Splinter Cell Conviction

Sam Fisher is by far my favorite character from Tom Clancy games, and this is the game that he deserved to have from the get go. The game is gorgeous, and the graphics are very well done. The game picks up after Double Agent, with Sam being out of 3rd Echilon. The first mission has Fisher breaking off a car's mirror to see under doors, marking target, and executing them with fast motions that blow me away to watch, In order to mark and execute, you must pull off stealth moves to recharge it, and each weapon has a limited number of marks it can do. Each gun can be upgraded various times, which will increase ammo, add sights, or add how many mark and executes you can do. The stealth element is shown in a unique way, with the screen going black and white when hidden. This is something that I hated, because the environment is gorgeous, but the black and white makes it look very generic. Besides this one down fall, this game is a true star out there and a hell of a way to wrap up Splinter Cell. I am giving this game a 5 out of 5, and you can pick it up today for just $14.99 used at GameStop

Red Faction: Guerrilla

I love explosions, and I think everyone out there can agree they would like to see a building get destroyed by that lone rocket hitting a wall, without the mercenaries style puff of smoke that most games used. This is the game you need for that. The destruction is so detailed, and it all happens in real time without there being any smoke. It is so much fun to take one of the vehicles and ram it into a building, or take one of the mechs you get from a mission, and destroy it. The story is pretty solid, finding the lead character joining the red faction after he witnesses his brothers death. There is a need to play the story through, so that you can get all of the cool toys you need to destroy more. The money system is salvage, which you get from destroying buildings, vehicles, and EDF strong holds. The main problem that I had with this game is that, once you destroy everything, there is really no incentive to keep playing it. I laid waist to mars, and when done, I grew displease with it. This game needed some way to rebuild everything to keep you going, but it does not have it. For this reason, I would give it a 3 out of 5, but with the $12.99 price at GameStop, I am giving this a 3.5 out of 5, for a game that will keep you interested in it and all of the destruction, but if you want a lasting game, look for a more intuitive open world game.

X-Men Origins Wolverine

This is what all super hero games before Batman Arkham Asylum and all movie tie in games wanted to be. This game is a bloody, gory, and over the top violent joy ride that was so much fun to play, I could barely put the game down. The game plays like god of war, and even takes the whole quick time events and executions from it. But this game actually does it right. There is so much blood, which means that for a game based on a PG-13 movie, this is not a game for the movies viewing audience, which is a good thing. It is refreshing to see wolverine slice into someone and have what would come out in real life, blood, come out. I was smiling the whole time as I played this game, loving every second of it. One thing that I found that I loved is that your body will show damage. If you got shot, you would see your skin tear, you would see skeleton also, which was a sign to get behind cover and let it all grow back, in breath taking real time. This game is perfect for those out there that are adrenaline junkies who want the thrill of slicing through everything in their paths. For the $9.99 price, this game is perfect for a rainy weekend or to just blow off some steam. I am giving this game a 4 out of 5, the only draw back being that at time, finding where you need to go can be frustrating.

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men

Oh man, if there was a top 5 list of god awful games with actually cool concepts, this game will be near the top. Kane and Lynch Dead Men puts you in the shoes of the mercenary with your partner being a medicated psychopath. This games story is very well done, tho the game is ugly, even back when it was released. It will make you scream at the console when you get to the part with the truck driver. When you fire a gun in this game, the recoil is insane. The saving grace is that the guns are half way balanced, and there is 2 player co-op. I was looking forward to trying this games multiplayer, which was supposed to be the games main saving grace, but when Kane and Lynch 2 came out, the servers seemed to go more vacant than a all you can eat buffet after my grand mother was done with it. I wanted to like this game, but for the $9.99 used price at GameStop, it really is not worth it, even if it went down to the $1.99 range. I am giving this piece of garbage a 1 out of 5.

Far Cry 2

Have you ever wanted to go to Africa? Far Cry 2, the follow up to Far Cry, a tropical game that blew my mind as a kid, is a huge game filled with A.I. that seems to be no smarter than a door nob and seeming infinite number of trucks that seem to find you where ever you are. The game starts out with you picking who you want to play as, the only thing that I found that this really affected was what people will help you and who you see. In the first ten minutes, you get attacked, get malaria, and you get recruited by a group to help fight the main bad guy. Lets talk about game play. Its fun, and the controls can be confusing at first, but once you have the hang of it, they feel second nature. The weapons are what stood out the most for me. With use, they will degrade and eventually break, which was annoying most of the time. You had to take the guns somewhere to repair them, which is a major pain in the arse. Towns are another big disappointment. You would figure that there would be more people out in the world, but all you see is people with guns. And while you are in the towns, your gun is lowered. If you raise the gun you can make the town people very angry and they will attack you. Which made things very difficult early on in the game. There were a few things that I found that were very interesting. The money system was the first, which involved you searching the whole map and taking on jobs so you can buy and repair guns from vendors. The second thing is that you could light the grass on fire. I know that this might sound strange to some people, but it is a huge part of combat. You see a group of guards searching through the grass? Fry them by throwing a fire bomb into the grass, catching the whole area on fire. When you find a flame thrower (which you can early on in very poor shape) it makes this very fun and very easy. The final thing is that ammo pick ups can be shot, which turns them into bullet spraying jumping beans, which can be used to take out several enemies. Multiplayer is fun, tho nothing new. You rank up and unlock new guns, tho with the map editor, you can find some very interesting player created maps out there. All in all this is a good game, and for the low price of only $12.99 used at GameStop, this is a good choice if you want a change in pace from the normal call of duty or battlefield games. I am rating this a 3 out of 5.