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Turtle Beaches Z6A. !!!***EDIT 5/1/12***!!!
++ Below is the original review I wrote some odd months ago when I first received my headset. However, within that time, I have just recently received a new pair due to the last part cracking right about the right ear-cup near the area where you adjust your headset. I have read a review on here from an individual who had a similar problem, and I too can testify that their 1-year warranty RMA process is very painless, and quick to have the product returned new. But as a note of caution, these headphones seem very vulnerable to stretch them out before you take them off. When I say that, I mean as if you grabbed each side, and gently pulled them apart to lift over your head (as most people do) the stress caused on the weak point seems tremendous over time. This is what I believe caused the eventual breakage of my first pair. I owned that pair for 3 months, and payed nearly $100 dollars for it here on Amazon. This IS the first headset I've owned from Turtle Beach, however I don't believe I will be purchasing from them in the future, as there are plenty of other "quality" gaming headset companies I have yet to give a chance. I hope this review helps you put your decision in better perspective potential buyer!
I received my Turtle Beaches promptly at my door, right on time as Amazon said. 2 Day shipping worked out fantastic, they even arrived a day earlier than anticipated as a matter of fact. But anyways, my experience thus far with the Turtle Beaches has been great. Solid product right out the box, and a solid listening experience. I mostly do lots of online gaming, so these headphones were an excellent choice for an upgrade, from the old $20 dollar pair that finally gave out. Great savings here on Amazon too. My only warning, or "con", is that if you wear glasses (at least thick rimmed), you will find that these headphones are not very accommodating, when I've got my contacts in however, I have no comfort issues what so ever.
Overall great product for the price. :) | video-games_xbox |
This game is one I have come to love and hate simultaneously. This game is one I have come to love and hate simultaneously. Have played many previous versions of Rainbow 6, including the original, Rogue Spear, Raven Shield and finally Vegas 1 and 2, the Rainbow Six franchise has a special place in my heart for the beauty of its tactical brilliance. It's not about charging in, guns blazing, it is about methodical use of cover and sound tactical thinking to advance the mission. Team work is emphasized and critical to success. Cowboys get killed and no respawn means death has a price. Many of these core principles were carried into Siege, so my love of its tactical brilliance remains. However, the game is full of disappointment as well. No single player campaign, is a major disappointment. The wonderful story line of Vegas 1 and 2 is gone, as is the co-op campaign mode. As a result, it feels like you paid full price for half a game. Customization of your toon is also mostly gone in favor of gun skins. Where before you unlocked and picked armor types, colors, camos, and weapons from a large list, the 20 or so operatives are locked into certain options and nothing else. In lieu of a real reward system, they have replaced it with micro-transactions to customize, because the full price you paid for half a game was not enough of a money maker for Ubisoft, they need to over charge you for junk. Some skin packs will cost as much as the whole game if purchased through micro-transactions. Which wouldn't be half as bad if Ubisoft's game servers weren't complete trash. Dropped connections, missed connections, getting dropped from matches with 30 seconds to go and if you don't get to the reward screen you don't get your experience or renown. Unlike Vegas 1 and 2, experience is basically worthless, but renown is needed to unlock new operatives and equipment. Those unlocked operatives are the only way to change the game experience and Ubisoft did a horrible job in developing some of them. While some operatives have great special abilities, others are nearly useless or one hit wonders with an ability that is barely usable at all, let alone occasionally. The only reason to play some operatives is to have access to their weapon choices alone, since weapon choice is limited to certain operatives. I can not stress enough the frustration of the game servers Ubisoft is using, 6 of my first 7 matches either ended prematurely or never really got started due to connection issues. Combine that with hosts dropping and no system to have another host take over, and you have a frustration of a match getting killed 30 seconds before completion, or worse, just before the reward screen and getting nothing for the time you invested. I have literally played the game for nearly an hour and never gotten a renown point because of connection issues and dropped hosts. However, when the system is working, the game is challenging and a joy. I am not going to tell you not to buy it, or that you should buy it. If you are willing to overpay for a tactically brilliant game with frustrating connection issues, go for it but be prepared for extreme fun and frustration in equal measure. In my opinion this game is yet another example of how far Ubisoft has sunk into the garbage pit of bad releases and missed opportunities, I am honestly considering never buying another one of their products just out of shear spite for the junk they have foisted onto the gaming community. | video-games_xbox |
Sluggish controls with dated mechanics. These games still fall short of a franchise that is 15+ years old (NFL2k series). Somehow Madden still feels like a game from the 90's. It looks better, but the controls are still as sluggish as ever.
I have never owned a Madden game before Madden 16 - I have played them but was never impressed enough to actually buy one. I saw some positive reviews on this one and was pretty desperate for a football game so when I saw this one sale for $30 new I took the chance, unfortunately.
The only reason I'm taking the time to write this is maybe you haven't owned a Madden ever or for a long time and or you've played the NFL 2k series, maybe this will save you some money.
Here are the things I like about Madden 16 -
- It does satisfy my need for a football game, just barely.
- The graphics are nice during the cut scenes (Actual play graphics are pretty terrible with horribly low poly characters).
- Franchise mode is as in depth as I would want it to be or pretty simple if you don't want to get too involved.
- Game sliders - this game would be absolutely broken without them. Before changing them I had 400+ passing and 40 yards rushing. This was with the Seahawks so you should know how backwards that is.
Here are the things that I don't like -
- Wonky controls - this is by far my biggest gripe. The animations in this game are so strict that many times if you break a tackle you will end up running in the wrong direction.
- You will get stuck on your own offensive line trying to run the ball, it is almost impossible to break away from them.
- Almost every time the computer throws a hail mary it's caught, even if its in a crowd of my guys, however if i throw it one on one it is dropped or intercepted. This happens about 90% of the time.
- Weird defensive catch/bat percentage. When you have a CB like Sherman standing wide open with a ball thrown directly to him with no one around and he goes to catch it and misses something is wrong. This has happened on multiple occasions.
- Extremely dated in game graphics - if you do a hurry up offense play you will see what I'm talking about.
- AI is about the worst I have seen in a video game (not exaggerating). I was so used to playing NFL2k5 from 10 years ago that I figured a new game could have the same if not better AI.. Nope. Many times you will see the AI not going for it on 4th and short when there is 1 minute left in the game with no timeouts and down by a single score. You will also never see them doing onside kicks when they are trailing with a couple minutes no timeouts and one score down.. It's ridiculous that EA can't come up with a simple AI..
- Most players who aren't major NFL stars look NOTHING like they do in real life.. Some done even have the same hair color... It just seems lazy. This is also after downloading the player likeness app.. Whatever that does...
- Commentary for the most part makes no sense. They will still be announcing like its mid game when there is 30 seconds left and one team is 3 scores ahead. None of it is dynamic, it's all very simple situational based commenting.
- EA servers are absolute garbage. I have 100Mbs internet so its not on my end, but if you make an online franchise, you will be replaying about half of your games. If at ANY point you are disconnected even for a second during a game you have to start over, all progress is lost. That includes putting your xbox/ps4 to rest.
- Challenges are another game breaking issue. There is no challenge for possession. I have had multiple players catch a ball for a split second, get hit and drop it.. That is an incomplete pass.. Another issue is they have situations set up where its predetermined booth challenges.. A player will catch, get tackled, go to the ground, knee will touch, then the ball will come out and it is ruled a fumble, but then, as always there is a challenge and its overturned. It just seems like a waste of time to me, if the game isn't dynamic, don't make it.
- Tight ends are extremely unbalanced as well. Looking at the season records ALL of the top 10 receivers are TE.. That is the second season that has happened.
- Experience is extremely slow to acquire. I haven't done the math but it would take about 10-15 games to upgrade a players stat ONE POINT (if its already above 80+/-).
Fortunately I can still sell this for almost what I paid for it. Here's to hoping Sega will restart the NFL2k series, I know I'm not the only one waiting. | video-games_xbox |
Great game leading up to the World Cup. Whether you are a huge soccer fan or totally new to the sport this game is a blast. I bought Fifa 10 at release and have played it a ton and this game only improves on it. Same great engine from Fifa 10 is tweaked to address some major annoyances. (Defenders chesting balls in the box down straight to attackers for gimme goals, easy chips of the keeper)
Scatter shot observations.
All 199 teams, many with authentic jerseys. New stadiums and overall presentation is great although the in-game cut scenes can get a bit repetitive.
Graphics in the cut scenes are also improved and the player close-ups look better than ever. Captain your country is a pretty cool feature, and if you have a created player from Fifa 10 you can transfer him over. The stats you worked so hard to build up will not transfer though as you have to progress by performing well in qualifying and friendlies on the way to the World Cup.
Tourney mode starts with qualifying and friendlies. A simulate match option would come in very handy here since it takes forever to make it to the actual tournament.
Scenarios mode puts you in real life situations from the qualifying around the world with goals to accomplish in each game. Very fun mode with additions coming as the actual cup progresses. The announcers, while not my favorite individuals, are very accurate to situations and add to the game when you can hear them over the crowd (sliders available).
Online mode is fresh but limited to a World Cup tourney starting from the group stage. Pick one country and play three group matches to progress, then to the round of 16, and four single elimination games to win the cup. You do not have to play them all at once. Not sure how the matchmaking works but it is a blast. I would have enjoyed the inclusion of the team play modes which were a blast in Fifa 10. Doubt this was a space issue so I think it should have been included in a full price game.
I guess that is it. Overall a great purchase for most, especially if you have some competitive friends to play with!
GO USA! | video-games_xbox |
Why. Despite the pejorative connotations of the word, I consider myself a huge fanboy of "Aliens". I've been into the franchise since I was six, and not even Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem was enough to dampen my enthusiasm. Of course I was looking forward to this game! I purchased it as soon as the clock struck 12 at my local Wal Mart, went home and popped it into the Xbox, and for the first time ever was embarrassed to call myself and "Aliens" fan. It's bad.
This review will contain spoilers, because fans of the franchise deserve to know what a huge pile of dung Gearbox plopped on the lore of the series.
The game bills itself as a true sequel to Aliens, and takes place 17 weeks after the events of the film. The Colonial Marines stationed aboard the USS Sephora respond to a distress call from the USS Sulaco, and then find out (surprise!) Weyland-Yutani has been screwing around on the planet to bring xeno eggs back to Earth. So you go from the Sulaco to Hadley's Hope on LV-426 and are tasked with...something. I'm not sure. Go here, rescue this person, find a facility to remove chestbursters and find out (surprise!) it's impossible, shoot a bunch of aliens and stop caring about the story before you ever reach the end. And here's the major spoiler (stop reading here if you actually care) Hicks is alive! Because screw Alien3, right? Why is he alive? Probably just so Gearbox can give fans the middle finger and say "lol umad bro?" Or maybe to get Michael Biehn work. Ultimately, it doesn't do the story any favors, but then again, it couldn't sink much lower.
Gameplay alternates between gauntlet runs and last stand sequences. This would be cool if it was 1994 and I was hanging at the coin-op in my neon jacket and pump-up basketball shoes. I expected more from a modern day FPS, and it gets really old really fast. Everyone knows Halo took a huge amount of inspiration from the Aliens movie, so why couldn't Gearbox take some inspiration from Halo and create a compelling FPS with solid gameplay? My girlfriend, who is not a gamer, watched me play yesterday and remarked "Wow, that looks like the Aliens game we played at the mall arcade once." She was absolutely right.
The elements would be forgivable if the game at least excelled in other areas. Like, I don't know, intelligent enemy AI? Uh oh, that alien is just staring at the wall...what's it doing? Will it react if I shoot at it? Nope. Why is that Weyland-Yutani merc taking cover behind the same box as me? Does he know I'm here? Guess not. Even better, sometimes the xenos can't decide whether to attack you or your NPC companions, so just starts vibrating violently in one spot. I mean, come on. The enemies in this game are some of the dumbest I've seen in all my years being a gamer. The friendly AI is just as bad. They shoot at walls, get stuck in doors, stand there while being shot in the face by enemies without even lifting their weapon...it's painful.
The weapons are ridiculous. The weapons from the films are some of the most iconic in movie history, so naturally, Gearbox decided to screw them up by making them COD-esque. Yes, I would much rather put a red laser sight and flames on my pulse rifle than actually have a compelling game in which to use it. Granted, some of the customization is pretty cool. Incendiary rounds for the shotgun and a firebomb attachment for the pulse rifle are all really neat ideas. It's just too bad the game isn't fun to play with them.
Normally, bad graphics aren't something that would sour a game for me. They're not that important. But when the graphics are actually broken and the entire environment feels as though it were designed by a poorly trained gibbon, it gets rather irritating. The textures are ugly and flat, which I could live with. But what about screen tears? Yikes, all over the place. Facial animations? They were better on the PS2, and at least the lips synched with the dialogue. Aliens run at you, ready to pounce, and then...vanish. Into thin air. Or they fall through the floor. It's really considerate of your squad members to not stop your bullets with their bodies, but when you can shoot enemies through them, it breaks suspension of disbelief. When you're supposed to not know where the aliens are, but you see their tails poking through the walls or the ceiling, the suspense disappears. Not that walls are that big of a deal to a xeno. They'll walk right through them to kill you.
Some elements of the environment are really well designed. There are lots of little nods to Aliens fans, and those are fun to pick out. But the videos of gameplay footage promised us something more. A sinister environment full of shadows, with only your motion tracker and dim flashlight to guide you. The finished game doesn't deliver. I turned down the brightness setting as low as it would go, and it's still way too bright. And your motion tracker? It pings to alert you of incoming danger even if you aren't using it. You can turn this function off in the settings, in theory, but it still pings. Even if it worked properly, it doesn't matter. The xenos don't behave like xenos. They don't stalk you from the shadows. They don't try to ambush you. They drop from their spawn points and run at you like they're on rails. You can stand in one spot and blast them at your leisure. I've seen ducks act more aggressively.
Finally, the game is way too easy. I'm a casual gamer that plays more for story and environment than for challenge, and I never play on the hardest difficulty level. You have to in this game, and even then, the xenos go down in one or two blasts of the shotgun. The Weyland-Yutani mercs are slightly more intelligent, taking cover and halfheartedly attempting to flank you, but even then I've only died when one was stuck inside scenery and could shoot me but I couldn't shoot him. There's no sense of danger in the game at all. No feeling of claustrophobia. No tension. It's not what I expected from an Aliens game.
It's not all bad, I guess. There are some neat audio diaries that explain some of the backstory that are fun to collect. You can also find "legendary weapons" scattered throughout the levels (i.e. characters' weapons from the film, such as Gorman's pistol and Vasquez' smartgun). Some of the levels are well designed, such as the one aboard the derelict engineer ship. It's just too bad these good elements are so sparse.
I'm not much of a multiplayer gamer, so I can't comment on the game's MP mode, but I've heard it's fun. Some of the other reviews here give pretty good summaries of it.
As a comparison, I popped in 2010's Aliens vs. Predator. The Marine campaign in that game blows Colonial Marines out of the water, and it wasn't even that great of a game. If you've played AVP 2010, sorry to break it to you, but you've already played the best Aliens game for the current generation. If you haven't, save yourself $50 and pick it up. You'll be much happier with it than with this disappointing dud. | video-games_xbox |
A flawed gem. Two Worlds is a flawed gem. It's got everything an RPG fan would want in a game - huge, open environments; breathtaking vistas; endless combinations of armor and weapons; a robust skill system; a fun battle system; near-infinite side quests; even funny taunts by the main character during combat. Unfortunately, it's also filled with stuff to make you want to pull your hair out.
Problems include a horrible journal system; a map that's even worse; poor collision detection; a wonky camera and one of the most annoying olde english text fonts you will ever see.
In the beginning, there was only bad . . .
After an uninspired in-game cinema, you find yourself in a tomb, standing before a gate. The tutorial begins:
Press button to unsheath weapon. You do so.
End tutorial. Seriously.
You venture past the gate and meet your first pair of enemies, and you are told to dispatch them. It's probably going to be harder than it seems, having little clue as to what buttons work combat, healing, magic, etc. However, in Two Worlds, your character cannot die, at least on normal settings. Instead you are resurrected at the nearest healing totem, which is but a few feet away from you. Okay, that's nice of the devs.
After defeating said enemies and looting the place, you head outside to meet your employer.
And it is here that you discover that your character is cross-eyed. Don't worry, no matter how you adjust the character features, you're still going to look like a fool. So get used to it, or at least dream of later in the game, when you can find real helmets to cover your face.
You depart from the first tomb and head down the path towards a settlement. You get in a battle along the way, this time three against one. But again, it occurs right next to totem, one which refills your magic bar, allowing you to heal, heal, heal . . .
Two Worlds is one of those games that rewards patience. If you manage to stay with the game through the first hour or so, without throwing your controller and turning the game off, you will start to find a groove with the combat, the terrain, everything. Well, everything except the map and journal. You will always hate those two things.
There are other things that aren't so easy to qualify as 'good' or 'bad.' The first is the game dialogue. It seems a lot of people hate it. NPCs talk in a tedious olde english, and yet somehow, there are vague contemporary references mixed in as well. It's utterly ridiculous. Still, I was entertained by how bad it was.
The second 'issue' involves the horses. Yes, you can ride a horse all across the map. Yes, you can fight on horseback. And yes, doing so dispatches more damage to enemies, while conserving your own health. HOWEVER, mastering your in-game horse takes just as long as learning to ride a real one. At first, it seems clunky at best. Actually, it seems completely broken. But it's not. It took me a long time to get accustomed to riding. But now that I 'get' it, I never walk anywhere.
The trick, if there is one, is to think of it like a real horse. It's easy to get it to move forward, and it's easy to get it to stop. Everything else takes time and patience. | video-games_xbox |
addictive, colorful, humorous. i'm a mature gamer who bought a dozen or so games along with a new xbox just to see how the technology had evolved. (all the digital animation in recent films had piqued my interest.) having just opened grand theft auto 4 and assassin's creed, my first impression of this game was not favorable. but i've come to appreciate its unique and considerable charms. it is basically the urban sandbox, multi island, gansta life conceit of gta4, plus the rooftop play, "assassination mission plus side missions" concept of assassin's creed, but with a distinctively "comix" style of graphical design that is stylized to be less realistic, less textured, less graphically gory than either gta 4 or ac but more colorful, lively, and "artistic" than either. your avatar is not a thug but a maniacal police agent fighting evil and cleaning the streets, so you're not put in the position of looking at everything through gangster eyes, which is nice. however the most enjoyable innovation is a gruff voiceover guide who occasionally comments on your play ("are you crazy?" "i sure love the smell of agent in the morning!" "you sure like to push your luck!") along with gameplay and strategy tips; more than once his comments on my play made me laugh out loud. the avatar has physical and tactical skills that improve with use, notably the ability to leap and climb tall buildings if enough "agility" points are collected (these resemble the flags scattered around in assassin's creed) and the strength to lift and throw almost any detached object, from dead bodies to cement mixers, as weapons. but otherwise you have three options of play: roam the city to collect markers or perform racing stunts to improve agility; take on random firefights with street thugs to improve strength and skill, or kill off the senior members of three different crime gangs. these "missions" can be done in any order; each requires penetrating the gangster's lair after killing his almost endlessly spawning guards (though most do have a back entrance or rooftop way around defenders). this involves quite a lot of wearing down of the opposition, but each time you're killed and "regenerate", the enemy forces remain weakened, so you don't have to start the same exact mission, over and over, as happens in most games. the game physics are compelling, especially the explosions and flying objects, and the avatar has plenty of agility without cumbersome button combinations or programming limits. overall: a great game to look at, lots of fun to play, a very nice blend of humor and excitement, and no glitches in the xbox version that i could find. | video-games_xbox |
Perfect for beginners and modders. This is the first fightstick I've ever owned, so I can't make any comparisons to other sticks, but I can say I'm pretty satisfied with my purchase. The stick has a nice heft to it so you shouldn't have problems with it moving around and it isn't so heavy that it'll become uncomfortable if you have it on your lap for extended periods of time. The buttons feel light and are very sensitive. Maybe a little too sensitive for my tastes. There were a few times where I would have my fingers hovering over the buttons and would accidentally press one without realizing it. The joystick feels ok. I'm not sure if it's due to me being new to using a fightstick or if it's a problem with the joystick itself, but I feel like inputting motions for specials and supers are inconsistent. I'm not too worried about it as I will be swapping it out for a Sanwa JLF soon. I have already swapped all the buttons for Sanwa buttons, replaced the ball top with a Seimitsu bubble top, and swapped out the artwork.
Modding it has been extremely easy so far. Just unscrew 6 bolts at the bottom, and then you have access to everything inside. Even if you disconnect all the buttons and stick at once, the wires are all clearly labeled on the pcb, so getting it all back together correctly is a no problem. The headphone jack is a nice plus, but as far as I can tell the only way to adjust the volume is through controls on your headphones if you have them. Otherwise you'll have to adjust it through the in-game menus.
I only have two gripes with the F500 and is the reason it gets 4 stars and not 5. The input for the console controller and headphone jack is on the front of the case. It would have been better if it was on the side or the back. Also, the Home button is a little iffy. Sometimes I have to press it a few times for it to register. Other than that, I recommend the F500 for beginners who want to try out a stick but don't want to shell out $150+ for one. It's also good for people who have multiple consoles and don't want to buy a separate stick for each one. | video-games_xbox |
I like this product but there are some issues. This is an excellent headset with great sound quality and is very easy to use, they could be a little more comfortable however. When I first got them they were so tight on my head that within an hour my ears hurt so much I could not stand to use them. The construction however of the head band allowed me to gently bend the two wire springs and now they are much more comfortable to use. This head set is probable one of the best sounding headsets for both gaming as well as listening to music is you are not a real picky listener of music. If you are you should also own a really good pair of studio quality stereo head phones just for music but if you are the average guy like myself that is on a limited budget then these in my opinion sound great for gaming and good for music.
Now for the negatives! Fortunately they do not directly relate to the headset and do not take away from the build quality or the sound quality. They do relate directly to what I would have liked to have known prior to purchase category. No where in the product description did the vendor selling these indicate that they were not genuine Turtle Beach headsets but OEM headsets manufactured for DELL to be sold along with their XPS line of pc's and laptops. You might be wondering whats the difference and why do I have a beef about this and the reasons relate to support or rather the lack of such support! Since they are not retail Turtle Beach products you get no product support from them nor do you get the one year warranty, you only get a 30 day warranty from the A hole that sold them! The vendor selling these by the omission of stating that these were OEM products is deceitful and an out right LIAR and Amazon is in my opinion just as bad for not demanding that their third party vendors maintain truthful product descriptions so they also are LIARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will not say I will not shop on Amazon ever again but you can rest assured that they have moved to the bottom of my list of online sellers and will only be considered as a last resort when I can find an item no where else. | video-games_xbox |
The band is breaking up.... (Edit - Update, Reunion Tour. *Update below*
Upset doesn't even begin to describe my feelings. Rock Band 3 was one of my favorite games of all time. I have had so much fun with this franchise but this "update" or "reboot" is a total fail. They have gotten rid of parts of the band all together and changed some of the most fun parts. The promise of keeping your old songs is also bogus. I'll give it a fair shake but I sure hope they can fix the whole license issue with all the missing tracks. I guess I'll have to give Guitar Hero Live a try and keep Rock Band 3 on stand by as its a much better title at this point. The long wait was not worth the hype at all and the starting track list on this version is a total joke for the most part.
- Set lists are weak
-No online
-Tons of old tracks missing
- The new guitar solo system is weak and not nearly as fun as rocking out what felt like the real thing in the past.
- My Mic out of the box does not work properly during a song it will cut out for a period of time.
- The Band making and clothing options are a total step back from Rock Band 3
-The Menus and set list setup is a step back from Rock Band 3
The title seems like more of an afterthought than something that has been in the making for quite some time. How could you take an idea that was already solid and worked great that everyone loved and remove vital parts which have at this point taken away so much that I feel like I'm forcing myself to enjoy it. I'll hold out hope for this to change but odds are I'll go back to Rock Band 3 which is all around a better experience.
If you are thinking about picking this bundle up... I would wait, I wish I would have.
Update -
The Game is growing on me and they seem to have added all the DLC now as my library has grown by more than 400 songs which looks much better. Maybe they will wise up and bring keys back with a later update.. we shall see. Bumped from two stars to four. | video-games_xbox |
Already waiting for Max Payne 3. Max Payne 2 may be shorter than the first one but everything is so much better in this game that it will leave you more than satisfied.
First of all, let's talk about graphics. If you're into PC games than you might simply look at Max Payne 2 on the X-box and say that the graphics are just okay. But if you're anything like me you will be deeply satisfied with the detail of the graphics in this game. While Max Payne 1 had good graphics, Max Payne 2 has graphics that are sharper with a lot more attention paid to the small things. In this game you can brush up against things and knock stuff over and shoot bad guys into crates (which look very cinematic in slow motion). I love these features and gives the game a much more realistic feel than Max Payne 1.
Next, the sound is superb. The voiceovers are fantastic (just like in the first Max Payne). The background music gives a very haunting mood to the game and really gets you into the story. Also, the sound effects are crazy. The sounds of gunfire are intense and are some of the best gun sound effects that I've ever heard in a shooter game.
Now, let's move on to the plot. While Max Payne 2's plot isn't quite as captivating as Max Payne 1's was it still draws you in due to some fantastic voiceovers and character twists. The ending of this game is reason enough to get this game.
For those of you who played the first Max Payne and like the gameplay you will be pleased to know that the gameplay has basically remained the same.
Now one thing I see not being brought up here is Max Payne's nightmare levels. Players of the first Max Payne might remember those pain-in-the-@$$ levels trying to jump from one very thin board to the next wondering what the hell the point was. Well, you can now rejoice because while Max Payne 2 does have the nightmare levels, they don't have any frustrating challanges like that anymore. This time you basically get to walk around and enjoy what goes on around you and get more into Max's head at the same time. Bravo!
I have heard some people complaining about Max Payne not being innovative enough but I don't see their points. Why mess with a winning formula? The graphics are great, the characters are captivating, and the controls are some of the most user friendly that I've seen in a shooter in a while. Especially now that the Max Payne 2 is only $10.00 there is absolutely nothing to complain about!
Max Payne 2 will not let you down especially if you loved the first Max Payne game. Get it and enjoy it! I guarantee you that once you play it you will, just like I am, be waiting quite impatiently for Max Payne 3! | video-games_xbox |
Dead Rising. In Dead Rising, you play the role of Frank West, a photo-journalist with a death wish. Frank received an anonymous tip that something big was going to happen in the small town of Willamette, Colorado. He flies into the town by helicopter and he notices military barricades on the roads on his way in. It appears to be a large riot, except one problem...it's too quiet. When the military comes in to escort Frank's helicopter out of town, he jumps out on to the roof of the Willamette shopping mall and tells the pilot to return in 3 days. Frank must survive a zombie uprising for 3 days.
Dead Rising is a survival horror game by Capcom only for the Xbox360. The game breaks out of the traditional survival horror game and includes a substantial amount of humor. The player can rotate the camera a full 360 degrees, unlike in many horror games, such as the Resident Evil series, that rely on camera angles to increase suspense. While the game is about a zombie uprising, the zombies don't pose a great threat to the player - they're fodder to be mowed down by the plethora of weapons that can be found in the mall. The real challenge is in missions.
First, the missions are timed - which makes the game very difficult for the first time player. Second, some of the missions involve rescuing survivors. This is made challenging by the poor decisions of the survivors' artificial intelligence, such as not avoiding zombies. Dead Rising also has boss fights. However, the bosses aren't undead - they're psychotic survivors with superior health, equipment and abilities.
However, Dead Rising is not without flaws. The save-game system only allows one saved game per gamer profile. This does not work well with timed missions. Saving with not enough time left to complete a mission condemns the player to failure. This is somewhat remedied by allowing the player to restart at the beginning with their stats from when they died. Dead Rising was designed for HDTVs, and the game's text is almost impossible to read without one. The AI has some quirks as the survivors don't avoid zombies that are slowly shambling in their direction. Survivors inside the mall can also get stuck on the outside of the mall. When the player is near a boss with a gun and the boss can't get line of sight, the AI oscillates between states and doesn't attack.
Despite its flaws, Dead Rising is an entertaining game. It may even be the game that gets me to purchase an Xbox360. | video-games_xbox |
Could have been better. Single Player. Really long as if I want to sit and play a game all day especially on ridiculous nearly impossible missions to beat.
Multiplayer: Oh man were do I start. Ability to revive people who were shot in the head, that's bull, period. Weak weapons, almost all of them, shotguns as a primary weapon, on maps the size of a continent, really now. Controls are stupid, regardless on how you change them, especially for vehicles. I gotten used to them but its still a stupid set up. I would also like to ask EA who made guided RPG-7s and whose idea was that. That automatically costs this game another star. Gets boring quite, fast,console has almost no way to verbally communicate with other players yet fanboys say this game has more teamwork. Even though that can be a lie most of the time. This game deserves a 4 overall, but its rated 1 to balance that out. One of the biggest things, you cannot go prone, seriously. Ranking system is terrible, takes forever to unlock weapons, so EA fix/fails by allowing people to by them using real money. EA is the game maker so there will be problems, I can see me playing BF3 and I should expect some kind of fails because of EA. You can destroy walls but not containers or even roofs of certain buildings, or the matter of certain walls can't even be destroyed but you hear the what wall crap from fanboys. Another reason to not like this game is because of fanboys. I would not recommend this game, wait for BF3, if you can't wait too bad and that also means you need a life.
Can feel sluggish, servers tend to lag or you connect to servers in unknown laces and you're playing with people (for me I am currently in Texas and was playing with people in Japan). (to be continued). Your teammates can cause you to commit suicide with vehicles by knocikng you over or crashing into you while you are in a vehicle which is really messed up and a stupid feature.
Also do not vote on this review if you do not comment 1st. Therefore It can be disputed and I will find out whether your a fanboy or not. | video-games_xbox |
Buggy, even on Xbox. In a previous review of this product, I railed against what I thought was a bit of a lie on the part of the manufacturer. Hailed throughout the industry as a model of open-ended play, MORROWIND, I thought, had a surprisingly linear ending. That being a fairly important issue, I decided to devote a whole review to it. But there's more to Bethesda's new baby.
Or, rather, there's more to warn you about.
If you like quests, you'll love the core game play itself. But soon enough, I think, you'll find many of these quests so much busywork. Worse, some of them paint inconsistent pictures of the characters you meet: one minute they behave as benefactors, the next they're basically asking you to steal or murder. Truth is, there's not a lot of plot-driven logic to most of these quests. While they do gradually reveal the mystery of the Main Quest to your character --in a more-or-less satisfying way--they don't particularly make sense from the perspective of the characters that order you around. Take the Mage's Guild as an example. According to the rules of the Guild, you're not supposed to steal from a fellow Mage. But several quests revolve around you doing just that. You fail the quest, and get kicked out of the Guild, if the theft occurs in plain sight. But if you carry it out covertly, you're golden. Theft only matters, it seems, if others are watching.
If you're into exploring the world of a game, MORROWIND does a better job than just about any game out there of letting you go anywhere, and rewarding you for your curiosity. You'll love finding little towns and all the small stories happening against the backdrop of the overarching "Main Quest". You'll probably be amazed the first time you see day dusk into night, or the way rain grows from a sprinkle to a thunderous downpour. The weather/time module is probably the most advanced on the market, and you'll simply marvel at how precisely the developers have caught the sun's progress over the course of a day. Indeed, this, more than any other aspect, is probably what will keep you playing. But all this is not without its price. The extreme intricacy of the environment, combined with the detailed growth your character is undergoing leads to a very buggy game. It's just too much stuff, somehow. I've never had a game that so regularly crashes my Xbox. Yeah. You heard that right: CRASHES. This game does everything from completely freezing up during an intense fight, to stopping in the middle of saving a game (ouch!), to randomly bouncing back to the opening Xbox title screen. There is, it seems, a price for being the most ambitious title ever released.
And you get charged that price not only in crashes, but in errors throughout. Here's a partial list of bugs I've encountered:
* Spelling errors everywhere. This game relies on text. The developers should've relied on a spell checking program and several copy editors.
* Movement errors at random times. My character gets stuck all the time. That is, she behaves as if there's something blocking her progress. When I switch to the third-person perspective, it's obvious there's nothing that should be holding her up. She's just "stuck", and the only solution is re-loading the last saved game.
Items magically duplicate themselves in your inventory. The best/worst example of this is with some of the items that make potions. I had a particularly expensive item that would grow every time I selected it. At last count I had over 100 of these items in my inventory, and there's no sign that the bug has an upper limit. Since these items are worth about 4000 gold each, I've basically found an endless supply of money, thereby "crashing" the economy of the game.
* A hopelessly disorganized inventory. Once you get to the point you can carry, say, hundreds of potions, you'll know how frustrating it is to try to find one of them. They're not alphabetized. They're not sortable according to any quality. They're just in the order they're in. Trying to find a potion can break the flow of an otherwise adrenaline-rushing fight.
* Framerate sometimes sucks. Oh how it sucks. Get into a fight with multiple magic-casters and you'll see what I mean. Even on the Xbox, which can handle complex fights well, MORROWIND can sometimes unintentionally slip into serious slo-mo.
Bottom line: don't buy this version of the game thinking you're going to escape the bugs that are rampant in the PC version. It's buggy, regardless of platform.
But the game's biggest failing, to me, is the inability to play more than one character at a time. I'm not really talking about the lack of multiplayer. No, I mean that you can't have more than one player in any one game state. Many other RPGs allow you exit one character and bring up another in the same game state, allowing you to experiment with different character types without losing your basic progress towards the accomplishment of the game's goals. Here, once you've picked your character, you have to play it to the end. Given the length of time it takes to finish this game, most people will, therefore, only scratch the surface of game play. If you find, midway through the game, that you'd like to switch from being a hack-and-slash barbarian to a potion-making magic user, you're out of luck. You'd actually have to start a brand new game to do so. And most people just don't have the TIME to start over.
In sum, then, MORROWIND is a fascinating, if deeply flawed, title. I so desperately want to like it that I've written two reviews of it. But at the end of the day I feel like I've just wasted more time than I've enjoyed. At most, it's worth renting for a week to see what all the fuss is about. | video-games_xbox |
Don't know why all the complaints, it's a fun game. I'm a fan of the old Motocross Madness then THQ Reflex and other Xbox motocross games, and while this one is very simplistic, to me if addresses the one thing that's been desperately missing from these games - an actual career mode where you might not win every race, might even come in dead last, but that's it, you move on to the next track (with an option to replay if you insist).
Overall, it plays well enough. It's basic. There's no bike customization, no rider customization, no tuning, no special combinations (other than the A-button triple "scrub" that earns you a boost or 3 chances at "X" energy drinks (which is funny conceptually, but okay). And that's it. Then it's just pour on the throttle and brake (occasionally necessary) and lean into the turns, with lots of riders banging bars throughout.
YES, we all want the game with all the real riders, all the real teams, real bike names, laser intros with the dude with the voice, Supercross with qualifying, heats, semis, LCQ's, and main events including a Daytona track and Vegas finale, outdoor motocross simulating the real venues, with qualifying and two mains, the 30-second girls who run off the track, tunable bikes, customizable riders, full season scoring, good and realistic tracks, realistic rider contact, mud effects, ruts, different kinds of dirt, maybe even weather conditions (real "mud" and puddles that get worse during rain, cold weather and high altitude locations affecting performance, etc.).
BUT UNTIL I BECOME VERY RICH AND RETIRE AND HAVE NOTHING TO DO BUT HIRE A TEAM TO BUILD IT and pay all the licensing fees, it's not going to happen. So we have to settle for what little we can get from each of these game companies.
And overall, this one at least delivers some of the fun of motocross. Is it everyone's answer to perfection? No. Is it competitive with the THQ/Nordic/Unleashed games? No. Does it include ATV's and trucks and sand buggies? NO!!! THANK YOU!!!
But if you're looking for something that you and/or your kids will have fun getting the rush and excitement of being in a race with lots of other riders across multiple European and US tracks (remember, this is FIM World motocross racing), without all the extras and frills... this is a pretty decent game.
Everyone else is welcome to chip in and send me $1,000. If just 100,000 of you will do that, I will promise to head up a team that will build us all the Supercross/Motocross game of our dreams, the ONE that you've seen in your head too.
But we can't even get Fox Sports 2 on Comcast (so we can watch the supposed "live" broadcasts)... so good luck with that. | video-games_xbox |
Good game. I wasn't scared. Graphics: Excellent.
Sound: Good. Some explosions gave my dd5.1 system some distortion problems. Some buddy-characters hard to hear, enemies easy to hear and swear like sailors (funny). Score/Music not really much of one -- but was good.
AI: Excellent (duck-and-cover, hide, etc.)
Physics: Excellent (ragdoll, slo-mo, bullet trails, destructible items, etc.)
Maps: Good (a lot of industrial building repetition). All interiors.
Gameplay: Great. No frame-rate drops. Excellent load time. I was never lost or trapped to the point where I had to consult the internet to figure out where to go and no scripted events failed to activate. Game length was average. Funny: there are "TPS reports" (Office Space fans) posted on some bulletin boards. No save-anywhere ability, autosave/checkpoint only. Not much variety of enemies (about 5 or so, only 2-3 you'll see regularly). Why no big boss, final battle, or final run?
Items/Weapons: Great. Good variety - best one strips the flesh from the bones, you can shoot someone in half with the shotgun up close or blow someone's head off. Flashlight sucks - runs out fast, wait to recharge, repeat, annoying. No vehicles (but this is interiors only). Most of the time you auto-pickup something (don't have to hit a button).
Story: Fair (although most games other than Halo, Half-life2 have throw-away stories - the gameplay is much more important). Wasn't really scared. No compelling story, no sense of urgency to complete things, didn't care about the characters, no engrossing involvement...I stopped listening to the story after the first couple of levels and just focused on gameplay and shooting stuff...this game is probably just trying to be a good FPS (Doom), not more (Halo). Acting/voice acting was good.
Multiplayer: Average. no offline co-op, no offline versus, yes single player bots, barely any maps (but probably more online). Offline people deserve more - don't soak us for more cash.
Overall: 4/5. Game is not really underwhelming, I was satisfied, but it was just a tad bit overblown with the marketing...Still one of the best 360 games for 2006 - must have. | video-games_xbox |
It's AssassiGreat to Assassinate. Assassin's Creed II is a linear action RPG hybrid, that improves upon the original Assassin's Creed in just about every way.
High Concept: 10/10
Take a character like Batman, make him an assassin, drop him into Renaissance Italy, and surround him with corrupt government and church officials that need to be exterminated for the good of mankind!
Story: 10/10
Assassin's Creed II is a story within a story. On the outside, you play Desmond, the ancestor of Altair and Ezio, who's hooked up to the animus (a virtual reality simulator) in order to uncover clues from the past to stop a threat from a powerful secret organization in the present.
In the Virtual World you are Ezio, a young aristocrat whose family gets swept up in the political turmoil of 15th Century Italy. As a fugitive, you avenge your family by taking a dark path and becoming an assassin. You get your weaponry and gear from none other than Leonardo Da Vinci. You also inherit a villa in the countryside that works as your own personal Wayne Manor. If you upgrade the villa it becomes a huge source of income and a base of operations! Ezio is up against the Templars, a holy military organization that will stop at nothing to acquire ancient powerful artifacts for their own selfish means. Through the story, you meet many fascinating European historical figures with their own dark pasts. Similar to the Da Vinci Code, the story may have you questioning your beliefs, researching historical figures, or wanting to take a more active role in the world around you. It's rare that a video game story actually makes you want to rethink history.
Gameplay: 8/10
The gameplay is much improved over the original Assassin's Creed. You have more weapons. The combat system allows you to fight bare-handed, with a dagger, sword, two handed weapons, or even a pistol. There are more ways to assassinate enemies; poisons, environment based stealth kills, or hire thugs to do your dirty work. There are 15 different types of missions that will have you racing across rooftops, escorting allies, or assassinating targets. If you are discovered, there are now more ways to evade capture. The acrobatic free running / parkour part of the game has also been improved. Ezio has more moves and fluidly traverses even the most perilous environments.
Although, the gameplay is good, it's not perfect. At times, Ezio may jump in the wrong direction and fall to his death. This is extremely rare, but when it happens, it sucks. Another criticism is that the combat doesn't offer much challenge. You do have to think and react, but you never feel like you're going to lose a fight, even when 10 enemies attack you. The only challenge to the combat is trying to take out all of the bad guys without getting hit at all. A final criticism is that the running to a mission vs. completing the mission ratio is 3:1. Although the free running is fun, there are points in the game where you do an awful lot of running and it starts to feel a bit tedious.
Graphics: 10/10
One of the best looking open world games of all time, in terms of art direction and quality. The environments, characters, effects, and animations are all phenomenal. The highly detailed buildings, clothing, and props all realistically fit the world. The characters look and animate great right down to their facial expressions. It actually feels like you were transported into 15th Century Italy!
Sound: 10/10
The sound track and sound effects are amazing. The music is appropriate for the setting and gives a sense of action, mystery, and danger. The sound effects put you right into the action or they'll make you want to seek comfort in the shadows as you stealthily plan your next assassination. The soundtrack is also available on itunes!
Replay Value: 5/10
Assassin's Creed II offers 30-45 hours of gameplay, which is especially impressive in this day and age where most action games are 7 hours long. After you finish the game, you have the option to keep everything that you've earned and continue playing to collect items, finish side quests, or unlock achievements. However, there's no reason to start the game over from the beginning. Even with limited replay value, you're still going to get your money's worth.
Overall: 9.5/10
When the story, art, and music are all amazing, you have a very immersive world. The criticisms about Assassin's Creed II is that it doesn't offer much of a challenge, and it feels repetitive at times.
Buy it if you liked Assassin's Creed 1.
Buy it if you thought, I like the idea of Assassin's Creed, but I wish it was twice as exciting.
Buy it if you liked Prince of Persia.
Buy it if you want a thinking man's Action RPG.
Rent it if you want to try it out and have about 30 free hours.
Avoid it if you like a challenge or hated everything about the original Assassin's Creed.
Avoid it if you are EXTREMELY Catholic. The portrayal of the Vatican may upset you.
Avoid it if you don't like the idea of being a dude, who's playing a dude, who's playing another dude.
And there you have it. If you can't trust a guy whose name is Poisoned Blade and dresses like an assassin (seriously look at my profile pic) then who can you trust? | video-games_xbox |
So bad, it's an insult to Tiger Woods. This game, especially now that the original Xbox game is $29.95, is complete robbery. The Xbox 360 version sports only 6 courses compared to the 11 courses on the original Xbox and this version is filled to the brim with bugs.
For example, when playing a tournament, on the final hole, the putting line will mysteriously disappear (this actually happens countless times throughout the game, but interestingly enough, I've noticed it appears most often when you're about to finish a round). Also, as you make your last putt, the announcers will often say "That's a tie atop the leaderboard!" or "That's for a share of the lead." when you've actually won the tournament. Announcements will also come late, for example, when you're putting and the announcer calls out that you're 170 yards from the hole. Top that off with the fact that their putting advice isn't just useless, it's often totally wrong.
The online version of this game is using EA's own front-end, as they have in the previous TW games. If you haven't experienced how bad it is, consider yourself lucky. Game drop-outs (which are tallied on your personal Xbox profile) are far more likely EA's fault then a sour player. EA even taunts us by directly telling us that the only way they're going to update their 4-question online FAQ is if we send them a question "wrapped in cash preferably twenties."
EA has never offered additional courses for download. There is no "download" menu item in the Xbox Live menu of this game, and I will personally fly to EA and buy every member of the TW06 team a copy of this over-priced, over-rated game, if they ever offer even a single course. It simply won't happen because they don't care.
This game has a "fall-behind, catch up" feature, so bad that, if you're winning the tournament, Tiger Woods will come out of no-where on the 3rd day and score an impossible round. For example, he shot a hole-in-zero (yes, you read that correctly) on a par 3 to catch up to me on the back nine. He'll also take the lead in the tournament. The reason this is done is so that you can do "head to head" against Tiger. However, it also ruins any course records you've worked hard (and fairly) to earn.
The final nail in this game's coffin is that the system "cheats." And by that, I mean that the controls on the system will mysteriously pull (left or right) or push (over the green) your shots when you're too far in the lead, or making an early gain at the beginning of the higher tournaments. If you want an example, try making the exact same eagle approach shot in one of the major tournaments when you're ahead and behind. If you're the leader, you won't ever hit the green, if you're the leader, you'll never hit the green, if you're a few shots behind, you'll -amazingly- land near the pin.
For the price of this game, you should really go out and play a real round of golf. You won't be giving lazy developers any of your hard earned money and you'll be playing at a far nicer course than EA has virtually created. | video-games_xbox |
The newest entry into the world of Silent Hill. With the lack of survival horror games on the Xbox360 on the market at the time of release, Silent Hill:Homecoming is a nice addition to the library. While it might not have the polish or hype of such games and Dead Space or Resident Evil 5 it is still a beautifully made game in its own right. If you enjoyed the previous titles you will be able to respect that despite the change in development team that the new installment stays true to the series. While the graphics could have been better,the environments are spectacular, and now include the ability to interact with them. Objects fall off of shelves when ran into, IV stands fall over and overall the entire gameworld has some sort of interactive ability. The combat system is completely redone and in my opinion better than previous installments. You play as a soldier and the combat reflects that. While it may lack the true horror of not being able to deal with the enemies at hand, the new system more than makes up for it in the difficulty that it takes to bring down these enemies. Each creature has its own weaknesses and strength and these are reflected in the combat as not only are you required to dodge attacks but also to come up with specific strategies to deal with the creatures. (some may require fast attack melee weapons, some may require stronger attacks and some may only be weak against firearms.) The environments are as creepy and disturbing as any other game in the series but at times lacks real horror. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of encounters that left me jumping in the back of my seat, but I never really felt unprepared for a fight. The camera work keeps the grainy feel of the other games while also texturing the environment much further than other games. (you can actually make out buildings in the distance, unlike the previous titles.) The score is of course amazing and helps with the overall horror and despair of both Shepards Glenn and Silent Hill itself. The NPC's are well done and the voice acting is superb. (think the opposite of the original Resident Evil for PS1.) Overall I would have to say this is a strong entry into the survival horror library for the 360 and is worth picking up even if you have already preordered RE5 and Dead Space. Silent Hill: Homecoming brings a familiar yet refreshing feel to the 360 library and brings back the type of survival horror that we used to all know and love. | video-games_xbox |
Love it. Campaign:
Still the same type of campaign you would expect from a call of duty title. Action packed and fairly quick to play through. However in Black ops II you have the ability to customize your loadout before the mission begins which I found to be an amazing change of pace. Also the new Strike force missions with the RTS-esque elements add some variety as well (Strike force on veteran difficulty will be the most frustrating experience of black ops 2 guaranteed). One final thing is that the campaign now tracks the choices you have made throughout the story and allows you to get 3 separate endings which is nice!
Zombies:
Simply put awesome! (Although the lack of pack a punch and perks on some maps while others have it can be irritating)
Multiplayer:
The bread and butter of the call of duty franchise. The new pick 10 system really makes the multiplayer experience seem much more fresh. The remodeled perk and attachment system as well so you won't always have to run the same perk setup every game as in MW3 just to do well.
Weapons feel much more balanced and each has its strengths and weaknesses. No one weapon is an absolute standout ( like the ACR in MW3) although there are some that are the overall favorites.
Maps feel great! In MW3 I felt like the maps ALWAYS had 3 wide open bottleneck positions that would never allow you to move around the map for flanking, etc. Black ops 2 has BEAUTIFUL map design with plenty of areas to maneuver and escape trouble.
*Ghost is now no longer a perk that hides you permanently, must be moving around/sprinting! This seriously helped the multiplayer SIGNIFICANTLY in the no longer will you run around while a UAV is up and get killed by campers. Much faster paced gameplay!
Overall:
Excellent game! I have been playing since the original and I must say I thought the franchise was digging a hole they wouldn't be able to climb out of (Infinity ward might be headed there) but this game is phenomenal! Great fun! | video-games_xbox |
Repetitive, soul-crushing fun. Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (EDF:IA) is a silly, silly game. There's hints of "plot" and "storyline," but honestly they're just small bits of string loosely tying the missions together. Is the fact that the "plot" seems like it was written by a five year-old a detriment? Not really. In fact, around Mission: 2, Chapter 3, it even feels like the writers have called it a day and are just messing around just to have fun.
That's what EDF is - it's a silly, fun game that doesn't take itself seriously.
You are a human with a wide array of guns. You blow up bugs and robots. Sometimes you have a friend to blow up bugs and robots with. That's really about as deep as the game gets.
Good:
Mindless fun. Point, shoot and go.
Gets better when playing with friends.
Accidentally killing your friends is fun.
Does not require a huge time commitment to get rewards. Yes, getting level 8 in all of the armors will take a long time, but even jumping from level 1 to 4 isn't a huge commitment and the improvements for each level are pretty noticeable.
Each mission is short and only requires about a 30-40 minute time commitment.
Good-to-great level of replay value - the leveling, the purchasing of new weapons - the "grindy" aspect of the game wouldn't keep me coming back; rather it's the fact that the game's fun value jumps exponentially when playing with friends.
Bad:
Very repetitive. As many have mentioned, there's only 15 total levels (as well as survival and "remix" mode), and most of the missions feel regurgitated - just add more and bigger enemies.
This game will make your XBox cry. When you take specific weapons (mostly the ones with contrails) and add tons of enemies and buildings exploding/crashing, EDF explodes your XBox. There are literally missions where launching a grenade in a location where it can take down a handful of buildings will drop your framerate to something along the lines of 2 seconds per frame (not frames per second). This happens in several locations both in single player but more noticeably in multiplayer. It happens so often that I think they didn't quite code the game to the XBox's abilities correctly.
The bot AI is horrible. You will be screaming obscenities at Cyrus and Oldman (the two generic AI bots). On several occasions, with zero enemies on radar, both Cyrus and Oldman have shot a rocket into the side of my head for no apparent reason. They will shoot you in the back, blow you up, and generally not only be useless - but worse - be a detriment. The game gives you the option to turn off bots, and really if it wasn't for the fact that the bots will count as "live" players and rez you, they would not be worth having around.
Ticks.
Conclusion:
Buy it if you have friends to play with (who bought their own copy). When played single-player it's not nearly as much fun and the grindy, repetitive aspect will probably quickly whittle away any fun you have with the game. If you're deciding to play it only as a single-player, you probably won't understand why people like this game as much as they seem to. | video-games_xbox |
Best gaming decision I've made in a year, or more. I picked this up to upgrade from the old Holiday 2009 Elite bundle I had. I couldn't believe how awesome it looked when I first pulled it out of the box, and it looks even better now that it's all set up. The controllers have the new rotating D-Pad, which gives you the new Up Down Left Right only, or the older option of a full wheel D-Pad, which the corners filled in. I haven't run into any issues that I can remember that I needed a feature like this, but it's nifty to have anyway. It's actually quite amazing what technology goes into this, though many would say it's about time Microsoft got their act together. I can't believe it took them as long as it did to get wireless internet capabilities... No more push buttons, though I question the longevity of this feature. The other thing I can go either way on is the hard drive. This weighs in at a huge 320gig, which is 200 more than my old elite, but this one is built into the Xbox, where they used to be removable. I love the size, as I usually download the entire game to the drive, to improve loading speeds, and I used to have to delete games to make enough room for the next one. While this may still become a problem, the added space gives me a lot more wiggle room. But the fact that it can't be removed, worries me slightly. If next year, they come out with a 500gig hard drive, and I want to upgrade, I'll have to send it in to be done, where the older versions had the quick pop and swap. This goes well with my matching <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-3-Wireless-Headset-with-Bluetooth/dp/B005OSFUL2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Wireless Headset with Bluetooth</a>, which I have also given quite a lengthy review. Check it out!
Overall, this was a fabulous purchase, in my book, especially since I'm an avid shopper on Amazon. I had some credits from pre-ordering a couple of games just before this came out, bringing the total cost down significantly, but then I was given a $50 credit for purchasing this as well, so it essentially bought me another game. Helluva purchase from a Helluva vendor. | video-games_xbox |
Ignore The Complainers. This is sort of a counter review after reading the, what, four bad reviews? I'm going to split this up into sections to make this easier to follow and to address the major issues some people seem to be having.
-Control scheme-
I've seen a few people hammering down on the controls complaining on a lack of coordination. First of all it is VERY difficult to design a group of enormous cities that are almost entirely scalable while retaining the graphic effects this game possess. So perhaps you can understand if your character occasionally reaches for the wrong ledge. Second, I want to say that I, personally, have plummeted into the waters of venice many times... about 90% of which were not my intention of doing. That being said it is almost always my own fault. I may get angry and cuss and blame the controls but deep down I know I pushed the button that caused me to leap backwards into the river. After awhile the controls become second nature. You will fall off building.. but it lessens over time as oou get more comfortable with the designs of the city and the directions you should be heading.
-Repetitiveness-
"It's the same game"... No. It really isn't. First off, you can't expect a major re-haul of a SEQUEL. It's going to have the same basic premise so if you don't want to assassinate people... Perhaps Assassin's Creed II isn't for you... Obviously. The changed up the basic game play enough that you find yourself doing completely different quests as opposed to the, eavesdrop, punch him to near death, and pick-pocket the one guy who carries to much info. The side missions are a nice break up and help familiarize you with the controls, especially the racing ones.
I actually saw some say they didn't want to sneak around and wanted to charge at a gate with his sword drawn. Maybe you didn't read the title? You should considered playing "Suicidal Warriors Creed" instead. Much more suiting to your tastes.
-Length-
I can say that I've been playing this game for three days now... A lot.. That being said I'm fairly sure I'm nowhere the ending, based on what I've heard. If you break up the game into sections and try not to run through it all in one sitting, it will take a bit. I've really only been doing the main quest line with maybe five or six side missions along the way. They space out the major assassinations with learning new skills, so your knowledge increases as the complexity of the cities do. It possesses a decent amount of more humor and personality then the first game does, which is a nice change. It keeps the story fresh while you go through your missions.
-Summary-
The graphics are pretty nice (Xbox 360 version)
The controls are very good, if not a little challenging to start with
Length of game is pretty darn perfect and nicely broken up with random humor
NOT repetitive. It just isn't. Play the first one again. Apparently you forgot.
Don't let any nay-sayers convince you not to pick this up. A good addition to the trilogy and a darn good game over-all. Get it and you won't regret it. | video-games_xbox |
capcom comes out with another great game. Darkwatch is an unbelievable game. The game is so good, I hope they defenitley come out with another one in the future. The first thing I'm gunna tell you about is the story line.....
Welcome to the Wild West, circa 1876. You are Jericho Cross, seasoned outlaw. Looking for a big score, you raid a secret treasure train. Unknown to you, this train belongs to the Darkwatch, an ancient organization committed to defeating supernatural evils. The cargo of this train is not money or jewels, but a captured vampire lord being transported to the Darkwatch citadel for interrogation. You blow open what you think is the treasure vault on the train, only to release the oldest and most powerful creature of its kind. Perhaps from perverse gratitude, this vampire doesn't kill you. He just bites you, so you slowly turn into a vampire yourself. With growing supernatural powers, you hunt Lazuras , the vampire that bit you. If you gun him down before the curse overcomes you completely, you might win back your soul. If you fail, you will be damned to walk the earth as a vampire, having condemned the West to despair under the rule of evil incarnate.
The gameplay is great. It is a first person shooter and there are great weapons. Ther is the redeemer revolver which has a knife on the bottom of the handle. On all the weapons is a melee weapon that you can use. There are the warmaker pistols which have blades on the handles. There is the blackfish carbine which is like a rifle, it is probly one of my favorites, just seeing the monsters blow back when u pell the trigger. There is the carson range rifle which is a sniper rifle and you can zoom in two times with it. It has a crzy sword on the edge of it. The game also has the shotgun, the FOUR BARREL SHOTGUN. it is so powerful close up and it also has a curved knife. There is also a crossbow which when u shoot an arrow into a monster is blows up, there is dinamite on each of the arrows. There are two swords that come out of the front which you can upercut people. There is also the rocket launcher and it is intense and it has a big hammer on one side of it. You can also get dinamite to throw and sometimes in the game you get to use the scepter which is a sword croiss thing. There is also turrets you can use. The game also has vehicles, there is a darkwatch vehicle which has a gun turret on tope and you use it for various missions, there is also your vampire hporse which you bit during the train incident. The character you are, Jericho Cross, is so cool, if you havn't seen him you have to see him. There is also a whole bunch of enemies in the game so you won't be bored of killeing the same things. After you do some levels you get to join the Darkwatch and then you get to have guys come with you to help you do the missions and you get to choose missions that the darkwatch need to do and you can get guns and ammo from the darkwatch before you start the mission. There is also multiplayer and xbox live where you can verse other people in a gun battle. You can create games and levels to battle in.
Darkwatch is one of the best games I have played this year. I defenitley recommend you getting it. [...] So get this game. | video-games_xbox |
Live By Honor, Kill By Stealth. Tenchu finaly makes it to the next generation of gaming. Tenchu Z is the game Tenchu fans have been waiting for for about ten years, and it was worth the wait.
Lets get this out of the way first, the story is a little thin granted, it's not bad it just isn't present for most of the game. Many of the levels have short typed intros like previous games in the series but the main story isn't affected by most of these missions. The lack of a truly compelling story is disappointing but this game really shines in other departments. This is the longest Tenchu game yet with something like 51 levels, that is a hell of a lot better than only 10, but all of the levels are repeated several times with different enemy layouts so it's not 51 'new' levels but still it's pretty great. Some of the levels are even old levels from the first game redone, which I thought was realy cool.
The game plays just as you would expect it to and feels like Tenchu should. The controls fit the game well even though it's a completely new layout for the series. The controller layout for Return from Darkness on XBOX was a little akward but everything works just fine with Z on XBOX 360. I would go on and list all of the abillites but if you're like me you'll want to discover them yourself. I will say the added abillities like peeking through shoji doors and stealth killing through them are awe inspiring the first time you do them. I don't know if anyone has said it yet but most of what makes Z great was taken from Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. This is not a bad thing at all in fact the first thing I thought of when I played Splinter Cell for the first time was ''It would be great if you could do stuff like that in Tenchu!''and what do you know, FROM SOFTWARE must have really listened to their fans on this one. There isn't anything wrong with shared success in videogames, if someone perfects an aspect of a game why should everyone else try to reinvent the same aspect for themselves. For example Resident Evil 4 adopted the aiming camera from Splinter Cell, Gears of War adopted their camera and controls from Resident Evil 4 and Dark Sector adopted their controls from Gears of War, its a natural progression of the gaming industry.
You realy get a feel of what it must have been like to be a Ninja, each level is your playground and your enemy's graveyard. With all the abilities of a Ninja in your hands you do feel quite powerful, at least until you have to fight one of the three boss battles in the game. The bosses aren't real hard but they do take an ungodly amount of punishment before they give up the ghost. Z has more of a focus on assassination than fighting so the boss battles in every other level are gone but you can fight if you want, you'll even get a bonus for dueling your target.
The boss battles are the weakest aspect of the game but as I said there are only three of them. The customization in the game however is very stong, with millions of outfit combos and a hundred ability combos it's likely to be played differently by everyone. Most of the abilities are useful but some just don't come in all that handy most of the time, like the sprint or 'badger run' it sounds cool but to use it requires a press of the same button used to cling to walls. Pressing this button while crouched will cling you to a wall while crouched but if 'badger run' is active it will cause you to slam your head into a wall alerting nearby enemies, thats bad but there realy isn't a lot to complain about with this game. Games should be fun and Tenchu Z is almost too much fun.
Tenchu Z is Tenchu at it's best aside from a lacking story I'd say it's the best they've done so far, I just hope they don't feel the need to stray to far from the success they've had with this one. Lets see some add-ons for Tenchu like we see with
Armored Core FROM SOFTWARE come on. | video-games_xbox |
An excellent solution to a dull-looking 360. I recently acquired a Kinect and a new Xbox 360 controller (black with LEDs). My 360, a Jasper arcade, was a boring white. So, when combined with my sleek black Kinect and sleek black controller, my 360 appeared out of place. To remedy this, I decided that I was going to find a skin or a faceplate or something-anything- that would make my 360 match everything else. Upon searching for decent skins and faceplates for my 360, I was annoyed with the outrageous prices many of them had ($25, $30, $40, etc.). Then, I discovered this. At my time of purchase, I was able to obtain this product for around $10 (with shipping) like the other two Rock Band skins. Although the price is now much higher (due to only 1 seller having it), I am certain that the price will lower again soon. Anyways, I decided to order this product. Upon receiving it, I quickly opened it up and removed the faceplate from the package and then the skins. The faceplate is an excellent quality faceplate (sturdy, well-painted, etc.). Most of the time, a high-quality faceplate alone will cost a lot of money, so I was extremely pleased with this one. Installing a new faceplate is very simple and anyone can do it (even a little kid, though I wouldn't recommend it XD). The skins look very nice as well. However, like many others have said in other reviews, the way the product is packaged creates a long crease down the middle of both of the skins. Installing them can be a bit frustrating if you want them to be on even and perfect (I am a person who must have something like this perfect). Once you have the skins on properly, they really make your 360 look cool. Unless you're specifically looking for them, the creases aren't very noticeable at all. When the skins are combined with the faceplate, your Xbox won't look the same at all. Many of my friends think that my Xbox looks amazing now, and I have even caused one friend to want to buy a skin and a faceplate for his system. Overall, I love this product and am very glad that I purchased it. Now, my 360, Kinect, and controller all match perfectly, and my setup is loved by many. | video-games_xbox |
A step in the right direction. When you think about wrestling game franchises, WWE is probably the one you immidiatly think of. So when a new wrestling game that isn't WWE people take notice. In this case TNA wanted to overthrow professional wrestlings most well known company with their own game.
TNA is as you would expect, a fast paced wrestling game, and you would be right. Its action is much faster paced than the smackdown vs raw series and at times has a very arcade style feel. This really was a good choice because this better replicates the action in TNA, making it feel more emersive. Along with this it has a great pick-up and play nature that any beginner can play, but can be mastered by people who have played it longer. Something else that really is noticeable were the superb graphics and smooth action. Besides this things are a bit more realistic in the way that finishers can be interupted and so fourth. The graphics (in my opinion) exceed those of smackdown vs raw by giving the wrestlers an even more realistic look (with a couple of exceptions). While the gameplay has a much more free flowing nature to it making counters and attacks feel more continuous.
Though these all sound like great reasons to buy this, there are some flaws that will put a lot of players off. One glaring flaw is the huge lack of custimization. If you've played SvR then you have become a custom to extensive creatablity such as indepthly creating your own wreslter, making there extensive move list then giving them a flashy intro that you can even add your mp3s to as theme music. Well in TNA you can make a wrestler from a limited amount of selections, give them a move list from a small amount of manuvers, and give them one of the short premade entrences. If you are all about creating your own wrestler, then this won't convince you to buy it. Besides this, the story mode is on the short end, and it seems it is missing some things that have become standard in wrestling games, such as tag partners coming in together or preforming double team moves (this really surprised me due to the game containing some popular tag teams and some of TNA's best wrestling happens in tag team matches)
This game can be extreamly fun, especially when you are playing with friends. TNA Impact has brought some great ideas to the wrestling genera and if they expand on them and give the user more creativity this could easily compete head to head with Smackdown vs Raw. | video-games_xbox |
Not for everyone. OK, first off, I am no musical wizard I admit it. I play a few songs on guitar, and learn a new one or a new technique now and then, mostly from books or YouTube. It takes me a while to learn new songs, maybe because I started later in life, don't know; I thought this game would help my learning curve but instead it leaves me wanting to quit guitar altogether.
I don't have a huge flat screen TV, and the words and instructions scrolling across the screen are very difficult to read. The game comes with no written manual, so there is no easy way to figure out how to do something new without stopping what you are doing.
When I play through a song and miss what I consider a lot of notes, it still "qualifies" me for that song and suggests I move onto the next song or venue. I didn't get the game to be a virtual rock star, and try and whip through a "virtual career". In my mind I have "learned a song" when I can play it through, not get 50% of the notes and that doesn't seem to be what it's gear towards. It seems like it's possible to learn a song "in spite" of the game, not because of it. The rehearsal section as some others have mentioned is frustrating, and not very helpful for me. A simple slow-down function would be much more effective for me.
It does adjust for ability, and adds new notes when you start getting better - but if you miss the new notes, you are back where you were before. Tough to learn something new when you can't try it again. Again, being able to slow it down until you have mastered the new stuff and then speed it up would be most helpful. I do not find the existing rehearsal options helpful.
Tuning ... every time you do something, it requires you to re-check your tuning ... over and over and over. For example - I have to check my tuning before I rehearse a section of a song, and then 30 seconds later if I want to go over it again, it requires that I check my tuning again. Would it be that tough to put a timer in, and have to re-tune only after 5 minutes or maybe the game could detect you are getting out of tune, and require a re-tune. My guitar stays in tune for days, but it doesn't matter - forced to re-check over and over, even though I don't have to adjust anything.
It doesn't label strings, or notes (even give you the option) so you're not going to learn that either. It's not even really teaching you to read tab.
Enough griping I guess. Bottom line, I hoped it would help and encourage me, and instead it leaves me feeling wickedly frustrated, incompetent, having learned nothing new, and wanting to leave my guitar sitting in it's stand. Obviously with all the positive reviews a lot of people enjoy it, and maybe it is helpful for them, but not for me (or possibly some of you). | video-games_xbox |
I expected more. I am a fan so I was disheartened when I read such horrible reviews. However, I also know people can exaggerate on their reviews so since I wouldnt break my bank by buying this I took the plundge. I mainly bought it for online but I usually play campaign as well. So here's the lowdown:
Good:
If you are forgiving about story line and all that then you're fine. Enjoy the game. Crank up the volume, dim the lights and "let's rock"! The weapons are from the movies with a few additional...nothing like a super lazer blaster but more like a tactical shotty, battle rifle and normal stuff. The specials are Hudson's pulse rifle, Sanchez's smaDon't'un, Gorman's pistol and Hick's shotty. It has a points sytem to buy upgrades from gun graphics to secondary weapons.
Online play is more fun, but again the graphics still rough. If an alien is still enough from farther away, you can miss it spinning around. I would guess there is about the same disadvantage if you were the alien. Alien control more sluggish than prior themed games like the AvP series. In those you ran like a bastard 360 up the walls until you puked....here...not so puke inducing speed.
Bad:
There's a slight bad at the tail end of the good section if you didn't catch it. The graphics were sub par. Most game makers are working on making new releases so damn realistic. This was a mixture of Ps2 and Wii so that was a good disappointment there. You can't customize your character in campaign mode and you don't choose one either but then again, this isn't COD or BF. Depending on your preference of gameplay, it was a decent pace. I think they tried to make it more suspenseful like a movie with gameplay so take my opinion for what it's worth. Don't get me wrong, there will still be enough people and aliens trying to take a bite out of your a$$ but if you're expecting hordes all at once then buy zombie games.
Conclusion: Don't get wrapped up in the marketing craze. Don't get into extreme fanboy mode or computer geekdom with "it wasn't even multidimensional polygonal blah blah blah" whatever...you know what I mean. Find it on sale or get it for about 30 to 45 bucks max (definitely not full price) and just enjoy the freakin game. But really, I did expect Sega and whoever else to put out more eye candy at least for such a franchise. | video-games_xbox |
Simply Amazing. Having never spent a considerable amount of time actually listening to a true surround sound system before, I am not an experienced audio reviewer and am in no way an "audiophile" but I would consider myself to have a pretty good ear. I had spent some time looking for a good 5.1 system to connect my xbox 360 to and, on a college student's budget, this was definitely the best option available.
Out of the box, the sound quality was incredible, everything I heard was amazing: games, movies, music. The setup was very easy for anyone who knows anything about electronics. I have never set up a sound system before and did not have a single issue with this one. One possible issue you may encounter would be hearing a slight buzzing sound from one of the speakers, this happens if you do not get the wire in all the way.
ALSO: Make sure your Xbox is set to output at Digital 5.1, the default on mine is Digital Stereo, and there is a considerable difference between the two.
I use the system with my computer as well (I use a 3.5mm out to RCA (red/white) cable) and it may just be my settings or the fact that it is an analog stereo signal, but it definitely sounds different. I would not say worse, because I mostly listen to music and I think it still sounds incredible, just not the same as when outputed by the xbox.
Using the MCACC auto calibration worked fairly well, although I though it was somewhat harsh on the Rear speakers, but it is fairly easy to adjust any of the channel levels to a volume of your liking.
The only complaint (and the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5) I could possibly have is that the display is somewhat difficult to use and understand at times. First, there are many different sound options to choose from, and the differences between them are not really explained anywhere but the manual, which is not very good about exactly what each sound mode is and when to use it. The display is small and has very limited information, so it is difficult to tell what sound mode you are in and what options you have enabled. | video-games_xbox |
One of the best games I've played to date. To be honest, I'm going to start off this review by revealing something about myself. In my group of friends, I'm the only one who just downright doesn't like RPG's. I've attempted to play many in the past and have come out disappointed with every single one in the end. But Fallout held something new for me.
A lot of my friends will point to the fact that it was not turn based as I have very little patience for turn based games. I thoroughly enjoyed Oblivion and this game QUICKLY became one of my top 3 favorite games on the Xbox 360 console.
The things I loved about this game number in the many. So I'll start with the pro's.
-While a lot of people have complaints about the V.A.T.S. system and while I can definitely see the point being made, the system enables you to focus in on a particular body part/weapon and attempt to disable that body part/weapon with a much more accurate shot than if you didn't use the system at all.
-The PipBoy was one of the better item management tools I've seen in a game to date. It was the go-to gadget for your stats, weapons, clothes, maps, radio stations, etc, etc..
-The music in this game was big for me. I'm not really a fan of the era of music being played but I have to admit, a part of me loved listening to these little tunes over and over again. However, there is also a con to the music and I will list it below.
-The main questline, while relatively quick to get through if you did nothing but focus on it, was a deep story which immediately drew me into the game and kept me playing for hours.
While I have many more pros, I don't want people to be reading for hours so lets skip to the cons...
-The music, while I enjoyed listening to it, I do believe more tracks could've been added. When you've roamed the Wasteleands for as much time as I have, it tends to get kind of annoying.
-I understand that Washington D.C. has been ruined by a nuclear war, but the fact that almost everything in the inner-D.C. ruins was only accessible by a series of confusing tunnels was a bit annoying. I found myself spending more time in the deep, dark tunnels than I did breathing in post-nuclear war air.
And really, those are the two major cons I have with this game. Otherwise, I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this game. I told my group of friends I wouldn't even touch this game and to this day I'm the only one out of my group who actually got addicted to it.
Hope this helps! | video-games_xbox |
Wow. This game is amazing. A fun campaign, a great score, and spectacular graphics make Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary one of the best games of 2011. I'll put the different parts into sections, as can be seen below:
CAMPAIGN: (no spoilers)
The campaign of HCEA is great. You have about 10 missions, which are very fun and somewhat long. The addition of skulls was a great one, as well as the Terminals. Like Halo 3, you have to find the skulls in the campaign, and all are not unlocked by default like Halo Reach. You cannot use some of the weapons, like the Energy Sword or Fuel Rod Gun. In this game, the Shotgun and Pistol are much more powerful than in previous installments. The pistol is so overpowered that one shot to the exposed back of a hunter is a kill, no matter what difficulty it is (you're welcome)! I'd say that the campaign is about 10 hours to complete, and that doesn't include replays to collect all the skulls and terminals and to complete it on a higher difficulty. The music in the campaign, originally written by Martin O'Donnell, is one of the best in any videogame. And if you're wondering how much of a difference graphics-wise this game is to the original 10 years ago, hit the back button to enter Classic mode, where you can play the game the exact same way, but with the original graphics. And for those of you with a Kinect, you can give basic voice commands to your character, such as "Grenade" or "Reload". You can also use the Halo Library, which allows you to scan various items and look them up at the main menu.
MULTIPLAYER:
Fans may be disappointed to know that Halo CEA's multiplayer is the same as Reach's multiplayer, just different maps. The game comes with a free download code for the Anniversary Map Pack, which includes all 7 CE maps along with one Firefight map (more on that later). So if you have Reach, you can install the map pack for free and play it on that disc. If not, you'll only have the Anniversary maps that are only playable on the Anniversary disc. I have not played all of the maps yet, but I am pleased with my experience so far.
FIREFIGHT:
If you do not know, Firefight is a game mode in which you fight off wave after wave of enemies until all lives are lost or the time limit is reached. The new Firefight map, Installation 04, is probably my favorite so far. It is a medium-sized map, mainly focused on a Forerunner structure on one of the Halos. A new addition to this map is the assistance of ODSTs, elite marines fighting with you. They do not help you very much, and die very easily. You start out with a Warthog and Mongoose, which respawn every round. This map, along with pretty much every Firefight map, is more fun with friends.
Would I recommend this game to a friend? YEs | video-games_xbox |
I won't say it, I won't say it, I won't say it. ... but I'm going to have to. This is without a doubt, THE best comic book/ superhero video game I have played yet. Batman has been done right finally and I might as well say the same for all superheroes because after this release, all developers of future superhero game releases will have quite a bar to jump over and I'm positive that we are going to see some stellar titles from here on out.
This is a title done right. The gameplay is absolutely solid, the story is faithful to the source and overall, it's a complete blast that caters to all kinds of gamers and their playing styles. You want stealth play? Check. You want to run in, fists and feet flying? Check. You want to run around solving puzzles and collect stuff scattered about for no good reason other than to shut the Riddler up? Check.
I have to say, I am absolutely impressed with everything about this game. The controls are spot on and fighting a crowd of goons is akin to watching a balletic display of brute grace. The level of violence in this game is pretty surprising as well. You're not going to see brains getting splattered across a wall but a punch to the face never looked as painful as it does here. Same said for a kick to the side of the head or a punch to the kidneys. Batman beats his foes bad and you'll love being in charge of the whuppings he administers.
You get to play with a decent amount of Bat-gadgetry and the game takes on a Metroid-ish quality when you revisit certain areas to access new ones you couldn't get to before because you've got a new toy that'll help get you there. The graphics are beautiful and Arkham Asylum itself is a big, nasty place that will make your skin crawl from time to time. The story definitely takes on a horror element and manages to achieve a sense of claustrophobia and dread as you walk down Arkham's rotted halls. The surround sound adds another layer of immersion and helps in locating anything from one of the Joker's henchmen to a pair of chattery teeth you might have to destroy. There's a lot more to the game I'd love to tell you about but I think you should go into it as fresh as possible just so you could experience it the way I did. The game travels to some dark places at times and it's in these moments where I felt the developers really showed their stuff and gave it all they had.
If you love Batman and the mythology, I think it's safe to say that you'll love this game. Just about every major villain appears or is at least referenced to in some manner. The voice work is flawless and getting Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill to voice Batman and the Joker respectively is just another detail to put a grin on your face. It's very dense and even the most astute Batman fan might find a new thing or two to discover about the Batman universe.
I'm done. This game is pretty much a must-own or at the very least, a must-play if you couldn't already tell from the dry humping I did of this game in the earlier paragraphs. It's a game that'll keep you busy for a good while and is a hell of a lot of fun. Lastly, I'm thankful to see that game studios (some at least) still care enough to create something that is faithful to its source and not just a cash-in. It would be great if games that were movie tie-ins could also be this polished. | video-games_xbox |
Great Shooter; Encourages Players to Work Together. I started following this game when I first heard about it nearly two years ago. With each bit of released information I got more and more excited. Then, I finally got it. I popped it out of the case, slid it into the disc tray of my 360, and didn't get up until 5 hours later. Do not be fooled if you think you can get into this game and be a lone wolf, 30 kills, 3 deaths walking tank. It will not happen. You are encouraged to work as a team to complete objectives and help other fighters on your team out. I have heard people complain about the fact that you start with three clips of ammo. This is true, but if you are a soldier class you can replenish your own ammo or you can have another soldier replenish it for you regardless of your class. I've also heard complaints that you have to be the right class for certain objectives. While this is the basic idea, you will always have things to do no matter what class you prefer. I finished the Resistance campaign without ever being any other class than soldier. What was my job most of the time? Defending objectives or the teammates of mine who could accomplish the objectives. You will always have something to do. I really liked the parkour elements and thought they were very smooth when it came to using them in a combat situation. The only frustration I've is how often I would get downed right next to an easy to complete objective only to have every medic (I was playing a solo offline campaign) that tried to revive me get mowed down before they could even get close. I really liked the guns in this game and the character customization. I also like that you have to complete challenges to earn new guns and accessories though I feel that this part of the game could have been expanded upon since there are only four challenges and you get a whole bunch of stuff for just doing one. Overall, this is a great game and I recommend it to any FPS gamer who is tired of the same Call of Duty clones and wants a new experience and a new challenge, especially if you like to apply teamwork to your online gaming. | video-games_xbox |
Massive waste of money. I did not purchase my controller through Amazon, it was bought directly through XBox Live, but my experience has been so poor that I felt compelled to post here. Before I explain, it is important to note that I take excellent care of my tech. I own phones and tablets that are more than 3 years old that still look and work the same as the day I brought them home, and I treated this controller with the same level of care. Also, both of the standard controllers that I bought with the system a long time ago still work like new. Out of the box this controller looked and felt great. Everything FEELS high quality and well built. Unfortunately, that initial feel has quickly disappeared. The problems started only a month or so in with the controller randomly shutting off in the middle of games as if battery power was lost, even with brand new batteries. Then, the left anaolg stick began to "float" while playing meaning i could set my controller down and it would start walking forward, scrolling through menus, etc... Then, the left analog stick was suddenly loose to the point where I can lift the base of the stick off of the mechanism that reads movement about 1/16 of an inch if not more so that it is no longer in contact with the mechanism. I can even turn the controller upside down and the stick will just fall loosely into the opening. Lastly, the rubber grip has a bubble that is slowly peeling away from the controller. While the controller is still useable for most part, the issues with the analog stick at times causes movements in game to not register or unintentionally register, and obviously the battery issue causes major problems when it occurs in the middle of play. My friend has had one for longer than me and his is still good, but his was purchased before XBox partnered with Scuff to build the officially licensed Elite, whereas mine was purchased after. My personal experience is that this is an absolute gimmick, and a massive waste of money. If it was just one thing, I might assume that I got a defective controller, but the fact that multiple issues have occured spread out over time makes me believe that this is just a shoddy product. | video-games_xbox |
HI-DEF HORROR HITS A HIGH. I tend not to be easily impressed - I have only written a few reviews and only when I felt I really had something to say (or in this case, something to defend). With the release of Dead Rising, the time has once again re-surfaced and the dead has been resurrected - meaning this reviewer (so to speak!). For the two of you out there who do not know the plot: A photojournalist finds himself in a mall swarming with the undead. He has three days to get his story, take some cool pictures and, if he desires, save a few stranded shoppers - all the while trying to keep himself from becoming zombie chow! Now, let's get the one negative out of the way first: the save system is seriously lacking - both in implementation and frequency. Not only does the game allow for only one save (!!!???) - but the bathrooms in which to save (clever - pee and save at the same time) - are few and far between...and very hard to locate - especially when it is (too) dark. While I applaud the decision to make saves somewhat limited - which I believe adds to the heightened tension of the game...the makers of Dead Rising have gone too far in the other direction. The tension is now merely frustrating!
On to the positive - which are many (and contrary to the less than glowing reports below!). The free-roaming is exceptional - and allows you to make up your own missions should you decide not to go with the "cases". The sheer number of the on-screen undead is awesome - and reminds one of some movies that will go unnamed. The mall layout, design and graphics are nothing short of amazing - as are the myriad of items found within the shops that can be used as weapons: potted plants, cd's, signs, knives, chainsaws, lawnmowers, bowling balls, frisbees, mannequins, stuffed animals, dishes, benches, just to name a few!!!). Go to the food courts and hamburger stands and theatre concession to find food items to regain health (again, clever)! And just for fun, the gamemakers have allowed our hero, Frank - the aforementioned hot-shot photojournalist seeking the story of a lifetime, to change his wardrobe within the various clothing stores (from designer suits, to too-tight kid's clothes, to sports gear!) You can even satisfy the closeted transvestite within and give Frank a nice dress to wear for the zombie slaughter!!! While this has no impact on the gameplay, it is a nice and amusing touch. The environments are somewhat destructible (nothing more satisfying than smashing through a plate-glass window to escape - although more destructibility would have been even better!). The sound is outstanding as is the voice acting (I was unable to find any actors' credits, though) and character models (contrary to another reviewer's comments). Overall, an amazing (and gory) game - with high replayability! Dead Rising rises to the top of the horror games (alongside Condemned, Suffering and Resident Evil 4). Do not allow the haters to disuade you from this game! | video-games_xbox |
Consoles' Best Shot at Mainstream Online Success. The Xbox may not be the best selling console yet, but of the people who own consoles, Xbox owners may be the most eligible candidates to create a strong online community. The hardware in the Xbox include all the necessary components: hard drive for upgrades and memory cache, broadband adapter for connection and DVD drives for FMV and plenty of space.
I received the Xbox Live Beta kit recently and let me say that this is for real, folks. It comes with a perfectly engineered microphone headset that has a separate volume control and mute button that you connect to a controller. Your headset only receives audio from other gamer's headsets so you can adjust the game sounds and music separately.
Signing up was a breeze: punch in numbers and you are signed up for the next 12 months. At the end of that term, you get to re-sign for the same rate .... It took about ten minutes and then I was ready to go live...
Three online demos were included: MotoGP, Whacked and NFL Fever 2003 (though only MotoGP and Whacked will be in the retail package)
MotoGP is a lot of fun to play, hardly any lag and you can talk ... as you fly by someone on the course. You can customize the soundtrack...but let me say it sure is hard to turn. Whacked is kind of like a third person shooter with a very zany cast of characters. It is a fun little game that seems to top out at four players online. You can staple, freeze, mine, and blow up your opponents for frags or in the "combat" game mode, you collect stars from other players.
NFL Fever 2003 probably is the least refined of the three, but is also the most ambitious scope that Sega began with the Dreamcast. I played a few matches, two with single players, and one with three players hooked up to one console (one account holder and two of his guests). Loading times were a bit excessive, running about two to three minutes. But once in game, there were not too many problems. I forsee people needing to be a little more picky when it comes to choosing low ping players in the same region. There were multiple freezes where a "Congestion" type message popped up, especially during the match with three live players. I got booted from two games and finished one. Personally, I prefer Madden or NFL2K, but Fever didn't seem to suffer much in the way of its graphics being online. Perhaps graphics need to be scaled down a touch for latency purposes. But it was loads of fun to play a real person. I'd imagine you'll be able to play 4 on 4 between two Xbox Live owners & 3 of their friends if the connection is solid.
For [the price], the value is very good. If you have the setup for it, broadband and an Xbox, with MechAssault, Unreal Championship and many more to come (approx 60% of future games will be Xbox Live), this is going to be the online package that everyone wants. | video-games_xbox |
Not anything great, but still very good. I bought this game after reading several lukewarm reviews. I am what you would call a casual RPG fan, but I've played several since I was a kid with an SNES and a copy of Final Fantasy 2. I love old fashioned turn based RPGs. Lost Odyssey, while not fun for everyone was one of my absolute favorites in the last decade, so I've tried to give more of the recent RPGs a chance. Infinite Undiscovery is by no means a bad game, its actually pretty good, but there are a few things about it that will probably turn away several hardcore SquareEnix fans.
First of all, the combat. Its real time, and although it works decently well, it simply isn't anything too spectacular. I like the feel of strategy that turn based RPGs give me. Carefully deciding how best to attack and which spells to use and when to use them. I love leveling up my characters and the unleashing their hard earned powers on enemies. Infinite Undiscovery does a good job with the leveling up (sort of) but the real time combat just isn't really that much fun. It works, but again, it is too frantic and button mashing to contain really any strategy. This might not bother some other players, but for me it just feels awkward.
The only other complaint I have is that even though the story is very solid and interesting, the places you travel to seem pretty empty. The towns only have a few people walking around and it just feels like if you're trying to do something like save the world, the stakes should seem higher in that you can actually see all the people that will perish if you don't! I think I've seen more cats and dogs roaming the towns than actual people, and that makes the game less immersive for me.
Overall though, it is a good game with a good story. I got mine for just over $20 and that was well worth it. Give it a shot if you like RPGs, but try to just accept it for what it is or you won't enjoy it as much. | video-games_xbox |
Good sound quality, still needs a lot of work. Typing this review on mobile, i apologize if something reads weird.
I purchased these headphones back in early August, at first I was very pleased with them until I started experiencing issues that seem to plague this particular headset. Below is a short list of the positive and negative parts of this headset as seen by me.
Positive:
- A lot of different sound options to customize your sound experience - most impressive
- The Superhuman Hearing option definitely helps in multiplayer for games like Call of Duty and Battlefield. Many times was i able to pick up sounds of footsteps or reloading of a weapon, that I normally wouldn't have heard, which gave me the advantage knowing my opponent was around the corner.
- True wireless headset, no connecting wires whatsoever from the headset, nor are there any attachments for the controller.
- The battery charge of the headset does last quite a while, enough for hours of gaming on end without needing a charge. It also gives you multiple warnings when the battery is getting low. First warning is given when you have around 30-60 minutes of battery left. As the battery vets lower the warnings come in shorter intervals.
Negative:
- The head band and earphone plastic seems to be made out of flimsy/cheap material which breaks easily. I've had the headset less than two months and the headband is already broken. For $200+ I would expect something far more durable. This headset is not for people with larger than "normal" heads. I have a melon on my neck, but nothing that would be considered abnormal, I'm just a big guy at 6'7".
- Ear pads get uncomfortable/hot around your ears fairly quickly, constantly having to readjust around ears to remove headset to give my ears/head a break. Which probably contributed to the headset breaking so fast.
- There's a buzzing noise like interference that comes through the headset, similar to when you would leave a cell phone next to a speaker and the speaker would start spazzing out when a call or text would come in. I did extensive testing with this to verify that it wasn't my cell phone. With all portable electronic devices on the other side of the house (Bluetooth setting turned off on headset) I was still experiencing this noise. The noise was soft enough that I was able to hear the game sound, but loud enough to distract me completely during a game (both story mode campaign as well as multiplayer battles).
- Headset periodically loses connectivity to console, I'd have to unplug the power to the headset base for 10 seconds d's and plug it back in to get the signal back. Sometimes when joining a chat party I couldn't hear anyone and no one could hear me, I'd have to restart my Xbox to fix the headset party issues (only experienced this issue with this headset so far).
Would I buy this headset if I knew all of the above problems, probably not. Sound quality and all the cool things it can do are great, but if I can't wear the headset or concentrate on the sound (see previous buzzing noise feedback) then it isn't worth it. I love Turtle Beach but some of these problems seem to run in most, if not all, of their products. | video-games_xbox |
Great racing game, best Dirt Game ever, ultra realistic. This is a really great Rally game and exactly what I have been waiting for years for the Dirt team to do. This my friends separates the boys from the men, the skilled from the pretender. This isn't bumper derby arcade racing kids, sorry if your upset that you lack the patience and motor skills to control the vehicles. With some slight modifications and some time on Google, I was really able to find tune the cars to my style fairly easy. I use a standard X Box One controller and while I'm not setting records my first week playing, I am able to compete and finish in the top consistently.
The one thing the game is seriously lacking is a tuning track where you can practice and tune the car without quitting to the main menu and loading it again. The practice runs are nice, but there should be way less time reloading the game just to fine tune your car for each segment. Other than that I love the cockpit cam it adds a degree of realism and difficulty but they could do a better job with some of the cars cockpits as they sometimes have visual obstructions.
Here are some tips for those struggling mightily;
Turn off the driver assists and drive in manual trans mode. You will never compete in auto and the tracks are much easier to navigate once you get use to shifting and using the gears to take turns properly.
Use the weight of the car and the steering to control your car and take turns.
Read the tutorials and learn how to execute a Scandanavian Flick consistently.
Drive the car with defaults setup and get used to how it handles before you start making changes to it.
Spend some tuning the advanced steering controls before you start tuning the car to suit your style of play.
Don't follow other users set ups, use them as a guide, but figure out what you like for your driving style. Go back to the default setup again after you make changes to make sure it's really better for you.
Drive through the course slowly when your in rally and use all of your practice sessions to tune your car in the before the first race of each meet.
Make minor setup adjustments, don't change several parts at one time without testing them to see the affect each one has on the handling.
Listen to the navigator and learn how to read the turns as he calls them. It's the key to the rally part of the game. | video-games_xbox |
Too Much To Say, Not Enough Time. I was pleasantly surprised by this game! I bummed it off a buddy for $10 and I can really say that it was one of the best (video game) purchases I've ever made. I got it with Halo, so you can guess where my priorities were, but the roles of the game were soon flipped when I realized how addictive Morrowind was. I'm the sort of gamer who loves to be able to get neck deep in storylines and, while this game isn't a game that focuses on extravogent storylines, the control over this game is really in the hands of the gamer. Within the first 10 minutes you're given choices that will change certain points of the game. You pretty much get to build your character from the ground up.... or at least from the neck up.
Again, the storyline isn't exactly award winning, but it's interesting enough that you'll soon find yourself spending hours on end completing quests (just for the main plot) to see what happens next. There are practically NO cutscenes, but everything stays active as long as you read what other people tell you. If you don't, you'll find yourself frustrated because you don't know what to do and your journal isn't giving you enough to go on. So, reading skills are great, but I found that the reading wasn't so bad as it kept you interested and didn't drag on forever.
Sometimes you'll feel like you're just a messenger boy, but you always have to option of cutting someone's head off or making the wrong person mad to make things fun again. Hey, if they attack you then you can kill them and loot their body and no one will question it. How great is that?!
There are a few major problems that can get gamers ticking. Like the flawed combat system, which will leave beginners overwhelmed because they're getting killed by common rats. But, faithful gamers, there's light at the end of the tunnel! Just reach level 30 and I promise that everything will be better! *snickers* Oh yeah, and just remember: if you kill the wrong person you can mess the entire storyline up... that's not good.
There are TONS of stuff to do and HOURS upon HOURS of sidequests (cults, clans, guilds, people's problems) and searching to do. I spent an entire afternoon just cruising around the continent of Morrowind (which is, what... 16 square miles I think they said?) looking for sunken ships and caves. This little game pretty much took over my life for 8 months. That's how into it I got. Most people won't spend the hours I spent on it, but if you're willing to put at least 30 hours into it (just to get started) then I promise it will take over your life as well. Enjoy! Go buy it now!! | video-games_xbox |
Worst dancing game I've played in a long time. I bought this bundle not because I am interested in High School Musical, but because an Xbox 360 dance mat is hard to find. I figured I would just swallow my pride and deal with the Disney mat so I could play Dance Dance Revolution on my Xbox.
The mat seemed to register fine when I plugged it in, so I started to play Dance Dance Revolution Supernova! The High School Musical mat has a faux-leather backing that left me worried at first, but it didn't slip around on the carpet once in play. The top is textured plastic that felt a little slick, but isn't as bad as other mats I have seen so I wasn't worried.
What made me actually worry is that the mat quickly got sticky as I worked up a sweat. Having the mat come up with my feet caused me to miss a lot of arrows. My feet stuck a little even while wearing socks. It also is very, very thin to the point of discomfort during play. I might be a little biased due to years of play on a cozy inch thick foam Ignition PS2 mat, but I have also played hard mats and find even that hard mats which have almost no give were more comfortable than this! The mat is also too thin for good pressure sensitivity. I was having pad misses right out of the box because it sometimes would not recognize steps unless I took my foot all the way off the pad then put it back down again. Repeatedly hitting the same arrow was a gamble that I frequently lost.
Then I tried the game that came with the mat and found out why the mat sucks: It's not made for any remotely difficult dancing. I cranked the difficulty as high as Senior Year would let me and I found it was no harder than Dance Dance Revolution on Light (easy) Mode. I play Standard (medium/difficult) or higher!
Senior Year combines the worst of dance games and hit the target games into a mess only someone who has never played dancing games before might appreciate. I have played many dancing and rhythm games, and this has the be the worst game play I have seen to date!
The targets flow out from the center to dots at the edges. Step when the target hits the dot. The problem is that you're stuck watching the center to figure out your step order while watching the edges to know when to step. This sort of poor design leads to artificial difficulty where you will miss steps because you were busy trying to figure out when to step or couldn't tell the actual order the steps came in. Good dancing games have it so you can easily tell step order and direction. No guessing required.
Activating the power ups is even worse. You fill the star meter in the upper left corner (oh goodie, another place to watch!) then hit A and B at the same time to activate your bonus. Yes, while you're expected to be watching the outside dots, the moving inside targets, and hitting the arrows with your feet all at the same time. You will break your combo doing this. I don't know why they shipped this game with a dance mat when this bonus mechanic obviously did not take the fact that humans have only two feet in mind. This is a controller game they shipped with a dance mat in order to appeal to parents. It's not really designed for playing with your feet.
The songs has good quality sound, but that's about all the good I can say about them. Think "After school special cheese" and you'll have an idea of what the song list is like. I guess that's OK for kids who have have no prior listening experience to wonderful dance music by artists like DaRude, Naoki, Lexy or BanYa, but I'd wager money that if you turned on some music by these artists you'd quickly gain converts.
The colors are bright and eye-popping. It looks nice and shiny, but everything also has a plastic feel due to the shininess. By themselves I'd say the graphics are nice for a kids game. However, when you mix in the over-complicated target system (which also changes colors, by the way!) you get a distracting mess. You can't watch the targets due to nice shiny video and you can't watch the video due to the crazy targets. How disappointing.
Overall this was a waste of money. The game is a dancing game you can't actually play with your feet. The mat is a dance mat that can't handle actual dancing. The only good part is that I didn't pay a lot to find this out. I just wish I knew sooner so I could have saved myself the trouble and money. | video-games_xbox |
Great for the Money. These headphones are great for the price. They are lightweight and comfortable and keep your ears/head relatively cool and sweat free. My friend who says he hates earphones because his ears are often too big for them said these fit just fine for him. There are several ways you can hook them up so they will work for all different configurations and you can use them on your computer so that's a bonus. The sound is great, as best as you can expect from a stereo L/R output with nice deep bass sounds. The mic quality is alright but like some other people have said it's a little muffled and actually performs better farther from your mouth.
Pros
- Sounds Quality
- Comfort
- Price
- Cord length
Cons
- I wish the mic plug that connects to the controller didn't have the plastic housing and two plastic wings to stabilize the connection because you can't use the controller keyboard with this setup. You could probably use a standard 1/4" male to male headphone jack cord to bridge the connection but it would be nice if it came that way.
- The Mic isn't great but move it away from your face some and it's a lot clearer.
- Even though the cord is a good length the box that controls game volume and voice volume is kind of heavy and has to hang while playing. Even though this is true it's light enough at you forget it's there even when moving your head.
- I wish the split where you plug it into the Xbox was larger. I pull the audio from the TV so it's a stretch to get the USB and Audio cable plugged in at the same time. If you have an newer Xbox that uses HDMI as it's output you will probably need some extra cables to make the connection from your receiver or TV.
Overall
Over all I don't think you are going to find something that works this well that is this cheap. The only other downside I can think of is the fact that it's corded. It has to be plugged into the USB port into the controller and audio source. It's a lot of plugging in to get it setup. If you were to go cordless however you would be paying a lot more for the same sound and voice quality and would have to deal with latency issues and battery charging. There's nothing worse then going silent because your headset is dead. | video-games_xbox |
Great it's now online. Title: Mortal Kombat: Deception
Description: Another chapter of Mortal Kombat begins. The deadly alliance has won, but an unexpected event complicates their taking of Earthrealm (well the fact they turn on each other after their recent victory doesn't help.) The true leader of Outworld, the Dragon King returns to reclaim his army and dominion. An alliance forms once again between the evil sorcerers Shang Tseung and Quan Chi, but this time even Raiden joins the alliance in desperation to avoid the Dragon King's return. It seems only the help of a mysterious stranger can help them fight this new and powerful enemy.
Platform: PS2, Xbox (reviewed,) and GC (koming soon)
Learning Curve: 9- This game will keep you busy for hours on end. There is so much to explore that if you can do it in a few weeks... you have no life. It's ok though because having no life is fine because who needs healthy relationships when you can kick the virtual crap out of your peers online and further your social handicaps as you talk trash to other players. Yes!!! You can play online now and the performance is actually excellent and with this title white hot right now you got plenty of competition. It's already very competitive ( I mean kompetitive geez where's my head these days.) There are lots of fighters to choose from each with 3 different fighting styles for endless fighting potentials. I've been studying advanced "kombat" on the first 4 fighters already and haven't gotten a chance to go in depth with the others. There are hidden characters to uncover from the krypt. There are different levels to uncover and even the existing ones on initial play have awesome level features that can give you an easy victory. Look out for those ledges. There are also new features. A tetris like puzzle game. An Archon like chess game. An adventure game so that you can play something linear along with your standard classic style Mortal Kombat. You got your hands full for a while with this title. You up for the challenge? If you are come join us in loserville... errr Xbox Live and back up that claim. It'll be more challenging than Halo 2's point and shoot (I'm not dissing FPSes, but we all know it's true.)
Replay Value: 10- Fighting games are like sports games. They exist for high replay value. You can play this game over multiple times challenging friends and honing your skills. Have a Mortal Kombat party with your friends since your girlfriend more than likely left you after acquiring this title. Oh well, good riddance. Mortal Kombat will have you slashing, laughing, and frustrated for months. Until you've moved onto another title which will be a while if you take the time to appreciate this gem.
Difficulty: 8- Because there is so much to consider when rating "difficulty" on this game I'm just bundling it up as a whole. Some aspects of the game will be easier for different players and others will breeze through others. Some gamers will transitition well into this title with Deadly Alliance on your gaming resume. Some characters like Scorpion pretty much function the same. Some will find the puzzles and chess challenging and some will just consider them an annoying mini-game that would best be left out. If you like just straight up "kombat" there is arcade like fighting so you can just avoid that annoying adventure game and puzzle stuff. Open minded gamers will like the new additions I think.
Guide: There is a MK:D guide available from Bradygames for $14.99. It isn't worth your time though. The guide is incomplete and I dunno why publishers even bother to put things out that don't give you an edge. Try IGN or Gamefaqs unless you just want the poster or want to save yourself printer paper. The special edition MKs will set you back about $59.99 so you may want to trim where you can as the holidays are just around the corner. If you ask me pass on the guide and Bradygames shame on you this is unlike you.
Pros: Lots of characters, Fun new mini-games, Entertaining adventure mode, multiple fatalities per character and Hari Karis, ONLINE PLAY (not for Gamecube,) and return of classic favorites like Baraka
Cons: My number one compliant on this title. Choppy controls. Button mashes need to be timed and inputted exact and that is difficult with the joystick. I suggest actually using the D-pad on this game and I hate the thing and I haven't used it since the PS1. The controls are also not responding correctly especially with Mileena in mid-combo. If you try to do her roll towards an opponent mid combo it incorrectly places you D pad input as forward and not back on the D pad. It is irritating me and in close matches that move could cost you the battle. You guys need to send out a fix for that. You listening Midway?
Time Expected to Invest: I think gamers who embrace this game will have months of fun with this title if another title doesn't draw their attentions away. Casual gamers will likely play it long enough to get basic combat down and they will want to see the fatalities and than they will shelf this title afterwards. Shame on you casual gamers that is why you guys get that reputation. I give you guys about 3 weeks with MK.
Retail Value: $49.99 MSRP and $59.99 for the special edition versions (Special includes collectible tin card, special box art, bonus DVD with MK in the making footage and an arcade perfect version of the original MK)
Suggested Purchase Price: I think if you're a big fan go ahead and get the special edition as they are in limited supply. If you just want the game ehhh, just wait till they go down to about 30 or try and grab it used. This season has so many good releases you really want to give MK some time try and pick it up when you the flood gates aren't open, but this is definitely a good title to pick up if your in the market.
Overall: 9- The controls and somewhat redundant effects of this MK make it a 9 instead of a 10, but that is a great score. Online play really makes this title. This title offers a lot and I am more than pleased with my purchase of the special edition. Contrary to other reviews I like my "arcade perfect" version of MK 1 and I haven't experienced the problems of other reviewers. This title will likely make it into my best 10 of 2004 games list, but this season will create it some competition late in the year. | video-games_xbox |
Great game but with 1 BIG BUG preventing it from being flawless. I loved this game. I was unhappy with the 8s it was getting in the press, especially from those reviewers that didn't seem to understand "why ya gotta knock out all the lights all the time" in The Darkness. Gee I don't know...I wonder why in a game called The Darkness that you have to be in the darkness to do stuff. Huh. Go figure...
Good
- voice acting (professional actors, plus Mike Patton)
- good story
- animation (especially the darkness tentacles). Tearing peoples hearts out is simply cool.
- competent shooter
- the hands in the FPS aspect of the game move differently that other FPS...it has it's own FPS style.
- no HUD means enjoy the beauty
- Strarbreeze is a good engine; it's good to have something else out there besides Unreal Engine.
- unexpected Hell levels. Very very cool.
- interactive TVs you can watch in the game (it's a little known fact that the blu-ray has 10gb more of non-exclusive content here than the xbox DVD9 - which offends me as an xbox owner).
Mediocre
- Friendly AI doesn't necessarily always shoot straight
Bad
- As with Starbreeze's last excellent title (Butcher Bay), it has a VERY BAD BUG THAT NEEDS TO BE PATCHED. At the time I played it, I got half-way through the game, and HAD TO RESTART FROM THE BEGINNING because of a glitch. This happened to all kinds of people in the xbox forum. It is inexcusable for a title that has so few side missions which are small and uncomplicated for this to happen! Bad game testing!!! This is my only criticism of the game. Similar thing happened in Butcher Bay - it let's you get significantly far into the game without forcing you to obtain a weapon that you WILL NEED in further levels forcing you to restart. BAD BAD BAD! I must say that NONE OF THE PROFESSIONAL REVIEWERS MENTION THIS BUG!!! They criticize it for really stupid things, like the fact that you have to knock out the lights! Hilary Goldstein (a guy with a girl's name) from IGN should be FIRED! He didn't understand the story. What's not to understand??? | video-games_xbox |
Female FPS fan became RPG fan with this game. To start with, yes I am a 40+ woman, who got into gaming when my son's friends weren't online and he wanted to know at least one person on his Halo 3 team. I love FPS and reluctantly tried and really liked Fable II. It was while I was looking over a Fable forum for some tips that I kept running into mentions of Oblivion and how much better it was than Fable.
I found the low-price Game of the Year edition at my local Gamestop and put it in into my xbox. Six months later I am still playing it. My first guy was a warrior and just beat his way through everything with a blade (usually with some wicked enchantment). It was so fun and I never tired of it. Most of the time I found I picked up way more loot than I could carry and had to make like 6 trips out of the dungeon/cave/ruin. I did the main quest right away because I felt the urgency of it, but later wished I would have done it as a higher level character.
I tried a battlemage next who would blast his way through with fire til he ran out of magic, then he'd beat down the last few enemies with whatever weapon he had on hand. Even more fun than before! I became a vampire once by accident and didn't realize that I could go back to an old save, so I started again with a girl elf who made and sold potions and raided some of the ruins.
I love the graphics, the overall feel of Cyrodiil and just how different the different regions are. Sometimes it seems I am running around in rain for a week, but then other times it is just a beautiful world and I find the highest spots to just look over the whole thing. I feel like I have friends in some of the NPCs that I encounter and a favorite (free!) house that I get to as soon as I can and make my home.
The enemies are very different and I like being able to set my difficulty to easy when I'm in a quest where I have to get a NPC that can be killled in the quest out alive, to extra hard where even the lowest level enemy could kill me with a hit or two, but I level up quicker.
I have tried other RPGs but I just love this game, I will always be planning my NEXT character and how I can do things differently next time. Sometimes I wish I could marry like in Fable, but I never spend much time at home, so probably it's better that I can't.
Buy this game, make sure you get the Game of the Year because the Shivering Isles is very interesting! But as everyone mentions, you will have trouble NOT playing it. | video-games_xbox |
Great to play but not WIRELESS. This bass was alot of fun to play and has a great feel, but it could have been better.
First of all... The Good.
- Has a more realistic look and feel than most guitar controllers. Its larger than the Rock Band guitars by about six inches and feels like a really comfortable size. The huge tuning pegs on the headstock just add to the great bass look
- The fret buttons are good quality and accurate. They are better than the original Rock Band guitar but not quite as smooth as the Rock Band 2 guitar.
- The split strum bar is a really great feature. It allows for two fingered bass play and feels very natural for a bass. The strum bars also have a 'positive click' when pressed and they don't feel 'squishy'. You know when you've plucked the note.
- The extra fret buttons at the bottom of the neck are a nice addition, but really not necessary for the bass. They added them to allow it to be used as a lead guitar, but without a whammy bar (more on that next) it's not great as a guitar.
Now for The Bad...
- The whammy bar... or in this case whammy 'knob'. To add to the look of a real bass, there is no whammy bar. But to make this more functional as a guitar they added a knob directly below the base of the neck that you spin back and forth to add whammy. It's a small knob, making it difficult to find at first without looking down. Once you find it, the knob doesn't feel good at all when you spin it. It has a cheap 'grinding' feel to it. Overall, the whammy knob just isn't fun to use.
- Another knob... the five position selector. Takes the place of the toggle switch on the Rock Band guitars. Basically, the same comments from the whammy knob apply here again.
- ANOTHER knob... the Start/Back button. This one just seems strange. Instead of the good ol' push buttons for Start and Back, they used a knob. Turn it left for the Back button and right for the Start button. I don't know if mine wasn't working properly, but on the song selection screen, my back button did not work. You should press Back to change the sorting option for the track list, but mine did nothing. I could not change the sort and had to scroll through all the songs to find what I wanted.
I get the reasons behind using all the knobs to give the bass a more realistic look. But in the end I would still prefer ease of use and function with larger, better quality knobs.
And finally... The Ugly!
- NOT WIRELESS!!! WHY?? It took years for consoles to finally use wireless technology that actually works great and we still have good ideas like this bass that don't use it!
- Price! Why am I paying the same price for a wired guitar as a good quality wireless? Normally, a wired guitar controller runs about $10 cheaper than a wireless version (the original Rock Band guitars, for example). But this bass is the same price as the awesome Rock Band 2 guitar right now. That's probably because of the split strum bar, they charge a little more.
After all this, I am not keeping mine. I can overlook the minor shortcomings with the knobs because the size is nice and the fret buttons and strum bar are good quality. But I am done dragging cords around behind me when I play. | video-games_xbox |
a wasted idea. I waited for months to play this game, I played to demo to death and picked it up as soon as it came out on the 8th. And was severely disappointed. This game had so much possibility but its execution was terrible. Originally you were to be given three days in a zombie filled mall to play as you please, take missions if you want, save people or let them die, etc. You could just sit on the roof and wait for the helicopter to come get you three days later. I wish ever so much that they would have left it like that. Instead they replaced a three day stay in a zombie filled mall, with unlimited potential, with a linear and annoying story. But even that could have been salvage, what ruined the game for me were the insane time limits. Instead of getting your necrocide on in the middle of the mall with any weapon imaginable, you are running from one idiotic boss battle to the next and watching the clock the entire time. Because if you miss completing a mission in the required time limit its game over. Add to that the ridicules save system that only allows you to save one game and what could have been the greatest zombie escapade ever became an annoying and repetitive kill joy. This game does have some really neat qualities to be sure. Almost anything can be used as a weapon, which is great because they last all of ten seconds or so. So when you are in the middle of a hundred zombies (also very impressive) you end up going through every weapon you can carry in your limited inventory. Of course you have to carry you health regenerators in the same inventory. So one second you are swinging a lead pipe into a zombie head and the next you are sipping some OJ as the horde closes in and devours you. I bought this game in the hopes of a Grand Theft Auto style mall adventure with zombies and ended up with a very difficult, unfun and annoying waste of sixty dollars. I should have just bought the Dawn of the Dead DVD and spend the rest on beer instead of wasting my hard earned money on this miserable buzz kill. | video-games_xbox |
Best Wireless Controller for Xbox. In my opinion this is the best wireless controller for the Xbox. Logitech simply knows how to make wireless controllers for the consoles and PC. I have tried other wireless controllers and found that they were all junk.
The controllers response is the best for a wireless. It comes close to the wired ones. But what it has in spades compared to wired is that you can sit back and play without worrying about tugging or yanking the controller. I have read other reviews where they complain about the thumbsticks and buttons but I have had no problems with these. Maybe they tend to play too rough with their controllers. Granted you do have to make sure that you press the buttons hard enough, you don't have to press so hard that you practically smash them. I have seen how some players will press on the buttons really hard when trying demo games at the store. You can see how they move their whole arms up and down like that will improve their effectiveness. Rule 1: Press the button in quick succession without hammering. I have also read complaints about the vibration feedback being insufficient and I had to laugh because I found it to be very good. What did they want? A vibrator? I think Logitech struck a good balance when they designed this controller because the vibrations were impactful but they did not drain the batteries. The battery life on this controller is amazing. That can probably be attributed to the automatic on and off feature where it will turn off after five minutes of non-use. I find this feature to be very important. Most controllers have a switch to turn it on and off such as the Wave Bird. Most people will forget to turn these off and end up wasting a lot of money on batteries. I have often found new batteries dead on the Wave Bird because I simply forgot to turn off the controller. What's really amazing is that these controllers only use two AA batteries. The original ones required four AA batteries which made them quite heavy and cumbersome.
These Logitech Xbox controllers were sold at $50 dollars when they were sold at the store. They are now very hard to find. If you are looking for this wireless you will probably only find them online as they are no longer being made. Companies like Logitech no longer make hardware for the old Xbox unfortunately. And if you are looking for a wireless controller you should stick with Logitech as you can't go wrong with these. Learn from me and don't waste your money on those cheaply made controllers from Intec or other third-party controllers. Believe me, you won't use those at all. As they say, you get what you pay for. | video-games_xbox |
Great if you love multiplayer. I bought COD4 when it came out. Was anticipating it as much as anyone. At that time, I didn't play many games online. I find other people irritating, people seem to sing in the mic, yell at their moms, and talk trash. Not that this is bad, but it can be extremely aggravating when certain people do it.
When I got COD4, the single player game was very quick (as it is on World at War), this was unfortunate for me, but on the bright side, it did encourage me to get some value out of it by playing online. Before I knew it I was hooked. Running around, hiding, blasting foes online, it was very fun, and very addicting. I spent many nights playing that game (I still do).
When COD World at War was announced, I immediately said, no. I bought COD2, and loved it, I assumed 3 would be fine, but it was not. It was made by Treyarch and I felt ripped off.
Luckily for me, my cousin had the beta for cod waw, and brought it over and I played it. I feel in love, and immediately pre-ordered the game on amazon.
Now that its here, and I have been playing it (for a while) i can honestly say, if you enjoyed COD4, you will enjoy COD WAW. Sure COD4 has modern maps, and modern weapons. I love it. WW2 games are kinda old hat, but this game isn't just a simple COD4 expansion pack (as many would hope for) it is much more.
You get a new co-op mode (which is pretty cool!) I think this is a new trend and I hope more people do this, it brings so much to the game.
You still have a short single player campaign. Some people are complaining about how it feels like its you versus the entire regime, and its true. Sadly this is the way it is in most games. This is not exclusive to WaW.
The fact that it is short, actually makes it better. It doesn't get old, and you can say screw it, and play the campaign in a day. This encourages re playability.
With that said, the ONLY reason I got this game was multiplayer. And wow, does it shine. I'm not a fan of vehicles (didn't like them in battlefield, don't like them here either), but they do add a certain element to the gameplay.
The maps are huge! This is great, you can run around and explore the maps, its much larger and totally different than what you are used to in COD4. The perk system is as good as ever. The perks are pretty cool too. I really love this game.
The graphics are about as good as COD4, which is impressive. Some of the levels really shine, like Rome, Courtyard, and Castle. The graphics on this look very good, beating COD4 by a mile.
All in all, if you have xbox live gold, and your not adverse to playing online, this game is more than worth getting. I played COD4 more than most any other game for the xbox (almost as much as Forza) and I'm pretty sure I will do the same for COD WAW
A cool thing is, once you beat the single player, you and some friends can go and shoot zombies via co-op. This is cool and unexpected.
1 last thing I must mention are the new modes, here we get War (which is similar to battlefield 2 on the pc, where your team tries and hold down a flag (though here you are competing only against 1 point, making it much more rampant, for better or worse, it is what it is) another cool add-on is capture the flag, where you run and get your enemies flag.
All in all this is a good game, I highly recommend it. If you liked COD4, and didn't want to pick this up because IW did not make it (as I once did) rest assured, it is a good game. COD3 this is NOT. This is money well spent. | video-games_xbox |
Same in ring action, lots of details to the game. This is not a step forward from the last Raw game, instead it's a big step sideways. Raw 2 is like the game makers perfected the original Raw game (it only took them 2 years). First off this is a wrestling game, the player may select from one of over sixty WWE "superstars" to compete in a match. During this match the player may use different strikes by pressing the directional pad and the X button and may grapple his opponent by pressing the A button. When performing a grapple, the player can do a weak maneuver by pressing X and the directional pad or a strong maneuver by pressing A and the directional pad. Each WWE "superstar" in the game has their own moves, taunts, strikes, grapple maneuvers, high risk maneuvers and even ways to get in and out of the ring. Unfortunately there are not many submissions in the game, so everyone has the same half Boston crab submission. The game uses a new "spirit" meter that tracks how well the wrestler is doing, when the spirit meter is green, they are doing fine, when it is red, they are ready to do a finishing maneuver, and when it blinks danger, that person is ready to be finished. The wrestlers are big, bold, and life-like chiseled versions of themselves in the game. Even with the great graphics of the game, six wrestlers are allowed to compete at once, and even a referee is in the ring! The matches players can compete in are Normal Singles Matches, Tag, Triple Threat, Fatal 4 Way, Battle Royal, King of the Ring Tournaments, Cage, Hall in a Cell, and Tables, "Ladders and Chairs" (TLC). Despite the game allowing six people in the ring at once there are no six-man tag team matches, however there are Hall in a Cell Matches that allow six people and a referee in them. There are four different referees who count at different speeds, it can be extremely difficult sometimes, because the referees can count so slow you can never get a pinfall! There are fourteen arenas to compete in, Raw, Smackdown and all twelve of the Pay-Per-View Arenas (unlike the original Raw game that just had one arena). Now for the big part of the game, the modes, there are so many modes in this game! You have a quick play mode, for people that just want to throw a match together, an exhibition mode, so you can make your own match to play in, a season mode, which is an ongoing story where you compete show after show in matches, a King of the Ring mode, where you set up a bracket style tournament, a "tournament" mode, where you set up a bracket style tournament, but you can also make the match types yourself. a Royal Rumble mode, where its your wrestler against up to 64 other wrestlers that come to the ring; the object is to throw everyone else over the top rope. There are also design modes like "create a superstar" where you create your own wrestler and save up to 64 of them! "Create a tag team" that allows players to create either a two man or three man tag teams and create their entrances and a movie mode so you can see all the WWE superstar's entrance videos you have enabled. Now that you know all the modes, here are some in depth things about the Season mode and "create a superstar" mode. With the season mode, a month for the season consists of only one Raw, only one Smackdown, then that month's pay per view! The season mode works on a popularity system, lets say you play as Brock Lesnar, he is popular, Rico is not. So what does this popularity do? There are titles, the WWE championship, the "World" championship, Women's, Cruiserweight, Smackdown Tag, and Raw Tag. The popularity of the title-holder of the belt determines who can compete for that belt. World champion Triple would not let Spike Dudley compete for the belt, but he would let a popular superstar like Shawn Michaels go for the belt. So how do you get more popular? For each match of a TV show, you can do something to get more popular, you can win your match, interfere in someone else's match, sneak attack a wrestler, set a trap for a wrestler, call out a wrestler, manipulate a wrestler to attack your enemy, encourage an ally, find a manager, steal something (this is how you enable outfits and entrance videos), or break up with a tag partner. Everything you do can either get you more popular or less popular, and there is a chance you could fail doing these things. Everything you do will cost you spirit for your match on that show, so you could go into your match in "danger." You can also build alliances and enemies in the season mode. Create a superstar is extremely detailed, everything from their in ring attire, their out of ring attire, their name, alliances, attributes, and "character" to their wrestling moves, and an extremely detailed entrance where you can pick their lighting, pyrotechnics (you can even time the pyrotechnics!), their entrance video (you can even make their entrance video with the created superstar), you can also use music on your X-Box for your superstar's entrance theme! Finally, there are over 60 wrestlers in the game, and here is a list: Austin, Goldberg, Batista, Big Show, Billy Gunn, Kidman, Booker T, Bradshaw, Lesnar, Bubba Ray, Chavo Guerrero, Val Venis, Benoit, Jericho, Christian, Chris Nowinski, Chuck Palumbo, Crash, D-Von, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Goldust, Hardcore Holly, Hogan, Hurricane, Jacqueline, Jamie Noble, Jazz, John Cena, Kane, Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Lance Storm, Lita, Mark Henry, Matt Hardy, Molly, Nidia, Orton, Mysterio, Rhyno, Flair, Rico, Rikishi, Rob Van Damn, Scott Steiner, Shannon Moore, Shawn Michaels, Spike, Stacey Keibler, Stephanie McMahon, Steven Richards, Tajiri, Terri, Test, The Rock, Undertaker, Dreamer, Torrie, HHH, Trish, Victoria, and William Regal. | video-games_xbox |
Perhaps the most disappointing game I've ever played. Before I begin, I just want to say I have a feeling people are going to vote down this review without reading it or taking in the arguments just because it doesn't fit the popular view of this game. However If I can convince just one person to not buy into the hype and consider both the deserved praise and, more importantly, the legitimate criticisms against this game, I'll be happy. This review isn't for the fans, its for potential players who want an honest review.
Something about LA Noire captured my imagination months before it was released. It featured a new technology called "motion scan" which allowed for it to have the most realistic facial animations I'd ever seen. When I saw the motion scan demonstration, I was floored. I saw it as a huge step forward for narratives in games and if it was done right could make games rival or even surpass movies in terms of emotional investment.
And what a seemingly great way to show it off! A game about a detective who has to read people's intentions through their facial cues? It has all the makings of an incredible game. It also takes place in my hometown and in one of my favorite time periods. And its Rockstar! There's no way they could screw this up!
I was (and still am) so tired of games with immature and underdeveloped stories. I was ready for a game with a mature story not just for its own sake, but one that integrated itself with gameplay in such a way that it couldn't have been done in any other medium. Finally a game that understands that interactivity is the key to making games into a unique art form.
And then the game pretty much ruined everything it had going for it. Motion scan ruined by having a boring and unlikeable protagonist. Integration of gameplay and narrative ruined by making the player's choices mean absolutely nothing. The prospect of at least having an interesting plot was ruined by having an unremarkable story with a bad ending.
After the initial sparkle of everything wore off, I realized nothing about the game is fun to play at all. Investigations are boring and repetitive. Interrogations look nice thanks to motion scan but I might as well have been watching a movie due to the limited gameplay involved. Chase scenes are too heavily scripted to be exciting, and gunplay is pretty unremarkable considering every other action game this generation has done it and done it better.
The idea of interrogations is that after each question you ask a suspect you are given three options to proceed: assume they are telling the truth, accuse them of lying, and the ambiguous "doubt". This seems intuitive in theory, but in practice each choice is fairly arbitrary and differs from case to case. Doubting could mean coax the suspect a little bit to if you know they are holding out, or it could mean wild accusations which make the suspect unwilling to respond. It is impossible to tell what the choices will result in. There is only one correct answer, meaning there is no freedom to approach the cases in any way but the arbitrary one the designer wanted. The choices would seem to indicate that there may be different outcomes to each case depending on the player's choices, but this is not the case. The plot will continue in the same way no matter how well or poorly the player does. So what, then, is the point of this gameplay mechanic which is purely based on choice if the player's choices don't matter and the game is going to continue on the same regardless? What makes games so unique as a story-telling medium is interactivity and gameplay, and this is where LA Noire could have really shined and instead dropped the ball big time.
The game tries to mask it's shortcomings with an expansive and admittedly beautiful recreation of 1940's Los Angeles. However there was literally nothing to do in this open world outside of the main story besides drive around, sight-see, and heavily-scripted side-missions which didn't require an open world, nor were very fun to begin with. Why tease us with such a large and beautiful world and then make the world so void of activities? Surely it would have made more sense to make the game more linear and save the no doubt immense amount of resources making the world so huge and instead use them to polish out the other aspects of the game to make them more, you know, FUN?
To say LA Noire was disappointing is an understatement. Maybe I was asking a little too much of it to begin with, but in my mind it didn't deliver on a single one of it's selling points and that is what made it such a disaster for me. The game is by no means unplayable, in fact many will probably buy it and be perfectly content with its great visuals, particularly the facial animations, detailed world, great characters, and overall uniqueness. But strip all the aesthetic stuff away and you're left with a mediocre story and a game that just isn't very fun to play. | video-games_xbox |
Oblivion Game of the Year Edition. Well, let me start off with saying that this is a great game. I will start with positives about the game, then flaws with peoples negative reviews. Yes I said it, defective reviews.
Pros of Game:1)Very large map, lots of places to explore
2)Lots of quests which equals lots of game play
3)My internet connection is awfully slow. I wouldn't have been able to download the expansions in a reasonable time without this.
4)Saved lots of money. I got this for $20 brand new at best buy. I actually saved about 50 dollars.
5)I do not know exactly how to say this, but this game is just great. I like skyrim a bit better, but this is great..
6)Character customization is great.
7)Almost everything you do affects the environment around you.
8)The graphics are pretty great, i mean come on guys, this was made in 2006. Give it a break.
There are way more pros, but those are some of the main ones and I don't have all day guys.
Now, for why the negative reviews are, well, wrong.
1)"A huge, bland, cumbersome map that takes absolutely forever to traverse around"
Well, yeah isn't that the point? this makes the game so realistic. It takes 20 in game days to travel across Cyrodil which makes it...big.
2)"I found this game to be a complete chore, every step of the way"
Well than this isn't your type of game, it is not the game itself. Trust me guys this game is fun if you like these games.
3)"Forcing you to "sleep" or spend more time in jail"
Just more realistic
4)"it's just the ugly characters that's stand out.. i want to personalize myself and think i'm the character in the game, but jesus, the ugliness!!"
Ok i am gonna get a bit mean here. First, like i said 2006. and second, the characters are fully customizable. you made the character look like you, well maybe you are just really damn ugly...
5)"my biggest complaint is the error messages ALL THE TIME !!! FROM BRAND NEW!!"
maybe you scratched the disc, or your xbox sucks. not the games fault.
Well, i hope this review helped some of you. I know i got a bit short and grammatically incorrect towards the end. See yah! | video-games_xbox |
Best Madden for the Generation...But Still Far from Great. As I said in my NCAA Football 14 review, the game was the best NCAA game for the generation. The same applies to this Madden. However, this should be taken with a grain of salt since many (if not all) of the Maddens this generation have been underwhelming.
For graphics, the game looks good. No huge improvements to the graphics have been made, but some subtle changes (such as new animations) make it the best looking out of all the previous maddens.
Commentary is very bad. The same lines are constantly repeated, making it worse than NCAA 14. It's understandable to hear the same lines in a course of a season or a dynasty, However, hearing the same lines in a single game is an issue.
For the game play, it is very offensive focused this year. The "All-New" Infinity Engine 2.0 adds the new animations as well as a "new" physics system. To give the game credit, the physics do feel improved compared to previous iterations. Passes are very accurate this year and the all new (it really is new this time) precision modifier helps you perform jukes, trucks, stiff arms, and spins with ease. Running the ball is very dynamic this year and very enjoyable.
However, passing has its annoyances. Wide receivers are always open, but will drop passes on a consistent basis. Receivers in NCAA Football 14 know how to keep their feet in bounds, but they fail to do so in here. The challenge system is completely flawed and never works when you challenge a play. Blocking is good, but will slip up every now and then. The defense also drops many interceptions. Little things like this really break this game, which is why I recommend turning up the custom sliders on catching for both sides.
Now what does Madden bring this year to entice us to continue playing throughout the season? This year, owner mode has returned. This allows you to set ticket prices, manage your stadium, relocate your team, and a bunch more. It's a bit limited, but it's a welcome return to the game. There's also ultimate team, which features Team Chemistry. The goal is to players with the same chemistry in order to boost the style of your team whether it be power running, zone defense, deep passing, and a few more. There is a skill challenge mode, which unlocks achievements and players for ultimate team.
Other than that, this Madden features the same stuff from last year. However, there is no create-a-team, which is very disappointing. The bottom line is if you bought Madden during this generation, wait a bit before buying this. The game is around $20 now, so it's worth a purchase. Don't buy it on next gen however since the differences are extremely nominal. It's not as great as Madden 05 or as innovative as Madden 07, but it is a solid title on it's own. | video-games_xbox |
Shoula been called Crackdown 3, but that's a good thing. I personally loved this game. The only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 5 is simply because it's not really a Saint's Row game in my opinion. Die-hard Saints fans will probably not like it, and probably account for most of the bad reviews you'll see. Other than the characters, the crude humor, and the abundance of boobies, it's not very similar to the previous Saint's Row games. It is, however, very similar to the Crackdown series, which I loved to play. This game is primarily set inside a computer simulation, which can be "hacked" to provide your character with super powers. I don't know exactly how far into the game I am, but so far I've been able to perform super jumps, super speed runs, jumping up building and tower walls, and gliding around the city from way up high. I know there are more upgrades to the powers coming further into the game. I assume I'll eventually be able to perform ground smashes and run through baddies, as well as many other abilities. But it isn't just the super powers that remind me of Crackdown... Many of the building and tower designs, and some of the animations bring me back to the Crackdown franchise. And remember those annoying little Orbs from Crackdown? Well they're back, in the form of "Data Points". But at least you can use these for upgrades instead of just collecting achievements.
There are also via-point footraces (can't remember what they're called), which are exactly like the Rooftop Races in Crackdown. And I assume there will eventually be car racing challenges as well, although I haven't been introduced to them yet. I did see a couple of strategically placed ramps around town however. I found myself playing this game in much the same manner that I play Crackdown. For instance, you can hijack any vehicle and drive it around, as in past Saints games, but I found myself just super speed running and super jumping around town alot more than driving. You get around much quicker that way, and don't have to deal with traffic like you do in a car. And it is also much easier to spot the Data Points from up high than it is driving around on the streets.
In summary, this isn't your typical Saints game. If you're a new player, or one that isn't expecting a carbon-copy of the previous titles, then you will probably enjoy this game. If you are a die-hard purple fedora wearing Saints fan who wants this game to be just like all the others, then you will likely be disappointed after the first half hour of gameplay. My advice... Go in with no expectations, and just enjoy the insanity! | video-games_xbox |
Spy and Hide. Splinter Cell has you playing in a third person point of view, as a secret agent named, Sam Fisher. You work for a secret government agency called Third Echelon, who help in the retrieval of secret information and deal with terrorists and corrupt politicians. They send you to certain objectives, like getting a file, or hacking into computers, scaring information out of hostages and the sort. To get to these objectives is the tricky parts as they are heavily guarded by soldiers, body gaurds or even policemen. The artificial intelligence is rather good; they respond if you make a sound or if they see your shadow, but the fun part of the game is playing with their responses. You can throw a bottle to distract them then run in another direction. You could let them see you for a second, then hide in the darkness- they get confused. Being unseen however is your best defense. The game is all about stealth. You use shadows and darkness to hide, you can also perform many acrobatic moves to help you hide. You can crouch, roll, lean on walls, peak around corners, you can split jump (inspired by actor Jean Claude Van Damme). You have many gadgets to spy on your enemies and you'll also be equipped with a silencer pistol. My only complaints about the game is that it is 100% linear, allowing no flexibilty or freeform gameplay. You just have to do things the way the level is scripted (or get a mission fail). I also thought it was very unrealistic and absurd to send a secret agent armed only with a pistol and few rounds of ammo! The graphics are amazing and the character animation move like real people!
Pros:
+excellent graphics
+excellent sound
+excellent controls
+excellent voice-acting
+cool gadgets
+cool acrobatic moves
+good music
+challanging missions
+good artificial intelligence
+good gameplay mechanics
+life-like animation
+makes you think
Cons:
-100% linear gameplay
-level check points are far apart
-limited weapons and ammo
-single player game
-no replay value
-WAY too much stealth | video-games_xbox |
Good blend of battle. After playing the demo, I decided I could give this game a try, mainly because I find myself always wanting to try an RPG (especially if it is a Japanese RPG). I am glad I did. This game had much to offer.
The most interesting aspect of this game was its battle system. It is a combination of real-time and turn-based. Each character gets a "turn," and goes in order from the fastest to slowest. The character who is engaged in their turn has five seconds (later in the game four seconds) to fight the enemy. They can increase the time a little bit with every blow dealt to an enemy. Each normal attack can be used to build up a very simple, yet great, echo combo system. The combos acquired can then be used with the special attack, which varies from standing in a light area to standing in a dark area. Every blow that is dealt on your party can be blocked real-time for a substantial reduction in damage. Overall, the battle system was the most pleasing aspect of the game.
Moving on, we get to the story. The story revolves around Frederic Chopin, a renowned composer. The game starts in the "present," which is in the past when Chopin is on death bed. The world inside of Chopin's dream is what you play in. The cast of characters is delightful, each ranging with their own unique abilities; the only problem is that EVERY character and location, save for real word people, is named after a part of music (i.e. Forte, Allegretto, Waltz). The story progress along with Chopin existing in his dream. He constantly tells the participants in his dream that they are a fabrication of him. He begins questioning whether this world is still a dream as the game progresses.
There is a rather interesting twist in the game, which, suffice to say, really ruined the story in my opinion. I would disclose more information, but it is a major plot spoiler.
The voice acting was adequate and lacked the corny dialogue that many JRPG games have. The visuals suited the game really well. The learning curve was easy, but got steeper as the battle system got more complex after certain scripted events.
Overall, it was a great RPG to own, and I am glad that I purchased it.
Pros
+Battle system
+Graphics
+Character cast
+Soundtrack
+History "lessons" on Chopin
Cons
-Weird plot twist
-Annoying naming system
-Little replay value | video-games_xbox |
Offers So Much, But Some Open-World Apsects are Boring or Tedious. GTAIV is a very large open world game. I really like many of the story-driven missions, many of which or unique, novel experiences. The open world aspects lets you do so much. The developer litters the world with tons of side missions, collectables or challenges, and other stuff you really don't have to do, but if you are a completionist you might find yourself trying to complete a number of boring things. There is so much to do and the game seems so long to me that I quit half way through to play something else for a few months and then returned to continue. In my opinion they could have split the game into smaller pieces. But thats what has always been great about GTA, it offers so much value since there is so much to it. I have to overlook boring and optional aspects that are less fun and focus on how much is great that is far above and beyond what could have been included.
You have "friends" and girlfriends in the game that call you on your cell phone. They bug you all the time to do stuff. The problem is the stuff they want to do is pretty boring, involves stopping what you are doing and driving to pick them up, doing something boring with them, dropping them off, etc. It is fun at first, but then seem tedious. There are advantages to making them happy with you because you get bonuses, but gets pretty boring. I ended just ignoring them all together towards the end.
The other thing is it takes a long time to get from one side of the world to another. But there are taxis you can hail and jump to the destination pretty easily. It just feels like you are missing out or cheating by skipping driving through the open world to get there.
There are tons of reviews, so I don't really need to say more. It is a stellar value, a great game, has boring aspects that you can mostly skip if you can get past feeling like you are missing out if you don't do them, and I still can't knock it below a 5 star review. | video-games_xbox |
It's all about the game mechanics. Shooting Love 200X contains two of Triangle Services games, Exzeal and Trizeal. Those of you with a Dreamcast or PS2 may recognize Trizeal, however this is the first console release of Exzeal to my knowledge. There are also some bonus features such as the "skill tests" which present the player with a variety of short challenges.
By the title Shooting Love, it's not referring to the first-person type. This is the arcade type where you pilot space ships, dodge bullets, and shoot never-ending streams of firepower.
Triangle Service games have always been a bit of an acquired taste, and I wouldn't say they are for everyone. You won't find high resolution sprites or screens buried in bright neon colors here. You won't find a game that rewards a brain dead "just shoot stuff" mentality.
What Triangle Service does do well, however, is make games that completely revolve around manipulating the scoring mechanics. This package is a testament to that philosophy. Stressing this point right off the bat is the ship select screen. Not only does your shot type change based on which ship you choose, but the scoring mechanics as well. My personal favorite is the XII Stag wiggle-attack ship, where moving the joystick left/right produces shock waves to attack enemies next to you and gives bonuses for doing so. (I wish this package included the XII Stag game as well)
Think of each enemy attack wave as a puzzle. How can you most effectively eliminate them while maximizing the multiplier? The solution will be different based on which ship you are using. Once you get used to thinking this way, you'll notice enemy spawn points are very specifically placed for taking advantage of certain shot types, and suddenly everything makes sense.
This isn't really a game to sit down with some buds, have a few beers, and waste time blowing stuff away. It begs to be studied and mastered.
The menu system is a bit weird, but it is very fast to navigate once you get used to it. New game modes and options are added the longer you play, so definitely look around after playing a few rounds. | video-games_xbox |
What an amazing headset. I got these because I was tired of not being able to enjoy surround sound whenever I want. I live in an apartment and while my neighbors all have good sound systems as well and don't mind when I crank mine during the day, at night is where the problem comes up. I work a later shift then most, meaning I'm still wide awake until 2-3 in the morning while everyone else is asleep. So watching some mind blowing movie or playing a game on my computer was limited to headphones during then. And until now I'd just being using everything from bargain bin $10 headphones up to the Sony XB700's. Which is fine and dandy if I was happy with stereo on something I know is surround sound.
Now, for movies, these things are nice. Not as good as a real speaker setup as far as the surround sound feeling goes, but they work. And what I love most about them is The independently adjustable volumes. I like it because almost all movies do this annoying thing where the voice's of the actors comes out the center speaker at like 100% and only an ambient echo of the rear and maybe 50% or less of their volume from the left and right. While the music will be going at 100% from all the speakers BUT the center at the same time. Normally when this is down-mixed to stereo, it causes music to be irritably loud compared to the voices. So I can barely understand what they are saying sometimes with all the background music going on. Well with these headphones you can turn down all that other channel and leave the center speaker wide open and be able to hear the dialog with absolute clarity. Over all they are great for movies and do a good job of reproducing a normally sized room on your ears.
For video games... o.m.g. Love it. Absolutely amazing. This is where these things shine. First, the mic is great. its easy to move and put into position and picks up you voice perfectly with little background noise (like if you're me and have a fan near the computer). As for the sound, its awesome. I'll admit its not the same as a real surround sound, but let me tell you this, it does a great job of making you think its surround sound. For example, I was playing Crysis 2 and at one point there was a tv on in the game. When I was facing the TV it sounded like it was in front of me. If I turned around in the game, the sound would move around my head and then sounded like it was coming from behind me. If that isn't good surround sound, I don't know what is. But that's just one example among hundreds. These things are awesome for games. Period.
The two cons I've found so far with these are:
-The cable between the headset and the volume controller is a little too short personally. I understand why it has a connector there. It makes it really handy at LAN parties. This way you can unplug the headphones and carry them around your neck without having to unplug and haul everything if you have to leave your rig for an extended amount of time in order to prevent them from getting stolen. That part is awesome and I love it. It also makes it nifty if the volume control box ever breaks, you don't have to buy a whole new head set. Also awesome. But what sucks about it to me is the cable is just long enough to have the box sit on your lap or something. Its not long enough to clip to, say your keyboard tray and still be able to lean back. or clip it to your desk and be able to sit back a bit.
-The other con, and this is a big one, is the bass response. I'm a huge fan of house and techno music. I also love bass (hence why I also got a set of Sony XB700's). These things have bass but you'll find yourself turning it down so much because it'll start clipping on everything. Big explosion in the movie, clipping on the volume. Grande to the face in your video game? clipping. Just turn the bass down to about 60-70% and be happy. It'll only clip on extreme cases then.
But again, awesome headset and highly recommend them to anyone that wants a good gaming headset. | video-games_xbox |
Is this game like a Sunshine movie. It is too hard to do team dark. This game is what I am getting. Remember when Shadow died in Sonic Adventure 2? Well, he did not say " Damn, not here" when he died or else Sonic Adventure 2 will be a mature game. He returned in this game
Team Sonic-Sonic is so fast that Eggman could be outrun and say " YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS". In fact, Sonic said "dammit" in Shadow the Hedgehog. He also said "hell" in Sonic and the Secret Rings but I reminded you idiots that he didn't swear. Tails cannot have much time alone. In fact, he is one of those young friends of Sonic's. He got bullied in his past for having 2 tails. Knuckles swears in every game that includes profanity. Why did they ruin Knuckles? To make him bad? Give me a break!
Team Dark-Shadow was created and known as the ultamite life form. He died in Sonic Adventure 2 but returned in Sonic Heroes which is this game. In Shadow the Hedgehog he says "WHERE'S THAT DAMN FOURTH CHAOS EMERALD" and "YOU'RE GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL" which insulted many Sonic fans. Rouge is a treasure hunter like the hooligans. She is Knuckles' arch-rival. In Sonic X, she did something silly and hosted herself. Omega is the strongest out of all E-123 robots. He was accidentally unsealed in this game by Rouge. This game was the debut of him.
Team Rose-Amy has a piko-piko hammer. She loves Sonic. Amy is just cheery. Cream is trying to find Chocola. She is one of those young friends of Sonic's. She has a chao. Big is trying to find Froggy. He is just gigantic. He is so fat that he might bust through a wall.
Team Chaotix-Espio is a ninja. He has an invisibility ability. He was playable on Sonic smash bros. Charmy is just funny. He annoys Vector. He is one of those young friends of Sonic's. Vector became famous for that line "FIND THE COMPUTER ROOM".He is the head of the Chaotix. He is the oldest non-human character.
Overaul, this is an amazing game so buy it! Now! | video-games_xbox |
The Utimate Video Game Console. Honestly, many gamers had doubts about the xbox 360 with it launching a year before the competition. It has proven, however to be arguably the greatest video game system of all time. It has even convinced many such as I to pledge their loyalty to Xbox gaming, rather than past favorites. The console is extensively fun and really can become the center of your living room. It has a wider selection of games than the competitors and has sold far more than them. There games for everyone such as a variety of shooters (Halo 3, .<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Gears-Of-War/dp/B000FRS9II/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Gears Of War</a>, GRAW), family games (Viva Pinata, Lego Star Wars II, Banjoe Kazooie), and many others such as sports games and the outstanding Guitar Hero II. Even if you are an RPG fan you will find block busters like Blue Dragon. The console itself has many great features. It has quite possibly the best controller of any console. The extended features make it all the better. The Xbox Live service lets you watch tv and movies, meanwhile letting you join the largets online gameing commmunity. Sure the cost can be earth-shattering, but it is a far better deal than the competitors. There are three options for buying it. This has recently become the middle version and is probally the best deal. Many people have ad issues with 360s breaking down. Have no fear, there is a one year warranty and Microsoft tech support is great. You can buy this confidently because you can trust that Bill Gates can get anything. The 360 continues tho have a wide variety of games because once-exclusives to the PS3 like Assassian's Creed, Devil May Cry 4, and Unreal Tournamnet 3 are coming to the 360. The HD-DVD add-on (sold-seperatly) is great for all you HDphiles. The sytem itself delivers games brillliantly in HD or "normal" televisions. The graphocs make the games amazing as well. (In some case the graphics could use improvement, but they are coming up to par.) The 360 is hands down the best because it beats the competitors in every area. | video-games_xbox |
great for limited play areas. There are so many Kinect games that need space to fully enjoy them. I've been disappointed with many titles because you're required to move too much in space I don't have. The Nyko Zoom ended up being a flop, and didn't correct the problem for people like me who have limited space.
So, I pre-ordered <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Kinect-Sports-Season-Two/dp/B0050SYZ2G/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Kinect Sports Season Two</a> and tried it out. First, I was impressed by the fact that you really don't have to flail your arms, move from side to side, and back and forth. The tennis is the best tennis on any motion controlled system, in my opinion. I especially liked that I could take a small step forward before I swung to fire a return shot or swing my arm from high to low to lob the ball. I thought this was very clever, and felt the Kinect was very accurate with this. I then played football for a couple of hours, and can't understand all the hate. The football is really fun. You squat to get ready, and stand up to have the ball snapped. There are 6 plays, and you throw the ball when one of the receivers turns green. A couple of times, I threw to an open receiver, but the Kinect sensor threw it to a different receiver who wasn't open, but this was rare. I then just had the coach to pick to expedite the play, and get back into the action. Once you throw the ball, you are the receiver and have to run in place. You can't juke, or run faster, but it didn't bother me, because I was getting a workout. The other best game in my opinion is skiing. You start out by squatting, and can move left or right by leaning with your upper body in the direction you want to go. The skiing is the best skiing I have ever played including the Wii, which is also a great skiing experience. Golf was also a lot of fun, but mostly I played the minigame, in which you can get 1, 2, or 3 points by aiming your shot. I found the minigames on all the sports to be entertaining. | video-games_xbox |
A real "love/hate" relationship. This game was awesome for some reasons and totally sucked for other reasons. So i'm gonna do the typical "pros & cons" review to keep it simple.
Pros:
-Almost no loading time: i mean zero ... the most loading you'll see is when you start up the game. Once you get going whether it's transitioning areas, entering battle, or even going in and out of buildings (an act that some games have murdered with load times) is all but instant.
-Awesome cinematics: Ya this story is HUGE on the storytelling thing. It can be a bit much i'll admit (like put your xbox into screensaver mode long cinematics :P) but the upside? -> you can just hit "select" and jump right thru them if you don't care about the storyline (which sadly is one of this game's strongest points.
-Good visuals: The graphics are of course stunning and the "world and dungeon" designs are all pretty unique. You won't see any copycat map setups here, each area has it's own unique layout that will keep you interested.
--------------------------------------------
Cons:
-Controls: while you have freedom of movement and can try to circle around your enemy to attack, the controls are lacking when it comes to actually attacking your enemy. You have 3 basic combos, and you gain special attacks as you level up that you can "chain" into your normal swings. And when i say "chain" i mean struggle to get an effective combo together. Basically your basic attacks are performed by tapping A or B and your special abilities are activated by HOLDING A or B, an act which, in my experience, the computer seems to have difficulty distinguishing between.
-Spectator Sport?: You are very involved early in the game; meaning the outcome of battles and events relied heavily on YOUR personal participation. However about half-way thru (either right before or right after i inserted the second disk) while i still found it enjoyable to beat on the trash mobs and minibosses, i soon realized that my role as an actual "player" would come to a grinding halt very soon. I think it was the second or third main boss i came up against when i realized this fact -> "Holy crap, for me to win this fight, i have to pretty much stay AWAY from the boss and let my secondary group (which can't die by the way) fight him themselves and when they weaken him enough i run in and hit the big chain that we're trying to destroy." Rinse and repeat that and you have the last few major boss fights. Sad right? My jobs were to: A. stay alive and B. hit the chain. Because heaven forbid i actually try to ATTACK the boss, he would 1 or 2 shot me into oblivion everytime.
-Saving: or lack thereof. Save points are few and far between almost to the point that i found myself constantly thinking "holy crap if i don't find a save cube soon i'm gonna have to do all this crap over again if i die!" which brings me to my next con ->
-Death: ya it sucks. Especially when you've been playing for half an hour or so and still haven't come across any save cubes so then you get to have the fun experience of repeating the aforementioned half hour of gameplay. And as i mentioned about the boss fights; it is VERY easy to die. You can die one of 2 ways: A. your whole party including you die (that's an immediate game over) or B. you die and some of your party is still alive; if they don't rez you in a certain amount of time .... ya you guessed it ... game over. It wouldn't be so bad except your CPU companions aren't all that bright. You could die ... and have a healer that could rez you in the group OR even a whole stack of rezzing potions in your inventory. So while you're laying there ... slowly dying ... you'd think that they would pick ONE of the 2 options to get you back in the game ... wel i'd say that happens about 50% of the time. I'm not joking. They CPUs are idiots ... so i won't even make a separate section in the cons for them.
-Skills and leveling: you level up like nobody's business in this game, but at what price? A lot of your time is spent scrolling through countless submenus making sure that none of your 12 or so party members hasn't learned a new skill that you should apply to their combat abilities. Not to mention the massive skill and item database. This game is so high maitenance i felt myself going cross-eyed trying to keep all the information straight. In fact to even USE any items you have to bring up the menu (which makes you stationary and completely defensless) and scroll through all of your other crap to find the healing or mana regen potions you thought you bought but you can't remember what they're called cause there's so many different kinds and while you were trying to find them either you or the rest of your party was killed cause you couldn't move or help them ..... ya that pretty much sums up item usage. There are so many other issues i had that would fall under "maitenance" that i really just dont' feel like listing them. Suffice it to say it seemed like a lot of work for very little benefit.
Summary:
Well if you like a good story and some nice cinematics this game is for you. If you like PLAYING a game maybe with a little bit of customization and some freeroaming quests, this game is NOT for you. And yes the only reason i rated this game 3 stars is cause i LIKE cinematic/storytelling games :P. | video-games_xbox |
Dark Watch Rocks. Darkwatch is a Vampire Western. This game is not for everyone. In particular it is not for young children. However, if you are an adult who like First Person shooters then you should seriously consider this game.
The game is a little dark and edgy...but in my opinion this is a good thing. There is a great battle of good and evil and some cool weapons and powers. It is a Vampire-Western which to me is an awesome concept and I hope it spawns a sequel and possible other variations (time periods).
Controls: The controls are very Halo-like. If you like the controls in Halo you will like these. Enough said.
Graphics: The imagery is in one word awesome. They really did a good job. However the graphics in the end are not quite what they should have been. Don't get me wrong.... They are good, but they are not pushing the limits. I really expected this game to push things forward NOTE: This is my main negative on the game.. which should tell you that this is an awesome game.
Good vs. Evil: There are decisions to be made which lean you either good or evil. However, this really did not work out to enhance the game in my opinion. If there was more of an impact in the game play then it might have worked out. In the end this didn't seem to have a good or bad impact on my impression of the game. If there is a sequel I either would like it removed or enhanced.
Xbox vs PS2: The versions are different. XBOX by far has better graphics then PS2. Each has there own bonus material. PS2 has a War Train level and Xbox has some added Live capability.
Length: The game was a little shorter than expected.... However I had a blast playing it.
Recommendation: If you are an adult then check Dark Watch out! You will either Love it or Hate it! You can probably tell by the cover. If you like First Person shooters then you will probably love it. If you don't then you will probably hate it. I | video-games_xbox |
Disappointing. The last Midnight Club game I played was Midnight Club 2. I decided to give this one a chance as it was on clearance from the Xbox store and I was in the mood for an open world racing game. The visuals are great for an older game, the car customization is extensive, and I like the selection of available vehicles. It would be perfect if it was another racing game. Traffic density is outrageous. It's not so much a problem when you are starting the game with slower cars, but it gets more difficult as you get your second or 3rd car and fix it up. Most races are done by checkpoints that seem to get spaced farther and farther out as you progress through the game, forcing you to make the decision of looking at your mini-map to verify your route and almost certainly crash into traffic, or miss a checkpoint to avoid a crash and lose time on a race. This isn't even factoring in the opponent AI racers. They take shortcuts about 90% of the time, rarely get involved in a collision, and despite the open nature of the race layout, almost always take a perfect line through corners. even if they make a mistake, it seems there is a catch-up feature. you can have a flawless race, you can see one of them crash, and they will catch up to you if you slow down just slightly too much for a single corner. Running a perfect race with a minor crash near the end will also certainly guarantee you a loss. I tried very hard to enjoy this game. I still recall the last time I played I entered a pink slip race, had built up a large lead, was pausing the game to check the map and make sure I was taking the right route, had no crashes. I took the wrong line on the final corner and grazed the wall, allowing the other driver to catch up from almost being off of my mini map and win. I can't find enjoyment out of a game like that. They just don't make them like Tokyo Xtreme Racer anymore I guess. | video-games_xbox |
What's wrong with more of the same? I love grinding. Heck, COD has been doing more of the same for many years now, and people still love it. I stopped after BO2. I can't handle THAT much of the same thing. BTW, The Gamespot review for FC4 was rubbish. I did not agree with them at all.
My favorite games are open-world. Fallout 3 & NV: LOVED THEM! Far Cry 3 blew me away! GTA is great but I like the RPG element. Gaining experience, weapons, skills, loot, cash, etc. I'm a grinder through and through. Remember Final Fantasy 7 & 8. Grinding out those bad guys to up your level? When I was done with Far Cry 3, I have to admit, it was one of the top 3 games I have ever played. (I'm 35). It had almost everything I was looking for in a video game. I love capturing the camps and hunting to increase your equipment. When I was done I wanted more. Of the same thing, not something different.
Yes, FC4 is an extension of FC4 with AMAZING graphics. This was my first game on the XBONE too. The graphics are so intense they hurt my eyes for a while.
Anyway, Here are things I love/hate in the new game: (BTW I am only 10 hours in and haven't done a lot of missions, just grinding).
LOVE:
Bigger map, new animals, better graphics, the mini helicopter. (There are really not a whole lot of new things).
HATE:
You now have bait. When you clean an animal you get a hunk of meat that when you throw, an animal in that region comes and attacks the bad/good guys in the area. It makes things too easy. You can essentially throw them to hunt those animals in the area or throw them in a camp and clear it out while remaining undetected.
They don't explain things to you. Took a while to realize that healing syringes are created automatically when you have the green plants.
The enemies have really good accuracy. This is what made me stop playing FC2. I don't remember it being this bad in FC3.
Maybe it's my tv but the lighting engine used in this game seems to make the areas of the map where the sunlight hits it really bright, while everything in the shade is really dark. It's a bit extreme.
Weapon attachments are few and far in between. It seems like they want you to just buy the pre-modded "Special" weapons.
Different, but roughly the same amount of weapons, and equipment upgrades. I thought they would have expanded on this.
All in all, if you loved FC3 you will obviously love FC4. If you are looking for something different, you won't get a lot of it. Updates to come. | video-games_xbox |
Like the comfort, dislike the volume control. The PDP Afterglow Karga Xbox One Headset is a solid choice for stereo headsets under $100, but there are some caveats that prevent it from being a perfect product.
For starters, I really like some of the hardware design choices on the headset itself. The padding was great for a $100 set of cans, and the headband is also well padded. The ear cups fit well and I had no problem wearing these things for extended play sessions. The mic retracts/extends from the bottom of the left can. I love this feature. All the previous headsets I've owned allow the mic to be lowered and raised, but when not in use it gets in the way and is clumsy for storage. I do wish the mic would extend another half inch so I could tilt it towards my mouth a little more, but for the most part party chat members said they could hear me just fine. The outside of the cans light up blue when plugged into an Xbox One controller. This isn't anything exciting, because if I'm using the headset, it probably means that no one is around me to actually appreciate the "coolness" factor. Instead, the blue light just sucks more battery juice from the controller. I left the light off 98% of the time as a result.
For about $100, the sound is good. Recognize that this is only stereo sound, and not the emulated 5-point (and 7-point) surround sound that you might find in more expensive headsets. Since headsets are only 1 speaker per ear, your degree of listening sensitivity will determine if you can actually distinguish the differences between true stereo and the pseudo-echo/delay 5.1 sounds of other headsets. I think for a lot of people, stereo sound is just fine. Destiny and Halo: Master Chief Collection sounded good to me and I was able to appreciate the nuances of a lot of the different weapon sound effects.
I did have some issues with the headset, though. The biggest problem is the volume control. On the plug that attaches to the bottom of the Xbox One controller (not compatible with the Xbox 360), there is a game button and a person button on the left side, "+" and "-" buttons on the right side, and a big mute button in the middle. In order to increase the volume, you push the "+" button. But this increases overall volume. Then you have to hit the game button or the person button to relatively adjust how much volume is dedicated to game sounds versus voice chat. Finding the right balance between game sounds and voice chat is a challenge. Why not just make the left side up and down volume for the game sounds and the right side up and down volume for the voice chat? Additionally, you are dealing with volume buttons here, not any kind of dial. The step sizes of volume increases wasn't small enough to find the optimal volume for me, especially when playing with voice chat. I struggled to find a comfortable volume that was loud enough for me to hear everything. It was always just a little too loud, or a little too soft. And when playing with 5 others in a Destiny Raid, everyone has slightly different incoming voice volumes. Working with the buttons in real-time while playing in these scenarios wasn't optimal. I would have loved two dials to work with. Finally, the mute button produces a lighted "\" when you are actively muted. But for some reason, hitting the button wasn't always responsive. It sometimes required 2 or 3 presses before it would work. Again, in real-time, this was suboptimal because usually when you want to mute the mic, you need to mute it NOW.
Overall, there's a lot to like with these PDP Karga Afterglow headphones. I like the padding and retractable mic is nice for storage and when playing without voice chat. The sound itself is pretty good quality, however, it's a chore to adjust the volumes to ideal levels. Most headphones under $100 have similar issues, so if you can find these Kargas on sale, you're getting a pretty good competitive deal. If I had a wish list, I just wish PDP would keep the headset design and rework the connector plug with the controls. | video-games_xbox |
Third party, but one of the better options out there. I'm not the biggest fan of wired controllers, but they do still have a place in gaming-- Especially since Microsoft seems completely unwilling to license their wireless technology to third-party controller companies and the only truly wireless controllers for Xbox One are Microsoft-branded. Third party doesn't have to mean "cheap" though. Such is the case with PDP's Face-Off controller.
The controller itself feels good. It doesn't squeak or creak, and the grip is decent. The included faceplate is textured, and while that's to make it look like a football (complete with actual laces; They aren't a plastic mold!) it also adds to the grip quality of the controller. I ordered the free team faceplate (an easy process, though I do wish they had more than just NFL teams and had a few generic offerings for those of us who really don't have any team loyalty), but I haven't received it yet so I can't comment on the feel of that plate.
The buttons all feel good, and the analog sticks are responsive. The D-Pad does double-duty as a volume control when toggled in combination with the audio button (that little triangle button next to the right analog stick), and the controller has a standard headphone jack so you can use whatever headphones or headset you wish. A double-tap on that triangle button will also mute your headset.
The included USB cable is quite long-- about 10 feet-- and that's sufficient for the average living room setup. The controller was recognized instantly by my Xbox One, and was even present in the button reassignment menu in the console's settings. It took a moment to be recognized on my Windows 10 gaming PC, but after that it worked perfectly. I will say that in-game on the PC it felt like the analog sticks were a little more loose, but that's the sort of thing that can be tweaked in some games' settings, too.
The triggers are nice, with a smooth feel and good response. The shoulder buttons are sort of mushy-clicky, but work as required. The D-Pad is of the more mushy variety, and I probably wouldn't consider it a candidate for a hardcore fighting game fan, but it works fine for games that relegate D-Pad to menu, selection, and other basic tasks. The Home button does NOT light up, though there is a small LED above it that lights up when the controller is plugged in.
The faceplate is secure enough that it takes some force to remove it, but that's a good thing. You don't want it wobbling or making noises while you're playing.
Bottom Line: This is a good third-party controller. The faceplate-swapping is kind of cool, but of course is far more interesting if you're a football fan. Having a wired controller around is handy for those times when your batteries die and you haven't got backups charged up yet, or for those times when your pal comes over and doesn't bring his own controller. For the price, you could do worse with third-party controllers, and if you're looking to some Windows gaming, this is an elegant and cost-effective way to jump right in and play without having to worry about Bluetooth, lag, or wireless dongles.
Four Stars. | video-games_xbox |
Somewhat let down... But the story is epic and fun. I have been a fan of the Modern Warfare series since it began. I love the way the story continues each time, and this one most CERTAINLY does not disappoint. It picks up right where the second left off, and man, is the world in chaos! Right from the first steps, you're in the middle of a global war, well, world war 3. We get to see the story and journey of our beloved characters through to the end, and what a ride it is!
I am disappointed that the game engine is still the same as it was. It is severely limited and if I am honest, speaking of physics, it absolutely cannot compete with Battlefield 3. This game has a dated feel to it. The game is amazing, don't get me wrong, but looking at it, you can't help but feel it is limited, dated, and should have been updated pretty dramatically. That would normally bump it down to 2 stars or so for me. In this day and age, there is just absolutely no excuse for that stuff. But the things that save this game, are the fact that what time they failed to put into the physics/engine, they most certainly put into the story. Even with the limited capabilities of the gaming engine, you are sucked in, and cannot escape. The game isn't THAT bad, but it still looks identical to MW1, which for me is just... inexcusable. Lucky thing I guess that MW1 was years ahead of it's time! If the game has a failing, this is truly it.
But since this game's bread and butter is the amazing story, I won't really be able to specifically review that. I don't want to spoil anything. If you've kept your mind clean from all the reviews and talk about the game, you're going to be glad you did. Because every mission, every turn of the story, there is something that flat out drops your jaw. We get to see all of our favorite characters again, we even get to play as them, and we see their journey through to the end. I don't know how they do it, this is a shooter. It's an action game, you're not supposed to care about anything but action and blowing stuff up. But you really care about the characters, you really root for them, it's just awesome. This is something that the Treyarch COD games fail to capture, and something that sadly the Battlefield series fails to capture. You're not just going through motions here. You feel like you're part of the story, part of the war, part of a group of friends that you actually care about.
All that being said, now it's time to try multiplayer! Will update my review once I've spent some time there. | video-games_xbox |
Buyer Beware this is a really, really bad product and a ripoff. UPDATE: TO ONE STAR: 12/24/16: The first headset broke after only two months as the USB charging dock broke on the first unit. I contacted Lucid and they replaced the set on 9/20/16. The new ones worked for another two months then last night at around midnight the headset just DIED... no lights no power, the whole unit just failed. There is no way to get power I used two different charging cables as I have an old broken pair of Sony Gold headphones, but the headphones had a full charge at the time I had just taken them off the charger so that was not the issue. Bottom line these things are a rip off people. I ordered another pair of Sony Gold wireless headphones today and I am going to try to get a refund on these. $160 for these headphones is a ripoff they are poor quality, made in China and I would rather spend $69 for the Sony set every six months to a year (as they are prone to breaking) then to spend $169 on a crap pair of headphones buyer beware this is a really, really bad product.
Update 9/20/16: I made contact with the company over the issues with the headphones and their customer support was excellent. They issued an RA and sent out another set of headphones via fedex that day. I received the new phones and returned the defective ones. It has taken me a few days to update my review as I did not open them right away.
The headphones so far are working well. I was able to switch the sound features on my PS4 to Dolby 5.1 and the headphones really do pick up the sound very, very well. They are still a bit clunky but the sound quality is good. I mentioned to the rep at the company when I called in that after these broke I went back to my Sony Gold headphones and thought they were just as good of quality and actually were more comfortable, he was very surprised by my comments, as I was about putting on a $79 pair of Sony phones as apposed to this $139 dollar pair.
I am upgrading my review to four stars with this observation. I don't feel that the construction on the headset, as seen in my photos (the USB connector broke off) and fell into the unit making the first one unusable.
I think that the engineering of the headset as a whole from mother board to the components that operate the phones were poorly thought out. I feel that the USB WILL break again as there is no support for the unit in a hollow body like this. There needs to be reinforcement behind the USB as well as the microphone jack as these two units get daily wear and tear. As long as the company continues to manufacture their product in China and doesn't look to improve the quality of the product by by fixing these design flaws I believe they are going to start getting more negative reviews and lose business.
All of the wireless headphones that I have purchased ALL have one solid plastic body with the components reinforced in one solid piece of plastic with strong backing to make them secure. Any one who games and has to charge their units daily knows that there are times when we have to fish around for the jack and then will press the charger cord in wrong and have to pull it out and twist it around until we get it to seat. The fifteen hour battery life is good, but I game between six to eight hours a night. I have progressive MS so sleep eludes me almost every night so what do I do? I play games until I feel sleepy. So I have to charge the unit daily, so that's seven times a week, thirty times a month or 365 days a year that this unit is plugged in by me to charge. I will update this review after I use the headphones for a few months. The last set had the USB start to fail within three weeks of purchase we will see what happens here.********
I purchased these headphones on July 10, 2016 for $139 to replace a pair of Sony Gold wireless headphones for my PS4. I started having charging issues with the head set in mid August, the charging USB insert for the headphones was getting loose and not making a connection. The USB charging insert on the headphones finally broke free and fell into the headphones making it impossible to charge. See photos of the headphones, you can see where their is a hole where the charging doc is supposed to be.
I have reached out to the manufacturer who has not responded and the time to return the headphones has expired. Stay away from this company and their products. I just lost $139 to these guys for headphones that are shoddily manufactured and not great quality. | video-games_xbox |
Numerous Flaws that Should Have Been Fixed. If you're a fan of the Star Wars world, you know that Episode III is the "last episode" in terms of movie releases. This is the ultimate episode where Anakin finally turns to the dark side and embraces his new personae as Darth Vader.
The translation into a game was done with the full cooperation of the Star Wars people, and there are many integrations of video clips into the storyline. I've seen this done VERY well with other games, so that you feel you're an integral part of the storyline. Unfortunately, with the XBox engine, this just doesn't work as well in this game. When you switch from the movie back into gameplay, the characters suddenly look very wooden and blocky. I don't think you'd have that reaction at all if 1) they didn't try to make it a seamless situation or 2) they'd done a better job with in game graphics.
The movement of the characters during fighting is relatively smooth, with the saber attacks, spins, jumps and so on. The problem here is that much of what you're doing is repetitive. Oh look, another wave of droids to slaughter. It often comes down to button mashing, which is a shame because in an RPG like manner you get to build up your character's strengths to customize him.
I also have to comment that the dialogue gets very inane, very quickly. I realize they can't "fix" Anakin to make him more pleasant - but it's like water torture to hear his snotty voice snapping back at Kenobi constantly.
It was very nice of them to have two player gameplay, something which is missing from a lot of games. But on the other hand, why don't they have an XBox Live component? With so many people who play on Live - but don't have nearby friends to play in the house - it's a real shame. I know many people who are home taking care of kids or for other reasons can't have someone else "in" their house, and Live is an important aspect of their free time fun.
Finally, there were situations in the game where you hit a "puzzle to be solved" and you were given quick instructions about what button to press - but if you missed those for some reason, you were doomed to death so that you could go back and replay up to that area and hear the instructions again. That just makes no sense in a modern game.
Great potential here - but numerous flaws that really should have been spotted easily during beta testing. | video-games_xbox |
The Titan has fallen. They say the future is going to games like this which are just multiplayer... The statistics say that the majority of gamers playing COD Ghosts and Battlefield 4 are in multiplayer most of the time.. I can agree with that stat but with one exception here.... Ghosts and BF4 both have great multiplayer and a pretty good story campaign. Titanfall only has multiplayer and the price is the same!??? Am I missing something here? The future is moving to multiplayer yet the price is the same as games with multi and a story mode now??? Can anyone else see the problem here? We are paying more for less! We have just given the gaming industry a green light to produce multiplayer games alone for the same $60 price tag! Then to top it off they want us to buy a season pass for half of a game and charge us $25 more dollars just for maps? Really!?? If I am the only one that sees this as a problem we are all in trouble because we all fell for this rip off!
I really like this game even though the graphics aren't the best for a next gen title.. The Gun play and Titans are great! Its a really fluid and dynamic game! But $60 for just a multiplayer game and then to charge a season pass for maps is just a slap in the face! If this is the future than this would be a great future if the game was $40... It however is not that great of a game to pay full price only to get half of a game. If this were Ghosts or Battlefield and the price was $60 for multiplayer alone, heads would roll I promise you! Like everyone else I was looking for the future in gaming with Titanfall, but I just don't see it..I am going to keep this game because don't get me wrong, I like it! I still am left feeling a little cheated with the price tag for what you get... You do not get a lot with this game to warrant a $60 price point. If this is the future of gaming where you get half of a game for full price, you will find me in the past! There is no way I nor anyone else could ever warrant giving this game a 5 or 10 rating! Its sad we now live in the age where there is a Titanfall multiplayer game for $60. Its just as sad that they are charging $30 for Metal Gear Solid 5 Ground Zeroes. Ground zeroes is basically a Demo of the real game that you have to pay $30 for! If the future is moving toward games with Multiplayer alone that you pay full price for and for paying for demos, I will stay away from that future.... Because its not much of a future to me... | video-games_xbox |
for $250, it'd better be. It's a damn good headset. I bought this headset because I needed an XBox headset and after two "high quality" Turtle Beach headsets, I just had a suck it up and spend a lot more money to get a product that works and (hopefully) won't break. I've had this headset for about 4 days at the time of writing.
So first of all, before I even go into this headset let me just advise: never, ever buy anything from Turtle Beach. The products are absolute garbage and they won't last more than a year. You might as well pony up for a more expensive headset and only have to buy it once.
Anyway, that frustration led me here.
This headset came in an extremely nice box made of high-quality cardboard and plastic. That might not sound impressive, but it's actually a very elegant, study box which I could use to store the headset safely or to take the headset with me if I ever wanted to transport it. i.e., you'll be very tempted to keep the box. I'm pretty sure the box this came in had better QA than the Turtle Beach headset itself.
Inside the box is the headset, the mixamp, and all the cords you need. Although the headset is not wireless, I like the way it is wired and it's far less cumbersome than the previous wired headsets I owned. Basically there's an audio in, USB in, optical in on the back. On the front, one cable from the headset, and one from the mixamp to the XBox controller (if you use the 1/16 inch mic cable for XBox or old-school cell phones). Contrast with many headsets which send two cables from the headset itself (one for their mixamp equivalent, one to the controller direct).
The mixamp needs power which it gets via USB. This is also how your computer communicates with the headset; you can pipe in audio from your computer as long as you've set your computer to use the mixamp as the output for your computer's sound (extremely easy in OSX).
The headset and mixamp came with a bunch of cables, some of which I didn't use. I set my XBox to use 5.1 surround sound and used the optical audio cable that came with the headset. You can really hear the difference in sounds that come from behind you, on the side, etc. in "Halo:Reach". i.e., if the game is well made, the surround sound part of these headsets is actually quite noticeable and it might even help you play better! Wow.
I noticed that the computer can still pipe in audio even if you're using the mixamp with the optical cable (and I assume the same holds true for standard audio cable as well). Piping in both sound from the computer and sound from the XBox console occasionally resulted in choppy or garbled audio from the computer, but turning the mixamp on and off fixed that problem. In other words, you can be playing your XBox and have 5.1 surround sound and use your XBox headset, and also pipe sound from the computer, which is nice if you receive phone calls there or want to add in your own music. I suspect you can even use the headset as an mic in on the computer, so you could carry on a Skype call while playing Halo in surround sound.
I haven't noticed choppy/garbled audio if *only* the computer is supplying audio to the mixamp, I'm just saying that I was pleasantly surprised that you can have an XBox headset, computer, and XBox play simultaneously even if it isn't advertised to do so and will have a couple of hiccups. So it definitely is a worthwhile buy if you want to use it with your computer. I spent quite a long time watching TV and listening to music with the headphones on.
The mic works very well and all of my friends can hear me clearly.
The way the headphones feel on your head is incredibly comfortable. I wear glasses with the headset and sometimes headphones can bother me, but these didn't. It's hard to describe wearing the headset, as it's so spacious and the audio somehow makes you feel as though you're in a room rather than in a pair of headphones. A couple of times I took of the headset because I was so sure the acoustical space I was in was larger and I suspected that my speakers were blaring and waking up my neighbors. Nope. Your ears will have plenty of room in this headset, and it will sound like you're in a much larger, acoustically treated room. Everything sounds amazing, even compared with my studio monitor headphones.
The mixamp is an elegant solution and it's really very easy to mix audio and voice.
tl;dr:
All in all, it's one of the most comfortable headsets I've ever worn. My favorite thing about it is the way audio sounds through it and the perception of space the headphone imparts to the listener even when not in surround sound mode. I love that it came with the optical audio cable and how quickly I was able to set it up and try it out (approx 5-10 minutes to read through the material and become comfortable with the headset). I was amazed that it can handle both audio from the computer and the XBox. I was delighted that I can pipe in computer audio in conjunction with the XBox audio despite this not being advertised (granted, you might have to power cycle your mixamp occasionally as it would barf once in a while).
I didn't think spending $250 on a headset could make me feel so smart. | video-games_xbox |
Vastly improved over the previous TF movie tie-in game. The Transformers video game for XBox 360 that was released with the first film was designed by Travelers Tails (company best known for Lego Starwars, Lego Batman, etc...). That game had many flaws in terms of control, overall simplicity, etc... It was a typical run-of-the-mil movie tie in game given little effort to work out the kinks or provide players with any depth of play.
This title is the first fruit from Activison's exclusive deal with Hasbro to bring TF console and PC games to market (there will be more time come and not all movie tie-ins either). While this game isn't perfect, it's a big leap forward in many areas. I'm written this review for those who've played the previous game, here's a short-list of what they've improved/fixed.
1. Melee combat is now challenging and viable. You can charge attacks, pull of combos, etc...
2. The targeting system is hugely improved. With primary and secondary weapons.
3. Once a Transformer has been unlocked (after using that Transformer in a mission) then that Transformer can be selected for any following mission (in other words, players aren't locked into playing a specific transformer for certain missions).
3. Each character has a unique ability (e.g. Rachet can heal, Bumblebee can stun).
4. Players earn points and can spend them on upgrades!
5. Vastly improved enemy AI (e.g. they transform and run evade when damaged then come back in).
6. On-line head to head multiplayer with different forms of combat (when you combine this with the improved melee and specialty abilities, it's quite nice)
I've only gotten about 1/4 of the way done with it, but it's almost as if Activision went down the list of players complaints and tried to make exactly the type of game we wanted. It's still a movie tie-in game in that you're playing out the movie, but it's done right.
Not sure what else I would add here. I suppose allowing two or more players to team up in the missions would be something to consider adding in the the next game, but overall this is quite nice. Kudos to the dev team! | video-games_xbox |
Ok (not great) Single player but Awful Multiplayer! PLEASE READ AND RATE. <div id="video-block-RSJVD54HPRJH5" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/E1BZfuHC8GS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61b3PX-kS3S.png" class="video-slate-img-url"> PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Don't give me a bad review for this, this is my first video review and I was so unscripted lol (I sold this game back to Amazon 3 days after I got it so I was trying to remember all the stuff). ALSO: I know there is a delay from video and sound, I cannot figure out why this is, the video is running smooth on my computer but once I upload it to Amazon there is a delay. Please leave comments on what you would like to hear and see and I will start to do that in future reviews. Again please only leave positive feedback and please keep negative comments to yourself. Thank you for you time and hope you enjoy this. UPDATE, have a new review system, hope you like.
Hey all this is Sam AKA Para in the gaming review community. This is one of many gaming reviews I will be starting for Amazon, so I hope you enjoy. Going to be talking about Sniper: Ghost Warrior and what I think could have been one of the best games for its concept; could have been is the keyword. First off let's talk about the story, without going into too much detail; I must say the story was decent at best. It kept you on the edge at some moments but others it was just sour. The moments that make this game sour are when you are not sniping and you are with an Assault Rifle (AR), it just was poorly done. The sniping portion of the game is phenomenal but here comes the AR parts and it just ruins the whole moment. Don't get me wrong, I like that they go from solo sniper to squad based AR teams, it added to the story and really flows but I will get into more detail about the gameplay next. Besides that the story head together and as far as the ending goes.......it will make you laugh and say "Ok?". Cut scenes were good. Over though the story could have been better but your still going to enjoy it to see what happens.
Now for gameplay, as I said earlier he AR mode of gameplay ruined the game. The problem is they didn't execute the AR gameplay well, it looked as if they stole the gameplay and pasted as theirs. It was nice they added it but again it brings the game down for how poorly it plays. Now let's forget about the AR part and talk about the awesome sniping; they nailed it perfectly. It is so much fun to be 200 yards away and just see a head pop in slow motion. The bullet time scenes are very intense to watch as how your pullet just travels through the awesome environment to reach its target. That being said the way they got wind speed, bullet drop, breathing, and the slow motion really add to the games overall concept; they really mastered it. About the graphics and sound which are simply breathing, it is amazing to see how big the world actually is. I went on a run just to see how far I could go off track and must say you can really get lost lol. I am glad they worked on making a beautiful environment, also the water will have you wanting to throw it in your face; it actually looks like fresh drinkable water and movement in water looks good. Sounds match environment dead on, fire from cans sounds real, your sniping shots are perfecting authentic, and everything just flows. Now for AI and it isn't going to be pretty. The AIs are super human (if you are playing on hard) and will see you no matter how well you hide. I was at least 300 yards away from someone in the bushes and was about to sniper when he turned around and was shooting at me with an AR and nailed me dead on. I mean they should have been the snipers, it was just weird and it didn't just happen once. It was throughout the whole game no matter how well you hide they would someone see you on certain maps. Some maps the cover system worked flawless but most the maps didn't do anything for you no matter how well you tried to hide. That also hurts the game because it took the games fun right out of it. The gameplay overall though (minus AR mode) is very fun and enjoyable.
Now for online, which is going to be short, is awful. I am not going to burn this one to the ground and stomp on it because there really isn't anything there. What I mean is multiplayer really has nothing. Yeah you got you Team Death Match, Free for All, King of the Hill, and others but there is no customization, no flare, no wow factor--it is simply boring. If they added the ability to change camo, gun, sidearm, ANYTHING--I would have given this game a better rating. You have 3 classes to choose from but 4 total types of guns to use (each class gets its own (recon has 2 choices)). If I remember correctly there are only 6 maps total to play which really is that bad but more could have helped with the loss of everything else fun. Maps are big which is a plus, radar is forever there and can be annoying cause it can in fact give your position cause all that person needs to do is scan up and down while facing your dot to get an idea of where you are. Radar in a sniper game should not exist because the point is to hide (Snipe or be Sniped). Finding matches if worse, even as the game was out for a while, online matches were small and usually not very fun. People will leave if nothing happens, which is to be expected if no one moves. They really did not put an effort into the multiplayer experience which brings the value harshly down.
Overall they had a nice concept for a game and as though they didn't ruin the concept, they really didn't do any favors for it either. There was a lot of potential for this game and I wish they would have pulled it off. Again I will say this; you should at least rent this game and give it a try. The single player is very enjoyable.
Score out of 5
Concept/Story: 4*, Ok great game concept-love sniping and they really worked hard figuring in wind speed and bullet drop-but didn't look like they put a lot of effort into the AI, basically they are the all seeing eye and will find you no matter how well you hide.
Graphics: 5*, Outstanding, the really captured the forest really well and love the rain effects. The guns look good, the sniper rifles that is, the assualt rifles (AR) are way to generic (looks stolen from other games).
Sound: 5*, Again they matched the sound with the environment really well. Guns (snipers) sound awesome but again AR generic.
Entertainment Value: 3*, Single player is fun but with the AI super human eye sight the game get stressful. Multiplayer is HORRIBLE!
Control: 4*, Takes a bit of getting use to.
Replay Value: 1*, Once you beat this game, sell it. If you rent it, return it. There is no replay because multiplayer is so small that finding matches (fun ones) are impossible
Thank you for your time, hope this review helps with your decision to buy the game. Take my word or don't take it, but this is a game worth renting, not buyng. | video-games_xbox |
Great wheel but tricky to set up. Let me preface that my last experience was a steering wheel on the PC that you clamped to your desk. That experience was a decent one but the wheel kept moving around no matter how hard you clamped it to the desk. Plus, it was difficult to find settings that would work well and thus my experiences with using wheels for driving games died with that wheel.
Fast forward to today and now I'm using the Xbox 360 Wireless Speed Wheel. Like its name says, it's completely wireless and uses accelerometers to detect motion. It has accelerometers that can detect motions in all directions, meaning there's potential that this wheel can be used for flight simulators in the future. However, currently, only some driving games support the controller.
The only game I have that supports the wheel is Forza Motorsport 4. The game developers have recently released a patch that improves this wheel's functionality in the game. The wheel has vibration feedback so when you're accelerating, braking, driving over sand, etc., you'll feel it.
It took me awhile to dial in the control such that it felt natural for me to use it. The default Wireless Speed Wheel settings had me careening all over the play because the deadzone (the amount you turn the wheel and have it not actually turn) was too big for my taste. If you go to advanced settings, you can change every detail (though Turn10 did not provide details on what each of settings do).
Here's the settings I use and I enjoy the wheel at this level. By lowering the amount of deadzone, it feels more twitchy and instantaneous so now it feels spot-on accurate, feeling every nuanced movement I make. I haven't had the wheel long so I'm still tweaking them. If anyone has settings they feel are better for this wheel, please let me know!:
steering axis deadzone inside: 0
steering axis deadzone outside: 40
acceleration axis deadzone inside: 0
acceleration axis deadzone outside: 40
deceleration axis deadzone inside: 0
deceleration axis deadzone outside: 40
clutch axis deadzone inside: 0
clutch axis deadzone outside: 40
handbrake axis deadzone inside: 0
handbrake axis deadzone outside: 40
vibration scale: 100
The default Turn10 settings (which I don't like):
steering axis deadzone inside: 1
steering axis deadzone outside: 95
acceleration axis deadzone inside: 15
acceleration axis deadzone outside: 100
deceleration axis deadzone inside: 15
deceleration axis deadzone outside: 95
clutch axis deadzone inside: 15
clutch axis deadzone outside: 90
handbrake axis deadzone inside: 0
handbrake axis deadzone outside: 100
vibration scale: 100
The negatives have been discussed in other reviews so I'll give my take on them. There are no bumper buttons (no LB and no RB). This is a major omission which doesn't affect gameplay in Forza Motorsport 4 (though it makes it harder to go through some menu settings) but it does affect how many games the controller can be used for. For example, this would be a perfect controller for a game like Ace Combat: Assault Horizon (an arcade flight game) but that game heavily uses the bumpers so the game developer would have to develop a game that didn't need bumpers in order to use this wheel.
The other negative is that there is no headset jack in the wireless wheel. This means if you want to talk to your friends while playing with the wheel, you either need a wireless headset or you need a Kinect.
Otherwise, I've been loving the wheel! It makes driving a lot more immersive. You don't have to have a huge rig in your family room, living room, etc. No need to clamp a wheel to a table or desk. No wires. When you're done playing, you just stick the compact wheel into a drawer. If you hate having big bulky expensive peripherals, this is the controller for you. And it's at a great price so you can buy multiple wheels and race with friends. I'm curious if this will work on a PC as I do have a wireless receiver. Will test soon... | video-games_xbox |
Great for SP Mic Could be Better. Basically, the thing works as advertised. Wireless is nice for sound and they are comfortable and light.
They do a good job at reproducing full surround sound. Not as good as a 5 speaker matched 5.1 system but about as close as you can get with just 2 speakers. You can certainly tell when something is in front of you as behind which is important in FPS and horror games etc. More good news, the digital pass through is there so you can just leave it hooked up all the time.
Here is the deal, for the guy who wants to play games late at night without disturbing the neighbors or the wife, these are probably the best, if not a bit pricey solution. Nice to have wire free headphones that are light and conmforatable. You can probably do just about as good with the X3s for about 1/2 the price but if you want the best surround sound reproduction, these are it.
There is a small bit if hiss introduced but I found that if you sit directly in the sweet spot, which is easy to do, the hiss reduces to a very low level and when you are gaming, its not noticeable. I am a bit of an audiophile and at first, I was a bit put off by the appearance of any hiss. But I soon realized, as long as are not playing Yohan Sebastian, you will be good to go. And red faction explosions sound great so no worries.
For multi-player, there is an unfortunate added amount of hiss. As soon as you connect the microphone to the headphones the hiss increases to a level that is no longer unnoticeable. Its not terrible, but for a product that seems geared to online play, thats a bit dissapointing. That being said, the sound quality of the game is still good but you have that extra level of noise to deal with.
So, for the single player guy (or gal) who wants the best surround sound, wireless headphones, these are pretty sweet. For multi-player, they are pretty solid but all that wireless comes with a minor cost of some noise.
As far as build quality, they are pretty good. The headphone cups are solid and will last a while (not sure if you can order replacements). The top band around the top is a bit too plastic and cheap feeling but it will probably last. If it doesn't I am sure some tape can keep it from falling apart. What I am saying is that the build quality is decent but it aint no leather. And for the price, it would have been nice if the build quality of the top strap were a bit better.
In summary, its probably the best wireless headphone, but its pretty pricey. If you expect good sound but not perfect, you will be very happy to be able to fully enjoy 360 games at late hours without waking everyone and thats what its all about.
WARNING: If you have a plasma display, you may want to hold off. The manual clearly states that there are some IR interference issues with some plasmas. I have an LCD so IR interference is not an issue but some plasma TVs will cause problems with these IR headphones. Not much can be done here because plasma displays put out some IR that interferes with these headphones. It may work well for some, but not others. LDCs are fine though.
NOTE: I read here that there is lag introduced by these headphones. That is 100% false as far as I can tell. I play rock band on expert and have calibrated with a number of sound source, TV (80ms) , receiver (30ms), etc. When using these headphones the lag is (5ms) which is better than most surround 5.1 receivers and most TV sound output. | video-games_xbox |
What a great mix of play for every player. This game is great. If your a fan of the NHL '94 (One of the greatest hockey games of all time) this pays homage to it with a '94 anniversary mode. The same look, feel and graphics from the masterpiece. As for the NHL 14 part it has a great set-up for every player. For example: at the very start of the game it asks your preference of game play. You can have it run as a huge wide open game with big hits and easy to shoot shots. You can have a good balance of simulation and assistance or you can have a hardcore simulation. My son (10) likes to just fly around, big hits, huge shots and fights so the wide open style makes it so fun he can't put it down. I'm a middle of the road guy so I can use the stick control and still have a faster pace game. The control options are great. You can use '94 controls BUT they now include a drop the gloves button. It is a huge benefit and welcomed addition to the very simple controls making it very easy to pick up and play for beginners or gamer's who want to just play very simple controls. The game still plays and acts the same as far as AI and difficulty but is more accessible. The hybrid control set up is a good mix of a easier version of the ultra realistic controls. Graphics as always are top notch. Skating feels a little more realistic than previous editions. If you love hockey this is a great title and is accessible to all gamer levels. The online features are robust ranging from a fantasy hockey GM style to head to head or co-op games, seasons and tournaments.
This title shows how far we've come in 20 years yet the core love of a great NHL title remains the same. And how great of an evolution that brings newer gamer's and well as us old folks who grew up on the undisputed king of hockey games good old NHL '94 the ability to play the game we love no matter what our controller or experience skill set is. | video-games_xbox |
Faction Makes Mining Fun. Who knew mining on Mars could be this much fun. This game rocks my scrap metal off! Some have complained this game is a bit repetative and i suppose i can agree on that, but i can't seem to get enough of it. Red Faction is all about blowing everything up and it does it in spades. Missions are the typical lot, blow that building up, ambush that convoy, steal that vehicle, intercept that traitor, but its fun gang. Part of the fun is finding out the most efficient and creative way to take a building down. The missions play out like little mini games, one that is particularly satisfying is the demolition trials. The object is to destroy a structure with specific equipment within the alotted time. I played one where the object was to attach sticky bombs onto explosive barrels and drop them down a drainage tube till they landed next to the target building and kaboom! I like these missions as they give me new tactics for taking out the enemy that i may not have even thought about on my own. There are wide variety of vehicles ranging from fast light armored cars to heavy tanks with some serious firepower. I love the robotic walkers you can pilot, they remind of the walker Ripley used in Alien.
The graphics are fantastic and the Martian landscape is truly a sight to behold, it has a very Total Recall feel to it. There is a lot of area to cover too. There are six zones if i remember correctly that you are trying to liberate from the oppressive forces of the EDF (Earth Defense Force). I like the addition of the scavengers that randomly appear here and there wielding their crude weapons, they have a Mad Max feel to them. There a wide variety of weapons at your disposal but you can only carry 4 at a time, one being your trusty hammer. I suppose it is a bit ridiculous that your hammer can bust through solid concrete walls in one hit, but i can overlook that, mainly because this a game and its just plain fun. As you finish missions in each zone, morale raises and more and more miners will pick up arms and join you in your battle which is very helpful because this game can get tough without the help. When they say Guerrilla, they weren't kidding, you really need to utilize hit and run tactics to be successful until you get better weapons and armor later in the game. Overall im very impressed with this title, its a solid game that you can keep coming back to when you feel the need to blow some $h@t up. | video-games_xbox |
Mass Effect might not look as pretty anymore, but she still runs just fine. A long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away, BioWare, the legendary creators of Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, gave gamers their first epic, multi-pathed Xbox 360 RPG with Mass Effect. Released to much fan-fare, the heralded action-rpg hybrid allowed players to guide their own customized main character (Commander Shepard) and his recruitable, multi-species crew through a sci-fi journey of galactic proportions - literally. Fast forward to present-day Earth - while the masses are once again waiting to be affected by the sequel, a select few of us that missed out on the first portion of the story (or simply want our in-game decisions to carry over to the successor) have decided to go back and try to save the original galaxy again before the day of second impact. Fortunately, while some of the creaks and cracks of yesteryear have fissured into eye sores since its original release, the old girl has still largely "got it where it counts."
Let's start with the probably the best reason to play through the original game again: the highly shapeable story and the dialogue system on which it rests. Although BioWare fans will recognize this as the company's MO, nearly every conversation and decision within Mass Effect allows the player to select responses that lead to major and minor consequences. Depending on whether you react to a situation with a cool-headed and diplomatic "Paragon" response or a hot-headed and likely more risky "Renegade" option (or anything in between), NPCs will come to either respect you or hate your guts, open up to you or shut you out, or ultimately be allowed to live or suffer a gruesome death. Although not every detail of Commander Shepard's adventures will be changed via this system - you'll still fight the same bosses, still be able to access the same shops and still have the same amount of selectable missions - it's these major choices that the player is forced to make that have become Mass Effect's true legacy. I won't sugarcoat the situation - some of the decisions can be quite difficult, but that only reinforces the success that BioWare has had in helping players establish meaningful connections to their in-game crew and support characters. Their fate is quite literally in your controller-greased hands.
But while you'll delight in seeing the fruits of your dialogue-based decisions, chances are that the combat won't live up to your modern-day expectations. Battles are carried out through a behind the shoulder, third-person perspective, with Shepard leading two of his fellow squadmates, all with different traits and abilities (of course) into a cover-based shooter against armies of robots, mercenaries and nogoodniks. Each character has an assortment of different guns and special abilities that allow for an amusing combination of battle tactics at your disposal - you can suspend enemies in mid-air, overload their weapons and disable their shields, all before they hit the ground. Unfortunately, the cover system, in which you try to stick as close to a wall as possible in hopes of automatically latching onto it, can only be described as serviceable at best, especially with other third-person shooters such as Gears of War setting a high bar over the past few years. And while certain character classes, such as the Soldier or Vanguard, will have little trouble disposing of the legions of seemingly crack-shot enemies despite this flawed mechanic, others will be doomed to restarting the same battles multiple times due to an over-exposed limb. Add to this a fairly crude checkpoint system, and you could find yourself repeating the same 20 minute battle over and over again, complete with unskippable cutscenes and loss of saved player settings. Suffice to say, your learning curve may vary.
It's also surprising - again, given its release - how well Mass Effect's graphics still hold up. While it certainly doesn't represent the bleeding-edge of textures and polygons that it once was, there are still quite a few awe-inspiring moments to be found within the galaxy - especially during the last few missions. And although some may blame unsynchronized voices and mouth movements on a general lack of polish (and they might be right), I find myself more willing to stick the rather uninspired side-missions and exploration quests into that unfortunate possibility bucket. No matter what the task might be, whether it's to rescue a sibling, purchase a certain good or procure information for someone, everything revolves around either too lengthy, although admittedly well-done, conversations or raids on generic buildings, wiping out baddies for cash that's all but worthless. With nearly every worthwhile weapon and piece of armor procured through chests along the main story arc, there's even less reason to explore the dozens of additional planets littered throughout the galaxy, most of them empty wastelands that contain some sort of mineral or artifact, good only for cash or obsessive collection relief.
But despite the janky, unbalanced combat, the slightly outdated visuals and the largely uninteresting side-quests, Mass Effect still manages to win over the majority of players through its thoroughly engaging story and dialogue system. It's proof-positive that giving players a greater array of choices within their game will allow them to connect more strongly to it, especially if the consequences are interesting, heartfelt and permanent. It's very little wonder why fans are excited for the sequel - we want to see how our actions will continue to affect all of our stories, lack of polish be damned. But while the new model is right around the corner, don't hesitate to take the ol' gal out for a ride if you're interested. She might not look as pretty anymore, but she still runs just fine.
--Reviewed by Nicolo Accordino | video-games_xbox |
Don't Expect The Usual. First off let me start by saying that Ghost Recon is NOT like Halo. You do not charge in throwing grenades and holding the trigger button for 3 minutes straight. This is a strategy game. Instead of one path you have a wide open area. You could go straight, you could go right, you could go left. Its up to you. The Ghosts are divided into two three-man squads. One squad follows you, and the other you command where to go. This way you can split up or stick together, its your choice. This is a game of patience. You will often be moving only a few feet at a time. Every now and then you have to stop and scope the area for enemies. If you go in fearlessly, you'll be ambushed and killed. Oh that reminds me, this game does not deal with any "life bar" bull. This is realistic. If someone shoots you in the head once, sorry buddy, your dead. You might however get away with a shot to the leg in which case you'll be injured and move slower and your skills will be hindered. Online this is a fantastic game. With some good teammates, you'll have a great time working together. Hell, even with team mates who don't care about you and watch out for themselves only, you'll have a great time. The game's that good. If you don't have Xbox live, you might just wanna rent this and see if you feel like beating the missions on all difficulties and unlocking everything which can get a little repetative but QUITE challenging. I would recommend this game for adults who don't mind strategy, stealth, and planning your course of action. I wouldn't recommend this game to people who would rather take 300 bullets and live and who like to just blast away untill everyone's dead. And to those who say that it's stupid that you cant see your gun, shut the f^ck up and find something relevant to complain about. The only complaints I have about this game is that its not very interactive. Although hiding behind a tree or corner is very effective, you cant go in most buildings and none of the missions require you to flip switches or pick up anything. Also, you can't jump but you CAN crouch, and even lay on the ground. There are tanks in the game but you can't drive them which is a shame too. If this game had drivable vehicles and a few more commands it would be top notch. | video-games_xbox |
Finally a Splinter Cell game for me. When the first Splinter Cell game came out, I immediately bought it for it's blend of cool visuals, shadowy game play and cool spy moves. I didn't like it. I'm not a fan of trial and error gameplay and the game was completely filled with it. And, while realistic I'm sure, setting off alarms was too easy and unforgiving.
Splinter Cell 2 did a better job of smoothing out the problems of the first while including a cool online portion but it still had trial and error gameplay that I couldn't get into.
Finally, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is out and it is grand.
When I first started to play the single player game, I was amazed at how much more forgiving the system was. Not to say it was dumbed down or easier, I still got my ass handed to me, but it was more fair. And if I made a mistake it didn't necessarily spell total disaster. Overall, it's still a lot of the same from before, except that in this case you are given much more freedom in how you want to go about your missions and you can, in fact, use those high-powered weapons you were given without worry.
Then there's the multi-player portion which is amazing. The co-op mode is fully fleshed out, allowing two people to play either split screen, system link or through Live. New moves are given for team attacks and for various ways of solving situations. Gameplay is fun and exciting, it's a natural extension of the single-player experience and makes me wonder why it took for the third game for them to include it. My only complaint is that there aren't many co-op levels but hopefully this will be remedied through downloads through Live.
As if those two modes aren't enough, there's the merc vs. spy multi-player from the second Splinter Cell. Maps from the second game and new ones are included. Very awesome. Nothing like going up against real people for a change.
Astoundingly, the graphics have been increased in this game. I didn't know how they could do it, but they did. Environments are more realistic, the shadows are better, everything is much much better. Audio is also stellar and if you have the ability for 5.1 you will be in for a treat.
I don't like repeating other reviewers out there so I don't think I can say much more. It's a fun game mostly, that incorporates some real cool moves. If you liked the original two but wanted more freedom in how you go about things, then this game is for you. It took three games but I am finally a Splinter Cell believer. | video-games_xbox |
Most addictive game ever. Since my Nintendo gamecube broke a couple years ago I've been sadly systemless, missing out on all the cool games coming out and feeling out of place when my friends talk about how awesome they are at Guitar Hero. I never really cared too much to tell the truth, but sometimes when I have nothing to do I just want to sit down and shoot some zombies or steal a car or something (in a video game, not real life mind you).
Then, on the fourth of July I went over to a friend's house and played Rock Band for the first time. Of course I'd played Guitar Hero before this but I always hated the guitar. It's too small and the buttons have too much space between them. But Rock Band was completely different. You don't have to go solo all the time, you can have an actual BAND complete with drums and vocals and, if you have an extra guitar controller, a bass. My friends and I played that game all night long, and when I went home I stopped by Wal-Mart and bought an X-Box 360 just so I could play Rock Band at home. I haven't stopped playing it since.
My rockers name is Andrew Lee, and my bands called Stupified, and we're right now on a world tour. I play lead guitar, while my brothers do drums and vocals. I'm learning how to play bass (the real thing) JUST because I loved this game so much and wanted to learn how to play the real thing. I've never played such a fun game before.
But there are a few things which I don't like. One, the drum set is VERY flimsy. First the drumsticks which came with the game broke, and then the foot peddle broke (we can still use it though; Thank God for duck tape), and then the flaps started falling off the pads. Although I love the game the drum set really disappointed me in how easily it started to fall apart (although in all fairness my brother does hit it pretty hard). Also the drums and guitar make a lot of noise so that if your not close to the speakers all you'll hear is a loud tapping sound as the drumsticks hit the drum pads. Fortunately Rock Band 2 will have these problems solved.
The song list was a hit and miss for me. Although I loved "Enter Sandman" by Metalica, "When You Were Young" by The Killers, and "Learning to Fly" by the Foo Fighters, "Creep" by Radiohead and "Maps" by (don't remember) nearly put me to sleep. It's pretty much hit and miss for the rest. Some songs I'll love, some I'll hate, but I guess that's what downloadable songs are for. Also, look for an old song from Southpark called "Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld." It's really funny because Timmy from the show is actually singing the song. TIMMY! TIMMY-TOM-TIMMY!
So Rock Band or Guitar Hero III? Well lets make this easy, Rock Band has drums and vocals, and Guitar Hero does not, which means that the only things Guitar Hero has to offer is its guitar controller and the song list. Although Guitar Hero does have a really great song list, any advantage it might have is negated by the fact that you can download new songs for Rock Band. You can do the same for Guitar Hero III, what I'm saying though is that they negate each other.
And I'd also go so far as to say Rock Band's guitar controller is way more comfortable and easier to use then Guitar Hero's. It's bigger for one thing, and the buttons are bigger and don't have any gaps between them, meaning you won't ever put your fingers in the gaps between buttons (guilty as charged). There are also fret buttons at the bottom of the neck for children or people with small hands. They can also be played without strumming during solos. So to me it's a no brainier; unless you've already invested in Guitar Hero guitar controllers then go Rock Band. Guitar Hero IV will have drums and vocals in October, but fortunately Rock Band II 2 will be out around that time with improvements to its drums set including three symbols which can be added on (kind of puts Guitar Hero IV's drum set to shame, seeing how it only has five pads and Rock Band 2 will have seven not including the foot peddle).
Guitar Hero is cheaper to buy, but Rock Band's set comes with a guitar, drums, and a microphone. To get that same value you'd have to buy two extra guitars for Guitar Hero, by which time you'd spend more money then if you'd just bought Rock Band. So go with Rock Band, and I promise you won't regret it.
ROCK ON! | video-games_xbox |
A deep VS experience with some major game design pitfalls. This game is probably one of the better fighting games out there, with some good consideration going into tweaking the characters so they're on even ground...for the most part (but we'll touch upon that in a minute). If you enjoy fighting games and are a big fan, I say buy it because it's worth your money. It takes a damn long time to learn the nuances and moves of your character and actually be good with them. We're talking multiple hours because the game doesn't have training (so far as teaching you how to use the hyper armor, etc.). The game manual teaches you but not particularly well. Look online, there's lots of great resources that the game is lacking.
Now I'd give it more stars but there are a few major pitfalls to the game that are inexcusable from a game design stand point. The first and major being well rounded characters. "But you just said it's pretty even?" I know, I know, for the most part it is...but there are some stand out characters that are much better than the others (watch the pros, they use the same seven or so characters) and some characters that are pitiful to play as. Again, go online and check which characters suit your play style. I chose Vega as my first and he's regarded as one of the worst characters in the SSFIV community. I've gotten pretty good at him but there's still a major gap between him and other characters.
What needed to happen was less characters and more fine tuning the game...which didn't happen. Plus Seth (the last boss) was made to be even cheaper in the game. On higher settings he defies the rules of the game, grabbing you whenever the hell he wants and pulling off ridiculous combos. The guy in charge of the game even admitted to it:
"This is the most fan-responsive game in Capcom's history," Killian said.
Changes to the game will include balancing tweaks, but at least one famously irritating character won't be made easier to take on, he'll be made harder.
"Seth will be even cheaper and more irritating," Killian said.
This was taken from a Kotaku news bit. So the creators are purposelessly making Seth cheap. Not harder...cheaper. That is a big no no in gaming.
Next is not being able to jump straight back into the fight after you've lost. You have to press start to continue, then go to the character select screen, then they show you the map, then they show you the character, then (though skippable) you watch the intro video to the fight. That's a huge waste of time for the gamer.
So in all it's one of the better fighting games out there but don't bother with arcade mode (you have all the characters unlocked anyway, so no need to) and if you're looking to compete with the best, know that fighting as some characters are going to give you a huge advantage. | video-games_xbox |
They'll likely never get it right again. After the opening missions of Driver Parallel Lines, I was ready to pronounce it as a return to form, a replay of what made the original Driver: You Are The Wheelman so legendary. Unfortunately, I kept playing. And the game deteriorated into Driv3r all over again.
The game stars a protagonist equally as detestable as Tanner from the previous games (what is with Reflections' obsession with weird haircuts?). The story is thin, cliched, and dumb, and I really despised TK after only a few missions. It's hard to buy into the trite "revenge" motivation of act 2, when I can't stand the sight of our main character. At any rate, the on-foot missions are as poorly balanced and silly as they were in previous games. TK moves a little more fluidly than Tanner, but I strongly suspect that Reflections just has no clue how to balance difficulty or design compelling missions.
The cool 70's vibe of the first third of Parallel Lines should have been applied to the entirety. It was the big, heavy, understeering Starsky & Hutch feel to the original game that made it great. So what that it didn't have any on-foot missions, and the city streets weren't completely realistic? The driving was a blast. And Reflections have managed again, just as they did in Driv3r, to wreck the fun. While the basic car physics are fine, particularly the 70's model cars, Reflections made terrible errors in artificial intelligence that kills most of the joy of driving. For example, they increased vehicle density, which looks neat, but the cars are spaced too closely together, drive too slowly, and sometimes come to a stop in the middle of the road for no reason. Traffic jams on bridges may be realistic, but they're miserable during a chase mission. Police behavior also is still squirrelly, as they'll sometimes turn directly into a building at high speed. Even the traffic signal system is buggy and contributes to the traffic flow problem. In short, troubles abound.
Visually, the game is stunning. While it's not HD, this is the best looking open-world game rendered in 480p I've ever seen. While the art style is less inspired than GTA, the graphics are cleaner and the cars are more detailed and reflective. The game runs at a steady frame rate on the Xbox, even at high speed with all the visual effects like light bloom and motion blur. Pretty impressive. The modern-day New York City rendering isn't as stylistic as the 70's version, however, and just looks like a duller GTA III. The music also takes a dive when it switches from the great 70's soundtrack to the Euro-disco nonsense chosen for the modern day story. It's the same bland house music that made Driv3r so miserable. Yuck.
There are a few strong points of the game. First, the new car customization shop is great, with a full color paint pallette, adjustable (and track testable) engine and suspension mods, and the ability to save and recall your vehicle at any of the four save points. The friendly autosave system is a blessing, too. Reflections built a new police awareness model that's dependant on the vehicle you drive. It's borderline brilliant in its execution, and should be used as a template for other driving games. Well, at least it's great until it flat-out stops working halfway through the game. Uggh. The analog gas and brake triggers are perfectly calibrated, and make peelouts and 180's a joy. Unfortunately, the steering sensitivity is goofed with a dead off-center and twitchy turn-in, making the already cumbersome traffic navigation even tougher.
In conclusion, the developers did just enough wrong with Parallel Lines to botch it up again. I fear at this point that they'll never find that sweet spot of challenging mission structure and powersliding, screeching driving that made the original such a classic. | video-games_xbox |
Great Controller, Especially for FPS Fans, Works on PC Too. I preordered the Razer Onza TE, and ever since I received it, I've been loving it. At it's core, this controller is really built for FPS games. The adjustable tension thumb sticks are a true highlight, and I have used this function to tighen my right thumbstick for more precise (and less jumpy) aiming in shooters. Meanwhile, I have loosened my left thumbstick to make it easier to run in different directions.
The programmable buttons have also really improved my fps play. I setup the right programmable shoulder button to equal pressing down on the right thumbstick. So in games like Call of Duty or Crysis, I can simply press that right programmable shoulder button to perform a melee attack. This is so much easier and faster than having to press down on the actual thumbstick button when in close quarters, and as a result, I almost always get my knife or punch off before others.
Likewise, I setup the left programmable shoulder button to equal pressing down on the left thumbstick. This allows me to sprint in Call of Duty and Crysis without the need to hold down the left thumbstick button. Again, this give me much more freedom of movement when sprinting.
Because the programmable shoulder buttons are directly in front of the regular shoulder buttons, it can be awkward at first to hit the intended button. So you might be trying to pull a grenade, but instead, accidentally hit the right programmable shoulder button, etc. After some practice, you start to get used to it, however.
As mentioned in the Kotaku review, the face buttons click like mouse buttons, so they are very responsive, and if you are trying to win a button mash war, i.e., gears of war, you are almost always going to win. You simply can't press the regular Xbox controller's face button as fast as the Razer Onza TE, because the regular controllers buttons are so big and clunky.
The back lighting on the face buttons is a nice feature, but one that doesn't really impact me all that much. It's just eye candy.
And the rubbery feel of the controller, as mentioned by Kotaku is really nice. Some people don't like the trigger buttons, and it's true that they don't fit against the joint of your inner trigger finger like the regular Xbox controller's triggers do. Instead, the triggers will rest closer to the tips of your fingers. I still like the feel for the triggers, but they do feel more plastic like and less weighty than the standard Xbox's triggers.
The controller also provides nice force feedback, so no complaints there. And for people looking for a good controller to use on PC, this is a sure bet. It works on both Xbox 360 and PC.
The DPAD on the Razer Onza TE is great for shooters, because the four separate buttons ensure you will draw the weapon or ability you intended, but as fighting game fans have stated, it's not designed for sweeping movements, so you might struggle in games like Super Street Fighter and the new Mortal Kombat. But if you are a true fighting fan, you probably have a Madcatz SF tournament edition joystick anyway.
I should also mention that the controller's cord is super long, which for people like me with a large living room, that's a good thing, but if you are sitting in front of your computer, you might feel like you have yards of cord just laying around.
Overall, I love my Razer Onzer TE, and it's now my controller of choice. | video-games_xbox |
Half-baked would be putting it nicely. I started playing Battlefield with Bad Company 2. I loved it and pre-ordered BF3. I've enjoyed BF3 so much that I also preordered BF4. This is where my preordering days will come to a stop. I was expecting a gaming experience at least on par with BF3, but sadly this is a huge step down.
I only play multiplayer so my review will be based solely on that. On release day I expect server problems, and to a degree I can deal with those, I know they will get better in a few days. The problem is not with the servers, it is with the game as a whole. Half-baked would be putting it kindly. First there is the freezing. In the two hours I played last night my console froze four times, I had to reboot. Second there is no pre-game squad system. Want to play a match with friends? Too bad. You have to try to find a server that is empty enough so friends can try to join on you before the server fills up. Third, good luck finding a server. The server browser is a joke. I filter so it isn't supposed to show me full servers, but it does anyway and I have to scroll through hundreds of them to find an open server. That is once you actually get the list, it can take minutes just for it to load. So just do a quick match, right? Wrong, I got nothing but network errors when trying this.
So what about the gameplay, that has to be much better you say. Wrong again. The graphics are really poor. I know there is a new generation of consoles coming out and it SHOULD be much better on those, but those aren't out yet and you're charging full price for the current gen. The graphics should be at least on par with BF3. Enemies are very hard to see, everything seems to be washed out, textures are non-existent, there are no hit markers, the weapon customization is overly complicated and the list goes on.
So Dice and EA I'll throw you a bone and give this one star. But only because Amazon doesn't let me give you zero. I know a few of these items can be fixed with patches, but I paid full price for a complete product on day one. If companies are going to continue to go the route of shipping out incomplete software and fixing it later they should charge less day one and ramp up the cost as the game improves. You're giving users no incentive to pre order.
**Update 11/11/2013**
Returning the game. I played for about an hour tonight and it froze my console four times. I guess that is what the four in Battlefield four stands for. I give up. I want to love it, but it just hates me too much. | video-games_xbox |
Back to Survival Horror. I was very happy when I heard that they have made a version of this game for PS3/360 as some people claim that it is even better than Resident Evil 6. Therefore I got this game the day it came out. After finishing the story on the normal mode and doing a few raid missions here is how I feel.
******************************Pros**************************************
- Survival horror + action gameplay: I would say Resident Evil 6 is about 20% survival horror and rest action but this game is about 70% survival horror and rest action. I am really happy that Capcom decided to make a survival horror in this day and age after moving pretty much completely away from it. As for me, since I like both survival horror and action gameplays, I loved this game.
-Awesome bosses and decent enemies: This is what I liked the most about this game. When I finished this game about 50%, I was worried because I didn't encounter many bosses but afterwards most of the chapters rewarded me with pretty awesome bosses. I especially liked last two boss fights and a boss in the middle of the game (don't want to ruin the surprise). The enemy quality in this game was decent, but personally I like RE6 enemies much better.
- Creepy resident evil 1 like setting: This game takes place (for the most part) on an abandoned ship. I loved how they have designed the ship. A good mixture of dark, creepy, isolated and yet elegant and authentic. It is supposed to be a luxury ship so the parts of the ship are great looking. Had fun exploring each and every corner of the ship. Bravo to the level designers and the art team.
-The story and story length: Considering this game first came out on 3DS, the quality of the story and the length of the campaign are quite impressive. Since I explored each and every corner of every level, it took me about 15 hr to finish this game. I was wondering if this game was worth the release day price, but now after experiencing the story and campaign, I don't regret spending that money.
-Improved graphics: I am happy that this game came out on PS3/360. The fact that you can play it on a handheld (3DS) is great but the 3DS graphics don't do justice to this game. Now this game still doesn't look as great as say Resident Evil 5 or 6, but still looks pretty decent now that it is remastered in HD.
-Upgradable/hidden weapons/items: You will have to find/unlock weapons. If you just try to rush through the campaign you will miss out on many of them. Also you can find the upgrades for the weapons and upgrade them. This adds exploration and experimentation aspect to the game. Liked it.
-Raid mode and online competition: Some extra missions you can do once you are done with the campaign. Good to pass some time and adds longevity to the experience. Better have it than not.
******************************Cons**************************************
- Backtracking: This is somewhat annoying aspect of the game. You will be backtracking quite a bit in the game. 60% of the time something will be different when you backtrack (finding new weapons/items) but 40%, a lot of things will be the same. They could have definitely included some novel enemies (or better like Dark Souls some hidden bosses).
-melee attacks: Some people hated RE6 for its melee attacks. I loved RE6 for its melee. This game is the opposite. There are melee attacks but they are not as easy to pull as RE4, 5 and 6. Definitely like RE6 better.
******************************Conclusion**************************************
RE6 or RE: Revelations? Well I loved both games. If you want more survival horror type of experience play Revelations, if you want more action and Zombie brain bashing play Resident Evil 6. In short, I thought this game was well worth the money I spent, especially considering I didn't played the 3DS version. A must buy for those who miss old Resident Evil games. | video-games_xbox |
Ugly Character, Gorgeous Game. OK, I admit it - Vexx is a severely ugly character, and the box art is some of the worst I've ever seen. However, beyond that, the game itself is the best next-gen platformer I've played yet. The combination of incredible levels, skill-based exploration and platforming, enjoyable combat, and addictive riddles are unmatched so far. And all this from Acclaim? Great job!
Vexx himself is an awful-looking character (although he is wonderfully animated), and the plot is disposable but the game itself is actually quite impressive. Combat doesn't get old, and is rarely required, but it can give you advantages. Vexx has a variety of moves that power up his Talons. The analog control is responsive and accurate, whether Vexx is jumping, climbing, or swimming. The levels themselves are probably the best thing about the game: they are huge, gorgeous, and packed with objectives, hidden areas, and secrets. Here's the thing: there is a series of warp gates to the different levels, powered by a rift device. The more Wraith Hearts you find and feed to the device, the more powerful it gets, and the more levels you can access. This makes the game rather non-linear, as netting five or so Hearts unlocks three entire levels to explore. You can switch between worlds whenever you want, or can try and locate every Heart in a certain level before moving to the next. Each level has ten or so hidden Hearts, clues to which are given to you in the form of a riddle.
The platforming is fun and inventive, and challenging. Navigating a certain tower's obstacles in the first world gave me more trouble than anything in Rayman 2 or Klonoa 2 - and not because of the camera. Certain sections of the game are really tough to get through, but are always worth the trouble by leading to a hidden Heart, extra life, or simply another section of the beautiful levels (one has you creeping along the backbone of a gigantic dragon skeleton; another has you trapped inside a giant's mansion, exploring along a huge piano). The camera is a little unpredictable, but you can re-center it, move it with the right stick, or place it over Vexx's shoulder, so finding the perfect angle isn't too difficult. Vexx doesn't really add moves as the game progresses, either - you're quite versatile from the beginning. This cuts down on backtracking, as you're not forced to revisit worlds after learning a new move later on. This keeps the game focused on exploration and platforming. The game is also long, with nine or so gigantic levels.
I think Vexx is really worth a look. It's not perfect, by any means. The camera's twitchy, and it sometimes takes a little extra work to see where you're going, but it's a small price to pay for how grand the rest of the game is. The soundtrack is also well-done and diverse, ranging from chorus-backed orchestra to jazz-rock fusion, believe it or not. It helps create a majestic mood to go along with the visuals - thankfully there's little techno. I'm constantly surprised by how versatile and inventive the levels are - it pays to explore every corner. Vexx reminds me a lot of Fur Fighters, in design, concept, and ingenuity.
As a side note, I don't think Acclaim quite deserves all the bashing it gets. The Burnout series, Aggressive Inline, and now Vexx are all well-done, enjoyable games - maybe not the most original or polished games on the planet, but each is fun on their own merit. I'm afraid that many people passed on Vexx due to Acclaim's perceived poor status - it's their loss, frankly. Despite its sometime-cliched content and slightly annoying tech issues, I am very surprised at how addicting and enjoyable Vexx is. Take a chance on the ugly lil guy, and I bet you'll agree. | video-games_xbox |
Didn't pass the 8yr old test. My 8yr old twins absolutely LOVE the Just Dance series and Just Dance 2014 and 2015 were absolute hits in this house. We were given the opportunity to test out the Disney Party 2 version of Just Dance and I have to say before even doing one dance they were disappointed. Here is a summary of my kids observations:
1. They had never heard of ANY of the songs. They quickly went through the entire selection of songs and when I asked them which one they were going to dance to they said "we don't know any of these songs". Now my kids know the shows on Disney, but they're not overly Disney kids so I wasn't surprised to heard this. One thing to know is that the song choices correlate to Disney "real people" shows, not Frozen or other animated Disney products.
2. The user interface is definitely simplified for kids. Something in the Kinect software is different in this version versus the regular Just Dance series. The sensor frequently picked up people on the couch observing versus the dancer. Addditionally, the ability to navigate was clumsy as they have made the user hold their hand on a selection longer before it will register. In the normal Just Dance series the interfaces were quicker and less delay was noticed. This is clearly an attempt by Ubisoft to make the interface work better with kids.
3. There are two main functions on the main screen- Dance (self explanatory) and CREATE (which allows you to take photos and make videos). As a cautious parent sensitive to the internet I am appreciative that there is no share to the internet feature enabled like there is on the normal Just Dance series.
All in all, this seems like a very kid-friendly version of Just Dance, that has been simplified with the Disney brand. It is clearly, in my kids minds, not as good as the normal Just Dance series, but younger children (I would think ages 5-8) would enjoy this game. | video-games_xbox |
Something old and something new. So I've been refraining from reviewing this game for a long time because of all the backlash it got from some of the hardcore fans. After I played it, I actually really can't understand why everyone was so unhappy. Resident Evil has become one of the most beloved, involved, on-going and complex series in the gaming universe. Now I'm not a pro gamer. I play for fun, not to beat scores. I'm not a call-of-duty type gal. I'm the kind of girl who plays El Shaddai, Uncharted, and Splinter Cell. I love games for the story, so if you're all about scores and game mechanics, this review may not be for you.
Now, to clear the air, Resident Evil 6 is a good game. Even exceptionally so. In fact, there was a review I was listening to that gave it glowing ratings, saying that people were just expecting way too much. But in case you had any doubt, here's the reasons why you should play it:
1. The characters - Resident Evil has had a wide arsenal of interesting, complex, and evolving characters since at least Resident evil 4, if not sooner. That doesn't change here. In fact, the content gets deeper and the relationships are finally delved into. For the first time since Rebecca and Billy, there's a two person team that is both young and totally compatible. Also for the first time, there's an all male team. Now I've heard it circulating that the general thought is, Piers doesn't have a personality. If you think that, I feel sorry for you, because you don't understand how real people think or work. Pay attention long enough and you'll see his emotions surface. The last team of course is Leon's. Leon is well-known for being a loner, so its a nice change to not only see him with a partner, but for her to be almost his equal. It is also a nice change to see someone horn in on his moods a little and string him along for the ride, keeping him a little off balance. So all in all, the game brings back a couple characters that you love and even more to fall for.
2. Variety of Gameplay - The reason I can't understand why people are so unhappy with this title is because it has such an extensive variety of gameplay, there should be no reason that almost everyone can't find at least one campaign that they like to play. Sherry and Jake have a quick play through, but their game is also much more story oriented. The atmosphere is sweeter, but don't mistake that for easy. Their game requires you to constantly think and keep your characters on the move as your goal is to essentially get Jake to a place where he can safely help with the vaccine. Now Chris and Piers's game is just slightly longer, but the atmosphere is very somber. People are lost, and the goal is to eliminate the threat. You really get to play in a military team-like atmosphere that later expands into a partner game. Their campaign requires patience, intelligence, and both the direct and indirect approach. Then there's Leon's. Like RE4, Leon gets the spooky stuff. His campaign is quite extensive, requiring stealth, proper decision making, and the right combination of daring, cardio, and martial arts. Then there's Ada. Ada's about information and stealth. She not only finds the back door, she navigates through the vents to get there. If you use the direct approach with her, your gameplay will probably fail. Each campaign overlaps with each other, which expands on the story, giving you more and more information as you play through each one.
3. Difficulty - If you think this game is easy, you probably haven't gotten very far in it. I may not be a pro, but I have friends who are pretty close. Some started on professional mode and had to go down to veteran because it was too difficult. That said, its still a resident evil game, so you will beat it... even that part with Jake and Sherry and the snow mobiles...
4. Gameplay Mechanics - I imagine what threw some of the die hard fans of the original Resident Evil series off was the new gameplay mechanics. Embrace them. After playing this game, I had trouble going back to replay RE5. Jumping over objects is so smooth in this game that if you're running, you're character will automatically slide over the top and keep going. Another improvement is that your characters can now move while shooting. And no this isn't limited to just walking. You can roll, crawl, and jump and shoot too. What's more, they've brought more life into the game. You can trip over zombies, and when all hell breaks loose, you can choose whether to kill everything in the street or just mind your own business and get away from the worst of it without incident. Melee is also a great addition to the game. Its nice to see Leon and the other characters able to use the skills that you know they're capable of. I also love how Leon can now shoot two guns at once. This seems rather fitting seeing how much experience he's had with bio weapons in the past. Its nice to see that Capcom hasn't only added new characters, but also given the old ones some new tricks.
-----
Now, that said. There were some things about the game that weren't so good. For instance saving. If you for some reason didn't get all the way through a chapter and wanted to play a different campaign, the game would send me back to the beginning of the chapter the next time I went to play the saved campaign. I ended up playing one of the most difficult parts of Leon's campaign over 20 times partly because of saving issues.
However, overall, I love this game. It was well thought out, well written, and full of great ideas and interesting little character side stories, as well as a very large interweaving story full of twists.
All in all, the game didn't get nearly the love it deserved. | video-games_xbox |
Ex-COD fan viewpoint on the Battlefield Series. Where do I start?? Douchebags don't play this game. My wife doesn't like how realistic the game is because of the amount of skill required to play it. Bullet drop! Visual effects! Vehicular variety! This game has it all. I have been a fan of the Call of Duty series because of Modern Warfare 1 and MW2. Ever since then, that series has been regurgitated between Infinity Ward and Activision in multiple forms of the same thing at the expense of the customer (notice I didn't say fans). I am no longer a fan of COD. Battlefield 1942 got me excited when my PC wasn't capable of running it. Years down the road, I took a chance with Battlefield Bad Company on Xbox 360 and fell in love instantly. The ability to demolish buildings by shooting at them put a whole new spin on my COD strategy. Instead of running and gunning, I was now forced to use my brain for once. Playing as a team is not only rewarding when done successfully, you learn about the people you game with. I come from a military background, and to my surprise, the other gamers in the hardcore lobbies were of similar backgrounds (currently serving, used to serve, and were leaving for BMT within a few months). Very rarely in COD was I fortunate to experience a game that didn't involve an immature prepubescent 12 yr old boy screaming "YOUR MOM IS GAY" into the mic. Battlefield isn't for everyone, especially an immature prepubescent 12 yr old boy. Hey moms and dads out there, it's called ESRB Ratings. Watch for them! You'll thank me later. Battlefield is a mature game, with matured graphics, matured gameplay that makes sense. Multiplayer is where it's at. I gave it 4 stars because the offline campaign is sort of boring. Also, the Xbox 360 overheats because the graphics are really good, lol, but after you hard-restart the console once, you can play until your heart's content :-) | video-games_xbox |
Get an ethernet plug where ever you need it. Nice. If you need to connect any internet device with a physical wire, but DON'T have a router or a wired wall connection to hook it too, then you need this. This little box gives you a portable ethernet plug in. Now, don't forget, this is NOT a router. This works WITH your router.
So, two things you need. A router that preferably is B/G/N compatible, and this box. You run an ethernet cable from your device (Tivo (I've tested), Xbox 360 (I've tested), and connect the end to this box. You can move this box anyplace you need it, but you'll need an electric outlet of course.
The setup is not hard. There is an automatic connect button, and if your router has one of these as well, you can push one, then push the other, and in about 10 seconds the two start talking. Now your Tivo or Xbox 360 thinks it is connected to a PHYSICAL ethernet connection. Make sense?
You can also set this up to connect to your router MANUALLY. This requires you to connect it to a computer directly, and follow the included instructions.
Connection rates across an average size house are good to excellent. There are indicator lights on the outside that tell you when your connected, and blink as data is being transferred. Occasionally, you might need to reset this box, say once every two weeks. That is really the only "con" I have for this unit.
For the price, I highly recommend this item to connect your Tivo or Xbox 360 or internet enabled television without having to run wires across the house. It's price is great, IF you already have a router. Even if you need to buy a router, this is better than buying a dedicated device like what is offered for the Xbox or Tivo. The reason is that you will be able to transfer this device to ANY device you need it on. (Say you need to connect a new tv, and don't use your Xbox anymore, you can move it over to that device).
Bottom line: If you take your time, follow the setup instructions, this DOES work as advertised. The only negative is that you might need to reset the unit every couple weeks to reconnect with your router. | video-games_xbox |
I feel like Treyarch robbed me. Let me start this off by saying up until this point, Treyarch and Black Ops have been my favorite. We've purchased every CoD game since 07/08ish. I am not a big time gamer. I'm not an excellent CoD player, but I am OK. 8/10 games on previous games I'd go positive. I would say I was somewhat confident in my game play skills going into Black Ops 3. Normally after a few games and figuring out the maps I'm decent, if not good. I figured it'd be the same way with BO3... WRONG. SO WRONG. This game is horrific.
MP: I'm lucky if I get more than three kills and die less than 25 times. I don't feel like it's always me as a player either. I'll clearly be shooting someone and I get no hit markers. I'll come up behind someone and start shooting and they magically have the ability to turn around, shoot, and kill me.. all the while I am shooting them. I feel like I die ridiculously easy. I know when I've been outskilled versus the game just hating me. I am CONSTANTLY lagging. Every game I'm bouncing from the full bars down to one bar. Bouncing around everywhere. It's awful. Parties? Ha, good luck. I have a group of four people and we had no problems playing together in Advanced Warfare or Ghosts. It's like winning the lottery if BO3 will let us all play together. I thought it was maybe our internet that was causing all of these issues, so we decided to try Advanced Warfare again and test out whether it was us or BO3. Definitely not us. I rarely lag on AW and don't have an issue with parties. At first I thought I just sucked and I was in denial, but reading the amazon reviews and some reddit posts I KNOW I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE!
Zombies: Would have been one of the only redeeming qualities except they seemed to some how F that up too. To buy a gun off the wall you have to be looking at it in just the right way at exactly the right spot or it doesn't work. In Zombies of the past you just had to be close to it, hell even slightly brush by it, and you had a new gun. Extremely frustrating when you have a train of zombies following you and you can't easily purchase a gun. Becoming the beast is an interesting aspect and makes it fun, but the human sacrifices, and gateworms and whatever the hell else you have to do just to upgrade your gun is kind of crazy. Man, do I miss Kino Der Toten.
Campaign: I haven't a chance to play it and really haven't been as excited to this game because of all of the aforementioned issues. I like that it's co-op though. So, yay. One gold star from me. | video-games_xbox |
Shameless. Thanks, Coalition... DO NOT BUY THIS EDITION. So yeah, the cover shooting is fine/fun, but this is one shameless cash-grab... With somehow WORSE graphics than Ultimate.
Be wary, some spoilers below so read on at your own discretion.
The campaign is a pretty big disappoint to say the least. Yes, the combat is solid (as Gears has always been) and it thankfully went back to the old control scheme instead of Judgment's butchery of it. However, while the action is once again entertaining, plot-wise, it's a travesty of storytelling with large amounts of holes, questions that the developers don't even bother answering (let alone attempting to give hints on) and imperative plot points for understanding the new Sera, new characters and The Swarm that are completely swept under the rug. Of course, the reasoning behind this is that The Coalition doesn't want to tell a great narrative now; they want to franchise it for as long as possible and come up with resolutions as they're allowed to make sequels. Guys, a constant slew of unaddressed questions is not a story and a cliffhanger is not an ending (it should only be part of). And speaking of the "ending"; it's terrible. It feels like the game is just getting started (especially when you consider where the finale takes place) and then, after a 2-3 minute cutscene, it cuts to black with next to nothing having been accomplished and learned. There's not even a main villain or anything (the guy it sets up to be a primary foe is dispatched earlier on and doesn't even have a name in the game) What's even more shameless is that, to get information on the narrative (beyond, you know, the damn game), you have to go online to something like Wiki as the game doesn't even do its job of informing you. For anything more, you have to wait another decade (for two more games plus DLC) to just understand base information that they should have been telling you now like:
-Why does JD hate Marcus and why did he seemingly abandon him? (of course, we could infer, but tell us what happened!)
-Why does JD hate Baird?
-What happened to Anya and how did she die?
-What is Jinn's motive and why does she just disappear during the last act?
-Why do JD and the outsiders hate Jinn and their seemingly peaceful society, but still want to loot and attack their settlements?
-Why in the world would Reyna's mom lock she, JD and Del in a shed when The Swarm attack AFTER she just had you save the ENTIRE village from a DeeBee attack? These are your best proven fighters! (Okay, so that was just really bad writing/a plot hole, but still).
-How can the Swarm hack robots with quills? And if they can, why aren't they hacking the DeeBees later in the game instead of fighting them? Seems like a waste of a randomly-generated enemy trait.
These are just a minimal amount of major plot threads that are just shrugged off in favor of further franchising, like Halo 5. And no, to everyone gibbering away that they're just setting up for the DLC and sequel and yadd-yadda-yadda----NO. This is flat-out bad writing and bad storytelling. Give us something!
The Swarm are also kinda just dumb. They don't look interesting, hardly have any diversity and the "Scions" just look nonthreatening with their too-dimwitted/human faces. There's potential for them, but the game gives no depth to them or their purpose other than harvesting.
The characters are also grating. JD is alright, but the "humorous" dialogue is near non-stop and most of it is the trio not taking anything seriously, making jokes and speaking solely in sarcasm. Yes, the original games had this, but in this one, it's so incessant and so cringe-worthy that it's just obnoxious. There's simply a time and place for everything and this one has these infants copping jokes around a mutilated body they just discovered. That and they act like brats and treat Marcus and Baird like crap. Reyna even has the audacity to speak down to Marcus at one scene where all he's trying to do is talk sense.
Multiplayer is alright but it doesn't 'feel' like Gears of War combat. It feels like a Call of Duty interpretation. Again, it does Gears' gameplay, but in a Call of Duty-esque way. Now, everything's about loadouts, temporary cards you can equip and "zombie" characters (like COD) that look pretty stupid. I really liked unlocking the character models in old Gears games and the ones in this are just lazy (color-splattered? Seriously? Gimme a Theron, please). Worse, multiplayer is utterly mutilated with micro-transactions. There are seriously 3 forms of currency and getting credits isn't a grind, it's an absolute slog. Worse, when you actually get enough credits to buy one of the packs, it's completely random whether or not you'll receive anything worthwhile. 99% of the time, you receive the lamest gun skins or experience cards--and even doubles at that in the SAME PACK! Even worse (yup, it does get worse) I now have doubles (and even one TRIPLE) of cards that the game won't let me "scrap" for currency to buy another skin instead. Now, I have decks of cards that are literally unusable. It's revolting, it's disgusting and it's even gambling. They literally force you to gamble on stupid slots. Funny, considering all those gamers who got busted on COD for gambling because they were actually EARNING money by playing--and the ol' government came down on them for. BUT NO, it's totally okay for AAA game companies to extort and pocket money if they're the ones forcing gamers to gamble. Insane. Also, the season pass was utterly worthless as it doesn't come with ANYTHING that would/should come in a season pass. Oh, the new characters/Run the Jewels box or the MLG loot box??? NOPE! Gotta pay extra even though you already shelled out $100 (not that I care for the character models, but still, it's principle). Of the loot I got with the $100 edition, I got nothing worthwhile but several "pine" skins for guns that look as stupid as they sound. So what do you get with this edition? Kinda-sorta early access (one week before they're released for free) to multiplayer maps that can only be played on the developer mode.
As for guns, the DeeBee weapons are actually the most fun (the Overkill and Embar). However, most of the time, I just used the original lineup of guns as I feel they're more effective. The Dropshot is annoying as it sometimes works really well and sometimes explodes directly next to someone and does... Nothing. The Buzzkill is stupid fun, but like the Dropshot I never bothered to use it beyond its introductory use (as it's slow to start firing and needs to be used from a static position). The Markza is okay, but when you already have a sniper and lancer/hammerburst, it's kinda void.
Music is also severely lacking when it should be used during cutscenes. One "emotional" moment is rendered "meh" by the complete lack of a sympathetic song (think The Coalition trying to replicate the Maria scene from Gears 2 but without memorable music and/or emotional investment from the player--as again--it's taken no time to explain why we should care about these new characters).
As a fanatic of all things Gears (except that crap one Judgment), I find Gears 4 to be decent mindless fun, but a slap in the face as well for those who have supported the series. It's clear the people involved (and still are from previous games) needed Cliffy B. to guide them and really don't understand their fan base nor what makes a game great. It's a AAA title all the way in that it's a microtransaction-filled cash-grab made for the general public first and fans secondly. | video-games_xbox |
An Exemplar Of Controller Excellence. The $2 billion that Microsoft poured into improving and modifying the Xbox 360 controller design and style and functionality, paid off well. The new controller is a home run for sure. The new triggers are heaven on your fingers, as you can now wrap them around the trigger and controller smoothly. The triggers also have very nice quality rumble motors in them individually, as well as a dampened/muted contact point when pulled all the way against the controller. An issue I am having with the triggers is that my right trigger squeaks occasionally when pulled toward to the controller, but that may be an isolated case and shouldn't be present on every one of them, so I wouldn't worry about that. The new buttons look great. They are every so slightly closer to each other on the controller layout, and seem slightly smaller in circumference, and have a more "buttony" feel when pressing them down, as they seem to have a slightly noticeable actuation point.
The bumper buttons are a decent improvement over the old controllers, however I do have a complaint in that they make much, much more noise than the old ones did. Be warned, they are very "clicky." The new battery pack housing is the second best improvement, as it now sits flush with the back of the controller and doesn't protrude as the old one did, which makes holding the controller much nicer. The start button and back button were replaced by the "menu" and "view" buttons, but they essentially function the same way as before when in most games. The Xbox "guide" button got flattened and moved up the controller on its own little section and now illuminates white instead of green, and does not show which controller number it is, nor is there an indication on the Xbox One itself either, which is a slight disappointment.
The analog sticks stayed the same distance from the controller I believe, however the actual part your thumbs go on got smaller, but the improved textured rubberized edging on them makes up for that because it allows for great grip on the sticks. However, I can imagine someone with bigger fingers having a problem using this controller's analog sticks. If you have this issue or are concerned about it, I would look into Kontrol Freek's analog extensions, as they may help. They seem to move and click pretty much the same as before, but I am noticing a slight wear in the left analog stick towards to front of the shaft from holding it upward/forward in games like Call of Duty and Assassin's Creed. So far it is not impeding on anything, but a forewarning, in case it becomes further worn and becomes inoperable or impaired after a long period of extended daily usage.
The D-Pad has been improved as well, getting it's own little crater to reside in so that it is not so obtrusive from the face of the controller, and now makes a very distinct "click" when pressed, which is something I love dearly about the new controller, as I hated the completely muffled D-Pad buttons from previous controllers. Some may find it too loud or maybe slightly annoying, but I can't foresee anyone having a major issue with it.
All in all, the new controller definitely shines, and the $2 billion in research funding and tinkering definitely went to good use and will not go unnoticed. This controller should go down in history as the best ergonomic game pad created thus far, I feel. 10/10. | video-games_xbox |
Great game tainted by nickling-and-diming you for cars. They took out SO MUCH that was great about previous games. Weather variations? Gone. Night races? Gone. So much more, too much to list, has been removed.
Now, the game looks beautiful, the driving is very accessible, and the tracks are a lot of fun. The Drivatars are great, and really make for some of the more challenging career races I've played in a Forza game before, mostly due to the unpredictability of other drivers. In previous Forza games, the AI was incredibly predictable, but Drivatars make you adapt a bit more in my opinion because people race very differently depending on their own skill levels and techniques.
What I'm really irritated about is how much they keep trying to get me to spend more money. I can't even tell if there are more or less cars than the other games, or more or less tracks (it FEELS like there's a lot less of both), and I'm sure I can look that up somewhere but that's not the point. The point is, the track selection, along with available cars, makes it feel like a ghost town, and then they keep trying at every turn to get you to spend $20 on a "VIP Car Pack" that doesn't even tell you WHAT'S IN IT unless you go to the store to check it out (the in-game description basically doesn't exist).
Then there's the payouts. They don't appear to be increasing. I'm at driver level 25 and I'm getting the same kind of payouts I was getting at level 5, etc. How the heck am I supposed to afford the more expensive cars? They gave me 3,000,000 credits as a "reward" for playing some of the previous Forza titles, but really that's enough for one car, really, maybe (the "good" cars). I can't imagine how much racing I'd have to do to be able to play all the cars, I doubt I'll ever get there.
But of course if I want to take part in microtransactions I can buy "tokens" and unlock all the cars I want. As I understand it (and I am no expert), $100 USD gets me 8000 tokens. There are cars that cost 10,000 tokens!!! WHAT? Also, if I buy a car that's DLC, I still have to pay for it again with in-game credits OR tokens (that cost real-world money) in order to drive it? What?
I'm really concerned that all this stuff missing from the game will just be nickle-and-dimed out of consumers in a couple months. Want night racing? $10. Want weather? $10. Want another track? $20. Those last three things have not been confirmed, but I wouldn't be surprised.
Now, when I'm ignoring all the nonsense involving spending money on incremental additions, I realize that Forza 5 is one of the best games I've played on the "next-gen" consoles. If they fix this, I'll update my review with a better score. Until then, it only gets 1 star and I won't be buying another Forza or Turn 10 game ever again. | video-games_xbox |
Undisputed - Game Of the year. I have this game on PS4 .. this review is purely based on the game experience and not based on the system.
so far, I had a chance to play an hour of campaign and the rest couple of hours I tried the Multi Player
Campaign : Decent story plot so far (watch out for the last scene of first mission), very well designed characters and a brief intro about them. The game play is smooth, shows us around with the new movement controls. You can also create your own class for each of the mission that you enter. with the weapons that most suit you, more like a pre lobby.
Pretty much like a test to feel the movement of the game and the controls.
Multi player : this is what Call of duty is all about, and they have not failed us this time. The lobby's were empty as I got an early copy (couple of hours).Could only play couple of decent games. Should look out to see if my game play is on any YouTube videos, coz there were few famous you tubers in there.
The game play is smooth. The abilities like wall run and under water abilities where beautifully designed. The transition from on foot combat to these abilities where very smooth.
Pros:
The footsteps were more louder and clearer to spot the enemies, unlike in AW.
I didn't have to empty a whole mag to take down an enemy, Couple of good shots were good enough.
No annoying exo jumps, which means snipers can have a big role in all the games.
Bo3 lets player choose different class of players with unique abilities. This is a bonus I would say to the already added movement system.
Cons:
(Will update, if found any)
This game would definitely bring back a lot of players from old gen consoles, which AW couldn't
If you are into multi player, then this is the game for you, else watch a few campaign game plays on YouTube and decide (I am not sure how long the campaign is).
I am a huge fan of COD, and they have not failed to impress me this time. | video-games_xbox |
Super Sonic Fail. I'm writing a long review below, so in short; this game is a complete mess of long and countless loading screens, slow running hedgehogs, pointless sidequests, horrible automatic camera angles, unlimited glitches, an uninspired story plot, and broken controls. I seriously don't think that they tested this game.
I saw this game for $10 at a video game store. Growing up with Sonic The Hedgehog since the Sega Genesis, I thought this would be nice to play. The intro video had nice visuals, even though the plot is pretty much Mario (save the princess). But once the game started, the disappointment came with it. I don't start out in a level?! I have to run (and WOW is he slow!) around Italy for half an hour trying to figure out what to do??? I need to help people do pointless activities?? And the loading is HORRIBLE!! Every time you start a sidequest (I guess you could call it that), you talk to the person and they tell you what to do. The game loads for about 15 seconds (literally), which sounds short, but WHY?!?! Then the person tells you exactly what they just told you, but in one sentence... THEN IT LOADS AGAIN!! For another 15 seconds! Then the sidequest starts. Each loading sequence is approximately 15 seconds. If you fail this sidequest, you have to load, talk to the person again, load, they tell you exactly what they just told you, load, and THEN you can try the sidequest again! If you beat the sidequest, what do you know, it loads. And once you finally play an actual level, you will see the horror of the glitches. At SO many points in the game I would jump and fall through the ground... and die. Sometimes you'll just be running toward a ramp, and Sonic won't run up it, he will go right through it and fall to his death.
One of the playable characters is Silver, who is actually pretty cool. He has telekinesis. You can fling cars, boxes, and rocks! But if you don't have any throwable objects around you, the only way to destroy an enemy is to stand about 3 feet from it, stun it, then lift it. Why do you have to stand so close!? By then, you've already been shot 50 times! In the cutscenes, you'll see Silver flying around at 200mph! In the game, he can hover for 5 seconds, at about 10mph. And man is he slow! It's like a slow jog! A little kid could run faster than him! I'm gonna go crazy writing this review so I'm gonna have to end it. The one SINGLE good thing about this game is the main theme. His World by Zebrahead. The song is just awesome in every way. And co-op missions, and 2 player race is kinda fun, but definitely not worth it. I want my $10 back | video-games_xbox |
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