I did not have a lot of expectations going into Deus Ex: Human Revolution because I never played Deus Ex and I had not really read much about the game.  Deus Ex: Human Revolution just happened to be releasing at a time when there was not a lot out and a few friends were talking about it so decided to give it a shot.  I had a lot of fun playing through Deus Ex: Human Revolution.  I finished the game on Normal at about 26 hours according to Raptr.

What makes Deus Ex: Human Revolution really stand out for me is that in every situation (other than boss fights – more on that later) there are at least 3 way, if not more, to complete the objective at hand.  It all depends on how you want to augment your character.  You can hack your way through taking over every computer, camera, turret and robot.  You can sneak through getting past entire sections by looking for hidden side paths.  Or, you can make character a tough soldier and just shoot everyone in site.

The game clearly is designed for stealth game play through.  You get much more XP going stealth/non-lethal, and until you get at least a few upgrades the fights can be very hard to win.  I started off going mostly stealth and non-lethal.  There are some points this is very tough as you need to memorize enemy movement patterns and camera coverage.  For the first 1/3 to 1/2 I had fun doing this while hacking everything I could find.  Then I ran into some enemies whose actions in the game made me and and I started going more lethal.  I still would sneak around but then if enemies were open for shooting I’d take the shot. I still hacked pretty much everything in the game (I could not stop myself.  Even if I had the code for a panel I would hack it for the extra XP).

There were only 2 issues that I had with the game.  First, if you do not do the side missions before the main quests you lose the option to do them. In some cases it gives you a warning that going to an area will not allow you to return but other times you start a mission and then when it finished your side missions are just gone. So, be sure to always to any side missions first.  I generally do that anyway but there were some that were really far away so I figured I would do them later in the first act of the game.  Found out the hard way that I was not going to be doing them.  And since the main mission I did was over 2 hours of play time I did not really want to replay that section. Not a huge deal but still frustrating.

The other issue I have with Deus Ex: Human Revolution are the boss fights.  There are 3 main ones and there is no way around them.  In every single one you have to kill the enemy boss to continue.  And all 3 of them take a lot of damage finish.  It is weird that in a game where there are so many choices for every other area that the boss fights have just 1 way to win. It is especially frustrating if you’ve got your character upgraded for stealth and hacking since you are going to get destroyed by the bosses. The developers could easily have added hackable turrets or stealth related options to the boss fights but they did not.  It seems like a huge oversight on their part.  Not only do you have to kill the bosses but you have to do it with guns or explosions.  I got close enough to use melee attacks on a couple of the bosses and they deflected every single one.  So, stock up on grenades before fighting the bosses.

The game as a whole is great and well worth be playing.  To anyone who plays on the hardest setting and goes non-lethal with no detection I’m impressed. You have way more patience than I do.  Fr the rest of us normal people keep a few augmentation points on hand so you can upgrade to fit the situation at hand.

I got a chance last week to play the Dragon Age 2 Legacy DLC and really enjoyed getting back into the Dragon Age world.  Hawke and company are pulled into a new mission when a gang attacks Hawke and his sibling.  To get to the bottom of why they leave Kirkwall and head to what turns out to be a giant prison.  Along the way in addition to the normal fighting and side quests we get some of the story of Hawke’s father filled in.

The DLC’s new areas are pretty linear which makes it easy to complete all the side-quests along the way. However, there are only a couple points during the DLC where you can travel back to Kirkwall to sell junk and stock up on potions.  So, plan accordingly before you go. You do however have access to your stash chest along the way a few times so you can drop extra stuff off there to make room in your inventory.  While these things are a little annoying it was not really that big of a deal to me.

I enjoyed playing through the DLC (which is not as long as you might thing for $10) because they made it more difficult than the main game with some fun new enemies.  It was nice to be challenged a little and not to just power through every enemy group.  The new enemies require a little more strategy as some can only be hurt from behind and others make duplicates clones of themselves.  The final boss was the only time where I actually died (and he killed me twice).  He has a lot of health and can only be hurt at certain points.  However on the my 3rd try I realized that I was trying to rush through the battle too much which was getting my companions killed.  When I took it slower so they could keep up with me we finished him off without anyone needing revived.

While I was a little disappointed the Legacy DLC was not longer it was still a lot of fun. It gives you some fun new equipment to play with and new achievements are always nice.

I just finished playing through the Path to War DLC for Red Faction: Armageddon that I started on my lunch break.  It was not very long for the $7 (560 Points) price, but I did enjoy it.  It consists of a handful of separate missions that fill in the back story of what happened before and after the main plot of Red Faction: Armageddon. In addition to the new story pieces there are two new weapons and a new tank you get to play with.  The new Sharpshooter gun was especially fun as it impales enemies to the wall. Plus it can take down a Berserker in 2 shots.

The way the missions tie together was pretty cool even though they each occur at separate times they follow the plot of events between Mason and Malice.  The very first mission you actually play as Malice setting the whole chain of events in motion. From there you see the steps leading up to the transformer getting destroyed and then what happens with Malice after the death of Hale.  It is a nice side story that fits well with the main game.

There are 10 new achievements that you can get in 1 playthrough as long as you pay attention.  Still, it is hard to justify $7 for 90 minutes of playing.  Yes, it is cheaper than a movie, but this should be $3 or $4 at most. I’d recommend waiting for it to go on sale unless you have a few extra dollars burning a hole in your virtual pocket.

So I finally finished playing through Dungeon Siege III this week.  I ended up playing the whole thing solo. My normal co-op partner either did not have the game or were not on when I was playing.  I had fun playing although I’m not sure I chose the best character to play solo. I went with Katarina who I liked but since all here attacks are ranged based there were times I found myself rolling away to get a few shots of and then repeat.  She would probably be better in a group where there are a few melee fighters to keep enemies distracted.  Playing solo you do have an AI partner so that helped some but he generally would just stand and fight whoever was close.Still, her ranged attacks get quite powerful as you progress so I never had too much trouble clearing enemies.

The game’s story was pretty good but a little fantasy generic at times.  I did enjoy the times when I got choices that actually effected things in the game world.  For example after stopping a group of striking cyclopes I got to determine if they should get better wages or not.  My choice there did not make huge changes in the story and the world but it did have an effect.  Little pieces like that add so it feels like my actions actually are forming the story of the game verses just playing through the story that the developers wanted to tell.

While I did enjoy the game I did have one issue with it.  It is slow at points.  A lot of times after finishing a quest you need to go back to wherever you got the quest to turn it in.  I don’t mind that, it is  a pretty common mechanic, what I did find annoying is the lack of a fast travel system or even a way to make your character sprint.  After I clear a whole large winding dungeon it is annoying to have to backtrack all the way through it to get back out.

Overall, I enjoyed DS3 and would play DLC for it or another game in the series.  Hopefully if there is a Dungeon Siege 4 your character will be persistent in solo and co-op play.

I’ve been having a lot of fun playing Trenched co-op with the folks from AGErocks.com (like I ever play with anyone else). I have a quick review up, here, on XBLARatings.com.  It is a fun shooter that adds a little strategy along the way.  I’m not going to rehash what little I did post in that review, but someone please tell me they are making some DLC for Trenched already.  I need more.

I know things have been scarce around here since E3. I’ve been playing a few different games so I’ll try to get some posts up about them.  Or at least links to the XBLA reviews I already posted.  Kicking things off with these catch up posts I’m going with Red Faction Armageddon.  It is not very often I play through a solo campaign twice, but with RFA I did them back to back.  I played through the first time on Normal and enjoyed the story.  After I beat it a New Game + mode unlocked which let me carry over my maxed out character and allows for cheats (like unlimited ammo) to be used in the game without effecting achievements.  So my second time through was on Insane mode with all the rockets I could fire.  It was a lot of fun going through just wrecking shop.

I did miss the open world aspect from Red Faction: Guerrilla and the strategy that brought.  There was still a lot of destruction but this was a completely linear experience.  It was not as fun as RFG since I could not just wander around the open world smashing stuff but RFA is still a really great game.  The story has some truly funny moments between the characters and even pokes fun at some other games (Gears for one) with the dialog being almost direct quotes but in different situations. There were even a couple really unexpected twists in the story which caught me by surprise.

I did also try out the co-op mode which is similar to Horde mode with waves of enemies coming at you needing killed.  Although there is a lot less hiding/defending in RFA’s Infestation mode that in Gears. I played in a 4 player group and we worked through the 30 waves without too much trouble. We could have increased the difficulty but we were having to much fun seeing who could get the most kills.

I am dissapointed in the lack of multiplayer verses modes.  In RFG those matches were a lot of fun and it is a shame it is missing in RFA. Still, Red Faction Armageddon is well worth playing through. I just hope the next Red Faction game brings back multiplayer.

A Dungeon Siege III demo hit Xbox Live this week and I’ve been enjoying it.  The camera angles get a little annoying at spots but otherwise it is pretty fun. Only 2 of the 4 classes from the full game are available in the demo, but those two are both pretty fun.  The one big complaint I keep hearing is that you have a separate character for co-op and single player. The developers did the intentionally so that the story plays correctly and you don’t have 4 of the same character playing at once.  It would have been nice to have one character that plays both co-op and solo, but I don’t think doing it separately like this is such a big deal. I’m looking forward to playing some co0op when it releases.

I’ve also been playing some Dungeon Runners this week as well. No, not the MMORPG. This web based rougelike is simple but really fun.  You have one screen and 5 characters to get to the final treasure.  Kill the enemies and the loot; then get scored for how well you do. If you have 5 minutes I would highly recommend checking it out.  Be sure to read through the instructions

So, I’ve been playing Brink for a couple weeks now and I’m completely hooked. My review is up over on VGrevolution but having spent a lot more time with Brink I wanted to touch on a couple things.  I’ve seem a lot of people not really happy with Brink, but it seems like they also have not taken the time to get familiar with the game’s mechanics. Brink is a complex game with a lot of stuff to learn and unlock, but I’ve found it to also be quite rewarding the more I play and get to know the ins and outs.

One thing I’ve found is that a lot of people skip over the Challenge mode until they find out that is where some of the weapon attachments unlock.  Instead a new player should really start with the Challenges.  They are easier to complete with a lower level character and the weapon unlocks are crucial to being able to play well in multiplayer matches.  Run through the one and two start challenges before doing anything else with your character.  Then, if you are wanting to get all the achievements run the three start challenges too.

After completing the challenges take a few matches to become familiar with the various guns. Then, go through and customize them to fit your play style.  Personally, I like adding a Muzzle Break and a Grip to make the gun more easy to handle and aim, and then a red dot scope and a larger magazine.

Keep in mind that you cannot unlock all of the upgrades for just 1 character.  You can however unlock all the general upgrades and all of one classes upgrades for one character.  Once you have completed the challenges with 1 character the weapon attachments are available for all of your setups. Take your first character and try out a few of the abilities for each class. Once you find the one or two classes you prefer start a new character and focus on one class for them.  Getting up to level 10 does not take very long and that gives you half of the unlocks for the class you choose.

When you are playing with bots on your team be sure to hit up on the D-Pad often.  This announces to them you are going for the primary objective.  If you do not they will just wonder around and not be especially useful.  By announcing where you are headed the bots at least will come along to the same area and provide some additional targets for the enemies.  The bots are not as good as playing with a real team who communicates and works together but they are not too bad either.

It is going to take a few matches to get the hang of each objective type, the various maps and all the various strategies. Stick with a teammate whenever you can and watch for flanking paths.  Initially it seems like there are a lot of choke-points on the maps but if you take the time to look around you will find plenty of paths for getting behind enemies.  Especially, if you watch the light character bots. They will use paths that are only accessible to the light class and that you probably would never have otherwise seen.

Hopefully these pointers will help you get started in Brink.  If you take the time to learn what is going on in this objective based game it can be a lot of fun.

I played through James Bond: Blood Stone last weekend since I was waiting for Brink to release. You play as the Daniel Craig version of James Bond with a story that fits could easily fit in with the movie franchise.  Overall, I enjoyed the game and the story, but it is definitely a rental. I easily completed the whole campaign in about 5 hours.  Like most Bond games there is a mix of on foot and in car missions.  These missions give you a good mix of stealth, gun fights and melee combat. The cover system works well to let you easily jump from cover to cover without getting up. There are a decent mix of guns to use and since most of them are pretty accurate swapping with whatever is lying around is never much of a big deal. I enjoyed being able to sneak up on enemies and silently take then out, and then turn the corner and open fire to clear a room. These missions were all a pretty good length in that there are multiple sequential objectives but not so many that it gets annoying.

The driving levels are the one big thing I really did not like. I was expecting some fun driving levels since the developer, Bizarre Creation, made the awesome racing game Blur. Instead the driving is terrible.  Instead of the normal overtake style missions you would expect the driving levels are instead about keeping on the course and not letting the enemy get too far ahead. I could probably live with these style of driving missions where you have to complete the whole course if the cars were fun to drive.  Instead, the cars are a real pain to handle and control. The driving levels have a very specific path you have to drive and because they are way to long it becomes a matter of memorizing the course and where you need to turn or drift.

If it was not for the driving levels I would have said that James Bond: Blood Stone is great rent. But, I almost quit playing after the first driving level because I had so much trouble completing even the first checkpoint.  It is a shame the driving is so bad because the rest of the game is pretty fun. Still, if you like Bond games and can deal with some driving level suckage then check it out.

I realize we’re still pretty early in 2011, in terms of game releases, with big titles like Gears of War 3 and Battlefield 3 still coming out, but I don’t see how a game can be better and more fun than Portal 2. It has the perfect mix of story, humor, challenge and mechanics.  I’m going to try and talk about Portal 2 without giving any spoilers so things may be a little vague but when you play you’ll thank me for not getting anything spoiled.   I played through the campaign and then immediately after completing it restarted it again and got all of the solo achievements.  Now on to the rest of the co-op. Things start off very familiar if you played Portal but quickly new game mechanics start getting added in.  By the end of the game you’ve got multiple new mechanics you have to pair together to complete fairly difficult puzzles. It is not that they are hard physically to complete with a lot of fast portal switching but the take some real thought to figure out how to complete them.  The earlier levels you can experiment a lot more and figure out how to complete rooms, but later on there are a lot of traps that will kill you if you are not careful.  I don’t mind this though as it made me think about my actions instead of just running in all crazy.

Even when I was stuck on levels for a while I did not mind because the story and interactions are so funny.  Throughout the whole game the interactions are really well done and the voice acting of them is excellent.  Plus many of the levels have fun easter eggs that you will only find if you stop and look around for a while. The really reward exploration and finding unique ways to complete levels.  Doing something unexpected almost always rewards you with some witty remark or sarcasm. Valve also fills in a lot of the back story behind how the Portal testing got started and who the various characters are in relation to each other.  All of this is done without your main character ever saying a word.

I’m not really doing Portal 2 justice here but just rent Portal 2, play for a few hours and you will be hooked. It is that awesome!