Review: Alpha Protocol

Alpha Protocol, the long-delayed espionage action-RPG from Obsidian Entertainment, has finally come out. The game drops you into the shoes of secret agent Michael Thorton, who has just joined a top secret and totally deniable branch of America’s intelligence network, codenamed Alpha Protocol. Tasked with tracking down terrorists who recently shot down an airliner with [...]

Splinter Cell: ConViction Review

We talked about Splinter Cell: ConViction - and the new direction Ubisoft Montreal was going with it - a few weeks ago. So how does the final product stack up? ConViction drops you back into the shoes of Sam Fisher, America’s greatest covert operative. Three years ago, Sam left Third Echelon – the shadowy government agency he worked [...]

Mass Effect 2 Initial Impressions

   Mass Effect 2 is BioWare‘s hotly-anticipate sequel to 2007′s Mass Effect. The second part of a planned trilogy, Mass Effect 2 makes a number of improvements over its predecessor, and though a few design decisions add little to the experience, it’s an even better ride than the first game.    Mass Effect 2 picks [...]

Late to the Party: Borderlands Review

Released on October 20, Borderlands is Gearbox Software‘s post-apocalyptic, wild-west shoot’n’loot FPSRPG. That’s quite a lot to say – but there’s a lot to like about this game.   The game is set in an unspecified future on the distant planet Pandora. Huge numbers of colonists were drawn to the planet by the promise of [...]

Dragon Age: Origins: Initial Impressions (colon)

BioWare’s latest RPG, Dragon Age: Origins has hit store shelves, and your tireless gamer pal Tanith secured a Day 1 copy so he could provide his initial impressions of the Xbox 360 version of the game. After 12+ hours of gameplay, here’s what he thinks: Story: The game sticks pretty closely to well-established RPG tropes. There [...]

Resident Evil 5 – First Impressions

 The Resident Evil series – specifically RE4 – has been the cause of some divisiveness here at OBJ514. On the one had you have Dakalos slagging the aforementioned actioner’s loopy controls, on the other Iron Weasel’s carefully considered approval, and on the third my own obsessive “has memorized the location of every item” 100+ hour [...]

Fallout 3: First Impressions

Fallout 3 is the story of you, from the very beginning to whatever end you choose for yourself. Bethesda’s latest game begins in the operating room where you are born. You make character decisions even as your father (voiced by Liam Neeson) welcomes you into the world. You’ll choose your gender and name and then [...]

Getting Paid for Something I’d do Anyway

2005’s Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction by Pandemic Studios impressed gamers and critics alike with its open-ended gameplay, violent yet cheeky atmosphere and awesome explosions. Word of a sequel got fans pretty excited.  Pandemic are back in fine form with Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. Having presumably spent the 50 or 100 million-dollar bounty collected for [...]

Mass Effect DLC a month away

From Bioware’s Mass Effect Forums: “To date, over 1.6 million gamers have explored the engaging sci-fi universe of Mass Effect. Beginning on March 10, fans everywhere will be able to expand the “Mass Effect” experience with the release of the first ever downloadable content for the award-winning saga. The Bring Down the Sky downloadable content [...]