Gears of War 2 review

It is a tricky process to portray a blockbuster style scale and grandeur in a video game. Ultimately the ideal can either make or break it because of how much of a fine line it is to balance upon. As you can see from previous big budget releases, even the thought of a blockbuster game sequel brings in huge amounts of sales. The question of whether the game is enjoyable becomes a part of the thought process that comes after opinions based upon mass advertising and trust in the developer to '1-up' it's own prequel.

Shadow of the Colossus

As a game, I found it extremely hard to review, as I found it to be much more of an art form of interactive entertainment rather than a simple video game.

You play as a warrior who has bought the love of his life, killed by circumstances we aren't told about, to a temple in the hope of bringing her back to life. A voice suddenly booms throughout the temple, and it gives you the challenge of exploring this derelict world in search of huge creatures of colossi. It is your quest to kill them and, as you find out, the task is a lot harder than what is expected.

These colossi are the biggest foes you will see in any video game, and they are so perfectly realised aesthetically, making it hard to know whether your enemies are animal or machine; alive or dead. This gives the game such a gigantic scale; it makes you feel like an underdog just as the character is. It's a real spark of the old imagination.

So you fight each colossi in turn, and as you kill each one, you are teleported back to the temple. But, instead of the feeling of triumph you usually expect to feel as you beat a boss, you experience something else quite different.

Nothing but the purest of guilt.

These enemies never strike first. You deal the first blow; the Colossi simply defend themselves against your onslaught. A saddening soundtrack accompanies the death scenes as your 'enemy' collapses lifelessly, and his eyes cease to glow. It's at this point you begin to realise you are going to an almost inhumane extent to bring your love back from the dead. It completely eradicates the traditional video game design paradigm of making you feel triumphant after a success.

This is further accentuated by the dramatic ending sequence, which reveals that you've been the evil one all along. It's a twist that you’ll kind of see coming, but not to this huge extent. I'm not going to tell you what happens in case you haven't played it, and we're solely focusing on emotion created not the plot.

At the release speech of the Playstation 2, the console was said to have an "Emotion Engine" built into the workings of the machine. Out of all the games to define the Emotion Engine in its goal of sparking human and psychological reactions to on screen entertainment, many stepped up to the mark and failed. Shadow of the Colossus, with its marriage of emotions and it's truly original concept; in my mind is the truest definition of emotion in video games.

A true juggernaut of interactive entertainment; get it if you can!

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A small flight back to the past

Their really isn't an aim to this post, except for the fact that I've just fallen back in love with my N64 and Dreamcast. Infact, the regimented language use that reviewers adhere to is thrown out the window so I can show my personal affection towards them.

Fable 2 review

Having an element of choice with limited knowledge of the consequences from your decisions has been an articulation of life, amongst others, that video games have not been able to simulate sufficiently. The feeling of responsibility for your actions, and after-thought for the consequences; the element of "what if?" hasn't been adequately captured in a game to the same extent as it encapsulates human existence. Of course, this is most probably not possible on the current generation of consoles we are found in; but Fable 2 is a bold step to the mark.