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~GameChain~

Title Name: Super Smash Brawl
Genre: 2-d Platform Beat-em-up
Description: Super Smash Brawl is a collaberation of characters from different games. You can play as your fave character and go against your worst! , or re-enact the legendary Mario vs Sonic battle the way you want it to be fought! There's a fun story-line for every character , mini games to keep you amused for hours and you can even set up your own fight with your own settings and characters! boasting a large collection of characters such as Mario , Sonic , Link , Luigi , Captain Falco and even the Legendary Solid Snake!
Overall , I give this game a 9/10 and I highly reccomend buying this game.
 
You got your rank evil Nero!^_^
Also can you find us some some other scores from game sites for some more in-depth detail.
 
As per request, here is my Metal Gear Solid 4 review.

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Metal Gear Solid 4


Well, since the request for an MGS4 review came in, I thought I’d be up to fulfilling that request.

Metal Gear Solid 4 is, as you should know, the fourth part of the newer generation of Metal Gear games, effectively the last game to star the popular series character, Solid Snake, now, this game is sold as a Tactical Espionage Action, but it plays more like a pure action game with very little sneaking involved, I mean…Compared to the previous instalments at least.

You play Solid Snake, a genetically engineered super soldier who, due to the events of earlier games is suffering from premature ageing due to being injected with the FOXDIE virus, a virus that is specifically designed to target certain people, from the start, you’re given a pistol that, strangely, knocks every enemy unconscious in a single shot and rarely runs out of ammo, this pretty much kills the stealth element instantly, although I must admit, every game so far has featured this sort of knockout gun.

A lot of new elements have been thrown in, along with some upgrades of the old, such as the camouflage suit, this has been replaced with the new Octocamo which can be used to blend in with your backgrounds easily and can also save textures and patterns for later use, the codec system remains in place, but along with it comes the Metal Gear MKII, a miniature robot that, as far as I can tell, is based upon the design of the Metal Gear TX-55 from a previous Metal Gear game, this little robot allows both communication with other characters, (Specifically Otacon) while also being able to deliver electric shocks to your enemies.

In Metal Gear 4, there are rather a large amount of cut scenes, in fact, more cut scenes than actual game play, well, at least that’s what it felt like, it has a habit of telling you everything from the previous games for some reason, but if you’re a fan of the series, you should already know all of this, half of which could be worked out by having some common sense anyway, if you’ll forgive the heavy cut scene to game play ratio, then you’ve got a fairly competent Action game here, if a little cluttered.

You’re given a lot of weapons to play with, many effective in many different situation and some about as much use as a chocolate teapot, then again, all weapons become useless when I remember there’s a gun that knocks out enemies in a single shot.

The game suffers a lot of design flaws, chief of which being the heavy gameplay to cutscene ratio, I could go on about this for ages, but I’ve pretty much covered that.

All in all, Metal Gear 4 isn’t a BAD game, it’s not great, but it’s not bad either, it’s a competent shooter with some pretty interesting features and packing a storyline that made me see it through to the end, I will say this though, If you’re not a fan of the MGS series, it’s pretty safe to say that you’re not going to be all that welcome at the Metal Gear 4 party.
 
Epic's Unreal Tournament 3, actually the fourth version of the series on PC, represents a blend of progressive and old-school elements. It's a nod to fans of the original UT, released in 1999, with the return of weapons like the impact hammer and enforcer, which replace bits of the arsenal from UT 2004 like the shield gun, lightning gun, and assault rifle. Moving beyond the ballistic loadout, we see Epic pushing forward their most distinct draw, the warfare mode, an augmented version of UT 2004's onslaught. While so much of this game will feel familiar to series veterans, particularly in the deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, it's with the vehicular, large-scale combat that UT 3 makes its largest strides forward, though it still doesn't move that far ahead. Mostly, it's about delivering to fans what made the series so good to begin with: insane, ultraviolent combat, gorgeous graphics, and the most nerve-searing, vein-throttling action around.

You get six modes, not including campaign, with UT 3: deathmatch, team deathmatch, capture the flag (CTF), vehicle capture the flag (VCTF), warfare, and duel. You'll notice that's not the same list as UT 2004's modes, since it's noticeably missing assault, something I'm not too bent out of shape about. When outside of any vehicle-related modes, gameplay proceeds much as you'd expect it to. Deathmatch maps are, with a few more spacious exceptions, confined, twisted industrial complexes full of flak fire, perilous drops, and the occasional Redeemer pickup. Everyone's wall-jumping, side-dashing, double-jumping, and firing simultaneously, making for a ludicrously action-packed experienced that's always entertaining, at least up until the point where you start getting burned out. I know that happens to me, which is why I appreciate all the other modes.


In CTF you get a translocator device to quickly warp around a map, and when vehicle are added to the mix in VCTF or warfare you get a hoverboard. Hopping onto the floating slab happens quickly with a tap of the Q key, letting you not only move more quickly, but also tag onto the back of friendly vehicles for a boost, an ability you can and often must use to your advantage in VCTF matches since you can't pilot a vehicle with a flag. The risk comes with getting shot while riding, which smashes you to the ground, stunning you for a few precious seconds, and dropping whatever you're carrying, be it a flag in VCTF or orb in warfare.

While I had a great time with deathmatch, I couldn't help but feel it dragged a little, one of the downsides of releasing a slightly altered but largely identical shooter over and over again. Though there have been minor changes over the years, with weapon speeds, damage outputs, and player movement seeming slightly adjusted for this one, and brilliant new coats of paint, it's nearly a decade now and we're still playing roughly the same game. That being said, it's still an amazingly fluid experience. If you've never played UT before in any capacity, you really have to. Using WASD double-taps to dodge around, the way the character movement feels, the sense of weight behind the weapons and the way they're balanced against each other, it's all exceptionally well done and has a distinctive style.

The vehicles, though, are the most dynamic element, evident in warfare mode. It's based on the same node capture principles as onslaught, yet warfare features some significant changes, the most prominent being a small, glowing ball. It's called an orb, and can be carried to nodes to either provide protection for your own or instantly capture the enemy's. This makes a significant difference in how a game flows, since not only do you have to keep track of where the enemy is focusing their attack, but also where the node carrier might be. A simple strategy would be to have the bulk of your forces head over to one node while simultaneously sending the orb to another, meaning you could, theoretically, capture both at the same time (assuming, of course, one was linked and the other unlinked.) What's more, once an orb carrier is killed, the orb hits the ground and a counter begins. When zero is reached the orb resets, but in the meantime anyone can swoop in and bring it ever closer to instantly capturing a node. Enemies in the vicinity can prevent such a catastrophe by sacrificing their lives to destroy the orb, forcing the other team to make the entire journey again, and possibly giving you enough time to get your own orb carrier to the right spot to advance your team's position on the field. It's another layer of depth that makes warfare a better mode than onslaught, allowing for an even more unpredictable experience as situations shift as rapidly as an air hockey puck. In addition, you'll find more types of nodes. Countdown nodes, if captured and held, can damage an enemy core without having to lower a shield. Others perform more specific functions, like lowering bridges, affecting the position of enemy cores, spawning special vehicles, and more.
 
OK then. Here's the review of Tekken 5.

- TEKKEN 5 -

It seems hard to believe, but the Tekken series has been around for about a decade now. In that period, Tekken became one of the premier 3D fighting games in arcades, but its real fame was found at home. The PlayStation, and later the PlayStation 2, has been the Tekken series' stomping grounds for the past 10 years, and traditionally, the home versions have managed to outperform their impressive arcade counterparts. That grand tradition holds true in Tekken 5, which offers additional modes not found in the arcade original, but even more importantly, it offers fantastic 3D fighting and stunning visuals.

Tekken 5 sort of pretends that Tekken 4 never happened. The previous installment introduced a handful of position-change moves that weren't terribly well received. Tekken 5 takes a back-to-basics approach and removes those moves, making for a game that feels and plays more like the classic Tekken 3 did. The uneven floors you'd sometimes find in Tekken 4 are also gone. Some arenas do have walls, however, and you can still use these to set up some interesting combos. In short, Tekken 5 might not be a total reinvention of the series, but considering just how well it plays now, if Tekken had been rebuilt from the ground up it would likely have been a huge mistake. The fighting in Tekken 5 is some of the best fighting available in 3D or 2D, and its multiple levels of depth give beginners enough flashy moves to quickly feel comfortable playing it, while intermediate and expert players can dig deeper and deeper to find more interesting (and damaging) techniques.

The main single-player mode of play in Tekken 5 is the story mode. This mode takes you through a handful of fights, starting with some still frames and voice-over to help you understand what each individual fighter is fighting for. Along the way, you'll square off with some fighters that are tied to that story, giving you some pre- and post-fight dialogue. When you reach the story's conclusion, you are given some static screens with text and a full-fledged, prerendered ending for each character. Tekken's prerendered endings have always been one of the most memorable aspects of the series, and this collection of occasionally serious but often hilarious endings are among the series' best. It's a fun look at the characters that you don't normally get in the context of a fighting game, and helps give the impression that whoever made Tekken 5 must have had a lot of fun along the way.

Tekken 5 has many of the same character-customization options found in Virtua Fighter 4. You can alter most of the characters (the inability to customize the wooden training dummy Mokujin seems like a missed opportunity for comedy, though) using currency you earn as you keep playing. Some of the changes you can make are simple color tweaks to the characters' outfits, but you can also pick up accessories, such as sunglasses, necklaces, or a basket full of fish for kung-fu master Wang's back. Each character has unique customization options, and the options are different for each of a character's two primary costumes. Some characters also have a third costume that can be purchased, and some of these are just new outfits. Capoiera mistress Christie's third costume is an entirely different (though obviously familiar) character, who gets his own story mode intro and ending when selected.

The arcade mode is where you'll earn your gold, and it's sort of an endless arcade-style battle against the game's artificial intelligence. Much like Virtua Fighter 4 did before it, Tekken 5 pits you against AI players of different ranks that have actual ring names, as if they were based on actual players. As you play arcade mode, you'll rank up each individual character through multiple classes. The ring name and character rank stuff is neat, but it isn't implemented in a very user-friendly manner, as only one player per memory card can enter a name and track his or her player rank.

While you probably won't mistake Tekken 5's AI for another human being, the fighters do take on slightly different styles and are generally more competent than the average computer-controlled fighter. With five difficulty settings to choose from, fight fans of all skill levels should find something that tests their capabilities here. The strong AI helps make up for Tekken 5's lack of online play, but the lack of network support is still a disappointing omission, especially considering that Tekken 5 packs in pretty much everything else.

The character roster in Tekken 5 contains a great mix of old favorites, some of whom haven't been seen for years. The obvious entrants, like Kazuya, Paul, Law, Yoshimitsu, King, and Nina are present, and they're joined by other occasional players, like Bryan, Lei, Hwoarang, Bruce, Baek, Anna, Lee, and Xiaoyu. Tekken 4's new introductions, Steve, Marduk, and Christie are back, and three new characters make their first appearance here: Raven is a Wesley Snipes as Simon Phoenix-like assassin that combines powerful moves with shifty, tricky behavior, up to and including the ability to teleport in some moves; Asuka is a schoolgirl, and she's also a Kazama, making her Jin's cousin and a master of the Kazama style and similar (though definitely not identical) to Jun; Feng is an evil kenpo master that enters the tournament to find some sacred scrolls that the Mishima Zaibatsu controls. The roster is diverse and exciting and it hits all the bases. The new characters fit into the action very well, and the old characters have all received enough new moves and changes to feel fresh again, though not so many that the move list will feel unrecognizable.

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The Tekken series has been putting in weird offshoot modes for years now. This year's model contains a new story known as Devil Within. This story-driven mode puts you in control of Jin as he raids the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation's headquarters, smashing up enemy robots along the way. The fighting has been extremely simplified for this behind-the-back mode, and you're given a lock-on button that lets you make sure you're always targeting one foe. You're always outnumbered, though, so locking on is less effective than simply dishing out damage to everything within the reach of your hands and feet. Devil Within is a neat idea that's executed about as well as you'd expect for a minor extra, but with its stripped-down fighting, cookie-cutter corridors, and monotonous platforming, it's not the sort of thing you'll come back to time and time again.

You might come back to the arcade history mode, which, right off the bat, gives you access to the arcade versions of the original Tekken, Tekken 2, and Tekken 3. These serve as an excellent reminder of how far the series has come over the years, but more importantly, it reminds you that these games still play very well. It's tough to go all the way back to the first game, but Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 are still very, very playable. They also don't have any loading time between fights, which is cool. In fact, even when Tekken 5 does stop to load, the load times are nice and fast, which really helps to keep you in the action. It also probably helps make the game so addictive, since you aren't given too much time to think about anything else between fights.

The fighters in Tekken 5 hit hard. That's one of the major factors that makes the game look so fantastic. The moves look like they hurt. This is something that many other fighting games seem to miss, but here, even the most basic dashing punch moves practically look like they're capable of shattering every bone in your body. Part of that is due to the great-looking particle effects that blast off of heavy hits, but a great deal of it is also due to the game's outstanding animation. The characters move extremely fluidly, and the motion-captured movements are really, really cool, even though some of them have been recycled from previous games.

When it comes to image quality and character models, you'd be hard pressed to find a better looking PlayStation 2 game than this. Tekken 5 looks simply astounding--way above and beyond what you would think the PlayStation 2 is capable of. The character models are smooth and lifelike, with skin tones and textures that make them look alive, as opposed to the plastic-looking fighters found in some other games. The backgrounds are widely varied, and some of them are even breathtaking. Again, it's the sort of stuff you'd expect from a high-end Xbox title or a great-looking PC game--not something you'd expect from the PlayStation 2 hardware. From the fight arena that surrounds you with bloodthirsty onlookers and their van--which happens to be hanging from a hook a few feet above the ground--to the inside of a temple that happens to be on fire, you'll find a wide variety of amazing stuff here. This may be the PlayStation 2's best-looking game to date, and it's hard to imagine anything else topping it this far along in the cycle. Support for widescreen displays and progressive scan support only helps to make the image look that much better. But make no mistake, Tekken 5 looks incredible regardless of the mode you run it in, and the quality of the visuals of course helps make the action itself that much better.

Tekken's soundtrack has usually consisted of a particular style of electronic music that fits the action, but it was never particularly memorable and it got a little tiresome over time. Tekken 5's soundtrack is much more varied than that of its predecessors, and this variety meshes very well with each individual background in the game. There's also a load of speech in Tekken 5, and it's all really good. Each character speaks in his or her own native language, which is a great touch. It's also really funny in some cases, such as when you have Kuma speaking in subtitled bear growls that the other characters can somehow understand in a weird, Lassie-style sort of way. And wait until you see Mokujin and boxing kangaroo Roger Jr. converse in their "native" tongues.

Also, we have to give some of the credit for the game's hard-hitting moves to the sound effects. You can expect to hear many of the same snaps and cracks that you've heard in previous games, but this time there's a lot more bass. The thundering low end on some of the strikes definitely makes the impacts sound as damaging as they look.

A big part of Tekken 5's appeal is due to the quality of its execution. While some of the extra modes aren't as strong as they could have been, the core fighting is nearly perfect, whether you're playing against other humans or computer-controlled opposition. Toss in a fantastic soundtrack and some of the best-looking graphics you've seen on a console, along with an insane number of different moves to learn and master from a variety of interesting characters, and you've got a fighting game that's even more addictive and exciting than Tekken was when it exploded onto the PlayStation back in 1995.

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Rankings

GameSpot - 9.2/10

IGN - 9.3/10

Game Rankings - 89%

Metacritic - 88%

Wazap - 89%

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Sales

Release Date - February 2005

As of December 2007 - 4.3 million copies.

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Pros & Cons

PROS

- Outstanding fighting
- Great roster
- Amazing graphics
- Nice Story Mode
- Tough final boss fight

CONS

- No online support

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Sources

GameSpot

Wikipedia
Click to expand...
 
Tekken is a good game i love playing it but i think i like soul calibur better. i play with my best friend, she has banned me from playing againest her as two characters, Ivy and Kilik cause im too good as them i cause
 
Verynice, guys!
You did a great job!
Remember everyone(none members alike) Check the ~Gamechain~ page every once and awhile. There maybe a request or if you just feel like reviewing something go ahead.
I myself will be review ResidentEvil4!^_^
 
^Name it ^__o been a while since i've done one :D

Starting work on a DMc4 one (lol)
 
Here's Half-Life 2's review and Counter-Strike: Source.

- HALF-LIFE 2/COUNTER-STRIKE: SOURCE -

It's hard to believe that, prior to Half-Life 2, Valve had really made only one game. Of course, it was a masterpiece. Half-Life single-handedly reinvented the first-person shooter, putting the emphasis on cinematic pacing and complete immersion in the experience. As a result, it paved the way for many of the outstanding first-person shooters that have followed. And while there was little question that there would eventually be a sequel, no one could have imagined the long and torturous development process that led to Half-Life 2. Well, it's time to forget about that, because Half-Life 2 has arrived. And, in many ways, this big-budget sequel does what it sets out to do: Half-Life 2 is a technically amazing, sharply honed first-person shooter that pulls all the tricks that made Half-Life such a beloved experience. With that said, many of those tricks feel more than a bit familiar now, and the game itself is saddled with a disappointing story. Still, that doesn't stop Half-Life 2 from being a very impressive and engaging shooter, and a faithful follow-up to one of the greatest PC games of all time.

In Half-Life 2, you once again assume the role of Gordon Freeman, the theoretical physicist and dimension-hopping commando who saved the world from an alien invasion at the end of Half-Life. Or did he? Half-Life 2 starts you off facing the infamous G-Man, the mysterious blue-suited character from the first game. At the end of Half-Life, the G-Man offered you a choice: work for him or die. Since there would be no sequel if you chose the latter, Half-Life 2 assumes you chose the former, and you start the game in a train entering City 17 for your introduction into this new world.

City 17 is a run-down urban center that's the equivalent of the Warsaw ghettos during World War II, but instead of Jews being rounded up to live in City 17, it's all the remnants of a defeated humanity. Half-Life 2 takes place an untold number of years after the Black Mesa incident, but it's clear that much has changed. A mysterious enemy known as the Combine has conquered the planet and installed a human puppet government to carry out its rule. Black-clad security forces patrol the streets, while propaganda blares endlessly from omnipresent video screens. If there's one thing that Valve does extremely well, it's capture a sense of atmosphere--this vision of a dystopian police state is chillingly effective. But you won't spend a lot of time soaking in the scene before you're thrust into the struggle to defeat the Combine and free humanity.

As soon as the shooting begins you'll join an essentially nonstop battle that will last the remainder of the game. Like the original Half-Life, Half-Life 2 is presented as a nearly seamless experience--you play entirely from Gordon Freeman's perspective, there are no cutscenes or perspective changes to take you out of the moment, and are there no narrative jumps that skip ahead in time. (At least, there are none from your perspective.) There also aren't very many long loading times to interrupt the flow of the game, as all the levels are discreetly broken into sections, and when you transition from one section to another, there's only a slight pause for the new section to load (at least, on a high-end PC). Put it all together and the game's single-player campaign, which will probably take you between 15 and 20 hours to complete, comes off as a very long day in the extraordinary life of Gordon Freeman.

The original Half-Life was highly cinematic in nature, the virtual equivalent of starring in your own blockbuster sci-fi action movie. Who could ever forget the first time a headcrab leapt out at you from a dark corner? Or the moment when the commando tossed a satchel charge into the sewer pipe you were hiding in? The movie analogy is apt, not only because Half-Life 2 packs a few cinematic moments of its own, but also because, like most movie sequels, it plays it safe and doesn't deviate much from its storied predecessor. Half-Life 2 doesn't revolutionize the genre, instead sticking with the familiar formula of run-and-gun action, occasional puzzle-solving, and scripted sequences established by Half-Life. And it's an effective formula, for the most part. The game gets off to a rousing start, as the opening levels combine these three ingredients masterfully. You start off on the lam from the Combine, armed with only a pistol and your wits, and embark on a chase through a train yard and tunnel system that's filled with all sorts of hairbreadth escapes. The sense of pursuit hurtles you forward so quickly that you don't have much time to admire the cutting-edge graphical prowess on display.

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After you reach safety, Half-Life 2 settles into a more conventional and familiar style of play. Aside from a detour through a deserted town full of all sorts of booby traps, there are a lot of echoes of the original Half-Life in Half-Life 2--so many, in fact, that there's a strong sense of déjà vu at times. Still, it's hard to knock Valve for not wanting to tinker too much with a proven formula, and Half-Life 2 is as fast-paced and enjoyable as its predecessor.

Clad in your rugged hazard suit, you'll battle your way forward against all manner of enemies, only to recover quickly by picking up health packs and recharging your hazard suit at energy stations. Some of these foes are familiar, such as the headcrab and the barnacle, while others, like the manhacks (essentially flying buzz saws) present whole new challenges. Meanwhile, you'll be armed with a formidable arsenal, most of which is recycled from the first game, such as the submachine gun, shotgun, crossbow, and, of course, the ubiquitous crowbar. These weapons haven't changed much, and they feel roughly the same. There are only three new weapons, including the pulse rifle, which is a sort of beefed-up energy rifle with a devastating secondary attack and a meaty sound to it. Much more fun are the pheropod--otherwise known as "bug bait"--which allows you to summon and control vicious ant lions, and the gravity gun, which can be used to pick up and manipulate objects.

The gravity gun is one of the great new features introduced by the game. Thanks to the new physics engine, it has all sorts of applications in and out of combat, and you'll spend a lot of time tinkering around with it. It's just as useful for picking up and hurling a grenade back at an enemy as it is for solving any number of puzzles in the game. Most of these puzzles are clever but not too difficult, particularly if you've played previous shooters, like the original Half-Life. Half-Life 2 also features a fair number of jumping puzzles, though nothing on the frustration level of Xen in the original game. The jumping puzzles are a weakness in Half-Life 2, but thankfully you can take a more aggressive approach and bypass most of the jumping altogether.

The other noteworthy additions to the gameplay are vehicles, specifically an airboat and a high-speed buggy. While these sequences offer a visual rush, they're also not too far removed from some of the rail sequences in the original Half-Life. In many instances, you'll be funneled down a narrow channel or road with little chance to explore or veer off the beaten path, battling enemies in a high-speed engagement. You'll then encounter an obstacle that requires you to jump out of your vehicle and solve a puzzle to proceed. The controls and physics in these sequences are a bit loose, but the vehicles are fun to drive, especially when you get some room to maneuver.

You'll be on your own during most of the game, but there are levels in which you'll have the opportunity to fight alongside allies, both alien and human. Some of the best team moments come later in the game, when you're battling the Combine in the streets and buildings of City 17, with large-scale battles going on between groups of humans and the Combine's huge, spiderlike striders. You never really develop any attachment to your teammates, though, as they tend to be very disposable, and replacements are available at regular intervals. And teammates have a tendency to get in your way in cramped interiors--while they'll slowly move out of your way, it's still a little annoying. In addition to taking on teammates, you'll occasionally have the opportunity to set up sentry guns to assist you in defense. The toughest sequence that we encountered in the game involved setting up a handful of sentry guns in a defensive alignment, and then holding out against waves of incoming Combine soldiers.

Surprisingly, Half-Life 2's story is one of the most disappointing aspects of the game. The first half of the game feels a bit unfocused, while the second half seems rushed. Even worse, the story leaves behind a mess of unanswered questions, and it doesn't touch on any of the lingering questions left over from the first game. Valve likes to leave tantalizing hints and tidbits everywhere in the game, but few of these actually develop into anything interesting, and by the end you're left wondering what the game was all about. In many ways, Half-Life 2 feels like the middle chapter in a much larger story, and it suffers as a result.

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Another surprise is the somewhat disappointing performance by the game's artificial intelligence. Even on the tougher difficulty levels, most of the humanoid enemies don't seem to show the same kind of intelligent behavior that they did in the previous game. They'll seek cover and then peek out to fire, but invariably they'll charge at you, making it easy to take them down. And maybe it's due to some of the weapons being a bit overpowered, but most opponents don't present much of a challenge at all--a few rounds is usually enough to stop them. There are a few fearsome foes in the game, not the least of which are the larger ant lions, which will tirelessly pursue you while you frantically unload every bullet you have at them. Then there's the strider, the 50-foot-tall, walking, organic tank that fires devastating bursts and can spear you with one of its legs if you get too close. But for the most part, Half-Life 2 is a surprisingly easy game, even on the tougher difficulty levels. Case in point is the end of the game, which feels anticlimactic--you're given a horrendously overpowered weapon to use against relatively weak opposition.

Half-Life 2 uses a checkpoint save system, allowing you to quickly restart at the last checkpoint if you die, and there's usually a checkpoint right before most of the game's combat zones. The checkpoint system is effectively employed throughout most of the game, and it allows you to immerse yourself into the experience without having to worry about saving the game constantly. Saving the game manually is an option, and it's helpful in one or two passages where the checkpoints are spaced too far apart, but it also takes you out of the moment.

Half-Life 2's presentation is extraordinary, thanks to the new Source engine. Even though Half-Life 2 debuted a year later than originally anticipated, it is still very much a cutting-edge game, featuring state-of-the-art graphics technology. While Doom 3 features superior lighting and shadowing, it didn't really succeed at bringing a credible and cohesive world to life. Half-Life 2 does, and the environments in the game are simply stunning, from the plazas and streets of City 17 to the rusted interiors of an abandoned factory. There's also some excellent level design in the game, including a deserted town full of deadly traps and the gaping interiors of an alien citadel. The engine does a great job of rendering both indoor and outdoor environments, and there's a lot of eye candy to absorb if you have the hardware to handle it. Most surfaces nearly glisten with the latest shader effects, and the textures are sharp and richly detailed.

One of the big new features is the incorporation of physics into the engine, and that has an effect on the visuals as well. Basically, everything moves and behaves as it ought to, so when you hammer a strider or a gunship with a rocket, it shudders and recoils from the impact. Characters also move in a lifelike manner, and the animations are smooth and believable. You'll also discover that objects in the environment can be used against you--there's nothing that zombies like more than to hurl a metal barrel in your direction. On the other hand, you can use the gravity gun to hurl objects about, or even to pick things up and use them as a shield.

While Gordon Freeman doesn't say anything, you'll quickly discover that some of the best parts of the game are when a character has a one-sided conversation with you. This also lets Valve showcase its remarkable new facial technology, which brings human characters to life like never before. You can literally see the gleam in characters' eyes when they speak, and they can display a wide range of emotions, from fear to familial pride. It also helps that Valve enlisted notable talent to supply the voices for many characters, including Robert Guillaume, Louis Gossett Jr., Robert Culp, and Michelle Forbes. The voice acting is superb, and the script itself features wit, warmth, and humor.

The sound effects are also well done. Once again, it's the little details that stand out, like the buzzing noise of manhacks as they approach and the clatter of a gutter pipe as something climbs up to reach you. As in the original game, there's very little music, and what's here is electronic in nature and reserved to emphasize important moments, such as when you're headed for a showdown with a major foe. Most of the music is forgettable, but there are a few standout themes, one of which is recycled from the original game.

Meanwhile, the multiplayer aspect of Half-Life is veritably a game in and of itself.

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Rather than build a new multiplayer component based on the single-player campaign, Valve has instead included Counter-Strike: Source with Half-Life 2. The original Counter-Strike was developed as a free team-based multiplayer mod for the original Half-Life, and it quickly grew into one of the most popular online first-person shooters in the world. Valve even released a retail package of Counter-Strike, and earlier this year there was an updated retail version, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. Counter-Strike: Source is the updated version of the original Counter-Strike, bringing the graphics in line with the powerful new Source engine and making a few tweaks, but otherwise keeping everything else the same.

If you've missed out on the Counter-Strike phenomenon these past five years, the idea behind the game is simple: Two teams--the terrorists and the counterterrorists--battle it out in a series of fast-paced rounds to see who will win a match. The easiest way to win a round is to simply eliminate the other team, but there are other routes to victory, depending on the map. For example, counterterrorists can attempt to rescue hostages and deliver them to safety, while terrorists can plant bombs and protect them until they explode. Your success can influence your success in future rounds, as there's a monetary reward for your team's performance, which you can use to purchase realistic weapons and equipment for the next round.

Counter-Strike: Source features updated versions of some of the most popular Counter-Strike maps, including Dust and Office. Since these are essentially the same maps that have been played since 1999, they were battle tested and balanced years ago. There have been some improvements, however. Counter-Strike: Source implements a physics engine that lets you push objects around using gunfire, though this has relatively little tactical value in the game--you can't barricade a doorway with desks, or drop an object onto an enemy below.

Nevertheless, there's little question that Counter-Strike: Source is an exciting, well-balanced game of tactical combat. It's also a highly social game. Its appeal lies in the fact that even if you're killed early, you can still sit back and chat with other players, or simply watch the match. Since each round lasts only a few minutes on average, there's not much downtime before the game resets and you're blasting away again. Finding a game isn't a problem, either, as Valve released Counter-Strike: Source more than a month before Half-Life 2, and there are hundreds of servers and thousands of players online at any given time during the day. Meanwhile, the standard built-in server browser can get you online in seconds, and you can sort by number of players, ping, and map.

Admittedly, for a beginner, Counter-Strike: Source can be a daunting experience. It's easy to feel like an outsider, as an entire culture has evolved around the game, and most of the players online know what they're doing, which can be intimidating. On the other hand, Counter-Strike: Source is relatively easy to pick up, and it doesn't take too long to become proficient at it, though it will take far longer to reach the skill level of the better players online. Then again, the release of Half-Life 2 should mean lots of new blood on the Counter-Strike circuit.

While it's hard to argue against Valve including Counter-Strike: Source with Half-Life 2, it would have been nice to have seen a multiplayer mode based on the single-player game that takes advantage of some of the single-player game's settings and weapons. The original Half-Life shipped with such a mode, and it was fun to play with some of those settings and weapons in a multiplayer arena. There are some genuinely interesting weapons in Half-Life 2's single-player mode, and it'd be fun to see what the gravity gun, for example, could do in a multiplayer setting, particularly with all the physics turned on. Still, Counter-Strike: Source is capable of providing countless hours of online play if you're a fan of team-based shooters, and it's a safe assumption that the game isn't going to cool off anytime soon.

When you combine the strong single-player campaign of Half-Life 2 with the popular online play of Counter-Strike, the result is one of the most complete and compelling first-person shooter packages available. While Half-Life 2 breaks little new ground, it's still a superb and engaging first-person shooter, as well as an amazing technological accomplishment.

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Rankings

GameSpot - 9.2/10

Game Rankings - 96%

GameSpy - 10/10

The Cincinnati Enquirer - 10/10

The New York Times - 10/10

PC Gamer - 98%

IGN - 9.7/10

Edge Magazine - 10/10

Maximum PC - 11/10

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Awards

- 35 Game of the Year Awards
- IGN Overall Game of the Year
- GameSpot Best Shooter Award
- GameSpot PC Game of the Year
- Best Game of the Year by The Academy of Interactive Arts & Science
- Game Developers Choice Awards as Best Game
- Edge Magazine as Best Game
- BAFTA Games Awards winning six awards (most awards)

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Sales

Release Date - November 16, 2004

As of July 14, 2006 - +16 million copies

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Facts

Half-Life 2 is the second most-played online computer game in the world - number one being - Half-Life, the original.

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Pros & Cons

PROS

- Gorgeous, cutting-edge graphics
- Solid, engaging single-player gameplay
- Excellent voice acting
- Counter-Strike: Source offers great multiplayer.

CONS

- Disappointing story
- Somewhat lackluster AI
- Game is a bit easy.

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Sources

GameSpot

IGN

Wikipedia
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