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Huge Worlds, Long Yet Great Gameplay, Fun Characters, etc. So, you just (or are about to) bought an XBOX, and you want a fun game(s) to play on the greatest system ever. You buy Halo, Dead or Alive 3, and maybe a few of your favorites (Tony Hawk, 007, Madden, etc...) Well, to make a complete set of awsome games for XBOX, their's one more you need to pick up. It's called: Jet Set Radio Future!
Here's why you pick this game. Is this what your loking for? You want a fun game, with good graphics, and huge worlds to explore. You want a game with good replay value, fun multiplayer, and dozens of new things to try out. You've found your game!
Here's the basic story, and the point of the game. The year (like you've probably heard a hundred times by now) is 2024. An evil police dude is trying to take over the free will of Japan. Gangs like the GG's (your gang) are ticked at this, because these police are threatining to destroy their home, culture, and their basic life. They can't let this happen! That's where you come in. You, your gang, and your rocket powered skates must stop Rokaku's (the bad dude's) evil plan. But that's not all; no, there's a lot more.
You must also compete with rival gangs out to claim your territory (through races and challenges), recruite new members to the GG's (up to 25), run from and defeat cops, and write your symbolic graffite (even create your own). This is your world, and you must stop Rakaku, with many surprises along the way.
This game has a lot more than just the one player story (though just that by itslef is an awsome game), but it also has one of the best multiplayers you'll find any where. Compete against up to 4 players in either of 4 games (graffite, race, catch the ball, and others.). You can play these games (my favorite is a 3 lap race) in up to 8 locations, trying to beat out your friends in a close race.
The last thing I'll go into that makes this game so great (though I could go into dozens more) is the graphics. It may not look like much on the cover, but the graphics in this game are simply put: INCREDIBLE. Dozens of cars, obstaces (trash, boxes, billboards), and people that interact with you make this game so wonderful. Huge worlds are clear from anywhere if you can see all the way across, creativity is fantastic. The grinds are so much fun. And last but not least; just when you think you've found everything in the game, you find another whole level that may lead to another. Some places even have 5 or 6 stories (if you can grind all the way up their).
So as I hope you can see, this is a must buy. Immense worlds, interactive people, great graphics, and fun gameplay make this game a must buy. You'll spend hours unlocking new characters, levels, and just exploring the ones you already have. Look for this game anywhere, and if you see it (it's a best seller) buy it! It's worth your money. Gotta go, I have to play some more JSRF! Don't miss out on all the fun! Get this game NOW!!!!!!!! | video-games_xbox |
Worth the price. Okay so the overall price for the Halo Reach Edition Console is $399.99. This includes the console itself which might I say that it looks extremely sexy for being silver,2 Halo Reach Edition controllers which also look sexy(makes good so that you have a backup or in case a friend comes over) and it comes with Halo Reach. Think about it $299 for the console $60 for the game and like $50 or $60 for the controllers per controller. So if you were to buy a 360 2 controllers and the game you'd be paying way more than this bundle is priced. Overall the console is doing very good for me. I've yet to find any problems. Then again I've had it for a couple weeks now. Halo Reach to me is a much better game than Halo 2. Much better than COD MW2. MW2 got stale for me to be honest but I can play multiple matches online with Reach and not be bored. This game also has match making which I think is awesome. One good thing about the 360 with live is you can submit player reviews so that you can be paired with people or not. Live has more features than PSN does and that is coming from a girl who use to be a sony fangirl. I enjoy both equally, but the dashboard to me is a little harder to figure out than the XMB for the PS3, but that is not a deal breaker. I did buy rechargeable battery packs so that I don't have to relace batteries every so often but again not a deal breaker. Also got a charger for the batteries too. Anyway point is this console is amazing and so is the game that comes with it. Also side note GTA IV is much better on this console than PS3(yes I own both). Anyway I highly recommend Halo Reach to people who don't own it. And if you're just getting into Xbox 360 this bundle is well worth the money but be warned you will have to buy a gold card or enter your card info for Live in order to have online play but again not a deal breaker. If you found this review to be helpful then good and if not too bad. | video-games_xbox |
Could have been a 5 star classic. I'm sure most people will compare this game to Rallisport Challenge 1 and 2, so I'll go ahead and jump on that bandwagon. The way I see it, RSC has more of an arcade feel to it, while Colin2005 has more of a simulation feel to it. RSC might be more
fun for the casual video game player because it is easier to master. But for my money I want the real-deal simulation. Anyone
who has watched rally racing on TV will agree that this game is as close to reality as it gets. Need proof? If you chose the in car camera view, you can hear your turbo spool up, the blow-off valve, and rocks/gravel pinging off of the undercarriage. If you chose the outside camera view (depending on which car you pick) you can see inside the car. What you'll see is: driver, co-driver, spare tire, fuel cell, and you might be able to see your driver shift gears and pull the e-brake. Want more? Drive crazy enough and you can knock off doors, rear hatch, hood, wheels, windows, and you can lose gears just like in real life.
Lower your car too much and your exhaust will scrape the ground
and sparks will fly. You still need more? Choose the in car view
and knock off your hood. When you rev up the engine you'll see
it shake. This game is a true simulation.
Okay, I won't BS you its not all good. Colin2005 could have easily been a 5 star game. First, the graphics cant touch RSC.
They don't suck, they're just not as good. But, in this game's defense once you start racing you won't notice. Second, the sound could be better. If you go with the outside camera view, the engine sound is alot lower. The sounds are accurate, but not as good as RSC. Third, the outside camera view will screw you over when you go downhill. You won't be able to see the road very well because the view is too low. Lastly, if you don't
listen to your co-driver you will smash the heck out of your car. Like I said this game is a true sim and it might be too real. If you like rally racing games you NEED this one. If you are a casual gamer, I say rent first, but be warned this game is long and there is no way you'll finish it in a week. | video-games_xbox |
Dark Souls II Is Challenging, Beuatiful, Painstaking And Definitely Rewarding. The Souls series has always had a place in my heart. They are just plain unique. Let's put it this way, they will never hold your hand. The story is found mainly within your own imagination and interpretations, and the scenery to tell it is absolutely breathtaking. Dark Souls II though is a little different. It explains things more clearly without breaking and walls or lore and also makes sure to blend it in perfectly. The game itself is much larger than the previous Dark Souls and also a bit harder. You only are able to start off with one Estus Flask (Healing Item) and must find more within the game. This makes every move you make more thought out and put's your intuition and thinking to the test. I found myself at a certain point fighting a boss with a friend, I took a hard hit and rolled out of his swings. Realizing that he was behind a certain pillar I found the opportunity to heal before he smashed through it. Without being able to plan properly in this game you won't get far. Certain bosses are absolutely brutal and some others are particularly easy. It really depends on the person. Remember when I said I was fighting with a friend? Well you can summon other players into your world to help clear areas or fight bosses. Also players can invade you which basically means they're coming to kill you. Different covenants in the game affect whether you'll see more summon signs, invade faster, invade certain people etc. I often got invaded by Blue Arbiters because I had so much sin which is obtained by killing specific NPC's (Good NPC's mainly) One of my favorite parts about the Souls games is that once you accomplish what you set out to do, or finally beat the boss you were stuck on for hours or even finally killed that dumb invader is that you feel so great afterward! It's not like COD where you go and cheese right through an area. This game is hard, but when you get through it, it feels like you've actually done something. You can officially brag about getting through this or that and it will actually matter. Dark Souls II's Collectors Edition was a definite buy from me. The cloth map looks great on my wall and the statue looks amazing on my desk. The art book that comes with it has lots of great content within the pages and I find myself just peeking in there every once and a while to admire some of the designs. But anyway, if you prefer casual gaming and like games to walk you through than this game isn't for you. But keep in mind that anyone can play it. It's just a learning curve and a matter of endurance. | video-games_xbox |
Want a decent controller for a decent price? This is it. Comes in four flavors. The story behind this purchase is, I had another razr controller go bad on me, got tired of the dpad with the current 360 controller, the Xbox One Controller is not backwards compatible with its sexy D-pad and I didn't want to buy another Razr xbox sabertooth 360 controller, because quite frankly I am tired of the high cost and low quality... and of hoping through customer service hoops. And so I started looking and came upon a Kotaku review of this product.
Like I said I was going to buy an Xbox One controller for the Dpad and just use it with my 360. But ... MS decided.. that won't do.
Pros:
Solid built controller for the current price point
Buttons and triggers feel crisp (at least on the one I've purchased)
Has a functional Dpad (unlike the 360 controller)
Is aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Smart design with the LED lighting (Its nothing that will blind you)
A switch, which I assume its all digital, that raises or lowers the sensitivity of the thumb sticks to a pre-determined level.
Cons:
The form factor of the controller, it is SMALLER than the current wired xbox 360 controller.. WHY Hori did this, I don't know, but (insert curse word) them. I have large hands, and the size is getting close to PlayStation hand cramping size for me.
The THUMB sticks, the diameter of the cap's are smaller than the thumb sticks on the Xbox 360 controller
but they seem a bit taller.
You CANNOT use the 'KontroLFreek' gamerpack with these.. because the thumb stick caps are too small.
But like I said, those cons are really just a matter of personal taste/body size. If your a smaller person, this controller would probably work great for you. It feels solid built. Although only time will tell. If it does like razr controllers, then I've got a month. I will definitely be back to give an update if this thing cracks out on me.
One more thing, the button in the middle that changes the sensitivity, I basically use this controller for Dark Souls. And it seems like I did notice a little difference in how quick my character would turn around, when switching from Wide Mode to Narrow Mode... But it was a minute difference.
I've uploaded some images, hopefully they are useful. | video-games_xbox |
By Crom, a decent Conan game. Savage, Raw, Sexual, Fun are all words you can use to describe Robert E. Howards Conan character. I am a big fan of Conan, be it his adventures as penned by Robert E. Howard, the gorgeous artistic depiction of him and his world by the gifted artist Frank Frazetta and the entertaining and competent Arnold Scharzenegger films. One area I had not yet seen Conan in was Video Games so I was immediately interested when I heard about this game. There have been Conan games before, such as the MMO Age of Conan on PC (but you don't play as Conan) as well as Conan: The Dark Axe on Xbox (only released in Europe unfortunately), but this would be my first Conan gaming experience. My reaction is mixed but in the end I have to say this is a pretty fun game and all Conan fans would do themselves a favor by picking it up for a mere [...]
I went into this game not really knowing what to expect. The reviews were mixed ranging from good to average to below average. I really didn't care what other people had to say, I just wanted a fun Conan adventure. The title screen was a good start where I was met with a pounding orchestral score which captures the essence of Conan perfectly. I was immediately pumped and ready to make enemies eat my steel. The artwork is not Frank Frazetta caliber but pleasing to the eyes nonetheless and seems to have a similar style to Frazetta, the greatest Fantasy artist to ever exist.
The gameplay itself got off to a fast and intense start as well. You will find yourself in a dungeon or temple of sorts hacking away at enemies and pulling off some rather impressive moves with ease. You can make use of three different weapon classes: Single weapon with or without a shield, Dual Weapons and Two-handed Weapons. There are swords, axes, scimitars, Sabers and other weapons all with various styles and forms you can use. Pretty much any weapon an enemy is carrying, you can use for yourself. In this beginning stage I was having a blast destroying everything in my path and paying very little attention to the tutorial which would pop up hints every now and then. I was experimenting with different button combinations and discovering my own combos, it was great. I was worried that a long list of combos would be intimidating and scare me off but the button combinations are surprisingly intuitive and easy to remember and pull off. A simple combo would be hitting X three times while the more complex ones would throw in a Y and then a B at the end or start off with four presses of the X button and then two of the Y button or consist of four presses of X and holding it down on the fourth press. The back button pulls up a list of all the combos and may intimidate you at first but you will get the hang of it and have a good time learning as you go. I was spinning Conan around dishing out damage to multple enemies at once, decapitating foes in a delightfully gruesome manner, hacking off limbs, body slamming and suplexing weaklings, heabutting, punching, elbow smashing, high kicking, shield bashing, cleaving bodies in half, removing heads with an upward thrust of my shield, charging, ripping out hearts and even stealing an enemy's weapon and beating him to death with it. I picked it all up very quickly and I don't play many hack and slash games these days. Conan himself has cat like reflexes, is easy to control and every bit the warrior you expect him to be. You will feel unstoppable.
At the end of this first stage, Conan is searching for riches and bashes open a statue or container (I forget exactly what it was) and accidentally releases a Dark Wizard who had been imprisoned. Good job Conan. This Wizard isn't all that thankful for his freedom though and casts some type of spell that sends Conan flying through the air where he ends up floating in the sea. This is where the story and real game begin. The Wizard stripped Conan of his armor and used the pieces to empower creatures of his creation. Conan must now track down the pieces of his armor, killing each creature and then put that pesky Wizard back where he belongs.
At the beginning of the next stage Conan is washed up on to shore after having been adrift for days, according to the narrator (he was apparently floating face down according to the cut scene, but we'll ignore how he managed to breathe that whole time). It is here on this beach where you start the real game and you will soon realize that you don't feel quite like the bad ass you were in the tutorial stage before you let the Wizard escape. All of the impressive and brutal moves and combos I had access to have now been locked and I must unlock them one by one by gaining experience points. The first stage was just a taste of things to come. Pretty cool to get that taste, but I felt a little frustrated losing certain moves in particular. According to the story, Conan was suffering a slight case of amnesia so he has to remember how to fight as he once did and what exactly happened in that temple. Whatever, it's not important, let's get to killing.
Conan can gain experience points to unlock moves by killing enemies and finding treasure chests. He can also increase his health bar by activating runes as well as a "song of death" berzerker like ability and his magic bar (yes I said magic, more on this later). Fighting consists of combos, rolling to dodge attacks, blocking by holding down the Left Trigger and parrying where you hit the Left Trigger at just the right time as an enemy strikes and deflect his blade leaving him open for an instant kill execution style. These instant kills are fun but deflecting attacks can be pretty tough as the enemies get tougher later in the game so enjoy them while you can. As mentioned before, Conan can use different fighting classes: single wield, dual wield, two handed wield. Each one has its own combos that must be learned. After unlocking a certain attack you can then "master" that attack by using it succcesfully a specific number of times to achieve a bonus at the end. These bonuses consist of extra life power ups, experience points or magic power ups. The combat system is pretty deep, flexible and fun to use. Not every combo or weapon class will work against every enemy as effectively so you may find yourself experimenting which helps break up the monotony often found in a hack and slash. Thankfully, Conan is not slow, he is surprisingly quick with his rolls, his jumps and when single wielding and double wielding. There is a delay and lagging effect when he wields a two handed sword though and it can get frustrating. Otherwise he has cat like reflexes.
The camera in Conan is fixed at all times. This can be both a good and bad thing. In general the camera does its job well but there are times when you will be screaming for at least a zoom button so you can see where that off screen enemy is without having to approach him or get a better view of a platform jump you will have to make. Not being able to move the camera can feel restrictive but it also adds an old school type of feel to the gameplay. Like a 3D Golden Axe where you progress through a linear stage and kill enemies and open treasure chests for goodies. Speaking of goodies, there are also bare chested maidens you can rescue on your way. I don't see much nudity in games and don't really care one way or the other but it certainly fits in Conans world. If this sort of thing offends you, I suggest you play a Harry Potter game or read a Politically Correct Anne McCaffrey novel which will come across as less degrading to women because they rule the world and talk to animals. Conan lives in a savage and unforgiving world full of all forms of oppression, misogyny being one form. Slavery being another, Conan himself was once a slave and forced into hard labor. The gratuitous violence and nudity fit in well with the Dark Fantasy world Robert E. Howard gave to us.
What does not fit in well with the Conan world is Conan using magic. Conan hates magic and seeing him using it is like watching Superman play catch with a ball of Kryptonite - it makes NO SENSE. Hopefully if there is another Conan game the developers will respect the lore a little bit more. Having said that, the magic proves useful when needed. A Conan game can be excellent without magic being needed, but we are forced to use it here and might as well. You can temporarily turn enemies into stone, which works great on tougher enemies. You can cast a plague of Ravens to attack enemies surrounding you (I only used this a couple of tmes, sometimes it worked, other times it didn't). You can cast a meteor shower which kills anything in your immediate area and you can cast a void spell which sucks in all enemies around you (I actually never used this one, I tried to limit my magic use). Magic does not effect bosses though. You'll have to rely on your reflexes and steel for them.
Bosses are pretty impressive in this game. They are large multi-part bosses which have specific patterns you need to look out for. My favorite was a very long battle with a very large Dragon early on in the game. It felt like something out of a Zelda game and was quite intense. Some boss battles are more frustrating than entertaining but all of them have some real thought put into them. To kill a boss you need to look out for Quick Time Events (QTE's) which are flash prompts on the screen telling to press or tap a certain button at a certain time. I hated when these were used in Prince of Persia but in Conan they are much easier to use and more rewarding as a result. It is fun to watch Conan perform an elaborate execution on a boss when performing following the QTE's.
The graphics in this game are a mixed bag. ost of what you see looks rushed and rough around the edges but there is also plenty in the game which looks pretty good. conan is not a bad looking game at all, it actually looks pretty good but there are constant graphical glitches and too many ugly moments which can be distracting. The cut scenes are the worst offenders here where the 3D models lack detail and are incredibly stiff in the way they move. Conan could have been a great looking game if more time and money was spent on it. Nihilistic is a more than capable develoepr to do this. My guess is THQ, not the richest of Publishers, limited their resources which is unfortunate. Prince of Persia has a gorgeous art style which mixes in cel shading with traditional 3D graphics. If Conan had used a similar system but with more of a Frazetta influence, it would easily have been the best looking game on the Xbox 360 console. What we have here in Conan are mediocre graphics with some nice effects and pretty good art. All of the bosses look great though and the combat looks good too.
The sound in the game is pretty darn good. The sound effects are visceral and a delight, the music is done by the same guy who did the music for God of War and is of a high quality which rivals the awesome soundtrack of the movies and the voice acting is competent. Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy) voices Conan and does a decent job. Perlman is a great actor and his voice fits Conan perfectly, at least compared to Arnold. The problem with the voice acting is it sounds like they were just reading from a script, got paid, and left. But it is not terrible and it's not like you'll be paying much attention to the rather lame story anyway.
I don't even remember enough about the story to talk about it here. basically, you accidentallty free a Dark Wizard who steals your armor and uses it to create creatures to wreak havoc on the world. Early int he game you run into a female adventurer (not topless, and perfectly self sufficient) who helps you on your journey (she doesn't want the world to end either you know). As you gather pieces of your armor, you gain a new spell. Conan does not like magic but he figures he has to use the magic now in his armor so he can battle the Wizard he set free. He doesn't like using magic it but he got himself into this mess and now must get himself out (a sorry explanation for his use of magic). The story is lame. One could only hope a future Conan game actually follows one of the actual Conan stories written by R.E.H. himself.
So the game itself is good hack and slash fun. The story is garbage, but the ending is pretty cool. The graphics look like they could have been special if more time was put in but instead we get a mixed bag of rough and glitchy visuals with some eye candy. The enemy A.I. tends to glitch now and then as well but the boss battles are definitely impressive and it's nice to see large multi-part bosses back in games these days.
It's a decent game well worth the [...] you can get it for these days. Nihilistic is a talented developer and Conan is an awesome license. THQ should have put more money and time into this project because they could have had something special here. It reminds me of another Hack and Slash I played on Xbox a couple years ago, Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance. Gladiator was actually a better game in terms of graphics and combat mechanics but it was too short (Gladiator took me 6 hours on hard, Conan took me almost 11) and the bosses were nowhere near as impressive as those found in Conan. God of War is an obvious influence on Conan but that is a highly polished and heavily budgeted game (If only Conan got that treatment).
My letter grade for Conan would be a C+ | video-games_xbox |
Bugged and Broken Beyond Reason. I've been playing Atari games for nearly 3 decades, and I have to tell you - there's no way that anyone with more than a year's worth of programming experience lent any effort to this title.
This game is horribly broken. Terrible driving mechanics, passable graphics at best, a completely worthless club system, and much, much more stands between Test Drive Unlimited 2 and anything worthy of being called a "massive online racing game."
With only about 8 hours of playtime under my belt here, I'll admit that I'm going to hold out for some repairs (not patches - flat out repairs) to be made, and hopefully things will get better. But the cars drive like air balloons, the trucks are actually somewhat decent... The graphics are gorgeous inside the dealerships, but in the open-world environment of TDU2, we're subjected to Grand-Theft-Auto car detailing, such as octagonal-shaped steering wheels, clipping, and terrible anti-aliasing. Match that with driving physics that tries to mix something like Ridge Racer and slot-cars, complete with unpredictable drifting, a "forward to reverse, reverse to forward" that literally gets STUCK, and you've got TDU2.
The worse travesty is the part of the game which TDU2 centers on - the online interaction. Weeks before the game released, the TDU2 forums were alive with people starting their clubs, recruiting members, and anxiously awaiting the game. Now released, a majority of gamers who have tried to create their clubs have had frozen screens and corruption of their file-saves. Once recovered (by unplugging the internet, rebooting, and moving to a different spot on the map) these users discovered that their clubs either didn't exist, or existed but were unmanageable. All attempts to access the club area of TDU2 results in a frozen game.
Add in the fact that you can't (easily at least) sell cars, the "custom" options are extremely limited, the photo and graphics editors are total jokes, and it becomes safe to say that TDU2 is the first colossal let-down of 2011. Don't worry, Atari - there is plenty of time left for someone to suck more than you...
It's unspeakable to pay this kind of money and be presented something still well within the stages of beta-testing. It's an insult, and I strongly suggest that gamers stay far away from this title until these issues are resolved (IF they get resolved...) Stay tuned to this review - I'll do my best to keep it updated.
*******
First revision (keep up the negative votes, fan-boys. I don't really care.)
Three days since release and the online components still aren't working. Newest issue I have - the game won't even load past the opening menus. I've again had to unplug the internet to get the game to load. (Yes - the ONLINE RACING GAME works best when you DON'T use the internet...)
Complains on the TDU2 forums are reaching a fevered pitch. I'd suggest stopping there if you're still considering purchasing this title.
As far as gameplay goes, the game is still fun, if not a bit too easy (read my response to one of my laughable comments below.) AI doesn't really try at all, and you'll only lose a race if you mess up. Of course, the physics don't help much. I've grazed a wall at a high speeds to be viciously spun 360-degrees without reason... At least it left me pointing in the same direction.
Still hoping I can get my club going, as online support is actually quite high. Stay tuned...
*******
Second Revision
I'm glad to see that the average star-count for this game is dropping. About time people start recognizing the reality.
One week after release now and several of the bugs have been fixed. A freeze on load-up has been fixed and online play seems to be stable. However the club function is still not working - they keep bringing the "club server" online only to find more problems that need fixed.
And another nasty bug persists - people getting "your game is corrupted and you have to start over again" messages. In fact, even I've fallen victim to this now, after 50+ hours of gameplay, winning a car in the casino (which is NOT easy to do) and driving every road in the first island... ...I have to start over again.
Except that I won't. This game is probably getting returned. I've dropped my review to 1 star - this game is essentially unplayable.
If you want a ridiculously easy single player campaign with graphics a few years behind their times with pathetic voice acting - all bundled up with iffy driving physics and the overlying possibility that you could lose hours and hours of effort for no reason whatsoever, by all means, pick up Test Drive Unlimited 2. At some point you'll be sure to regret it! | video-games_xbox |
A great game, but destined to disappear under the radar. Well, I was dispairingly sitting in my local video rental store on a friday night. Naturally, all the games I wanted to try were sold out. In my left hand... Legacy of Kain: Defiance. In my right... Otogi. Vampires or demons. Demons or vampires. Apples or oranges.
I thought Onimusha was decent, so I decided to give Otogi a shot.
Dear God. This has to be one of the most stylish and unique games I've ever had the privilege to play! Once again, Sega has given us a masterpiece. Unfortunately, like every other great Sega game, it will most likely go unappreciated by the masses. But don't let that stop you!
This game is pure adrenaline. The action is fast paced, the enviroments are beautiful, and the music is stunning. The game simply oozes Japanese mythology. Imagine, if you will, a lush meadow with bridges, small stone structures, and of course, lots of challenging demons to obliterate. Now imagine being able to destroy all of it. Imagine fighting mid-air with a crow-like warrior demon, smacking it THROUGH a wall, and listening to its surreal howling as you absorb its soul. Yeah, it's like that.
Even though the stages are fairly small and linear, the game makes up for it with superior attention to detail. And I can't stress how good the music is... although a few songs are repeated throughout the game. This can be easily overlooked, however. The music is THAT good.
Now with all that said, this game isn't for everyone. The protagonist has a Legacy of Kain-esque magic bar, meaning that he must have souls to stay alive. Once your magic bar is depleated, you begin to lose life. Once you're out of life... you're dead. (Obviously!) This isn't as bad as some would have you believe, though. The difficulty is medium... you may have to play a few levels over again, but this rarely becomes frustrating.
Anime fans will feel right at home playing this game. All you Inu-Yasha or Ninja Scroll fans out there have to give this game a try. The furious hack-and-slash, high-flying battles will please arcade game fans as well.
I beat the rental game in about a week, but it was so addictive I had to go out and buy it. Otogi is a solid addition to any X-Box library, so do your self a favor and play this game. It will be one of the best games you've never heard of! | video-games_xbox |
Can't compare with the first. I'm sure Obsidian put a ton of time into this title, but apparently not enough. Sure, they had a lot to live up to, but it's a shame the title couldn't stay with the original company. The engine is familiar and just fine. The graphics are about on a par with KOTOR I. It as annoying, though, that when you change armor on some of the characters, it doesn't change their appearance. There are a variety of other bugs, storylines that lead nowhere, tedious, unnecessary, and at times odd dialogue options, an uneven and at times uninteresting story (far less engaging than the first game), plotlines that are not picked up, love interest subplots that aren't fleshed out, and a lame ending in which one of the characters, whose reliability is suspect at this point, gives a rundown in dialogue of what happens to the rest of your crew. Some visuals there would have been nice, but at this point, the disappointment is piled high enough, it really doesn't matter. The obvious foes look cool, but their characters aren't fleshed out half as much as it would take to make them interesting. Some of the early interludes provide a sense of foreboding, which never plays out. The voice talent ranges from fair to poor, with some of the actors sounding like OC cast members that wandered into the Star Wars universe by accident. I kind of enjoyed some of the easy parts, thinking it would be a kind of calm before the storm, but the storm never came. Way to many kinks to be ironed out in this one. Remember the cool little surprises like dressing up as a Tusken Raider? Nothing like that here. They slightly tweaked the pazaak and swoop races, but if you've got a bad script, those technical details won't matter much (something Lucas himself seems to have forgotten in the new trilogy). It's not a horrible game, and fun in parts, but mostly just running off the fumes of the first. Here's hoping Bioware comes back to helm Knights of the Old Republic III. | video-games_xbox |
Man I love Konami soccer. First off,I am a huge fan of the game of soccer (as you americans call it). I just bought an X-box and have been waiting for a good soccer game to be released. Since I have been living in the states, I have become a huge fan of the MLS. So I was very pleased to see this title. I played the last version on the PS2 and I liked it quite a bit. Konami has the best soccer simulation engine in the world, and I have enjoyed every ISS game they have made. This version is way better than what Konami put out last year. They fixed some of the problems, that just got in the way of fluid game play. I am dissapointed that there are no European teams, but eh the Latin America Clubs addition is a nice filler. There are no real names except for the MLS, but with the cool create a team and player mode I found it easy to get around that. This mode really is a shining point to the game. I am currently playing the 5-year franchise mode and this is another super cool addition. The only draw back is you can't simulate your games, you have to play all the way through. But that's minor. You can also play a variety of different cups. The scenario mode is also fun, but some of these are almost impossible in all-star mode. There's also a training mode, where you can practice your plays, one-twos and the like. There's even a coach who gives you small tips, this is a nice touch. The game play is great, and it will have me hooked for many hours to come. The multi-player battles are epic and make this game worthy of purchase alone. The biggest improvement form last years game has to be the sound. Last year did nothing for me... The stadium ambience is awesome. You can hear the players talking, there's also some good ambient sounds, all the sound FX are on the money and there's even a PA announcer who has some pretty funny things to say. The commentary is also awesome, I haven't gotten tired of it at all. Jack Edwards has great intensity and intelligent things to say. I don't understand a word Luis Tapia has to say, but I love hearing goaaallll! This is a great game and I recommend it to anyone who loves soccer. FIFA has nothing on this game. I give it a 9 out of 10. | video-games_xbox |
Great for our family. Our family is HUGE on games and I mean huge! We have a substantial collection but the kiddos (and adults) always want more. We thought that this Xbox game would be perfect because it contains four different games that individually, in board game form, would cost us over $100. Overall, we're happy with the game even though it took a little bit of a learning curve.
Let me break the games down one by one. Our favorite is Monopoly because the 3D board is great! The animations are really fun and once you get the settings to how you play in your own house (house rules!), it's perfect. The trading/auction questions can be tedious, but we're a family that loves to fight over trading for we enjoyed that aspect. Risk is AWESOME! We're huge into playing the table top version of Risk, but the animations that go with the Xbox version are great! It plays exactly the same as the table top, so there's no need to learn anything new. Trivial Pursuit took a bit of getting used to. The game runs on the point system instead of the color coded wedge system. In other words, once you get enough points you get a wedge. The traditional way of playing is that once you answer a question correctly from a certain category, you get that wedge. This isn't a bad change, just something that we had to get used to. Lastly, Scrabble was the biggest disappointment. It seemed like they spent all of their money on the other games and animations and forgot about Scrabble until the last minute. There are few to no animations and they look more like something from Super Nintendo than Xbox from 2015. You also have to pass the controller which is annoying.
The most salient point is that we can all play together or someone can play alone. This is something that you can't do with table top games. We already own all of these games, but sometimes there's only one person home at a time or someone wants to play a certain game and no one wants to play. With this game, anyone can play at anytime with as many players as they want. The online feature doesn't work as well as I had hoped, but playing against the computer is great! | video-games_xbox |
walks a fine line. i bought this game out of habit.i'd already played the first 4 assassins creed games and wasn't about to miss out on this one.the main character is half indian and half english.theres something you should know before playing this game.there are 2 kinds of english people,the ones who came to america to get away from the bad guys and the ones who still are the bad guys.it was confusing.plus,some of the bad guys portrayed in the game are real and some are made up.that was hard to follow too.
what im about to say IS NOT a spoiler.a spoiler is defined as telling what DID HAPPEN.im about to tell something that DID NOT happen.as in my title,this game walks a fine line.that line being wether or not connor was going to kill any patriots.patriots being guys who are our forefathers like george washington,john adams ,thomas jefferson,sam adams,thomas paine,patrick henry and ben franklin.while connor does become angry with them sometimes or even accuses them,they share similar goals.i said that if this game made me kill patriots like them,i would never play another assassins creed game again.but that did not happen.connor even helps in the fight vs the english and against hypocricy.some of the guys who are supposed to be on our side are just masquerading as good guys.like i said,its complicated.
i would rank this game 3rd best out of the 5 "assassins creed" games.better than 1 and "revelations" but behind "brotherhood" and 2.i would also rank it as my 25th favorite game of all time.i thought the action was a step down from "brotherhood" and 2.in those 2 AC games,ezio flowed through a crowd of guards,fluently killing one just in time to reverse the next one etc etc.on this game the reverse wasn't all that good at all.i didn't feel like i was in control of a master at hand to hand or a stone cold killer but more like a rookie assassin who had some game but was a step down from his predecessors.
the story was fun.i loved living out the great moments which shaped our country.it was a grand time where our leaders believed in what they were doing.my sense of patriotism grew and grew every time i hacked up a red.it made me want to break into song.actualy,i did sing the "star spangled banner" and "america the beautiful" a few times.
i love going hunting in games too and you can on this game.its not like "red dead redemption" where you ride around and blast animals from a horse at all.its like "LA noire" in the sense that you search for clues.then its like a "D AND D" elf.you can move around the trees like you were born there.you have a bo like an elf would also.so, not only,do you get to climb houses in the city like a "D AND D" thief but travel through the trees like a "D AND D" elf.i couldn't help but thinking i'd heard connors voice before.i will save you the suspense.he sounded like anakin skywalker from episode 2.
even though i consider this game 3rd out of 5,i would still very much encourage you to buy it.the "assassins creed" games are so close in entertainment value,being 3rd is still very good.i'd give it a 7 out of 10 stars which to me means "awesome".
and i have just one more thing i'd like to mention.whenever i heard there was going to be a new "assassins creed" game where he was an indian,i said "how the @#$^% is that supposed to work ? how is he going to jump around on tee pees ? " he can jump around trees in the forest and there are towns where he can climb all he wants.have fun ! | video-games_xbox |
Pure greatness for fans of the original. I can't even begin to explain how addicted I am to this amazing game. Is it more of the same? Sure, but the gameplay is about 10 times better than the original. The plasmids are better, the shooting is MUCH better, the multiplayer is fun, and the story is still great (although not quite as good as the first one). I played through the original and finished it the day before I bought Bioshock 2, so I feel the need to make some comparisons...
- You play as a Big Daddy this time (the original prototype), and you definitely feel like one. When you jump, the ground shakes. Your default weapon is a huge drill, and (just like the other weapons/plasmids) you can upgrade it for more brutal kills, special powers, etc. Drilling splicers in the face is AWESOME. Much better than the wrench from the 1st game.
- The shooting mechanics are MUCH more refined and accurate. One thing I didn't like about the original Bioshock was the shooting with the default pistol and machine gun. No matter how much I upgraded them, they still didn't feel incredibly accurate. The rivet gun in Bioshock 2 is really the default firearm, and it's incredibly satisfying to shoot.
- The hacking (which I rarely attempted in the first game) is so much better, but still requires good timing. You basically get a meter with a needle that goes back and forth, and you need to stop the needle in the green or blue sections. In Bioshock 2, I'm addicted to hacking every camera, turret, and vending machine I can find. It's a fun little mini game.
- You still have the choice to harvest or rescue Little Sisters, but if you rescue them, you need to find a corpse that contains Adam and protect the Little Sister while she gathers it. Splicers will start attacking very aggressively from all sides, so this is always a challenging (and fun) experience.
- The enviroments are larger and there's more action taking place, but the graphical quality overall seemed to take a hit. The textures are quite blurry up close, which isn't something I noticed in Bioshock 1. Nothing looks really bad; it's still a beautiful game, but not quite as "rich" in color/textures as the 1st game. Speaking of environments, you can't freely travel between areas anymore. You can still explore the individual areas as much as you like (and there's quite a bit more exploration this time, and more items to find), but you can't go back to levels you visited earlier. Thankfully, the levels still feel very open and not linear at all, so you'll never really notice the corners they cut. The splicers also look odd this time, I don't really know why. They don't look quite as 3D or something. They have this weird "faded" look, like the color pallette isn't quite as rich or as dark. I thought they were supposed to look more mutated, but they seem to resemble humans from my prespective. I know this isn't a big deal, but it's just something I noticed...
- Multiplayer isn't anything revolutionary, but there are interesting takes on old concepts (i.e. instead of capture the flag, it's capture the Little Sister). It's still lots of fun and I haven't encountered much lag.
Overall, this was a great experience. It's true that the city of Rapture isn't as interesting as it was the first time, and the story didn't quite measure up to the original, but it's still a genuinely creepy and beautifully stylized place to visit. The improvements to the gameplay mechanics are very welcome and really make this a blast to play for fans of the FPS genre, but gamers who like to explore large enviromnents and collect items will also find a lot to like here. | video-games_xbox |
Underwhelming Headset That Lights Cannot Make Up For. The presentation of these PDP headsets are initially positive--you have a see-through and eloquent looking stand and the headset is multi-colored and feels high-quality. However these 'qualities' did not distract long enough for me not to notice the mediocre main functions of them. The mediocre qualities are the sound and fit--two points that are extremely important to this type of product.
[---Sound Quality---]
6.5/10
Firstly, the volume output is somewhat diminished where you have to raise the sound up from the input source in order to hear at your appropriate level. My comparison with the PDPs came from using Razer, V-Moda, and Bose headsets. The PDP output the lowest volume. This is not necessarily a negative because if you can get the headset to the appropriate volume for your preference, and it sounds fine, then there is no problem. The sound, however, was noticeably non-distinctive.
Bass - 7/10
Treble - 7/10
Mids - 6/10
After experiencing many headsets from Turtle Beach to Bose to Razer to V-Moda, I can tell you that either a headset has apparent bass or it does not. The PDPs, however, offer more subtlety. There is bass, though it is understated. It is not punchy but it has a 'washed out' rumble. Not terrible, although gaming on these will not take advantage of the bass-pumped dolby surround soundtracks and effects that many games incorporate. Gaming did not feel as cinematic as compared with, say, the much less expensive Razer headset.
Treble was slightly digitized sounding i.e. scathing, synthetic and at high volumes was a little too piercing. They were very clear although not completely pleasant.
Mids were understated and slightly muffled. The weakest point of the sound quality. They felt shy and never came into its own platform.
[---Fit---]
Simply, they did not feel right on my head. My head is normal shaped...I think and I have not had any problems before with fitting. Although the cups are free-moving i.e. they form with your head, the cups would not sit 'sealed' on my ears. From this, there was slight sound leakage and a not-so-complete sound stage. This may be a problem with my particular set, so don't use this wholly as your decision whether to buy or not buy. However what I can say is that out of all the headphones I have used or own, these are the only ones that do not fit well.
[---Other Thoughts---]
The stand is very unique and creates the feeling of having a sophisticated 'tool' (the headset) that you use for your listening. Presents the impression that this is a 'professional' headset.
Lighting on the cups that constantly change did not distract or annoy me. You should know that they are bright and will distract another person in the room if it is dark.
Bluetooth connectivity was fine and I experienced no issues with it.
-------------------------------------------
This is a pricey headset. With that you should be getting superior functions in many of the areas. I can say that the presentation of the headset, the build quality, and initial impression are superior to many, however the core abilities such as sound and fit are defined by mediocrity. | video-games_xbox |
Elder Scrolls III = #1 RPG. Alright, here we go. This game is the biggest I have ever played, seen, or heard about. It's a limitless world full of more quests than imaginable. There are dozens of factions that let you become anything you want to be. Want to be a thief? A Royal Guard? A smuggler? A wizard? A vampire? A witch hunter? A trader? A raider? A barbarian? Did I miss anything? A few things you can't do are get married, have sex, or have children. But who cares? You can FLY for heaven's sake!
You start off with nothing but weakness and confusion in an era similar to the middle ages. The main quest will be revealed to you over time, and you must work hard to find your purpose. WARNING! This game should only be played by very smart people. I would put this game up there with Zelda when it comes to being cognitive of what people say, solving problems, and following directions. Morrowind is to Fable, as F16s are to paper planes. In other words, you're not in Kansas. You really have to pay attention and use your brain to get quests done. For example, a person will tell you to retrieve a sacred bow from a tomb, and the'll give these directions, "Travel to Gnisis, travel west until you find the river. Follow the river south until you see a rock formation that resembles a bear. from there travel southwest. The door is halfway between Red Mountain and Gnisis." WTF? No Nav point? No golden trail leading to my destination? Nope. Only your wits. Which I find much more rewarding to the player. There isn't fast travel, but you will learn how to get around, i.e. teleporting, silt striders (busses), mark & recall spells, boats, and enchanted amulets. There are some map markers, but don't rely on having your hand held by mommy through this game.
The gameplay is driven toward completing quests more than awesome battles against foes. The fighting isn't the best I've seen. You pull right trigger (Or whatever button you choose to be attack because the buttons can be mapped any way you want.) until they die. As far as weapons are concerned, there are lots. Bows, crossbows, any kind of sword you can imagine, spears, axes, maces, throwing stars, and your good old fists. And there is much variety within all of the categories. Any type of magic spell you could think of will probably be here too. Fire, shock, frost, poison, paralysis, as well as any healing spell to. It all depends on your fighting style. Are you stealthy and safe? Or maybe your kicking down the door with your 70lb. claymore! Did I mention you can enchant almost anything? Turn that Glass Short Sword into a one that does fire damage with every blow, or make those old Greaves of yours boost your strength. Anything you want, you can do.
I've played other massive RPGs like this one. Fallout, Fable, and even Oblivion (Elder Scrolls IV) but none of them are as fun as Morrowind. I'm just waiting for Bethesda to take Oblivion graphics and combat, and mesh it with Morrowind's gameplay. I've been playing this game off and on for five years with hundreds of hours played, and I still haven't beaten it. If you want a game that changes your diapers, go play one of the Fables, but if you want an RPG that challenges your soul, Morrowind is the game for you. Get the Game of the year though, it has both expansions.
Xbox 360 compatible, but is a little laggy.
Please ask me any questions you have about this game, whether they are in-game questions, or if you simply want me to explain specifics about the game itself. | video-games_xbox |
Solid console but Needs Good Internet and Future Tech. I ordered my Xbox One on Amazon and it arrived on time as expected. After getting it out of the box, I noticed it bigger than the Xbox 360 but it really is not heavy or clunky (no idea why people are complaining), the controller seems big but is pretty much identical to the Xbox 360 controller. Biggest differences with controller is the right and left triggers which wrap around the back instead of pointing out like the 360 controller. After setting it up which is not very complicated, it required a 497 Mb update in order to proceed. This is a piece of cake if you have a fast internet service provider but a major pain if you have a turtle slow connection speed (like I do). Once that got updated, the main menu appeared and yes it is very different from the Xbox 360. I am unsure if it is better or not at this time however, it will definitely take some time for people to used to. I popped in my first game into the console (Call of Duty Ghosts) and had to wait for a very long time for it to install. I assume there was some sort of update that it downloaded from the internet because it took a little over 2 hours to get past 5% (slow connection possibly?). After that, took about 15 minutes before I could play it and another 15 minutes before it was fully installed. Graphics are noticeably better than the Xbox 360 version but mostly its more texture and shading to the objects. I have a VIZIO M401i-A3 40-Inch 1080p 120Hz Smart LED HDTV which doesn't support 4k resolution but has a solid 1080p picture with the Xbox One. I intend to use this mostly for gaming and have yet to explore the all the other "add-ins" Microsoft has added to make this the center piece of living room technology. I can't watch TV through my Xbox One as I have dish tv which has cable/antenna output and the only input for the TV option on the Xbox One is an HDMI port. You can hook up a PS4 or an Xbox 360 to the HDMI input port which is pretty cool ;D. All in all the Xbox One is definitely made for high speed internet and more of tomorrow's technology than today's technology. I think in a year or so this will definitely have many more applications than it does currently and the games will definitely look alot better.
Pros: Noticeably better graphics, instant load once game is downloaded, allows to transfer Xbox 360 profile to Xbox One, controller feels nice in hands, kinect recognizes you by your face.
Cons: Can not emphasize enough that you need decent internet speed, kinect is watching you, technology is not there to get most out of console.
Possible Pro or Con (all opinion based): New menu layout to get used to, new kinect commands, controller takes a little time get used to bumper layout.
All and all I think with a good internet and some time, the Xbox One will be a pretty good console but for now, as any new item, it will take some getting used to for many people. I will edit this at the bottom if I find anything which I may have forgotten. | video-games_xbox |
ncaa for xbox 360. Well, I've had this game for a almost a week now. This was the reason i bought an xbox 360.
I enjoy playing the game immensely. I play as OU and my running back is very impressive, just like real life. Here is a list of some pros and cons about the game so far.
cons:
1. It's a little tougher to put a man in motion, and to utilize a hot route.
2. the instruction booklet is getting thinner and thinner. Fortunately, i've been playing ncaa for years, and I sorta know what i'm doing.
3. Sometimes, the replay is unavailable, especially after i score on a long run, and it shows a momentum shift replay.
4. Who cares about taking a snapshot of a great play in the game, i want to save the whole replay, just like in madden.
5. I enjoyed putting the game on cpu vs. cpu and watching the computer sim a game. You can't do that on the xbox 360.
Pros:
1. Fortunately, the two teams i play, OU and Georgia Tech, are both represented in the game with their actual stadiums. I assume that many are missing b/c it takes a LONG time to assimilate into the game, and there are over a 100 stadiums.
2. I started a game at FSU, and they even have the funky looking field goal posts there
3. you can read the safety sticker on the back of the helmets now.
4. Players and the refs properly gear up in cold weather, such as gloves and long sleeves.
5. the OU-texas game, and Georgia-Florida game are in their correct locations. This was a problem with the first incarnation of ncaa for the ps2, as it had the games as home and away series.
I emjoy this game a lot. I got what I expected. I do hope that they bring some ofthe things back, like the all time teams, and things like that. People complain about the pregame show, but, i wound up just hitting x to get through it. Also, you can greatly speed up the game by hitting the A button and bypassing a lot of the animations. There is a lot of room for improvement. It is nice to see the receive actually catch the ball instead of it just sticking to his glove like he is wearing stick-um. Also, if you are able to, obtain the actual rosters, and it makes the gameplay that more enjoyable. | video-games_xbox |
Best Licensed Game I've Played, Period. I honestly thought nothing of this game at first. I stay away from any game that is licensed because 9 times out of 10 the game turns out to be pretty poor. Then I saw the IGN review which gave the game a pretty good score. So, we rented it for a day to check it out.
I was pleasantly surprised! There seems to be a pretty wide selection of cars so far, and we haven't even completed the 2nd set of levels yet. The actual gameplay is pretty outstanding. You actually have to change your style of play when you go from a battle race to a normal race, for example. There's also a good amount of "freedom" in the game. You can get pretty creative in finding shortcuts or finding secret passages on some levels, or trying to pull off more tricks, etc.
You also can complete missions with 2 or more players. That's a really nice touch. There's a severe lack of multiplayer games out there. It's nice that you can play every single part of Cars 2 with 2, 3, or even 4 players. What a concept!
What really makes this game worth the buy, however, is the challenge, both from computer and human opponents. Mario Kart seems to be pretty blatant in giving these power ups that the lead player cannot avoid, which is unfair, or seems to slow computer karts down on purpose to give the person that is behind a chance to catch up. In Cars 2, there is hardly any of that, sure, there's the blow-up-the-lead car weapon, but the lead car can still avoid if they have enough energy to shield themselves against it. It's actually pretty cool that I don't get first in every single race, either due to my lack of skill or just some bad luck. It makes me want to come back for more and try to beat it a 2nd or 3rd time, unlike Mario Kart.
My little nitpick, however, are the graphics of the game. I'm not sure if it's the 360 or my TV, but it's difficult to see out very far in order to either shoot a car or plan your next move or turn. This is amplified when the screen is divided into 4 sections. I don't think I have this type of problem in Halo, for example, where I don't have any problems shooting enemies from far away, even without zooming in.
Overall, I'm looking forward to playing again with my family. I might still wait until I can get a used version, but for the most part, it is still worth the price for a new game. | video-games_xbox |
Broken After 1 Year of Use! EXTREMELY poor Microsoft/Xbox Customer Service. NOTE: This review has nothing to do with Amazon and their excellent service. I have bought many items through amazon and have never been disappointed with them (timely delivery, excellent/fast customer service, easy to return items, etc.). This review is of the Xbox 360 console itself as well as Microsoft and their customer service. I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this review, however Microsoft/Xbox does not provide a product review forum structured like this.
I have had my xbox 360 for a little over a year (1 yr and 2 mo exactly). Enjoyed playing it and recently purchased the gold xbox live subscription ($60/yr). I have used the xbox about 3 or 4 times a week for a maximum of 2-3 hours at a time but usually less. Today a flashing red light came on while playing and the system automatically shut down after displaying an overheating notice. I let it cool down and turned it back on to notice that the fan (fans?) wasn't blowing and once again the device automatically powered down to prevent overheating.
I called Microsoft tech support (425-635-2970) and was initially greeted by a fairly helpful support rep. However, since the warranty I held, ended 2 mo ago I was given the following options by her to remedy the problem: 1) Send the device back to Microsoft at a cost of $100 to have the fan repaired, 2) Purchase a new xbox 360 (currently $120-160), and lastly 3) Visit a friend and use their xbox instead -- she actually did suggest this.
I get it - I shouldn't complain, it was my fault for not purchasing another year or two on the warranty so that if something like this were to happen I would have been covered. But a warranty rate of $20-30/yr is a little overpriced (~20% the cost of a new device per year) for something that is nestled safely on a shelf on my living room TV stand. Not to mention I have a Sega Genesis that still fires up like the day I opened her up on Christmas morning 21 years ago.
I asked if there was someone else I could speak to for more options. She transferred me to the supervisor. I asked him if there were any less expensive options for repairing the broken fan. I felt that $100 was a bit much to fix a 2" miniature fan, however he told me that there was only a flat $100 fee for all types of repairs. To me this seemed like an extremely rigid and unfriendly customer policy.
I also mentioned that since I had just purchased an xbox live subscription for the year, now that I don't have a working console, I am going to be missing out on time I paid for unless I dish out more money. The tech support supervisor dismissively said that since I purchased this in person at a retail store, instead of directly from Microsoft, that they would be unable to cancel or refund my subscription. Again, my fault for purchasing one of their services from a retailer that they sold their service to (and ultimately profited from). Its funny how Microsoft can make it so easy for you to give them your money i.e. always just one click away from purchasing online content, yet make it impossible to get any type of credit back when their product you paid for stops working for you.
As upset as I was with the xbox breaking I probably would have let it go, had he been a little more flexible. Instead the tech support supervisor gave me a snarky, poorly thought out analogy that went like this: "We can't refund you the live subscription because that's like buying a Samsung tv from Best Buy, and then asking Samsung for a refund." I don't know, maybe this was too much genius for me to appreciate but it sounded belittling and certainly not the response I expected to hear.
I thought it was convenient that my console broke down just 2 months after my warranty ended, and asked the supervisor if its common for Microsoft's products to break down shortly after the warranty ends. He anecdotally responded, "No. I have had that exact same console for the past 3 years and it works fine." To which I replied "Bravo, but this doesn't make me feel any better and only proves my point that I was dealt a faulty device that malfunctioned prematurely." He offered a short apology and quickly asked if I had any other questions, otherwise he would be unable to help any further. I asked if there was anyone else I could speak with regarding this. He told me "No" and to go on the website's online forum and suggest an idea for the future to the xbox tech support community. At this point all I could do was laugh at the suggestion. He then ended the conversation with a "thank you for your understanding" and hung up.
Alas, you win Microsoft. You have taken about $400 from me over the past year (the console, the games, the controllers, the live subscription, the online purchases) and when I ask for a little bit of help back from you, after the device I paid for stops working on me, it can't be done. All I have as consolation is this one little negative customer review in a sea of thousands.
To those who say, "So what! Its 2016, what are you still doing with an xbox 360?" That is besides the point. My issue is with Microsoft and their customer service. I purchased a device for $150 that lasted me a little over a year and then when it stopped working, I was given a very limited set of options by a condescending and unhelpful tech support service. I imagine my experience would have been the exact same had I purchased a new Xbox One or any other device made by Microsoft. The best I can do is not purchase any of their products for the foreseeable future and I encourage anyone who spent the time to read this to consider doing the same! I'll probably hold off on purchasing a new gaming console for now but I am certain that when I do, it will not be an Xbox.
P.S. I am not a whiney customer, this is the first online review that I think I have ever made for a product. I made this review because I was extremely frustrated with my experience with Microsoft and really have no better way of communicating it to others. I would compare them very unfavorably with their competitors -- especially Apple -- a company that I have had only positive experiences with so far. I am not an apple enthusiast either (have a macbook, but prefer the android phones to the iPhone and get kind of annoyed by all the people who are such apple enthusiasts).
Bottom line: Know that with whatever you purchase from Microsoft, expect very limited help from their customer service. Pay good money for a warranty, otherwise no matter how loyal of a customer, they are not going to be able to provide you with much help! I have noticed that other businesses in the same industry are little bit more flexible these days...... | video-games_xbox |
A fun little weekend rental. The Good: Decent story, Shadow and Jack are memorable characters, playing as Shadow is a brutal blast, fighting has depth, lots of different weapons, looks pretty good
The Bad: Gets really repetitive towards the end, story isn't anything special, weapons are standard affair, fighting feels a bit stiff, cover based gamep play isn't flawless
Dead to Rights has been a very rocky series since its debut in 2003. Retribution is not only the best in the series, but completely redeems the quality and value of what made the game so great. The story isn't anything new to gamers with Jack Slate and his dog Shadow trying revenge his father's death and also wipe Grant City clean of corrupt cops and criminal syndicates. What is good in Retribution are the voice actors, characters, and action. The guy who plays Jack's voice is pretty good at putting across emotion to the player.
But you usually don't come to budget shooters for story right? The action is great here but repetitive. The action consists of two elements which are shooting and melee. Fist fighting consists of breakers, combos, counters, and executions which can be pretty brutal. Fighting is usually last resort, but some times can't be avoided. I did find fist fighting a bit stiff and the controls were a bit awkward. You can use enemies as human shields and grapple them as well so at least the fighting has depth and isn't just mashing a button until your fingers bleed.
Melee has other perks like being able to pull a weapon from someone and shoot them in the head via execution. The game is very brutal and it shows by what you can do to enemies. I do wish there were more environment executions, but you can't expect that from a budget game like this really. One thing I noticed is when you are locked in fighting with someone enemies tend to completely miss you while you knock the guy down. This really helps fend off frustration, but does seem a little weird when you notice it. There are a large variety of enemies ranging from weak to super strong, but they aren't unique and just feel like standard soldiers.
Shooting is fun, but weapons don't really pack a punch. The game is very cover based and is similar to Gears of War but doesn't feel as smooth as that game. You can slow down time and focus on head shots (which are key to getting through guys quickly). There is a large variety of weapons in the game, but they are pretty standard and generic so don't expect crazy sci-fi weapons here. The game has you scrounging for ammo constantly which can get annoying and deadly. Guns have very small clips and you can't hold much ammo for each one which really kind of works against you and I hated this through the whole game. Its manageable but I was always wanting some sort of upgrade system to fix this.
My favorite part of the game (and what sets it apart from other TPS) is being able to play as Jack's dog Shadow. The animations are amazing and he really feels, looks, and sounds like a real dog. The execution moves are brutal and satisfying with him chomping on jugulars, blood spurting out, or even tearing out people's crotches (when you do this for the first time you get an achievement called "Crotchality!") You can sneak around as Shadow and see heartbeats through walls and plan your attacks accordingly. I loved all the take down moves, but they recycle often and get old fast.
Shadow also comes in handy when you play as Jack since you can order him to sick people or defend you. A lot of times I would send Shadow after a guy while I take on another and it really feels good that the AI works well here. One instance two soldiers were walking away and Shadow snuck up on one while I shot the other in the head. Of course Shadow can go down so you just go revive him, but using Shadow is key to staying alive and not dying constantly.
This is also the great part about the story which is the bond between the two that makes you want to stick close and listen to the story. Shadow and Jack are best friends and you really get to feel for them both. Visually Retribution is nothing special, but it isn't ugly either. There are some nice lighting effects and there's a lot of detail in everything, but the game is very linear. One other annoyance are hidden badges through the game and I hate shooters that make you go searching for hidden stuff because it detracts from the action. Other than that Retribution is a great bargain bin purchase and is definitely a great game despite its repetition. | video-games_xbox |
Great controller except one glaring problem. <div id="video-block-R25Y3CVG5GD9K3" class="a-section a-spacing-small a-spacing-top-mini video-block"></div><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1pO%2BiLtuxS.mp4" class="video-url"><input type="hidden" name="" value="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/A1X2P9xoQhS.png" class="video-slate-img-url">I purchased this controller from Best Buy, and after some use the controller started to produce a noticeable squeaking sound when rotating the right thumbstick. Initially I thought it was a fluke and continued to use it, until while playing a game the sound was getting just too annoying. I had already threw away my packaging so I was not sure I would be able to return the controller to Best Buy. Thanks to Best Buy's new and improved return policy I was able to exchange the controller for a brand new one.
Being excited and sure that the last controller problem was just a fluke, I got home and started using the controller to play some games. The problem seemed to not exist at first but after a couple hours of use and a break, when I used the controller again at a later time the problem presented itself in not only one thumbstick but both. The left when the thumbstick is rotated counter clockwise and the right when rotated counter clockwise.
I try to ignore it but it simply is impossible to unless I have the volume very loud on the game. So now I'm stuck in this crappy situation of whether to keep a defective controller or exchange it again in attempt to get a properly working one, but I have a feeling it might just lead to more disappointment, and more gas money lost.
Don't get me wrong, I love the way the controller looks and feels, one of the best designed controllers ever in my opinion (minus the thumbsticks). But this flaw is just too glaring of a problem to ignore, especially when something isn't perfect in terms of the way it "should" be, it causes me serious irritation.
I really wish there was more reviews in order to see if this is a prevalent problem or just my horrible luck. | video-games_xbox |
Many concerns after playing the first episode, some praise though. Due to the episodic release structure, I'm writing this based on the first episode and will adjust later if needed. This this first episode was fun, but based on how small it was I'm worried we're only going to end up with a small handful of oversized levels that we'll be expected to replay numerous times, rather than a true full game.
Negatives:
1. Server issues cause games to get dropped which results in loss of progress, and in some game modes you can't save mid-level. Happened to me about 15 times last weekend. Long load times for every operation is a related problem as well.
2. Requirement of players having to always be online to progress their profile. Contracts mode I understand, but story mode? I absolutely hate this. Despite paying good money, the company is demonstrating to me that I don't actually own the game (it's just a long-term rental), and I am at the mercy of IO Interactive to maintain their server or I have no game years from now.
3. Lack of variety of weapons, especially for a Hitman game, or the ability to upgrade them. Most big weapons are useless since there's no easy difficulty in which they could be put to use. And why isn't there a briefcase for the sniper rifle, like in Blood Money?
4. No ability to give the player extra armor, health, or perks.
5. No ability to change the difficulty to have more or less health or change enemy AI.... why??? Going guns blazing is not possible now, you have too little health and since the levels are so big you have to kill like 70 enemies (in Paris, at least). A whole path of replayability gone.
6. You don't get new weapons for your permanent inventory by taking them out of levels (unlike previous games), same thing for costumes. What a waste, getting weapons I can use in other levels and then replaying other levels with those weapons was a big reason I replayed Hitman games so much.
7. There's hardly any weapons or gear to earn, and to earn them you have to play the same level 6 or 7 times to complete enough challenges to get them. Usually you're replaying with the same gear, hoping that when you replay the same level for the 8th time you'll have some new gear.
8. The two training missions are great, but you earn nothing from doing the challenges, and if you play them in Contracts mode you can't customize your load-out and bring in other types of weapons and gear. Why? This just wastes these two great levels.
9. I'm concerned that when all the episodes are out we'll just get a small handful of overly huge levels that we're expected to replay different ways many times. Yes, that adds some variety, but no matter how you replay Paris it's still the same targets, the same setting, (mostly) the same conversations, etc. I would rather have many smaller levels in different places than just a few overwhelming ones. Replayability shouldn't be a chore set by the developers, but something the player wants to do for fun.
10. They missed one of the big aspects of replayability from the Blood Money game, and that is the dynamic newspaper report at the end of the mission. I would do missions many different ways just to see what they'd say about me in the paper. They would also mention how you did it, how accurate you were, assess your style and skill (if they even knew a hitman was involved rather than just tragic accidents), and it would effect your notoriety going into the next level. Now you just get a stat sheet (boring), and a leaderboard most people don't care about.
11. Contracts mode is nerfed compared to Absolution. There's way less costumes and weapons to use, so that gives it a bad start. There's also no filters for what level you want to see contracts for, or what difficulty the mission is (even if the creator could just rank the difficulty...). But you also earn nothing from playing Contracts, it takes the fun out of it. And I don't want to play it just for fun because I'll typically have to play Paris, and I am so sick of Paris from having to replay it so many times in the story mode just to get different gear. After all that I don't want to revisit it in Contracts anytime soon.
12. Escalation mode adds nothing (others disagree though). You play the same mission 5 times, each time with new tasks added to the previous time you played it. And of course there's no mid-missions saves in that mode. A grind-fest. And add in a server that frequently drops your game... I wish I could just play the level 5 of contracts mode, and avoid the grind of levels 1 thru 4.
Overall I like this game (despite being let down in many ways, and having concern about the future episodes), there's really nothing else like it on the market. So there are some positives I'll mention.
Positives:
1. It's classic Hitman gameplay, open-ended, you can save anytime and anywhere, and there's always a target and you get to decide how to take them out (unlike Absolution). That's a huge plus.
2. The "Opportunities" are a welcome addition. It helps you discover all the pieces you have to put together to finish levels in different ways. Some say they don't need this, but I couldn't find all these little pieces on my own (for some of the opportunities), and I did try. In previous games I would read stuff online years later and find out about other methods that I missed in levels that I already played 20 times over. I like this system better. And if you don't like it you can turn it off in the options.
3. The in-game map is back. But so is the Instinct ability, which is unobtrusive yet helpful, and once again if you don't want it you don't have to use it.
4. The new system of having certain marked NPC's being able to see through your disguise is brilliant (unlike having all NPC's wearing your costume able to see through your disguise, like in Absolution). It retains some challenge and changes your plans on the fly, but isn't frustrating and annoying like in Absolution. I say again, brilliant.
If this game really cranks up the number of unlockable weapons/gear, gives us selectable difficulty levels, improves Contracts mode (at least making it as good as Absolution's), and gives us a large number of rich levels rather than just a few overly-large and overly-rich levels, then my review score will go way up. But if everything stays the status quo on the future episode releases then my score will drop, and I'll be more weary of shelling out full price for future Hitman games, which would be a shame because it has been my favorite franchise.
3/19 Update: They just patched the game, and now it freezes up all the time, I can't play it more than an hour without it freezing. Eventually I had to quit last night when I couldn't start a game with any of my saves (due to immediate lockup after loading). Grrrrrr...... | video-games_xbox |
Rockstar's beat 'em' up classic for the ages. The Warriors is one of the most under appreciated games around and a hidden gem at that. Rockstar's 2005-06 games like Midnight Club Dub Edition Remix and GTA San Andreas went platinum for the XBOX but The Warriors fell through for some reason, probably because of the mature content that overshadowed the game's unique engine. None the less, The Warriors will always be a popular game as long as the movie continues to have a strong fan base. The most noticeable features that make this game stand out: is the AI, strategy, great story, free-roaming, group battles, unlockable mini-games, plenty of playable characters, realistic player damage, good replay value and lots of violence.
Based off the cult-classic street fighting movie "The Warriors" released in 1979. Gamers will immerse themselves into the Warrior's drama and politics which follows the same story and timeline as the movie. Every important scene from the movie is well represented in addition to the entire cast of Warrior's, rival street-gangs and other characters that had small parts in the movie...even the original voices from the actors are included along with the Warrior's soundtrack. One noticeable feature reminiscent of previous Rockstar games are the missions you must complete to beat the game, but if you don't want to complete the missions, you can always roam the streets, assault people, destroy property, break into cars, etc... And if you think your a real bad ass, try fighting all the Warrior's at the clubhouse but bring plenty of flash if you think you can survive this impossible matchup.
As a bonus, players have the option to create their own gangs using characters from the game including boss characters and cops... assuming you unlock each character. Choose a stage to host the fight, for example, the baseball field which looks like the field used by community park and rec centers. Now get ready to level the playing field by using bats, baseballs and beer bottles as weapons; Get creative and have some ball-busting fun... knock people to the ground and perform devastating special moves to finish off your opponent, last one standing, wins!
Currently, Rockstar released a digital download for the PS3 but it's just a copy of the PS2 game. I wish Rockstar would release a digital HD remake with extra content for the Xbox One and PS4 with multiplayer support, then people will appreciate the work that went into making this masterpiece. "The Warriors" is a true collectable whether you buy it for the XBOX, PSP or PS2. | video-games_xbox |
Terrific graphics, interesting locations and a decent upgrade system . With some of the tightest controls of any shooter out there (past, present, and possibly the future), this game exceeded my expectations. Interesting enemies, requiring different alien probing tactics, helped in the replayability of this game. Terrific graphics, interesting locations and a decent upgrade system both in the single-player campaign, as well as multiplayer. Offering a single-player, extensive multiplayer (PVP), 3PVE or Strikes, and Raids (6PVE). These Raids are for advanced players who work extremely well in a team setting! Story is not as bad as others would have you believe. The actual narrative part of the story is a bit light (with many known revisions occurring up until it went Gold and possibility still later). Bungie chose a very common method in role-playing games for delving much deeper into the guts of the story (by means of the Grimoire). Reading everything experienced in the single-player campaign with the addition of the Grimoire provided a more compelling narrative. This way of doing things also left the player to enjoy the action of the game without having to worry about the having to over-analyze the game to death. 5th star not rewarded due to bugs, exploits/glitches, team play/matchmaking, and the worst, most convoluted economy still made worse with every update (not really a micro-transaction issue, per se, but adding what feels like at least a dozen [didn't have time or feel like counting the exact number of mind-numbing items used to purchase, upgrade, etc.] pieces, parts, thingamajigs, and doohickeys which can be used to change weapons, outfits/armors, transportation, etc., as well as, upgrade the aforementioned items).
No run-ons were harmed in the writing of this review! (Mostly due to the fact that, without my writing forsaking a few (many) grammatical rules, I could just keep writing paragraph after paragraph ad infinitum). And that isn't good for anyone! | video-games_xbox |
Really enjoyed it, finally something new. In the late 90s, one of America's most infamous hackers was arrested and locked away in solitary confinement. At the time it was believed he could launch a nuclear missile by just whistling into a phone. While back then this notion may have seemed quite far-fetched, computer technology has become an integral part of everyday life, and with more devices becoming interconnected there are growing fears about what some people may be able to do if these systems were to fall into the wrong hands. Ubisofts latest title, Watch Dogs, takes this idea and puts players in control of a future where digital warfare is a scary place to be caught in the middle of.
Set in an alternate version of Chicago, gamers take the role of a computer hacker named Aiden Pearce. Using a tool known as the Profiler, Aiden is able to hack objects within the open world of Chicago and use them to his advantage. Because the entire city is connected -- as we all know by now because of the Watch Dogs' hype train -- using a central system called ctOS, it also gives Aiden the ability to discover personal information about other people. Furthermore, it displays the questionable access that this system has overall within the streets and homes of the city, unknowing to those living in it.
The game sets itself up to play more towards a stealth approach. Throughout the world security cameras play an important role of providing a strategic view of the area and mapping your plan of attack. Because Aiden is not your typical video game bullet sponge youll want to avoid running into a mission with an assault rifle just gunning down enemies.
Instead, slowly taking out each foe one by one is a more reliable and satisfying task with the environmental hacks youll have at hand. Even when driving around you can trigger a number of events to aid in your missions, like manipulating traffic lights to cause chaos at intersections, raise and lower bridges to slow down pursuers or deliver a blackout to the city and shutdown every electronic device in the area. When you successfully pull off one of these events its great to see the outcome as the game will normally switch to a cinematic camera to show the damage youve caused.
There are some small touches that help make the world a little more realistic. Youll randomly see a car accident and the people involved will jump out of the drivers seat and engage in an angry conversation. Passers-by on the streets will recognise you from the news and, depending on your notoriety, may contact police officials to notify them of your whereabouts.
Apart from the quite lengthy campaign, there is a lot of side content to explore within Chicago. In addition to this youll sometimes receive information about events taking place nearby as you are driving around. As you progress and complete tasks the skill system allows you to unlock a vast array of extras for Aiden ranging from new skills to weapons and vehicles.
There are however a few things that really stood out as problem areas in Watch Dogs. I found Aiden Pearce to be quite a bland character; there isn't much of a personality behind him. The story starts off quite slowly and it does not give you much of a backstory relating to who Aiden is and what his motivations for hacking are. At the beginning of the game you are given a brief flashback of Aidens past, but this doesnt start to unfold more until half way through the main campaign, by this time I had lost complete interest in the character and didn't really care about him at all.
One of the most interesting directions Watch Dogs takes is with some of its online multiplayer components, borrowing the popular player invasion system that can be found in Dark Souls and Demon Souls. While roaming around the world you can be invaded by other players who have been tasked with an objective. At the same time youll have to try and stop them from completing their mission, which usually involves first profiling your target and eliminating them. What makes this so fun is that the person that initiates the invasion will have their appearance changed to look like an ordinary NPC; they're able to blend into the surrounding environment.
The challenge for the invader is to complete their task without being found to be another player; a stealth approach is usually a key factor. This gameplay makes for some really intense situations that you don't normally find in the course of the main game. Apart from the invasion system there are a few other multiplayer modes including online races and free roaming. This is bound to keep many players engaged after working through the main story.
Its hard not to compare Watch Dogs to Grand Theft Auto V; as the latter was one of the biggest titles of last year and also set in an open world, you can draw parallels straight away. Grand Theft Auto V does a lot of fantastic things that really build the world and the characters within it, which is something I don't think Watch Dogs does nearly as well. The way Rockstar Games handles its storytelling, characters and missions is what puts them on a completely different level compared to other open world games.
The fact that Watch Dogs has come out as second-best against the juggernaut that is the Grand Theft Auto franchise doesn't mean it's a bad game; it's quite the opposite. Its quite a great achievement for a brand new IP to come out and be as good as it is and to also try to do some new things on such a large scale. Its multiplayer is by far one of Watch Dogs' stand out components and this is where youll start to see some great videos floating around online from the community as they invade your game. Watch Dogs has dozens of hours of content and will certainly keep you entertained its world and what's on offer. | video-games_xbox |
June 2009 and no Jasper. Pros:
+ Cheapest current gen system on the market
+ Huge library of great games (many of which can be had for cheap these days)
+ 6 (5 arcade + Sega Tennis) free games, all of which are good enough in their own right
+ Can be upgraded easily (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-120GB-Hard-Drive/dp/B000OYKQBU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/HDMI-Cable-6FT-1-3a-Category-2-Full-1080P-Capable-Compatible-with-Xbox-360-PS3/dp/B000AA2RCY/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">HDMI Cable 6FT: 1.3a Category 2(Full 1080P Capable)(Compatible with Xbox 360 & PS3)</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-12-Month-Live-Gold-Card/dp/B002A7PNXU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 12 Month Live Gold Card</a>,<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Wireless-Headset/dp/B000Q7ZESK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Wireless Headset</a>, etc) to give the full premium experience if you decide you want it eventually
+ Console itself smaller, less bulky than I thought it would be
+ Motion controls are only a year out, ensuring the console's game selection won't stagnate
Cons:
- Though upgrading is possible, and even cost effective in all other respects, I must point out that Microsoft charges far too much for the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-120GB-Hard-Drive/dp/B000OYKQBU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 120GB Hard Drive</a>, and the slightly cheaper workaround to this is just a hassle
- Console is known to have issues with overheating (covered w/free repair by Microsoft for 3 years, which softens the blow)
- Due to said overheating issue, an <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Intercooler-TS/dp/B001COVHMS/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Intercooler TS</a> (the new, improved Intercooler which does NOT fry your console), and a fair bit of vigilance in not playing too long (I use the family timer), is necessary if you don't wish to be sending this off to MS in a few months
- Amazon switched to an affiliate just around when I ordered and thus I received a Falcon 360 rather than Jasper. Very disappointed by this, as Jasper means cooler, more efficient chipset within the console, and as such, reduced chance of overheating issues. I went out of my way to read the reviews and make certain Jasper was a sure thing, and chose the Arcade unit over the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-Elite-Halo-3-Fable-2-Bundle/dp/B0026GQ8WA/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 Elite Halo 3 Fable 2 Bundle</a> for this very reason. I don't blame Amazon, per se -- they ran out of Arcade bundles and had to switch to an affiliate. Its just a really galling case of bad luck.
Conclusion: As it stands, I recommend new users strongly consider waiting to purchase this until 1) it's sold directly from Amazon again, and 2) newer reviews confirm Jaspers are shipping again, unless, of course, you are willing to take a chance with an older model. Despite the cons, and my slight misfortune, I'm loving every second of my new system, and from a purely gaming perspective, highly recommend purchasing an Xbox 360. I just suggest doing it wisely and knowing the pitfalls in advance. | video-games_xbox |
Just plain awesome. Marvel Ultimate Alliance Gold Edition is definitely my favorite game on the XBOX 360 at the moment, especially with the added content and extra characters that was made available on XBOX Live in April 2007. We are talking about Magneto, Doctor Doom, Sabretooth, Venom, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, The Hulk and Hawkeye here, and they all complement the overall story nicely. The added achievements are also a bonus, but I am not really an achievement fanatic, so I didn't pay much attention to that aspect of the game (except for what happens when Doom actually talks to Doom, and the game developers explain it nicely). Surprisingly, my favorite characters are Cyclops and Magneto, with Venom third on the list. These three are fun to play with, but it also goes for the rest of the roster. I never really cared much for Hawkeye, but it's cool to include him in an Avengers team consiting of Thor, Cap, and Shellhead, and makes you feel like an actual member of the original team. The new characters come with a lot of stunning costumes, powers and upgrades that made me play the game through Hard mode twice just to see if I could level up everybody (I couldn't, but what the hey, I'm going back for more). The replay value is great, especially when you're playing online against friends or strangers or just playing with someone at home. Of course, up to four players can play without going online, but I haven't tried this yet (my friends are more into sport games). The rest of the cast holds up well and is just as much fun to play with as the original Marvel Ultimate Alliance. If you already bought the previous incarnation of this game it is probably not worth picking up the Gold Edition since content can be downloaded, but I would definitely recommend the Gold Edition to anyone interested in the Marvel Universe and any comic fan in general who hasn't played this game yet. Villains like Scorpion, Rhino, Shocker, Radioactive man, Winter Soldier, The Lizard, Loki, Galactus, Mysterio, Paibok, Super Skrull, Kurse, Mephsto and Blackheart, Mandarin and a host of others make appearances. My favorite character to play with from the original line-up remains the Silver Surfer, but its hard to unlock him since all the comic book missions have to be completed at a certain level. This game is definitely worth your time for the non-stop action, clever dialogue and tons of Marvel easter eggs for us Marvellites out there. Buy it, Buy it Buy it! | video-games_xbox |
Teen Boy Thinks Halo Reach Is the BEST Yet. As per my son....Halo Reach, what can I say that would be bad about it? It is an all around good game. Graphics that are beyond belief, settings with such detail (enemies can be near sighted, can have eyes like eagles, can be invincible, how often they shoot, how often they throw grenades, if you are invincible or not, and how much damage you are able to deal per bullet, etc.), so many game play modes that there is almost no way to ever get bored with this game, the new equipment, the campaign with so many levels filled with enemies and allies, and of course the online interaction with the advanced pick and choose game play modes and maps.
The past games in the Halo trilogy have had... not so great graphics. With Halo Reach Bundgie decided to step it up a few notches and give the game a whole new look. The weapons improved, the covenant detailed along with the UNSC (The good guys that fight the aliens, which are called the Covenant.), and the flight path in which the grenades follow all make it look more real, thus improving the graphics which could only lead to the settings which need to be customizable for it to be even more detailed.
With these new details, they couldn't have went wrong! The ability to give yourself the advantage in the battle against the wretched Covenant or to even give them the advantage to give yourself a challenge. Sure, the settings menu can be almost endless and confusing, but after a day or two you will have found that you can easily navigate the settings menu and with a few clicks you could have the enemies blind, deaf, weak, and worth a lot of points, or you'll be able to have yourself strong, fast, eagle eyed, and invincible. Sadly these effects are only available in one mode, firefight.
While in the main menus, you can find six modes; campaign, multiplayer, firefight, forge, and theater. Each one can be fun and useful. Take campaign for example, you can play against the dreadful enemy, the Covenant, as you race against time in a planet-to-space battle to save humanity. Next is the mode of multiplayer, a mode (as the name states) is for more than one player to play at once. You can play a variety of game types for this mode; slayer, king of the hill, odd ball, infection, swat, race, team slayer, and that is not even the beginning, just what I can name off of the top of my head at the moment. Then, there is firefight. More than one person may play this mode at once but, one player may play this mode alone, like multiplayer, you can play by yourself. But, you will never be alone in this mode with constant hordes of enemies reigning down on you and your only weapon is what you find or start out with, well that and the new equipment which you may read about in the next paragraph. This mode is commonly used to earn CR. CR in this game is money, which you may use for armor, firefight voices(yes,they even made your voice customizable! The armor effects(lightning that is around your body, for example), is how you level up. You may also gain this in other game play modes like forge. Forge is where you may strip a multiplayer map of its objects and objectives and transform it into your vision of a map. You can practically change everything from rocks to buildings. Forge mode is recommended for those with a creative mind! And if you enjoy playing these modes, but want a little more then you might want to try the theater mode where you may watch and replay what you have previously done. You may also take pictures and record some bad [...] films! Then, later you may replay them for your friends and earn the right to brag about how awesome you are(Thank God I can finally brag on myself because of those super lucky moments where I randomly stick a monster that is at the other end of the map!!!)
Equipment. The technology of tomorrow, today. Jet pack, drop shield, armor lock, sprint, holographic decoy, evade, and active camouflage. While the jet pack can make you soar through the skies and find higher, easier to snipe from areas, the drop shield can shield you from harmful objects such as; bullets, grenades, explosives, enemies, ect. Armor lock is a whole other type of system with its advantage and disadvantage. You may have a powerful shield around you, and when it goes away it explodes leaving some enemies dead, it will also disable you from moving while it is activated. If you are a speed demon, then I recommend sprint. This equipment will let you run at blazing speeds never before seen on any Halo game. If you are a elusive type of game player then I recommend the holographic decoy equipment. Evade is of course, as the name states, an evasive type of equipment that makes your player dodge to the side, front, or back. Depending on how you hold the joystick while you are activating the equipment. And, last but not least, there is the active camouflage equipment. This is for all you snipers out there! This can hide you at a safe distance from the enemy without being spotted. Thus making it easier to snipe someone that is about 100 yards away.
Well, that pretty much says everything about it. Of course just reading this is only one way to find out how fun it is. Try playing it, you'll be addicted to it at the sight of the main menu! Well, whether its slaying monsters, making art, slaying endless hordes of monsters, or bragging about those especially luck moments, Halo Reach has it all! | video-games_xbox |
It's a crapshoot on whether you get the Falcon or Jasper chipset. I just got the XBOX 360 that I ordered from this specific Amazon page. Whereas another reviewer below mentioned that he got the Jasper, it looks like I got the Falcon.
First, a little background for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about....since their release, XBOXs have had a big problem with freezing up and breaking via overheating. This manifests itself in what has been labeled as the RRoD (red ring of death) error. That's definitely a problem with the Zephyr chipset used in the earliest XBOXs. XBOXs with the next chipset, Falcon, have had better success, but still, some experience the RRoD failure. Finally, the newest chipset, Jasper, has just come out. Because it is so new, it is unclear whether Jasper will fix the RRoD issue, but it does run cooler and overheating does seem to be behind the RRoD issue in the first place, so the Jasper is a step in the positive direction. The following link:
[...]
...tells you how to tell whether you have a Jasper or not. Of course, the problem is that you obviously can't do this check when ordering the XBOX from Amazon or any online store as it involves reading info off the box. There also doesn't seem to be a way to specify to Amazon that you want the Jasper. So, as far as what XBOX model you get, you're rolling the dice when ordering an XBOX online.
That being said, I would be more comfortable if I had received a Jasper model, but based upon what I've read on the Web, the RRoD failure rate on the Falcon chipset is pretty small, so I guess I'll just take my chances instead of paying the postage to return this to Amazon. I obviously can't accurately rate this product with stars as I haven't actually used the console yet, but Amazon forces me to put something in, so I put one star.
So, in summary, as of this 12/2008 date when both older and newer XBOX chipset models are floating around, you face a choice of either:
(1) ordering an XBOX online to avoid paying tax and taking a chance on getting the newer or older model
-or-
(2) going to a bricks-and-mortar store and knowing for sure what chipset you're getting by reading the box, but paying more as you pay sales tax. | video-games_xbox |
Near perfection crumbles in the last minutes. Oh how close they came. With the release of Mass Effect 3, Bioware nearly created their masterpiece. Their crowning achievement since Baldur's Gate in the 90's. While the first Mass Effect was labeled by many as an "RPG with shooter elements" and Mass Effect 2 labeled "A shooter with RPG elements," Mass Effect 3 finally hit a home run with the RPG/Shooter mix. The final installment of the Mass Effect trilogy had it all: A captivating story, compelling characters, truly emotional moments and a perfect balance between RPG and shooter.
And then the final 10 minutes played out.
Before the ending, however, Mass Effect 3 solidifies itself as one of the best stories ever told in gaming. Never before have I played a game that has made me cheer in triump, laugh so hard or bring about bittersweet sadness in me repeatedly in my entire 35 and a half hour play through. Everything is firing on all cylinders: every major character is full fleshed out, every past squad member get's their chance to shine one last time and every story mission feels like a tightly woven epic in and of itself. Gameplay is refined from what was present in Mass Effect 2: gun play is tighter, RPG elements are expanded upon (weapon mods are back!) and a new melee system makes combat much more interesting than either previous game. The AI is smarter, meaning both your squad members and enemies react much better and more intelligently. Overall, Mass Effect 3 is the crowning achievement of the series that it should be.
Unfortunately, all that is completely undone in the final 10 minutes by an ending that, to be blunt, makes no sense at all. Scenes play out that make little sense, characters do things that go completely goes against their characterization, other characters end up in new locations with no plausible explanation and gaping plot holes are introduced. Worst of all, however, is the fact that it completely blows away any impact your decisions, the foundation of the entire series, have on the conclusion. Literally, none of your choices in any of the games have any bearing on the outcome.
This truly destroyed all the enjoyment I had playing the rest of the game. To know that nothing I did for the entire game had any bearing on it's outcome is a downer to say the least. The ending doesn't just have an effect on my opinion of Mass Effect 3 though. As someone who's been with this series since day 1, it echoed back through the other two games. I find myself not even wanting to go back and play either of the two previous games. Knowing that none of the decisions I make have any impact on the grand finale really takes the enjoyment out of playing any of the three.
Without the ending? This would have gotten five stars and a glowing recommendation.
With the ending? Two stars and the recommendation that you stay away. It get's two stars for the rest of the game being so good, but the journey is ruined in the final 10 minutes.
Oh how close they came. | video-games_xbox |
Ruined a classic. First off I want to say I happy I was to see true halo fans expressing themselves in the reviews.
---SPOILER ALERT---
campaign/game:
*Less than 5 hours of play.
*They kill off cortana, and make her and MC seems as if they want to physically be together... (shes a computer tho).
*THEY ruined the music. the theme song on the game just isn't right, it calls out "lets all cry", instead of halo 2 and halo 3's awesome theme song that makes u feel like the "beast" chief is suppose to be.
*THEY ruined the covenant. the grunts voice is quite, and sounds wasp like. and worst off all, the elites don't even talk anymore, they just growl. what happened the "wunk wunk wunk! kill the demon.." halo 4 has none of this.
*Added in a pointless new weapon set, that is exact same to current weapons, just look different, (the promethian weapons).
Multiplayer:
*THEY also took elites out of multiplayer.
*Dont care for the "classes" on multiplayer.
-but hey, even classes weren't enough to resemble COD, they added killcams too.
*IMO they should keep it like halo 3, and everyone starts with same gun and setup.
*Hate how when a weapon spawns, it tells everyone on the map... preferred halo 3 when u had to know when it was going to spawn, etc.
Game is ruined, they are trying to make it exactly like call of duty, which is killing them. THERE IS A REASON why everyone hated halo reach. althoug this game isn't as bad as reach was, it is still no true halo.
Halo will never be the same, especially when they keep trying to make it more and more like COD.
AT 343, STOP. WE like halo because its different then COD, so stop trying to make them the same, your just killing the game, if we want a cod like feel, we will play cod. NOT HALO, so stop making halo like cod, your ruining it.
Overall, game is better than reach was, but doesnt even compare to halo 3. (halo has been going downhill ever since after H3) | video-games_xbox |
Final Fantasy in name only. Final Fantasy XIII is a FF game in name only. If XIII had been distributed as some other IP and not FF, it might have been viewed favorably as a new style of RPG, much like Mass Effect was received.
Unfortunately, any game that bears the name Final Fantasy carries lot of expectations with it, and in a sense, XIII fails to follow in the steps of its predecessors.
Nevertheless, Final Fantasy XIII is, without a doubt, my favorite FF game since VII.
Pros:
Excellent battle system, much more dynamic and fluid than the standard FF turn based battles. I only wish the developers allowed more slots for paradigms. I could have used 3 or 4 more.
Battle ratings keep pushing you to think outside the box and get more efficient with your fights. You might survive a difficult fight with zero stars, and you know you can do better. When you figure out a new strategy or create a new paradigm, you feel a sense of accomplishment that makes you want to keep playing.
Leveling up characters, weapons and accessories proves to be tedious fun. There's a surprising amount of depth in the leveling systems, and the menus are very easy to navigate.
In spite of what seems like very linear gameplay, I found FF XIII very well paced, and very dynamic. Normally, I am a huge fan of open-world games like Skyrim, Morrowind and Fallout, and critical of linear gameplay. However, the linear style fits perfectly here. It feels like reading a book; the story flows very well, and I never felt a need to get sidetracked. There are still plenty of grinding spots, and save points are very close together, so there's no need to worry about getting in over your head.
Battles are very well balanced. You might destroy a few groups of enemies, and then barely survive a new set of foes, but it never feels unfair. The game pushes you in the right direction. Also, you learn enemy attributes by fighting or by using certain items. Once you have learned enemy weaknesses, your team fights much more efficiently.
Cons:
Game characters give a bad 1st impression. Everything seems so stereotypical. Lightning (Really? Lightning?) seems exactly like any other cold, detached JRPG main character until you get to know her. Snow (Seriously? Snow?) is the standard JRPG dimwit rushing into every fight without a thought. Hope starts out as your average whining pre-teen and Vanille speaks with a bad/fake Aussie accent. They all get better though. I especially came to enjoy Sazh and Fang.
In closing:
If you are a fan of Final Fantasy, you very well might hate this game. But if you can get past your own preconceptions of what a FF game HAS to be like, or if you are simply looking for a new style of RPG, XIII is a good choice. | video-games_xbox |
Worth the Money. Yes! I purchased this game (I'm an adult female of 24 years old) and I have yet to put it down. Here's some pros and cons for the readers of this review...
Pros:
#1. This game is one of the few that really make you think. I was a fan of Grand Theft Auto IV as well but while this could be a long distance relative to that game, Bully has a bit more than your regular shooting and killing game. As Jimmy, you have to go to the classes in order to graduate the school. Now, I've been out of school for a couple of years now and some of them really make you ponder. English and Math were the hardest ones and I still haven't beaten the final Biology class.
#2. This game has a "T for Teen" rating but I wouldn't have given it that. The only thing that might make parents a little wary is the fact that once you reach level 3 you have the ability (ability meaning "you can but don't have to") kiss other boys. Other than that fun little tidbit, the weapons are child based. Sling shots, stink bombs, itching powder, potato launcher, etc. etc. In fact, when you shoot another kid with your slingshot (if you shoot a child or girl, you are immediately "punished" by the man)they are knocked out instead of killed like in other games. I would be completely comfortable letting my 10 year old nephew play this game without any worries.
#3. The tasks are relatively easy. Even though the game doesn't offer an "easy, medium, hard" choice, the missions are somewhat easy to figure out. Again, another plus for small kids (or adult women whose last game she played was Donkey Kong on the Super Nintendo).
Cons:
#1. Loading Time. The loading time on this game is a big buzz kill. I'm not a fan of loading times at all but Bully seems to overdo it by alot. Everytime you enter into a building it loads? That's quite alot when you are on a mission and you have to enter four or five different buildings and everytime you walk through a door you have to sit through a 30 second to a minute worth of loading time.
#2. Glitches. There are quite a few of them in this game. Little things where your school clock doesn't show up and then you get busted for violating curfew. Another one is where you swing at an offender and for some reason or another you don't connect. That one usually shows up in missions and you either have to start the mission over or turn your game off all together. Maybe it's me but that does seem to irritate me.
#3. Some of the classes are too hard. I know in my pro section I said that the classes teach you and that it is good for you but come on people? 2 and a half minutes to disect a pig into seven pieces?? I still can't beat that biology class. Arggh!
All in all? I give Bully an A-. Easily one of the best games I have seen but there are a few minor issues that cause some irritation. | video-games_xbox |
Please avoid this, no matter how curious you are. Please, everyone, just avoid this game. In this day and age we just shouldn't settle for something like this. My quest is: Do you want to suffer through the first couple hours of a game before it 'gets better,' or do you want to play something that is fun from the start? Personally, I would rather play something fun. Even those games which are complicated and take a while to get into tend to be at least enjoyable from the start. If a game takes time to get into there needs to be an incentive to keep playing until it does. With Two Worlds I spent that time staring at my television in dumb shock that something quite this bad had managed to be released in the first place... let alone get a special edition.
Horrible control, frequent hitches and freezes, terrible music and voice acting, unreadable fonts and menus you have to squint to see no matter how nice your television are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to problem with this game. (Imagine you can't read the description for your new piece of armor because instructions telling you to press the back button for instructions to navigate the menu are obscuring half of it. Are you going keep a game with a problem like that?) I spent as much time frozen as I did playing the game and this was on a new 360 which has never frozen or even glitched momentarily before and still plays all other games perfectly.
Like many others, I purchased this because I was curious. I saw bad reviews and knew that I often liked games with 'mixed reviews.' The major review sites have, for the most part, said the game is good. (I really do wonder if they are playing the same thing.) I did not want and was not expecting Oblivion. That is why I am writing this now. Do not buy this game. If you simply must try it, PLEASE find some way to rent it first. Also, if you played the PC version and liked it okay, please get the PC version. It is better than the 360 one, which is abysmal. I tried to enjoy this game, I kept putting it back in the 360 hoping I could squeeze an itty bitty amount of fun out of my special edition. Alas, it was impossible.
If only I had never opened the box so I could get my money back. I would feel guilty reselling it. (If nothing else I have said has convinced you not to buy the game!) Admittedly, this has some of the best extras I've seen in a special edition in a long time. Too bad they come with such an awful game. | video-games_xbox |
Works great, but song selection is lacking curently. I own both Rocksmith (original version) and Bandfuse, so here goes. Cable hookup for BF is easy and very similar to Rocksmith. Yes, you're still going to need to run your audio separate from the HDMI, but that's really not the game's fault. Initial setup is easy, you choose which instrument you want to use (bass in my case), where you want to save stuff and you're off.
The game loads quickly (much more quickly than Rocksmith) and feels better engineered overall. Controls are smooth and responsive and generally the game has been glitch free. The one exception to that is an annoying echo that can develop at times, but compared to the bugfest in Rocksmith, it's been great.
Instrument tone out of the box is frankly terrible in comparison to Rocksmith. However, it's very easy to create your own custom amp setup right away, which will dramatically improve how things sound. You can choose from multiple amp versions and save multiple presets right away, without having to unlock any settings. I've actually grown to prefer creating my own tone to play with songs, but some might find this frustrating.
The tab-based song interface is nice. I prefer it over the Rocksmith note highway because it seems to make it easier for me to memorize songs, but that could just be me. I actually find it harder to play the full versions of songs in BF as I have not gotten used to reading ahead in this interface and eventually find I have trouble keeping up. That being said, it's a way better way to practice a song, especially if you'e going to try to play normal tabs later.
Tuner is ok. There are a few different tunings to play in the game and the tuner does the job getting you setup for them. It seems to do a better job reading my bass than Rocksmith does.
Where BF is frankly way behind in comparison to Rocksmith is in song selection. While both games ship with a similar number of titles, the fact that there is no DLC yet means that you can get bored pretty fast. A DLC pack is due out tomorrow, hopefully the rate of these will go up in the future.
Overall, I'd say if you're serious about trying to learn how to play, BF is a good choice. | video-games_xbox |
Rockstar Listen Up. Since everyone copies GTA, I think RS could look around and take some of the better ideas other games have, not just sandboxes. I think Scarface and Saints Row are the standout clones of the past. Here's a couple I can think of:
1. After you finish the story allow a separate "mission select" game save where you can pick and choose any mission in the game, not unlike Rainbow Six Vegas' "scene selection" premise. Just minus out the before and after cut scenes to basically make it like the assassin missions.
2. Allow direct saving via the cell phone at any time. It's lame to have to go to the apartment and watch the little sleeping scene to just save. I know that it auto saves but I've had it lose some of my save before to have to redo 2 or more missions after it supposedly auto saved. I don't think this would make the missions too easy as most of the time you cant really use the phone during missions anyways, someone will show up and shoot you before you get to it.
3. Come out with a simple easy to use custom mission creator pack for modders that is cross platform after the PC version comes out. With XBoxLive and whatever PS3 uses for online, people could buy/sell/give away created missions/scenarios. It would be a great value and XBL/PS3/Rockstar could charge a small commission for the transaction to get their piece. I wish they would have done expansion packs for San Andreas in the long years between games or had an easy to use modders pack. Obviously this would have to have some sort of disclaimer as to the "hot coffee" stuff, but come on this is GTA. Most people would agree that murder is a LOT worse than sex anyways, but the authorities in the country have it grossly backwards.
4. Have some more sophisticated missions that don't just involve go here/kill everyone/run from police scenario we all know is basically the GTA MO. Look at Assassin's Creed or Thief and get some idea. I wish there was more sniping missions/side missions. Don't get me wrong, the combat in this game is much more satisfying than previous games with the cover system. Not sure exactly because I don't have specific examples but I think you can just look around at other games and get ideas.
5. Make a simple all or nothing decision about the customization. None of this half way stuff like in 4, more like the all the way like in SA. I suppose the big thing is by about half way you have way more money than you can use to buy anything, why can't I scrimp to buy an Infernus any time I want? Or advanced weapons(M4 scope/rocket launcher, laser pointer)? I'd like to trick out my Comet/Porsche with better rims/acceleration/brakes and a custom uploaded paint job. I want a phone that has more options like a keyboard so I can see the internet anywhere or watch the TV anywhere. What about a 500000 store only non-spawning race car that handles like an F1 car?
This is a must have game and is awesome but needs to be developed more like the post GTA3 versions. | video-games_xbox |
My favorite Assassin's Creed game! (so far. My first Assassin's Creed was AC3. It was highly enjoyable for me, although I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the story. I hated the bits where I had to play as Desmond, and some of the missions felt extremely linear (especially the ones where you need to assassinate someone). However, I loved the gameplay, and it was a refreshing change from the typical FPS gameplay that I had been used to. After completing the game and doing most of the side missions, I was looking for more Assassin's Creed. Fortunately, AC2 became free to download on Xbox Live! Once I started the game, I was immediately hooked. Sure, it was a big change coming from 3, but it is just so much fun to play! You play as Ezio Auditore, a young Italian man living in the city of Firenze/Florence. Soon after the game starts, your father and two brothers are publicly executed. You grab your father's gear and seek revenge on the men who did this to your family. I won't spoil anything else, (heck, I haven't even finished the entire story yet!) but I can tell you that the story is amazing. The cutscenes are very cool and entertaining, the characters are very interesting (particularly Ezio and Leonardo da Vinci!), and the atmosphere feels great. There are a few cities that you can travel to in the game, including Florence, Tuscany, and Venice. All three cities are very cool, and are packed full of stuff to see, do, and collect. Treasure chests are scattered across the towns, and it's very rewarding to find and loot these. You can do missions where you beat up an unfaithful husband, take on an assassination contract, find and traverse through secret Assassin tombs (one of the best parts of the game!), and take over Templar strongholds. You can also purchase weapons and armor, unlock new capes for your character, or customize the color of your outfit. It's all very cool, and you really get immersed in this huge world. And then there's Monteriggioni, the small villa owned by your uncle Mario (pay attention to the first cutscene with him!). You soon find yourself there, and you're put in charge of renovating and upgrading the villa. There are many shops to be renovated, and it's extremely rewarding to do so. Every 20 minutes, you receive a specific amount of income in your villa's chest. This amount drastically improves the more and more you upgrade the buildings in your villa, and it becomes very easy to make money after all the shops are upgraded. While this is extremely satisfying, it also serves as a bit of a con to this game. In the early game, weapons and armor seem very expensive, and money is a whole lot harder to come by. But once you upgrade your entire villa, you don't need to worry about being low on money anymore. I've fully upgraded mine, and I'm making nearly 12,000 Florins every 20 minutes! The game notifies you whenever money is deposited to your villa's chest, so you can just fast travel there in between missions to collect your income. When you upgrade shops in your villa (such as the Doctor, Blacksmith, Painter, Tailor, etc.), you also receive a small discount on all items purchased from that shop. The gameplay in AC2 is immensely fun, and the wide variety of weapons provides for an interesting, near-RPG like experience. You can be stealthy and use the Hidden Blade (probably the most badass weapon in the series), wield a dagger, or charge in on horseback whilst swinging your warhammer. While you're being pursued by enemies, there are many places to hide. You can walk with a large crowd, hide in a bale of hay, or sit on a bench to evade your pursuers. You build up Notoriety whenever you kill guards, and the more notorious you are, the faster guards will detect and attack you. You can decrease your notoriety by tearing down posters, bribing town criers, or finding and killing a corrupt public official. Travel in this game is very easy, and you'll want (but not necessarily need) to utilize the fast travel stations later in the game, when it can take you around 10-20 minutes to ride somewhere. It just costs around 100-200 Florins to travel around the map, and this becomes extremely handy when your missions will be spanning many different cities. You can also mount up on your trusty steed if you're outside a city (you cannot call a new horse nor ride one inside a city, unfortunately), and this makes exploring much faster. Highly elevated viewpoints are also scattered throughout the map, and when you Synchronize with them, more details of the map are revealed. It's pretty much a necessity to Synchronize with all of the viewpoints when you're in a new city, and it's very fun to do so. The parkour in AC2 is great for the most part, but sometimes a bad camera angle or accidental button push can kill you. This is only annoying in a high-risk situation, such as in an Assassin's Tomb (where great precision and patience are required to navigate the course) or when you're pursuing an enemy on the rooftops. Overall, AC2 is an excellent game, and I'd buy it for full price if I needed to. The atmosphere, gameplay, and story are all excellent, and you'll be having fun for many hours on end with this game. I'd recommend this game to fans of the Assassin's Creed series, history buffs, or gamers looking for a change of pace. I hope this helped, and thanks for reading!
EDIT:
Battle of Forli:
In the original game, sequences 12 and 13 were 'corrupted' in the Animus, rendering them unplayable. They were later released as paid DLC. I personally think that it was really stupid of Ubisoft to do this. While this part of the storyline isn't strictly necessary to understand the story, they are very important for full enjoyment of the game. However, I recommend you either get both or neither. If you only get the first one or second one, a lot of stuff won't make sense. Anyway, on to the reviews for both of these. The Battle of Forli is a very fun sequence, and most of it (obviously) involves you defending the town of Forli. It takes about 20-30 minutes to complete, and it's very fun all the way. There isn't much stealth in this (being a battle and all), but the huge skirmishes were very enjoyable. I was glad that they had a sequence take place in Romagna/Forli, because it was barely featured in the main storyline (you pretty much get there and then leave for another city in the story). If you're a big fan of large-scale swordplay, then you'll heartily enjoy this DLC.
Bonfire of the Vanities:
This sequence was great as well! While the last one was a straight-up battle, this one features a lot more variety. It mostly features you running around Florence and killing 9 lieutenants of an evil man who has come to power there. Each lieutenant is different, and you'll be forced to use some strategy for some of them (for some, you can just run up and murder them, but for others, you have to remain undetected or you'll be desynchronized). It was great to go back to Florence again, and more of the city is opened up then before. It was very fun to do all of these, and it took me around 45 minutes to an hour to complete this. If you love the iconic assassinations that this series is known for, and you want to run around Florence again, then you'll really enjoy this DLC.
I just finished the story today, and it was AWESOME! Once again, I highly recommend this game to you. | video-games_xbox |
addictive fun, great sense of humor. i'm mid way through my 2nd play through of this game. i don't play through games multiple times often, something about borderlands really clicks. while at its heart this is diablo in a fallout setting, it also borrows some thinking from MMOs in how you aggro enemies, and focus on weapons/skills that maximize damage-per-second.
pros
+ great unique art style - hand drawn textures, cartoon outlining/shading come together in a unique way that i haven't really seen before.
+ hilarious voice acting - assuming you don't take offense to it, scooter is the most hilarious depiction of a back country bumpkin i've seen
+ guns guns guns guns guns - practically infinite variety, they all behave slightly differently (some even behave differently if you're zooming). you're rewarded for trying them out. there is no weak class of gun - each has specific uses, but different skills or modifiers on the weapons will dramatically change their effectiveness.
+ tons of quests - you can't quit! you almost always have about 10 quests active and there's something close by.
+ variety in character builds - they make it extremely easy and rewarding to try out all the skill trees without having to re-start your character. this means you can re-invent how you play. e.g. with a hunter, you can focus on using your bloodwing pet, power up your sniper rifles , or your pistols, or some combination thereof, then change how you allocated your skill points at almost any time for minimal cost.
+ constant challenge - the game levels up with you quite well, forcing you to think carefully about what guns and buffs you carry and how you use them.
+ constant rewards - the loot scales with you, so while you start out going ga-ga over the most expensive gun you've seen @ $1000, by the end you're going ga-ga over the guns that are $1000000.
+ great use of achievements/internal challenges - the game constantly dangles goals in front of you - kill 250 enemies with a pistol, kill 1000 with a pistol, kill 250 with a corrosive weapon, run over 1000 enemies in a vehicle - and you're rewarded for all of these with XP. you're also rewarded for shooting things with different weapons, so as you level-up in pistols or rocket launchers, you get more perks for each.
cons
- vehicles - the damage from vehicles doesn't seem to scale as well, and the weapons on them are practically useless. you want to run over people, or shoot enemy vehicles with your own guns.
- story - relatively weak ending. but then you start it over again to try to hit level 50.
in all i've been extremely pleasantly surprised by this game. | video-games_xbox |
Could've been much better. After buying and thoroughly enjoying the likes of Skylanders Superchargers Racing on the original Nintendo Wii, I decided to dive right into some of the older entries of the series buy nabbing a couple of the games from GameStop (which have become pretty inexpensive by now) and purchasing a Cynder figure for just as cheap. After all, there has to be a reason why everyone's complaining about Racing's lack of traditional "platforming" adventure modes, right? Right??
Originally meant to be a new way to get Spyro to gain appeal, the groundbreaking Toys-to-Life mechanic Skylanders spawned allowed for it to become a cash cow franchise on its own, kicking Spyro off of top billing for every subsequent installment, hogging all of the otherwise-Call-of-Duty money to itself while being praised by parents for its ability to cater to kids (even though any game rated E or E10+ would probably do that anyway). So other than the ability to use purchased toys as video game characters, what is it about Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure that tickles the crowd's fancy? Honestly...........I wouldn't know.
Sure, the figurines look pretty neato, and the worlds the characters roam upon have an imaginative fantasy feel to them, but that's really all there is to this. The gameplay just has the player go around the place, beating enemies up and moving further into the linear level whilst sometimes coming across offensively easy puzzles. You can't even jump, and you don't have many attacks to work with. It's basically like playing Pokemon Rumble, except without any challenge whatsoever. I want the bad guys to feel like a threat, but they simply aren't. There would even be a couple times where things could LOOK challenging, until you realize the developers practically rig it because they assume only 5-year olds are holding the controller. Case in point: The battle scene with the Doom Sharks - When you get close to one, the game slows down so you have time to escape it, and it gives you health when you do. Are you kidding me?
Another thing that kinda annoys me (though not to the extent of the super-easy gameplay) is the game's writing. On one hand, it does tend to feel like that of a children's cartoon in a way, and the fact that there are several cartoon voice actors tend to complement that. However, plenty of writing and joke cliches pop up in various areas, and Flynn (voiced by Patrick Warburton) is ungodly bothersome thanks to every one of his lines being either egotistical or flirty with a nearby female character.
Yet, this game has potential. It can possibly be mindless entertainment to mow down enemies at ease, especially when another player joins in on the action. Not to mention, the landscapes look pretty great, and the musical scores do their job well. There's a very visible amount of polish around the title, and effort coming up with the various characters that gamers would swipe off store shelves to unleash in-game. Unfortunately, the absolutely tragically easiness throughout the adventure MURDERS the experience for me. I understand if you want to cater to kids, but come on! So many other great games have done that while keeping a way to appeal to older audiences! Here, Skylanders just uses all of its pretty colors to mask an experience that isn't really so satisfying (for anyone over 5, anyway). If this is a sign of things to come regarding my ventures into Skylanders, then I may as well just declare Superchargers Racing to be my favorite in the series by default. I'd rather have a well-designed fun racing game than an adventure that pretends to be something better. | video-games_xbox |
The Best of the LEGO Games So Far. I must admit that I am probably more fond of the LEGO games than I should be as a 30-something adult. I enjoy that there are challenges and puzzles, but that they are able to be accomplished by a wide range of players (although I play a lot of games, I'm not really a "gamer" so games where you have to simultaneously press different buttons while hittings triggers, etc. really drive me crazy!) and though I was wary of the first game to feature real voice work (what can I say, I dig the "cuteness" of the non-verbal LEGO characters in the previous games) the voices are really well done and retain a lot of the humor of the earlier titles.
Sometimes navigating is a bit of a challenge, especially after leaving the game and coming back. Rather than loading up in the adventure, you load up in the Batcave and have to find your way back. This can be a little confusing, and though there is a trail of "ghost" studs to follow, these can be hard to distinguish from the silver studs found all over Gotham City, especially when speeding along in one of the many Bat-vehicles. This is a minor complaint, however, as most of the gameplay is very smooth with a great selection of characters. I also thought it a plus that part of the process of unlocking additional villain characters included battling them in their hideouts in Gotham. Even characters that you don't directly confront in the story are available for you to find and unlock.
I just finished the story part of the game, and I'm only at about 25% complete, which gives the game a certain amount of replayability (though a good portion of what is left over is just to go back through the story and grab all the stuff I couldn't get to before) and the open play Gotham City areas are beautifully rendered and provide an interesting challenge.
Overall I thought this was a great game, probably the best of the LEGO games so far. The play is similar to other LEGO games so that players can pretty easily jump right into this one, but it offers enough new material to keep most players interested.
As a side note, a lot of reviewers are mentioning freeze ups. I didn't experience any when I was playing, but I tended to play in fairly short bursts, doing a leg or two of the story or a little free play exploring when I had the time. Not sure how widespread a problem this is, but I didn't have any trouble with my game during the entire run of the story. | video-games_xbox |
REAL WAR HISTORY IN YOUR FACE. I Love CoD Games. I Am more into The Historical Wars Of CoD Than The Modern Warfare Games, Although those Are Amazing as well. I prefer both! WAW Is The Best WW2 Game I have Experienced Yet. I Dont Ever Compare An earlier CoD game To The One I review. You have to appreciate Each Installment As A totally new game. Thats the beauty of cod games. I LOVE This One For The Other Battles The massive Bloody Pacific battles With the Suicidal Japanese Front. These Guys were relentless! Not caring About their Lives one bit. They new they were up against too much with the marines of the usa. So They will pop out of no where charging with bayonettes BONZAI attacks. Wich You do not find that face to face battles as much in the modern war games FAR less. This made it feel so intense And Really In a battle, Its just nuts! The graphics of this game were right up there With anything of cod. The controls were tight, Not THE Tightest But Seeing the old weapons You are using It makes perfect sense, You cant Compare A 1940's milliatary guns weapons ect. with 21st century weaponry. Obviously modern guns ect. will feel smoother, but I actually prefer these old weapons & I must say Treyarch did A fantastic job with the guns & Tanks And everything Was Historically accurate It was insanely errie! Such a fun campaign. I don't care about playing online, I don't see why that is so popular, I rather don't like it at all. and alot of other people I know are like me in that vein as well. i buy these games for the single player. i did not find it too short. although i wish they would tack on a bit longer campaign and know that people ARE buying & paying The same price who prefer not to play online but for the single player. this Game if your A BIG WW2 Buff like me, you will love it. if you are just into more the modern war games either CoD Or BIA or MOH series, i'd say give this a spin or at least a rental because its Very Intense Action. | video-games_xbox |
It really could be fun. Operation Flashpoint looked interesting to me at first. The screenshots on the back of the box looked nice and it seemed to have the aspects of a military shooter that I might like, such as Medal of Honor Allied Assault. When I first started the training mission, I got a look at the gameplay itself. The graphics aren't the best, but that is never enough to turn me away from a game. However, I couldn't get over the horrible looking face models of my soldiers. I don't mind the basicly square faces of the characters in Spiderman for the Playstation, yet I cringe whenever I see someones face in this game. The player movement must be some of the worst I've seen in a FPS. Everything responds slowly and moves in a jerky fashion. The game also gives you many useless options like being able to sit, salute and put your rifle on your back. For some reason, you run faster with the gun in your hands them you do when it's on your back... Just a few more complaints to get out of the way: The mission objectives are uninteristing. The enemy AI doesn't make any kind of effort to find cover; they just hit the dirt on sight and start fireing (sometimes they even start running twards me during a firefight, almost as if they want to get killed). The weapon effects are very dull and the voice acting is gritty. Now, for the good stuff that I could scrape out of this "game". The maps are huge. And wide open. You don't have to follow your troops around if you don't want to. The cars, trucks and jeeps are easy and fun to drive (I often find myseld finding a jeep at a base during a mission and go cruising around the countryside, which is by far the most fun I have had with this game) but the air vehicles are another story. The cocpit inside of the helicopters look really cool, but they would be more destrutive if I could get the thing to hold still. It's impossible to take aim at a target when your flying over it with speed. The other vehicles are fair, but still not the best in a game, although the variaty and freedome to jump into any vehicle you can find is great. The weapon selection is OK, but I wish that there were more fully automatic rifles. This game could be fun, but it either doesn't have enough meat on the bones or too much for the casual gamer to be able to take a bite out of. | video-games_xbox |
An outstanding science fiction classic. BioWare is the master of story-driven RPGs in which you interact with characters by choosing responses in a dialogue tree, sometimes leading to huge impacts on the narrative. They previously made the great "Knights of the Old Republic" (2003), perhaps the best "Star Wars" game ever made, and "Jade Empire" (2005), a terrific martial arts-inspired RPG set in mystical Imperial China, and here have made the equally great "Mass Effect," a sci-fi-themed third-person shooter that has you flying around the galaxy, exploring alien planets, and trying to solve the mystery behind the Prothean Beacon. Combat has typical shooter tropes (cover system, over-the-shoulder aiming), but what sets it apart are the different classes (Engineer, Adept, etc.), allowing for unique abilities between characters, and in working as a team with two other squad mates. When exploring planets, you pilot the Mako, a six-wheeled vehicle with a big turret on top that you can exit at any time. The Mako is disliked by some. I found the main problem with it to be the overly rigid surface of most planets, and the poor aiming of the turret. The idea behind it is a good one. There are lots of side missions to take part in, but most aren't all that interesting. It's the main story involving a rogue Spectre named Saren, an extinct Prothean race, and a deadly Reaper threat that keeps you firmly invested and anxious to see what happens next. The voice-acting and writing is something special. Few games do it as well as it's done here. There's also an amazing 80s-style electronic soundtrack that melds right into the background. As the first in a trilogy, the original "Mass Effect" can be a bit rough around the edges. Most of the content outside of the main story feels like an aside, lacking the same care and detail, and the shooting mechanics can be a little spotty. This first game also has a certain charm that the sequels don't. It may also have the best overarching story of the three.
--- 5 STARS --- | video-games_xbox |
A breath of fresh air. I admit, I haven't played too much of this game yet (9 hours maybe) but I have to say that starting right after playing Dragon Age II (did I say play? I mean force myself to beat...it was like a repetitive chore, like folding laundry...but I digress), it was like the first day of spring after a long winter. This game gets back to the roots of RPG-style gaming. I have yet to find a mission/side-mission that is fetch-style. Even those where you must find something for someone is open and without direction so you must think hard, look back through previous dialog, or simply come across said item. And the dialog itself is witty and original. Some reviews mention the lack of decent graphics; well I hiss at them. First off, the landscape is beautifully rendered and lack of repetition with the environment (like seeing the same tree over and over or finding yourself in the same dungeon map like in Dragon Age II) keeps things fresh and my eyes smiling. NPCs all look different and the armor/weapons are incredibly done. This is one of the few games I have played that keeps me enthralled, wanting to see what's just around the corner or over the next hill (sort of like Fallout/Oblivion). I applaud the creators for their commitment to creating such a fine game.
That being said, with any review comes pros and cons. While the cons are few thus far I will list them, though by this point others have already stated them: long load times when leaving a small 'map', such as a house, into the world map; this may just be my xbox glitching but the Continue option at the title screen reverts to the last auto save and not my last forced save. And out of habit I tend to hit the Continue button before remembering, thus having to wait until it loads only to reload it once again. Lastly, and it's a small one...although I love getting loot just like any other person playing these style games, I haven't even gained the Battle Tower yet (which apparently is 'home base' for the rest of the game) and I've amassed a good 25 'set' items if not more. I can't use them anytime soon so I hang onto them, resulting in a rather large amount of these items in my 'backpack'. A bit annoying though I assume once I get my home base that will be fixed.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! | video-games_xbox |
Lets Get Started. Okay guys I want to try and keep this short, sweet, and to the point. Noone really wants to read a 2 hour long reveiw but i have a lot that i want to cover. So before I get into it I would like to give you a reference of my sensitivity capability. My skill set without the freeks is around a 7 on Call of Duty Black Ops II, and around a 5 on any other Call Of Duty, for any other gamers who don't play the series, I'll say it is about 30-50% higher than most standard setting sensitivity for most FPS games.
I bought the product for 3 reasons.
-1.)CUSTOMIZE MY CONTROLLER
-2.)IMPROVE MY ACCURACY
-3.)TEST MORE PRODUCTS ON THE KONTROL FREEK LINE
Good:
- I started with the CQC freeks. They are a bit shorter. The elite freeks are taller wich is a good thing for me, it was a step up. I like having that extra length
-Installation couldn't be any easier. Pops on, Pops off, not too hard to get on and off, but not so easy that it will fall off in the middle of the game. Really great fit.
-Actually helps more than you would think. The extension gives you the ability to make larger movements for smaller adjustments. This helps in several ways, the smaller you make your adjustments the more precise it will be, or if you make a large adjustment, you are less likely to overshoot your target. This also, beleive it or not, helps your reaction time by adjust the speed at which your analog stick takes to go from the left side of the controller to the right and vice versa. those quarter seconds make a huge difference in games.
-super comfortable. I was surprised at this, my thumb dosent feel tired, i don't feel like im straining to reach, and the part that shocked me the most is the grip. Grip is a huge thing for me that the CQC freeks didn't really grip well, but no matter how long i play or how sweaty my hands may get, the grip is durable, and continues to do its job acceptionally well.
-Inexpensive. Gaming these days can be relatively expensive. The Kontrol Freeks however are less than $20.00 (US currency). I think that for the money, they are worth every penny. I surely don't feel cheated or like I got less than what i paid for. I even spent the extra money to get the freeks next day aired.
BADS:
-This is probly the hardest part of my reveiw because there isn't much bad to say about this product. However i can say this. If you are one of those people that get frustrated easily and tend to give up, These probably aren't for you. As a matter of fact, you will probly end up taking them off, throwing them on your dresser and forgetting about them. The Kontrol Freeks products usually take time to get used to and its the same for these. These especially take time to get used to. The extension pushes you to turn your sensitivity up. With the higher sensitivity and the bigger movements and the slight reaction change, your really just learning how to aim all over again. You will over shoot, you will go crazy aiming up and down and all over the screen. You will essentially look like a baby deer trying to stand for the first time. It takes a few daYS TO get used to aiming, and you will have to master aiming all over again. However, if you do use the product to its full potential, and master the sensitivity all over again, then the next firefight you get into (assuming that both of you are at the same sensitivty, skill set, and accurate) you will win that gun fight 9/10 times.
I hope this reveiw was helpful to you guys, Overall i really enjoyed the product. I apologize for such a long reveiw but there is just so much more to these extensions than just plastic and rubber. I have had good expieriences throughout my gaming career with the guys over at Kontrol Freeks and in my personal opinion they are a great gaming company to buy from. | video-games_xbox |
Poor quality control. I went through a long ordeal with Turtle Beach customer service (which, let me say, was pretty accommodating albeit a little slow due to email support only; also, I had to constantly remind them of my issues with the headset even though we were communicating through the same constant email thread) to fix an issue I was having with the XBA adapter (the little puck attachment for wireless chat) or something related.
PROS:
great sound
decent battery (while not on wireless chat)
lots of functions and customizability
CONS:
price (little expensive IMO)
chat quality (never really worked on XBLive; always intermittent; friends would miss parts of my sentences)
limited customer support (email only; couldn't find a phone number)
BTW: purchased new at Best Buy on sale
So, back to my issue. I bought the headset and used it for awhile and didn't seem to have any issues with the XBA voice chat but I never really tested it. Looking back now, I think my friends might have been missing some of what I was saying. However, I could hear everything perfectly (friends chat, game audio, BT audio, etc.) with no crackling or distortion whatsoever. At some point, I finally realized my friends couldn't hear me sometimes and I communicated with TB CS (customer service)(although accommodating, they basically just directed me to KB articles on TB website which ended up being things I had already tried). Finally, after a few weeks (due to slow nature of email communication, though they reply promptly) of eliminating all possibilities (or so I thought), they offered to replace my headset unit (xmitter included). I need to also mention that I did comparisons with a wired headset (TB x12) and the voice chat was nearly perfect. During my TS (troubleshooting) of the XP500s, I also did comparisons with the wired chat option which seemed better than the XBA but maybe not as good as the x12s but that's pretty subjective.
So, I got my replacement set (of course, it's refurbished) and set it up and I started to get crackling and what sounded like interference, even from the game audio only which had not occurred with my original XP500s. As far as the XBA chat goes, I still had the same issue where my friends were hearing me intermittently. So, more TS and KB articles from TB CS and they finally suggested that I use the ASE (advanced sound editor). Now, I'm fairly competent when it comes to tech but I really just bought the headset for wireless chat and decent sound and I got a decent deal on the XP500s (cheaper than the XP400s). With the ASE, you can adjust the audio presets that are pre-installed on the headset to your liking or needs. But I didn't realize that this software was available when I bought the headset and, up to this point, TB CS hadn't mentioned it.
So I used the ASE to tweak the XBA chat settings and it helped but didn't fix it completely and, no matter what I adjusted, didn't eliminate the crackling/distortion noise. So after communicating with CS awhile longer, they decided to replace the headset again (first time, I had to pay for shipping; this time, they volunteered to pay). Got the replacement about 1-1/2 wks later. Same issues. Finally, I began suspecting the xmitter but CS said they wouldn't replace the xmitter only; they had to replace the headset also, in which case, I couldn't eliminate either one as the culprit.
By this time, I was pretty much fed up (it had been 4-5 mos.) and I didn't want to deal with it anymore and my warranty was about the expire anyway so I just thanked CS for their help and now I'm stuck with a crackling, distorted, $200+ (not what I paid) headset that won't work reliably for chat (wired or wireless). It's quite possible that my original XP500 set would've worked fine on wired chat with a little ASE tweaking and that the XBA would never have worked reliably (I've since not heard many good things about it on forums and reviews). And it's quite possible that my original set was a dud but the whole experience has put a bad taste in my mouth for TB wireless sets.
So, moral of the story: I doubt if I'll ever buy TB wireless headset again but if I do, it will be at brick and mortar or somewhere that has their own replacement warranty. Perhaps if my replacement(s) had been brand new units, they may have worked properly but it seems to me that there are some quality control issues with their refurbished products.
I would like to give more stars based on the audio quality of my original headset but given all the other issues I've had, two stars seems generous. | video-games_xbox |
The next best thing to watching the movie. Revenge of the Sith is a wonderful experience on the Xbox. The game features numerous cut scenes taken directly out of the film, in widescreen dvd quality. This should be enough to make any Star Wars fan race to buy this game as the dvd isn't out until November 1st. However! Revenge of the Sith is a very solid third person action game. It combines the hack and slash action of Jedi Power Battles with the minor RPG style upgrading found in The Two Towers and The Return of the King. With this being said, Revenge of the Sith works extremely well. It's fast and furious combat only gets better as you earn experience to upgrade your skills as you see fit. You can upgrade your force abilities (push, heal, saber through, etc.) and your combat skills (critical hits, area attacks, etc.) This makes every level's action more and more intense with seemingly hundreds of moves at your disposal. In Revenge of the Sith you alternate between Obi-Wan and Anakin, playing throughout every action scene featured in the film, as well as some never before seen engagments that expand on the film. For example, more action sequences aboard Grevious's ship, and a lengthy duel between Anakin and Mace Windu. Along your quest through the final stages of the Clone Wars, you'll encounter various enemies, from buzz droids to crab droids, from droidikas to the simple battle droids. Then ofcourse with the execution of Order 66, as Obi-Wan, your advisaries change. You'll fight through Clone Troopers and finally your fallen aprentice Anakin, now Lord Vader. After you complete the single player campaign (featuring an alternate ending) you can head off to the bonus missions which provide hours of even more fun. One mission even allows you to play as Yoda. After completing the campaign you will also have earned access to all the video clips from the film, to watch as much as you desire. Concept art is also avilable for viewing, some of these stills are scenes cut from the theatrical release of the movie, this is a nice addition and worthy of unlocking for sure. Two player co-op and duel modes are avalible for playing with many areas to fight in, as Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, Count Dooku, Grevious, Darth Vader, Ben Kenobi of Epidsode 4, and several others. Graphics wise, ROTS is solid but nothing mind blowing. The gameplay is very tight and doesnt ever let up. Skywalker Sound makes it's contribution with sounds directly from the movies and a genuine Star Wars soundtrack, as to be expected. I found ROTS to be a very entertaining game that exceeded my expectations, as movie to game adaptations aren't always that great. It is certainly one of the best Star Wars games to come along in recent years and I highly recommend it for your Xbox. Thanks for reading. | video-games_xbox |
Great Deal for two amazingly different games. Both of the games in the package are outstanding, but one should be aware that they are two different games.
Bioshock is somewhat a sequel to irrational games Bioshock series, and is a first person shooter/fantasy. This game may not be considered better than Bioshock 1, but it is sure amazing. The plot can get slow at parts, but the ending blew me away. Bioshock is definitely not a disappointment- the landscape and colors are beautiful, and they make you feel like you are put into this world of confusion that you constantly want to understand. Elizabeth, one of the main characters, is the best portrayed "side-kick" I have seen, her personality and performance is outstanding. And although she is a follower, she follows you around like a normal person would: running ahead a bit, checking out and commenting on different parts of the environment, and helping you out. It is difficult to find flaws with this title. You can expect around 20 hours of gameplay with this title.
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is also a fantasy game, but the gameplay is completely different. As an RPG (role playing game), you are trying to save Skyrim of the mystical dragon that has taken part in the destruction of towns and cities. Unlike Bioshock infinite, you will see many side quests that are all very appealing to take part in. The depth in skyrim is fascinating- story plots and lore like you would never believe. The physical world itself is stunning, and one of the biggest I have ever seen. As with bioshock, it is very difficult to find fault with the title, besides the occasional bugs. Skyrim, though, is a game I know people can put over 100 hours into, because it is so appealing and mesmerizing.
This deal shows about 15 dollars a game (as it stands now). If both of these games seem appealing, then this deal is a no-brainer. I had a fantastic time with both games and I am actually spending more time doing skyrim quests now. I am not completely sure who bundled these two games, but I would like to thank them. | video-games_xbox |
Great Game, misunderstood by some. This game is great.
Some of the negative feedback comes from folks who had misplaced expectations. People gripe that your guy does not replicate every move you make when you want to make it. I wonder if these people have ever played a fighting game. When you spam moves in DOA or Soul Caliber or whatever, certain moves take a certain time to execute and certain moves only happen under the right conditions. In Fighters Uncaged, your basic punches and whatnot happen as you make them but other moves you have to do correctly and with the right timing to make happen. This is part of the enjoyment of the game...as you come up the learning curve you get better at making the dude do what you want.
You can not just windmill your arms, expect your character to do the same thing, and expect to win. Similarly, if you are a ninja IRL, your real, well honed moves, will not translate automatically to successful gaming experience here any more than they would in DOA or any other fighting game. The kinect is still a controller, you have to manipulate the controller using your body to get the guy to do what you want, this is not the star trek holodeck yet.
The beauty of the game is that AFTER you come up the learning curve a little ways you get a greater illusion of immersion with your body movements. The immersion improves as you align with the game (some people seem to expect the reverse). This immersion is not in full effect from the start any more than it is with a new fighting game where you are figuring out which button is the punch and which is the kick, etc...and the beauty of the kinect and the learning curve is that once you do move up the learning curve the immersion payoff is greater.
This also supposes that you really want to jump around while you are playing, which I do. The game combines my desire to get a bit of exercise and pummel some people after a stressful day.
This genre (kinect action/fighting) fights the headwinds of unrealistic expectations and expectations that vary greatly among the gaming audience. Viewed objectively, this game is awesome. Enjoy these games for what they are and constructively support these initiatives toward a deeper and deeper interactive gaming experiences. | video-games_xbox |
Another Great RB Wood Guitar. These wooden replica guitars are really good :) And they are a good deal if you can pick one up at the price of a standard, plastic controller. I picked up this one on sale (same price as standard RB controller) and its worth so much more.
If you like the style of the standard Rock Band controller but want something with a better feel you can't go wrong with this one. Of course, the price has fluctuated greatly, probably due to low demand, but this is a great opportunity to pick up a very high quality RB controller that looks AMAZING and plays better than any standard, plastic controller you will find. Much like the Logitech wooden (orange!) Xbox guitar, this one has great build quality and looks just like a Fender starburst guitar. The finish is unbelievable and it's 100% the size of a Fender Strat. This means that the buttons are a bit higher up on the neck. This may be an major issue for children but for an adult this is fine.
Overall, I think I like the feel of the Logigetch (solid body, wood neck) controller better but this one looks better because its full size. Also, this one matches the style of the standard RB controller while the Logitech resembles the GH world tour guitar.
If you prefer the RB style controller, this is easily the best one you can get. If you are an adult and want the look and feel of a full size guitar, this is probably the best (if not only) one out there.
Ok, the technical.... The buttons feel good and have a better and more solid feel than the RB guitar. The top face of the neck is plastic but the main part of the neck is wood and has a very good feel (I would say the Logitech is a bit better here). The strum bar is more clicky than the standard RB guitar but I prefer that and its not as loud or obnoxious as some GH controllers. Overall the strum bar feels very solid, like the rest of the controller, and has a good action.
This guitar is a great looking, great playing RB guitar that feels like a real guitar and plays much better than the light plastic guitars that are the norm. Bottom line, if you can find this guitar (or the Logitech) at a price, pick one up. Its worth it. I am glad I picked one up. Now I have 2 wood controllers that both look and play great. | video-games_xbox |
An older, but new gamer's perspective. As I close in on 50 years of age, I still get a major kick out of video games. So the XBOX seemed like a great early Christmas gift to myself. I don't need to be the top player, I just want to have fun playing some games. Thank you, Microsoft, for re-introducing me to the fun I had as a kid playing video games, starting with Pong, Sonic the Hedgehog,and pole position. The Atari 2600 & Sega Genesis are dinosaurs, by today's standards. But the old school games are still available, along with a new breed of high def.,high speed, high tech FUN. This wireless wheel is a perfect example of how far gaming has advanced.
My wireless wheel came bundled with the Forza 4 game, with the purchase of my XBOX. I chose this bundle, rather than the other available Kinect & Halo bundles, because I will never get into the shoot `em up type games. I'm glad I made this particular selection, solely for the Forza 4 game, but especially for the wheel.
I previously had given up playing a version of a Nascar racing game on PS2 because I just wasn't able to master the controls. With my XBOX, initially, I was unable to get the wheel to connect, and had to play with the wireless controller. Had a blast, but was chomping at the bit to play with the wheel. After surrendering & reading the instructions, I was able to play. Wow ! Even as a newbie, I could see a big difference.
The objective may be to win races and advance by winning with the least amount of assists, but I'm loving driving around the track backwards, causing as many collisions as possible - for now. Sure, I've played around, the right way, also. And this is simply a blast to play. The wheel does everything that the pro's speak to in the other reviews. After getting the feel for the correct speed, diving into the corners was a piece of cake with the wheel responding exactly as expected. When I cut it too hard, it let me know by sending me into the wall or a spin.
This wheel is very smooth. Very responsive, and predictive, with practice. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that enjoys driving games. Treat yourself. I did ! | video-games_xbox |
Overstays its welcome. Compare Far Cry 3 (FC3) to a week long vacation at your favorite weekend vacation spot. For the first couple of days (or in the game's case, hours) you are completely immersed. A typical game scenario is as follows: You cruise up to a cargo ship hijacked by pirates under the midnight moon. Before you board you pick off a couple of the guards with your silenced, but high-powered, sniper rifle. You hop off your Zodiac, climb aboard the ship's stern and then proceed to methodically murder the remaining enemies with a combination of bow and arrows plus machete until you are caught by one of the pirate's heavy guards. In a flash you "go loud" and unload on the fool with the tiger-stripe-painted light machine gun you packed just in case. Five minutes later an improvised bomb has gone off somewhere in the ship's bowels flooding it with water. You race to find an exit as the ship destructs around you, choke to death and then kick in the face of the one guard you somehow missed, and swim to shore as the ship descends to a watery grave.
There are very few games, that I can think of, that offer as immersive, free-form experiences like those mentioned above. But, like day 5 of your week long staycation down the shore, you start to wonder what else is there to do. The story in FC3 starts of with hints of amazing, painting a "Heart of Darkness"-esque background. By hour 15, however, the game loses focus. The occasional brilliant mission is broken up by several missions that, as one of my friends describes, drags ass. The co-op portion of the game is fine and adds some hours to the experience. The multiplayer, like most these days, is tacked on so that game review sites have one less thing to dock the game points for.
All in all, you should totally play this game. It is unarguably one of the better experiences of 2012 and on the current console generation. Just keep in mind that about 40-50% of the way through the game you'll start to wonder what other games are in your backlog that you've been meaning to get to. | video-games_xbox |
Rock Out. There has been just so much hype when it comes to music games recently from Dance Dance Revolution, to the hype of sinalong games for the Playstation 2. It has been a surprise, but music games are everywhere on the next generation consoles. That has also been proven with the success of Guitar Hero. Since it came out over a year ago originally for the Playstation 2, many gamers have wanted a piece to rock out with. The sequel also scored big with gamers, but now it isn't a only Sony game anymore. With Activision bringing all the hype to the Xbox 360. The bigger question now is will more be welcomed here than it had on the PS2?
Guitar Hero for the Xbox 360 brings out the animal in any Xbox 360 owner who has ambitions to be like their rock heroes. The gameplay follows suit like it did with the Playstation 2 edition, as you strum your guitar through over 50 classic rock songs including guilty pleasures like Rock This Town by the Stray Cats, Message In A Bottle by the Police, Guns N' Roses 80's smash Sweet Child Of Mine, and Heart's Crazy On You. What seperates this one nicely though is that you can actually download songs from Xbox live and use those songs on this game as well to add to the fun. The gameplay though mainly is the same as the PS2 version, but the control is a bit easier to maintain with a improved guitar grip. The only disadvantage is that it costs much more than the PS2 bundle by about $20, which leaves some Xbox 360 fans waiting for a price drop.
All in all, Guitar Hero II works very nicely for anybody who owns a Xbox 360, and handles as a great party game. If you however own both a PS2 and a 360, you would be probably be better off with PS2 edition because it is cheaper. Still, this is a great game that is fun and challenging to play that any Xbox 360 owner would love to have in their library. Rock Out!!!
Graphics: B+
Sound: B+
Control: B
Price: C
Fun & Enjoyment: B for solo players; A- for multiplayer
Overall: B 1/2- | video-games_xbox |
Best Deal You can GET. I have always loved Battlefield and BF3 IMO is a fantastic title. But all of the new DLC's and stuff now are kind of a turn off to new commers. Then they released this edition and I have to say, much more worth the extra 20 or so dollars compared to the standard edition. You save some 50-80 dollars on DLC's alone. You also get access to close to 20 new weapons and 20 or so challenges to help mix up the gameplay. All of which(the weapons) are pretty well balanced and are a welcome addition to the base gameplay.
The two DLC map packs that have released (As of September 2012) mix up the gampley by taking you to two ends of the Battlefield spectrum, up close infantry combat and HUGE maps with all out Tank and vehicular warfare. The developers have realy done a great job at including a broad swath of gameplay options to accomadate many people's playstyle.
The gametypes are usualy either super fast paced, super tatical, or both, requiring players to think on their feet and work different play styles. The class system is great and there is no one class that will be dominant for everything. You just have to find out what works for each situation and they change quickly as the game progresses. Hell you can even create sort of hybrid classes, like a sniper with an SMG or shotgun for close in engagements or an assault class with a high powered rifle with a scope for medium to long range. This game offers a level of flexability not too well seen in games today. Although not the hyperealistic title some people want, but not the arcade like individualistic gameplay of other games either. BF3 fits in a special place that greatly balances the two types Extremely well. I reccomend this to anyone willing to give it a try.
And the best part is that the experience is not over, the next THREE DLC's that you will get for essentially FREE will expand the gampley even more. And they are not just simple map packs slapped together and thrown into the mix. Each DLC so far has focussed on creating a different gamplay experience; meaning the next few will offer new and refreshing options for the player to utalize. Im just hoping they will add more multiplayer coop missions/rewards to the soup ;) | video-games_xbox |
Detailed story but very little fun. Would I buy: No
Would I rent again: No
Would I recommend someone rent this: Maybe, but if someone asked me about it in the video store I'd say no because I might see them again and they might want to beat me up if they spent their hard earned money on it.
I'm not sure who is writing all the 5 star reviews for this game, but I think I've been playing a different video game. I really liked this game the first couple of hours I played, but since then its been an uphill battle to keep me engaged and I've finally given up and returned it to the video store.
I've been playing it on hard mode as a mage for over 10 hours and its been a little challenging in terms of fights, but the game play for fights isn't that great. You generally have a group of 4 character and you can switch between them. You do have skills and spells that can activate, but I wasn't impressed and every encounter was pretty much like the last encounter (except for boss fights which are exactly like all the other encounters except they take a lot longer) so, coupled with the extreme amounts of conversation time, I finally just got bored. Basically, the fighting is like playing a diablo game: repetitive and predictable.
It is an impressive story with good writing and interesting characters, unfortunately this is a video game and not a movie. Your game play time seems equally split between conversations and actually interacting with the environment, which wouldn't be bad if your conversations impacted the story line but most of your choices seem to have limited impact. Its a lot of conversation time, and, while the conversation and story are interesting, the basic game play goes something like this: 15 minutes of conversations, then 15 minutes of killing things, moving around, or finding stuff, repeat. [I tried to start a rogue character but after 20 minutes of meaningless conversation choices I just gave up and took the game back]
The level advancement system is a pretty standard one. Each level you get to assign attributes and a few skill points depending on your class (fighter, mage, rogue). I found the amount of time between levels to be appropriate.
Also, the world isn't open by any stretch of the imagination. You can't even walk through shallow water areas and there are artificial boundaries everywhere to keep you on a preset path. You're forced to auto travel between areas.
I read a lot of people with 5 star ratings go on and on about the story and they're right: its a good story. You'll spend 30 minutes out of every hour standing around listening to excellent dialog, good characters, and good plot; in that respect the mediocre fighting and questing actually get in the way. Other reviews have gone on and on about how great an RPG this is and the wonderful complexity of morality that it displays; my only response is "I really don't know what you're talking about.". There are so many dialog choices to make during each conversation and they are all pretty stereotypical. I've actually role-played for years in the Dungeon and Dragons systems and clicking on scripted responses to scripted dialog is not role playing. You basically choose between one of four types of responses:(1) super polite (2) polite yet curt (3) dismissive or (4) irritated/angry. Occasionally you will have to choose between either forgiving someone or slaying them in cold blood. Not really that complex and while most of your dialog responses aren't that important there are a few that are; if you're not paying close attention you can accidentally threaten to kill old ladies or something equally extreme.
If your idea of a great game is spending hours of time listening to scripted conversations, choosing scripted responses to "nuance" your character, and engaging in repetitive, diablo-like fighting environments, then this is the game for you. | video-games_xbox |
The worse game ever by WWE, BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. Sup, I bought this game knowing it wasn't that good because i thought you had to play it, get into it, and get good at it to like it......well i have got every title on hardest difficulty with no cheat and i'm still standin here sayin this game is garbage! let me repeat...THIS GAME IS GARBAGE!! The only thing thats good about this game that out class the rest of the game from the wrestling world are graphics and create a wrestler the rest is a waste of money and xbox storage space. I don't know if you ever played it but a game on N64 called Wrestlemania 17 was the perfect wrestling game easy controls, good moves, and good story lines....this is the same company that made that game and let me tell ya its one of the biggest disappointment i've ever known. I mean this game isn't really even wrestlin its boxin you have to punch your opponent 1000 times to get his health down to get moves on him and nobody wants to play a wrestlin game that has mostly punches...granted it has sum tyte moves when you can pull them off but thats a rarity. Basically this game should have been recalled and remade so many glitches in the gameplay, so many buttons to press to do just a bodyslam, most the wrestlers have the same moves, no story lines whatsoever its like you wrestle and then wrestle and when ya win a title the wreslter all do the same thing (hold their hands up stand on the turnbuckle jump down face the center of the ring and jump up and swing there fist while sayin yea, if your tryin to get outta the ring and they punch you all of a sudden look like ya fell off the top ropes face first, ya can't turn them over when they on the ground, I mean you can't even climb the ladder or put them on the table. I just hope WWE 2 comes out they spent more time on everything else and not just the graphics, maybe look pricey for the technology instead of this 5 min throw together with months of graphic work...You can rent this or whatever you want to but remember you were warned its jus a waste of hard earned money...
Numba 1 Stunna | video-games_xbox |
Excellent Game Despite All The Bad Reviews. If you are a fan of the Call of Duty series there is no way you can dislike this one. I understand that a lot of reviews here on Amazon give Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 a negative review and a low score and honestly I do not know why that is. I read over 10 negative reviews and while the complaints are legitimate nearly no reviewer has it marked as a verified Amazon purchase, which means they did not even buy the game here on Amazon. If not, then why come review it here? I thought it is only fun to review a product if you bought it. I think there is a negative sentiment against Call of Duty because some people are annoyed with it and simply didn't get it, or never liked it from the start.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 is indeed very similar to its predecessors such as Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops. It is the same base engine, though fine tuned to perform better than before. The missions are similar to previous games, with lots of explosions, screaming, and outrageous chases and I think that is fine. The single player campaign offers many interesting scenarios and unexpected plot twists. Some aspects are cliche of course. It is like watching live action GI Joe with a bit more realism. This installment still has the same shocking moments that may have shocked us in Modern Warfare 1 (COD4). But this is more than made up for by very nice graphics when you compare this to other modern games. The game runs on stable 60 frames per second, very smooth and without a hitch. You get to fight in exotic locations such as Paris, India, and Africa.
Of course it is true that some textures and animations are re-used from the previous Call of Duty games. Some death animations are the same as before, some buildings have the same textures as in earlier games, but I do not see that as a problem at all. The voices of enemies screaming in Russian are greatly improved. I speak Russian and heard immediately that there are more different phrases coming from the Russians. In fact they now include very bad profanities in Russian, which are more of a conversational taboo than in English language. The animations of dying enemies are more diverse than before.
The plot is so so, it is continuation from Modern Warfare 2 which has Russia invading USA and Europe. You get to fight Russians and some Africans. Not very impressive, but the gameplay that comes from it is more than satisfactory.
Some reviewers complain that the maps in the Multiplayer portion of the game are not very good. One in particular says that there are too many narrow claustrophobic places like corridors and hallways and not enough open spaces. In my opinion it is simply not true. In fact I noticed that Infinity Ward made sure that almost every map has good locations for snipers. For example you could go into one of the dark rooms in a middle eastern sandy map (the one that resembles dust in counter strike) and you'll see one or two clear visibility lines where enemies run through frequently. Of course the more you cooperate with other players on your team you will see the excellent design of the maps more clearly. If you stick out the window to snipe some opponents you'll need one person to cover the entrances behind you to prevent the foes from stabbing you.
Some of the annoying things in the game include lack of blood. How can an M rated game like Call of Duty almost have no blood? Even World At War made by Treyarch had body parts after explosions and more realistic blood effects. For some reason MW3 does not.
Of course if you are tired of Call of Duty games, Battlefield 3 offers an excellent alternative to Modern Warfare 3. | video-games_xbox |
The truth about Assassins Creed. Ok let me start off by saying I did indeed enjoy this game it was fun and certainly interesting however I try to review games fairly and not go all fanboy on them.
Assassins Creed has amazing graphics first and foremost. In fact I would say it is probably the best feature of the game. The story (in the past) is also very well done although the ending was becoming fairly obvious (atleast to me) by the time I beat the first 4-5 levels. The story in the present time was a bit weak to say the least. You are a captured assassin that simply goes along with what you are told to do making no attempts at all to escape. The only real story of value during the present time period only occurs if you make sure to talk to lucy every chance you get as well as reading her and Vidic's emails. I was also disappointed that the developers for some reason decided to make Desmond (you present time character) unable to run obviously you can't run away but having to slowly walk around the lab was annoying to say the least.
As far as difficulty goes this game is kind of a joke =/ it is a decent challenge at the begining because you have to get used to the controls and the timing for combo kills but once you recieve counter attack there is simply no reason to die provided you don't go jumping off cliffs or try to swim. Finally for the idea of replaying this game once you beat it unless you absolutely loved the story or missed some things you want to do over there really isn't much replay value to this game. The fighting becomes extremely repetative (and easy) and unlike a true assassin you don't need to be stealthy at all though you could play through a second time and challenge yourself to be super stealthy.
As for the limited edition itself it scores big with me because I'm a sucker for tins. I was however disappointed by the 3" figure which I think they could have easily made a bigger model. Having the comic book/mini strat guide was a cool idea and of course if you've ever bought a CE/LE in the past it comes with the bonus disc like all others.
So the scores come up
Graphics: 5/5
Story (past): 4/5 (losing points for a predictable ending)
Story (present day:) 3/5 (but only if you talk to Lucy and read emails)
Difficulty: 2/5 (really?? assassins can't swim?)
Replay value: 2/5 (fighting to repetative)
Game Length: 3/5 (rental for any hardcore gamer)
Limited edition: 4/5 | video-games_xbox |
Didn't seem to have that same magic. I've really enjoyed the Batman series, Origins included, so felt dishing out $55 for Arkham night would be well worth it. As many reviewers have written here, the batmobile will make or break it for you. From my perspective, they've taken out the main boss battles and replaced them with batmobile missions...lots of them. You can't escape it and you'd do better spending a few of your upgrades on the armor and thrusters....I did not and paid the price.
The batmobile missions are mostly all tank battles of ever increasing intensity. The first few battles are fun and the battle graphics are great, but it becomes tedious and dull after awhile. Not only did the car not mesh that well for me, it seemed to take me out of the flow of the game...Hats off to WB for trying something new, but I would've enjoyed just rappelling around and exploring via air. The ground view didn't really add anything for me. And I was disappointed to find out many of the riddler trophies also required use of the car. The Riddler also has car races for you and you'll need to chase firefly with the car to finish that side mission.
The main story is ok but completely predictable. Scarecrow, the main villian, sounds too much like Hugo Strange. The Joker was excellent. Some of the side missions lacked imagination (far cry type outposts to infiltrate and conquer) and road mine removals for the never ending tank battles, and rescuing firefighters. Many of these sidemissions were simply the same scenario repeated with ever increasing difficulty. Some of the better side missions add characters (deathstroke) which was a nice twist.
The fighting was great and fluid...almost too easy. I didn't like the new medic class...seemed annoying. I also missed the variety of bad guys as there weren't too many boss battles....nothing like Mr. Freeze, Grundy, Bane, etc.
Honestly, now that the main mission is over I'm having a difficult time finishing the side missions. Feels like a grind and I'd rather play something else. The graphics are great, but the darkness gets to me after awhile...
I'd recommend waiting for a price drop. | video-games_xbox |
Very Good Game. Lots of negative reviews so I was compelled to leave my own. One of the biggest knocks on the game is that it isn't as scary as the previous ones. I'm not so sure that is so true. The fright level for Dead space 1 was largely in part of the user not knowing what to expect. Dead space 2 was a little "less scary." Part 3 is even less because by now, most players are comfortable with the environment. Combined that with the fact that the protagonist, Isaac, is now a seasoned veteran in dealing with the necromorphs. I feel that the fright level is right on par with the current storyline. It's still scary, but you know what to expect.
I am no fan of shooters, but after playing Dead Space 2 it quickly became one of the best games I've ever played in terms of being immersed in the story. I moved on to play part 1 and now with part 3 am very pleased. The ability to modify and customize your weapons is a very nice addition. You may find yourself spending a lot of time modifying your weapon depending on the situation you're in.
They also introduced "side missions." Which is nice, but they seem like the main part of the game that was just labeled side missions. I guess they're optional but I cannot imagine anyone not completing them. One nice thing that could be added to the series in future versions is the option to create a non-linear path. For example, the ability to choose which planet or area you need to go to for whatever reason fits the plot. It could be molded to be like an RPG.
I left out a star because the story is a bit strange in the way that it attempts to introduce co-op with single player. I've only played single player but the story seems odd in the way that it tries to create a storyline that fits both co-op and single player. Additionally, it seems very easy. I started out on the hard level and there is an overabundance of health, stasis refills, and ammo laying around.
Overall, a very good game. Don't let the bitterness of the way that the game is sold or delivered determine the rating of the actual game. | video-games_xbox |
They're selling a game that's barely halfway finished. In a pathetic effort to cash in the on the success of grand theft auto, the people at volition created what is a shining example of what grand theft auto would be if the people at DMA didn't care about the gamer.
I can hardly put into words how disgusted I am with this obscenely over hyped piece of garbarge, but I'll try for the sake of this very honest review.
Saints Row is a video game where you drive fast cars, that go beyond the speed of the xbox 360's ability to program your surroundings.
I too recall playing some areas of grand theft auto, and it taking a short while for the surrounding buildings to render. In Saints Row, a game made in 2006 mind you, you'll find yourself sitting on the road in the position you'd be in while driving the car that just dissappeared.
In Saints Row you play a guy who doesn't speak at all, and deal with idiotic cutscenes where characters from "you got served" try to exploit that for some comedy relief.
The storyline is as enthralling as playing the turf war missions in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, because that's pretty much all you do as far as that goes.
The challenge in this game isn't simply dodging bullets and driving really fast, it's dealing with unrefined programming code.
In a mission where I had to protect someone, they wouldn't get into the vehicle I had for them, simply because the vehicle was on a slope. Forget the fact that bullets were tearing through his flesh, he just wasn't comfortable getting into a vehicle that was on a slope.
While shooting back at gang members at the end of a dead end alley, I was suddenly shot from behind. Looking behind me, the game placed a car full of gang members directly behind me in that dead end alley. I died, and at that moment decided to sell this piece of garbage game.
There are no motorcycles, boats, or helicopters (that you can pilot). They put all their effort into the cars, which fell short in my opinion.
I encourage anyone interested to rent this game, and prove me wrong by getting excited more often than you want to just throw your controller at the tv. Fair warning, you might want the five dollars you paid to rent the game back. | video-games_xbox |
Prototype - Not The Hype. What a disappointment.
The start of the game is very misleading, and makes you think you are about to begin a great game. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Let's start with the good though.
Good : Fun movement system, and a stunningly elaborate character 'evolution' system. The 'Web of Intrigue' is a very unique and overall cool idea, and really the only part of the game that is polished.
Bad : Everything else imaginable. The moves are extremely redundant and at LEAST 70% of them are silly or useless. The AI is over the top annoying, and the rate at which waves of AI attack and react to you will literally make you want to turn off the console. The side events were a good idea, but they too are redundant, annoying, and in the long run a slap in the face to someone looking for a cutting edge action game.
As good as the idea and general premise for the game is, they somehow manage to make you feel cheated with the plot. Watching the half-effort cinematics one after the other will tarnish and ruin any credibility the game initially starts with. One of the most irritating and vexing parts of this game is the mandatory usage of vehicles such as tanks and helicopters. If I wanted to play a modern warfare game, I would have bought a title that didn't stress the fact that you have amazing supernatural powers. Seriously, about 30-40% of the main story missions MAKE you use vehicles, no power usage whatsoever. On top of this, the helicopter and tank missiles put your direct attacks to shame, both in damage and efficiency. And, the vehicles aren't even fun to use, it's more like 'lets just get this over with' or 'Yay, target and spam R trigger, Yay'. Even during missions where you are allowed to use powers, the objectives are generally lame or repetitive, or make you wonder just what the hell is going on. You will watch a cinematic and get a random objective that will widen your eyes, making you wonder if you just fell asleep and missed something important. The answer, however, is that the game just isn't polished.
Finally, one thing I haven't seen mentioned in earlier posts are frame rate issues. Without these issues, at least you would have somewhat of a game. During some missions, the entire world is out to get you, and whatever appears in view range is basically already shooting you, or will ignore any other threat to come in a direct path to melee you. Don't get me wrong, I love going up against all odds, but when literally EVERYTHING is aggressive towards you (infected people walking straight by soldiers in order to attack you, and the soldiers letting them and pinning their cross-hairs over you + big boy demons leaping through the air past tanks to land on top of you with tanks shooting at you + helicopters firing missiles at you ETC ETC ETC. My goodness, during these awesome affairs your frame rate will drop ridiculously low. I cannot express in words how pathetic the game really is in terms of gameplay/framerate during battles, it will make you sigh over and over again.
Trust me, wading through this plethora of negative comments and direct anger towards this game is nothing compared to the frustration you will feel while trying to finish this game. The fact that they rob you from using your overly underdeveloped and redundant special powers during missions and FORCE you to use tanks and helicopters really is an insult. Whoever designed the mainline missions should be shot, and whoever approved that guys work should die in a fire. I only give this game 2 stars because the idea is very original and worthy of a virtual pat on the back. | video-games_xbox |
Slow to start but grows on you. Critics too harsh. This game feels liked a simplified X Men Legends game. That's not always a bad thing.
Unlike XMen you don't get to pick your team right away. You follow the storyline which picks your team of 2 people each time (at least initially). E.g. Supe and Batman; Flash and Green Lantern. You can choose who to control while playing and you can tell the computer-controlled AI to be either normal, passive or aggressive.
Attribute improvements are easier to manage than in X men which confronted you with so many different addons that you end up selling most of them anyway. In Justice League you gather orbs for luck, duration, efficiency, damage, etc that you can then apply to your powers or combine to form in groups of 3 to form more powerful power ups. The interface is intuitive and I managed to get through it without reading the manual. You can choose to use the powerups right away or just keep combining them till you have a super duper powerup.
You can unlock more powers using experience points gained by destroying the bad guys. Saving civilians gives you Justice league credits that you can then use to buy stuff like additional characters and costumes. You will have the option to choose the costumes and characters later in the game.
Overall the game gets repetitive pretty fast. It's not a particular fault of this game per-se, X-Men also got repetitive after a while.
But I have to admit, as you play this game longer and start powering up your heroes, the game does begin to grow on you. I think the fact that you have a core group of heroes that you level up helps make this game more intimate than X-Men because there are so many to choose from. This seemed to keep the game more connected with the story, whereas the 4 characters you play in X-Men may or may not appear in the cutscenes.
So while the game feels like a 3/5 initially, I edged towards 4/5 at the end. I think compared to X-Men this game had more creative execution of powers. Here for e.g. are a few that make this game unique as compared to X-Men:
- Batman's batarang looks like any other projectile weapon initially, it does have the ability to disarm an enemy which is useful when everyone's carrying a gun.
- Batman also has the batswarm attack which lets you launch a swarm of bats against an enemy that will attack it for a significant duration. You literally fire and run away to let the bats take care of it. I have used this effectively against the first boss.
- Flash's pinball power lets you bounce between enemies and attack them very quickly.
- Green Lantern has this giant grinder power that you literally mow your enemy down with.
- Zatana turns enemies into bunny rabbits.
When the game is over you can restart the game from the beginning using all the accumulated stats so that you can continue to become more powerful. You will reach appoint that superman can become so powerful that he can just stand there and get beaten by the enemy without affecting his health bar at all- which is what superman's supposed to be like anyway! | video-games_xbox |
Great Open Ended (Good/Neutral/Evil) Sandbox. Pros:
- MANY hours/days of gameplay
- Huge sand box
- Lots to explore
- Fully customizable button mapping (minus the start button)
- Good, Neutral or Evil choices
- VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System): a pretty neat, takes a bit to get used to, but its like a mechanic that allows you to do things you say you could've done if YOU were there (run up and shoot the person in the face, turn around and shoot the other person in the face before they knew what hit'em)
- Play as a male or female
- Replayable (I beat it as good, and I am currently working on beating it as evil)
Cons:
- Characters look good, but their games are always lacking enough sliders to make your character to look however you want.
- Sticky character customization sliders (Some sliders move other sliders, completely decreasing customizability)
- Irreversible glitches that you can only recover from if you have a good manual/auto save at some point prior
- Not being able to dispose of corpses (they tend to glitch about making extremely annoying sounds, or flying around the air in a possessed fashion.
Not a con, but worht mentioning:
- This game would be EPIC, if there was a way to play through the entire game (campaign and side missions) cooperatively with another person via system link and/or online.
- Would like a some reaction by NPC when you have certain NPC following you around.
I first purchased this game when it came out. Being use to other shooters, I got very irritated by the fact that shooting someone in the face at point-blank range was very difficult without 100 small weapons skill; I understood skill with swords and shields with Oblivion, but with guns seemed kind of ridiculous. I sold the game to a used game store shortly after. At my upcoming birthday, I received a gift from my mother in the mail. It was Fallout 3 *gasp here*. Being the loyal son I am, I decided to honor my mom's gift and beat the game.
I just now finished game after 2 weeks of sun-up to sun-down gaming. After sitting down for a bit with the game, I eventually couldn't stop playing it. I spent most of my time exploring and doing all the side missions I could with the skills I chose to put points in (yes, game progression is different based on what you can or cannot do according to your in-game skill set). I was pleased with the game, and I am happy it was able to produce so many solid hours of fun game play.
A note: Some people did all the side missions first and ended up with some irreversible glitches when they tried to play the actual story-line missions. With this in mind, I frequently saved, and turned on auto save for Resting, Waiting, and Fast Traveling. I did run into a few irreversible glitches now and then, but had recent manual-saves as backup. Other than having to retrace some steps once in a while (maybe 3 or 4 times), the game is great. There are so many things I want to give positive credit to, but for the sake of short reading, I just highly recommend supporting the developers of this game by purchasing it. I do not think you will regret it (if you don't like this style of game, then you might). And be sure to give it at least an hour or two of game play before you completely dismiss it.
BETHESDA --> I think if we were allowed to dispose the corpses, just like in Morrowind, a lot of glitches could be avoided <-- | video-games_xbox |
An unexpected surprise for God of War fans. This review is for all the people, like me, that have been aware of this title for months and never gotten it because you weren't *quite* sure if you would like it. You loved the God of War series and heard this is a "ripoff" of it, but you are still not sure about it...
If this sounds like you, grab a copy of Dante's Inferno, you will really like it.
I expected a rough attempt at re-creating God of War with lots of niggling issues like bad controls, poor camera or lame enemy design and that just is not what happened. Dante's Inferno is an very nicely polished first-release and the team that did it knew exactly what they were doing.
Games like this tend to ratchet up the visual intensity of the story by way of gore, nudity and/or just disturbing mutant creations... and all of that is here (thankfully) in Dante's Inferno. If you like how visceral God of War is, namely God of War 3, you'll love that Dante's Inferno doesn't pull punches. It is a mature game for a mature audience.
The storyline moves along at a great clip, there is the entertaining bad-guy grind through each level of hell ending with a boss fight that has some relationship to Dante. I can't complain about any of the boss fights or "cheapness", it was all enjoyable. There wasn't one part of the game that stood out as maddening to me (which is always what I worry about) but I did play on EASY because I am always more interested in progression and story than actual challenge.
"Easy" in Dante's Inferno was just right to give a casual player a nice challenge so it is not a walk in the park, but also not hard enough to make dying and retrying the norm. I didn't try it on harder levels but have heard from friends that it scales accordingly.
I found the character of Dante's wonderfully voice acted and liked playing him; this is surprisingly important to me. Kratos is easy to like, he's a badass. Dante channels Kratos in some regards, but is also more human. Thankfully he is not hollow or poorly acted and feels like a great avatar to take you through the journey.
Solid 8.5 out of 10 | video-games_xbox |
Epic world, Epic gameplay. Kids as young as 5 can play this game, but the world is very tricky and confusing to navigate.
The split team aspect is especially confusing.
But with older person playing (say father-son) its fine. I wouldn't put a 5 and 6 year old on this one alone.
Typical lego gameplay, vast world. The items to get is a bit tedious seems like a chore.
If you are NOT a fan of LOTR, then this ranks as a 3 for Lego games.
Other Must get kids games:
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Cloudy-with-a-Chance-of-Meatballs-Xbox-360/dp/B00242KDA4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs - Xbox 360</a> (3-6 year old, 2 player, easy and fun)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Toy-Story-3-The-Video-Game-Playstation-3/dp/B0038MUCPK/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Toy Story 3 The Video Game - Playstation 3</a> (3-9 year old+, 2 player, FPS for kids)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rio-Xbox-360/dp/B004NB1C54/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rio - Xbox 360</a> (3-9 year old+, 4 player, 30+ Party games for kids)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Lego-Batman/dp/B000ZKBJY6/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Lego Batman</a> (3-7 year old+, 2 player, puzzler, 3rd person shooter)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Disney-Universe-Xbox-360/dp/B0051875OU/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Disney Universe - Xbox 360</a> (4-10 year olds, 4 player, fast action w/mini games, pure arcade play)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Rayman-Origins-Xbox-360/dp/B0050SYAQ2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Rayman Origins - Xbox 360</a> (4-9 year old, 4 player, arcade side scroll er)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Batman-2-DC-Super-Heroes-Xbox-360/dp/B006ZPAYGE/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes - Xbox 360</a> (4-9 year old+, 2 player, huge world, action-adventure, younger kids need older player)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-Xbox-360/dp/B003O6E7O2/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean - Xbox 360</a> (4-12 year olds, 2 player, nice variety of puzzle-gameplay, younger kids need older player)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/LEGO-Star-Wars-III-The-Clone-Wars-Xbox-360/dp/B0037UCTCW/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">LEGO Star Wars III The Clone Wars - Xbox 360</a> (5-9 year old+, 2 player, RTS game for kids)
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Lego-Marvel-Super-Heroes/dp/B00B98HF1O/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Lego: Marvel Super Heroes</a> (5-14 year olds, 2 player, younger players need to play with older player to navigate world, gameplay fan-tastic, low puzzles)
LEGO Lord of the Rings - Xbox 360 (6-14 year olds, 2 player, my son at 5 struggles but can play with heavy guidance from me, fun game, dad approved, low puzzles)
Minecraft - Xbox 360 (6-17 year olds, 2 player (can be large multiplayer) creative gameplay)
Rest of Lego games are all worth playing, if it wasn't for lego games XBOX would be a vast wasteland for kids under age 8. :) | video-games_xbox |
The Saints Spiritual Successor. First off, this is no doubt a spiritual successor to Saints Row. I loved the Saints series and was sad to hear that it wouldn't be returning but was hoping that Volition would be able to do something interesting with Agents of Mayhem. The look of the game is a lot like Saints Row IV. It has the slight cartoonish look with a little bit of cell shading and that continues throughout the world in the game. During the game, you can interchange the heroes you play as on the fly, considering they have different abilities and powers. This does make it fun but I am so used to only playing as one "hero" that I often used one character which made it a little hard at times. Don't except too much out of the script or writing because like Saints Row 3 and 4, it's just fun and games. When it come to gameplay, the upgrading system was really simple to understand and made it easy to spread across heroes or just focus on one hero. Here's a better breakdown:
+The Saints Row feel is here from the start
+Gameplay is fun and the action is non-stop
+The graphics are great (the particle effects are crazy cool)
+The upgrade system is easy to work through and reset if need be
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-I personally don't really care for any of the characters (except Johnnie Gat but he's from Saints Row)
-The size of the world and detail throughout the world could be bigger and better
-The writing doesn't impress but I don't think it's meant to
Overall, I gave it 4-Stars because I think there is a fun game to play here. I am a huge Saints Row fan and there were text fonts that I remembered all the way to nods to the Saints franchise. It is an entertaining 3rd person shooter that is about doing insane things and instantly changing between characters to continue to destroy. If you are looking to have some goofy fun before Destiny 2 or other games come out, give Agents of Mayhem tonight! | video-games_xbox |
Welcome to the new generation of gaming. At first, I bought a PlayStation four because I thought it would be the best. Sadly, I was disappointed. I was lucky enough to get this console on day one, which was amazing because it was sold out everywhere.
To start off, the new interface of Xbox is absolutely amazing. They simplified it a lot, making it a lot less confusing. In addition to that, they've also added complete video tutorial right when you start of your Xbox one, so you know what's going on. You can pin things to your home screen that you use often, such as Netflix or Skype. I think it's awesome how they include the kinnect with it, because previous bundles had you paying a bunch more just for the kinnect. Personally, I would rather have it than not have it.
Regarding the connect, it is very cutting edge. Do not take what I have to say about the kinnect lightly, because it seriously is groundbreaking technology. It uses voice commands to control practically everything on your Xbox system, which is amazing. You can start your system just by saying Xbox on, and it will automatically detect your voice and turn the system on. It even says in the instructions that even if you're eating a sandwich, or the room is pitchdark, the sensor will recognize your face and recognize you for who you are and listen to your commands. It's crazy, you can do everything with it. You can say Xbox Skype it will open up the Skype app for you automatically. I play Battlefield four often, as it's one of my favorite games. Battlefield even has many voice commands that the sensor will recognize, and do things in the game. If you yelp medic to your sensor, it will issue the order "the medic" to all of your teammates in Battlefield. While playing dead rising three as well you can utilize the sensor. When a zombie grabs you and your fighting it, you can either wave your hand at the center to shake the zombie off, or simply press one of the buttons on the controller. I find this much more fun interactive, because it makes the experience more interesting. It's everything Sony tried to do but failed.
Simply put, Xbox is the future of gaming, no doubt about that. This console is rocksolid, and it's worth every cent you pay for it. It's the frontier of cutting-edge gaming, where you can be completely interactive with your teammates and control the game around you with just your voice, making things much more efficient. The last thing I will add is that the Xbox is more multimedia that is the PlayStation, which is of course personal preference. Personally, I like the multitasking aspects of the Xbox system. You can switch between the game and other apps seamlessly, very fast. It's built to withstand the everyday wear and tear and workload of a nerd like me. | video-games_xbox |
Best all in one Console. First off, this review is a little on the biased side seeing as how I have been a loyal Xbox fan since the early days of the 360. With that aside, lets jump into my thoughts on this console.
I will give a brief overview of all the best and worst qualities this console has to offer in as good a fashion as possible.
I remember back last May before E3 eagerly awaiting the unvailing of the Xbox One thinking that it was going to be yet another dominant console in the console field, but to my surprise more people reacted negativly towards it for its quite restrictive DRM. Now at the time i thought the DRM sounded unique and actually pretty cool. Digital game sharing, installing the disc then never having to use it again, all sounded really neat. The always online however, did not sound as appealing. To everyone's shock, Microsoft reversed this DRM and made it into what we have in the final product.
I preordered this back in June after its release date and price were announced and waited eagerly for half a year roughly for it to come out, and boy it did not disappoint. The Xbox One is simply amazing. The innovation this console brings is crazy, from the voice commands to the ability to snap apps to the side while playing a game or watching TV. The games run very smoothly, and even though they may not all run at 1080p like on playstation, at least our frame rates aren't sacrificed. Playing at a smooth 60 frames per second is soooo nice compared to the 30 on the Xbox 360, it makes games look that much better. Don't let those reviews or reports saying that the Playstation 4 looks and feels better with its vast majority of 1080p games, because unless you have a huge TV beyond 50 inches, you won't notice a difference hardly at all between 1080p and 900p. There are a few things i will say turn me off to an extent. My biggest gripe in the beginning was the Friends app. It was hard to navigate and didn't show you what you wanted, and was quite frustrating. You would have to navigate down and open up another portion of the app just to see which of your friends were online. After the first update in March though, they updated that to a layout that shows your friends and who is online as soon as you open the app and it is a ton easier to navigate, so that gripe is taken care of. The Dashboard from the Xbox 360 has been replaced by what is now simply called "Home". This displays the last or most current app or game in a big window in the center with your profile and friends tab to the left. The last four apps or games you used are listed beneath the large window with your current inserted Disc or Game showing in the bottom right. They also did away with the menu that popped up when pressing the guide button, it just simply take you to the Home screen with your game our app running in the central window. It does display the time and battery of your controller in the bottom left now, which is nice because before hand you couldn't tell if your controller was almost dead till the trigger rumble motors stopped working. The store is a little difficult to navigate, but there are not a lot of games out for the next gens yet, so it not an issue. The party system used to be a big issue with a lot of people, but they addressed that in the update at the beginning of the month, and it much improved it.
Here i will give a list and brief description of all the Pros and Cons i listed above, plus a few others i didnt.
Pros:
-Great graphics, smooth gameplay. I have experienced very few performance issues, but then again no console is unfallible so a few issues here and there is understandable.
-Good list of games, especially the exclusives. Ryse: Son of Rome is an amazing game, but has very little replay value. Dead Rising 3 is pretty funny if you enjoy slaying unfathomable number of Zombies. Forza Motorsports 5 looks insane, especially when viewing your cars in the garage. Titanfall is by far my favorite of the exclusives. Its multiplayer is a blast.
-Great all in one platform. When you hook this up to your tv, it becomes your all in one device. You can watch tv through it and use the guide it comes with when hooked up to a cable box, you can watch sports through the ESPN app and use Netflix or Amazon Instant video as well.
-The best place for entertainment in general. With Xbox Live you can access a library of tons of TV shows or movies to rent of buy and have the ability to watch whenever you want. The Xbox Music app is also worth checking out
-The Best community out there. With Xbox Live you also get the ability to play online with a huge number of people.
-The Console itself: The console runs so quite you can't even hear it unless you mute your tv. It never runs hot, and when the fan does turn up to a higher RPM its still much quieter than the the Xbox 360 is. The Startup is also lightning fast. You simply say, "Xbox On" and it turns on and pops up the Home screen in 15-20 seconds.
-The Kinect: The Kinect is one of the coolest features. It has the built in mic, and all you have to do is say "Xbox" followed by a command and it does it. Such as "Xbox On, Xbox Home, Xbox Titanfall" and it does it. This comes in really handy when watching Netflix, making it so you don't have to turn on your controller to pause the show or movie. Just say "Xbox Pause" and it does. (And no, the Kinect is not always watching you. If the camera is active a little light next to it turns on)
-The Controller: The controller feels amazing in your hands. The joysticks feel better and the triggers are amazing. The trigger rumble motors make playing shooters and racers much more enjoyable, giving you instant feedback when firing you gun or braking hard while racing. The battery compartment is also built into the controller and doesnt jet out the back like it did with 360 controllers.
-Game DVR: This is one of my favorite features. Lets say you get an awesome four man kill streak in a row in Battlefield, and you want to show a friend. All you gotta do is say "Xbox Record That" and it will record the last 30 seconds of gameplay. I love being able to brag to my friends with that feature.
-Twitch live streaming: With the release of Titanfall the ability to live stream on Twitch is now available. I don't use this only cause I'm not into twitch, but this was one of the most anticipated features of the Xbox One.
Cons:
-Limited Storage with not immediate increase available: The system has a 500 gig hard drive, but with every game requiring an install and some of those installs being upwards of 30 gigs, if you have a lot of games plus DLC for those games, you may run out of space quickly. I only have Titanfall, Battlfield 4 and Need for Speed Rivals, Plants Vs Zombies Garden Warfare, Killer Instinct, and Xbox Fitness at the moment, with the Project Spark Beta installed at the time of this review and i have 264.9 gigs free out of 500.
-Notifications: The notification system on Xbox One at the moment of this review still isn't much like it was on Xbox 360. It currently does not tell you when a friend gets online, which is rather annoying when playing an online game for several hours, cause someone may not be on when you start and then two hours later when you are about to get off you could have five friends on you didn't know were on. It also doesnt seem as gratifying when you unlock achievements on the Xbox One, that may just be me though.
-Voice Commands and Hand gestures: I did list the Kinect in general as a pro, but the voice command side of the console is a bit unresponsive and annoying. Sometimes you have to say a command several times before the system responds, and even when the system is "listening" you still have to include "xbox" at the beginning of what you say, which i find annoying. Also when the system does understand a command it brings up a box in the top right and makes the screen light up with boxes letting you know how to select them via voice. You also have to say stop listening to get it to turn off right away. Don't even get me started on the hand gestures. They are so broken i don't even recommend trying to use them. I will go to grab a glass off my desk and it thinks im trying to use a hand gesture. Very annoying.
Other than those few things, i can't really think of anything else that is negative and worth mentioning.
Final Verdict:
I really like my Xbox One, it is everything i asked for and more. The games are great, the service is even better. There is so much more potential here for the future, and i can't wait to see what Microsoft is planning on doing with it. I will say that at the time of this review at the end of March in 2014, if you are debating on waiting on getting the console a few months i would say to wait. There just aren't enough games out yet to make this console 100% worth it at this point. Come back in six months and it will be a completely different story. I hope this helps whomever reads this. | video-games_xbox |
EA FAIL. DICE FAIL. EPIC FAIL. Broken game. I only give this two stars because when it DOES start (most servers are unjoinable, you'll get all kinds of ridiculous errors trying, but eventually it does start), it is a very fun game with cool graphics. However, it almost always freezes your game and kicks you back to the dashboard (the 360 version will just freeze your entire system, needing full reboot) without saving your stats in-game. My first round I had a 21 kill streak and two level-ups when the game froze. Those stats were lost forever.
You can no longer join a match with your friends already in a squad. You have to navigate through the menus instead and hope you can join the same server (again, good luck, they almost never work. You'll get "No Commander Slots Available," "Server Full," "Need an update," etc. even though the server details say otherwise). The gameplay is very nice, though still fairly buggy, just as BF3 was at release. But at least that game could run through many rounds without freezing and shutting down. I don't have a hard time getting kills in multiplayer, but there are times when the game seems to display other players in different locations than they really are. Result: killed from around a corner, killed with one shot, missed headshots with sniper rounds, knifing at air, etc..
DICE and EA are taking a major hit for the terrible quality and instability of this game. It was clearly pushed out months ahead of schedule in order to make the holiday lineup and compete with COD: Ghosts. I'm not a big fan of COD, but at least it's pretty stable. If you buy this game, good luck telling DICE or EA how unhappy you are with it. They already did a double XP week (a total joke consider how hard it is to finish a match and keep your score), so you only have a few months of waiting before they'll actually fix this game. Wait for it, then buy it. I'm sure in six months this will be a great game. As of right now, I'm pretty pissed at EA and DICE for selling me a broken product, all smiley-faced and telling me "Oh yeah, oh yeah, we know, we're working on it, here's some double XP and a pistol scope to hold you over while we work on the patches." Every system has received a patch (though according to the forums, they're not very helpful) EXCEPT XBOX1 as of 12/8, despite DICE announcing one for the week of 12/2. It has been delayed without explanation and I'm regretting buying this game every day I own it.
AGAIN, I only gave this two stars because it might be a decent game eventually. | video-games_xbox |
SEA OF BABIES! Don't waste your time with these squeakers. From the pixel shaded(type) character models to the corny skeletons tossing gun powder kegs at you, Sea of Thieves presents a new genre in online gaming. And while it does the ever present model of forcing you to team up with others almost ruins it. Yet while there is some great game play here the final nail in the proverbial coffin is the fact that there is babies(yes I do mean infants), toddlers and kids plaguing this game with their squeaky voices and tiring antics.
Am I speaking of grievers? Nope.
Children. Children every where. Imaging trying to nail down the perfect time to go see that PG13 movie to avoid kids. You have tickets for 7pm showing on a Monday night. You should be ok right?
WRONG
Soon after you and your spouse find the best seat a massive family with two toddlers, an infant, two 10 yearolds and a teenager sit directly behind you. The parents are nowhere to be seen. How did they get in? Did they sneak in?
Whatever the case, the baby starts to scream, the toddlers begin running up and down the aisle, and the teenager continues to talk with one hand on her iPhone while holding the baby in the other.
The ten year olds continue to play bubble witch saga on their iphones and the movie begins.
You look over to your spouse with the questioning look that needs no words "do we leave now or see if the parents will show up?" Your spouse gives you the reassuring look. Ok lets hunker down and hope for the best.
But the best never happens. The kids only get louder. The baby more upset. The 10 yearolds jump up and down at every new image on the screen pointing their fingers and kicking the back of your seat repeatedly.
That's it. You and your spouse leave the theater effectively surrendering the theater to the children behind you.
Sorry sir no refunds on Monday night showings. Damn.
Well maybe we will try the 9pm showing on Tuesday instead.
Don't even think about it!
This game like so many others, no matter the rating, is filled with babies, kids, and screamers.
No amount of free content will make this game present a better experience. The ever present "squeak" is the downfall of the game and will be until a better game comes out. At which time the servers for this game will be shut down.
So don't even try.
Their ridiculous antics even while muted ruin the whole experience.
They should have named this game "Sea of Babies". Because you should get paid to baby sit other people kids. | video-games_xbox |
Great fun, great controller, great learning tool. Let me start by mentioning I've been playing guitar for nearly 30 years, and I'm lucky to have an absolutely gorgeous Les Paul. Needless to say I was hesitant to try this controller (it's plastic and has buttons instead of strings, after all. But I was also extremely curious and intrigued (I love games and I love music, so melding the two seemed like a pretty cool idea).
Well, I'm please to say this little controller completely blew my mind (obviously exceeding my low expectations).
The neck and body are slightly smaller than a normal full-sized electric, and the buttons are light to the touch, making this a really easy-playing instrument. Moving up and down the neck was slick and easy-feeling. Frankly, I've played real electric guitars that had a worse feel than this little creation.
The fact that it's light and small actually works nice and feels pretty natural, sitting on the couch in front of the TV.
The other thing that I was impressed with was the technology. I've had no issues with frustrating false-triggers. Whatever you play, the game picks up. No problems.
I would HIGHLY recommend this controller for anyone wanting to take their Rock Band experience to the next level (way more fun playing the songs for real).
The real kicker is the game. Rock Band 3 is a blast and pro-mode really takes things to the next level. It's loaded with guitar tutorials, which is why I also HIGHLY RECOMMEND this for anyone who's interested in learning to play the guitar. In the Pro-Mode, Rock Band gives beginner (and advanced) players an impressive list of tutorials that will take you from playing single notes, arpeggios, scales, chords, bar-chords, hammer-ons ... all the way to teaching you some of the most tongue-twisting licks that Rock has to offer.
Great fun, great controller, great learning tool.
What are you waiting for! Stop playing a game and start playing music.
Enjoy. | video-games_xbox |
Strangely Addictive. "Hunter" isn't the most fun game to play. It's not the best looking. It's not really the most challenging. And it doesn't require a lot of thought.
And yet you won't be able to stop playing it.
Yes, "Hunter" falls right in as one of those games that, in spite of its shortfalls, is just a blast to play. You basically go through, slashing and shooting your way through over twenty levels of zombie-filled madness. You can choose from four hunters, each with unique weapons, but also with the ability to pick up other weapons along the way. Each Hunter also has different special abilities, called "edges", which enable you to perform special attacks, improve your skills for a limited amount of time, or heal yourself. Your character's skills also can improve with experience or by stepping on special symbols on the ground.
The gameplay is pretty straightforward. The left thumbstick moves your character and your right thumbstick aims. This enables you to move in one direction while aiming and firing in another, which is very useful when you have a huge group of zombies going for your head. The difference in the characters dictates how you play. If your character is strong, you might want to use your melee attacks. If your character is fast, you probably should use your guns instead.
The levels are, for the most part, massive and jammed with enemies. Most of the level goals aren't anything harder than "find the hostages" or "keep the girl alive". There's surprisingly a wide range of foes for you to shoot, from zombies to huge, lumbering beasts. The fighting, while staying pretty much exactly the same throughout the game, never gets boring just because there are so many enemies on the screen at the same time. You have to see the entire screen to stay alive. There are also a few bosses to pique your interest, but, for the most part, the battles only require you to dodge and shoot.
Graphically, "Hunter" looks good. The characters are very detailed and the environments are well rendered. The only thing holding "Hunter" back graphically is that, most of the time, the characters are so small that you can't see the detail. Soundwise, there's nothing special here.
The only thing I didn't like about "Hunter" was that, while the story was interesting, you only got cutscenes every few levels, so you can easily forget what happened before. There also seem to be a lot of events that appear to be pivotal to the game, but then are forgotten completely, like they never happened.
Overall, as I said, "Hunter" is not one of the greatest games in history, but it's a fun and strangely addicting game that will keep your Xbox buzzing for hours. | video-games_xbox |
Best Southpark game yet. Look, before I start I understand this review is likely to be raged on and voted down by fan boys. If you're that rabid of a "gamer" that you just off and rate everything 5 stars because you care more about the franchise name than the product... I don't hate you, I just differ in my rating criteria so please spare me your explosive vitriol and incessant diatribe below.
Let me start with why I rated the game 3 stars, it's not because it's a "bad game", 3 stars means "average" and if you're assessing the game objectively that's what it is. It should have been a 39.99 XBLA title for what's in it (or what isn't to be more precise). Below I'll do my best to outline why I felt this purchase wasn't worth the AAA price I paid for it (I dl'ed the GoD version, it seems every time I do that I wish I hadn't so I could at least resell the game on here). In listing things below I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, because the game is definite fan service, and not just to people who love the show.
Pros:
The game is as pristine graphically as a Southpark game can or should get, it really does look like you're watching an episode of the show which helps with a weird sense of immersion.
The character creator is like the graphics, everything it really /needs/ to be, would I have enjoyed more options? Yes. But I'm a paper doll whore, for your majority audience it's just fine.
Dialog and content are fantastic, I'm pretty sure the language and exchanges are every bit as foul and hilarious as anything that was in the movie and there is something inherently funny about 6-7th graders dropping f-bombs every 10 seconds. The characters are exactly as they should be and if you're up to date on the show you'll be right at home understanding everything, if you're a little behind don't fret, it's not really that important but you might be put off a little here or there.
Subjective take material
The class system is largely useless, pick whatever you want at the beginning, while I didn't role one of everything to thoroughly test my hypothesis here, I did play to level 10+ in two classes and it taught me that no matter what the role, you're stacking armor and aiming for 2 handed weapons that do a lot of damage, weapon "strap ons" function like gems in other popular RPG's and let you further tune a character to function in any role but it's all about survival early off. This may not bother a lot of people, but it did me, I like the holy trinity of rpg's (and the hybrids) as much as I love the "free evolution" system that's become more popular nowadays so I'm not really complaining so much as saying I wish they'd just let you select a tier 1-4 power that you want if they were going to make it like that.
There is no squad, don't go into this thinking you're going to be rocking a party of 4 characters and beating up other neighborhood kids in old school FF bliss with your fighters up front and archers, mages and clerics in the back. There are only two characters from your "team" on screen at any time, you and whatever follower you have active. Again, this may not have bothered a lot of people, it did me. I would have rather had more control over my party, gearing them, tuning their leveling progress and developing a tactical approach to battles that required some thought. All you will do in the game is heal yourself first, attack, heal yourself first, attack, drink a power potion, attack, repeat. It's tiring after a while... Which really brings us to...
Cons
The mechanics are by far and large the most significant "fun killer" in the game, to the point I found it really didn't matter how easy the game got at later levels it just sucks having to live inside of a system that's so heavily based around button presses and timing. You can't have more than 2-3 pints while playing this or it'll stoke your rage into a billowing inferno of controller clenching fury as enemies constantly pummel you with 4-7 hit combos that trounce you out of half your hit points if you miss all of the active blocks, and a third whether you block all of them or just miss 2. See, even if you're perfect on the blocks, you're going to lose large chunks of life at end of every enemy attack string, which is frustrating and renders an irritating system that much more irritating. While I only died 3 times in my run, on whatever the native difficulty is, those deaths were absurdly cheap and there were over two dozen additional encounters that saw me come within a mouse fart of dying over the same nonsense.
Later in the game you have a ton of armor, hit points are plentiful and your attacks do so much damage that you generally wipe the opposing force out before they get a turn... which made it really surprise me that at max level with the best gear I could find I was nearly wiped out by a troop of bats in the sewer all because the clipping system didn't allow me to get the drop on them as I furiously hit the attack button chasing behind, then once combat began they got a continuous string of attacks that killed Butters and left my toon with a very literal 3 HP.
I digress.
The open world approach is very much like a lot of Japanese rpg's over the years, encounters are not random, you see the enemies roaming around or doing whatever and if you get too close they give chase, or you can stun them and run up to them to initiate the encounter. The clunky mechanics cause a lot of frustration here as you will regularly find your weapon swinging through the mobs as you're trying to start combat, just to have them come out of the applied stun and hit you, which opens the melee with them having a full first turn. I need to stress again, that even in high level gear you can potentially be wiped out by relatively basic enemies if your timing is too far off.
While I'm sure plenty of people who read this will take some sort of offence and claim I just suck at the game because it wasn't a problem for them, even if that was true and I did "just suck" I have a lot of friends that are /really/ good at these kinds of games, in a party last night on XBL while we were all chatting and playing TSoT together every one of us blurted out strings of obscenities and cursed the mechanics at least once every few minutes. It's not in my head, I just keep track of how these experiences impact my experience with the game, which is too say, if it happens too regularly I take issue with the design.
The mechanics become further aggravating when you're somewhat obtusely thrust into an unforgiving minigame where the slightest mishandling of the instructions means you have to repeat THE ENTIRE SCENARIO. To breathe a little brevity into my long winded post here, this somewhat ties into the map and lack of quest support. Expect to get lost, expect to lose a unnecessary time aimlessly wandering the streets of Southpark because you don't know what to do or where exactly to go. I'm sure some hipster will happily go on about how "that's how games should be", and to that I say look, I'm an old guy, I grew up on the Atari and NES. I'm also not one of those people that fondly remembers wasting an afternoon trekking from one side of a map to the other because I had no idea what to do and wanted to progress, or dying at the end of a rough level just to have to do it all over, or even boss fights that went in phases with cheapskate mechanics that present a "got him down to 100 hit points and he just refilled his health... then he did it again!" kind of scenario fondly.
I like that so many games have streamlined the amount of time I have to spend on useless tasks, the occasional exceptional game makes you enjoy these very same experiences, such as the Mass Effect franchise or any of the Elder Scrolls games and that is exactly why I'm stating this game does *not* deserve the AAA price tag.
While I should list this in the subjective gripes, I'm going to put it here because I can.
Somewhat mindless content despite the usually fun delivery... Some of you who read this will know what I'm referring to, others will not. Southpark is a lot like Fight Club when it comes to the majority of the material's fans missing the point. The vast majority of people who like Southpark do so for the crude antics and fart jokes, I do so because those tools are used to tackle relevant social and political issues with insightful as well as realistic ideologies offered as thought food through an engaging manner that speaks to a broad audience... I don't like how that sentence reads, but you get it or you don't. The bottom line is that there is none of that here, it feels like the early seasons of the show, lots of dick and fart jokes with very little substance. It made the chuckles feel a little hollow as I started realizing this really was "just a brand game". In further defense, I labeled this a solid con because I think any true fan of Matt and Trey's work on the whole will be a little let down at the vacancy this omission creates.
Finally, there's the time...
Even being lost several times and completing all the side quests, I beat the game in just under 18 hours. I doubt I will finish a second playthrough because there's no real incentive and the content isn't enough fun to warrant a replay on its own. I might regale a friend or two at the bar that won't play the game with a few of the absurdities within TSoT, or how I can't believe they "got away with this or that", but in the end it's a one off.
In summary my opinion is this, 65$ is a steep price for what is overall such a lackluster offering when there is competition guaranteeing you 40-100+ hours of superior entertainment experience at the same price point. I work hard for my money and have high expectations for a near 70$ media purchase. I could have just as well spent that on a night out with the lady and gotten much more fulfillment out of the expenditure. While it's the rare game that meets all my expectations and the even rarer one exceeds them, The Stick of Truth fell miserably short in totality and it outright fails if you remove the novelty of the Southparkian antics. I give it a solid C+ and warn that I think the savvy media consumer should wait until it's lowered in price, or just rent it. | video-games_xbox |
Great Overall Game - Terrible Dead Space Game. I was very surprised as soon as I started playing, in both a positive and negative sense.
Looking at it from an overall game perspective, dropping the element of it being a sequel, it is a fun game. The Co-op and weapon crafting are two wonderful concepts. But I find it annoying that have to spend $120 to do this, as you can only play Co-op online. The weapon crafting is great because you never feel limited to one gun, you can mix elements of electricity, plasma cutters, and fire into one weapon. Lots of action, some puzzles, and creative use of outer-space, although in an inconsistent manner. All in all, it felt like a new product created by someone who was a fan of Dead Planet, Dead Space, Call of Duty, and Gears of Wars, and wanted to fuse them together.
As a Dead Space game, it is a completely different story. I was always told in storytelling, that if every moment is a big moment then none of it is. Throughout the game you feel drowned in enemies. Sure your heart rate goes up, but shortly becomes the norm as enemies pile on in large numbers over and over. I would become so furious with the constant flood of enemies that I was never given a real chance to be afraid. The open sequence is rather confusing, it is bright and colorful. A futuristic utopia, flying cars and bright buildings, but the story focuses on civilization being scarce on resources or perhaps I missed something. Isaac becomes a very take charge leader, pulls out one-liners here and there, and feels almost in no way identical to his presence in Dead Space 1. Some new changes make the game feel entirely too easy. The bots, online purchases, glitches, and the hordes of enemies seem to be as strong as say 2 or 3 enemies in previous titles. I will say I was very visually pleased with the deep space elements and events. The body temp gauge gave a new element to work through. New bosses and monsters were given a lot of focus in their design, while previous ones seemed like they were watered down. The whole concept of Dead Space was really thrown away to fit the style of Gears or CoD. I am still a huge fan of the series, but I don't think I will be pre-ordering Dead Space 4. | video-games_xbox |
Tons of fun from a game that started a rhythm revolution. The Good: Songs we wish were in Guitar Hero, All the instruments respond well, easy assembly, multiplayer is a blast, realistic character interactions, frequent song updates
The Bad: Graphics aren't very good, a lot of poor songs, very easy for GH vets, drums can be too hard sometimes
The answer is no. I would pay, at the most, $140, but I have my reasons. First off the songs aren't nearly as good as any of the Guitar Hero games, but there are about a dozen that I've been waiting to see on GH since the first game. These include Don't Fear the Reaper, Blitzkrieg Pop, Learn to Fly, Dani California, Enter Sandman, Here it Goes Again, and a few others. The other songs just aren't that good such as Maps, In Bloom, Main Offender, Go With the Flow and pretty much all the rest. There are many number of downloadable tracks, but a lot of them aren't worth the 2 bucks a pop. 30 Seconds to Mars, All American-Rejects? I mean c'mon there are better songs. You do have bands like Metallica, Boston, and The Pretenders but it's the lesser known crappy songs that you skip on your CD player. There are some good songs to download like All the Small Things, More Than a Feeling, Still Alive, Call Me and a few others.
The meat of this game though is the drums. Yes, it's fun and easy too learn...I think. You have the four colored pads (same order as the controller I didn't even have to memorize where the colors were) and the kick pedal is orange. It's just like drums. You'll have to start out on Easy, but soon you'll make it too Hard, and if you're talented, Expert. The guitar is better than the Guitar Hero controller but a long shot. The buttons are set into the guitar and it feels real, it's bigger, and more sturdy. The strum button doesn't click either! You also have an effect switch so when you go into Overdrive (think Star Power) you can have effects like Wah Wah, Flanger, Reverb etc. A great new feature is the freestyle mode.
Every so often when you play drums (when your Overdrive is full) you can just play any notes you want. Once you get used to the drums you can throw in some pretty cool licks. When you play the guitar you get blue sections which are solos and you can use the lower set of buttons and press away without strumming. I found this really hard actually since going from top to bottom takes too long and I failed songs that way. When you play as the singer you can tap along to the beat during solos and you can hear your own voice through the speakers...this is either good or bad depending on you.
The singing is just like Karaoke Revolution. Sing to the pitch so the needle hits the lines, read the lyrics and you're good. This game is also a blast online especially when you hear people sing. Sometimes I laughed so much I failed songs! Hey! Speaking of failing, when you're in multiplayer you get three chances when you fail and once someone else does Overdrive it'll bring you back. Along with all this you create your own character. The thing is pretty robust. You can add tattoos, change hair, color it, you can pick from 4 different clothing styles, Punk, Rock, Gothic, and Metal. The graphics are also alright, but nothing special.
While not nearly as good as GH3 the game is more realistic. You have crowds that sing along, the band characters have more animations and sometimes the guitarist will lean in and sing with the singer, the drummer plays more than just two notes (he actually plays all the notes like on a real guitar). All of this just makes things great. One final thing, Guitar Hero vets will blow through the guitar section on Expert without breaking a sweat. It's honestly not hard at all. Wait until the price drops and Rock Band is a great purchase. | video-games_xbox |
The Girlfriend Review. Sometimes, being a good girlfriend means sitting on the couch and watching him play a game or playing a game together. I'm a moderate gamer; the new controls are generally more complicated than I'm willing to commit to. He is a hard core gamer. Some games are easier to watch than others, and some are easier to play. This review is not for the hard core gamer. This review if for the girlfriend (or boyfriend, who am I to judge?) that sits on the couch and watches.
From the start, this game is somewhat frustrating. The female lead, Aya, comes off as bi-polar and a bit crazy. The next set of characters to join your party are child twins, Rico and Rucha. I don't think it would be possible for the two of them to not be annoying. Aya gets a little less psycho as the game goes on, and the characters improve drastically from team you start off with, even though there is plenty of annoying and crazy to come. But, it's not the annoying characters that make this game so frustrating.
You would swear that save points are expensive to make, at least if you go by this game's total lack of them. It's one thing to have to fight a boss more than once, but it's a whole other level of annoying when you have to replay the 20 minutes to get that boss every time you die. Oh, and don't get me started on that stupid magic fog swamp. I get it, it's a puzzle and it's supposed to be hard, but it shouldn't be so hard that it makes you want to quit the game. These small hour long detours in frustration are nothing compared to the agony of the final battle. I don't think I'm giving away too much if I say you have to fight about half a dozen moderately difficult enemies before you hit a save point. After several, and I mean several, attempts of being thwarted at various rooms, we did something we both loathe. We left the castle and fought random enemies until we leveled up. That was three or four hours of not very much fun. Alas, it did work, and we were able to finish the game.
We took longer than some people did to finish this game, it timed in at about 35 hours, but because of the several failed attempts, I'm sure we played it for over 60. The game was a great effort, and at times the story intense enough for me to not want to turn off the game, but overall there was something lacking. I know there were several side quests we completely missed, but I don't think that is the reason I didn't feel satisfied when it was done. The game was lacking something, but I can't figure out exactly what. | video-games_xbox |
An Entertaining B-Horror Comedy. It's Desperado meets Evil Dead 2, with the gameplay of Resident Evil 4 and the humor of No More Heroes.
If that sounds good to you, then you'll enjoy this game.
Story: 8/10
The Lord of the Underworld kidnaps the girlfriend of demon slayer, Garcia Hotspur (Yeah, that is his name) and drags her to hell. Garcia and his floating skull buddy, Johnson, venture into hell to rescue Paula. Johnson was a demon a long time ago, but now he has the ability to transform into different upgradeable phallic weapons and serves as Garcia's portable arsenal. Garcia ventures through the treacherous levels of hell to try and save the woman he loves. This ends up being pretty entertaining because hell is a really quirky place. Eyeball chomping babies guard doors, braying goat heads light up levels, and some levels are actually giant naked women.
Gameplay: 8/10
This is a 3rd Person action adventure game with an over the shoulder camera. The aiming is quite touchy, but you can adjust the camera and cursor speeds on the Options Menu. I'd recommend slowing it down just a bit because it's tough to pull of head shots. Garcia and run, dive roll, do a quick 180 turn, use an arsenal of weapons, and shoot light out of his Johnson. In hell, darkness actually drains your health and makes demons invincible. But one shot of Garcia's Johnson on a mounted goat head, and the room becomes illuminated. The darkness clings to some enemies, making them invulnerable, but a blast of Johnson's light removes the darkness. Once the demons are vulnerable, they can be attacked with a melee weapon, a pistol, a shotgun, a machine gun, or a grenade launcher. Of course these have colorful names like Hot Boner or Big Boner... because the guns shoot bones. You can upgrade your weapons by finding Gems and there is a traveling merchant that appears in the game. Here, you can cash in white gems for health potions (booze), ammo, or gun upgrades.
There are typical zombies and larger sub bosses that all take a bit of strategy to kill. You may have to shoot them with light to expose a weak point, then attack the weak point as rapidly as possible to inflict the maximum amount of damage. And there are some pretty large boss battles, which are pretty fun.
Levels: 7/10
The levels are hit or miss. Throughout most of the game, you run through gore drenched towns and attack zombies, similar to recent Resident Evil games. The difference here is the comedy. Johnson and Garcia are pretty funny guys and they'll have you laughing from time to time. So these levels are entertaining. There are some levels similar to the old school 2D side scrolling shooters where Garcia looks like a paper doll and floats to the right and you have to shoot enemies. These are pretty bad. There is a bit of trial and error here and the bullets come from the tip of Garcia's gun, instead of the base. This makes it impossible to shoot demons that get too close to him. If a demon touches Garcia, he rapidly takes damage and will die in 2 seconds. This is frustrating because demons jump out of the top, side, and bottom of the screen and if you get two on you, you are dead.
The checkpoints are also not in the best areas. If you die at a boss, you'll respawn down a hallway and have to go through all of the unskippable cutscenes again. This can get really annoying if you die a few times in the same spot. I'm shocked that there are so few checkpoints at the beginning of the Boss Fights.
Graphics: 6/10
The game looks about 3 or 4 years old. But it can get away with this because it's a parody of a B-Horror film which are notoriously low budget.
Sound: 9/10
The music is pretty cool and the voice acting is really entertaining. Garcia and Johnson will keep you laughing.
Replay Value: 3/10
The replay value is limited. There are 3 difficulty levels, but if you replay the game, you don't get to keep your weapons and the cutscenes are not skippable. To make matters worse, you've heard all of the jokes already.
Maturity: Adults
Gore, nudity, swearing, violence, demons, hell, torture... No kid should play this. It's an interactive gore drenched B-Horror Film with boobs and corpses... and occasionally corpses with boobs.
Overall: 7.5/10
This is a fun game that will take you about 8 hours to finish. You will laugh if you like crude humor or quirky heroes. You'll enjoy the game if you like the Resident Evil style shooters. This game would have been much better if some of the gameplay mechanics were brought up to current standards.
Buy it if you love stuff like Evil Dead 2.
Buy it if you like Suda 51 (No More Heroes)
Buy it if you are a necropheliac... naked corpses are everywhere!
Rent it if you have about 8 hours to finish the campaign.
Rent it if you just want to blow through the campaign. There are no multiplayer modes and replay value is limited.
Avoid it if you don't like d*ck jokes or crude humor.
Avoid it if you are a graphics snob.
Avoid it if you don't like the Resident Evil style gameplay.
If you liked the humor here and have a Wii, try No More Heroes 1 and 2.
If you like the gameplay, check out Resident Evil 5, Dead Space 1 or 2, and Left 4 Dead 2. | video-games_xbox |
Bleh. I have both the PS4 and Xbox One and I find myself underwhelmed by MS's entry into the new consoles. First and foremost, the controller feels like handling a whale's tail: big and bulky, reminiscent of the original Xbox One, nothing really new, and nowhere near the precision (on the sticks) as the PS4. The PS4 controller absolutely blows the Xbox One's controller away! Honestly, if not for the Kinect, the Xbox One isn't even worth having unless you really have to have one to continue a favorite series like Halo or get exclusives (if they ever come out) like Titan Fall. Obviously nothing beats Kinect for "your body is the controller" but other than that, I haven't turned the Xbox One on since I got it because I've been too busy playing Resogun on the PS4! IMO that's the only game worth playing on the new consoles right now. Hopefully things will change but one thing likely will not change: if you're into true gaming where you want a next gen controller, the Xbox One falls short. If you love the Kinect capability and use that a lot, it might be worth it but even there, having played Just Dance 2014, I don't see the new Kinect as being any more accurate than the old one. Not sure if it's over-hyped or the new games just haven't made full use of it yet.
In addition, the Xbox One was shipped without DD 5.1 capability (over optical) and as of this writing on Dec 13, the post launch update to support that is still not here and I'm hearing "early 2014" now. Pretty inexcusable as far as I'm concerned. It also offers none of the media streaming options like the Xbox 360 such as Media Center Extender or even any capability to see your media files on your Windows networked PC's. Honestly, the whole thing at least at launch time feels pretty lame, hence the 3 star review. Feels like it was rushed to launch. I should have stuck to my guns and not gotten one until one of the games that I was really looking forward to on this system was already available: Titan Fall. As it stands now, it collects dust. I already have Black Ops Ghosts on the PS4 and I'd rather REplay Resogun than play that anyway. To each their own I guess. | video-games_xbox |
Great controller. Ill update this if I have any issues in the future. Just got the controller in yesterday.
First impressions is. The green really makes it look different which is what I was looking for, and all the components look like quality components. The green LED's are really bright and just look nice when your gaming.
The instructions may seem a little overwhelming at first for some. Its just a typed up sheet of paper and it says how everything works. But once you start going through the mods it all very easy to understand. Like I said, I just got it last night, and messed around for maybe an hour and a half playing games and almost don't need the instructions anymore.
I don't remember reading anywhere else, but it also has settings to adjust how fast you want it to quick scope, and how fast your want the rapid fire. Which I think is awesome.
In the default setting it will slow down rapid fire weapons if you have the rapid fire on. Not sure why people complain about that because you can turn it off in less then a second.
The only thing I have found is Im not sure I will like the thumb pads. They feel like they have some kind of grippy substance on them and right now it almost feels like there is dirt or grime on the thumb pads while your playing. Ill either get use to it, or Ill switch them out. This of course is just personal preferrance and the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.
All in all its a great controller, and Ill probably end up buying another one for my son.
Shipping: Alot of reviews said the shipping was really fast. Someone even said they received theirs in 2 days from coast to coast. I opted for the free shipping because of the reviews, and I wish I would have paid for the basic shipping. Mine took a week. Which isn't bad, but for some reason the tracking code they sent me said that the controller didn't ship until Thursday(I ordered it on Tuesday), and then said it was out for delivery on Friday. It continued to say out for delivery until yesterday (Tuesday) when it was actually delivered.
None of that was their fault of course. And it was probably just a glitch in the shipping service (FedEx). I just wanted to let people know. | video-games_xbox |
Think GTA, just replace the guns with slingshots and cars with bicycles. It took me a long time to finally sit down and play this game because I simply thought it was a "kid's version of GTA". And to be honest, that's what it pretty much is....but it's fun as hell! Instead of hitting the streets taking down drug dealers and the mob you're storming the halls of a local boarding school taking out every clique who crosses you and having immense fun doing it.
The premise may sound pretty childish as a sub par rendition of a GTA story but it's actually very fun and interesting, as Rockstar has not really developed a sandbox game quite like this. There's many reused devices from the GTA games (such as getting busted and losing your weapons or mission markers) but at the same time there's enough unique things in it distract you from them.
Graphic-wise, I think this one of the more beautiful games Rockstar has released on the 360. If you have an HDTV, you can really appreciate this, as everything looks much more colorful and vibrant than the regular SD version. However, whether you play it in HD or not, it does look nice.
The story is pretty straightforward, as you'll have to run around the school doing missions for each of the school's main cliques who will eventually grow to respect you as you do more missions for them. Admittedly, it is not a long game but the missions are fun enough and vary in difficulty and length to provide some variety. This version benefits by having even more missions than the PS2 version, so that increases the longevity by a bit.
The biggest thing I look for in games these days besides length would be replay value and to be honest, this is probably the weakest aspect of the game. Once you complete the game, there isn't too much to do besides running around the school and town causing havoc. There are small things to do like bicycle races, paper routes, yearbook photos, and other miscellaneous tasks to do but none of them require much time. As mentioned before, running around at any given time causing trouble can prove to be a great source of amusement but that can get old real quick.
Overall, I give it a 4 out of 5, as its great in everything but is ultimately too short of a game and doesn't have much replay value to merit a perfect score. If you love the GTA games, I highly recommend at least renting it if the concept still makes you hesitate. If you haven't played a GTA game, by all means don't let that discourage you at this game can be appreciated by anyone. | video-games_xbox |
What a real stick should be! TE.. waste of time. Pros:
- Competitive price point vs. TE SFIV Stick
- Actually in stock (?? Not for long at this rate)
- True arcade quality components and construction
> Sanwa JLF Joystick (Square Gate/Top Notch!)
> Hori Buttons (Average quality/Slightly loose)
> Size and Heft Make it Perfect (Lap/Desk play)
> Extremely Durable Construction
- If you love to mod/customize this is for you
> Easy to remove back/front plates
> Any Snap-In buttons work great
> Can add custom graphics if desired (Check Shoryuken forums for templates)
- Headset jack/Guide for XBOX Live
> Careful not to miss the cable clips included in packaging
- Wired Design works on XBOX and PC! (MAME Anyone!?)
Cons:
- Hori Buttons aren't quite Sanwa quality
> Button color arrangement is a little weird but can be remedied
- Hori's packaging of this stick is NOT ideal
> 2 Egg-crate style side pieces
> Nothing really covers/pads the stick (Mine was fine however)
- As far as scratches go, don't forget to peel off the protective film from the top. Film scratches easily, top does not.
Summary:
With a few cheap button upgrades this stick can be >= ANY other high quality arcade stick. For about 75% of gamers stock buttons will work perfectly. If your holding out for a TE stick.. DONT. The SFIV TE stick does include some very nice components out of the box but doesn't compare in size/weight to the HRAP. Some might be disappointed to discover that, underneath, the TE's officially licensed graphics are just a sheet of paper-like material just like other arcade tops. Also, there are scattered reports of issues with the Mad Catz TE stick. (However, to be expected)
I've had no delay, button sticking, or general response issues with about 20+ hours of SFIV so far. After using this stick the Hori EX2 and Mad Catz SFIV SE stick seem like toys. However, either one of those could make a good backup stick.
Bottom Line:
4 Stars.. -1 for crappy packaging by Hori and mid-grade buttons.
Pricey but cheaper and more accessible than the TE stick. Also, easy to mod for adventurous types. Worth every single cent. This will please ANY and EVERY fight fan. | video-games_xbox |
Fun for a while, but ultimately disappointing. Every time a Command and Conquer game has appeared, a new iteration of its brighter, shiner, much stupider cousin, the Red Alert series, has rapidly followed. With Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars proving to be a big hit in 2007, the news that Red Alert 3 would be making an appearance in late 2008 wasn't exactly a major surprise.
Red Alert 3 opens towards the end of Red Alert 2, with the Allies about to overrun Moscow. In a last-ditch gambit, the Soviet leadership time-travels back to 1927 and kills Albert Einstein, after he had executed Hitler in the original Red Alert (thus ensuring WW2 never happened, the core premise of the Red Alert series) but before he started developing high-tech weaponry for the Allied cause. Upon returning to their home time, the Soviet leadership discovers that they have proven victorious and driven the Allies from the European mainland. However, they also discover that, rather than joining the Allies as in the original timeline, Japan has become an independent nation, the Empire of the Rising Sun, and forged a vast and powerful war machine which it has now unleashed on both the Allies and Soviets. With no nuclear weapons to hold them at bay, the Empire seems poised to take control of the entire globe.
Red Alert 3 is a throwback to the good old days of the earlier Red Alert games, throwing out the tighter narrative focus and sequential campaigns that Tiberium Wars brought in and reverting to having each of the three campaigns in the game take place in an alternate history to the others. For example, one of the Japanese missions has you racing to defend the Empire's colony at Pearl Harbour from a surprise Allied naval assault (irony!), an event not mentioned or replicated in the Allied or Soviet campaigns, which is a bit odd. However, those used to the prior Red Alert games are used to this by now, so it is not a major issue.
Unfortunately, whilst Tiberium Wars proved to be the best Command and Conquer game to date, with a tight storyline, fast-paced combat and doing a sterling job of updating the geriatric SAGE engine, Red Alert 3 is not as successful. The game engine is looking increasingly ancient these days, especially when compared even to the two-year-old Company of Heroes, and the bright, primary colour scheme of Red Alert 3 doesn't play to it as well as the darker, muted C&C3 aesthetic. The exception is the new water system, which is fantastic but also system-intensive, with even more powerful machines likely to stutter during busy naval battles. There is also disappointment with the unit roster: the Allied and Soviet unit selection is mostly just copied over from Red Alert 2, with a few new units thrown in.
On the plus side of things, the new Japanese faction is innovative, with many units lifted directly from anime, such as the mecha which can transform from a ground robot to a fighter, which seems to directly inspired by the Valkyrie from Macross (aka the Veritech from Robotech). In addition, several of the Japanese cut scenes use music cues which seem to be heavily inspired by Ghost in the Shell's soundtrack. This new faction requires a totally different approach from the Allies and Soviets, and their part of the campaign proves to be the most challenging and interesting.
The campaign itself is delivered through the familiar mix of briefings and FMV. An all-star cast leads the way, with Tim Curry as the Soviet Premier, Jonathan Pryce as the Allied Field Marshal Bingham and George Takei as the Japanese Emperor Yoshiro. The higher quality of acting means the FMV side of things is not quite as ludicrously camp as Red Alert 2, but the story is still extremely daft, filled with plot holes, military impossibilities (how the hell did the Japanese get to Stalingrad?) and, for some reason, an apparent reliance by all three sides on attractive young female military advisers. None of this is exactly new to seasoned Red Alert vets, however. Suffice to say that the tradition of silliness in the spirit of the prior Red Alert games is carried on here.
All in all, Red Alert 3 (***) is fun and fast-paced, but it seems a bit too contrived compared to its forebears. The game isn't quite as intense and furious as C&C3 gets in multiplayer, and the storyline isn't far off from being a comedy, meaning you don't get as much emotional investment in it, the games or the characters. For knockabout entertainment, Red Alert 3 suffices but it won't be dragging RTS fans away from Company of Heroes multiplayer for very long. The game is out now on PC (UK, USA) and X-Box 360 (UK, USA).
A Note on DRM: The PC version of Red Alert 3 is protected by SecuROM, the same digital-rights-management software that previously blighted Spore and Mass Effect. It requires an internet connection for the game to work even in single-player and the game is limited to five 'activations'. EA has not been forthcoming on what constitutes an 'activation' but experiments by players have shown that even simply changing a graphics card can use up an activation. After a chorus of complaints, the latest patch allows the game owner to de-authorize the game prior to carrying out any modifications to their PC, so they don't use up an activation, but it is still a hassle for players. Naturally, all of this proved totally unnecessary as the game was hacked and leaked onto the Internet a week before its official release date. | video-games_xbox |
Test Drive Unlimited is the BEST driving game ever. Let me begin by saying that I TOTALLY LOVE TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED!!!
TDU is the best and possibly the largest driving experience on Xbox 360. In terms of sheer ambition and potential - it's number one. This is a true next generation game,
In TDU, the only time you're out of your car is in when you're featuring in a cut scene. You don't walk or run anywhere. You drive. It's Grant Theft Auto without the theft. It's World of Warcraft without the Warcraft (or nerds). And it's Hawaii 5-0 with extra juice. There's over 1000 miles of roads in this game, and if you want to be ranked up there with the best in the world, you'll eventually cover every one of them.
As you may have gathered, this game is not your typical driving game. In TDU, you raise money to spend on cars, clothes, houses and motorbikes. Your goal - the hallowed rank of Champion. Getting there from lowly Rookie status doesn't just rely on accumulating cash, rather it's tied elegantly to your Xbox 360 achievements. Win enough challenges, buy enough cars/bikes/accomodation, do enough missions, and travel enough miles, and you gradually unlock those precious points. And as long as you're connect to Xbox Live - all the while you're doing this, you're immersed in a virtual Oahu along with countless other racers.
Typically, successful games fall into two types. First, an outstanding execution of a single concept. They don't pretend to be all things to everyone. They ensure that they are maximum fun, and gain praise by being the best, or most rewarding in their field. The other type of successful game is the Big Idea. This type of game may not have the specific, focused excellence of the first type of game, but they do a lot of things, very well. Classic examples: Grand Theft Auto III onwards, World of Warcraft, and now - Test Drive Unlimited.
I've been to Hawaii twice.... Once on vacation with a bunch of friends several years ago and once this past weekend. In short, the second time around was in TDU and it was even better than real life...
Test Drive Unlimited manages to deliver a fun racing game that combines a worthwhile single-player experience with an even better online multiplayer mode. While the cars don't control realistically and motorcycles feel slightly awkward, the wonderful terrain and the entertaining racing challenges make this an Xbox 360 game racing enthusiasts will definitely enjoy. It is easily one of the most creative introductions to what could be the start of a racing MMO, the online multiplayer aspect simply replaces AI with real players in the massive gaming world. You can challenge other gamers or compete in a ranked match. You can even host your own unique multiplayer challenge edited and created by you. In short, this is the reason you'll start dreaming about burning rubber. | video-games_xbox |
The BEST First Person Shooter out there, period. I was a former PC gamer, until I grew tired of the fact of having to update my hardware every year, which brings along a huge price tag, of having to download drivers, and having to worry about installation problems!! That's why a year ago, I was willing to give up great graphics and performance for the single fact that in a console you just plug the thing to a socket, plug it to any normal TV and you can go on and play. My main area of gaming was FPS's, I have played any major FPS since the old days of Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Doom 2, Quake, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, Alien Vs Predator, etc. I had too much fun with this games, but I always had the sensation that something was missing, I always wanted to share my hapinness with a friend, and somehow I was never hooked into online playing. Until I heard and read, and read all over again about this great game "Halo", at first I didn't buy the hype because I have seen many FPS games out there and so many of them just didn't satisfy me. But I gave it a chance (and bought an Xbox because of it) specially after I traded PC gaming for console gaming (which is so much comfortable), and I was so very pleased and happy to have bought Halo, despite all you may have read about this game nothing comes closer to your own experience with it. Its gameplay is almost as a religious experience, really, one of the things that I always wanted to do was to play cooperatively with a friend in the story mode (rather than against a friend), and you can not experience Halo completely until you take a friend and play co-op, it's just tons of fun, hours will go by and you will be stuck there without being able to do anything else. I personally had some problems with my wife because of it. The other thing that I find great about this game is the fact that the marine soldiers that fight with you really participate and make a difference, that's something I have not experienced in any other FPS game before, you end up thinking "where is my squad" or "I have to take care of my men", whoever has watched "starship troopers" or "Aliens" will know what I am talking about, it is about the feeling of combat, and Halo is a great Combat Simulator!!! Besides these great features you have the fact that you get to drive some vehicles, a feature that it is not so innovative as some people has mentioned because I have seen it before in other FPS games, but in this game it becomes part of the combat simulation so it helps to build up the atmosphere. The graphics are great, but nothing that would surprise very much to a PC gamer, but anyways, I think that this game is first generation Xbox game so I would expect Halo 2 to deliver a greater graphic experience than Halo (so God please deliver us Halo 2!!).
The one thing I don't like about this game is that it is kind of short, you know, what am I going to play if I don't have Halo? Well, I am going to try the legendary mode and see how I do.
Finally, this game is a must for any FPS gamer, it makes worth buying an Xbox just for itself, so go for it and experience it for yourself, and take a friend with you and you will know what I am talking about. | video-games_xbox |
First and LAST time I buy a PDP product. I bought these primarily for the PC to replace my recently dead Logitech 930's which had served me so well albeit the glitchy/buggy Logitech Gaming Software. The advertised feature that they would also work with my PS4 was what justified the pricey cost for me. Here was my experience on the PC...
I connected the headset as per the instructions, and right away some of my other USB devices stopped functioning; reason: too much USB power draw. So, if you have many USB devices already connected to your PC then you might need an additional, independently powered USB hub just to power these headsets as well. Next, I attempted to test the headphones via Windows Sound; took me over an hour to actually get sound outputting on these headphones -- and I am no novice at PC's or sound devices in any way (hugely frustrating experience). Once that was accomplished, I did a playback sound test via TeamSpeak 3 - a program I use a lot; some mid-range frequency in that playback always crackled horribly bad which are these headphones as that test playback is crystal clear on all other playback devices tested. Lastly, I launched TeamSpeak and asked some friends how I sounded; their response: excessively loud and as if I were speaking through an empty soup can, only grittier. One annoying thing about the microphone is that it is way too sensitive and seems to pick up all ambient sound; it was so sensitive that if I turned the headset volume to maximum I would hear horrendous feedback. However, the most annoying thing about the microphone is the complete lack of sidetone volume adjustment; it seems that PDP uses the chat/game mixer for your sidetone volume as well and the volume level for me was so high it was distracting -- largely because of the very noticeable delay in my voice when mixed back into the headphones.
Needless to say, I never even bothered to try these headphones on the PS4, I was too busy processing the Amazon merchandise return and boxing them back up. I would only recommend this product to the hard of hearing and those few persons that I do not like very much. For almost a $200 price tag, this product is just a very bad joke. I would give this product ZERO stars if that were allowed. | video-games_xbox |
Reasonably Good. I can tell you right now, this game will not live up to the hype. It cannot possibly live to the hype. The hype suggests that the game should arrive with sexual favors and pudding as a feature, and no game is as good as the reviewers would have you believe Bioshock is. Surprise, surprise - the game has a number of issues that keep it from being the transcendental achievement the press want it to be, but that doesn't stop it from being a very solid game, worth your $60 investment.
Let's start with the basics. This is ostensibly a first person shooter, in the family of Halo, but owing a little bit more to Oblivion and Deus Ex so far as implementation goes. Or F.E.A.R., I guess, though that one had multiplayer. Which, shock of shocks, is one of the major knocks on the game. This game was never designed or balanced for multiplayer use, and, as such, there's no multiplayer. No deathmatch, no leaderboards, no team sports, no cooperative. To preserve the atmosphere of the game and to produce a better single-player title, the multiplayer was never intended to happen. If you cannot tolerate a game without multiplayer (I personally don't see how anybody could tolerate one, as I agree with Yahtzee!'s assessment of the Xbox Live community in general), then this game is not for you.
As far as the actual gameplay goes, a great amount of puffery and chest-beating has been made with respect to the RPG aspect, but I honestly don't see it here. There isn't really any kind of character development or progression - the plasmids are merely guns that work with your left hand and don't have a trigger, and the tonics function basically like equip-able items in other games - and, overall, you don't get the RPG "feel" from this game. The feel is, more than anything, reminiscent of Doom 3 (to which it has been compared), with a dark, moody setting and some very cleverly disguised monster closeting (i.e. instead of just popping out of the wall, some monsters will walk into a room behind you after you go looking for something and start playing around in the water).
I'll admit it - after about half of the game, I was pretty bored. You run through the stock of enemies (who don't behave in nearly as intelligent a fashion as implied) pretty early on and most of the game is spent shooting the same types of critters with the same set of voices and the same general behaviors. While the environment is constantly interesting to poke around in, the adversaries are lamentably not. Hacking also plays a major role in the game, which would be great if the mini-game didn't 1) arbitrarily decide that you just plain lose sometimes; and 2) take thirty seconds to play through on its easiest difficulty. While you can work your way up to not having to hack a couple of common targets, you'll be playing Pipe Dream right up through the end of the game. Pretty tedious.
So what's so good about the game? Well, for starters, it's a shooter I finished, which is saying something, because I become terminally bored with just about any of them after about the halfway point, for mostly the same reasons as those I've listed here. This one kept my attention all the way through to the end. The game isn't overly long (a problem many games have - sixty hours is not just right; it is far too much for an old man like me with a job and a house and a personal life), which is a plus for me. The voice acting is the best I've personally ever heard in a video game - so good that you don't notice that it's voice acting in most cases. The artistic direction is pretty good as well, capturing some of the sixties architecture.
With respect to the source material and authenticity, there's some quibbles to be had. The guns and ammunition you find are distinctly more 1920s than 1950s, the music is mostly big band and crooners, and while the game might be considered reminiscent of Objectivism, the philosophy is way, way too far off to be considered any kind of a critique, or even a reasonable examination. The Atlas Shrugged vibe is, however, carried off with aplomb, for which the art director in particular deserves some praise.
This is a pretty great game. I played it, finished it, and am wondering whether it would be worth it (news flash - it won't) to go back through on Hard to get the final achievement I'm lacking. It's worth anybody's $60. I wouldn't pronounce it the game of the year at this point, with Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed and Rock Band and Halo 3 and any number of other AAA titles due out, but it's a good game, and a good use of the medium to turn a shooter into something other than a twitchy-flinchy-shooty-bangy-kill-a-thon and still be effective and straight-faced about it. Any game that can stir a moral reaction in its audience through its content and story is pretty solid (and you will have a moral reaction to the Little Sisters and what goes on in Rapture). I wouldn't call it art, but it's some great entertainment. | video-games_xbox |
When you don't want to read the book - watch the movie, when you don't want to watch the movies - play the game. I have never seen a Star Wars movie. I know, I should be burned at the stake. Truthfully it never really interested me a life full of pop culture references and ribs gave me a basic idea and understanding of what they were about.
So when I got this game included in a bundle with my XBox 360 I was interested to play it and possible learn a little more about the story.
That was my goal for playing it and judging if it would be successful. I couldn't have been more disappointed. Basically you drop into a bar with no explanation of controls or where you or (or even who you are!) Instead you're instantly walking around with a bunch of lego people who all look the same. Nothing in the area was able to be interacted with and none of the people would talk to you. What's even worse, I found out I could attack the people but they suddenly produced guns and tons of armored people stormed in and started attacking me.
I finally figured out I was in some sort of "HUB" area, and proceed to the door in the north west which lead to "Episode I". Some scrolling text went by in true Star Wars fashion but it didn't say anything useful. It didn't explain who I was or where I was going.
I'm suddenly dropped into a strange conference room. Without all the people I learned that I had an AI controlled partner that I could switch to, who seemed to be better than the main character. Upon attacking the chairs they would shoot out coins that I was collecting for who knows what reason. Shouldn't I be collecting LEGOs?
I played further, pushed through this level which consisted of getting a bunch of strange robots and making them stand on platforms in order to open doors and finally I was entered into a jungle level where I was saving Jabba the Hut or something. There was a huge war/invasion going on and it was pretty cool how everything was going on around me, and the enemies didn't always pay attention to me because they were doing other things.
However I still rate this game a 1 because gameplay was juvenile (walk, jump, attack, get character X who is the only one who can do Y, then switch back to character A because hes the only one who can do B) and if you were hoping, like me, for any sort of story you'll be sorely disappointed. I don't get why all the LEGO games are so critically acclaimed - maybe its meant for people who know the story of the game they're playing or maybe it is meant for children who enjoy mindlessly hitting things and getting "coins". | video-games_xbox |
Definite Solution to a problem. This is an HD cable for an Xbox 360 which doesn't have an HDMI out.
We had an Xbox 360 which went to heaven a few days after we got Call of Duty Advanced Warfare.
After a private funeral, my wife went to a local retailer (who may be the devil) that sells refurbished Xbox 360s.
She hooked it up while I was at work and shortly thereafter I received a text that she needed me to look at the setup, because the picture seemed blurry to her.
I looked at the setup and found that the cable provided by the Devil... Err... The local retailer was just a standard AV cable. The HDMI cable that I'd used for the old Xbox 360 was just sitting to the side. I attempted to plug it into the Xbox, but there was no HDMI out on the console.
I grabbed my trusty, Android powered Smartphone and harnessed the full potential of the Internet to locate this item on Amazon Prime for a reasonable price. I took a deep breath and deftly pressed the Buy with 1 click button. You could cut the tension with a knife as I waited for confirmation of my payment.
-Two Days Later-
The cable arrived in a yellow envelope. It wasn't just any envelope. It was one of those envelopes with the bubble wrap attached to the inside. The kind that makes it difficult and unfullfilling to pop the bubbles. Inside of this envelope was a clear plastic bag holding the cable I had ordered. There were no instructions. What was I going to do? There were literally seven (7) connections that could be made between the Xbox and the Television. Most of them were round, but one was large and shaped like a decapitated triangle.
I started with the large connector. It was similar to the large connector on the AV cable I was replacing, although the cable was installed off center when compared to the original. I discovered that just like the original, you cannot install it upside down. It just won't fit. I pushed pretty hard, but not so hard as to break it or the console itself. I have some experience with asymmetrical connectors so I decided to turn it around and just plug it in the other way. It fit like a glove. I also noticed there was a switch on the cable that allows you to pick HD or Standard Definition. Since I was pretty sure I was purchasing this cable to improve my family's experience with the game system, I set it to HD. Next, I proceeded to the back of the television. I used the color coding on the cables to match those on the television. There were no problems with improper rotation of the cable on these connectors. It appears that there is no top or bottom. It looked as though the installation was complete. I nearly organized the wires behind the television and sat back in the gaming chair and just admired the workmanship. This was certainly a high quality Xbox 360 installation.
I pressed the power button on the television. It make a click, then a few seconds later a message appeared saying No Signal. I nervously pressed the power button on the Xbox 360. The sound of cheap cooling fans and even cheaper optical disk and hard drives filled the room. Then, it happened. The screen turned white and the Xbox 360 logo appeared. The image was crystal clear. I can't tell the difference between the HDMI output of the old Xbox 360 (RIP, you beautiful console. You left us far too soon. You had so much more to give.) and the Component output of this cable. The sound was always just coming out of the lackluster stereo speakers of the television so the sound quality is also equivalent from the RCA connection vs the former HDMI output.
My wife and son lived happily ever after killing imaginary soldiers with imaginary weapons. | video-games_xbox |
A Halo Multiplayer Fan without x box live's Higly detailed review. I can not get over how much this disk kicks ass,1st of all you get 9. count em 9 new multiplayer maps, sure we all love zanzibar,coagualtion,ascension...etc, but those maps do tend to get old after many months of playing. luckily bungie has saved us all from becoming bored with halo 2 especially us who are live less. Although their were alot of small to medium maps they were awesome, i love the bonus movies that come with it as well the day at the beach was a great short story about the marines who were shot down in new mombosa. The killtacular video was great as well showing each of the new maps in their prime as well as giving their feelings about them. Although it dosent say it on the package their is actually 2 MORE bonus movies the original halo trailer from 2000 and the 1st halo 2 trailer ever shown from 2002. Now on to my reviews of each of the maps
1. Containment-Oh my God this map is HUGE it is set in the quarintine zone, their are 2 symmetrical bases on each side which each contain a gauss hog and a banshee and on your outside wall you get a scorpion tank blah,blah,blah thats all old newsright? well littered through out this huge map are fusion cores which create mass damage when hit, and out side each of the bases their's a little switch tower which opens the door to the base which allows vehicles in although it closes shortly after. Over all i give this map a (5/5)
2. Warlock-A small map set somewhere on delta halo this map is reminiscent of the halo 1 map wizard it was actually the basis for this map it is totally symmetrical so its fair the only noticable things on this map are the warps on each side, the grav lifts, and the active camo in the center. i give it a (3/5)
3. Turf-Ah Turf the map that had everyone hopes up for big rooftop battles and climbing atop the fallen scarab well give up those dreams because you can't there is VERY few rooftops you can get on this map, it is a lot smaller than i thought it would be this is a medium to small map depends on your view point.although this map really disappointed me it's still really good not as good as i hoped it would be but it is still a great map which was designed for the game territories great for 2 player skirmishes or even more any way i give this map a (4/5)
4. Elongation-A very small map set on a cargo ship,its not hard to see the base of this map it is none other than longest from halo 1, if you are familiar with this map you should be happy to know that the annoying holes and ladders are gone and have been replaced with ramps and slopes, but the greatest feature of this map would have to be the moving crates that go through the level believe it or not these are actually key to getting to the 2nd floor quicker.this is a really nice remake of longest i give it a (3/5)
5. Relic-Relic now this is an awesome level,set on an island in the middle of the sea of delta halo the greatest aspect of this map is the big tower in the center of the map. This map was designed for 1 flag ctf matches this map is more of a snipers haven than turf is supposedly the only complaint i have with this map is that it dosent support tanks it is definately large enough for it over all this is an awesome map a (5/5)
6. Backwash-The suprise map for me i expected this to be another run of the mill slayer map right? WRONG this map is great its set on a swamp on delta halo similar to 343 guilty spark on the halo 1 single player level i personally love this map its so foggy and strange for ONCE having the sword is a disadvantage because players can see you on the whole map normally you can't see anyone less than say 3-10 feet from you theres a tower in the center which contains a active camo and a bruteshot which is great but the center is very well lit and thats not a good thing everyone will come after you one of the greatest aspects of this level is that it actually supports 1 vehicle although the book that comes with the disk says other wise.this is one of the greatest maps in the whole map pack a (5/5)
7. Gemini-ah yes another remade level although not from halo 1 this time you have to go back to bungies early days to find this ones base it is a remake of the marathon map duality.this map was great a lot greater than i expected it would be theres warps everywhere a nice sniping perch a huge statue of a prophet in the center which is good for camping over all a great map i give it a (4/5)
8. Sanctuary-A great medium to small level this map was made for multi flag ctf, set in an outside environment theres a large temple in the center which holds an energy sword and bases on opposite ends of the maps another symmetrical map it has a nice atmosphere water falls everywhere aquaducts its a nice calming invironment to bad you have to fill it with blood and bullet holes a nice map (3/5)
9. Terminal-ah at last we reach terminal my favorite out of the whole map pack 1st of all the greatest feature is the trains which run through the center every 15-30 seconds anhilating anything in its path this is a large map set in new mombosa theres parking garages tons of sniping spots this is the best map for 1 flag ctf its awesome not so good for multiflag though the sides are very assymetrical, i love the fact that they put the sword in the center of the tracks so now its a challenge to get i love this map i give it a (5/5)
Well theres my review of the halo 2 multiplayer map pack a steal at $20.00 i definately recommend it. Especially if your x box live less like me.
Note:Also included in the map pack is an autoupdate for halo 2 that you MUST download it makes melee and grenades stronger along with the brute shot it also fixes a lot of the gliches that a lot of people were abusing. | video-games_xbox |
An occasionally annoying distraction from the main game. I got this expansion as part of the Game of the Year edition of Oblivion. I was highly skeptical of what I saw as basically a completely different reality world opposite of Cyrodill, and as such I put it off for maybe a year before deciding to enter with my new character.
Please note that I am an obsessive-compulsive person, with a sick need for organization, decisiveness, and something else I forgot.
As such, imagine how horribly I'd be set off upon discovering that you can apparently enter NOT two different worlds, but two different versions of the SAME world; Mania and Dementia. This set me off big-time because you can pretty much only enter it once, unless you want to fast-travel back to the gate just to re-enter. What makes it worse is that I see absolutely no difference between the two upon entering, making me wonder what the hell is the purpose of lying to us by making it seem like two separate worlds, when really the northern part is all Mania, and the southern part is all Dementia.
While it was a novel idea to have everyone be either arrogant or insane, but this idea's brilliance never left the paper it was written on as everyone, as in the base game, is STILL only voiced by the same three or four voice actors, all doing as spectacularly lazy a job as they did in the base game. So instead of hearing something that brings memories of Heath Ledger's Joker or Jack Nicholson's Jack Torrance, you get a decidedly lazy-sounding voice actor reading gibbering nonsense off a script with only a slight hint of understanding that they are supposed to be playing a crazy person, and not just recording Line 4,056 out of 11,100.
That slight hint immediately gets vanquished if you have the Game of the Year edition, or the other expansion pack, and you ask them about Anvil, in which they suddenly go from insane to sane, to repeat to you the same pre-recorded line about hearing about the butcher of the Anvil priests and the prophet of doom---despite the realm of the Shivering Isles being like a completely different dimension from Cyrodill, where people supposedly never really venture out, and very few Cyrodill people venture in.
Then the Prince of the realm, despite the energy and enthusiasm of his voice actor, was very poorly written. He immediately starts at a level of "I'M CRAZY YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~!" and never once comes down from that level of such upfront and bluntly beating-over-the-head "weirdness" that he never once comes off as crazy, but just as someone trying much too hard to seem crazy, and utterly failing to elicit more than just a "well, he's weird" reaction. Subtlty is completely ejected from this role, as clearly whoever wrote the character did absolutely no research on mental illnesses, and never saw movies like "The Shining" or "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest" or "12 Monkeys". They just went straight for shock value, and as many references to playing with the player's intestines as possible.
The world itself looks new and original and weird, but the Dementia part, once you get past the giant mushrooms and craggly trees, you realize it looks like a putrid dump. The city of Crucible can best be described as "rotting garbage crafted into shapes", as everything is a shade of gray and garbage-green as to be more at home in Fallout 3 (also by Bethesda) or a Russian warzone in Call of Duty 4. It's such an unpleasant appearance that it nearly drove me mad for a few minutes.
The Duchess of Dementia made me do a quest called "Conspiracy" in which I had to torture random denizens of Crucible to find evidence of a fake conspiracy because she's a paranoid idiot who becomes sane long enough to tell me I should visit Anvil for more information on the Prophet. I spent an entire in-game day hunting down people and torturing them numerous times just to get somethign other than "I don't know anything!" and I grew so utterly insane I began torturing people endlessly for no reason other than I began to hate all of them with their stiff, poorly-acted voices, and I became immensely angry upon discovering (with the help of an online walkthrough) that the very first person I had tortured (and apparently let off too early) was the only one who could advance the quest by giving me some information.
I lost it, broke into houses, stole stuff, beat people up on the streets, killed several guards, and eventually died and had to re-load to my last save.
On the other spectrum, Bliss is much more pleasant, and Mania has pretty fireflies that drop sprinkly lights from them as they fly, and not all the people are piss-poor caricatures of insanity.
On the whole, the expansion pack is little more than more of the same as you get in the main game's quests, with the only real "new" things being new enemies, new weapons/armor/items, and a new landscape. Everything else is pretty much exactly the same.
Worth 30 more hours for 30 dollars? No. Though definitely worth picking up free when included with the Game of the Year edition of Oblivion. | video-games_xbox |
A fun romp, with just a few complaints. PROS:
1.) Even though Saboteur is marketed as an open-world game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto, there's not much for you to do if you wander off set missions. Luckily, the missions are fun, (who doesn't enjoy beating up, running over, or shooting Nazis?).
2.) The graphics are pretty good (if I had a newer Graphics card they'd be even better).
3.) The overall gameplay is very entertaining.
4.) So what sets this game apart from every other action adventure game? The atmosphere. Nazi occupied Paris and the surrounding French countryside makes for great eye-candy. Granted, I'm only a quarter way through the game, but so far it's really fun.
CONS:
I have only two complaints. One big, one little...
1.) The bigger one is something so common in modern video games, I'm almost hesitant to even mention it. But it's just too annoying not to. The story is awful. Specifically the cut-scenes, or those short little movies that open and close every mission supposedly designed to advance the plot and characters, but feel more like excuses for the game developers to pretend they're screenwriters. Really bad screenwriters. The silly dialogue isn't just embarrassing, it's boring. Unfortunately, these little vignettes have AWESOME visuals (e.g. epic shots of Zeppelins flying over the city as fighter planes attack). Which means I either sit through unintentionally comical exchanges between poorly animated characters that pull me out of the game, or skip the cut-scenes altogether and miss out on the spectacular visuals, not to mention bits of vital information needed for the next mission.
2.) The smaller complaint is pretty small, but annoying for anyone who knows anything about World War II. The hero - the character we play the game as - is a tough, bar-brawling, explosives happy, Irishman. The only problem with this is that the Republic of Ireland never fought in World War II. Like Switzerland, they remained neutral throughout the entire war, making an Irishman an odd choice for the hero. On top of that, one of the hero's central allies is an Italian race car designer. Problem? Italy was on the German side of the war. Yes, the Italian people eventually overthrew Mussolini and welcomed the Allies. But again, an odd choice.
CONCLUSION: So long as you're not expecting the story-telling sophistication of BioShock, or the tongue-and-cheek dialogue of GTA, Saboteur offers a unique and fun world to play in. If this were a movie, I'd call it a B-movie. Fun while you're in it, but forgettable when you're not. | video-games_xbox |
Alice: The Sequel. Since the release of the original "Alice", fans have been eagerly awaiting the follow up to American McGee's twisted turn in Wonderland. And after over 10 years and an aborted PS2 port, Alice has finally returned to Wonderland. The story goes that after the revival of Wonderland, Alice fell on hard times and has ended up as an orphan under the guidance of a therapist/hypnotist mentor. As Alice slips into Wonderland the story unfolds as the truth begins to slowly reveal itself. While the first adventure was twisted, this time around the store tells a much darker, more mature tale.
What makes Alice so stunning and fun is its art direction and source material. As was the case the first time around, American McGee and his team have crafted a truly beautiful, terrifying, and satisfying Wonderland to explore. Alice is now able to peer into the depths of Wonderland's oceans, climb to it's highest peak, and revisit the now ruined Queensland. The inclusion of gameplay in Alice's "real life" was a surprising addition that added a great element to the game. In the real world, Alice's look and feel are much more mundane which plays as an excellent foil to her Wonderland adventures. With the added power of the Xbox (and current "next-gen" systems) McGee is able to fully realize the insanity that creeps inside of Alice. The cut-scenes are done with exquisite 2-D "cut-outs" with the music (much like the original) adding the right amount of tension and drama to the game. The voice acting is also wonderfully done and top notch. The dialogue is sharp (witty and completely in character) and delivered with aplomb by the actors. The story, as mentioned, is a bit darker and certainly adds a layer of depth to the story and adventures of Alice.
Also added to the mix is Alice's new wardrobe and much more functional weaponry. As you play through the game, new dressed are unlocked for Alice to wear if you so choose. While some add to her powers, others may provide a higher level of difficulty if you so desire. Combined with the added DLC content; added dresses and weapons (more powerful, fantastical versions of her normal arsenal), it's easy to replay the game to catch collectibles you may have missed the first time or just to play around with a new look.
One of the game's most glaring faults is, which is something that plagues many games of this genre, the camera. Taking a page from PC gaming; the player is able to swirl, twirl, and twist the camera around as needed. Since the camera relies on the player to adjust it accordingly, this makes quick actions like jumping and attacking somewhat of a challenge (especially in the heat of the moment). The level design, while beautifully presented, can be very repetitive leading players to easily be frustrated with the recycled elements. And the inclusion of mini-games is fun but, again, very repetitive and irritating at times.
In the end, "Alice: Madness Returns" is a wonderfully exciting adventure that is sure to please fans of the original. Not without its faults, "Madness Returns" will hopefully find its audience much like the original adventure did over 10 years ago. | video-games_xbox |
Played it 5 times. After the first play-through, I didn't think I would want to play it again because it is so linear and no variety in the weapons and enemies, but it's turned out to be kinda fun. The main reason is that I had a lot of trouble with the missions the first time through, then on replays, realized that even though the game is linear, there is more than one way to approach a goal in a mission and almost every mission has a very easy way to play it once you know how. So finding the easy approach has been an interesting challenge.
Plus I kept finding "tricks" to the game that I didn't find or understand at first.
For example, when there is noise, some graphics appear in the upper-right corner of the screen. I didn't realize what that was for at first, but finally saw something about it disguising the noise you make. In most missions, the key to keep from getting swamped by enemies is to shoot foes when the noise graphic comes on. If he's isolated, nobody will know what's happened. Even if an enemy sees the guy go down, they can't tell where the shot came from and thus won't return fire.
Another feature I didn't use much the first time is to use the binocular's right-trigger feature to mark as many opponents as possible with red arrows. Once the fighting starts, it's very helpful to know where the enemies are, especially if they try to outflank or charge you.
This is really stupid, I know, but I didn't stumble across pressing up on the left analog stick to jump-zoom the rifle until after I played the game a couple of times, and that really made things easier, especially when shooting very distant and/or small targets like gas tank caps.
Even though it is a fun game, I don't think that it is remotely close to being worth more than $30. While waiting for the price to drop, try <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Timeshift/dp/B000H94PVO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Timeshift</a>, which I think is a much more interesting, fun game and it's currently under $20. | video-games_xbox |
Please ignore Game Informer/"Professional" reviews. I don't like Game informer magazines for their "reviews" they could never be more off on games then they are... apparently game informer gave this game a 6.75 and Play station magazine gave it a 5 (both out of 10). And I really don't understand why? (this review is me playing it of the game in one night..i had to go to sleep as I had work in the morning....sad face)
I give this game a 4.5/5 I got it last night at midnight when I went to get my copy of Duke Nukem Forever (apparently they are allowed to do that now haha game stop never let me do that before). My faith was never altered with the so called "bad reviews".
Graphics: I'm impressed NO of course they are not "L.a. Noir" graphics... is any game like that but it?? It gave me the story book feel. ALICE is a STORY, remember there's a book called Alice in wonderland? So I really like how they used that approach better then super realistic, yes her eyes are big but that's how the original Alice was in "American McGee's Alice." I like how her skirt flows when she moves how her hair is not stiff the characters in the real world look a lot more creepy then in wonderland. Wonderland when first going in there I was like "whoa it's a lot brighter and more colorful then I remember." And then I remember the begging of the game she is getting therapy to repair her broke mind (so its half color have creepy). So yes wonderland doesn't start out as desolate and creepy as the original Alice but it is wonderland after all.
Game play: this is where all those professional reviewers bitched.... WHY? What was wrong with the way the game is played?!? She runs smoothly its not a stiff camera you can control where she looks. The jumping/gliding is all smooth. I did not have an issue, is the PS3 version not as good as the xbox (I doubt it). Dodge is fine all the buttons once pressed do as they are suppose to do... What was wrong with it? The fighting is simple, and you can target on enemies by holding down LT, and then attack with your weapons. So... what was the issue with game play? Oh right it has PUZZLES in it... im sorry I thought they were professional game reviewers apparently they never played a game where you had to jump around from plat form to plat form before.... (I had no issues with ANY of the puzzles and I don't mind jumping though when I started out I failed at gliding haha... it was late...) its and action game with puzzles. If you don't like puzzles then don't play this game. Sorry its not a FPS.
Story: So far I like it its interesting it's pretty much questions the events that happened when Alice's family was killed in the fire, was it really the cat? There's and old woman at the begging of the game who's apparently black mailing Alice. Throughout the game there are sliver objects that Alice can pick up to recall memories, a house is her family, a needle is a doctor and the glasses is the psychiatrist that you live with. I don't mind them I think they are cool however they are BIRGHT shinny sliver (to stand out) but it clashes with the world a little bit. I think they could have been a little more original with these items. *Small spoiler* you meet the duchess again.... And sadly she is hardly as creepy as she was in the original... she ask for your help you help then carry on... why was I not allowed to kill her again shes so hella creepy...
Weapons/and upgrades: you get weapons of course one is her famed knife, the second weapon you get is the pepper shooter. I love the knife... but the pepper shooter...? It's a gun that shoots pepper... is it just me or dose anyone else see that pepper is not a good weapon? Slight complaint but I LOVED the weapons in the original game and all the witty things the chesar cat said when you got them. The upgrades are simple, you collect teeth and when you have enough teeth then you put points in the weapon easy as that. Makes then stronger. (why teeth I don't know haven't figured that out yet)
Original Alice download: I mean really that's AWESOME, a free game with a game. It's a complete start to end game on whatever system you buy it on. So if you don't like the game for whatever reason you still get a free game. I love the original Alice and I'm very excited to have it on my Xbox.
But it impressed me with all this negative talk I always kept my hopes up and I was right it's a fun game but if you are still unsure then RENT it. And if you don't like puzzles where you have to JUMP don't play this game because there are puzzles and you will have to jump around. IT IS NOT COD or any other FPS game. Its story based but the fighting is not bad, I found it smooth and not clunky at all. I really don't know what version of this game the reviewers were playing...?
Give it a shot you are your own best reviewer not some guy behind a desk who doesn't even want to play the game but has to in ordered to get paid... and when did game informer EVER have and clips or articles on Alice? They gave me the impression they never cared about the game in general. Sorry its not GTA5 yet calm down. I really only get game informers now because they are free with my GameStop membership..
Over all great game can't wait to finish it will update review if anything else life changing happens in the game. (like I jump around to much I hate it?) | video-games_xbox |
Xbox users: Be patient with this game. I say this because I believe Morrowind suffered from what we now call the "port" syndrome, where it was developed for one system, then was translated to another. In this case, this game is a "PC port" - A game made for the PC and converted to the Xbox, and from my own experience, it didn't work very well. However, if you don't have a capable PC available, this is the way to go, and if you are patient enough, this game will certainly reward you. You will notice that the graphics are not on par with even the old Xbox (more evidence of being a PC port), but you should overlook this- the game is more fun and sucks you in if you give it a chance.
I played the Xbox version before I bought the PC version. Even as of today, that Xbox version is the game I've spent the most hours on by far (can't recall how many). I had issues with the game even from the beginning, including long load times (on par with the first Fable, which was bad), lag, corrupt save files, glitches, and so on. Be patient, save your game often, and you will have no problems. Keep the autosave feature on if you must, though it gets annoying after a while. Once you get far enough into the game, saving and loading begin to take a considerable amount of time, so keep this in mind. Try to avoid grabbing tons of items and moving them around; this will increase your save/load file size. Not only that, I had several instances where grabbing set items (usually stacks of coins) would make the game instantly begin saving, freeze, then boot me off, making my save file corrupt. It would also boot me off just by accessing the world map (but not the local map) and telling me my disc is too scratched or dirty, even though I could access the world map prior to that (not to mention my disc was in relatively good shape). Just be cautious. If possible, I recommend the PC version of this game, but if you use this one, you will still enjoy it as long as you are aware of the glitches.
The game itself is vast and has more depth than any other game of its time by a long shot, which is why it is deserving of 5 stars despite the bad glitches. You start out knowing basically nothing - you were sent to Morrowind by order of the Emperor with no knowledge of why, and you must follow the orders given to you by Sellus Gravius and later Caius Cosades at the beginning, or figure things out on your own. This lack of direction was a bit of a turn-off for me when I first played it, but that was because I chose not to follow orders. After a while, I became stronger and began having tons of fun exploring, looting, profiting, everything that I could hope for. Then, once I began the main quest, I was too strong and blew through the first few missions quickly. But then, I started to pay attention to what was going on, which was a very tough thing to do. Once Caius finally told me why I was sent to Morrowind, it really changed my entire outlook on the game. Just like my character, I knew nothing of what I was doing until then, which is just one of the magic moments that makes you feel like you're a part of this world. PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to the story. It's very difficult to understand and follow at first, but it's one of the best you will ever experience.
Aside from that, the world of Morrowind is unlike any other fantasy realm out there. The Ashlands in particular seem like an unattractive, boring place to be, but how often do you see places like this in other games? Not only that, the story changed my outlook on the Ashlands once I learned the significance of their existence. Another of my favorite aspects was the architecture of the Dunmer, the native 'dark elves', which varies drastically from region to region, which only brings the game to life even more. The variety of items you can find in the game, the amount of unique conversations you can have with people, the wide selection of books you can read (if you want, some help you understand the story and the world better), all contribute to the massive amount of gameplay hours included in just a single play-through. Even after that, the game has tons of replay value since you may want to play as a different race (there are 9 of them), or join a different one of three political factions, since you are only allowed to join one at a time. I'm sure most of this has been said before in other reviews.
My only other complaint about the Xbox version is that they do not utilize the D-pad for item and magic shortcuts, but it makes up for it by having a very quick and easy-to-use menu, and you can scroll through your weapons/magic via holding down X or Y and using the L and R triggers. I never knew this until after I accidentally switched weapons several times because I don't think it was listed in the manual. Most other nuances I had were too trivial to be listed (and mostly have to do with the Xbox itself anyway). You will love this game if you give it a chance, but by all means, the PC version is highly recommended over the Xbox version. It's less glitchy, everything loads quicker (if your computer is fast enough, but by this year, Morrowind is a lower-end game anyway), and there is a huge collection of mods available to enhance your game to your liking, and I believe they are still being made today. | video-games_xbox |
Snakes and Trigger Keys. I bought the Xbox version of Indigo Prophecy simply because the machine doesn't get all that much use. I prefer adventure/rpg games and they are scarce for the Xbox, to say the least. Unfortunately, the game was clearly written for the PS2 and then ported to the Xbox with little thought about gameplay. This time Atari took a good game and definitely did not make it better.
Let's do the good parts first, since Indigo Prophecy really is a good game on many levels. The game's inner story is based on an actual legend associated with the change of Mayan eras. Into this new era is supposed to be born an 'indigo' child who will come with a prophecy that will grant great power to those who would listen. Add in a lot of human sacrifice and a dollop of paranoid plot to take over not just the world, but the universe, and you have Indigo Prophecy in a nutshell.
Oracles use randomly chosen instruments to carry out sacrifices, and this is the story of Lucas Kane, who suddenly finds himself a murderer and must elude both the police and assassins from a secret clan long enough to find out what happened to him and why he suddenly has strange powers. Pther key characters are Lucas' brother Marcus, and two police investigators, Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles. The player get's to control all of these characters, often in the same episode. The story is good, and the modern noir settings and sound are as well. Where this game runs into trouble is in the action game play and artwork.
Action is managed by to different operations, either following directional sequences displayed on the screen, or in rapid toggling of the two trigger keys. On any of the typical Xbox controllers these operations are more irritating than challenging. Accomplishing significant parts of this game involve being totally focus on the few square inches of screen where the progress of the challenge is displayed. So there you are in the middle of an action sequence and you can actually miss most of the action. It wasn't until I happened to look at my PS2 controller that I realized all this activity would have been much smoother if I had played the PS2 version of the game.
Artwork is low detail even for a PS2 based game, and looks even weaker on an Xbox. This is odd, considering that there isn't a lot of intricate action to eat up computer time that could have been dedicated to graphics. Atari chose to make this game on a slim budget, and the story, while strong, isn't enough to make this a real winner.
Overall, this is a three and a half star game on the Xbox, but a solid 4 on the PS2. Good entertainment, but not particularly memorable. | video-games_xbox |
Great graphics, but super annoying. I dunno who said the graphics in this game suck but I personally feel that the graphics is probably the best thing about this game (especially since I just finished playing X-Men: Rise of the Apocalypse, which has comparatively crappy graphics.
I do agree though, that playing the story mode in the game has probably caused my blood pressure to rise to an unhealthy level and unleased a flurry of unsavoury words from my mouth much too often. But after a while, I realised that button bashing isn't going to get me anywhere. For one thing, the characters cannot do anything else for about one second after completing a combo or super move, which leaves them vulnerable to attacks and results in a very quick death. What I needed was real strategy, and that is the fun and the challenge of the game: actually using a strategy when fighting instead of just getting in there and simply pressing the buttons hoping I'll kill all the enemies that way. For example, enemies with projectiles cause the most damage, but are the weakest, so I try to kill them off first. Also, when throwing enemies, my character is invulnerable to attacks (except when hit by thrown objects), so a useful combo I use is to punch an enemy once or twice then follow up with a throw. It builds up my Rage meter quickly without using up power, and once I activate my meter, I super power them all to death. Once you get a good strategy down, the game isn't so frustrating anymore. Except for the stage where Human Torch is supposed to beat 20 enemies in 3 and a half minutes, which I played and lost like a gazillion times, and now I believe is humanly impossible to beat (anyone who did, please tell me how!).
Overall, even though the game is definitely super annoying at first, half the fun is the challenge of figuring out a good strategy. The other half is using that strategy to crush them enemies and win! | video-games_xbox |
Cashing in while the name is hot. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that this game was rushed out the door. Many people were concerned when Bioware jumped on board with EA and the way this game was handled justifies those concerns. Bioware has had a reputation for quality games and while this game has it's fun moments for sure, you will easily spot where corners were cut and bad decisions were made all for the sake of getting this game on the shelves as fast as possible. Compared to Dragon Age:Origins, I think most people will be disappointed with the direction Bioware is taking this series.
A few points for those considering dropping $60 on this:
-I got 50 hours out of the game. This was with reading every codex entry I came across and backtracking many areas to see if I missed anything. If you are not the type to comb areas, read text or listen to every dialogue option you will probably get less than 30 hours out of this.
-The map of this game consists of 3 main areas (Kirkwall day and night, and Kirkwall outskirts). In each of those areas are sub-areas. None of these areas are very large or have much freedom.
-Within those sub-areas are dungeons,caves,warehouses etc that you will enter to explore and complete quests. One of the biggest complaints has been that they recycled these locations over and over again. It's a legit complaint. When you enter a cave in any area, it is the same cave layout. Enter a dungeon, yup, same dungeon layout. Rinse and repeat for warehouses,tunnels etc. The only difference each time is the doorways which they block with a stone slab. To make matters worse, you can still see the area behind the blocked doorways on your minimap, they are just inaccessible.
-Combat feels more action packed due to smacking the A button constantly. Sounds boring but I'm not a fan of having to pause the game for every little trash encounter so I can set up my team. There are still encounters that require you play in that fashion (Pause and Direct) but I'd say 80% of my combat gameplay did not require me to do so. This was on Normal difficulty settings.
-You will spend much of your time doing Companion and Side quests. I didn't mind this that much but I'd have like a little more main story time. Compared to DA:O the story is much less "Epic" in scale, but that is not to say it is a bad story.
-The ability to swap armor on your party has been removed in favor of "individual upgrades" for each party members existing armor. I didn't mind this that much but it felt wrong to have to sell so much awesome armor to the vendor that my character couldn't wear. Not to mention the vendors are stingy with cash in this game so I got next to nothing in return. You can still swap weapons and accessories though.
-Lost and found quests have been dumbed down to a ridiculous level. You know how this usually works. Some guy or gal talks about how they lost some precious item and they would be eternally grateful if you found it blah blah blah. Nothing special but it's standard RPG fare. Well they decided that instead of going through the trouble of having NPCs voice these quests or putting the text up on a quest board that you just "know" when you find something. So when you are out and about come across something you just automatically know who it belongs to and where that person is. Just like the recycled dungeons, this was just lazy.
-At this time there are several bugs that prevent you from finishing certain quests. I'm sure these will get patched eventually, but it doesn't make it any less irritating.
There are many other points but these are the ones that are on the top of my head. Overall, this is a good game but it is not a good Bioware game. If this was an indie developers first shot or a $20 title, you wouldn't be hearing nearly as much griping. It just feels like Bioware had some bad influences when making this and one can't help but feel that EA had something to do with it. | video-games_xbox |
Really cool device. Adds new functions and possibilities to your gaming computer. I've been wanting this adapter for so long. I don't know what took me so long to purchase it. I keep plugging in ps4 controllers into my Windows 7 computer and while the controllers sync up just fine.. many of the games I play want me to use an xbox 360 controller so I spend so much time trying to figure out how to trick the game into thinking my ps4 controller is a xbox 360 controller.. and it never works quite right. I end up getting frustrated and never actually playing a game because of this. The game becomes, how do I google and fix my ps4 controller to work with this game, which is NOT a fun game.
Anyway, to review this product I would say:
Pros:
* Works fantastic
* Syncs up to 4 devices
* (mine) came with driver disc
Cons:
* Was not plug-n-play for me
* (since I do not like installing drivers from discs for fear they are already outdated) Had to sift through Microsoft website pages to find the driver
* Have to restart computer for it to work
The cons aren't bad enough to knock a star lol, installing a driver and restarting so I can play games with wireless controllers for the rest of eternity is worth it.
For my test, I have 2 xbox 360 controllers collecting dust because I have a ps4 now and I never wanna use my xbox 360 anymore. I have them on a charging station so I knew they would be better used paired to my computer than just sitting there staying charged and collecting dust. As soon as I synced them up I opened up my Super Nintendo Emulator and tested setting all the buttons for player 1 and player 2 and it worked flawlessly. I have no complaints whatsoever.
The Microsoft website says you can also pair an xbox 360 headset to this. I haven't tried that, but if that is true that is really cool! That opens up a new market of devices I can shop for to enhance my computers abilities. | video-games_xbox |
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