Perfect Dark Zero

Slick, but you need a graduate degree to figure it out. Worth: $10
based on the retail 360 game: May 2007

Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just... oh, it's a gun.

I bought this out of deperation. I didn't think the demo was that great, and sadly, neither is the game.

Arnold Ninjaneggar
The first five missions were really slow, but I was trying to be sneaky. By mission six I realized that despite being a "spy" game about stealth, it's really just a mindless shooter with overly complicated weapons. It became more fun once I stopped sneaking around everyone and starting machine-gunning everyone.

Where's The Cliff Notes
Everything's more complicated than it needs to be. There's a lot of story, filled with intrigue and betrayal. Too bad it doesn't make any sense. I honestly couldn't tell you what's going on. It reminds me of Black. Sometimes I fail a mission and I have no idea why, none.

Click Help To Fire Your Weapon
Simliar to Gears of War, PDZ lets you take cover. You stand in front of a crate (or wall, or whatever) and press A. The game shifts from 1st-person to 3rd-person and you can swivel the camera around to find a target. Then you pull the left trigger to lean out from cover, take aim, then pull the right trigger to fire. If it sounds awkward, that's because it is. I know it's the same buttons as Gears, but it's poorly executed here.

Like all 360 shooters, PDZ has online Co-Op. I haven't tried it yet, but I could see it being more fun than playing alone ('natch). Strangely enough, most of the Achievements are wrapped up in Versus Multiplayer, which I haven't tried yet.

We Got The Bot
You can play a Multiplayer game against Bots that are at least as tough as real human opponents. I got my ass totally kicked, but this made me a better in-game fighter. This may account for why I got to like the Single-Player Campaign later in my playing time. It's an interesting concept, I get to "practice" my fighting without having to worry about failing a mission every time I die.