Recent reviews by Tony Lazzuto!?!?!?

Ubisoft is trash but the game is fun

Iz pretty gud

This game is simply amazing. I have no better way to put it than amazing. The orchestral score, the beautiful cutscenes made in a hand-drawn manner telling the entire story of the game, the complexity that is acheived with only 6 unit types on the field at any given time. This game is amazing.

The graphics are beautifully drawn in a style that suggests it's being painted as you're watching it. The game runs for the most part at a smooth, solid 1080p with the frame rate easily reaching 60 and staying there. That's fairly impressive, considering the game came out 6 years ago for Playstation 3. My only gripe about this is that the cutscenes are supposedly in 720p as opposed the the strategy bits being in 1080p, though I can't tell the difference due to the art style. If that's a thing that bothers you, keep that in mind.

As I said earlier, this game originally came out for PS3 exclusively. You would think that this would make the menus and game play impossible with out a controller, right? WRONG. The menus are only a little tricky at first due to the lack of cursor, but after getting used to navigating with WASD or arrow keys, it works just fine. Not to mention the fact that the main attack is aimed with a reticule, meaning mice are perfect here.

Really, there is nothing wrong with this game and it does many things right. It is definitely worth the $20 purchase if you can stomach anime and enjoy tactical RPGs.

Final Verdict: 10/10, Candidate for 2014 Game of the Year.

This is one of those games where I wish Steam gave us a neutral option instead of Yes or No.

While I think this game is kind of enjoyable, I really just came away from it with a meh feeling. The graphics are okay, considering the game came out six years ago. The gameplay is solid, but lacking. This game sort of suffers from the problem where there really is no reason to play this game. It's not very new, it does very little better than more current Total Wars like Shogun II, Rome II, or Napolean II, and it just feels dated. It doesn't tell you how to do things very well, and what you do seems like you were supposed to do that maybe.

But after all that, the game was not bad. The tactical elements and diplomacy was fully flushed out, as was the combat. When you fought people, you had to think about what you're doing just as much as if you were playing Europa Universalis or Civilization. Would I reccommend buying this at full price for $20? Absolutely not. Would I reccomend spending $5 for it in a Humble Bundle as I did? Sure, why not?

Final Verdict: 5/10 (Average). Buy a newer Total War instead.

This game is simply marvelous. The visuals are bright and well textured, the music was so gripping that I turned off my podcasts to listen to it when I played the game. The story is perhaps one of the best I've ever seen told in a video game and keeps you guessing the entire time.

Final Verdict: 10/10. Play at all costs.

I have never had so much fun by being angry than I have had from playing this game. Remember the losing is fun mechanic I talked about in Super Meat Boy? That comes back in full swing with this game. The game is roguelike fun at its finest. There are no problems I can find with this title, but it's not very suited to PC.

Final Verdict: 8/10, Great fun, but get it on Ipad instead.

OH MY GOD!!! YES!!! YES!!!!!!!

In my Dark Souls: Prepare to Die review, I said the game was easily worth a 10/10, if it didn't have Games for Windows Live. This game was more than I could have hoped for. This game is everything Dark Souls was and more. The combat is visceral, with enough oomph behind each hit and you really feel that you have made solid contact and cut through the bone, flesh, sinew, or other body material of what you're hitting. You're always on the brink of danger as your Stamina slowly drains and refills, causing you to play smarter and move around more. If you don't want to see the famous "You Died" screen, you have to use your Stamina carefully and dodge, parry, block, and maneuver your way into staying alive and killing your foe. Something I really like about the combat is that your character is essentially a glass cannon. Your character, especially in the early game, will not be able to take too much of a beating. If you get stuck in a corner against a set of two or three enemies, you are as good as dead. While this may sound terrible, I really like it because it means that you have to incorporate strategy into what you are doing.

This game also has some really great ambient music. It really sets the tone and mood of the game and makes you feel a sense that you are alone, even though there are actually several people that you talk to and interact with. I don't understand why, but something about the game's art style and color palette combined with the music created an immersive experience that sucks you into the world.

I will say though, there is one mechanic I absolutely hate. I hate how when you die, you lose all your souls that you have on you and you become Hollowed. Hollowing is where you turn into a sentient zombie of sorts and when you die with Hollowing, your max Health decreases until you become de-Hollowed. When you finally turn back to normal, your Health bar remains at the same spot where your max Health used to be. This is incredibly annoying, especially if you're trying to attack a boss or a room of enemies and they continually kill you untill the Hollowing caps out at HALF of your normal max Health. The only way to cure Hollowing is to use a Human Effigy, an item that can be very difficult to find as I have found ONE merchant who sells Human Effigies so far, who is deep in the middle of a dungeon after fighting four rooms of enemies and a mini-boss.

But for all the amount I dislike that mechanic, I am completely infatuated with all of the other gameplay aspects, music, the art style and every other parts of this game.

Final Verdict: Perhaps the greatest RPG I have ever played and one of my favorite games of all time. 10/10

The little amount of this game I have been able to play was astounding. Game ran smoothly and looked fantastic, if a bit gray. The music perfectly complemented the ambience and tone of the game. The combat was phenomonal with well-implemented rolling, sprinting, dodging, parrying, and striking mechanics. The challenge of the game only encouraged you to keep pushing on foward and made you think outside the box. This game was so great that I will definitely pick up Dark Souls II. This game is near-perfect and would easily deserve a 10/10....

Except for one caveat...

The game runs in Games For Windows Live, a terrible Microsoft-owned service that attempted to combine your Microsoft account stuff (such as Xbox 360) with your PC games. Because GFWL is now dead, I can no longer activate the CD key I got upon purchasing this game, meaning I can't save my game and everytime I quit out of a session, it thinks it's the first time being booted up ever. If I had bought this game on my Xbox 360, where there was no GFWL, I would play this all the way through again and again and again. But on PC with this now-inoperational, archaic service. I would be hard pressed to play any more of this game.

Final Verdict: Go buy Dark Souls II instead and save yourself some hassle. 4/10

EDIT 6/17/2014

I have found a way to bypass the Games for Windows Live BS and play the game with it saving as normal. I had to look it up on the Internet and create an offline profile, but in the end, I got it working. After these problems were fixed, Dark Souls joins the ranks of my top 10 favorite games on Steam, if not of all time.

NEW Final Verdict: Remove GFWL and you're golden. 9/10

This game redefines the meaning of "losing is fun". The art style is retro and nostalgic, the controls are fluid and responsive, and the music is pumping and intense. What more could you ask for?

Final Verdict: One of the finest and most challenging platformers I've ever played, 10/10

This is my most played game on my Steam account to date. This game has sucked 100+ hours away from me and I enjoyed every one of them. I highly recommend you pick up this game.

Final Verdict: One of the best games I have EVER had the pleasure to play