A Few Games in Brief

These are a few games that I've played recently, but don't feel they merit a full-length review.

Alice: Madness Returns

This action platformer sequel was released about ten years after the first game. Alice is still nuts, and again battles her way through a demented Wonderland. There's really more jumping than battling, but whatever. Madness Returns keeps the same look as the first, but with a graphical facelift (Unreal Engine 3 instead of id Tech 3).

Madness Returns addressed pretty much all of my complaints of the first by looking better and having a more enjoyable combat system. That being said, it's overall an average game. My game snagged on a glitch after I'd played for about five hours, and I couldn't play it anymore without starting from scratch and/or screwing with the game's ini files. Bleck.

Just Cause and Just Cause 2

These games portray themselves as action platformers, where a lone CIA operative is dropped on an island with a mission to overthrow the government. In truth, these are Grand Theft Auto clones. I don't care for GTA, so I didn't play this for very long. It didn't really make sense that I was taking out hits, peddling drugs, and stealing cars, “For the Revolution!”

I bought both Just Cause games at the same time. Just Cause 2 does not support Windows XP, so I can't play it without upgrading.