text stringlengths 503 33.4k | labels stringclasses 23 values |
|---|---|
XBOX 360 is a GREAT piece of technology. Hi, this is my first review and it is about the XBOX 360. I purchased the 360 Premium Edition just over a year ago now and it is still working like its brand new! I've bought COD2, Dead Rising, Gears of War, Perfect Dark Zero and Saints Row, and they are all great games. The 360 itself is a great piece of technology. I can play DVDs, XBOX 360 games, some original XBOX games(Halo, Halo2, Ninja Gaiden, KOTOR, etc), listen to music, view slideshows, play online and download movies, television shows, new demos and oldschool games. I've been on other websites and some people claim that Sony is better in quality and in games, all the way to the PS3. I have to disagree(at least as far as quality) based on my own experiences. I first bought an XBOX at launch time back in Nov of 2001 and I upgraded to the 360 in April of 2006 and in that time frame, I only had one XBOX. I got a PS2 in May of 2003 as an early graduation present and I still have it, however, I'm on my THIRD PS2. I got a N64 for Christmas in 1997, and I still have it and it still works after nearly 10 years! My SNES still works after 13 years! Out of all of the systems I've owned, Sony has given me the worst quality console since I'm on my third PS2. Now, I have to admit that Sony has some great games(God of War, Devil May Cry, the Final Fantasy series, the Legacy of Kain series, the Resident Evil series, the Tomb Raider series, WWE Smackdown series, etc.), and that the PS2 has a massive library of games to choose from, but a lot of them aren't that great, and are mainly released on it because it is popular, but if they could make the PS2 better in terms of the quality, then I would be even happier. The downside to the XBOX 360, is the fact that you can use up the hard drive space very fast, unless you decide to get the recently released 120 hard drive, or upgrade to the XBOX elite and the fact that not all XBOX games can played right now. XBOX games are played via emulators that Microsoft releases in updates, which are done automatically by XBOX LIVE.
The PS3 looks good, however, the price tag of $499-$599 is too high for my taste, considering what its capable of. Yes, the PS3 has a blu-ray DVD player, however, I don't want that right now since its not a proven format(remember the dual layer format? That flopped bigtime.) Sony originally said that PS and PS2 games could be played on it, but when I talk to people at the mall who have one, they said that they couldn't play many of their PS and PS2 games since there is something wrong with the backward compatability. Backward Compatability is one of the main reasons why I would purchase any system, but if it can't do that, then I don't really have any interest in that particular system. Online play for the PS3 is free, but it is very limited in terms of what can be done, but XBOX LIVE is great because you can do more things, however, you have to pay for it. Microsoft lets you choose if you want to have a next-gen DVD player, but Sony doesn't and that is the reason for the high price tag of the PS3. Overall, I'd have to say that the XBOX 360 is great and is better than Sony's PS3(for now at least), unless Sony can fix the backward compatability issue, lower the price, provide a better online experience, introduce better games than what is out now and provide a better quality system than the PS2(one that doesn't need to be replaced constantly). | video-games_xbox |
Fun fantasy land. Great best riding and fighting. Not a hack and slash. This is a game for the fantasy fans and not hack and slash fans. I think a lot of people approach the game as a hack and slash game like Ninja Gaiden or Heavenly Sword. But, the main gameplay isn't the hack and slash elements but riding giant beasts, killing little enemies or having beast battles.
The hack and slash aspect is terrible. There are colors of attacks and they have to be matched to button presses otherwise health goes down, you lose bonus points etc. There are no combos as such and the weapons don't change much. However, the beasts come in 4-5 different varieties all with their own attacks. The beasts run out health and die and you end up hack and slash mode when you aren't riding a beast. There aren't as much beast spawn points so one has to take care of their beasts.
The levels are very linear but the backdrop and the set-pieces are pretty. There is no point exploring the levels and none of the set pieces are interactive - except for the usual assortments of health, magic, gold etc. So, everything moves quickly. But, there is no story to speak of - there is a good backdrop for a story but not a story.
What is incredible about this game is the beast riding and fighting. Somehow, it captures size - the beasts are king kong sized, dinosaur sized, elephant sized and it all feels so smooth. In Ninja Gaiden, there are regular size and then building size and no sense of size in between. In Heavely Sword, there is no blend of sizes, it's always a series of little mini-games. In this game, you ride big beasts fight and then you hack and slash and it all feels natural - in the sense that you don't feel like you entered into mode of a game fighting with a beast and another mode in hack and slash. It blends very well together. Anything you can do in 3rd person slash mode can be done riding a beast.
Overall, it's a great ride into an interesting fantasy land - there is a great backdrop and beast riding is fun. There is no story but I suppose it probably would have turned out to be hamfisted lord of the rings style affair so your own imagination is probably to better to connect the dots between what shows up. The female protagonist isn't sexed up - she's kinda scary and even when she walks around in a bikini, it's like she's a female Conan. This is a great rental or a good buy at a low price. | video-games_xbox |
They will keep fighting, and they will win. Ever wanted to play "Starship Troopers" or a Michael Bay movie? Well for the zero of you that wished that now you have your wish
The game starts 14 years after "E Day" and we meet our main man Marcus Fenix who is voiced to perfection by John Dimaggio *aka Bender from Futurama* sitting in jail and rescued by his teammate Dom. Soon after we break out and get to know the world of "Gears of War" and get familiarized with it's cover and fight game play, it's raw in your face attitude, and it's never ending horde of various baddies dubbed..... "The Locust"
Visually the game is something to behold. It has this grey almost black and white look to it, and in fact if you pause the game or try to give command to your squad it does go black and white for a second. The creatures, the characters, the expansive environments as well the weapons all have a sharp quality to it that makes one feel like they were watching a live action movie. I only have a standard TV and looked this good so I can only imagine how it looks like on HD. I read this game was responsible for the 360 having a 512 ram and it takes full advantage of every bit of it. Amazing looking game.
Only slight complain about the visuals is that when you first start to play the game it's a bit difficult to tell who you're suppose to be shooting at since the baddies look identical to your teammates. I have that same problem with the "Call of Duty" games. Yeah you get use to their sight after the first couple of levels, but overall when there is a big battle going on it becomes very difficult to know who is who till they start biting or shooting at you.
The cut scenes in the game are a lot of fun to watch mainly for the over the top characters and their cliched demeanor. My personal favorites are the opening one in which after Dom tells Marcus; "Welcome back to the Army", his response is "S**t" and another favorite is the very last cut scene with The Queen making a dire warning to mankind.
My problem with the cut scenes is that I wish they had let the player actually play most of the cut scenes instead of just putting the controller down and watching some of the lengthy well animated scenes. A great example would be the last level in which you just watch the climatic ending. It would have been great to have played that cut scene instead of watching it but hopefully that problem will be fixed with the many sequels I'm sure is to come. "Half Life 2", "Resident Evil 4" and "Prince of Persia" all actively involve the player in the cut scenes and that makes them unique. Makes you feel like a part of the world
The audio goes hand in hand in hand with the excellent visuals and delivers a blistering track that stays very busy. The gunshots have a nice low end effect to them when you fire them that coupled with the shaking of the controller makes for a very satisfying shooting experience. The howls and screams from the creatures fills the speakers quite nicely and the "boom" from the Boomers gives the already busy subwoofer some work to do.
The music however is terrible in the game and I can now understand why they went with Jablonsky for the 2nd game. This is a game that plays and feels like a Michael Bay movie and yet the music is just lazy brass and a lot of non melodic noise. I actually had to turn off the music from the menu screen because it got too distracting but glad they have someone on board to get that "Media Venture" sound that the game called for.
There are lots of clever level designs in this game that require clever thinking and planning. The level with The Berseeker is a great example of this. Here is a level in which you have to be quiet because if this beast hears your footsteps he'll run at you and rip you to shreds, but on the other hand you need him to run at you so he can break open a hole in the wall for you. It's probably my favorite level in the game and I had to play it quite a couple of times to finally beat the guy.
The level with the birds that kill you in a heartbeat if you step in the dark is also a clever one. It forces the player to think before they move which is a welcome notion for me. You just don't run, shoot and cover, but you to apply some strategy here and there if you want to make it to the next chapter.
My big complaint and what keeps me from hailing this game as a masterpiece is that it's pretty much the same thing on every level and gets a bit tiring after a while. The first time you play it's great but the 2nd time it gets a bit tedious, but that's what multiplayer is for I guess. Where the game lacks in replay value for the single campaign, it makes up for with Co-Op play and online play, but it still would have been nice if the game offered a bit more in terms of what you had to do on every level.
It's a very short game with great visuals, great sound, and some occasional clever level designs. May not be the greatest game ever made, but it sure is a lot of fun
A must have for all 360 owners | video-games_xbox |
BEST WORLD WAR II SHOOTER EVER. This game is awesome! Fans of Medal of Honor, this game is a must-buy. The graphics in this game are fabulous, very well designed. The gameplay in this is easily the best part of the game. Each mission is designed in its own unique way, and they do not get repetitive, like MOH games sometimes do. The sound, what can I say. Maybe just AWESOME!!!! Without the sound, I would of easily rated this game a four. The music makes the game, especially in intense fights where you're always behind cover firing at the enemy.
The levels vary throughout the game. Also, you get to play as Russian, British, and American soldiers (the American are the best). Throughout the game, you will have to do various things such as provide tank escorts, snipe away Germans, travel through large towns that are swarming with Germans, blow up German anti-tank armour, blow up old buildings, conquer a bridge that is infested with Germans, shoot down enemy aircraft, and the list goes on & on. The tank controls can be a little tricky at first, but you'll catch on after a while. I'll address this too. Many gamers complain about COD because of the lack of checkpoints. This game does get frustrating occasionally because you have to keep replaying levels due to lack of checkpoints. But when you get this game, you cannot go out there like on Halo and just run into the middle of a whole bunch of Germans. Sorry, but humans are not made of steel like masterchief. What you have to do is use the environment to your advantage; hide behind blown up tanks, crawl under some rubble of a blown up building, hide behind a building and shoot around the corner of it without revealing your body (which comes in handy so much in the game), and anything else you can use. That is one of the main reasons why I like this game so much, is you have to use strategy sometimes (opposite halo where you can run into the middle of a dozen grunts and stand there without getting killed).
World War II fans, all I can say is that this game is AWESOME and you should add it on your shelf alongside all your Medal of Honor games. | video-games_xbox |
A humble, subjective review. Another "open world" game that almost had me.
I doubt I'll say anything new here; if you've read reviews that didn't admit to any fault in this game, my take might help you decide. Since you can get this used for under $15, if you still have an interest, rent it or buy it.
I just played this for a good duration on my 360 starting Thursday while barely 'working from home' over the holidays.
My brother bought me this game a while back, he loves the PC version.
My first couple sessions were pretty addictive.
The graphics are great for XBox 360, 2008.. and maybe even 2012. There is a realistic day/night cycle and the transitional lighting effects are easy to appreciate. The main mission environments are varied enough for the first three or for that I got through. The world itself is a pretty big 'open sandbox'. I played for at least 8 hours and never hit a seam.
The game play started off pretty fun- you accept missions for payment (only used to improve your weapons / abilities and weapons / ammo storage and cache), to keep your malaria pills inventory up, and to advance the main plot. This game is an FPS, but the enemies are relatively randomly placed in the battle zone and on "hardened" level, not shy about flanking you or sniping you from afar. They don't use grenades as much as I would expect, but there's a reason for that.
After a day or so of playing this, I hit a huge problem - I could not get more malaria pills. The mission was assigned to me, I would clear the target zone, but the magic door would not open. And eventually, you will die without malaria pills. There are others who have had this problem online, yet no fix that I found.
Around the same time as this happened, I started noticing how enemies were constantly re-spawning in places I had already cleared out. This was the beginning of the world going from "realistic" to "annoying" for me. A character at the beginning is incredulous that you made it into the country, yet there is an unending stream of "bad guys" to re-stock all the travelling intersections that you cleared minutes ago. That's right, everything is reset after you leave so the enemies can slow you down on your way to/from missions.
And speaking of travel - as others have pointed out, making you get to almost any mission via long travel distances gets annoying after a while. The main problem here is that EVERYONE IN THE GAME MAP AREA (5okg) WANTS TO KILL YOU. Everyone. Ev-R-Ree-1. There are no civilians, just "guards" who will literally aim their vehicle at you and try to run you over, all the time. If they miss, they immediately start firing. How do they know that you aren't working for their side? This is a huge annoyance and big missed opportunity to more realistically portray different types of people - scared civilians, neutral civilians, armed civilians on their guard, people working for one side or the other. Put some randomness in there, that's what makes computer games interesting.
As for the missions - the main missions seem to be working for both of the 2 factions killing each other to advance to your final goal of killing the arms dealer supplying them both. You can't make the decision to work for just one side or even only work for the peaceful underground. Again, randomness or some freedom of choice.
After trying again and again to get some malaria pills, I started a new game on hard.
I also made a different "buddy". These guys are also mercenaries who turn out to be not very trustful or good people. Right after you accept a main mission, they call you on your cell phone and say "hey, I'm in the complete opposite direction of your mission, but I got something to tell you." Get ready for some awesome travel where you might die because everyone in this world hates everyone!
In my first game one of them basically gave me a side mission to complete before my main mission to go kill some dude to maybe upgrade my weapons or something. No reasoning why, no choice in which of us does that chore. Seemed like he was just gonna hang at the safe house till I was done.
Now, after resetting, I just can't look past the negatives to keep going. Before I had earned some of the moderately better weapon upgrades that made completing the missions and clearing out those d*** checkpoints tolerable.
The 'open' nature of the map and the day/night cycles are enticing, but the bug I hit and the annoying travel mech, "we all want you dead" re-spawning infinite enemies are putting this on my "sell it" list. Those two things are lazy ways to stretch game play time in a manner I do not find creative or engaging. | video-games_xbox |
Great Product, Great Company. After dealing with the very friendly customer service at GAEMS, and receiving a new unit to replace the previous one, my review had to change. All of the original praise I gave it, about its concept, design, and function was understated. This unit is top-notch for gaming. The non-reflective screen, excellent speakers (especially for how small they are!) and awesome blue lights (everybody likes fancy lights) really make this an experience.
It should be noted that even though their primary customer service representative changed during the middle of my return with them, there was barely a hiccup in the transition. Russ, their new customer service department lead, is a very helpful person. These guys deserve credit for how great they do.
For circumspection, I have listed the two paragraphs that I originally gave complaint in below. Beneath each one I will provide my new findings with a fully functioning console.
"A small issue to consider is that it is a bit bulky. "But!" you say, "it has a 19 inch TV!" And you are right. but its still wider than the TV needs, and a lot thicker than the TV/Xbox together need. Still, its fine to travel. Also, you can't really control how it leans. It just sits on the bottom of the TV half. I would've thought they could fit some straps or levers on the inside that you could use to position it however you wanted. Again though, not a big deal. Very small inconveniences, and I'm mentioning them more for completeness than any complaint."
Physics hasn't changed. But my understanding of them has. The console is still as big and bulky as when I first thought "this is big and bulky." But, once I put an xbox, controller, cords, power brick, and games into it, then closed it up, I found some respect for it. When packed up its heavier than it looks, and it looks heavy. This thing needs to be big for all your gear.
The tilting is still the closest thing I have to a problem. Mr. Smith's response to my review, however, is correct. I hadn't even known about the kickstand on the bottom of the TV side. It lets you change your angle a bit, and its quite sturdy. A little more adjustment might have been nice, but this unit is pretty packed when you have your stuff in there, so I'm not sure you could put the levers I was originally thinking of inside.
"However, the biggest problem came after getting off the plane. The small hooks that hold your D-rings for your shoulder strap, which are actually a part of the case itself, are, apparently, a bit fragile. They are only just tight enough so that the D-rings don't fall out normally, but so you can push them open to force the D-rings in. In my case, at some point, one of those pieces of plastic got half bent, half torn upward so that it no longer holds the D-ring. I know that a reviewer here also had a similar problem, but in my case, I don't know when it happened. I used the handle (which has a GREAT feel to it) almost the whole time, and only noticed when the shoulder strap started dragging behind me."
After reading Mr. Smith's review below, the first thing I did with the new unit was look at these. I wouldn't have believed 200 lbs rating for those small things, but now, well, I'm a believer. Those things can take some work. Do not worry about using your shoulder strap to carry this, no matter how full it is. Personally I still love the feel of the handle, but this unit can hold under the shoulder strap, no problem.
Again, this is an AWESOME product. I would like to sing more praise over a few more paragraphs, but others have done it a lot better than me before. All I can say is you won't be disappointed. I can't wait to see how GAEMS and the new XBOX work together. | video-games_xbox |
Epic, to say the least. This is probably the first X-box game that I ever got into. I played Halo a couple of times with a friend but this was the first game that I really enjoyed. I guess I am more of an rpg man than an action gamer. There is so much depth to this game that I can't do it justice with words but I will dig in and make the effort. First off you can choose from many different races and character classes with different emphasis on skills. A lizardman warrior? Check. How about a catman Acrobat? They got you covered. Big barbarian with a penchant for magic. Yep although he might have a rough time of it. You could even make a high elf with crazy eyes and an even crazier name like Sweet Ghandi McGillicuddy(I hate rpgs that only let you have five or six letters in your dude's name) And if you can't find a class that you think suits you you can just make up a custom class of your own. (I actually think this is the only way to go. Half the fun of making a custom class is making up a goofy class title for your character. Underpants king for example.)
Once your new hero gets out into the wide open world and finds his way to the town of Balmora he will discover just how many roads he can travel down. There are least four or five different factions he or she can join up with right away and even more that become avaialbe in other towns. Warriors, assasins, thieves, mages and not one but two types of clergy mean you will never run out of things to do. That's where the fun of the game comes from,rising to the head of this guild or that. Sometimes you completley forget about the main quest because you are so keen on the various sidequests that are scattered like glittery diamonds all over the world.
The only bad thing about the game is that if you play it too long it kind of takes on a drudging worklike quality after awhile. Go into dungeon at nine, find yet another artifact, leave dungeon, head back to stronghold, put your precious booty in treasure chests and barrels, go to bed. Wake up and repeat. There's a rather noticible lack of Final Fantasy-esque Cinematic pomp and circumstance throughout the game. But for the ability to do almost anything and develop my character in whatever way I want I am willing to lose a few of the more theatrical moments.
Another minor problem is the lack of mulitple characters. No, I don't mean mulitplayer. No real rpg has ever had a multiplayer option to my knowledge. I mean you literally go through the game with only one character. Occasionally you have to have people travel with you to complete certain quests but they are not with you for long. This lack of a traditional rpg party forces your character to be more flexible than he might be if he had more people with him. For example in a normal rpg if you had a big warrior character you wouldn't bother to learn magic to unlock a door because you could just have the nerdy wizard in your party cast the spell but here you would be screwed unless you had a magic item that accomplished the same thing. But these are minor things not worth taking away a star for.
Anyway, this is easily the best rpg I have ever played. I have spent more time on this game than any other rpg, the only game I have played as much is the romance of the three kingdoms series which is a different style of game altogether. | video-games_xbox |
Gears grinds grubs into guts and delivers good gaming for guys. G2 follows the same sequence of any huge sequel: MAKE EVERYTHING BIGGER, ADD MORE ENEMIES AND ENEMY TYPES and ADD MORE WEAPONS. So now we have at least ten different kinds of baddies to fight, as opposed to the five or six in G1. Some of the enemies are lame, like the flail swinging crushers, but the reavers and tickers are cool. Now we have the gorgon pistol, flamethrower, mortar, mini-gun, shield, and prox mines. All great stuff.
And now we have vast environments to rip enemies apart in. The locales look wonderful, with more color to them and there are some vehicle driving sequences.
My one gripe with this game (and I think it's a game designer conspiracy) is its ease of play. Developers make games easy so people can rush off to buy the next big thing like any good addict. Grubs go down way too fast. I remember these goons taking a serious lead-pounding before dying. I remember having to restart a level several times in G1, but now I just blow through bad guys like nothing. The Lancer is really the only weapon you'll need. Everything else is just razzle dazzle. And that's the rough spot with any sequel like this. Designers overdo it without considering the tactical effect of new weapons. After I realized the Lancer was the only gun I needed, I really didn't care about new stuff.
Okay, I have a second gripe. I can not stand cliched characters in games like this. I simply loathe the Texas accented, ten-gallon hat wearing, bad mouthed battle platform driver. And then there's the mystical, oriental Tai, who speaks calmy with few words but is so wise and profound - please deep-six this kind of shhhittttt and serve up some real characters in the future.
In all, G2 rocks. Can't wait for G3 - with MORE ENEMIES, BIGGER LOCATIONS, and MORE WEAPONS. See you in 2010. No need to make this game like "Aliens" either. We've seen that done umpteenth times. | video-games_xbox |
Playing through the nightmare. Horror is in many ways along the same paths as comedy which can create terror or laughter when they can but certain people will be immune to it, the difference between blood and guts to subtlety, or in other words, a fart joke to satire. So along with books and movies, gaming can also create a horror atmosphere but whether or not it succeeds really depends on how well they pull it off and whether or not you're into that kind of thing. F.E.A.R (First Encounter Assault Recon) is one of the more well-known games in the horror field so with the sequel coming up really soon, I thought I'd check it out and my general feeling is not one of disappointment or amazement but somewhere in the middle: the gunfights and horror elements work well but then they just didn't get to me either the other times.
Story: You play as the "Point Man" a special operative in the F.E.A.R who's job it is to terminate one Paxton Fettel, who's taking control of enhanced soldiers via psychic abilities and taking control of a government building. You're sent in to deal with this threat but something's aren't what they seem: visions fade in and out, sounds are heard with nothing around and a strange apparition of a young red-dressed girl keeps showing herself to her. Her identity, as well as yours, is the basic for the game.
The problem is...I didn't really care. I mean the whole story about Alma is interesting but the problem is that it's very easy to get lost in the narrative even though it's a pretty simple tale. Unlike the Half-Life 2 games where characters spoke in cutscene directly in front of you and even optional subtitles can be called in, Fear on the other hand has a really small window on the top left for who's talking where I literally had to lean in close and squint just to make out the names (even though your health and ammo counters are pretty fat numbers). It's a really immersive environment and the atmosphere is quite tangible like any good horror story but it's the actual narrative that is either uninvolving or just hard to figure out.
Graphics: Originally released for the PC, Fear makes it way onto the Xbox 360 and its apparently inferior port onto the PS3 (like the Orange Box it seems) and graphically it's hit-or-miss. Facial animation is quite good and the lighting is very convincing in mood and seeing ripples and bullet trails in slow motion is awesome however the repetitive level design and same-y looking rooms and corridors kind of drag this down. Where the experience really goes into the cool zone is the weird visual tricks the game employs to mess with you which range from split-second frame inserts to vanishing people to temporary location moving (one time I went from a corridor/room to a long hallway with blood on the ceiling and back and again...don't know what the hell that was about but sweet!). It does get a bit old seeing another "did I just see...?" image but by that point, you've been playing for so long, you buy into it. Slowdown is apparently in some cases but it's usually for the big fights anyway.
Sound/Music: Sound design is quite stellar from the gunfire blasts to the weird ambience of the locales to the bizarre encounters, everything is delivered well. Like most horror, well...GOOD horror anyway, they knew when to use sound effectively whereas most directors have to shock you by turning up the sound really, really loud for 2 seconds, Fear likes to play tricks on you: silence and something's coming right? Well not always. Sometimes cues come up for you to get ready only there's nothing, turn than BAM! Voice acting for the most part is good but again, the characters aren't really that engaging so it's a case where I didn't mind the voices themselves, just who the voice was attached to.
Gameplay: For the most part, Fear plays like a typical shooter: guns with up to 3 available at a time, grenades which range from remote controlled to proximity to simple frag and melee attacks. The big selling point is the idea of using your superhuman reflexes and slowing down time to mow down enemies which strange as it sounds, is awesome yet weirdly out-of-place in a horror game. It's like John Woo's Hard Boiled by way of Ju-On or the Ring and while in firefights, it's incredibly useful (not to mention smirk inducing) its implementation into a horror game works well enough but then you wonder: shouldn't the game be more terrifying if I can't knock my enemies senseless? Oh and one issue: on the D-pad, left and right are used as a kind of tilt to basically see around edges without having to physically move however the flashlight is your down and in many cases I'd try to tilt only to have my flashlight turn on at the same time and the AI is so good, they'll point out your flashlight and you're going "aw hell" and forgo your plans for stealth and just Rambo the buggers.
The game isn't necessarily difficult and the times I died were really my fault since I'd rush in or wouldn't plan things out but then on occasion, there'd be an absolute moronic move on part of the developers that got my blood boiling. Example: one mission I won by the skin of my teeth with barely any health left (if you go below 25, you regenerate to that point, the rest is up to you with scattered med kits and body armor) and was airlifted by helicopter. Only here's the stupid part: they didn't bring me back to full health. I mean, this is my squad, my brothers in arms and they can't even bring me to full 100%? So when I landed, we were ambushed, 2 guys came out and shot me to death and going into slow-mo didn't help because there was 3-4 others on the roof anyway. Like what the hell?
F.E.A.R is the kind of horror game where it's a cool experience when the game tries to completely mess with you but then when it goes into shooter mode, it feels a bit...stock, a bit too "I've seen this before". At least Monolith's own Condemned games changed FPS playing a bit but this just feels like everything else I played, only without the creepy girl. It's well worth a go but I wouldn't call it flawless either. | video-games_xbox |
Arkham Knight = Dark Knight Rises. We reached the end of the "Arkham" Trilogy and Rocksteady is pulling out all the stops! Unfortunately however effort alone isn't what makes a game great.
Without giving away spoilers I will discuss some pros and cons of the game and explain why ultimately I am giving it the WEAKEST of 4 stars.
Pros
- Rocksteady did their homework. Riddler challenges that rely on a lot of Bat History is a cool plus for a die hard Batman fan like myself. However this can be challenging and or frustrating for fans who only are casual Batman fans.
- Terrific voice acting. Batman sounds the same as he does back when Conroy was still doing BTAS, Scarecrow sounds creepy and menacing, and Troy Baker. I don't even need to explain anything there. However my one complaint was Gordon. Although I do love Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, I felt Gordon's voice did not match the character but that may just be my personal preference.
- The Villians. Another surprise was the use of not only well established villains but more recent and comic book entries. Apart from the typical two-face and penguin we are also treated to some surprise villains during the "Gothams Most Wanted" missions which I love how Rocksteady interpreted them into the Arkham Universe.
Cons
Annoying Riddler Challanges- It was the final game. I didn't want to just see the secret ending on YouTube, I wanted to earn it. I was wrong.... For all the trouble I went through the ending was just not that special to justify the frustration I went through. At the end of it all I was hoping Batman would break his rule and Kill Riddler, kidding (sorta...). Which brings me again to The Riddler...
-Riddler Batmobile races. Like I said before I wanted to personally murder the Riddler when the game was completed and his Challanges involving you racing against the clock only furthered that anger. I was lucky I managed to complete even the hardest of the races after a few tries but there are people on YouTube still stuck trying to beat certain Riddler races.
- Arkham Knight. I promised there would be no spoilers and I intend to keep my word. However with that being said, the reveal of Arkham Knight is not only anti climatic but underwhelming. I understood why they chose who they did and honestly I don't think I could have picked someone better, but still. It's resolution is clunky and quick.
Mixed bag
The God Damn Batmobile (Points if you get the reference) - Ok so at first I hated it. Clunky hard to drive, hard to turn, just not the best driving experience. I admit I got used to it and did enjoy it later on in the game. But I prefer soaring over Gotham, and grappling up buildings. Being forced to do so many Challanges with the car was not only annoying but could be frustrating when just starting out
Remember everything from the previous games? Well you better hope so because Rocksteady decided to just give you all your cool toys at the beginning of the game and hope you remembered how to use them. I discussed this with a friend who also agreed this tactic makes the game feel slightly rushed. I enjoyed the previous iterations where Batman had to get each weapon over time, instead the game is more focused on Batmobile upgrades.
So there you have it the pros and the cons, while its a good game it's not the best in the series. Personally it would be City, Asylum, then Knight for me. The game reminded me a lot of Dark Knight Rises which isn't the best thing in the world but still a fun time
There is enjoyment to be had but just don't expect this to be the best game in the series. Also on a side note. Although I compared this to "Dark Knight Rises" did anyone else pick up that Scarecrows plot is essentially the same exact one from "Batman Begins"? Fear toxin all over Gotham etc
Anyway thank you for reading and please leave a upvote or comment explaining your feelings towards the game and this review! | video-games_xbox |
Multiplayer Sets The Bar For This Generation. To start off if your a multiplayer fanatic and enjoy having a great time this is definitely the game. Compared to other war games (modern warfare for example) this is the most fun and most realistic of them all. The explosions, the firing of the guns, all sound magnificent, its probably the best sounding game of this generation. I suggest playing it with turtle beaches by the way because all I can say is you feel like your right in the middle of the battle. Team work in multiplayer is another big plus for me. There are 4 classes to choose from when you play and each has its advantages and disadvantages. There is the Assault class with your machine guns and your ammo box dropping, Engineer class with sub-machine guns and your repair tool to fix any vehicle, Medic class with light heavy machine guns with the med kit and also the defibrillator to revive teammates, Recon class which is your sniper class with motion detection and mortar strikes. All the classes have a lot of guns to choose from but to get them you have to get so many points in that class. There is also something called Specs which is like perks in modern warfare, these include magnum ammo, body armor, and lightweight, just to name a few. Vehicles are a big part of multiplayer, you have helicopters, ATV, tanks, and many more. They add depth to the game and they are not very overpowering if you have the right class.
Multiplayer-5/5
Now to the single player. Alright don't get me wrong its alright but it is not the greatest. The story just seemed to far fetched to me and the length is also a big downfall. The campaign is extremely short, roughly two maybe three hours. The characters are probably some of the best I've seen in a fps war game and the comical relief they bring is a great touch to the game. there are some entertaining missions which I won't give away but they should have you in aw. Overall it is decent but i was hoping for something better
Single player- 3/5
To the graphics now, the dice team have came up with a special engine. With destruction 2.0 nothing really stands in your way, if you need to get somebody in a house why not just noobtube the wall down. The overall look might not be the best like the detail of the guns or the blacking of the screen for a second, but with the huge maps and the falling of every building constructed in the game the little less detail things don't bother you at all. The terrain looks beautiful and like I said this is a very special engine and dice did a great job
Graphics 3/5 | video-games_xbox |
Single player snore. I am an owner of an Xbox and Halo 1 and 2, I do not own a 360. I have no interest in online multiplayer, and this review is of the single player / co-op campaign. I am not a hardcore gamer, but I do spend my money when games are good enough.
I had a chance to play this game at a friends place recently, we played through the entire campaign on heroic. I will not compare it to Halo 2 since that game was only good for online-muliplayer.
Maps: It was obvious they were trying to repeat some of the map success on Halo 1. Almost all the maps were extra long, with playtimes from 40 minutes to 2 hours. Re-use of architecture from Halo 1 was rampant, with elements from the map Silent Cartographer and Assault on the Control Room being the most identifiable.
Somehow though, they missed their mark. Perhaps it was the obsession on photo-unrealistic glossy surfaces with shadow effects, or perhaps it was the fact they spent more time fretting over how to make Halo 1 rooms *look* new (who knows why?), but for some reason I was considerably less exciting than just replaying Halo 1. The outdoor " dusty earth" style map was considerably better than Halo 2, though it still left me wanting for the stunning contrast that we saw in Halo 1.
There were no levels that I considered to have replay value, so if you're looking for another Silent Cartographer or Library, don't look to this game.
Music: Compared to Halo 1, they get a major F. The score was a pathetic rehash and rarely incited emotion.
Ambient Sound / Background Chatter: The grunts in Halo 3 had considerably funnier sayings, and were definitely better at responding to tactical situations. The sound effects were superb, as is to be expected from the Halo franchise, and generally left me impressed.
AI: The AI generally felt much easier than Halo 1, and a joke compared to Halo 2. Though to be honest, I've played through Halo 1 so many times it's pretty hard to tell if I'm just better at killing grunts now.
Brutes and their friends for some reason are much less exciting to kill than elites, and this did not change between Halo 2 and Halo 3. The only difference is there are more brutes, and that makes more of the game less interesting.
The flood were both more and less annoying. It is actually possible to fight flood with plasma now, though it's not advisable. However the mini-flood things got some armor, and teeth. If you just ignore them and let them die on your shield, they have the ability to kill you. However, once you adapt to the change in flood dynamics, they are quite easy to handle.
Graphics: I hate to say it, but if this is the best the 360 can produce, I'm unimpressed. I played the game on my friends large-screen HDTV at 720p, and even with good hardware it wasn't that great. There was constant environment clipping / culling. Fog was obviously being used in some areas to hide polygons. Grass doesn't show up until about 50 feet out. Everything was too shiny. Bump mapping was used to good effect. Character models, while more complex than before (armor falls off and other "interactive" model changes), seemed dull boring boring compared to the elites in Halo 1. Basically, it looks like Halo 1 with a better processor, worse map design, and all the contrast taken out of the skins.
With that said, if you're a hardcore gamer you probably already own Halo 3 and won't care about this review. If you're like me and the last games you bought were Halo 1 and Final Fantasy 10, don't jump on the Halo 3 bandwagon. While I don't regret my purchase of an Xbox for only Halo 1, I fear I would regret the purchase of a 360 for only Halo 3. Having rented all the other titles and played them at my friends house, I haven't seen any other titles to consider except Blue Dragon.
Summary: If you own a 360, you already have Halo 3. If you are considering buying a 360 for Halo 3, don't expect another Halo 1. It falls considerably short. It's key feature is online multiplayer, and if that's your thing great, but it's not mine.
Sean | video-games_xbox |
Dumbed Down But Still Outstanding. First off, I wanted to make it clear that this is an outstanding game, one of the best I've ever played. As proof of this I've played through the career three whole times, and plan to play it at least once more before the release of Mass Effect 3. Generally I don't replay games, and that is definitely the most I've ever played a game, except for maybe Rock Band. That being said Bioware dumbed this game down so far from the mastery of the original Mass Effect. This game is one of the most polished games I've ever played. However I feel like they accomplished this by completely eliminating any originality and progress in the gameplay. They stripped almost all of the RPG gameplay that I loved, leaving such a simplistic leveling system (with a really low level cap) and hardly any skills. Also, they got rid of all of the weapons and add-ons in favor of a series of upgrades. In my mind, while this made it easier for a young stupid player that's too impatient to enjoy RPG's, for me it was a useless system. I never felt more powerful after buying a new upgrade, it felt exactly the same, either because the upgrade didn't add enough or the enemies always got more powerful at exactly the same rate.
In all of the videos during the game, the characters have so much more power than the minuscule amount of abilities you have in gameplay. Essentially, ME2's gameplay is just a very basic cover based shooter with a few interesting powers. Especially at higher levels, you have to stay behind cover most of the game if you don't want to die every couple seconds. Also, I find it amazing that in the future we replace bullets with cool-down clips that work exactly the same way. In fact some of the guns have less ammo than the present. At the higher levels this becomes a big problem, as multiple times I ran out of ammo, especially with the guns I liked the most. The technology of the world does not match the gameplay, while it absolutely did in the first game. Still however, the gameplay is fun even at its most basic.
Now onto the story, while compared to everything else on the market it's amazing, but compared to the original Mass Effect the main story is pretty weak. Essentially there are only 4 missions in the main story, and there isn't really any main nemesis. There's just some goofy Collector that repeats annoying phrases and has no motivation for all the evil its doing. In the first game there was a guy we could chase after, feeling like we're always a step beyond, and then after that an even more massive evil with very interesting reasoning. Here we have one faceless enemy with no reasoning, there's never a twist or anything to compete against. Also, the act of killing Shepard at the very beginning of the story is such a goofy way to restart everything. However, the bulk of the game's missions involving recruiting and gaining the loyalty of characters is really fun and original. I loved it, at times it almost felt like a sci-fi version of the game series Suikoden where you'd collect 108 characters/stars (most of them weren't actually playable). In fact I'd love to see more of that in the next game, it really involves you in the story to gather these people/aliens and than talk to them.
However, that brings me to another part of the game that I'd love to see adapted in ME3. It makes no sense to only take 2 other characters with you to fight hundreds and hundreds of enemies. I mean I understand the benefit of a small team, but you really never do any sneaking around. Also, it's implied that all of the characters are leaving on the mission even though you only have 3 total characters. From this, I'd love to see two additions, first it would be nice if each character had its own experience points so you'd be rewarded/punished by underusing or overusing the other characters. Secondly I'd love to see more characters on screen, even if they aren't playable. If it's too difficult for Bioware to achieve, they could just have more missions like the last mission on this game, where you have two separate teams.
Even after all of the above complains, I still think that this game is amazing, and my favorite game of 2010. | video-games_xbox |
Sequel's not as good as the original. Unlike the original Star Wars film trilogy, the second game in the Knights of the Old Republic series is a disappointment when compared to the first game. The storyline and plot made the first game truly gripping, but this time the plot is convoluted, full of holes and the storyline is extremely confusing. No huge revelations like the identity of Revan in the first game. Just lazy writing. The opening levels of the new game are WAY too slow and by the end of the game you become so powerful that the bosses aren't even a challenge. I just breezed through the Sith Academy. The Dark Jedi might as well have been statues for all the fight they gave me. VERY poor NPC AI. Also there were a few glitches here and there, one of the most frustrating being that characters sometimes reversed gender in dialogue when speaking about Revan even after you set a gender for Revan. Plus, there is no payoff at the end of the game -- no movie for completing the game, just a longwinded boring monologue. And don't get me started on the characters. The first game had characters you really cared about. When you played the first game in Dark Side mode, it would almost physically pain you to cut down Jolie or turn the Wookiee against Mission. They were likable, fully developed characters (with maybe the exception of HK, though funny, and the war-story-spouting Mandalorian guy). This game's characters are mostly annoying and are one-dimensional. There's really not much to them and very few opportunities to find out much about them. The new game also seems more linear and directed than the first game. On the whole, I think it suffers from a lack of creative vision. The team that wrote the first game didn't do this one, and it shows. I would love to play another KOTR game put together by the first team. It just makes no sense why they put a winning Game of the Year franchise in new -- and not as capable -- hands. What a letdown. I can say that I am looking forward to the Jade Empire RPG by the old team, though. | video-games_xbox |
Controversy surrounds the sequel to a beloved favorite. The original Supreme Commander was an instant hit with me because it updated the Total Annihilation Real-Time Strategy game with a modern interface; strategic zoom, re-routable waypoints, and several ways to automate mundane tasks.
While buggy, I even appreciated the first game's 360 version because this modern interface lent itself to a simplified control scheme on consoles. Though I still played mostly on the PC. Now Chris Taylor has released Supreme Commander 2, which streamlines the interface and gameplay even more. There has been a lot of controversy over the simplification. Some people have gone as far to say it has been dumbed down and shouldn't be given the proper name of "Supreme Commander 2" but rather, should have been named with a qualifier that would scope its ambition as a simple spin-off.
The primary complaints I've heard from others:
* The economy is no longer rate-based, but a more traditional "buy only as you have the money" system
* The number of total available units has been reduced significantly
* A new resource, Research, has been introduced with a literal tech-tree associated to spend resource points (kind of like RPG skill assignments for new types of units or enhanced abilities)
* STEAM is used for activation, community, and multi-player
The game is different from Supreme Commander 1, however, it is still recognizable and doesn't feel like something completely foreign with a SupCom skin applied as some have suggested. It is faster paced, quicker battles, and rewards players that take action.
Economy
In the previous games, you could queue up build orders to your heart's content and the building progress rate would simply slow down if you were spending more resources than you had on hand. So all of your building projects would decrease evenly, and then increase evenly as your income became better.
With the new system, you pay the full price for each item as you queue it. When you drag a line of power to be built for example, once you get to a length you cannot afford it turns from green outlines to yellow. Those buildings will not be built at any future point.. You will need to re-select to build them once you do have the resources available.
It was only in the very early game where I hit a wall where I needed to wait for resources in order to build something. Once I had my economy research done, I was able to pump out what I wanted when I needed it. One aspect of the design with the literal tech tree and resource points costs, is that I now tend to focus on what I plan to do. Because I'm focusing efforts down a particular path, my resource spend is also focused. I think this actually makes me a better player because I'm not building a general pool of economy in order to react to my opponent... I'm more aware of my strategy and tend to be more on the offense.
Another change related to economy is that there is no longer a resource storage system or resource cap. This means there is no longer an element of wasted resources and is probably why I never saw "yellow" telling me I couldn't build as the game progressed. I have infinite storage, so nothing was lost.
This change will take some adjustments, but it doesn't render the game unplayable. One might even argue that it makes the game more accessible by adhering to a more universally accepted system.
UNITS
Instead of increasing your rate of income or damage by advancing unit types from Tech 1, to Tech 2, Tech 3 and finally Experimental levels, a single unit type has been defined, and the rate at which it grows over the course of a game is impacted by researching specific skills to "level up" the in-place units.
For example, you start with the ability to build a basic tank frame. It has two canon barrels. You do research and now that same frame, including all currently deployed tanks, get a third canon barrel. Upgrade again and you give them all anti-air, do some more research and now they have shield generators. You basically get all of the Tech 1-3 built on the same frame via research rather than self destructing Tech 1 units to clear the unit cap limit so that you can build Tech 3 units.
I think this is a great change.
RESEARCH
In addition to Energy and Metal, Supreme Commander 2 also introduces the concept of Research. The points are earned in two ways.
For each research station I build, I get .6 points per time unit. However, when I research the "research Income" that goes up to .8 points per time unit. So an orange bar is filling up faster the more research stations I have, and each research station rate is impacted by leveling up the research skill. Once I earn a research point, it is stored in a virtual wallet, and cannot be destroyed. The number displayed above the orange rate bar indicates the points on hand for research.
The second way points are earned, is through combat. So the more battles I engage in, the faster the research bar increases earning me more points as well.
These points are spent on leveling up your units. These research items can impact build rates, costs, range, armor, hit points, available units, special abilities, and more. There is a new panel that displays the hierarchy and dependency mapping for each ability, very similar to skill trees common in Role Playing Games.
STEAM
The downside of STEAM integration is that it is forced for product activation. I can imagine there are still plenty of people out there that play PC games without reliable Internet connectivity, and even more people that would just rather not tie themselves into a particular digital distribution provider. However, Total Annihilation's service, Boneyards died and it is now difficult to play that classic over the Internet without a 3rd party application like Kali. Compared to the current incarnation of Boneyards known as GPG Net, STEAM performs better and appears to be better for community features, hooking up and playing pick-up games, as well as giving you more widely recognized achievements.
I've played enough of Supreme Commander 2 to know that I love it despite its changes to the formula. The enhancements that made Supreme Commander's interface the best in the business, are still intact and now the gameplay has been streamlined as well giving a more consistent experience and welcomed healthy pace for games lasting between 30 and 45 minutes. | video-games_xbox |
Hoo boy, that is a BAD stench coming from here. I have to say one thing before I go on with this review: I like DBZ. The Budokai games are fun, and the show was good until the Buu series. Budokai 2 is the best DBZ game I've ever played, and I've played quite a few. But this game SUCKS. There is no "fun" aspect. My neighbor borrowed it from another neighbor, and we played, because it sounded fun. It's DBZ, but there's free-roam, and co-op. Nothing bad, right? Wrong. You run around and beat things up. That's where the fun starts, and where it ends. There are six playable characters, too bad there's only one, two differences between that person, and all the others. You run, fight, fly, fight, blow up rocks trying to find DBZ coins, fight, destroy the disc knowing that you aren't going to get more than a dollar for it, you cry over $20 lost. Why is it that the biggest hyped games aren't nearly as good as they were cracked up to be? Pariah, Prey, MK: Shaolin Monks, Tomb Raider: Legend, etc. etc.
Gameplay: 1/10 As I explained in the above paragraph, you run, fly, and fight. The try to keep the gameplay up by adding these coins, Which are just out of flying reach. You can blow up mountains, but you can't fly 6 inches higher? The flying is really just hovering there, with little flames coming off of your feet. There really isn't much to talk about here, because there isn't much else that I haven't explained.
Sound: 1/10 Could they try to make more annoying sounds and music? Well, I suppose they could use the Goldeneye: Rogue Agent DS music.
Graphics: 1/10 This game has worse graphics than MK: Deception's Konquest mode, which is just another way to get koins. I'm not kidding. Okay, how about this: the graphics are worse than the Cat in the Hat game.
Value: 0/100 The only reason you'd actually pay $[...] for this game is if you are 6 years old, mentally deranged, or you're a masochist. I wouldn't take the game unless you paid me $[...] or more in cash.
Overall: Don't even touch this game. Don't even look in your bargain bin for it, it's THE WORST game I've played, and trust me, I've played a lot. | video-games_xbox |
A five star review for a product with a fatal flaw. I am a bit torn here, but I've decided to go with a full five stars for the following reason:
This product has managed to achieve what several decades of guitar lessons by video/DVD/web have not. It has actually made me a better player. Gradually, with lots of encouragement, and a very forgiving learning curve. (Unlike Ubisoft's war games, which are unforgiving, merciless and tedious!)
Here's the fatal flaw:
When your game system is connected to your TV via an HDMI cable, there WILL BE A NOTICEABLE LAG between when you play a note, and when you hear it back. This makes Rocksmith all but worthless as you fumble around trying to play notes ahead of time, out of sync with the music. It's a miserable experience and you'll hate it. Ubisoft is aware of this and has made users aware of the flaw in the startup screens of the game. There's a warning that says you should connect your audio directly via analog cables. DO NOT IGNORE THIS. HDMI will yield an entirely unsatisfactory experience due to latency in the round trip that the audio has to take from your guitar back to your ears. However, if you're willing to do a bit of hacking and reconfiguring, you will be rewarded with a teaching tool far beyond anything I've ever experienced.
The cheapest solution I've found, for users who have the original Xbox 360 RGB+Red/White audio cable, is to crack open the gray plastic housing around the connector and throw it away. This is the cable that you stopped using when you upgraded to HDMI. Then plug the now-much-slimmer-but-still-sturdy metal connector into your Xbox right next to your HDMI cable, this may be a tight fit if your HDMI cable has a lot of fat plastic around it's ends. Ignore the RGB cables, just plug the red/white cables into an old bookshelf stereo, or ipod dock, or anything you have that will take this very common audio input. Listen through that and mute your TV while you play. You will now experience very little latency and you can get on with learning.
Other users have said plenty about how well this "game" executes against it's stated purpose of teaching you guitar, so I'll leave those reviewers to dive into the details. I just wanted to chime in to say that this game is absolutely worth the technical hassle if your goal is to move beyond "aspiring guitar player" to "actual guitar player". After all, if you're a guitar player, you'd better get used to the idea of troubleshooting some cable issues. It's gonna be part of your life. | video-games_xbox |
Solid Spider-Man experience. Let's start with the negative since that's always easier.
First thing I noticed was the lack of character likeness and voices. If you are going to make an officially licensed tie-in with the movie, why not go that extra mile and get the actors to do the voices and make their on-screen sprites actually look like the characters they are supposed to be portraying.
There are no spoiler warnings for this game. The game takes place sometime after the movie ends so playing it before you see the movie will reveal plot points, both major and minor, about the upcoming film to include characters that die in the movie.
While there is an over-world that Spiderman can freely swing around, outside of finding collectables and stopping the occasional crime there is very little to do besides swing around as most of the action that drives the story takes place inside buildings. Manhattan itself is poorly represented and if not for a few landmarks like the Empire State building or the Statue of Liberty off in the distance, you could very well be in any generic city. The island is woefully small and it feels like all the life and vibrancy that makes Manhattan wonderful has been sucked out leaving it grey, boring and suspiciously empty. I feel like there is a missed opportunity here to make a living city like that of Liberty City in GTA IV but instead falls victim to the rush to push the game out to coincide with the release of the movie.
As long as we are discussing the open world let's talk about the web swinging. Spiderman 2 for Xbox/PS2/Gamecube was the first time we were able to take to the New York Skyline and web-swing to our hearts content. Sure the rest of the game was really rough around the edges but it was the ability to go anywhere and have the Spiderman experience that kept us playing. In The Amazing Spider-Man the web-swinging is back but its not as tight or refined as Spiderman 2. Whereas in Spiderman 2 we had the options to chose a simplified or more manual form of web-swinging which gave to player a greater feeling of control, in The Amazing Spider-Man one size fits all. Pull the right trigger and away you go. It's easy to lose control and find yourself swinging into the sides of buildings or right past the objective you were trying to get to.
Another reviewer likened the combat to Batman: Arkham City. While Spiderman does pull off an impressive array of tricks during combat, you rarely feel like you are in the driver's seat. You are reduced to mashing X until prompted on screen to push another button to either dodge or do a special move while Spiderman flips around and does his thing. This is only applicable to the standard bad guy of course as some strategy is needed for boss fights.
The last thing that bothered me (and this may be petty but it's my review) is that when you start up the game you have to sit thru or skip thru at least 6 different companies splash screens before you can even get to start the game.
Okay, let's talk about the good stuff.
For its faults the web swinging is a lot of fun and probably the reason a lot of people (myself included) bought the game. It works well as a spiritual successor to Spiderman 2 in this respect. Spiderman's new ability, the "Web Rush" , allows Spiderman to slow down time and shows you all the options for web swinging at that moment, be it landing or a flag pole, launching off a water tower, slingshotting thru the streets of scooping up a nearby collectible.
The combat has an upgrade system so it never gets to stale. You have to ability to put points that you earn by leveling into different aspects of Spiderman's combat tree much like in Spiderman 2 that give you new or stronger attacks. There is also a Tech Tree that allows you to level things like Spiderman's webs or his Spider-Tracers.
I also appreciated the inclusion of some new blood into Spiderman's stable with Smythe's giant robots. Yes I know technically they are just Spider Slayers but after so many times fighting the same villains over and over its nice to come across something different.
For all my complaints I find the game to be a solid experience. Is it a genre changer? No. Is it super deep and refined? No. it's a movie game but it's a fun movie game which in itself can be a rare experience. For those looking for a next-gen answer to the Spiderman 2 game, this is for you. For those looking for a rewarding experience akin to Arkham Asylum/City, you probably won't find it here. Don't let the 3-star rating dissuade you if you were thinking about getting the game. It's an average game, but for all the feeling of missed potential here it is still a solid, good game. | video-games_xbox |
Best stealth action game to date, hands down. While it lacks universal appeal, Splinter Cell (SC) is an outstanding game that provides an experience on the Xbox that no other game can. You take the role of Sam Fisher, an veteran special forces commando called out of retirement for a new, experimental intelligence initiative of the NSA. The storyline is classic Tom Clancy (as is Fisher, Clancy readers may wonder why they didn't just name the character Clark and be done with it). As far as simulating this type of experience goes, SC is remarkably well done but what will really determine if you like the game is whether or not the core concept appeals to you.
If you're considering purchasing SC then you've doubtlessly already read about how fantastic the graphics and sound are. Believe the hype. The music and sound effects are wonderfully immersive and create the sort of tense atmosphere this game needs. The lighting engine is nothing short of revolutionary. There are some clipping issues (dead bodies can poke through walls) but it is difficult to pick on the game for this considering how much power must be devoted to the best real time light and shadows ever in a game.
The gameplay in SC is excellent. The conrtrols and camera are intuitive and easy to use. Fisher can perform an extensive variety of physical actions to interact with his environment. Sometimes it is difficult to get him to do exactly what you want because there are so many options available and so many objects to interact with but practice and experience will solve most of these problems.
It is important to be clear that SC is not a shooter in the classic sense. Certianly, you will encounter some scenarios in which the only real course of action is a full blown fire fight with automatic wepaons, but they are rare. Ubi Soft did a fantastic job of conveying how chaotic and disjointed such combat must feel. Fisher's aim worsens drmatically if you try to move and shoot at the same time and both you and your opponents will miss a lot. In addition, everyone is realistically fragile - it only takes a few rounds to put someone down and head shots will always kill. But SC is really a stealth game. The point is to sneak through a dense thicket of security without being caught. The game's finest moments are found while you wait in the shadows, timing the complex patterns of a group of guards, waiting for the exact second to move to the next pool of shadows. Or when you sit in the darkness, mere feet from a pair of guards with machine guns as they stalk by, your heart stuck in your throat as you wait to see if they discover you. Depending on the way you choose to approach the game, you might kill every guard you come across or kill virtually no one. It is almost like there are two games in SC. You can play through as a cold machine, dropping every guard you come across, or you can take the self-imposed challenge and try to minimize the body count and the game will never really punish you for choosing one over the other.
Overall the level design and widely ranging methods of attack give SC a great deal of replay value. There are only nine levels, but each one takes several hours to complete and expansion levels will be available through Xbox Live or the Official Xbox Magazine game disks soon. The path through the levels may be a bit too linear. There is often really only way to travel from the start of a level to the end. The designers did this intentionally to keep the levels from being confusing, but it would have been a better simulation if it included such uncertainty. You can only save your game at certain check points in a given level and this is a good thing. It keeps the tension higher than it would have been if you could save your game anywhere.
The final point to touch on is the game AI. Overall, it is quite good, especially on a room to room basis. Enemies react realisitcally to your discovery and will investigate any sounds you may make. However, the game AI does have its faults. First it is possible to do things like shoot out a camera and then simply wait out a guard's investigation. If you stay hidden, eventually the guard will just figure it broke or something and forget about it rather than raising an alarm. It is also odd how you can stalk into a building, leaving in your wake nothing but broken lights and carefully hidden bodies, and no one on the radio network operated by the security notices the growing silence. It is also odd nobody ever notices a camera going offline when you shoot it, but the moment a camera sees you, all hell breaks loose. In the sequel Ubi Soft should try to address this, perhaps by upping the overall state of alarm every time a camera or radio equipped guard goes off the air.
In the end, SC is a game that anyone who finds the idea of slowly sneaking through shadowy compunds while dodging cameras, security guards, and dogs appealing should flat out purchase. You won't be disappointed. If you are unsure whether or not you would enjoy a video game where the tension and excitement come from the portions of the game that aren't action driven, then you should definitely rent first. | video-games_xbox |
Thanks for charging me full price for half a game Bungie. Let me preface this by saying that this is my first game by Bungie. I've always been a Playstation guy but with this generation I made the jump to Xbox 1. I've loved playing BF 3 and 4 was pretty good but not as fun as 3. So after playing those games for a while I began to get bored. Destiny looked to be a game that could replace BF for me. The demo for Destiny was fun but the game itself ended up not living up to the hype. The campaign was fun for about a week as it only takes you about that long to finish it. Then if you want to level up your character you have to endlessly grind out the same missions you've already done over and over and over. Beyond boring. "But wait all you have to do is buy the DLC when it comes out and it will have more missions to do." So I have to give you even more money to get a more complete game experience? No frickin' way!!!
I tried playing PVP a few times and I hated that game mode. The matches seem so unbalanced that I just ended up getting my butt whooped most of the time. Destiny would be a lot more fun if the campaign didn't feel like half a game. Apparently there was a lot more content initially planned but Activision decided to take much of it out and make it DLC. Thanks for promising a game with a rich storyline and content and not delivering!
The game is designed so that you have to play with others to be successful on the harder missions but unless you have a group of friends to play with you end up being thrown into games with randoms. And to make things even worse you can't speak to the people you're playing with if they aren't on your friends list. So that means that there is no way for you to play the game tactically. All you can do is "point", "wave" or "dance" with the others in your party.
Also after playing the game for about a month and FINALLY saving up enough money to buy an epic helmet engram, (the item used to create a piece of armor for your character), I took it to the Cryptarch to be encoded and he turned it into a helmet for one of the other classes in the game so my character couldn't even use it!!!!! The totally random aspect of item drops and loot in this game is completely asinine and beyond frustrating.
So after slogging through the same missions about 20 times each I finally got my character up to level 26. Then I realized that to be able to go any higher would require another month or so of doing the same damn thing. No way Bungie! I ended up exchanging the game for The Evil Within. Gamestop has even reduced the amount of money they will give you for Destiny to $35 because they are getting so many returned. I'm done with this game and I'm done with Bungie. If this is the way that they release games, (half a games' worth of content for full price), I'm never buying another game from Bungie again. | video-games_xbox |
It's OK. But I don't like it. First I'm not a fanboy. I own a 360 (21 games) an original XBOX (61 games) games) and a PS2 (49 games). I had always gamed on my computer, but purchased a PS2 so I could play GTA-Vice City, then about a year after that, got my XBOX; and then this summer, my 360 (purchased so that I could play Saint's Row). I like all kinds of games, and I have most of the major releases, for all 3 platforms for about the last 3 years. I also will admit for a few of my most favorite games, I will buy other versions, to get other content, etc (I own all 3 platforms of Godfather, the game, lol). I do want to get a PS3 when they are more widely available, probably will wait till the summer like I did for the 360. Plus there will be more games for it then, I'm sure. With my boring background out of the way, here's my review:
Last week I picked up a bunch of new games for my 360-Gears of War was the first one I tried out. OK well, I wasn't that impressed. Visuals were pretty good, but it seemed like the couple-of-humans-trapped-in a small area-by huge aliens-type story like Alien or things like that. I don't like the fact you can't control your crouching/wall cover more; although I guess with time I could get used to the movements. One thing I noticed everyone else say was, hey you can't jump...myself, I think they made it like that on purpose--if a human soldier was carrying all that equipment (in real life it would be at LEAST 150lbs of pack/weapons/armor), obviously, he wouldn't be able to jump very high, lol. In fact, quite honestly I always thought the fact you COULD jump like a jumping bean in HALO, with that armor/enviro suit on, was kind of silly, but, that's just me I guess.
Anyway, maybe part of the problem is, it's me, i.e. I'm not too good at this type of shooter, i.e. the quake/doom/unreal type game rather than the GTA/Saints Row/Godfathe type game. It was frustrating to be stuck in the same place (where the enemy species is cutting through that door), and, even though I'm taking cover, etc, being killed in like 10 to 15 seconds. The weapons you have at this stage don't seem to do too much damage to the enemy either, or maybe I'm not hitting them in the right places. I read somewhere, take their knees out first becuase their thorax is heavily armored, tried that, still got killed. Maybe once I got the machine gun with the saw bayonet I'd score more kills, I don't know. To me, right now, this game seems too frustrating-the enemies are too strong and the weapons are too weak. Again, this could just be my poor skills, just my opinion, but I don't think I'm going to spend too much time on this one. | video-games_xbox |
Excellent long playing RPG for 360. Mass Effect Review by Ed Fillmore 022208
First off, I am a huge fan of the Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic series for my original XBOX. Science Fiction (RPG) role-playing games with cinematic adventures are very appealing to me. It is my opinion that this game is quite similar to KOTOR. It was one main reason that I picked this game up. The only major difference is the "real time" combat system. Which is better for people who want to dive into real-time action.
The adventures and missions are quite similar to KOTOR, so when it comes to story I'm not very surprised. Some of the smaller side missions are quite repedative. But first time gamers will love the main story based missions and the secondary missions as well. There are tons of different aliens to meet and help with various levels of complex problems. You can spend hours just solving them. It's a great way to build experience and level up your characters so they are stronger for the main missions.
You also have almost limitless choices to customize your characters. The gender, race and overall look of every feature of the human face are fully customizable! There is an incredible amount of details that you choose and the look transfers very well in game play as well as cut scenes. You can also choose between over six different character classes. Each class has their strengths and weaknesses. The amount of customization is a very well planned.
The most amazing feature of Mass Effect has to be the graphics. Every planet or moon you land on has a beautiful amount of color and variety. And when you encounter other beings the character faces, expressions and body language are simply the best I've ever seen. During interactions you will see eye contact, blinking, shoulder shrugging and rapid hand movement while speaking. The animations were very human and lifelike. During conversations the lip-syncing is a little off but with the sheer amount of customizable facial options, I can understand the delay. The attention to detail in texture, lighting and special effects is awesome! The animation is very smooth with the exception of loading and running at the same time. I did experience a slight skipping, but it is to be expected. I even got a "hung up" glitch and could not get off of a certain spot. But I just save the game, shut down and re-load...
The camera movements during certain cinematics are incredible. An excellent example is the planet landings. Your starship flies in fast and low to drop you down with the landing craft, the Mako. It is a sweet six-wheel tank you can drive. But the camera zooms in, shakes when in windstorms and moves around to show you the most dynamic view possible. It's almost like you are in a movie!
Bottom line is Mass Effect is an excellent game to showcase the powerful abilities of the Xbox 360. And because I enjoy customizing my characters, missions and alignment, this game excels in pure entertainment! If you like Science Fiction Role Playing Games, this game is for you! I will score it 9 out of 10. | video-games_xbox |
Who are you? I'M BATMAN. Finally, a game based on a popular comic hero that is fun to play and true to form. Arkham Asylum is one of those rare games that is worth paying $50+ for (something I rarely do). Do not worry about wasting money on this title. If you're concerned about value, wait until it's $30 and you'll be blown away at how great the game is for the price. However, if you want some information read on...
+ Graphics: the visuals are fantastic. Character models are realistic and detailed. There are some close-ups of Batman and Joker that make you do a double-take ("Am I watching a movie?"). The environments are awe-inspiring--dark, gritty, detailed, and realistic. The art team at Rocksteady hit a home-run with the visual design of this game. It is true to the shadowy, dark world of Batman. Every area is interesting and detailed. Near the top for any 360 game out right now.
+ Sound: Creepy, engrossing, inspiring... It runs the gamut. The sound effects are top-notch and sound very realistic--rain, thunder, combat, grapple-lines, batarangs, etc all sound fantastic. The music is phenomenal. If you like the music from the Batman movies, there are some tunes in this game that carry the same spirit but are even better. During an encounter with Scarecrow, I felt my heart pounding from the music and sound effects alone...
+ Gameplay: Rocksteady studios created a very simple, but very effective control system. The typical double-stick move and look from most games is in place and works perfectly. Ducking is simply holding a trigger and cover is utilized with one button (like Gears of War). Batman can move on the ground, below the ground (tunnels, grates, etc), and above the ground (ledges, walkways, rooftops, statues, et al) with ease. Grappling is as simple as looking at where you want to go and hitting a button. The game gives you a heads-up with the proper areas marked with available actions. In a nutshell, the controls are so simple that you'll be sucked into the game without much of a learning curve.
+ Combat: fast-paced, action-packed, and easy to accomplish--what else do we need? Batman's primary attack is a single button, but the primary attack can be combined with batarangs, counter-moves, dodging, and other Batman-unique moves. When you're fighting multiple enemies, the simple system really shines. Combat isn't button-mashing, as it might sound, but it is tactical: counter an incoming kick, grab his leg, throw him into another attack, backflip from a guy swinging a lead pipe, somersault towards him and kick him in the jaw... you get the picture. There is a whole suite of moves for ground combat, stealth takedowns, and aerial takedowns; but every type of combat is laid it in simple, easy-to-use button controls.
+ Challenge: Not only will you face some of Batman's key enemies (Joker, Scarecrow, Zsasz, Croc, Harley Quinn, Bane, etc), but you'll face puzzles set up by the Riddler throughout Arkham. Key allies will be taken hostage (Gordon, Arkham doctors, etc) and you'll need to save them--alive. Sometimes remaining unseen is the challenge, as the lunatics will kill their hostage if they see you. The default difficulty is fairly challenging (there are three levels of difficulty) and this is further compounded by the fact that Batman is not a superhero! Only a few bullets will end your game; a group of thugs kicking, punching, and wielding pipes will end your adventure right quick. Be smart, use the environment, use your gadgets, and you might survive Joker's trap.
+ Perks: As you complete challenges and defeat enemies, you'll gain Experience that allows you to choose from a broad and interesting selection of upgrades. You can power-up your combat techniques (open new moves, increase damage or speed, etc), or enhance your gadgets (multiple batarangs, explosive gel, etc). As an example, the game starts with a single batarang toss (you have unlimited batarangs) that stuns a foe, but after a few upgrades I am able to throw three batarangs at three different enemies that all knock the foe down. There are a lot of different combinations of upgrades to experiment with...
+ Extras: you'll unlock character biographies in the game as you encounter people. To a nerd like me, these were very intriguing: each biography has a comic artwork page, a background story, a vital statistic, and a skill set about the character. Reading the history of people in Batman's world is very intriguing and sometimes helps to understand the motivations in the game. Also, you'll unlock character trophies, which are 3-D models of characters, vehicles, and locations in the game; while not really important, it is interesting if you're a nerd. And the best of the extras: Challenge mode. As you defeat enemies and complete levels, you'll open up a challenge match: a single level that can be played apart from the main story where you'll have to take out various enemies in specific types of moves or conditions (don't be seen, don't get hit, etc). The first one to be unlocked has Batman in a small prison area fighting an increasing number of goons with each successive wave.
- Cons: some minor clipping issues--character arms, legs, or heads can go into a wall; it's not a game-breaker, it just looks bad. Not much else...
+/- Story: the story is fantastic and incredibly compelling, but some folks may not like the constraints imposed. Joker is in control of Arkham, so there are certain areas that Batman can't get to unless Joker allows him to--it feels linear, and it is, but it's part of the story. Also, Batman acts out dialogue without user input; it may irk some gamers looking for more freedom, but it's Batman--he is who he is. Also, as Batman, you cannot use guns or kill people (it will end the game and cause you to restart from the last save); it is true to Batman's character, so I find it part of the experience, but I just wanted to let you know.
Conclusion: I'M BATMAN!!! | video-games_xbox |
A Fun Package, When It's On Sale. This year's Call of Duty disappointed a lot of fans. I've been down on Call of Duty for the last couple years. Advanced Warfare was a good game (from a different studio) that had some interesting mechanics and felt fun for a while, but I quickly lost interest. Last year's Black Ops III (from yet another developer) was my least favorite entry since World at War.
However, I found a lot to like in the Infinte Warfare Legacy Edition. The single-player story isn't an especially well written affair, with one dimensional villains and some cheesy dialogue, but it kept me engaged. The trick with this year's entry was adding the spaceship combat. It's not the best, there's some definite control issues and the lack of a map is frustrating, but it keeps the action varied. I found myself playing every side mission available, and excited to see what came next. I've been playing Titanfall 2 as well, and while that game feels fantastic and the mechanics are much better than Infinite Warfare, I still kept coming back to Call of Duty regardless.
As for multiplayer, I can't say much there. The physics, and especially wall-running, become frustrating in an online environment. All of it works well, but I really don't like the extra layer the "Rigs" or classes work. There's just a little too much of it, and it feels like I could always be doing better with something else. I've only played 3 or 4 hours of it, and I probably won't go back.
Modern Warfare Remastered is my preferred Call of Duty multiplayer this year, which should surprise no one. The campaign holds up fairly well, and it's gorgeous, but it shows its age in the structure. Where Infinite Warfare was engaging, Modern Warfare feels ancient. It plods along at a snail's pace in comparison. I was a huge fan of Modern Warfare when it came out, but there are better options for single player. But the multiplayer is still spectacular. It felt like putting on a pair of well-worn shoes that you thought you'd lost. The guns feel great, the movement is what you expect, and the level design is top-notch (my only gripe would be that I miss the Blind Eye perk which showed up in Modern Warfare 2, but that's just personal preference).
Overall I think the Legacy edition is a great buy, as long as it's on sale. Between Infinite Warfare's single player campaign and Modern Warfare Remastered's Multi Player, there's a lot to like in this box. I wouldn't have spent $80 on it (I found it on sale and had gift cards, so I was luckier than most) but I wouldn't write it off as easily as some have. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing Value Console. This is the best Xbox One Bundle to get now, hands down. For 349 you are getting a great future proof next gen console with two best selling games. Assassins Creed 4 is an amazing open world game and anyone who loves pirates will enjoy this game for a long time. Assassins Creed Unity is amazing too, with a colossal open world Paris that looks incredible and the graphics are absolutely stunning. The game is coming out on November 11, 2014. But enough of the intro, let's talk about the pros and cons of this, since not everything is perfect:
Pros:
1. Very smooth and sleek and organized User Interface. This is the best console UI I've ever seen, hands down. I love the sleek look of it and everything is laid out perfectly.
2. Extremely zippy and fast. Now I did notice a bit of lag, but other than that the UI is speedy and responsive and launching games to watching TV is a breeze on the Xbox One
3. Features. The Xbox One has so many features to offer, that Id have to write a 20 page essay covering it all. From the futuristic snapping function to the Game DVR Recording function, everything feels so new and refreshing.
4. No jerks or trolls. The Xbox One has a reputation system that helps keep away trolls from your game online so you can enjoy. I've tried this feature out, and since my reputation is good, I get matched with other good players that don't troll. But if you're a fool and your reputation is bad, then you will get matched with other fools on Xbox Live.
5. Two Free Games. This is a technical marvel. This deal will only last for so long, so get this Xbox One before January. But anyway, you're getting an Xbox one with a 50 dollar cut, and you're getting 2 free top hit games. That is absolutely amazing because these two games aren't crap games. These two Assassins Creed games are triple A titles that will last you for weeks, or even months.
Cons :( -
1. No kinect. Now this isn't really a big deal, since I never really liked the Kinect. But note that you are going to miss some key features such as voice commands like snapping an app, and launching multiple programs at once. And most of the time, it really feels like the future.
2. You have to pay for changing your Gamertag. Microsoft is still a bit greedy, and this thing has been going on in the Xbox community ever since the Xbox 360. Really??!! Why do you still have to pay for changing your Gamertag???!! *facepalm*
Final Verdict- A few months ago, the PS4 would've definitely won this competition by a landslide. But now, since the Xbox One is 50 dollars cheaper, and your getting 2 free games, this is a killer deal. Microsoft has done an excellent job with this console,especially by dropping the price point. So final recommendation: Pick this up before it's too late, because when the deal is over, you're gonna regret your life. | video-games_xbox |
Microtransactions & Horrible Sunday Ticket Service. For the game: The gameplay mechanics are decent, the graphics are decent, the User Interface and menu systems are pretty clunky and sluggish. As far as game modes, most are well done. However, the Madden Ultimate Team (MUT), which includes offline, online, and challenge modes, is a barely-veiled cash grab. To be successful in any way, or if you're a big achievement or trophy hunter, you will likely have to spend money. And not just a couple of bucks here and there, but a decent chunk of change. It's fairly disgusting, and for this reason alone I will not get another Madden game as long as this MUT system exists in its current state.
Now for the Sunday Ticket bonus. I had no desire to switch my tv/cable company, so I did my best to figure out how to sign up for the Sunday Ticket Maxx/Mobile option. The sign up process (using a login/password included with the game), was questionably functional. Once the season started, the issues started to add up. Sunday Ticket online was completely unavailable for kickoff of the beginning of the season. This was very widespread if not 100%. Direct TV did a horrible job anticipating server traffic & bandwidth needs. Honestly, they didn't even need to "anticipate" it, they knew exactly how many copies of this game had been pre-ordered. For me, the lack of service lasted for more than an hour, and of course the game I most wanted to watch was an early game. There was no immediate help or even response from DTV regarding the situation. At some point they did make a statement, in which they suggested to their customers that if they had an option to watch Sunday Ticket Mobile via a smartphone rather than on a PC or laptop you should do THAT. So.... yeah, that's what I want to do given the option, watch the game on a 3.5" screen instead of my TV (via PC) or laptop. Great customer service DTV! So now it's week 2, all problems will be solved right? Wrong. Sunday Ticket Mobile via PC/laptop was again broken and unavailable. Again. This lasted for around another hour. Now, for the last 2 weeks Sunday Ticket has blocked access to games that were not subject to NFL blackout terms and were not being broadcast in my local region. They refuse to admit that there is even a problem, so of course it hasn't been fixed. If this happens again, I'll have to start looking into getting a refund for the NFL Sunday Ticket portion of the cost of this game & if they refuse, possibly looking into legal action pertaining to breach of contract since they are not delivering what was paid for. | video-games_xbox |
Resident Evil Racoon Garbage. First off please don't listen to anyone who says to buy this game. Just rent it. The thing tht made resident evil five so great was the storyline and coop play and of course the boss fights. This game has two pathetic boss fights and they are supremely anticlimatic. Yes this is not suppose to be like the other resident evil games but really this was a huge waste of money. Rent the game please. My buddies and i beat the campaign in maybe five hours on veteran, and we were messing around a lot. Is five hours worth $60? Maybe worth ten. I cannot believe they would release this crap after resident evil five, you would think four years would long enough to create something decent. Resident Evil 6 better be amazing or I will forever forsake this franchise.
Now to the story. The ending of this game comes so abruptly my buddies and I started laughing, thinking this had to be a joke. Every strand in the storyline is simply abandoned and never re mentioned. Nothing is resolved, the story is completely incoherent. Its like they tried to splice 5 different single page stories into one narrative. Complete jumble. It is so funny because you can upgrade all these abilities and buy all these weapons but by the time you beat the game you have only had enough gameplay to purchase three or four items. What a joke. Seriously though even if you think i'm full of crap, just rent the game first and don't be a complete sucker like me. The graphics are cheap, the target aimers are shoddy, the sniper rifles are pointless being as there are only one or two scenes where they will do anything and they take a ridiculous amount of bullets to kill the zombies unless you happen to be an expert headshot. I am still honestly baffled at how anyone could call this a finished product. Oh and if you think multiplayer will be cool think again. Four game types and a bunch of annoying zombies running around so if you kill any of them then you most likely will just get capped in the back by an opponent. Oh and did I mention how lame it is to play with guys who use the recon characters and run around everywhere invisible. Yeah thats really fair and fun. Get killed over and over by some invisible guy sneaking around. I hope these review saves many people's paychecks from Capcom's worthless pile of crap. Ha and they have a special edition, what does this include, and extended two minutes of game play. Whoopeeeeeeeeeeeeee for Capcom | video-games_xbox |
The Absolute Worst of the Arkham Series. This game is in the running for WORST Batman game ever. It is definitely, the worst of any Batman game with Arkham in the title.
Many reviews, professional and otherwise, complain about Arkham Origins, nitpicking every little thing, mostly because people are fanboys of Rocksteady, for whatever ridiculous reason. If Arkham Origins was developed by Rocksteady, it would not have been criticized so much, for sure. One of the biggest complaints about Arkham Origins was that it's "buggy" and for that, they blame it on the fact that Rocksteady was not the developer. Well, Arkham Knight, by Rocksteady, is far more buggy than Arkham Origins.
Bad guys clip into vehicles and walls, Batman can walk through some characters who randomly freeze in the road - characters that still show up in detective vision as active combatants who are "agitated" but have become statues that even cars drive through.
Drone tanks randomly tumble through the sky, then roll and bounce when they hit the ground.
When trying to complete the side mission of clearing the streets of mines, sometimes the Batmobile's winch will not work and will instead result in shooting at the mine, causing Batman to say, "Not until I finish disarming the bomb." And if you try to move on to do other missions instead, Batman says the same thing, "Not until I finish disarming the bomb", as well as all other missions on the selection wheel being crossed out/inactive because of this glitch. The only solution is to restart the console; exiting and returning to the game doesn't get you through it.
Trying screen shots for Riddler's riddles sometimes shows "Object obscured" or "Partially visible" even in areas where there is no actual Riddle (per online guides).
The controls were improved for Arkham City and Origins vs Arkham Asylum, but they made them awful for Arkham Knight.
Very little is intuitive in this game. Arkham Knight is infuriatingly bad. Even the story is bad. The only good thing about this game is the humorous background chatter among the thugs, which is something that is actually consistently good among all the Arkham games.
Get this game only if you absolutely must play all things Batman, but be prepared to be frustrated and disappointed. I would rate the Akham series, best to worst, as follows:
Arkham Origins
Arkham City
Arkham Asylum
Arkham Knight | video-games_xbox |
Good Game, Story was confusing. I will start by saying that Im a causal Halo fan, Im hardcore with RPGs like Skyrim and Mass Effect, but with Halo Ive always played about once all the way through on normal mode, and sometimes on Heroic on Co-op.
That being said, I enjoyed the game-play best in Halo 4. The action and timing was smooth, enemies were tough but not impossible, the graphics were a huge improvement over Halo 3, voice acting was spectacular (Hello Jennifer Hale!) and the new weapons, abilities and stages where a fun new challenge to master. Some of the new vehicles were also a blast to play through. (SPOILERS the second to last level was reminiscent to Star Fox 64 for me. END SPOILERS)
However, if you're looking for a great continuation on the Halo story, you might not to take this game too seriously. A lot of elements didn't add up for me, and bits of the story that connected each act were missing, its possible that these are/will be explained in Comics, books, or some other media, but in all honesty, Id rather it was just addressed straight up in-game. Its also possible that these inconsistencies are explained by miss-able sound bites on computer terminals or other such thing, like the voice recordings in Halo 3:ODST, its still not a good tactic in any case.
STORY SPOILERS
The biggest detail that I was continually left confused on was why I was fighting the Covenant, AGAIN.
Remember, Im a casual Halo fan, so I might have missed something, but it never seemed to be mentioned in-game, and none of the characters addressed it. After the way Halo 3 ended, this part of the game jarred me quite a bit, and Im still confused. I also take issue with the redesign of Chiefs armor and Cortana, mostly because its physically impossible for Chiefs armor to have changed the way it did while he was in status and total lock down, I don't care how good Cortana is, she couldn't have upgraded that much. Speaking of Cortana, she looked downright weird, and I know they used a body model this time, but I think they would have been better off just sprucing up the Halo 3 model.
MAJOR ENDING SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
The most major turn off for me in this game is that you utterly fail to do the thing you originally set out to do, and Cortana dies. Its a sacrifice she makes for chief and the last scene between them is touching and heart breaking, but its still a shot to the gut. Granted, I saw it coming, but Im still not pleased, there is no Halo without Cortana, and unless the next games are about bringing her back, I don't think Ill be shelling out the money for the next round.
End Spoilers
So overall.
+Fun Game play
+Fun Mechanics
+Great shooter
-Confusing and poorly executed story
-Design changes that weren't necessary and didn't make sense
-Unpleasant twists that die hard Bungie fans will not appreciate. | video-games_xbox |
Billy's Revenge. Ever since I saw <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Jurassic-Park/dp/B000BCE918/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Jurassic Park</a>, I had a newfound respect for Tyrannosaurus Rex. Forget dragons: a T-Rex is a terrifying killing machine, and Jurassic Park made it clear that you didn't just see one of these monsters coming, you actually felt its presence. Of course, my love for dinosaurs started well before that, back when I was in elementary school. What's sad is that I wanted dinosaur curtains, dinosaur bedspreads, dinosaur anything -- and back then there WERE no dinosaur-themed stuff for kids. Now my one-year-old wears a new dinosaur-themed outfit practically every day.
It's probably no surprise that I'm fond of <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Jurassic-Fight-Club/dp/B001DITH8E/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Jurassic Fight Club</a>, which matches two (or more) dinosaurs in tail-to-head combat. The speculation and history lessons are fun, but the actual computer graphic battles in all their bloody glory left me itching for something more. And that more is Turok.
Turok is a first-person shooter, but the thrill is in the use of the bow and the knife to silently take out your enemies. Dinosaur combat is less about shooting them and more about pressing the right combination of buttons to fend it off; the combination changes with each dinosaur attack, which keeps Turok fresh with sudden mini-games that are thrust suddenly upon you.
The other neat element is that dinosaurs are animals at heart. They run from explosions, sniff out prey, and can be lured into traps. My personal favorite: shooting a flare over a grenade, a dinosaur wanders over to sniff it and...BOOM! Instant meat shower! The dinosaurs are more forces of nature than enemies; there are plenty of opportunities to have shoot-outs with better-armed and armored opponents.
This is the first game to really do the T-Rex justice. Showdowns with this monster (which, I'm pleased to report, happen frequently) always end in horrible carnage. The great voice acting and slick script only add to the paranoid atmosphere. There's even a shout-out to Aliens, complete with flamethrowers and giant bugs.
Remember that scene in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Predator/dp/B000244EMO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Predator</a>, where the Native American, Billy, stays behind to take on the alien with jut a knife? His off-screen death was really lame. Turok's much better answer: Hell yeah, an Indian can take on a dinosaur...give him a knife, and he can stab a T-Rex to death with it! | video-games_xbox |
Amazing console - you'll be glad you purchased. Let me just start off by saying I'm in love with the matte black that's on these 4gb arcades. I didn't want to get the 250gb glossy Xbox 360 slim because I've had annoying experiences with my PS3 and how fingerprints and dust really are drawn to the glossy surface. This, though, is perfect, especially if you're anal about things like that just like me.
This is the Xbox 360 that Microsoft should be proud of. It's everything that'll satisfy a new Xbox 360 purchaser, and if you've been holding out, now's your chance to see what all the buzz is about.
For $200, you're getting an amazing deal, especially when compared to the older "phat" models of the Xbox 360:
- Smaller system, hence the nickname "slim."
- Sleeker/sexier. I think this is pretty self explanatory. Just look at them both side by side.
- MUCH quieter. When Microsoft says "whisper quiet," they mean it. Especially if you install your games so the disk doesn't even spin.
- Extremely high reliability increase compared to the 5 year old Xenon phat models, and even the reliable Jasper phat models. This is because of the 45nm combined cpu/gpu die, which is dubbed the Valhalla chipset. Jasper model phats were renown for being reliable and breaking the dreaded 3RROD curse that plagued older models, because they used a 65nm chipset. This Valhalla chipset is even better. Not to mention that, just like a Mac or a PS3, the console will shutdown if overheating, preventing damage to the console. Mines is usually on 12+ hours a day and I haven't had any problems.
-Built in WiFi-N. Microsoft finally added wifi to their console, and to make up for it not being in the phat models, they went all out and made it wifi-N, which is the fastest wifi on any console available today. About time!
-4gb internal flash memory, which can hold about 4000 game saves. It's enough for some DLC here and there and maybe an arcade game or two, but the best part is that it's a major upgrade from the original phat arcades, which only had 256MB of flash memory. This is MORE then enough memory for a casual user, or a kid who only uses memory to save games. If, however, you want to do more like download a lot of things, you can buy a standalone 250gb HDD around next month and simply slide it in. Technically, you'll have 254gb of memory if you do it that way.
- 5 USB slots. If you have a random USB lying around the house, just stick it in for more memory! 4gb flash memory and two 16gb cheap flash drives = 36gb of memory!
- Kinect ready, meaning it has a port in the back solely for Kinect. If you have a phat Xbox 360, you'll need to plug Kinect into a power outlet on the wall.
- Touch sensitive buttons, which is a neat bonus.
All in all, for $200, this deal can't be beat for what it offers. Whether you're looking to buy an Xbox for Halo: Reach or Gears of War 3, or want to try out Dance Central, or are buying it for a younger person for such games as Kinectimals, you're in for a treat either way. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing modded controller. I have owned 6 modded controllers and Geniusmods is by far the best. Only two of the six controllers I own are Geniusmods, and to be honest I only use the Geniusmods ones. Everything about them is professional. From the packaging, the manual, the craftsmanship, and the customer service 5 stars all around.
The arctic tiger has a sweet look to it. The blue accents really go well with the white tiger, and the thumbsticks and d-pad are a clear blue. It's a beautiful controller to look at, and when playing it is nasty. My K2D ration has doubled since using these mods. I mostly use drop shot in conjunction with the FAL rapid fire, and I am a beast with it. The controller is easy to use, everything is toggled using a button on the back of the controller. The instruction manual is easy to read, and includes pictures and some neat graphics to show you how to use everything. Other mods I've bought just come with a folded piece of computer paper but Geniusmods really went out of their way with the manual. They even have videos too that go over each function. Definitely very user friendly.
The mod is super fast too. No complaints about that. It is programmable, and I've been able to use it for some games not listed in the description (like Battlefield).
My only complaint (and this isn't even really a bad thing) is that the thumbsticks feel a little more rubbery than the original ones, almost like they are a little softer. It's a different feel but I got used to it pretty quick, not sure what type I prefer yet, but thought I would mention it as they are a little different than the original ones. My concern with that is that they won't hold up as much but there is a warranty on it so if they don't then I will update the review if it comes down to that. But all in all a solid controller.
Definitely recommend this mod to anyone looking for a custom controller | video-games_xbox |
Chaos Bleeds - good plot, bad execution. I'm a huge fan of all things Buffy, and a casual Xbox gamer. I own the first game and have really enjoyed playing and beating it.
I bought Chaos Bleeds about a week ago, and I'm about halfway through it. I am a little surprised that most of the game review websites gave this game such high marks, and I can only think that the reviewers either didn't play it for very long, or didn't play the first game.
Here's what's good about Chaos Bleeds:
* Graphics are pretty, and the frame rate is improved.
* I like that you can play as different characters.
* The weapons are kinda fun.
* There are interviews and extras and such that you can unlock by finding secrets, and these are cool (but probably only if you're a Buffy fan anyway).
Now, here's what blows:
* The camera is the biggest frustration of all. You can't look all the way around anymore! If you're in a corner, tight space, or small room you often can't look around at all. Attempting to do so usually makes for big camera jitter - something that was nearly nonexistent in the first game.
* The inventory screen from the first game is gone! You have to do all your switching of supplies and weapons on the fly using the directional pad. And it is extremely poorly implemented. When you're in the middle of battle, using the directional pad while actively doing battle is nearly impossible. This means that even if you have a Medi-Pack (the Chaos Bleeds equivalent of Elixir), you often can't get to it when you need it.
* Fighting multiple enemies at once is an exercise in frustration, Lots of enemies don't disintegrate instantly once you've offed them. And if you beat one in a bunch, the interface doesn't let you switch your focus quickly enough to the next baddy. If you played the first game, this will drive you nuts in comparison.
* The "puzzles" where you have to find multiple objects and combine them are often nonsensical - you pick up objects without a lot of context for how you're supposed to use them, and often have to run through the same parts of a level over and over again to solve it. If I wasn't getting help from Vivendi's game forums at buffygame.com (which I strongly recommend anyone who has this game visit), I'd still be in the first level. I usually really enjoy puzzles and don't have problems figuring out what I need to do, but this game puts me at a loss constantly, and not in a "I was entertained and challenged" kind of way.
* Stuff you're supposed to pick up doesn't "glow" as much as in the first game. It's *really* easy to overlook something laying in the middle of a room, especially if the room is brightly lit.
* In the first game, when an enemy was approaching you almost always had its life meter pop up in the upper right corner of the screen before it was on you. In Chaos Bleeds, the meter often doesn't pop up until the bad guy is right on top of you. Combine this with the camera limitations, and you get snuck up on *a lot*.
* I was annoyed with the lack of save points in the first game - this game has exacerbated this issue further! While they give you an equivalent number of continue points, if you quit the game and come back, you have to completely restart the level. This results in my Xbox having to be left on overnight a lot, and I hate doing that.
* Voiceovers for Willow and Anya are thoroughly unsatisfactory and annoying.
* You get a "Slayer Rating" for each level and overall, but none of the documentation explains what the ratings are for and what they mean.
Okay, I know I'm hating on the game a lot, but these are serious design flaws. If you're a fan of Buffy, buy the game anyway, you'll enjoy hanging with the characters. God knows the plot is more coherent than anything we got from Mutant Enemy in Buffy's last season on TV. If you're not a big Buffy fan, I recommend the first game for a better overall gaming experience with better fighting and camera angles. | video-games_xbox |
Great value. I bought this Xbox 360 S 4GB console, and separately purchased both the Xbox 360 250GB hard drive for the 360 S console and the Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Cable (all sold by Amazon) so that we could replace our old Xbox 360 that had been crashing. I first transferred all our games and videos from our old Xbox 360 to the 250 GB hard drive by connecting the 250 GB hard drive to our old Xbox via the USB connector on the Hard Drive Transfer Cable. The transfer was very easy because the Xbox detected the Transfer Cable and prompted us to perform the data transfer. Then, I installed the 250 GB hard drive into our new 360 S console by following the instructions that came with the 250 GB hard drive. This was all very easy to do, and the new 360S console worked perfectly immediately. When we now choose "Settings" and then "System" and then "Storage", we have three storage devices listed: Hard Drive (the 250 GB hard drive), the Memory Unit (4 GB that came in the Console), and Cloud Saved Games. We have all our add-ons, stored games, and stored videos (movies) on the 250 GB hard drive, and they all play the same as they do on Xbox consoles that come with hard drives already installed. We never store anything on the 4GB Memory Unit because it is simply too small--you MUST have the 250GB hard drive if you are a gamer, have stored games and/or videos, and/or have add-ons. Installing the 250 GB hard drive in the 360S gives you the same console as you would get by purchasing an Xbox with the internal hard drive already installed. Going this "do-it-yourself" route was a significant savings over purchasing a new Xbox with the 250 GB internal hard drive already installed. I give the console, the 250 GB hard drive, and the Hard Drive Transfer Cable five stars. However, my son gives the bubble wrap packaging a one star because all the bubbles were popped, which would of have been a source of entertainment for him while I was transferring data. :D | video-games_xbox |
Better than expected. A friend and I have been on a pretty big horror kick lately, movies and what not. We decided to pick this up and play it on the original xbox, sadly it isn't backwards compatible for the 360.
The game starts out with a friend of the main characters being taken hostage by some kind of mad scientist in the basement of the high school. The high school is then over taken by these odd looking plant like monsters. The story unfolds through notes and photos found in the school, and cut scenes on occasion.
The game play is fairly simple but can be difficult, and you need to find CDs within the game to save your game, and ammo is a bit scarce at times. But overall we had a lot of fun with this, the game lasted about eight hours but the time flew by. We really had to use co-op strategy to run and gun against the bad guys and swap items among each other and what not.
I would recommend this to survival horror game fans who don't mind their games being tongue in cheek in the vein of Buffy the vampire slayer. And would also definitely recommend taking this game apart in a co-op setting. It's definitely more fun that way.
Graphics: B- ( Nice graphics for the old school xbox, cut scenes are OK. But overall the game looked pretty nice, especially some of the backgrounds.)
Sound: B- (The voices can be a touch annoying, but the grumbles and scary noises are a nice touch. )
Fun: C+ ( My friend and I had a good time with this and really enjoyed the survival horror co-op game play. Besides one part in the very beginning being the only part we jumped at, I would say give it a pass if you truly like your games to scare you. Plus the story line is pretty cliche. )
Overall: C+ (A nice package overall, decent length, good difficulty, eh storyline, but fun on the whole. Would recommend it for co-op fans, not someone who likes to go into survival horror alone. Give it a try, you might dig it's cheese factor LOL. ) | video-games_xbox |
All I need is one good nuke. Mattias Nilsson is back-- and Venezula is going to pay the price!
The original "Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction" was a real surprise for me. I had initially passed on the game but a friend recommended it so highly that I found myself picking it up about a year after release. The "open nature" of the world and the variability of how to accomplish each mission hooked me almost immediately and I found myself playing the game time and time again.
The point is that if you are a game player that loves an "open sandbox" world with all of the room for creativity and inspiration that entails, you're going to love Mercenaries 2: World in Flames.
I'll admit-- it's not a perfect port of the original concept. The "Deck of 52" is gone-- in favor of a more non-linear "high value target" set-up. There are still four factions-- and making their acquaintance isn't as easy as it was in the last game. However, the free-roaming nature and the ability to call down air strikes, supply and vehicle drops, and evacs when needed is part of what made the the first game so much fun. I've logged about 20 or so hours on Mercs 2 thus far and I'm still enjoying myself-- sometimes just driving around the virtual Venezula exploring the environement rather than simply rushing from job to job.
Graphically, it's a step up from the original but hardly something that I'd refer to as "next gen". Still, the graphics are sharp, the music is fun, and the voice casting is pretty spot-on. (The banter of the NPC's sometimes gets a bit repetitive but I find myself just tuning them out more and more.) The number of usuable vehicles is dramatically increased in this game-- including the addition of various watercraft including a few that were far larger than I would have thought for player-piloted craft. Also, boarding vehicles has now been "enhanced" by small mini-games rather than the direct approach but I have to yet to find this too much of a nuisance.
My only real complaint with the interface comes in the somewhat clunky nature of how queued support items are called up. Literally a player must stop, call the queue, and then choose the item rather than queuing it up and then using it when needed. This has caused problems a few times when a pesky bunker needed tending to. However, aside from this I find that I'm enjoying Mercs 2 far more than I have any other game purchase in recent memory!
I'd give it a solid 4 out of 5! | video-games_xbox |
another good chapter. i just got done beating this game this afternoon.
i rank this game 3rd out of 4 of the assassins creed games.in front of assassins creed 1 and behind assassins creed:brotherhood.but,that is not to say its bad,because it isnt.i just like the other 2 from italy better.it is currently my 22nd favorite game of all time.
i wasn't happy about being moved out of italy.i really liked the landmarks,the pleasent music and,of course,leonardo da vinci.the new place is between asia and europe,so modern day ukraine.a lot of places i loved from the earlier ones were destroyed too.man,that was heart breaking.
the graphics looked good.not italy good but they were nice.one complaint i do have,though ,was almost everyones eyes looked as if they were blind.you think with all of the amazing technology we have,everyone could have the appearance of normaly functioning eyes.unless ,of course,it was some secret symbolism about the peasents being blind to the true evil going on that the assassins were trying to stop.but,i doubt thew programmers put that much thought into it.
a new weopon i liked was the introduction of grenades.and no,i don't mean ninja smoke grenades,i mean boom no more legs and your buddies get the shrapnel.
maybe,its just me,but it seemed like this game had less content than the others.i felt like i beat it pretty quickly.
and,lastly,i would like to tell you something i heard about assassins creed 2 that holds true for brotherhood and revelations both."there is a difference between interesting and obscure non sense".the word itself "revelations" means that you figured something out.its all clear now.everything is on the table etc.im just as confused as before.why the deity?how far up does this corruption go?who do they have to kill to see thier dream fufilled?wont there always just be more evil doers in high places outside of europe?etc etc etc.oh,and more importantly,by the end,you will ask yourself"well,now how the he@l are they going to make an assassins creed 3?[out this october].
i give it 7.6 stars out of 10.this rank means stellar! | video-games_xbox |
Best Of The Three. Having Played all three Halos, I can tell you that this one is easy the best of them all. First lets start with the Graphics. When you start the first level you will simply be amazed at the overall look and high quality your seeing. As you progress you realize Bungie changed indoor corridor levels to more outdoor areas that really show the incredible scenery.
Now for the weapons, there are so many new additions its hard to list them all but you will have many defensive and offensive weapons such as the bubble shield , Hammer weapon and laser weapon to just name a few.
The new vehicles such as the Mongoose and chopper are simply amazing too while keeping the game balanced.
Gameplay overall is pretty much the same. Its halo but now it seems bungie focused more on cover making it more tactical and less of just an open fighting space.
The levels themselves are great with only a few areas of backtracking but you never really feel lost. The Cortana level might have you dissoriented but the goal completion is well worth the effort.
Overall this game is well worth the $70 as the bonus disk which is over 1 hour long has the makings of halo 3 and information on what actually goes into making a modern FPS Game. Simply amazing efforts were put into this and should be purchased by any halo fan.
On the MP Side its easy to say that this game might change the way people look at MP Games. For one reason only: the Theatre save mode. Every battle is recorded. Nothing new there ..replays are nothing new you say? but here you can pause and look at any angle , backup, use slow motion , pause again and take a photo of any part of the film from any angle or any players perspective from first or third person.
The next MP Game that you play you will wonder why they cant implement this one feature in every game... its that good.
Forge is another addition which lets you add , and place any obect where you want ,hence making your own custom maps. This would have been great if you could use matchmaking after you make a map , but you can only invite people on your friends list or From lan party TO JOIN Your custom maps. Overall its a great package with all the additions worthy of a great Third installment of a great trilogy. | video-games_xbox |
Look Ma, No Brains. Halo 3 is just Halo 2--but worse--since this one should have been better. the Halo story has always been pretty lame, and this time its no exception- it takes about 8 hours to beat the whole game, im not even sure what the story is--i just ran, and shot--saw a random cut scene-repeat.- the reason most people play halo is for multi-player-- which is equally horrid--the leveling system is still very un-balanced--so what if everyone is a sargeant--there is still that level 45 general guy that sneaks in who just happens to be playing his first lonewolf--level 45 versus level 13--sounds fair? not to mention that skill is not required--aim and shoot, and hope your guy lives--its fun to watch the theatre and watch your character dump 2 clips of needlers into someone as they turn and kill you with 3 shots--or maybe that sticky bomb that either passes thru--or just doesnt stick at all--leading to your doom--the mauler weapon could be the worst item ever put into a video game--the weapons are unbalanced, and in the end, its luck of the draw--crouching and sneaking rarely come in handy--since you can sneak up on a guy with his back turned, melee him twice, and he will turn and hit you and you die---invisiblilty is the funnest--somehow you're invisible, but everyone can still see you and shoot you..hmm...and spawning only to get a flash of another player shooting you before you take your first step is always fun. this game is good for laughs with friends--but it is so unbalanced and unfair that even after you are a level 30, and still cant figure out how 3 clips from a brute shot don't kill a level 2 as he turns and shoots once for the win---this game is no break-thru, the maps are few, the gametypes are poor, and no skill is required--just luck of the draw. watch out for players who have logged 2000+ games that are matched up to your 300, it seems only fair to be playing against guys like that (doesnt it?) i thought for sure all the same issues with halo 2 would have been fixed--i was wrong--the only good thing about halo is that you can find matches to play- alot of good xbox games don't usually have 200,000+ people playing at once--even though it can take a while to match up players, a game will evantually ensue- just start running and shooting--thats the complex world of halo 3 | video-games_xbox |
Great brain training. With Body and Brain Connection, the XBox combines a Brain Age type of mental acuity game with reflexes and body movements. The result exercises both brain and body.
We've adored all the Brain Age types of games on the various platforms and do agree that regular brain exercises help keep your mind sharp. Many studies have shown that doing crossword puzzles or sudoku daily helps to keep your brain active. The theory is the same here. By doing daily math, memory, and related puzzles, you keep your mind engaged.
The Kinect amps up the activity a bit by adding in muscle movements as well. You don't just memorize poses - you do them. You don't just remember where the shapes are, you point to them. So it's that much more of yourself that gets involved. You get some exercise and you activate muscles.
The games come in a variety of difficulty levels. So on balloon level one you're choosing between three colors to point at. At higher levels there are more balloons.
Some games could be challenging for younger kids. There are math puzzles with multi parts, for example. Others can be done by anybody - for example the whack-a-mole one.
However, a note here - when playing some games, we found the game less than responsive. On the mole hitting game (they happen to use a mouse instead) there were many times our hands went through the mouse's head but the game claimed we didn't hit it.
That was a fairly infrequent problem, though. Most of the time the games were fun and challenging, even for puzzle-fan adults.
There is a multiplayer mode but really all that does is make people take turns playing a random game. So there aren't many benefits to doing this vs simply playing through games you want to play.
Also, this has the typical problem of having a long in-out path to get to games. You have to pause while the game slogs through load screen after load screen to get to the next game you want. I'm not sure why this can't be more quick on Kinect games.
Still, the games are fun, many of them do teach quick thinking in math and memory, and these types of talents can serve you well in many aspects of life. So I'll say highly recommended, just be aware that for younger kids some of the games might be a bit challenging for them.
I purchased this game with my own funds for this review. | video-games_xbox |
GREAT GAME. I must admit i had my doubts about this game before making the full 60 buck purchase. After i played the game for about an hour i was very satisfied with the product. Personally IM NOT A DIE HARD NCAA VIDEO GAME FAN with that being said this is coming from a guy who loves the pro games and has only had 2 ncaa games. I think the game is great the graphics are better than most people give it credit i mean come on guys what else can they do lol. The Heisman challenge was a genius addition to this game. I think its great you can bring back some of the all time greats and try to beat their personal records to make them even greater. I am a huge titans fan so i kicked things off with Eddie George. Also to add to the new game mode they added reaction time this feature allows you to slow down the game for a few seconds and basically plan your move before the defender even knows what hits him...or what he doesnt hit. This is so essential for the running backs in the game right after you get the ball you can slow things down read your blocks and make the best decision on which hole to hit and how to hit it. This is only in HM and Dynasty mode btw. So that mode alone gives you alot to do as you take each H. winner through a full season. I am currently about 80 percent through my 1st dynasty mode and i must say its great. Im the type now to not focus on recruitment anymore i feel that if i win alot of games prospects will come especially with that fact i use Texas a prestigious University on and off the field. I will the newspaper and all the cool charts that are available in dynasty mode to me i love being able to view all of that stuff. If you played High School football im sure you would appreciate the road to glory mode that returns to the game this year. Also i honestly think the team builder feature basically sold me on the game i love that you can build your own team,jerseys,stadium, and everything else. I looked and someone even created my HS team with the roster from my senior year which made me feel so special lol im not going to lie real names and attributes all of that. OUR LOGO WAS EVEN ON THERE....yea so thats cool . Last the online play so far to me seems fair i havnt played anyone that uses glitches to win.
As far as the game play i like it especially the run game which i think is more realistic as opposed to madden. You know have to be smart read your blocks and follow the play like it should be no more swerving and all of that crap. The passing game is much improved the QB's do a better job with the pass trajectories. Catching deep balls is a challenge on Offense and Defense which....is irritating but its more realistic no more strafe and hit the catch button and your opponent automatically catches it. Last but not least.....if all you can complain about is the grass not moving......slap yourself WHO CARES ABOUT IF THE GRASS MOVES LOL that should let you know it was a damn good game if thats what you have to complain about
is it worth a purchase....if you don't plan on buying the next one because your not a huge ncaa player Heck Yea go for it | video-games_xbox |
Here's your spoon fed, blue ribbon for participation racing sim. I make a console purchase due to the racing game it has attached to it. PS has the GT series, while Xbox has Forza. Well, I finally bit and bought an Xbox One brand new (I rarely buy consoles new) for Forza 6 and boy did I just toss 500 dollars down the drain. This game has a neutered career mode that includes NO event list and NO customization, well technically it does but since the game FORCES to upgrade your cars for you first, it takes all the want out of doing it yourself. And the new MODS feature, really, just really? Racing sim turned full arcade racer with the new MOD feature, I can't even explain how horrible dumb of an idea this is. I also like to WIN my races for pete's sake, with the old Forza 3/4 event list, I can go back and re-race my 2nd and 3rd place wins to shoot for the 1st place, not here, the game just forces you to the next race and gives you a blue ribbon for participation (and you also get the SAME credit for losing as you do winning). I feel like a middle schooler playing this game. Why does this game even exist? I get the same rewards if I lose as if I win, that's completely opposite of the meaning of the word game. I have nothing to work for, I have nothing to strive for, I have no reason to try to do good in this game.
Redeeming features are obviously the physics, graphics, tracks and cars. And oh my lord the cars, these beautiful beautiful cars, I actually found my old 1991 Mitsu Galant VR-4 in the list, I haven't seen this car in a game since one of the earliest Gran Turismos. And I have tried to make a personal goal to complete the game instead of the lousy in game incentives so I make myself want to keep playing, yes, the game is fun and there are plenty of hours of gameplay to be had here.
So, basically, I ended up spending 580 dollars for this game, I am not a gamer so I will never buy another game for this system unless they release a redeeming Forza for it. It gets two stars because the attached console streams other content quite well, and the game itself is fun unless the game is forcing you into races you don't like. | video-games_xbox |
Bewilderingly Bland. Games are for fun; and this game isn't that fun. As a single player game, it's bland. As a co-op game--as it's marketed--it becomes aggravating. There is a limited selection of games with campaign or local co-op, so Hunted was purchased on the promise of a fun co-op experience. I wish i had played a demo in co-op before purchasing.
Con's:
--The co-op campaign does not include the prelude chapter of the single player campaign, so some of the story between the characters is missing.
--Games are played primarily visually, and Hunted fails visually. The visuals mimic Gears of Wars' grittiness, but it just translates into dark muddiness. Environment textures on the night-time levels weren't diverse; they were just confusing. On a 48", we had to squint to make out the enemies or varying building textures on the brightest setting (yes, we were wearing our contacts).
--For an advertised hack-and-slash, the characters were weak and the combat was mundane, with little style or flourish.
--For an advertised action-RPG, there are no true level-ups; there is only essentially a shop that trades in crystals which are found in fragments throughout the levels. And there are only 3 levels of 6 abilities per character. The only "level-up" exists in that you are not allowed to purchase higher levels until you reach a certain rank.
--For an advertised co-op game, the gameplay dynamic between the two characters is weak. It's Assault class and CQC class, with actual gameplay between the two being almost congruent.
Pro's:
--The Crucible is a great concept for a horde mode level creator lite. You simply pick your progression of rooms on a grid, set conditions like enemy types, etc., and begin. Such a simple addition would be a lot of fun if applied to other games with horde modes.
--The voice acting is excellent; no pauses where the two separately recorded voices were stitched together, as with many other games. (The dialogue script itself is pretty cheesy though.)
--At the time of this writing, the game is pretty inexpensive used. (I traded it in for the same price that i bought it.)
Overall, it is a chore to become accustomed to the game and to last through it; you shouldn't pay to feel like you're working in a video game. | video-games_xbox |
Great stick. Worth the price. I am a pretty frugal person and I hate wasting money on things, so I started off by playing Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom 2 on my Xbox 360 controller. That did not work at all. I could beat single player, sure, but if you wanted any change at pulling off combos, it just wasn't going to work competitively. I then decided to invest money into the FightPad (gamepad).
The FightPad was a drastic improvement over the Xbox 360 controller. I was able to pull off combos a whole lot easier. The d-pad was just a ton better, and things were going very well. The problem came when you needed to use more than 1 button at a time. Like air dashing in MvC2, or doing the + moves where you use 2 buttons at a time in SF4. That was just a pain to effectively pull off everytime, because my thumb just doesn't angle in that manner. So I bit the bullet and I decided I was going to try out the FightStick.
I made the right decision.
If you are going to play a fighting game. This is the stick to get. The build is damn solid. I have played many, many hours on this, and I haven't had ANY problems. I am not knowledgeable at all these things like Sanwa, and Seimitsu, but this stick really holds up. The buttons never stick, and the joystick never sticks either. There are a few suggestions I have on maximizing your enjoyment on this product.
1. Get the octagonal restrictor plate (it's a few $ on lizardlick). The default restrictor plate is a square. That was kinda awkward for me because I am used to octagonal restrictors in the arcade. What I mean by square is that it locks in on the corners (upper left, right, lower left, right), but it doesn't have a solid feel for up down left right. This was annoying for me. With the octagonal restrictor, it locks in all 8 directions so it feels great.
2. I'm not used to using the Japanese style balls on the joystick. I picked up the joystick bat (costs a few dollars), (traditional US arcade machines), and you have to get some adapter to make sure it screws in okay (costs 50 cents).
With these 2 modifcations I have never been happier and I can't really ask for much more from a joystick. It is solid feel, heavy and doesn't move. The cord is really long and you can store the cord away into the stick. And... it works perfectly fine in Windows. I just plug it in and it works. I didn't have to find any special drivers. I tried it out for Windows Vista and Windows 7. I have it working on my PC to play all my ROMS. | video-games_xbox |
Best Xbox 360, Windows controller I've used. The official Microsoft Xbox 360 controller is simply the best controller for the Xbox that I've used. I've tried the 3rd-party controllers, from Mad Catz and others, and they just don't feel as good, and aren't as responsive.
This controller is also the best gamepad for use with a computer, provided you have the wireless usb receiver that comes with the "for Windows" version of the controller. As more and more games natively support the Xbox controller, and natively show the buttons for abilities, just like you'd see on the Xbox 360, the Xbox has replaced my other gamepads. It's just easier to use, and feels like it was made for the system. I bought 2 standard wireless controllers, and 2 "for Windows" wireless controllers, so now I have a dongle for each computer, and 4 controllers that can be quickly synched to either computer or the Xbox.
Comfort wise, I didn't like the Xbox controller at first, having been used to Sony's PS2 controller. Now that I have both Xbox and PS3 controllers, and use both regularly, I find the Xbox controller to be much more ergonomic, more comfortable to hold, and more comfortable to use. The controller lets you naturally wrap your hands around it, and the triggers are a pleasure to squeeze, where as the PS3 controller now feels un-natural, and the triggers are a little annoying.
Performance wise, this wireless controller uses the 2.4GHz wireless range, the same as most cordless headsets, 802.11b/g wireless networks, and even the same as some microwaves. I haven't had any problems with at my house, but 2 of my friends have constant problems with controllers disconnecting mid-play. Sometimes it's just an annoyance, but sometimes it happens so often that it's unbearable. The PS3 controller's bluetooth connection avoids these problems, and is much faster to start up and connect.
One can only hope that Sony adopts Microsoft's ergonomic styling for the Dualshock 4 controllers, and Microsoft adopts Sony's bluetooth connection for the Xbox 720 controllers. | video-games_xbox |
I really wish I wasn't giving this one star. I bought this with great expectations when I saw that Retro Studios had developed this game. I'm a huge fan of the Metroid Prime series and the modern Donkey Kong side scroller games.
This was a HUGE let down for me. Graphics are great, controls are fairly tight, the voice acting is great, and there's even some extra very-odd stuff, like personal voice journals from robots. Robots that speak in a way that sounds more garbled than gibberish. Customization for your ally Core-bots is flexible enough but not so huge that you'll waste hours tinkering with them.
Now for the cons... The story starts well fleshed, but gradually gets down to bare bones and beyond as you progress. Controls get a bit wonky depending on camera position at times, and sometimes you can't climb up ledges that look perfectly accessible. Difficulty is SO inconsistent. Some enemies are extremely dull and simply jog around you waiting for you to finish them, while other enemies that are the EXACT same type as the dumb enemies are extremely smart and aggressive. I've been in several situations where a group of enemy bots flanked me, took out my ally Core-bot, then annihilated me, all in seconds. Ohhh, and I forgot... load and reloading times are horribly long!! So, after a few minutes (literally) of reloading, I carefully approached the exact same group of enemies, same color configurations and all, then annihilated THEM in seconds. This is a synopsis example, and the difficulty issue is much worse with the Guardian boss enemies.
Ah, then there's the in game bugs.... In over 27 years of gaming, I have NEVER played a game that has killed me so much...Simply by causing my character to fall through the ground and die. Glitching through walls, floors, ledges, through enemies, INTO enemies.... it's amazing how buggy this game has been for me.
So, from my experience, I can't recommend this game to anyone. As I said, I had high hopes for this game, and looking at it's surface, it looks fun, and during those very short times it runs fine, it truly is fun. But there's simply too much wrong with this game for me to recommend it to anyone. | video-games_xbox |
Nothing New to See Here Move Along. This game is no improvement on the past games. The fairly fun single player game makes up for the totally useless multiplayer. At least in the single player, you have to employ strategy and use cover. In multiplayer you will find yourself simply running around and shooting anything else that moves, while hoping your loadout is superior to theres. No strategy...only finger twitching. The new modes where you have to confirm kills by grabbing dog tags adds very little. Now, when you mutually anihilate each other (a frequent occurance) neither of you will get credit.
According to one professional reviewer "MW3's single player story mode follows the tried-and-tested formula of all of the previous games. It's a linear... experience. As ever, the plot is complete bobbins and trying to keep up with it is a fool's errand, but let's be honest, if you're playing Call of Duty for its plot, you're playing for all of the wrong reasons."
Summary: So the single player is a repeat of previous games and is silly.
He adds: "Vanilla Team Deathmatch is hugely fast and frenetic and at times you'll feel like you're running laps around the map. In fact, it quickly becomes apparent that Infinity Ward's focus for the whole multiplayer experience has been on making it a fast-paced close-quarters affair. The maps feel smaller, tighter and much more claustrophobic. You never get a second's breath and if you stand still without adequate backup or defences for too long, you'll inevitable be quickly mowed down..."
Summary: Multiplayer forces you to run and gun. There is little strategy other than to keep running. Maps are even smaller. You spend your time just running all over the place.
So, what did this reviewer give MW3? Of course a perfect score. Apparently running laps, claustrophobia, and silliness are all very desirable traits in first person shooter.
So, if you are capable of ignoring the obvious faults of this game, then go ahead and buy it. | video-games_xbox |
Lot's o' fun. Overall addictive game for those who love football. Great way to get through the off season while you are waiting for the real teams to get back on the field. There are a few problems however, that do detract somewhat from the game:
1. The game freezes your quarterback whenever a rusher is within two feet of him. Basically if the game decides it's going to sack you at that point, it will take control away from the user and you have to just stand there like an idiot and take the hit. I cannot over emphasize just how much this can throw off your game. You will make horrible throws not simply because you are about to get sacked, but because the defender is still a good distance away from the quarterback and you want to throw it before the computer locks you out. And forget about being a quarterback that still manages to get a pass off while in the grasp. You will be a brainless zombie just standing there long before then.
2. Pick offs are exaggerated to an unrealistic level even if you turn the defensive interceptions down to the lowest setting in the AI controls (especially when playing at anything above the Pro level). What's worse, if you simulate a game instead of playing it in franchise mode, you will average about 3 interceptions a game. This does more than simply screw up your stats if you are into that like some people are (me, for example), because it also affects your QB progression by dropping his rating points (playing ability) when he has bad games.
3. Player controlled defense men run towards any blocker that is within a couple of feet. Regardless of where you are trying to direct the player, if you come close enough, you will get sucked into the other teams blocker as if he had his own gravitational pull. And then, it is almost impossible to spin away. Get's kind of hard to watch your 235 lb linebacker get stuffed by a 185 lb wide receiver.
4. Substitutions and some other settings seem to be reset every year in franchise mode. Not a big deal, but annoying.
5. Statistics are not kept for retired players or even for early years of veterans. Would be neat to see how your old players stack up statistically against your new ones. And the hard drive on my XBox has plenty of space to spare. Also, if there is a way to see your teams previous years records and stats, I have yet to find it.
6. Can be hard to work out a setting balance that makes the game not too hard or not too easy. You can go from an undefeated season to winless simply by moving setting up one notch from Pro to All-Pro. There are more detailed AI settings in the game, but it takes a little while to get something realistic set up. I actually want to lose some games for the sake of a challenge, but just not every one. Besides, after being a Bucs fan through the late 80's and the 90's, it would bring back memories of our pre super bowl days.
7. For some reason the designers decided to alternate buttons for different offensive players even though they are in the same position. For example, on one play the button for the running back that goes out for a screen pass to the right will be black (the button on the right - logical, no?), on others he will be white and vise-versa for the running back going left. So if you are used to passing with one button in a specific direction, you will end up passing to the opposite player, who is most likely not in the ideal position. I guess this is done to represent the occasions when a quarterback gets hit too many times and forgets what hand he eats with.
8. Worst of all - EA games has decided to simply monopolize the NFL video game market as opposed to winning over users by creating a quality and always improving product. Beware of future versions that don't need to be competitive.
Otherwise, the graphics are good, game play is pretty straight forward and franchise mode rocks. There are a fair amount of adjustments to change game difficulty. Worth the purchase if you can get it without spending too much. | video-games_xbox |
Not a special Madden edition but worth it if you haven't played in a while. I am a long time lover of Madden who has grown incredibly weary with the franchise. After Madden 2012 I quit the series for a long time and this year I decided to try out the new version on a new generation of consoles.
Admittedly, the same gameplay style I enjoyed back in the early days of Madden is still there. Even better, it appears to me that in this version they have done a really great job of stripping away all of the extra noise. If you just want to run the plays and chuck the ball downfield every play you totally can do that!
Another great thing about this version of Madden is that they have finally given you fine grained passing controls. Especially with the passing league that the NFL is, this is something that the passing mechanic has been missing. If you have Calvin Johnson on your team and he is double covered deep, you can now throw it to him up high where he can high point the ball and still come down with it like in real life. You can also spot your passes down and away to avoid swats and even throw drop passes that perfectly loop over linebacker's heads. This is absolutely my favorite part of the game. You feel like Peyton Manning sitting in the pocket as you attack every corner of the defense with your perfect throws.
This has an unfortunate side effect though. This feature has made defense particularly difficult to play. When you are on D, the offense will do the same against you. You could play perfect D but the wide receiver will still jump up and grab the ball away from you. That is unfortunate but realistic.
The online features are OK. Madden Ultimate Team is what it is. Part of what make MUT so UNFUN is that it takes for-ev-er to do anything. I think they tried to speed that all up by allowing to do simple challenges like their "MOMENTS" challenges where you re-live a couple of plays at the end of the game from big matchups in 2014. The problem with that is that you have to sit through almost the entire pregame hoopla and post game hoopla just to play one challenge. It makes the process of gaining coins and new players painful.
They also still haven't figured out how to make playing games against other players online better. The lag is horrific. You will miss plenty of tackles because of the lag. You will also shank your fair share of field goals. This isn't a new problem and I think EA has given up on caring.
Don't get me wrong here. Madden was and still is a fun game where you get to live out your sports fantasy and do on the field what your favorite team never could (looking at you Chargers). It's not perfect but it is fun. | video-games_xbox |
Darwin, you liar. From the time I first had a buddy show me Wolf-3D on his PC, I was hooked. FPS is most definitely the best gaming I know of. Where else can you take out your frustrations of everyday life by wholesale killing, all the time yelling, "take that (insert favorite obscenity here)!!!!".
The answer: Nowhere, unless you want to end up in prison for life doing "favors" for cigarettes, or in a mental institution, weaving baskets with your toes while wearing a straight jacket.
So, do yourself a favor. Put down that assualt rile, save yourself a couple grand and go to you local electronics place, buy a game console and some FPS games. This one is a great one and I highly recommend it.
Hey, it even has a "kick" button, so you get to break things, too. I mean, hell yeah! Killing AND breaking stuff?!?!? Does it get any better? I submit that it does NOT (sorry for stealing your joke, Brian Regan).
"Why the review title?" you ask? Well, this game has so many different moves you can do that it literally uses every available item on the game controller and some even have more than one function if used with another. And believe me, at times, you can do some really cool things and used most of them at the same time....so, the fingers you were born with just aren't enough. Darwin stated that all creatures have the potential for evolution to meet certain needs or changes? Well, liar liar, pants on fire! I have played this game for hours, willing with all my might for extra fingers to sprout so I can become the best Wolfenstein gamer in the universe..and hopefuly fingers that aren't stupid lik ethe ones I have which keep changing weapongs while I'm fighting, instead of the "kick" button like I told them to.
But, that's a story for another day.....
All in all, this game is freaking great and if you are an FPS fan, you will not regret the purchase once.
Even Brian Regan might be playing it right now, killing in a blood lust, screaming, "take that, davezilla, you f$%king joke stealer!!!!" | video-games_xbox |
Returning to Form from F5. *Content and gameplay
*****Progression -
Career flows through 5 main areas,
Super Street, Sport Icons, Grand Touring, Professional Racing, Ultimate Motorsport.
Each has it's own set of events and races, and each can be played in a series in free play, generally its 3-5 races per segment.
*****Showcases - these include Autocross, Endurace, Factory Spec Races, High speed chase, Moments in Motorsport, Passing Challenges, Top Gear (Race the Stig), Race Driver Experience, Track day, and Top Gear showcase.
*****Stories of Motorsport - this is actually the single player element of the game but career only lets you play a certain number of series before moving on to the next tier. You can come here afterward to catch what you missed.
*Mechanics:
*****Load times: Around 20-30 seconds per track and about 10-15 to get back to the menu
*****Physics:
********Damage:
Damage I feel Is more important here than in 5, and seems more in effect, and much more influential. at 100% damage your car barely works. Pulls, braking performance, odd suspension, and cornering behavior, sloppy shifts, lack of power. All well done. Also, animated, take a turn with a bad suspension, and your car will bounce a ton on that bad suspension component. Body damage does effect aerodynamics, but as in 5, body damage modelling is a bit, lackluster. I find myself wishing for more evident damage. Plowing into a wall at 120 got me a dented front bumper, not much hood damage, 4 broken windows and some damage to the sides, but the car looked like it was hit by a bunch of hoodlums with bats. It didn't look serious.
********Handling
Cars felt good to drive, I enjoyed them in the rain, and in the dry, and feel that the game is very true to life. For what it is of course. It's definitely no arcade game, but it could be truer to life I think.
:
*****New stuff
********Mods - Mods are pre race indefinite or single use "Cards" you can use them to gain benefits for that race. Some are situational, some make the race harder in exchange for a benefit, and some make you earn more money or xp, then still others give you straight benefits for that race.
********Night racing - only available on Spa, Daytona, Le mans, Nurburgring, Sebring, and Yas Marina
Night Racing's harder due to lower light conditions. Yes it's all you've wanted.
********Rain - Only available on Brands Hatch, Spa, Le Mans, Nurburgring, Sebring, Silverstone, and the Top Gear test track.
********Track Variants -Total track locations: 26, total variations: 92 variants (This does not include weather as a variant)
********Prize spins - every time you level you can spin the wheel for prizes. Sometimes it's mods, sometimes it's cars or sometimes it's money.
********Tracks: Monza, Brands Hatch (returning), Circuit of the Americas, Daytona, Lime Rock Park, Rio de Janeiro, Hockenhiemring, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, As well as all of the DLC and the original tracks of 5.
*****Summation Of Mechanics and Content:
Rain physics are great. Track selections up to snuff, prizes for levels are sorted finally, Rain and Night finally and the game's racing is fantastic with a full grid of 24! (Only in career. Online its 12.) can't ask for more there. Still no pit crew visuals however. But that's about the only gripe i've got.
*Presentation
*****Graphics - Very good, but you can already see the xbox one's hardware beginning to lag behind current PC's. It's very good for console, but I have to admit the track can look a bit un-detailed in some areas sometimes, but racetracks aren't known for their wondrous visuals. I can't help thinking the One is just a little too lackluster for today, but that's for another conversation. All in all it looks fantastic and is smooth as silk while you're playing. Don't get me wrong though it's a heaping helping of car porn.
*****Menu Layout:
(Looks like the xbox one really)
Page 1 - Last visited, Message center, Forza Hub, Prize Spins
(Access last mode accessed, The Forza hub App, and Spend Prize Spins here)
Page 2 - Career, Multiplayer, Freeplay, Leagues, Test Drive, Rivals
(Participate in races or test drive stuff here)
Page 3 - Find a Car, My cars, Forzavista
(Buy and check out cars)
Page 4 - Tune, Upgrade Shop, My Tunes, Get Tunes, My Cars, Quick Upgrade
(Tune and Upgrade your cars here.)
Page 5 - Customize Car, Paint, Find Designs, Create Vinyl Group, My Vinyl Groups
(Make your cars look cool here)
Page 6 - Marketplace, Forza Tv, Change Homespace, Forza Gallery, Mods, Change Badge, Audio, Video, My Drivatar, Change Driver, Controller Wheel, Hud.
(Buy more content, Watch saved videos, Look at your saved pictures, Change your garage backdrop, Check out and buy more mod cards, Change your drivatar badge to a more fitting icon, Adjust audio and video settings, Check your stats factoring into your Drivatar, Change the sex of your driver model (Male/Female), Controller or wheel options, and Heads up display options.)
*****Buying cars
The top there is columns instead of just being able to shift right or left. Saves a lot of legwork. Still have to go through all the manufacturers, but it's way better than 5. Still you can skip with LB/LB for multiple columns at a time. There are 81 Manufacturers in this game, and even better free cars get their own tab at the top. Fabulous.
*****Forzavista
I think most of the engines are visible now. But they still go away once you swap engines (nope you can't see the luscious LFA engine in your Supra :() Or just aren't able to be seen. Also, the forzavista voiceover is recycled a bit, at least it sounds exactly the same as five, I think it is. I really would have loved a personal touch to each car but with so many I don't know if that was reasonable. There is a bit more interactivity however with the cars than before on some models, as well as headlamps now working.
*****Customizing cars
Basically thee same as it was, quick upgrade to have the game do it for you, or you can get down and dirty yourself. Tons of rim options like always, and rim size adjustment is still in. Much of the bodywork stuff is the same in customization, and pretty much, if it was in forza 5 or horizon 2, it's here. The forza stuff, like always is available to control downforce. Swaps are still not manufacturer specific, which means yes you can drop a small block chevy motor in a toyota, but the engines aren't named (you can look them up though) but the swap is still a Forza thing, and I love it.
Plenty of layers for vinyls (3000 for the sides) and all of the paint plus one or two extras is there from 5. if you can think of a paint type, it's pretty much available in the game. Also, just like before you can paint just certain bits. I'd have loved if you could pick certain body panels and make cars look like they came out of a junkyard, but the system's ok. you just have to work harder to make 2 fenders different colors. Like before, you can get tunes or designs for free, from the community, they'll in turn get money when you use them. You can also now change cars from the paint menu. Nice touch.
*****Multiplayer:
As of right now, there are basically a few different hoppers to join into, and it works more or less just like Forza 5. As far as I can see there's the same experience there as 5 and 4. With just better physics and track selection.
*****Leagues
Hoppers are ladder based races. The more skilled you become, the better people you race with.
Rivals is time attack hot-lap against the community.
Free play and Test drive are pretty much exactly what they sound like.
*****Sounds
So glad to hear Richard Hammond and James May lend their voices and rhetoric again, even if I do miss Clarkson. it's so wonderful. In true Forza fashion, sound's beautiful, music is less orchestral and more just sprited this time, but if it's not your thing, that's understandable. I'm somewhere between "Eh" and nonchalantly bobbing my head about it. Car's make the music really. (Love the V8's SO much.)
*****Summation of Presentation and execution
Menu's great. Sounds are great, Modes are great, physics are bang-on, and the new stuff's a good reason to retake the plunge.
*Value:
*****Cost: I got my version for 100 bucks. Do I love this game? Yes I do, is it worth $100? Nope. Is it worth $60? Yes. If you like sims, it's a great game, lots of content, and no bloody micro-transactions anywhere to be seen.
*****Length: A huge amount of length. Nowhere near forza 4 levels (I got 200-ish hours out of that to 100%) but its got 100 hours of content thereabout if my guess is right, with plenty of online multiplayer.
*****Opinion of Value:
Overall, I'd say it's good value. for 60 bucks you get about 70 hours of career, and about 15-30 from the other modes + what you want out of multiplayer. Then however much time you spend in the paint shop. Well worth it.
*****Overall Summary
This game's definitely worth your time, and is a solid return to form, I am a little meh about some new stuff, but overall I think it's really good. It feels like a complete game, and that is high praise today. Run, don't walk to buy it. | video-games_xbox |
Better than Fallout 3 . F4 is a lot like Fallout 3 and yet it's not... a lot of similar things are used but they've totally revamped them, added to & made it SOOO much better.
I'm totally obsessed with their Settlement building feature. After the beginning & plot of the story are set, you start in Sanctuary City (your old neighborhood) and get to rebuild it - recruit people (starts w/ Mission at "Museum of Freedom"), create water, electricity, crops, set up defenses... it's almost a game within a game. I love it so much that I find myself spending most of my time tending to that.
You also get a companion - I've seen some people with a Super Mutant sidekick but I have the Dog... he can be very useful in battles but a hindrance too if he keeps going ahead of you & alerting enemies to your presence too early, setting off trip wires/bombs...
so you can get stuck having to use your stimpacks to recover them.
Wish they offered a dog whistle or something to call him back to you once you've commanded him to "stay" ... sometimes I completely lose him in the area. lol [I'm sure he'd reappear if I fast-tracked somewhere else]..
Effects are awesome - radiation storms are eerie, thunderstorms are awesome... crisp graphics..
There's crafting stations for creating or upgrading your armor, weaponry, chems & and alot of what you can do is hinged on the stuff you've scavenged so you pick up EVERYTHING you can in sight, as much as you can carry (strength perk determines your limit).
Perk system for adding skills is practically the same but with more goodies to choose from depending on your preference of playing style
The crafting "worskshop" builds your settlements and you'll know where you can create one where a workshop station is.
I'd suggest watching some online videos, it's a little bit of a learning curve, but addictive and FUN!
Normal difficulty is not as easy as I remember it in F3. A good challenge but not obnoxiously impossible so it gets overly frustrating. (if it does, you're probably not leveled up enough to take on that area).
I enjoy some of the humor they throw in with computer notes..- the Diamond City radio jock can be funny...
Bugs - after a few days of gameplay, I had one problem with extreme framerate lag to the point of it being unplayable.
I was very early in so I deleted & reinstalled to start over. It just started happening again and I decided to delete most of the game saves I didn't need anymore and that solved my problem. I pretty much keep that cleaned up.
The game crashed 2 times now but it's no big deal if you keep a good save point often [delete the old ones].
This could ruin your social life for awhile :D, there's SO much to do & explore. I paid full price when it released and it's been worth every penny. It's more fun than I ever expected and imo, better than Fallout 3. | video-games_xbox |
Fundamental Flaws Prohibit Learning. This game is not for novice guitar players what want to learn how to play. This is for intermediate to advanced players that want Guitar Hero/Rock Band with a real guitar. The problem is that it's marketed as a learning tool, but every design decision seems to have been made with the goal of confusing and frustrating beginning players like myself.
The first problem is the "Rift Repeater" mode, used to practice and memorize portions of songs. The game only gives you 5 chances to complete any particular rift. If you fail to play perfectly within those 5 chances, you are scolded for not already knowing how to play guitar and dropped to the menu. From there you need to re-load the practice mode if you want to try again.
The largest problem is the inability to see a songs entire tablature ahead of time. The on screen indicators are constantly scrolling towards you, so any note is only on screen for 3 seconds at best. You see a fairly rapid and complicated 10 note rift coming up. In 3 seconds you need to figure out what fret on what string needs to be played, the best finger combination and position to use, and what picking direction works best for these 10 notes.
Missed all that in 3 seconds? You have 4 more tries before you are dropped to the menu and have to reload again, and that's a 2 minute loading process each time!
I played this game regularly for three weeks before giving up. I learned nothing from my experience and even had to watch youtube tutorials to figure out basic techniques that weren't covered in the game. Did you know it's ok to rest the pinky finger of your picking hand on the guitar body, giving you an anchor and making it easier to find strings? Not covered in Rocksmith. Checking your guitars neck bowing? Not covered in Rocksmith. String intonation? String buzzing? Not covered in Rocksmith.
I'm rating this game based on what was shipped in the box, not a promised patch that nobody has seen as of the writing of this review. | video-games_xbox |
Buying guide for Xbox One bundles. I wanted to create a guide to help those interested in purchasing an Xbox One, since there are so many bundles, and offers change constantly. I'll attempt to keep this up to date as the bundles change. This is NOT a comparison to Playstation 4 or Wii U.
A short list of features that may interest you, shared by all Xbox Ones (more details can be found in product descriptions and Microsoft sites) -
HDMI pass through. You can hook up an HDMI device to the back of an Xbox One to view the content from that device without changing inputs or leaving the X1 interface. This allows for split screen viewing and if a cable box or the official TV tuner, you can view the channel guide, watch TV, and set recordings.
It is backwards compatible with some Xbox 360 games. This is great for those with backlogs (like me...) or those who want to revisit finished games without having another console plugged into the wall/TV. In the fall, owners of publisher approved disc or digital 360 games will be able to play them emulated on the X1. Some X1 games also include their 360 precursors with purchase for play on the X1 in case you missed them. Rainbow Six Siege includes both R6 Vegas Xbox 360 games, for example. List of games and other info here -[...]
It will stream content to Windows 10 devices.
Xbox Live Gold now applies to households instead of individuals; meaning that multiple accounts on the same console can have access to the same features but have differing account restrictions (I.E. parental controls). So you can let your kids play Garden Warfare online, but not Gears of War.
External USB 3.0 storage. This is great because, 1) you don't need to open the console and replace a hard disc to add storage, just plug in and the X1 will format the drive, 2) even disc-based games have compulsory installs and can be upwards of 50GB each, eating storage space quickly, 3) external drives can be spacious and cheap, and last but not least, 4) USB 3.0 is actually faster than the internal hard disc interface. This means that a game on an external drive will load faster than one on the internal drive, usually by a significant amount.
The bundles-
The current bundles include a newer controller that has a standard 3.5mm audio jack built in and output both game and chat audio through it. Legacy consoles shouldnt be expected to be widely available at the suggested price (and some I haven't included, due to their rarity at this point). You may have better luck at other outlets finding the legacy consoles (Microsoft Store, Dell, various brick-and-mortar stores). There are no functional differences. All bundles include a controller, HDMI cable, chat headset (with exceptions), and a 14 day Xbox Live Gold trial membership (paid $60/year service to play online and download the Games with Gold, a monthly rotation of full games you're free to download and keep (forever for 360 games and as long as you have Live Gold in active subscription for X1 games).
Current bundles (with rating based on what you get for the money. Star and letter ratings are intended for the suggested price listed next to the bundle, not whatever current prices are.) -
Spring Note - It's hard to recommend anything other than the Kinect bundle (if you want the camera peripheral), the Eilte (for the controller and faster HDD, if that's most important to you) or the Spring bundle (sold at Gamestop or Microsoft Store) which includes a 1TB console, Halo 5, Ori and the Blind Forest, Rare Replay, and Gears of War Ultimate downloads. Until the end of the month, the retail price of all bundles is $50 off. If you want to know more about all the rest, see the descriptions below.
Rainbow Six Siege 1TB bundle. $399. Includes console, new controller, disc version of the title game and downloads of the Rainbow Six Vegas Xbox 360 games, with a chat headset. A new class-based multiplayer shooter with the excellent tactical precursor campaigns. A good bundle. A- rating.
The Division Bundle 1TB bundle. $399. Includes console, new controller, download of the title game. No headset, no legacy games. B- rating.
Quantum Break 500GB White bundle. $349. Includes console, new controller, and downloads of Quantum Break and both Alan Wake 360 games. No headset. B+ rating.
Name your Game 500GB bundle. $349. Includes the console, new controller, a download of one of Forza 6, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Gears of War Ultimate, or Rare Replay, and no chat headset. The choice of games is nice and the selections are high-quality, but 500GB will fill very quickly at this point, and without a headset or bonus games, this is one of the lesser value bundles. B- rating.
Xbox One Elite 1TB bundle. $499. Includes a console with a 1TB hybrid SSD and hard disc for quicker load times for the items you access the most and the Elite controller, which has replaceable/customizable sticks, buttons, and triggers for the professionals or tinkerers, and DOES include a chat headset with a matching black and silver color scheme. While the internal storage on this will be better than the standard HDDs in other X1s, the performance increase PROBABLY won't match external USB3.0 drives, due to the continued use of the SATA interface. There's little information about the size of the SSD partition and many hybrid drives don't allow you to choose what content is on which partition. The elite controller has been released to wide acclaim (modifiable professional controllers can easily go for twice as much), but is scarce on its own at present. If you want the best/most storage and best controller out of the box, this is the bundle for you, but you won't get any games with it. B+ rating. Please note that the bundle with two controllers does not include a second Elite controller, but a regular wireless one.
Kinect 500GB Bundle - $399. Includes 500GB console, the Kinect camera, a chat headset, controller, and three Kinect-focused game downloads: Dance Central Spotlight, Kinect Sports Rivals and Zoo Tycoon. Finally another Kinect bundle! The X1 UI is made better and more easily navigable with the Kinect, and there are fun, energetic games to be played with it. A rating. Great for those who want to move and enjoy motion and voice controls, but it has little storage. Bundle with FIFA on separate page is even better for the same price.
Holiday 1TB Bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Gears of War Ultimate Edition disc, Rare Replay disc, and Ori and the Blind Forest game download, the new controller, and doesn't appear to include a headset. A rating. Something(s) for everyone in this bundle, with 36 games included. Now replaced by the even better Spring bundle (see above).
Halo 5 Limited Edition 1TB bundle. $499. Includes custom console with Halo sounds, and custom controller, with the Halo 5 Limited Edition (steelcase, guardian figure, game download and add-on content). Why a limited edition would come without a physical game is beyond me... It may not bother some, but it will upset many. This is a higher premium than the Forza 6 bundle (charging an extra $100 for an extra $40 package). For Halo aficionados/console collectors only. C rating.
Gears of War 500GB bundle (also in white). $349. Includes Gears of War Ultimate Edition download. This 500GB model includes the new controller, but does not include a headset. B- rating. This is the most discounted bundle in sales and has many other offers with it, if you can catch them.
Legacy bundles-
Fallout 4 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, Fallout 4 game confirmed to be a disc (!), a download of the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3, and a chat headset. B+ rating. Two open-world RPGs for grownups.
Rise of the Tomb Raider 1TB bundle - $399. Includes 1TB console, downloads of Rise of the Tomb Raider, DLC, and its predecessor, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and doesn't appear to include a headset. B+ rating. The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 was pretty good and I expect the sequel is even better, but I haven't tried it yet. Great for adults who love action adventure.
Lego Movie 500GB bundle - $349. Includes 500GB console and the Lego Movie Videogame and no headset, apparently. C+ rating. Game is a cheap one and good for kids, but little value in this bundle compared to others.
FIFA and Madden 16 1TB bundles. $399. I'm grouping these together because other than the type of football you prefer, they are the same. Both include either the latest Madden NFL or FIFA soccer game download and a year of EA access, a paid ($30/yr) service which allows Xbox One users early access to EA releases, extended demos with progress that can be saved if a full game is purchased, discounts on EA games, and free access to the Vault, currently 14 full games. Great if you like EA's games. A- for each.
Forza 6 1TB Bundle. $399. Custom Forza-inspired console with racing sounds and custom (new, with 3.5mm audio jack) controller, and download code for Forza 6 and extra content, and a chat headset. A- rating, though some may not like the custom design and sounds.
Hope you found this useful. | video-games_xbox |
True Crime: Streets of LA. Well This is one if The Best Game That is going to be on all the Consoles, it is almost Like Grand Theft Auto But I think it's goin to be Even Better.
in This Game there are three Diffrent Styles Of GamePlay, Driving, Fighting And Shooting.
And True Crime is in LA, The Streets and all the Locations are Real, it is Based on Sattelite Shots so its goin to be Great To Go every Where in LA and see how it feels and looks like.
Now to the Gameplay First the Driving:
You Play as Nick Kang Driving His Convertible And Drive a motorCycle and while You are Driving there is going to be a "radar" just Like Grand Theft Auto and it will Direct you to various Points on interest, not just that you can also encounter random Crimes while you are out in the streets, you can Even break up muggings without even getting out of your car by Casually popping a few caps into the perp's face.
Now the Shooting:
You Can Hold two Guns at once, and you can even aim at two thugs now aint that cool or what, while you take out the Thugs you can take their weapons.
Now The Fighting:
In This Game The Hand to Hand Stuff Works Pretty Cool, The moves There are that Nick Use is punch, Kick, grapple, and Jump.
If You Repeat the Attack the Thugs will get Dizzy and there is going to be a slow Motion string of Attacks on them as a sort of Finisher.
The Grapple lets you Suplex , Tosses and Series of Slams you can even make elbow drops on the thugs after you knock them Down.
not only that you Can Do Stuff Your Way, there is a Unique Branching storyline allows you to navigate your own way through over 100 missions, even leaving the mission path at times to build skills, explore the city and and bust random Criminals.
Success leads in one Direction, While Failures lead in another, Without Repeat of missions, If You Decide to kill a boss, you may lose the information he had, If You Don't Kill him, he may Come back to haunt you. Along the Way. You've got to React to and handle random Crimes that spring up.
In The game You Can Bust Drug Dealers and prostitutes, Shakedown Information and Confront Gang Members To Get The Job Done.
as You See all these things a man Got it, Nick Kang is a Really Dangerous Dude, he is a cop Offcourse.
The Game is Really Great, It is By Activision, i am Gettin This Game When it's Out I Am Sure, It's Going to be Even Better Than Grand Theft Auto, So Wait For This Game And GET IT!!!. | video-games_xbox |
Condemned: Criminal Origins (XBox 360. Horror videogames typically temper their bite with tongue in cheek--opting to soften the guts and ooze with mood-lightening, mind-numbing one-liners. Few shamelessly embrace the dark side and squeeze its blackened fruit for all its nectar. Even fewer allow their brutality the unbridled gusto of cinema. Well, fans of the grim, in the school of horror-flick-gone-interactive, Condemned: Criminal Origins is the disheveled kid in the back of the classroom with "Slayer" scribbled on his notebook.
Mannequins: You're Ethan Thomas, a forensics agent at the bureau who, for unknown reasons, has been tagged as the next big thing. During a routine investigation into a string of bizarre serial killings, the tables are turned and Ethan finds himself on the wrong side of the law, taking a grotesque romp through the mind of a serial killer with a mannequin fetish. His quest will take you through all manner of sewer and slum where you'll rub rebar with some of the city's most desperate.
Hand to Pipe: In fact, sledge hammers, 2x4s with nails, 2x4s with bolts, locker doors, fireplace pokers, lead pipes, and fire axes are all ripe for bashing against the skulls of bloodthirsty thugs overcome by rage. While the few guns you'll pick up have only one clip before they must be dropped, the environments provide ample blunt trauma fodder. You're never empty-handed when you can rip a piece of conduit off the wall one second and plant it between the eyes of a delinquent the next. The number-one rule of Condemned is: if it's not bolted down you can smack someone upside the head with it. In other words, there's little need for a rule number two.
The immediacy in this game--it's all set from a relentless first-person camera--leaves you little time to think. Enemies lunge from shadowsor hide behind pillars just waiting to floss your teeth with a road sign. The ferocity of the attackers is trumped only by the satisfying feeling of momentum when you land a blow or perfectly time a block, which is by no means easy to pull off. Groups will swarm your position, and your only recourse is liberal use of a taser to slow the onslaught. A shot to the chin will sometimes drop attackers to their knees where a snap of the neck or a punch to the temple will finish the job.
Foren-Sick: Well, sort of. To truly finish the job you'll have to use alternative lighting to find clues, snap photos of evidence, and otherwise be the forensics expert the FBI used to pay you good money to be. The good news is that a lab tech back at the bureau believes in your innocence and processes evidence through your PDA. The bad news it that your hand is so thoroughly gripped during all the forensics investigation that it ultimately becomes a distraction in a game that otherwise keeps consistently cranking it up a notch.
How nice can a sewer pipe covered in sludge look? If Condemned is any indication, pretty damn good. While the character models are a little awkward, there's no denying that the environments are wonderfully dressed for the macabre. Though you'll be exploring a haunted mansion, a deserted grade school, a dilapidated shopping center, and all manner of the run-down and dragged-out, the oppressive implementation of light and sound permeates every setting with a consistent feeling of dread. Voicing is solid, but unremarkable, yet it's never so stilted that it pulls you out of Condemned's haunting grip.
Just when you think Condemned is starting to become a squatter, the script is flipped, a new enemy comes traipsing up from the muck, or you perfectly time depositing the business end of a pipe into some mug's ear. The combat and weapon system are innovative, and when it seems they begin to wear out their welcome the game spirals to an abrupt conclusion. Many will say the game ends too abruptly with its nine-hour length, but there's no other experience like Condemned: Criminal Origins for those who can handle its savage disposition. | video-games_xbox |
Don't pay more than half price, please read and carefully consider if even that is worth it for this game. Having been an avid EA Tiger Woods golfer on previous gen consoled, even after the 11GB of patches and free additional courses and modes, this game is frustratingly limited and I can't help but feel the foundation of the game is half baked. On XBOne, the graphics are improved from the old Tiger games but there are a lot of new graphical glitches such as popping trees and buildings and flickering grass. The textures actually seem almost too sharp as the grass and clothing often shimmers in a very unrealistic and distracting way.
It is worth noting that there is no way to play a casual solo round of golf in this game with no crowd or tournament buildings and stands. Or at least I haven't found a way to turn the crowd off. If someone knows a way to do this please let me know. I love just playing the a quiet round alone but cannot do that in this game. Not only that but there is no way to turn the crowd noise off. So you can play solo but there will always be a tournament atmosphere and crowd which seems really dumb.
With the 11 gigabytes worth of updates and free content added there are now 13 real world courses available to play. The courses are all championship courses so the courses that are there are really good. They are all available in Play Now from the beginning. You do not have to complete any tasks to unlock courses. You do need to play to unlock licensed gear such as Nike, Callaway, Ping, etc, clubs, balls, and clothing.
In conclusion, with no way to play casual rounds without a crowd or tournament atmosphere and with basically only the limited career mode to come back to with only 13 real courses to choose from, this game feels like its replayability will be very low. I would not recommend paying more than half price for this game and even that is stretching it. I give it 2.5 stars.
UPDATE: 2017
This game has gotten even more updates and courses and still none of the issues I mentioned above have been addressed. It is just a frustratingly awful experience. In light of other recent games using the Frostbite 3 engine, this game's graphics are horrible for some reason.
The cut scenes are especially terrible looking. There is so much shimmering and weird texturing that I cannot even look at it. It has nearly no resemblance to real life. There is just nothing about this game that makes me want to play it at all. That is so sad because I am such a big golf fan. I have played this game less than 10 hours total and uninstalled it from my Xbox. I am changing my review to 1 star and my recommendation to DO NOT buy. | video-games_xbox |
Amazing game - with massive fatal flaws. As far as the title itself goes, it is one of the best I've played in a long time. The game is a great RPG-like, turn based strategy scifi title. The customization options are really fun and keep me entertained consistently. I had pretty much played Enemy Unknown into the ground, and then Enemy Within came out with several new gameplay options to entertain me even more. This game is perfect for my nerd background - raised on Final Fantasy RPG's and Alien/Aliens/Star Trek movies.
I'll stop my review there, however, to relay the unfortunate fact that the game is absolutely corrupted with massive amounts of bugs and glitches. It's pointless to go on about the positive side of a game that is inherently broken. The most egregious glitch of all is a "mission loop", in which the game accidentally spawns two missions at the same time, and you are unable to proceed with either of them. The game just shows the intro, and then cuts back to the mission choices again. As a result, Ironman mode is completely unplayable unless you want to take a gamble that somehow, the glitch won't happen THIS time (I've yet to win that gamble in 10+ attempts to get through Ironman).
I have been able to make it through the game via "save scumming" (constantly reloading - when bugs happen or otherwise), of course. But Ironman, the most challenging, funnest mode, is dead. There are other bugs as well, the above is just the most egregious IMO.
Xcom Enemy Within has so many great concepts for story, gameplay, etc....but it's just too bad that 2k/Firaxis don't care about it at all. They have my money and have since abandoned the game, it appears. I'm more heartbroken than angry, really, because the game is awesome, but ultimately broken.
My game will unfortunately be sitting on my shelf, and I suggest you leave it out of your shopping cart - unless a patch comes out to make the thing playable. | video-games_xbox |
Lots of gaming for your bucks. Late last year, Sonic Team over at Sega released "Sonic Unleashed" which did have its problems, mind you, but didn't really do anything stellar the entire way through. Reviewers pointed out that Sonic's previous games were miles ahead better and I find nostalgia can help make a game's success. After all, that one game that critics hated at the time might've been one of your favorites but looking at it now you go "wow did that game have issues". Therein lies the major issue/fun with the Ultimate Genesis Collection: does the bulk of these games stand the test of time? Some definately do while others will probably get barely a few minutes before you decide it's awful but there's a lot of work to be done here if you get this.
One of the most important and influential game series that kickstarted the Sega Genesis was Sonic the Hedgehog, Sega's answer to Nintendo's Mario and included is a truckload of Sonic games: 1, 2, 3, Sonic and Knuckles, 3D Blast, Pinball and to a degree, Dr. Beatnik's Mean Bean Machine, a puzzle game akin to Dr. Wario, Yoshi's Cookie and Super Puzzle Fighter II. The first 4 are great and well worth the purchase while 3D Blast controls awkwardly, Pinball is decent but not stellar and Mean Bean Machine is good though later stages work a bit too damn fast for my tastes.
Another group featured is the side scroller platformer which run the gamut from Ristar to Kid Chameleon (woo!) to Decap Attack to E-Swat (big eh) to 2 Vectorman games. Beat-em-ups like Streets of Rage and Golden Axe are included and for RPG fans: all 4 Phantasy Stars. It's safe to say that nearly every kind of game is available on here from long drawn-out games to quicker arcade-y stuff but be warned: some of these games are...kind of hard. Not in that underpowered "everyone's better than you" way like a Ninja Gaiden but rather many times in the games you won't even get continues so if you die, boom, Game Over and you're sent back to the title screen which is really disheartening and I'm surprised I don't remember getting more furious when I was younger.
Now of course any collection from greatest hits to game collections is bound to have some stuff missing or curious additions. Fatal Labyrinth well...sucks, the Ecco games are familiar but playing through them, they're surprisingly boring and Super Thunder Blade is too easy to die in. But then, most likely because of dual releases on the Super Nintendo we're missing some other favorites: Battletoads, Toe Jam and Earl, the awesome WWF games, Maximum Carnage, any of the Road Rashes and to be honest, I quite liked the Aero the Acro-Bat games. Most of these games you probably wouldn't give the time of day too while other ones like Ristar and Comix Zone actually surprised me.
Naturally like all Xbox 360 games, there's achievements and these aren't just simply beat game, beat game kind but rather objective based so for example one of Golden Axe's achievements is to use magic a certain amount of times. Easy right? Every time you get a magic ability, use it and eventually, there we go. And thanks to the ability to save games anywhere you want but pressing the Back button, some achievements like the ones for Mean Bean Machine, Columns or Sonic Pinball can be done just by saving states after a certain time and loading save if you die. There's a couple like "Yatta!" that can potentially drive you crazy since it's more luck than anything while others are just simply "Turn to easy, max lives, play".
Another disappointing factor is that the games don't have online play, whether co-op for Golden Axe or Streets of Rage or leaderboards. Imagine competing against somebody to see who can get the highest score in Columns or taking on enemies with other buddies but sadly none of it are implemented and it's strictly offline co-op. But there's quite a few unlockables from videos of the games' developers to additional games (while unlocking Shinobi is cool, Congo Bongo flat out sucks) but it's the games that are important and for completionists, having so much games to beat will surely keep you busy.
The Ultimate Genesis Collection is tough to judge as a game because for every Sonic the Hedgehog or surprising gem like Ristar there's godawfulness from Fatal Labyrinth to Flicky to Bonanza Bros. However getting all Sonics, Phantasy Stars, Streets of Rage, and Golden Axes on one disc is reason enough to get it. | video-games_xbox |
Tremendous game, but. I'm not going to get into the discussion of whether this game is better or worse than GTA IV. Both games may be the same genre (that began with GTA), but that's the only thing they have in common. Saints Row 2 is an all-out celebration of sex and violence with it's tongue planted firmly in cheek. There are no apologies for it's mature content and I like that! If you're going to be an M rated game then go all out with it and don't hold back, and Volition held nothing back for Saints Row 2. It's a blast to play, you get knee deep into the action right away and the wild ride never stops. There isn't a dull moment to be found. If you're looking for sandbox crime action, this may arguably be the best one out there (for next-gen systems anyway). Customization is king in Saints Row 2. You can customize just about everything in the game. From your crib, to your clothes, to your rides... you can alter them all. Customization can get pretty crazy too. For example, if you're a guy you can walk around in your boxers and if you're a woman you can walk around in just a tiny t-shirt and panties, or go naked (with your naughty bits censored of course). This can make the cut scenes pretty hilarious to say the least!
The new features of Saints Row 2 are pretty cool. Co-op play has been added (via Xbox Live or system link) and now you can play as a female, not just a male. A female friend of mine said she was going to pick up this game simply because of this feature, so more games should utilize this. There's a lot to do in the game as well. I've been playing all day and I'm only 3% into the game (I've been doing more side missions and exploration), so the game is going to offer hours of gameplay. Also, you can double the play time by playing thru as a man and then a woman to experience the subtle changes made in the game between the sexes.
Unfortunately, not all is perfect with Saints Row 2. Like I said, I've been playing all day (over 8 hours) and my game has froze dead in it's tracks not once, not twice, not three times, but four times!!! It happened during the Mayhem mode when I had tons of cops on my tail. This is really unacceptable. I've also noticed several small, yet annoying glitches that hamper the fun factor of the game. For example, while having several cops on my tail I had to switch cars. Several cops were on foot close to me as I tried to jack a car. I pushed Y to get into the car, instead of getting in, my character froze and one of the cops near me got inside the car I wanted instead. It was a temporary freeze, and I quickly pulled the cop out of the car once I could move again, but I have a feeling glitches like this could just be the tip of the iceberg.
With that said, I still love the game. The fun factor out weighs the glitches and freezes, but I did remove 2 stars due to these problems. If it wasn't for that, Saints Row 2 would've easily been a perfect 5 star game, but things like this should really get fixed before they're released to the public.
The collectible tin, bullet usb drive and money clip are pretty cool, but the art book is a joke and a copy of the soundtrack (ala GTA IV collector's edition) would've been a perfect touch, especially since this is $79.99 and not $69.99. Unless you're a die-hard fan of the series, I would skip this Collector's Edition. I bought it because I simply enjoy owning collector's editions of... anything.
So, if you can remember to frequently save your game and you don't mind game freezes and a few glitches here and there, then I highly recommend you spend some quality time in the Row. It's a fun place to visit! | video-games_xbox |
Very disappointing bunch of crap. I have been playing Madden football regularly since 2002. Every summer I get pumped that Madden is coming out. The new additions to franchise mode are cool. The expanded rosters is great because you can now manage your team and decide who to keep and who to cut. Players go on hot and cold streaks over the course of the season which is a cool addition. And you can trade for future draft picks. Receivers attempt to stay in bounds when a pass is close to the sidelines.
Even though Madden 12 has new features attempting to enhance the game, EA has gotten so lazy that it's so frustrating to even play. Luckily I have Xbox live gold membership, so I am able to get the roster updates. And not that anyone doesn't know, the rosters are completely outdated when you purchase the game. Example: Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams are still with Miami. So, if you don't have gold membership, EA and Microsoft are trying to force you into wasting fifty more bucks to get updated rosters. Not to mention, EA delayed Madden's release date because of the lockout so why couldn't they update the rosters once free agency began. Gameplay is either to easy or nearly impossible. I usually like to play on all-pro difficulty because pro it's too easy to dominate the AI. But on all pro it's impossible to pass. It might just be me but I always throw about 2 to 4 interceptions each game. It's annoying because even if I pass into one-on-one coverage the defensive back usually picks it off with ease. It's too hard to try to trow for a big gain so to not get picked off I have to throw little dinky 2 yard check down passes. The running game is fine, except for the fact that EA completely took away the truck stick, so now you can't attempt to power through defenders. EA took away the sprint button. Another one of EA's changes to Madden is they switched the kicking/punting from the right stick to the A button. The speed on the power/accuracy meter changes when you're attempting to kick and you have to hit the button twice for power and accuracy. This seems EA switched this just for the sake of switching it. What is really irritating is in franchise mode the accelerated clock can't be turned off. I tried turning it off in the settings and "my profile" menus, but didn't work. And possibly the most annoying part of the gameplay is the painfully repetitive commentating with Gus Johnson and Chris Collinsworth. They say the same lines every game.
Unfortunately since EA has the license and contract with the NFL they're the only company allowed to produce NFL games. They have become so lazy with this series and they don't care. Madden used to be such a fun game to play year after year. But since EA bought the exclusive rights to the NFL they don't even half-ass their production because there's no competition. Madden 12 has some nice new features but unfortunately there are serious problems that EA has to fix. And with all these new features and switches, one EA has to add back is the training camp drills, in franchise mode, that used to be in Madden 04, 05, and 06 to improve certain players ratings. And the same drills should be put back outside franchise mode also. | video-games_xbox |
Better than BF3. I've decided to go back to playing Bad Company 2 instead of paying EA twice for BF3 due to an Origin account issue. In the time it took me to complete the BF3 single player, I am not even halfway through with playing through BC2 the third time. The great thing about BC2 (single-player) is the characters; you play as Marlowe, the most "normal" member of Bad Company alongside the mustachioed Haggard, the tech Sweetwater, and the grizzled sergeant. Make no mistake, this story is meant to parallel Heart of Darkness if the main characters name doesn't tip you off. That's what is so great about this game, as the story goes on and the stakes become higher and more depraved the allegories pop out just as much as the combat does. This game is not perfect, throughout the single player you have to do much of the heavy lifting; but it never feels forced like in BF3. You have a lot of discretion in how to approach objectives, even if that means just deciding to go up the left side and not the right side (even that choice was denied in BF3). But that's just an extreme; most of the time you have a lot of options on whether to snipe your way through; charge; use artillery or vehicles; or some other creative idea. Building in your way? Blow it up. I was shocked at how BF3 got rid of so much destructibility when that was the main draw of the series.
As for the multiplayer; BC2 has had a lot more time to achieve balance. Sniping is actually challenging because bullets of different calibers will drop at different rates and travel at different speeds. The other classes all have unique purposes and roles that don't conflate. There is no one super-class (although by and large snipers are most common). Everything is clean, simple, and navigable. I had problems with all the graphical glitches in BF3 and also all the unnecessary crap that just clutters up the screen. BC2 runs smooth and while the graphics are dated; I actually think they are much cleaner and of high quality considering that frame rate drops are normal in BF3 and you need to install the texture pack just to see basic details. Finally, frantic CQC is NOT at all the name of the game here. Multiplayer requires a much more deliberate strategy and technique to coordinate attacks. Medium range engagements are challenging and the bulk of assault combat; close range is terrifying and final. I feel like BF3 traded in a lot of the medium range combat for Modern Warfare type frantic shooting.
In the end, it all comes down to tastes. If you like Modern Warfare's more fast-paced twitch style; then you won't enjoy this and there is nothing wrong with that. I like both games but I just have my preference to this kind of deliberate, slower paced combat. Also, lest I be accused of fan-boy-ism, I actually thought that the Modern Warfare (1-2) storyline was fantastic, that's why it was so disappointing when BF3 ripped it off completely. Nonetheless, I find attraction to the Heart of Darkness allegory here and the more human character interactions; always humorous but oftentimes profound. | video-games_xbox |
Change" is NOT always good. I am a "die hard" Demon Souls fan. I have over 2000 hours and 8 characters in Demon Souls....So when i heard Dark Souls was coming out i patiently waited for the Killer experience.
"BUBBLE BURSTING"
Yes...thats what happened when i got Dark Souls. My hopes were all for nothing. First of all i don't understand why companies choose to kill something that was working fine in the first place.
Here are the TOP 3 KILLERS in this game:
1). Co-Op/Multiplayer online experience
2). Gameplay
3). Rewarding system
Here how the developers "GANKED" us, the players.
They shafted "Atlus" and went with "NAMCO-BANDAI which was a bad move.
They went "Multi-Platform"...even thoough i like the XBOX i also have the PS3 and i think they should have kept it an exclusive for PS3. So by making this game multi-platform they had to use a "Multi-Server" System, which is broken, to accomadate the INVADING and Co-Op play which made "Demon Souls" a CLASSIC HIT.....
The Gameplay SUCKS.....the characters move as if they have cement boots on. They chaged the movesets for weapons which now it feels clunky. Worthy Items dropped are FAR and FEW between. AFter you kill a BOSS you DONT get the BOSSES SOUL like in Demon Souls. They upped the DIFFICULTY level which is fine with me BUT they should have upped the rewarding system as well.
This has got to be the BIGGEST "BUST" of a game in recent history..."Alla EA Sports taking over NFL Football".
Needless to say i traded this game in for SKYRIM......
++UPDATE++
When i saw the price drop to 20$ i said lets try again. So i have been playing Dark souls for the past 2 months. I was surprised how much the mechanics has changed although it still has a FEW of the CHEAP deaths you will encounter like getting killed by an enemies sword while hiding behind a BRICK WALL but thats ok cause i can kill them using the same CHEAP trick...LoL
im level 130 NG+++ and i must admitt im liking this game. what i have learned is not let this game frustrate you. I know, i hate dying all the time too. But you get a chance to go through that level again and double the souls that you lost, if you are lucky enough to get back to your blood stain. LoL. I use a lot of the same cheap tricks on the enemies. Example, if you use the FOG ring you can sneak up to most enemies before they even see you. If your Toon is properly leveled you can get a BOW, stand at a distance with FOG ring and kill at will. I used this trick once to kill the boss MANUS but i mostly like going head-to-head combat over cheap tricks. So if anyone is not certain about this game give it a chance and use patience and tactics and also use the environment to your advantage. You will die LESS. | video-games_xbox |
Same Old Madden? Not On Your Life. OK, I normally don't write a lot of reviews, but after reading all of the reviews on here and seeing 1 after 1 ratings I said I simply must voice my opinion.
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Madden-NFL-13/dp/B006VB2UNM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Madden NFL 13</a> has all that most of you is saying that's missing and more. Franchise on & offline is still there but now under a different name and deeper than ever before. Sure last year had fantasy draft but is it really enough to say it's the worst game ever? So what are you missing "Fantasy Draft",and what not having a true salary cap online or players not really playing a progressing? Yeah I thought so. NO your not missing that your not understanding it!
Connected Career's- "Franchise Mode of the future" is the deepest mode you will ever get your hands on, not only can you play and run the team as a Coach by making controlling every part of your team from practices to off season moves like scouting the up coming draft and unlocking the potential to also deciding what players you want to progress more than others by applying XP points to bring up there Overall rating.
Well if you don't like to Coach what about being a player in the NFL, Well you can do that to! Just start your career off as a player and you can go set your mark in the NFL and see if you have what it takes to be a Hall of Fame player.
Graphics- The graphics are absolutely mind blowing, and simply WOW compared to any other of the previous games. Are they perfect? No... Madden is in a rebuilding phrase and I see the future and the future is so bright for Madden, and I can't wait to be apart of it.
The only thing that I had a problem was with the menus having alot of navigating, but that's because we have so much more to do than in years past.
All in all this game is simply the best and it's been a long time since the game has had ground breaking development that changed the game from every aspect, so if you have been reading the other reviews, and thinking I'm not buying Madden. Well you need to think again and truly see the whole picture to understand how wonderful a game this really is, and where it's going. Are you ready for the future of Madden? I am!
-Romo | video-games_xbox |
Great open ended racing game. I tried the demo for this game the day it was released (the demo). The game looked nice but the controls were horrible and the GPS not very well done. After reading some reviews of the actual game and hearing about it from various sources I decided I'd give it a try seeing as I was done with PGR3 and Need for Speed Most Wanted. I'm now very glad I gave this game a second chance.
First the car controls are A LOT better in this final game than what they were in the demo. It's a case of night and day. The GPS is also a lot better, although this might just be me.
The amount of road is simply amazing. you can seriously drive anywhere on the island with roads that never seem to end. The island is very nicely detailed and beautifully rendered. The cars however, while they do look very nice, in my opinion do not look as good as in other 360 racing games. Don't get me wrong the cars look exactly like there real world counter parts, but graphically they could have been a bit better.
The map looks exactly like what you'd see if you went to google map and looked at the sattelite shot. This is a cool feature, but again in my opinion I would have been quite happy with a fictitious island with a drawn map.
Something I;ve read in a lot of reviews is how the game let's you completly customize your character. I was actually quite disapointed in the very limited customization options, but then again...this is a racing game not the Simms.
I;ve also read mixed reviews about the amount of cars. some saying there are a lot, others saying 125 is not enough. I think there is a very wide array of cars to choose from, and let's face it, not many ppl will actually use every single car in this game. I think everyone out there will be able to find at least a handfull of cars they want to buy. Personally I'm glad they have ferrari's but even happier at the fact they have included a good selection of some very nice old american muscle cars.
There is a wide variety of races to participate in, most of which are original (to me anyways...). I;ve heard it said often this game is repetitive, but which racing game isn't?
It has been said very often, if you aren't on live, you will be missing out on a lot in this game, but I've found single player only very enjoyable. It is quite cool to be driving along and have another player blast by you in a high end car.
If your done with PGR3 and other such 360 racers, I highly recommend TDU. Don;t base your choice on the demo however. | video-games_xbox |
Fun Combat...not much else. If Star Wars The Force Awakens ever had a prequel tie in game revolving around Rey; this basically much describe the world of this game. You're a scavenger, Joule in a desert planet searching for parts while encountering 4 (technically 5) robot AI which accompany you on your journey.
Gameplay is split up into 3 parts: world/dungeon exploration, platforming puzzles, and the other a fun arcade third person shooter.
Exploration and dungeon crawling is okay, you can scavenge for core and parts/blueprints for upgrades whether it's your gun or your robot companions. Down side is if you're not used to old school open world adventure games then it may be off putting especially during fetch quests where you have to collect 6 or 7 of the same items to open a door. There's no hint system like in Uncharted 4 for example where they tell you where the last item or hints to solve the puzzle. This can be frustrating at times when you have 5 out of 6 items to progress through the dungeon and you have to keep wandering around the map for minutes to find it or look it up online. One item took me maybe 15mins of wandering around to find on my own. Also certain areas have you use 2 of your 4 robot companions (the 5th one is just a transporter/fast travel) to get through the level or mini-dungeon, this is a hassle when you only can have 2 at given time instead of 3 and you have to go back to your base to swap them out. Basically in terms of puzzles and exploration the game doesn't hand hold you, and you have to figure everything out yourself or play an advance game of hide and seek. Also some story missions are locked until you find certain item/core requirements so there' a lot of item grinding involved.
There's a lot of platforming puzzles in the game where you use your abilities to jump though timed levels to get a specific item/finish a quest. If you're not good at 3D platforming or have fast reactions speed this may be frustrating also
Combat in this game is very fun, as you have to switch to different colored bullets, dodge and call your robot companions to build combos for exp.
There's an auto-aim feature, but the combat is very fast pace where you have to prioritize enemies and dodge incoming attacks testing your reflexes. Once you get into it it's very exhilarating. Too bad the game have to go through a lot of fetch quests, if it was just combat all the way through i'd say it would be a better game
Graphics are okay. Not top of the line graphics but pretty decent. There are some frame rate stutters at times when there's a lot of enemies on screen.
Overall this is not a casual game that you pick up and play through the story. There's a lot of exploration, Easter egg (parts/cores) hunting and weapon grinding. | video-games_xbox |
Many pros, but still a lot of cons. After two weeks with Forza 5, unlike so many people who rated it one and two stars after less than two days at launch (and after what appears to be some initial bugs with the in-game finances sorted out), I felt I was adequately prepared to write a concise and fair review. I'd have rated it 4.5 if I could, but since I can't truthfully give it a 5, I have to dial back to a 4.
The pros are easily obvious. Beautiful graphics, the car modeling is spectacular, and the handling is better and more realistic than any previous Forza title. Small changes in the setup yield big results, so it rewards someone who knows how to adjust a setup. Upgrade parts seem to be cheaper and even a couple point improvement to the performance index makes a noticeable change. For example, upgrading the brakes from stock to a race package is only a couple points toward the PI, but the difference in control and power is immediately noticeable.
Cons, you can't argue with the previous assessments that the track list is limited. But what is there is gorgeous, detailed, and varied. Car choice, yes, it's smaller than in the past as well. But I'd honestly rather have quality over quantity just for the sake of car count, unlike other racing games that might have say, 20 different Mitsubishi Evos just to make their claim of 2000 cars. Other minor things... as you increase make affinity, it doesn't give any discount to parts as in previous editions, and no cars are awarded for leveling up or completing championships. All you get when leveling up is 70k credits, and it doesn't seem to go up as you reach higher levels. I'm currently at level 50, and it's been 70k every time. That's 3.5 million so far just from leveling up, but it would be nice to see a few cars come my way for the effort, at least every few levels as in previous versions.
The biggest con in my opinion is this "Drivatar" business. While the idea is excellent, the execution is highly flawed. Previous editions of Forza rewarded you slightly when you maxed out your performance and putting you to the front of the grid... not now. I show up for a class C race in a 500 PI, yet I'm behind 12-14 other cars that are in the 490s. Then when the race starts, you get to work your way around those 12-14 rolling chicanes to have a chance of getting up to earn a gold medal. If I wanted to get knocked around by a bunch of clowns who think turning on the straight, using you as a tool to slow down going into a turn, or just outright t-boning you mid-turn is a racing strategy, I'd go into multiplayer. It's even worse if you have friends who have only played a dozen or so races and have horrible Drivatar images. You're stuck with your friends, so if you have a couple who just aren't that good, it's frustrating to race against them every single race (that isn't an autocross or passing challenge). Braking in the middle of straights with nobody in front of them, turning right into you on a left turn, and piling into the first turn like it's the last and completely clogging the track (especially at Spa... and who jams on the brakes at the bottom of Eau Rouge?) regardless of the skill level you choose, welcome to Drivatar. You would think bumping up the difficulty, they would be better drivers, but that is not the case. Whether beginner or expert, it feels like bumper cars until you can get clear of the pack.
Unfortunately, it seems like we're stuck with this... perhaps (if someone at Turn 10 is listening) the ability could be added to kick out Drivatars, to get rid of the ones who drive like fools could be added and create a field of opponents who won't seemingly go out of their way to wreck me when going in a straight line. That would be a very welcome addition.
That said, I thoroughly enjoy the game... it's rewarding when you do make it through the minefield of Drivatars without any serious damage (or a half dozen rewinds), and the new feedback triggers make it even more immersive as you can feel the what the tires are doing under acceleration and braking. The achievements available are varied (yet still weigh too heavily on multiplayer and community for my taste) and not particularly difficult to attain. Some will take a bit of a grind, but that's the way it's always been in the numbered versions of Forza. Multiplayer can be fun as well, as long as you either race with friends who are on the same page as you as far as etiquette, or luck into finding a group who know how to race fairly, instead of a group who play like it's a demolition derby, or cheat by cutting corners.
One final note, everyone who was complaining about "microtransactions" and how this game "reaches into your pocket" in previous reviews... the only time it requires you to spend money is if you want to download the OPTIONAL car packs or buy OPTIONAL tokens to get cars without having to earn in-game credits, something that has existed for years in the Forza universe. I'm at level 50, yet haven't spent a single token of the 1250 that came with the LE. And as for screaming about how you have to buy the bonus cars with credits, I can't remember offhand from F3, but I know the LE of F4, it gave you the exclusive cars that you had to buy, but they weren't gifts. Same as in the LE for F5. I just don't get the outrage, since it's the exact same as it has been in previous editions. Does the season pass cost extra? Yes, but it always has, but it's also always been a discount over paying for six car packs individually... yet people are acting like this is all something new. But it's not like they require you to spend real money to advance in the game like so many other reviewers are making it out to be here. You can accomplish every goal in the game with the cars that are included on-disc, no additional purchase required.
The only people complaining are the ones who want to level up faster than usual (which in my opinion, is paced just fine- you gain two or three levels every championship), or get cars without putting in the work. Maybe if people did their homework and signed up for Forza Rewards, they'd find out how to get millions of in-game credits for FREE, along with gift cars including a Ferrari F12 and McLaren P1. It's not like Skylanders or Infinity where you MUST to buy a $10 figure every time you want to do something new in the game. | video-games_xbox |
Compared to previous CoD installments... this game is junk. As compared to the previous installments of the Call of Duty franchise (from my experiences with MW1/MW2/MW3/BO1/BO2/Ghosts) this game is the greatest disappointment of them all. While it is admirable that Activision attempted to seek out a futuristic timeline as they have all but exhausted present day timelines, this game simply falls short. While the campaign mode was a little entertaining, it was underwhelming, with plot "twists" seeming more like plot "curves" that any gamer over the age of 10 years could clearly see miles away. The gaming style of the multi-player seems to focus solely around the "run-and-gun" madness style of play, and customization features include MANY, MANY fewer weapon options than seen in previous installments. As for the "survival mode," lets just say, without getting into too much detail, that it SUCKED.
Regarding international sales about Call of Duty, it should be noted that whenever a CoD game preforms well (sales-wise), Activision released preliminary sales figures, boasting their massive achievements in the past of what have turned out to be MASSIVE entertainment releases. Sales figures for past games have breached the $500 MILLION mark on numerous occasions, setting entertainment release records surpassing even the largest Hollywood film productions. However, with Advanced Warfare (and Ghosts for that matter), Activision is still quiet about its sales for THIS GAME (they did release some BS number about the franchise as a whole however), indicating not-so favorable sales numbers. Looks like it under-preformed in sales and the shareholders will have to wait until the 4Q earnings call to learn more about how badly this game tanked.
My review in laymen's terms: this game is TERRIBLE (as compared to the high bar CoD has set in past installments such as MW2/MW3/BO2) and I wish I purchased it used at a lower price because I feel as though I wasted $60 of hard earned money on this ugly monstrosity of a CoD game. | video-games_xbox |
Great game that offers realism without constant shooting. Splinter Cell is an game that requires you to use stealth to creep past guards and other characters to accomplish your anti-terrorism covert operations. The graphics are highly detailed and the game world is a realistic story of geopolitical events unfolding on a CNN-like news channel.
You play Sam Fisher, a Third Echelon operative, sent on several missions to accomplish undercover missions to save the world. You must complete some missions without any weapons, and others with some James Bond type gadgets.
I haven't finished the game yet, but I'm right at the end. It has an interesting storyline, without getting into too much detail or long cut scenes.
PROS:
* Great graphics. The dark atmosphere of shadows and shade make for an interesting game.
* Great Sound. The voice work and sound effects are done correctly and add to the excitment of the game.
* Good Controls. I never read the instructions, and I was able to quickly work out the controls. The very first mission is designed to train you as a "new agent" on the controls.
* Exciting Missions. The missions are constructed to force you to use your stealth skills to complete the mission. Some missions you are not allowed to kill anyone.
CONS:
* Downloadable Missions. They claim that you will be able to download additional missions in FEB. 2003 if you have XBox Live. I want to see those extra missions on a disk.
* Some of the graphics are weaker than others. The cut scene videos show people with only three fingers and a thumb. The two middle fingers are somehow glued together to form a single large finger. Sometimes, when you lay a knocked out guard down next to a wall, when you go to the other side of the wall you can see his head or arm sticking out of the wall. These are both minor items.
* Somethings the missions can be long, without a full explaination of how to complete each stage of the mission. I found my self having to try a few different things to determine what I was supposed to do to finish the mission. | video-games_xbox |
Overall, It's Not Hyperbole. Where videogames are concerned, I'm a cynic. I'm especially cynical when it comes to games that have a lot of pre-release hype. Some (like the Halo franchise) generally live up to it to some degree. But WWII shooters never did it for me. I'd heard that COD1 & 2 were great games, but I never felt the appeal.
When I saw the trailers for COD4, I came away wanting to be impressed, but much more interested in witnessing the finished product. The only way you judge for real is to play the game.
And now I've finished the game twice on the Normal and Veteran (Hardened? Can't remember the terminology at the moment) modes. I've also played the multiplayer game quite a bit over XBox Live. And I have to admit...I'm impressed.
In fact, I'm more impressed than I was with Halo 3. There's just something about this game that makes me reach for it time and again. It's not the "photorealistic" graphics (yes, they are that good). It's not just the gameplay, which is fantastic in both single and multiplayer. It's something else. Call it the synergy of multiple excellent elements. You just don't get tired of it.
At first, the game is fairly challenging, since the controls deviate slightly from the "Halo" classic scheme, in particular for crouching and throwing grenades (more on grenades in a second). But you figure it out fairly quickly. The challenge then becomes figuring out who you need to shoot, because enemies (as other reviewers have mentioned) do not have nice little caret indicators over their heads that scream "SHOOT ME!" (and this is one of the factors that draws me back time and again...you wind up paying a lot of attention to the fight). So you spend some time scrutinzing over your gunsights. Is that a good guy or a bad guy?
And then you spend a lot of time dying. This provides you with remarkable incentive to learn quickly. After a day of playing this game, I was a lot more confident. After two days, I was postively revved up to get into the battle. And after a week, I was impatient with anyone else who picked up the controller hesitantly and tried to figure it out. It was all so...obvious! THAT'S a bad guy, not that guy. Look at what he's carrying--look at his headgear. His gun. His boots.
HIS BOOTS.
Holy crap. They made me pay attention to the enemies' boots. First, it's slightly amazing that you can do that at all. Next gen games really ARE next gen, huh? And second, it's not infuriating. You need to pay attention. You're moving, your guys are moving, and the game doesn't allow you to behave like a Ritalin-addicted twitchy idiot. You sprint from cover to cover. You pick your shots, and you move to strategic positions.
Your teammates help you, but you never feel particularly connected to them. They die with alarming frequency, and so do you. They also respawn frequently, so it's hard to be completely overrun, but there are times when things definitely feel hectic, your hands get a little sweaty, and you start to feel prickles of panic. Hmm...maybe I shouldn't have picked this particular corner to snipe from...
But it never gets frustrating. You may wind up trying the same section a few times, and for the most part there are few surprises if you replay. Enemies spawn from the same locations and fire from the same locations, even when you ramp up the difficulty. But the challenge then comes from doing it all faster, and against harsher odds.
By the way, a quick note on grenades. You have the "throw the grenade back" mechanic in this game (was it in other COD games?) which can be really fun, but also sometimes a bit frustrating, because you can be killed by grenades that do not show up on your "grenade indicator" from time to time. It happens, but it's not so frustrating you want to chuck the controller. You just groan or yell, deal with it, and respawn again.
The cinematics and cutscenes are outstanding. I won't go into more detail, because they're really fun to experience without knowing what's about to happen. The ending levels are really intense, and the ending is very satisfying and cool.
And there's one level, called "Death From Above," that is just...plain...sick. It's awesome. It's slightly demented in how much fun it is, and also a little disgusting in that it glorifies a real-world job that distances a person from the killing, and (if COD4 is any indicator) maybe even makes killing people...fun.
But it IS fun, at least in the game. You wind up faintly horrified (if you have a soul) at how fun it is, and at the same time you want to play it again and again.
Well, I did, anyway. What that says about me, I'm sure other people will be happy to speculate on endlessly. But it really is one of the most innovative levels ever put into a FPS / military sim. | video-games_xbox |
Good game overall. Franchise mode is a bit different but I like it. I have been playing madden for years, and I always was annoyed with people complaining about each year's game because it was missing a certain feature or something wasn't exactly perfect, I played one game of it last night after work and thought to myself what I usually think after playing each year's game...that there have again been some improvements in gameplay and that they are slowly but surely moving in the right direction. I went to bed and while on my lunch break today I decided to check the user reviews (what really counts) on here and when I saw a 2 star rating I immediately thought "HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THE TROLLS LOOKING TO BEAT MADDEN DOWN AGAIN." When I started reading them I quickly realized that they were all real reviews from truly upset buyers - and the primary complaint among all was the same - NO FRANCHISE MODE. WHAT!?!?!? How did I not notice that last night? Maybe since I assumed it to be under "Connected Careers?" I got home and noted that if you do not want to play online and you start a career as a PLAYER then that is basically like the SUPERSTAR MODE where you control your one player. So if you are a WR then you basically watch the computer unless the ball is thrown your way. If you are a QB you simply handoff the ball or make a throw and watch. However, I overlooked the COACH mode (likely because I expected no franchise mode after reading all the reviews and was too quick to jump to conclusions). The coach mode is much more satisfying than Player mode to me and I actually like it because it somewhat combines the franchise mode aspect along with coaching responsibilities and goals, milestones, etc. I completely understand why people would be ticked by the lack of franchise features (ie edit rosters, fantasy draft, import an NCAA draft class, etc) . But as madden usually does, they took MANY things out and put some things in. I wish they would just keep everything in, but i guess that is asking way too much. Anyway, luckily for me, they kept most of the features in that I use, but that doesnt mean I support or understand their decision in the least - we all know it is so that next year they can pull out the code from madden 12 and "re-introduce" those aspects as NEW FEATURES and/or ENHANCEMENTS to give everyone a reason to buy madden 14. They have done this for years unfortantely. After reading the reviews, EA is going to have to do a lot of damage control.
Also, i'd say they improved some aspects of presentation (graphics, menus, etc) but also took a couple steps back in other aspects (ie lack of halftime show, generic and/or inaccurate commentary).
Overall, I am pleased with the game for my personal use and increase my initial rating up to 4 stars. | video-games_xbox |
A Masterpiece. First off let me say that in no way am I biased to Microsoft or XBOX. I was determined not to buy an XBOX untill I played Halo at a friends house and got hooked. I bought one and have absolutely no regrets. With that said, on to the review. "Masterpiece" There's not a better word to describe Bungie's latest outing HALO. You are Master Chief, leader of a group of Marines sent to abolish the Covenant, a group of aliens trying to destroy all human life. I know I know, it sounds like a million other games, but it's not. There are alot more details to the story. For example, the Covenant's war is not a war for world domination, it's a religious war. The way the script is written, the interesting characters and the twists in the story are more than enough to keep you hooked. This is one of the few games that I play years after I've beaten it. The story is a fresh breath of air in a gaming world where the focus is only on the graphics. Speaking of graphics, Halo has some of the best. Whether its the near-photo realistic grass of the strange new world or the shimmering walls of the Covenant's massive ships, this game is just beautiful. Also to be praised is the enemy A.I. (aka the bad guys). It's almost like playing another human. The way they will dodge your attacks or run to tell their troop if they spot you is amazing. And the multiplayer you ask? Some of the most addictive I've ever experienced. With the system link you can play with up to 16 people, using all the weapons and all the vehicles (except the banshee,yeah I know). The only complaint I have with this game is that the segments with the vehicles in the single player game are too short. You do get to use them in combat, but not as much as I would prefer. Still this should, in NO way, hender you from buying this game. Whether storming Halo's beaches or fighting grunts in a wing of the Covenant mothership, you will have an absolute blast playing this game. I still do. | video-games_xbox |
The RPG that set the standard for others to follow. This game sets a new standard when it came out. With over 400 reviews to testify towards it's greatness. The game is constantly referenced when reviewing similar games in magazines and the Internet. I will only add that the game is well written and the graphics beautifully done. I can't however buy the fact it happened 4000 years before Luke and friends with relatively the same technology. Maybe 50 to 100 years by no way 4000 years. The decisions you make can change the outcome of the game and though it starts slowly on Taris by the end it's fast and addictive. Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect game. The Xbox version has slow loading times for each map. The camera angle can get stuck with you not seeing the enemy in battle. Although I choose the actions my group takes, I feel disassociated with the characters in battle. I can give moves, how to attack and preps them for battles but it's up to them to fight. I'm left on the sidelines like a coach watching the action. The battles themselves seems clumsy with swipes being made to enemies followed by long pauses and points being calculated. The main problem if it can be called that is the time it takes to complete one game. 40-50 hours depending on side quests. That's a big chunk of time for a game. It took over my life for 2 weeks. The game time was clocked at 52 hours (I fell asleep playing the game one time. Still, a game that made a mark in the video game world. The other annoying issue I had is the "recycling of secondary character faces". It's like a race of clones. The recycling of the Sand People came and the Eder Camp is forgivable the people that we interact really cut corners. The only other issue I can see is that the characters can use "steriods" to improve strength etc. through injections. The performance enhanciing items are just not explained well enough to use them to any advantage. Maybe KOTOR 2 improved on the tid bits. | video-games_xbox |
Love zombie movies, games, but this sucks. This game is somewhat fun at times except for the special infected. The tank, hunter, boomer and esspessially the smoker. One hit is all it takes, it doesn't matter if you have full health, health packs, full ammo, super guns etc....one grab and your toast. Your character (who can be lit on fire, survive explosions, fall from heights if you can without grabbing a ledge mid flight and be shot insane amounts of times with buckshot before dying) just lies there like a 10 year old girl and gets owned by the special infected.....it's pathetic and makes the game needlessly frustrating. Your whole group could be knocked down, not dead just knocked down and if you get grabbed by any special infected the games over....that is amazingly stupid. Why the hell can't your character fight back against these lame enemies?. The temp. invincibility the zombies have is kind of lame, it's a glitch maybe but you shoot the bastards and they keep hitting you like your bullet magically passed threw them. The tank teleports threw walls, not busts threw them just teleports as if one shotting you to death isn't enough. Computer controlled Smokers tounges can defy logic by going around corners in perpendicular shapes or threw pinholes, doors, and walls. Hunters can miss you with a pounce or pounce backwards in different directions and you still teleport under them and get owned. Skill is not required or achieveable in this game, they will get you every single time. When you get once shot you die due to the moronic AI players that stand there and watch you get lamed, it's maddening. The bots are cleptomanical retards that bust through windows, teleport through doors or walls, and teleport past you to steal every first aid pack and pills in the level. They also walk in front of your crosshair most anytime you shoot, they open any door you close and end up just being total useless idiots. I usually just gun them down and take their health packs when I need one, or they steal them using means beyond physics. The harder the difficulty the more useless they are. This game also has hovering molotov cocktails. If a horde is running at you and you throw one into it, the molotov will hover for a few seconds before exploding, ensuring any special infected are safly away from it and that your surrounded by "zombies" taking damaged before the fire kills anything. I put zombies in quotes because these zombies don't eat people they simply pummel you to death with punches and kicks. Left 4 Dead also has bloodthursty fire, yes anytime you blow up a gas can or throw a molotov the fire chases you, even sometimes when it's invisible it still damages you, maybe it's infected too? The DLC was a total joke and made Valve look tired and lazy. Survival mode sucks, you get a tiny blocked off part of a level already in the game, a crappy tiny lighthouse level all of which have an instant finale with endless ownage with baddies raining from the sky until you die. Millions of Zombies, multiple hunters, multiple smokers, multiple tanks raining down on you until your dead.....wow so much fun to die in 1-3 mins in a tiny locked area when every special infected can one shot you. The PC version actually has new campagins made by fans since Valve is too lazy to make them. L4D II still has no dlc with valve again saying on the games release that they would support the games with dlc. L4D ii was a major step down from l4d which is flawed and glitched beyond logic itself. If you want a real zombie game Killing Floor is the way to go its eons better and tripwire fully supports their games with new dlc regularly unlike valve which give you one extra short map and that's it. Also no monster or zombie can rape you simply by touching you in KF when you have full health you can go down fighting. In l4d you sit there crying for useless clepto AI players to save you while they watching you die while gorging on health packs and pills. This is a pathetic, retardedly glitched, broken, frustrating piece of garbage....trust be get Killing Floor. L4D 2 builds on the same problems but just adds more special infected that only need to touch you once coupled with endless larger hordes....it's virtually unplayable. L4D 2 is simply a 60 dollar update that should have been part of L4D 1 but valve say fit to abandon L4D after 1 half assed tiny DLC patch. | video-games_xbox |
This Amazingly Balanced Fighter Still Falls Short. When I first got this game I was a tad dissapointed. It Had NO Story. NONE! It had a smaller rooster then KoF2002(46 After every1 is unlocked in Endless mode)& many of the characters I was good with were tweaked to the point that I was thrown completely off my game(I'm looking @ you Mature & Geese).
The graphics were kinda off also, High res semi-3-D Backdrops & lower rez sprites(which look even worse when compared to KoF 2003 or even KoF evolution for Dreamcast). However the graphics can be adjusted to your liking, with the ability to soften the characters & 6 dif(very subtle)levels of sprite detail as well as 2 dif options for background detail, you can make it look presentable.
The audio is spotty @ best. While the voices come out crisp & clear, the music sounds like it was composed on an 8th graders keyboard. It's repeatitive & annoying in most stages & forgetable in the others.
Now for the good part, while @ first I was vastly irritated with the character balancing after I played for a while I got used to it. For once in an SNK game EVERY1 is prettymuch an equil(exceptions may go to Ralph & Jun Hoon)! Even the bosses, the usually overpowered, cheep, make you want to pull your hair out bosses are balanced to mid teir players! Omega Rugal is the most balanced I have ever seen him & Young Geese is the easiest SNK boss I've ever fought! Trust me when I say thats a GOOD thing. This is a tournament quality game in terms of playability. Also due to the balancing novice players who have never played a KoF game will be able to pull of combos & special attacks without trouble(The supercombos are extremely hard to do @ some points, but thay really aren't needed anyway)
Next for any1 who has ever played Capcom vs. SNK 2:EO or Street Fighter Alpha 3, they will love the variety of gameplay options simular to the groove system in place with the above games.
There are 3 systems to choose from:
Super Cancel: which allows variety in escape manuvers & wicked combos by means of special/Super canceling(Balanced mode simular to KoF 2002 Engine)
Guard Cancel: (My Personal Fav:)) Allows for Just Defence (which is simular to the parrying manuvers in StreetFighter III Series)the ability to break your opponents block,& a few escapes (Defencive mode)
MAX2: Here you have one super combo bar that fills constantly between supers, allows guard cancel & lets you unleash a Super Powerful super combo when your health gets low(Extremely agressive mode, Good for beginers).
These modes add ALOT of replay-ability to a game that lacks a story of any kind. Also new is a heat mode that drains your health in exchange for double attack power but it seems poinltss b/c it takes more health from you then you opponent.
Also there are a few game play modes to keep you occupied, Endless mode, which is a survival mode that lets you unlock portraits & characters(Kasungi, Seth, Omega-Rugal), Single battle/Vs., Team Battle/Vs., & a color Edit mode where I killed ALOT of time.
All in all if a little bit more time was put into adding some win quotes & music this would be my fav KoF yet. It has the most balanced gameplay & options seem since Fan Fav KoF 98. If your one for gameplay over graphics this is the game for you, if not then sorry you missed out. | video-games_xbox |
Beautifully done. I am playing this on my non-360 XBOX,and it looks gorgeous. I am anxious to see if all the hype about the 360 is true. I will have to wait because the prices are still too high for the initial offering.
However,360 or no 360,this game rocks. Yes the graphics are beautiful,and sometimes creepy;and yes,the soundtrack and ambient noises are perfect. But the game play is really sweet. No health-meters,no quick saves,no nothin' but you and the creatures who come after you,either loudly or very sneakily. And random ammo for a gun is not lying around all over the place,as in other games,so the only weapon you have is a spear. I finally learned to ration my bullets and my spears.(And you can't carry more than one gun and one spear at a time.) It's kind of creepy to be out of weaponry/ammo when you are facing a hungry creature or two. I just hate those sneaky, giant, nasty centipedes. I have gotten killed so many times by them,I'm embarrassed.
You play as a human,Jack,and once in a while you play as Kong himself,albeit too briefly. I love the frenzy-factor with Kong.
I'm sure for you young hard-core gamers,this game will be fairly easy,but for my middle-aged thumbs and hands,the pace is frenetic enough,thank you. Easy or not, a lot of thought went into the creation of this game,and since Peter Jackson was very much involved, I expected a class game,and I got one.
If you are not an experienced gamer(shooter), be patient. You may die a few times until you figure out just how to get from A to B without getting slaughtered by a T-Rex or two, but figuring it out for yourself is half the fun,as it is with any action/role-playing game,in my opinion.
Finally,I just heard on the news a couple of days ago that over-50 gamers are purchasing games at a steadily rising pace. I'm 57, a female and very much into FPS and RPG's. I consider this game to be among the best of the genre. I'm only half-way through and I am having a lot of fun. I'm addicted already,of course.
Read all of the available reviews of this game and others at the web's most popular game review sites before you get this or any other game. This is a lot of money,but I think the fun-quotient makes up for it. | video-games_xbox |
Praise the Sun: Immortality Has Never Hurt So Good. Dark Souls II is an engaging and addicting marathon of pain, gain, and, ultimately, triumph. Like Dark Souls and Demon Souls before it, Dark Souls II plunges players soul-first into a challenging world filled with horrors, wonders, and near endless mystique.
Nothing in the game is given to players so much as it is earned: if the series does anything well, it teaches patience and power of tacit caution. Every enemy, from the lowliest walking corpse to the most towering ancient dragon, is entirely capable of cutting a player down at moment's notice. Learning to dodge, parry, and exploit each combatant takes time, observance, and, often, the player-character's life.
True to the series' "Prepaire to die"-tagline, players will bite the dust repeatedly throughout Dark Souls II, but will always come back due to "the curse". With each enemy felled, players gain souls, and with each fatal turn the player makes, they lose souls. Learning to balance risk-reward treks and approach certain areas with an air of trepidation goes a long way here.
As if that weren't enough, there's an absolutely enormous game world rife with non-linear layouts and secrets waiting to be discovered. Unfortunately, the game's kingdom of Drangliec isn't as cohesively constructed as the interconnected world of Lordran in the previous Souls game, but it offers a terrific variety of locales to visit, and is immaculately designed. The music and art direction are superb, as well. There is a quiet, haunting beauty strewn throughout the dilapidated land and a veritable treasure trove of lore to dive into.
Excellent multiplayer features an inventive mix of co-operative and competitive play. Persistent online functions offer glimpses of other players' ghosts after you've stumbled upon the places where they've recently died, providing hints at upcoming encounters and at moves you may not want to make. Players can aid and summon each other in boss battles, or invade each others worlds for infamy and soul-stealing. It's an impressive and engaging system that leads to moments of surprise on a regular basis.
Unlike typical AAA titles, Dark Souls II continues the Souls series' winning-streak of hands-off adventures into the nail-biting unknown. It's an intense trip and one definitely worth taking. | video-games_xbox |
Has its problems, sure, but a hell of a good game just the same. I've had my share of DS2 review comments up here and now that I'm finally far enough along in the game I figured I'd make my own review of this one. I'm looking at this from the perspective of a longtime DS1 player so that might skew some elements and I appologize in advance.
The good:
It's for sure a Dark Souls game, make no mistake. It's gritty, it's difficult, you'll die hundreds of times easily (the last time I checked the monolith I was at 351 and that was a week ago). When you finally take down that boss who's taken you out 20 times in a row you'll jump up and down and start screaming like a little girl regardless of the time of day.. You have access to tons of weapons, armor, rings, and other magical items to help you along the way.
They've made some very good improvements this time around. For starters, characters can now equip up to 4 rings instead of 2. Considering the giant amount of useful rings you'll get, this was almost a necessity. You can even find upgraded rings occassionaly that increase the core effect at the cost of some minor additional weight and slightly lower item durability ( a trade well worth it, to be sure). Your guy can now equip up to 3 weapons per hand to swap out on the fly and this is just fantastic. As a tank who's started to go the sorcery route it's nice not having to go into your full inventory just to whip out a sorcerer's staff for that 90 second 'magic weapon' buff.
Online play for the most part has been greatly improved. Not only do the connections seem more stable, you can find many people to play with at any time of the day. Now this could be because DS2 is a relatively new game, but only time will tell on that one. Jolly co-op with players through a difficult area or boss enemy, invade guys to screw up their PvE action, invade players who've invaded too many times to teach them a lesson- it's just really cool. I usually hate PvP in my games but it's tolerable and even borderline fun in this one.
There are no "Blight Town Framerate Drops-(tm)" in this game. That was a really bad sticking point with the first game for me. It made me want to grab the master key and completely skip that area in each subsequent playthrough and that's not right.
Magic is now awesome. I never used magic much in DS1, but here it's not only useful many spells are borderline OP. I like some of the aux spells the best. For example, if you see that you're getting invaded you can cast the chameleon spell and turn into a vase or a crate or something and hide from the invader. Or better still, joint the rat brothers covenant and turn into a box and wait until a tresspasser phantom shows up and when he walks by.. BLAMMO! The tresspasser has been vanquished. This might sound like a crappy thing to do but remember these are the same guys who'll invade you at the most inopportune times while you're running for your life in those last few game areas.
There are more viable weapon types this time around, most notably whips. There are many more whips in this game and unlike the 2 or whatever you got in DS1, these can actually kill more than your average Firelink Shrine brand hollow wussies. In fact, I'd say whips are the best weapon to take out those lion enemies at the shaded woods fort.
Equipment can still be upgraded, and most of it can be further enhanced with either fire, lightning, dark, poison, bleeding, etc, you get the idea. Curiously missing in this installment is the Holy attribute from the first game, but oh well what can you do? Infusing a weapon will reduce its stat scaling and lower its base damage, but in some cases it's still worth it. For instance, I've infused my mace +10 with magic because my high INT (intelligence) score boosted that magic damage a lot. This is all optional, and up to you.
The bad:
The world / level design, while good, isn't nearly on par with the bar they set with DS1. Let me allow a special guest to tell you about this: C'mon up, Galvan! "I GALVAN, IT'S GOOD TO BE HERE!" "GALVAN DEAL, DARK SOULS 2 MAP LIKE WHEEL!!" Yes, I'd like to think of the overall world layout of DS2 as a wheel design. That is, a central hub area (Majula, the main town) and many other single spokes that lead out to other game areas. In contrast, DS1's map design was like this genius vertical pretzel- Each area seemed to be interconnected to many others.
There are not nearly enough 100% physical reduction shields in this game. Even most of the largest greatshields you'll find towards the endgame. This is just a strange design descision. I mean I guess they did this because nobody in their right mind ever used a non 100% phys reduction shield in DS1 aside from maybe the Grass Crest Shield for the stamina reduction, who knows? For this very reason, I've kept the drangelic shield I found towards the start of the game all the way up to the Dragon Aerie and beyond when my main Fire Rebel Greatshield +10 doesn't cut the mustard.
It's awesome that you can easily summon help at most of the bosses, but honestly some of these things are just too cheap. To the point that I don't know how I would have ever beat some of them without other players' phantoms to assist me. Try soloing the Old Iron king with dual daggers or something and tell me how that works out. I love the single player campaign of most games but I fear when this game has aged to the point where summons are hard to find I'm going to have some real tough times ahead.
Now when you die, they reduce your max HP a little. Every time you die. This will eventually stop when you're at 50%, but honestly I think this game mechanic sucks. Now there IS a ring you can find that will lessen this effect, but I don't think this is a good 'reward' for a player who's died because something was too hard for him. See, wasn't that hard? Guess what, now you'll have even less life than before. Now it's harder. Hooray! I'm not a wuss when it comes to hard games, I just don't think this was a very smart idea.
Another controversial aspect of the game is a new stat called "Soul Memory". It's a running total of every single soul you've ever collected thus far. At first I thought this was kind of cool- like how some games will tell you how many gold pieces you've ever earned, you know for curiousity's sake. Unfortunately, this isn't just for show it actually does something. I guess it's used for summons compatability. So instead of using your overall Soul Level they use this. This isn't a good idea IMO. For example, I stayed away from GameFAQs and wikis for this game for awhile because I didn't want to have anything spoiled for me for a few weeks. So in this time I was laying down my summon signs in order to help other players defeat some of the game's first couple bosses for fun, and it was a good source of souls to boot. The problem with this is that my Soul Memory kept getting higher and higher, and then eventually I COULDN'T be summoned for help anymore for that boss. I guess they put this system in to prevent twinks and other crap, but I don't know..
Overall, the game controls seem a bit 'off' too. Like you'll go to swap weapons or two-hand a sword and it just won't work, so you'll have to press the button twice. This sounds like no big deal but when you're a split second away from getting whacked by the Smelter Demon's firey sword you'll see how much this can suck.
Also when you're at a store and want to buy some new gear there's no way to tell if it's better or worse than what you're already wearing. For some bizarre reason they took this useful and dare I say necessary aspect from the first game (and most games, ever) out for DS2. So if you're looking at a flamberge and are toting a greatsword you'll be hectically swapping stat screens trying to see if that flamberge is better (blue numbers) or worse (red numbers) and it's futile because IT'S NOT THERE. I'd say I really hope they patch this feature in later but it's probably a big pain in the ass to do now after the fact. I guess there's always Dark Souls 3 for this?
A good thing is that there's more NPCs to talk to, but the bad thing is that many of them are just so damn boring as hell and uninteresting. In DS1, there were not a lot of other people to talk to- and many of them died- but at least they were good. There's nobody on par with Seigmeyer the Onion Bro here I'm afraid. Galvan is the best one I can think of, but that could be because he's the only guy who you can sell your stuff to. And where's the levity? Remember how everybody in DS1 thought everything was funny, no matter how bleak their situations really were? How many times did they laugh after talking to you? "Well, better to be burned in acid than be crushed by a boulder. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!" | video-games_xbox |
Great Gameplay, Controls, and Storyline. If you are a fan of the Deus Ex universe you will absolutely love this sequel. The added Augmentations, stealth capabilities and the overall controls are marked improvements from its predecessor. Like most RPG style games the first act hardly scratches the surface of your overall capabilities. The upgrade system has been improved as well, without everything costing 2 Praxis kits to activate. The "lesser" of your augmentations now only cost 1. The new map/HUD system makes for easier discovery of landmarks, P.O.I., and side missions. Graphics, obviously being on the next gen consoles, are amazing. It really draws you into the fantastic storyline of this game. Plot takes place two years after the Aug Incident of 2027. Augs have been confined to ghettos and are heavily monitored. This leads to terrorists/freedom fighters on both sides, Naturals and Augs. Adam Jensen is stuck in the middle as an Aug who is an Interpol agent, the only one on the task force. For more into this I highly recommend reading the comic mini-series by Titan comics.
For those who have never played a Deus Ex game; If you do not enjoy RPG elements to your action games, you might not like this title. In the beginning you have to rely heavily on stealth until you are able to upgrade your augmentations. The choice whether you wish to stay stealthy through the entirety of the game, or become a one man wrecking crew, is entirely up to you based on the augments you expand on.
Side Note: Whomever rated this one star obviously has no clue what the difference is between subjectively disliking something and quality of the actual final product.
Controls: smooth, fluid, and responsive
Graphics: top notch, gameplay almost identical to cut scenes
Storyline: Seriously, someone make this a Netflix series already. Better than most movie plots these days
Gameplay: Immersive, exciting, and offers many different tactics, solutions and outcomes based on interactions and decisions made.
The Bad:
A.I. is a little daft at times, easy to trick and so far hasn't adapted to my tactics (like MGS V). But still early in the game for me. Some minor glitches here and there when trying to perform back to back augmented moves. And so far that's been about it.
Final Verdict: If you like RPG/action games that require strategy and a balance of brute force and stealthy finesse with a fantastic storyline. This game is most certainly for you. If that's not really your thing, it is still worth a play through. As once you get past the first few missions, you can ignore a lot of the RPG elements and go full on super soldier and throw caution to wind. Regardless, this game is fun! | video-games_xbox |
Almost great. The good:
- Altair has the best, most fluid motion of any game character. You can climb on virtually any surface and jump from building to building, all while keeping only 1-2 buttons pressed. Ubisoft took their Prince of Persia character and once again revolutionized this aspect.
- AC has an amazing fighting system. Very easy to pick up and difficult to master. I disagree with some reviewers that said this game is a button masher. Most of the enemies can be defeated in simple commands, as long as you time them right. One movement that is essential to beating this game is the Counter move. Wait for the right moment and it is a one hit one kill move.
- Graphics are very good and level design is excellent. Ubisoft managed to create a world and while this is - by no means - as deep as Oblivion's, it is quite impressive for this type of game.
The bad:
- The thing I had a problem with though, is with the assassinations themselves. I wish you would have been given more freedom in executing them. They all go down the same way. Basically they do not start until you sit in a specific spot and that spot is almost always in front of the guards - meaning you will have to fight everybody, to get to your target. If you are looking for a deep or varied gameplay, then Oblivion would be a better choice. AC is an Action game and there are no Hitman / Thief type of missions.
- Second bad thing - the ending! I guess I was hoping you will get the hidden blade in real life and use it to escape the lab. As it was - the ending was way too dry.
The ugly:
- This game desperately needs a Difficulty rating. It starts very easy and then it becomes insanely difficult with the Assassination #9. I would guess that most casual gamers will get stuck in the end and give up in frustration. A difficulty rating would also provide some replayability ... well, not to the people that complained about the repetitiveness, but the rest.
Overall: For $40, this game is definitely a buy. It will keep you busy for 20-40 hours (depending on how many flags you want to get). However - at $60 - this may be a bit too expensive for what it is. | video-games_xbox |
Crackdown... the ultimate way to relax. I absolutely love this game and have been playing nothing else since I purchased it. It's basically Grand Theft Auto meets the Matrix. I say that because it has the entire open world feeling that GTA has mixed with the sensational feeling of jumping from one rooftop to another. This is one of those games where you can actually feel how high up you are, especially when you realize that you're not gonna make it to that rooftop that you thought you could reach. As your character levels up and you start jumping higher, throwing farther and shooting more accurately, the game just becomes ridiculously entertaining.
The graphics are awesome. I love cel shaded graphics myself and while this slightly cartoony look may put off some of you, I think it's a big part of what makes this game work. It's amazing how you can stand on the highest point in the game and look down at the entire world before you and still see tiny cars in the distance and people milling about. The physics are really nice also, employing ragdoll physics and real world physics so people collapse realistically after being filled with lead and cars flip over in a believable manner after being blown to smithereens. And speaking of explosions, let's just say there are many, they are usually huge and they're really loud.
The in game sound is really nice and if you remember what the gunfire in the film "Heat" sounded like during the heist scene, it sounds just like that. Another reason to get yourself a surround setup if you don't alrteady have one.
Online co-op is great and has a kind of Gears of War thing going for it in that you can jump in someone else's game and help them complete missions if you choose. Playing in this type of game with another player is a very satisfying experience. The controls are nice and tight and even though there might be a slight issue with locking on targets you may not necessarily be targeting, it's still more than adequate for the games purposes.
This game boils down to eliminating the bad guys and collecting stuff scattered across the map. Rarely has it ever been this much fun. While there isn't as much to do as in GTA: San Andreas (let's face it though, I don't really think delivering pizzas would make sense in this game), there's still a lot of searching, collecting and wiping out of scumbags to make this game a hell of a good time.
Highly recommended. | video-games_xbox |
A Jam for Errrrbody. I LOVE THIS GAME.
I am not a dancer, nor a very experienced gamer. I just got the XBox 360 with Kinect 2 months ago because I wanted to try the dance games. I love pop and R&B, cheesy dance music, etc., and I like to rock out around the house to all the hits, but I am pretty sure my actual moves are a little, um, uncontrolled. SO, I was really excited to have a way to practice some actual dance moves in the privacy of my own home. Without doing any real research, I first bought Just Dance 3, and while I still enjoy it from time to time, it is nothing compared to Dance Central and Dance Central 2. I think "Just Dance" scores a lot of points in the "ridiculous party fun" category, but for a regular activity that doesn't get old, and one that really does sharpen your moves while giving you a fun, satisfying, major-calorie-burning workout, the Dance Central franchise is what you want. It can be as easy or as hard as you want, and any level of dance experience can really get into it. (Again, I have no dance experience but through sweat and determination, I have earned 5 stars on the "hard" setting of several of the more challenging routines.)
If you already own the original Dance Central disc, you can import all those songs onto your console (this costs 400 Microsoft points) and they are seamlessly added to your song list when you are playing Dance Central 2. All in all, even without downloadable content or the original Dance Central tracks, you have over 40 songs (ORIGINAL versions in all but one or two cases) from the 70s to the current R&B charts. The Dance Central (1 and 2) list is especially strong on 90s hip-hop swagger ("Poison," "Push It," "Baby Got Back," "Rump Shaker," "This Is How We Do It") and contemporary dance anthems (pretty much every Lady GaGa hit is on here, whether included in the disc or available to download for 240 points).
I admit I skip right over most of the slower, sexy jams, like "Oops (Oh My)," preferring the high-energy, faster-beat songs ("Down," "Bust a Move," "Somebody to Love," "Club Can't Handle Me," "Edge of Glory," and many more like these) and "island"-influenced pop ("Fire Burning," or Rihanna's "What's My Name"). However, some of the oldies on here are great fun (downloadable "Word Up") and you can't help but get your freak on to the funky beat. The choreography is AMAZING, and as many reviewers have said before, these are actual dance moves that you would see in a video, not the often-silly moves that Just Dance 3 has you doing. (DC moves also have funny, yet totally descriptive names, like "liquefy," "elliptical," and "nerd it out.")
Tracks on the song list are rated on a difficulty spectrum from 1 to 7, but within each track there are three levels, easy, medium, and hard. Easy songs (like "Poker Face" or the very fun "Sandstorm") are sort of like exercise-class routines -- a handful of moves that you repeat several times -- while the challenging songs, at the "hard" level, are crazy intricate and can comprise more than 30 individual moves. But it's not like the 5, 6 and 7 level songs are out of the newbie's range: you'd just play those on "easy" and then use the very helpful, if sometimes time-consuming "Break It Down" mode to perfect each bit of choreography. The avatars you follow, and the background set for the routines (a mega-yacht deck, a subway station, etc.) are cool, too.
What is especially incredible about Dance Central for Kinect is how well the sensor tracks your moves. In this game, the Kinect can practically detect if your wrist or ankle is turned the wrong way. You would never get that kind of precision-tracking with Just Dance 3, which is frustrating when you want to be appropriately punished or rewarded for the accuracy of your performance. So, with Dance Central, you will get docked if your hip is slightly misaligned, if you're not leaning back enough, etc. That may sound annoying, but it's actually great, because when you DO nail it, you'll feel the difference, and feel like a bad-ass.
I have never been a gamer, dancer, or work-out-in-front-of-the-TV-er, but I play Dance Central WHENEVER I can find the time (not all that easy to find, as I have a 2 year old who interferes with Kinect play). I can easily spend 1 1/2 hours doing a DC session and not know where the time went. (If you're wondering if it's a good workout, the answer is yes: you'll be in the cardio zone the whole time if you stick to full routines and do the faster songs.) I am addicted. I even do my own choreography, using moves I've learned on DC, to songs on the radio. I probably look lame doing it, but whatever. ANYWAY, I can't really comment on the multiplayer function because I haven't done it much, but the few times I've tried it, it worked fine. The whole feel of the game is cool and hip-hoppy, not dorky. I am so impressed with how well it's all done.
So, if you are looking for a dance game you can play every day and not get bored with, you NEED Dance Central, both 1 and 2. Just Dance 3 is a distant second but good as a party game since anyone can jump in after a few cocktails. I have not tried the other Kinect dance games, but have heard that the Michael Jackson one is frustrating for a number of reasons (no images of MJ himself, tricky choreo that's not broken down for non-pros) and the Black-Eyed Peas one is just too... Black-Eyed Peas-y. And then the other ones with "Dance" in the name have obscure songs. | video-games_xbox |
WOW. Sturdy, solid, secure!
The viewing angles are amazing!
I LOVE the kickstand on the bottom. Leave it tucked and the monitor opens at just over 100 degrees. Flip it out and the monitor stays at 90 degrees.
Pros:
* Great looking monitor with excellent viewing angles.
* Very good sound. Not "top of the line" sound, but it is really, really good.
* Has two headset jacks.
* Easily fits the xbox, power brick, one controller, and power supply for the monitor.
* Includes a micro remote for the monitor (really only used it to change the brightness, contrast, etc.). You can adjust all that without the remote too. So if it gets lost, no big deal.
* The handle feels solid.
* The latches on the side feel secure.
* Includes a short HDMI cable.
* Monitor is gorgeous! I cannot overstate that.
Cons (I'm really nitpicking here):
* The shoulder strap is useless for me (it is comfortable though). If you do use it, the "D" rings will get int he way when you try to close the two latches on the side. I feel the two latches should have been a 1/4 inch lower, then this wouldn't be an issue. On the positive side, the "D" rings are easy to install and/or remove (but still feels secure when installed). My only issue was the "D" ring interfering with the two latches so I removed them. Problem solved.
* I wish the bags were solid and or affixed in place. They look really round in the product picture, but they are just two un-padded sacks. They don't seem to move, but I think it would look "cleaner" if they were two solid canisters on the side.
Improvements:
Project GAEMS probably doesn't want the liability, but I'm sure it's technically feasible to create a safe power supply that powers both the monitor and the xbox. I'd pay a few extra bucks for that, especailly if it was securely attached to the case and I didn't have to disconnect the xbox and monitor. It'd be nice to just pop it open and plug one cable into the wall and be off and running.
Side note, this will work with a PS3 slim as well. The PS3 will actually fit better since the xbox has that huge power brick.
If you travel and want to bring along your xbox (or PS3), this is the perfect solution!! | video-games_xbox |
Lots of potential, but needs serious patching. I had high hopes for this game when I saw it, and I enjoyed the trial sessions I played at PAX East a lot, despite the learning curve with so many control and in game features. I still have high hopes for the game, as it has a lot of potential and the concept is good, but there are some issues that cause me to end a session early in frustration.
My first complaint is the AI. I like the idea that someone is able to pick up and play the game online or offline with a full match, with AI players filling in empty spaces, but the online system and the AI are very "dumb." First, there is no separate online mode, or any way to turn off having AI on the team. Also, the default settings are set to exclude other players (I don't know why), so remember to change that. I don't often see many players online either because the connection at my school is slow or there aren't that many players, but most of my games are spent playing against entirely AI populated teams. This wouldn't be a huge issue if the AI were balanced. It seems that my Team-AI is of a lower intelligence than that of the Enemy-AI. They die constantly and easily, have no map awareness, almost never focus on the primary objective, and only rarely support the human players (me). The Enemy-AI is very intelligent. They always focus on the primary objective for the round, work in groups, and easily defeat my AI teammates. I've seen Team-AI get stuck on stairways, stand around doing nothing in open rooms, and then get wasted by enemy-AI.
To qualify the trolls out there, I'm a good player. I advance rank very quickly and usually earn several "Top" awards every round, and usually win the round and the map. The only limit to my game is when I need to reload or while waiting for grenades to reset. My complaint isn't to make the AI easier, as the challenge can be fun. I like having to utilize multiple routes and strategies. My complaint is the AI is not balanced between teams when there is only 1 human player. With multiple human players the AI seems to balance and the humans tend to take control anyway.
Next would be the graphics, which many have mentioned. The graphics clearly can look good when they load fully, but usually textures load here and there at different times. PC seems to be doing well but for Xbox (and presumably other consoles) we are still looking at faulty graphics.
Another complaint would be the challenges. The initial levels of challenges aren't too bad, depending on the challenge, but some challenges require teamwork,and since all of my friends are in college without jobs, they can't afford to buy new games, so I have to rely on either unbalanced, retarded AI, or hope for what I assume is supposed to be other online players who want to finish challenges. Whenever I click on the button for multiple players I instead end up alone, with no other teammates (I assume they are supposed to be online players that seem non-existent).
The maps are good, but some objectives seem to either have overly long time limits, or too-short time limits. Also, there need to be more secondary objectives that can aid in winning the round, whether its hacking, destroying, or building in features that will allow teams to attack or defend in new ways and locations. Some maps have these features, but others have none and are too simple and become a game of how many players one team can cram into any given room.
Overall, I like the focus on teamwork and variety in objectives and map routes. The SMART system is new and decent, although not always as fluid as I would hope, or even usable (more maps need to have routes or obstacles that require SMART than currently in play). The classes have specific purposes, and the weapons allow for a lot of customizing (although most weapons seem to be either under-powered or having the same stats. give each weapon a purpose other than looks). I think the game has a lot of potential, but seems rushed. Patches are needed to improve it in almost every area to make the game live up to the hype.
For me, if they could fix the AI or make it easier to join sessions with other online players, I would be happy. For a game that is supposed to be about teamwork and class roles, I find it very frustrating to HAVE to always be a one-man-team because my AI is next to useless. Some games I want to be a supporting player, working towards aiding my team, but since there are few humans playing, and the AI doesn't attempt to achieve the primary objective, I am usually forced to change roles. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic. The best game that I have played on my Xbox One. I have owned my Xbox One for just over a year, and have purchased a good amount of games. Far Cry 4 is, by far, the greatest game that I have played thus far on my Xbox One. I think that it is also the only game that I have ever felt obliged to write a review about. I logged about 45 hours on the game and got extremely close to 100% completion. If you're the type of person that enjoys getting the most out of open world games like I do, look no further. I played Far Cry 2 but never 3, which I've heard is a fantastic game as well, but I never got it on my 360 and have since moved on to my Xbox 1. Fans of Far Cry 3 will apparently notice much more of the same in this most recent release. My failure to notice this might have contributed to my enjoyment of the game, but it is a fantastic game nonetheless. If you're going to rush through the story and go in guns blazing, I don't think that you will get the most that you can out of this game. However, open world games are what you make of them, and Far Cry 4 does a great job of rewarding numerous different approaches to every outpost/mission/scenario.
The map is almost overwhelmingly huge. You won't even unlock the north until later in the story, but the south portion proves to be huge. Not only is the world huge, but it is dense. You will run into animals (huntable), NPCs, karma events, side quests, collectables, and more as you go on. Hunting animals, upgrading your character, skills, and weapons, getting collectibles, doing side missions, unlocking regions, and getting karma points never gets dull, is far more rewarding, and will elongate your experience a lot. Stealth gameplay is extremely rewarding and is my personal favorite way to play. There are many options for approaching each scenario. You can go in guns blazing, plant mines, utilize animals to take out enemys, take them out in a helicopter, call in backup, or go in with stealth using a combination of takedowns, distractions, the bow and arrow, throwing knives, silenced weapons, and more. There are a ton of enjoyable side quests. The story is engaging and the protagonist daunting. If the main story loses any of its punch, it's only due to the fact that it loses momentum when diluted by all of the other things that are to do in the game. This isn't the fault of the story and I would still highly recommend doing as much side stuff as you can. The bottom line is: this is a fantastic game that will keep you hooked for a long time, has a ton of material, and rewards a variety of different playing styles. And, on sale, it's a steal. Buy it now and you won't regret it. | video-games_xbox |
Best Fighter I've seen since Mortal Kombat 2. I mean it too, everybody remembers playing MK2 on Sega Genesis. At least those of us old enough to remember the good old days, he. Anyway, the guy before me is right, there is...shall we say, "attention to detail" in this game. But its not overly so. The women's breasts only jiggle when they jump or whenever gravity and the natural law of physics would have them do so, also meaning that they don't bounce overly so. Only as much as any other woman would. As for the panty shots he mentioned, those only occur when they do a high kick or some other form of kick where air or gravity would normally pull up a skirt, and just as in real life, it falls right back down not even a split second later. In total, he overplays it too much. You really don't even notice it too much in battle, and if you do, you're already dead. If not by the hand of your more expreianced friend, or from the AI, which can really pummel you in the later levels. The only drawbacks to the game is the total lack of spoken English (all the vocals are in Japanese w/ English subtitles) and Story Mode. The end boss is incredibly cheap and reminds me of Shao Kahn, only this time you can't use Sub-Zero's freeze blast.
The moves and combos are easy to learn and catch onto, almost every direction on the d-pad coupled w/ a punch or kick button will produce a totally new move w/ the abitly to make a combo starting from nearly every move. Grapples are stunning and really add an Ouch! factor to the game (think of a big burly Russian lifting you onto his shoulders and then slamming you into an electrified wall head first, and then kneeling down to break your neck while you lay on the ground <yes, you can survive getting your neck broken...many, many times>). The moves are all fluidic w/ no clipping whatsoever (ie: no punches that seemingly go 'through' your opponent).
The other game modes are al worth their while 10-fold and going through Story Mode w/ each character do yield high-quality movies that are usually quite humourous and on par somewhere between Toy Story and Final Fantasy quality CG. If you think Jann Lee is a Bruce Lee knock-off now, wait til you see his end movie. It also yields 1 character who was dropped in the last version (not really, but its one of those amnesia things so the Ein version and the Hayate version of himself fight very differently) and a Random character selector. The Official XBox Magazine also recently released an expansion pack to the game adding multiple new costumes to each of the characters (picture that same burly Russian dressed up as a Roman Legionnaire outfit plated in gold).
On the whole its a great fighter w/ ultra-supreme graphics, incredibly fluid fighting moves (if not always realistic, at least there's no energy balls being thrown around), and replay value that could last for months. Good buy. | video-games_xbox |
Welcome to Liberty City. Niko is new to America. Brought by hopes and promises of his cousin Roman about how wealthy he is. Unfortunately for Niko he quickly finds the stories to be lies. Grand Theft Auto IV starts as others in the series with an anti-hero. Getting involved in doing the wrong things is all to easy in this game. From the very get go you are learning that living the American life can be difficult and in order to get your story going you must break the law. For the most part Niko doesn't have a problem with this since he has become raw after being a soldier in war.
GTA IV has probably one of the darkest stories so far in the series. This is not the type of game you will play and comment on how cheerful the story is. For those of you who have played previous GTA games you will notice many similarities. From the gameplay mechanics to the story line. Although people who are new to the GTA series will find how simple the learning curve really is in this game. The game gives you an incredible amount of tutorials and guides you thru your first several missions making things easy to understand. Most features in this game are simple to understand and keep this game from getting over anyones learning curve.
What has made the Grand Theft Auto series so superb is the story telling. Excellent voice acting with intense and exciting missions make GTA IV a true winner. From the first moment on you will notice that you aren't really playing a game as much as taking part in an intense crime drama. Think Sopranos from the former Soviet Union. The game is mission based and gives you the ability to choose what you want to do at any given point. You meet numerous characters who are all about committing crimes and they give you certain jobs. Of course these jobs increase your reputation and help progress you thru the story. Along the way you will find numerous characters. Some you will like and others you will probably want to get rid of yourself.
This game has further evolved ideas from previous GTA games. Niko can not only date one woman at a time but several. It's really up to you. Just remember how in real life this can be time consuming it can also be in a game. You will have woman calling and texting you if you ignore them to long. Then comes taking them out for dates. Each woman has different tastes and interests and it's up to you to know where to take them. Some of the activities can actually be fun like playing darts or pool as these mini games do have learning curves. The girl you are with will respond to your success or failure at these games. Obviously there are numerous other activities in wonderful Liberty City. Also it's important for Niko to accessorize and finding the best clothing to wear is important. Image is everything as as you progress you get access to better clothes. The car mechanics have improved in this game but don't expect to have similar handling to a racing game. What is cool to look at is the amazing detail they have put into the car damage. Every little ding makes an impact on the car you are in. Lastly is the music selection. An incredible 200 songs are available in Liberty City to listen to on the radio. Numerous radio stations including the talk ones belt out hit songs and comedic advertisements. Niko even has the ability to watch t.v. They covered every detail in this game and it shows.
As if a single player mode that will take you 30 to 40 hours to beat is not enough there is also online multiplayer. Yes you and 15 others can play on the beautiful streets of Liberty City. The multiplayer is truly open ended for your enjoyment. Several game modes plus the ability to create your own multiplayer. You can also invite seven friends to take on eight others. It's easy to say this game will be enjoyed for months on end. Within six months the 360 will also have it's own unique content that will be available on XBOX LIVE.
It's easy to be impressed by Liberty City. It's as close to New York City as any game has ever got. From the pedestrians that make up the neighborhood to the realistic design of the buildings. The weather changes and the days progress realistically. This is one of those games where you can just take it in and enjoy the scenery. In Grand Theft Auto you have the freedom to do what you want. This game is intended for adults. The language and content can be mature most of the time. Although that is at a parents discretion. I wouldn't suggest this game for everyone. Although I would suggest it for those who have enjoyed previous Grand Theft Auto games. I would also suggest it for those who enjoy mafia or crime movies. This game will have you sitting back and enjoying the incredible story. Just don't forget that it's your story to play. | video-games_xbox |
Fun but could be better. 1. The 2nd version of game made interesting this time is that you actually have a companion to travel with, she/he helps you during battle and occasionally poke in a few lines while you talked to the villagers. You do not have an inventory limitation like in most rpg game which is good because I do not want to spend majority of my time deciding what to get rid of.
2. Now to the negative, the dialog selection is so close in color (while and slight-ish yellow when selected) which makes difficult to distinguish between them, I sometimes select the wrong one unintentionally and force to go with whatever the consequence.
3. The font chosen in this game is extremely difficult to read, or maybe just me. They are kinda square and all letters look the same to me, very hard to read.
4. Money is also very hard to come by and you will need for almost everything including combat training or to complete a quest, or to update gears/weapons. All of them are very expensive. i.e. doing a side quest may earn you 100-300 gold, but to get a training it costs you 1000 gold. Now you see the picture, I am about 30 hrs playing and can only afford to learn about 5 and still wearing a rip shirt i bought at the beginning. There are ~10 possible learning for each of the 5 categories. Not sure why the creator is so stingy on money. It can get frustrate sometimes, even though you had done all possible sides quests, you are still poor. I had never have more than 3000 gold at any time. I can imagine that it will get more expensive as the game progresses. Look like i still wearing that rip shirt for awhile.
5. Like most reviewers here said, the game is very challenging, you will die quite often, I start out as medium, but decide to change to easy (don't assume "easy" is easy). I am NOT a hardcore gamer, and found this mode still challenging enough, enjoyable and not too easy.
6. There are some minor bugs here and there. i.e. I had been collecting some remedies (like small health potion), up to about ~100 each, then all the sudden all of them drop to 5 each, I am back to square one. Luckily the potions I created (powerful one) remains intact.
7. Once you obtain a map, you can make the location of your quests destination which is nice, but it won't tell you how to get there. Beware not all quests can be marked.
8. On the weapon, potion or ring creation (very expensive too), it won't tell you what you are going to get (like weapon damage or the effect of the ring). This is where i get most frustrate, money is hard to come by and you tell me go ahead and spend all just to find out the new weapon is so inferior compare to what you already have. Maybe you can sell for 50 gold when you spent almost 2000 to create it. | video-games_xbox |
read this review and it will make you think about getting this game or not getting this game. The story of red dead redemption is you play as a cop/cattle owner/cowboy/outlaw named John Marston that is betrayed by his fellow gang members. The gang u are in is called the Williams Gang that is ran by Bill Williams. Your family is being threaten and you must find and kill the people u once called friends...
That is the first story line of the single player version, but there is a second, undead night mare is a "DLC" that comes with RDR. You play as John Marston. The story is that on day u go home only to find somehow Uncle(character) is a zombie! u put him out of his misery to only find out Jack(your son) and your wife,are also zombies! u hog tie them and put them in your house. After that you will need to fight your way through endless hordes of zombies and find others to help u and must find a cure to the fearless creatures.
Co-op mode has no story to it but u can choose to be John as your character if u wish.
So those are the story lines,now lets get to pros and cons about Single player. The good things are there is a rich eviorment map with many things to do if u are a free roam kind of person like me. You can go to many locations where you can see different kinds of people and games you can do like arm wrestling, Five Finger Fillit, draws(my personal favorite), liars dice, poker, black jack,and treasure hunting(the hardest thing to do). there are interesting names for each location to really make the old west look real. P.S. this is like old fashion GTA if u are a fan of it. The guns in the game are very real and some even are real guns that where in the old west. They all have different names and detialed stats like power and range and reload speed and also a price tag on them so choose your guns wisley. u can hunt in this game for bears, cougars, buffulos, dogs, birds, bigfoot(undead nightmare only), and so much more. the voice acting in this game is very good and it will leave you laughing, mad, crying,etc. And also the best video game ending of all time.
That was some good things and now, some bad things. The gore in this game is pretty graphic and left me barfing. When you kill someone, they scream in pain and there is a bullet hole where you shot him or her. After that they are dead on the ground blood starts to poor out of them. When you shoot someone in the leg, they fall down, get back up and limp for there dear life. When YOU get shot, the screen splats with blood in the corners of the TV and when you die the whole screen is red and you are lying there dead. Also, some missions are realy hard and will leave u angry. Some of the bountys you do are almost impossible to beat. And also there are like 2 easter eggs! I mean like,really Rockstar, really? At least put in 5 or so. There are so many more bad things in this game, i cant put it all in one review.
Some good things about undead nightmare. The story is pretty fun and you get to save towns that are over run by zombies and completing that awards you with a gun and the town is safe. there are many different towns small and large. And the missions are sort of fun.
Some bad things about undead nightmare. Most the time in the missions you are picking freaking flowers for a old man,it sucks. Also,its hard to find a flower in the game, and you need like 16 of them! And the worst part, zombies will only die if you shoot them in the head! I once tied one up and shot it twenty times and it did not die, then i shot it in the head and it died. And lastly you only get a forty gamer point achievement for completing the story in undead nightmare. I know, that sucks.
Some good things about co-op mode. it is somtimes fun doing gang hideouts, hunting and rampages. You get to connect with friends and you get to understand team work.
Some bad things about co-op mode. To be honest, this is the worst co-op i have ever played in my life. the glitchs are insane. there is one where you level up every second for doing nothing. there is one where your gun is invisible and you cant shoot. there is a invincible glitch, and about 30 more,thats not even a joke. my game always freezes and it never saves at all! co-op is a damn peace of crap. Well, have you chaged your mind about getting this or not getting it?
please send me Qs if you need advice. thank u for reading this review. | video-games_xbox |
The quintessential, most definitive Spider-Man game. The Amazing Spider-Man video game is the quintessential, most definitive Spider-Man game to date. I rarely, if ever, write reviews for games for the internet, but after seeing all the negative and mediocre reviews for this game slathered all over cyberspace, I had to step in and give my 2 cents. I am going to do my best to give an in-depth, honest review that highlights the numerous things the game does right, as well as its faults (which in my opinion are thoroughly outshined by its merits).
Let's start with what I think is the most important part of any Spider-Man game: the web-swinging, and Spidey's movement in general. What Beenox has accomplished here deserves so much more praise than they're currently getting. They have taken what Treyarch did with Spider-Man 2, and streamlined it, making it much more fluid and smooth than in any other Spider-Man game ever. Swinging is handled with the right trigger, and you can either repeatedly press it for each individual swing or you can simply hold it down indefinitely and Spidey will handle the rest. I know it sounds simple, and it is, but it works extremely well. It subtly fixes a lot of what was frustrating about the Spider-Man 2 game's swinging. For example, you'll never have to worry about getting caught on the surface of a building or the street because you started your swing too late, or accidentally running down a wall when you meant to run up it. But wait, there's more! Beenox has implemented what they call "Web Rush," which is used by pressing the right bumper for a quick rush, or holding it down to slow down time and enter a first-person view to pinpoint exactly where you wanna go. Quite frankly, this game mechanic is revolutionary for a Spidey game. For the first time in a Spidey game, you have a cursor on the screen the entire time, and whenever it is white, you can go there, and Spidey will always look badass doing it. For example, if Spidey is on the ground, and you point the cursor up to the corner of a building and Web Rush, he could do any number of awesome things to get there. He might swing off a lamppost, bounce off a billboard, run along the windows of a building, or any combination thereof. Combining the swinging mechanic with the web rush mechanic makes for an absolutely awesome time just gallivanting around the city. Navigating New York city as the Webhead has never been more precise or more fun.
Another great improvement over other games is the combat. Beenox has wisely borrowed the freeflow combat idea from Rocksteady's Batman games. It works really well and feels really good, even though it is nowhere near as deep or nuanced as the Batman combat. There is enough variety in Spidey's moveset to keep things fresh for the most part. You can fight enemies directly with basic punches, dodge/counters, and web shots, and as your combo meter builds you can eventually pull off "signature moves" which are an absolute blast. Spidey takes enemies down with perfect acrobatic prowess and it is damn satisfying. But wait there's even more!! Most groups of enemies you encounter can also be dealt with by using stealth takedowns. The mechanic is similar to the Noir Spider-Man sections in Shattered Dimensions, and once again it works really well and feels very Spider-Man like. Finally, building on the Web Rush concept, you can hit the left bumper at anytime to "Web Retreat" if you're taking too much damage or want to use a different strategy. From there you can either rush back into battle or sneak around and attempt a stealth takedown. The freedom choice within the battle system is very liberating and keeps the game fresh throughout.
The presentation of this game is also very well done. The voice actors, although not the original cast from the movie, do an outstanding job. Spidey's dialogue is the appropriate combination of witty and corny, and in my opinion this voice actor is way better than Andrew Garfield. The story might not be the most original in the world, but it is an awesome follow-up to the movie, the stakes get higher and higher and the pacing is great. Despite other reviews saying the opposite, I think the graphics are superb. Spidey looks great, and the cosmetic battle damage really adds a lot to the experience, and the city's draw distance is incredible. You can pretty much see the entire city from whatever building you're standing on. One of the most addicting things to do in this game is to collect the comic book pages scattered throughout the city. Swinging and rushing to each page you see as you make your way to your next objective is extremely gratifying, and I could not put the game away til I snagged all 700 of them. Also, some boss battles are only okay while others that take place in the open world city are super epic and a lot of fun to play.
The main issue that most have with this game is that it's repetitive. Now, to some extent that is true. The game is mostly made up of swinging and fighting, but I don't see that as a valid argument because when it comes down to it, ALL games are repetitive. This game does enough to keep things fresh such as introducing new enemies and side missions along with the photo missions, xtreme reporter missions, and secret Oscorp lab missions. The main missions themselves never feel like been there done that or dj vu, because the game always builds on what came before. Bottom line, the point is that it may be repetitive in some ways, but if what you are doing is fun, and it is, then repetition should not be cited as an issue. And believe me, this game is ridiculously fun.
To conclude, I have been playing Spider-Man games for almost 12 years now, and never have I felt more like Spider-Man than I do playing this game. The swinging, the movement, the combat, the stealth, the graphics and the voice acting all come together to form the greatest Spider-Man experience ever. And all this from a licensed movie game?? It is almost too good to be true. Everything from the subtle way Spidey uses web to gain more traction as he runs up the side of a building, to the huge bombastic battles with giant robots, to the engaging way Spidey interacts with Gwen and Dr. Connors, to the hundreds of collectible comic pages, to the myriad of different costumes you can unlock, to the surprise cameos; they all made this experience something I won't forget for a long long time. This game is now one of my favorite games of all time, and I want people to give it the credit and the sales that it deserves so Beenox can continue to improve upon this already awesome product. | video-games_xbox |
A disappointing Sequel. I'll try to write an inclusive review, but the short of it is that the storyline is very narrow, the game is glitchy, and the last guy (Lucian) can be defeated by pressing one button.
First off, I was waiting for this game for years and was very excited about it. The game itself is vey similar to the first and claims to be 10x larger in terms of the map, but it certainly did not feal that way. The addition of firearms and have a dog as a sidekick was entertaining, but other changes were irritating. Now, you can change the furniture in houses you own to increase the rent and your spouse's opinion of your home by purchasing new furniture in stores. The problem is that when you enter "refurnish mode" it is very glitchy and I had a notice about furniture changing at the top of my screen for about ten hours straight. After beating the game I was instructed to go back to my family (based on one of three choices you make) but unfortunately my wife divorced me while I was away and I had to family to go back to. So, effectively, I can't go any further because my family no longer exists.
The story itself is ok but I felt it was extremely short. There are no twists, no major bosses (you could include the commandant in the spire, but he was a joke). When you finally get to the villain of the story, Lucian, you literally press X once to beat him. Totally anticlimactic. There are a laundry list of side tasks that are really unnecessary because you don't need to complete them to build your character. There's only five levels for everything in the game- spells, swords, skills, etc.- and the range of weapons and other things to buy was really slim. Speaking of slim, if you accidentally hit the right button at time you will eat fatty food you have in your inventory inadvertently and then your character gets fat. The only way to get slim again is to run around to vendors and buy a bunch of celery which is annoying, but so is walking around with a fat character.
Honestly, if you are on the fence for this game I would hold out. In all likelihood they will come out with a Fable II Lost Chapters and fix the craptacular ending and make the main storyline longer. | video-games_xbox |
Halo 3 rocks. so much for "finishing the fight", November 9, 2007
A Kid's Review
Fun:
To start off I'd like to say that I'm a Halo nerd, in every sense of the word. I got posters, got the soundtracks that i listen to pretty much everyday, I've read the books (fall of reach, the flood, first strike, ghost of onyx) excluding Contact Harvest, which I cant wait to read :) I got some action figures of halo 2, plan on getting all the ones of Halo 3 >_< I played the games Halo and halo 2 literally hundreds of times! I JUST LOVE THIS GAME!!! Soo, then halo 3 comes out and blows me away! I love the story, although it seems really short, but I'll get to that in a minute. I love the new weapons especially the assault rifle, I've always loved that gun, just sucks it only holds a measely 32 rds. but not a big deal, the new vehicles are awesome :) oh and lets not forget the new equipment, such as the infamous bubble shield seen in the best halo 3 trailer "starry night" and a bunch of other nifty toys each with their own tactical purpose/advantage that balance out the overwhelming odds you have to deal with at times. Now, if you've not read the books then what i'm about to say won't matter to you but to me, having read all the ones listed above it's very disappointing to not get to play as/with the other spartans that are "supposedly" in the story line. b4 halo 2 came out i thought to myself, damn theres gonna be all these big battles and such, it might just be "TOO" big of a fight even for the MC but nope he handles them all, no questions asked soo ok maybe not in halo 2 but in halo 3 you've gotta show them at one point seeing how big of a threat the prophet of truth presents aswell as the flood. but again I'm disappointed in that aspect...sooo what the hell.....will we ever see the other spartans? I would name them but it escapes me right now to name them unless I look it up in the book, but unfortunately cant find it right now, sorry :( The graphics i thought were top notch, expecially the cutscenes they definately cleaned up theyr act from h2 where when a cut scene appeared it seemed to fill in some object here and there, that was really annoying and gave the game and unfinished feel. but not h3 very nice!!! I love the cg scenes, very much like a painting in motion, just awesomeness :)
all in all the story wraps up nicely...also if you want to know the true ending you have got to watch past the credits...nuff said on that :)
In the end I give it 5 stars because I freaking love halo and everything about it, even though the story lacks a certain closure if you will and leaves unfinished business every where, but HEY maybe there will be another sequel to tie up its loose ends. Maybe its just wishfull thinking but I'm hoping for the best.
I played this game on heroic on the first run through, took me about 12hrs. playing it on legendary right now, and have to admit, its really hard. :):):) I don't know if most ppl know this but you can turn on a "Point system" for campaign mode that keep track of your number of kill total and also of the number of say grunts, brute chieftains and the like you've killed and your total amount of points scored. thats pretty nifty....especially to quell any arguments of who is the baddest spartan on the block, lol. Well, I hope this review helped if not enlightened you a bit on h3 and it's predecessors :) have a good day! | video-games_xbox |
Only if you like single player. I have played the NHL series since 09. I used to play avidly with a club in EASHL, which I still do from time to time, but this game fails to improve from year to year. I am not spending anymore money on this franchise, as the developers/publisher fail to keep the game up-to-date with glitch fixes and proper gameplay. I don't care about roster updates, I only play multiplayer EASHL. They only care to throw marketplace items for sale for people to throw their money at mostly useless stat boosts. The only additions every year are eye-candy additions, like board-play, that are rarely used and often flawed.
The games have gotten to the point where most online players exploit glitches and flaws in one manner or another. This has always plagued the series and I'm done throwing my money at this lazy development. 2 out of every 10 games are enjoyable, and that includes the games we win. I'm sick of not being able to properly check someone off the puck, not being able to intercept passes properly or utilizing legitimate stick play. The lack of stick physics allows glitchy danglers to skate in circles holding the A button without losing control. The puck and their stick will float through other skates/sticks/bodies without consequences. It is nearly impossible to play sound hockey and be rewarded.
This series has turned into a glitch fest with the smallest, dangliest teams bouncing off of checks and skating in circles until the puck ends up in the net. I rarely finish games anymore due to pure frustration and complete lack of enjoyment. I'm not wasting my time just to be frustrated. Even though I average about 2 points per game, I can't stand the overall product.
If you like single player hockey, this is your only option. However, spend your multiplayer dollars elsewhere. This game will always be released with problems and rare fixes. I wouldn't pay $5 for it simply due to the fact that it provides little entertainment. On that note, I have a copy of NHL 12 for sale for $5 + shipping. But you'll need to purchase an online code because the publisher places no value in the customer's satisfaction. In fact, nevermind, I won't doom anybody to my copy of the game. It will rot in the trash can. | video-games_xbox |
NBA Live 15 is the game consumers deserved last year. A decent effort but comes up short in most areas. EA Sports isn't treating NBA Live 15 like its a critical release for the series which desperately needs to establish itself on stable ground and show potential to achieve significant growth in the market within the next few years. In fact theyve shown little urgency at all and even have basically admitted its not a stellar product. No one would have been fooled otherwise but it stands in stark contrast to the way the company promoted previous failed efforts where they instead presented a certain bravado and failed to back it up.
After spending the six hours with Live 15 through EA Access the murky picture has cleared up somewhat. No, it doesnt really deserve credit for being better than Live 14, but standing on its own its a decent effort. That comes maybe a year or several years too late but the progress being made is evident and some may even find fun to be had from the product.
The best way to sum up NBA Live 15 is that it would have been an acceptable Live 14. It has a lot of gameplay-related issues, and doesnt offer much in the way of compelling content, but it has its share of successes also and this time around the problems could potentially be overlooked in favor of just having fun with it. That really wasn't possible with Live 14 which EA probably would have been better off for the long-term not releasing.
One of the biggest issues with Live 14 was that it lacked any sort of tutorial or practice modes. That has been rectified this time around and EA even forces some of the tutorials on users when they first start up the game. Theyre effective in teaching simple elements of playing the game and there are a bunch more that aren't included in that initial run-through. Practice and scrimmages are also available.
Gameplay displays much more fluidity to the action though the stiffness of players and animations remain and there are instances of warping and sliding around the court. A lack of off-ball movement is a concern even with LB being used to manually force some movement. The CPUs offense seems to be based on taking a ton of three pointers and maybe getting an offensive board for a put back. However the ball does seem to go through the star players, who stand out fairly well from everyone else, and even the CPU recognizes that on defense as they doubled LeBron James each time he touched the ball in one game I played.
The new shooting meter and release timing feedback seems to be a positive in that you do get an understanding of why a shot may have went in or been off the mark. However, even with a great release, I haven't found any contested shots being made. Its not even worth attempting a contested shot. It could be due to sample size or it may be a serious issue its just not something I could determine in that period of time.
Areas that stood out to me as big positives compared to Live 14 were in rebounding and stealing. It seems like the right guy is pulling down the board even though there are so few rebounding animations that you see the same ones over and over. Steal attempts seem to be handled well with lunges and strips really depending on where the ball is and how its being protected. Going for a steal in the wrong situation will result in a foul but if you time it right and go at it right theres a chance of success. That can lead into fast breaks another big element of basketball that was completely missing last year but is represented fairly well in Live 15.
ESPN presentation does bring with it a certain undeniable authenticity from the music to the screen wipes and score bug. The commentary duo of Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy adds good emotion to exciting moments but in general they're too generic and unspecific in their calls. Bringing back Mark Jackson (he was recorded with them for NBA Elite 11 before he got into coaching) would probably spice things up in future editions. The crowd and atmosphere is very good bringing back some memories of NBA Live 10 which truly excelled in that area.
Rising Star mode remains a very basic and bland Career mode. Theres no off-the-court angles to the mode so things get boring real quick. Teammate AI seemed better than that found in the competitions Career mode but it still seemed as though the bulk of the scoring relied on me. You have more control over what happens, which could be seen as a positive or a negative, as calling for a pass will always get you the ball and pressing the shoot button will get your teammates to shoot. I put up huge numbers in the Jordan Take Flight Showcase and got drafted #3 to the Sixers. It seems the game bumps all the rookies back a pick then so a big chunk of realism in the mode is damaged as almost all rookies end up on the wrong team.
Also included in Live 15 is an Ultimate Team mode which brings in much needed features like an Auction House, and Big Moments which I still find uninteresting and anti-climatic upon completion. Dynasty mode is largely unchanged from last year and theres no Online Dynasty or Leagues. Its also important to note that there are no sliders in the game so those who like to tinker with gameplay won't have the ability to do so.
Online play, and server stability, is being touted by EA Sports in an attempt to take advantage of the difficulty the competition is having. However online play was very poor in Live 14 and the limited experiences Ive had in Live 15 have been about as bad. Input lag makes timing jump shots nearly impossible everything comes up with a late release and theres really no way to adjust and find the successful release point.
It remains to be seen whether Live 15 will be enough to keep the series from being buried for good. The odds appear to be stacked against it surviving another year. Theres now at least something to point towards as evidence that the franchise could get to where it needs to be someday. After four years of failure, and a complete erosion of consumer loyalty coupled with the rise of the competition, that simply may not be enough.
If you're interested in the game try out the demo/trial on PS4/XB1 and then maybe wait for a deal on the game. Black Friday is less than four weeks out. | video-games_xbox |
Xbox Live Review. Unreal Championship 2 is an awesome addition to the exceptional series. I was a huge fan of UC on Xbox. I bought UC 2 the first day it came out, and I've been hooked on Xbox Live ever since. At first when I heard that UC 2 was coming out, I noticed that Midway took over the franchise. I didn't know what to think about it at the time, but since Midway makes pretty solid games for the most part, I didn't hesitate picking it up.
When I first started playing it, it was a little bit different because of the third person melee moves. I'm really into first person shooters and third person hack & slash games, so I caught on really quick.
This game is definately worthwhile picking up if you're into those types of games.
*PROS*
-Awesome graphics
-Very solid new and classic weapons (other than the bio-rifle. they shouldn't of changed it from UC 1, but it's acceptable)
-Melee combat
-Many different adrenaline moves
-Many power ups (old & new)
-14 characters to choose from including Raiden
-Tight controls
-Huge level selection
-Many different gaming modes (i.e. deathmatch, capture the flag, team deathmatch, survival, etc.)
-Optional 1st & 3rd person view
-1st/3rd person shooter on crack
*CONS*
-Only two guns to a match (you pick your guns before the match & collect ammo
-No custom soundtrack
-PS2-like load times
-You have to unlock 7 characters in tedious 1 player missions
If you're into fast paced shooters and have Xbox Live...Unreal Championship 2 is a must! I'll put it this way...if I would of paid $100 for this game, I would have felt like it was money well spent. I've been playing games since the mid-80's, and there are probably less than 25 games that I can actually say that about (Halo 2 - one of the most overated games of all time, NOT being one of them).
I'm sure the Halo cult (you people know what I'm talking about =]) may disagree, but I think that UC 2 puts Halo 2 to shame!
For the record Halo 2 is an okay game...but EXTREMELY hyped up and overated! | video-games_xbox |
In Space, Nightmares Never End. The first <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/DEAD-SPACE/dp/B000X1PE16/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">DEAD SPACE</a> was simply an amazing game to play through. Much like RESIDENT EVIL 4, it upped the ante for what makes a survival-horror title great. It could've settled for just being terrifying while in space, but it was also very, very good science fiction. Traveling through the USG Ishimura was an immersive experience; with almost no (noticeable) loading screens between decks and other various parts of the ship, along with fantastic level design, there was a sense of cohesion that few games this side of <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/ALAN-WAKE/dp/B0010AYJXI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">ALAN WAKE</a> have been able to attain. So, with no loading screens or cutscenes, you really never knew when things were going to attack you, or from which angle.
DEAD SPACE 2 could've done all sorts of things for the sequel, but thankfully they opted to take all of the things that made the first game great, expand upon them, and set the bar even higher. This is a much bigger and scarier game than the first, with a story and universe worthy of the hard sci-fi genre it celebrates.
The story takes place three years after the events of the first DEAD SPACE, with Isaac Clarke waking up in a psych ward on the Sprawl, a massive, self-contained city built upon a shard of one of Saturn's shattered moons. He has little to no memory of anything that's happened to him in the last few years, but he DOES know that there's a necromorph outbreak sweeping through the Sprawl. Disoriented and without answers, Isaac has to fight his way through a city that's fallen into chaos, all the while trying to figure out how all of this could happen (again).
The game lumps on the mystery from the beginning and the answers are slow to arrive, leaving you to wander in ignorance along with Isaac - which I liked. Your only priority is to survive, but the story that eventually takes shape is a good one, which greatly expands upon the already expansive universe built around these games. You'll also get a chance to learn a lot more about the once-silent Isaac Clarke, and how he's still struggling to come to terms with the horrific events of the first game.
And one of the major changes you'll notice starting out is the scope of the game. We aren't confined to a single ship anymore; Visceral Games have gone out of their way to make you feel like you're really playing through a vast, cohesive city. Like in DS1, there are no real loading screens or cutscenes (except when you change discs), so attacks or major events can happen when you least expect it. The areas are well designed and very pleasing to the eye. You'll fight through shopping malls, a church, sewers, an apartment complex, and many other places, and nowhere is safe.
In the gameplay department, everything's largely unchanged, which might please or disappoint some fans. Aiming and navigation are much more responsive; if something sneaks up on you, it's not as difficult to turn around and start blasting away. The zero gravity sections have benefited from the addition of a thruster pack on Isaac's suit, so you'll be floating through the areas instead of hopping around. New weapons have been added, as well as new suits that retain different attributes. For instance, one suit grants you higher damage with the pulse rifle, while another gives you a discount at the store. This gives you more incentive to explore, but this leads into one of my main criticisms.
Like I said, DS2 is bigger, better, and much more stunning visually, but not too much has changed in the way of gameplay. I might be looking at this the wrong way, but fighting off the necromorph horde is on the verge of becoming repetitive. Sure, there are a few new kinds of baddies, but most of them will be familiar, and the game's way of making things more difficult was just to throw more at you. In DS1, managing the horde was a challenge because new types of enemies were gradually introduced, which forced players to adapt. In DS2, you just get swarmed, and I often found myself with very little ammo to fight them off.
So, my main criticism is that I feel the DEAD SPACE games are beginning to back themselves into a corner gameplay-wise. I would've been disappointed if MASS EFFECT 2 had forced you to fight more geth in different ways, so I'm slightly disappointed that this happened in DS2. I hope the necromorphs don't necessarily have to be the main focus villain-wise going forward. In all the chaos and corruption on the Sprawl, surely there were other things that were deserving of being shot at with a plasma cutter. It only adds to the story when there's more than one bad guy.
But that's something that I don't feel detracts from the game overall, but rather something that detracts from my confidence in the series going forward. Visceral Games sort of shot themselves in the foot by creating this interesting and immersive sci-fi universe that I honestly believe is up there creatively with BioWare's MASS EFFECT series, only to populate it with one kind of enemy. I just see way too much potential there, I guess, so I hope Visceral capitalizes on that in the future.
For now, DEAD SPACE 2 is an amazing game, and I'm very positive that fans of the first DEAD SPACE will not be disappointed. In fact, DS2 goes out of its way several times in the story to celebrate what went down on the Ishimura. All in all, it's a terrifying and fantastic continuation of a great survival-horror title. | video-games_xbox |
A must play action/platformer. I have been seeing this game sitting on store shelves for a while now and never really gave it much thought. I saw a few and I do mean few trailers on it before it launched but still this game was not properly advertised and never really got noticed. This was a major mistake by CapCom because this game is still largly unknown to many , hence why I never really gave it much thought. Since the release of the Xbox One my 360 hasn't really been getting much love, and since Microstoft will eventually kill the servers for the 360 ( 2016 ) I decided to play some games I passed on or didn't play before the release of the Xbox One. This is one of those games and it is also one that I should have picked up long ago.
Story : It is engaging and keeps you coming back for more, it isn't the best story I've played through but it is deffinately good.
Gameplay : This is where the game really shines. this game is a mix of platforming ( Like Tomb Raider ) and hand to hand combat fighting ( Think of the Batman games ) . The platforming works perfectly , I rarely ever miss a jump and fall to my death , it happens but not often. Luckily on the occasion that you do die the auto save feature of this game works really well. You will either be set back right before you die or really not much before that. You will never have to replay a large portion of what you just played through on the event that you do die. As the fighting goes it is most like the Batman games , I have seen other reviews state that this is false but they are completely wrong. Just as in the Batman Arkham games when you fight you chain together combos and bounce back and forth between your enemies and avoid being hit by dodging when your closest enemy has a four pronged electrical like symbol above their heads letting you know that you need to get out of the way or block the attack. In Remember Me instead of the symbol you get in Batman you will see an exclamation mark above their heads and it is simple as pressing the A button to dodge the attack and according to the way you are pushing your analog stick that is the direction your character will avade the incoming attack. So the fighting machanics are VERY much like the batman Arkham games.
Graphics : This is without a doubt a detailed and beautiful game , it will not disappoint. This game looks so good on the 360 I know it would look just wonderful on the Xbox One as well. This is a linear kind of game but you still need to take your time to look around at the art of the game when not in combat especially when you are outside and can get a good look at Neo-Paris.
In conclusion as I mentioned above this game is a bit linear and not open world, but this by no means hurts the game. There are areas in each section of the game that you can search for collectables and upgrades and sometimes find different approaches to the areas you are entering. Again the linearity of this game could be most closely compaired to Batman Arkham Assylum, that should give you an idea of what it is like if you have ever played that particular Batman game. So bottom line , the gamplay , story and graphics are all very enjoyable and a pleasure, you cannot go wrong with this game if you are into this type of gameplay.
Solid 5 out of 5 | video-games_xbox |
The most frustrating fighting game available for the Xbox 360. I love a lot of different fighting games, from the 2-d/Street Fighter, Last Blade, Samurai Showdown arcade fighters, to boxing games (Fight Night, Punch Out!, Victorious Boxers), Bushido Blade, Soul Calibur, Virtua Fighter, you name it... I've always given the DoA games a chance because of the incredible visuals and smooth combat, and have had fun with some of the earlier games in the series (despite the simplistic rock, paper, scissors fighting mechanics).
So I thought I was getting a huge bargain when I picked up DOA 4 on the Xbox 360 for the "Greatest Hits" price! Online play, new characters to unlock and master, with a cool array of new fighting styles. "Great," I thought... Until I played my first round of single player against what can only be described as the DEMONIC A.I. opponents! "No big deal," I said to myself, "I'll dial it down to Easy difficulty." Unfortunately, there's no "Easy" setting! "Normal" is the default difficulty and it doesn't get any easier than Normal! Oh great, I have to endure this punishing A.I. to unlock the characters, outfits, and achievements. How bad could it be? Well, after an hour I was sorry I bought this game. The computer fights PERFECTLY. It doesn't miss throws, it counters nearly everything you throw at it, and will generally make you feel like no matter how good you thought you were at the other DOA games, you're going to stink at this game. Playing against human players is another story, but sadly you can't unlock the majority of the extras this game has to offer by playing against human opponents. It's so frustrating trying to get through the story mode, that by the time you actually beat the boss, you might still feel like you wasted your time - this game just makes you mad.
A game that's as overly frustrating as this in single player mode isn't really a bargain at any price. I'll be going back to the fun fighting games in my collection - Fight Night, Soul Calibur, and Virtua Fighter, thanks. This game will be traded back for something else (or gifted to my nephew who thinks he's so good at every game - DOA 4 will give him a strong lesson in humility). I'm still giving it 3 stars overall, for the good graphics and cool cutscenes (some are really strange - especially the one about the geisha who's late for her recital/ geisha conference? - typical for this series), but the single player A.I. makes this a 1 or a 2 in the fun department. Buy this if you enjoy challenges that many would consider an exercise in frustration. | video-games_xbox |
Good sequel, but wasn't quite what I hoped. (I haven't tried the expansions so these are just a few thoughts on Fable 2 main content only.)
While it is a great improvement over Fable, I was disappointed when I finally played this game. Fable 2 is larger and allows for more play time than the original, however...
*Gold, easy to get, so what do we do with our Millions? Once you buy all the Shops/Houses, then what?
*Weapons. Nice array of weapons, I do like the use of guns and crossbows.
The "best" of them are quite expensive, but buy a few shops, don't play for a day or 2, and you'll have the gold in no time. (Gold is earned even if you aren't playing)
Augments on the weapons to make them stronger/better. I do enjoy the feature, but why can't we socket new augments over old ones? You get a nice weapon, don't like the augments it came with? Too bad.
The main reasons for my disappointment;
*"Open World" Well, kinda. If your thinking World of Warcraft or Fallout 3, no.
You can run a little ways then hit the "no farther" mountains, rocks, trees ect.
*Co-op, play with your friends and complete quests. Not really. They show up as a henchman, and you really can't get too far away from each other. Your locked to using the same screen. Your friend can't be off killing some town and ask you to come over and help. Such potential, and yet they seemed to just over look all it could have been.
*The controls seem "clunky", often frustrated with the character movement. I am running into objects, getting stuck on nothing, a simple step for many games is an obstacle for this one. You can jump over a fence, but try to go up steps from the side, and you can't.
This all seems negative but I did enjoy the game.
I'm just offering a little of my perspective for future buyers.
(maybe even developers)
If you liked Fable, Fable 2 is for you. If you want to run with your buddies beating stuff up? Maybe another game. | video-games_xbox |
Great for families and couples. I won't say much here that other reviews haven't said much more comprehensively, but I wanted to add my two cents to the discussion.
Rock Band is one of the funnest games I have for the 360. I never got into guitar hero too much, so I was a bit of a newbie (though we played tons of Karaoke Revolutions...). Let me list some pros and cons.
Pros:
1) It is great for families and couples. My wife always lost her mind with boredom when I'd want to play games. Now, she loves gaming as much as I do. We play together all the time, and we formed a band with my sister and brother-in-law and play several times a week. It's great for kids, couples, roomies, you name it. Best party game ever!
2) Great marketplace. We must have downloaded dozens of songs by now. Everything from Nine Inch Nails to Black Sabbath to Boston (and in a couple weeks a whole album by The Who). They promised that every Tuesday they'd release a song. In reality, every Tuesday, they release between 3-10 songs. There is an amazing catalog of downloadable content for every flavor of music and every skill level.
3) Skill levels. The skill levels work very nicely. If you are an old guitar hero dog and play on expert, but your girlfriend wants to sing and needs to play on easy, no problem. You each pick your own difficulties and have a great time.
4) Nice Instruments. The instruments are of good quality. We know a couple of people who broke their kick drum, but I suspect they were spazzing out on it. Ours is fine!
Cons:
1) There is no Bass tour mode. You can only play a guitar tour and get money for your character if you play lead guitar. You can do a solo tour on drums, microphone, or lead. They just dissed the bass! I love the bass; it's my favorite instrument. But I'm the band's stepchild who can only brush up in boring old "practice mode." They really need to fix this when RB2 comes out in September!!! (Please guys, read your forums and fix this!!!)
2) It is expensive. But this isn't even too bad a con for. I haven't had the need to buy any games since I got this thing in early December. It has probably saved me money since I'd have bought a couple of games I'd have lost interest in by now.
3) Not very guitar hero friendly. Many of the guitars from GH and RB don't work on each others' games. This really sucks, but I suspect there's no getting around this as the two megacorps battle for supremacy and our dollars.
But, those cons don't hardly take it down a star. This is a great game. Play it with friends, play it solo, play it online. It is worth every penny. | video-games_xbox |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.