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About as average as they come. Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising was, for me, a nice break from the military shooters that have become all the rage in the past few years. It is, of course, still a military shooter, but the focus in this series has always been on realism. The story is somewhat strange, and seems to exist in an almost Tom Clancy-like universe that flips back and forth between different characters and their missions. I found the combat to be fun (mostly) and the map is big enough that you can choose different routes to get to your objectives, but the game uses checkpoints as a subtle way to force you into the "best" route and you can only cause certain events to happen on some missions by hitting certain checkpoints.
Unfortunately, as enjoyable as Flashpoint is from time to time the A.I. nearly destroys the fun factor. Your squad, to put it nicely, is inept in a lot of situations. When I would tell them to wedge, they would have an odd habit of wedging perpendicular to me, with someone standing right in front of me, which caused the two idiots behind me to just sort of linger there. Walking forward would fix this problem but then my squad would do it again, and this becomes annoying when you're trying to line up a shot to initiate contact, only to have the lingering fear that your buddy is going to shimmy right in front of your barrel as you pull the trigger. The medic is also questionable, and many times I had to order him to treat a wounded soldier that he was literally inches from as the poor sap was bleeding to death. This was often after all threats had been eliminated, and the medic would still just be in the prone staring at a tree or rock. Come on, man.
Also, ordering your soldiers to do anything other than "halt" is painful to watch. When you tell them to clear a building they don't even bother stacking up on the door, usually two will go to one entrance and Dr. Einstein will head around back to go in the other entrance. On multiple occasions I had all three killed by a single Chinese rifleman sitting in the middle of a room. Having them clear two story buildings is even worse. I once sent them to clear a two story building as we were securing a LZ to evacuate some hostages we had rescued. I heard "building clear" and immediately got shot by a guy on the second story. I hobbled into the building, had the medic patch me up, and headed upstairs alone to finish the job. My squad relaxed on the first floor the entire time.
Thankfully, the Chinese soldiers are just as stupid. You will routinely see them low crawling across roads and flat areas of ground (in the middle of combat) that provide no cover or concealment, making them easy targets to pick off. Flanking them is also easy and you will often kill entire squads this way, as they will all be looking in the direction they last saw you.
Overall, this is a very niche title that will only appeal to a small audience. If you're short on patience don't even bother. The game was decent for the most part, but for the developers to focus on realism in terms of weaponry and equipment and completely ignore basic military tactics with the A.I. is unforgivable. Bargain bin it if you're interested. | video-games_xbox |
Wish I had a PS3. This is really the only game that makes me wish I had a PS3 instead of an Xbox, the Show just looks so much better than this. To start off, the presentation of the game, specifically the menus, are cluttered and confusing. Then the actual graphics of the game are horrible, many games from the original Xbox look better than this. Maybe it's a false memory, but I almost think the graphics were the same or better in MLB 2k10. None of the players look anything like their real counterparts, even the most famous of players are unrecognizable in the game. The pitching is still the best thing in the game, although this time you can no longer pitch to the corners, as anything on the line is registered as a ball. There are some umpires in baseball that call the game like this, but it's very annoying in a video game. The hitting still sucks, it's very tough to tell whether a pitch coming in is a strike or a ball, and I can't feel the impact at all, it's very dislocated from the action. In the end, I always just felt like I was pulling a lever on a slot machine instead of swinging a bat. The fielding is maybe a little better in this iteration, but it's still frustrating how the AI transfers to human control, it almost always causes a hitch in the fielders gait, many times causing an error. Many of last years glitches have been fixed, but there are new ones in this years version.
Like last year, the best part of the game in my opinion is the My Player, as long as you play as the starting pitcher. However, it really wasn't changed at all. I'd love if there was more theatricality to the presentation, instead of an ugly menu popping up for every batter you face. It'd be great if there was more interaction with the players and the coach, For example: having the coach come out late in the game and ask if you're able to continue instead of stupid AI either taking you out after giving up a single which ultimately causes you to lose the game, or the AI keeping you in the game when you have no stamina left and they should bring in relief pitchers, also causing you to lose the game. Ultimately I'd like more RPG elements than just the boring menus and slow stat building.
Really, there's no reason to buy this game, if you want to play baseball on the 360, you might as well buy MLB 2k10 for the cheap instead of buying this years edition. | video-games_xbox |
I'm not sure who this review is for. ...but I'm putting it here anyway! You can stop reading if you don't want to read a review from someone who hasn't played a COD game all the way through since the first Black Ops.
Since that game COD had lost me. The way COD and, for example, Assassin's Creed, branch their franchises into more than one stream demands more thought than I want to put into choosing a game. Make COD games or don't. Plus, I kept reading of what seemed like stupid ideas and bad mistakes, as if they had lost the plot of what made earlier COD games so great.
After reading about it I decided to try this one, and to put it simply, Infinite Warefare is an outstanding, polished, and often way cool shooter.
I'm a Sci-fi fan, so I'm seriously into the whole spaceship vibe. And I was surprised at the amount of fighter piloting you do. It took a little while to get used to the stick controls, but then it became huge fun. It's a nice way to take a break from the usual ground pounding throughout the game. It also has well judged difficulty that allows you to feel badass in your fighter while still being challenged.
On foot, it definitely feels like a COD game, but with less of the obnoxious every-ten-seconds grenade deaths of earlier games. Grenades are still there but now more like an enhancement to the battles as opposed to a damned downpour. Also, the seeker grenades are laugh out loud awesome. I just love the way they squirm in your hand before you throw them, as if they're thinking "let me go let me go let me go!"
The weapons are a mix of futuristic guns and conventional bullets, but they all basically feel conventional to use. If the idea of shooting an energy weapon sounds lame, in the game it really is just like shooting a normal SMG.
In summary, the setpieces are great, the graphics are solid, the action sequences are pretty sci-fi awesome and there is varied, fluid gameplay. After a long break from COD, I am genuinely happy to come back with this. Maybe it's the fact that I haven't been playing the last few COD games that makes me like this so much, but really, I'm having such a hard time finding something about it that truly sucks. I think, oh my gosh, I just gave it 5 stars. | video-games_xbox |
More Fun Than The PC Version. I must admit that I've only played this on my Playstation 2, but I can't imagine the two games being too different and since I'm more in love with my X-Box, I feel as though I should review the X-Box version. First of all, let me start off by saying that if you've ever played the PC version, it shouldn't take long at all to get used to the controls for the console game. After playing it for a day or two, you'll be back in the game creating characters, building storylines and helping your Sims lead their every day lives. Not much has changed in the world of The Sims from the PC to console transition, but a few things are improved.
What's Good: If you're like me, playing any game with a mouse, let alone The Sims, is a chore within itself. Consider the chore gone. No longer is clicking specifically and scrolling a big issue. Now you have buttons and a joystick to help you do all of this and it makes the game much more simple. Also, I remember on my PC loading the game was a problem that took much longer than I liked. Now loading is as simple as waiting a couple seconds. There are many more options on the console version as to what your Sim will wear or what your Sim will look like. From dark and skinny to pale and overweight, however you create your Sim is entirely up to you. And another thing, I'm not sure if this was on the PC version or not, but here you can have a same sex relationship if you choose. I don't know if it works for two men, but it does for two women.
What's Bad: There are a few minor problems with this game and that's why I've given it only 4 stars. My main problem is that while playing the game it's frozen maybe 3 or 4 times which makes you have to reset the machine. Now sometimes this isn't a major burden, but if you've been playing for hours and your Sims have progressed in their storylines, when you have to restart the game you lose your progress which can make some gamers like yours truly VERY angry. My suggestion is save your progress about once ever half hour or an hour. That way if you lose your spot, it's not such a huge deal. However, maybe the X-Box version doesn't freeze. Also, there's no way to FAST forward the game. You can fast forward it, but it's not FAST. It's actually very slow and the only time it does go fast is when they're sleeping and sometimes your Sims can miss work because of it. Another problem is that you can't download Sims (such as Eminem or Michael Myers or Gwen Stefani) onto the console game. And I think I remember there being a pause button on the PC version. Now if you have to get up and use the bathroom, you have to go to the main menu where you buy or build stuff instead of pausing it. This is a hassle because they play very irritating music while on that menu.
What's The Same: It's still a ton of fun and very addictive. People used to the PC version should have no trouble getting into this. People playing The Sims for the first time, just make sure you have your instruction booklets handy and remember that this game takes time and patience and that you'll be glad you waited it all out.
Your Sims are still very needy and bossy people who have zero patience, but treat 'em well anyway! And if you get evil ideas to kill off your Sims, know that you're not alone my friends. Not alone at all. | video-games_xbox |
That Little 3DS Game That Could Can Now Be Experienced by Everyone. The Good:
+A highly engrossing story filled with twists, turns and intrigue
+A fantastic atmosphere
+A lengthy campaign mode
+Great Remastered Visuals
+Very good use of sound
+Raid Mode is incredibly addictive
The Bad:
-Your AI controlled partner is useless
-There's no splitscreen co-op on Raid Mode
-There isn't really enough new content to justify a purchase for those who already have it on 3DS
NOTE: The Following Review is Long
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In 2012 CAPCOM released three Resident Evil titles. There was the much panned Operation Raccoon City, then there was the mixed reaction to Resident Evil 6. Who'd have thought that the best of the Resident Evil titles released in 2012 was the 3DS game: Resident Evil Revelations? The experience was so good, evoking so much of what made Resident Evil so good in the first place that at the time I felt it was a shame that so few fans were going to be able to experience it. At the time of the original release, the 3DS didn't have a huge install base. Now that it has gotten a release on consoles, fans can finally experience one of the best Resident Evil games around. Resident Evil Revelations is a fantastic experience.
Set before the events of Resident Evil 5, Revelations focuses on the BSAA. A counter Bio-Terrorism group started by Chris and Jill. Our game begins when Jill and her partner Parker, sail out to the Mediterranean. They've lost contact with Chris and his partner Jessica and their last known coordinates were there. When they arrive they find a cruise ship, the Queen Zenobia, strangely abandoned. And soon it becomes apparent why. There are Bio Organic Weapons (B.O.W.s) running around all over the ship. One of the things that made some of the earliest Resident Evil games amusing was that there was a mystery at play. A sort of, "What's going on?" feeling to the game. Resident Evil Revelations has this in strides as the plot is actually extremely engrossing. There's a lot of mystery and suspense. And the stories are intertwined as we're introduced to new characters and situations that can, at times, take surprising turns. The story is just all around amazing. At first it feels a little jumpy by introducing so many different plot points, but it actually all weaves together fairly well and makes for a good story.
As you go exploring the various environments you find yourself in, you'll come face to face with several enemies that are usually dispensed with your trusty weapon. Aiming and shooting is similar to Resident Evil 4. You can take aim at various parts of the body, and when your enemies stagger you can go in for a quick melee attack. If you've kept up with the series since the fourth installment then this will be familiar to you. You can also strife while aiming, but chances are you'll find it much better to pop an enemy a couple of times, retreat and then pop them again. There are, however a few things added to the game itself that keep it interesting. You'll do a lot of running and gunning, but one of the most unique items your given is an item only known as Genesis, which you can use to scan several areas for hidden items or data on your enemies. It's hard not to go into a room and use it. The rewards are usually finding more ammo or precious herbs to heal your wounds. On the 3DS the controls were pretty precise and tight, but the use of a second analog stick makes the controls a lot better in the console version. You can play in the "classic" sense, which maps out the controls to be fairly similar to Resident Evil 4. I don't particularly recommend this. The "classic" controls feel more restrictive. You can't rotate the camera and in some moments in Revelations you're definitely going to want to.
There aren't many puzzles in Resident Evil Revelations at all. There are moments where you'll have to move a few circuits around, but they're hardly mind-bending moments. It's much more about the gunplay here and there's an emphasis put on that. You'll not only find weapons but also custom parts for those weapons that will make them more powerful, or fire faster or perhaps might help them do a better job of stunning your enemies. You can mix and match all you like and apply them to any type of weapon you want.
After running through so many Resident Evil games, it's a wonder if Resident Evil can actually be scary anymore. Well, not really. But Revelations has various ways of trying to be scary. The first and most obvious is the atmosphere. Especially on the Queen Zenobia. Hallways are suspiciously empty, music hits some really eerie notes, and sometimes you'll find dead bodies or see some enemies pop out as you run by. Resident Evil has been doing these things since the very first installment and it's hard to be creeped out by the billionth enemy popping out at you when you've been exposed to that for seventeen years now. In spite of the atmosphere and the mystery given by various documents you'll find through the game, Resident Evil Revelations isn't going to scare anyone. You have to give credit to the game for trying at least. It does this in other ways as well. You'll find various keys to unlock locked doors, find yourself backtracking through previous rooms only to find them repopulated with new horror, and sometimes you'll find yourself wondering if you'll survive. All this is compounded by some very well done set pieces. Early on, for instance, you'll find yourself unable to stand as a pack of mutated dogs set their sights on you. It's a very tense moment where you, the player, may actually begin to feel just a little frightened you won't survive. Moments like this make you feel as though Resident Evil is returning to its roots. So at the very least Revelations tries to be scary and give you a sense of fear. It basically tries to take the best of the two styles of Resident Evil and mesh them together. The atmosphere and mystery is inspired by the early installments while the gunplay is drawn from the latter ones. It's a well put together hybrid. Just don't expect it to scare the pants off you.
No matter who the game has you play as, you'll always have a partner, and this is perhaps the most glaring shortcoming that Revelations has. The rest of the game is great and it's other flaws forgivable, but when it comes to your partner, CAPCOM still hasn't made a competent one. They won't spend time wasting your resources like Sheva in Resident Evil 5, but a lot of the time they just stand there doing nothing. They rarely even shoot at your enemies, and most times they just follow you around like a confused puppy. If they did a little more such as point out objectives or even tried to battle a little more it wouldn't be so bad. The only use your AI partner really has is soaking up damage on your behalf. The good news is that they can't die. They can take as much damage as they need to. They may be useless, but you are not in a position where you must babysit them.
There are a few things about the 3DS version that I do miss to some degree. While it's always easy to switch between your weapons and subweapons using the D-Pad, I do miss that all my inventory management is no longer on a bottom screen. It doesn't clutter the heads up display, but on the 3DS it was easy to be immersed because the top screen where all the action took place was completely clean. It made for a more immersive experience.
There are other differences between the consoles and 3DS versions of the game aside from the hardware. For one, load times are more noticeable. While even the 3DS version had to load new areas causing severe dips in framerate (which isn't a big deal, you're in no real danger during these times) it's kind of strange that powerful consoles have to take a moment to load up some of the pre-rendered cutscenes where as the 3DS has little problem transitioning into them almost seamlessly. Likewise, while the console version has a lovely HD remaster you can definitely tell that it was made for the smaller screen. When blown up quite a bit of the game looks really good and detailed, but you can definitely see some blemishes that were not really noticeable on the 3DS version of the game. The game looks good, but sometimes it looks better on the 3DS (where those blemishes don't stand out as much) and runs better on the 3DS (where you aren't interrupted nearly as much by "Now Loading" screens).
The most noticeable difference between the versions, however, is that the console versions offer a new difficulty setting: Infernal Mode. This is a lot more than just increasing how powerful enemies are. This puts entirely new sets of enemies in some parts of the game. You'll encounter the strongest of enemies a lot sooner. For those really wanting to test their skills, this new difficulty setting is certainly worth a try.
The original 3DS version had another mode called Raid Mode. This mode returns. It's a co-op mode that sends you through about twenty different missions killing your way through enemies, trying to earn the highest score and upgrading your equipment along the way. Raid Mode is highly addictive if you're one who really loves the gunplay. You may even find yourself spending more time here than you do in the main campaign. Mostly because it also has difficulty settings and it changes up the enemies and how many you'll find on each difficulty setting. It's almost like getting an entirely separate game along with the main campaign. It's very fun and being able to really customize your weapons and level up makes Raid Mode worth playing. You can play solo or you can go online with a friend (or stranger). The only downside to Raid Mode, really, is that the co-op can only be done online. It's a shame that there is no split screen multiplayer. There isn't a lot added to Raid Mode, however. There are a couple more costumes and a new character to play as, but not a lot of additions. Don't think you can just jump in, however. In order to access everything Raid Mode has to offer you'll have to complete the main campaign.
All this makes Resident Evil Revelations a near perfect package of content. The campaign is a good length and Raid Mode has such an enormous fun factor that you'll find yourself playing through the missions several times on end. As with every reissue of a game, however, the big question is whether or not you should buy it if you already have the original game. If you already have it on the 3DS the idea of a whole new difficulty setting and a couple of extra costumes in Raid Mode might not be enough to justify a fifty dollar price tag to those who already have the 3DS version. On the other hand, if you've never played it before (or lack a 3DS) then it's not such a bad idea to grab it.
If you've never taken the time to play Resident Evil: Revelations then now is probably a good time to do so. It's a good game that provides some of the aspects about Resident Evil we used to love so much, while keeping some of the new gameplay enhancements there to keep it from being dated. Resident Evil: Revelations is a good game that no Resident Evil fan should miss. If you've already got the 3DS version, however, there isn't much reason to rush out and buy it. | video-games_xbox |
How is Sacred 2. that's been an ongoing question for many. i rated the game on how much i enjoyed it, people's taste varies widely though. this is a real time rpg. as far as the specifics, playing online, co- op, etc... you can find those on any game review site. the reviews have been widely mixed and make it confusing as to whether or not to buy the game. i enjoyed the original Sacred for the PC, so i bit the bullet and got it. i myself was quite pleased i had. i don't want to make too long and drawn out of a review, so i'll try to make it simple and as honest as possible.
the game is just like your basic, 3rd person, over the head view rpg as such games like diablo, sacred 1, etc... the attacks are targeted, one button pushed attacks, just like in the pc games. i have the 360 version, so the attacks can be customly mapped to each button ( a, b, x, y ( holding LT & RT will bring up 4 more attacks accordingly.)) so in all you can have up to 12 attacks plus 3 potion quick slots & a divine attack on D-pad. the attacks vary widely dependant upon which of the six characters you play as.
graphics are ok. they could've been far better but are adequate in my opinion. moving through the world, you will find that sometimes trees etc... will block your vision. they could have made the camera control better as well ( your basic zoom in zoom out,) but i found i got used to them farely quickly. it's not something that should deter you from buying the game. as far as the graphics for the character, i found them to be interesting at times. some spells are well executed and some are ok.
game play is decent. my qualm is that the targeting system could have been made far better. you can not manually target an enemy easily but once into the game you find ways aroung this with area attacks and spells.
once you get the hang of the controls and switching between the mapped buttons, you're good to go. i foung the upgrading when you level up to be interesting as far as determining how you want to customize certain spells but lacking overall in how little upgrading is in other areas. but again, i got used to this fact and just played on. quests o' plenty, and putting it on silver (medium) when you start out, keeps opponents tougher. if you like items, you've got them. there are multitudes of pieces of armor, stones and gems for upgrade slots in armor, and an excellent add-on for a goblin who carries you're big chest, which can hold plenty, you can buy cheap on LIVE.
there you have it. my personal reason for giving it four stars is because i found it to be really quite fun and also a game in which, if you get tired of playing, you can drop it and play whatever, but is easy to pick up again and get right back into. i could have gone more into it but thems are the basics. if you enjoy this genre, then you'll enjoy this game undoubtedly. if you're not familiar with this genre and are used to rpg's such as Fable 2, Oblivion, mmorpg's or Star Ocean type games, i would probably look elsewhere, unless you find it dirt cheap and wanna' give it a go. | video-games_xbox |
3rd Times The Charm. 6 years ago, i wrote a review for Mafia 2 on xbox 360. i praised the game for being well made but detailed specifically all the things i felt it was lacking: no criminal economy, no open world war between families and no real activity outside of the storyline. i think they actually listened to my review because all those things are now in Mafia 3 and ITS NOT PERFECT....but it is an enjoyable experience thats worth investing your time and money in. this is a Good Game.
graphically, the game looks like Mafia 2 with a slight improvement. this is fine, it looks good. the SUN LIGHT sometimes clips and shines all over the place but its no big deal lol. control wise, Clay is about 6'3" 240 pounds, the size of an NFL linebacker and the controls relay that feeling of Weight, Power and Momentum. its comfortable once you get use to it. the shooting is the same as Mafia 2, every weapon sounds and feels true to life. the PHYSICS engine in my opinion is Phenomenal. iv shot guys in the heat of battle and watched them lean and put their hands on certain structures to hold themselves up....have also shot guys in non-scripted areas of movement and watched them stumble back into walls and slide down the wall dead and it all looked so NATURAL. best engine for gun violence iv ever seen.
New Bordeaux itself is a Beautiful south eastern city. the downtown and french ward sections are alive and well structured. the suburban and ghetto neighborhoods feel realistic and are fun to fool around in. once you unlock the Downtown activities, thats when the city begins to open up in a major way....but the fun for me comes when you neglect 1 or 2 of your underbosses and they send "Retaliation" hitmen to kill you randomly until you hunt the underboss down and kill them. these chases make for some pretty thrilling gun fights all over the city but once you kill the underboss, the chases stop Forever so keep that in mind because the game gets VERY BORING without this Retaliation element.
As far as the mission structure, people complain about it being Repetitive but this to me is not an issue. its a game about killing mobsters. you're given alot of similar situations in which people need to be killed.....and you go kill them.....Alot lol i don't see what the issue is???? i guess people wanted Diversity???? you go work for the mob in real life and see how many "diverse" situations you get put in as a hitman. people need to be killed. you go kill them. thats what the game is supposed to be and you get ALOT of that....and its Fun. stop complaining.
overall im giving this game a strong 8.5 out of 10. the world is Beautiful, the controls are Mostly comfortable, the difficulty is a great challenge and the story is GREAT. i havnt felt this good about completing a game in a Lonnggg timeeeee. ofcourse theres glitches, no game is perfect...and if you ever get a chance to look into a Mirror in the game, you might cry laughing lol....but this is one you can appreciate and is a WORTHY 3rd installment in a reputable series. now 2K can use this game as a stepping stone to Mafia 4 in Las Vegas and really give us the game that will be a Perfect 10 ;)
PS: STAY AWAY FROM "FASTER BABY" DLC, IT IS A RIP OFF!!!!! | video-games_xbox |
Updated Review Now With Working Unit. I am writing an updated review now that I have a working system and have played with it for a little bit. I'll keep my old review down on the bottom.
I've been trying to use the system as Microsoft intended: Kinect, cable box, SmartGlass, etc. For the most part I am really impressed with what they have done. Setup was fairly easy even though I needed a few tweaks hidden in the options. The integration of the cable box to the interface is really good. The voice commands work very well, as does the auto sign-in. Kinect as an IR blaster works far, far better than I thought it would. I had to specify my soundbar and TV but once I did that, it worked great. The controller is an excellent upgrade over the Xbox 360 one - the triggers and sticks feel even better than the 360 pad, buttons are large, the d-pad is excellent, and the integrated battery housing cleans it up a lot. The system offers a "resume game" feature that picks up where you left off even if you turn off the system - similar to a Vita or 3DS. It works great, even though it is proclaimed to be beta in the options.
The main menu interface is a nice improvement over the messy Xbox 360, even without the voice commands. SmartGlass is a bit underdeveloped but has nice integration to the system (volume control) as well as some games/apps (I tested it on NetFlix and Dead Rising 3). It does need some work though, and some of the apps really do need better integration (like "My Games and Apps").
I do have some complaints. I don't like how so many things are separate, somewhat slow-loading apps. I get an achievement and "hold for detail" and have to sit there for N seconds while the achievement app boots up. It's not as bad as the PS3, for example, but still not optimal. The party system just seems confusing and I have not bothered. The install process is slow and arbitrary - some games let me hop in right away but some make me wait. Some do both, like Battlefield 4. The snap feature, while cool and mostly works as intended (I used it to watch TV while on a BF4 queue), needs better app support. Achievements should be snapping, for example - ideally showing the game you are on.
I guess that is what it comes down to. The Xbox One does so much that you can't help but think of where it could get better. Even with the flaws, this is a very exciting system. There is a ton of potential here, I just hope Microsoft can realize it. I am giving the system four stars because, on the whole, I really do like it.
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Old Review:
My wife bought me one of these for Christmas from Amazon. I was excited, spent about 30 minutes rearranging my systems and getting all the cords plugged in. Pressed the power button in anticipation... system lit up... and then immediately shut down. I called up Microsoft and yup, the system is a lemon. It's not the disc grinding thing, or some cruddy power brick, or anything like that. The system is just a broken, five hundred dollar piece of junk with no hope of ever doing anything it was designed and built to do. Thankfully they set up an expedited replacement process but in the meantime I am still out a system, with a bunch of cool games (NFS Rivals, DR3, and BF4) and no system to play them on.
I've supported Xbox and Microsoft to the tune of thousands of dollars over the years. I know on some level it's just bad luck, but come on. I can't believe MS is still putting out this garbage after all these years. It's so disappointing. Hopefully I can update this review later with actual experience with the console. | video-games_xbox |
Buying Guide for Xbox One bundles. I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I'll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.
There doesn't seem to be a promotion for these currently (though there should be some for Black Friday). The new designation for Console with one controller and Console with two controllers just lets you toggle between the standard bundle and the bundle with an extra new controller at about full price. You'd actually save a few buck buying separately, so I wouldn't go for any of them (I don't expect any controllers, except the Elite, to be scarce this season).
A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) -
HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.
It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me...) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Gears or War Ultimate Edition includes all 4 Xbox 360 Gears games and Fallout 4 includes Fallout 3, for example. List of games and other info here -[...]
It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.
Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.
External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don't need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.
The bundles-
The bundles can be split into 3 different groups based on time of release. The upcoming and current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it (excepting the new Kinect bundles). Legacy consoles include an older controller without the standard audio jack (excepting the Forza 6 bundle) and shouldnt be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven't included, due to their rarity at this point). There are no other functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you're free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).
Upcoming bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) -
Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won't match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There's little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don't allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller has been released to wide acclaim (modifiable professional controllers can easily go for twice as much), but is scarce at present. If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won't get any games with it, or a headset, from the looks of it. B rating. Also note that this version releases earlier if purchased from the Microsoft Store or Gamestop.
Current bundles -
Fallout 4 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases November 3rd. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel will be even better. Great for adults who love action adventure. Amazon won't be stocking this one, unfortunately...
Kinect 500GB Bundle - $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, the old model controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage.
Holiday 1TB Bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc (as well as all 360 Gears games as downloads if you play online before the end of the year), Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases October 27th. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included.
Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me... It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only.
Lego Movie 500GB bundle - $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.
FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. (I think these are being phased/sold out) I'm grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA's games. A- for each. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Gears of War 500GB bundle. $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download (as well as all 360 Gears games if you play online before the end of the year). This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B+ rating. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Legacy bundles-
Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom (new, with 3.5mm audio jack) controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.
Halo Master Chief Collection 1TB bundle. $399. Looks like this being phased out. Standard console, plus download code for the Master Chief Collection (the four numbered Halo games in a single package). B rating.
Halo Master Chief 500GB bundle. $349. If you can get it at the retail price, I'd consider it an A-, since the cost to upgrade storage to 1TB or greater is around or less than the $50 to get the 1TB model, and it'll perform better.
Keep in mind that the lowest prices and best bundles tend to happen around the winter holiday season, so unless you really want to get one now, you're probably best served waiting till around Black Friday, when multiple stores will be trying to entice you with lower prices and more pack-ins. This is especially true since Sony recently cut the price of the Playstation 4.
At this point, I think the best offer for the holidays for an X1 bundle will be for $50 off current price point, plus an extra game and second controller (Dell at least, will offer such a deal). The risk is availability and whether the bundle or extra game would be one you'd want.
Hope this was useful to you. | video-games_xbox |
Really like this game. I'm really getting into this game. I had an old Squire Strat from college that I used to BARELY be able to play (a few open cords and power cords). I always told myself that someday I'd find the time to pick it up again. When I saw this game come out I thought it was an interesting concept - especially being that my family and I have had fun playing Rockband together so I'm familiar with music "rhythem" games. Keep in mind that this is mostly a single player game (you can buy a second cord and play with a friend but you aslo need a second guitar). The interface is not as dynamic as Rockband, it come off a little more professional/instructional, but the system is easy to learn and forgiving if you have a gard time keeping up. My 8 and 10 year old kids have a fun time playing this as much as I do (although they are still having a hard time pressing the strings down fully which is not the games fault). They typically play single notes, and I'm using more power cords.
Theres been a lot of reviews that discuss the video/audio lag. I agree that it's annoying at times. I haven't tried to rewire my system as suggested to make it better (I think it's foolish to rewire my entertainmenr system for one game), but can live with the slight delay. The game is still playable with te delay, you just kind of learn to live with it. I'm more concern with learning the songs than trying to get 100% so if I miss a note here or there because of the delay I'm not worried about it.
In conclusion, If you have an electric guitar and have interested in playing it this game is one to pick up. I would think that more advance players would enjoy this as well as they'd probably max their scores out easier (although professional level guitarists may get bored). Also, fans of Rockband and Guitar Hero will also enjoy this. It lets you rock out, while really rocking out! | video-games_xbox |
Amazing game but not perfect. The GOOD: I love EA Sport's innovative Total Punch Control (TPC), which utilizes the analog sticks to punch instead of buttons. It is intuitive, and most importantly, does a much, much better job of recreating the boxing experience than the traditional button mashing. The aspect I love the most is that this game, for the most part, rewards patience and technique over raw power and aggression. As you climb the ranks, boxers will have distinct personalities; while some less powerful enemies will bob and weave you to death, others will go toe-to-toe with you. The graphics are gorgeous, and sometimes almost over the top in terms of recreating the blood and sweat universe of boxing. Thankfully, EA listened to critics and fixed the training minigames (gone is the Uber-irritating heavy bag swinging game), making them more accessible and more effective. The new cutman feature, whereby you control the swelling and cut repairs between rounds, is fun at first but I have yet to see the impact, and now I just let the computer take care of it. This game is addictive and just plain fun.
THE BAD: The computer controlled oponents go up in difficulty (as is to be expected) as you rise through the ranks, but unfortunately, the difficulty jumps from: "I can knock anyone out in the first 3 rounds" to "I get knocked out in 2 rounds and all my punches get blocked" in the span of a single fight. Strategy can remedy this somehow (clinching is now an option, thank goodness, and you really need to learn to block and weave), but by far the biggest flaw is the upper-level character's propensity for just unloading on you with haymaker after haymaker. The worst part is, they don't get tired like they should, and can throw them all day. Since a single one will stun you, they can just keep unloading on you until you get knocked out. It's frustrating, and really an example of unbalanced play.
CONCLUSION: This is a great game that would be even better with more balance in the punching; the haymaker is good to have, but the over-reliance on it (online and off) is hurting this game. That said, this game improves on almost all of the flaws of last year's edition, so it's worth picking up. | video-games_xbox |
I want to love them...but I hate them. I bought this headset from the Microsoft Store about a month ago when it was on sale.
Right out of the box, I loved them. Everything was great. The sound quality is the best I've heard from a gaming headset and I felt that the sky was the limit...until I tried party chat.
The mic on my headset is awful. I updated the firmware, looks up all of Astro's recommended settings and setup instructions and it still does not work. My friends say they only hear static, not my voice, unless I push on base of the mic (the swivel part connected to the earcup). When I push and hold it down, they say they can hear me but as soon as I let go, it's just static.
I contacted Astro customer support and they had me send it in. I sent it in and after they had it for a week they sent it back and what did they do? Replace the chat cable. That's it. I tried them again and it still has the exact same problem. Then, I bought the Xbox One chat adapter from Microsoft and tried using a standard XOne chat cable and still the exact same problem. After two weeks of owning the headset I bought a PS4 and I used a completely different cable and still had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM.
So Astro had me send it back again and I thought for sure that something would be fixed now, right? WRONG. They told me yesterday that they cannot replicate the issue and that there's nothing they can do for me so they're just going to send it back to me. I responded that unless they send me a new headset, I want my money back and I'm still waiting for a reply.
Again, I have followed every Astro recommendation for setup but my mic does not work unless I hold down the base of the mic against the ear cup. Seems like a wiring problem to me but they won't send me a new headset? I paid a crazy amount of money for these things.
I'm sorry Astro, I really want to love your headset but if I can't get a working mic for the several hundred I spent on your headset, why shouldn't I get a new one or my money back? Really disappointed in you. | video-games_xbox |
Prince of Persia returns, in a land of enchantment and disappointment. I actually agree with most of the other reviews here. This game does not hold a candle to the sands of time series in gameplay, character appeal, or story. So separating it from those masterpieces, what do you have?
Prince of Persia is a visually stunning game that does eventually make the game more of the fantasy I believe the developers intended. You can indeed find yourself stopping in points in the game just to look around at the beautiful background scenery.
The story works but is a bit shallow. And the ending? I won't spoil it, but I am amazed that some people actually enjoyed the ending. I found it to be one of the most disappointing endings in recent years, one that makes you wonder why you played the game in the first place.
Character appeal: Elika is your Farah from the sands of time series, and she works very nicely into this game. She grows on you quite fast, and is very likeable. The dialogue between her and the prince, which is incredibly redundant and annoying at the beginning of the game, develops into a intimate tension between the two as the game proceeds. The prince, in my opinion, is the biggest disappointment. He is not a prince, more like a nomadic thief, and has a dull and sarcastic personality. Elika, which is also quite beautiful and looks great in the game, is a deep contrast to the prince, which looks like a homeless bum wearing a long red scarf in an old arabian village. The out of place red scarf, which he states he wears for luck, covers part of one eye and looks like something a failed 80's rocker would wear. Your best bet is too change into the skins that you can unlock with codes on the menu screen, so that you don't have to deal with the stupid personality AND the stupid appearance of the prince.
Gameplay reminds you of the old series, with wallruns and climbs and swings. There is a couple new maneuvering techniques such as roof climbing and using elika to double jump. It does take you back to the series but with a slightly new feel, which works great. The game takes an interesting approach to dying though. You can't die. No matter what you do, elika will save you and you will start back on solid ground before you "almost died." This takes away some frustration, but also takes away the accomplishment and excitement that could be present.
Overall, I still like the game, and you can download the epilogue from xbox live, which is an alternate ending of sorts (I am having problems with loading the epilogue saved games at times though). It is also much more challenging than anything in the game. If you are a diehard fan of the series and assassins creed type, and can separate this game on it's own, I think you will enjoy it as well. | video-games_xbox |
Badass Game with Ups and Downs. As far as this game goes, its a badass game with badass graphics and a good solid open world game that is refreshing to the days when you were confined to a track and only could go in circles.. The detail is stupid... stupid good... down to the raindrops on the car, to the dynamic blowers and intakes, especially on the Fast and Furious DLC for Dom's Charger.
But, I have some issues...
While the game is great, some features should have been given to me in the Anniversary Edition. First off, if its the Anniversary Edition, give me Storm Island for free. I dropped 50 on this game, and you're asking for 20 more? Its the anniversary edition, means more than base game, and means more than a row of stock cars with a fancy paintjob. And whats the point of having different versions of Anniversary Edition? Standard, Premium, and Ultimate? Really? Really Microsoft? As if 50 dollars wasn't enough...
On top of that, having a speed cap of 268MPH isn't good. If the speed cap is that, you're not reaching the full potential of the Hennessey Venom GT. Its a car with the fastest land speed record of 270.4. Cant reach that in game. AT ALL! Don't put a car in the game if you cant reach the top end. Plain and Simple.
The damage system is unbelievable... If set to Simulation. If cosmetic only, it looks like a crushed up soda can. Putting everything on high gives you a 150% bonus on cash received during races and championship winnings, at the cost of your engine, your body, your springs, tires, transmission, and other destructible parts. The agony of a fully tuned challenger going 20MPH after getting messed up severely is a pain in the ass to drive.
The music was done in an awesome way. Whoever chose the music did their job right. Hospital Records, Bass Arena, and Horizon Pulse are my favorites. EDM, Drum and Bass, cruising music, music that you want to blare blazing past cars on the highway. The music and scenery that sets the atmosphere is so beautiful to drive to and to just chill to. Nocturne by Keeno is my top song. I listen to it at sunrise and sunset.
In comparison to Gran Turismo, historic racing icons, like the Ford GT40, is a good price. Still high, but not stupid high. Gran Turismo wants like 3 or 5 million for the same car. The cars that are high in cost and worth keeping can be found in Barn Finds, like the Maserati Tipo Birdcage, and the Lamborghini Miura. Gran Turismo charges you 20 million for the Miura Prototype, the car that put Lamborghini firmly in the exotic supercar industry.
I'm giving this game 5 stars because of the experience and fun to tune up your favorite cars, to go full retard mode offroad ducking and weaving through trees while being chased by Ford Raptors and Ram Runners during Extreme Offroad Championships, to challenge a Lamborghini to a head to head with a highly tuned Ford Shelby GT500 and win, and to not feel confined to a track. Beats Gran Turismo 6 in every way. Now... wheres my ticket to France? | video-games_xbox |
okay okay its not so bad. (EDIT)
Okay after giving this game another day i will have to say i can no longer b***h about it... its super easy and its short but, the quality of the game is something to admire and i think i reviewed this one a little too early... My fav song on here Within you Without you is stunning... IN FACT you can hold the guitar like a Sitar and play the lower (or top) notes and get the feel of playing a sitar. To me thats really special because i'm absolutely in love with Indian music. Singing is really fun! i sung a lot of songs and i was surprised how i could stay in tune unlike some of the songs in RB2 (tangled up in blue is one of em) after playing it another day i'd have to say its better than i thought and i appreciate its simplicity yet creativity! i am excited for when my son gets old enough to play this... i will defiantly keep this for me, him and my husband to play!
(ORIGINAL)
Okay... I'm a HUGE Beatles fan and when i heard about this game... of course i didn't read reviews... and even pre-order it! i feel this game is kind of a let down personally! The graphics are stunning! The gameplay is flawless! The cut-through scenes are clever! BUT!!!!! and EMPHASIS on BUT!!!! This game is WAY TOO QUICK!
I don't know why but i have a hunch! They will make you buy DLC for all their other songs. When you think about the list you are given in the game and the potential... you feel kinda duped! The Beatles have quite and impressive catalog but it doesnt show here... You tell that they group 3-4 not so known songs in with 1 well known song! I was expecting a full line up of greatest hits... you even get close with that here... where is Penny Lane? Where is I Need You??? Where is HELP!??? Where is Strawberry Fields Forever?? Where is All You Need is Love??? (which that one is a DLC) In this time with the Economy, The fact that you could spend up to 300 for the bundle and not even receive one of the other guitars (lennon or harrison) but have the buy them separately.. The fact that they will put DLC with all the better songs on there probably charging 14 an album and 2 a song.... I feel real duped...
I remember what impressed me the most about RB2... the game seemed to last forever!!! This one not so much.. My husband and i are already almost finished with Abbey road Studios... we are more than half-way done with the game and we only played in 2 1/2 hours with BREAKS!!!
This game is more of a disappointment the more i write about it... the only reason i'm not upset about buying it is that my husband enjoys more than me and i know my son will! So i don't mind spending 56 on a game that will make my family happy.
But, I WARN YOU!!! If you are looking for something similar or better to RB2... Your NOT getting it here... Save your money and just rent it for a week! You'll finish in days and to me the extra content isn't really worth the money. theres a little more than 40 songs on it... i believe there was around 80 with RB2... Next time i will read the reviews and will not pre order... I got blinded by the HYPE and i was defiantly reeled in like a fish!
Other than that i have no other complaints... The gameplay is great like i said in the beginning! Beautiful graphics... The beginning was amazing! My husband and i kept looking at each other in excitement... I think its funny tho that this game is more of a disappointment to me than my husband.. I was expecting something much greater! To me the Beatles are bigger than this... And i'm not really wanting more either... i rather listen to their cds and learn songs on a guitar and drums FOR REAL than just pretend... | video-games_xbox |
Derivative, but a Huge Improvement. So long as you don't include originality as part of your game evaluation process, Saint's Row is a stellar, stellar piece of programming. It fixes five of the six problems with the GTA series, and offers tons of little "next-gen" improvements that make it more palatable for older gamers.
1)Graphics: The draw distances and general graphical ... "cruddiness"... of the PS2 (and even the XBOX) versions of GTA are a thing of the past. The game looks great. There's some pop-up with long streets, but the explosions, character models, and polish is simply a vast improvement. I actually thought San Andreas looked worse than Vice City, so this is almost a two-step improvement for me. The explosions, weather and lighting effects, and reflections are really incredible when you consider the lack of loading times.
2)Auto-Aiming: It's gone. I'm not quite used to the borrowed FPS style yet, but anything would be better than the broken auto aiming feature of GTA. It shan't be missed.
3)Save Scheme: No longer am I limited to the GTA "one save per half an hour of playing" madness. Hallelujah. I can't devote large chunks of time to a game, and if I can't save frequently, I lose interest fast.
4)Restarting Missions. Recovering your weapons and restarting missions from the beginning (actually, before the beginning) was asinine in GTA. It wastes time and annoys gamers without really upping the difficulty. Also won't be missed.
5)On-line. Haven't had a chance to play with my own copy yet, but watched someone else play. It might suck, it might be great, but at least it's there.
6)Timed, pizza-delivery missions. They haven't really reared up yet, but hopefully these annoying time-wasters are gone. We'll see.
The main problems I see with Saint's Row I *suspect* will be solved with Xbox live "updates"/purchases. It took me an hour to realize that there were tons of cars, but no motorcycles, etc. I have a feeling we'll have to pay for the privilege of flying a chopper or driving a boat. That will suck. It better be cheap, because the lack of these vehicle options doesn't feel like a game limitation, but like a conscious programming choice.
The story seems pretty derivative, but I'm not far enough along to really evaluate it.
I can't really see myself ever playing any current version of GTA ever again. After only a few hours of Saint's Row you realize that GTA has too many annoying idiosyncracies that should have been fixed long ago.
For fans of the sandbox genre, this is the game to buy, and may be for quite some time. | video-games_xbox |
Good, not great -- but not bad either. We played the game non-stop on legendary until complete last weekend. Here is my review:
Campaign co-op is possible, but if you have more than 2 people, you cannot play split-screen, or LAN, you'll have to play online. What that meant for my 3-person crew, was 3 TVs, 3 XBOXs, and 3 copies of the game, in order for us all to be in the same room, sharing pizza, and having fun in person.
Online multiplayer in standard "forge" mode is the same as it ever was. Slayer, death-match, oddball, etc.
The new Spartan-Ops mode is a PHENOMENAL promise, and if they manage to pull it off, it will set the bar for years to come for online multiplayer. My crew and I have already completed both of the 2 chapters on offer, and they are fun, and fit right into our weekly gaming nights seamlessly.
Overall, the game is fun, the campaign picks up right where we left off with the Chief and Cortana, and it is a decent adventure with some heaping amounts of back-story finally filled in. Bonus points if you have been reading the books, because they use that canon in the game. I DID NOT care for the ending, and I am hoping that Halo 5 will change what happened with some sort of comic-book hero resolution to what happened (I am trying not to spoil it, so I am being vague) -- but I am also told I am overly sentimental.
Final thoughts: the game is still a bit buggy. I personally died about 4 times in the campaign mode due to doors closing on me and just killing me. Additionally, the game is arbitrary about when it will warp you to the rest of the players, depending on the distance you are away from them. Some sort of a gauge on how much distance you have left before you warp (or warp others) would be nice. The game also is frustratingly non-obvious in some areas, with no clear objective (besides survive). Finally, we have encountered a glitch in the online Spartan-Ops where our game blacked out like the chapter had completed, but the game didn't actually end -- we had to end the game and re-do it, to get it to complete correctly.
Overall, the game is a 5 star effort, with a 4 star result, and that is high praise indeed for a studio picking up the mantle of a legend such as Bungie.
4 stars. | video-games_xbox |
Wild Rom, wild west style. It's a wild romp through the final days of the western frontier.
The game follows John Marston, a retired outlaw, Reluctant bounty hunter and wannabe rancher as he travels through New Austin and Mexico hunting down his former gang members. His travels take him to some diverse locations and in contact with some colorful characters.
While in the game you will NEED money, for ammo as well as items that could prove useful, such as a bandanna to hide your identity or a bandolier to increase your ammo carry size. Luckily for you there are numberous ways to earn money in this game. You can hunt bounties, do ranch work, skin animals and sell the skins at the general store or of course rob people.
The controls take a few minutes to get used to, especially on horseback, but once you are used to it, and comfortable with it you will love it!
Some reviewers will say "This game is basically grand theft auto IV, but set in the wild west." Those people would also be wrong. Yes, there are similarities, This is true. That's to be expected considering it uses the same game engine. However the differences are multiple! For one thing, it uses a health system similar to the newer call of duty games. It also has a moral system to determine if you are a bad guy or a good guy. There's obviously no radio stations. It has the Dead Eye feature which basically is slow-mo while you take aim and target multiple enemies. Lastly they employ an improved duck and cover combat feature, so you can shield yourself behind objects in the environment and poke out to fire off a few shots before returning to cover.
Those are just a few MINOR differences. If anything, I would say the game is a cross between Fallout 3, GTAIV and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The game takes all the best features and aspects of those 3 titles and blends them together really well to come out with this masterpiece.
Another thing you might be interested in knowing is that the game is a sequel to another game titled "Red Dead Revolver". However, if you haven't played it, don't fret! Redemption is not a DIRECT sequel, more like a spiritual one. The stories don't really connect, so you don't have to worry about being lost in a plotline, or scratching your head in confusion, because an event being referred to is from a different game.
Apart from being an incredible single player experience, it also has an Online multi-player feature. Most games either shine in their single player campaign or the multi-player aspect. Very few game titles manage to provide an enjoyable experience in both fields. However, Red Dead Redemption has managed just that.
Bottom line: The game is visually stunning, with a fun story that will leave you begging for more! If you love sandbox games, shooters or Role-playing games you will no doubt love this game.
Here's a tip for you though. If you think you have beaten this game, there's a chance you might not have REALLY beaten it. There's a point in the game, that really seems like the end but isn't really. To avoid any spoilers, just remember this: Most games have credits when they end. Red Dead Redemption is no different! If you haven't gotten the credits, then you haven't finished the game.
So, if you are one of those people who didn't actually finish the game like you might have thought, and now just discovered that there's more of an ending than you actually experienced, and are now wondering how you access that bad-boy? The answer is quite simple really. Just do the stranger missions! | video-games_xbox |
Loved the first, the second is fun but flawed. Well i am one of the aquired taste people who really liked the first LP and played through it a couple times as with most of Capcoms games. I've played the demo and anxiously awaited the arrival of the second. Being that the demo was ok and they said certain bugs may be present i would have hoped these bugs were ironed out after all the time they spent on it. Well as usual the game is beautiful but the controls are hit and miss, mostly miss, here are the pros and cons because i don't feel like going into real depth at this time.
PROS
1. As i said beautiful graphics you've come to expect from Capcom, creatures and surroundings.
2. Gameplay remains the same but is a little bit cleaner this time around, i do mean a little.
3. Not freezing to death is a plus.
4. At this point you don't HAVE to pick up the orange energy balls but if you don't you may regret it.
5. Multiplayer is decent.
CONS
1. The controls stink, when i mean stink i mean that the aiming is way off and certain movements are just repetitive.
2. Anytime you get hit there is so much chaos in the game, especially in the jungle that you can't tell whats going on and most of the time you dead and don't know it.
3. There is whats called the harmonizer now, this is when your energy gets low hold down start to replenish it, takes a few seconds which you DONT have when fighting swarms of acrid or Bosses especially.
4. Have to mention its way to hard, more than the first and you can die from one blow to the body now.
5. Hitting the top right button makes you do a sudden turn, this control is pretty useless, even in multiplayer.
So thats about all i have to say at this time, the game won't change much considering i'm almost done, as much as i love the looks of it and the gameplay(discluding controls) is pretty tight, AI etc. I just can't give this game a recommendation to anyone, not even the hardcore Capcom gaming fans. Sorry folks. | video-games_xbox |
Fun and Challenging Game for those who wish to 100% it. Too Human
Story
In a time when Humanity flourished, machines known simply as the `Children of Ymir' emerged from the depths of the Earth, bent on the destruction of all sentient beings and have waged war on the Human race for the past thousand years. This war has left the planet icy, cold and nearly inhospitable resulting in the death of all but a few million humans. These humans prayed to the Aesir and worship the ODIN (Organically Distributed Intelligence Network) and were blessed by the Gods, who sheltered the few remaining humans in an enclave known as Midgard.
Graphics
The graphics in Too Human are what you'd expect from a game that came out half way through the consoles life, they look good but aren't hyper realistic like Halo, Call of Duty or Elder Scrolls. They relate more to Dead Rising, Crackdown or Saint's Row. All in all, the graphics are standard, nothing special, nothing good or bad.
Controls
Usually controls are tough to talk about due to them usually being so generic, Too Human is different in this way. The left thumbstick moves Baldur around, but to attack, you lean the right stick in the direction you want to attack and tapping to launch enemies with melee weapons. Guns can be tough to control, especially if you're using two at a time so practice is needed with them. Rifles are capable of launching grenades which is very helpful against groups of enemies. If you can adjust to these controls, you'll have a lot of fun with the game, just give it some time.
Music/Sound/Voice
Sadly, there is little of all of them in the game, in-between fights you'll be listening to little or nothing at all. Only when in combat do you hear anything, and honestly, the music is nothing special. Sound effects seem to be repeated after a bit, but switching what you do can alleviate that issue pretty quick (don't use the same move over and over and over and over).
Other
The game can be very difficult at times, especially on higher difficulties; enemies will have various immunities at all times on tougher levels, making strategy mandatory. So mastering this game can be tough, but is very rewarding as you'll get some of the best armor and weapons.
The one thing that REALLY stands out is the ability to customize Baldur after a certain point, you can change his armor color, bonus stats and weapon effects, as well as a few other things I won't mention.
The multiplayer is pretty well done as well, I never had any issues with players joining my game and it is always fun to play hack & slash games with a friend. This can either make the game tougher or easier, depending on the skill of the players.
Achievements: A good chunk of the achievements will come naturally, some of the others will require skill (beat the 4 levels WITHOUT dying), patience (obtain 10,000 drops) and luck (complete a full set of Epic gear). With time, you should be able to get them though.
Overall
Too Human is a fun game if given a chance, best played with a friend and not for the weak of heart.
8.5/10.0
Pros
- Norse Mythology driven story (kinda)
- Ability to customize is great
- Tough game that's rewarding
Cons
- Steep learning curve
- Will give many players a headache
- Bland musical score
Read more at lvgrb.blogspot | video-games_xbox |
Fun to play and watch. I recently returned from a trip to Disneyland with my wife and 3 year old, so this title caught my eye at the store.
You pick an avatar and move him through a combination of quests and experiences set in the Disneyland park. The game has a faithful rendition of Disneyland itself that you can wander freely through. You can get your avatar to walk (well, trot really) pretty much anyplace you wan go normally in the park, just by pointing forward to walk, or to the sides to turn. (works better than it sounds). There's also a park map you can access that lets you jump to different places in the park if you don't feel like taking the time to walk there, which is a nice timesaver.
Some rides (such as the teacups) you can ride and have it look like the real thing. Others - such as the matterhorn, big thunder mountain railroad, and the haunted mansion - are mini-games which follow the theme of the ride, but not the actual structure of it. There's reasonable variety to the games, and I really enjoyed them. The voice acting is also quite good, as you would expect from a disney-branded title.
The disney characters play a prominent role in wandering around disneyland. You can collect their autographs, hug them, dance with them, or high five them. You can also stop in some of the shops and buy clothes and pins for your avatar.
One of the best things about this game: it's just as fun to watch as it is to play! My toddler and my sleepy wife were both spellbound as I played for the better part of an hour.
The controls are a little too sensitive for my tastes, but at least they're responsive. I figure I'll get more used to them over time.
Overall this is a great family game, especially for any family that either wants to visit disneyland or has recently been. I really was shocked at just how faithful to the park's layout and look and feel (well, except for the crowds which are quite sparse) the game is. Awesome!
Pro:
+ It really feels like walking around disneyland!
+ Nice, safe environment to interact with the various characters, and some cute 'emotes' to do with them.
+ fun mini-games for some rides
+ good navigation, both for walking around, and for jumping to places without having to walk.
+ voice menus work pretty well, I was very happy with this as a time-saver!
+ Great fun to watch as well as to play.
Con:
- I wish I could ride a rendered version of ALL the rides rather than just a few
- controls are a little sensitive and take some getting used to
Overall, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend to my Disney fanatic friends! | video-games_xbox |
One of the best sequels for a sports game I've ever witnessed. The Good:
*Major upgrades and many extra features from the original game.
*Intriguing storyline that will last 4 seasons(instead of 1 season.)
*Ability to play as Legends and Hall of Famers.
*Constant mini-games make fielding very fun.
*Damon Bruce doing play-by-play is as funny as ever.
*Several environments for the Baseball Pinball.
*Certain players have perks, which makes this game as strategic as ever.
The Bad:
*Some challenges rely on dumb luck rather than skill.
The Bottom Line:
Attention video game sports franchises: Take notes! This is what a sports sequel should be like. Unlike other franchises such as Madden, which basically want you to cough up $59.99 every year for basically the same game, Bigs 2 has managed to upgrade from last time in such a way, that it makes "Bigs 1" almost forgettable. Fielding for example is no longer boring. Now in order to make a "legendary catch," or to catch a line-drive, or catch a foul pole near dugout, you will engage in several mini games: Button Sequence, Hold and Release the button at the right time, lining up crosshairs and even playing a balance beam game with your RT and LT buttons while trying to keep a baseball from dropping. If unsuccessful, you will not make a great catch and drop the ball. From the batting point of view, in addition to BIG BLAST, you can now choose to activate BIG SLAM as well, which gives you a chance to quickly load the bases and hit a grand slam all in one shot. Pitchers now get rewarded more points for BIG HEAT strikes to combat the powerful hitting.
Some players now have perks. For example, David Ortiz has "No Doubt Homeruns" which can't be caught. Some players like Ichiro have Free Boost before batting, while other defensive others have power to influence other defenders to play better. Other players even temporarily have higher stats if they trail. This really forces you to manage line-ups in a more thoughtful way.
The story mode of the game(*SPOILER WARNING*,) which now lasts four seasons, forces you to restart your career in a Mexican league during Season 1. As always, your stats slowly get better as you progress. After Season 4, you retire, but the game doesn't end there! You will now have to get yourself into Hall of Fame by playing with and against other legends on your quest to becoming the best player ever and ultimately beating Babe Ruth.
*END OF SPOILERS*
Pinball Mode is also fun with more stuff to destroy in several surroundings. There is now even a co-op mode. For all of you achievement hunters, one that I found really fascinating is where you and another online player have to work together and earn 2 million points together.
Some nit-picking: There will be some challenges in the game that will rely on dumb luck, rather than skill. If one of the challenges is to hit a HR and record 5 RBIs, that takes skill, but when it asks you to throw out 2 runners, you are forced to do things that you may not necessary want to or they won't even happen. In order to increase your chances, you will force your pitcher to throw hittable pitches and hope that it will be put in play towards your player. Therefore, if you concentrate on strikeouts as you should, chances are you won't get the intended task done.
The Bigs 2 is a great baseball game that also includes a season mode as well, if the lengthy Legend Mode didn't satisfy your hunger for non-stop action. While some traditionalists and those who like realistic baseball may not fall in love with this game, I think most baseball fans will enjoy this game in a big way. My only question is: Why can't 2K Sports be this successful with their other MLB games? | video-games_xbox |
very frustrating, but fun. Most Wanted places you in the shoes of the racer you controlled in NFS: Underground 2, who has left Bayview and moved to Rockport. This time around you are trying to be the most notorious and revered racer in the city and on the city police's "Blacklist". This blacklist shows who the top 15 street racers are in terms of won races and police chases. Basically, you choose a car to start with (and naturally it isn't going to be the best car in the world), do a few races & earn money from them, then go and upgrade your car. From there you proceed in police chases to raise your bounty. While in these police chases you must pass "milestones" - these milestones can be anything from hitting into a car to having a 20 minute police chase. Eventually you can challenge a member on the blacklist if you meet their criteria (they usually require you to win a certain number of races, have a certain bounty price, You can upgrade almost everything on your car from visuals to performance. I mean you can buy several types of body kits, spoilers, rims, paint jobs, vinyls, etc. In addition, you can buy better motors, nitros, superchargers, etc. On top of that, you can "performance tweak" your car. This means you can lower your ride height, raise your torque poundage, aerodynamics, and much more to give you the upperhand in a race.
The police chases are pretty cool, but get almost impossible later on. You start off at level 1 with just police cruisers following you, as you gfo on you will get police copters and police corvettes chasing after you using tactics like making you fishtail or boxing you in. They will even lay down spike strips and road blocks to slow you down.
The graphics in this game are beautiful. The cars look amazing, the environments look top notch, the weather effects are brilliant. The only downside to the grpahics is the sun. Sometimes they will place the sun directly in your eyes and you can't see your car or the road.
The AI in this game is a bit frustrating. It starts off real easy, but then gets REALLY hard as you progress. When you reach something like the 3rd guy on the Blacklist (Ronnie I think his name is) the races become almost unbeatable and you really have to use tactics, strategy, and proper driving mechanics to get ahead of the game.
The music in this game was off the chain, and in a good way. They had great artists like Static-X, MC Hush, Celldweller, Disturbed and many more to help you get pumped for the race or police chase. Obviously there were some bad songs, but whatever. The cars sounded great as well as the explosions and crashes. Downside to the soudn was for some reason when driving in 1st person on a standard audio TV you can't hear your engine making it hard to judge when shifting while driving manual.. but when on surround sound you can hear it just fine, but can't hear the car when in 3rd person. Meh. The cutscenes were ridiculous, but definitley welcomed. It was done with real people acting as characters in the game and helping you through the story. When you got arrested by the cops they showed your character getting roughed up by the police in interesting ways like slamming you onto the floor and pushing your face into the black top.
X-Box live races are pretty intense but lags alot... I mean, you'll be driving neck-to-neck with someone when their car will disappear for a few seconds and re-appear ontop of your car for no reason.
Oh and another thing, you can create your own cars for fun. By this I mean you can choose any car you unlocked in the career (not just the cars you drive, but any car you have unlocked) and give them your own customization for free and race them on X-Box Live. It was fun making a nasty Subaru WRX STi and racing it against a Lamborghini Gallardo online.
Overall, Most Wanted was a pretty fun and challenging game but it's AI was hard to overcome later on in the races and some small glitches (like hitting into a road block of police cruisers in a Ford GT doing 200mph and stopping dead after hitting one car) kept the game from being higher. I do suggest you at least give the game a try since it is easily accessable to beginners and advanced gear heads. | video-games_xbox |
The voice acting and story are pretty good. I found the end story boss battle . The Borderlands 2 GOTY edition has enough content to keep the devoted Borderlands player busy for many, many hours. I have played over 300 hours in the game and still have more to do. Obviously you can spend a lot less time in the game or a lot more depending on what you want to get out of it. That's one of the positives of the game.
Game play, graphics and leveling are all very similar to Borderlands. Obviously so is the loot mechanic. The voice acting and story are pretty good. I found the end story boss battle a little bit of a let down but that leads into some of the negatives of this game.
This game obviously cannot match the freshness that Borderlands had because it is a sequel. This one feels like it is very much designed for co-op play as you can easily get into areas that you cannot progress through alone without some grinding to level up. Many of the quests feel like busy work and some become downright tedious, going back and forth into the same area multiple times.
Final complaint is the loot, it is very very difficult to get decent loot drops. Possible because of the key system that Gearbox introduced where you can get and redeem codes to open a chest in the main town. The drops out of this chest are always your best bet to find equipment that can either break the game as they overpower your character or allow you to stay alive in the all too frequent areas that you may find yourself if you try to tackle quests one after another without grinding out any experience.
Overall Borderlands 2 is a fun game that brings much more of the same. The changes that Gearbox made probably make this a better co-op experience than a single player game but it is certainly possible to play through the game solo. It's worth picking up the Game of the Year edition especially now that the price has come way down. | video-games_xbox |
Light and Affordable. When I first received the Turtle Beach Ear Force XOs, I have to admit I was a little underwhelmed by the box. Compared to all of the big, fancy boxes you see on the shelves at, it was a bit nondescript and definitely not impressive. Small, white, and relatively plain, the box itself certainly wasn't flashy and certainly didn't leave me expecting a whole lot from the XOs.
Fortunately, the box really hides what is a great set of gaming headphones, especially at the price point.
The XOs are pretty 'normal' when it comes to appearance: matte black for some areas, gloss black for the ear pieces, but how they looked really wasn't the first thing I noticed. No, that was the weight. These suckers are LIGHT. As a bigger dude, I typically like a bit 'meatier' set of cans, but the XOs are a dream to wear. As full over-the-ear cans, they're incredibly comfortable and really, really wearable. I played Destiny for around 4 hours with them on and didn't really have any ear fatigue at all.
I was really impressed by the sound quality, as well. For $80, you expect a decent sounding set of headphones, but maybe not top-of-the-line. I have to say that the XOs compared really, really well to my X0 Sevens in terms of sound and clarity. I could hear footsteps behind me, and voice volume was also really clear and easy to understand. I actually plugged the headphones into my iPhone and put on some music as well, and the XO Ones held up really, really well to heavy bass tracks. The highs and lows are a little shallow, but for $80, these are actually a really great pair of everyday headphones as well.
Despite how many great things there are, I was a little disappointed with the microphone attachment. The attachment itself is actually really nice. It's a sturdy flexible arm attachment, but the fact that you can only attach it from the left side is a little frustrating. It's a really small complaint, and again, at $80, I think it's a non-issue, but it is something that bothered me initially.
For the price, I've not used a better pair of headphones for gaming than the Turtle Beach Ear Force XO Ones. They're light, affordable, and sound great.
Recommended. | video-games_xbox |
Genuinely good ideas bogged down by over-easy puzzles. Console reviewed: Wii
Also on: 3DS, PC, XBox 360, PS3
Notes: I had the following figurines in use most often throughout the game- Dark Spyro, Sonic Boom, Gill Grunt, Ghost Roaster, Trigger Happy, Legendary Bash, Ignitor, and Stealth Elf. I also used the Pirate Seas and Darklight Crypt level unlock items.
Graphics: 8.0/10
Fantastic for the Wii's non-HD, but level designs can be horribly punishing and restrictive.
Sounds: 7.5/10
Music is great and sound effects are never ignored, but voice acting can be annoying and soundtrack gets repetitive after long play.
Story: 7.5/10
Tons of Skylanders and unique cast, but some characters will stick out as annoying. Story is simple, but not memorably told.
Value: 7.0/10
Good buying just one Skylander of every element, but a waste buying all of them. Good replay value trying to get three stars in each level, and almost too much if you want to max everyone out. Fortunately, expansion packs are also welcome additions.
Gameplay: 5.0/10
Hugely disappointing and terribly easy. Occasionally varied, but never new. Would it score so moderately without some truly genius hidden treasures and wonderful Heroics? Not even nearly.
Overall(Average): 7.0/10
It has nice gimmicks, and a wonderful world, but too many shortcomings to be as good as the "Classic" Spyro games.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is a game in which it's best to skip to the credits as fast as possible, then search for the extras. And watch that you don't spend too much on it along the way. It disappointed me very severly in a lot of ways. It's lazy in the gameplay department and only pays detail to things which don't matter- gimmick figurines and annoying characters. It just ends up being a good game, with some great replay value, and truly under-appreciated ideas, which could have been far better because of this.
The game starts off with you, the new Portal Master, being asked to summon your first Skylander. Simply place your desired character's figurine on the Portal of Power, and viola, via a chip and a Wireless USB(cable for XBox 360 users), it pops up in the game within a second. The switching between Skylanders was almost perfect- almost. While you actually play through levels, it's seamless, but when I wanted to switch after unlocking a chest, or during a cutscene, I was told to place the Skylander I was using back... And once or twice when I was positive I was in neither situation. You also can't switch in the middle of Battle Mode, which I didn't like, because even though it might be a bit fairer, the switching could have made for some truly fantastic battles. It should have at least been an option. I understand not having it in Heroic Challenges, but not having it in multiplayer was a ridiculous choice. All-in-all, I like the way it was put in but it still had those kinks.
So now characters... There's a wise spirit, two evil bumbling fools, a show-off, a nerd, some guys called the Mabu, a fairy, a spirit, an anthropomorphic fish, a talking tree, a skeleton, a robot, and a gigantic statue, to name most of them. While most of them have original qualities, the main ones were just so annoying! The show-off, Flynn, I was happy only appeared a few times. The nerd, Hugo, seems to know both too much and nothing. The spirit of the formal Portal Master, Eon, was easily my favourite, though. He's the one character who's actually helpful in the game, teaching you almost all your basic skills, and he's just such a cool supporting character. It's not some random young kid, you can tell he's been around and he knows his stuff. He intrigued me more than anyone else in the cast. The Skylanders themselves have interesting backstories as well, but you never see any development from them, unfortunately. None of them really affect anything, well, no stories really do, but... The entire tale is literally that you have to find eight easy-to-get orbs to repair a magical beam of light. As opposed to many games which use characters' problems to create tasks, the game focused too much on its characters that do absolutely nothing to help you while you play except make the game infuriatingly easy, and it hardly focused on them at all.
Well, anyway, why am I disappointed with it if it has so many good ideas? Well, there was a terrible idea, and it can be summed up in two words: DUNGEON CRAWLER. My initial impressions for Skylanders back when it was announced were that it would be a platforming adventure with some action elements thrown in, but instead, it's an action game with badly placed Bounce Pads and some extremely easy puzzles, set in short dungeons in which you chase some precious item by defeating trolls or cyclopses or one time robots. There were times I said to myself Skylanders would be better as a movie and more than once I've said it to others. Everything just has to lead to something and conveniently, always where they need to be! That Teleporter? Oh, don't worry, they all help you get Treasure Chests. Turtle? Can't you see, it lets you cross that ledge if you push it because it's right in front of that gap. The Cannon? Lets you shoot that wall blocking your way of course.
I don't care that the audience is young boys. Just because it is, doesn't mean it should be so easy. It seems, in fact, the game is targeted PURELY for young children and generous parents. Let me give you an example from, in fact, the final boss level. Literally, although it may look like a promising and rather intimidating maze, all you do is beat up (or skip) bad guys to get through five paths to get keys.
The main challenge is definitely after you finish the story adventure. Apart from being able to guilt-free skip the annoying cutscenes... It's actually a bit fun trying to get three stars in each level, because some items are hidden very well, and some of the time challenges are really tricky, but the hardest ones come earliest. And there are Heroic Challenges- one for each Skylander- and you can finish them with each of your Skylanders over and over for power boosts and they're always challenging due to the many moves each Skylander has and each Heroic requires! There are bonus areas that require Skylanders of certain Elements (Magic, Earth, Water, Fire, Tech, Undead, Air, Life) to be unlocked which have some truly FRUSTRATING, but FUN, mazes! Unfortunately, all these live so shortly. There are only twenty seven levels in the game and each lasts only about three minutes on average, and most of the treasures you'll get along the way.
If the game had focused on these more, imagine what it would have been like! I know what you're going to say... Play them instead... But it just isn't the same. Some of the puzzles were truly reminiscent of the older Spyro games, but the main game path was just so linear, I can't help but remember what disdain I had for it(and still do)! And if I want to find everything again, I have to start a new game, which means I need to go through that path again, which was a CHORE to me! I'm absolutely serious and positively sure saying that only four levels are optional to get to the credits, and even those you have to buy separately! It's something I just hate and I just can't overlook, no matter how hard I try to. It isn't the game's fault I didn't fall under the target audience, but what do I say then? Whose fault then? Not mine. Besides, there are other games I did not like the concept of and didn't fall into, but ended up enjoying. Skylanders didn't do anything like them or hit any revolutionary notes.
Unfortunately, because of all its shortcomings, Skylanders just ends up being a good game... But not really much more. A game with a wonderful world and a great concept but very average execution. It just should have been more pure fun, and wit, and challenge like the older Spyro games, because it really deserved it. But even on its own it's still just... Good. And that's it. | video-games_xbox |
Its OK, mostly an extention of 2. The gameplay is very much like Crysis 2 with the taking cover system removed and the armor upgrades revamped. The game progresses basically with you being led to a small open area where there are enemies you must either avoid or kill. Usually they come in 2-3 waves in each area so once you have either taken out a group or advanced into the area a bit a few more will appear. There are a few areas that are a bit more open but mostly the game keeps you rather confined. There are still fun cinematic style moves suck as the super kick but the game offers far few opportunities to use them. The AI is a bit weak, in fact most of the game can be beaten easily on the hardest difficulty by simply killing an enemy from stealth and waiting for the baddies to come investigate one at a time. Almost without fail they will come just one at a time until they are all dead. While stealth puts the game into "baby mode" other play styles put the game into "kick you in the pants mode". While the game is not impossible to beat with super strength or assault play styles it certainly makes the game incredibly difficult by comparison in spite of there being promising upgrades that would seem to offer those options. The graphics like all the games previous are top of the line and stunning. The campaign's real weakness in my eyes came from poor writing. Each game after the fist has seen the story and lore get more twisted and bazar than it's previous. The first game I found fun and the lore interesting. Not only that but I loved the creative free style gameplay. As for the second the lore began to get convoluted and flat out bazar with the suits now being made with alien DNA and integrating into the person. Not to mention the completely revamped look for the seph. The third game stays true to this with prophet somehow returning through the memories in the suit or something in spite of him being dead and the guy inside not being prophet at all. One of the things I was really happy to see is that they added exploration value to the game by hiding suit upgrade modules all over the maps. Often times secondary optional side missions will reward the player with a suit upgrade.
If you enjoyed the second game you will probably like this one. They mostly build on push the engine of the second further with a few minor losses such as the cover system. The multiplayer is difficult to log into and I am often outright unable to play but when I am its pretty good. Not the return to the first game feel I was hoping for but not terrible either. | video-games_xbox |
You Don't Know The Power of The Dark Side. This game takes place 4,000 years before The Original Star Wars films!!! You are caught in a conflict; with the Republic struggling against the brutal sith!!! Hundreds of Jedi have fallen and more and more of the galaxy falls to the Sith's conquest.
You choose your path between light or darkness, as you master the force, and the grim secerts of the sith, in your mission to destroy The Star Forge are revealed. Shall you choose light or dark, you alone will decide the fate of the galaxy; in this new innovative RPG!!! In fact, this game won over 40 Game of the Year Awards!!! This is a dream come true for a Star Wars fan!!!
The possibilities in this game are endless, with different weapon, armor, character, force powers(force lighting and force choke.... awesome!!!!) and side quest too!!! You can customize your party and after talking with them, you bring side quests and more twists and turns in the story!!!
In the game, you can either be good or evil which was awesome!!! The gameplay is plainly addictive also and you will be playing until dawn if not stopped!!! Well, I beat the game 3 times 2 times dark and 1 time light, hey what can I say it is fun being the bad guy, you also get cooler force powers and raw brutal power, while the light side focuses more on combat and techinque!!!! This is what, RPG's are supposed to be like!!! Hey what can I say I like raw brutal power!!!
During the game you travel to, the desserts of Tatooine, the jedi enclave and plains of Dantooine, the oceans of Mannan, the sith world of Korriban, and eventualy to the mysterious Star Forge, well of course with a few twists, maybe perhaps a sith command ship, or an unknown world filled with the mysterious secrets of The Star Forge!!!
All, of the environments are vast and always filled with action and plenty to do!!! This what Star Wars Galaxies should of been, this also det new standards for a RPG!!! This along with games like: Jade Empire, Fable, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 are all good RPG!!!
For, a Star Wars fan this is a absolute must have along with:
Star Wars: Republic Commando
Star Wars: Battle Front
and the new Revenge of the Sith game and movie!!!
.... well it all depends on your taste in games though, but this is a game everyone should enjoy, especially RPG!!! This RPG gives you more freedom than any other!!! Overall, I give this a 5/5 Outstanding!!!! | video-games_xbox |
While the sound quality of the Ones was nice, the extra features and superior build quality of . I decided to upgrade my XO Ones to these XO Seven Pros. While the sound quality of the Ones was nice, the extra features and superior build quality of the Sevens make them worth the money. And while others have stated they think the super human hearing function isn't that great I can say it works as advertised. Perhaps the others were wanting it to do too much? All I know is when it's activated it lowers the bass level of the game (hence explosions, gunfire have far less bass) which allows you to pick up more intricate sounds (like guns reloading and foot steps) much easier. Granted, you're not going to hear someone reloading from across the map with super human hearing activated, but that's not what it was designed for.
As others have stated, though, if you already have the Sevens I'm not sure buying a whole new headset is worth it. But you could always spring for the adapter to get the desired effect (it's only $40.)
EDITED on 3/3/15
I feel I should explain lowering this from five stars to one star. It's simple, really. Customer service. About a week ago I started having an issue that, no matter when I plugged the headset into the adapter, it wouldn't function. I wouldn't get sound. I'd unplug the adapter and plug it back in, nothing. I tried to update my controller, but it was already updated. I finally discovered that if I hit the 'sync' button on my controller it would allow the headset to work again. So while it's not a huge issue it's still annoying to have to do this every single time I want to use the headset. This is where the problem starts...
I have tried contacting Turtle Beach regarding this issue multiple times via multiple platforms (email, twitter, FB) over the last 72 hours and they haven't bothered to respond. They have no issue updating their feeds with pictures from people making new purchases, but apparently can't find the time to respond to a customer who has an issue. It's just....frustrating. Even if they have no idea what is going on a simple 'dear customer, we have no idea what is happening but we'll look into it' response would be nice. But not responding at all? Sorry, that's horrible customer service.
Sadly this experience has changed my opinion of TB in a great way. I'm not sure I'll buy their products again after this experience. :/
EDIT #2, 11/22/15
I have raised my review back to four stars. Since my initial issue with the 'puck' I have had no other issues. Turtle beach finally responded and took care of my issue. Unfortunately I had to send my defective puck in before they'd send me a new one. If I remember correctly I was without it for about two weeks. Thankfully I just used the puck from my wife's XO One's while I waited, but it was a bummer to have to send my puck in before they sent me a new one. And although it's been a great deal of time (and sorry for not updating this sooner, I simply forgot about it) I am pretty sure I had to pay the shipping to get my puck replaced. Hence the 4 star instead of five star rating. | video-games_xbox |
Horrible. please read for your own benefit. This game sucks. Its just horrible. The game was not made by the same people the made the first one. They tried to copy the fun from the first but epicaly failed. Let me spell it out. 1 the difficulys are just down right outrageous if . You put it to low the game sucks. If it is to high its impossible to beat. I know what your thinking. " play the game from lowest and bumb the difficulty slowly as you get better at it." No you cant do that. To be able to survive in a difficulty you need to get weapons from that level of difficulty and weapon drops are rare to say the least and you don't get the weapon if you don't finish the level that You need to get the weapons that let you beat the level. If you try to beat the level you will find yourself literally running away constantly shooting backwards at enemys hoping they don't get a cheap shot on you. This brings me to another point. The enemys are near battalion size at every point of a level. Its horrible and makes the fighting drone on and on forever that it is a miracle you just don't quit before that part of a level ends. This mostly applies to higher level difficulty but still somewhat applies to low ones as well. As soon as you think you have defeated a robot to freaking more show up and it goes on and on and on. Its literally unstackable odds against you. Now this wouldnt be to bad if you got support from your so called army. Id like a airstrike that recharges an artillery strike. Force recon soilders that come in and help. If you had abillitys like this and they recharged nd not just a one time use the game would be more playable. If its just single use its hopeless just az well. Trust me I played the game. Now lets talk about the support they do give you. Its next to none existent. You will occasionally find soilder a. I fighting but they die and in higher difficulties..... just don't expect anyone helping you. Just register them as k. I.a. lets talk about the missions. They are just so repetitive. Its ways go from point A to point B. Maybe there will be an obstacle not letting you through and it makes you run around said obstackle it just makes you fight the battalion of aliens on the way there. The audio and voice acting is horrible to say the least. An example is. "The secret at the base is a really big bomb." Yeah just horrible. Nlw lets get to the bomb thing. Im not going to spoil the ending for you if you decide to still buy this train wreck. But the bomb plays a key re to the game and what happens at the end just makes you question the whole point of getting the bomb and the sense of. "That better not be the ending." But guess what. It is! The ending just makes you want to smash your controller and yell. "I went through all that for this." This game is just horrible. Please if you are reading this do not buy it my friend you WILL regret it. | video-games_xbox |
Initial review from an original YSFE owner: They might be on to something here. As an owner of the original Kinect game, and a player of many other workout games since (UFC, Biggest Loser, etc) I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised with this new version.
As the original one did, the game gives you a body scan when you originally sign in. That image is then what is used to play games. Oddly enough though, I've yet to find anywhere in the game where I can modify anything it measured. It also didn't ask me for my weight so I have no idea where to input that or update it. It did recognize that I was a previous player and carried over my calorie burn count which I thought was great. After that, a ton of achievements were unlocked, which I also didn't mind :)
Gone are the days of the dreaded menu system from the past. Now, your hands are used in a push and hold motion to activate what you want to do. This is much improved over the old hold the arm out with hand extended to touch a dot for 4 seconds to activate. I always had problems with that one.
The main menu is broken down into 4 sections: My Zone (your settings, goals etc...btw, be sure to go in and change the measurement system to Imperial for those in the US since it is defaulted to metric), Activities, Workouts and Classes. Once I told the game what I wanted to achieve (with several options to choose from) it created a routine for me to follow and there are several to choose from:
Classes include African Rhythms, Boot Camp, Hip Hop, Bollywood, Cardio Boxing, Yoga, Latin Dance and Zen Energy.
Activities include Warm Up, Stack Up, Stomp It, Run the World, Wallbreaker and Jump Rope. Run the World here is amazing...more about that later.
Workouts include Cardio, Arms, Abs, Toning, Back, Sports Prep, Glutes, Health and Legs
I jumped right into the Run the World and have to say this is fantastic! You run in place in various cities around the world and jog by landmarks. To keep the run interesting, you are monitored for speed (how quickly your knees are moving) and given challenges throughout the run including "high knees" and speed challenges. Along the way, you pass makers regarding the landmarks and a color photo pops up with the training giving you a brief history lesson or fact about it. Very cool.
The recognition on sit-ups went very well, with push-ups still a little off for me. I may have been doing something wrong, but it is the by far the best recognition of push-ups for me of any game I've used before. During your training the background will change and spice it up which was also a nice feature.
One final item that didn't change that seemed to bother a lot of previous players was that there is really no defined way to exit the game or button to push. You still have to get to the pause menu or use your controller to go to the dashboard. If someone can figure out where to input/update the current weight and pass that along, I would greatly appreciate it.
All in all, I have to say that I'm very impressed with the new version as I believe they've really worked on making it a great workout game that is much improved from the first one.
**Later in the day edit**
I think they have hit a home run with this game. The jump rope section is like crack! It's guitar hero, except with your feet. An absolute blast and fun for the whole family! (without getting them addicted to crack, of course) :)
I also did the Boot Camp initial workout and was pretty dang tired after doing it, and I'm really no slouch. The only issue with that was the trainer just started going into movements so you miss a few the first time. But seriously, the background changes through a military theme throughout.
LOVING IT!! | video-games_xbox |
enjoyable action but has some issues. I played the demo for several hours, bought the game today and played for about three hours tonight on a bio-engineer. I played online with a partner who was running a commando. Quite simply - we had a blast.
I'll open with some positives. The multiplayer did away with the annoying cinematics so that was great. The five available character classes will provide quality entertainment for everyone from those who enjoy ranged assault (commando) to dps crazy blademaster types. The graphics look great on my 1080i tv. I can see playing this game repeatedly for improved loot drops as some of us do/did Diablo II or Hellgate London. The multiplayer provides two benefits - the obvious assistance in crushing bad guys but secondly, tradeable loot. Multiple skill trees for each class make character customization a reality which will add to the replay value significantly.
There are some obvious issues too. The controls and camera are not great. Well the camera is not even good. I found myself looking around frequently after battles to figure where I was and where to go next. The action, while intense and immersive, lacks the open ended multiplayer options provided by games like Halo 3 and CoD 4.
This game won't have the online allegiance of a CoD 4 by any stretch, but it will probably develop a rabid fan base who will wear it out until titles like Force Unleashed and GoW2 come along later this year. Compared to my recent pc gaming experiences, this is a vast improvement. It's a simple, honest game - kill stuff, loot, level and customize your character. If you enjoy action and/or are tired of "next big thing" pc releases which wind up in the trash after 2 weeks (see AoC) this game should keep you going for a few months and be well worth your $60 investment.
In summation I give this game 3-4 stars technically due to the goofy camera issues but 5 stars for enjoyable action, an immersive experience and available character cusomization. Overall this is a 4 plus star game. | video-games_xbox |
In The World Of Off-Brand Controllers, A Hero Arises. I first came into contact with these controllers around four months ago when I purchased one at my local Gamestop. The controller looked interesting enough, so I tried it, not expecting much. That is, until I plugged it into my XBOX 360 . . .
Pros:
Doesn't use batteries
Lightweight
Comfortable to hold
Long cord
Cool light features
Cons:
Corded
Incompatible with some XBOX controller accessories
Low durability
Has a tendency to come unplugged
Sure, I was skeptical at first, but who wouldn't be? Every off-brand controller ever created has been loaded with evils that outweigh goods by the hundreds, right? Well, it appears that in the Afterglow's case, we have a "balanced" controller.
First of all, we have the fact that the Afterglow doesn't use batteries, la its cord (we'll get to that later). This, in turn, makes the thing very lightweight and comfortable to hold. It may take a while to get used to the controller's feel if you're used to the traditional Microsoft brand XBOX 360 controller, but it's somewhat worth it. The controller also features a very long cord, making it capable to play your console from across the room, granted no one likes to wildly zoom across the said room.
However, the cherry on the top of this controller sundae is really its awesome light effects. No, I'm not talking about the fact that it will just stay alight by the power of your XBOX 360, I'm referencing how - when on the right setting - it will supplement vibrations with quick blinks of light. I used this controller mostly while playing Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and I came across this pleasant feature while attempting to turn off the "eternal glow." Whenever shooting my weapon in this game, the controller would light up for a split-second with each round fired.
While this controller has many things going for it, it would be nice to note there are a few things holding the product down. The fact that its corded is one of these things, but this can be easily excused. But, when it comes to controller accessories such as the keyboard, things can get annoying. The accessories may not fit and you'll be stuck with a useless product unless you own a cordless Microsoft controller.
The controller also suffers from low durability, showcased in the event of button-outages and joystick chips.
When playing, the cord may have a tendency to come unplugged from your console, leaving you vulnerable in perhaps very important parts of your game.
FINAL VERDICT: I give the Afterglow a three out of five stars, because its short life did give me much enjoyment.
TL;DR: Don't expect this controller to last very long, but if you're going to buy it, do expect an incredible experience for some short months. | video-games_xbox |
More disappointment from the disappointment kings. I have to give it to Activision/Treyarch, they sure know how to make a game look and sound good. Even if you, like me, have been fooled by them multiple times, they're still able to advertise their product like they've finally corrected all the ills of the Call of Duty franchise. However, hopefully you (unlike me) didn't fall for it and waited to hear what others had to say...
First off, let me say I am horrible at this game. I almost exclusively play online and if I get 1 kill to 2 deaths, I count it as a success (and for that reason I usually play Domination game only so I can hopefully be the bait in attacking an area to help my teammates find where the enemy is hiding). That being said, this game makes me way worse than I am.
At least half the time I spawn either with an enemy right behind me or right under the bombing route of a lightning strike (or similar, like in view of a stealth chopper) I can't escape. It's ridiculous how often it happens.
Even worse though is the "lag compensation" this game supposedly has. I don't know what system they've worked out to help make up for lag, but it is horrible. On multiple occasions I've emptied at least half a clip of ammo from an assault rifle into an enemy only to die. And then upon watching the replay, I see myself firing only a couple rounds (if any at all) and then the enemy somehow getting off enough shots to kill me.
Which leads me to my next criticism, the hitboxes. They've been horrible in every Call of Duty game and this one is no exception. Watch any killcam and you will often see bullets "hit" when there clearly should have been a miss. It's almost like they enlarge the hitbox, especially for the head, to compensate for the fact their fix for lag sucks.
Another problem they haven't fixed is bullet drop, meaning they haven't added still. Shotguns still have an effective range, but all other guns still are able to shoot all the way across the map, and completely on target as well. Which also means if you've been using that trick of putting a colored dot in the center of your screen (the same spot any red dot sight lights up) for aiming, it still works. Making quick-scoping as much a problem as it's always been (even more so in my experience lately).
Luckily for me, this game was a gift, so putting it away to gather dust won't bother me too much. But if you're considering spending your own money on it, I urge you to rethink that thought and save yourself the headache. There are better games out there and more worth your money and time. | video-games_xbox |
A gem in my book. We all have our own preferences in gaming obviously, but for me this is a great start for the Xone. Also happens to be some of the most fun I've ever had on a console. Granted, its not a difficult game (at least not on Recruit mode), but its simply 'delicious' to me. If you love the HBO Rome series, the atmosphere and the grittiness of it, and just drool at the combat scenes/exploits of Titus and Lucius, you'll love playing this game.
If your idea of a great time is suffering through the likes of Dark Souls and you feel some sense of accomplishment or something when you finish it, then this is not the game for you probably. However if you love eye candy and quite frankly gore with a sword, its great.
I love the time period/history, and have always wanted a game like this. True, it would have been nice if there were weapon/armor upgrades, but even without them, there's a bunch of execution move/animation upgrades as well as the standard health/mana/xp gain/etc upgrades which help a bit.
The execution moves and the animation of combat in this game are superb, some of the best I've seen in my 30 years of gaming. The animations also seem to be very aware of the environment they're occurring in, which adds a lot to the variety of execution moves in combat.
The "mash this colored button" sequence prompts during execution moves mechanic is also perfectly done. In that if you're like me and detest those sequences, you'll be happy to know that you don't have to get them right every time in order to perform the execution, it'll still turn out right, you just won't get as much in terms of experience/etc rewards for completing it. I.E. the game won't punish/frustrate you like say God Of War does (for me) with its stupid required button sequence presses. Especially if you're color blind like me and have never really associated colors with letters/symbols (buttons). I think this is what people are referring to when they're talking about the game 'playing itself', it doesn't, it just doesn't go out of its way to remind you every second that you suck at some stupid button mashing mechanic that someone somewhere sometime ago thought was the greatest invention that games have ever seen and therefore should be included in every game possible till the end of time.
I'm not sure what people that are rushing through the game are complaining about in terms of the length, I think I'm near the end of the single player campaign and I have a solid 10+ hours in the game. Granted, its not Skyrim, but Skyrim was never this visceral either.
In any case, don't write this off if you're on the fence, its some of the best in-your-face combat action I've ever seen/enjoyed in a game. | video-games_xbox |
In keeping with the Tom Clancy legacy. GREAT game. To make it easier I will break it down by category for easy reference.
GRAPHICS: Very smooth and fluid, though the game was a little "dark". One touch night vision solved any problems created by this at night. About 90% of the game is spent outside, so the graphics don't tend to "jump" like in inside environments.
AUDIO: Nice, but not great. Weapon sounds were fairly accurate, but environmental sounds left a little to be desired. They worked well with surround sound, though. This made it easier to pinpoint enemy shooters. One cool feature is when a grenade or rocket is used, you actually lose hearing for a few seconds. Been there, done that.
CHARACTERS: As usual, you have a choice between base soldiers and super duper soldiers you earn throughout the game. Good thing is that the earned soldiers will lead a team better while you are elsewhere, while base soldiers are dumb as rocks. Bad thing is when they get waxed, their gone for good.
WEAPONS: Great weapons, but they must be earned throughout the game. ...each character came with a certain kit of equipment, which usually consisted of one, maybe two possible main weapons and a side arm. No mixing and matching. ...deploying a rocket launcher is PAINFULLY slow and can be tricky in the middle of a conflict. One thing I might note is that unlike other games,the grenade blasts are VERY realistic. You can't just drop one a few feet away and cruise through unscathed.
GAMEPLAY: Very realistic. The planning process is a bit less involved than in other games (i.e. Rainbow Six, Rogue Spear). But now the planning in more on the spot, and can be changed while in play. Such as escalating rules of engagement and in-game routing. A cool feature was being able to switch between different members of the teams. This is good when Bravo team is pinned down and you don't trust the system to get them out of it.
ENEMIES: Good shots close up, not good snipers. They don't do a lot of thinking, they mostly stick to two man roving guards and stationary guard posts. Once their engaged, they pretty much stay put until you can get to them. If you are seen, though, they will pursue. Watch your back.
To conclude, this game is excellent, and I was not disappointed with the latest installment of the Tom Clancy series of games. | video-games_xbox |
Dark Souls 2. I would like to start this off by saying that I am a huge fan of the first Dark Souls. While I am not the stoutest supporter, I still gave it a good run, completing the game and playing through new game plus. The first game was difficult, but incredibly fair. Every situation was surmountable. The gameplay, especially combat, was very tight and precise. I can think of only one death I experienced playing the original Dark Souls that was not my fault (it wasn't even really the gameplay; my character got caught in a wall and fell out of the geometry of the game). Dark Souls 2 does not continue this method of fair gameplay. The sequel instead forgoes the precise combat, all while raising the stakes and asking even more of you in the process. I'm fine with the depleting life-bar and the tougher enemies. But the combat needs to be fixed. I cannot tell you how many times I have been hit in combat when the blow didn't connect. Likewise, there have been many times that a blow connected, but no damage was taken/given. There have also been plenty of times that I have hit a button only to have it not work (I tried two controllers on this). The hitbox is inaccurate, whether you are the one dealing or receiving damage. This makes it really difficult to plan attacks in boss fights, as you never really know if you're going to get screwed over for it. Granted, this may not be a problem with every copy of the game. Other people have noted issues such as the world not feeling as interconnected as the last game, the decrease in quality of graphics and lighting, difficulty in-balance from one area to the next. These things didn't bother me quite as much. I like the graphics and lighting in the game, it creates a great atmosphere, even if textures aren't quite up to the speed of the last game. I like a lot of things about this game, even if it isn't as brilliantly paced, balanced, or constructed as its predecessor. I love the new creatures, the new level designs, the improved archery, the higher frame rate (thank God). But the buggy combat is an issue for a game that relies so heavily on fair and accurate gameplay in order to counter its brutal difficulty. No matter how well constructed the game might be, no matter how carefully enemies are placed, it all falls apart if you can't rely on the mechanics of the combat. The game becomes cheap, and I can't help but feel trolled. Maybe this is an issue that they will resolve with a patch, but for the moment, I have no desire to play anymore. The first Dark Souls made you feel accomplished when you overcame. The new one merely makes you feel lucky, and is all the masochism of the first game and none of the gain.
Long and short of it, its a good game with a major flaw in an otherwise great combat system. If you go in expecting this, and you're patient, then it may be worth it for you.
2.5/5 | video-games_xbox |
My thoughts on Left 4 Dead. Night. Somewhere in rural America. A desolate stretch of highway cuts a path through a cornfield.
Out there, in the darkness, someone is weeping, moaning ... and - because you know they're already dead - it's an unholy sound that shakes you to the core.
Also, cornfields at night are just...freaky, man.
"It's a witch," one of your teammates says over the mic, "kill your flashlights." Light disturbs the witch, makes her angry, and an angry witch is the last thing you need right now. You're low on ammo, not to mention wounded. And the cornfield is freaking you right the heck out. Click. Click. Click. Click. One by one, your squad goes blind. The wind rustles the ashen leaves and barren husks, every sound setting your nerves on edge.
Then, somebody gets nervous and flicks their light back on, silhouetting a pale figure huddled in the middle of the blacktop, not 10 feet away. As it rises, it starts to scream, it's feminine face a gruesome, twisted mask of demonic rage. "It's okay, she's alone, we can handle her," says the offending teammate as the witch rushes to attack.
That's when the cornfield comes alive with dozens of infected who swarm your position with uncanny speed, intent on ending your life.
"I HATE CORNFIELDS DURING DAYLIGHT HOURS AND MOST ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT" you yell, unloading your auto shotgun into anything that moves.
Left 4 Dead, the long-awaited new release from the creative minds at Valve, pits you and three other survivors of the zombie apocalypse against the rest of the unfortunate population (an uncertain distinction ... they're dead, you're dinner, who got the better deal?). No other game in history has so perfectly captured the essence of the zombie film genre. From the four player character "types" to the sights and sounds of the creatures and the battle-scarred landscape, the game is a loving postcard to the films of George Romero and modern-day takes such as 28 Days Later (and its follow up), the recent Dawn of the Dead remake, Planet Terror and Resident Evil.
These films all have one theme - survival - which forms the basis for the entirety of the gameplay in Left 4 Dead. This is real "survival horror". There are no extraneous goals. No puzzles. No mini-games or quick-time events. "Get to the exit alive" is the most direction you'll receive, and it's enough to keep players entertained for hours. There are four "movies" or scenarios to complete, each one as compelling as the last and each offering anywhere from 30 minutes to 2+ hours completion time, depending on the difficulty.
Let's get something clear - if you're a loner gamer who enjoys single player experiences, this game is not for you. Left 4 Dead is all about getting online with three friends (or, if you're like me and have about as many friends as I have Ferrari's, complete and utter strangers) and teaming up to kick lots and lots of zombie butt. There is a single-player component, but after you experience the online play you will likely never return to it (except to rack up some of the achievements that are more difficult to get online. Not by me, mind you. I speak here of other, lesser players).
Online, this game delivers a rewarding co-op experience like no other. In the dictionary, under co-op, there is a picture of the box art from this game. This is in my dictionary, of course, because I made a copy of the box art, then shrunk it and pasted it in there. In your dictionary there will be no such picture. If there is, we have cause for concern because you are in my house.
In addition to the extremely entertaining co-op mode, there is also an 8-player vs. mode where 4 players become one of the "special" infected while the other 4 play the game as usual as the survivors. This mixes things up quite well and helps to serve as a nice change of pace between or after sessions, but really isn't the draw of the game in my opinion.
There isn't much else you need to know, unless you're into typical "game review" details such as graphics, controls, etc. I don't write that way, so I'm afraid I can't help you there. Let me just say that each and every element of the game design, including graphics, controls and physics, makes the game what it is and does not subtract from its value in any way.
Highly recommended by this gaming dad, for gaming dads. This game is not for children, unless you want to traumatize your children for life, which I do not recommend. One day you will be old, and they will have the upper hand. | video-games_xbox |
A Fun, Challenging, Goal-Oriented & Character-Driven Immersion into the World of Harry Potter. Having played each of the various video games based upon the first four Harry Potter films & books, it has been interesting to observe how each new game has evolved beyond the differences in each of the stories that each game is based. For example, the third game ("Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban") was the first to permit a player to play as a character other than Harry: in addition to Harry, the player could also play as Ron or Hermione and switch between any of these three characters at will at any point during the game. The third game was also the first game in which successfully finding collector cards had an overall impact upon game play. The fourth game ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire") again allowed the player to play as Harry, Ron or Hermione, but unlike the previous game, the player had to remain as the chosen character for the duration of a particular level. Also, collector cards had a much greater impact upon the game as they defined what abilities or stamina the particular player would have based upon which three cards the player chose to use at a particular time. While the first three games had players wandering about Hogwarts (and sometimes other locations), the fourth game was more restrictive in that a player could not just wander anywhere.
What, then distinguishes the fifth game ("Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix") from its predecessors? First, it is the first Harry Potter game available for next-gen video consoles. Second, more than any previous game, the rendition of Hogwarts Castle is the most accurate to any of the films and permits a player to go anywhere within its walls. Third, no beans or collector cards: but not to worry: there are plenty of other types of achievements that impact game play. Fourth, programmers went out of there way to ensure that game achievements are very closely related to the film: so (for example) no battling of monsters that are unrelated to the film and/or book, and no unusual tasks for obtaining spells. In the fifth game, spells are learned as needed. Finally, the player cannot choose which character to play as. Though this sounds as though fifth game programmers went backwards, quite the contrary is true: for the first time, a player can play as characters that have never been permitted before: as Dumbledore, Sirius, or even as one of the Weasley twins; albeit, at precise moments during game play to match similar moments in the film and/or book.
As a very task-oriented game, a player will find himself (among other things) seeking out the Room of Requirement, finding secret passages, putting together & training "Dumbledore's Army", coping with Delores Umbridge, carrying out "OWL" tests for specific professors, battling students, playing a myriad of games (chess, gobstones and card games) against other students and cleaning up Hogwarts. Yes, in the fifth Harry Potter video game, you will find yourself making beds, sweeping, mopping, repairing broken objects and turning on lamps & heaters. Why, you may ask? Simple: to earn points & achievements. As you complete various tasks, you not only earn points and achievements, you increase Harry's magical powers. You also get to unlock hidden rewards that include interviews with actors who participated in the film & game, as well as other information about the fifth film. The rewards are made available to you in the "Room of Rewards" and you will be visited by Moaning Myrtle each time you earn another reward. You'll learn something about occlumency from Professor Snape and you might get to help create a bit of havoc around the castle to upset a certain woman in pink.
With superb graphics, fun & engaging tasks, a ton of interaction with lots of characters around Hogwarts (including the paintings), and more, the "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" video game is sure to please any Harry Potter/video game enthusiast. My overall rating for the game is 5 out of 5 stars and I highly recommend it. | video-games_xbox |
Rough First Try. I was very excited to get this game. I love GM modes in every sports game I get. The opportunity to recreate your team and make the decisions is definately fun. In most baseball games that is what I do since playing 162 games each season is a little much. I probably play 7 or 8 each season and then sim the rest. I thought this game was right up my alley.
Though the concept is great, the game limits the fun. As said by other viewers the menus are tedious and poorly constructed. It is tough to navigate through the game and navigating takes so much time frustration sets in quickly. I think the worst part of this game is that when you are negotiating with Free Agents and making trades or resigning players you have no idea what their overall rating is going to be after you sign them. With the younger players you can look and see what their potential is but if you want to sign Manny Ramirez and he was rated an 85 last season, in this game you will spend 25 million to sign him for one year and now he is rated a 55. There is no indicator that he is going to decrease that much except maybe you should assume he will be lower because he is older? that really bothered me.
Also, when you make trades you really are making them blindly. You have no idea if your idea is even in the other teams ballpark. It often can be a complete waste of time unless you are willing to unload a dynamite star for a prospect. Even then you have no idea. I guess that is the games point of trying to make it realistic but come on how blind will the game make the user?
Also once you get to the end of the year and have to sign 100 minor leaguers one by one and get taken back to the beginning menu every time takes longer than you will ever believe. What is sad is that this game really has potential but I wish I would have waited at least one year to purchase it. I would have much rather bought MLB 2K9 this year and gone with that GM mode. I think that is the better purchase. And if you want to play a game then you still can.
I say stay away from this game but hopefully they make some corrections and make this game better because I really believe it has the potential to be fun. It just isn't there yet | video-games_xbox |
Ehhh....Has it's moments. Granted it's Hot Wheels and you get to race with cool cars, but I'm a bit disheartened to notice the fact that the Hot Wheels games, as of late, have gotten progressively dumber since the release of Velocity X (THE BEST Hot Wheels game ever MADE!!)
It's apparent from moment one that this game has been designed for kids (yeah yeah...I know games ARE designed for kids) I mean LITTLE kids, like 3 and up. DISNEYLAND has nothing on the wall-to-wall screamingly bright color in this game!! Plus, many of the challenges are a bit TOO cartoony (knocking buck teeth out of T-Rex's mouth, the giant bugs, driving down the spine of a giant dinosaur skeleton, playing "pool" on the deck of a pirate ship, etc.)...though I admit some of them WERE pretty fun (like pirate pool)...However, it left me feeling rather embarassed for playing them...Like somebody walking in on me watching, singing and dancing along to Barney by myself (AN EXAMPLE ONLY!!) Also I HATED that there were NO FREESTYLE STUNTS!!! That's half the fun right there! The aerial movements were about as fixed as a roller coaster on it's track.
It wasn't ALL bad though....
The "game-show" format of the game was entertaining (giving you a more "interactive" feel), as was tinkering in the "garage" customizing the look of the cars (although some of the "decals" looked more like goofy vending maching stickers).....You can now perform wheelies, that is kind of a cool addition. They added a long camera angle when making the big jumps (with a whistling breeze sound effect in the bkg.), adding a touch of thrill and suspense. I also liked how they improved the "turbo boost", making you feel like you're REALLY blasting off!!
But all in all, this game just doesn't "blow my skirt up" like Velocity X. And judging by the current Hot Wheel offerings, there may never be a game quite like that ever again...*sigh*
However, if you have a small child who's into Hot Wheels and/or racing, this game will knock his socks off, IMO. | video-games_xbox |
Here it is: Forza Horizon. Overview:
Forza Horizon is a far-cry from the Forza series most of us have come to know and love; while that is not a bad thing, it certainly makes this installment feel overly disconnected. Forza has always been at the pinnacle of realism, right down to the tuning aspects, making car enthusiasts spend hours tweaking their settings to push that little bit extra from their vehicles. Forza Horizon bins all of that for a much more arcade experience. You can still upgrade your car, and customize your liveries; but micro managing has been removed and replaced with an optional auto-upgrade feature. This feature allows the player to upgrade their vehicle at the touch of a button to reach the best potential for whatever 'Class' they are trying to achieve. Need a 'Class C' vehicle? Use auto-upgrade to reach the highest option available. It's a nice feature for players wanting to simply get back to racing, but it seems like a step backwards from their already well established upgrade systems. On top of removing micro-managing, Forza Horizon has a new driving engine which is extremely reminiscent of the one Codemasters used in the Grid and Dirt games. This is not a bad thing, both games are well made and feature some fantastic arcade physics; It seems like an odd choice of direction though considering Forza already had a very concrete racing engine, one which could have easily been tweaked to add a more arcade feeling to the game without sacrificing the painstaking physics which have been developed over the years. Playing more like a Need for Speed title and less like a Forza title, Horizon has you drive around a desert landscape to different race locations and then compete in the events, all the while making rivals and eventually racing your rival before increasing your driving reputation to the 'next level'. There are objectives while you drive, some involve smashing things, and others involve setting off seed cameras. Anyone who has played a Need for Speed (sans the Pro Street Series) or Burnout Paradise will feel right at home with Forza Horizon. My biggest complaint being that fast traveling to a location costs money, and still doesn't place you at the event location, simply at a spot near it. The races are diverse and feature locations from winding mountain roads, to rally races through the desert. There are a lot of races to overcome and each one you complete gives you a real world rival to race (a ghost of another players time), giving you an added challenge above Forza's AI (which is dynamically adjusted to the player). If you have friends who also have Forza Horizon you will automatically see their times and accomplishments when objectives are completed, adding yet another level of competition; even in the open world. I found myself often passing a speed trap and turning around to beat the people on my friends list. Another resemblance to the Grid and Dirt series was the option of turning settings on and off before each race, such as; Brake Assist, Turning Assist, or increasing the AI's difficulty. Changing these settings can increase or decrease the amount of money you win at the end of each race.
Pros:
- Good Race Variety
- Integration of Real World Players Keeps Races Fresh
- Open World is Expansive
- Music Selection is Good
- Livery Customization is Deep
- Auto-Upgrade System is Nice for Quick Action
- Vehicle Graphics are Well Done
- Vehicle Damage is Perfectly Represented Aesthetically
Cons:
- No True Fast Travel
- Depth of Upgrades has Been Reduced
- Music is Limited to 3 Radio Stations (Can't Skip Track)
- Background Graphics are Weak and Sometime Boring
- Vehicle Damage is Limited to Visual, and Fixed After Each Race Automatically
- Rewind System Bugs Can Severely Limit Rewind Meter
- Arcade Driving Doesn't Feel Like Forza
- Typical Story (Unknown Driver Comes to Defeat the Unbeatable)
Conclusion:
As far of a disconnect from the Forza series as Horizon is, it is a very solid, and most importantly very fun game. The races are fun, the surroundings are constantly kept changing and fresh; and even with the lack of micro management, the amount of customization is enough to keep a player busy. I highly recommend Forza Horizon to anyone looking for a solid racing game that is not hyper realistic. | video-games_xbox |
Solid Living Room Center. It really can be the center of your living room. I won't get into the debate of the whole PS4 graphics are better....so maybe they are. But I have psone, ps2, ps3, and I will be honest I didn't even open this when I first got it. I was sure I would send it back. Well after Yuengling stopped by I decided to set it all up and I will be honest it is impressive. I only have Forza to play and the graphics aren't like wow this is unreal. I can compare it to GT6 however. The main differences are the distance items...such as billboards, mountains, sky, stands...things like that. The cars are nicer yes...but it isn't THAT drastic. It really has changed my living room experience. I also have a wii u that I like if that helps you with reference. If you want to talk to your tv and it do what you want...this is for you!
The controller is nice....I have never owned a xbox so I have nothing other than playstation controllers. Unless you count wii controller. Someone reviewed it felt cheaper...I have no idea. I actually really like it. I would say it is dreamcast like but way more ergonomic.
The kinect 2.0 is wonderful. It will usually recognize what I or my wife says. You really have to say only the exact commands. When you do I would say it has been right on 95% of the time and just gets better.
UPDATE
So I had the issue where all the sudden it wouldn't turn off my cable box, tv, receiver. For that matter it wouldn't even let tv pass through. I ended up just going straight sat box to tv. After reading some information it seems the drivers or the process crashes and you have to restart. When I set up the xbox I let it decide the codes for my tv, sat box, and receiver. I have since gone back and put actual model numbers in. It has not acted up. The real solution though I believe is to not allow xbox to turn off the devices. I still like it....it's new and there are bugs. | video-games_xbox |
FF XI. I played this game for 8 years. I also read the message boards for the game FF XI.
The only thing that I did not like too well, is when FF XI, made it, so one needs a secure CC, some people complained their CC would no longer work with the game. I was lucky my debit cards worked, but let's just say you have go to a web site to varafiy your credit card.
I agree when I first started playing I had no idea it would take so long to download. Even for pc, if you have a slow computer like mine, this is going to take awhile. Yes, but on the Xbox 360, this game also takes awhile to download.
The thing is, when I pay 15 dollars a month, I don't want to have to be logged out for updates that FF XI is doing and FF X does a lot of updates, that really got on my nerves. I understand they have to up date the game, but damn at least me log into some server, while they update. I know Wow is like that to.
Also, my account was hacked into, though this is not FF XI's problem, let me say how bad I felt after 8 years, and all that hard work, was forever gone. I called Square Unix but nothing could be done, as the account was deleted. Sometimes a person can get their account back, but it's a pain in the butt to do so.
Also, a person could get banned from ever going back into the game. Say a person farms in the wrong, spot, not knowing it's a bad thing. Nothing was mentioned, and next thing you know, you are banned from playing FF XI. Why have farming in the game then? Also fight in the wrong spots, and get banned. I read this can happen. If you make too much money in the game, well someone can steal it, or you can get banned.
What I am saying is that when you play FF XI, fun game and all, but you might get banned from playing, so keep that in mind. And you might not know what you did to get banned in the first place. I read these things on FF XI message boards, for the last 5 years. And some of it comes from my own personal experience, after playing this game for 8 years.
Yes, this game is very fun and never seems to end, but there is game fee, which people mention here. A monthly fee of 12-20 dollars depending on how many mules you have.
I liked that I could fish, do side quest quest, make items, party with people. I enjoyed my link shell, as I had friends, that I met from the game. I read FF XI is making the level cap 99 now, instead of 75, which is when I played.
A person can level up themselves, or party with people. Party can consist of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 players, you chose.
There are many classes to chose from. I can't even remember it all, but I was black mage, red mage, white mage, summoner, dragoon, dancer, beast master, Sam, warrior, Ninja, and yea there is more to chose from.
I stopped playing, because after 8 years, I had to start all over again, because my account was hacked into, so I had to start all over again, but by this time I no longer wanted to continue. I did for a little, while. I just didn't want to keep paying 15 dollars (With my mules), no more.
I rated this game high, though there were somethings I hated. Once in the game, it is very fun and the graphic's are out of this world. The game it's self is what I am rating, not all the other things, that drove me nuts. If I could play for free, which I know I can't..And if I didn't have to worry about getting banned for nothing I knew about in the game..And if I didn't have to worry about my account being hacked. I would be playing FF XI, right now. I still love this game, though I won't be playing it anymore. | video-games_xbox |
awesome but missing a few finer points i think. i just wanted to say that if the idea was to recreate the beatles experience,they should have included more instruments.the beatles weren't just some run of the mill rock band,they were the greatest band in history.im just saying a harmonica would be cool for hits like "love me do".george harrisons sitar would be nice for songs like "norwegian wood".also,the beatles used violins a lot."elanoar rigby" is a fine example.and lets not forget the piano on timeless classics like "let it be","the long and winding road" and "hey jude".
now that would rock!
but this game rocks anyway.the songs were loved songs and so i made it through the vocal part with little trouble.i thought that on some of the later songs[1966-on] that the vocal parts were too particular.i mean how can you mess up "yellow submarine"?it was written for children!
then there is the chronological order.it is way out of whack! im no 1960's burn out.im a fan who fell in love with thier songs and bought all thier albums and read countless books.the chronology is all screwed up.the order of the songs is innaccurate.like on the first set,the songs were all from thier debut album,"please please me",but backwards in order.and after a few songs,you move to a new era in thier careers.but,like in 65' it is already showing pics of "sgt pepper" which didn't show up until 67.i can live with that though.i just thought that the programmers would have been on thier game more.
i recieved this game and "rock band 2" as gifts at the same time.this game is far less complicated.on rock band i felt like my hands were full with the guitar.it is far more relaxed here.
some of the lyrics are messed up too.i read a book called "beatles songs".it had every beatles song with its lyrics and actual quotes by the beatles as to what they were about.in this game,at the beginning of "come together" the lyrics on this game say "shoot me" over and over.all john says is "cha" a bunch of times.john lennon was actualy shot and killed as im sure you know.is this supposed to be ironic?it comes off more like a sick joke! another place is at the end of "i am the walrus".there is a low voice in the back chanting about drugs.on the game,they babble nonsense.
the drum playing is erratic.it feels like the programmers threw together the timing without actualy paying attention to wether or not it would feel like rythmic drumming or repetitive untimed sporadic rapping.
the graphics are astonishing but i cant see them because im playing the game.it seems like someone went through a lot of trouble to make this game beautiful for someone who wasn't looking.
a LOT of really good songs were left out.if i had made this game, i definately would have included more songs that everybody should hear like "in my life" "yesterday" and "let it be".plus i noticed that of thier 27 number ones,quite a few were missing there too like "all you need is love".
now after all i have mentioned,you are left with a very easy,relaxing,fun music video game.the songs are ,of course,timeless.the experience is great.its a great distraction from your hectic life and all those other video games that hurt your head from making you think too much.
i LOVE this game.i like rock band 2 as well,but this easily the superior choice.its easier.you don't have to gain fans because they already adore you when you get to america.its less like loud ,screechy,screaming,incoherent forgotten stuff from the rock band game and more like everything every musician and music game ever aspired to be.
in closing i would like to say,i have a list that would rock for a sequel
"ps i love you"
"misery"
"till there was you"
"and i love her"
"yesterday"
"act naturaly"
"michelle" its so pretty.
"elanoar rigby" would be tricky to sing and play.its also very pretty.
"in my life".its a song that is uplifting to everyone
"im only sleeping"
"when im 64"
"a day in the life".the musical changes would be a new challenge.
"strawberry fields forever".this was johns self proclaimed masterpiece before he did "imagine"
"piggies"
"the continuing story of bungalow bill"
"all you need is love".they did this song for one of,if not the,biggest radio broadcasts in history at that time.they said they needed a message that everyone should hear.
"blackbird" for its excellent slide guitar.
"happiness is a warm gun" for its ever changing vocals.
"sexy sadie"
"good night" because its beautiful.
"here there and everywhere" as is this one.
and then the medley from "abbey road " as the finisher
and "let it be" and "the long and winding road" as bonus songs.and at the very very end.it should be the last thing john says from thier last album "let it be"."on behalf of the group and myself,i hope we passed the audition"
this is the greatest rock band game ever.i hope bob dylan,the cure,black sabbath/ozzy osbourne,jimi hendrix,janis joplin and kiss all make one soon.this game is great for everyone even if you grew up in the 20s with jazz or in the 902 with grunge rock.and for anybody who doesnt like the beatles i say you shouldnt call yourself a lover of music,because you are clueless on the subject. | video-games_xbox |
Huge jump in quality from stock pedals. Normally I'd wait until having a product for a while before reviewing it, but I think some initial impressions could be helpful here.
Background:
My wife and I have been avid Rock Band players for a couple of years now, mostly on the drums. I can 5 star most songs on expert until you get down in the Nightmare tier where it's a little dicey for me. Now this was all on the stock RB2 drums which we beat into pretty poor shape so as an early Christmas present I got us the Ion Drums.
The RB2 stock pedal is flimsy and cheap, but worked pretty decently for a surprisingly long time. The plastic was cracked, but the metal foot plate held it together enough to keep playing. Enter the Ion Drums. I *love* the Ions, but *hate* the stock Ion kick pedal. I hated it literally from the first moment I used it. I immediately did my research on what people say is the "best" kick pedal for Rock Band and it seemed to come down to the Destroyer Pedal, the Omega Pedal and the Rock Pedal. Pricing was similar so it was more a matter of preference and for me the Rock Pedal seemed the best all around product so I ordered it here through Amazon and received it yesterday.
Initial impressions:
Awesome. Overused description, but this thing is awesome. It looks and feels like the real thing because it is the real thing. I know that Pulse, the company that makes this for [...], isn't a high-end drum equipment company, but this is still very much the real thing. It's built like a tank - everything is metal and it feels pretty much indestructible. It looks fantastic, too.
The Rock Pedal came with a free adapter so the pedal can plug into the Ion setup. It's pre-adjusted before being shipped to some default tension and height settings and so it works fine out-of-the box. I plugged in and immediately went through a set of familiar tracks to get a feel for it. It's a night-and-day difference from that horrible stock Ion pedal and I love the feel. It's unbelievably quiet which is fantastic, but takes some getting used to. If you are playing with the volume up you won't hear your foot action *at all* which is really odd. I think that because of this at some point I may invest in the bass practice pad setup that uses the included "beater" mallet so I can get some better feedback from foot action, but I don't see any of this as a bad thing - just the nature of a real pedal. The Rock Pedal also shipped with 3 extra rubber stoppers which are what get used to, well, stop the pedal when you press down on it. The stopper bumps up against a metal bar when the pedal is pressed down. Having that rubber stopper is what makes it so quiet even when you stomp on the pedal, but it's the one piece that is unavoidably bound to wear out so having extras on hand is a nice touch. To use the beater mallet with a bass pad you replace the rubber stopper with the beater bar.
Everything about the pedal is adjustable - starting height, depressed height / sensor trigger height, pedal tension, etc. I haven't adjusted any of these yet, but I've gone through them and they are all straight forward in a basic mechanical sense. I look forward to tweaking it to get just the right feel for my wife and I.
Note1:
As mentioned you can add a bass pad to this setup and there is a clamp at the back of the Rock Pedal that is used to attach the pad, but without the pad the clamp isn't used which leaves a little piece of metal that's loose. I found that it rattled when playing so based on a suggestion I saw somewhere I got some pennies, a stack of 10 to be precise, and tightened the clamp down on those. No more rattle.
Note2:
The rubber stopper I mentioned before fell out a couple of times while playing. It's startling to go from totally quiet to really loud clacking! I ended up adding a little piece of tape to the peg part of the stopper so it fit tighter and it hasn't fallen out since.
Pros:
Rock solid construction, no pun intended. Looks great. Feels great. Fully adjustable. Magnetic sensor so there's nothing to wear out and no physical contact needed to trigger the sensor so you don't get that clacking sound the stock pedal produces. You get your money's worth.
Cons:
Some nitpicky things here, but worth mentioning. The clamp at the back of the pedal shouldn't be lose by default. I think they should include a filler piece there of plastic or something that the clamp could be tightened down on prior to shipping. The rubber stopper falling out is easily fixed, but shouldn't be necessary. I don't feel it's overpriced, but it's a lot of money for just the kick pedal on a video game. That's going to be true of any pedals at this quality level I feel so it's not for everyone.
Summary:
Obviously I can only compare the Rock Pedal to the stock pedals from the RB2 drums and the Ion drums, but looking at those there isn't much comparison. This is a completely different class of pedal. If you are looking for a new kick pedal this is definitely a great option - highly recommended. | video-games_xbox |
Worth playing for the Thousand Years of Dreams segments. Japanese RPGs are a rare sight on Microsoft's console, due largely to the fact that 360 doesn't exactly sell like hot-cakes in the land of the rising sun. Mistwalker, a studio founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy series, released two games to remedy the 360's RPG deficiencies: Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. Lost Odyssey will seem familiar to fans of the Final Fantasy games, from the battle system to the plot twists. What stops the game from being completely derivative are the fantastic Thousand Years of Dreams segments, written by a famed Japanese novelist. With these unique antidotes littered about the game world to find, Lost Odyssey is propelled from being a merely average JRPG to a genuinely good game.
Graphically, Lost Odyssey is not that spectacular. It runs on the Unreal Engine 3, the same framework powering the Gears of Wars series, but LO isn't even in the same league graphically. The FMVs don't even look as good as those featured in FFXII (a PS2 title!). The character's facial expressions often look awkward during in-engine cutscenes, and overall, the graphics are good, but not spectacular. World locales are typical RPG fare: a sprawling city overlooked by a monstrous castle, a trek through the mountains and numerous sojourns through caves will have you thinking Final Fantasy on many occasions. I liked the character design, especially Kaim, and the character models all look pretty good (creepy eye/lip motions not withstanding). The game world feels pretty small because there aren't as many sidequests to do as in a Final Fantasy title. The voice acting is fairly good across the board, although not all the dialogue is voiced, and the two young kids get very irritating as the game progresses. Jansen, however, is both hilariously written and fantastically acted, so I'm willing to forgive some of the other shortcomings. Musically, the game is competent, although no themes from the game stick out in my head. That about sums up the technical aspects: competent, but Microsoft's machine is capable of a lot more.
The story is a mix of clichs and innovative ideas, which makes it a bit of a mixed bag. There are plenty of overly melodramatic moments, but there are equally as many plot points that are thoughtful and original. The immortal aspect of the game (Kaim, the main character, cannot die) is one of its most interesting, and lends itself to the thirty short stories that make up segments called the Thousand Years of Dreams. As you travel about the world, certain events and scenes will provoke Kaim's memory (which has been lost) and the game will cut to one of said stories. These are all text, and take about 15 minutes to read apiece, but they're well worth it - the writing is wonderful, the sound effects that accompany them are fantastic, and each tale is compelling and [most] are touching. None come off as contrived or corny, which is incredible, given the breadth of topics they cover - from defending a forest of cicadas to spending time locked away in a pitch black cell. Kaim's history is a rich one, and it is well told through the Thousand Years of Dreams segments. They're good enough that you will want to keep going through the game to see them. If you don't believe me, look some of them up on YouTube.
The battle system is a fairly basic affair; you can have up to five party members, each of which has skills they are inherently good at (Kaim is your bruiser but is weak on the magic front). You will be randomly accosted by enemies as you travel around the world, something some folks loathe. The game tries to separate itself from the pack in a few ways, none of which really work. Immortals get revived after two turns if their HP drops to 0 and immortals can also learn any ability in the game by equipping the corresponding item and earning enough AP (similar to FFIX). You can also equip your characters with rings, which adds a timing element to your physical attacks - time it right to get a bonus (not unlike what you could do in FFVIII...hmmm, see any themes). Overall, it's pretty standard RPG stuff and straightforward after you make it past the hellishly difficult first disc. It is fun to try to beef your immortals up with tons of abilities, but the main quest offers such little challenge that it isn't really worth it. And there is only one area in the game with high level enemies (although you can download another ridiculously difficult dungeon/boss off of Xbox Live for $5). The enemies look pretty much ripped out of Final Fantasy, and most of them will be familiar to anyone who has played that series (Elementals, Behemoths etc. may be renamed here, but you can't fool us, Mistwalker).
Overall, I'd heartily recommend Lost Odyssey to any fan of RPGs. If you're a fan of Final Fantasy, you will almost certainly enjoy this next-gen entry into the role-playing arena. Decent graphics and sound combine with a compelling (albeit corny) story to make a game that's worth investing a lot of time into (and it is lengthy - my game save stood at 65 hours when all was said and done). The characters are likable (for the most part), although they do play off stereotypes a bit too much. The Thousand Years of Dreams segments are what makes this game a hidden gem, and what makes it worthy of a playthrough. The battle system is basic, but it's still fun, and has enough depth to make the battles interesting. The trite finale and the terrible villain soured the experience a bit for me, but if you're willing to overlook some shortcomings, you'll find an RPG just a cut below the Final Fantasy titles. And hey, the price is pretty good now, too!
7.5/10
[Additional notes: You can download an extra dungeon on Xbox Live for $5, along with some random items/an extra Thousand Years of Dreams segment for a couple more bucks.] | video-games_xbox |
A Solid Investment. I use this console for casual online gaming about 4 hours a day with the occasional 12 hour streak. The Xbox One includes some helpful features and tools like quick start and the ability to run background processes; however with the inclusion of those features come some bugs. Included below is an expanded list of the systems pros and cons:
Pros:
Ability to run multiple processes at once
High definition graphics
Quick Start allows for gaming almost instantly
Customizable home screen
Comfortable controller design allows for hours of gaming without discomfort
Xbox live sharing allows for all users to have Xbox live access if system owner has prescription
1 terabyte hard drive allows for storage of multiple profiles as well as a vast amount of games
Built in Wi-Fi transmitter
Cons:
Lag due to background processes can freeze the system
Controller battery drain: batteries need to be recharged or replaced about once every 12-16 hours
Occasional system glitch due to high graphic output
Physical design does not allow system to sit vertically
Confusing home screen layout is difficult to adjust to
Every game you play has to be downloaded onto the console
To expand on the more important positive aspects of the Xbox One, Id say the most impressive feat of the console is the definition of the graphics. When the system performs as it should the graphics are very fluid and lifelike. Additionally, the location of sound effects coordinating to the players movement is on point. However, with every pro comes a con; the Xbox Ones biggest downfall comes in the form of wait time. Because every game you buy has to be downloaded first, users almost always have to wait at least 2 hours to play their game of choice.
When compared to the Xbox 360 the Xbox One performs at least 10 times better in almost every comparable dimension. Although the system has its drawbacks and bugs, it still performs as one would expect. Being a fairly new system, updates should be expected in order to fix these bugs. Most casual users should expect a fairly pleasant experience when using the system because it seems to encounter its slight bugs and kinks only after an extended amount of use. If I had to choose, I would buy it again. | video-games_xbox |
Offline Co-Op...Gone? Seriously. Every year my brother and I look forward to the newest version of Madden (usually with the hopes that whatever bugged us from the previous version would finally be gone). Every year we start a franchise, usually picking one on the lower end of the totem pole (being Rams fans, this made picking a team pretty easy year in and year out). And then we'd play for several years, drafting our own little custom team, taking them from the gutter to the Super Bowl, usually on the back of a sturdy RB because our passing game is terrible. This in mind, Madden 13 looked promising. The presentation was far sleeker, determined to mimic the actual games, using the licensed music, etc. We were particularly excited about all the improvements to the franchise mode (now re-skinned and renamed as coach career). The physics engine in particular felt far more realistic and enjoyable, and for once, when we played the demo, we were able to throw passes without the magical defenders instantaneously knowing (our guess is radar, or eyes growing out of their shoulder pads).
So we bought the game, loaded it up, downloaded the most current tuning data, and then started the illustrious career of Mr. Mad Genius. Mr. Genius was a strategic coach taking over for the Rams, with high hopes of grinding out yet another Super Bowl with a bruising running game. We're ready to go, team picked, coach created, and cuts made to the rosters for the preseason deadline. To our delight, there's a bunch of scenarios you can practice. You can only play one from a large list, with the higher difficulties (or more time consuming ones) giving more exp. Sweet! We're rpg addicts. We like exp. So we start one up...and notice it's just my brother playing.
Is it because it's just practice? We tell ourselves it is just because it's practice. Surely EA couldn't be this dumb. They just couldn't be. Could they?
Yes. Yes they can. We loaded up a preseason game, and my second player controller is missing. We checked online to confirm, still thinking we missed something. But no. You cannot co-op a Franchise in any way, shape, or form, not even in offline mode. The entire reason we have bought a Madden game years on end is now *gone*. I have no desire to play now, and neither does my brother. We're both so stunned. I'm going to hold out for a month or so that maybe EA will patch it in, but if not, I'll be selling my copy.
*edit*
Offline-coop was finally added in a patch, though by the time we got back together, the NFL season had been going for awhile, and our excitement just wasn't the same. Plus, we did play it a bit more, and it felt like a lot of the annoyances we had, things originally thought to be fixed, we right back to the forefront (Hi magical interceptions!) Still disappointed, but will bump the star rating up to 2-star for at least addressing this blatantly obvious failure. | video-games_xbox |
A decent arcade stick. Sturdy, and nice. As I arrived home, me daughter opened the door and screamed "Daddy ! Daddy ! Look !! We have a present !!"
She showed me the V3 box in her arms, and her smile gleamed as though it was christmas.
As I removed my smelly work boots, me daughter had removed the V3 from its box and came to me and we removed the plastic wrap.
To my surprise, the V3 is .... nice.
I have watched many youtube videos about arcade sticks and although I don't have another stick in front of me to compare, I can only compare this V3 to an ancient stick that I have used to own.
I had own a Playstation stick ages ago. And when I brought home that playstation stick, I was extremely disappointed with it. The joystick and buttons from that stick seemed so cheap and didn't feel "alive" when I used it. Pressing those buttons were like "thud. thud.. thud" and the stick itself was "lifeless" feeling. No clicks, nothing...
Anyways... with this Hori Fight Stick V3, its a different story. If I had own this stick ages ago, when Playstation was first released... I would not have thrown this stick in the garage and not look for it ever again after 2 days of usage... like I did to my Playstation stick.
This V3 stick has a decent little "click" sound when you move the stick. Its a square gate, to no surprise as all reviews have stated. The buttons are much better than what I have experienced with the old Playstation arcade stick. This V3 button at least has a "little" springy feeling.
The case is made from, as I feel it to be, good quality plastic. Its not the plastic that you can buy from cheap China made toys. No no no... its the type of plastic that you expect from good quality baby toys like Fischer and Price and those expensive branded kids toys. I tried twisting the case, it wouldn't twist. So I'm happy with that. I tried squeezing the case, and I only managed to move maybe less than a millimeter. The build is sturdy.
My daughters, both aged 8 and 4, have roughly handled this stick, and I am certain it will withstand their furious handling for a long long long time. Unless something technical breakdown, that's out of my league to forsee what the future holds. However I put my faith in Hori and I believe they are strict when it comes to hiring staff members to produce their items to be A grade products. Well, I can only hope to be honest. Hehehehehe...
When I play with this V3 stick, I placed it on my lap, and it moves around on my lap. Maybe its because Im not good at Street Fighter and its the reason why my left hand movement is too much that it throws the stick everywhere when I'm panicking !!
Anyways, to be honest and proud to say, I'm happy with this V3. If I am to play with this, I will have to put it on a little table so its rubber feet can hold it in place. But then I cant be bothered with a table, I enjoy playing this on me lap anyways... its more of a casual comfy thing.
I'm glad I bought this for me kids. Its money well spent. It does its job. And I won't be throwing it in me garage anytime soon that's for sure !
I played as Fei Long in Street Fighter, and spamming the light kick button, you can see Fei Long sweating his nuts off ! Im satisfied !
Is this stick worth purchasing? Is this stick worth the shipping cost to Australia ?
Hell yeah it is !!!!! | video-games_xbox |
In every way a worthy sequal and a brilliantly done epic adventure. As a massive RPG fan who adored ME1, I had my hopes high for this. But even I wasn't expecting just how fantastic this game truly is. Everything you loved about the first one has been improved from combat to stats and upgrades, all much easier and fun to use. Some nice touches are how when you hack and break into safes, instead of just button mashing, you get some pretty fun puzzle games that make the game much better to play out.
Moving your ME1 saved character over is good but making changes to it can be a bit unique. Still, starting a brand new character can be fun, leading to some shifts from the first game and the challenge of building up your stats slowly. However, little bits from the first came can work in some nice bits. For example, in the first game, you had the chance to help a guy get back the body of his late wife. In the second, you get a note from the man, thanking you and telling what he's been doing the last couple of years. Pieces like that help make you feel so involved in this universe that makes the game come to life.
But the animation will stun you. This may well be the best and most realistic animation ever shown in a video game. Miranda not only sounds like actress Yvonne Strahvoski but looks exactly like her as well while the Illusive Man bears quite the resemblence to Charlie Sheen. The ultra-realistic conversations make this a true movie come to life, sucking you in better than any game out there. It's also great when characters from the first game show up and you feel a real emotional pull at your supporting party members, an emotional weight that adds to the playing.
Whether you loved the first game or not, this game is an incredible adventure that every gamer deserves to play. This may be Bioware's best ever and the first major canidate for Game of the Year. It's hard to believe the final game will surpass it but for now, enjoy one of the best examples ever of how the sequal is even better than the original. | video-games_xbox |
Not the best of the series. Published by WB games, Batman Arkham Origins is a prequel to the highly successful series that includes Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. In this game, Batman is just starting out as a crime fighter. He is considered to be a myth by police and criminals. He is also yet to face any criminals such as Penguin and Joker. The main two villains in this game are Black Mask and the Joker. However, there are many twists that I don't feel like giving away in a simple review. Needless to say, being there for the very first time Batman and Joker lay eyes on each other is a special moment for any comic book fan.
In this game, there is a bounty on Batman's head by Black Mask. This brings out a whole slew of assassins from Killer Croc to Deathstroke. As if being careful not to run into any assassins wasn't stressful enough on the Dark Knight, he also has to fight the police in this game as he is seen as a criminal vigilante.
The gameplay and graphics almost mirror the next to flawless system from Arkham City. The map is much larger in this game and you have two or three new gadgets...but other than that it's the same game. For some fans of the series that can be seen as a disappointment. However, if you beat Arkham City like I did, you will find that there is nothing wrong with the graphics or how you play the game so why fix something that isn't broken? The combat system is easy enough for anyone to pick up on. Press Y/Triangle when there are streaks above someone's head and you'll never get hit. Use stealth mode and sneak attack enemies. That's all you need to know to succeed in Batman games.
Overall, this game provides temporary satisfaction but will leave you wanting more. My only hope is that this series continues to grow and produce excellent titles. There is still a lot of work for this series to be perfect....but nothing I can put my finger on. These games get old, repetitive and boring very quickly. | video-games_xbox |
Some Minor Quirks but overall a very good game and definately worth a play. Overall i'd give this game a 100/100 but there are those minor blemishes and load times can be a major drag. If you install it to your 360's hdd though, these load times seemingly just dissapear which makes it much more bearable. In summary, if you want a fun turnbased rpg that has no actual forced grinding, loads of content, and also has tons of exploration pick it up. The visuals are also simply amazing. You'll not be making a wrong mistake. The game took me ~70hrs to beat, and I enjoyed almost every minute of it. 96/100. For someone who wants to do everything, you could probably easily spend upwards of 100hrs playing it through. To read more a more detailed review scroll down and read the rest of it.
I'll be dividing up my review of the game both positive and negative to the discs themselves. The game is four discs in total so I think that this is the best way to do this.
The first disc as stated throws you into the action. You are instantly in the fight, with little knowledge of what is going on beyond that you are to fight. As the action picks up, you continually keep on advancing through it. Later on you meet others, each character is slowly introduced to you so that you know where you are going and what you are meant to do. The score of this part of the game is very delightful but not the best that I have ever heard for that belongs for the final disc. The only downside that i can say about this part of the game is that the action takes a little while to go into overdrive. I'd give it a 90/100 for the time that it takes for the action and storytelling to really startup.
The next disc is where the game has a bit more things wrong with it. It has one section wherein your are sent to do pointless 'fetch quests' this is the only part of the game that does this. And i don't know why it's doing this. There is no reason for them do this, it could've been done via a cutscene and thus saved me and anyone else playing it from having to waste our time at this pointless activity. The emotional tone of the game also takes a much more serious theme during this disc and sets yourself up for the rest of the game. Overall this is a much better experience than the first disc except for that minor blemish. It continues on and sets you up for your first dungeons which are filled with puzzles and lots of areas to explore. With multiple paths to follow. I'd give this section a 95/100 a minor blemish but overall the more freedom to do things in this disc really helps the game overall.
The third disc is probably the longest of them all. Everything is really fun, and over the top enjoyable. But with every goodside there is a downside. It is the first time that the agme requires you to split up your party, I don't know about how others play but i personally did not keep all of my party up to par and thus i found this one section very frustating. The dungeon design in this part of the game are much more complex than they were previously and the story really picks up really well. The characters finally have their feeling and emotions completely fleshed out whereas before you knew who they were and what they were doing but they still had not been, to me anyway, completely fleshed out into living breathing people. The gameplay continues on and you find many goodies for exploring the world. There is not a single 'sidequest' as people call them that wastes your time without giving you some type of reward. Exploring the game world gives you tons of interesting items and rewards you for playing properly.
And now we are onto the fourth disc, adn thus the end of the game. This one can be a lot shorter than the rest if you rush it. But if you are like me, and like to explore the world. You will find many new dungeons that are really large and provide a lot of enjoyment. Most of the dungeons in this part of the game that you can do that are not part of the main game take upwards of four to five hours minimum. You will find new bosses to face at each one along with more story for each character. The strategies for each vary so you'll have to be ready to change up your fighting stance as you go along. Also the bosses in this section at the start set you up for the tone of the rest of this disc. It is no 'cake walk' so to speak, because you will always have a challenge unless you are someone who likes to 'grind' their way through levels by randomly spending them grinding. As it finally comes to a close, the cinematics are amazing and the overall feel of the game is simply mind-boggling. | video-games_xbox |
Almost there. This game gives Madden a good run for its money. The first person mode is unbelievable. That really makes ESPN standout. I can't really describe it. I love being a running back, you can see holes develop, squirt through them, then all of the sudden you get tagged and you're on your back. It's amazing. As a QB you see the play develop, you're in the game!!!
The gameplay isn't quite as fast as Madden, and the passing game is more difficult--which is a plus. In Madden you really have to react quick. Also on Madden you can chew up even the best defense through the air. The running game is better..you can actually break off some big runs here..in Madden good luck trying to establish the running game. The Crib is an interesting feature. It's Sega's spin on Madden Cards so to speak. A different aspect, very creative idea, I'm not totally for it, but at the same time I wouldn't say no way to it. It's better than all of those crazy cheats you get in Madden.
If you're in to details then here's the difference..this is why I'm only giving it 4 stars. ESPN has good play-by-play (so it's a couple of guys you probably haven't heard of but that's okay since they don't use stale commentary), and the graphics are right there with Madden. The stadiums are awesome, and what a great thought, they actually take "close ups" of fans.
You get all these throwback jerseys too, which is cool, much like Madden, there are actually more in ESPN. But, why in the world can the home team only wear their dark uniforms unless you choose some crazy alternate combo??? The Dallas Cowboys don't wear blue at home!!! If ESPN and SEGA fix this for their 2005 edition, it would be perfect! Other than that, I have no complaints. This is an enjoyable football game, with a very nice graphical touch to it. Madden has it beat by about the nose of the football right now..so it had better watch out next year! | video-games_xbox |
My Mixamp Broke - But The Headset Is Phenomenal. After having these for around a year and a half, I decided to finally give my review of them.
After cycling through numerous headsets such as the Hyper X's and the Turtle Beach XO Sevens, I was looking for a headset that would last me a long time, which lead me to Astro.
Upon first glance I noticed that these headsets were designed to be used for competitive play. That was all fine and good to me, but I just wanted something that would be reliable, with great comfortability and sound quality. After reading numerous reviews and watching countless videos, I decided to pick these up, despite that hefty price tag.
Upon opening the box I knew that these guys were the real deal. The packaging was absolutely beautiful. The box that they came in was so unbelievably solid - little to no possible way that they could have gotten damaged during shipping . Upon opening it, I was greeted with a headset that was truly remarkable. When I picked it up it just felt professional. It didn't feel like a hunk of plastic like numerous other headsets that I had owned in the past. All of the cables that I needed were packaged nicely in their own little compartment, as were the instructions.
Setup was a breeze - I had mine up and running in about 10 minutes or so. The optical and USB cables that are included have plenty of length to them, although I would be careful with your wire management if you play a bit further from your tv, as these two love to get tangled.
The comfort alone with these was worth the price tag. The ear cushions are unlike anything I had used before. They're incredibly soft, yet cancel enough noise to keep you focused on your game. I consistently forgot that I even had these things on. No ear pain, no head pain, no sweat from leather ear pieces - nothing. By far the most comfortable headset on the market - nothing even comes close.
Now for what really matters - the sound. Im a casual gamer. I don't compete, but I do appreciate great sound upon hearing it. That being said, Astro's mixamp is a MUST for both casual and competitive gamers. This thing works wonders. It is so unbelievably easy and convenient to use, and that's why it dominates the competition. Gone are the days of fighting with your Xbox One chat adapters to turn your game down, your chat down, etc - this gives you complete control right at your fingertips. There are multiple default EQ's that boost different things such as bass and treble, but you can even download custom EQ's for all of your favorite games online - genius. As for game sound, they perform beautiful. I was able to hear numerous things that I had never heard before. It's the smaller, more "hidden" noises that became much clearer. Stuff like people reloading, people climbing ladders, or even people switching weapons. My friends constantly asked me "How did you hear that?!" and I always proceeded to tell them about how great this thing is. Even if you don't play video games competitively, the convenience factor here is just unmatched anywhere else. You have constant control over your sound - what a concept! This thing even comes with a headphone jack installed, so you can hook up whatever device you want with an auxiliary cord and play your music, videos, movies or whatever. I personally have my gaming monitor next to my computer, so I would constantly have youtube, music or podcasts playing in the background of my games. (Yes I know Spotify is Available on Xbox One now, but I feel as though the app is a bit buggy).
However, after around a year and a half, my beloved mixamp decided to literally just die on me. Upon powering on my console I noticed that It didn't want to turn on for me. So I unplugged all of the cables and tried again. Nothing. I tried multiple other USB cables (The appropriate one of course) and nothing seemed to get it to power up. I was disappointed, but hey life goes on. I didn't want to come on here and rip Astro a new one for this occurrence, because the headset was so good to me throughout the time that I had it. I've come to the conclusion that technology has the tendency to indeed malfunction - and this is most certainly the case here. I will be ordering yet another mixamp from here once they arrive back in stock (Possibly never with holidays approaching quickly). I would hope that this issue only affected me, as I would never wish this to happen to anyone that drops this much money on a headset.
With that being said, the A40 TR's are really something special. They combine comfortability, sound quality, and user friendliness to create one monster of a headset that is sure to dominate the competition. I would recommend this to both competitive and casual gamers who are looking for high quality design and sound :) | video-games_xbox |
Enthralled My 6 Year-Old Daughter. We own all of the Kinect titles for kids and this one has taken my daughter by storm. It's far and above her favorite title. Forget the dancing, rafting and sports titles. This one has stolen her heart (in a good way).
My 6 year old girl gets a lot of joy out of taking her bears/cats on various adventures. And as a dad, I'm impressed with the re-playability of this game. The landscape for adventures and puzzles is immense and I don't see her finishing off all of the adventures for months to come.
As for the bears, they're nice to have as an option (as well as the additional island for their adventures). But even with the cats alone, this game is a ton of immersive fun.
A FEW TIPS
Animal Gestures - There are two pages in the instruction booklet that show you how to make your bear do tricks (motions you make so the cats roll over, stand on their hind legs, etc.) and use spoken commands to switch the play mode (grab a toy from the toy box, view the map, etc.). Copy these two pages, laminate them and keep them handy. It's hard for anyone (grown-ups included) to remember all of these maneuvers that are needed frequently throughout the game. Especially useful if you put the game down for a few days and forget these needed gestures.
Occasionally Need To Read - Unless your child can read, a parent helping out the first few times will go a long way. The fairy-like assistant in the game will step your child through a number of things verbally and even demonstrate with her little fairy body any movements you have to make. But she doesn't repeat herself in certain situations. And a little text prompt will appear instead. If your child can't read the prompt (like, "Get your bear to stand on its hind legs by holding your arms out in a `T' shape"), they might not be able to complete a challenge before the timer runs out.
OTHER THOUGHTS
The game is delightfully forgiving. There's no "Awww - too bad!" when a child doesn't complete a timed challenge in the allotted time. Your child is free to roam around and perform free play, play 'in the world' and just rub, scratch or clean her little pet instead of being nagged to complete the next step of an adventure or challenge.
My daughter enjoys collecting the points necessary to add items to her collection to outfit her little cat's home. It's like a mini online collection (and far less messy than the Polly Pocket paraphernalia all over her bedroom floor).
Overall, a good, immersive game that's got tons of repeat playability for little kids 5 and older. | video-games_xbox |
Less Than Decent Start For 2K. I recently did a review on WWE 2K15 for the 360 after getting a chance to play it on that version and now after having some time to play it on the Xbox One, here's my review on how better this version was.
I'll start off with graphics for the entre. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand that graphics on the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game look absolutely astonishing. Not just the superstars but their attires, arenas, wrestling rings, crowds, and weapons look awesome. A minor thing I noticed is that not all wrestlers look like themselves. 2K said that most wrestlers were scanned for this game but that was a lie. Superstars like Sheamus, Ryback, and Nikki Bella don't look face scanned at all. They still look good, they just don't look all that realistic. Whereas superstars like Roman Reigns, Undertaker, Batista, Kane, Mark Henry, and AJ look realistic to the final touch. Even Sting looks amazing! He looks more like his 1999 WCW form with the short hair and all, but who cares? In addition to superstars, another plus that 2K gets when it comes to the graphics are the championship belts. Nearly every championship looks its exact size and has a crisp, clear, authentic look to them--something THQ failed to deliver in when they made WWE games.
Next on the list is the Creation Suite. 2K completely revamped this mode by allowing players the ability to change any body attire on any superstar they wanted. Want Seth Rollins to have his current attire? You can do it! Want to put an Undertaker body in Fandango tights? Why not!? Hasty to see John Cena stop wearing jean shorts? Put him in tights! Want Nikki Bella to wear short shorts or give AJ Lee's belly button a piercing? Go for it! Those are just a few examples, but overall, you get the point. There's numerous things that you can change to any superstar or diva you want but are limited to only 25 slots. As a price for this revamp, 2K took out Create A Championship, Create An Arena, and Create A Diva. Create A Championship is the only one of those three I didn't care for. I like Create An Arena but don't have to have it. I was really disappointed to hear that Create A Diva was excluded from this year's game. I was looking forward to creating several NXT divas in 2K15.
The next major feature on the list is this upgraded gameplay. Exclusive to next gen only, 2K enhanced gameplay to make it realistic like TV. The match starts with a lock up between the two wrestlers, which will then trigger a mini-game where you have to correctly toggle around the analog stick to the center, where a red circle will fill up inside the bar. If you timed correctly and positioned correctly, you stay in control of your opponent; if you lose, they gain control. It's a bit frustrating at first but you'll get the hang of it eventually. It kind of reminds me of the ridiculously challenging and irritating mini-game battles you'd come across back in Smackdown vs Raw. In addition there's health/stamina bar for each superstar at the bottom of the screen. The health bar will keep track of how physically healthy are throughout the match. It starts off at green but with more damage you take, it turns yellow, then red. There's also a stamina bar that will show how much energy you use and conserve in the match. It also keeps track of the amount of signatures and finishers you store. Very nice and fun gameplay upgrade!
2K Showcase was fun to play. It was an interesting concept in allowing long time fans and recent fans to play and relive 2 of the most historical feuds in WWE history. The only problem I have is that they only included 2 feuds in the game and made you pay for the rest through DLC. And honestly, the remaining stories (excluding Ultimate Warrior's) weren't even worth buying. Mark Henry's Hall of Pain? Christian's One More Match? 2K Showcase was supposed to be feature some of the most legendary feuds to let fans relive. There's nothing too legendary about reliving Christian getting buried by Randy Orton or Mark Henry on a rampage. Had other feuds like Sting/Hogan, Austin/HHH, or even Jericho/Michaels been included, then maybe--just maybe it would've been worth the money.
And now for the main course; My Career Mode. My Career Mode allows you to create yourself and take yourself up the ladder to becoming a WWE superstar. You'll start off at the Performance Center trying to impress Bill Demott with a few try-out matches. After you've managed to impress him enough, you'll be signed to a contract and on your way to NXT. After a managing to win the NXT World Championship, you'll be called up to the main roster by Triple H; where you'll start off on Superstars in either televised or dark matches and with each match win, get promoted to Main Event and eventually Raw and Smackdown. Along the way, the story will branch off that allows you to decide what decisions you make and will determine whether you stay face or go heel. No voice overs were done for My Career Mode, so it's a trip back to the pre-Smackdown vs Raw days where you played story modes with no voice overs and read dialogue. Unfortunately, the hype for My Career Mode doesn't measure up. It lacks continuity, all the cutscenes that are featured in it were copied from Create A Story and pasted in WWE 2K15's My Career Mode, and it's mostly you just wrestling randomly booked matches with a feud here and there. How many tune-up matches must you endure against Barron Blade and Dolph Ziggler before finally getting a title shot??? 2K's answer? Over 25. Seriously. There are more tune up/dark matches than there are actual storylines. I felt so bored with this, I quit playing within a few weeks.
I'd also like to throw in that WWE 2K15 has probably the worst soundtrack in WWE video game history. I don't know. Maybe it's because I hate today's music; but whoever compiled the list of songs to be in WWE 2K15 should be fired. Gone are the days when our ears were treated to generic but amazing rock in early Smackdown games or bands like Breaking Benjamin and Megadeth in later installations. Now, ears bleed with the horrific sounds of dubstep, Flo Rida, and rap country.
Overall: And those are pretty much all the unique features for the X1/PS4 versions. Everything else is the same as previous games. Universe Mode hasn't changed and 2K Showcase is no different than it is on 360/PS3; only better graphics. Another bone to pick about Showcase is the lack of legendary feuds to be featured in DLC. They give us Mark Henry and Christian storylines from 3 years ago but neglect feuds that would've been worth the money like Sting vs Hogan, Lita vs Trish, Austin vs HHH, and among others. Another thing that bothers me is how they took out matches. For example, the Ladder Match has been taken out as well as Tornado Tag Team Matches, Handicap Match, I Quit Match, Special Referee, and others. Unless those match types are unlocked through one of the DLC Showcases, it's really annoying for anyone who enjoyed played those matches often. I for one, am bothered that they took out specifically the Ladder Match and the I Quit Match as those have been game favorites of mine for years now. Over time, my views and opinions have changed on WWE 2K15. 2K15 turned out to be one of the worst WWE games ever made. I was disappointed for the most part with 2K15. 2K claimed to put so much time and effort into making this game, yet in the months leading up to the game's release, they failed to show fans any real gameplay videos or in-depth looks at the game. They ultimately goaded fans into buying the game by telling us it'd be great but the game's atmosphere says otherwise. I have little hope for WWE 2K16 after playing 2K15. Overall, the Xbox One/PS4 version is better than the PS3/360 version, but not by very much. All I can say is that I hope they bust their butts, making 2K16. Because as a loyal WWE gamer since War Zone, if 2K16 doesn't look to deliver, it'll be a while before I buy another WWE video game. | video-games_xbox |
A Complete Money Grabbing Scam of a Game That Doesnt Even Work. For as good as this game is & how much it cost...its a complete scam. Its unexceptable to have half the matches you get into crap out. That, and the fact that the game is loaded with attempts to get you to pay even more & takes 5minutes to load between matches infuriates me. Its such a money grab that I almost think that when the game freezes, its on purpose to get you so fed up, that you pony up more money to level up & gain weapons & armor. I almost feel like its wasting my time. This is how bad it is: You get about $30-$50 (and that's with Championship Status btw) in loot every match. But when you collect enough money to purchase something (like a armor crate), its a complete crap shoot (think of a Vegas slot machine) what you get. Most of the time you get duplicate items or useless pieces. They have power ups , cool features & sick character outfits but they cost $5,000-$45,000 to get. Soooooo if each game takes 5 minutes to load & between 5 to 15 minutes to complete....and half the matches fail...guess how long it takes to get the good stuff. Like I said, the game is a complete scam !! Oh, btw...an extra $100 in real cash gets you $150,000 in game currency. Welcome to the future of gaming suckers!! Next up is a gaming system with a coin, credit card, & dollar slot.
Update: Went go go play today, and for the second time, the game would not connect to the server. Because the game is run thru that, I was unable to do anything !! Im talking no Storyline, no settings or character tweeks, & NO online...NOTHING !! Thanks Ubisoft...we're really getting our moneys worth.
Update #2: THE GAME BASICALLY DOESNT WORK FOR XBOX. After all the excuses & all the updates the game still disconnects half the time & freezes 90%. In addition, they contantly tweek the characters & rewards to make everything you worked for pointless & a complete waste of time & money. If this is the future of gaming, im discusted. Guess you can thank all the morons that established this trend by feeding all those dum cell phone games. | video-games_xbox |
In space no one can hear you complain. Third time is not a charm for long-suffering spaceship engineer Issac Clarke. Since he escaped the Titan Sprawl his life has been on a downward spiral, Ellie has left him, his landlord is kicking him out of his New Horizons bedsit, and he's a broken man. Wouldn't you be after facing the Necromorph menace twice already? In the meantime EarthGov has fallen and the Unitologists, led by the odious Jacob Danik, are bombarding what is left of humanity. Issac is seized by the last EarthGov battalion and hurtled to the other side of the galaxy to Tau Volantis, a frozen planet orbited by 200-year-old wrecks of the Sovereign Colonies. Ellie, convinced she has found the Marker homeworld, is somewhere amid the wrecks and has assembled a ramshackle plan to destroy the Necromorphs once and for all.
After a slow start, the game is sort of split into two halves as Issac explores the decaying, orbiting wrecks and solves the mystery of the frozen planet below. The first half feels a lot like the familiar Dead Space formula while the second half feels like a generic shoot-em-up in the vain of COD. The relentless wave after wave of Necromorphs is mind-numbing. The overwhelming sense of dread and gut-wrenching anxiety that permeated every square inch of the first two games is largely gone. There are still shocks and scares, and the sound of elevators arriving are still frighteningly similar to the shrieks of the Necromorphs but it feels stale at this point. I felt like logic and sense took a back seat here. How did the Necromorphs end up on the New Horizons colony? How did they end up on the CMS Roanoke or Greely for that matter? It's never clearly explained. Why did the Sovereign Colonies Armed Forces panic so easily and opt for mass-murder/suicide instead of pushing for further research into the alien machine? It seemed like such a mindless and heavy-handed reason to have Tau Volantis scattered with body parts.
It seems like it goes on forever, even if you ignore the optional side-quests. Upgrading your weapons and suits never feels like it has a noticeable effect but the weapons crafting feature can lead to some fun inventions. The co-op gameplay comes across like a last-minute addition (and it was) and it is not the kind of thing Dead Space fans want from this series. Online play is necessary for the Platinum Trophy but there's no way I can get it as the Hardcore trophy is just too difficult and time-consuming, especially since you cannot skip the cut-scenes.
Dead Space 3 was a best-seller, but not best enough for Electronic Arts who have put the series on hiatus, though they insist that Dead Space 4 WILL happen, we'll just have to wait and see. It is a shame that a groundbreaking horror experience has been reduced to a generic shoot-em-up bore. The amount of DLC offered on the PSN for this game is outrageous and proof that EA are only out to exploit the fanbase rather than give them their money's worth up-front.
DEAD SPACE 3: AWAKENED - 2/5
The "final chapter" DLC is over very quickly and gives us a confusing, though interesting, insight into what becomes of Issac and Carver after the climax of the main game. I know for a fact that Dead Space 4, when/if it ever happens, will retcon this stupid ultimate ending as "it was all a dream". Worth playing once just for curiosity though. | video-games_xbox |
Tricky to connect but fits the Bluetooth Xbox One Controller. TL;DR: Difficult to connect, easy to break, get someone to connect it for you if you're not successful in 15 seconds.
Did you have a chatpad with your Xbox 360 controller? Remember how easy it was to connect and how simple it was? Yeah forget that.
Just off the bat, it's an incredibly tricky act to successfully mate this thing with a bluetooth enabled Xbox One Controller. It has two guidepost-like sticks that are meant to guide you as you connect the chatpad to the controller but you have to hit the mark JUST RIGHT it's not going to connect.
How hard can it be to connect? Well, Microsoft has a video with some kid showing you how easy it is to connect and guess what? It's nowhere near that easy. Both the male connector on the chatpad and the female connector in the controller are easily bent or cracked. The one I received from Amazon broke the controller (connector on the controller bent completely inside the controller) while "gently rocking the chatpad back and forth" as Microsoft's own instructions say.
So what now? I've a chatpad I can't use and a broken controller. Well, that's where Amazon saved the day and shipped me out a new chatpad and gave me credit for my recently purchased Xbox One controller as it had been a very recent purchase and they were backordered.
I ended up buying a new controller and chatpad at Gamestop and had sales associate connect it for me before I left the store because I wasn't taking any chances.
As far as the chatpad itself is concerned, it's dimmer and the lighting is more uneven than the old 360 one and the buttons are a bit mushier but still click. It connects to my pc via the wireless dongle and the chatpad has full keyboard functionality. It works as intended but it's nothing special. Make sure you connect it to your pc using a wired connection and use the Xbox Accessories app (available in the win 10 app store) to update the controller or your chatpad will not work. | video-games_xbox |
A big upgrade from microsofts controller but could be a little better. Although I gave it 4 stars, i will not go back to using the microsoft controller aside from bashing it in madden. This controller is made for fps's.
The buttons are super sensitive like a mouse click, i love it.
The overall design looks nice and the grip is very nice.
The triggers have their good and bad. The are good because of the responsiveness (you don't need to smash it in the whole way for it to function); they are bad because there is a little bit that hangs off of the back which i hear is for racing games, but i don't care, its not smart to have as it just gets in the way for everything else.
The start and select buttons are poorly positioned at the bottom, but you can around this in games that actually use the select button (bad company 2) and reprogram it to a bumper (i use the right one for it). I like the reprogrammable buttons, but i really don't use them a ton for every game but they are definitely nice to have.
The only thing that really irks me is the right and left thumbsticks. The microsoft controllers have a dead zone that lets you move each stick a little bit (its very wobbly if you will) before it actually does anything. Well this one doesnt wobble, its very nice, but it still has some dead zone thats annoying. Its not all that bad but i wasn't expecting to deal with any dead zone with this. The resisitence adjustment is ok until you get to 10 clicks. After this point there is a physical slow turn in which you have problems with actually pushing the stick fully to either direction. The resistence is suppoesed to give resistence, not make it nearly impossible to turn the stick in a full 360 degree motion. Luckily for me, i only experience the physical slow turn when i move my right stick up, so its not a big deal for right-to-left aiming, and i ply at about 5 clicks on the right one and 0 on the left.
The last thing is d-pad, its so much better than the horrid thing they use at microsoft. Each direction has an indivual button instead of it being a turd on swivel.
So all in all it is a damn good controller, and it is a vast improvement over any microsoft one out there, in evry area aside from the start/select button placement. Some may not like that its wired but i have no issue with that. There are a few areas that razer should work on to update this or to release a new one (i wouldnt expect to see that until at least a year from now) to make this close to perfect. | video-games_xbox |
Totally Lost. I am new to gaming [a mom] and an avid Star Trek fan. My daughter got an Xbox 360 for Christmas. My sister got me this game because I put it on the Wish List. It was the only Star Trek game Amazon had for 360. We also got Lego Star Wars, both of them. I love the Lego format, and I was able to master the controls after a period of frustration, and I found it a lot easier than the combat-type game [Eragon] that my daughter had first. Lego lets you role-play, and it's funny.
Enter Star Trek Legacy. I wanted to role-play the characters, and see some familiar stuff, be able to tour the ship, try out the controls, and be left alone to wander around in the beautiful graphics. Well, I could fly the Enterprise around, but the crew was nowhere to be seen, and I couldn't figure out how to find the enemy, even with my daughter coaching me [she hates the game and would give it one star]. For me, I can't control four ships at once! Can't the game-writers include an 'easy' mode for beginners? My sister has Oblivion IV, and the rich character-creation would've been a lot of fun in Star Trek. I did not enjoy the battles, battles, battles, and all the blood in that particular game, but the scenes were gorgeous! I wanted to see Star Trek planets and rich scenes showing the backgrounds I saw in Star Trek episodes. I particularly love the Original Star Trek, and would enjoy exploring the planets our crew visited as one of the crew, or have the ability to 'be' a made-up crew member. I like the ships, but I don't want to battle anyone, and I want to be able to 'walk around' and use the 'props' the characters used in episodes, from Original Star Trek to all the Star Treks and maybe even Andromeda. The Star Trek universe includes a lot more than ships, and there weren't a lot of battles. Roddenberry's magic touch was the interaction between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, with humor and struggles to understand and not interfere with different cultures. Each evolution of Star Trek had a different set of characters that were loyal to each other and to the mission. Take the characters out and just concentrate on battles, and you have Star Trek Legacy, which lacks the magic. To the team that produced it, watch some Star Trek and use your Legacy artwork to produce an Everyone 10+ version of it with character role-play and episodes we saw, if you will. I will try to like this game, but it's because I'm desperate for something Star Trek that's as much fun as the Lego Star Wars games. | video-games_xbox |
Sunset Overdrive : Insomniac(The developer) described this game as a celebration of video games and I couldn't agree more. Sunset Overdrive, Xbox One's Hidden Gem.
I'm part of the guilty party when it comes to this games success I suppose, though admittedly I didn't own an Xbox One when it was first released. I saw the game and thought it looked cool, but just let it fall off my radar. When I got my Xbox One 1 terabyte version last year, I was searching for exclusives and found it again. I end up not getting it until Christmas, which was bought for me as a present. Man did I regret not supporting this game sooner.
The opening of the game is not a good example of what is to come. You spend about 10 minutes or so learning how to move and shoot in kind of a chaotic opening. It's a bit overwhelming at first, there is a lot going on, but keep to it. Once this game starts rolling it's hard to stop. Firstly, if you are a millennial, this game will speak to you on a lot of levels. While the younger generation will enjoy the funny dialogue, there are a lot of jokes that relate to 80s and 90s movies and games. The game is simply hilarious, from the art style and resurrection animations to the carefully crafted dialogue allowing your character perfect 4th wall breaking. Everything is ridiculous and over the top.
But what about the game play? Well it's addicting. The weapons in the game are a blast to say the least. While there are 2 or 3 weapons that resemble real world guns, the rest have no bearing in reality. One weapon 'The Dude'(90s reference) allows you to charge your shot and lob bowling balls into hordes of OD(mutated humans) and watch them explode. Another is an acid sprinkler that pairs well with the TNTeddy Bear launcher. You also get Amps, which give your weapons and character different abilities. These are as crazy as the weapons, equip an Amp that gives the chance of one shot from your weapon being a nuclear explosion. Apply that to your Firework automatic rifle and get the mortar you always wanted. My favorite character Amp started raining down lightning on my enemies when I got to a high enough style level, but another blasted explosions out from cars you bounced on.
The game pairs these fantastic weapons and abilities with the characters endowed power of gravity defying jumps and grinds. You can bounce all across the city on cars, clothe over hangs, roof fans, nets... lots of stuff to bounce on. You can grind on rails, power lines, cables and ropes, you can swing from horizontal polls. You can powerslide on water... you can infinitely wall run for Christs sake! I mean talk about verticality! You also don't take any fall damage, so there is no repercussions for messing up on jumps either! This is not a negative! The single greatest design choice Insomniac may have had was to add this nifty yellow circle that appears on the surface below you so you can pinpoint EXACTLY where you are going to land. This is a design feature that would make many other games that involve jumping a joy.
Do not play this game like a typical 3rd person shooter, it is not meant to be played this way. It's a bit to get used to but, this game is all about movement. That style level I mentioned earlier depends on you grinding, bouncing, wall running and rail hopping while blowing away hordes of enemies to get your style up so you can use and see the best character Amps. Once you practice at it and get good at the movement system, you start feeling like a straight up beast. A small portion of the game is a sort of castle defense where you get to deploy traps that are about as crazy as your weapons. Don't worry, if you don't like these types of things you only have to do about 5 of them, once, and they are only a couple minute each. I personally found it fun and I usually don't care for castle defense.
So who are these hordes of enemies that you are blasting away at? Most of the horde is made up of standard OD(Overcharge drinkers) which are essentially mutated normal people from an energy drink gone bad. However there are some bigger horrendous versions of OD as well that can turn a situation good to bad... for you. Another enemy type is called Scavs, which are bad people looters. The final set of baddies are some cool looking robits. This is where the game gets a bit more challenging as each weapon effects the four(Horrendous OD are separate from normal OD) opponents differently and not having the right balance of weapons near the end of the game can make it pretty difficult. Luckily each weapon has a small stat section next to them in the menu that allows you to see what the are and are not good against.
The story is fun and playful while it openly, but wittingly, machs video game and television cliches. Your character is the undisputed star and he(or she) might be one of my favorite video game characters ever, again the dialogue is a blast. The customization is pretty cool, filled with dual bright colored hair styles and ridiculous clothing to unlock. Don't wanna be a dude anymore? Switch to a chick instantly, no hassle. The game's graphics are brightly colored and cartoony while also being impressive. The soundtrack is awesome, featuring mostly punk rock which suits this game perfectly and the sound effects are bombastic. You can finish the story quickly I'm sure, but it took me probably around 20 hours or more just because I liked bouncing around and cause explosive chaos. Even after the story was over there is still plenty of side quests to do, but the game itself is just fun to play. Co Op is fun, though the map is bit limited, I still enjoyed bouncing around with a couple of friends(Though the game supports 8 players).
You also won't believe some of the bosses... that's all I'm saying.
Though nothing big, I have some small gripes. While the movement is awesome, there are times where you wish it weren't quite as sensitive to everything around you. Sometimes doing precise movement isn't always easy. I also wish there was a day night cycle. When you do the castle defense portions it goes to a night setting and all the vibrant colors and explosives really do shine out in the night cycle. I also wish the city were a bit more alive outside quests.
Bottom line though, If you own an Xbox One and love fun games, this absolutely should be in your library! I'd have a tough time naming a game where I had more actual fun than this one. I hope Insomniac and Microsoft pair up to do a sequel or a successor to this fantastic and fun game. | video-games_xbox |
Be very careful with your purchase. We bought this special edition from another retail store for Christmas. We opened it up Christmas morning set it up, turned it on, filled out all the settings, played around with the Dashboard interface, etc. Then we put a game it, the game didn't load. We tried another, same issue. We tried a regular dvd, again same issue.
After some research I found that the issue was most likely caused by over heating of the dvd drive causing it to need replacing... The system was brand new unopened unused and it was broken. Microsoft Customer service asked us to ship it to them and they would fix it, a process which would take 4 weeks or more...
These systems are very prone to over heating and breaking. A lot of people have to have theirs repaired within a year, even with the new chips. How Microsoft can get away with selling faulty products I have no idea. I understand if they had some issues the first month or so... but this is 5 years after release... These things should be perfected by now.
CHECK YOUR RETURN POLICY! Whether you buy your 360 on Amazon or at some other store, make sure you check the return policy associated with that store. Microsoft covers most of the main problems with the system for up to 3 years, but like I said, the process can leave you xboxless for over 4weeks, even if you've never even gotten a chance to play with the system.
We managed to return ours despite the return policy from the particular store we shopped at saying it wouldn't take it open, but I caution you to make sure they will before buying. That way worse case scenario is you just have to exchange it for a new one and not wait for a repair. If they offer a special warranty, I'd take it. I got a year warranty on the new 360 we picked up so if it breaks in a year we can just return it for a new one.
Now that we have a working system, I will vouch for it being great. We ended up getting the LegoBatman/Racing Game Elite Bundle because the Modern Warfare 2 was limited edition and the store didn't have any more but they had an offer that gave us the 120Gb Elite, Lego Batman, some racing game, Modern Warfare 2 and a second controller all for the 399.99 the Special Edition is. Only thing missing was the larger hard drive but I can't see using 250gb... Defiantly check out your local Gamestop or other gaming store to see if they have any deals going on, otherwise this special edition is probably the best value considering you get a great game and 2 controllers along with the huge hard drive.
Like I said, check the return policies out before you buy because you may get a broken system right out of the box, and it won't be fun if you have to return it before you even get to try it like we did. | video-games_xbox |
Fun for what it is -- just don't expect mind blowing innovation. Blue Dragon represents a strong foray into the world of Japanese style RPGs for the XBox 360, and on that front, it was a complete success. It's straightforward in virtually every aspect, offering little new, but doing most everything well.
The graphics are great throughout, and stunning at times. It's a lush and varied world, and the style, although criticized as childish by some, is well executed. Vivid colors and a variety of settings make travel throughout the world a pleasure.
Music is also a highpoint. The score is catchy, fitting, and engaging. My only criticism there is I would like to have seen a few more songs for battles. There are basically two battle themes -- regular and boss -- that are repeated throughout.
The storyline is a cliche one -- stop the overpowered ancient seeking to destroy the world -- but if you go in expecting that, it's well done again. The negative, of course, is that any fan has probably heard this story one or two (or twenty) times.
Gameplay tries to LOOK innovative, but in reality is quite straightforward and follows the path set forth by many games before. The "shadow" system is really just a tried-and-true class system. But there are no glaring flaws, and it remains pretty fun to play throughout.
The real negatives in my mind... The game is a bit on the easy side. None of the (non optional) bosses leave you scratching your head to defeat them. The regular fight, heal, magic formula works on everyone. And the battle sequences get a little repetitive over time as a result. Animations are always the same as you engage in the same strategy battle after battle after battle.
All in all, I would still recommend this game. It's a well executed classic JRPG, with graphics and music that elevate it well. You'll get a solid 80ish hours to do everything in the game, so length is not a problem. The game doesn't reinvent the genre, but makes no real attempts to pretend it is either, so if you know what to expect as you go in, you'll enjoy yourself. | video-games_xbox |
I won't be finishing this one. If this game didn't have so much promise, its flaws wouldn't stand out so much. The graphics look great. I was impressed by the size and scope of the game. I didn't mind the long treks between missions; got to see more of the graphics. But, it's a first person shooter and the shooting sucks.
It's very difficult to find targets at night. Often times, I couldn't tell enemy from foliage until it fired a gun at me. I found it difficult to tell what direction gunfire was coming from. There's the standard FPS graphic that's supposed to indicate the direction the gunfire's coming from. But, unlike other games where I'd quickly become familiar with the system, I never found this one useful.
The amount of gun fire the enemies can withstand had me laughing out loud. One enemy, after being thrown through the air by an exploding barrel, got up, circled around me, while I strafed him with machine gun fire from atop my Jeep, hopped on a another Jeep turret and opened fire. I turned, and we were, literally, bumper to bumper, turret to turret, absolutely plastering each other with bullets until he finally died. That was funny. It's just annoying when fighting multiple enemies and you have to pump an inordinate amount of ammo into each one just to make sure they're dead.
The respawning enemies are plain stupid. You have to fight through a crossroads or guard post going in and coming out. Maybe the next day, but half an hour later? I'm fighting the same guys, same t-shirts, oh, and look, they set up the same exploding barrel. They have the same jeeps, too. Awesome.
Stealth you ask? Uh... maybe. I never could tell when I was being "stealthy". I'm crouched, creeping through the shadows and enemies seemed to detect me whether I fired a gun or not. And DO NOT use the machete. The thing must make a high pitched sound that everyone on the planet but you can hear.
The final deal breaker came when I "rescued a buddy". After administering first aid to my companion I was forced to watch an unbreakable animation of helping her up during which I was shot repeatedly. I regained control of my character in time to watch myself die. I loathe running across game play elements whose only possible explanation for existence is the developer's failure to thoroughly test the game in the first place.
Bottom line, a horribly misguided attempt to add too much realism to the combat and a way out of place diablo-esque respawning system completely ruined this game for me. | video-games_xbox |
Great 5.1 dolby/DTS sound at a great price. (Please look at pictures in image gallery for picture of product setup) I purchased this system off ebay for a reasonable price. I would've bought it on Amazon, but it was not being offered on Amazon anymore. My setup consists of a Toshiba 37" LCD HDTV, a PS3, and a Dish Network HD box. At first I wasn't too sure if this would work with my PS3, but after reading tons of reviews for this system (on Amazon and several other sites) I decided that this was the perfect setup for me. At the time I ordered the system, my room was pretty small, about 10x10. I purchased this system, and I also purchased 2 sets (each set contains 2)of Atlantic 77305018 Satellite Speaker stands. There is a great little video tutorial on youtube that shows a young man unpacking his system and setting it up.
Though not necessary, it was nice for me to be able to see everything before I got the system. Made setting it up all the more easier. The hardest part of the install for me was running the speaker wire through the tube of the Atlantic speaker stand. But with patience and a ballpen to help push the wire down, I got it down the other side on all four stands. I then placed the satellites in the four corners of my room, and the center channel I placed in front of the TV, right in the center below it. (TV is on a stand) Best placement for center channel speaker is either right below TV or right on top of it, in the center. (as far as I know) I then adjusted the speaker stands (Great stands by the way!)so that they were about ear level. (measured them all with tape measure to make sure they were at equal height.) I then angled the front speakers inwards a bit, and placed the subwoofer/receiver directly to the right of the TV stand. (right of the TV while you are looking from it) I made all the connections, and then proceeded with the MCACC calibration. Note: I use HDMI to connect my ps3 and dish network satellite box to my television, then used digital optical cables to run both ps3 and Dish Network box to HTS-GS1. The system comes with one optical cable, it was a thin black plastic cable which looked pretty dinky, but does the job fine. I purchased another optical cable beforehand since I knew I would need it. I placed the system's box on top of my chair, then placed the microphone on top of the box. (make sure room is quiet as possible when doing test) The system began to emit a series of cool sounds for several minutes, which swept across the room. After this was done, I inserted Batman Begins into the Blu-Ray Player, then skipped to the batmobile chase scene. WOW! I was able to hear sounds which were completely lacking when watching it through the dull TV speakers. I heard screeching of tires, crashes, explosions, and when the Batmobile jumped through the waterfall I thought I was going to get splashed for a second!
Simply put, the 5.1 surround sound will change your home viewing experience. I then put in Metal Gear Solid 4, and played through a level in which artillery shells are being dropped all over the place. Holy battlefield Batman! This transformed my gaming experience completely. When I play Hot Shots Golf, I can hear birds and all kinds of funny stuff coming through the rear speakers. It is fantastic. For optimal sound, you will want these speakers at around ear level. Have the rear speakers in the corners of the room. Have the front left,front right, and center channel speaker at an equal distance from your listening position. Since I bought the system, I moved to a bigger room which is 16x15. I placed the rear speakers in the corners, center channel in same spot under TV, and have the front right and left speakers each about 36" to the sides of the TV. The sound is superb. I also purchased 5 wiremold white cordmate Kit #C110 from Amazon, which allowed me to conceal all the wiring which runs to the speakers. I highly recommend this as well if you want to conceal your speaker wiring. Overall, I would recommend this setup to anyone who is looking for an inexpensive way to truly enjoy 5.1 dolby and DTS. I know I could get better sound if I purchased a seperate receiver and speakers at a higher price, but for my purposes, this system suits me 100%. I wanted to enjoy dolby and dts for my games,movie, and Dish Network HD, and this has allowed me to do so. I am very pleased with this purchase. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent doesn't do it justice. For those of you who have the Kinect, Dance Central was THE game to get for it. With songs like "Poison" and "Brick House", it was the first game that actually made me want to get off my butt and dance. Though - to be fair, Kinect Sports and Kinect Adventures are great games in their own right, there's nothing quite like the feeling you get when your dance moves sends your friend crying off to mommy. Haha - but in all seriousness, Dance Central made dancing fun. With Break it Down mode, you could learn moves at your own pace, and the actual song never stopped just because you weren't doing so well that one time.
If you didn't think it could get any better, trust me -- it does. The main feature to come to Dance Central 2 is the ability of two people to play at the same time. The function works well enough, though it does get awkward depending on which songs you do. It's actually not a fault of the Kinect, just that one person's body movements sometimes gets in front of yours, and it confuses the game. A nice addition to the game is that when you pick a song, before you play it, the game actually does a little preview of the dance moves involved with the songs - a nice quick way to see how difficult the moves actually are (or aren't).
You also can import your songs from the original Dance Central, unfortunately - you have to pay for the privilege. I really shouldn't have to spend Microsoft Points to redownload the songs - just allow me to store the songs from Dance Central on the HDD or USB stick, and play them from there in Dance Central 2. Also, one of the commentors had mentioned that the dancers don't do their little quirky sayings and moves in the beginning of songs anymore. He's correct, but I'm sure I like it or not. Having them making random sayings or moves gave them personality - almost making me choose one over the others. Maybe it's just me though....
One more thing that can be hit or miss: the game now allows you to go through menus and change options by the regular hand swipes, or with your voice. The voice recognition does work, but I've noticed that it sometimes has a hard time picking up your voice when you're in a song. I really don't like having to turn my TV down when I'm singing "Break Your Heart" by Taio Cruz, ok Harmonix??
Those are really the only three things I can say that are somewhat a negative to this fantastic sequel. They also changed up the songs somewhat - picking some more 90s and today's hits, like "What is Love?" by Haddaway and "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot. I have to say it - flawless performance on this, Harmonix. Another thing I enjoyed: Dance Battles just got a whole lot more interesting. Instead of having Freestyle like in Perform It mode, they took it out, and put in Freestyle Moves, where the game shows you 4 different moves, and each person can choose whichever they want to perform, but if you and the other player start performing the SAME move, you basically go head-to-head to see who can finish the move correctly FIRST. I can't tell you how much more fun and competitive that made Dance Battles. Also something to note - Dance Central 2 introduced Gold Moves, which are worth 4x the points. And yes - Gold Moves are in Freestyle Moves (can't tell you how much of a competition that creates).
Between the awesome selection of music to the once-again awesome and nice twist of humor in the move names (Sir Mix-It-Up, Funky Charleston just a few of the ones I noticed), Dance Central 2 proves that if you just put the time and effort into it, sequels really can be better than the originals.... | video-games_xbox |
Simply Awesome IMO! . First off, all i can say is that this game is simply awesome IMO. The first Prototype game was great but this one blows it out of the water. If you have ever played GTA and wondered what it would be like to have super powers and demolish everything in your path, then this game is for you lol. There really isn't anything i don't love about Prototype 2. The combat is just great and this is a biggie for me in games and Prototype 2 has the best I've played and I rank it right up there with KOA: The Reckoning & GOW which also has the best combat I've seen and played in a game. Having the ability to block and dodge on command while in combat is great. This makes fights interesting and you have to think about what you need to do next instead of just mashing one button and beating everything to death like FABLE or CRACKDOWN 1 & 2.
I could go on and on about the Game-play/Combat in this game but these are the things i wish other games like FABLE and CRACKDOWN would have done in their games to make things more interesting. Having to use strategy in combat is a big deal to me and Prototype 2 doesn't disappoint. The story is great. The graphics are great. The surroundings and environment is great. The combat is great. Blowing stuff up and haring people go nuts and say funny stuff is hilarious to me. The add-ons that just came out has an option were you turn on total chaos or something of that nature and it makes the world go all to hell. Infected are everywhere, Black-Watch is battling it out with them and trying to get things back to order while people are running everywhere because the infected are killing peeps lol. I can turn this feature on and walk down the streets with James Heller and watch all this crazy stuff going on and not do anything to help and i will love every minute of it just because of all the stuff that is going on and how the environment/npcs react to the situation at hand. If Resident Evil" Operation Raccoon City would have done something like this and made it 4 players (This would exclude James Heller and his super abilities as well lol) it would have been awesome. Heck the parts where you play as a member of a BlackWatch team and go shooting infected was better than RE: ORC lol.
I just simply love this game plain and simple and i hope others have to. If you haven't got this game, get it, rent it or something. Just play it and you won't be disappointed IMO. Remember this is an opinion of one person so i don't think everybody in the world should agree it though i hope they do lol :). But i just love this game and there is so much more i could say about it and what it has to offer but I'm tired of typing lol. I hope I have gave someone some interest in this title. Bring on Prototype 3!! | video-games_xbox |
The 360 as it should have been all along. Let me preface this by saying that I have been lucky to own a launch edition Pro model that never died. However, right before getting this one, that one was starting to act up. It did ok, as long as I installed games to the hard drive. But when playing games from the game discs themselves, more often than not, the console would give a disc unreadable error, often accompanied by a terrible grinding noise and sudden halt from the drive itself. It was becoming tiresome to install games with the limited HD space of the Pro model. The last nail was that my controller broke. The left trigger quit working properly. Thankfully my wife had bought this package for me as a Christmas gift. When she saw me trying to repair the controller, she went ahead and gave it to me early. Ahh, some guys are so lucky.
Now for the meat and potatoes. This console is slick. It finally went on a diet. It runs very quiet. With my old box I had to install games to the hard drive. This one runs quieter when running a game from the disc than the old one did playing from the hard drive. Of course, I still install the games, I recommend that everyone do that. I believe it adds life to the system by saving wear and tear on the DVD drive. I guess one could say that it is adding wear and tear to the hard drive, so it is a trade off. But it has been my experience over the years that hard drives are a little more robust when it comes to longevity as compared to a DVD drive spinning 100mph.
Speaking of the hard drive. I have never been happy with Microsoft's choice to not let you use other hard drives with the 360. The PS3 is much better in that regard. That wouldn't have been so bad if Microsoft hadn't also been gouging so much on the price of their hard drives. $130 for a 120 GB hard drive is ridiculous. Thankfully, this one is plenty large enough for my needs. You can install 20-25 normal games and still have room.
The other nicety is the console finally has wi-fi built in. Again, this is another area that was completely silly before. I know it was for cost cutting at the time when the systems first launched, but that doesn't explain the abnormally high price of the network adapter if you bought it separately before. In the end though, it never was an issue for me. I have a wired/wireless router. Since my 360 doesn't get moved too often in the house, using ethernet was never a problem, and I still use it with this model. I did test the wi-fi for functionality. It worked very well and was easy to setup. But since this model sits in the same place as my old box, I am continuing to use the "wire".
As mentioned before, the 360 Slim is just that. It has lost a lot of weight and bulk in the redesign. This particular version is quite attractive as well. I like the "touch" sensitive buttons on the console. Just place your finger over the disc eject button or the power button. No need to press anything. It's a small thing, but it is a nice touch, no pun intended. The accompanying sound effects are cool. However, I mostly use the controller for everything. When I want to play another game, I use the controller to open the disc tray.
The inclusion of two controllers was a nice bonus. They share the same paint scheme as the unit itself. For a Halo fanatic, this would be the ultimate. I enjoy Halo, but with perspective. It is a great series, but I like many other games, some much more. One thing of note though is that despite that manual saying otherwise, there were no batteries for the controllers in the box that I received. Surely a mixup at the factory, as I know others have stated theirs came with batteries.
One glaring omission that must be mentioned though is the lack of any HD cables. The only AV cable included is a composite cable with Left and Right audio. When paying $400 for a new system, some option for HD output should have been included. I didn't have any spare HDMI cables either. Thankfully, the HD AV cable from my old Pro model fit this one, so I am able to use component as before. Still this is silly, this is their "Best of the Best" and they didn't accommodate owners of HD televisions? (quite a few people these days)
But then again, that allows them to make money selling cables at inflated prices. If you need cables, I suggest alternatives. I am definitely a fan of the 360, I am not however, a fan of Microsoft's pricing scheme for accessories.
Hopefully this review didn't seem too harsh. The system overall is exactly what I mentioned in the title. This is the package that we should have been offered all along--sans the HD cables. It is a slick looking unit that functions very well. It is also very quiet and runs very cool. Compared to buying a new slim and all the included goodies, it is a very good value. | video-games_xbox |
Gameplay is better than the next gen 2k games. I've been on the next Gen systems from day one, but I have to say, I always find myself wanting to go to past gen to get my basketball fix. NBA 2k15 is no exception. The gameplay is rock solid and probably significantly better than 13 or even 14. This was the last 2k they made for hte previous gen. While it's not going to blow you away with new features and modes or what not, what it does give you is an amazing game of basketball and I believe it to be better than the current gen 2K which has a lot of AI problems. The flow of the game is spot on, the defense is amazing, the rebounding is better, the collision detection is better, the A.I. is smart and they don't make dumb plays over and over like the current 2k games do. On top of that, the player models actually look better on this game than even 2k17 on the XBOX one or ps4. You don't have guys that look like they were modeled after Gumby which is the route they took for 2k17. The player models are HORRIBLE IN the new 2k game. But here back on the old consoles? They are proportioned just how they should be. While you can't take the game online anymore, you can trade all the legends into a current roster and start your franchise. I put my beloved Michael Jordan and Larry Bird on the Lakers. With the ability to use all the Legends on the current gen rosters, you and mix and mash up your teams to your liking and have your very own Dream Team league. Try using the player lock feature, I like to lock down my SG (Michael Jordan and Joe Dumars) and play with my CPU teammates. I tried doing this on the new 2k games, and it's jsut not as fun. Again, something about these past gen games. Everything about it just feels better. My only nitpicks on the game is there is no half time commentary, nobody speaks or anything. Just highlights. The soundtrack is probably D+ at best. The commentary however continues to be great.
NBA 2K15 IS THE last 2k game they made for the past gen. I think it's worth your money if you just want to have a good time and don't mind making up your own rosters to have some fun. | video-games_xbox |
50 / 50. Gaming 9 years, XBL, probably played about 2 hours daily, longer on some weekends.
Product: It is comfortable to me, I like the pads for the ears, they are the microfiber that holds sweat and you cant clean. These you can take care of. I like the retractable boom on the mic, can be used in or out. Used sparingly during travel so retracting the boom made it look less weird for sure. Im not an audiophile by any means but the sound quality was good, not spectacular as some of my friends headsets I've used but for the price it was solid. Adjustable game/chat volume is good, I like the Turtle beach where it scrolls, I feel like it offered slightly better balance. But again it still works perfectly fine. The design is nice, matte black/grey color and its comfy on the head, its lighter than some headsets I have used so that was a plus. I definitely enjoyed the product while it worked....see side notes.
Shipping: Arrived in the estimated delivery window so no complaints. I lived overseas at the time too so shipping to an APO was good.
*I do think this is a solid product initially but the longevity may be in question. I like the style and feel, the sound and everything but read the story below on my experience.
**Side Notes: So about 5 months after using the headset on a regular basis, gaming almost daily for a few hours, it started to wear either from the adapter connection to the controller or maybe the wires that lead to the mic or maybe the plug. But it started out as I was hearing this loud, loud muffled click intermittently, people in the group chat would also hear it. Like this would hurt my ears sometimes and frustrate me a bit. Like I said it was intermittent and would come and go, seemed to be with how the cord was sitting sometimes or how I plugged it in. I updated my controller to see if maybe that was the issue but it wasn't. So I continued to use it and there would be time when it wouldn't do the clicking in the ears for awhile so I thought maybe it was just a weird issue of sorts. Later on the mute feature stopped working, so I couldn't mute my mic when I wanted, again this was intermittent and there would be times I could and times I couldn't mute it. Not a huge deal because I usually was talking with someone anyway.
So I move and break out the box once I get internet at about 9-10 months after the purchase and I hadn't used the mic in about a month and a half or so cause of moving and everything. I hook up everything and same issues as before persist, I wasn't surprised but it was still usable so I kept going with it cause im fairly frugal with things and will use them until they don't work. But after about 2 weeks the speakers in the headset stopped working, so I couldn't hear anyone. The mic still worked but I heard no sound in the headset no matter what I did. I could get it to work for a split second here or there but it would never continue to work. Tried updating the controller and everything but that didn't correct the problem. Not entirely sure what the issue was but I waited to long to check on the warranty and everything as I stopped playing as much and didn't really use it as much anymore anyway so it wasn't a concern, but I figure I wanted to give Polk and the consumer a heads up on possible issues.
Hope this helps. | video-games_xbox |
Buying guide for Xbox One bundles. I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I'll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.
A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) -
HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.
It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me...) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Gears or War Ultimate Edition includes all 4 Xbox 360 Gears games and Fallout 4 includes Fallout 3, for example. List of games and other info here -[...]
It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.
Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.
External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don't need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.
The bundles-
The bundles can be split into 3 different groups based on time of release. The upcoming and current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it (excepting the new Kinect bundles). Legacy consoles include an older controller without the standard audio jack and shouldnt be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven't included, due to their rarity at this point). There are no other functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you're free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).
Upcoming bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) -
Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won't match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There's little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don't allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller isn't yet available, but will retail for $150 (about triple the price of a regular controller). If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won't get any games with it, or a headset, from the looks of it. B rating. Also note that this version releases earlier if purchased from the Microsoft Store or Gamestop.
Current bundles -
Fallout 4 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases November 3rd. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel will be even better. Great for adults who love action adventure. Amazon won't be stocking this one, unfortunately...
Kinect 500GB Bundle - $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, the old model controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage.
Holiday 1TB Bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc (as well as all 360 Gears games as downloads if you play online before the end of the year), Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn't appear to include a headset. Releases October 27th. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included.
Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me... It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only.
Lego Movie 500GB bundle - $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.
FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. I'm grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA's games. A- for each. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Gears of War 500GB bundle. $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download (as well as all 360 Gears games if you play online before the end of the year). This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B+ rating. With the live Gold card and Forza Horizon 2 download (separate product pages) A rating.
Legacy bundles-
Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.
Halo Master Chief Collection 1TB bundle. $399. Looks like this being phased out. Standard console, plus download code for the Master Chief Collection (the four numbered Halo games in a single package). B rating.
Halo Master Chief 500GB bundle. $349. If you can get it at the retail price, I'd consider it an A-, since the cost to upgrade storage to 1TB or greater is around or less than the $50 to get the 1TB model, and it'll perform better.
Keep in mind that the lowest prices and best bundles tend to happen around the winter holiday season, so unless you really want to get one now, you're probably best served waiting till around Black Friday, when multiple stores will be trying to entice you with lower prices and more pack-ins. This is especially true since Sony recently cut the price of the Playstation 4. | video-games_xbox |
Discomfort and buggy controls taint this headset's versatility and great sound quality. After over five months of using the Afterglow Universal Wireless Headset, it's time to find something else.
I purchased these after the battery in my <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Logitech-Wireless-Headset-H600-Over-The-Head-Design-981-000341/dp/B005GTO07O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Logitech Wireless Headset H600 Over-The-Head Design (981-000341)</a> stopped holding a charge. The initial reviews, feature set, and reasonable price of this set made it appear to be a fine choice. It's also a relatively new offering in a category where the choices that already existed all failed in one way or another.
The good:
- Insanely verstile: The headset itself is both wired and wireless. You can plug an audio source and an Xbox 360 controller directly into the headset with wires if that's what you need. It also functions as a wireless headset with its USB transmitter. The transmitter even has a stereo audio cable hanging off of it which can be used simultaneously with the USB audio adapter. In my case, I could plug it into my Mac for game audio and microphone input to TeamSpeak while having the transmitter's 3.5mm connector on my iPhone to listen to podcasts. The headset has a fade control to tweak the mixing of the two audio sources. It does all of these things very well, which is wonderful.
- Great sound quality that comes through sufficiently loud: This really says it all. The quality of wireless and wired audio is perfect for gaming, listening to music, or anything else. Other wireless USB headsets I've tested were too quiet to be useful in many situations, but this headset does not have the same problem.
- Excellent battery life: I easily got through two nights of hardcore gaming on a single charge. When the battery does eventually run out, you can keep it going by plugging in a mini USB cable to a source of power. You can even use the headset while it's charging. Some USB wireless headsets cannot do this.
- Great wireless range: I had no trouble roaming my house while listening on this headset. It's nice.
The bad:
- Bright LED lights everywhere: The wireless transmitter has a super-bright LED in it which is always on when connected and blinking when disconnected. I had to cover it up a bit with electrical tape to tone it down. The headset itself is also a beacon of blue light. Look closely at the photo of the item. Anything blue there is a bright light, including the headband.
- Ugly: I won't sugar-coat this detail: You will look like an absolute jackass wearing this thing. It's a monstrous blue plastic demon with no fashion sense. It looks worse than basketball shoes. The clear plastic band sits over an inch above your head while the remaining bulky plastic enclosure lets the world know that you only venture outside of the house when your parents yell at you to go find a job. Believe it or not, I have seen someone out in public wearing these. He did not make the headset look any better than I do.
The horrible:
- The controls are digital: The volume and chat/game fade controls are non-stepping dials, but they are not analog or fine. Both jump to different volume levels as the dial is smoothly turned. It would have been better to just make them up/down buttons like an iPhone's volume controls.
- The controls are buggy: Have you had your headset powered up for too long? The volume and chat/game fade controls will both stop working. Every once in a while you've gotta turn the headset off and on or you're stuck. This wouldn't be such a big deal if not for the fact that...
- The mute button is also the power button: You have to hold the mute button down for two seconds to power the headset off. This is dumb. It should be a switch, or possibly the very bottom of an analog volume dial.
- Uncomfortable: The clear plastic band does such a good job of holding the device on your head that it feels like a vice. The design is also quite unfriendly to folks, like myself, who wear eyeglasses. When wearing the headset it presses the frames of my glasses into my skull with enough force to leave a deep mark behind. I've had to adjust the headset's position frequently to keep my head from feeling like it was going to be smashed in. As a result, I've discovered...
- The clear plastic headband is not shatterproof: The clear band has developed some ominous cracks. I don't think this thing can last for a full year of regular use.
I really wish this headset were more comfortable and had better controls. Alas, these problems completely undermine its perfect versatility and great sound and microphone quality. I only recommend this headset to home-bound non-glasses-wearing folks with very small heads. If that does not describe you, I urge you to reconsider your decision to try out a wireless USB headset. There are really no good options out there.
--
Edit 2014-04-09: Grammar, spelling, and flow improvements for the benefit of future readers. My opinion hasn't changed a bit and wireless USB headsets continue to fail universally. Sigh. Maybe take a look at <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Microsoft-LifeChat-LX-6000-for-Business/dp/B00465UNYI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Microsoft LifeChat LX-6000 for Business</a>? | video-games_xbox |
Lord of the Rings Strikes Back With Vengeance. Shadow of Mordor is one of those games that will have you exploring every nook and cranny that the world has to offer, battling countless captains and throwing Uruk armies against each other for pleasure. The game is remarkably big for an open world action game and has quite a bit to offer ranging from an interesting and inventive nemesis system to a detailed and fluid combat feel and a massive amount of lore that rather than coming off as forced collectibles, adds quality content to your play. Just a quick aside, the nemesis system I referred to is a key aspect to the world of Shadow of Mordor and adds an interesting and in-depth look into how we normally perceive enemies and their relation to the player while moving through the story. Without going into too much detail on the story and plot I will say that while the possibility for an amazing story exists, the general arch is a bit weak for a Lord of the Rings related game. That's not to say you will enjoy it, revel in the moments, and lust for more--but rather, you will be left with some questions that you wish were answered along the way instead of left up to your imagination. The 360 version does have quite a few downsides when compared to the both Xbox One versions. You will be fighting heavily with freezing and load times as well as problems with graphics and rendering. Here is a broad list of the pros and cons.
Breaking it down I look at Shadow of Mordor like this:
Pros:
Fluid combat system.
Enjoyable and worth wild collectibles.
Engaging plot-line and characters.
Detailed environments that engross the player.
A nemesis system that is revolutionary and incredibly enjoyable.
A fun and enjoyable, new route on Lord of the Rings.
Cons:
A story that could have used more time spent with it.
Some interesting content found in the collectibles that was not brought to fruition in game.
Glitches and errors with loading plague the 360 version of the game.
Characters and landscapes often times load in very block-like forms instead of fluid, realistic images.
The load times are extremely rough. You load every time you enter the map, hit the start button, travel somewhere, enter a cutscene, ect. It becomes very cumbersome.
While the glitching and the rough graphics hamper this version of Shadow of Mordor, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and actually played all three versions available to Xbox gamers (Game of the Year edition, regular Xbox One edition, Xbox 360 version) and completed all three to the maximum gamerscore. It truly was a rewarding and invigorating experience even on the 360 and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for some fun in a Lord of the Rings setting, or anyone searching for a fun new action game.
4 Black Gate Defended Stars out of 5! | video-games_xbox |
Do NOT buy this unless you've got an HDTV and plenty of patience. With the popularity of zombie movies lately, I'm not sure why this type of game hasn't been done before. The premise sounds fun, and it can be at times. However, there are numerous glaringly obvious design flaws that completely ruin this game to the point that many will find it unplayable.
First off, THE IN-GAME TEXT IS TOTALLY UNREADABLE. The font size is so ludicrously small, it is unintelligible. And this is on a 27 inch tv. With my face pressed against the screen. Do yourself a favor, and do not buy this game unless you have a big screen HDTV. What's sad is how easily this could be remedied: increase the font size with a patch. How did this get through Quality Assurance, Capcom?
The killer of this game is that it is just plain frustrating. You will need the patience of a saint to not spike your 360 controller in utter disgust at times. It's been harped on in all the reviews I've read, but the save system really is inexcusable. There is only one save spot, and you can only save in very rare places. The save system purposefully makes the game arbitrarily hard, and it winds up being tedious and infuriating. On top of that, there is also no way to change the difficulty level, and this is an extremely difficult game by default.
Don't buy this game to show off your Xbox 360. The GRAPHICS really are lackluster; this game could easily have been released to the original Xbox. I would put the graphics on par with Max Payne.
The CONTROLS are servicable, but quite weak. For instance, just to fire my gun at an enemy, I have to hold left trigger to go into first person mode, then aim with the left stick, then press X to fire. It would be nice to be able to run and shoot with some degree of accuracy. Even Grand Theft Auto 3 allowed you to lock on to a target. The controls are definitely clunky.
You should also know that the game is excessively gory. There's the obvious you would expect: you can kill zombies in any way imaginable, including running them down with a lawn mower, or decapiting them with a sickle. However, there's some over-the-top graphic violence, such as a person committing suicide and another scene with a seriously demented clown and some chainsaws. The human villians in the game are referred to as "psychopaths" for a reason. I seriously would not allow my children to play this game. On top of that, you'll be tasked with photographing all the copious gore for more points. Just prepare to be shocked. | video-games_xbox |
Not quite amazing after time passes READ MY UPDATE. It is a very unfair thing to review a headset that has no competition. These are the only truly wireless headsets for Xbox One and PS4 (different item, same model essentially). The sound is a million times better than the Xbox One Stereo headset. My buddies say I sound way more clear. Being able to remove the boom is a huge plus if you happen to decide to eat anything while gaming. Battery life is awesome. I don't know if it's lasting as long as they claim since I haven't timed it, but I usually go all afternoon until like 3 AM before the first low battery beep. This is with me using the headset for all audio output (they sound better than my TV speakers).
My biggest gripe though is this constant buzzing and occasional popping sound. There apparently is no grounding ability for this headset, so you constantly have to deal with electrical static sounds. I've noticed if I plug in a wall charger, the buzz goes away since it is now grounded to the plug. The range is also hit or miss. When I have the dongle plugged into the console, the range is mostly line of site. I had to use a 6 ft USB 3.0 extension cable and get the dongle to be more open to get the advertised range. It's very funny to see a dongle that says to keep away from other electronics to get the best range need to be plugged into an electronic that emits the very interference you're told to avoid.
PDP has outstanding customer service. I damaged and broke the original boom and without asking for reasons, they sent a replacement boom. Never seen customer service like that.
UPDATE: After 5 months, I can say that I have to deduct another star. The buzzing has become more pronounced. After receiving the replacement boom, it now has contact issues that cause it to have that huge static that you hear on TV channels without a signal. It even goes through to party chat. I feel like the quality just isn't holding up to time. There are still very few options for truly wireless Xbox One headsets. For everything it does, it is worth 4 stars. But, seeing how it goes downhill in less than a year, I can't say that it is worth more than 3 stars in time. I feel it will never go below 3 stars. I foresee these going from how it is now to flat out broken after more time passes. How long until then? Don't know. I just don't see quality dropping further. I feel they will break before they get worse. That to me is actually a good thing.
UPDATE 2: I was horribly wrong. 1 year and 10 months in and the quality has plummeted. The static sounds are worse. The ear cup material is pretty much garbage at this point. The range can barely hold out through 1 wall. The USB port is now loose, so charging is hit or miss. With more wireless option appearing, I say try something else first. As for me, I'm going to try and hold out for when the LucidSound wireless headsets come out. I've read that they are a great headset company and that the wireless ones were great when the prototypes were demoed. | video-games_xbox |
Review for the new Rock Band 3 Player's Edition Telecaster (For the Xbox 360. First let me start off by saying that I am a huge Rock Band fan. I've stayed with the series ever since the beginning and have over 400 downloaded songs to go along with the exported songs from Rock Band 1, 2 and 3, Lego Rock Band, and the AC/DC track pack. I play all the time with friends. And just as I have upgraded my drums to the ion kit when the originals died, so too was it time to say goodbye to yet another guitar ( I think this is number 5 or 6? We have played a lot). This time however, instead of going for the usual standard rock band guitar, I thought I'd give one of these Player Edition Telecasters a try.
There are a a few differences obviously. Most are in the product description. So there shouldn't be any real surprises here. It's almost exactly the same size as the standard Strat. So it's not like you're getting one of Madcatz's oversized Bass guitars. The Fret buttons are 3/4 and after playing this for about a week, I don't really see any huge benefit or drawback to this. I just hope that it helps in the long term. I've had a few guitars quit on me early because one of the Fret buttons stopped working unless it was being pushed down by the righteous hand of God. I will say however, that the Frets are much, much quieter on the Telecaster than the standard Stratocaster. (As a side note, because of the 3/4 Frets, if you play Lefty, DO NOT buy this guitar. You will be excruciatingly frustrated).
Another difference is the strum bar. It is much stiffer than the standard guitar. It has that solid, "clicking" feel to it that is reminiscent of the early Guitar Hero 2 X-Plorer guitars. It's nice in that it gives you a more solid feel. However, it is almost too stiff for my taste. In really fast sections it can actually ware down your hand/ wrist if you are strumming a lot of notes in extensive sequences (Foo Fighters Monkey Wrench as an example).
The back button is also now a touch-sensitive overdrive button located between the strum bar and the neck of the guitar. While I am still getting used to it, I don't really like it very much. I'm just too used to raising my guitar into the air to set off overdrive. Anytime I've tried to hit the touch sensitive button, I've just lost my score multiplier (something I normally don't do when tilting the guitar). And that is exactly what the button is supposed to help alleviate. Still though, I can imagine that it would benefit some people.
All and all it is a solid guitar. I have no real complaints about it other than the wireless Xbox guide button takes far too much effort to turn on or be recognized. It's just what the rock band guitars should have been all along. A solid, fun, real looking piece of entertainment. The extra buttons are more out of the way (No more accidentally turning your Wah-Wah's off) and the whammy bar is a blast (It's solid metal and sitting on a massive spring. It also rotates down and out of your way if you're not planning on using it).
Final Verdict: If you play a lot of Rock Band and want something a little flashier than the standard Stratocaster, but don't feel like shelling out $200 for the Wooden, full sized versions of the guitars, get the Telecaster. No promises on increasing your scores though (It hasn't noticeably helped mine yet).
As I've noticed that they seem to be sold out of them on Amazon, try ordering them from NewEnglandMusicSupply.com. I bought the Butterscotch one from them a while back. And they seem to keep them in stock. | video-games_xbox |
A game with potential, but is outrageous. First off, I'd like to say that this game is alright. Sometimes frustrating and fun. I'm not going to waste my time giving a 3 hour long review, but this is good. This is one of those games: "Why fix something that works?" and "You won't like it or hate it, until you try it"... So after reading this review, you can make up your mind. THERE IS A SPOILER!!!
Pros:
-Single player: Pretty good as main character, Yuri, having interesting cut-scenes from the other games...
-Special Ops: Back and better. With a new Survival game mode, it never gets boring playing different maps. Much amusing like Nazi Zombies from WaW but combined with Horde from Gears of War.
-Multiplayer: Balanced and new killstreaks. You can keep a constant K/D ratio (Kill/Death) without camping in MW2. New game modes such as Kill Confirmed and others, (My thoughts are to stop camping, it has worked some, but not a lot). No more Over-powered perks, all of them taken out so you don't have to worry about using one particular perk. FEW maps are fun to play on. New weapon leveling up and more camos. You die reasonably fast and targetting is alright.
-Addicting
Cons:
-Single Player Veteran: UNREALISTIC!!! As soon as I peek over a box while taking cover, I get shot, like the A.I. are designed to target you and only you. (Spoiler!!!) When becoming a Juggernaut you have to to take COVER! Trying to shoot people takes a half an hour, because you get shot a few times and already almost dead! It took me 10 hours to finish the campaign just to figure out Makarov and Soap get killed and the Eiffel Tower gets tipped over!
-*Special Ops: Until you get to Wave 30, takes 20 shots to kill one soldier witha UMP submachinegun. Helicopters are hard to kill and you just end up wasting a ton load of ammo to kill 2 helicopters! "Delta Squad" buyable is a waste on open maps, they don't use cover and just get themselves killed.
-Multiplayer: *Many weapons are recycled, very simple to level up. Same screaming little kids, "Oh my god, why is this guy making his voice sound lower than it is?" or an old 20-year-old guy who thinks he's the biggest bad-a** because he's fairly good at Call of Duty. Some weapons are over-powered than others which is especially ridiculous in Hardcore games, grenade launchers can be a pain, all shotguns suck. MANY MUCH CAMPING!!! Even in games that require you to collect items! I hate to run out there thinking I'm going to get RPG'ed or sniped! I find myself screaming everytime I die! Mostly because the maps are terrible and can be havens for snipers and campers!
In my eyes, I see a game that had a lot of potential, but ruined by the terrible community and single-play.
I enjoyed this game for a while at the beginning, but I see myself playing it for a long time...
(*Not all that big of problems) | video-games_xbox |
A very pleasent surprise from an unknown developer comes.....INDIGO PROPECY. Though many may think this game is worse than it appers; those people need to play one of this year's most suspenful games.
It stars as you, Lucas kane, comitting a murder a the local diner. Though, when the murder is over, he feel like you were possesed and the story keeps getting from that. There are certain things, like how you respond or how long it takes you to respond to a question or remark. The people can suspicious from how are acting-that is a given.
Also, there a meter in the game that measures your mental balance. If that meter goes to the bottom, you're dead. That's understandable. The game has humor too, and thatis important in some occasions, so you can laugh and not be shocked all the time.
As i said before, the story is excellent. Written and directed by David cage. The story really keeps the game intresting becasue if the story was bland, i don't i would be praising , as I am now.
In the game, you have to find what is wrong with you, and see what caused you to kill an innocent man. ANd you eventually find that out and it's rather shocking. And all i can say, when that climatic part comes, you'll be on the edge of you seat.
The game isn't perfect and this what's wring with it: SHORT. I bet if i played it non-stop for two days i could have beat it. There are 44 chapters, each of which are mildy long, but it's just really how long it figures YOU to know hat to do. So if there's a sequel that's the one thing they have to improve.
The replay is good though. This almost diminshes the fact that the game is hort becasue you can go back to a certain chapter that you felt you wanted to do something different. No problem you can do it. Some more of the extras are: music from the game, artwork,movies, and scenes. So, this is plus.
The graphics are both good and sub-par. The good first. The background and enviroment are beautifully rendered. In the opening scene, i actully thought the snow was real. It was very realistice. Now on the to not so good. The chracter models aren't anything special. The graphics of chracters are GTA type, which if you don't know yet is not good. they are just on the borderline of still being acceptable ,but they still are pretty bad.
The sound is pretty good and helps(well definetly) to help you get scared and wonder what's around the corner. A door creaking, water dripping , and even hearing people talking in the dark are some of the ways the audio is great. It's very important to have exceptional in a horror/psycological type game. If the sound is terrible, then the game is basically ruined because the player can't get scared if they can't hear it realistically.
Indigo Prophecy is a fun and enjoying game and i hope we see more of david Cage and quantic dream. aka let's see a sequel
FINAL SCORE=9.1 | video-games_xbox |
Nearly the perfect cop-chase game. Just some quick background: I really like racing games. I've played a lot of them throughout the history of computer and platform gaming. I do not consider myself an expert, just an enthusiast. So this review is from that viewpoint: the view of someone who appreciates having a good time gaming and doesn't allow the little things to bother him to much. From that perspective, it's a 5 star game. It really is a lot of fun. There are some things which annoy me though...
Pros:
Lots of fun/exotic cars
Fast pace
Lots of action
Great soundtrack (artists you've heard of- and a nice range of genres)
Beautiful graphics, both vehicle and environment
Good social elements- One of which shows how you compare to your friends in each event. This gives each event replay value because while you may have a gold in the event (i.e. met the requirements for gold in single player), but it also displays the top scores among your friends. If your friend bumps you off your pedestal with a faster time, it will let you know and your pride will encourage you to attempt to regain your former throne. Normally once you have a gold you'd be done with that event.. now you can continue to compete for a better time/score with your friends. This feature being integrated into the game's "roadmap" makes it much more desirable because you don't have to actually go do anything, it's integrated quite well. Not groundbreaking, just a nice seamless (and optional) social element in the single player career mode.
Cons:
When passing an oncoming car, the game will "pull" you into it. You can clearly be on a line that squeaks by it, but just before you pass it your vehicle will often swerve into the other car as if they are magnetic... which leads me to a related gripe:
There are seemingly no "glancing blows". That is, if you make any contact with oncoming traffic at all, it slows you down substantially and does a lot of damage. There's no knocking a side mirror off in this one.
Repetitive police radio conversation
Constant Nissan advertising - I drive a Nissan Frontier so maybe that's why I notice it so much, but it seems like 8 out of 10 "traffic" cars are made up of either the Nissan Frontier or one of the other Nissan offerings. It's just a little repetitive... I mean where are the dump trucks and 18 wheelers, etc. on the road? The '77 caprice with the rusty quarter panels? It would be nice to have more variety in the traffic, but it's really not a big deal.
The buyer should note that this isn't a simulation game, As such, I won't complain about the 200+mph last-second drifts which magically pull you through a 90 degree hairpin. In fact, these are a part of what makes it such a fun arcade type experience. The damage is *somewhat* relative to the accidents you have during gameplay but not so much that they are directional (left fender, etc.) for the most part. Overall I suspect they focused on making the game fun (I think they succeeded in that) and not so much on the simulation elements (this is what many of the Forza and GT guys will complain about). I think they compete more directly in that market with their "Shift" product, which is another story. I mean the bottom line is someone saying "Hey, when driving my $250,000 sports car in head-on traffic in an attempt to outrun a cop in a Lamborghini equipped with an EMP, it should be more realistic" is like saying "this thing doesn't drive like a REAL UFO at all". I mean it's all far-fetched to begin with. A game like this is much like a Terminator film... it's fun because of the action and visual experience... if you're looking for something to *relate* to, go elsewhere. If you're looking to enjoy a fun race and in the process evade (or become) the law- this is your game. | video-games_xbox |
Great game, but DLC issues bring it down. I love music games; Rock Band in particular. Lego Rock Band is just as fun to play as the other games in the franchise, however, a few issues hold this game back. The main issue that most people will have with this game is the setlist. There are only 45 songs included on the disc. In addition, the songs are all "kid friendly," with an emphasis on pop music. I personally liked the setlist, but admittedly, it's not for everyone, so look up the complete list before you consider buying. The Lego theming is fun and there are some great venues and characters to unlock. However, the load times are inexplicably longer than they were in RB2, even though the graphics appear less detailed.
The real dealbreaker for this game is the DLC (down loaded content, ie songs) filter on the Xbox360 and PS3 versions. Since the game is rated "E for Everyone," any DLC that you own must pass a content filter in order to be playable in Lego Rock Band. Only about half of the available DLC that you can buy for RB1 and RB2 works with Lego Rock Band; which is a big slap in the face to fans who have spent tons of money on DLC over the past few years. Also, only songs from Rock Band 1 can be transferred to Lego Rock Band (if you bought the export key when you bought RB2); RB2 songs are not exportable at this time. Wii owners get no DLC support whatever, so please DO NOT buy the Wii version if you have another console.
Another minor gripe is that the game (at least the Xbox360 version) comes with one of those new "eco-friendly" DVD cases with the slits cut out of the plastic case behind the disc. This is totally unacceptable, as it makes it a lot easier for dust to get into the case, as well as for the disc to be scratched from behind. Another sour note is that the fee for exporting the Lego Rock Band songs to other Rock Band titles is now $10 (instead of the $5 we paid for RB1).
I have actually been having fun playing this game...but all the negatives are leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. I want to like and recommend this game, but I advise people to rent or at least research the game more before purchase. | video-games_xbox |
Best shooter ever. Let's get right to it, this could be the best shooter ever! Halo and Halo 2 are great but pretty one dimensional at times, this games has everything Halo has... and more. They don't waste too much time on the plot and the story is reminiscent of many other sci-fi fiction out there but where the story falls short it makes up for in concept design and over all bad ass look of the hyper real environment and over the top characters in the game. The aliens are mean, big and scary as hell. This game doesn't lag, action, action and more action. What good is a shooter unless you can shoot all the time. Blood, bullets, gore and intense action.
Now we all know a shooter is only as good as the weapons, there is not an abundance of weapons in this game but the weapons it does offer will not disappoint. You have your standards, shotgun, sniper and rocket launchers. My personal favorite weapon in the default weapon you start with. a machine gun with a chainsaw bayonet which could be the coolest weapon in video games history, rev up the chainsaw and do some work and see why. The other notable weapon is the Hammer of Dawn, you can lock on to a target with a laser and annihilate you enemy with a death ray from an orbiting satellite...how cool is that.
The characters are charismatic as they are bad ass. This would make a great film if they could capture on film the look they archived in the game. Some say this game is too short, and it didn't take too long to beat but every great game is too short. this game has high relay value with three levels of difficulty, casual, hardcore and insane! I challenge you to beat this game on insane, it's damn near impossible, but fun to try.
Everything about the controls is user friendly and flows. You can blind fire behind cover command your squad that actually kills the enemy and has a health system like Halo, why waste time looking for health in a fast paced shooter. You don't have to be a hardcore to appreciate this game.
I can't say enough about this game and can't wait for the sequel in the coming years. Gears of War is the next great video game franchise and the biggest reason why i bought an X-box 360 over the PS2. | video-games_xbox |
The Be All and End All... For Now. Here it is, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the Godfather, the big-daddy (without 'Big Daddy), the reigning champ.
If you put a gun to my head and made me pick my favorite game of all time if would be this. ...but please don't do that, that would be weird and kind of rude.
This is my first experience into the Fallout universe, but I understand that it's a departure from the usual gameplay mechanics (a departure, not necessarily an improvement, but that's based on opinion.) I'm told, however, that it does justice to the tone and palette of the Fallout world. And what a world! It starts with a strange, near-future, alternate America that kept the creepiest of values and fashions from the 1950's (smiles, everyone! Don't let those commies thing we're unhappy!) and yet advanced in technology to the robot butler stage that then get's completely destroyed and mutated after a nuclear war with China and a few centuries of radiation saturation. So it's a fantasy world that then got destroyed and morphed into a whole new fantasy world. The result is a fantasy game world that is as layered and rich as anything in the Tolkien or D&D universe and yet is somehow MORE accesible and relatable. The characters are, for the most part, regular people with regular people needs: food, shelter, booze, sex, etc. There's plenty of 'science' that bends physics and reality in impossible ways, but it's amazing how the lack of things like 'magic' and 'over-used mythical creature' make the gameplay so much more compelling. Nothing is cliched (yet, give it time) and everything feels fresh and unique. And there's so MUCH of it all! I've completed the story line twice, put countless hours into exploring and exploring and I STILL haven't covered the entirety of the map. Bethesda went to great pains to develope and detail this post-apacolypse Washington D.C. (the Capital Wasteland, if you will) and it shows. Familiar, realworld locations have been reduced to rubble, fantasy-world locations are delicately and expertly placed within the real-world backdrop and everything is pulled together under a blanket of grey ash and dust. It's easily the most complete, most satisfying and most entertaining gameworld I've ever had the pleasure of exploring.
Which is good, because it's the gameworld and the story (a search for your missing father and the quest for clean water) that they're selling. The gamePLAY is fun but far from flawless and, though it offers a few innovations (the ability to pause and plan attacks throug the V.A.T.S. system comes to mind), remains far from groundbreaking. If you've played <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Elder-Scrolls-IV-Oblivion/dp/B003HFFSIE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion</a> then you pretty much already know the score on how you move, interact, attack, sneak, steal, and the myriad of other things you get to do. The lockpicking mechanic is different, using the vibartion to peice out the sweet spots rather than watching and timing tumblers and I consider it a big improvement (but, you know, that might just be me). Character animations are still a bit weird (the physics in the animations are off, you can tell) and moving about is occasionally glitchy (please save often as you WILL get stuck on some stupid, damn rock or something eventually, I promise you that). Shooting and meleeing bad guys (which you'll want to do in 1st person more than 3rd, though you're given both options), is fun if not as smooth or clean as... well, pretty much anything else.
I can go on and on with this. The game lets you do a lot of things (talking, bargaining, shopping, stealling, fighting, sneaking, pick-pocketing, jumping, running) and you'll find a better version of any of them in just about any game that focuses on that one thing. What Fallout 3 does better than anyone (even Oblivion, as far as I'm concerned) is give you a world to play in with very few rules. The gameplay isn't bad, by any stretch, but this is one of those rare occasions where immersion and story outweigh and outplay actual gameplay mechanics. If those things mean anything to you at all, the Capital Waste is a place worth getting lost in for a while. If all you want is something linear, point A to point B while things explode (and who doesn't want that at least once in a while, right?), this is not the stop for you; keep heading down the line.
If wandering a land worthy of any Sci-fi or fantasy novel you've ever read is something you're interested in, look no futher. Step out, sit down, get comfortable: your'e gonna be here for a while... | video-games_xbox |
Really, there's nothing else quite like it. I've played a lot of games on the various current consoles, and I can say this is an innovative and one of a kind experience.
The only reason I give it four stars instead of five is that it fails "perfection" in "shooting feel." That's subjective, I understand, but it feels a little bit "sloppy" in the way, say, that Battlefield Bad Company felt to me. Not as tight as COD4 or Left 4 Dead, for example. The other quibble is what I imagine MMO and RPG players call as "grinding." I understand RPGs and loved games like Fallout 3 but after a while the scags get to be a little dull.
Still, this is a different kind of game. Really, it stands alone. It does so many of the little things right. It saves everything. You lose virtually nothing, no matter when you quit. You can drop in and out of any game with your character, keeping cash and loot and exp you gather along the way.
This seems so obvious, but it's something other games fail miserably at. Are you listening Bungie, with your half-arsed ODST effort? Why could I only play with friends and recent players? Why couldn't I drop in on another person's game? Why did we have to be in a lobby first?
As far as the story--is there a story? I find myself heading from quest to quest and waypoint to waypoint but I couldn't tell you what this is "about." Which is OK, it doesn't have to be "about" much of anything as long as you're having fun doing "nothing" which I do.
I like the comic-book slightly real/slightly cartoon look. It COULD have looked like every other Unreal Engine game out there, but they added a nice flair.
Again, this is a one of a kind experience. If you were a fan of Fallout 3--well, this ain't really like it, but sorta. If you liked COD4, it ain't really like it either, but sorta is. Get the picture? It takes elements from multiple genres and mashes them up quite nicely. | video-games_xbox |
Listen. I am, or was, like most everyone else bored of everything COD. the stale camping ridden multiplayer and the bland campaign were just getting on my nerves. I was saying that this was going to be just another COD game made by Treyarch, an even worse production company than Activision, but i really enjoy this game. I was on a Halo 4 tear (The best campaign I've ever played) before this game came out and i thought, "whatever 60 bucks isn't too much, I'll go for it". And besides zombies, which is a huge upgrade from the original, this game is all around a solid game.
Treyarch on the multiplayer side of it(which is all that matters in a COD game really, just kidding) is actively trying to rid the game of camping, or at least that's what i feel like. They balance weapons better, the map flows for movement, hip firing is smoother, and as an animation student i appreciate that they contrast players better against the background to make spotting campers easier. the Maps are more fun and hardcore gamers like myself can finally enjoy the multiplayer again. Also no more death-streaks so thank God for that.
The campaign, like a lot of games this year is a little offbeat and structured differently story wise, but it's a good thing. It flows from memory to present like black ops 1 did but in a better way with more interesting features that keep you interested. It's worth a play-through on veteran for you brave souls, even multiplayer junkies i recommend it to.
All this makes it a huge step up from the last few COD games, and i can say without a doubt this is my favorite since World at War. The formerly unquenchable anger i felt from that piece of crap MW3 is all gone now, thank you Blops 2 and Treyarch for that. Any real negative reviews are just people writing it off before they gave it a chance, i was willing to give the game a go and so should you. Try if you can to not think of it as just another COD game, it really is an improvement, not the end all game it was marketed as, but it's worth 60 bucks. | video-games_xbox |
Slightly Flawed Reproduction of the Two Tremendous Originals. Ever since the first game was featured as part of a Pizza Hut / PlayStation demo disc in early 1999, I've been completely and utterly in love with the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater line. It's always been such a perfect formula, a flawless mixture of physical sport and mental planning. It's one of those few genres that manages to ascend from a lighthearted distraction to a legitimate, undeniable skill. You'll never see the same two-minute run twice in a game of Tony Hawk; there are just so many possibilities, so many tiny nuances to alter and / or improve upon.
Right out of the gates, the first thing that strikes you in 2x is the tremendous leap forward the graphics have taken since the last time you saw the game in motion. As a diehard Dreamcast enthusiast who played through the original Tony Hawk 2 on that platform instead of the standard PSone, I wasn't expecting to be as blown away by the visuals as I was. This looks every bit like a game that was originally planned, designed and formatted for the Xbox. Walls and ramps no longer look like polygons with simple textures wrapped around them. The colors and contours of that familiar wooden ramp look so good, you can almost smell the splintering boards themselves.
You're pressed for time every second you spend immersed in the world of Tony Hawk 2x. As the level loads, (considerably faster on the Box than on its older rival) you're given a laundry list of tasks to complete. Once you've finished browsing the checklist itself, the player is asked to press of the "A" button and the infamous two-minute timer begins to tick your life away. Within your first several plays, the clock seems like a ferocious enemy, something you'll never be able to conquer. It's relentless, a brutal learning curve that forces you to improve upon yourself or fail in an ugly mess. The skaters take an eternity to regain their footing after a long fall and several of the level goals, especially the pro and sick scores, seem unreachable. But, as you play deeper and deeper into 2x, the clock slowly and surely reveals the truth; it was on your side all along.
As a big fan of the PlayStation's controller, I did have a small bit of difficulty adapting to the Xbox's larger, less D-Pad centered controller. Each skater comes equipped with eight grab, eight grind and eight kick tricks, one for each direction, (including diagonals) and the player cannot afford the luxury of pressing up on an analog stick and watching their on-screen character perform the trick assigned to up+right. So I moved my left thumb down a couple inches to the Box's underdeveloped, cylindrical D-Pad. Where the Sony's pad contains four distinct directions, the Box's various controllers feature a standard D-Pad, sculpted in the middle of a big circle. While this may ease diagonal movement in other games, it's less than ideal for the kind of detailed, precise directional pressing I need here. The A, B, X and Y buttons, too, are more difficult to reach than the PS2 controller, making a quick pressing of the "grind" button more difficult than you'd expect.
If you can move past the troubles with the Xbox controller, the gameplay is every bit as much fun as you might remember from the first release, with the exception of a few common, highly annoying bugs. Most glaring is the change in camera sensitivity. One thing I remember well about this game at the time of its first release was the tight, responsive camera that followed your movements like a hawk (no pun intended). This is not the case in THPS2X. The view lags well behind your skater as he turns, jumps and performs tricks. More often than not, you'll be looking at your skater's chest (and the scenery shooting by from right to left behind his back) instead of his side, and the oncoming territory in front of you. If I didn't already know the levels like the back of my hand, I'd have been incredibly annoyed with the number of times this happened, so I can only imagine what it must be like for someone playing the title for the very first time.
I was a bit let down by the musical depth of Tony's Xbox debut. Rest assured, all the songs from the original PlayStation release of THPS2 are here in their entirety. However, one of the unlockable features of this Xbox remake is the entire first game of the series, as well as five new levels unique to this version. I would've assumed that Neversoft would have at least incorporated the outstanding soundtrack from the first game here, seeing as how they were including every other aspect of that game. It was not to be, however, perhaps because of licensing issues, and what you're left with in the end is an extremely long game and an extremely short, repetitive soundtrack. The masters behind this title do get brownie points, however, for not only utilizing the system's "custom soundtrack" feature, but for smoothly incorporating it into the game itself. Not only can you quickly and easily listen to the music you've ripped from a collection of personal CDs, but each song fades out after two minutes in the career mode, like all the other songs in the game.
When it's all said and done, a few minor gripes do not a bad game make. This wasn't a flawless translation of the incredible original game, but it wasn't a bastardizing of its legacy, either. If you missed out on this one when it was first released on the PSone, I'd advise you grab it while it's still around. Otherwise, I'd say you should steer clear unless the prospect of custom soundtracks interests you enough to repurchase and replay an old title or two. | video-games_xbox |
Incredible Value for the Cost. I love this game! Even buying it significantly after release, new content is still coming out for FREE with this item. If you're a fan of the himan series you will love this. It forces you to appreciate the many approaches you can take in each level rather than the same linear "This is what I must do in order to get Silent Assassin".
The levels are massive, and gorgeous. The amount of NPCs in a single are is unprecedented! Seriously! The levels are all well thought out and feel like the designers knew after years of hard work what the players would like. None of the missions feel bland, and I will try and complete every sub-objective in an area before moving on. In the first week of this game I easily put 40 hours in when I normally play games for 1 hour or so a day. It's like playing a game of cat and mouse, and I can't get enough. The only major mistake I see is that the game no longer has difficulty levels (perhaps better for some people, worse for me) as I usually liked to play on Professional in previous games to ensure I had to be as stealthy as possible to get the job done.
I was planning to hold out on this until it became very cheap for just the game, but the add ins are very good. The tie is nice quality, similar to the others that I have, with one exception, it has "H I T M A N" on the back of it, which is pretty cool. The tie bar is simply a tie bar with the logo on it, but it's neat when I am working in an office with people significantly older than I am, yet I will hear "Hey, Dan, is that the Hitman logo on your tie bar?". I kid you not, I have made 2-3 friends at work simply over this tie bar. The statue is HUGE. The base of it alone is around the size of Frisbee! It is painted incredibly well and does not feel cheap. Finally, there is the artbook which leaves something to be desired. This is my first artbook and I was hoping for something a little bit more. First off it only has about half of the playable game, I really would have liked some of the shots from the Japan level. Next, it only has around 1 line or so per image, which is typically something along the lines of "The dark area makes it the perfect area for 47 to work." It would have been cool to have some developer insight on why they made levels the way they did, or what made them pick such and such a location.
However, that aside, I love it. I love every corner of this game and cant recommend it enough. The controls are fluid, the AI is good (and not glitchy!) and most of all fair. The game is a serious "thinker" and really makes you appreciate hard work the entire team put in to deliver this game. I suggest that you don't look things up to get your full value, trust me, it will be frustrating but so worth it in the end. P.S. with the holiday's coming up, this is a steal in my opinion! | video-games_xbox |
The short version of this is that I like the controller. The short version of this is that I like the controller, but to me it doesn't measure up to the Elite controller from Microsoft. It's still very good; I just don't regard it as the best that's out there (and they're in a comparable price range at the time I'm writing this).
There are perfectly good reasons for a top end controller to be running wired, but it's nice to have the option to play wireless too when you're looking to do something more casual. The balance of this controller is good and helps to keep the size/weight feeling reasonable, but it's really weird to me that the bright green sticker is something you have to apply yourself and it kinda just feels like a sticker. If someone has paid over $100 for a controller, it doesn't seem to me that they should have to worry about messing up attaching a piece like that.
This one has somewhat more fun colors that I think will appeal to some players (particularly younger ones and big fans of Razer and its characteristic green, but we can all have our love of bright colors sometimes). The Elite has a more polished and 'adult' sort of look. Neither is really better in that department, it's just a matter of taste.
The Elite's buttons and thumbsticks feel more solid to me, clearly being real metal, and the case to hold it and keep them organized for swapping in and out is beautifully done. This is still made out of very good materials, but the immediate impression of "Wow, they put a lot into making this as perfect as possible." isn't as intense.
I do feel that the programmable buttons on the rear of the Wildcat do a better job of being out of the way and not being triggered accidentally vs the Microsoft controller.
Really, though, if the Elite didn't exist right now (or I had never used it), I would be extremely impressed by this controller, and there are definitely some gamers who are going to like it better. For something in this price range to make sense, you should probably be playing a lot because the base controllers that come with the console are pretty darn good, and there are a lot of really nice special designs already out there like the limited edition Halo controllers, that only cost a little more (so that you could get 2 for the price of this).
On the other hand, a really good controller does feel nice to use, and when you put $60 into a game you might play for a couple of weeks, it isn't really THAT terrible to invest in a controller you'll be using with every game you play for the next couple of years. This would definitely be a big hit with most younger players who will both enjoy having a great controller and the prestige of being able to brag to their friends that they have the best instead of the default. If you're thinking about buying it for yourself and you're on the fence, I'd say it's not too likely to be revolutionary. It opens up some extra options with the programmable buttons, but then you only get the full benefit of that if you invest time and energy into thinking about how you want to make the best use of it. If you want to just sit down and play, this kind of thing is overkill. | video-games_xbox |
No Mere Toy. I was a bit worried when I heard that Madcatz was doing the hardware for this RB3 Pro Guitar. Although Madcatz has improved their hardware over the years, I knew this pro guitar needed to be solid and with this many buttons, it had to have good quality.
Well the quality is very good overall and the body, buttons, and strings have a solid feel. The one area where the design is a bit weak is in the knobs that hold the strap, especially the one you screw is directly in the seem of the body and can easily push apart the seem of the guitar and not lock tight. To fix this, I just used a helping of Duco Cement. Now this means that I can no flip the strap to the lefty side but I can live with that and I don't have to worry about this knob popping out.
I also had to screw in a few of the top screws of the body (this was why the knob did not fit right) because it seemed one of the body screws was not fully seated. But I suspect this manufacturing glitch may not be that common.
Other than that, the guitar feels very solid for a plastic game controller. Much more solid and polished feel than I would have expected. Sure its an expensive game controller but its fairly complex piece of hardware and they did a very good job with making the buttons, neck, etc all feel like a guitar. Lighter and not quite as big as a guitar, but the fret distances are pretty much spot on.
One thing to note is that this guitar can be used in standard guitar modes and thats a good way to get a feel for the different fret spacing but the main purpose of this guitar is using pro mode to learn guitar. If you just want to play Rock Band with the best standard controller, this is not it. This guitar is for pro-mode and pro-mode has a much steeper learning curve than the standard Rock Band game. And for that purpose, this guitar delivers!
Pro-mode is very well done with great pacing where you go from learning basic notes and slowly advance to learning cords etc. And although they do not use tab for the notation, they have come up with a notation that is similar to tab but work well with the highway display and fast scrolling that will come with playing songs. I still think it would have bee nice to include a full tab mode but my guess is they tried that and found the new notation to work best.
So, although you will not learn tab reading skills, you will learn the chord names and shapes needed to play all the RB3 pro mode songs and that is impressive. Honestly, the pro mode trainers are much more complete than I would have thought. They really spent some time putting this together. Also, when you miss a chord, it can automatically stop the song, show you the correct fingering, and let you get it before you continue. It works very well and if you don't like it, you can turn it off.
Back to the hardware... Right now, I give it 5 stars because it just works. Now, for those that play guitar, you will quickly find issues here because, and this needs to be clear, this is not a guitar. Its a guitar trainer. It has some very basic differences that make some things hard to transition from real guitar to this trainer. First and most obvious is the lack of strings on the neck. What is the effect here? Well, you don't have the same feel for the string/fret so its a bit of a different feel as far as the coordination of your hands on the strings and pairing that up to the fret that pairs up with that string. But, since a real guitar give you more feedback, it may be easier to transition TO A REAL GUITAR, then FROM A REAL GUITAR. Which is sort of the whole point of a guitar training. So, if already know how to play a real guitar and you don't want re-learn a trainer, you should probably wait for the Fender Squier ($250-$350) to come out. But if you are just learning guitar, this makes one impressive trainer.
The only remaining question is how well the hardware hold up after months of use. So far, it feels like it will hold up well. But that is nearly impossible to predict. So, come back here in a few months and see if the review change. But for right now, this thing is a great guitar trainer.
UPDATE: I have since upgraded to Rocksmith for learning real guitar. At the time I did this review, RB pro-mode was the best choice. But today, I have to say that getting an inexpensive guitar and getting Rocksmith is a much better option. It does not change my review or score but I will say that I will not go back to Rockband Pro mode because I feel that Rocksmith has nailed the real-guitar trainer. | video-games_xbox |
As stable as your crazy ex-girlfriend. This game could be excellent, but it crashes too often to be enjoyable and the hit detection (at least that's what I think it is; I know nothing about designing video games) in multiplayer is oftentimes inconsistent. These problems persist nearly three months after release.
I just played a handful of multiplayer games, and it's a genuinely fun time, despite some really bad hit detection. For example, I got a headshot by shooting one gentleman in the stomach, but other times I'll have my crosshairs on someone's head only to miss him/her with every round, and sometimes I can shoot people from around corners. I'm not expecting it to be perfect 100% of the time, but it happens often enough that it warrants mention and scrutiny. Unlockables are fun and add some depth to gameplay, though it takes a decent amount of time to unlock things, but on the other hand, there are a ton on things to unlock. Destructible environments add realism and a "cool" factor, but more than that, it enables players to alter the battlefield by destroying cover and vantage points for enemy marksmen. I found out the hard way that melees from up front aren't a good idea, as all one has to do to counter and kill you is press B during the animation (which means s/he has several seconds to do so), rendering the knife wielder a victim of his own weapon. I suppose one gentleman found this out the hard as well, as I was recently offered the opportunity to experience the sadistic pleasure of turning a rival's knife on him/herself. I think that tapping B and perhaps using an analog stick to point the knife (to balance it, the developers could make the it easier to stab someone in stomach than in the neck, for example, with appropriate damage for balance) could be a way to make this mechanic a little more fair, though I'm not sure how viable it is from a development perspective. It could also be one of those things that only sounds good in theory. Also, I've had a few cases where the game froze after a round, so my screen just stayed black. In this instance it's best to go to the Home Screen and eject the disc.
The single-player campaign is somewhat enjoyable for a few (and I mean a few) hours of mindless action, but like most modern FPS games, it has a generic setting with a boring story and uninspiring characters. There are collectible weapons and dog tags hidden throughout the levels as well as a score system (100 points for killing an enemy with an extra 25 if you melee or get a headshot, for example). Each level has a bronze, silver, and gold medal to earn based off your score. However, I found it bizarre that there is no bonus for playing on higher difficulties. If you want to get a gold on each level, playing on the easiest difficulty is the way to go. Another problem is that the game will delete your campaign progress. It happened to me three times now, so if you plan on completing any of that kind of stuff, you'd better clear your schedule for a few days and cram as much of as it as you can in a short timeframe, because there's no guarantee that it won't wipe your saves in a few weeks.
Overall, this game has potential, as the gameplay is solid and fun, but instability and oftentimes poor hit detection mire what would otherwise be an extremely high-quality experience. EA has yet again released a game before it was ready, and they're paying the price for it, based on reviews on this site and others, though I can't say that's the cost from a financial standpoint. I realize the irony in what I'm about to say, as this game is also published by EA, but I would suggest Titanfall, as the beta was very fun and somewhat fresh. Oddly enough, the beta for Titanfall ran better than Battlefield currently does, at least in my experience. | video-games_xbox |
A Must-Have for Western Game Fans. Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, is a prequel to the original Call of Juarez, and, for the most part, improves on almost all of the original game's problems. Gone are the stealth sections and (for the most part), the godawful first-person-platforming that so brought the original down.
The story is phenomenal, a tale of blood, brotherhood, betrayal, and banditos, and does a great job of providing a backdrop to the motivations of the characters and the first game. It also improves on the pretentiousness, it takes itself a lot less seriously then the original.
The game is fairly linear. Before a mission begins, you may choose a character to play as: Ray McCall is the "tank"- he can duel-wield revolvers and use dynamite, and Thomas McCall is the "thief" who can zoom with rifles and use throwing knives, bow, and lasso. The game plays similarly no matter which character you play as, except for minor mission progression things.
The gun play - with the exception of the touchy bow and the ineffectual throwing knives, is solid. You can slow down time and shoot enemies in three different ways, each in it's own way useful. Hit detection at times seems gummy, and the gamma is weird, on a normal setting, you can't see the enemies for the dark, and the game offers no way to remedy it.
The game is beautiful, vibrant landscapes and stunning vistas, but with frequent, weird, shadow issues. There are two, and only two, sandbox missions, in which you can choose to complete three side missions or proceed immediately to the story mission. these feel out of place and remove flow.
I was surprised to find that the online multiplayer, far from being the tacked-on affair most online multiplayer is, is quite deep, with only a few balance issues between the classes I'm sure will be addressed.
in conclusion, Call of Juarez: BiB is a fun FPS with some new ideas, well worth your money at any price under $60. | video-games_xbox |
An amazing value for the Halo fan, but not without some launch day issues. Thirteen years of Halo games, all multiplayer maps ever released for each of them (including DLC and maps previously exclusive to Halo PC), 45 campaign missions, remastered and upscaled visuals, this thing is the real deal.
I am one of those hardcore fans that have been playing since the original Halo: Combat Evolved on Xbox. And this collection feels like it was made just for me.
*What it Includes*
First of all, before release, I was curious what the physical copy included exactly. I wasn't sure if it would be four separate discs, one for each game, or what. It is one disc inside a standard size Xbox One case, and download codes for things like the upcoming Halo 5 multiplayer beta (begins December 29th) and the Halo Nightfall video series. No extra frills or fun stuff, unfortunately, and no special/collector's/legendary/etc edition to dump money into for fellow hardcore fans. Amazon pre-orders also got an exclusive skull download code, but that's not that big of a big deal since in a month or so it will be available to the general public. Just to clarify, you are getting Halo 1 Anniversary (re-release of 2011 Xbox 360 re-release of original Xbox 2001 release, and includes both original and updated graphics), Halo 2 Anniversary (brand new re-release of original Xbox 2004 release, includes both original and updated graphics), and Halo 3 & Halo 4 (both releases in higher 1080p resolution with silky smooth 60 frames per second, textures and polygons are the same as original release though). It does not include the two games which were spin-offs of the Master Chief story: Halo 3: ODST & Halo: Reach.
*Physical vs Digital*
I am glad I purchased the physical version simply for the sake of having a visually complete Halo collection on my shelf with all my other Halo games. I also like the feeling of actually owning something physical that I can lend to a friend or resell (I won't be selling this one though). Being the Halo nerd I am, I also purchased the digital copy, which gives you the benefit of being able to launch it without switching game discs, and that is a legitimate plus.
*Download/Installation*
This thing takes up 60-80GB of your hard drive space. When you run out of space, you'll eventually need to start deleting games, then doing the whole shuffling game. If you delete Halo MCC and want to re-download/install it again, prepare to give up an entire day waiting for that to complete. It takes FOREVER. The Day 1 update alone was around 20GB. Maybe it depends on your region, but my Xbox Live caps at around 10mbps on my very reliable 50mbps connection. Even overnight while sleeping for 8 hours you'll be lucky to be finished by then.
*Experience*
I started playing through the campaign playlist right after the midnight release, and played nearly all day since I was lucky enough to have Veteran's day off of work. It was an incredibly enjoyable and nostalgic experience, though there were a few hiccups along the way. A new feature is campaign playlists, which group various campaign missions into one themed session. There's one for all the boss missions across the four games, for example. I just started a co-op Master Chief Saga playlist, which is every single chronological campaign mission of the four games. We went through Halo 1 without a hitch, but midway through Halo 2 things began to get weird. Achievements stopped unlocking, we had some co-op (XBL, not split-screen) disconnects, trouble re-inviting him back into game, and at one point our co-op game became out of sync, and we weren't in the right spot in the game. It was both hilarious and frustrating. Our movements were still registering across the network, but our character positions were all wrong. I was walking around in a field, but on his screen it was showing me stuck way earlier in the level walking into a wall like an idiot. Dying didn't fix this, so eventually we just quit out and restarted the mission, and that fixed it. But it took about 10 minutes for us to get connected and back in.
I think half of the issues were Xbox Live related (apparently other games experienced difficulties and achievements not working, etc), and half were due to issues with 343 Industry's servers. I do appreciate that within 24 hours they had acknowledged and took full responsibility for the issues, and even had an in-game main menu pop-up acknowledging the complaints and promised speedy fixes. We ended up taking a break at the peak of the issues and resuming the next day, and everything was working much smoother. There are still some bugs they need to iron out, and they have already promised they are working on them, so I guess we'll see what happens, but I'm pretty confident they will be addressed.
*Multiplayer*
Halo has always been my favorite multiplayer experience, which makes this collection nearly perfect. You can select any of the four Halo engines to play multiplayer on, which is amazing. They all have their own quirks and features. I tried each of them, and they each brought me back to a different era of nostalgia. The original Halo was always fun due the skill involved in pistol sniping, as well as the quicker, more responsive, and indestructible vehicles. But additedly, these types of characteristics are also what may be frustrating to those that never played the original. Halo 2 brought us our first online multiplayer and matchmaking, which was truly revolutionary. It also added dual-weilding, the energy sword, noob combo, and an excellent collection of maps. Halo 3 added abilities, armor customization, a bunch of new vehicles, and FORGE (which is usable across all four games in this release)! Halo 4 continued to expand the collection of weapons, vehicles, abilities, maps, and added a whole new race of enemies: Promethians. In Halo MCC, you can select whichever spot along the evolution of Halo multiplayer is most to your liking. In all cases, you can create endless custom maps (Forge) and gametypes (with hundreds of settings & tweaks) which alone give nearly infinite replay value.
*Replay, Value, Replay Value, Bungie, and Destiny*
Speaking of replay value, let me tell you why I think this is the greatest deal currently on Xbox One. As a huge Bungie fan, I was also thrilled for the Xbox One release of Destiny this September. It was fun, and I sank more time in it than I should have, but MAN what an overall disappointment. After the extremely short campaign (done in four hours), all that's left is grinding for materials, grinding for gear/loot, grinding for bounties, and the Vault of Glass raid. That raid is legitimately fun, and a great team experience, but beyond that, there's nothing substantial left to do in the game. Bungie promised the world and delivered Idaho with that game. The Master Chief Collection, on the other hand, delivers at least about 25 hours to get through the campaign once. Then there are 4500 points worth of achievements to collect (by far the highest of any single initial game release). These include revisiting the campaign missions at various difficulties, using various skull combinations, doing a variety of tasks to complete missions in untraditional ways, and discovering a plethora of easter eggs. It's an incredible value. Halo 3 & 4 also expand co-op from 2 players to 4, which is a fantastic standard team size compared to Destiny's general limit of 3 per co-op team ("sorry friend, only room for three here, and you've been voted the lease favorite!"). As far as the story, the Halo saga is captivating, innovative, and even emotional at times. Destiny's was, well, it would be a lie to even claim there is a story there.
Comparing Destiny's PvP (Crucible) to the Halo MCC PvP is an even starker difference in both quality and quantity. Destiny's Crucible offers *no* local, split-screen, or system link multiplayer. System link LAN games were a huge selling point to me for all of the Halo games. I love some good XBL multiplayer, but when you can gather a big group of friends and family into one room, there is no replacement for the in-person energy and smack talk involved in a good LAN game. Destiny also has absolutely *no* custom games. It's just five game types that are all variations of the "kill people for points" formula. No CTF, no King of the Hill, just kill people. There is a mode which gives bonus points for controlling spots, but even that mode amounts to getting to a point goal first, and kills give you points in all modes. Destiny has no pure objective types where kills only act as support and don't give points towards winning. It's extremely barebones. When you then compare Halo's gametype library, which is extensive, along with all the possible custom games and maps (MCC's 100+ maps compared to Destiny's NINE), it's really hard to even comprehend that both games cost the same amount. Add Forge custom maps to the mix and Halo is even better of a deal. They always add some really fun and fresh community-created maps to the multiplayer playlists.
*Summary*
Here's what I love about Halo: The Master Chief Collection:
[+] Huge campaign with 2-4 player co-op
[+] Biggest collection of multiplayer maps I've ever seen (over 100)
[+] Includes even Halo PC maps which most have never seen before, many are surprisingly good
[+] Completely remastered visuals for Halo 1 & 2
[+] Upscaled 1080p visuals for Halo 3 & 4
[+] Silky smooth 60fps framerate upgrade from original versions (more on this below)
[+] Custom game types and custom maps with Forge for all four games
[+] Infinite replay value
[+] Some of the best music ever released in a video game (with Halo 2's audio newly remastered as well)
[+] HUGE achievements list to encourage even more different ways to play and goals to work towards
[+] Plethora of customization options for campaign, multiplayer, custom modes, armor/character, etc
[+] Captivating story from beginning to end
[+] Local and system link multiplayer, which seems to be a dying breed this generation
[+] Best value on Xbox One *by far* as far as how much gameplay time you can get for $60
What I don't like:
[-] Some launch day server issues & other bugs
[-] Takes up an ungodly amount of space on your hard drive and takes forever to download/install
[-] Sadly does not include Firefight/Spartan Ops modes (not sure if this will come later)
[-] Framerate sometimes drops during Halo 2A split-screen multiplayer
Other thoughts:
[*] I would LOVE the same treatment with a Halo ODST & Halo Reach bundle and/or DLC. I hope they can make this happen.
[*] Not sure how much support this collection will have with Halo 5 on the horizon. I'm hoping they keep Halo MCC a priority as far as bug fixes and new content. Even after Halo 5 comes out, I will definitely spend a good amount of time switching back to MCC.
*Conclusion*
At the MSRP of $60, I think this is by far the best value right now on the Xbox One. When you think that in a few months it will likely drop to $30-40, it's even more of a no-brainer purchase. 343 Industries has, in my opinion, done a great job and continuing the Halo legacy. When I see what Bungie has accomplished with Destiny (very little), it makes it easy not to feel so bad that they left Halo in the hands of a new company. This collection is the best fan service release I have ever seen, and I am looking forward to years of fresh and fun gameplay to come.
Join me for some classic Blood Gulch CTF, XBL Gamertag: Xyjar. | video-games_xbox |
Just look up either of these and you'll see a plethora of hate in reviews. This system claims to be the "one" system to take care of all your home entertainment needs. An ambitious claim. What it becomes is a failure in stability and features that baffles.
First and foremost, this is MS's big attempt to push their "Windows Look and Feel", the OS experience formally known as "Metro". Just look up either of these and you'll see a plethora of hate in reviews. The Metro OS is a something introduced for Windows 8. It was designed to push MS's simplified programming API, a noble idea, mostly to make applications portable between their PC and their emerging Windows Phones and Tablets. I've read up on where it came from, some babbling about a foreign design and I think something to do with the metro system signs in Germany or wherever. What it really means is boxes of varying sizes that confuse controls. You can't really tell what you have selected, nor can you tell what you might select next.
When you inevitably get lost in the UI, you hope to be able to press the "B" button to go back to the root, to the starting point... to home. Actually, for this horrible implementation, it will open Apps you had closed long ago.
The Kinect is a marvel of horrible programming and choices, showing off MS's inability to improve voice control over the past 15 years. I swear my experience with the voice controls parodies my first experiences with voice control back in windows 95. Put simply, it doesn't work. It has so many false positives that simply saying "Xbox go home" often puts you into Skype trying to call a friend (whom you are avoiding).
The system crashes often. For new games, such as Sunset Overdrive, I had about 3 crashes within the first 24 hours of game play.
They claim you can play offline, or be disconnected for a period of time, but this is a plain an simple lie. During the Christmas downtime, all the multiplayer games (all split screen, or on the same screen, such as Worms or Plants vs Zombies) require access to the servers. Same with many simple player games. It's simply a lie. You have to connect to XBox live to use this system.
And VS the PS4, this Xbox live's extra apps are bad. Very bad. On the PS3, 4, and even the 360, you'd get full AAA games, on the One you get crappy indie games that you wouldn't even buy. I was looking forward to some good free games, like the other systems give. And since the PS4 and One came out at the same time, I expect at least par with the PS4.
Hardware wise, the system is great - when a game isn't crashing, it's just fine. And since developers won't alienate customers by utilizing features in a system not in the other, the games will be equivalent between the two... expect the PS4 doesn't try to do everything the One does, so your disappointment will likely be much less. Is it fair? Yes. Because they promise so much, but everything they try to deliver is just bad. Very bad.
The controllers will randomly disconnect, and they blame you. They say you are too far away or have interference. Funny, the other three systems (4, 3, and 360) are just as far away.
I am so disappointed with this system, I wish I could get a refund. Like the PS4, the Xbox One doesn't compare, feature wise, with the PS3 nor the 360 - that is purely sad. My advice, save your money and buy books. Funny, I'm sure I reviewed this before... seems like my review vanished. It wasn't as negative as this, but right now I'm furious. This is a horrible piece of junk. | video-games_xbox |
Bigger, Badder, and more Polished. LEGEND:
GOW1: Campaign
GOW2: Versus
---- GOW2A: Buttons
---- GOW2B: Matchmaking
---- GOW2C: Maps and Matches
---- GOW2D: New Weapons
GOW3: Horde 2.0
---- GOW3A: Fortifications
GOW4: BEAST
GOW5: Bits and Bobs
---- GOW5A: Menus
---- GOW5B: Tradin'
---- GOW5C: Mutators
---- GOW5D: Unlockables
---- GOW5E: Levels
---- GOW5F: Enemies
---- GOW5G: Graphics
GOW6: What I Didn't Like
GOW7: Wrap Up
Use CTRL + F and code to search, GOW7 is a short synopsis for a quick review
Gears 3 marks the end all for the series. Is Gears 3 the best game of this year? Lets find out.
GOW1
Campaign: In case you didn't know, campaign mode is now 4 player. The game has gotten big enough that you can play more than 4 players total and this change in characters has really become evident. The story arcs allow you to be in multiple places at once meeting goals either side by side in the time line or flat out doing things while the other team does something useless and uninteresting to join in on later. This means Marcus, Baird, Dom, Cole, Clay, Anya, Sam and a whole mess of other characters are playable by one of your 4 campaign slots. The story goes much more in depth with the actual characters as well. Their memories and dreams that were shattered when the locust came up. Its nice to see that backstories and who these characters really were. It allows the player to connect with them more. Other than that, campaign is longer, MUCH longer than previous games and more of the Lambent story arc is explained. Basically it fills in the gaps gears 2 opened. In short, Campaign is fleshed out and more than what you'd expect for this obvious multiplayer fest.
Campaign mode clocked me about 15 hours on Hardcore, and is and EXTREMELY acceptable ending to the game series. The story ends, and it does so in a spectacular fashion. The story itself is funny, its well animated in the cutscenes, challenging on higher difficulties, but out of everything, the emotion i felt was not amazement or happiness, it was sadness. Feeling for characters i've never known or don't exist is odd. The story is a sci-fi theme with the war elements thrown in. Since you've known these characters so long and they are so developed, they're easier to care about and easier to sympathize with, and that only makes their troubles more real. The game is immersive in these moments, and I dare say this is the best work Epic Games has ever released.
GOW2 Versus: This is broken down a bit more into the types, but i'm reviewing it as a whole.
Versus acts much different than you remember, the first thing you'll notice is the speed of matches both in connection and in physical movement. The game uses dedicated servers and as such, your connection to the server is all you need to worry about. But for the nay-Sayers who are worried EPIC will turn the servers off, the P2P is still available for parties, so yes post server there can be games played P2P, just not ranked or random matchmaking. But back to speed. The characters no longer have a burst run after jumping, instead post jump or straight up running is max speed all the time. This means no more having to continually jump forward to go faster.
They've also modified interactions, most of the glitches seem to be gone, with that said, the game likely will still have glitches that exploit the multiplayer, however, that's not the issue at hand. Now the reason I mention this is because of an old glitch called weapon sliding, this has been more or less eliminated in principle because of the new interactions.
GOW2A
To latch on to a wall and run, the A button is used, A is also used for movement interactions such as the swat turn or jumping. Basically, if it involves movement, A is what controls it. Plain and simple.
B is used exclusively for Melee. Under normal circumstances, B makes your character lash out and strike with the blunt part of your current weapon, it also is held for the Retro and normal lancers for their unique melees. Retro lancer has a running charge impale attack that needs about 15 game feet or more to fully charge up to impale, otherwise the impale will fail and you will deal damage but will leave your opponent standing with a good chance to kill you. The attack is not able to be interrupted by bullets, only death by bullets will stop it. However, characters can be melee'd to interrupt it if timed correctly.
The chainsaw is also changed, and will not be dropped as you take damage. The initial animation takes about 1 second to rev the chainsaw and it will stay up even if you are shot multiple times. The character cannot run while his chainsaw is up. The balance is actually not bad. Under cover facing a Retro the Charge is hard to pull off, and the chainsaw is noisy and relatively easy to dodge. But they can be considered overpowered.
X interacts with objects, like turrets or downed enemies, X now picks up downed enemies as meatshields instead of A, X also picks up weapons and ammunition. To pick up ammunition or revive a downed teammate, tap X, to pick up weapons hold X, generally the pause is just enough time to prevent you from picking up a weapon when you really want to help a team member. This happened a lot in gears 2.
Y's pretty much your go nuts button. it handles the like 20 executions. Each weapon has one execution (usable in story mode at the start) that you unlock. Once you unlock an execution, executing enemies is not only fun, but nets you extra XP. So you'll be using Y a lot.
Use RB to reload and active, active works the same as it always did but for the newbs, timing your reload right gives you a boost to something for the weapon and reloads it faster.
LB another big beast of a button, LB is your tac com, holding it down gives you your teams positions, where weapons are,and allows you to mark dangerous people. Using the Tac Com in conjunction with the movement stick (clicked) you can "mark" dangerous, rare, or hard to find enemies your team can then see as a floating icon. Very tactically useful in versus when some guy is owning everything he sees and you think you might need some help.
LT aims, RT shoots or swings the sword, The D-pad changes weapons, and the sticks move your character Select brings up the current game's statistics and start pauses. Simple.
GOW2B
Matchmaking: Matchmaking in gears 3 is different, first of all no more getting a party at multiplayer screen, its all handled on the main menu. In addition parties can be rounded off at 10. From the main menu
the host of the party can choose a multiplayer mode and all players will be carried into the match. The only load times are for the actual load into the pre-game and actual map screens. Multiplayer works right out of the box, though horde and Beast can seem slow. This is also the only matchmaking that I've seen where the console actually says what its doing, and why it can or can't find a match, or where it gets hung up. Its ALSO tells you what your current NAT type is at this screen. Matchmaking is streamlined and works quite well this time around. No fears there.
GOW2C
Maps and Matches: Maps are generally larger and most are original, with a chosen few coming back with STELLAR cosmetic improvements. The overall feel of the maps is that they were laid out both so that both sides can identify their respective side, and also that each side is fair in its capability to get to weapons. Macthes are bit of different bag, there are many different players and the number of people in my opinion that do not wish to play as a team is too many. This is a community problem, and as a result it doesn't effect my score, but expect many players to not have mics, and even more to act in ways you may not like or understand. The first few weeks of this game's life will likely be plagued by the people who want to either try it out or beat it and move on. And though this seems bad, its not. But it does drop the quality of matches when people do not act as a team and you get steamrolled because 1 or two guys on your team think that playing COD style is going to work.
GOW2D
New Weapons
There are a multitude of new weapons available:
Retro Lancer - The retro lancer is a mid/close range rifle that has poor accuracy at range, walks very badly, has tracking issues and demands massive input from the player to keep under control, however, its power is high and it possesses a 1 hit kill melee. The rifle is a good addition to those who don't like the hammerburst's constant input, but also don't like the lancer's support role.
Sawed-Off shotgun - Does mega damage to anything within about 2 feet in front of you but washes out almost completely past that range. The weapon takes forever to reload, carries one shot, and is surprisingly balanced due to its shortcomings. The weapon is very useful in Horde mode where you can spawn with the ability to one shot most horde heavies with it.
Digger - The digger is the most interesting rocket launcher i've ever used, it uses a little fired locust that burrows underground and pops up to explode when it gets near an enemy. Basically the gun is a land torpedo. The little munching locust does a number on Grubs and COG alike if injected directly into the body.
One-Shot - Think of this thing as the mother of all sniper rifles. The small power up time post aiming is small price to pay for its kill anything in one shot firepower. The weapon is considered a heavy and you move like a snail with it, but anything you shoot just flat out dies. Its reticule is zoomed in far and can be disorienting, but the gun kills everything in one go, its got to have some problems.
Some changes:
The other guns that return but with twists:
Gorgon: Now fully automatic. Power toned back a bit, still rocks.
GOW3
Horde 2.0 is in a word, phenomenal. To think that this mode might be skipped in favor of a versus only user sickens me. This is quite possibly the most improvements I've ever seen a side mode get EVER in a franchise. Horde 2.0 is a game all by itself, an ever changing, and ever expanding universe that only seems to get deeper the longer you play it.
Horde still works the same way as it did, 50 waves, 5 gears, lots of death (on both sides) but this time, its different. the waves 1-9 (each set) are conventional ground troops that get stronger and stronger each wave. but this isn't just like horde 1, the number of enemies is the key, not the types. In horde 1, you got the same pre-scripted enemies per wave, but they got harder. in 2.0 they get harder always, but when you might fight 4 polyps and a few drones on wave one, on wave 41 it might be like 1 polyp and a boomer and 9 drones. Plus their stat bonuses, it can be rough. The bosses are epic, and i do mean epic, berzerkers, Gunkers and Brumaks just to name a few line the list, and they're mean, unforgiving and brutal. The Horde mode here has massive content and difficulty increases, and I'm just getting STARTED on what it offers.
GOW3A
Fortifications
In addition to the play mechanics, horde 2.0 offers the ability to fortify your camp. First of all you need camps to start, pick a camp that you think you can defend and start building, you can build very little at the start but the more you build, repair, and reload your fortifications the more you unlock and the better they get. Every round you earn cash + a bonus for completing the round. The more money you earn the better you can afford to fortify your base. As more unlock, the repelling of locust gets easier, but as the difficulty goes up, so does the need for improving you equipment to repel them again. When first starting horde you only have metal barriers, as you play you unlock better barriers and more types of fortifiers. As you level your fortifications up, the maximum level gets stronger, and the repairs get cheaper. Its nearly impossible to get to wave 50 on a fresh horde mode start and only until players vamp up their arsenal of purchase-ables will games start seeing the later levels. Don't be stingy spend spend spend!
GOW4
Beast mode is a wonderful little minigame gone medium. Beast mode is a 12 round sprint where you get to kill your favorite little cog friends. You start off with cruddy 1st tier locust (they're still useful late game) and as you kill, maim and destroy, you unlock tiers 2-3-4. Each tier brings in more baddies to break the humans with and the whole thing is gratifying as all heck. Basically you start with about a grand. Each locust costs a certain amount of money to purchase and use. Locust do not have regenerating health, so the money essentially prevents you from spamming power characters over and over. For instance, the boomer costs 1500 dollars. You may have saved up 3K by the time you get to use him. If you're foolish and lose a boomer without a single kill, you're 1500 out and can either run another boomer, but wipe out all of your funds or use a less powerful locust. Whats really interesting is how similarly this works to a MMO raid. You really need classes, a tank, a healer, some nukers and someone to take down the fortifications that stand in your way. I also like how you're not pressured to use the best, one person could do some serious damage as a grenadier but do terribly as a Kantus and the other way around. If you're beast with one character, its more useful to rock that one than to fill a role you're not good at. Beast mode is quick, fun violent and gratifying and overall a great addition, if a bit short.
GOW5
Bits and Bobs
Now with the main stuff out of the way I near the end of my review, lets do the stuff I didn't cover.
GOW5A:
Menus: Menus are easy to navigate but many are buried in other menus, and some don't even seem usable but they are. Now you can access your main stats from the main menu but nowhere else, this kind of sucks when you want to check how many kills you have with a particular weapon, but its over-lookable. Still this screen has ribbons, achievements, stats, unlocks, and medals (some things I'll get to in a sec) and all the gratifying info you could ever want. All its missing is how many times you've sworn throughout your time with gears 3. All in all though menus are bright and useable and presented quite intuitively.
GOW5B
Tradin': Characters can now swap cash, ammo, and guns, all you have to do is target your comrade with the LS and hit the corresponding button to trade. Useful for tight spots or for when they really need a gun and you need theirs. Also useful for buying crud in Horde.
GOW5C
Mutators: Make playing Horde harder or more fun or easier. Big head more, instagib, and laugh track are just a few of the obtainable game mods that make horde mode and other modes weird, zany, challenging, and fun.
GOW5D:
Unlockables: whether they're ribbons for a job well/not well done, medals for being awesome, weapon skins for the same reasons, or because you've wiped out the right amount of enemies with your favorite guns, or better yet using them in deadlier ways, to even unlocking more skins for use in almost every game mode, gears 3 keeps the steady flow of unlocks coming which keeps you chomping at the bit for the next level.
GOW5E:
Levels: Everything you do in gears 3 earns you xp, whether that's shooting a dude, ripping off someone's arm and beating them into submission, or not doing a darn thing whatsoever in a match, you'll pull some XP from the ribbons and kills you earn at the end. All of this gets pooled into a leveling system that both unlocks things and gives you some bragging rights, and generally gives a good indication of how long someone's spent with the game, and how much you should fear them.
GOW5F:
Enemies: Massive new sets, the lambent have their own full species and many are still locust but just as many are not really locust so much anymore. Locust have a few new bodies and cultures as well, overall the number of different enemies in this game is more than I've seen before. On higher difficulties than casual, most enemies seem scripted to do different things as well, like a savage grenadier will be more daring than its normal counterpart.
GOW5G:
Graphics: Needless to say the graphics are phenomenal, no hiccups, no frame rate drops, awesome looking visuals for fire, smoke, and ink grenades, as well as very realistic gore effects and damage. The environments are bright, destroyed and beautiful and must be seen to be admired properly, My words do not do them justice. Gears 3 plays nice and looks nice too.
GOW6
What i don't like:
Gears 3 is often too fast paced and due to this its practically impossible to play casually. In addition, may be very unfriendly to newbies, its also gratuitous, and excessive in violence meaning that some kids shouldn't be subjected to this level of gore, but it is able to be turned off so in that respect its somewhat ok. Gears also has a barely functional host transfer in horde, but it removes all upgrades and sets you to horde level 6 if you're higher, and any level lower than that if you're on that respective level. I am completely unsure why. Host transfer is not available in other modes unless the host quits before the match starts. I was hoping for seamless host transfer, but oh well. Finally, gears 3 kind of is lacking in the skins dept. from the get go, Bernie, Raam, Kim, and some other characters aren't available. Maybe they'll be patched in.
Gears 3 is quite repetitive, not to say its brethren aren't but the story is fairly predictable and bland in actual gameplay, the story writing is very well done and executed however. The problem is that its a shooter, and most of your time is spent shooting, so you know that every time a cut scene occurs you shoot afterwards or every time you have to wait for an NPC the same thing happens. But it does shake things up a little with the bigger enemies. But even then its usually more of the same. The lack of bosses doesn't help, there are less than five really total, and only two of the bosses can be considered hard. Still, the game had me pushing to shoot stuff not because it was necessarily fun or challenging (though that happened) more to see what happened next in the story. A lot of the time I was going through the motions to get the next piece of the puzzle. Don't look at this saying I don't like shooting or the story, I definitely do, but sometimes it got very monotonous.
GOW7
Wrap Up
Gears 3 as a whole is awesome, a well polished shooter that has extensive amounts of life on and off the internet due to bots being playable. Its filled with challenge and gratuitous violence and skillful play. Its new Horde mode and Beast Mode add re-playability and challenge to some of the more tired formulas and Epic shows that They're still king of the Horde mode. Also it has an excellent long campaign mode with a solid ending. The control is fluid, the animation is solid and the graphics are great. With very few shortcomings such as repetitive play and some issues with multiplayer and possible difficulty becoming accustomed or leveled up to where you need to be, Gears 3 is great in every way, and something every 360 library should not be without. | video-games_xbox |
Does not learn from last years mistakes. Last years NHL 2004 was a major step backward for the usually good NHL series from EA sports. It included very poor control of player movement, a bad passing system, poor one-timers, difficult face-off system, lack of fully editable players in dynasty modes, bad menu flow, not enough tweakable controls to create your own experience, and worst of all was the over the top hitting/checking.
This years edition only improves on the problems with the menu flow (this years is actually quite good), however it seems the other issues have been neglected, or made even worse.
The most noticable and annoying element to game has to be the ridiculous checking and hitting. There is so much checking in this game that the rest of the gameplay should follow suite of games like NHL Hitz, but instead it mixes Hitz arcade style with simulation gameplay. This creates an extremely frustrating situation for trying to create plays with your teammates, and for getting ahead in the game (unless your playing on the easiest difficulty). There is so much hitting that the announcers are constantly cutting each other off to say "what a crushing hit" or the often "LAID OUT". The worst part about this though is that even though they provide you with 5 slider bars for adjusting checking gameplay, changing them makes little to no impact on the experience, leaving the sliders useless. The funny thing is that this games main feature is OPEN ICE gameplay, but it is negated by the extremely easy checking. Even after you have created open ice, it can be easily closed by a check from behind from a player that realistically could never have caught up to the player with the puck.
If you can stand the over the top checking aspect of the game, then you are still left with some other major problems. The feel of the control is one thing that seems similar to last year. Movement for players is very strange, there are two seperate shooting buttons (which can be confusing), passing can sometimes give strange results. It also seems like there is latency to every action you take, especially wrist shots. While those aspects all feel like they are taking control away from the player, deking and shot aiming are pretty good.
While there are some new cool little throwaway features implemented (like line chemistry), all of the neglected problems listed in the first paragraph of this review makes NHL 2005 no better if not worse than last years dissapointing game in the series. The good news though is that ESPN NHL Hockey and ESPN NHL 2K5 are both great hockey games, and are outstanding in comparison to the last two NHL games from EA. It's absolutely no contest, go save yourself $30 and pickup this years ESPN NHL 2K5 instead of NHL 2005. You will not regret it if you care at all about fun gameplay. | video-games_xbox |
X1 good, bad, and the ugly with some PS4 comparisons. The X1 or XBone as some call it is a very powerful home entertainment center. Everything is blazing fast and it has access to some of the fastest servers in the World, making it a no brainer for HD movie rentals, for using skype in your living room, etc.
The Good
The new system from Microsoft carries high design values, sturdy construction, and many new "next gen features". It offers true voice command over your living room entertainment along with smart glass for our tablets.
Microsoft seemelessly integrates all of these great features within some movies, our satellite/cable boxes, and in most of the new games. There's something to be said about commanding your archers to fire in Ryse, yelling to attract Zombie attention in DR, and telling your xbox to turn itself on (powering the system, directtv, and tv all in one go). it doesn't end there games can take advantage of the second screen using smart glass and you can even tell it which channel to view. There's also forward, rewind, stop, and pause for movies all within the systems limits. browsing the internet has never been easier either; you can tell your new xbox to browse over to amazon and navigate the site all using your voice
There's even a built in game DVR to record/edit and add commentary. Opening the door for a new form of interaction with your gaming experience and you can share it with your xbox live friends or the world using skydrive and simply linking to it.
The new kinect 2.0 is almost a thousand times better than their last attempt. it works for video chat, can help you reach your fitness goals (using the all new xbox fitness) and much much more.
The launch line up is arguably the best in history. With exclusives like Ryse, Forza, and Dead Rising as well as the multi platform games battlefield 4, Call of Duty Ghosts, and Assassins Creed Black Flag to name a few.
Graphics for the most part are fairly awesome on this system as well and look on par with my high end pc (featuring 2x titans, over locked 4th gen I7, and 32 GB of Ram).
The system is performing well for me, cool to the touch, and no crashes after hours of use.
The Bad
The New system while it doesn't look bad, has an entirely too large foot print. The PS4 manages to cram the psu within and with the bigger size and arguably the better cooling solution Microsoft should have been able to do the same.
The kinect voice commands don't always work flawless especially at a distance. it has a hard time recognizing what I say from a distance that should be easily managed (10 ft).
The UI while I very much enjoy it has little or no way of arranging your icons. Things are easy enough to access with your voice but if you are using a controller things get hairy fast. Some menus require going through another app then another two screens before you gain access to what you were trying to view. This I'm sure will be addressed in the future and it could quite possibly end up being the best console UI ever if a few changes are made.
The Install of the games take entirely too long. I guess I'm used to just popping a disk in and starting to play.
You can't change hard drives without voiding your warranty but I assure you it's an easy process non the less. But here's hoping Microsoft implements external HD usb 3.0 support very soon (not sure why MS and Sony are still using the dated and very crappy sata 2 interface).
Most of the best features on the new xbox require a very fast broadband connection. While this doesn't affect me I could see it affecting plenty of other users.
The Ugly:
The new xbox's gpu seems ill equipped for future games. This is my biggest complaint. Why put ddr3 and a subpar 12 CU graphics card in there vs Sony's 16 CU GPU with 8GB GDDR 5? The ps4 on paper has a 40% advantage over the Xbox graphic capabilities or better. This time around Sony is also using x86 architecture meaning game developers will undoubtably make better looking games for the PS4 unless the super fast esram and the power of MS cloud can help the Xbox keep up.
Several launch multiplatform titles are running at only 720p on the x1 vs the 1080p on the ps4. Not to mention exclusives like Ryse and Dead Rising aren't even running at 1080p. This really isn't all that noticeable unless your gaming on an ultra large hd tv (I'm on a 62 inch myself) and you move in close to the screen. I will say I own both systems and CODG although in 720 still runs better on the X1 with no frame stutters and actually looks a little more crisp at times. battlefield 4 on the other hand simply looks better on the ps4 and if it weren't for the crashes would play better as well.
There's also a few crucial flaws to the system as well. at this includes the inability to monitor space on your hard drive, broken party chat, and no way to tell how much charge your controller has.
The controller is better than the 360 one and feels more comfortable to me personally. it's also much lighter than the DS4 (which is a hundred times better than the ds3). The controller has nice rumbling triggers and everything would be great except it feels a little cheap, especially the battery bay - the cover will remind you of a cheap tv remote. The PS4 controller also has many more interesting features than the rumbling triggers; it has built in headset support so you can use just about any headset to chat and listen to in-game audio with, it comes rechargeable, and has a touch pad. it too has drawbacks though: too many features that could malfunction, short battery life, and if the battery does fail the controller becomes a paper weight. This was more of a rant than a downfall and in all honesty for gaming purposes only the controllers are on par with each other.
None of our expensive headsets work for chat at launch on this system. I've been using my kinect mic even though it sounds like crap I'm told.
Bottom line:
I really enjoy the x1 and have already spent damn near a hundred hours on it. Purchased five launch titles, an extra controller, two charger adapters, and preordered a headset adapter which basically set me back over a thousand dollars and I have the exact same setup for the PS4 and if I had actually bought all the launch titles I would have still been 200 dollars to the good vs my investment in the x1. I am lucky enough to have a friend that owns all the ps4 games and it gave me a chance to test both of these systems side by side. Overall right now the X1 to me is the better system and even with the lower resolution it still looks better in some of the multiplatform games. I'm just concerned about the weaker gaming hardware.
One thing I will bash the ps4 on- I was one of he .4% whose first console failed and that's another major reason I ended up buying most of the games on the X1 because it took me about two weeks to get my replacement.
I paid more thinking I would be getting the superior hardware and that's not entirely the case. The system feels and operates more next gen than the PS4 it's just missing the big picture. It tries so hard to be the one it misses out on the most important part- being the best video game console.
They got this first year in the bag with exclusives like Titanfall and the others I mentioned but in a few years players might prefer the graphics prowess of the PS4 if developers quit babying their multiplatform titles and just go all out.
Though I could be wrong and MS releases a patch to enable two more of the CU on the GPU and the ESRAM's bandwidth capacity of 208 GB/s (that's 30GB of bandwidth greater than the PS4s 170 GB/s) is truly as usable as Microsoft claims and not a bottleneck (many game sites claim this).
Then again I could be right as it stands the PS4 operates at like 1.7 teraflops vs 1.2 on the x1 and memory bandwidth of 60-something GB/s on the x1 vs double that on the PS4 (this don't include the esram buffer but if it's not usable or simply not coded for by developers you're stuck with a system that's 40-60 percent weaker than the ps4). | video-games_xbox |
A good game that lacked depth. Well, whenever someone sees "James Bond" on a game, its probably gonne be picked up. Well, I was walking around at blockbuster, and that exact same phenomenon happend to me. I took it home, popped it in, and began the first mission. I was at parts amazed, at parts extremely disapointed while playing "007: Agent Under Fire for the Microsoft XBOX (by EA Games).
1. Gameplay: Okay...but not very good in a lot of parts. First, it just feels too easy. You go around shooting people who don't usually shoot back. The game is based on AUTO-AIM, which really kills gameplay. The graphics are great for the PS2, but on the XBOX, the people don't look half as good as they should. The missions overall are short and easy. There isn't much of a variety of guns. There is hardly any ammo, and for that case, what you come with isn't very much. The guns aren't very creative either. Just a handgun, maybe a rifle here or there.
Vehicles: You normally control just one or two every 5 levels. One time you get to control a car with a ton of weaponry, but it's gets old after awhile. The ability though, when you have an assistant in the car, to shoot from the headroof was extremely COOL. That was one of the few places you got all kinds of guns. Vehicles are here, they're just not that common.
Story: Pretty good; it actually has one at least. You must save a hostage, escape the terrorists, take out people in stealth, break into the room, etc... It actually went by a story line, but the crappy part was Jame's girlfriend gets...
2. Graphics: Decent, but not good. People's hands don't have 5 fingers, the backgrounds and guards and such don't have faces. Bullet marks disapear after going into the wall. No weather factors, collapsing buildings, etc... The graphics here were, once again, good, NOT GREAT! Better than most PS2 games, but here on XBOX, one of the worst.
3. Sound: Probably the best part of the game. The voice acting (while people's mouths don't move when they talk) is excellent. The sounds of gun shells falling to the floor after re-loading brings the gameplay alive! The cars squel when they start fast, explosions rock the screen. Overall, it's pretty good. The music in the background is...BOND, of course. The sound was the best part of the game in my opinion, that and:
Multiplayer: Very fun! The levels are fairly large, and the variety of weapons is huge! From jump packs, canons, bazukas, shot guns, snipers, handguns, etc...there are tons of guns. The game keeps score, and you can work as a team in 4-player; 2 on 2 combat! There are life vests to keep your health up, and the overall gameplay is good. I loved only one part of this game. it was the multiplayer!
This game, overall, is a good game in terms of how much is costs (a twenty should cover it at most stores). Persounally, I'd buy it for the multiplayer, not the story mode. Something to chill on the couch and play with yours buds in multiplayer, or even watch someone breeze through the story in a matter of an hour or two. This game is a blast in some ways, and a MAJOR disapointment in others. I plan on buying it...maybe (after renting it for a week).
Thx! | video-games_xbox |
Very difficult, but ultimately rewarding gaming experience. "Ninja Gaiden" was one of the very first NES games I had ever played, quickly becoming one of my favorites. Years later, Team Ninja has finally released an update with superior graphics and gameplay. This is definitely going to be the game to beat for 2004 in terms of quality and fun factor.
That said, this game is extremely hard. At normal, it is much like being dropped into a battle without any training or skills. You must fend for yourself. This is not a game where button-smashing will get you through fights. In fact, this is one of the few games where combos actually have a purpose instead of simply adding to your score. The combos help with getting through some tough enemies, particularly when you find yourself surrounded with nowhere to go.
It can be extremely frustrating, yet also ultimately rewarding once you beat the area you have been stuck on for so long. It may seem at first that the first encounter with a boss is also the most aggravating simply because you have not acquired many of the skills needed to play. It's a rarity, but when you receive upgraded weapons and skills, they actually benefit your performance. Instead of being allowed to counter-attack your enemies after a successful block, you must find and learn the skill. Upgrading weapons makes them more powerful and more destructive, which gives added incentive to kill as many enemies as you can.
"Ninja Gaiden" has once again become one of my favorite games. While it is certainly a challenge (you may throw your controller more than once), there is method to the madness. This is a rarity among fighting games, where graphics and gameplay are successfully unionized to provide an addictive and satisfying gaming experience.
*A word of advice: Do not overwrite your saves until you have filled all 10 save locations. It can become necessary to load a previous save in case you find yourself low on potions. One minor caveat I have with the game is that you can not load during the game itself--you must die first. There is no way to get to the Main Menu during gameplay. While this is not a big problem, it does become irritating when you realize you aren't going to live through the boss and have to watch yourself get shredded just so you can reload a save.
PROs: Hard, but rewarding; fluid graphics which never lag no matter how many enemies are on screen; nice camerawork during battles; skill and knowledge fare better than mindlessly pushing X and Y; excellent combo and fighting system--superior to most action games; good use of sound; button smashing will only get you so far; brilliant enemy AI and design--some of the best-looking enemies I've ever seen in a video game.
CONs: No 'Easy' setting; camera control is irritating during platform jumping
Graphics: 10
Sound: 9
Control: 9
Fun Factor: 10
Difficulty: Hard to Very Hard | video-games_xbox |
Awesome way to play games, and a fun demo title. The kinect is a peripheral for the XBox, but it can also be used with your PC if you're a programmer.
It's fair sized, with an integrated array microphone, infrared camera, and normal RGB camera. Still, I'm able to set it on my fireplace mantle beneath my LCD TV, no problem.
What does it do? Glad you asked! Hook this up to your xbox, and you can use it to control some of your xbox menu's and experiences. For example, on my 360 I use it sometimes to navigate menu's. There's also a bunch of games you can buy which are controlled by you standing up and making gestures - no physical controller needed! My favorites so far are the Kinect Adventures and Dance Central, I haven't tried many others.
Kinect adventures - which this comes with - has a bunch of games which emphasis leaning, jumping, ducking, and so on. Many of the games can be played with two people at the same time and are a blast, though simplistic: there's one where you control a roller coaster car, another where you control a raft going around a course, one where you pop bubbles in space, and so on. Simple, but fun!
Some warnings:
- you need space to use this thing. It seems to like you to be between 6' and 10' from the sensor.
- You use it standing up, and it needs to be able to see your whole body. So, don't try to play with a table between you and the kinect.
- Make sure you have room to flail around. It's easy to get into a game and forget how close you are to that priceless ming vase.
If you are a programmer, you can also play around with the kinect on your PC. There's an SDK which lets you get the depth and RGB video streams as well as audio. Works great! You can see lots of videos on youtube too if you look for 'kinect windows' or 'kinect demo' - look at the more recent stuff. You can find the SDK by searching for 'kinect sdk download'
The kinect uses a USB port. On the newest XBox-360's, there's a dedicated port with enough power on the back. You can use the kinect with older XBoxes and PC's as well, but you have to use an optional power adapter that comes with it.
If you're interested, I recommend going to a store or a friends where a kinect is set up and playing a game or two. I bought one of these cause I was excited, but I'm too lazy to hop around playing the games so far! My nephews and my son love it, though!
Overall the kinect is cool enough to try out! For the prices of 2 or 3 games it gives you a whole new way of playing with the xbox. Now if I could just get myself to expend the required energy... :) | video-games_xbox |
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