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Articles by James Pikover

Posted on Mar 22, 2011 in Electronic Games

Crysis 2 – PC Game Review

Crysis 2.  PC Game Review.  Publisher: Electronic Arts.  Developer: Crytek.  $60  Passed Inspection: The Nanosuit makes gameplay exciting and thought-provoking. Campaign is fun. Best multiplayer of the year so far. Best graphics of any game. Excellent online leveling system. Failed Basic: Enemy AI isn’t challenging enough. Weak plot. Sections of the campaign should have time restraints but don’t. Having fun is the most important part of gaming. Recently, many titles seem to have forgotten about the fun, instead focusing on time-wasting virtual activities, social time with friends and strangers, building complicated stories and detailed characters, etc. Crysis 2 doesn’t waste it’s time on any of this gloss. Developer Crytek just made a game that is damn fun to play. Crysis 2 is built on the basic premise that a powerful suit of armor called the “Nanosuit” is the most powerful weapon in the game, more than any gun. As with the prior Crysis titles (Crysis and Crysis: Warhead) players enjoy traditional first-person shooter (FPS) gameplay while wearing this advanced...

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Posted on Dec 7, 2010 in Electronic Games

Call of Duty: Black Ops – PC Game Review

Although it lacks the ability to host a dedicated server and fails to deliver memorable gaming experiences in the single-player campaign, Call of Duty: Black Ops is a real breakout by developer Treyarch and according to James Pikover, “the game to play.”

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Posted on Jun 7, 2007 in Electronic Games, Front Page Features

Blacksite: Area 51 Preview

Following Area 51 for Xbox console, Blacksite: Area 51 is Midway’s response to opening up the franchise. As they have stated publicly, they believe games only start to do well after they become franchises, which means they expected a loss from the prequel to Blacksite. They were right. Midway recently released a demo, although in reality it is more of a playable trailer. There simply is no way to actually play it for more than five minutes. Regardless, the point of the just under 600Mb demo was to give people a taste of what is to come. The premise of the five minutes is very simple: lead a recon team, obviously familiar with aliens, into Rachel, a small town, to find another team that’s lost communication. More objectives come in as needed until a ship flies into a liquor shop with some giant creature coming out of it. Ending at the climax is nothing new, reminiscent of both the Rainbow Six Vegas and GRAW 2‘s demos. Hopefully this is...

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