Wet and dreary
Bionic CommandoA lot of effort was put into map design, graphics and the swing mechanic, as well as the powers of the Bionic arm - that's blatantly obvious from the outset. However, other elements of the gameplay were neglected. Weapon combat, for instance, is never as exciting as leaping from the top of a skyscraper and trying to latch onto a piece of protruding pipe on the way down, or zip-kicking a unsuspecting grunt in the face.
The lack of intensity in the fire-fights and the weakness of the standard weapon set make combat without the Bionic arm feel a bit lazy and dreary. There are some enjoyable boss battles but there's no real surprises in store. They follow the standard boss formula that we've seen for years, avoiding their attack and then honing in on their weak spot. It would have been nice to see something different and outstanding that we could tell you about, but despite threatening uniqueness on a few occasions with some great looking bosses, there's nothing to report that's really that impressive or stands out from the crowd.
BIonic Commando isn't a bad game by any means, and we're still very much looking forward to a sequel. It just didn't take full advantage of an excellent swing mechanic and could have been much better.
Click for larger imageOperation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising
As the sequel to the PC’s internationally acclaimed tactical action shooter, we expected a lot from Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, but we were left wanting more.
Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising 2's biggest flaw was that there were far too many bugs in the game. We stumbled across bugged missions, enemies that didn't want to die, enemies that die about 5 seconds after we've shot them, team-mates that go off and do their own thing and countless other small, but significant annoyances. It just lacks consistency and feels sloppy at times.
It's still worth checking out because there's plenty of entertainment to be had in some of the intense battles, but it could have been and should have been so much better.
Click for larger imageWET
Top marks to the box art of WET, which pictured the sultry heroine of the adventure Rubi complete with attitude and tight fitting top, but the gameplay didn't quite live up to the hype.
WET is a bit of a one-trick pon and you'll have seen all it has to offer within the first couple of hours of gameplay. We found ourselves spending the majority of our time using Rubi's slide maneuver to trigger a slow-motion sequence because that's really the only time we had fun - taking out multiple opponents in a cinematic fashion. You simply do the same thing over and over again, across some bland locations that fail to make the most out of Rubi's skills. Rubi does possess some great skills, but they've been severly under-used. Lara Croft she ain't.
Click for larger imagecontinued overleaf...