Reviews by madstalk

This was a brilliant adventure game. It featured great characters, voice acting and writing. It also had a great darkly warped sense of humor.

Discworld doesn't deviate from the tired and true graphic adventure standards but if you dig that style of game it is an adventure that should be taken.

The one issue is that it can be very difficult at times. Several of the puzzles are non-sensical. That being said, the writing, humor, art style and production values make it worth checking out.

Die by the Sword is as close to a sword-fighting simulation as we're ever likely to see. It takes a stock fantasy world, populates it with goblins and orcs and tasks the player to go out and, using the much heralded VSIM control system, violently dismember your foes.

The big draw for this game also ended up being its biggest weakness. The idea behind the VSIM control scheme was to do away with canned animations and put control entirely in the hands of the player. Essentially, the mouse represents your avatar's sword hand. Your swinging movements are encumbered by the laws of physics and momentum making the system more suited to simulation than fast paced action. That's where DbtS misstep is. The system is incredibly hard to learn and incredibly difficult to use with any efficiency. There are "simpler" control schemes available but they just don't seem to work properly.

This wouldn't be a crippling problem except for the fact that your enemies jump around like caffeinated three year olds. Thus combat breaks down to wildly moving the mouse around while hoping for a random decapitation affair. It's just not fair that one of your first fights in the game requires you to hang upside down with a rope while fighting several opponents. Die by the Sword was a great idea but the needed to incorporate a shallower learning curve to avoid the frustration that results from starting it up.

The original Diablo was great when it came out but by modern standards it suffers from an acute form of reverse sequelitis.

That is, the sequel, Diablo II, took the basic gameplay formula that made Diablo so addicting then added bells and whistles that made it impossible to revert back to the original.

The gameplay here is still mostly solid but the existence of a better sequel makes it pointless to ever play the original Diablo again.

As a reformed Diablo II addict I can easily say that this is probably my favorite RPG ever.

The story isn't particularly spectacular and it obviously lacks the deep characters that populate more recent RPG's but Diablo II took the successful formula of the original Diablo and almost universally improved on it.

It's hard to explain why the Diablo gameplay style is so addictive but it is. Despite the simplicity of combat (it basically comes down to clicking and using hotkeys) there is an unquestionable depth to the character building process that makes each playthrough unique in some way. Add that addicting quality to the classic pursuit of bigger and better loot and you have the perfect storm of addiction. It's the PCP of point and click RPGery!

Another big positive for Diablo II is that it doesn't really try to do much. The art style is simple but varied and still looks solid by 2011 standards. This makes it that rare timeless game that never quite loses its luster. Here's hoping Diablo III keeps the franchise in fine fashion.

Dragon Age: Origins is a modern RPG that uses some of he best elements of old school RPG's (i.e. Baldur's Gate, Planescape Torment) to create a fantastically realized fantasy RPG universe.

The story is deep, the characters widely varied and personable and the world is one of the best I've seen in a recent RPG. There are some issues with bugs and information overload but this is a game that is greatly immersing.

I had some issues with the combat early on but once I became used to effectively balancing my combat parties those issues went away and combat became a nice affair that rewarded strategy and wisely thought out combinations. There is also enough variety to the missions to make the giant battles that the game throws at you meaningful and interesting.

My favorite thing about the game by far was the characters. You meet quite a few along the way and each person has a fleshed out back story and personal motivations that are intriguing and key to plot development. They also add to the replay value as some characters have arcs that only appear if you have them in your party while on certain missions.

Overall this is one of the best recent PC RPGs. The writing and core systems are close to perfect and the game has a lasting appeal.

This is an awesome little puzzle game. The basic goal of each level is to use your living goo balls to construct physics based objects in order to accomplish different goals.

The best way to describe World of Goo is charming. The graphics are simplistic but have a distinct art style that makes them very appealing. In addition the game is infused with cutesy sound and visual effects that help develop an attachment with the world.

The puzzles themselves are generally of a physics based variety and the design is simple enough to pick up quickly. Like the best puzzle and strategy games, however, while the learning curve is fairly small there is a lot of depth here and the later levels become very tricky. It's the kind of game in which you get as much out of it as you put in. A true indie puzzle gem.

This really feels like two different films jammed into 2 hours. One one hand you have an excessive rock n' roll comedic fantasy that, for the most part, works but on the other hand you have a rather sudden morality tale that awkwardly introduces elements of suicide and relationship drama.

I know it's the status quo for Apatow-involved films to mix raunch with a heart of gold but this is the first time it really didn't seem to work. The rock n' roll excess is the glorious, comedic heart of the film yet we are asked to buy into the after school special that the second half of the film turns into. If there was more time spent developing the characters beyond the stock dramatic fare we have here (Aldous Snow watching old videos of his girlfriend is not good character development) and less time spent on unfunny random dance sequences the movie might have worked better.

It doesn't help that the comedy can be uneven. For every smoking the Jeffrey scene there are two counter productive scenes involving mock music that feels like outtakes from This Is Spinal Tap. The only exception is the hilarious satire on rock star self-importance (African Child) that opens and becomes a recurring theme in the movie.

The big saving grace here is Russell Brand as Aldous Snow. The script doesn't do him justice but he is mostly able to sell the comedic excess and creepiness required. To his credit he is almost able to make the sudden dramatic turns at the end believable. Jonah Hill can't quite escape the flaws of the script. He's playing his role as such a schlub that most of the stuff that happens to him - in both his world and Snow's fantasy world - is utterly unbelievable.

So, while there are moments of comedic brilliance at play here Get Him to the Greek can never quite escape the pitfalls of its script. There are some interesting ideas here but it never coalesces into a cohesive whole.

It's beautifully shot and has an appealingly light-hearted approach to the dialogue and shooting style.

However, the story of two star crossed souls finding what completes them on a suicide bridge never grabbed me. As it went on it seemed they repeated the same mistakes and motifs over and over again. Quirk is fine but I really got annoyed by repeated discussions and quasi-metaphysical examinations of how a lucky streak can bring two people closer. I found it offbeat but overly repetitive to the point of being off-putting.

This is a seriously underplayed masterpiece. By the time it came out its developer had essentially destroyed its reputation through varying degrees of hubris and, well, Daikatana.

Anachronox featured an incredible world and incredible characters. It was a world trotting adventure/rpg that had a wonderful story and writing. The art design was creative and varied and Ion Storm made it so that you didn't have to operate in the same area for too long. It perhaps needed some better check pointing and guidance but those complaints are simply small quibbles.

You rarely see games that are this ambitious and creative today.

Deus Ex told a fascinating story and featured enough quasi-unique elements to make it a truly fantastic game.

The gameplay here was all about choice. Depending on how you outfit your character you could approach the same situation in a myriad of different ways. You could hack your way in, use stealth tactics to get the drop on your enemies or (this was often the most difficult approach) go in with guns blazing. That sense of choice extends to the various augmentations you can install in your character.

The writing and usage of familiar environments (like the Statue of Liberty) really made this game stand out. It's one of the best futuristic shooters out there.