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Family loves this, iPhone is a really effective Kinect substitute. Just Dance 2017 for Xbox One
Two eleven-year-olds (1 boy, 1 girl), danced to this game for over two hours, and they loved it. This was their first exposure to Just Dance, and I was so glad to see them get off their duffs and boogie. No doubt you want to know how well the iPhone worked as a substitute Kinect. Read on for the technical details...
Installation of the game is very simple: just put the DVD into the Xbox and it installs. However, getting an iPhone 6 to connect as a controller was frustrating. I was able to download the app very easily, and the Xbox even displays a QR code you can scan with the phone, which automatically finds the correct version of the software on the Apple App Store.
The problem was that the Xbox app simply refused to see the iPhone. It took a solid half-hour of rebooting, disconnecting/reconnecting to the wi-fi network on both devices, and nearly giving up before the connection suddenly just happened. Many would have given up sooner, but I am like a bulldog with getting technology to work. But in this case, the problem was so opaque, I can't for sure tell you why it finally worked. My best advice on this is to first install the app on the phone and launch it, and follow its instructions BEFORE launching the game on the Xbox. That may have made the difference.
However, once that connection happened, the rest was magic. I was prepared to go through the whole trial again to connect a second iPhone, but as soon as I downloaded and launched the app on the second phone, it instantaneously paired with the Xbox and said "Hello, Happy!" I didn't even have to ask it to connect; it just did so. This pleasant relief made up for a lot of earlier aggravation.
The song selection is excellent and surprisingly diverse, ranging from very recent pop hits to classic disco (I Will Survive, Kung Fu Fighting) to The Monster Mash. I was delighted to see "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen in the mix. Some of the dances are quite amusing and clever, like a Tetris dance where 4 dancers mimed the actions of Tetris blocks falling into interlocking positions, to the classic game's electronic version of a Russian folk tune.
The animation seems to be based on real dancers, who are either incredibly athletic and precise, or enhanced with digital manipulation, the kinetic version of autotune. But it's a colorful and engaging bunch of videos, full of cheerful colors and an encouraging, optimistic call to get off the couch. | video-games_xbox |
Map Editor Makes this game. Far Cry Instincts for the Xbox is a really fun shooter that has an insane single player game and an even better multiplayer experience. Throughout the single player game, you go through many different levels that all play extremely well. Unlike the PC game, this console version is very straight forward, usually with a go from A to B kind of feel. This isn't a bad thing in any way, especially since there are usually small areas with a couple ways to complete the task at hand. Overall, the gameplay is amazing and is truly a great FPS shooter. One thing I loved while playing this game was the stealth aspects you can use. You can crouch and stay prone which will allow enemies to not suspect you coming. You can also set up traps which once you get the hang of it can be a lot of fun. You can also throw rocks and stones to trick your enemies to think you're somewhere else, which allows for a quick unsuspecting kill. The last huge thing that makes the single player experience so exciting the feral abilities. When using these, your character (Jack Carver) uses his animal instincts and turns into a whole new person. He has this one ability where, if close enough to your enemy, you can lunge toward and send your enemy flying through the air. This is SO much fun and my favorite of all the different abilities. There are also abilities including night vision and super speed which are very fun too.
The best thing, in my opinion, is the multiplayer aspect of this game. There are the basic deathmatch and team deathmatch, along with other modes including Steal the Sample (probably my favorite, plays much like Capture the Flag). There is a lot of diversity in the maps which makes for a great online experience. Another great thing about the multiplayer experience is the insanely good map editor. This is something that I've always thought would make a great addition to a game, and this game has it...YAY! There is also the fun Predator mode which is also addicting and fun. Overall, this game rocked and the multiplayer is equally as fun! | video-games_xbox |
should not compare with GTA. A lot of people who are unhappy with the game seems to be hung up on a simple issue: "Why isn't this game like Grand Theft Auto and more?" Although players who've spent any time with GTA will feel immediately familiar with the game's draw, a few hours in, you know that it's a very different experience. GTA is more about DRIVING; Mercenaries is about BLOWING STUFF UP! Where as GTA has better vehicle physics, the third-person-shooter aspect of Mercenaries is much more deep. Where as GTA has a generally upbeat tone (with the incessant radio music, bustling city landscape and often humorous/cartoon-like urban dwellers), the mood in Mercenaries is a lot more sober (music right out of a war movie, dark war-torn landscape and hostile soldiers).
If you enjoy GTA for the sheer freedom of actions you can take, whether it is to mow down pedestrians with a sedan, do impossible arial flips and in general, cause havoc just for the fun of it, you'll really enjoy Mercenaries; in the sheer carnage factor, Mercenaries top GTA. In terms of character development (of both your character and various ones you encounter along the game), Mercenaries is rather flat and uninteresting, compared to GTA. Take your pick.
There are two annoying things about the game for me. For one, the fact that you can routinely run through an enemy stronghold with a SMG and mow down dozens of soldiers while on foot without a hitch makes you feel uber-invincible. Whether it's a good thing (more opportunity to kick butt!) or a bad thing (makes missions too easy and unchallenging) is up to you. Another is the faltering AI of the enemies. Sometimes, they swarm all over you at the slightest trigger of danger with no regard for their own safety other than the most simple reactions (duck out of the way of speeding cars or raining bullets); other times, you can brush past your enemies and they won't lift a finger just because that particular faction is not your worst enemy in that particular mission. Often times, this leads to the feeling of being a in a Twighlight Zone; that you're the only 'human' in the entire game while others are just pre-programmed to interact with you within the bounds of a rather limited script. Again, this really doesn't hinder your ability to blow stuff up; but the interactive aspect with other 'people' kinda fall short of GTA.
Overall, one thing's without a doubt: Mercenaries will hook you the very minute you start playing and won't let you go until you can no longer keep your eyes open (or die from dehydration and starvation). | video-games_xbox |
The McCall Brothers deliver. TechLand and Ubisoft have reteamed for Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, an origin story of Reverend Ray, his brothers and their quest for gold with more action than the first game. Bound in Blood is a rather complex tale that once again raises the specter of revenge and cursed treasure, amongst a backdrop of the western frontier.
Players are introduced to Ray and Thomas McCall, two brothers in the Confederate army that desert their posts to save their family home from Union soldiers. Seeing the destruction of their land and swearing that they'll rebuild their property one day, the McCalls head west to seek fortune and glory. However, going AWOL infuriates their former commander, who declares that he'll hunt them down to the ends of the earth for their abandonment of the Confederate cause. Fleeing both the Confederate troops on their heels and various lawmen from some of their illegal activities throughout the country, the McCalls eventually connect with the Mexican bandit leader Juan and his concubine Marisa, who has information regarding the treasure of Cortez. The McCalls will also have to deal with the Apache, whose connection with the gold could potentially threaten the entire West.
It may sound convoluted, but the story is told rather well and all ties together in the end, providing a solid background for the events of the prior Call of Juarez game. Like the previous title, you'll play as either Ray or Thomas, and you'll have the option to choose which brother you'd like to play as for most of the game. As far as fighting is concerned, the two McCalls have completely different gunslinging styles. I'll say no more.
The multiplayer of Bound in Blood is expanded from the original game, featuring thirteen character classes that you'll eventually be able to play as once you unlock eight of them by winning multiplayer matches. Each character class has a variety of weaponry, but also has different health and speed stats as they are deployed into battle. As you kill other players during a battle, you'll receive money during that match which can be spent to upgrade that character's stats.
As a prequel, Bound in Blood does a good job of presenting the characters, their storylines and what eventually leads back into the franchise history. It also packs in a ton of fast action, loads of explosions and a heavy dose of duels against opponents that want to see you in the dirt. | video-games_xbox |
Gorgeous but flawed. The graphics in this game are stunning and the sense of immersion is fantastic. But to play the game in the Realistic or Simulation difficulty settings, you'll need a flight stick of some kind. Using the gamepad, it's far too easy to tilt the control stick all the way, causing the plane to spin due to turbulence on your wings.
And you really should play with "Realistic" difficulty! Part of the experience of a flight sim of this era is to feel how those old prop planes flew. Their limited speed and lack of computer assisted flight creates an interesting experience. Those planes could barely generate the thrust needed to push enough air over the wings to generate lift and it's amazing how much danger those pilots were in. Like Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2, most of the challenge, and the sense of achievement, of this game comes from overcoming the limited controls. For example, you will find yourself climbing altitude just so you have enough kinetic energy to do trickier maneuvers when attacking.
So I bought a Saitek AV8R joystick and that's when problems with the game became most apparent. There is no way to stop your plane when you land (one mission requires that you do so). And the dead zone on the stick is just a little too large, making precision aiming difficult. To make matters worse, there's no way to reconfigure the buttons, leaving you with a "missile" button that almost never does anything (missiles were rare and clumsy in that era). Considering this is pretty much the *only* flight stick still being made for the 360, this is quite annoying.
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Saitek-PS41-Aviator-Joystick-for-use-with-PC-or-Xbox-360-Game-Console/dp/B001EYU1W8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Saitek PS41 Aviator Joystick for use with PC or Xbox 360 Game Console</a>
There was supposed to be a patch that fixed these control issues, but after a quick search, it looks like the publisher has axed plans for the 360 patch.
Ultimately, I have mixed feelings about this game. It is an excellent experience and you can tell the developers have a love of the genre, but the execution is slightly flawed. If you have a PS3 or a PC capable of playing this game, I would recommend getting buying it on either of those platforms. You'll be able to find much cheaper and better USB flight sticks and the bugs will have been patched.
But on the other hand, if you like Ace Combat 6 and just want something fresh, setting this game to "Arcade" will give you a very similar experience. It's obvious the makers of this game were influenced by AC6 when you see the virtual HUD, and everything from how the planes control to the amount of damage required to shoot down an enemy feel nearly identical. The only major difference gameplay-wise is that smart missiles didn't exist in WW2. | video-games_xbox |
Possibly the best game of the decade. I usually like to start with what I didn't like about a game.
That is a bit tougher with this one.
So, let me back up. Shorter=better, so i will try to be concise. But bear with me...
The essence of all the greatest games is combining elements of different genres of games into one seamless package. Bioshock embodies this. Fan of RPG's? You will like it. Fan of FPS? You will like it. Fan of puzzle games? You will like it.
It has one of the biggest requirements for a game, in my book, namely: controls so intuitive and simple you forget you are you, and not the character in the game.
It has great graphics. Look at the water, and tell me you aren't impressed; I dare you.
It has a great storyline: possibly the toughest of the marks. There are a lot of great weapons in a lot of smooth games, but coming up with a unique storyline after 30-40 years of gaming is pretty tough!
It bears replay: using or concentrating on different plasmids or weapons, or beyond that combinations of plasmids and weapons, along with plot options makes this a game you won't spend just 10 hours on.
Okay. There must be a negative right?
Right. Kind of. No multiplayer. That kinda sucks. But, in all fairness, this game is built around creating the most immersive, realistic, engrossing single player experience possible, and frankly, I am not sure exactly how a multi-player mode would have actually come off. I don't think a vs. mode would be better than that offered by HALO: 3 or CoD4, to be sure. So, I think the correct decision was made, to concentrate on the single player mode.
All in all, this game is about as close to perfect as they come. I would consider myself a huge HALO fanboy (gotta be honest...) but this eclipsed all the other AWESOME 360 releases this year. Well, maybe CoD4 would have something to say about that... But it is close!
Buy this game, you will NOT regret it. I promise.... | video-games_xbox |
Turtle Beach 500X Pros: Features, sound, mic quality, fully wireless. Cons: Ear cup depth. A lot of reviews focus on sound quality and the other standard things you need to know about headsets, but I wanted to add some detail about this headsets and a few competing products. I am going to focus on comfort and sizing, since not a lot of reviews cover these in depth. My ears stick out a bit, and it has been quite a journey trying to find headsets with a good ear cup size that remain comfortable over longer gaming sessions. Still, my overall rating on the product does reflect the general opinion I have on these headsets, and I will cover a few points on how I decided on the rating.
First though, a word on the measurements. Instead of the good old American Freedom units, I'm going to use metric units since they are a little more granular. Feel free to use google to convert them to numbers you might understand. I measured everything by hand, so these measurements may not be 100% accurate, but they should be within a millimeter or two.
Turtle Beach Ear Force Stealth 500X:
The 500X weighs in a 302 grams. This includes the boom mic, but like the 800X this headset doesnt need any additional cords so this is an all-in weight. Overall, the weight is not noticeable, and is spread between the ear cups and headband well enough to feel balanced. The ear cups are the biggest problem for me, at 59mm tall and 42mm wide internally, with a uniform depth of only 16mm all round. These are the shallowest ear cups of all the headsets I have tried, and thus press on my ears the most. The padding of the ear cups is fabric, but is soft to the touch and pretty comfortable. Over longer gaming sessions, the fabric ear cups breathe and help regulate sweat and heat a little better compared to the leather of the 800X. The head band doesnt feel as tight, which makes the unit feel lighter than it is, but at the same time the headset will move a little as you turn your head quickly.
The tactile buttons work well, and the dual volume wheels make it easy to set and forget the volumes of the game and chat independently. I would have liked the mic arm to work as a mute switch when raised, but the actual mute button isn't too hard to find quickly. There aren't as many audio EQ settings compared to the 800X, but you probably won't miss most of them. The 800X has a nice touch where the audio mode is announced as you select it, whereas the 500X only beeps a different number of times to indicate which mode it is in, forcing you to remember the corresponding mode and beep count. Still, sound quality is very good, and the boom mic sounds crisp and clear to other Xbox party members.
Unfortunately, this headset doesnt come with a stand (although Turtle Beach sells a universal one) and the mini USB charging cable needs to be plugged in manually each time you are done playing. Another downside is that the receiver unit doesnt have a USB port for the charger cable to pass through, so you may need to use two USB ports on the Xbox - one to charge and one to connect the transmitter. The transmitter also has blue LEDs- which is not a big deal, but I wonder if this is a cost saving measure with the PlayStation units, since it obviously does not match the green/black/white colors of the Xbox brand. Although not as sleek as the 800X, the tactile buttons, boom mic, true wireless audio/chat, and up to 15 hour battery life make this a strong contender for my goto headset, but unfortunately the ear cups depth makes my ears warm and irritated after long sessions. Mini rant: This is why exclusive partnerships for accessories are bad for consumers. My ears are apparently not Turtle Beach sized, and thus I have to compromise on comfort or wireless freedom. This is like Nike getting the contract to make shoes for the NBA, but then only making shoes that are a size 8.
Turtle Beach Ear Force Elite 800X:
The 800X weighs in at 374 grams. It is the heaviest unit I measured, but at least that is an "all-in" weight since it doesn't have any dangling cords. It is definitely a noticeable amount of weight when turning my head, but I wouldnt say its too cumbersome. The band feels a little tighter than most other headsets, but it is necessary to keep them secure since they weigh a bit more. Still, its not too uncomfortable or noticeable over time.
The ear cups measure in at 58mm tall and 40mm wide internally. The ear cups are mostly the same depth all around, but there did seem to be a minor difference with the front side depth being about 17mm and the back side depth being about 18mm. The ear pads are made of a leather type of material, and are meant to seal out noise for the headsets noise cancellation feature. I found them to be quite comfortable, although after longer gaming sessions heat and sweat did start to build up inside.
The reason I didn't rate this higher is due to the mic performance and battery life. With the most recent firmware updates, friends in the Xbox live party chat still all claimed that I sounded a bit distant, muffled, or like I was on a speakerphone. Since my primary use for them is for Xbox Live party chat, this was not ideal- even though it technically affects my friends more than it affects me. I also found the buttons to be a little sensitive, and without tactile feedback, it can be hard to quickly and confidently find controls like the mute button while in the heat of battle. Furthermore, with a 10 hour maximum battery life, it isn't quite enough to get through those occasional long days of gaming. The combo charger dock and transmitter is super convenient though- its really nice not having to manually connect a charging cable. Sound quality was good, and there are many EQ settings that will work for various media and game types. Still, for a premium price, they leave a lot to be desired in terms of comfort and functionality.
Astro A50 Wireless Headset:
The Astro A50 weighs in a 366 grams without the cord. This headset is wireless for game/tv/app audio, but requires a cord to be connected to the controller for chat functionality. I didn't have the cord handy when I weighed them, but it doesnt add a noticeable amount of weight (probably around 10 grams). The A50 is the second heaviest headset, but for some reason it doesnt feel as dense as the Turtle Beach 800X. I think it has to do with the ear cup size and weight distribution around the band. The A50 ear cups are deep in the cavity where your ear sits, but the rest of the ear cup which houses the drivers and electronics are not that deep compared to the 800X. This makes the A50 sit closer to your head overall, so you feel less weight/force when you turn your head quickly.
The ear cups on the A50 measure 61mm tall and 43mm wide internally, and are more of a box shape than rectangle. They are tapered as well, so the front of the cup is 20mm deep, while the back is 26mm deep. This is smart, since human ears generally start out flush to the head in the front, and fan out somewhat toward the back. There is also some room behind the ear cushion, so it is actually even a bit deeper underneath the cushion where the outer edge of your ear would slide in- although it was hard to measure that depth. The padding on the A50 is a very soft fabric- almost velvet-like in feel, and it is very comfortable and breathable. Overall, the ear cups feel very roomy, and the headband weight and tightness feel very comfortable. Over long gaming sessions, the band did seem to slip ever so slightly allowing the ear cups to lower- but it was extremely minor, and it may have more to do with the fact that these are a few years old at this point. Still, it was noticeable, although easily fixed every couple of hours.
The sound quality is great on the A50, and the mic seems to be very good, although not as great as the Turtle Beach 500X. There aren't as many EQ settings, but honestly this is not something most gamers are going to mess with. The mic does mute when raised up, which is a nice feature to have. Setup can be a little tricky since you have to mute the game audio that comes through the controller (since it is redundant with the system audio coming from the xbox optical cable). Otherwise, you will hear a slight game echo. However, once you realize what is going on, it is an easy fix. This is a limitation of the headset receiving the game audio wirelessly and then the game audio AND chat audio through the controller cord. You have a set of controls on the headset (made for PC game and chat mixing) and the ones on the controller adapter which serve the same purpose. The one benefit of having the mixer on the headset and the cord for the chat is that if you are gaming by yourself, you can connect your phone to the chat cable and pipe in audio from your phone. You will still receive the game audio via the transmitter, and you can control the volume from the two sources independently.
The A50 does come with a nice stand that holds the transmitter and the headset when not in use. In addition to the port that connects to the Xbox, the transmitter does have a USB port that is used to connect the charging cable to the headset. The means that you only need one free port on the xbox to power both the transmitter and the charging cable for the headset. Overall, this is a fantastic headset for the PC, and its pretty good for the Xbox- although youll always have that one cord tethering you to the controller if you want to use party chat. The chat cable can be removed from the headset completely if you are just watching tv, although that makes it one more thing that you could potentially lose. Still, this is definitely the most comfortable wireless headset for me compared to the Turtle Beach 500X and 800X.
Sennheiser G4ME ONE:
The G4ME ONE, henceforth referred to as the Game One for readability, is a wired PC headset. It weighs in 270 grams for just the headset, but weighs a total of 308 grams including the super long cable. The ear cups are massive on this headset- with an internal height of 69mm and width of 37mm. They are deep as well, at 19mm in the front and 26mm toward the back. Like the A50, there is also some more depth behind the ear cushion as well. The ear cushions are also a velvety fabric that is extremely soft and comfortable. The band is very comfortable as well, with just the right amount of tension for my head.
The Game One is an open back headphone design, which means that people around you will hear the sound coming from them. It also means that you will be able to hear things around you- for better or worse. However, the sound is great, and the open back design allows for the most breathability of any of these headsets, so long term comfort is great. Sennehiser does have a closed back design (the G4ME ZERO) that is similar, but I believe it is designed to use an external amp so the xbox controller may not have enough power to properly drive the speakers.
The Game One is an example of a PC headset that is compatible with the Xbox One, but not optimized. For instance, there is a volume wheel on the ear cup which is great for easy access, but is somewhat redundant with the chat pad controls. However, I suppose this might be a good thing for the newly announced controllers that have the headphone port built in, although I don't think we know how those will control the audio volume and mixing yet.
Back to the super long cord- It is extremely long (3m/10 ft). It is so long that it comes with a velcro wrap that can be used to tie up the excess cord. You will probably end up wrapping the excess cord about 3 or 4 feet from the headset so that it doesnt weigh down the headset, but then you will likely have this little bundle of weight sitting on your lap or sitting beside you. Its not the worst thing in the world, but it is definitely noticeable. The cord also comes with the split 3.5mm connectors- one for mic and one for audio, and you will need an adapter to combine those plugs into one in order to fit it into the chat adapter. So while the headset is great, it comes with a lot of baggage. According to the site, there IS a console version that comes with a shorter cord- which is good, although neither one has a detachable cord so you're stuck with whichever length of cord came on the version you bought.
The construction is beefy though, and the mic sounds fantastic and apparently features some noise cancellation tech- although that is harder to judge as the owner. It also has the ability to mute the mic when the boom mic is raised, which is intuitive and useful. Overall, this is a great headset, and probably the most comfortable one overall, but the cord and required cable adapter give it a little ball and chain that youll have to live with.
Microsoft Xbox One Stereo Headset:
The Microsoft Xbox One Stereo Headset weighs in at 246 grams, or 254 grams with the cable. It is the lightest of all the headsets I tested, and also the simplest. The ear cups are massive on the outside, and the internal dimensions are as well at 62mm tall and 42mm wide. The ear cups are uniformly deep, but at a reasonable 23mm. The padding is fairly comfortable, and the head band is not too tight.
Overall, sound is fairly good, and the design is pretty good. However, the retractible boom mic is a somewhat short, and this can make you sound a little far away. A friend with this headset often sounds quiet and distant unless he pushes the ear cup onto his cheek so that boom mic is closer to his mouth. However, this headset is a pretty good value since it come with the headset adapter, and is fairly comfortable overall. | video-games_xbox |
Honest review from actual MX rider & fan. THE GOOD
Custom Gameplay Camera
In Alive there are two settings for your camera, default, which is a up-close view directly behind your rider, first person view and a custom user setting. The default and first person camera views are similar to those found in Reflex. Default seems a little closer and the first person view feels more stable. The custom camera setting IS AWESOME, giving the player the ability to pan in, out and rotate the around the rider. I love this option and play with the camera skewed to the right and panned out a good distance. The panning out is a GREAT addition/improvement.
Gear Sets
Not only can you unlock an array of detailed gear, but you can also save 3 sets! This makes switching bikes and gear quick and easy. You can even switch while waiting for the next race online.
Online Menu Control and Stats
After a race you have a ton of stats. How many passes, who lead the most, fastest lap times, etc. You can now vote between two tracks after a race and while waiting switch bikes and gear sets. When hosting a private session, you can modify the event session at anytime without having to exit, keeping all your players in the same room.
Loading Room is the Track you are About to Race
I like this for a couple reasons. Having only one loading track every time gets old real quick and its nice to actually have a short amount of time to ride down the track to refresh your memory on the layout.
Tracks and Graphics
With the free download we have 14 nationals, 3 free rides and 4 short tracks. The James Stewart compound is one of the best things ever put into a motocross game... period. There is also a lot of cool outdoor tracks, that almost feel more like Supercross tracks. Most are very creative, detailed and just down right fun to ride. Hopefully THQ will keep pumping them out for the next year to keep it all fresh. I know a lot of people complain that there's no real race tracks in the game, but this doesn't bother me too much, as long as they're fun and complicated enough to keep players searching for new and innovative ways to hit sections and improve lap times and most of the tracks have this.
Bike Physics and Handling
The bike handles better now and is more predictable. Once you upgrade your bike and parts and learn (or unlearn habits of the past) how to brake and lean, you can start to rip around the track.
ONLINE Racing
You can actually ride now without crashing every two seconds. No more flying off your bike when another rider grazes you. There was a few issues on the first day, but overall the online has worked pretty good for me.
THE BAD
NO Career Mode
No, no, no, James Stewart coming on the screen and talking for 20 seconds is NOT a career mode. Its weak and almost pointless, unless your a huge fanboy. There really is no single player offline event-type career mode, basically just a race now type gameplay. Every sports game has a career mode except this one. Reflex had something, but it wasn't correct either.
In boxing games you progress thru a career mode over virtual years, training, fighting, progressing up an event ladder until you you fight for the heavyweight championship. In hockey games you progress thru a virtual calender, and if you win enough you play for the Stanley Cup. In baseball... Okay, you get the point. WHY, does THQ keep ignoring this IMPORTANT component that makes a sport game a sport game! After all, motocross/supercross is a sport. A motocross game needs a career mode too!
You start off as an amateur, your garage is a mess with only your beat-up pick-up and your old out-dated 125. You click your Virtual Calender on the wall, you notice there is a race this weekend at the local county fair (think outdoor small arena-cross type event), you click race event. You race the event against relatively easy competition and if you win a notice pops up (or animated sequence depending on budget). Bob from Bob's moto-sports wants you to race for him! He'll supply you with a new bike and gear and as long as you keep placing 3rd or higher... Then you race some nationals, then pro amateur nationals and if you place high enough you get to start racing with the pros, earning new deals along the way, eventually landing you in Supercross and the finals in Las Vegas!
This could be as simple as a calender on the wall with your garage improving, the more money you make, with little notices popping-up with deals/sponsorships that you can choose to accept or not. You could also add injuries and bike failures so if you case a huge triple you may have to sit out a round or 2, or if you don't replace your engine your bike fails, but you could still win the championship if you place first in the last 5 rounds. Anyway, I could go into detail here, but I have a business to run.
NO Direction/Help
There is no real direction or help for NEW users. No tips on how to corner or jump expect for a few text tips on loading screens. This is where a career mode could come in handy, as you progress thru you start learning new techniques, etc.
Rider Position and Gestures
The gestures have been covered enough, so no need to beat the already dead horse. The rider position is much more organic this time and reacts more to what the bike is doing. It doesn't bother me much (since I'm panned out), but I can see why it bothers some people as the rider is sitting straight up with his elbows in instead of leaning forward with is elbows up and out.
Need Editors
It would be great to have TWO editors. A custom season creator (separate from the game's season) and a custom track builder. The track builder can be as simple as placing pre-render corners, whoops and jump sections in an outdoor or indoor setting. I don't think it would hurt downloads because the user-made track would always be in the same setting.
The Verdict
Overall, I would give the game a solid B+. Maybe raise my score to a A- once more DLC becomes available. Although the physics, graphics, menus, camera and settings have improved, the lack of a really deep career mode hurts the game big time. Hopefully we will get a ton of DLC that will offset this, only time will tell. The game would easily be the best MX game ever, if it had a real sports-related career mode! Regardless, if your a fan or rider of the sport YOU really need to pick-up the game and try it YOURSELF. I think if you give it an honest try, you'll like it. | video-games_xbox |
449 people can't be wrong. Quite simply (one of) the best (single player) Xbox360 game(s) out there. It's also doubtlessly the best Batman-experience you're ever likely to have (except perhaps watching your favourite movies or shows, or reading some classic comic books). Playing it, I was overwhelmed with how diverse yet balanced the game was - the story (which is solid as a rock for Batman-fans and non-fans alike) leads you through adventure, action, boss fights, puzzle solving, riddles, challenges and exploration - all of it without losing touch or pace. You unlock many diverse and interesting bonuses, including mini-challenges with their own parameters and character related trivia plus beautifully rendered statuettes. Design-wise, the game has its own flair which is very much grounded in the world of Gotham; Batman is muscular yet quick, The Joker is a lanky, hilarious and uproarious Clown Prince of Crime, Killer Croc is actually scary (play the game with surround sound in a dark environment and you'll know my dread), and Poison Ivy is a stylish and glowing temptress. The voice work is as good as it could ever get, and you're in for many surprises if you think you know how it will all play out. Around every corner is something new and different.
Are there any flaws to it? Well, if you've made it through the game's story three times (one for every achievement, as it were), and you've unlocked all the many goodies, you might just be stuck with some of the harder parts of Challenge-mode, which are unproportionately difficult in comparison to most of the game. There is no multiplayer to speak of (your buddy can't join in as Robin, Nightwing or Batgirl), and being as gripping as it is, you're likely to engulf most of what the game has to offer pretty quickly. But to satisfy your urges, you could always go for that last achievement, hunt the top spot in the Leaderboards or get some DLC. This game's really such an experience that it should tide us over for the inevitable sequel, which I hope is even bigger in scope (imagine an entire Gotham City full of missions, bonus games and unlockables!) and just maybe might have a co-op or multiplayer mode of some sort. | video-games_xbox |
Come on, it isn't THAT bad. Mine hasn't froze yet in about 10 full games.
Pros:
-It feels very authentic with cool trivia between innings, and the broadcast fortifies this feeling.
-Inclusion of WBC is pretty cool, even though the rosters need some working out.
-I actually like the pitching meter...
-baserunning mode is cool
-utter hilarity when players crash into each other and the wall (this often happens thanks to the fielding)
Cons:
-AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL, AWFUL fielding. Fielders are slow and clunky, the dives are delayed and are based on if you are lucky enough to fall on the ball. I would advise that you set it so the AI does that fielding, and thus the diving. There is also a strange lack of relay throws (or none I have figured out yet), and players jump when they should dive.. and oi, too much to mention.
-Baserunning fails completely. You pre-assign bases for people to take, but it is sometimes unresponsive and the base number on the screen is soooo small (even on my 60-something inch HDTV) so its hard to tell a 2 from a 3. One other annoyance is if you have a guy on 2nd base. He will automatically dive back to the bag making it impossible for him to advance to 3rd on a ground ball to the right side.
-Hitting and bunting is exceptionally difficult to master. This may be because pitches move unrealistically. Hitting involves pulling back the right thumbstick and flinging it, but it is practically impossible to take a pitch because the slightest movement of the stick will make your guy swing. I haven't figured out how to set the hitting controls back the MVP system (A button), even though it seems obvious. I click to activate it, but nothing happens. I keep mistiming my swing because my guy keeps swinging right after the step because my finger wasn't still enough on the stick or something. The only way i succeed in hitting is when I say "You will not move the stick after the step" in my mind. The most runs I've scored is 4 (on pro level, rookie appears to be the same as pro...)
-stupid stuff like uniform numbers are wrong (Mark Loretta isn't number 10!)
I haven't started career mode yet because I am too bad. Learning curve is approx. 20 hours. I'm half-way there, heh. Maybe once I get decent, the game will turn decent too. | video-games_xbox |
My annual fix has arrived. Before I get to the game, I'll first let you know where I'm coming from.
I am a Dynasty Warriors junky.
With the out of the way, on to the game!
First, let's get the bad out of the way.
There are only 17 Musou. That means that there is a large likelihood that your favorite character has no story mode to speak of, and that the only way to play them, is to go to free mode, pick a board, and have at it. To make it sting a bit more, as far as I've seen, the spare characters don't even have unique events, as in earlier DW's. And, because having one wound isn't enough, I'll add another. Most of the characters are copies. In other words, Diao Chan and Zhen Ji have the same weapon and moveset. And they aren't alone in this respect. Since you are now holding both of your arm wounds, I'll go ahead and punch you straight in the face with this, some characters were taken out. Yes, even though the makers had no problem just copying weapons and movesets, they still removed characters. The ones I missed the most were the Nanman. I always liked their stages, because they were so different from the rest, what with the jungle setting, elephants, and enemies that actually dressed different, as opposed to just wearing distinguishing colors.
I'm not really a fan of the Renbu system. Not that I'm against them trying something new, it's just that I don't really like what they tried. Essentially, you have a bar that builds up the more you attack. When it fills, you go to the next level, and your character gets a few more moves added to his/her chain. There's also a third level, and then an infinite level (or as I call it, level 4). If you don't attack, then the bar slowly depletes. Also, there are certain attacks that immediately lower the bar, such as rocks thrown at your head.
The point of it, I suppose, was to keep you fighting. However, it comes off as an artificial way of doing it. After all, there is nothing else to do in a DW game, so why did they feel the need to force me to perform the only task there is to perform in the first place? Also, if you get a horse with the ability "Renbu Gait", then it's all irrelevant. As long as you're on the horse, your bar won't deplete. That sort of forced me to stay on the horse for all travel purposes. I guess I just don't like time limits (why there still is one for every level, I don't know), but there you have it.
Now let's get to the good.
Slow down is a thing of the past, and that's good, because I have never seen this many characters on screen at once. There are many times where I simply had no idea where I was in the crowd. Which is a good time to swing your weapon.
Most of the characters have gotten major make-overs. Of course, whether you like them or not will simply be too subjective for any reviewer, but I personally liked a lot of them.
One thing I don't see mentioned is that the game claims to have motion captured actual martial artists for many of the moves. I think this is a major cool point. It may take some (but not all) of the more fantastic moves out of the game, but it's a fair trade. Characters like Lu Xun make it feel like your in control of a kung-fu movie.
Even though there are only 17 Musou, the ones that are there are much improved, with scenes before every fight, and sometimes after, as well. If/when they finally flesh out the rest of the cast (DW:7?) then going through the separate musous will be quite the experience.
A couple more points I want to make before rapping up. In DW Orochi, you were given the ability to whistle for your horse, which was a HUGE quality-of-life improvement. That has been carried over to DW:6. So, if you hop off, and fight your way through half of the level, you can just press down on the d-pad, and your horse will run up in short order.
And then there's the terrain. The landscape is much improved, and feels more alive. Now, if you go up a hill, you don't have to travel back down, you can just jump off the side. And if you ever wanted to jump from on high while riding your horse, and fall on the group of people unfortunate enough to be called "enemies", then now you can. They will also cower and scream about being ambushed if done right. Nice.
In the end, the differences in this game are enough to check out if you're a fan of the series. However, if you are patient, I would actually suggest waiting for the next chapter, or to see if they add any downloadable content, as this game does feel like a trial run, before the fully fleshed out version, what with the lack of musou, copy-cat characters, and flat removal of characters. As for me, I enjoy it greatly, and will continue to do so. | video-games_xbox |
Great sandbox fun and oh right, there's a plot too. GTA Vice City did not hold my interest. This has. And I'm a gamer girl, for what it's worth.
I've had a lot of fun with this and that's without doing very many of the over-arching plot missions. I love the hit-man assignments (though I'll admit I've had to look up online how the heck to get some of them to spawn the target) and also the chop-shop car stealing runs, though I suck at identifying some of the makes that are similar to each other so that makes it more of a challenge. Stealing one of everything on the map is helping with that; got most of the vehicle types in the game stashed in the garage of endless space now (edit: rats, finally ran out of room at around 60).
Character customization is great and so is are the options when you go to buy clothes for them. You're not just buying clothes in a pre-set color or pattern, but you can usually customize the heck out of them to the point where the same clothing item can look like anything from a black open long-sleeved sweater with white buttons (formal chic, anyone?) to a gangsta basketball jacket-shirt. And yes... with the initial character customization settings you can very definitely make a she-male (yay for the M rating lol) and then crossdress the heck out of things if that's your thing. It's mine, so rock on.
I would have liked more options in the voice choices, which for a guy are ghetto/gangsta dude, pseudo-British goon, and mister bad Spanish accent. So my obviously Asian guy sounds like Antonio Banderas... the least not-like-my-character choice there was. I'm actually finding it pretty humorous, but yeah, could have used a few more options there... though you can also choose from the three girl voices too. XD
So yeah, everybody plays a game differently, and a sandbox game is the most true to that concept. That's how I've played it so far, and I look forward to doing more of the actual plot missions so that I can finally take over more neighborhoods. Priorities, y'know. | video-games_xbox |
Give it a play, but don't expect much. Though Sega lied about much of the problems from the Adventure series being fixed, those that can handle that and the load time will find in intriguing and somewhat fun addition to the Sonic series.
Though the town graphics seem sorta Dreamcasty, the rest of the games main stages are very fun and graphically appealing. Great use of colors and most of the textures are excellent. Many cut scenes are almost CG in quality, and despite the characters taller appearance, they do look really good. Voices are also well done.
As for the gameplay it is kind of messy still. Sega said they would have all the problems fixed from the Adventure series, but all in all some are even worse. For example in one stage your snowboarding down and suddenly the camera flips opposite, with no warning or anything. Later levels do this as well, but you eventually do learn when it flips (after several uncessary deaths).
Many unecessary deaths happen, and you'll learn to be very patient and sometimes will have to take it slow through the levels. Even the slightest nudge of the stick will send you careening to your death.
As for the camera, will it's very restricted too. you can reset it with L/R triggers, but the range is very limited. Tail's new ring bomb move is annoying in that everytime you fire it , it resets back to a default view, even with multiple enemies to hit.
Load times are horrendous. At one point you meet Tails, it loads for 15 seconds, you talk for about 15 seconds, then another 15 second load. This happens numerous times throughou the game, and on the action stages expect 2-3 different 15 second load times at intervals throughout the levels.
If you are a big Sonic fan, and can handle the issues Sega has had years to fix but hasn't, you'll find the game very rewarding and enjoyable once you get the hang of the levels. Otherwise give it a rent, it'll probably be one you either love or hate. | video-games_xbox |
Oblivion Reskinned or Game of the Year. The short answer: Game of the Year.
There you go, no need to read further. You're wasting valuable playing time.
For those with a bit more of an attention span: Game of the Year --- because ---
While it seems at first glance that Fallout 3 might just be Oblivion reskinned, spending a little time with this game will dispell that notion completely. Yes, it's made by Bethesda and if you've played their earlier RPGs Morrowind and Oblivion you will see a lot of similarities and will definitely feel right at home with this game. But the similarities quickly fade into mere recognizable structural convention as the player begins to see that there is a rather stout and unexpected FPS mixed with their RPG.
Okay RPG players it's not going to be all mindless or super difficult finger twitching gun battles --- you are thinkers --- well the VATS system is only one button away and you can take a half an hour to pick a limb, body, or head shot if that's how you wish to play. All the strategy of leveling up, what powers to get, weapons to get, and what armor etc. are still there --- there's even a very lite version of co-op play if you find the right characters.
And to the skeptical FPS players --- I've played 'em all --- all the Halo games, Far Cry, Bioshock etc. etc. etc. --- whatever --- and this is as smooth and solid as any of those games as a shooter. I repeat, smooth and solid. But when you want a little extra sauce on your kills, once again, the VATS system is the answer for you as well. Very satisfying slow motion ultra-gory head explosions and full utilization of the Havoc psychics engine are just a button push away. Really that's nothing but pure fun.
This is an extremely detailed and fascinating world that is brought to life with great care, ambition, and talent. Also, as simple and predictible as the story might be, I found myself actually following it and often being amused by it instead of completely ignoring it on my way to the next action sequence. I swear, I have no idea what's going on in Halo for example --- nor do I care.
And lastly, for the Fallout 1 and 2 players --- you probably won't think anything will be as good as those games. But really this game has captured a lot of the flavor those games --- while attaining a very next generation playability --- besides we need to move into this century now. Here's a tissue.
Bethesda, Nice effort on this outstanding game and also on the excellent collectors edition --- cool bobble, art book, video, and lunch box. My favorite CE so far. | video-games_xbox |
Finally, a real spin on 1st Person Shooters. What makes it so special?
The market is littered with 'alien' 1st person shooters; why should you get Halo Reach instead of Black Ops, or any of the other competitive shooters on the market?
Let's face it, military shooters are somewhat bland. Once you've tasted one, you've tasted the majority of the genre. ...and you're probably too cool for 'star wars.' Halo creates an atmosphere that combines both a surreal atmosphere that is pretty awsome to behold, along with the ability to pullout cool looking weapons from fiction concept energy weapons to badass crackin' assault rifles. The maps are filled with challenging enemies, a massive multi-player (nothing like buying a game to play online to find no one to play with), built in 'mods,' for different modes like making enemies harder or making them explode, etc, and best of all unlockables that can take the average player quite possibly months to finish unlocking. Ranking-up comes with it's perks, so it fulfills the feeling of achievement, and it's got jet packs. Yes, jet packs! Go t'hell if you don't like jet packs in shooters -- they're hella-cool. Needless to say, anyone who cares about their kill/death ratio probably won't abuse them as using them is a pretty good way to attract attention (except in those maps that everyone is using them); but, they're still fun. The holograms are also an awesome addition as you use them to set up and flank other players.
Story:
The campaign story is of Holywood-produciton caliber, and enhances the generic and somewhat cheesy nature of the original Halo story-line. You're on another planet for God's sake; so, it's hard to relate to the scenario or stay interested without the acting, animation, and special effects that Reach brings.
Multiplayer modes:
Too many to list. Basically there are team modes; modes that you can pair up and fight the AI (computer) to try to set/break records, etc. Free for all shootouts, team shootouts, clan/gang wars. Customizing your clan logos, colors, etc.
Level Editor:
You can actually create maps using the game its-self -- no need to learn programming languages. | video-games_xbox |
Gets an A for effort... at least they tried. I was fairly excited to play Vegas 2 online. At first, the game was exciting, but after a while of play, the faults of the game were just too obvious. This is without a doubt one of the most frustrating games to play online. The blame lies in both the developers and the players. I'll explain the problems further below.
List of my likes and dislikes:
* Customization of your character is fun and exciting. No two players online will be the same. On top of that, you can make custom faces (i.e. your own face) to put in the game. I haven't tried this feature, but just the thought of being able to do so is thrilling. You can customize everything from clothing, armor, and camouflage. A big plus to the developers on this one.
* You unlock new weapons by going through the A.C.E.S. I forgot what it stands for, but I'll explain what it does. The ACES is divided into three categories: Marksman, Assault, and CQC. You add points to each categories based on how you score a kill. After so many points, you gain a level (up to 20 levels per category) within the category and you can either get a new weapon or more experiences toward your overall rank. I thought this was a pretty cool idea, but some of the weapons within each category make no sense. For example, in the Assault category, you mainly score points by using explosives, but yet the weapons within the category have nothing to do with explosives.
* Finding a match online is just flat out frustrating. The lag is nearly unbearable. It seems like the host needs a very good connection in order to host large amount of players. Indeed, the developers can't control this, but I'm guessing they could at least minimize the lag by sending smaller packets.
* You will get kicked and banned a lot in this game. I don't know why too. It just seems like every other game I go in results in me getting kicked or banned. I have a mic, and I usually don't talk.
* Small maps and same respawn points. I'm assuming the developers made the maps so that you play one round then load another map. The problem is most game hosts use unlimited respawns, which sometimes cause losing teams to be stuck at their own spawn point and unable to get out of it while the other team sits and wait for you to come out of your spawn point. You do get a 5 second shield, which makes you invincible for about 5 seconds when you first respawn. Problem is some people are clever enough to wait outside of the spawn point near a door such that your 5 second shield is gone. I would have loved the game if the developers made it smart enough to respawn at another location on the map once the other team overrun the current position.
* Some guns look unrealistic. For example the 92FS looks like it has a huge hole in the center. Other ones look funny enough to me. I thought I was using a supersoaker when I first saw the M468.
Overall, I liked the game. But the flaw of the respawn system and the constant kicking and banning and the unbearable lag makes the game not worthy enough for me to play online. Please don't purchase for the full price. Wait until it becomes 19.99 and get it then. The price and content just don't go together. You pay too much for something that seems broken. | video-games_xbox |
Save your Money. This is a waste of time and a waste of money. This game is a huge disappointment. Save your money read this review to know why you won't be happy if you buy this game.
Story mode: It took me about an hour to complete story mode. You'll note that the story mode only involves a handful of characters. the rest are omitted, you only get to fight on a handful of stages. The few characters that do make an appearance sometimes having as little as a single line of dialogue. But for the most part, almost the entire cast of Soul Calibur is not in the 'story mode'. Wow! Big effort on Namco's part. Also, there are approx. 3 cut scenes in story mode. The rest is a series of pencil drawings. Yeah, I prefer pencil drawings on my 60" 1080P HDTV. Thanks Namco for taking me back to 1996, oh and charging me full price for a 'new' game.
Arcade mode: Remember how cool it was to pick your favourite character, play through arcade/story mode and unlock their 'ending movie'? Yeah, that was great, fun and rewarding. But guess what Namco did? They removed that part of the game. Yes, no story mode for the remaining characters in the game. Also all the character endings are all now gone. Plus, there is no option to view the cutscenes, all 3 of them. That's right, they removed all the endings that we have been used to for over 10 years and have been a staple in all fighting games. Want to know what happened to Astaroth? or Cervantes? Good luck, because all that is missing from this game. What did they replace it with? You get a sad arcade mode where you fight 6 times. Yippie! Because that is *so* much better than full CGI endings (sarcasm). Oh, I forgot they added a 2nd arcade mode. What is different about it? The difficulty is higher. Wow what a rip-off.
Chronicles of the Sword/Tower of Souls: GONE. Replaced with... ??? Nothing. It is just gone. That means you have arcade mode (fight 6 times), training mode (which is worthless), and versus mode (which doesn't work properly). Oh wait, you can fight online.... except you could already do that in SC4 and it was very fast and fluid then. (complainers of online-SC4 need to quit using their 128Kb 'high-speed' internet) :)
Recycled: Yes, sound effects, graphics, even stages are often reused from previous games (e.g. SC4). You'll see a lower quality stage (recycled) and occasionally a new stage. But if you want sometimes new, expect to pay a premium. 3 DLC packs are scheduled for Feb. Oh, and if you think you are getting a ton of content in each one... think again. How does 3 pieces of clothing sound per pack? Yeah, it sounds like a rip off. Good value for your money? GONE.
Reduced: Less characters. Taki, Sohitia, Zalzamel, Kilik, Cassandra, Talim, etc., etc are all missing. To make you feel better you get 3 characters that are mimics (copy other styles), so if you think you are getting 3 new characters... you are not, they just copy from the existing roster.
Museum Mode/Gallery mode/photo mode/Kata mode: Gone, Gone, Gone and GONE. Replaced with: Nothing.
Create a character (CaC: Somehow the graphics of this are worse than the last version. Perhaps it is because so much content is recycled, and it really stands out compared to the new textures. Oh, and you have wayyy less items to select from. A good example is the footwear/socks. But you can have a white feather stick out of your head... Also, remember how much fun it was to modify the 2P costumes of each character? Yeah me too. Anyway Namco decided to remove that also. Remember how you could USE the 2P costume on different create a characters? GONE. Likewise, you could select different stages when you were making your character.. GONE. Pick different weapons... GONE. Certain equipment gave stat boosts? GONE.
Single player: Guess what? All standard modes like time attack, team battle, tower of souls, chronicles of the sword, survival, ARCADE mode, etc. ARE ALL GONE. That means you have nothing left to do in single player mode.
2-Player: Good luck trying to get this working. It took over 10 minutes to get a simple versus match setup. Oh, and both players were sitting IN THE SAME ROOM. Sad Namco, really sad.
Training: You know how fighting games give you a rundown of all the new combat features and an explanation of how to use them? Isn't it great to have this info? I thought so too. Namco decided not to provide it. Training mode is also reduced compared to earlier games. You know how simple things like button input and tutorial modes helped you to master your character.. guess what? Gone.
Unlockables: Remember how we used to be able to collect stuff like artwork, concept art, music, weapons, movies, BGM, kata (demonstration) mode and all sorts of other fun stuff? Well That is all gone too. But you CAN unlock things like these wonderful TEXT descriptions. E.g. I just unlocked "Loves his sister." Wow, that is great Namco. A... piece of text? What can I do with it? I can have it appear next to my gamertag when I play online. Wow.... that is supposed to be better than having Taki or Sophitia in the game? RIP OFF!!!
Weapons: Remember how you could unlock cool weapons, costumes, stages and armour for your character? Gone. But you can unlock text like "Loves her brother".
Moves: Remember how some character had all these cool stances which could affect gameplay/strategy? Gone. A few stances remain, but most are stripped out. Remember how cool it was to learn and practice Taki's possession stances? Master all the variations? Gone. Taki is Gone. Training mode is stripped its tutorials. Taki's moveset is now stripped down. What about Ivy's snake sword, how you could transform it into several different versions? Gone. Stripped down to a button mashing character. She used to be for expert level players, but now... GONE.
Graphics: Remember the days when in a versus match you could see your higly detailed character's portrait presented in a very large size opposite your opponent while the match was loading? You could marvel at the wonderful graphics or even admire the details on your very own custom character? Sometimes you could make your character say a variety of taunts? Gone. It's replaced with a tiny playing card, on the face on that tiny card is a tinier picture of your character. Wow! I bet you feel like this is money well spent! Yet Namco touts this as an exciting new feature, a benefit of using 'photo mode', which in fact was my suggestion to Namco via Twitter. But they screwed that up, instead of letting you save pictures of your CaC to share with others (my suggestion)... you got this....
Sound: If you like to hear the same sound effects, BGM of previous games you will love this because a lot of it is recycled. You know how cool it is when they record new voices, sounds, effects and music for a NEW game, like in Mortal Kombat? Gone. Expect many recycled sounds. Especially the 'continue' screen.
I've been playing the soul calibur, soul blade, soul edge series from the beginning and this is just a joke of a game. The sad part is that I explained to the producer (via Twitter) what went wrong with the last game. Sadly, they produced this. Do yourself a favour and pick up a game that gives you more not LESS. Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive, etc. They are all worth your time and money but not this incomplete, reduced, reused and recycled over-priced piece of junk.
Disc: Remember how cool it is to install the game to your hard drive, not only is it faster to load, but it's less wear and tear on your optical drive? Gone. Even when you install to the hard drive once you complete a match or even return to the main menu, it reads each and every time from the optical disc. Wow. Because that is sooo much better than the normal hard-drive-reading-operation of every other game, including SC4. What's the point of installing to the hard drive if the game continually reads from the optical disk all the time?
Fun: Remember how cool Soul Calibur was? Me too. Fun? GONE.
AVOID. | video-games_xbox |
Modern Warfare/MW2 Expansion for $100+ including DLC = rip off. I don't usually review games, but I was really disappointed with this one. My main complaint is the graphics -- they are still using MW 1 and MW 2 quality graphics. Compared to GoW 3, Battlefield 3, Rage, etc., etc., (and even older games like Crysis 2), MW3 sucks by comparison. Not even close. It's like the difference between an HD football game and a 360p football game -- it's really, really noticeable. I should note that the single player graphics are better than the multiplayer textures, however, which is the opposite of Battlefield 3.
They did add in some new game modes and stuff that are nice, and the single player campaign is still quite fun (even with the sub-par graphics), but I can't believe this game is projected to sell 17 million copies in the first week. This game will do well, but eventually their momentum will slow with this kind of sub-par performance. It's like they aren't even trying because they don't have to. Think: IBM in the 80s. It can, and will fizzle unless they get their act together -- Activision's Call of Duty is NOT too big to fail.
Multiplayer is different from Battlefield 3, which emphasizes massive, well, battlefields, with lots of heavy tanks stuff. Fairly different gaming experience. The two are not directly comparable. But if you like the up and close combat of Modern Warfare I think Gears of War 3 is vastly superior.
Bottom line: spend your money on Battlefield 3 or Gears of War 3 -- game franchises that are still innovating. They offer a somewhat different experience, but it is a much better experience. I would buy this for $30, but not $60. By the time you add in DLC like map packs and stuff, much less the Elite service, they are asking $100+ for it. A remarkable act of hubris, and as another reviewer said, rather insulting. If the price was more reasonable I would rate the game higher.
I'd say more about this game, but I don't seriously expect many to read all the way to my review. Other reviewers have said plenty. | video-games_xbox |
Kinect Sports Season 2? Touchdown. If Wii Sports proved that we could all get off our couches and have a good time in our living rooms moving, diving, and jumping -- Kinect Sports proved that we don't need no stinkin controller to get the job done - once again, jumping, diving, and all around have some good family time. Not only that, but Kinect Sports made games playable for my friend's 3 year old son Joey -- a bunch of the minigames (Knocking Pins, Shootout) just had you hitting, kicking, or throwing as many balls as you could -- no need to necessarily be accurate or precise about it. Joey loved it so much - he beat all us adults!! In my opinion, Soccer and Track and Field were the best games ever done for a sports game.
Kinect Sports Season 2 continues the fun with six new games: Football, Baseball, Skiing, Darts, Golf, and Tennis. In my humble opinion, Darts and Tennis were excellently done. With Darts, the accuracy of the Kinect picking up your movements comes fully to the fore - with Tennis, the workout you get while playing can get quite intense.
You'll probably hear alot of people tell you that Football was probably the most-looked forward to addition, and yet - kinda isn't so hot. Football's not too bad, but they definitely missed out on critical areas: only one person (the offense) goes at a time, no way for the defense to pick a play to stop the other team, always needing to be the quarterback, and the lack of available plays to make (you only have 6, and only one changes when you hit 4th down, depending on your distance from the goal (either Punt or Field Goal)). When you're running, you are able to dodge, as long as you time it right -- for instance, if someone's coming from the left to hit you, if you lean right just as they jump at you, they'll miss. I suppose to increase the fun, the game also makes it pretty much impossible to score after the kick, or to make a 100 yard run. I think the only thing I really don't like is that you don't have 2 people playing at the same time.
Voice recognition seems to be the new "in" thing for Kinect games - and Kinect Sports Season 2 is no different. All the games now give you some kind of voice commands you can say, which is pretty impressive. I don't know if anyone else noticed this, but the Kinect seems to be able to tell voices apart. After I signed into my profile, and yelled a couple commands to start a game -- after I was done, my friend wanted to play, but it wouldn't respond to his voice. I yelled it out, and the Kinect picked it up. I don't know whether I'm more impressed or annoyed -- impressed at the fact that the Kinect actually could do that, or annoyed at the fact that there's no way to reset this feature. My friend just ended up using his hand)
It's also always enjoyable as ever to see various photos the Kinect takes throughout your game, and see it put them through a little mash-up of your game.
Whether you've played Season 1 or Season 2 is your first game, know that you're getting a quality game right here -- one that honestly the entire family can enjoy. Even the 3 year old... | video-games_xbox |
Overall review. 5 stars to Amazon, 5 stars to Fallout 4, but a B to the manufacturer of the Xbox One with details at the bottom on this review.
Amazon is by far the Best company I have dealt with on dealing with any problems hince the 5 stars. Minor problem with my new Xbox One Fallout bundle was taken care of with a replacement at my doorstep in less than 20 hours from time I called them after opening the shipping package. My hat goes off to Amazon's problem solving abilities on getting the job done speedy.
On Fallout 4 I'd give 5 stars.
On Gameplay:
I have played Fallout 1,2,3, & New Vegas. I've played about 30 hours of Fallout 4 now & here is my honest take on the game.
Be prepared for a challenge. Am playing "normal" gameplay & not "survival" gameplay. May play survival on the 2nd or 3rd play through as I see a replayable game. Graphics have great eye appeal. Very detailed environment on items such as guns,buildings, etc. The looks of the people are better than the previous games, but not quite there yet.
Be prepared to die often early in the game until you get better experience to use in the SPECIAL traits. At normal game play I've run into about 4 legendary opponents with interesting items once they were defeated. When you first start out I'd recommend putting points to the locksmith skill, hacker skill, & gunslinger as pistols are what you run across early in the game with the locksmith/hacker skills allowing access to areas you like to go to. Makes the game more manageable with those base traits where is more fun to play instead of getting frustrated when you character has too few of any one thing.
The new vats combat system slowing down time with opponents still reacting in real time while you aim/fire instead of freezing time like in previous games makes Fallout 4 a more challenging game. That espically goes for dealing with legendary opponents. However, it adds to the game. Nothing should be a cake walk.
The ability to make structures,etc is a nice touch. Along with being able to update weapons etc. Again, it is obvious they spent a lot of time on allowing players this option with the detailed everything in the game.
On container contents I do like what they did better than previous games. When you pass your aim over a container it shows if anything is there & allows you to take anything with a push of a button instead of having to open the container.
MAKE SURE you save often. The unexpected can happen. As well on some instances I've run into a few corrupt save files which will not load. By quick saving you won't loose much game progress.
I do have one last tidbit that is simple & fairly easy. At a chem station make Grape Mentats with 2 hub flowers, 1 whiskey, & 1 mentats as this gives you +5 Charm/10% better buy/sell when bartering for 8 minutes. Helps early in the game to get as much as possible out of items you sell if you store several items by a vendor before you use the grape mentats.
On the Xbox One I'd give a B instead of a A;
Mainly as the manufacturer requirement of Internet even though you are buying disc games not downloadable content to play.
I have never not been able to use anything right out of the box which is the case here. Took me a little while to chill out about this(ok, ok sleeping on it overnight made it less of a impact). I think those like me( most likely a minority in today's world) who do not use online gaming or have access to high speed internet at home will be a bit of a put off from the day one update you are required to do before you can even have a access to the system you just bought.
I think they are trying to keep the console running as smoothly as possible with system updates immediaty which is understandable, but difficult for us without high speed internet to deal with. I used a friends high speed & took a little over 2 hours to download & set up console before I could use the Xbox one along with the Fallout 4 update.
If you do not have any high speed access at all you may want to stick with the Xbox 360 as the day one download is daunting . Once you do the day one download Xbox is definitely a very nice upgrade from the 360 from a non hardcore gamers point of view. I play 2 to 3 games a year at most & do not play online games.
Why should I spend $600 a year for high speed internet just to play a game not online, but a game disk I paid for. I hope Microsoft will release updates to the Xbox One via Internet downloadable content that I can transfer to a flash drive then to my Xbox One for updates.
I do need to mention if you have kids who will be using it you may want to hold off on getting a Xbox One until they either put out more games for everyone for the Xbox One or more backwards compatible games for younger people.
Hope my experience helps anyone on deciding on upgrading to Xbox One as required day one download took some getting use to. | video-games_xbox |
The perfect remake for a classic. Unfortunately I didn't own the original xbox (though my PS2 was an amazing machine so no regrets there) but I fortunately had friends who did and Halo and the franchise is one of my favorite games of all time. Everything from the overpowered pistol, the ridiculous amount of assault rifle ammo, to the elite battle cries and the grunt screams of terror, it is still fun to play even to this day and while more then 10 years old is an amazing game that set the tone for many of the first person shooters that have followed since. So how does 343 industries (the new handlers of the halo franchise) remake a classic that many fans love? Keep all, and I mean ALL the gameplay mechanics exactly the same and slap on a fresh paint of HD graphics. The story is the same, the controls are the same, the voice overs are the same, the guns are the same, which is a good thing. The HD graphics are not the best the Xbox 360/PS3 generation has to offer but it is obviously a noticeable upgrade to graphics of old (which unfortunately didn't age too well) and in its own right is nice to look at too. Even if you want to play the game in it's original graphics whether it be for nostalgia or to compare the remake to the classic, all you do is hit the back button and in 5 seconds it switches (although the game is still running so don't do it in the middle of a firefight). The game soundtrack has been remixed, however it keeps what you liked about it and gave it a more modern update. However I still think the original halo soundtrack is one of the best gaming soundtracks of all time and was perfect the way it was and you can just change the music to the original score in the main menu. There are achievements in the game and skulls to find but it doesn't affect the game except for taking a small detour or two and once you find the skulls you can turn them on or off to make the gameplay more challenging if you so choose. There is a multiplayer aspect to the anniversary edition, however it has nothing to do with the halo remake, its just a few halo reach map packs for remade multiplayer maps from halo 1 and 2 and some new modes that mimic old school halo multiplayer. They're good maps don't get me wrong but it would've been nice for the anniversary edition to have its own multiplayer as well. All in all if you loved or remotely enjoyed the original halo in all its glory you'll love this game too and even if you never played the original now is the perfect time to pick it up, especially for $20 you can't go wrong and won't be disappointed. | video-games_xbox |
A Game of Extremes. Final Fantasy XIII is a game of extremes. The graphics and presentation are extremely beautiful, and deserve the full treatment of an HDTV. The game is extremely linear, and lacking a bit of the soul that other RPGs have, since you don't visit many towns or get to explore them at your own whims. On the other hand, this is a welcome change from the typical RPG pacing of "town, dungeon, town, dungeon".
The game is a bit inflexible in its early stages, before you get access to the Crystarium (which allows you to spend Crystogen Points on new abilities and to improve your attributes) and all six Paradigms, and as a result, isn't as fun. Once you think you have a handle on the game, it gives you a new curveball - your own level of patience will determine how well you deal with them. Sometimes, I got quite frustrated with certain tough enemies and bosses. Of course, that's what the convenient Retry option is for on the pause menu, and I brought it on myself by challenging giant, sword-wielding dragons sometimes.
The main point of the battles is to Stagger your opponent by filling their Stagger gauge. Staggering enemies is the only way to do the maximum amount of damage to them. This element is similar to the battle system featured in the PS2 RPG Xenosaga III, but FFXIII is more challenging overall. The stagger point of each enemy varies, and you have to figure out how to best fill their Stagger gauge while minimizing the damage that they can do.
Battling in FFXIII never really gets old. There are no random battles, and enemy variety isn't lacking, unlike many other RPGs. For a game of such supposed linearity, no two gamers that I know have played FFXIII the same way.
I also enjoyed the crafting system where you enhance your accessories and weapons with components dropped by enemies. If you level an item to its maximum, then you can use a different kind of component to transform it into a new item.
Ultimately, FFXIII seems to be the developers' attempt to compromise with fans of quality RPGs with lots of depth and content, and those who are more than a little tired of inconvenient RPG conventions. I must say that it's not a total success. I didn't like FFXIII as much as my favorite Final Fantasy games, such as FFX and IX, but while it's lows may be lower, FFXIII was more consistently entertaining than any FF I've played yet. The ending is more than worth fighting through linearity and some frustrating choke points; a perfect way of concluding a story where all of the characters have so much at stake. | video-games_xbox |
Fun to look at, but slow and annoying to play. Got this game as part of a bundled four pack with some other Capcom games.
First off, I haven't tried the online multiplayer, and never will. I just want to get through the campaign and get this game out of my house.
The initial wow factor of big bugs, big mechs, and big guns wears off quickly. The game is ok to watch if you're not playing, except as with many Japanese designed games, there are way too many moving objects on the screen at one time. This was an old trick with arcade video games, confusing the player with extraneous movement.
The single player campaign features nice settings, but the enemy tactics are very cheap. AI on the human pirates and such is not impressive, once you know where they are you will not have a problem.
Boss fights are ridiculous - I am at mission 5 and after playing against the same giant bug for over an hour, find myself yelling obscenities at the game and wanting to throw the controller (or sell the game). Bosses start out with the upper hand, depleting your shields and energy right at the start of the battle as you run around trying to find the right weapons or figure out dodge and hide tactics.
As the bosses get injured they seem to get more powerful and easily sequenced moves to kill you. In the battle I'm currently in, my mech stops moving before the attack occurs (very convenient, Capcom), or the bug pulls down tons of rocks on top of your human avatar OVER AND OVER, with no chance of escape. All the moving objects on the screen at this point slows down the frame rate of the entire game.
At this point I'm truly just trying to get through the game because I have it, booting it up every couple months to try and get through a level and boss. The back story is super forgetable and the acting and script bad.
Don't buy this for over $10 unless you have lots of time to waste on cheap 'make it illogically difficult' game design tricks. | video-games_xbox |
It's pretty good. Bought this because, well, I buy all the final fantasy games. This one had a lot of build up and through several hours of game play, I have a mostly positive impression.
Pros
1. The game looks gorgeous. Lots of good visuals, the character models look good, and the landscapes are expensive. It's a big game. With a world map. And towns. Awesome.
2. The battle system works pretty well. I have the Wait option enabled which adds back a little bit of that strategy element lost from the lack of turn based combat.
3. The character voice overs are good. Very enjoyable.
4. The soundtrack is fantastic.
5. The quests, story, etc is a lot of content to run through. Definitely getting your money's worth there.
6. The character leveling system is fun. A little bit of old, a little something new.
7. I thought the modernization would take a lot out of the experience. Most final fantasy games have tech but it's usually Sci fi kinda stuff. They put everything in very well and it feels like it fits. Even cell phones.
8. The story line is surprisingly charming.
9. Two hours into the game and you have interacted with a bigger world and more people than all of final fantasy 13. Thanks for listening to us, Square Enix, and giving us an actual world to play in =)
Cons
1. A lot of running around empty space during quests and such.
2. The controls and mechanics are a little buggy.
3. The controls also take some time to get used to. Every button does something else and I've made a few mistakes in the heat of battle.
4. There are a lot of side quests that don't really add much to the story. A lot of "run here, kill this, return for rewards". Easy way to grab easy XP and gil though.
Overall, I'm satisfied with it. It feels like a final fantasy game despite its flaws and the change in mechanics. The story and characters are charming and the world looks really nice. It's a little rough around the edges, and your enjoyment will be directly predicated on how well you handle the rough edges. If you're okay with a button press not working occasionally or a bit of quest grinding, this is a delightful entrant into the final fantasy franchise. It's a 5 star for me personally, but from a strictly objective standpoint, it's a 4 star game. | video-games_xbox |
Needs improvements and bug fixes. I am undecided as to how I feel at this time about this game. I like the graphics yet I am somewhat unhappy about the gameplay considering it is nothing like what I was led to believe it was going to be like before I got it in the first place. I was told that this was going to be one of the first in a new type of games that were not pre-created storylines (as in the type that you basically can do anything at all and it changes your gameplay and your story) yet that is not at all true! This is a predetermined game to a certain extent with only a few options in between that you can choose that will alter the storyline but for the most part you have very little choice in how you must play it out. And I have also found the digital game can be terribly glitchy and will require bug fixes because no matter how many ways you try (even on easy settings) some parts cannot be bypassed or gotten through due to glitches... My characters tend to (instead of successfully going through gates or doors fast) slamming into walls repeatedly in the exact same spot no matter where I came from or from what angle I was going... Even if I wasn't near that same spot... I consider that a mega glitch! Either that or the character won't activate the dodge feature at all allowing the gate to simply close every single time which ended up frustrating me so bad I just gave up and stopped playing the game after trying the same thing over and over again so very many times I couldn't even think straight anymore! I finally realized that it wasn't me it was the game and that it requires a fix to allow me to move on! Until I get that much I won't play it anymore! I can't say it is truly a bad game but I can say it simply needs improvements before I would recommend it! Before the glitches I can honestly say that I was enjoying playing it but once I got to that point I got too frustrated to continue! If they get that fixed I would be more than willing to give it another try! | video-games_xbox |
Classic Call of Duty . I originally purchased this game ( standard edition ) when it released at 12:01 am on midnight release at Gamestop. I played it for a while then fell off of it and didn't touch it again for a long time. I own all COD titles past and present, the latest two Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3 were good in the beginning then really got old to me and I've quit playing them, and here is why.
I've been playing COD since the original set in WW2 and played every one since, every title seems to evolve and change a bit in small to sometimes huge leaps.. The biggest offenders are Advanced Warfare and Black ops3, all the boosting around, wall running and absurd kill streaks have killed those games for me.. All I want is the classic COD experience, and COD Ghosts fills that void completely. I don't know why it has taken two years for me to figure this out, but now I have and I see Ghosts in a completely new light. After coming off of Advanced Warfare and Black Ops 3, Ghosts is simply refreshing and the only COD title I will be playing until the next release in November of this year.
Since I've never purchased the season pass for this game I began searching for the best price possible, and everywhere you look it's 49.99, the same price it has been for two years. So I got to thinking, The Hardened edition and the prestige editions came with season passes, so I decided to check them out, and to my complete satisfaction the Hardened edition is only selling for 29.00, and I instantly scooped it up. Besides the fact that I got the season pass for half price, I also get the nice add-ons , steel case and bracelet. Now, I will never use the bracelet, but I am a collector and it's a nice little piece to just have.
This review is sooooo late so I'm not going to go into any real detail, but what I can tell you is that if you have an urge for classic COD,this is the answer. The novelty of Advanced Warfare and Black ops 3 have worn off and I'm tired of being killed by people floating in the air on boosters or hiding in the water..
This game has given me back the great feeling COD did back when I was hot and heavy on COD Modern Warfare, and I'm simply loving it..
Solid 5 out of 5 | video-games_xbox |
A Review Written For Parents. As pointed out repeatedly in these Amazon reviews, playing this game requires an Xbox Gold paid membership and there is no split screen option to allow two gamers to play on the same console. I understand why this is frustrating to so many parents and players. But putting that aside, this is a game that I feel a lot of parents will still happily embrace as an acceptable alternative to the more graphic portrayals of violence and in-game/lobby player trash talk their young kids are otherwise exposed to in first person shooter games like the Modern Warfare series.
My 8 year old nephew loves first person shooter games and if you have a little boy in the house I'm sure that's probably your experience as well. However, my sister-in-law is not in favor of his playing most first person shooter games both in terms of the violent portrayals of a human character killing another human character but also due to the all-to-common use of profanity and other vulgarities by some of the older teenage players. I get that as when I play first person shooter games with my buddies there are a lot of things said (typical guy stuff) that I wouldn't want my nephew exposed to at this point.
That's where this game really stands out. It's a first person shooter game, but it doesn't seem so bad when you're a sunflower shooting at/killing a zombie or vice versa. It is in essence the same thing as other first person shooter games, it just doesn't carry the same implications when playing as a plant or as a zombie. Also, there isn't a lot of in game chat although that is possible. And typically, any in game chat is going to be another little kid as this game is targeted toward a different demographic than most first person shooter games. I've never heard anything too risqu uttered in a PvZ game.
I play this game with my nephew and not only is it a good way for us to stay connected across the miles, it's also a game I enjoy playing with him. The one thing I would caution parents over is the need to be careful of having an open mic. Most Xbox 360 households seem to have the Kinect module attached these days but I don't believe most parents know that this Kinect acts as a whole room microphone if the settings aren't altered to "mute". I can't begin to tell you how many times I have gone on line to play this game with my nephew only to find that there are several players in the lobby who have their Kinect mics open and everything that's going on in that player's household is being broadcast to the entire game lobby.
It's not hard to mute these other players so their "house chatter" doesn't become a distraction to your own game play, but I have to think that if parents only knew that everything they were saying in the background as their kids played this game was in turn being broadcast to all those strangers, they wouldn't immediately unplug their Kinect module. This may not be a bad idea either - unplugging the Kinect. It can always be plugged back in for games that require its functionality. But otherwise, parents need to make sure their kids understand this and that their Kinect mics are muted in the system settings.
This is about as tame a first person shooter game as you're ever going to find. If you can get past the "one player per console" at a time and Xbox Gold membership limitations I think you'll find this a good alternative first person shooter game for your kids. | video-games_xbox |
Halo 4: An overall mixed casual/competitive view. Halo 4 brings many changes from Halo: Reach, many of which can be considered good or bad, depending on preference. I will break the game down by sections.
CAMPAIGN
About a medium length campaign, made to be played on Heroic difficulty, will last about 10 hours, depending on your skill level. The story is entirely new, but brings back the Master Chief and Cortana in what is the most emotional story the Halo games have ever brought. The new enemies, the Prometheans, are stronger than the covenant and bring a sense of fear whenever multiple Promethean Knights attack. These new enemies bring new weapons to the sandbox, which are also available in the different modes of the game. The levels are designed well and on higher difficulties, there is no way you can run and gun your way through. There is no level that is boring or repetitive and every one brings a discovery in the story that motivates you to keep playing. The effect of the story is lost after the first playthrough, because nothing will come as a shock, but the shooting is still fun and if you haven't beaten it on Legendary, it is a challenge (this is the first Halo game I've beaten on Legendary). The cutscenes are score are brilliant: the prerendered scenes are beautiful, like nowhere Halo has reached before, the music is great, but I miss Marty's music at times, Neil's soundtrack is more "cinematic" and ambient than Marty's inspiring motifs. Overall, nothing to complain about, very satisfying campaign to a fan since Combat Evolved.
SPARTAN OPS
This aims to replace the Firefight mode from past games, but it adds narrative. The gameplay honestly is very bland here, it's like a very sub-par campaign. 343 promises improvements here, but I don't care much for it, as I play mostly matchmaking (War Games) and the campaign. This is probably the worst part of the game, and it doesn't even seem necessary.
MATCHMAKING (WAR GAMES)
I love Halo's multiplayer and recently I've been getting into the competitive aspect of Halo. Sprint is default now (like Call of Duty) and there are new armor abilities as well. The Battle Rifle is back, but it takes five shots to kill instead of the four shots from Halo 3 and before. The Promethean Weapons really add variety to the gameplay here, the Scattershot (Promethean shotgun) feels much different from the human shotgun, the Incineration Cannon is deadly up close and you can often kill yourself with it, the Binary Rifle is just ridiculous as a one shot kill. Bloom from the DMR is practically removed, making it a much better weapon. The maps have nice variety, but aren't designed to be competitive and the game really lacks small maps for close quarters combat. Big Team Battle is the most popular playlist and has a few good maps that seem balanced. Games often result in you getting destroyed or the other team getting destroyed, but the addition of Competitive Skill Ranking in April should balance the skill levels so that players of similar skill get matched together. The best way to describe the multiplayer is like it's bringing back classic Halo, but at the same time trying to evolve. The game does take a lot of things from Call of Duty, but it does in no way feel anything like Call of Duty, it still plays like Halo.
OVERALL
If you've played Halo before and liked it, you will enjoy this game, even if just a little. If you're used to playing games like Call of Duty or Battlefield, I really encourage you to try Halo, while there is a large skill curve, when you put in the effort to try to get better by learning about the game and you see the improvement in your gameplay, it is very rewarding. The story takes place in a new setting, so if you've been holding off from playing Halo because you were afraid you wouldn't understand the story, starting here isn't a bad idea. | video-games_xbox |
Move over Clint Eastwood, there is a new top Western in town. Who would have thought that in the middle of May a AAA title could just drop and disrupt everything else you were doing and playing? Rockstar does it again the same way they did it with GTAIV 2 years ago.
Take just about everything you love about GTAIV and set it in the Old West, early 20th century. Then take a classic revenge story and place it into this setting and off you go!
To be quite honest, I was expecting this to be like the last Western game Call of Juarez II that came out last year and this game by miles blows CoJII out of the water. Just like GTA you have many missions and side mission you can go on, The shooting mechanics are actually a bit more forgiving than in GTAIV and one thing I have noted early on is that you have to plan a little more when attacking a large group of enemies especially since in these times you don't have RPGs, grenades and hi tech sniper guns...I mean it's the turn of the 20th century after all what did you expect???
Sometimes, you can just find a spot and sit back and appreciate the scenery and see what kind of solid job that Rockstar did with putting this game together. During the day, you can see the heat simmer off of the desert at a distance, check out the details of Armadillo with some of it's false front buildings typical of the times. And so on.
And the west is indeed wild! You will see men beating up on women, cattle rustling, gangs terrifying farmers and through it all you have the choice to save the day, side with the bad guys or ignore it all. Another addition that sets this apart from GTA is the Fame meter. For every deed that you do, you fame can increase or decrease and people react accordingly. Try it out! Go rob a bank early on in the game and then come back later and see what happens!
There are other activities you can do to get money such as play horseshoe, try your hand at poker and even chse down the average gang or 2. You can buy and rent property also, go hunting and even prevent the occasional hanging. If it happened in the West, it's in this game.
The dialogue and music also are pretty good altho a few accents are a bit over the top and I sometimes wish there was more variation in the music.
And the horses???? Wow!! The best horse mechanic that has been seen in a long time but in a game like this where your primary mode of travel is the horse, why not get it right? watch the animation with the stagecoaches, wagons and even the lassoing tutorial and see what I mean.
I have very few complaints about this other than the occasional sticking that I get when trying to enter or exit a building and one mission I am having trouble on setting the waypoint, whereas I am not sure if it's a glitch or I am just not in the right spot. You get a few missions whereas similar to GTA, they are unforgiving and you have to be near perfect to complete it. And a small nitpick that I have is yes, even though the moon changes phases nightly...LOL, sometimes the phases are out of synch! On the flip side, take note at how far off you can see at night depending on where the moon is! I also wish that the time of day could be displayed actively onscreen as you play.
All in all, even if you have never been a fan of Westerns in general but liked GTA you would enjoy this game and I do plan on trying out the multiplayer side to see what that's all about. It's one of the best sandbox games to come out since GTAIV and I see many days going down the tubes playing this game! | video-games_xbox |
1080p? Beautiful... and possible on your 360. I purchased these cables because, along with the new Xbox Live update, you can view games and movies in 1080p (1920 x 1080 resolution). Your system will give you the option to turn on 1080p with the new update, but it won't work. These cables are the only cables that will allow you to view 1080p on your 360. And with the HD-DVD drive add on... wow. High Def movies in 1080p will make you quiet and teary-eyed.
Beware of a few things though to make your experience less of a hassle:
1) You have to have access to Xbox Live and a 1080p television or monitor that can display 1920x1080. Otherwise you're only looking at a minimal upgrade in quality most times that doesn't justify the cost over the component cables that came with your 360.
2) Check your TV or monitor's vga audio inputs. This cable comes with a red and white set of audio wires but a lot of monitors and TV's, especially a lot of the new full 1080p TV's, require an optical audio cable. You can get these everywhere and cheap ones are just as good as expensive ones. Best Buy has one specifically for the Xbox 360 for $8. One end hooks into the base connection on the VGA cables. Not only is the audio quality increased 10x, but it's no hassle or mess at all unless you didn't know you needed it.
3) Some TV's don't allow you to adjust as many picture options on their VGA component channels because they assume you're connecting a PC, which usually has it's own visual adjustment controls. I found little problem here after a few changes in the visual settings available to me but video-philes may be disappointed depending on their individual TV's or displays. For me, in particular, I had no color issues or washed out picture problems unless I dropped into lower resolutions... which is pointless to do if you're buying these for the 1080p compatibility.
Do some research and avoid all of these possible headaches and you're in for a treat. | video-games_xbox |
The racing genre has not seen a finer game than Forza. I played Forza MS 2 and I loved that game, but 3 is just incredible. I'm really impressed by the accuracy of the physics and modeling, and how great the game plays. But I'm absolutely floored by how much you can do to your car. The performance upgrades go deep, and it's amazing how Turn 10 managed to really map out the options for every car. Tuning also goes deep, however depending on which upgrades you've performed you might be limited to what you can tune. Igntion, fuel manaement, intake, valves, pistons. You can overbore cylinders. You can do even do an entire engine swap or drivetrain conversion! Different engines also have different aspiration conversion options, and you can go from single chargers to dual with certain engines.
And it all changes the numbers. Every option changes how your car runs.
The AI is really challenging, and you're actually racing against profiled drivers that have their own characteristics. In many games they just have names and a difficulty, but no real logic.
The scoring (credits) system rewards you for higher difficulty. For the best experience I've turned off all assists except for ABS, set AI to medium (they get tough on HARD), automatic transmission (racing with a controller here) recommended driving line to Brake Only (the line shows up only for braking), and physics to simulation. This amounts to a 50% bonus on credits earned for racing, which is a great way to pay for more upgrades.
If there's a flaw to be found it's that body options are limited. Front and rear bumpers, side skirts, hoods, spoilers, and rims is about it. And with the exception of rims there's only a few manufacturers to chose from. I do give Turn 10 major props for how the Weight Reduction and Chasis Reinforcement performance upgrades do change the insides of the car. You can also change your ride height (through upgrades to the suspension system as well as tuning).
And of course there's the cars. LOTS OF CARS. Every manufacturer I can think of is represented (save Kia I believe).
So here's the breakdown:
+Plenty of cars and tracks, with many track options
+Jaw dropping detail to every car and track
+Unrivaled physics simulation
+Challenging AI and gameplay
+Truly incredible depth of performance options
The distinctive leading franchise in online multiplayer racing, all wrapped up in what is my opinion THE CLEANEST MENU INTERFACE OF ANY RACING GAME EVER!
So there it is. Forza Motorsport 3 is just the racing game to have this gen, good job Turn 10. And whoops...um 4 (with Kinect support) is just around the corner! I got 3 'til then :D | video-games_xbox |
I love this game way too much. Many moons ago when the earth was young, a small 16 year old me asked for Guitar Hero 4 for Christmas. I loved that game, I played it a lot and when I got rock band 1 and 2 I loved them even more. I played them all the time, me and my friends beat the living crap out of my peripherals until they all barely functioned. I've thrown my guitars at walls, both accidentally and on purpose. I've broken and resoldered every single drum pad multiple times. I've yanked my Xbox off many a shelf while trying to do a drunken mic stand flip, destroying several discs in the process. These controllers treated me extremely well over these long years.
That being said, my guitar strum bar doesn't function, my other guitar's star power tilty thingy doesn't work anymore. The drums are held together by hot glue and the hopes and dreams of a dying child I had imprisoned at an occult funeral I once attended. I needed something new.
Seeing as how guitar hero controllers are like 70 dollars a piece, I decided to break down and go for some official Rock Band gear to go with my cruddy broken stuff. This was a no brainier, it was in my price range, had Amazon Prime shipping, and came with Rock Band 3! A game I had wanted for SO LONG! So I bought it.
This is such a nice guitar! The buttons push down with a satisfying feeling. You can feel the switch depress. This feels so much nicer than guitar hero's mushy fret keys. Also, this has auto calibration which works on most systems. A couple times I've had to set Rock Band up with some wack surround sound system that isn't set up correctly and that resulted in me having to calibrate it manually, but in most cases it works great!
The major downside is to this guitar has the Rock Band mushy strum bar. Coming from guitar hero I'm used to a satisfying click to let me know when the button is depressed. Lining these clicks up with the beat of the song sets the tempo and without this I sucked. It takes some getting used to, but after a while I don't notice it as much.
Rock Band 3 is awesome. The menu system has been super upgraded and it has a real focus on multiplayer mode now. People can pop in and out of a song at will and controllers can come in and out, all without having to pause the game! The game has a more refined focus on the gameplay as opposed to the score, which is great! I played this game to have a good time with my friends, not to have some pompous Simon-Cowell-esque game tell me we sucked. Also there are the pro instruments! I bought the pro keys controller and let me tell you it is a LOT harder and a LOT more realistic and as a result it is a LOT more fun! Especially with the games newly found focus on making things easier and more fun! I love it.
----Conclusion--------------------------------------------
So, what I'm saying is, if you have the patience to get to this point in the review, BUY IT! If you want Rock Band 3, which you can't find in stores anymore because apparently it's been discontinued, BUY IT! If you need a new guitar because you broke yours trying to spin it around your body but the strap came off and you really just threw it against the wall behind you but nobody saw but everyone heard so you had to make up a story about you knocking something off of something else to appease them, BUY IT! If you also like the Red Hot Chili Peppers and also need rock band and a new guitar BUY IT! It's worth it, and you'll love it, and it'll love you and everything will be awesome.... | video-games_xbox |
Love the game, love my progress...why can't it be perfect. So, last Christmas my sister and I bought Nike Fuel Bands <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Nike-FuelBand/dp/B008RRLJTO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Nike+ FuelBand</a> for one another. It was the first step in our New Year's goal for personal fitness. Having had knee surgery in May 2012 I was worried about what type of exercises I could do that would not risk injuring my knee again. I decided to do a <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Zumba-Fitness-Rush/dp/B0061PAZUS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Zumba Fitness Rush</a> personal 90 day challenge. My first experience with the game was a bit irritating because the dates that I worked out would not match up. I would workout Monday and the game would say it was Tuesday...I tweeted with Xbox and Majesco (video game creators) and no one could figure out the problem. I finally had to let it go and just continue with the challenge.
The music on the game is actually pretty good especially in comparison to the the Wii version of Zumba that I had from a couple of years ago. The music is decent and will definitely keep you moving. Not a ton of music you might hear in a live Zumba class but, I still enjoyed it. The moves are not difficult and you will get a significant workout. The first month of the challenge I averaged about 3 *** per class and by the end I was around 4-5.
The Kinect aspect of the game works fairly well, in that it is able to recognize your dance moves. There is one song for me that no matter how hard I try I just can't match up with the instructor so I consistently get 2 stars...very irritating for somewhat of a perfectionist. Then again it is a cha cha which the tempo is a little offbeat so, it might just be me... sigh.
Overall it's a great game with a couple of errors. One of the classes uses the same song twice which is ovbiously a mistake. There are a total of 45 classes and I completed the whole game. I love the progress tracker it keeps track of your calories, time and accuracy. I have totally become addicted to seeing my numbers and how that affects my progress.
Speaking of Progress, I lost 34 lbs in 90 days. I must admit for the last 3 weeks I also started going to the gym or taking a live zumba class so it might have made a real difference in my results. I also started Weight Watchers in January so, that also played a role in the Weight Loss. But, I am confident that anyone who tries the 90 day challenge can easily lose 20 lbs even without the dieting...within reason of course. I highly recommend the game and would love to hear back if anyone else tries the challenge. | video-games_xbox |
Best Game in Years. Ok so before I really get into the game I want to say you need to truly do research on this game or rent it before you buy it. I love this game but it certainly is not meant for the casual gamer. It's punishing, brutal and will take everything from you for the slightest mistake but that seems to be the biggest draw for many people to this game is that it forces you to learn from your mistakes and experiences throughout the game. If you are stubborn and not willing to change your play style at all when something isn't working you are doomed to the same fate as what I experienced my first playthrough with the Capra Demon (I think i died like 17 times to him alone). The graphics are stunning when viewed on a HDTV all the way from the minor details of the floors and walls up to the character detail whether its your Hollow Corpse or your Human Form. From Software said in an interview that they set out to make this game feel like you were desperate and alone in this big hostile world and they truly achieved this in my opinion. With those good things there are obviously some things that don't stand out as stellar. I think the biggest problem with the game is that the Multiplayer is broken. I know that there are alot of things that factor into playing with or against someone that is halfway round the country or even the world but somethings happen far to often. Players "shooting" at you and nothing happens for 45 secs then in the middle of one of your attacks you are hit by the arrow or bomb. Lots of cases where characters appear in one location and then as you attack them they "teleport" behind you and back stab you. I won't go any further with this as almost all online games have alot of the same problems.
Some things I certainly suggest.
1) Research or Demo the game before buying
2) Put the time into truly learn the game. Don't put 30 min in and die 7 or 8 times and quit.
3) Have a plan for leveling your character or you may hit a wall later in the game
4) During PVP try to be honorable (see dark souls wiki)
5) Pay attention
6) Learn from your mistakes don't repeat them
There are many more things I could say but i don't have the time. One finaly testament to how I feel about this game. I put it down when skyrim came out and played skyrim for quite a while. Then I realized that I while playing Skyrim I was actually thinking about Dark Souls. I had actually become bored with the Game of the Year and was longing for the challenge of Dark Souls.
Feel free to comment and ask questions. | video-games_xbox |
This "game" rocks. I am 51, for years I've messed around with guitars that belonged to friends and family. They tried to "teach" me a few chords and fingerings. I never got the hang of it.
I bought a new electric guitar off of Amazon for $39.95 and this game. I thought what the hey.... If I can't get the hang of it, I can always give it away as a second hand gift or something like that.
Game is an understatement! I've been at it for a couple of days now. I've learned fingering for notes >without having to look<, I've learned slides and a couple of neat riffs... The learning curve is really really easy! Just watch, and do. If you have trouble the games senses this and slows down to your learning speed. As you get it, the speed automatically picks back up. IF you start to beat it, it will throw a couple of new notes and tricks into the mix to keep you honest!
It is a lot of FUN! When the speed picks back up and you are doing well, you will see a new note pop up and you are like... "OH CRAPP OH CRAPP!" lol, it will make you look for them and give it a try. When you get it you are like YES!! and keep hammering it out!
This is off of TWO days worth!
As you are playing it gives you a percentage of accuracy and accuracy scoring. You may hit 16% (I did) within about 20 to 30 minutes I was in the 80% range! On a few I hammered out a couple of 100% scores! The thing is, it sticks with you. I can come back to it after a few hours and it falls right back into place with little or no effort.
I was playing during the day while my wife was at work (I am retired), when she saw how well I was doing she stood looking surprised by my following along and actually playing simple music. We have been together for nine years, she knows I don't play any type of instrument. In fact, because she was around her brother learning and listening to him for years she knew more about what I was doing than I did!
This will allow me to fulfill an item on my bucket list. Great game! I have a brother in in-law that has played guitar and bass for a number of years, this should challenge him as well. It has advanced lessons that will push even old pros in their skills and techniques.
If you are looking over it and considering giving it a try... DO IT!! Even if you have never seriously tried a guitar, you can with this!
Just watch, and do. It is that simple.
Scott | video-games_xbox |
A fresh new experience, an old classic setting. I've always loved Bond games and movies, they're just so much fun to watch and play, and this game is no different.
When you start to play the game, the first thing you'll probably notice is the whole old-fashioned feel of it all. By manipulating relatively bleak colors, giving the characters classic attire, and keeping the trademark Bond music in constant fervor, the game designers made it so you actually feel like you're in the 60's movie and taking down the villainy as Sir Sean Connery (arguably the best Bond ever).
Connery voices Bond which is a nice treat, it's amusing to hear the old Sean Connery's voice coming from his youthful, animated counterpart. The voice-over work is done very well with a pretty well known cast including Daniela Bianchi (From Russia With Love, 1963), Maria Menounos (One Tree Hill), Natasha Bedingfield ("Unwritten" <recording artist>), and more. They all do their parts well and convincingly, which all just adds to the fun and feel of the game.
The game is rather simple, I don't suspect anyone losing much sleep over trying to beat the game since it's not very long at all. However, the game has a collection of extras and unlockables you may want to go back and try to earn. You can "buy" behind the scenes movies, concept art, and even some characters to use in Multiplayer. Aside from some driving missions (in which the analog stick can be very touchy), this game is just a full on shooter, you can pretty much just run to the end of the level blasting through. Some thugs are tougher than others and may require some of your own special tactics, but for the most part, the missions are pretty linear and simple to complete. That's not to say that they're not fun, while it's basically just getting from point A to B to C, you still can do it in style, Bond style. There are even some things you can do to trigger a "Bond Moment", (like those in Everything or Nothing) in which you execute a move, kill, or trap like the real James Bond would. You can silently stalk the bad guys for a stealth kill, back up against a wall while shooting at oncoming thugs and, new to the series, is a feature in which you can use "Bond Vision" to take out an enemy. What this does is it pinpoints an exact spot on a bad guy for James to shoot at, this is most useful for certain thugs, for example a goon with a riot shield, you can pinpoint it to nail him in the face when he decides to take a peek to see if the coast is clear. Also, Bond knows all his Judo, which is extremely fun to use. Don't have any more ammo? It's ok, just get close enough to an enemy and attack him as if you had one and bond will stun him and in doing so will give you time to press the button that is indicated. It's like a quick time button event (a la Shenmue) in which will result in the instant K.O of the baddie and confiscation of ammo he was carrying, and you're not limited to needing empty weapons to do so, you can do this anytime you're close enough. It's really fun to watch Bond take out a whole room full of foes with this move which will usually ask you for a different quick button press resulting in a diverse session of brawling and more cool looking knockouts WITHOUT ever pulling a gun's trigger.
The game offers extremely good graphics, I've not seen it on the Gamecube or PS2 yet, but I instantly fell in love with the crisp look on everything. It's funny to see Connery backed up against the wall looking around blinking, seemingly mumbling to himself, holding a gun waiting for some poor unsuspecting punk to come by for a bullet with his name on it. All the characters from the original movie are in the game, Robert Shaw looks identical to the real actor, the infamous assassin known as the Red Grant that was definitely a worthy adversary to Bond. The environments are beautifully done and the look of flying debris is a real reward when you destroy whatever it is that unluckily gets in your way.
Multiplayer is another fun experience, you can have up to four players on split screens in a hectic 3rd person brawl. What keeps this interesting is the ways you can discover to give yourself the advantage; whether it be a gas chamber or shooting down a chandelier to crush your opponent, you can still take out your friends in true Bond style just for amusing kills and bragging rights. Vehicles and Jetpacks are also available to get the job done, they make things easier for you but don't make you impervious to defeat. My only gripe about Multiplayer was the absense of bots, playing against a friend is fun but it would have been even more entertaining to have the option to invovle a savvy computer-controlled pest to equalize and intensify the fray. It would also have been nice to include a Co-op mode too, that would've definitely made the game even more interesting.
All in all, From Russia With Love is a really fun game. The multiplayer is ideal for 4 people I think, but it's very fun with just two. As for Single player; the game is pretty short which may or may not (likely not) be to your liking. But despite it's short Single Player, there are still things to unlock which will most definitely take you a while if you should have the ambition to collect everything in the game.
I'd recommend renting it first to give yourself time to sample the multiplayer and break well into the Story mode, (you'll probably beat the game before you have to return it). But it's a really fun, fresh Bond experience, so if that's what your looking for; this is your game.
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 10/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Replayability: 8/10
End Rating: 9/10 (4/5 stars) | video-games_xbox |
Would give it 5 stars, but just can't do it because of the bugs. OK, this is one of the best games around, so I'm sure that the makers (Volition, THQ, Havoc) will be laughing all the way to the bank while I bash the bugs in the game. After all, I bought/play the game anyway, and I recommend the game to others.
But, I guess it's just the frustrating reality that they don't HAVE to finish debugging a game nowadays in order to make money on it. This game definitely falls into the "good enough to sell" category, even though there are TONS of code problems.
First of all, good stuff:
- Regenerating life meter.
- Great story line in the game play.
- Tons of fun to play.
- Totally customizable (if you spend enough time tweaking the appearance, you can make the main character look like anyone on earth, and you can even be a female... even though I'm sure the players are 98% male).
- Brought back the same 'hood as SR1, with some cool additional areas and stuff.
- Got rid of stupid activities from SR1, kept fun ones and made the difficulty more reasonable.
- Helicopters, airplanes, etc., you can fly 'em all!!!
- Physics engine is not TOO realistic (like in GTA4, frankly I thought driving the cars wasn't fun enough... I want to be able to pull unrealistic 11 g turns in my car if I want to... but in SR2, they definitely got the unrealistic-but-fun formula correct).
- I could go on and on and on, but you get the point.
Yes, you should buy this game (if you are of legal age)!!!
Now, bad stuff:
(This is where the manufacturers laugh... they can listen to me complain all day long, but in the mean time, I still bought it and tell others to buy it too... so WHY should they fix these problems?? Well, maybe just because it would be nice to actually FINISH a game, and to keep fans happy?? Sigh, somehow something tells me that's not a good enough reason for them.)
Anyway, bad stuff:
- Bugs.
- Idiot homies (they can't seem to jump 6 inches over something to get where they need to be).
- More bugs.
- Tons of bugs.
- Idiot homies (they often STAND THERE and do NOTHING when they're supposed to follow you).
- Game freezes galore.
- More bugs.
- Did I mention there are bugs in code?
- Idiot homies (they blow themselves up with rocket launchers).
- More game freezes.
- More bugs.
- Ooops, did you stop a mayhem activity before finishing all levels?.?.?. Good luck finding it. It's gone until you figure out the magic trick to go back to the original place it was, then it'll appear at its new place. (bug)
- Are you driving fast? Oh, nope, not any more, you stop DEAD in your tracks while the game loads the new area (even from HARD DRIVE!!!).
- Bugs.
- Oh, finally, you finished that tough level... oh, no, wait, WHAT???!!!!?? Now the game says "mission failed"!!!??? (another bug)
- Oh, you made $802,000 in damages in mayhem level 6 (minimum required damage = $800,000)... oh, no, wait, WHAT??!!! It still said "mission failed"??!!! (another bug)
- Oh, go and kill that gang in "fuzz" missions... oh, no, wait, WHAT!??!??! The gang members are somehow 5 feet lower on the "y" axis than they should be, and are buried in the pavement, and you can't kill them???!!!?? (oops, another bug, I guess you're starting that mission over again.)
- Hmm, did your game freeze again now?
- And, well, aside from game bugs, I will say that I can live without the stupid diversions... looking for secret areas, trying to find hidden jumps, etc. I think the game shouldn't have as much "hidden" stuff and should do a better job of leading you through all of the goodies.
- The helicopter "point the stick in the direction you want to go" controls leave something to be desired... should have stuck with normal controls.
Anyway, I play this game from my XBOX hard drive, so it's not merely the occasional bad optical drive that causes issues. The game is plainly unfinished. Another "rush the code out the door for the release date" winner of a game. Argh. I wonder when video games will start being subject to the same level of quality controls as the rest of the products we purchase in life. If you buy a pair of shoes and the sole falls off, you can return it. If you buy a new car and 12 things don't work, they fix it. If you buy a parachute and it has 57 holes in it and tears to pieces when you open it, well... ok, maybe YOU won't be getting your money back, but they will go out of business in a hurry. Even video games of the 80s and 90s had pretty good quality control. A bug here or there, sure, but largely bug free and much more rare to have a game freeze. But, nowadays things are different. Video games aren't held to a very high standard. And, spare me the nonsense about the code being that much more complicated now. As true as it might be to some extent, the truth is that these bugs are plainly evident if these manufacturers would just test the game a little more before selling it.
But, as usual, nope, they're modifying the code all the way up to the release date, and they just didn't leave themselves enough time to finish debugging. It seems that they NEVER do nowadays.
But, anyway, hypocritical rant over, because here I am loving this game and telling you to buy it too!!! Totally a 5-star game except for the nasty bugs. | video-games_xbox |
Enjoyable and addicting RPG. I've never written a game review before, but I felt the critic reviews were a bit harsh and unfair, and if I hadnt pre-ordered the game, I probably wouldn't have bought it. For reference, I love RPGs and open-world games - Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Deus Ex HR, Elder Scrolls, Batman's, Witcher's. I wouldn't put this game as high as those, but I really enjoyed it and am sure I will replay.
Character Customization: 4.0
Character Build: You get a max of 12 attributes points (strength, power, agility, and constitution, mostly affecting equipment and/or attack/stat bonuses), 9 talent points (crafting, charisma, science, lockpicking, exploration and stealth), and unlimited ability points (technomancer, warrior, guardian and rogue trees). At level 35 youll have your main build completed, but you continue to get ability points each level after. I like that you cant max out everything - you can fill about a tree and a half, so you need to plan your build, and can probably come up with 3-4 unique ones.
Face customization is limited to about ten each of faces, skin colors, hair styles, hair colors and eye colors and you can also only play as a male, which wasn't an issue for me, but this may be an issue for others.
Equipment/Crafting: You can equip on yourself and companions the typical boots, greaves, armor, and headgear, and either dagger/gun, one-handed weapon/shield, staff/gloves or heavy weapon, most with attribute requirements, up to 3 crafting slots and bonuses.
Combat System: 4.0 - I found the combat to be very satisfying, sometimes frustrating, but overall fun. I played on normal and mostly invested in the technomancer tree, with a quarter of points in the guardian tree and a little less in the warrior tree. Youre able to switch between the rogue, warrior and guardian stances at any point and the technomancer abilities are always available (and I found to be the most fun to use). Being able to switch quickly came in handy when your main build isn't best for a fight. You do have to backtrack through areas where the same enemies respawn, but those areas can usually be avoided taking a different path, and I didn't mind the extra fights, it made grinding pretty easy and you continue to get good xp.
Story: 4.0 - I enjoyed the main story, companion missions, and side quests - they were interesting and relevant. Throughout the game I looked forward to where the story was leading, and the majority of side quests felt meaningful.
Graphics and Animations: 3.75 - I think the scenery is beautiful and fitting, but not nearly the best of latest gen graphics. The combat animations were good, and I love the electrical effects of the game. The stiff facial expressions are noticeable though with only lower face moving. The mostly great voice acting countered this though and I stopped noticing after a while. I'd give the environment and combat animations 4.0 and face animations 3.0.
Companions: 4.0 - The companion system is decent. You can take two of five companions with you most of the time. Each companion has a class, so you can choose the two that compliment your style, each giving bonuses. There's enough dialogue that I came to care about (or dislike) each of them, and there are both male and female romance options. Companions can leave your party if you lose enough reputation with them. You can upgrade their equipment but you cant upgrade their build (talent, skill and ability points are only used with the main character).
Loot System: 3.75 - There are a lot of containers to open, most with nothing too exciting like crafting ingredients, but youll occasionally find equipment. You can also loot nearly half of all enemies you down, and collect at least serum (currency) from all.
Voice Acting/Dialogue/Music/Sound Effect: 3.75 - I think the NPC character voice acting was really good, but the main character felt off to me. Im not sure if they were going for something that didn't quite work for me, but especially in the very early game the main characters voice and/or dialogue was off-putting. It did improve though and by mid-game I stopped noticing. The dialogue was pretty interesting and relevant and did not find myself becoming impatient hearing all each had to say. The cutscenes were of good length as well and not at all overwhelming. You can skip over each line of dialogue and cutscenes, so if you need to replay a portion of the game thats nice. The music worked nicely for the story, environment and immersion. Sound effects were good.
I ended up playing about 65 hours, but I took my time and explored everything. A second playthrough would probably be about 40 hours - a great game length, long enough to make it worth playing most not too long to want to replay.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable game and Id recommend it to anyone that enjoys RPGs. Its not Mass Effect, but very entertaining. I'd wait for the price to drop to the 20s-30s. | video-games_xbox |
Good but nothing worth the cash. - So long story short i ordered this the second the news hit. slated to ship 18th and ended up getting it the 23rd.. not so bad but when it said "estimated delivery 18th" and it wasn't even shipped in till the next day. so i was a little iffy when i would ever see it at my door.
- On to the facts, this is just about the same size...no really it is. just think of a arcade without the faceplate and you are set because the HDD is internal.
- 2) Heat is an issue (yes i know its suppose to blow hot air out). the issue i have is the vent. WHY ON EARTH would M$ put the heat vent on the bottom! you can't stand it up like the old ones or the heat isn't going anywhere. it just blows onto the table and than sucked backed into the 360. way to go, aren't guys smart, heat will rise so why isn't the chip at the top right corner? who knows but once i lay it back down my super heated 360 is back to running like it's not even on.
-3) I don't care about this but it came with a huge scratch down the left side (happens to be what you see laying down). like i said its cheap plastic, i could care less.
-4) The noise. yes the CPU fan is dead quite now but they still didn't fix the dvd drive sounding like its going to space. easy fix is to install all the games, otherwise whats the point of the new 360 and the 250gb HDD.
-5) the headset port on the new controller is broken. if i turn it just right it can hear people speaking but its really low. everyone i speak to tells me they hears static like i'm blowing on the mic. it works fine on my other controller that i had for 2 years now. once again go M$ for making lameness.
In short if you own a 360 from the last year MFG 2009 and on. DO NOT BUY THESE NEW ONES! go get yourself a cheap 120gb HDD you Arcade people or elite people just stick to what you have. The only reason i switched was before i got $200 for my Elite and 250gb HDD are about $70, no braining go buy the newest console for $30 more. | video-games_xbox |
Vastly overlooked and underrated, Shadow Warrior is a true gem of a game that must be played. Shadow Warrior is vastly overlooked and underrated. Too many people fail to realize that it even exists, let alone that it is an awesome game. It's an FPS developed by a fairly new company called Flying Wild Hog. It's set in Japan and has a very Japanese style setting. Although it was made by developers in Poland, these guys really captured the true essence of Japan. It's a breath of fresh air not only for the FPS genre, but for the entire video game industry. Allow me to explain.
Shadow Warrior feels like a game you would have bought back in the 90's. When I say this, I don't mean that it has outdated mechanics or it feels old and clunky. I mean that it actually feels like a true video game did. It has no leaderboards, DLC, microtransactions, or online multiplayer like the industry has come and expected nowadays. It's a 1 player game, and it is the complete game. You pay the one time price of buying it and the full game is yours, with no season passes or anything like that to add on to it. It's all about the gameplay, and that is what the industry seems to have left in the past nowadays. This game brings gaming back to it's roots, where it belongs. It's rare to see something like this nowadays and I applaud Flying Wild Hog for what they have done here.
The story revolves around collecting pieces of a legendary Samurai sword, the Nobitsura Kage. You play as Lo Wang, basically an Asian version of Duke Nukem. He's full of funny one-liners and kicks a lot of butt in the process. You befriend a demon named Hoji. He also has an attitude of his own, and many of his lines had me laughing out loud too. I became attached to Hoji as the game went on. It really has great character development. I found it comforting to know that the misunderstood demon Hoji was right there with me throughout all of my battles. He always had good advice.
The gameplay is a mixture of swordplay and shooting guns. The sword is what you will be using the most, as it does the most damage in the quickest amount of time. It feels awesome to use the sword and dismember your foes. I would have loved to play a game like this when I was a kid. It's really done so well, and I've never played a game that does first person swordplay as well as this one. It really shines. There are simply combo moves you will constantly be using with your sword, such as up up trigger, or down down trigger. You will get used to these as they are very helpful against your enemies, rather than just blindly smashing the trigger button to attack.
The enemies you face are a mixture of demons and humans. There are mostly demons that you will be fighting in each level, but there are some human opponents thrown in to give the game a balance. Now I mentioned the sword, there are also a variety of guns that you have at your disposal. These range from a machine gun, to a crossbow, a rocket launcher, and a flame thrower. The machine gun is by far the best gun to use. It gets the job done, fast. As you kill enemies, you are awarded karma points. You also get additional karma for stylish kills against enemies, such as beheading them or using the environment to kill them. (Shooting a gas barrel and having it explode on the enemies.) Once you have enough karma, you can upgrade Wang at any time during the game. Pressing down on the directional pad will bring up the upgrade menu.
The upgrades are very helpful. You can get a bigger health bar, new sword combos, sprint faster, and deal more damage to demons. There is one upgrade I suggest very early, and that is Aswang Hunger. This will regain your health when you use a ki attack with your sword. (When I mentioned the up up trigger combo.) You can spam your ki attacks with your sword on your enemies, and this will essentially make you invincible because you will always regain health whenever you land a blow. This is very helpful, as there are a LOT of enemies you will be fighting.
There are also two other upgrades. You find ki crystals hidden in the levels, and with each ki crystal you find you can use it to teach new commands to Wang. Commands such as Peacocks Blessing, which will heal your health, and Tigers Roar, which will knock enemies down. You can also upgrade your guns with the money that you find hidden in each level. You can add a double barrel to your shotgun, laser sight on your weapons, and even dual wield with your machine gun. (Which is very powerful.)
The money is scattered across each level, sitting out in the open or in crates. There are many crates and drawers in each level, and you are basically looting everywhere you go for money, ammo, and health. It was strangely satisfying to loot each area, looking for secrets. There are also secret karma pools and money statuses hidden in each level. These give you large amounts of karma and money, respectively. They are hidden quite well, and at the end of each level it tells you how many secrets you found. This reminds me of Doom, back in the early 90's.
There is no waypoint at the top of the screen telling you exactly where to go. Instead, the correct door you are supposed to go through or switch you are supposed to press is highlighted bright yellow. This is much appreciated, yet it is still very possible to get lost and not know where to go. The game doesn't hold your hand, but it isn't completely relentless. The few times I did get lost I simply pulled up the mission on YouTube and saw exactly where I needed to go, usually something that was right under my nose.
There are also boss battles, something that isn't seen often today. You fight huge behemoths that take up the entire screen. They don't go down easy, but it sure is satisfying when they do.
Going through the levels, sometimes a door is blocked by colored energy symbols. This is a classic game mechanic where you must seek out the statues of that color, and destroy them with your sword. This will break the energy and allow you to pass through the door.
The graphics look wonderful. There can be so much going on the screen at once, with dozens of demons coming at you from all directions, and barrels exploding everywhere. Yet, the game never showed any signs of slowdown. I was very impressed. It stayed fluid the whole way. The game screen will pause for a slight second to load when you enter new areas or progress in the mission some, but this was actually a good thing because it let me know I was heading in the right direction. The game never once froze or crashed on me. Bravo, game developers. Bravo.
The game is very gory. You are slicing and dicing these demons and they bleed red. A feature I thought was awesome is that after an enemy is dead on the ground, you can slice up their body with your sword, and their body falls off piece by piece as you cut them. It's a small feature, yet so oddly satisfying!
In closing, Shadow Warrior is a wonderful gem of a game. It's so fun, so underrated, and vastly overlooked. I'm writing this review in hopes that more people will notice this game and give it a chance. It's not expensive, and can be found for less than 20 bucks. It feels great to play a game like this nowadays. It really takes gaming back to it's roots. I will always remember my experiences I had playing through this. | video-games_xbox |
BEST ZOMBIER GAME EVER MADE. I've played every zombie game ever made for the Xbox 360. I've seen every zombie movie i can get my hands on. Some are better than others, both games and movies. I am a huge fan of the Left 4 Dead series and at the time of Left 4 Dead 2, that was the new gold standard of zombie games. This game came out and had a ton of mixed reviews. I was extremely hesitant to buy this because of all the horrible things I've heard about it. Now... the key thing that made me steer clear of it for so long was i heard about the game's weapon durability system. I bought dead rising the day it came out on full price and loved it. i played for hour upon zombie slashing hour. then i backed myself into a corner... the game has a time limit which i HATE. and there also is a weapon durability system in that game. there is a spot in the mall where there is a sword store. i would fill up my entire inventory with swords and slash my way through the MASSIVE hordes of zombies. But I noticed I'd only make it about 300 yards before all my swords are broken and now i am brains and guts a la mode. And i always said, if there was no time limit, more side missions and slightly less zombies, this would be the best zombie game ever made. Well, several years later, my undead apocalyptic prayers were finally answered. The weapon durability in this game can be an annoyance but is tenfold of dead rising. This game does have it's flaws but what game doesn't. The graphics are a solid 8/10. the soundtrack is 8/10. the difficulty isn't impossible but challenging enough to keep you interested. they have an exorbitant amount of weapons, interesting and unique characters that each have a expertise in a field of combat. there are a ton of side missions to keep you busy and a great online/offline campaign. I would recommend any zombie lover buy this game and give it an open minded try regardless of all the terrible reviews. I did and I'm hooked and couldn't be happier. Now, time for the list of pros and cons...
PROS
great graphics
great soundtrack
interesting players
amazing online co-op
sweet weapons... and plenty of them
challenging but not impossible game-play
HUGE landscape and several levels to explore
no time limit
fun hidden adventures/ situations
several types of zombies/undead
rewarding and interesting challenges and achievements
you keep your level, experience,inventory, weapons, mods when you replay game
a replay value that rivals the original fable
CONS
some areas can be kind of glitchy sometimes
very small amount of gun ammunition can be held by a player at one time
saves after completing a main or side quest but no manual save option (but using a trick in options switching from analog/digital fight style fixes that
a little bit of a slow start
long story short... buy the game. it was worth every penny of the $17 i spent on it. | video-games_xbox |
Go Deep & Go Hard. Call of Duty 4 does a lot of things right with it's jump to modern warfare, but a part of me felt like they brought some of World War II with them.
The single player campaign is fairly short, but it's your average modern FPS fare in terms of length. The gameplay is fantastic! If you thought the previous Call of Duty games were chaotic, imagine a modern day console launch in the U.S. Plenty of people, plenty of violence, and plenty of guns. The intensity only lets up for short breathers (generally at the beginning of the game, cause in the second half it's all guns blazing). The pacing of the game is superb. I played through the entire game in one sitting and never once felt things were getting a little too repetitive. In the beginning of the game when you're switching between the two soldiers it kind of feels like two different games, but before you get too much of a good thing, you switch to the other and it helps keep the game fresh. One of the best parts of the game is the presentation. Unlike previous games in the franchise you don't play x amount of levels as a British soldier, x amount as an American, etc. etc. Instead you find yourself switching back and forth between an American and Brit in a seemingly unrelated, but in fact congruent storyline. There's plenty of razzle-dazzle during the loading screens and in between missions, as a satellite tracks your character's location around the globe, or a 3D schematic shows off one of the games vehicles giving you all kinds of technical data. Definitely more modern than the old war journals of the previous incarnations. The enemy AI is good; they'll find cover and blind fire, they'll throw a cacophony of grenades, and just generally do their best to kill you.
Like yin and yang, in all light there is darkness, and there is some not so bright spots to be found. They did a great job of making the combat modern, but parts of the game play aren't, at least to me. You're not just one soldier, you're part of a squad and you're squad can do some cool stuff. They can take cover, they can breach doors, they can take a seemingly unlimited amount of bullets without dying, they can survive explosions that would normally kill you (unless you were the cause of the explosion, in that case - "Friendly fire will not be tolerated"). Why can't I take cover? Enemies can. Why can't I blind fire? Enemies can. Maybe Rainbow Six: Vegas and the GRAW series have spoiled me, but this game kind of plays like a tactical squad based shooter. It's just not very tactical or squad based. It is a more intense and fast-paced shooter than those, but it just seems a little lacking after having played those. You're not the leader, but you do have to lead the squad everywhere. As I said, you're not a solitary soldier, but it's like my Friday nights - a little lonely. The worst escort mission ever. Escort missions suck, everybody knows it. Now imagine an escort mission where you have to carry the guy and put him down to shoot, he can still shoot, but it's probably the worst part of the game. This is kind of funny considering it follows probably the best part of the game ("Ghillies in the Mist"). I didn't enjoy playing through the timed levels, to me they were more frustrating than fun and were the only times I wanted to quit playing.
The multiplayer is also done well. There's no fancy video save features or level editors, just some solid kill people action. You earn points for kills, capturing bases, and what-not, and those points increase your XP kind of like an RPG leveling you up. As you level up you gain access to more modes and weapons and perks. You can earn attachments to your guns by completing challenges with a particular gun. The challenges are things like getting so many kills or headshots with a certain gun. There's some other challenges I'm not far enough yet to unlock.
I went into this game expect a great game and that's what I got. It's got some flaws, but nothing that breaks the game. It doesn't break new ground it just digs the same ground better and more efficiently, like an excavator. Infinity Ward took the tried and trued Call of Duty formula and brought it into the modern age and it works. I could've avoided all this typing by simply saying this - It's fantastic. | video-games_xbox |
Soul Calibur V fails to bring any of the elements that make the franchise great. I'm a huge fan of the Soul Calibur franchise. I haven't always had a console to play them, but when I heard the fifth one was coming out (and I had an Xbox to play it on!) I was super excited. However, this game lacks a lot of the elements I've come to expect and love of this franchise.
1. Story Mode:
As a fighting game, I don't expect some sort of masterful story here (although the newest Mortal Kombat certainly has raised the bar for fighting story lines). The story was about as you'd expect. I was disappointed that the majority of it was told via really crudely drawn storyboards with character voice overs. The story was predictable and less than fantastic. It focuses on the orphan Patrokalos in search of his sister. I was really disappointed in the lack of characters featured/playable within the story mode. I kind of expect story modes to introduce new players to the mechanics of the game, and give them a feel for a couple of different characters, as large player rosters can be intimidating when trying to find the "right" character for you. This story mode doesn't do that. There is a brief moment where you get to have a whole round as someone besides Patrokalos, but that's it. If you're not into how Patrokalos plays, tough luck. The whole experience takes maybe 2 hours, tops. It's a linear story with only one outcome. No replay value here.
2. Graphics:
These are stunning, nothing to complain about.
3. Mechanics:
Everything feels good in this department too. I've read some stuff about a few features more "hardcore" players aren't a huge fan of, but nothing that really bothered me.
4. Single player content:
Here's where the game really falls on it's face, where it SHOULD have excelled. We are given a 6 level arcade mode (really? 6 stages?), versus, "quick battle", where you fight a variety of characters to unlock vanity titles for online play. Then there's "Legendary Souls", which is basically arcade mode, but with the difficulty ramped up. Why they couldn't have just given us a "legendary" difficulty setting on the regular arcade is beyond me. That's it. No survival, no challenge mode, nothing. But really, the greatest sin this game commits, the deal breaker for me, is the removal of character endings at the end of beating arcade mode. This removal KILLS me. Reading those little blurbs was one of my favorite parts of the game. It gave me incentive to try out new characters and learn about their stories. It is beyond me why you would want to remove them. It's not like they're terribly complex bits that take years to program.
5. Characters:
This is another area the game severely lacks in. The cast feels boring and old. Out of the "new characters" we're getting, three of them are essentially clones of old characters they took out (Taki, Xinhua, Killik). Three more characters are "random character" fighters. That's right, there are THREE characters that are randoms. That's just lazy. To further limit the variety, Patrokalos, his sister, and his sister's Omega form all play extremely similar to one another. Oh, did I mention there's no Talim? Still bitter about that. I will say that Ezio is a great addition to the game and plays wonderfully though. Too bad I have no idea what his purpose is in this game since they took out the character endings.
6. Online content:
I can't comment on this, as I do not have Live. I hear it's pretty slick though. Sadly, I'm a "casual" gamer, and I probably wouldn't get much joy getting my tookus kicked up and down the ring by strangers. When I play fighting games, I like to do it with my buddies in the same room, where I can trash talk them.
7. Character Creator:
Voice selection is still pretty disappointing, especially the females. Other than that, it's fine. Probably the most fun part of this sorry excuse for a game.
Conclusion: Rent this game, play it with a buddy for a few hours, and return it. It's worth about $6. | video-games_xbox |
Two steps forward, One step back 9/10. It's really hard to review a game like Dishonored 2
If you didn't care for the first game this isn't going to be your thing
I put 6 hrs into it so far (not trying to speed my way through it)
Story: This is where the game lost me a little (No matter how you played the original game it doesn't link up with this game)
The Original game has different endings
The story is very interesting if you were invested in the first title
So far most of it makes sense
Gameplay: This is where this game gets dicey
It's a FP Stealth game but, they will give you guns, arrows, and various bombs
But, If you are to extreme and kill to many (The Chaos is High)
I forgot this silly manic balancing act made me dislike parts of the Original Dishonored
The game isn't balanced
Also the chaos meter is never explained to the player (Maybe i blinked and missed it)
I played the first Chapter (Escaping the castle to the Ship) on low Chaos
Maybe killed two guards mostly by accident, didn't kill any innocent bystanders
Meet with the Outsider then took a row boat to a new region
(Which starts Chapter 2) as soon as i get off the boat I'm in High Chaos!
How does that makes any sense? I never was in high chaos in the first chapter
Also you can play the game as Corvo or his daughter Emily
This should add playability to the game
You can also pass on getting any Supernatural powers from The Outsider
Like a smock i didn't take the powers when they were offered to me
I hope there is a pay off or at least a point why you can pass getting them
This to could add more play ability to the over all narrative
Controls: Are solid once you get the hang of how you play
It seems as though you move much quicker in this game
(I could be wrong haven't played the Original in a while)
It's not as easy and pick up and play as a Bioshock
It's more like Thief (Re-make) the learning curve isn't bad maybe 15-20min. and you'll be good to go
Graphics: Solid the strange Half life/Team fortress art style returns
Which isn't a bad thing...... With all the same cookie cutter FPS trying to go the ultra realistic route this is very unique and refreshing
It's a stunning looking FPS But, the art style might also turn off certain people
Sound/V.O Cast: the sound is once again close to perfect
the background score fits in this world (Much like the original)
everything has it's own sound
The only returning v/o cast member is
April Stewart (Empress Jessamine Kaldwin-Corvo's Heart/Emily's Heart)
everyone else is all new which is a shame
Erica Luttrell (Empress Emily Kaldwin) plays the grown up Emily it would've been nice to get Chlo Moretz to return But, I understand she has blown-up since the original game was in production
None the less Erica does a bang-up job she has the right voice and her performance is very good
The way she reads her lines reminds me of the actress that did Elizabeth's voice in BioShock Infinite
It's a close to perfect performance so far!
Robin Lord Taylor is the new voice of The Outsider (Which is very cool)
Stephen Russell (Corvo Attano)
Rosario Dawson (Captain Meagan Foster) Which makes sense since Rosario has a great voice for doing v/o work
Vincent D'Onofrio (Duke Luca Abele)
Sam Rockwell (Mortimer Ramsey)
Pedro Pascal (Paolo) Really underrated actor it's very cool he got this gig
Jamie Hector (Vice Overseer Liam Byrne)
Once again you have a laundry list of heavy Hollywood hitters doing v/o on a video game!
The only real negative is the manic balancing act
The game itself "claims" you can play it your way
But, that isn't true since any negative actions are held against you
Why even have a Low/High Chaos meter
If you can play it your way?
It's very much like the first couple of Dead Rising games where the clock is stacked against you
This in no way effects the overall game But, it hinder it from being a perfect story drive epic adventure
The game is epic and ambitious But, it's also very manic it's not sure what it wants to be
In a way it falls in it's own trap
Is it the same cookie cutter FPS??? or a rare first person stealth game 9/10
MS Gamertag: Duckman 1979 | video-games_xbox |
A fun game when it works. Overall the game is really fun when it works and all the piece fall into place. Sadly that only seems to be about 50% of the time. In 10 hours of game play there have been a long list of bugs including some game breaking issues that Capcom should not have let this title ship with. Putting this games play-ability well below previous titles. The phrase "unplayable" gets tossed around by angry games all the times but this game legitimately has unplayable bugs in the first hours of the game. Overall an embarrassing title that needs a lot of polish to live up to previous installments of the franchise.
The good.
-The overall game is fun, like previous Deadrising titles is raises the bars on ridiculous ways slay the zombie horde.
-Weapons and gear are over the top and a blast to make and use
-They simplified the annoying parts of previous games and really made the focus on action and story
-Leveling up is stupidly fast 50 levels in 10 hours.
-Story is corny but you should have been expecting that!
-This title has finally jumped the shark and is making the transition from GTA to Saints Row 3 which is really fun if you turn off your brain
The bad
-Game does not auto-patch itself. Somehow after install the game it was playable without an update and lead to a terrible first impression.
-First playable area was unbelievably laggy. To the point where you have to look at the floor to move
-First driving collision with an enemy caused the vehicle to flip killing me and leaving the zombie completely undamaged..
-First rescue was unrescue-able for whatever reason
-Hard crash after 3 hours of game play
-At one point the character could not walk and sank into the floor making moving extremely frustrating (had to jump to move)
-Aiming is jerky at best and does not have a smooth acceleration
-Dropping an item will randomly drop it through the world
-Graphical glitches everywhere, signs/textures have z-fighting on almost everything
-Graphics at best are equal to 2010
-You seem to get random damage indicators while standing still
-Audio glitching on level up menu is headache inducing.
-Camera clips through the wall everywhere
-Pathing actions (like moving to open a contain/door or climbing) will randomly not work, freezing the character for about 20 seconds.
-Zombies are in walls, in objects and fall through the world often
-Range weapon radicals will target enemies on the other sides of walls | video-games_xbox |
Its a love hate kind of thing. I have mixed feelings about this game. I really like it but at the same time I really don't . I know that sounds strange but that is how it is. We were all promised something that was going to be leaps and bounds better than the past games and really it feels like a couple steps back.
Campaign :
I actually enjoyed my playthrough of the campaign and am right now playing through a second time on veteran.. I always go back and play all of my COD games on Veteran because of the huge challenge they pose. Anyway , the story is engaging enough to keep you pulled in the entire time and keeps you wanting to push forwards. This is always a good thing in a game , and this game is like this all the way through.
Campaign Graphics :
The game looks good , but just doesn't look great. This game is supposed to be running on a new and enhanced game engine , but you know what ? I can't tell !! I actually think Black Ops 2 looked better all the way around and that was running on my 360..Now like I said it is not a bad looking game but you can tell its not quite what it should be.
Multiplayer :
This is not the best or the worst COD multiplayer to date. In my opinion Modern Warfare 3 is the absolute worst multiplayer of the whole series.. the developers of this game ( infinityward ) have been falling apart since cod modern warfare ( cod 4 ).. since then its been a down hill slide. Now the other development team Treyarch has really stepped up their game and given us really good COD games every other year. I actually can't wait to see what they bring us in November this year..
Bottom line is that you might be disappointed with this game if you drop 50 to 60 bucks on it.. its not bad but at the same time its not as good as previous entries into the series . I will play it from time to time and will beat the campaign on veteran but , I would have waited for the price to drop a bit before I bought it had I known what it was going to be like. | video-games_xbox |
Cream of the FPS crop. When rating a game like Bioshock that has been hyped up for over a year, one has to consider these 4 important questions.
1) Does it live up to the hype?
2) Is it fun to play?
3) Does it distinguish itself from other FPS?
4) Is it a true next gen game?
The answer to all four of these questions is a resounding YES!
Bioshock brings you to the underwater city of Rapture, a dystopian world that is falling apart rapidly. Based on paper thin ideals and materialistic beliefs, the civilization of Rapture has fallen into insanity and sheer madness.
A chemical called ADAM has tainted and distorted the minds, and bodies, of the citizens, turning everyone literally c-r-a-z-y!
Psychotic, mutated and twisted citizens lurk around every corner of this destroyed beauty called Rapture. And it IS beautiful. Bioshock boasts some really amazing and beautiful graphics, fulfilling part of question 4.
The architecture of Rapture is firmly planted in the 1960's and really adds bucket loads of flavor to the overall story and feel of the game. From posters to furniture, you really do get the sense that you are IN the 1960's.
On the graphical note, the water, and there is plenty of it, is probably the best looking, flowing and most realistic water to ever grace a video game. I was simply amazed at the water. I hear that the Bioshock developers had a whole team working on the water effects/graphics alone. Well, it has certainly paid off.
Bioshock also uses the Unreal 3 engine (think Gears of War), so the graphics are phenomenal and character movements are fluid and realistic.
Details are abound. Weapons are detailed down to the most minute detail (ribbed design on the shotgun pump, cracks in the walls/floors). The lighting/shadows are stunning, and the character models are some of the most detailed in the video game world.
Bioshock is a First Person Shooter. We all know that the video game shelves of our local stores are chalk full of First Person Shooters (FPS). Stores are literally teeming with them.
One of the biggest arguments against the Xbox 360 was the fact that there was a lack of variety in terms of games, with the majority being FPS.
I can safely say that Bioshock, though it may be a FPS, is FAR from your typical, standard FPS fare.
While you will run into your typical FPS weapons (Shotgun, Handguns, Machine guns, explosives, wrench for a melee weapon and a few more standard weapons), you will also have access to something called Plasmids.
Plasmids give you powers (i.e Telekenesis, the ability to shoot flames and electricity out of your hands, and even the ability to shoot wasps from your veins!)
These powers really change the FPS dynamic in a very profound way. Will you shock your enemy, then beat the tar out of them while they are stunned?, or will you incinerate them? Or, better yet, will you unleash a horde of wasps at them and watch them freak out? Your Plasmid powers even interact with the environment. You can use the shock ability to jump start faulty door switches, and if you spot an enemy in a pool of water you can shoot them with the electricity and watch them convulse.
If you spot an enemy in a pool of oil (yeah you will run into rooms that have oil spills) you can unleash Incinerate and watch them burn and spread the fire around.
An enemy throwing explosives at you, or is your way blocked by debris? No problem, with Telekenesis you can grab those pesky explosives in mid air and fling them back at the thrower or at debris blocking your advancement.
Also, you will find tonics along the way that will enhance other abilities, such as melee strength, hacking and even a tonic that will emit a shock to any enemy that attacks you with a melee attack, a sort of high voltage retribution.
On a side note, there are different types of bullets for each gun ranging from electrified ammo, armor piercing ammo and anti-personnel ammo. And if that's not enough, later on in the game you will be able to create your own ammo!
Yes, I did mention hacking earlier. Rapture has its share of vending machines (where you can buy ammo, health kits and plasmid refills), ammo machines, health stations, security bots, gun turrents and security cameras.
If you get in close to one of these machines, you will be given the opportunity to hack the machine. In an ingenious design, if you decide to hack a machine you will engage in a small mini game.
Does anyone remember an ancient game called Pipe Dream? The hacking mini game requires you to connect the "entrance" to the "exit" via two different types of pipes. There is a time limit however because fluid flows from the "entrance" and you need to get the fluid to the "exit". If you fail, the machine will overload and you will take damage, however you can retry as long as you have health left.
Later on you will find hacking tools that will give you the option to auto hack, though its not always successful. You can also opt to pay a rather large amount to buy a guaranteed auto hack - but that would be boring!
There is quite a bit of collecting involved in Bioshock as well. There are the plasmids, tonics, ammo and even money all scattered about the city of rapture.
With all of that in mind, it is easy to see that Bioshock does in fact distinguish itself from all other FPS on the market, fulfilling question 3.
Gameplay, well that is another story. 2k games boasts that no two romps through Bioshock will be the same. And I can see why they make this claim. You have options, I mean lots and lots of options on how you want to go about your killing. This basically fulfills the second part of question 4, Bioshock IS a true Next Generation title.
With every said so far, it is safe to say that Bioshock is VERY fun to play. First of all, the controls are rather easy and follow the standard FPS controls that Halo popularized.
There are three difficulties, allowing you to ease into the game, and easy to use menus and interfaces.
The story line is very immerse, original and interesting. I can say that I have NEVER played a game with the same story line.
Also, Raptures history is revealed via tape recordings and diaries that you collect along the way, adding even more flavor to an already over flowing flavor pot.
Basically Bioshock is equal parts an action game, survival horror game and a stripped down Role Playing Game in the vein of Deus Ex. And its mixed really well. Nothing ever feels over done or boring.
Also, following in the vein of "choose your own adventure" type games, Bioshock presents you with situations in which you will have to choose, morally, which way to go. This adds even more to an already amazing game. And, unlike other games that offer this, your choices and actions WILL affect the game.
Overall, Bioshock lives up to the hype and is a must own for all Xbox 360 owners. I will warn that there is a lot of blood, gore and violence, not to mention a wide array of mature themes involved.
If you are into these things, and of age, you MUST pick this game up. Do not pass up on this, even if you are sick of the First Person Shooter genre, I guarantee that Bioshock is a unique and engaging experience that you will not regret paying $60 plus for.
Price is one of the biggest factors that can scare away potential consumers, since next generation games cost so much, consumers want to be sure that the game they are spending their hard earned money on is actually worth it. I can honestly say that Bioshock is worth it. | video-games_xbox |
Could have been better. What happens when you design a game for the PC but put it across a multitude of consoles first? BloodRayne. Now, now, hear me out before you bite my head off. The software is riddled with a great deal of glitches; at least as far as the Xbox version goes, that's the one I bought. There are countless times I've run into slowdown, and visible rendering, aliasing, artifacting and numerous other problems of an unpolished game. So I'm not happy with the graphics. Secondly; the control options. I have been one of those voices proudly protesting the Resident Evil/Tomb Raider and the Mouse and Keyboard control set up. When I put the disk into my Xbox I was appalled to discover the game's default setting was mouse and keyboard, which does not work on a console. Thankfully, after tampering with the control settings for a while I discovered a tomb Raider like control set up. While I hate both styles and prefer free roaming analogue (a kin to the Soul Reavor series, Mario, Zelda, and Metal Gear) the option to play this more like Blood Omen 2 than Grand Theft Auto III was greatly appreciated, but it would have been better to deign this game from the ground up like a true console game, and not one that looks, and plays like a bad PC Port.
The voice acting is horrid, that said I'm now going to comment on what this game does right. The action, despite its awkward controls, is fast and furious, and there's lots of it. The story line is also darn near R-Rated Vampire flick quality, at least on par with the recent Blade movies, sadly nowhere near the caliber of something like "Interview with the Vampire", and no where near as deep as the original Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, or the two Soul Reavor games. As a vampire fan I rush to just about anything vampire related, and while I don't regret buying this mediocre game I'm glad I didn't pay more for it than I did (I got it second hand.) I recommend that players rent this title before committing to a purchase. The game is a far cry from a must have. | video-games_xbox |
Too much waiting & no book. I haven't had a Madden game since Madden 2009.
I'll start with the negative aspects, because if you can't tolerate them, then the game isn't enjoyable regardless of the positives. I thought I would try it again, but it really isn't worth buying to me. The main reason why is that there is just too much time spent waiting. There is too much loading time. Then after each play I have to wait and watch animation of the coach, or players standing around or in a huddle. Pressing the buttons doesn't advance past the waiting. It gets frustrating. Then sometimes it goes by a little quicker, and since I am impatiently pressing buttons wanting to advance, it chooses a play I didn't want.
Also, after a play, if you accidently pressed the button to spike the ball, you can't audible out of it and have to burn a time out. Again frustrating. I wished I knew which button to press to hurry up after a play to the line, instead of spiking the ball. Why don't I? No book for control layout. There is an in game manual, even though it also is missing some of the controls. I'd rather have a physical book next to me to refer to as needed. It's just out of sheer greed that there isn't one. Also, referring to greed, there is quite a bit of advertising plugs in the game. If you like repeatedly hearing & seeing ads for Verizon and Snickers then enjoy.
I have only played 4 season games so far, and the commentary became repetitive by the 3rd game.
Oh, and occasionally, it just throws the ball where it wants, not where you pressed. Like throwing the ball over a receiver, or trying to, and it still goes to the defender in the opposite direction that I pressed.
The positives. There are a lot of options. Build your own team, coach a team (standard franchise mode), and owner mode where you coach and do press conferences and set prices and upgrade the stadium, control a player mode, custom playbooks (not completely customizable, but it mostly is), online seasons, and challenges. You can also practice before a game to earn experience points to upgrade your players over time.
There are many controls to learn for someone not used to the series anymore, but that's what practice is for, and now you are rewarded with unlocks and XP.
Verdict: It's better to try this one before buying to see if you can tolerate all the waiting time after you have played a few games of it. | video-games_xbox |
even more laughable than the TV show. first things first, if you're confused like I was wondering just what Deadliest Warrior Ancient Combat is, its simply a complete collection of the two Deadliest Warrior XBL arcade games with their DLCs all on one disc. Included is a bonus DVD with 6 episodes from the TV show.
the premise behind the Deadliest Warrior franchise is simple. If you're male, its no different than the deep and probing philosophical arguments you would get into with your friends when you were about three years old: who would win in a fight between a ninja and a pirate? Its sickeningly puerile that way. And this is exactly what the games are. The first one Deadliest Warrior: The Game pits famous types of warriors against each other such as samurai, pirates, Vikings, etc. The second one: Deadliest Warrior: Legends features specific famous warriors that fight each other. Figures such as Shaka Zulu, Dracula (yes, Dracula), Sun Tsu, among a few other well known names. Both games are what you might suspect: simple. And not very good.
How do the games play? About what you would expect for a television show that appeals to people with the mentality of a young child. The controls are simple and easy to pick up and combat is generally just club the other guy with your weapon until he stops moving and the game tells you you've won. There's not much strategy or skill involved. The only strategy you'll ever need is if the guy you're fighting is really far away, push the ranged attack button to hurl a AUTHENTIC HISTORICAL RANGED WEAPON at them or push the other buttons when they're close to swing your AUTHENTIC HISTORICAL MELEE WEAPON at them.
Deadliest Warrior Ancient Combat is plagued by a number of issues. Mostly issues dealing with quality. The Deadliest Warrior games aren't striving for high standards and it shows graphically and design wise. Both games look and feel like extremely low budget titles. The fights themselves seldom last very long. Damage dealt is inconsistent and unbalanced. For most characters, a single 3-hit combo will kill them. This is despite both Deadliest Warrior games' annoying habit of randomly dealing out instant death when a fighter gets hit. These are probably the only fighting games I've played where skill is irrelevant and luck plays a major factor in winning. That is if you don't abuse the game's balance issues taking advantage of how unfair the longer faster weapons can be. Every fighter plays exactly the same despite differences in weapon size and speed. The only real difference between any of them are the dial-a-combos they have. These fighting games are just as silly as the premise for the show. If they don't repulse you by how insulting they are, you might actually find some enjoyment with them in a so-bad-its-good sort of way. Personally for me, its hard to take Deadliest Warrior in any form seriously. These games are absurdist in a way that I found them amusing, but that's it. I didn't get much enjoyment out of either game on this disc.
The good thing about Ancient Combat is its value. Compared to the actual prices of both games and DLCs on Xbox Live, the disc being @ $10 is a fantastic deal. Unfortunately whoever developed this disc did so in the most idiotic fashion you could imagine. Popping the disc into your system doesn't boot to a select screen, it takes you to the 'my games' list in your xbox dashboard with Deadliest Warrior: Ancient Combat highlighted. Selecting that simply brings you to the same screen. You actually have to search your system's library and manually select which of the two games you want to play. What moron thought that was a good idea?
The second disadvantage to this disc version is the addition of loading times. Unlike most XBL games on disc available for the system, Deadliest Warrior Ancient Combat does not load the game into temporary storage on your hard drive. Instead, the game runs off the disc no matter what you do (you can actually install the disc to your HDD but it still reads off the disc). The result is longer loading times compared to what you'd get if you bought the game off XBL and play it off your hard drive.
finally don't be fooled by people comparing Deadliest Warrior to Bushido Blade. Apples and oranges. Two totally different games that play nothing like each other despite the numerous similar concepts they possess. Bushido Blade is more of a crude kendo simulation with really bad controls and experiments with some odd game concepts (such as the ones involving the hidden endings). Despite how low quality and silly the Deadliest Warrior games are, they're at least playable. | video-games_xbox |
I've been using Amazon for over 6 years and this is my first terrible experience. I ordered this controller on March 11 with a delivery estimate of March 20 at the latest. On the day it was supposed to arrive, I checked the tracking status as I do everyday for my shipments and it was still showing "Electronic Shipping Info Received" which only proves the company has paid for the shipping label. I emailed them and asked what was wrong and they said they'd look into it. A few days later it still showed the same thing on the tracking page and I emailed them again. Alas, the day after that, USPS shows on their tracking "Accepted at Origin Sort Facility" which means that's when they finally brought my package to the post office. They tried to play it off by saying "we'll send you a replacement" and the one that I'm seeing that's now shipped out is supposed to have been the replacement but I know it was just a face-saving ploy because it was the same tracking number throughout. If I was actually sent a replacement, it'd have a new, different tracking number so this just shows they didn't ship my package until 16 days later after several inquires.
The quality of the controller was not perfect. Improper care of the controller during installation of the mod chip by the technicians caused the right analog stick to randomly, slowly drift during play. Imagine not touching your controller but your character is turning slowly at random times during play. This was easily "remedied" by moving the analog stick in any direction but it is a hassle and distracting to the gameplay when your controller acts without intention. So I email GeniusMods360 and tell them the problem and they tell me I have to send it back and they'll either replace it or repair it. They were unwilling to send out an identical replacement for me to use in the meantime during the limbo I'll be without my controller when I'm sending it back. I even told them there aren't trust issues with this because I can just be billed for the replacement if I don't send back the original. They still tell me to send it back while conveniently ignoring my request for them to send me a unit to use but whatever, I've come to expect passive behavior and disappointment with this company. I send the defective unit back and I'm told their technicians will troubleshoot it and determine if I will get a replacement or a repaired unit. I know this means I'm going to get a repaired unit because it's obvious a company of this caliber will do whatever it takes not to send out new units if they can help it. 10 days later, April 24th now, and I get my controller in the mail. Of course it's my same unit, "repaired". But instead of the technicians actually repairing it, they only loosened the tension on the analog stick such that it wouldn't slowly drift anymore, but also with the side effect that the stick doesn't recognize ANY minuscule input. That means I can move my stick ~5 degrees in any direction and it won't register any movement. Micro-adjustments in game are important as any other aspect of what a controller provides and they stripped it of this ability as a lazy "fix" to my drifting problem. I emailed them again and just requested a refund. Will never buy from this company again. YMMV with this company. | video-games_xbox |
Don't purchase the Xbox360 version until Telltale fixes the glitches. Playing The Wolf Among Us on the Xbox360 is a little like leaning in to kiss a beautiful woman only to discover that she has a nasty, crusty booger dangling from her nose. You want to enjoy the moment...but the nose goblin just ruins it.
The booger in this case is technical issues, and unfortunately, they can make WAU unplayable at times. This is largely because of lags, skipped frames, and stuttering movement during pretty much every aspect of the game. Apparently it is a widespread problem if the internet is to be believed, and I tried it on two different Xboxes with the same result. It's worst during the episode recaps at the beginning of each episode, and not a whole lot better during fight scenes. The pauses, skips and delays make it nearly impossible to respond to the quick time event prompts. Episode 3 and 4 seemed to smooth out a bit, but the 1st episode was so bad I almost gave up. Those are the primary technical problems, but there was even one instance during a key scene where all the text switched to being in Spanish. My Spanish is rusty, so I wasn't even certain what choices I was going to make. And then it inexplicably switches back to English in the next scene. I can't believe Telltale let this product ship in such a state.
And all of that is a horrible shame, because WAU is an amazing game. I played The Walking Dead on the PC before this, so I knew what to expect in terms of gameplay. It's essentially an interactive novel, not unlike a Choose Your Own Adventure book. This gameplay style may not be everyone's cup of tea, but just like the Walking Dead series, it is extremely well done. This particular story takes place in an intriguing setting where storybook characters struggle to survive in the real world. WAU has some very heavy themes and at times you have to make some hard choices. Sometimes the emotional tug of war is a little uneven, but overall, it doesn't take long before you really care about what happens to the characters in the story. My only nitpick is that while the voice actor for Bigby (the main character) was excellent, he didn't seem to be the best match for the role voice-wise.
This would easily be a 5 star game if it wasn't for the glitches and my hope is that Telltale fixes it soon. My recommendation: As of now, forget the Xbox360 version of this and play it on the computer instead. | video-games_xbox |
A New Low in Video Game History. After watching this game win game of the year at the Spike awards, I was intrigued. I'm not a fan of the show, but post-zombie apocalypse settings are always a big draw for me in a video game. I've been too busy with life and other games to buy this game, and now I'm glad I didn't. As I write this, the first episode is free to download on Xbox Live. Free is always good, especially for a game you're not sure of, so I gave it a try.
I want back the hour of my life I wasted on this game.
First, this isn't a game. It is an interactive movie. It is one of those inane "push the right button when it flashes on the screen" snooze fests. It is about 90% cut scenes with the occasional button push. If you like CoD type games or open worlds, you will HATE this "game".
Second, even for the genre it is terrible. The game has two modes: 1) an easy mode where it gives you hints about what is expected of you; and 2) a hard mode where there few if any hints. Not knowing what to expect, I opted for the hint mode. I would have actually been better off going it on my own.
The first time this barely interactive cartoon lets you do anything, you have to get out of a car, get off your handcuffs, and deal with a cop-turned-zombie. After you have crawled to where your back is up against a police car, the screen starts flashing "look at cop". Ok, I look at the cop. The character says something and the zombie keeps coming. So I look at cop again. Same result. The screen says again "look at cop". So I look at the cop again. And he jumps on me and eats my brains -- "You are dead" says the game. After it reloads, when it tells me to look at the cop, I DON'T look at the cop, but look to my right and left and find a shotgun with a shell. Then I get to shoot the zombie. So what you actually have to do is the exact opposite of what the hint on the screen is blaring at you to do.
And this is the VERY FIRST TIME you interact with the game. It does not get any better. I thought this style of game went out of vogue 30 years ago with the old Dragon's Lair quarter eater of the 80s. Sadly, it appears that this particular developer is going retro.
If you are a fan of the Walking Dead and this review makes you mad (as seems to be the case based upon the feedback I have seen on the negative reviews), after you get done downvoting me, download it for free, realize I was absolutely right, and go spend your money on the next season of the Walking Dead TV show or some other merchandise. I PROMISE you that you will thank me for it. If you buy this game you will be throwing away money that could be used to actually satisfy your Walking Dead fix and entertain you.
Don't say you weren't warned. | video-games_xbox |
What happened. I won't kid myself when I say that the first Saw game wasn't the best game on the market, but to me, I thought it was a legitimately good game. Sure, it had it's issues, like clunky, unresponsive combat, some poor voice acting, and some tired puzzles, but I am a huge Saw fan and it had everything that I wanted from it and more. When I heard that Saw II: Flesh & Blood was being developed, I was excited, cause I trusted Konami to improve on the issues from the first game and bring us a more polished and more enjoyable gaming experience on their second attempt.
Sadly, I was wrong.
I just have one BIG question that I wish I could ask the developers: WHAT HAPPENED? This game doesn't improve on any of the issues from the first game, in fact, it makes some of them worse! Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy the game, but I find that I am only playing it to beat it so I can see where the story is going to go.
The biggest issue with this game is the same as the first game- combat. While the combat in the first game was clunky and unresponsive, it was still tense and could have been great if they'd kept that system for this game and fixed the bugs. But they didn't. Instead, what we got here is a completely new combat system consisting of- be prepared- QUICK TIME EVENTS. Who thought that was a good idea? There is no fear or terror in the combat because no matter what, you can't be surprised by somebody just coming up behind you and attacking you and that kills the sometimes tense atmosphere that this game could create. Plus, no matter what the weapon is, every weapon is one battle, one use, so you're constantly on the lookout for something- anything- to use as a weapon. It really drags down the overall value of this game and might make some people not want to come back to it.
Another big issue that I have noticed is the delay in transition between gameplay and cinematic event. Often, you'll enter a room and stand around for several seconds before a cut scene starts playing, and the next time you go through that area, it'll trigger instantly. This wouldn't be such a big deal if it were only a once or twice occasion but it's not, it seems to happen every hour of gameplay or so. Another issue I have noticed is that sometimes the audio doesn't play at all, especially during the scene involving Tapp and another character in a cage where Jigsaw has a monologue and you can see the subtitles, but there is no sound, and there never has been anytime I have gone through that area. The checkpoints are few and far between, and some of the puzzles are downright diabolical, such as the polarized circuit breaker puzzles. Also, half the time there is no indication of how to solve the puzzle and it's often just blind, pure luck that you manage to save a character (such as how I managed to save Carla.)
However, the atmosphere and the environments are well done from an aesthetic point of view. I only occasionally notice crummy textures or bland detail, and the character models, on occasion, can look really great. Trap design is about as good as it was in the first one, and the tension has increased when you open a door and now have to hit two buttons instead of one to avoid having your head blown off by a shotgun. There are a few frustrating enemies, but none that will make you want to split the disc in half. The game is fun and the story is great, but there are going to be times in the game where you get incredibly frustrated and just don't want to keep playing anymore. Also, be prepared to die quite often and have to go back to before you completed a puzzle and complete it again. But, in my opinion, despite all the flaws, it's still worth playing through just to have another piece of the Saw universe to explore, if you are, like me, a big Saw fan. If you're not a Saw fan, then you should probably stay clear of this game because I guarantee you won't like it. | video-games_xbox |
A surprisingly easy fix. One of my Xbox 360s kicked the bucket with the three red rings of death two weeks ago. With this kit, a screwdriver, some tape and a soft cloth I fixed the console in about two hours. It's run fine for about six hours now, including downloading a dashboard update and installing a game.
A word of warning: you will be opening up your 360 and disassembling EVERYTHING, including taking anything off the motherboard that isn't soldered down. This, obviously, will void any warranty you have. If you are extremely nervous about playing with electrical components (at one point you will actually power on the system while it's disassembled to intentionally overheat the CPU and GPU chips) you might not want to give this a go; with patience and care, though, this process is actually pretty straightforward.
While I'm on the topic of warranties, before you even consider buying this kit, register your console on the Xbox website and make sure you can't get it repaired for free. Standard warranties are one year, but the warranty against the RROD is three years. You'll usually have to go through the "Request a Repair" link to find out if you can get it fixed for free. If not, Microsoft will tell you it will cost about $100 to fix the console, and this is when you would want to consider this kit.
Essentially, you are using the eight screws and 32 washers to replace the x-clamps that are supposed to hold the heat sinks down (they do a bad job of it, hence the RROD). The instructions do not come with the kit itself, but a link to online directions (one set on how to take apart the 360, another on the actual fix). Though sometimes poorly written ("heat sync," bad sentence structure at points, and the like), the directions are straightforward. Read through them once or twice before you sit down to do the actual repair, and keep them handy as you follow the steps.
The unlock tool included is somewhat flimsy, and will bend if you apply too much pressure, which unfortunately you have to do to actually unlock the console. The tool actually failed to open one part of my 360, and I ended up breaking a small tab to get the case apart (thankfully, the case still closes securely, and the break is on the back and hidden inside the case).
Despite these shortcomings, I spent less than $10 on this kit and ended up not having to pay $90+ to have someone else fix my console. If you take your time, this kit is well worth the investment.
*Update 12/23/2010: Over one month post-fix, and no problems to report!
*Update 6/30/2011: About three months post-fix it RROD'ed again during a particularly graphics-intense part of Final Fantasy XIII. Opening up the 360, I saw that the cheap thermal paste that came with the kit was the culprit for this failure. I went to Staples and got a tube of good thermal paste for about $6, and re-did the fix, substituting the good thermal paste for the cheap paste, and so far no more hiccups.
*Update 9/13/2011: Scrapped the 360 today for parts. It RROD'ed during the latest dashboard update, and nothing I do can get it working again. From talking with other people, the average lifespan for this fix is 6 weeks-3 months. So, weigh the cost of a new 'Box against the hassle of cracking it open every 8 weeks and *maybe* fixing it to determine if this is worth it for you.
I should also not this wa not my primary console, and it saw action maybe once every 10 days for a few hours at a time. | video-games_xbox |
while making me enamored with some of gamings finest experiences. Moving on from the console it appears . There is this epic RPG set in space that was released about 5 years ago and I'm fairly ecstatic to have experienced this game. The game is none other than Mass Effect on Xbox 360, a console which has infuriated me at times, while making me enamored with some of gamings finest experiences. Moving on from the console it appears on (which is marginally important) the game itself is certainly an interesting one. The player assumes the role of Commander Shepard and chooses the various aspects of the character (ranging from appearance and attributes to his/her background). There are 6 classes that all range from the standard "warrior" type to the "magic" (or in this case biotic) type with a few in between.
Now that you have chosen your attributes, you will take on the role of Commander Shepard and he or she will begin the story. The plot is standard in that it essentially involves a traitor to a counsel and the alliance at large. The plot is propelled by the sense that the alliance largely disdains humanity and will not take the Commander very seriously, so one must do what it takes to gather the evidence that this being will eventually do his best to ally himself with those that will rule the universe and destroy life as it is currently known. It should also be noted that one's choices in the form of dialogue within the game dictate certain events and how the game ends, something to encourage multiple playthroughs. Now that you've got a decent conception of the plot (guy lies, one person notices and does his best to call him out and one group of beings wants nothing more than anything and everything that is comprised of organic matter to be obliterated) let's talk about the combat, oh, the combat!
The combat is dictated in part by what class one chooses for his/her playthrough of the game. There are soldiers, vanguards (almost like a soldier but with some biotic abilities), Adepts (think mage), egineers (hackers), infiltrators (hackers and soldiers), and sentinals (mages and hackers). All of the various abilities one has are accessed by a pressing a button that brings a wheel on screen; if the ability isn't mapped, one can map it, if you don't want to, there is the option to simply use a given ability. This is simple and breezy, it accompanies the shooting mechanics quite nicely, at that. The combat is extremely responsive and the amount of detail that goes into crafting and upgrading one's character is easy and joyous. On a side note, it would behoove the player to invest in skills they find to be relevant, as upgrades tend to be a blast (sometimes quite literally). This is the apotheosis of the action RPG.
The above elements coalesce into a fun and enriching experience. The tales of intrigue, romance (if you so choose to engage in this, of course) and betrayal are all present and accounted for in this shooting space RPG romp. The graphics for the time are great, the music perfectly fits the tone and the game really makes the player care about the universe of said game. Games like this ask one thing of the player, and that is to enjoy it, and that I've done. | video-games_xbox |
A fun adventure game for Narnia lovers. In the XBox version of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe movie, the game mixes in video footage from the movie with action game fighting, coin collecting and obstacle climbing.
If you've played a platformer/adventure game before, you have a fair idea of what's involved here. You bash random objects to see if coins or special tokens emerge. You climb up trees. You kill random enemies that come at you. You get to checkpoint at spots along your path, in case death visits you. At the end of each level, you get your coins and tokens tallied up, and get a rating of how well you did.
You have an incentive to gather as much as you go - the more coins you get, the more special abilities you unlock. Those skills really help you as you get into the more challenging areas of the game.
Since you have the four main characters from the book and movie, each character has his or her own special abilities. You often have to switch from character to character to get past an area - having the young Lucy climb up onto objects, having the stronger Peter bash at doors or wolves. There are even combo moves where two characters interact together in order to solve a problem.
The graphics are reasonably good for the XBox platform. There are many transitions between the video cinematics and the in-game graphics which really help to ensure you feel a part of the story. If you want quick gaming, you might get frustrated - there is a lot of movie to sit through, to build the atmosphere for you. However, if you really enjoy the storyline, you'll be thrilled. You get a lot of the background and interaction to give you meaning for what you're doing.
Some of the gameplay is a little more annoying than it should be. There are missions where you have to figure out a timed path. There isn't any real rhyme or reason to the path - you just keep trying paths and failing until by default you end up with the correct one. Ditto to the "find the [insert object name here]" kinds of missions.
Also, the camera is *really* annoying. There are many spots where you want to turn around and examine the area, but you can't. In the modern world of gaming, there's really no reason for a fixed camera angle.
Still, for people who love the movie, this is a great, fun way to get involved in the movie storyline. There is fighting, but it's a mild style of wolf-bashing type of combat.
Well recommended. | video-games_xbox |
Fun so far but NO Co-op split screen and problems with EA Servers. Being a big fan of the first Mercenaries I decided to pre-order the game. So far I like it but there is one blaring error on the Amazon description, that being there is NO Split-Screen Co-op. Amazon needs to fix this in their description. Mind you they have XBox Live Co-op, but my friend doesn't have XBox Live and part of the fun is for him to come over so we can play side by side.
Also, as with Battlefield: Bad Company I have not had any luck connecting to the EA Servers which means I wouldn't be able to play XBox Live Co-op either. Reading the support boards this seems to be a common problem and even after altering some port settings and such it still does not want to connect to the EA Servers(but it handles other XBox Live games just fine like COD4). Just a warning to any of you who have had problems in the past with EA Games connecting, that this is probably no different.
For the game itself. Well, I have only played a short ways into it and there seems to be much more in depth stuff you can do in terms of creating your own mercenary company, but I have barely scratched the surface.
On the plus side the explosions from say an Air Strike are definately more impressive then the original mercenaries. And so far most everything seems to be destructible, except if they don't want you to access it yet.
A few cons so far are that you can't seem to duck(if your taking cover) and for that matter with all the games out that do allow you to take cover(Gears of War, Army of Two or Rainbow Six Vegas) you have to think much more about getting into a firefight. Though to compensate for this, just like in the original Mercenaries, you can take a ridiculous amount of damage(that slowly regenerates). The other thing I found quirky is driving, the controls seem to be over-sensitive. And finally, and this was also confirmed in another review I read, they ddin't seem to record that many voice lines for your character while he is roaming around. After only playing for about 3 hours I have probably heard the same line about a dozen times or more when say he picks up a weapon. THough I believe this was the same in the original Mercenaries too.
So far I have been happy with it(at least Single Player). I just wanted to write and warn off anybody that was expecting they could pick a copy up and play split screen co-op with their friends. And if you have had problems with EA Servers with other games then you may still have problems.
But if you enjoyed the first Mercenaries then you probably won't be disappointed by this one.
I may edit this review later on after playing some more. | video-games_xbox |
Best Edutainment Product I've Used. Ok, this is not the most fun game ever. It's hard, it requires a lot from the player and there is no story.
But that isn't why you buy RockSmith. You buy RockSmith to learn to play guitar. Most people will tell you that learning guitar is boring when you are just starting out. You can't play anything and are staring at a piece of wood and metal, which you know can whip your emotions around like a tornado, but right now is about as musical as your stapler. Finally after a month or two of trying, you slowly find other things to do and you end up with a guitar in the closet. You keep it in your closet as a secret shame, hoping to gain the skill which eludes you. Year after year it sits there, greeting you every morning and night, silently pleading you to play. Finally the shame wins and the doomed cycle repeats itself.
This is where I was for longer than I want to tell. I could play a few chords and strum a couple of riffs and maybe part of a song. Then my wife bought me RockSmith. I didn't play my guitar "'til my fingers bled", but only because I have work and a family. I'm just now healing the blisters and dreading the first few chords before the numbness kicks in. Yes, I am in pain and I am still playing Rocksmith. I have learned more in a week than I had previously and what's more: I'm enjoying it.
This isn't "The Best Videogame Ever!"(tm). It's not meant to be. It IS fun, but it's not pure entertainment. You will get your ass handed to you on a daily basis. This is where learning occurs. I've re-purposed a quote from Ninja Gaiden Black: "First you must become awesome. Then you must become awesomer." It's not easy, but why should it be? You are learning something that will make others envy you. And more importantly, it's one road toward removing that regret in your closet.
Is it perfect? Damn near. It seems to know what I am capable of better than I do. The songs are good, although I wish the music industry would cooperate to get more music to choose from. The minigames are great and I hope to download more in the future. The production values are high and the guitar response is good. There will be a slight delay between playing and hearing, but you overcome that quickly. I don't even notice it anymore and I can play a few milliseconds faster for it. I think of it as a small feature, I'm learning to modify my playing independently from the song. Even the unlocking mechanic, which was annoying to begin with, really gave me the incentive to continue playing.
So I'm very happy with my purchase and I don't understand why people either love it or hate it except that it is not a pure game. Oh, and thank you to the designers and developers who worked so hard for this. This is a great example that games can be more than games. And if you are up to it, can you make a Spanish learning game next? I have more shame to remove. | video-games_xbox |
Like playing a series/short movie. This game in my personal opinion is both worth, and not worth the money payed. I got it hoping for a good action adventure game, when in truth it turned out to be a long interactive movie. You don't move the characters anywhere, the closest you come to moving is looking around for objects to interact with. The graphis are just below average for a 360 game. The story line is easy to follow since that's all the game really is. You play four episodes with 10 or so short scenes (levels) in each. I thought the game was worth the money by how much deeper into the movie it went, and allowed you to explore locations you didn't get to see in the movie like the marine exhibit, and was unique with the whole "just like a movie" feeling.
This game was not worth the money however by the lack of interaction with the actual characters or enviornment. The path's and clues/objects are set out for you clear as day. I wouldn't recomend buying this game now when it's like $40, but instead wait till it's alot cheaper. If not for the price i would have given this game a 5 star review. All in all, this is a good game, but barley,if any worth the price for it. I'd definatly recommend it after the price drops. It's a good adventure that will make you see the movie a little bit differently, and will appeal to those who want a break from the "go here, shoot, now here, shoot, open that door, shoot" kind of game. It does have a few good puzzels that are fun the first go around, but become easier after you have beaten them.
pros
1.) storyline
2.) fan's of the movies will love it
3.) unique "like a movie feeling"
cons
1.) PRICE is terrible, i'd wait till it's at least $30
2.) No real character interaction
3.) Paths, decisions, and action is already layed out for you. You just follow the game
4.) i think the game could have been a little longer, and told more of the characters themselves | video-games_xbox |
I really, really wanted to 5-Star this, but it's just not 5-Star material. I absolutely loved the first Fable. It was innovative, gripping and just all-around great fun, regardless of the short play-through time. I was so very excited for Fable 2 when I learned it was in development, got so hyped for it and even pre-ordered the Collector's Edition and paid it off in full before all the cool stuff got cut from the package. I can honestly say I feel a little cheated.
The first Fable, on my first play-through, I clocked in at about 14 hours. Each play after that, I was logging 10 hours. Fable 2, however, only logged about 13 hours for me on its first play-through. There are a few quests to do after you beat the game's main goal, but they only log an extra hour or so, maybe two if you drag 'em out. We're just not looking at enough gameplay to merit a $70 or even $60 price tag.
The game is very colorful, but that's really about all it has going for it graphically. Environment textures are pretty plain and there are a few graphical glitches, like the occasional pop-in. Things like long hair and weapons fall through your clothing if your character moves a certain way and there is very little depth to things in the background. What can be described as a thick fog or haze blankets anything that isn't near you, so you can't even tell what you're looking at until you get close. Early in the game, when looking out a window, a major structure in the distance looks like a dark-blue paper cut-out on a blue-gray background. It's just unimpressive. Graphically, this is definitely not the best work I've seen in a game.
Of course, any true gamer will tell you that you can't judge a game solely on its graphical content. Moving on to gameplay, I'd like to say that there really isn't much to it. Melee and ranged combat are both mapped entirely to the X and Y buttons respectively. Repeatedly tapping said buttons results in your character attacking over and over again towards the nearest target. Simplistic and intuitive, but not very fun.
Magic combat has changed, in my opinion, rather significantly compared to the previous game. The number of spells has been greatly reduced, and I cannot over-emphasize that enough. Lightning and Divine Fury from the first game have essentially been combined into the Lightning spell in Fable 2. Slow-Time, Assassin Rush and Battle Charge from the first game have all been combined into the Slow-Time spell in this game. The same goes for Enflame and Fireball from the first game. Each spell acts differently depending on whether or not you choose to target an enemy. For example, when using Slow-Time, if you simply hold the B button to charge and release it, the spell will become and area spell and slow time around you for a certain amount of time. However, if you hold the B button to charge the spell, but tilt the control stick to target an enemy, time still moves normally, but you will rush the enemy very quickly.
It seems to me, too, that one is either not given enough time or experience to master his or her skills. The maximum rating one can obtain for any type of Strength, Skill or Will ability is 5 stars. Through the course of the game, I wasn't able to master any of my abilities. Trying to master only 2 different spells, Lightning and Slow-Time, by the end of the game, I was only able to 4-star each spell while only spending moderate points in the other areas. Maybe it's just me, but I felt like I should be a lot stronger by the end of the game than I was.
A few other small issues here and there to list... It seemed like there were a lot fewer Demon Doors than in the first game. I didn't count very many and they seemed pretty far between.
Weapon selection seemed to be a bit pathetic. Ranged weapons go from pistols to crossbows and then to rifles in terms of strength, but about halfway through the game, crossbows start to disappear.
There is no armor. None. Defense is combined into your Strength abilities, somehow. I'm still not sure how, but it is. The clothing items you wear don't contribute to a defensive factor at all. They are simply there to cover your body, and there are not many to choose from. You can customize your clothing by dying them different colors, but, let's face it, a tailcoat is still a tailcoat regardless of its color. Armor doesn't even exist for aesthetically-pleasing purposes. No plate for those who want to look like a knight or mail for those who wish to play the hunter. It's all cloth here.
I didn't care for the new magic/spell selection setup. It seems like it would just be simpler to use the old mechanic of cycling through spells on the button pad rather than all this charging and sticking back and forth.
The menu screens are pretty delayed. It's quite annoying, actually, and whenever you enter your inventory to use an item, like food, for example, you are booted back to the main screen after a single use and have to re-enter the menu again, even if you just want to use that same item once more.
The environments are open to explore, yes, but those empty spaces that you couldn't explore in the first game remain just that in this game: empty spaces. With the exception of the occasional dig spot for a bag of a few gold, there really isn't anything to explore.
Your family's and the townspeople's reaction to your actions works much the same way as it did in the first game, though you can see the outcome of what you just did in the form of floating symbols and numbers above their heads. If you use a spell or fire a weapon in the middle of the town, the citizen recoil in fear, but things like that are all too easy to fix. If you're famous, all you have to do is get near a crowd of people and give a thumbs up an they all love you again.
The real estate system all but eliminates any need for collecting gold whatsoever. Each piece of property you own earns you gold every five minutes, whether you're playing or not. This means that, if you own a food stall that gives you 50 gold an hour, when you turn off the game and go to sleep, the next day you wake up and have a pile of 4,800 gold dropped into your pockets. To make things worse (or better, depending on how you look at it), just about every piece of property is available for sale in the game, so if you build a large enough real-estate empire, a good night's sleep would mean you'd never have to worry about gold again.
The whole "love" idea Molyneux had in mind just doesn't work very well in Fable 2. He wants you to feel love for and feel loved by your family and dog in the game. I will admit I grew very attached to my dog very quickly, because the dog is actually helpful. It will try to help you fight, show you where dig spots are and point out treasure chests you might miss. My family, however, I didn't really care for. They don't do anything. They don't get jobs, they don't fight by your side, your kids never grow beyond 10 years old and all they do is stand there saying, "Hi, mum!" or "Hi, dad!" depending on your gender. All they do is leech off your wallet and occasionally your spouse will bugger you for sex via the Family section of the main menu.
Of course, the game had to do some thing right. It tells a very good story, that much is certain. The humor and banter throughout the tale is pretty fun to listen to. The environment looks like a fairy-tale environment so, while not the most graphically-pleasing game, the buildings and such fit the setting. The music is nice and the voice acting is very good, though a bit slow at times. There is a bit of a delay between the characters' phrases here and there, which can get annoying if it's a long scene, but it can be overlooked. The weather effects were well-done. It rains, it snows, it fogs. There is no mana bar, which is nice, seeing as you can play the ideal mage now, throwing spells about as you see fit. Likewise, firearms have no ammo, so shoot until your heart is content. The "bread crumb trail" system for keeping you on track with your quests works very well and even automatically adjusts itself depending on where you are in relation to the path. It doesn't really get annoying and you can even turn it off, if you like. The ability to fast-travel without a Cullis Gate comes in handy and the ability to upgrade your stats anytime, anywhere can be nifty, especially in the middle of a big fight. Characters don't age as quickly as they did in the first, your body type (fat, skinny) is reflected very well in your character, and things like good and evil, purity and disposition (funny, cruel), affect your character's appearance in some ways, but there aren't many ways to affect your purity and disposition outside of eating, drinking and your expressions.
Overall, the game is just okay. It stays true to the nature of the first game in its somewhat whimsical, yet dark style, but it hasn't exactly been improved upon. I really wanted to love this game, and I do, by virtue of the fact that it's Fable 2, but not because it's an excellent game. It is not a defining reason to own an XBox 360, it's nowhere near perfect and it certainly isn't worth paying full-price for. I say, if you're a die-hard Fable fan, or even a Peter Molyneux fan, yes, buy this game, but, if you're just thinking about buying it, I say rent it, beat it in a weekend and, if you loved it, wait for it to drop to $30, *then* buy it. | video-games_xbox |
Die hard racing fan's honest opinion. So it took me a bit to decide between 2 or 3 stars, I went with two and here's a short review of why.
Pros -
Graphics are solid
Storyline is fun although does get corny at times
Customization is better then most games now and days but still very limited on certain cars.
Map Size is pretty good
Cons -
Biggest one is by far the physics, every car severally under steers no matter what.
Heavy rubber banding which makes races annoying and takes all the fun and turns it into frustration for the last few races.
Requires online connection, doesn't really bother me but does suck not being able to pause and the first few days were unstable.
The steering assists (assists to make up for driving with a controller) in this game are way too noticeable. You can go into a corner holding to the right and your front wheels will either bug out or go left on there own. This makes the game make bad choices such as thinking you're still drifting when you're trying to straighten out. This combined with the physics makes every corner completely random, in a bad way.
The sound design is decent but I'd prefer if it was better.
Playing online with friends is a huge pain and very complicated.
Weather and Daytime is determined based on where you're at and even then the game is either early dawn or night time, and either raining or wet.
No option to change buttons.
No wheel support
No cockpit
No Manual (which is sad coming from a game based on "car culture"
Pretty simple car list, nothing out of the ordinary.
Very little damage modeling.
Collectibles seem to mean nothing (haven't collected them all but I have yet to get anything from them, and there's no achievements for them)
Cops are way, way to easy to escape.
Cops are a bit too rare to find.
No "matchmaking"
I could probably come up with some more cons but you get the idea. This game is worth $20, maybe $30 depending on personal preference. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and get Forza Horizon 2, game's actually cheaper by now and is still one of the best racing games in recent years. | video-games_xbox |
Compelling Storytelling. Keep in mind this is not Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Call of Duty or Donkey Kong Country. The game itself is more of a story that at brief times drags but overall is very compelling till the end. Characters that draw you in and cause you to care and by that I mainly mean Clementine the little girl. I think if you have kids you will see where the draw will come from to keep that little girl safe. So if you wanna kick the crap out of zombies or hi jack cars there are games for that. I don't want to go into a spoilers review since there will be plenty of those to come soon. If you know what this game is and how it all plays I think you will enjoy it but if you aren't sure just download the demo.
I am one of those people that prefers disc over digital downloads so I had to pick this version up. Story wise the game is very strong and engrossing but will be over before you know it so its best to get drawn in since the story is what will pull you in. Sometimes you think you made a difference in the story only to find it really doesn't matter by the end with how the game wraps up or certain scenes play out. Such as early on you may decide to save a certain character only to have them die no matter what kind of hurts the game since its so much about choice. Then again it also shows that no matter what decisions you make certain things will happen and some you can't prevent. To me the end of the game kind of had be Mass Effect 3'd but it didn't kick me in the groin and rip me apart. The end of the fourth episode was no surprise since I saw it coming but the end of the fifth I felt closed too fast. It had an emotional draw and I wish they would of drug out the ending moments with the characters a little longer.
Gameplay is hit and miss since there overall isn't much of it which is a shame since to me is when the most intense moments occur. By that I mean the action scenes of course when you have to make some button presses to get out of a zombie eating your face but I think action fans may find it lacking in this category. It feels very fitting of the game I believe but some will come away with a feeling of disappointment. The puzzle parts are quite easy and you can run from place to place really quick since most are simply move certain things around or getting other things. Then again when having to make quick decisions in a limited time is also stressing not knowing if the outcome will be good or ill.
Graphics are nice with a comic book cell shade color to it with fits it perfectly. The characters look great and it fits the world and everything has a murky sense to it. Sometimes you may see a scene that looks like a painting or something but overall it looks great. The sound is typical of the genre but the actual music is fantastic and moving at times and really shows in intense moments.
Controls are good and the interface is very easy to get the hang of and especially the quick time events. It is relatively easy to pick up on but one thing you will notice is that the game often has hiccups after actions or certain clips. Overall its very tight and easy to get use to but if you are familiar with this game company you will know what to expect. Its not like you will smash your controller in frustration or anything but the game isn't godly perfection. Most interactions are point and click when your characters are near a object so don't expect some level of interaction thats gonna blow you away.
Though the game had me wondering why it went in certain directions I never let it deter me. I know I like certain episodes better than others and looked at my watch in disbelief at how fast I ran through some. With that said this game had me from start to finish and it's been a delight seeing how everything played out. The story is one of the few games that has really drawn me in and caused an emotional stir. I didn't cry or anything but my heart strings were continually played on. I have this weird thing that I find it hard to be the bad guy or callous jerk in the games I play so it really had me wanting my characters to live on. The game closes with a cliff hanger though I didn't like Lee's fate it told his story very well. If you look at it as Lee's Tale you won't be to surprised with the end.
The game is around ten hours but odds are you can run through in a lot less time. My advice is just enjoy it and enjoy the fact that a company made a game that wasn't a FPS or RPG but a story driven game that will leave you wanting Season 2 quick. I think its worth a play just to see if you like it or not but I know it is simply not going to be for everyone. I think this will be a game people talk about for years to come like a Mass Effect or Harold Eats A Ham Sandwich, its just one of those games I think people will want to talk about. Hope you enjoy as well. | video-games_xbox |
3D metroidvania-style Castlevania...and it works. I bought this game because it was $5 at my game store. I had heard that the 3D Castlevania games suck so I was a bit worried. I checked the amazon ps2 ratings for the game when I got home and was even more worried. Many people did not like the game or said it was mediocre. I put the game in my Xbox and then started it. I noticed the graphics were fair, but not that impressive. The controls felt pretty nice as well. I had no problems with the camera either, other than the inverted turning controls. I went into the Castle and noticed it was set up like a corridor, with walls shielding the left and right. At first I was afraid the game would be linear. Linear games are good, but they tend to be short and I was looking for a more open game. I got to a point where I saw two paths. I took the path on the right and it only went to a couple of rooms and then to a locked door. I went the other direction and it was a straight foreward path. I then played about 20 minutes and got to the end of the path on the left. I found an item in a treasure chest that I brought back to the locked door on the right path. I used the item and the door opened, accessing me to a new area. I actually liked backtracking because it gave the game a metroidvania feel. I continued down the new area and found a point where there were 3 paths to choose from. I chose one path and noticed it wouldn't end. I thought there was one main path and that the other rooms lead to small rooms with a special item or something. I backtracked to the point where the 3 paths were and tried another path. This path wouldn't end either. I then tried the third path and that wouldn't end. I took the 2nd path and ventured forward. The path just kept going and going. I got to a point where there were 2 paths to choose from when I was on the third path for a while. I kept having to choose between multiple paths, where to go. The one path I took lead me to other paths and eventually a boss fight. I haven't even explored the first and third path from beginning of the game that much. That means those three paths would all keep going and breaking up into new paths and then break up into even more paths. After I took the boss down that I got to from the 2nd path in thr beginning, yet another passage opened up. I finally realized what the game is at this point. It's a 3D metroidvania game! I always thought that metroidvania was only for 2D games, but this game pulls it off and does a damn good job of it too. This game is metroidvania to the core. It has lots of paths and routes to take and it has lots of backtracking to older areas, to access new areas or chests with an aquired item. For that reason, I am absolutely loving this game. This game and Metroid Prime prove that metroidvania works with 3D games too. It really is quite innovative. Other than those awesome aspects, the combat is hack and slash gameplay with simple button combos. It works well and combat is pretty fast. The level design is pretty much just paths with a skin over them, but it never really bothered me. At new areas, the skin would have a different them and it kept the game from looking boring or repetive. The enemies are a little repetive and are reused a bit too often, but in many areas there are new enemies to face. Overall the enemies are pretty varied and they all look awesome with their supernatural themes. The story so far is pretty good. It seems like a revenge story, but that's ok. The story is good enough to keep you interested and get you through the game. The music is fantastic and just very catchy. It changes enough that songs don't become repetitive. There are a pretty descent amount of songs overall and they all sound great. Combat is on the easy side, but that's perfectly fine with me because it means I can actually beat the game. (I have enough hard games that I can't beat). Save points are frequent and enemies go down pretty easily. The game is also an RPG, in that you level up and craft items. It also takes a note out of the Shin Megami Tensei games by giving you familiars to summon. Familiars are like the demons in SMT games, or like Pokemon, There are many demons to collect, use, and level up. They are a nice addition to the game because they help you out immensely and add variety to the gameplay. The voice acting in this game is, like everything else, very good. The characters are believable and pretty engaging. Hectar himself is a good character and he is pretty likeable. The only small flaw I had with this game was it's plain level design. There is no platforming at all here. It's just paths on level ground. This really isn't a big deal though, because the game is a lot of fun, and exploring is fun and rewarding. The other small issue I have is the story is a little underwhelming, but it's still good enough to keep me going and keep my interest. The game will take about 15-18 hours to complete, according to www.howlongtobeat.com so it's not that long, but it's not ridiculously short like some other games are. I would have liked the game to be 20-40 hours, but it's not that big of a deal. Overall I bought this game not expecting much and I was pleasantly surprised by it. It just absolutely surpassed my expectations and blew me away. It's a fantastic 3D metroidvania Castlevania, and as a fan of Symphony of the Night for ps1 and Portrait of Ruin for DS, I can say that this a great Castlevania game, even though it's 3D. 3D Castlevania does work, and this game shows that in spades. It's dirt cheap right now and severely underrated and overhated for no reason. It's far better than Castlevania 64 and definitely one of the, if not the best, 3D Castlevania game ever made. I'd even say it's one of my favorite Castlevania games of all time, out of all the games, This game is a gem and it should not be passed up. Get this and also get Castlevania Legacy of Darkness on n64. Nobody bought it because Castlevania 64 was a dissapointment. Legacy of Darkness, it's sequel, is actually excellent and much better than Castlevania 64. It too is one of the best 3D Castlevania games. Sadly that game sold poorly, and is now in demand because people started realizing how great the game is. It now goes for $35. Curse of Darkness is only $5 so get it while it's cheap. I just can't believe how great this game turned out to be. | video-games_xbox |
Fun with Flaws. I had high hopes for this game, as many did. Rockstar has a proven track record, and I loved The Getaway for the PS2. (The writer and director of LA Noire and The Getaway are the same). There were a lot of great times had in LA Noire, however there were also frustrations and repetitive times as well.
Here are my pros and cons:
PROS
Facial animations.. I know this has been talked about at length, but it really is the best that has ever been done. It is nice that you can easily read the lips of the person talking, and have actual real facial expressions.
Interrogations. This was just awesome. I loved watching the suspect's faces and figuring out whether I needed to doubt, call them out on a lie, or believe them. This was a fantastic jump forward in game play.
Acting. It was great to see some well known actors participate. It really gave some credibility as well as some good acting as opposed to bad voiceovers.
Clue System. I loved how they did the clue system. I had a blast going through a crime scene.. It was very well done and appreciated.
Detective Desks. I loved the opportunity to work different desks within a police force. It made it much more appealing.
Real Life storytelling. It made it more realistic playing the Black Dahlia cases in the homicide desk. I enjoyed how they made that connection.
CONS
Movement besides the face. It seems all the money went to the facial animations. The body movements were very stilted and seemed very out of place at times. Characters got stuck at places they shouldn't of, and there were lots of odd animations.
Driving. Driving was simply terrible. They did not make it fun or exciting at any level. If you accidently knocked down a sign, it counted against you at the end of the mission. It is nice that you can bypass driving, which I did every single time after my 3rd case. The few cases I was forced to drive I found it unresponsive and annoying.
Repetitive. By the end of the game, it was very tedious to go through a case. It was the same process throughout the entire game. Crime Scene, locations, interrogations, repeat. It was as bad as Assassins Creed 1.
Ending. The ending felt extremely rushed. It seemed like they through in a bunch of plot points within the last hour of gameplay. It was very poorly done and was forced. Also, for a game that prides itself on the interrogation aspect, it felt weird that it ended with a shoot out. I was hoping for 1 last interrogation that I needed to get the truth out of somebody.
Story/Character Development. I love good stories, and find that it is one of the most, if not the most important thing to me in a game. The story in LA Noire was just not that good. It wasn't terrible, but I just didn't get into it. I think the main reason for this was that Cole was apparently this great guy, and married with children. You know how many times you see the children in the game? ZERO. You know how many times you saw his wife? ONCE, near the end, for about 5 seconds. This was really weird to me, in the sense of story, and caused me to feel apathetic toward Cole.
This game gets compared to Heavy Rain a lot, and I would have to say Heavy Rain is much better. I am a gamer that loves a good story and Heavy Rain has a much more involved, and more engaging storyline. LA Noire nailed the facial animations, and interrogation system, but it seemed they left everything else out to dry, or just slapped it with underwhelming graphics and controls. The crime scene investigations and interrogations saved the game, and I still enjoyed the game to a degree, just not what I was hoping. | video-games_xbox |
Finally a working RTS for consoles. Xbox 360 owners are in for a treat with Tiberium Wars. First and foremost, it's an excellent real-time strategy game that features an intense story and a well-rounded set of multiplayer options. It's spirited and fun, and a great way for console enthusiasts to experience the fast and frantic action of a Command & Conquer game. Yet it's no mean feat that it plays so well without a mouse and keyboard. By using an intuitive control scheme similar to Electronic Arts' own Battle for Middle-earth 2, Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars proves that strategy has a big role to play on consoles. If you have an Xbox 360 and even the remotest interest in earth-shattering explosions or campy science fiction, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy.
When playing the campaign, you're rewarded with a whole lot of live-action video in between missions, featuring familiar actors getting hammy in near-future command centers. There's never been anything subtle about Command & Conquer's full-motion video in its previous PC incarnations, and true to form, the campaigns are loaded with wonderfully overblown sequences filled with intrigue and suspense. Actor Joe Kucan has returned as Nod figurehead Kane, and he's as irresistibly creepy as ever. He and other familiar actors serve up a heaping of extravagant solemnity against a backdrop of flashing lights and important-looking video screens.
If you think it sounds over the top, you'd be right--but it's cheesy in a good way, and it won't take you long to get involved in the story and the characters that drive it. The narrative is structured well, with the Global Defense Initiative and Brotherhood of Nod campaigns telling the same story from opposing viewpoints. There's also a new player in the mix: the alien Scrin race. At this stage in the series, the mineral tiberium has propagated over most of the Earth, but it's more than just an environmental plight--it's a key to future technology. It'll take you a couple dozen hours to get through the campaigns, and just when you think you've finished, there are a few surprise missions in store, and they are well worth the time it takes to unlock them. There are also plenty of reasons to return to the campaign once you're done, since the game rewards you with medals based on your performance.
The missions themselves are incredibly varied and involve a lot more than destroying an enemy base or defending a particular structure. You'll have to do these things, of course, but you have both primary and secondary objectives to complete, and they include using engineers to capture certain buildings, amassing beam cannons to take out defenses, or teaming up with your sworn enemy to defend against alien attacks. You'll be doing it all in a variety of real-world theaters, such as Washington, DC; downtown Sydney; and the eerily dry Amazon basin. The near-future take on familiar locales makes the intense battles feel even more thrilling because the settings are recognizable and meaningful.
This bittersweet victory brings GDI far more than it bargained for.
That's not to say the combat isn't gripping on its own. If you're inclined to turtle up in real-time strategy games, you'll be in for a surprise: Battles are intense and focused, and they give you little time to prepare. Like most strategy games, Tiberium Wars still requires you to build up resources, but it's a quick process of plopping down a bunch of tiberium refineries and power generators and then finding the action, because if you don't, the action will quickly find you. Once you get past the first two acts of each campaign, you'll discover that Tiberium Wars' artificial intelligence is aggressive and resourceful, and it will take advantage of your strategic flaws. Don't expect to put your trust in one or two favored units, because even the most powerful units have noticeable weaknesses.
It's a rusher's paradise, but you shouldn't take it to mean that technological advancement and thoughtful strategy don't have their places. You won't need to deal with long and complex tech trees, but you do have multiple powers and upgrades to earn by building various structures. The powers run the gamut from GDI's powerful ion strike to Nod's vapor bomb, and they fit each faction perfectly. As you use units, they level up, making them more effective in battle, and there are some cases where you improve units by more unconventional means. For example, you can use a Nod warmech to destroy your own flame tank, and the mech will then spew fire in addition to its own native attack.
How differently each faction plays is impressive. GDI units tend to be straightforward and powerful, and a huge force of mammoth tanks and juggernauts is a challenge to counter. Nod relies on sneakiness and smart use of unique abilities, and a small force of stealth tanks and viper bombers can cripple an enemy's economy. But playing as the Scrin is Tiberium Wars' greatest delight and challenge, since the alien faction is so different from the others. Your first encounters with the Scrin in the campaign are breathtaking, since even low-level units like buzzers look interesting and intimidating. In fact, the most threatening sight within the game is a fleet of Scrin assault carriers and their accompanying fighters. Yet while the Scrin have some potent units and other advantages, such as the ability to collect endless tiberium without building silos, they require a lot of micromanagement and intimate knowledge of each unit and structure.
With all of these aspects of the gameplay remaining intact from the PC version, it's hard to imagine handling all of the units and commands without the benefit of a keyboard and mouse. Yet there's very little awkward about the controls in the 360 version. The side bar of the PC edition has been moved to the bottom left of the screen, and you can access your build queues and special powers by pulling the right trigger and scrolling through the options with the D pad. Movement and attack orders are as simple as pressing the A button, and even tasks like creating control groups or performing special moves are easy and instinctive to pull off. It is definitely a compromise, and selecting smaller groups of units on the fly isn't particularly easy, but overall the controls work just fine. Placing structures is often a pain, too, since the game is picky about where you can put them. Positioning something as simple as a turret or a power plant can take multiple tries, and it's never clear exactly why you can't put certain buildings in certain places, particularly when the terrain is smooth and the area is totally free of nearby obstructions.
C&C3 is also home to an impressive set of multiplayer options. You've got the standard versus option, which lets you skirmish against other players or the CPU. There are also king-of-the-hill and capture-and-hold modes, which require you to hold certain spots on the map to attain victory. These options are the best of the bunch, not only because of the added strategic dimension, but also because the action is focused and intense as players struggle to maintain control. There is also a siege mode, which keeps you and your opponent from attacking until the timer is up. It's interesting to play, given the game's rush-friendly design, but it also allows players to pit high-level units against each other without worry of early bombardments. The final mode is capture the flag, which functions much like it does in first-person shooters. There are a good number of maps for up to four players, and with so many ways of playing, you're bound to get a good deal of mileage from the multiplayer. You can even connect your Xbox Live Vision Cam should you wish to make rude gestures at your opponent.
In many ways, Tiberium Wars looks really good, particularly the unit designs. Scrin annihilator tripods lumber about with a commanding attitude, GDI orca bombers circle in believable formations, and Nod avatar warmechs advance with heft. Their stature and fantastical nature fit perfectly with the over-the-top nature of the action, as do the titanic nuclear explosions and lightning strikes. In the most extreme battles, your screen will fill with mighty blasts and streams of lasers, as if you were the main player in a sci-fi action film. The visuals look washed out, though, so many of the effects aren't as vibrant as they could be. More noticeably, the frame rate suffers from regular and frustrating slowdown, particularly when there are a lot of units onscreen.
The visuals are good, though it sometimes looks like things were left out in the sun too long.
Bad unit voice-overs are a common annoyance in strategy games, but they're all done well in Tiberium Wars. EA pinpointed just the right amount of extravagance to lavish on the sound design, from mission voice-overs to the eclectic soundtrack, which is alternately tinged with orchestral fanfare and heavy metal grinding. While many of the sound effects are what you would expect from standard artillery and tanks, others, particularly those of the Scrin units, are ominous and appropriately alien.
There's a good set of achievements to unlock, including a few zero-point ones that pop up should you lose a few too many multiplayer games in a row or bypass the tutorial mission. But it's all just icing on the proverbial cake, since playing Tiberium Wars is a reward unto itself. Not only is it a great game, but it's a great example of a console RTS done right. If you've never played a Command & Conquer game before, there's no better time than the present. | video-games_xbox |
dont buy it, I made that mistake. Xbox live rewards are a joke and a scheme. I was promised id receive my points and ive yet to receive one. I called Microsoft support and they claim they cannot help at all because this program is run by a different committee. Microsoft support is atrocious and won't help with a single issue i have, instead they just divert responsibility. i was a loyal Microsoft customer with a pc a windows phone, a surface and an Xbox one and this is how the company treats me. I've done nothing but be loyal to this company ad they show no appreciation. as of right now Im ready to abandon the company and give Microsoft a horrible rating on the better business bureau. I don't care if Microsoft runs the program, they approved to have it run and they are working with the committee that failed to implement it. Not only have that but the Xbox one is plagued with Xbox lived issues every day. Sometimes its content usage and other times its buying games or playing multiplayer. i thought the master chief collection would be a fun game to change my mind about the console but that was a flop. The master chief collection is a joke with a broken multiplayer. Microsoft and 343 participated in selling me an unfinished game at full price and they refuse to refund me. For this I am opening a twitter page so that the Xbox community can help one another without Microsoft help. The page will bring light to all of the unfair practices of Microsoft to their customers and it will provide a place for the word to spread. i will not give up until i am contacted by a Microsoft employee that resolves all of my issues. As of right now i suggest staying away from the Xbox one and the master chief collection. If you have yet to choose which console I suggest the Play station 4. I'm tired of being ignored along with the rest of the Xbox community and I will continue to make posts like this all over until they fix all the problems and make up for what they've done. | video-games_xbox |
Combat Heaven. What we have here is a bunch of characters that seem to believe they are better than all that and seem to want to show it. Though the arrogance in the past DMCs had been oftentimes intolerable at least they were funny. This just seems like the characters are so mightier than thou that they got lost on what humor actually is. Dante is even insufferable at times. But, let's not hold that against the entire game.
To start off this is definitely not like the older games where your hands fall off from smashing buttons and attempting to do ridiculous combos without pause throughout the duration of the game. Speaking of the combos, they last about three hours apiece so if you like theatrics then this game is for you.
On the subject of how this game is so much different from the others, where's Dante?! We want to play as Dante! Nero might be a close resemblance to Dante, but he whines too much and is certainly NOT Dante. Even though Dante's arrogance is as acceptable as a knee to the groin, I would prefer it over Nero's constant blabbering and complaining. More importantly, I'm not exactly pleased with the story of chasing after a girl. Whereas the previous games have been about fighting against evil with a sidekick that happened to be female, this game has our white-haired heart-throb (no, not Dante, Nero...I know they look strikingly alike) is chasing AFTER a girl who happens to get caught up in the demonic world. It just doesn't seem very DMC'ish.
However, the combat is fun because of the style that Capcom introduces on a far larger level than any of the DMCs beforehand. As stated earlier, if you have a penchant for the "cool" and "exciting" things you can do with a gun and a sword then this game is for you. And if you don't have a penchant for it, perhaps you shouldn't be playing video games.
Another problem I have with the game is that I can't stand the timed puzzles with fixed cameras that have you falling down into an abyss where you have to fight the same group of enemies twenty thousand times. It's infuriating, but at least it gives you some kind of satisfaction when you make it to the other side. However, the puzzles where you're smacking a dice across the room? Not exactly my cup of tea.
Halfway through the game you have to do the previous levels in reverse which makes me think that Capcom got bored with designing new levels and thought it a smashing idea to just have everything backwards. It harks on the design of Nero being strikingly similar to Dante. Instead of making a new character it seems just a rehash of a more prepubescent Dante. So, we have duplicates of everything. Why? Why couldn't you just create new levels, Capcom? Makes me believe there's a laziness factor occurring.
My concern is that they are trying to play this off as a girl and guy game. Both sexes can play it. That's all well and good, but I could very easily play the first three and I'm a girl. It's turning into a fanfiction of the previous games which spins off into the realm of depending on combat style to support the game. Though the combat style, as said, is good, it's not worth buying the game for. That is, unless, you're like me and are a fan of the series.
Let's just hope that it doesn't continue down this track, which I'm afraid it might. | video-games_xbox |
My favorite diversion. My only concern with the game is that the pitching and hitting don't seem to be of equal difficulty. At All-Star, I'm dominant (ERA around 1.50) with the Yankees' starting pitching despite losing Carl Pavano to injury for most of the season. However, my super-high-priced lineup bats about .240 (with way too many Ks) despite far too much batting practice. The net result is that most games are pitcher's duels, which is enjoyable for me- I'm frequently calling bunts, pinch runners, defensive substitutions, mound visits, pitchouts, and otherwise keeping Joe Torre very busy trying to squeeze out a one-run victory.
That said, the game comes with a bewildering array of adjustable parameters, and I'm slowly tweaking the game more towards realistic play for me. The major statistical anomalies I've noticed are that I rarely if ever walk a batter unintentionally (pitchers have exceptional control over all pitches), and pitchers fatigue very slowly and recover quickly- it's more than possible to run a three-man rotation even if they're pitching complete games roughly half the time. Outfielders are somewhat dopey in their positioning and tracking of gappers, so you see a lot of triples.
Baserunning is challenging- stolen bases require a combination of outthinking the AI, a weak catcher's arm, a fast runner, picking the right pitch to go on, and even altering your slide at the last instant based on where the throw is leading the covering infielder. It's only recently that I've broken the 50% mark there, but it's becoming a bigger part of my game. Taking extra bases on base hits is a bit easier- the computer is pretty conservative with its throws, and will often throw to second or third to halt baserunners rather than risking a hard throw to the plate.
The computer AI is a lot better than last year's, most notably in that it now tries to steal bases when prudent, and moves runners over well. As an example, with a runner on second and no outs, the computer goes well out of its way to hit to the right side of the field in order to move the runner over on a sac fly or groundout. It also makes sensible substitutions- pinch runners, hitters, and on defense.
Finally, all the little things are done well. Players have realistic motion, the announcers (usually) describe plays accurately, the parks look like their RL counterparts, and you can play at any level of detail, down to playing countless minor league games, recruiting future prospects, and (literally) adjusting the price of popcorn at your stadium. | video-games_xbox |
Dark Sector Review. Dark Sector is most definitely a diamond in the rough, however this diamond could have used a bit more polishing prior to release. First allow me to highlight the games strengths. Most obvious are Dark Sectors environments, textures, lighting(!), and graphics; they are superb. The game is set in a decaying, industrialized not to distant future that takes equal cues from biotech-anime and the recent film "Children of Men". When the game is flowing along I felt myself quite immersed in the hauntingly beautiful atmosphere of this game. Whoever directed this game obviously worked hard to ensure that the camera highlighted the excellent environments. Similar to a film, shot composition/camera orientation wise this game rivals that of an actual movie. Though not affecting game play, the water/lighting effects may be the best I have seen on the 360. Next, the mechanics of game play/combat are for the most part solid. Combat wise the "glaive" (i.e. the supped up ninja star, krull, boomerang)is actually quite fun to use. It is especially rewarding when targeting multiple foes along the same "line" then watch it soar through the air and watch limbs from multiple enemies go a flying. Very cool. The "glaive" can also be controlled mid flight, where the camera tracks its trajectory and you can steer its course to take out as many enemies as possible, a unique and rewarding experience. You can also use the "glaive" to pick up weapons from fallen enemies at a distance, which you can only use for about 30 seconds then the weapon self destructs, this timed element of using your enemies weapons is very strategic and requires some thought when in a heated fire fight. By the 4th chapter you can purchase a secondary weapon (shotgun/assault rifle) while convenient, as there is less need for depending on your fallen enemies weapons, I would have preferred the strategic element of artfully utilizing/acquiring weapons. The combat itself varies from "cover based" (Mass Effect, Gears of War) and "walk based" (Resident Evil, Deep Space). The shift between these two combat types provides some nice variety, and for the most part they are well executed. The enemy A.I. is "smart enough", they flank, they run from grenades, they change positions. Now Dark Sectors flaws. Similar to other games of this type it is easy to be confused as to where to go next, without the help of a walkthrough/strategy guide you will get stuck. Paths of progression are not linear, often times you will have to figure out how to simply move on in the game, can be a headache. You can not crouch, though not a deal breaker this does hinder the efficiency of combat and how you use cover. Melee is weak and often times misses target when they are certainly within striking range. Similar to Resident Evil you have to run to a safe distance and then engage. The story is vague and suffers from a muddled plot. Though this is not much of an issue to me, as thankfully none of the cut scenes are very long and you are quickly back into the game. Overall Dark Sector is an excellent "slept on" title that action fans should find rewarding. If you are even somewhat interested in this game I suggest you check it out, and at the bargain price of btw $10-$20 new it offers excellent "bang for your buck". Three and a half stars. | video-games_xbox |
Xbox One Vs. PS4. Xbox One vs PS4 review:
Okay so I got the privilege to own both consoles(received both as a gift) and definitely see pros and cons on both consoles. I will only highlight those that I feel most critical to mention in my opinion and then you judge what is a better fit for you.
User Interface: Xbox wins hands down. In the end, Microsoft is the mother of software design and it is no wonder navigating the home screen, apps, etc... is much more user friendly than the PS4. My opinion I felt like the PS4 experience is rather dull when it comes to navigating the interface, and sometimes I find it rather confusing, especially the downloading part. Xbox makes it simple with the traditional look of Windows system. On top of that, Xbox definitely proves to show off their instant change apps, meaning for example, changing your game you are currently playing to Netflix instantly. PS4 will take it little time to process, but hey in the end this is not a big deal. Nevertheless, if you count the home entertainment system the xbox one can deliver, then Xbox will outshine the PS4. However, many feature of the home entertainment system requires a Kinect, and I don't have that yet, so I will not go over the entertainment system in depth. Overall, 5 star for Xbox one and 2 star for PS4 here.
Visual quality: PS4 wins here. The specs says it all, PS4 simply have better specs than the Xbox one. If you are true gamer, I see how this is important to you, but for me, the Xbox one still deliver satisfaction level of visual quality, so I don't find this a determined factor in buying a condole. Nevertheless, I will agree that Xbox One graphics is not too comparable with PS4. You can see a distinct difference and PS4 wins here by far. Not to mention, I do see graphic glitches on the Xbox more often than the PS4, quite disappointing for this generation. 5 star for ps4 and 3 star for Xbox one.
Games: Just judging from the exclusive games each consoles owns, PS4 is currently winning. Their exclusive games have better ratings than of Xbox one's exclusive games. On top of that, PS4 sold more units than Xbox one(although Xbox is trying to catch up by reducing the price in this holiday); therefore, simply said, you will find more user online on the PS4 than the Xbox one. Which means more competition(such as ranking, scores, etc...) is found on PS4. That is why the gaming experience for PS4 can deliver more fun. 5 star for PS4 and 3 star for Xbox One
Controller: While the PS4 made a big improvement from the older generation, Xbox controller still wins. I am a big guy 6'2 with a big hand. Xbox controller fits it right for me and the analog sticks being separated is perfect, making sure my hands don't bump into each other. On top of that, Xbox trigger feels more realistic when pulling the trigger versus the PS4, which PS4 kinda feels artificial. However, the touchpad on the PS4 is kinda cool and the sound that can come out from the PS4 controller is pretty creative too, however, those feature are hardly used or seen while playing games, so far at least. For me controllers experience is a big deal because that is ultimate gaming experience and Xbox wins here. 5 star xbox and 3 star PS4.
Cost: Xbox One Holiday bundle definitely offers more stuff for a cheaper price. Xbox One is really behind in unit sale compared to PS4 and that is why is they are offering a better deal than PS4. However, I noticed PS4 games are generally cheaper than the Xbox one by few dollars. But the holiday bundle will change soon and In the end, whatever price it becomes, generally speaking, price shouldn't be a factor because by investing 50 dollar more or less on the consoles shouldn't be a big deal as ultimately choosing your console of your choice for the next 3 years is a good investment of that 50 dollar. Currently of the offer it stands as 4 star for Xbox one and 3 star for PS4.
In the end, for me the experience of the console is my determined factor. I only play sports and shooting games, and watch Netflix, so ultimately I prefer the Xbox One over the PS4. | video-games_xbox |
It could be good if it does not crashed. I am a big fan of Fifa/PES for many years. But EA sports has succeeded in creating a video console game which crashes regularly!
It started with Fifa 13, I am surprised there are still bug in this new version. It is not acceptable for a video game console.
Anyway about the game itself:
I play only in career mode.
The big change since the last version is how to scout new players. You do not have all the info about a players but just estimations. I like the idea but I think it could be better by adding some features which will help to save time.
For example you cannot choose in your search criteria that you are looking for a left handed player. Some positions are missing as (you cannot search a LW/RW, etc). A very important criteria is: "First Team Quality": at the beginning I didn't know the interest of this criteria. Very useful: your scout will choose only player who have the level to play in your team. Else you will see many bad players in the selection. I would appreciate to have something like this "seconde team quality" to find for example young less expensive who will be able to progress and become first team quality. I would appreciate as well to have a possibility to do a "OR" instead of a "AND". It is nore common to look for example for a Middlefield player with "Long shot" ability OR "Playmaker". Unfortunately it is always a "AND".
About the gameplay itself, it is great. I love the ball trajectory, it is more realistic and fun than before. Now it is possible to score nice goals from far, like in reality. My only reproach for the gameplay is about the head: too easy to score with head. I score 50% of my corner with my tall defender or attacker (Varane, Sakho, Falcao :-) ).
Actually in most of my matches I score with the head on a crossing at least 50% of the goals. This is not balanced.
Question: do I have to buy FIFA 13 if I already have Fifa 14: I do not think so. The price doesn't justify the pleasure of ball trajectory and because too easy to score with the head, tthe game is not as balanced as before.
Conclusion: good game (which can still be improved) but wasted by unacceptable bugs :-(
PS: I have never seen a crash with PES... | video-games_xbox |
Poor use of the Star Wars License. First Off I am a big fan of Star Wars, and have always loved Legos. So how could I not love the idea of mixing Star Wars with Legos, right? WRONG! This game is horrible on so many levels!
First, I have to admit to being shocked that any grown adult would find this even remotely entertaining. And like I said, I love anything that has the stink of Star Wars on it.
The Good--
There are times when it is very funny seeing cutscenes done using Legos. Just imagine some of your favorite scenes of the Saga reenacted with Legos, often times these scenes are funny the first time through. There is a certain humor when a starship or a droid blows up, only to be blown into the Lego bits the toy would be made out of in real life.
There is a lot of variety in the characters
This should be both a pro and con. Yes, there are a lot of charcaters in the game, but they are all the same! Sure, there are dozens of heads and bodies you can put together but they end up fighting the same way. If they hold a blaster, they shoot at everything in the environment non stop. If they have a lightsaber they can swing away non-stop, and use a force push on bad guys. And droids move around opening doors and using things. That is it. Seriously.
The Bad--
The bad elements certainly outnumber the good. Even though it is the Star Wars universe, you aren't actually doing anything. Yes, the Legos reenact scenes from the movies. But it goes like this: If you are guiding Qui-Gon through the space port on Tatooine you see many alien and droid legos walking by that are just there for flavor. Attack droids keep popping out of the wood work and all you do is run around slashing at everything. Most of the environments can be destroyed. When you destroy an item it breaks into little lego pieces which you pick up to earn things. So you run around destroying everyting in your way (by this I mean just rapidly smashing the attack button) and picking up the pieces. That is it. The game is mapped out with you running from point A to point B in each level smashing everything you can see. At first the novelty is fun and cute until you realize that is all it is: a novelty!
I am shocked at the number of people that seem to enjoy these games. I will admit they are good for little kids in the 5-10 yr range because it is something that will hold their interest and yet not be too difficult.
I am even more sadened to see that we now have Lego Indianna Jones and Lego Batman. What a marketing ploy.... | video-games_xbox |
Game is some fun. I have had several versions of Madden over the years. 2004 was the last as until Christmas 2011 we were still rocking the original Xbox. I bought Madden 12 and in comparing it to the 2004 version, it was improved, but not as much as I would have liked. I am one who likes to play in the career modes EA sports feature, no matter the sport, I do no online gaming, so this is what I base reviews on. Obviously the graphics are better, but I find after hours and hours of playing, playability trumps graphics. I always liked the franchise's owner finances mode in 2004, and the importance of getting the salaries right or you would have to raise tickets or parking to avoid having the franchise taken away from you due to bad debt. It seemed very real and right to me, but in Madden 12 you don't ever seem to have that urgency, and no matter what I pay these guys, it seems that I always have enough cash. Also, you pretty much have to play with the plays in the game, not pretty much, you DO have to. Play creation has been removed from the game, I don't know which version, but since 2004. Creating plays and formations are some of the most fun things you can do in the EA sports games and this has changed not only here but in the NCAA football as well. This year in the playoffs the 49'ers were featuring plays not included in any team's playbook, and you cannot duplicate them on your own. I guess EA wants you to buy next year's version for another $59 for that. Even the ones included aren't very accurate. Denver had many plays in 2011 for Tebow to run with, but only three or four were included in the playbook, and even on easy levels, the opposing defenses level the QB at the line of scrimmage in those. I had several seasons with 2004 and enjoyed the process, but have only been able to play a few with this one. It looks good, but makes me wish I had kept my old version. | video-games_xbox |
One of my favourite games for this console. Top Spin 2 has some amazing players with different sets of features. You have Federer who's good but slow to move around, you have hewitt - who's just a great allrounder, you have Roddick who has speed and you have this guy in a yellow or white tee called Costa. Besides some familiar names, the game really does well and has an improved 2 player playback. The computer difficulty level is just right and at hard, it can be very difficult to beat the computer sometimes but soon you will master the top spin.
One of the elementary feature of this particular version of the ever so famous, Top Spin Series, is the use of the top spin button on your stick called B. The game is touch sensitive if you're holding a button for a tad too long or if you're pressing a button softly, you will get the same reaction. What can be annoying about this game in due course of time is the fact that it still does not have replays on a regular basis and the graphics aren't up to the level of football and basketball games but then Top Spin 3 was recently launched.
New features -
a) Longer rallies with more realistic ball control
b) A new well defined series of strokes
c) Better courts, more options
d) More relaxed setting for matches with lesser crowd noise
e) Top Spin 2 had a lesser of an arcade feel than Top Spin did
Now, I must remind the reader that I'm a casual gamer and I game every now and then. My xbox 360 console belongs to me but I got it just because I wanted a console so I don't game very much. This game is well worth purchasing whether you're a fan of tennis or not. The four player can be very cool and entertaining if you're playing doubles although on my own console I haven't tried it yet but I have played doubles on a friend's and it's fun.
Overall, worthy of adding to your collection. Can it be better? Of course, I await a "sensational" tennis game until then Top Spin 2 is my best bet. | video-games_xbox |
Fully Wireless Xbox One Headphones with Impressive Features. These headphones are great! These headphones are a perfect choice that balance excellent features, gorgeous sound, and a high level of comfort.
Set up was very easy. The headphones use a small USB stick to communicate with Xbox. I used one of the rear mounted ports on my Xbox. After inserting the stick, use a push pin to depress a small recessed reset button on the USB Stick. Pressing this reset button will cause the USB Stick to flash rapidly. Hold the large button on the center of the earpiece and it will also flash. Pairing is complete once the lights stop pulsing and become solid. The stick remembers the pairing even if you unplug the Xbox.
Physically, the earphones have a bit of weight to them but they are comfortable. The faux leather ear pieces are soft and smooth and feel very comfortable on the skin. I wear glasses, so headphones that exert too much pressure on my ears won't work, but the headband on these 420Xs adjusts so I was easily able to find a size that felt good. I have worn these for hours on end, and they are amazingly comfortable.
The sound quality is beautiful. Sometimes I will just leave them on to watch TV because the sound is so much clearer than through the TV's speakers.
The first time I used them, immediately a friend in a party wanted to know what I was using because I sounded clearer than anyone he's ever heard on Xbox One. The boom mic is fully adjustable and according to everyone I've spoken to on my Xbox One creates the best quality chat they've ever heard. These are hands down among the best headphones for voice chat available.
The single best advantage over my previous headphones is the mic monitoring. These headphones provide a very natural ability to hear your own voice through the speaker. Good headphones (these included) muffle a significant amount of external noise. Unfortunately for gamers, this also means that you used to not be able to hear yourself very well (or I've seen gamers wear headphones with one headphone askew off so they could hear themselves). At any rate, these 420X's allow you to hear yourself through the headphones. I didn't feel the urge to "speak up" to be able to be heard.
The feature set included on these headphones is impressive. Independent volume controls for game sound and party chat is a great feature. Volume is controlled by two wheels on the back of the ear piece. I would've liked the volume to "click" into place between levels rather than work as a continuous dimmer because I did accidentally bump the volume on a couch pillow if I gamed in a reclined position.
The presets are also a nice feature. The Bass Boost preset offers quite a bit of brain rattling depth to the headphones. Each preset is fully articulated by a lady's voice inside the headphones, so you know what you're selected.
The lady's voice is very helpful in all aspects of using these headphones. If you toggle the mic on/off she says "Mic On" or "Mic Off" so there is no confusion (brilliant!). She also speaks "powering on" and "powering off" as well as "charging" so you're not forced to interpret beeps and chirps. This articulate voice inside the head phones is a great feature.
The rechargeable battery on these headphones will last all day. I got into a full day of Elder Scrolls Online this weekend--from noon till after midnight and the battery lasted the entire time. The advertised battery life is 15 hours, and I believe it!
A few minor albeit notable problems. First I have had the headphones drop the sound a couple times. The range that you can travel away from the Xbox is very limited. If I sunk down too deep into the couch, I think the arm may have blocked the line of sight and resulted in a few intermittent signal drops. These "hiccups" last about 1 or 2 seconds at most. Sitting close and with my head fully "visible" seems to solve this problem.
And the final problem is really just me being nitpicky. The USB to mini-USB charger cord that is included is ridiculously short. I had to get a new cable to reach from the power strip just a couple feet up to the headphone stand on the the entertainment console. The mini-USB connection is also very small. I like to charge my toys after I play with them and it is a little difficult to plug the headphones in at night without turning on the lights. I would've preferred and easier to use dock of some sort. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic game. Uh-oh, it's another LEGO game. I've only played a few LEGO games based on different themes. I enjoyed the Star Wars sagas. I found Batman to be okay. LEGO: Marvel is my absolute favorite, hands down. I've been a fan of the Marvel series for a long time. I own Civil War, both of the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, the movies, etc. This game is a welcomed edition to my collection. Here's why:
The game plays just like the other games in the series: easy controls, family friendly, local multiplayer. There are a few things different with this version. Chances are if the Marvel character is big in the comics, they are just as big in the game. Hulk runs around like Hulk, Thanos is huge, Juggernaut...Juggernauts. They look and feel like big time LEGOs. Along with that are the Marvel characters that can fly. I'll say this and I'm sure it's been mentioned, but, flying is a real pain. It ways it can be fun, but when you get to the racing minigames, it can be quite bothersome. I don't think it'll turn you away from the game, though.
The story mode is fun. You play as specific characters, but once you move around long enough in the game, you'll notice that you'll need to revisit some spots to get to previously unaccessible locations. I think it's long enough for kids to not be bored by it and lenthy, challenging, and entertaining for older ones.
One thing I absolutely love is the fact that there are SO many characters from the Marvel universe in this game (even without the DLC). I'm pretty picky with some of my favorites being in video games (Ms. Marvel, Gambit, Carnage, Venom) because I want them portrayed like real superheroes and not just playable LEGO blocks. The developers do them justice, just like the guys that created the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games (obviously on a smaller scale for kids).
Other than the flying and some boring, tedious minigames, I don't have anything bad to say about this game. I love it. It's fun to play with others too. | video-games_xbox |
343i to fans: "Get REQ'd. 1. False Advertising - The campaign experience is nothing like the "Hunt for Truth" marketing campaign. The conflict between Chief and Locke is secondary to the real story, but not in a good way. It is simply rushed over as are most events in the game. The lead antagonist is clearly defined at the end of the first mission...yet they spend the rest of the campaign building it up before they spell it out for you. The entire storyline is very predictable after the second mission because of the giant hints that they give you. There is no plot twist. The entire game is just setting up a sequel. It has a cliffhanger, but not in a Halo 2 kind of way because Halo 2 had a key twist in the middle of that game where this has none. As far as the campaign's gameplay...it starts relatively strong and fresh and gets more stale and repetitive as it goes on. You will play the same (and only) boss at least five times with no variation to the boss's mechanics other than an extra clone of itself.
2. Multiplayer. The game boasts "dedicated servers". However, these dedicated servers are not like the one's found in Titanfall. In Titanfall you can choose your server to connect to and it is region based showing your ping as you connect. In a match of Titanfall you can see your connection in a bar represented by 1 to 5 bars of strength. In Halo 5 Guardians, they do not show your ping at any point and you will play people outside your region quite frequently. I find the lag to be much worse in this game than any past Halo game. The servers are just no where near as good as Titanfall and I question if these are the same Azure servers that are found in that game.
This game also has far fewer playlists than past Halo games and is missing core modes that are staples of the Halo franchise such as Oddball and King of the Hill. The map rotation is very poorly implemented and most maps are only made with two or three modes in mind. A lot of the maps even feel similar to each other and 343i simply refers to them as "remixes" to avoid any sort of copy-paste backlash. They have a remake of midship/heretic/zealot that is pretty good, but the rest of the maps are pretty bad. The warzone maps are all designed very similar, but Apex 7 is the clear winner here because it's the only one of the three maps that is actually balanced. The spawns in Warzone can be completely horrible...spawning you 30 seconds of sprinting from the base you chose or directly into enemy fire. It will spawn you sandwiched between enemies a lot too. The spawning needs real work here as it seems to be completely void of basic logic.
3. REQ system + DLC. There's a lot to talk about here. Positives and negatives and your opinion on this may be different than mine as it's a very subjective if you feel REQs are worth paying real money for. Some will say there is no pay-to-win. I have to disagree. If you play Warzone a lot and are of high rank it takes very long to rank up for your free pack. Rank up packs quickly become more rare than gold packs. This means you will only be getting a gold pack every 4 matches or so...about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Some players will advocate buying silver packs, but all this means is you will only get two or three mediocre cards every two matches versus eight or so useful cards every four matches. Gold packs are really your only way to obtain the good vehicles or special variant weapons in the game.
To make it worse, what you unlock from a gold pack is completely based on RNG (random number generator - think casino "slot machine") and this includes armor. In fact you get nothing for beating the campaign or story mode even on solo legendary difficulty. Therefore players who pay real money are simply skipping 1 hour and 30 minutes of grinding for every $3. Some players pay upwards over $300-500 in Gold packs meaning they are saving themselves 150-250 hours of grinding. Buying REQ packs is just basic math and odds playing. If you pay more you are going to get to the rare stuff faster and have more cards to use in warzone. However, a normal player will easily run dry of cards. I have a 2 k/d and still run out of good cards (sure I have a ton of mongoose and needlers). Of course a lot of players only buy a few packs or maybe $30 worth. It's still a lot of grinding saved, but I question if it's worth it. I just don't like the system because of RNG and because there is an element -albeit much worse in other games- of pay to win.
DLC is funded on these REQ packs according to 343i. So far we have gotten two DLC drops and we will get about six more of them. What we got so far was four forge made maps for Big Team Battle. These maps are remakes, but none of them feel as good or balanced as the originals. The texture quality is very poor and there is no immersion in these maps. The next DLC gave us Forge: a feature that launched with Halo 3 and Reach. Halo 4 also had forge, but due to complaints they had to relaunch it later. Halo 5's forge is not bad, but it's something we expect with a Halo game. All they did was delay a feature that has existed in past Halo games. The new maps with this last DLC includes two more forge maps, one remix called Overgrowth, and a warzone map almost everyone I talk to thinks is broken and hates due to camping, sniping, and getting shot in the back. They just recently added social playlists...a feature that was found on day 1 of Halo 2 and Halo 3. A lot of the new REQs they added into the game are simply reskins of previous armors and vehicles with the exception being the original Halo rocket launcher and variatns. The main thing new REQs did is increase the grind to make more rare items harder to get and give incentive to buy more REQ packs. I personally don't find any redeeming qualities from this system and I want to note that Titanfall had a card system without the way to use real money which made the game more balanced and fair.
Bottom line: Halo 5 is a step down from every Halo game in campaign. The multiplayer is worse than Halos 1, 2, and 3 and better than Halo 4 and Reach. It has a lot of key features missing that put it behind past games and the DLC approach feels like manipulation rather than a good cause. Gameplay is mediocre and pushes towards other FPS rather than setting itself above the competition (something Halo used to always do).
Honestly, I had more fun with games like Titanfall, Call of Duty: Ghosts, and Black Ops 2 than I have with Halo 5: Guardians. Furthermore, none of those three games I mentioned as better than Halo 5: Guardians are anywhere close to the feelings and time I spent into Halo 2 and Halo 3. I miss Halo. I miss the experience it offered that was different and distinguishable against its competition. I did not have the highest expectations for Halo because Halo 4 is my least favorite in the series, but Halo 5: Guardians does little to get Halo back to where it needs to be.
extra notes: no splitscreen, theater is multiplayer only | video-games_xbox |
Destiny Changes the Gaming Industry. Matt Hammond
November 9, 2014
Destiny Changes the Gaming Industry Forever
Two days from now, Microsoft will roll out arguably the greatest deal in videogame history: All four HALO games, as well as a playable "Beta" version of the next installment, HALO 5, in one package for the XBOX One console. Each game is remastered in full 1080 high definition, at the gold standard framerate of 60 frames per second. For perspective, high definition movies are only 24 fps. All of this nerdy glory is available at a bargain basement price of only $60. Yet all of the fanfare over what is sure to be a boon for Microsoft and HALO's developer means absolutely nothing in the long run for the gaming industry and gamerheads.
Since the release of the first game over ten years ago, the HALO franchise has risen into the pantheon of all-time great entertainment franchises, let alone video game royalty, with well over $3 billion in total earnings prior to 2013, according to Forbes (Pinchefsky). Obviously, another big pay day and pats on the back all around are headed to Redmond, Washington, again this week. Still, the fanfare brings nothing new to the medium. They're the same old games many have already played, just re-glossed for a new generation of consoles. Yet it is November 11, 2014, when HALO's hero, Master Chief, meets his most powerful enemy yet, and he cannot defeat him: Irony.
HALO was originally developed by Bungie Studios. Two sequels in this partnership were further created before Bungie split with Microsoft and became an independent company. Microsoft got to keep HALO, however, and 343 Industries has done a very fine job in creative control of the franchise ever since. In the meantime, Bungie has been very busy crafting its new marvel, one which takes everything people have loved about HALO and super-immersive games of its kind, and thrown the well-imitated concept into the sky like digital confetti harnessed by frontline assault unicorns and made into stars.
Destiny is and will continue changing the landscape of what consumers expect from games, how they will be made and how they will be played. No longer does the consumer have to worry about the guy with the "other" console having a different experience than they are. Inside the world of Destiny, every player on every console gets the same updates and free add-ons in the same world at the same time. Beginning with Destiny, whether the console says Microsoft or Sony on the front, players get to save the galaxy, an ever-expanding realm Bungie is dedicated and contractually obligated to build upon for the next ten years.
Bungie is the builder of Destiny, but it is distributor and promoter Activision Blizzard holding the $500 million expected to be spent through 2023 to see the vision behind the game through (Pitcher). Bungie is under contract to create four complete games under the Destiny banner. So far, two "expansion packs" have already dropped, but whether those count towards Bungie's creative obligations is a bit of a mystery. Yet the pace at which they are pushing ever more stimulation at its customer base, for a game only released just two months ago, is remarkable. Bungie and Activision have effectively killed the "sequel". What is Destiny now will not be Destiny 4 when teenagers today are approaching 30. Bungie, with its pedigree, has the talent pool and good fortune to not have to worry about its new IP falling on its face, as Bungie's Chief Operating Officer Pete Parsons stated in an interview with The Guardian, "We did HALO for ten years we just didn't have the benefit of knowing it would happen [sic]" (Stuart). The added advantage of such an enormous investment commitment is the one taking place behind the scenes, but with the gamer's experience very much in consideration. The architecture, the digital scaffolding Destiny is erected upon, is exclusively designed so that the artists never have to worry about creating a world on one console, then having to tear it down and rebuild it to operate seamlessly on a rival device.
Destiny redefines what a multi-platform property is. Many games are initially designed to operate on one console, with plans in mind to at some point down the road rewrite the software language so players on another console can take part in the experience as well. This quickly sucks up many developers' bottom line and makes games less profitable for as long as it takes to redevelop and distribute, with no guarantee the game will be a hit twice. Parsons says Destiny's departure from this thinking is something Bungie had in mind all along:
We have the concept of one world and multiple platforms - that's not how development used to happen. With Destiny, it doesn't matter what platform its [sic] on, even if it's on a companion, it's sitting in one world - we don't separate them. That's a lot of planning. (Stuart)
The advantage to this strategy for the gamer at this point is allowing someone with a last-generation console to continue their adventure right where they left off when they upgrade to a new platform. Though it's not being said, there is a hidden advantage for future gameplay as well: XBOX players could someday play and compete against friends with Playstation consoles.
Visiting Bungie.net, the writing is literally on the wall about how often and how much is being added to the Destiny universe on any given day. The latest update is dated November 7th, with seven full pages of information already published dating to weeks before the game's launch. Bungie is taking great care in listening to its customer base while generating excitement for what's to come. That is very important, given Bungie is not only committing itself to gamers coming into Destiny now, but players who may not enter this gaming universe until the game's proposed ten year cycle is complete. In fact, the website is very much an extension of the game itself. One of the more "nerdier" aspects of Destiny is the use of "Grimoire Cards". As you play the game, you unlock what are in essence virtual playing cards you can read at your leisure after signing in at Bungie's site. This may remind some gamers of card games like Magic. It's a clever way to keep the story progression going without bogging down the game itself with endless dialogue. The cards are only the tip of the iceberg. Destiny is designed to be a game uniquely playable for ten years without repeat. Facebook's evolution comes to mind. Initially it was just a social network comprised of a handful of universities, with nothing more than texting and picture uploads. Fast forward only seven years since it became a global network, Facebook has very much become many threads in the fabric of hundreds of millions of people's lives.
Destiny is enabling the gaming development community to reach farther than it ever to pull casual and dedicated gamers into fully imagined worlds with no foreseeable end. Having a creative base of operations like Destiny provides to build upon offers up incredible potential for massive multiplayer online communities that go far beyond traditional strategy/fireteam type play. Destiny can one day be a virtual world where people simply want to "hang out". Already the game shows potential to be an online community with an economy, where players can buy, sell and trade items for use throughout the game's ever-expanding realm, all while building creative bridges for other developers to cross.
Works Cited
www.bungie.net
Stuart, Keith. "Destiny: The Next Ten Years." The Guardian. The Guardian News and Media Limited, 15 Sep. 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/15/destiny-the-next-ten-years
Evans-Thirlwell. "The Future Of Destiny: Bungie Talks Contracts, Sequels, Side Projects And Halo." Total Xbox. Future PLC, 27 Aug. 2014. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
http://www.totalxbox.com/80645/features/the-future-of-destiny-bungie-talks-contracts-sequels-side-projects-and-halo/
Pinchefsky, Carol. "HALO 4 Earns $220 Million in One Day--But Did It Out-Earn Harry Potter?" Forbe.com. Forbes.com LLC, 13 Nov. 2012. Web. 9 Nov. 2014.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2012/11/13/halo-4-earns-220-million-in-one-day-but-did-it-out-earn-harry-potter/ | video-games_xbox |
Not quite perfect, but close enough. These high quality headphones come packaged with a microphone that is almost too good--be careful to position it away from your mouth so that your every breath isn't picked up. Although they can get a bit hot, otherwise the comfort level is perfect, with big, nicely padded contact points all round. My only real complaint is that the headphones do not seem to have as good dual channels for speech from teammates and sound from the game. You can emphasize one, but it always at the expense of the other. Other Turtle Beach headsets I've owned had better balance. There are other design questions as well.
Turtle Beach has tried several different methods of powering their headphones and transmitting audio and they've finally settled on a cable leading from the controller. Previous headsets had built in batteries and required charging. No longer. Turtle Beach has also apparently given up on the bluetooth transmitter set up that never worked quite right. The downside is that you are tethered to the controller. For the most part its no big deal, but the cord does get tangled up from time to time. More concerning is the fact that your controller batteries drain twice as fast. When they die, the resulting strain causes the controller to suddenly stop working, which is extremely annoying. You're going to want one of these <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Energizer-CHP4WB4-Recharge-Smart-AA-AAA-Charger-with-4-AA-NiMH-Batteries/dp/B003SP4QAE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Energizer CHP4WB4 Recharge Smart AA/AAA Charger with 4 AA NiMH Batteries</a> so that you don't spend a fortune on batteries.
That said, these are really pretty excellent headphones which will immerse you in your games. Maybe too immersive. If someone is calling you, you will not hear them with these on. Something to consider for the parents buying them for their kids. But hey, you can always text them. No way they'll miss that.
Recommended. | video-games_xbox |
This is an amazing controller & exactly what I was looking for. - It's light in weight & quality manufactured. I've read many reviews about other complaining that it's made cheap or feels cheap & I completely disagree. The material of all components are of high quality & will obviously break if not handled with care just like any other electronic hardware.
- Less vibration compared to original XB1 controller.
- A,B,X,Y face buttons are mechanical, resulting for a faster button response time.
- Optional controller palm grips included along with two thumb grips*
- 2 additional fully programmable bumpers & 2 additional fully programmable triggers to ensure your thumbs remain on the sticks in the heat of battle.
- The travel distance of LT & RT triggers can be reduced with trigger stops. In addition to this it also has a programmable "hair trigger" mode, resulting for a faster trigger response time**
- Protective foam carrying case included.
- 3 meter USB cable included***
It scored 4 stars due the the following minor issues:
* The optional controller palm grips are not easy to apply & would have been much better if it came factory fitted which you can just remove if you don't prefer using them.
** The LT & RT trigger stops doesn't seem to work on Destiny since LT trigger stop will prevent sparrow acceleration while RT trigger stop will prevent your equipped weapon from firing. Luckily the programmable hair trigger mode fixed it for me, so now I'm using LT trigger stop active for faster aiming response & RT trigger stop active but with hair trigger mode on for faster firing/ shooting response. Along with that, I also programmed the M1 bumper to use for sparrow acceleration.
*** The USB cable should have been at least 5 meter.
Another side note: KontrolFreek thumb pads for Xbox 360 will fit on this controller, however they do not click on very easy & will require force to fit. I do not recommend this since I've seen a few videos of clearly visible damage to the sticks after a few hours of game play.
I've added a few pictures to give an idea of the size comparison to an original Xbox One controller. | video-games_xbox |
Exceeded my expectations. This is a wonderful product. I was debating between this and a turtle beach and I am glad i chose this.
Setup:
Setting up was a little frustrating since I have everything setup through my audio receiver and HDMI cables. I could not figure out how to get the audio to come out, so I plugged it directly into the TV and it worked! I plugged in my Xbox directly to to the HDMI port in the back of the tv and connected the red/white wire from the Earset and it works flawlessly.
Overall the installation is super easy.
My TV is about 7 feet away from where I sit and I can play comfortably without the wire being an annoyance. The wires are heavy duty and can withstand abuse.
Headset is very sturdy and can withstand a good chuck! Comes with proper audio setup for a PC, just the xbox controller or the TV.
One part of the wiring connects to the USB port of the XBox for power. This is great since you never have to worry about buying batteries.
Only con with this is if your Xbox is far away from where your audio goes into, or if you are over 10 feet from the xbox not sure how it will work.
Also the mic piece and the piece that goes into the xbox controller can be disconnected if you want to use it to watch movies/TV or play single player.
My biggest gripe is that the headset is like wearing a ear muff, it can create heat because of the clothing style covering. I wish it was leather so it would be cooler on the ear.
Also if you move around alot, you can hear static from the piece going into the Xbox controller being moved around, but this is common with any type of wiring - if you move it it makes a little noise.
I primariy play Black ops and having the headset and proper settings helps you alot! Now I can hear gun fire across the map and footsteps alot clearer.
I realized how much more effective of a player you are with the proper headsets.
I would highly recommend these headsets to anyone. | video-games_xbox |
A lot of bad but a lot of good. There is a lot to say about this controller. Some of it good, but some of it not. One being that the pictures do not accurately represent this controller at all. The pictures seem to be pretty much of an official xbox 360 controller which the unit I received is not. This is actually a generic USB gamepad and not an actual xbox 360 controller. For one, the silver xbox button doesn't exist instead replaced by a USB decal. The inputs for the xbox mic/headset are also non-existent. Another is that this controller doesn't conform to xbox input signals instead opting for generic joystick signals meaning if you intend to use this on an actual xbox 360 or a pc port that expects an xbox controller, you're better off looking elsewhere. As even installing the drivers that came with the controller, it never became anything more then a generic USB gamepad.
All that said I enjoy using this controller once I installed an xbox 360 input wrapper as I'd intended to use this controller to play PC ports of xbox games. The controller has a very nice feel to it. Firm and tight as it doesn't feel cheap at all. Buttons are also of high quality and don't wiggle around. I also enjoy the mode button which switches functions of the second analog stick and a couple other buttons. However, I would have given this controller higher marks if not for one thing. The colors for the buttons have been swapped, which is quite infuriating. That is really my only complain. Had they kept the button colors in the correct order or at least keyed them all alike so I could move the buttons into the correct order myself, then I would have been 100% satisfied with this controller despite it's numerous faults.
All in all, if you're looking for a cheap alternative to an official Xbox 360 controller, this isn't it. However, if you're looking for a solid PC gamepad alternative and don't mind tinkering a bit then you could do far worse I'm sure. It gets the job done. | video-games_xbox |
AN INCREDIBLE GAME AND AN AWESOME COLLECTOR'S EDITION. I purchased the collector's edition about two months ago from another seller and I paid $75 dollars for it ,since it was on sale. I thought I really got lucky ,since it costs twice as much but I say that even at $99 (which is the current price) it's still worth it ,since you are getting one of the greatest games of this generation .The game itself it's amazing and quite unique ,from the moment you start the game you feel like you've just stepped into an incredible and beautifully crafted world and nothing seems impossible, as you venture deeper into the world you often get lost in the beauty of the game and the natural stunning surroundings ,the more you walk in the game the more it becomes addictive ,you feel the need to explore and experience every inch of the game.
The gameplay it's empowering ,it makes you feel in control of everything ,from running to drawing your weapon ,or casting a spell ,the feeling is satisfying it handles pretty good on the Xbox controller. Comparing the gameplay from Fallout 3 and Oblivion I'd say that Bethesda has really done their homework ,they've sure added tons of amazing features and much welcomed improvements to it. The leveling system it's genius , an example of that would be; whenever you hit an enemy with a short sword ,you slightly increase the "one handed" skill and as you increase your skill you slightly level up in the game and every time you level up you can choose to increase either your overall Magica ,Health or Stamina also you gain perks in every level (similar to Fallout 3),granting your character unique abilities. It also used to be that at the beginning of the game you had to choose between signs to become either a mague , warrior, thieve etc. But now there's the Standing Stones that are scattered throughout the world ,which they work in a similar way as the signs do ,giving your character increased or unique abilities ,the difference now is that you don't have to be stuck with your abilities it if you don't want to, you can change stones anytime and change the abilities that came with it ,that is if you don't like your current one ,therefore making the process of the character creation a more personalized experience. Though you still have to choose one of the 10 different races and each race has a unique skill,so you are still stuck if you don't like your character,unless you start a new game. The side quests are quite fun, even though some of them are more easily forgettable tan others and could've been more interesting ,though you will have tons of fun completing them ,so I'd say it's fair. The dialogues between the characters feels more natural and less of a pain to access this time ,a great improvement compared to Oblivion.
The graphics in the game are sunning for it's size, even though they're not perfect and you can see many flaws in them ,they are consistent and they look better than many other much smaller size games ,which is extremely impressive,since the game only comes in one disc!. The story is good ,but not great (I won't talk about it since it contains spoilers). I though that it was not as epic as it could've been or as remarkable like in Oblivion ,at times it feels hollow and uninteresting ,I wish they'd made it more memorable and added more twists to it. I was hoping for a story that would leave me breathless and satisfied but no ,I was little disappointed about the plot ,specially in the last boss fight ..it didn't have that impact I thought it would and the quest itself was pretty easy to beat even at the hardest difficulty ,you could tell that it had room for improvement. But I guess the amazing parts of the game overcome the flaws ,making it a whole amazing package and an awesome gaming experience,in the end I'd say that this game is closer to perfection than many other I've seen so far. It definitely deserved the spot of 2011's G.O.T.Y. and will set the example for many great games to come.
Now talking about the collector items ,I would say that they are average-high quality ,the Alduin statue it is highly detailed and well crafted ,it's made out of high quality PVC and it is reasonably heavy, it also has flexibility so it's not as fragile as many would assume,the stand-holder for the statue is made of regular lower quality plastic and it's hollow, so is light weight ,the statue and the stand go together nicely, if anything a just bit dull.
The art book it's a higher quality item than the statue if you ask me ,the cover is made out of leather and has the Skyrim logo ink pressed on it ,the concept art pictures are beautiful and quite pleasing if you are an art lover ,all in all the book it's heavy and well crafted. The thing that I wasn't too happy about from the items it's the case of the game, even though it's quite detailed and has also the Skyrim logos and decorations pressed and printed on it it's made out of thin cardboard which is disappointing ,given that it's for such a great game. It would've been nicer if they had put it in a leather case or at least a steel case ,I think that would've made it the perfect collector's edition ,but that's just my own opinion. Anyways it's not a deal breaker , with all the contents of this edition and the awesome game ,I would say that is well worth the $99 and you will not regret this purchase, so buy it and hope you enjoy it like I do. | video-games_xbox |
Not ready for primetime. I ordered the Xbox one about a month ago. It's very easy to setup. Within half an hour I had it going and was logged into Xbox live. But within an hour the kinect stopped working. The Xbox did not see it as plugged in and the light would not come on. I checked the Xbox forums and went through several of their suggested work arounds, but to no avail.
Keep in mind I have a full time job and a full time family. I don't have the time anymore to be troubleshooting a supposedly customer friendly device.
So, I sent back the Xbox for an exchange in the hopes that I would get one that worked. After all I've had a couple of graphics cards show up as duds. Amazon makes it easy, but I still had to pack up the Xbox and drop it off at UPS. Again, I don't have time for the hassle.
I got the next Xbox up and working in short order. For about a week or so I was able to use the voice interaction, play a few of the games like the fitness app and a Lego demo. As noted in other reviews the Xbox voice interaction works about 85% of the time. When it works the system is very impressive. When it doesn't you (I) find the whole interface frustrating because I then have to reach for the Xbox controller to navigate the menus.
The one constant I found with the voice interaction was that it works quite well when only one person in the room is speaking, but in a family with children how often does that happen?
My toddler loved the fitness game. We had a lot of fun together doing the exercises. It was cute when she tried to mimic me in commanding the Xbox, but whenever she did it seemed to confuse the Xbox and the voice interaction would not work.
About two weeks after I installed the second Xbox the console stopped working. I would turn it on, it would get to the green Xbox screen and then turn off. On the forums (again, I don't have time to troubleshoot) people said that the Xbox could be overheating. The customer service representative said the same thing. My Xbox was out in the open for most of the two weeks and then put in, by itself, into a well ventilated entertainment center to protect it from curious children.
So, once again I had to return the Xbox. This time I asked for a full refund and got it from Amazon. So, five stars for Amazon's customer service. At best two stars for the Xbox One. Maybe in a couple of years they will make a reliable device. | video-games_xbox |
Man up, pay attention and use your head. Overall, this game is a ton of fun once you learn the correct technique. I hated it at first, but now I've given it 5 stars for fun. The glitches do lower the overall rating to [originally 3 stars, now 4 stars].
It's tough finding enemies, especially when there are many shooting at you. It's not COD or Bad Company; you can't use your noggin to draw them out and then simply recover. In real life, someone who sees you tells his buddies and they keep hunting you. So this game draws on real life and punishes you for being detected.
But it does have a Visibility Indicator which lets you know how close you are to being discovered. Keep your eye on the VI, never stray too far from cover, and duck before it glows bright red. If you get spotted, snipe anyone and everyone who spots you and the VI drops to zero again.
In addition, you can use the VI to find enemies from behind cover and snipe them. This will change your life. See this detailed explanation: "Technique: Using Visibility Indicator to locate enemies" [get address in my comment, or Google the title]
Here are a few other tips. You have an advantage at long distance, but you are not invisible or out of range. Use that advantage, and find your targets before you get so close you are easy pickings. Don't be afraid. Crawl when you must, but stand tall while enemies are distant and you can draw them out.
Clear the path. In the first mission, for example, there are isolated guards on towers that can be sniped without alerting others and blowing the mission. Get them as you approach and before attempting the assassination, and you will have fewer people returning fire when you reveal yourself.
Observe. The bullet cam has a "wow" factor, but it can also reveal hidden enemies. See that fence ahead on the left rim of the cliff as you approach an enemy camp? It's there for a reason. Guard towers may be empty, but ask whether someone is hiding inside.
Learn. Observe enemy snipers when you can and you'll see how enemies see you. Look back at areas where you've hidden and see how they appear from a distance. You will stop feeling that you are wearing neon and learn to adapt to the arena.
EDIT: For those who think the computer uses special vision in Campaign mode, try multi-player. The humans there will spot you and kill you even quicker. And it gives you a chance to see how well the character blends in or stands out.
2d EDIT: Bumped rating from 3 to 4 stars. Game seems to be playing smoother, though some glitches have not been corrected. 7/30/2010 | video-games_xbox |
Physical Issues, Non-Working Headset Out Of The Box!!! 2 headsets, 2 Defects. Would give 0 stars if I could until the issues get fixed and someone contacts me from their Support Team.
I should have paid attention to another review that was posted. After reading about many different headsets, Turtle Beach and Astros among others I chose this Ear Force XO One Amplified Stereo Gaming Headset for Xbox One based on price and quality. Wasn't worth the extra 100-200 for minimal better quality or wireless, when the overall ratings were not any better. I did not buy mine on Amazon, but purchased them at Target and had the exact same experience as others.
There is no way the adapter piece will attach to the controller. It says it should take gentle pressure but no forceful pressure. This did not work, not even close. I even thought maybe it's the controller so tried with the regular xbox mic which plugged into my xbox one controller perfectly. Really a total pain, I sent a support question to turtle beach and am still waiting on a response, but either way, I shouldn't have to wait over a week to get a working headset that I have already paid for, and did not buy online. I am shocked by how many defective adapters have made their way out. Right now I would give 0 stars until I get a response from Turtle Beach and/or a working game/chat volume adapter if I could. Why was the factory batch of defective adapters not recognized and recalled back to the company???
Stay away until they get their damaged products no longer on the shelves, it is not worth the time or money.
This is the first bad review I have posted on Amazon, and regret having to do so. I will edit my review as issues get worked out, and can actually review the quality, so stay tuned...
Update 1: Bought the same xo one headset from a different store. Exact same problem, I suppose there is the slightest chance it is my controller but that is very hard to believe as my Xbox One headset fits perfectly and easily. 2 headsets, 2 physical problems of not even being able to connect it to the controller. What a ridiculous product!!! Please allow for negative or zero stars! This should not even be on the market. Also turtle beach claimed 24 hour support on the paperwork"Get answers 24/7 at TurtleBeach.com/support", not true. The 24 hour support just means their website is up 24 hours a day not actual live support. Even once this gets resolved I would never buy another Turtle Beach product again and would steer people away! | video-games_xbox |
A return to the more technical form of SC1/2. So far from my initial impressions, this game is a welcome return to the more technical and precise SC1/2 style of gameplay. Yes, the single-player elements have been largely tacked on, but who really buys a fighting game for its solo content? Get some friends, VS mode is where it's at. Netcode is improved over SC4, and loading times are non-existent for VS mode which is great, even without a HD install on my 360. There are a ton of levels to unlock, most of which are fairly unique layouts. Some feature small stages which are dangerous for ring out tactics, while others are walled-in or even infinite a la Tekken 3 such that no walls or RO will play a factor. The stages are crisply designed and detailed but don't interfere with the gameplay by being overly flashy, which was a major complaint I had with SC3/4.
While some of the old characters have been removed, almost all of them have a counterpart in the game with at least 60-70% familiarity thus far save Zasalamel and Talim. The characters themselves have had movelists and inputs streamlined, such that many of the old returning favorites who've been around since Soul Blade or SC1 have returned to their SC1 movelists with a few additions and removals to come up with a more functional and play-worthy list. The addition of Brave Edge adds an element of meter control to the mindgame by allowing you to supercharge certain moves to break guards or do extra hits, but that same meter powers the changed Guard Impact system so you've got to be careful in its usage. However, if you're skilled you can now pull off a Just Guard by barely tapping the guard button right before anything hits you (even unblockables) to parry the move immediately. The closest analog to this system is probably SF3: 3rd Strike's parry system where you can interrupt an opponent's strings with well-timed parries but you aren't necessarily guaranteed anything. This is a welcome addition, although I'm still getting over the old habits of the GI system and have eaten a few too many hits because of it. Old habits die hard, even if they are bad. Movement-wise, the game seems to move more fluidly than SC4 did, although it isn't quite on the level of SC1/2 just yet for me it's a welcome change in the right direction from the past two games in the series. Stepping properly is going to be more important than ever.
If you plan to play this with a few friends, there's no reason not to pick it up now and start unlocking content in the form of extra characters and new costumes/armor for Create-A-Soul mode. If you're in it for the single-player, you might want to wait until it's in the bargain bin (or maybe make some friends and then start playing VS mode instead of sitting in your basement forever alone). | video-games_xbox |
Mad Catz has a winner here. Read reviews and watched all of the available videos regarding this wheel before purchasing. Troll around enough and you can find positive and negative reviews about anything. After having used this wheel now for the last several weeks, I'm finding that I agree with the positive reviews that I had read more than any of the negatives.
What really tipped the scales for me was that Mad Catz allowed for lap use where the Thrustmaster did not. I've been quite happy racing from my couch over my many years of gaming and find that a good force feedback wheel can be used without having to buy/build a solid object to mount to. Mad Catz gets this and provides literally everything in the box you need to use this wheel in whatever setup you happen to have.
This wheel has exceptional build quality, attention to detail and enough adjustability that anyone can tailor it to their own style. The real suede leather cover on the aluminum wheel is top notch. Just watched some of the 24 hours at Daytona over the weekend and saw similar stuff in the real cars.
I struggled with Forza 5 using a controller after having wheels for previous Forza releases. Yes, the vibration was nice, but you just can't get the feedback or control you need with a thumb stick and trigger system. Think about it, you're trying to muscle a car around a track all with the inch or so play in a thumb stick. There's a reason the wheel was developed for full sized cars. I had trouble making the small adjustments in steering input and throttle to effectively control the car. Now, with this wheel, I have tons more information about what the car is doing and the ability to make those fine adjustments to steering, throttle and braking. I know precisely when the car is loosing grip as I can feel the opposite force in the wheel. It allows me to back off just enough to stay on the edge without losing control.
The strength of the force feedback is excellent, though I have noticed that it varies by game. Forza 5 force effects are lower than Forza Horizon 2. I actually prefer the Forza 5 effects. Can't wait to see what Project Cars brings.
Maybe a bit pricey for some, but don't look past this product for that one reason. This is a high quality wheel that will drastically improve your enjoyment of racing games on the Xbox One. | video-games_xbox |
Very slight improvement, but still not good. OK, when I first heard about this controller the first thing I said was about time!!! I am one of the very few people that prefer the PS3 controller, mainly due to the D-Pad. But for shooters the 360 controller cant be beat. But since day one the 360 has had that horrible D-Pad. So obviously when I heard about the new transforming D-Pad I had high hopes.
The main reason (if not the only reason) I bought this was for Fallout New Vegas. If you are familiar with it or Fallout 3 you know that you can "hot key" your weapons, etc to the D-Pad. Well because of how bad the original D-Pad was I would only use up, down, left, and right. If you tried to use ANY of the diagonal keys you would end up in BAD situations pulling the wrong weapon as a Deathclaw is storming at you and you really need your missile launcher, and you accidentally pull out a pistol.
In New Vegas up is already designated as your "change ammo type", so that leaves only 3 other reliable slots. So when I heard about this new controller and its "improved" D-Pad I thought awesome finally I can hot key more weapons, and not always have to open my pip boy to get to the right weapon. Well, I ordered it, and paid for one day shipping which was only 9.98, and the controller itself was only 51.99, even thought it retails everywhere else for 64.99.
So it came yesterday (ironically while I was playing New Vegas), so I decided to test it out. I hot keyed 7 weapons, and tried to use the D-Pad to pull out the right weapon. I tried it with just the plus (+), and then with the whole disc, and strangely it worked better for the diagonal presses when it was in the plus (+) formation then it did as the disc. And the results are overall just barely better. It still would pull out the wrong weapon about 1 out of every 3 times, when it use to be like 2 out of 3.
Another great test is to open up a message on your 360, and try to navigate the qwerty keyboard with the D-Pad only. You'll see how bad the D-Pad is, and that it is CONSTANTLY moving up when you press left, down when you press right, etc. Now if it were up to me, and I was a controller designer the perfect D-Pad would be a cross between the 360, and PS3 D-Pads. It would have separated up, down, left, and right like the PS3, but instead of a disc shape for the diagonal, it would have independent sections for diagonal. So that you would be able to properly press the direction you are intending. Ill try to insert a drawing of what I mean if I can.
But anyway to sum up the review I would say, unless you really need the plus shaped D-Pad for a game, then its not worth it. The new color scheme is kinda cool, but if you rely on the button colors for a game like Fable 3, then this ones not for you. The buttons are white, black, and grey now. I watched an interview with the main designer of XBOX equipment about this controller, and he mentioned several times that the improvements would help with fighting games, and maybe they have. I cant comment on that since I don't play fighting games. But for me, it wasn't worth it.
UPDATE: 11/18/2010
Ok, after using this for a couple weeks I felt I should update the review. I guess by using it for awhile it loosened up a little. Because now it works perfect. I can use all 8 directions in both modes. (plus and circle). And it works right now. I can pick the correct weapons that Im trying to. But when I try to use it for messaging its still constantly going diagonal when I need down, etc. So depending on what your using it for give it a chance. And just know that after a few days/ weeks (depending on how much you use it) it will get better with time. MUCH better that the original. | video-games_xbox |
More of the same, but not necessarily bad in all aspects. If nothing else, Just Dance is consistent.
We generally don't do the online matches, but mostly do multiplayer. That requires a lot of room for using Kinect, which we do have, but it still feels a bit crowded. The Kinect tracking for multi-player still isn't great. The interface for choosing your player is improved from previous versions, but as I found, once in the game, it's hard to keep yourself "glued" to your character if there's a lot of switching places during the song. Some songs have the on-screen players switch positions or actually interact with each other during the dances, which my daughter really liked, but it then mixed up our players.
It's weird how the game can use the kinect really effectively to show your face via the camera of multiple people in the room and match them up to your position, but then once the songs start it will mix us up or lose track. From that aspect, it's still frustrating in that you never feel like you can count on it to keep score properly. The Kinect is also pretty clumsy for navigating through the song selections, so keep a controller nearby.
All that said, it does deliver similar to previous versions. The song selection is very good and has a good range of difficulties which makes it appeal to a wide range of ages. My kids love to see me looking like an idiot trying these out, and they get their favorite songs figured out and focus on them. If you've never played before, the Kinect tracks the movement only of your right hand. So, us less rhythmiically inclined people can mostly stand in place and move that one hand until we pick up on the songs better. My daughter pretty much replicates the entire dance in two tries, so she pretty much schools me every time. It's a great game for when friends are over and they want to have fun, and I've found even boys like to play once they get past the initial awkwardness. There's always some goofy songs that they can break the ice with then get suckered in to playing more. | video-games_xbox |
Suffers from the same troubles as many X-Box Titles. Here are the pros and cons of the game; I'll discuss each after the list
Pros
Above Average Graphics
Many different Weapons
Large Game play
Cons
Linear game play
Save feature is also BS
Unrealistic game play at times
Difficulty settings are BS
Pros
From the start, this game looked good. The first mission is awesome; you hit the beach and have to fight though the chaos of the situation. The next pro is the number of weapons was great. You get to use several different weapons for each war situation. The sniper rifle is a personal fav. The last pro deals with the size of the game. From what I have read; there are 19 missions, so this is not a game that you can finish in an afternoon.
Cons
The first con is that this game is that it does not allow for you to do anything other then the list of chore list from your mission list. So it becomes like a list of chores. The game even has a list of chores that get checked off as you complete them.
Next, there is no in level save feature. So in the longer missions you have to be careful not to die at the end of the level, or else you have to do the whole level over again. SO you can spend hours doing the same thing over and over and over again. I understand that this is suppose to make the game more challenging, but if I have to do a level over 10 times, I will not think, "Boy that was challenging and fun." I'm more likely to think, "Boy, this game ... ." The X-Box has a 10 gig HD, why do developers not create in level saves? It is not like we will run out of HD space!!!
Unrealistic game play takes away from the game. You can have the shot gun and sneak up on a Nazi. You then shoot him in the back of the head. And guess what!!! He gets up and starts shooting at you!!!! I understand that one shoot-one kill would not work in a video game, but what the hell!! A shot gun blast in the back of the head does not kill a Nazi, UNREALISTIC!!!!!!
Ok, my last complainant, The difficulty level in the game is total BS. I was playing and came upon a mission entitled, "Arnhem Knights". After 5 times of dieing in the middles of this level, I switched the difficulty to easy. But guess what, I died another 5 times. Let me give a bit of background to this mission. You have to fight Nazi's through the streets. You travel along with a platoon of British soldiers. First, one would think that having computer led friends shooting at the Nazi's would be helpful, but you would be wrong. The Brits more or less get in your way and never seem to do anything but die. So this leaves you to kill the over 150 Nazi's plus the two tanks that are on this level. I hate to complain, but I do not know of many foot soldiers in World War II that killed over 150 Nazi's in one street battle and also took out two tanks in the process.
All in all, I give it two out of five. So rent if there is nothing else at the store to rent and you need a video game fix. Shame on you EA for releasing this game | video-games_xbox |
If you want the ultimate next-gen console, Xbone is the "One. Let me just say off the bat that I'm not a gamer so take that into consideration when reading my review. I'm also not an Xbox favortist. In fact, I have a PS1, PS2 and a PSP in my possession and used to call the Xbox a PC on wheels, so you can be sure that my review is not skewed towards any particular console.
By no means am I saying that the Xbox One is without flaws, but from my first impressions of the Xbox One's capabilities as being a complete home entertainment system, I'll say it's pretty awesome!
I have my Xbox One hooked up to my satellite box, kinect is up and running and have a 12 month subscription to Xbox Live Gold, so I pretty much can do anything entertainment related with the console. I'm liking the features like voice command (although every now and then it's faulty), searching the internet, watching tv, listening to music, watching movies on Netflix, YouTube and of course being able to play games, sometimes multitasking with Xbox One's Snap feature!
Every gamer I know says that the PS4 has better graphics, more fps, yada, yada, yada. I've played on the PS4 and do I see a major difference in graphics quality and speed? Nope! It kinda befuddles me that a game like Minecraft which looks like it was made in 1982 and should be played on an Atari ColecoVision can be one of the most popular games of today and I don't hear people complaining about the graphics and fps when they're playing it! They're just playing the game and having a good time, which is what matters to me. If people can have fun playing a game like Minecraft in 2013 where people have 3DTVs, I don't see how a few unnoticeable differences in fps and graphic quality between consoles should matter!
For me it's not only about quality, but playability and quantity of games available for the console. So far, the launch games for Xbox One are kicking tail! Dead Rising 3 is super fun and so is the free download of Killer Instinct (can upgrade for more options) I think I might get Titanfall when it comes out as well. There are other launch games that the major gamers would enjoy like Assasins Creed, Call of Duty, and the sports stuff, but I'm more into the scifi-horror and fantasy RPG genre so hopefully more games come out for the Xbox One under those genres.
What is not working for me though is the Xbox One Smartglass feature to connect to my Android smartphone, although it's not a major issue for me right now (I'm working on the issue). Also, the Xbox One will disconnect from the internet intermittently when I'm watching Netflix content, but that may be on my ISP's side, not the console itself.
But so far for a next-gen console only 2 1/2 weeks old, I say this one's a winner! As I said before, I'm not a gamer, so if you just want to play games and not much else, then I'd say that it's not worth purchasing an Xbox One. But if you're someone like me that likes to multitask, then I say an Xbox One is a great investment towards how most electronic devices will become in the future; which is an all in one entertainment system.
Update: I just discovered what the issue was with my Android phone not being able to connect to Smartglass. I had to go into my WIFI router's settings and disable wireless isolation so other clients could connect to it other than just internet. Just thought I should put that out there if anyone else is having issues connecting to Smartglass. | video-games_xbox |
A Real Let Down. Pros:
*The games environment is well done, weather changes feel natural, morning to night seems real.
*The soundtrack is also very good
*The world is tremendous
*Your decisions in the game do impact it somewhat, more so than many of these types of games.
*Some of the main characters have great voice acting
*Huge budget
Cons:
*Who the hell is our narrator....... not good at voice acting.
*The human animation is poorly done, Mass effect 4, a much older game, had more detail.
*The monsters are all familiar / boring
*Witcher sense is stolen from assassin's creed, except its used with a more confusing / annoying visual
*The quest lines are boring and repetitive.
*The fighting is sluggish and repetitive. Attack/dodge/attack/dodge/attack/dodge maybe a spell........
*The fighting style is almost exactly the same as Witcher 2 which was also one of Witcher 2's biggest fails, 4 spells, slightly upgraded, but not a huge change in either there usage or visuals, even maxed out. Most of his spells are incredibly underpowered and almost useless.
*The traveling from place to place is incredibly boring. You can only fast travel from sign to sign, primarily located in towns, and you have to get off your mount and click on the sign post to use it.
*The potions/food for stamina and health regain is a bit silly, and super annoying. Fight /meditate/fight/meditate/fight/meditate.
*Even with blinders the horse gets scared in 2 seconds, might as well dismount for every fight or you can charge/slice/run away/charge/slice/runaway you get the idea.
*Its almost too Sandboxy, and even with side quests, you feel like there is no guidance on what to do, and you will often enter zones/towns where you get quests for level 25 plus and ones in the same zone for significantly lower levels, the zoning of the levels is irritating.
*Gwent............just get a monster deck and two clear weather cards........it feels like they did not spend any real time developing this mini game.
I truly wanted this game to work, but unfortunately it was a giant disappointment,.Their fighting system and movement through the map really needed work, this game should have been beta tested much more much earlier in its development. | video-games_xbox |
Bioshock set the bar, Deadspace brought it to space, and Prey is the best of both. When you take the best things from Bioshock and Deadspace and combine them, Prey is the amazing result. It's essentially a clone of those two games in terms of overall formula, story structure, gameplay and atmosphere (in fact, Prey's introductory helicopter ride around the city is seemingly a direct copy of Bioshock's bathysphere ride down to Rapture) but, you know what? Both of those games were excellent, so I'm not mad to have another game with a new exciting story that is told and plays in the same way as two of my past favorites.
- Story -
The story is essentially told in the same way as in Bioshock and Deadspace - you have very little face-to-face interaction with the characters, and instead, learn more about the people, places and overall situation through various voice/video recordings left behind, emails that you read, a slew of notes and various texts scattered everywhere, as well as calls/transmissions coming directory from characters close to the plot. Later on you'll acquire a device that allows you to "scan" the enemies (and friendlies) to gain access to special abilities, but also be able to read up on research done while those specimens you scanned were initially being studied/discovered. The overall lore of the game is quite in-depth and detailed. I'm generally not the "completionist" type that likes to go around and find every single hidden item or side quest, but in this game, I am. The whole concept and plot is well thought out and interesting to explore.
- Gameplay -
The game is a bit difficult at first but eventually you'll figure out the best ways to use weapons, your surroundings, and amass enough ammo to feel comfortable taking everything on.
Like Bioshock, your "weapons" are a combination of "guns" and psychic abilities, which can be upgraded as you progress through the game. At first, you'll only have access to some basic "human" abilities that increase your sneakiness, your speed, your strength, ability to repair, hack, etc, but later you'll be able to start using alien abilities as well. The game doesn't give you any advice on what abilities to upgrade so, the best method I've found is to save your "NeuroMods" (that's what you use to upgrade skills) until you come across something that requires you to have a certain skill (or level of skill), then, upgrade as needed. Eventually, you'll be able to actually craft neuro mods and make upgrading easier, but this of course depends on how much exploring you do and materials you gain along the way!
The GLOO gun and wrench will be your friends for a good portion of the game until you start to build up reserves and learn how to deal with each enemy.
- Overall -
I've really enjoyed the game. If you're a Bioshock or Deadspace fan, I see no reason why you wouldn't also enjoy Prey. | video-games_xbox |
A New Perspective on Fable. Not gonna lie. Getting the spell-casting and horse-riding is a bit frustrating. If you move at all, your calibration is completely off. There is also very little pause-time between gaming "quests;" the whole thing (so far) has kind of run together. There isn't any free-roaming, no clothing customization, and no real control over where you go and what you do. The gameplay is not what's come to be expected of a Fable game, but this is the first Fable for Kinnect, and there is still much to be utilized in this technology.
However, I don't think it's feasible to give this game the kind of open-world roaming of previous games without making it a serious work-out. It's more straight-forward the way Fable: Heroes is straightforward. The story is interesting and entertaining, and it offers a lot of information for those who've perhaps not played the original Fable (I myself have yet to finish it). So far, there have been no shops, very little interaction with other characters, and no town exploration. Honestly, it kind of feels more like a Zelda game on crack than a Fable game, but as I like Zelda games, I'm kind of okay with this.
Treasure chests have "collectibles" rather than anything that can be sold or used. The collectibles have me giggling and snickering as I'm reminded of cutscenes, quests, and prizes from previous Fable games. I will say the avatar awards are pretty nifty thus far. The loading screens are cute and funny, too.
I can't help but feel this was an experiment, to show off animation and graphics skills, and to just test the waters of what a Fable for Kinnect can truly be. I'm impressed, and I can only imagine what the future of Fable for Kinnect will look like, what storylines they'll come up with, and how this can develop into an even more immersive experience.
Honestly, it's about what I was anticipating for a new technology. I'm still excited for it, I'm still highly enjoying it. The arms get one heck of a workout, but otherwise, it can be enjoyed from the comfort of your couch or favorite chair. | video-games_xbox |
Just another rinse and repeat with repetitive gameplay. I had this initially on pre-order, then decided not to buy it. I was pretty tired of them coming out with a system that was only good for what came out WITH it. I was fed up with never getting any further expansion. First 1.0 with nothing new after release, then 2.0 came out, and it was the same thing. So I finally figured that enough was enough, and I cancelled my pre-order.
Then this came up in the Vine program, and I figured the cost to us wasn't too severe, so I would go ahead and spend a little more money and see what they did this time.
Install was pretty standard, with a 500MB update required. But immediately we're back to the long load times of the Infinity games. But once it loaded, I was left chasing a flying droid. Then we're flying the Millennium Falcon through an asteroid field. Then you switch to Inside Out. And I remember how much I hate forced third person perspective on a poorly controlled jumping game. Then it's Mickey and Minnie Mouse and driving a car. And I remember again how annoying the driving could be, such in the CARS world on the earlier version. That's it then for the playable introduction. At this point it loads the toybox, and you have characters there who introduce you to various things, from driving, fighting, building, the various toybox aspects. And going through some of it reminded me that many other things were just as bad at times as the driving experience, such as jumping and lining up where you're going. As with all the previous versions, this lacks precision in many respects.
The graphics are acceptable, a little better than the 2.0 game. It's no Destiny or Halo though, obviously. Everything is "kiddied up" so that it looks like kids versions of things, which is kind of annoying when you're starting OUT with kids versions of things. For example, Luigi, from Cars, could've been done to look more or less like himself and fit into the toybox, but he's an even more "kids version" of himself.
So the game play is basically exactly what we had in previous versions, with the same flaws. Cars still have lousy fine control, you still just run up against someone and start mashing the buttons to attack, or attack from further back with a distance weapon. And this is my biggest complaint about the whole Infinity system, and the complaint I've had since 1.0 came out. They never make anything BETTER or ADD to it. It's the same thing, with the same game play, so why can they never add a new playset to the 2.0 game, but rather have to make 3.0? There's nothing here that FEELS like it should be a third version because it's just the exact same thing it's always been since its inception.
For little kids it's alright, since it's not complex, but I've seen plenty of little kids here get frustrated sometimes when having to jump up to get somewhere, due to the poorly done third person point of view that often doesn't let you even pick the camera angle you want, and you're always looking at things a little "askew." That really plays havoc with some people. Even I, a gamer since the days of pong, can get annoyed sometimes at how poorly the controls respond. Now toss that on a kid, some of whom have ADD, and it's a recipe for some serious frustration. Sliding along the yellow lines marking faults in cliffs and such that you can climb is also absolutely no better than previous games. The controls don't respond quickly enough, so sometimes you stop moving (i.e. let go of the stick) but the character still keeps going along the line, like they're capturing stick movement about half as often they should, so they aren't getting input (or lack of input) quick enough. The only game I've played that gets as annoying with poor control is some of the Assassin's Creed games where some of the jumping and moving around things are getting the "wrong" input, and you're not going where you want.
I have problems with the portal actually reading the star wars play set on it. Sometimes I have to pop it on and off three or four times to get it to register there's a play set there. It doesn't have problems with figures, just the play set. And even when it's visible and I can select that at the start of the game on the main menu, as often as not, the game locks up and I have to hard reset to start it again and see if this time it doesn't lock. While everything else is non-responsive, at least the big X button is still working, so I can power off the console and back on again. It's as if this all left for manufacturing long before defects were fixed.
It's also another example of "You're locked here and can't skip all the useless cut scenes" in gaming today. Even if they'd do like Assassin's Creed or something and let me hold the B button to jump through the stuff I don't need to see, it would be far better.
It looks decent, sounds decent, but it's just the same old thing again with a different number at the end. All that changes is the looks and layout of the play set, which really lessens my enthusiasm, and my 11 year old felt pretty much the same way. .
Now, it does still have the ability to get creative, much like Little Big Planet did. But this is something that's suffered a complete lack of interest from my son and I since version 1. We've never gotten into it.
If you don't have any of the others, it's not bad, since it'll be "new" to you. But if you've had 1 and / or 2, then it's just the same thing, with current movie and cartoon characters... | video-games_xbox |
Overall Great Gaming Headset. I started taking my online gaming serious during my 12th grade year of high school. One day I was playing Call of Duty online and this clan was trying to recruit me but I had to try out for their clan leader and they said I had to have a professional headset to join. Turtle Beach headsets were and still are one of the most popular gaming headsets known in America so I decided to get a pair. Once I got the XO Sevens my gaming skills increased incredibly. I literally felt like a true Call of Duty God. I was able to hear opponents come from all directions. They let you know which direction the opponents are coming from by having the sound only come out of the right or left speaker. So if they're on the left you will only hear out of the left speaker and vice versa for the other. They were also noise canceling so I was able to focus on the game without any distraction from the outside world. It was like I became unstoppable on Call of Duty. As great of a headset they are, still nothing is made perfect. They also had several flaws. After about a hour or two of gameplay they started to irritate my ear. The ear cushion on the headset was a bit tight so it made my ear sore. After every match I had to take them off to stop the pain. They also squeak when I move them even a little on the left side. It's not a big problem but it still becomes irritating after a while. In my opinion one hundred and sixty dollars is a wonderful price for the professional gaming headset but to some the price is a bit steep. Don't get me wrong that is a lot of money for a headset but if you want to take your gaming skills to the next level they definitely are an necessity but If you don't then they definitely aren't worth that price. The crazy thing is they are one of the cheapest professional headset on the market. Overall to me they are one of the best headsets out. When gaming you can hear every detail and react faster when playing. Honestly their is no way you can be a pro gamer without having a pair. I know that there are several different kinds of pro headsets with better quality and comfort but they all are much much higher. Like three hundred to four hundred dollars. If you don't want to be a pro gamer and just want a good gaming headset just for the heck of it their are several cheap headsets on the market. The quality of them aren't great but they are still better than not having any at all. But at the end of the day my Turtle Beach headsets are everything. Without them I would be no where near as good as I am now with them. | video-games_xbox |
Feels a bit off to me. First thing first, I'm going to specify what I'm reveiwing. 1st,Gameplay; 2nd Game Progression; 3rd overall.
Gamplay:
If you played FallOut 3/Skyrim, expect not much different game-play except now you can aim down sight (ADS) like in 1st person Shooter. For those new, it's very easy to get into, and simple, not over complicated. So yay, I give it a 3.5/5.
Progression:
I've been playing for about 10 hours and I've yet to find a city where I can call home. I say this because in this game, you have a specific amount of stuff you can carry with you and if you exceed that limit, you move slower than Dial-up. And when this happens, you probably will frantically try to drop some items to continue game-play as normal, but now paranoid for item space. This bugs me because in Fallout 3, you immediately found somewhere you could call home and store items as you adventured which made it much more fun. Also, this game seems to lack a clear definitive idea of what to do. Skyrim has save teh world from dragons or fallout 3 where you have to find ur dad for reasons unknown which gave it a sense or a clear goal. So for progression, I give it a 2/5 because of how slow the games moves.
Overall:
Any game by Bethesda is bound to be glitchy no matter what. In the ten hours I've played, I've seen so many glitches and bugs that messed me game up and had to reset back to a previous save, which is aggravating. Also, this game seems to me a Fallout 3 clone with a new setting and story, doesn't really give me much motivation to play. I have not played the DLC, but if it weren't for the slow progression and lack of clear goal for motivation, this game would be great. 3/5
Notes about the game:
What I was expecting from this game was to be in VEGAS where all the action is supposed to happen, but In the time i've played, I've yet to see even a glimpse of the place.
So in turn, this game seems to bore me but probably because it seems to me another Fallout 3 without much innovation. And with their other game Skyrim, it seems to be pale.
So if you've neve played Fallout 3 before, Buy this game, it will be worth you money, and if you've played Fallout 3 or Skyrim, be wary.
Overall Score 3.5/5 | video-games_xbox |
There is no other game like it- and that's in a very good way. Released in 2005 by PopTop Software with 2K Games doing whatever it is they do, "Shattered Union" is a superb turn-based strategy game with a premise and storyline no other game can even hope to compare to. It begins with the 2008 election bringing in David J. Adams, who soon becomes the most unpopular President in US history. Popular candidates were disqualified to leave him close to unopposed the first time around, and when a sham election sees him in office for yet another four years, the public is furious. The last straw comes when DC is hit by a low-yield nuclear device during the inaguaration ceremonies, killing Adams and a huge number of ranking political and, presumably, military figures. For a brief moment, the nation stands headless, and then chaos ensues. Having at last had it, California secedes from the USA, becoming an independent nation once more, and Texas follows quickly, both states taking neighbors with them. The EU moves in to rebuild the US, and numerous other factions soon arise, with a second Civil War beginning in 2014.
The seven factions are: Pacifica in the Northwest, Great Plains Federation in the Northern Midwest, Republic of Texas in the Southern Midwest, California Commonwealth in the Southwest, the Confederacy in the South, New England Alliance in the North, and EU in DC, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. Those states get a free pass, I guess. We never get to find out whether they'd have seceded and joined a faction or what. Anyway.
The gameplay is turn-based, with the map divided up into hexagons or hexes. Towns and cities provide points, and a certain amount must be held to keep or take the territory. Battles last up to 14 days, but this has no impact on the strategic scale map, in which one round turn with all the factions moving takes one week. The war never lasts but so long, though on one occasion it did get drawn out to 40-something when I was playing as Pacifica on Hard.
The Russian Federation, with its sinister, Red-ish flag, barges into Alaska about 5 weeks in, since an imperialistic President Vladekov wants to take back Russia's old territory. Hawaii just sits there the whole game, as do, I assume, Guam, Puerto Rico, etc. as well as all US forces overseas, such as in Europe and Korea. One curious detail to the battles is that Russian aid drops in periodically, despite the definitely unfriendly attitude Russia has towards the battling former US factions. A BTR-90 APC and Vodnik jeep-thing are the most useful items. Others include health, sight or range increase, or bombs that damage the unit that collects the 'aid'.
Heavy armor, light armor, infantry, artillery, APC's, fighters and bombers as well as a range of disposable, one-use units are what you have to work with. US factions get US military equipment- the game's age shows, since some of that stuff is retired or updated now- and a unique heavy tank. The GPF gets the titanic Grant, the EU the Goliath. Why every single one but the Goliath had to be named after a Civil War general makes little sense. The Confederacy calling its tank the Lee I can get, and the GPF's choice even, but almost all the others arbitrarily use random generals' names. Why would Pacifica name its tank the Stuart? Or California, the Jackson? Nevermind. It's kind of like how there is literally a wild blue yonder all around and under the map board- the game doesn't want you to think too much about it.
Simply one of the most awesome moments in gameplay is when somebody's B-2 gets blown away by some 4+ SAM's. It's just too good, especially since when you shoot down an opposing faction's whole air force or just the B-2's and such, there is a real good chance you'll never have to worry about significant air threats from that faction again. Which brings me to money. This game's economic system is terrible. There is no way, no conceivable way, to finance a respectable war without cheating to get more money. Try maintaining three fleets of tanks and over sixteen aircraft *without* cheating for money the whole time, see how it goes. The many unique buildings- factories, military bases, oil refineries- have some effect on your faction's unit costs and their performance in battle, such as how much gas they have. But the true difference these things make is never really noticable until you've taken over the divided US and are duking it out with Ivan, since he don't feel like going home just yet. Anyway. The possibilities in this game are endless, and there is always a new way to fight the battles individually and the war overall.
By the way- fighter and helicopter combat in this game? Anticlimactic don't even begin to describe it. Whoo, baby. Top Gun this ain't. And I hated that movie. Why am I referring to it? Let's move on, thanx...
Another point- the total and complete absence of any kind of diplomacy, as well as the game's single-minded obsession with a reunited- again- US, is ridiculous. It is openly stated that secessionist sentiment is running high in many places of the former US, and let's not forget that Texas and California, as well as their neighbor states, were in a big hurry to leave after Adams' demise. Why, if playing as one of the secessionist factions, would you want to conquer your neighbors and rebuild a nation you volunteered to leave? The European Union and New England Alliance wanting reunification, I can understand. But many of the other factions wouldn't want any part of that. The offered descriptions of each faction are excellent, but I disliked how after you took over an opposing faction, there were no protests, no guerrilla movements, nothing. You could take over the most hotly secessionist city in the former US, and they'd just sit back and let it happen. I don't get it.
The game makes a fair fuss over its ethical side, in which maximizing collateral damage yields a bad political reputation and more sinister faction powers in battle, including nuclear missiles. Minimizing it yields more defensive and ethically-minded powers and weapons, mostly focused on defending and repairing one's own units rather than harming the enemy. The ethical issue is an interesting one, but it is somewhat anticlimactic since you have to try real hard, go out of your way, to get a bad reputation. Keeping a soldier's attitude towards it all- get it done as quick as possible, maximizing enemy losses while minimizing your own- will heavily encourage ignoring the civilian stuff. Besides- hearts and minds. It didn't exactly work in Vietnam, but it can work here. Possibly. The EU force sure will need that to succeed, I'd think.
There should have been a chance for more than one type of ending in which the US stays divided- say, one where a peaceful arrangement is made and a coalition of the former US factions goes to Alaska to help it gain its own independence as a nation. I also think that the EU should have gotten a separate set of cinematics.
But despite my many gripes, I love this game like no other. It's story, its gameplay, and various ending scenes are all highly entertaining and intriguing. To anyone who would find a game of this type interesting, I highly recommend "Shattered Union". There's nothing else like it, and it's one of the best games I ever played. | video-games_xbox |
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