Posted 24 November 2010 - 10:38 PM

My two cents on the sale items:



Shank: One of the coolest, best beat-em-ups of the modern generation. Just satisfying, fun, great move-sets, good bosses, and a fun (Sadly, offline only) coop adventure with unique levels and good coop bosses. $10.04 is a decent price for it. Just to put it into perspective, Shank and Scott Pilgrim came out the same day, and of the two, I consider Shank the longer lasting, better one and SP the throw-away cash in.



Note Shank requires you activate with EA servers to play it though, which is the only reason I have not double-dipped on it.



Prototype: Solid PC port. Not A+ quality, but it's still definitely functional and good. Prototype itself is quite the game, a pseudo-sequel to Hulk:Ultimate Destruction, giving you ridiculous powers of destruction in open world New York and pitting you against military and zombies alike. Absorb military dudes to become them for light stealth elements, too. I really like it though it fizzles out as late-game combat becomes a bit of a wankfest and enemy variety just never shows up. Still, I enjoyed it a lot. $15 is probably still a bit much at this stage of the game.



Alpha Protocol: Pretty much the entire internets scuttlebutt about this one is wrong. The plot is awful, switching between fantastical pulp and gritty melodrama at the drop of a hat and never really forming a coherent theme OR plot. The choices are varied, but still really only serve as a front end to the various missions. The actual gameplay is basically a marriage of Syphon Filter and RPGs, not unlike Mass Effect's Gears of War + RPG style. Unfortunately, the level design gets watered down along with the action so you end up with a game that's just not worth replaying, which kinda leaves the choices as a gimmick.



On the plus side, it's worth one playthrough at least. The gameplay is still surprisingly solid. The boss fights are actually quite well done for BOTH genres its running, the big boss of the Russian chapter is definitely a hoot. $7.50 is the right price for the game. Sadly, 3rd party activation based DRM is there too.



Just remember, you need a weapon specialization and you probably want a stealth specialization too. Drop one point into tech so that you can at least bypass some harder hacking minigames with your otherwise utterly useless EMP consumables. Other than that, you can pretty much see what is worthwhile. Even a melee specialization is useful for certain fights but you need to be good with a gun for some of the later boss fights.



Also, checkpoint only saving, which blows horribly. Combine that with a vague Mass Effect style dialogue wheel and time-limit conversations and it's often hard to figure out what each option actually means and since your character is often a complete douche if you stray from the friendly options, you generally are penalized heavily for experimenting.

