory based, and you won't even see your inventory unless you find something you can interact with. The Fall is a good start with a solid scifi premise. The developer has been promising more ever since the game first came to Steam last year, but part 2 is yet to appear. Buy on sale or ignore.
Initially a fun and mindless third-person shooter, Slave Zero gets a 1 star from me for two reasons. First, it barely works. The game appears to have some kind of memory leak that causes immense slowdown in certain areas on the game. The only fix for this is to quit the game completely and restart. You're free to save any time, but quitting and reloading quickly becomes tiresome. You can try to press on despite the horrible slowdown, but there's at least one boss who is almost impossible to beat so long as the game lags. My second issue with the game stems from the gameplay. You have a melee attack, but it's so slow and clunky that it's only useful for leveling buildings. This is a problem because there never seems to be enough ammunition in later levels, and the design of Slave Zero actively encourages shooting as much as you can at everything that moves. For me, Slave Zero wasn't worth it.
