@Gamesradar:

How about music, new DJs, new station or new tv segments - did you see anything in BoGT? And if so can you tell us about it?

I've greatly enjoyed both GTA IV as well as the first episode and really can't wait for this one especially since it's going to be a tad closer to the all-out craziness of San Andreas in current-gen's Liberty City.
Great preview and it was a really good choice to allow more than one editor to voice their opinions as well as their concerns.

It seems that the borrowed some tricks from Killzone 2: the sentry gun,an MW2 take on KZ2's spawn grenade and the riot shield looks like a very modern warfare version of the Assault class with his thick armour.
That's what I really like about Infinity Ward: apart from their meticulous study of every conceivable detail from weapons to surrounding building and locale appearances they take what they want from all kinds of sources and use it all to greatly improve their game in their own unique way so that it'll always be more and more fun to play.
They could have easily made the mistake Treyarch did to try and milk the CoD 4 cow some more but they instead chose to improve their own game even more as is evident from every preview I've read - and for that they deserve all the praise that's sure to come upon release of the game.

Can't wait for it!

I've been playing like there is no tomorrow for the past couple of days and can't get enough of it - I just have to stop in order to get some work done (and, if possible, take an actual shower...)
The game is in my opinion AMAZING!!!
I really see no reason why someone would be willing to pick up a gun in Infamous and start shooting bullets - the electric shooting in every mode(power) is excellent.

As far as travelling is concerned - sorry, Mikel: I've unlocked all three islands, freed 100% of the first two and can move about via power lines and railway tracks really fast and it's so much more fun than taking a cab or a car. I mean we have traffic in real life - why should we have it in every game we play as well???
The city is not as totally varied as in Crackdown but each district does have it's own discreet feeling and the atmosphere as weel as the time of day that each storyline branches out sets a completely different tone to the each part.

The fact that it doesn't have radical differences between districts though is definitely not a problem - at least not for me anyway.
Be that as it may Empire city is beautifully realised - filled with fascinating details and textures and really looking as if it was conceived and created with the utmost care so that it may convey to the player a living, breathing city unlike any yet seen in a supeheroic videogame after Crackdown (which, by the way, had a fascinating ultra-stylistic art direction).
The comparissons with the absolutely bland and unisterestingly looking cities of the spiderman and hulk games really are unjustified...

The combat (melee & shooting) is fantastic and Cole's movement a sheer joy.

As far as scant enemies popping out even after you've freed a part of the city - what is the problem with that? It would be an extremely boring experience if you didn't have anything else to do around there once the missions where done. And you also gain xp points so that you can exchange for power upgrades so it's double the fun.

The boss fights are great and you are having fights with semi-bosses (Conduits) all the time anyway so I really don't mind knowing tha there are going to be three major boss battles.
This isn't "Shadow of the Colossus" for chrissakes with its 16 boss fights (that ultimately was what the whole game was about).

The upgrades are substancial and the powers themselves a beauty to behold and use.
Crackdown was and still is great fun but Infamous is for me another gem in my collection and completely undeserving a 7.

Some people here have suggested that we should not critisize a reviewer's work. That is not correct: by submitting a review in any public forum (in our case a videogame publication)the critic in fact exposes him or herself to the judgement of his readers. It isn't the word of god - and even for that we have centuries of theological discussion behind us so even god get's backtalk - why should gamesradar be any different?
True, Mikel is entitled to his opinion - but then again so are we.
Hence this comments' section.

This may come as a suprise to some but the comments' section really does fulfil other purposes other than shouting "FIRST!" like 3-year-olds...

Anyway - to anyone concerned: this game is very good - much better than this review implies - and it would be an injustice to yourselves if you didn't at least rent it in order to experience this game's many hours of pleasure.

Can I please have one as well?

@MikelReparaz:

Don't get me wrong, I understand the problem about going from A to B fast but this has more or less been thus far the problem with every sandbox game - whether that is GTA IV (let's not get started on San Andreas which was unbelievably huge...) etc.
If you can't teleport it's a drag unless you've got something good to look at while you're going about.

That was certainly the case with Crackdown whose art design was and still is amazing and that is also true about Infamous (from the little that I've seen thus far anyway) but not so with the latest Spiderman game that you've mentioned - the whole place looked kind of stale and not exactly inspired.

Still you're right that it would be nice to have the option - but then again all games do have their own limitations.

No one would complain if CoD4 didn't have the weapon options that Rainbow Six Vegas provided like carrying a shotgun, a rifle, a pistol and two types of explosives.

And even though it would be great if Niko could take a couple of super jumps from Aulderney to Bohan no one in their right mind would complain about GTA IV not having the nifty bag of tricks of Crackdown - although that would have been awesome even if it was via unlocks or cheat-codes.

As for the comparisons between all of the abovementioned superhero games Infamous seems to have them all pegged as far as story is concerned as well as how the story is conveyed. The choice of incorporating comic book aesthetics to the whole narrative was a great choice in my opinion.
Too bad they didn't opt for that in the dialog before and after the accepted missions.

Crackdown had almost none of any interest and Spiderman's was beyond lame - the voice acting alone could get you suicidal halfway through a cutscene...

Be that as it may it's your job to voice your opinion and back it up with conviction despite everyone else's wishful thinking.
And even if I still do disagree with parts of the review I always enjoy a good Gamesradar piece.
Keep up the good work, Mikel.

I just tried the game at a friend's who was unlucky to have bought the game...
Come to think of it it boggles the mind how an absolute disappointment of a game such as this was awarded 8/10 by Gamesradar and Infamous got stuck with 7/10 - by the same online publication...

Bad show I must say.

Anyway, I really love it when Chris Antista is writing so I'll keep watching GR - but I'll definitely be taking reviews such as these very lightly in the future.

It's true though what some people said a few posts back - I can't possibly understand how can Infamous get 7/10 while on this very site Bionic Commando scored an overly generous 8/10.

I first played the multiplayer demo and later on tried it out at a friend's - and it's a horrible embarassment of a game.

Granted, it's one point's difference but seriously - Bionic Commando while it showed great promise it really does shoot one down because it is such an absolute dissapointment...

Jezus!
I just opened my twitter, saw that all hell broke loose and came over to read the review but not even in my wildest dreams would I ever imagine the shitstorm that would be all the rage for or against this review...
Personally I find 7 not exactly a whooping success of a score but it's an opinion and that seems to be Mikel's job: to deliver his own opinion, not the hopes and aspirations of other publications or fanboys all around.

Be that as it may I don't think that I agree with the whole review.
liked the demo very much to be honest and am still playing it in anticipation to the actual game.

Also from what I've seen (infamous demo & mainly gameplay videos of infamous + Prototype) I think that the remarks about the unremarkable Empire City don't do it justice when compared to Prototype's New York: the latter game's cityscape looks very much like simple boxes with some generic pasted-on textures which is certainly not the case with Infamous.

Another thing regarding not being able to drive around in cars: in Crackdown (an amazing game in my opinion which I still enjoy playing even today) I never used a car from a point onwards. These are superhero videogames - why would anyone not enjoy the fun of pulling superheroic stunts and revert to gta driving around...?
I love GTA IV but if I want to play GTA I will go and do exactly that.
In Infamous the platforming was quite fun and I will definitely prefer to glide or slide on rails and power lines instead of getting in any vehicle.
The same goes for guns - why bother when you've got the electric "equivalents" of gun,shotgun,rocket launcher,sniper rifle, grenade and even an orbital strike capability(lightning storm)??? We3've got guns & ammo kind of games in this generation of consoles to last us a lifetime and there is still more to come so it's nice to get something with a bit more imagination for a change.

Anyway, Mikel rated the game as he saw fit and gave in his review all the reasons why - even if I don't completely agree - and even if I think that I'll enjoy this much more than this review implies - it's good to see someone state his opinion clearly no matter what and back it up against truckloads of fanboy abuse.

Keep it up, Mikel.

This is a much favourable review than some of the others that I've seen thus far (cvg gave it an abyssmal 5,7!)
I'll definitely wait for a price drop - inFAMOUS will soon arrive and Prototype 'll follow along with other great ganes this summer so there's no rush.

I guess that next up is an Auschwitz camp commander simulation or a WWII SS game where you enter Warsaw ghettos and start herding Jews in concentration camps with possible power-up after you rape and kill unarmed civilians...

This is a new low from companies desperate for press coverage.

Speaking of the colossi: wouldn't it be great if team ICO were to finally give with their rumoured new game on the ps3...?
It's been like forever now - this long a wait is ridiculous.

This on the other hand does look really good.

Hope that the story and mainly the cinematics' voice acting are much better than the first game's megacrap.

This has been by far the best video for GTA IV that I've ever seen!!!
I've been laughing myself to tears here - well done!!!!

Actually many game developers are coming around to the idea that Wii and DS can no longer be ignored - their sales have been amazing thus far and the market for them is obscenely huge.
Even Rockstar announced that it will definitely be producing work (like GTA Chinatown Wars) on Nintendo consoles from now on.
Based on that I really believe that the Wii in particular will move on past the ShovelWare and get great exclusives in the near future.
And it's so cheap!!! You can buy one even in order to play just 5 or six games and not consider it a waste of money and space.
And it's got full backwards compatibility so that you can sell your Gamecube and enjoy all the GC titles on a (slightly)higher resolution.

The novelty will last long enough if the characters and the bosses keep coming fresh - and from the videos scattered all over the place this seems very likely.
It's a great idea to move away from ultra-"realistic" graphics for a new take on videogames - even if it's for a little while.

We'll just have to wait and see till late March.

Great review and the added comparison between other DLCs an excellent option which keeps things in perspective: TLAD might be a game expansion but it sets the bar for DLC from now on - it's the closest thing to a whole new game and is much better than many games already on the market.
I'm playing the game, taking my time and enjoying it immensely - the radio talk, the obscene variety of extras, the new weapons, music, bike-handling, the characters - amazing!!
A must-buy-and-download all the way.

But the first couple of hours trying to by-pass an idiotic region-lock for the dlc from 360 accounts across the map -from Switzerland and France to Australia along with some UK residents- was hellish and downright unnerving.
Thank god M$ quickly resolved this issue...

@jakery22:
No, it won't.
It's wildly rumored that Microsoft paid an obscene amount of money to Rockstar in order to secure exclusivity of the two additional episodes of GTA VI so...

I really like "Own the city" mode - seems like it's going to be a great addition.
Lots of people were complaining about the dlc taking forever to come out but I don't care: Rockstar never let me down and this will not be an exception.
They can take as long as they like if that is necessary for their games' fantastic qualities.

@MikelReparaz:

It's 1600 points - if I'm not mistaken.

Good video compilation, well done.