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Fun game but it needs some polishing. First make a note that I have given this game a 4 for fun. People like to overlook the fun rating you give a game here and whine so don't, I like this game.
Well, my 360 had been collecting dust for a while so I figured it was high time to pick up a new game and this looked appealing. Everybody was comparing it to <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Elder-Scrolls-IV-Oblivion/dp/B000GKCI4A/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion</a> and even a game 10 times as bad as Oblivion or any Elder Scrolls game for that matter is still twice as good as most games these days so I chanced it and went out to get a copy.
My first 5 minutes playing the game were absolutely dreadful. I was regretting spending the $60 like no money I have ever wasted before. The graphics were completely unimpressive, there were periodic gameplay hiccups, the inventory management seemed awkward, and the combat was kind of lame. On that 6th minute though something in me snapped and I continued playing and as the hours rolled by all of the "problems" with this game really only struck me as minor annoyances.
Let me break this down for you...
Graphics:
I'm playing this on a <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Sony-KV-27FS120-27-FD-Trinitron-WEGA-Flat-Screen-TV/dp/B00006HMD8/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Sony KV-27FS120 27" FD Trinitron WEGA Flat Screen TV</a> so I'm not getting the HD experience. So eventually I came to the epiphany that some of the graphical "errors" I found in this game were due to the limitations of my hardware. I'm almost positive the game is intended for a wider screen since in the inventory screen text overlaps my encumbrance and the extreme left and right are slightly cut off on my TV. Obviously the graphics were also less impressive on a standard TV. All in all though I came to terms with the problems I initially found with the game. I stopped and looked at the scope of the game and how much could fit on screen all at one time and I was deeply satisfied. Unfortunately I have no HDTV to test these theories with. So, on my set up, the game isn't the prettiest thing in the world or maybe just not what I was expecting, but it is really impressive. You can climb to the top of a mountain and see nearly the whole realm, glacier snow and desert sand reflect sunlight and sort of blind your character, the water looks incredible, and there are some pretty unique and stylized locations. There are better looking games on the 360 with my set up but this one is by far and away the most large and overall impressive environment I have seen yet.
Sound:
Well not every category can win; I'm still not entirely over how bad the sound in the game is. The spells and attacking sound fine and overall the sound effects are pretty good but it's the voice acting and ambient music that just sucks. There's no two ways about it this is the greatest failure of them game in my opinion. For example, you can be in a completely deserted and dead town but for some reason the programmers didn't have the sense to remove the standard town audio track from the location. You're still hearing dogs barking and general city noises even when it is apparent there are no dogs are general hustle and bustle of town life occurring. They take a chance to make an eerie situation eerie and ruin it by not setting the mood with the music. The voice acting is simply a joke and often I wonder if it's meant to be that way. There are awkward pauses during speech, you will hear "forsooth" and "mayhap" more in this game than you will for the rest of your life, there's bad ethnic stereotypes, it sometimes seems that they have people with obvious foreign accents playing obviously English parts... I could go on for days about the voice acting. On the plus side you can skip over the talking so don't worry about it too much because this is really the only way the game completely fails me.
Gameplay:
For all the talk of this game being like Oblivion I have to disagree. Aside from them both taking place in expansive open ended worlds they really have nothing in common. However, there is a game that is so staggeringly similar to this game that I'm surprised I hadn't heard it anywhere and that game is <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Divine-Divinity/dp/B00007BGQI/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Divine Divinity</a>. Take Divine Divinity and make it 3D and you have Two Worlds. The skills are set up nearly the same way, the story is shockingly similar, there's a very real comparison to the consequences of your actions, similar enemies... and again I could go on for days about the similarities but let me elaborate on Two Worlds and leave playing Divine Divinity to you (awesome game BTW).
You start the game out as a male human hero, there is no option to change this unless you play online (lame), and you are then thrown in to the world trying to save your sister. There is a given skill set that you start with and any additional skills must be purchased from trainers before any earned skill points can be put in to them. Skill trainers are kind of hard to come by and this was one of my initial turn offs about the game but since finding them I have come to enjoy the game a lot more. You learn spells by finding spell cards much like you would in <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Diablo/dp/B00001IVBL/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Diablo</a> with spell books. In addition to these cards there are also bonus cards that can be equipped in conjunction with spells to enhance their abilities like damage, cost, and duration. Each skills has 10 levels of proficiency and skill points are earned at level ups, for completing quests, and for reaching milestones in the game like a certain number of locks picked or monsters killed. The combat is just hack and slash; there are no combos or anything like that. You can get special moves with skill points but that's where the complexity ends. So given this info you should be coming to the conclusion that this game sounds a lot like a dungeon crawler a la Diablo, Titan Quest, Champions of Norrath and to that I would say you are right. That is exactly how this game plays, like a dungeon crawler and this is probably why I have come to love it.
I haven't had much success with stealth and stealing yet. It always seems that no matter how well hidden I am somehow a guard always "catches" me. The thing with this is that nearly all the towns in the game don't have guards so instead of anything negative happening the citizens just complain constantly while you're in town after getting caught. I haven't found a way around this yet and it can be quite annoying, especially when you accidentally pick a lock or something, but again it's more annoying than detrimental to the gameplay.
Missions are frequent and generally speaking are easy to complete since markers are usually put on the map. There is a great consequence to your actions though in this game and sometimes it's pretty cool while others it is downright annoying. Be careful with which missions you choose to take or not take, especially with the main quest, since it is not entirely uncommon to make other missions unfinishable by completing quests. For example, moving along in the main story wipes out an entire town full of quests and another few lines of quests all ask you to kill the same guy. This forces you to play carefully and really decide which path you want to take unlike in the Elder Scrolls series when it was clear who your enemies were and it wasn't that hard to complete multiple quest lines.
Another small gripe I have with this game is that it's a bit easy. Nearly everything in this game can be beaten with the "back jump" button and a melee weapon since monster's attacks are so simple and predictable. This is another reason that this game feels like a dungeon crawler to me though. It's more about advancement and equipment then it is about battle strategy and skill. I think it's actually quite apparent that was the intention with this game given how fast you level up. I'm nearly level 50 after just over 20 hours of gameplay. Granted there's much left for me to do but there really isn't much of a threat left to me. Dragons have been a joke to me since I was around level 30 since on top of the ease of combat, there is no penalty for dying other than having to walk back to wherever you were which usually isn't far.
Summary:
I like this game quite a bit and I'm sure most people will if they realize what it is. In no way should you go in to this game expecting Oblivion since it falls somewhere in between a dungeon crawler and an epic RPG. For all its' shortcoming though this game still manages to remain fun. If there was a sequel to this game I would expect much more from it and wouldn't be so forgiving of the minor errors that are present in this iteration. All in all a worthy game, maybe not for $60, but if you're hard up for a fun RPG on the 360 then I would recommend this game. | video-games_xbox |
My pick for best game of 2014. ...and one of my top games of all time!
This game has it all...unique 3rd person, open world gameplay, amazing graphics, phenomenal art-style, incredible soundtrack, personality, humor...if this game was a woman, I would marry it.
First, the graphics/art style...You simply have to see this game in motion. A quick search on YouTube and you will see what I'm talking about. Some people have compared the art style to Saints Row, and there are definitely some similarities...but it would be Saints Row on steroids!
The colors just POP off the screen, and you can't help but be drawn to them. I can't emphasize enough how SICK and tired I am of the same damn brown and gray color palettes used in so many modern shooters and even other genres. Sunset Overdrive spits in the face of boring earth tones, and then punches you in the face with vibrant, pleasing colors.
Second, the soundtrack/audio...Again, the music will punch you in the face...repeatedly...but with an awesome, diverse Punk Rock soundtrack that I enjoyed so much, I went on Amazon Music and purchased the available MP3s. I grew up in the 90's and listened to my fair share of Punk, and this game has re-awakened that taste in me. I'm in my early 40's now, and there are some awesome songs on here that fit perfectly with the style of this game, and are even great to listen to when driving, working...whatever...these songs will pump your day up. The voice acting is great, funny, and again, perfectly fits the vibe of this game.
Gameplay...At first, when this game was announced, it really wasn't a blip on my radar (I also hadn't gotten an Xbox One, or even decided which system I was going to get), then closer to release, I started seeing and hearing more about this game, and I was really intrigued.
In fact, it is THIS game that is the reason I chose the Xbox One over PS4, and after playing this, I know I made the right decision. No disrespect to PS4, I really considered that system for The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, and Infamous to name a few, but Sunset Overdrive is the total package for me.
It is so much fun grinding on rails, jumping, air-dashing and shooting OD mutants, and Scab Punks to such a phenomenal soundtrack, reactive soundtrack. Also, I'm sure you've heard about the weapons...they are unique, fun, and have some amazing particle, and effects. The TNT Teddy gun is powerful, and one of my personal favorites...especially against the Herkers.
Microsoft made a fantastic move betting on this game as an exclusive, and I really hope it pays off. Insomniac really pulled out all the stops on this game, and it shows.
HIGHLY recommended if you are a gamer.
The first couple of hours, the mechanics definitely take some getting used to, but once you do, it's an absolute thrill ride you will remember for years to come.
I really hope that this game does well so a sequel is in the cards. | video-games_xbox |
Overall a beautiful game, very entertaining. Don't pay attention to the Metacritic critic review, they've put out some questionable ratings lately.
I'd give this game a 7.5 or 8 out of 10. Overall a beautiful game, very entertaining, and doesn't take long to beat. Very appealing artwork and different type of game, but some substantial design flaws. This is done by the same people that do the Total War series, so the battle scenes are amazing and might be the funnest part of the game, but you can tell they are making a reach for a normal 1P console game. Great moves and gore, if you can master them.
Although there are tens of thousands of enemies in the game, every single one puts up a fight, so you have to get good at the controls to make it. I feel I've reached pretty good mastery of what moves work when (maybe 85% mastery) and there's still many impossible situations, complicated by slightly clunky controls. There's very little chance you can survive a fight with 10+ enemies at once, much less 50, so that makes it somewhat like real fighting and forces you to use strategy. The story is somewhat lacking, but the Norse backdrop adds to the overall artistic fantasy feel.
Pros:
-Creative and different
-Very beautiful artwork: lush landscapes, florescent magic effects, etc.
-Massive, chaotic battles with 1000+ NPC's
-Cool moves, combos, relatively straightforward to learn
-Zero chump enemies, every one (except archers) can kill you quickly if you're not on your game.
-Realistic crowding: you can't fight too many at once just like in real life
-Non-combat movement is easy, smooth, and instinctive
-Requires some skill to master
Cons:
-Story is flat, ending disappointing, characters not compelling. Hack-and-slash game, but still felt story could be bettter
-Very often combos take you in directions you don't want, try for enemies out of range, or take you into fire or over a cliff. When a hit is not made you pause, making you vulnerable to a strike, but very often this happens because dude goes in a direction you didn't intend.
-Short game (weekend beatable) and good thing, because it starts to feel repetitive at the end. Pretty good final battle comes just in time.
All in all, worth checking out. Feels much different than your usual game. I hope Creative Assembly and SEGA learn from the mistakes and continue to put out more products like this but maybe with a little more polishing. | video-games_xbox |
Maybe we should thank EA. ....because this is a prime example of what happens when any company(especially ones as large and powerful as EA) monopolizes a product(sports games e.g. "Madden) with zero competition. theres no need to put any effort polishing your product when theirs is the only on available. people complain about Madden and NHL every year and yet EA records record sales annually. so really, we are to blame at the end of the day when a games as poor as NHL 13 comes out, an unfinished mess that can't even come close to the boasts that EA claims the game achieves.
the other problem which runs rampant thru out the game development industry is the set-in-stone-release date. the programmers have all these grand ideas about what they want to do with the game and then leave those ideas unrealized because they can't make it happen before the final product has to be ready for release. it's obvious that's whats happened with this game. its hard to imagine it being much more incomplete. the hitting is a joke, computer controlled defense act as if sand was blown in their eyes, the opponent scores at will no matter which adjustments you make to the game.
it's funny to see game sites point out these flaws yet give the game high score reviews which to me shows how powerfully influential EA has become, probably suggesting(telling) said game sites that they will cut off exclusive access to new games in development. and because of that, i will personally stop buying EA sport game products from here on out. the one and two star reviews here on Amazon hit the nail on the head. i can only assume the 4 and 5 star reviews are either people who have never played any of the other NHL games, eat anything EA puts out(kinda like the Nintendo fan-boys) or are employees of EA.
but what does EA care.... they still have fortune 500 status and people keep buying the junk they shove out every year, so who's more the fool? | video-games_xbox |
Good collection, but know what you're getting. Game collection is decent. I would probably wait until it comes down to $20 or a little lower. Mixed with pros and cons as are most games, but here's my honest review:
Pros:
-30 games ($1 a game is always a good deal)
-Great collection spanning from Rare's early days to more recent titles.
-Mix if games, quick challenges, and the history of Rare (documentary quick films are unlocked as you go)
-10,000 achievement points (see below)
Cons:
-Of the 30 games, a large portion of them are going to be garbage games to the modern gamer. If you aren't looking for nostalgic childhood memories, I wouldn't count these games into the total game count. It's not to say these games aren't good in their own right, but they won't stand the test of time for most people.
-Leaving out some great Nintendo exclusive titles (not the game's fault, so this honestly has no bearing, but you're missing some quality DK Country)
-Install is messy, LARGE, and annoying. Instead of housing all games as a single collection under one disc, you have to install the modern games individually. When you look at your game list, you have Rare Replace and about 7 other game icons. You can also only access these games through the disc. The problem here is...
-10,000 Gamerscore points up for grabs... Unless you already own these games on the 360 arcade. I know many achievement lovers will play a single game on multiple platforms for the double achievements. Keep this in mind, though you are probably already aware from Xbox Achievements or other websites.
-Load times are high for some of the challenges. I found this frustrating when attempting a challenge where you die often. I hate games that offer these games or challenges but make you wait between attempts. Can before frustrating.
Overall, this is still a great collection. I loved Blast Corps and that was really what I was after. I will admit that most of the games didn't hold up for me, but it sure beats buying a N64 and buying some of these games. Perfect Dark, Banjo series, Conkers, Battletoads, and a few others are worth the price of admission, but I believe this will be a sub-$20 game sooner than later. | video-games_xbox |
A Rotten Corpse in a Pretty Coffin. Zombies seem to be everywhere. Comics, television, and especially video games. Zombie games have to do a lot to stand out in the crowd now. Dead Island taunted a gorgeous open world and deep RPG driven gameplay, but did it deliver what it promised?
The moment you first lay eyes on the island resort of Banoi, you're most likely going to say something along the lines of "Wow, this game is beautiful!" and you'd be right. Everything in Dead Island is very well rendered, from the good to the bad. The palm trees and sand are pleasing to the eyes, and in the same way gashed and chewed up remains are absolutely disgusting. If there is one good thing I have to say about Dead Island it is that the graphics are consistently stunning.
Upon booting up the game, you are presented the choice of 4 different characters. Each character has different specialties and personalities, but unfortunately none of them are likable. All of the playable characters are an annoying stereotype, from the football jock to the coky feminist , and they just had to throw in a gangster black guy to boot. Add on top of that that none of them had any reason to vacation to the island aside from getting drunk and partying and you just don't really care if they survive or not.
The game controls from the first person perspective and is for the most part an RPG. You take on quests from other island survivors and, as you complete more story related quests new areas are opened to you. One area where the game falls short is that it is not nearly as open as it claims to be. Once you unlock all the areas, it is decently large but the island is still not that big. In the end, you're pretty much made to stay in the area where the story is unfolding unless you want to be completely bored to death. Killing zombies and completing quests awards you with experience, and as you level up you acquire skill points to buy upgrades and abilities with.
Another area the game falls short is the weapons. The game was supposed to be about improvising and using what is around you, but instead there are only a handful of items that can be used as weapons. Fortunately these weapons can be upgraded to break the monotony, but that still isn't enough. For example, if you have a baseball bat and 2 nails, you make a spiked bat. This is cool, but doesn't save the game from the fact that there are very few weapons. As you use weapons, they degrade. Guns become less accurate and strong, and pipes bend and rust. Use them enough and the weapon will break. This is kind of a neat feature, but ultimately the fact that you will likely find another weapon just like it soon causes you to only care so much. On top of that, combat eventually just gets repetitive and boring to the point that you hope you don't tun into another enemy - and not because you're dying.
Overall, Dead Island is very pretty, but that does not save it from mediocre gameplay that doesn't live up to any of its promises. Perhaps if I had known nothing about the game prior to my purchase, I would have enjoyed it more. I watched all the prerelease trailers and read most of the articles about it before it came out. I expected a wonderful, beautiful, open world zombie game. It may have delivered on the beautiful part, but the gameplay is fairly linear despite the side quests and the combat gets old quickly. There are plenty of toher zombie games out there that are much more worthy of your money and your time. | video-games_xbox |
Spring Value Bundle - Arkham City comes with Catwoman. This device was thankfully easy to set up because the quick set up instructions are printed in light grey letters. The two batteries in the wireless controller do go in different directions despite the the two contact springs being side to side. You do get Catwoman with the Arkham City download but if your internet connection blinks out, it will tell you that they cannot download it for you at this time and the game will start without the Catwoman opening scene in which case, delete every slot that is not empty and then sign in again and reload the download and start the game so that they offer you Catwoman. This game is now worth about $15 as is the disc version of the Darksiders 2 but this Arkham download will not offer you the Nightwing and Robin options that are in the GOTY edition which may not matter to you.
As for downloading the game, hardwire your internet connection from your modem directly and it should be a constant download taking about an hour and a half. With wifi, we were seeing two minutes for 1% of download and then stuck that way and then blinking off so you had to do it all over again.
I fail to see the benefits of Xbox Live Gold. The complimentary one month pass is NOt necessary to get the Arkham game in the bundle anyway but you have to pay per month to access your netflix account unlike using a wifi enabled device like a tablet or an ipod to see it on your tv. Everything else that can be accessed is also subscription only. Xbox did not have to do this. It could have been an internet ready device that did not need Xbox Live to get necessary game updates. I'm probably not going to get a subscription and just buy GOTY editions to avoid giving Microsoft any financial account information whatsoever.
You do get to preview some games like Resident Evil 6 instead of watching gameplay videos on youtube.
In about a month, this console is probably going to drop by a hundred dollars. I paid ten dollars more than at Amazon to get it in the store (Big Red Bullseye). Another retailer, "game..ot" was kind enough to give me the "manual" from the disc copy of the Arkham game and you are really not missing much if you get the download instead of the disc version. This game took up 10 gb of space for a download of "7.65 gb" before the 256mb download of the Catwoman part of the game so it does add up.
If you get stuck on the very simple install, there are many youtube videos that will walk you through it. I am just glad that I had I had a cord long enough to connect my modem to the xbox since the wifi on the xbox seems to be worse than on my 7 year old laptop.
ETA: Darksiders 2 is a highly rated boring hack n slash game.
ETA2: I chose this system over Sony's Playstation because the Xbox is American. A few days ago, I read on consumerist that a Sony Playstation console owner tried to do the same thing I thankfully learned to do which is never ever give either of these two your credit card or bank account information. The Playstation owner bought his usage cards from Amazon to get the discount so he could make purchases without giving up his financial information and Sony refused to honor the special offer because it was not purchased directly from them. Well, they have a right to set the terms but it seems like the whole point of the deal was not to earn a few more dollars by encouraging direct purchases (and alienating purchasers because of denying them discounts elsewhere) but was actually all about getting your financial information. Microsoft is still not forcing this on Live Gold members and so I still feel that it is worth it to keep your financial accounts out of their jurisdiction at the expense of people telling you that it is more fun to play the same games and some rare exclusive to Sony content on the Playstation than it is on the Xbox. | video-games_xbox |
Fun game but with some annoying quirks. This is the first time I played an Overlord game so I can't really compare it to the first. I find it an interesting concept that you can either fight on your own or order your minions to do those evil deeds for you. At first, I was really bothered by the idea of having to kill innocent cute looking seals as I was thinking whether there's a way around collecting souls. But what can one expect? This is "Overlord" so you HAVE to do evil deeds to dominate. :P
The game itself is quite fun where you get to sit on catapults and shoot at a standing army (it's almost like catapult bowling). You can always select which quest you want to be active. And you definitely can kill some annoying enemies. But the biggest issue I have with the game is the camera and the controls.
1) the camera is hard to control and sometimes you get stuck looking from the insides of your body, stuck at a corner trying to kill an enemy but you can't because you're too close to them and the wall. And when your minions are lagging behind, and while you're running in one direction, all of a sudden the camera would pull you back and you end up running a different direction.
2) And when I say run, it's really a jog. I don't think there's an option to go any faster than the standard speed allowed in the game. Sometimes this is quite a nuisance because you have to run back to charge up and basically you have to spend the time to loop all the way back to your drop off point.
3) You can't save any time you want and usually, you can only save when you head back to the Netherworlds. It's not very friendly when you get lost and accidentally enter an area before you are prepared and gets attacked by hordes of enemies only to die and start all the way back at your last save point.
4) some of the quests are very tedious like kill 1000 of these, then kill 100 of these and enslave 100 of these together.
5) and yes, there are issues with the graphics. Can't say it's super good but it's not bad. It's like an in between current gen nice looking graphics and last gen graphics. I haven't experienced this issue much with other games i played so this really bothered me: there are artifacts popping in and out at times, actually quite frequently.
I rented this game and I'm glad I did as I get to experience this genre of lead minions to defeat enemies. There are some pretty hilarious dialogues in there that's enjoyable, but unfortunately, I think the camera controls and repetitiveness of some of the quests ruined it for me after a while. | video-games_xbox |
Ashamed of my generation. I just got through reading every single 1Star review and I would like to say I just died a little inside...
Every negative review focused mostly on (but not exclusive to) how this games graphics weren't up to Xbox standards... That's it in a nut shell though, isn't it..? "If it's not pretty then I don't want it!" Wow...
I was a late bloomer to this game, maybe 2-3 after it's release and I have many many beloved hours spent here! This is a Party Game meant to be played with 4 people to have some quick and fun competition. It's like Mario Party except without the losing of friendships and the ridiculously slow taking turns and dragging everything out so that a 20 turn game takes 3 hours...
On the downside, I can see how this game can get repetitive and boring. You only have about 30 mini games and I really only liked about 10 of them, but those 10 kept us at each others throats (in game) for hours!
I still own an Original Xbox and I still have this game, which I still play to this day. Only now it's a drinking game and it's only getting funner with time!
This game is actually very well built. The controls are always simple and fluid. Nothing laggs or has trouble loading. No glitches I've seen after years of playing. Though I mostly choose mini game mode, they offer other types like Tournament mode which makes the mini's random and the game feel more intense.
On the downside, this is not very fun with less than 4 people. Even just 2 people is kinda droll. By yourself it isn't even worth playing (Except to hone your skillz in which to annihilate the dust that was once to be known as your friends!!!)
Nobody played Super Mario Bros for the graphics... We played it cause it was fun and trying to beat your friends made it even funner. That is the entire logic of this game! I absolutely love this game and I think it's still worth picking up if you still Rock the old Box! (I believe The sequel FF2 is available for Download on the Xbox One from what I've read. I own the disk so I haven't checked it out) | video-games_xbox |
Great game, but underappreciated. In an world where many gamers seek new types of gaming experiences, we find that entering into a new world of experience can be both frustrating and difficult. While seeking a new game to play for my Xbox, I found my self bored with the selection of games that usually find their way into my possession. Upon realizing that I wasn't intersted in playing a new first-person shooter or the usual sports games (hockey, basketball, football, etc.), I took some brotherly advice and picked up NASCAR 06.
Having no prior knowledge of NASCAR, I found myself intrigued by a sport I knew nothing about. This game was the perfect selection for my curious video game hankering.
Immedietely upon loading the game, I found myself playing the last couple of laps at Daytona. After getting used to the control of the car (requiring a few repeat attempts), I was able to get the win and make it to the main menu screen. It was a good introduction to the style and control of the game. From there, I experienced a revelation that would launch me into a NASCAR-rootin' frenzy and get me racing every NASCAR game I could get my hands on.
To start with, there are a few topics to discuss to get a thorough review of this game: gameplay, options, and personal experience.
The gameplay in this game is a very touchy subject for many gamers out there. Here is where I feel the game excels. I have played NASCAR 05, 07, and 08 now, and can honestly say that this game is better than 05, similar to 07, but not quite as good as 08. Let's take a look at some of the things that make up the gameplay.
In a world where many gamers wish to achieve high levels of success very quickly, many times people tend to overlook the nature of gaming success and tend to not appreciate the level of detail created to ensure that gamers will get the most realistic simulation experiences the developers can create. This game features a good control system that allows you to make similar driving moves and mistakes inherent in real-life racing. The physics are quite realistic and account for oversteering, understeering, drafting, worn tires, braking, etc., all things you can deal with in real life. The cars' movement is realistic and the graphics are pretty good. Obviously they aren't like NASCAR 08 (Iv'e heard that comparison a lot), but this isn't a comparative essay; it's a review. The graphics (I believe) are good. Light shines and moves over the cars and the wrecks and tracks are pretty realistic as well.
The one beef that I see brought up most often is the use of braking and driving assists. This world is filled with gamers who insist that they should be able to hold down the excelerator and plow through the field of cars en route to an easy win, letting the game brake for them. Luckily, there are also those who appreciate the skill and timing needed to race for real. Either way you want it, you can toggle the driving assists on and off. I find it much more fulfilling to take 30-40 laps of practice to learn each track and when to back off the throttle and brake and then pick up the throttle again. I also enjoy manual transmission, which you can also apply. You have to spend time learning where the entrances and exits are for the turns. It all adds realism to the racing experience. The game is not impossible without braking, as some think. It just takes practice. After all, you really shouldn't be able to hold the throttle all the way down through the turns at Bristol! They have instituted Total Team Control system that allows you to communicate with the rest of your team and even use voice commands with your pit chief. This system makes it important to focus additional attention on your racing team as a whole and less on your individual success. All in all, both types of gamers will find a style of racing that will suit them.
The options you have in this game are very well done. You may not have all of the car setup options as 08, but you can still adjust quite a few things. As far as the game mode options, this game rocks. You have the quick race option, season mode, chase for the cup, flight to the top, and other modes involving various challenges. Each game mode is well-done and involving. With the FLight to the Top mode (start as a rookies Whelen driver and work your way to the top of racing and ownership), you get to earn your pa and fight to become the best. The game includes Whelen, Craftsman, Nationwide, and Nextel (now Sprint) cup racing. You also have a plethora of tracks to race on, including both real and fantasy tracks. You will also find your favorite drivers. There are plenty of things to satisfy anyone from casual to seasoned gamer.
As far as personal experience goes, I can say that I have more fun playing this game than most of the games I own. I have learned a lot about racing and strategy and now find myself able to compete competently (though not always well) in all the races I run. This is pretty good for a guy coming into the game as one who has never watched racing. Though everyone's personal experiences will vary, the game offers a wide enough spectrum of detail and playability to be fun and challenging to all.
In conclusion, I found NASCAR 06 to be a great game that can be both an introduction to the sport and a realistic racing simulation that will satisfy the needs of fans. And for the current price, you aren't really losing much if it isn't your cup of tea. So, I encourage you (especially those who are new to the sport, but don't want to spend $50 on NASCAR 08) to reach up and tighten those belts one more time and let the game show you why NASCAR has become one of the biggest spectator sports. BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY LET'S GO RACIN' BOYS! | video-games_xbox |
Do you like killing zombies and watching them bleed? If so, get this game. I finished Far Cry 4, and needed another FPS to feed my habit. I'd been wanting to play a zombie game, and this one fit the bill perfectly. To be honest, this isn't exactly a first person shooter. True, it's got first-person perspective, and there are some guns, but melee weapons are where it's at. There is nothing more satisfying that beheading a zombie as you run past, or slicing through a zombie's torso cutting them in half. I also love stumbling across a large area packed with zombies and slaughtering them all. Here are a few pros & cons:
PROS:
-Lots of gory detail, spurting blood, severed heads, bodies cut in half (both vertically and horizontally)
-Good weapons system, starting with meager bludgeoning weapons and working up to edged weapons. Multiple means of upgrading the weapons, too.
-Good suspenseful soundtrack music, particularly on the main missions.
-Great "distractor" missions- the impromptu ones that show up while you're on your way for another quest
-You can skip the cutscenes (which are WAY too long)
-Great melee combat system, feels very natural. I would love to see a Viking/ Medeival game with similar combat mechanics. I DO wish you could choose what type of stroke your character was going to take (vertical strike, right-left strike, backhand strike).
-The gore. I really can't emphasize how great the zombie gore is.
CONS:
-AT FIRST there seem to only be about a ten zombie types, and its not uncommon to be attacked by zombies that look like they could be twins. By the end of the game, you're fighting a massive variety of zombie characters.
-"Volatiles" look more like aliens, with predator jaws and a chest that opens up. Kinda a departure from the zombie theme.
-No control over what melee attack you use, although your character usually strikes right-to-left, then left-to-right. This can be annoying when a certain strike would clearly be better to take down your opponent
-MANY times, I've timed and aimed a strike perfectly, yet my weapon seems to pass through the zombie without hitting them, and they try to take a bite out of me.
-The "help a survivor" opportunities that pop up can be hard to locate sometimes. You'll hear someone screaming, you'll run to where they're supposed to be, but they're actually on the roof or behind a door that won't open/ can't pick
-I wish there was a way to upgrade your lockpicking skills so that you didn't have to spend so much time on tough locks
-Days can be very short sometimes, and I don't know why. I can think of a handful of times where I set out first thing in the morning and it's nighttime before I really do anything.
Overall, this is a great game, just as fun as Far Cry 4 was. In some ways its better because I'm killing ZOMBIES. | video-games_xbox |
Simple, easy to use headphones. I needed to upgrade my headphones to something more Xbox One compatible, and I landed on these. And I'm really happy with them! Here's why:
Sound: this is why you're buying these, so let's hit it up first. The sound is very good. Plenty of bass, and 3 different EQ options to suit your tastes and media. It's also not too isolated, which is nice when your wife is trying to get your attention ;) The sound from the headphones also feels more natural this way. I wouldn't say the sound quality is mind blowing, but you're not going to get any better at this price point (and you'll have to spend a lot more to notice a difference). If anyone is wondering, these have the same sound/speaker specs as the A50 minus the "surround sound". Also, you can use these for anything on the Xbox which is nice for late night viewing that won't disturb anyone sleeping.
Chat Mix: at first i didn't know how I was going to like this feature. Instead of having separate Game and Chat volumes you get one volume control, and then you control the mix. In practice it's intuitive and easy to set. Pick a volume that you like, and then mix it to your preference. Pretty easy to bump up the chat if your team is hard to hear, or bring them down if someone is getting loud and rowdy.
Simplicity: after having a surround sound headset I grew tired of all the wires and batteries/charging. These headphones are simple: plug them into your controller, turn on said controller, and go. That's it (note: If you haven't updated your controller yet you will have to do that first. Don't worry, they provide instructions). No wires running out from your box and no batteries that can die mid game. The piece that plugs into your controller is easy to use and very accessible. I can manipulate all the controls in the middle of a game quickly, without even looking away from the screen. So if someone is getting too loud on chat I can easily mix chat down. On my last two headsets I would have to reach up and grope around to find the volume control on the headphones; not good mid match.
Comfort: Listen up if you wear glasses. After about 45 minutes I'd really start to notice how my last headphones were pushing my glasses into my temples. And for longer sessions it would become unbearable. The cushions on the A40's are soft and supple, and I didn't notice any discomfort with my glasses on. Much easier to land headshots when your head isn't throbbing. Weight wise they're fine. Not the lightest but they grip my head well and adjustments stay in place.
Random cool bits: the mic is removable and can be switched to either side (no more totalitarian left only!). The magnetic plates on the side can be changed out, and customized on their site (might get some made with the emblem my team uses). Did I mention no batteries/charging? Yeah, I really like that.
Any cons? Mic monitoring is almost non-existent. It's not a big deal to me and does make the game easier to hear if I'm particularly chatty. But if that's something you're looking for then the A40 won't help you out. There's only one color choice for these right now, and although I like the colors I wish they had a couple more options like the A50's. Lastly, these headphones could be louder. They get decently loud, but I'm usually at 80-90% of the volume. TIP! if you're not on chat move the mix all the way to the Game side. That will help the volume out if you like it loud.
Overall I'm really enjoying these so far! | video-games_xbox |
Solid third-party mic; Very cool and fun to use. I bought the Mad Catz Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator off of Ebay for about $27 with free shipping. You may want to search around for a good price, but the MSRP is $29.99. It is wired, with a metal, flexible band that goes around the back of your neck. There is an earpiece that goes in your left ear, and the microphone itself is built into the neck band. The wire plugs into the XBOX 360 controller like you would expect, with a plastic clip you can hook to your shirt if you want. There is also a small plastic control on the cable, which has a volume control for the earpiece, and a mute switch. There is some Modern Warfare 2 branding on the neck band and the plastic control knob. I have not seen this in stores, which is a shame as I think it would sell well. This is by far the coolest mic I have ever seen or used.
Pros
+Looks great and is very cool. It fits percetly for me - I don't even feel it on me when I am playing modern Warfare 2. The neck band has a rubber cover on it. Since the mic is not in front of your mouth, you can easily drink or eat while playing.
+The earpiece works fine. It is plenty loud if you adjust it high enough. The sound quality is just a bit lower quality than the OEM Microsoft, but it doesnt bother me at all.
-The microphone is clear, but not perfect. My friends have no problem hearing me.
Cons
-The microphone will occassionally register sound when you aren't talking. I sit 10 feet from my tv, and I don't have my tv very loud. I have had the same problem with the Microsoft XBOX 360 wireless headset. It will sometimes annoy other players on Live because they will see your Gamertag popping up in the game, as if you are talking when you are not talking. But, they won't hear your voice (when you aren't talking) and think your mic is not working properly. I wish I could adjust the mic sensivity downward like you can on PS3, but there is no ability to do this on XBOX 360 that I am aware of. Some games have push-to-talk for voice communication, like Halo 3, so you won't have this problem in every game you play online.
-The wire that connects the earpiece to the neck band is very thin and not connected very sturdily to the neck band. I am nervous about accidentally pulling the earpiece wire out of the neck band, which would break it.
-The plastic control knob on the wire connecting the neck band to the controller feels cheap. The mute switch is thin and a bit flimsy. Mad Catz should have put a mute switch on this that is like the one on the Microsoft wired headset - which is large and you don't need to be looking at it to switch it on or off.
Thanks for reading | video-games_xbox |
A Fan's a Must-Have for XBox 360 Owners. If you've got an XBox 360, you know exactly why you need a fan stand. This unit gets very hot, and the built in fan - while loud - just isn't up to the task of keeping it cool.
The unit is designed very simply. You sit your 360 into this stand, and it cools the unit from below. You can put one game box to the right side, and your remote to the left. Really, that's not why you get the unit though :) It's all about the fan.
If you haven't been watching the news or hanging out with other gamers, the XBox 360 is VERY prone to crashing and completely melting down due to heat issues. Part of this might be that gamers lay their XBox 360s down on the ground - blocking all the vents so the system can't get normal air flow - or they jam their unit into a corner where the heat builds up. This system really needs to have ample air cooling around it and be in a vertical position. This stand helps to make sure you get that vertical position and that you have extra cooling. You REALLY want to keep the unit - like any computer or electronic device - away from lint, dust and other air-junk. Hopefully you are vacuuming frequently - and if you have a carpeted floor - have the unit on a piece of wood or something else to protect it.
By default the unit is USB powered so that you can plug it into the XBox 360 and then plug an USB item into the fan. However, it's sort of silly to make the XBox 360 work harder (and get hotter) to then power a fan to cool it down :) It's much better to plug the fan into the wall directly so that the XBox 360 gets as cool as possible while the fan draws its power from the wall. Most gamers have the necessary USB wall plug to handle this pretty easily - and if you don't, it's a cheap item to get.
The only real down side is that the fan has a manual on switch, but in the grand scheme of things, that's not a huge issue especially since you want it to turn on and off independently of the XBox 360. Also, I suppose you could complain about the fan's quiet noise, but since the XBox 360 is already a noisy machine, that's pretty much a wash.
Considering how much money an XBox 360 costs, and how frequently the average owner plays with it, it is VERY worth it to keep it cool and running well. | video-games_xbox |
My newfound obsession with Max Payne 3. THE SHORT REVIEW:
Max Payne 3 is quite easily the best of the series so far and sets the bar very high for any other third person shooters released here on out with both the single player and multiplayer elements of the game.
THE SLIGHTLY MORE DETAILED REVIEW:
Setting the story in Brazil was a great move on the part of the designers. After two games set in and around New York City, MP3 trades in those old duds for a livelier, more robust world that sucks you in right from the beginning with its colorful palette and insanely detailed reproductions of favelas and the overall Brazilian cityscape. Even though the choice to set this in Brazil was met with raised eyebrows by many gamers including myself when it was initially announced, Rockstar proves that this was a gamble that was totally worth taking the risk on.
Max works his way through an incredibly bleak tale of failure, betrayal and ultimately, redemption. I liked the arc of the story very much and it definitely surprised me on several occasions, especially during the moments where I thought I knew what was coming and was completely shocked by what ended up happening. Seriously, there were moments where the insanity unfolding before my eyes left me wide eyed and slack jawed with shock. Kind of glad to see that MP3 has moved away from the first two games in the series storywise and didn't try to shoehorn characters or plot elements from the originals. There's hardly any looking back, save for some flashback moments that explain just what happened to get Max Payne heading over to Brazil in the first place. All we need to know is that Max is totally screwed up and still trying to get over the terrible events from before with the help of plenty of painkillers and booze. One thing about the way the story is told is that it reminded me a lot of a couple of films, namely Tony Scott's "Man on Fire" and "Domino" and also the amazing "City of God" directed by Fernando Meirelles. When you start the game, you may be a little distracted by the crazy subtitles and the video glitching you see happening quite often but after a while, you accept it as part of the medium and as another way to get you involved in Payne's story.
The graphics are gorgeous and everything looks fantastic. Make no mistake, games don't get much more visceral than this. It's pretty violent and really, you've never seen people get shot up in a game the way that they do here. Bullet time is present once again to slow things down and there really aren't too many experiences more satisfying than emptying your weapon into some idiot's face and body while he jiggles around in slow motion and blood spatters everywhere like a Peckinpah or Woo film. A friend of mine watching me play asked me if those moments ever get old and I'll tell you the same thing I told him.
"HELL NO!"
The sound is also wonderful, utilizing the surround speakers (if you use those) to full effect, immersing you in gunfire, screams and explosions throughout the game. The character animation deserves special mention as it's some of the most detailed I've ever seen in a video game. Max looks and feels like a man his age and while he controls a tad slower than his younger self, he controls pitch perfect. As usual, Rockstar delivers a title with an incredible amount of polish and it shows. There's hardly a hitch between any two actions that Max can perform and it creates an incredible seamless experience that translates over to the cut scenes as well. The action will stop for a second while the story plays out and when the cut scene is over, it'll finish in a way where you're right back in it with no pause in flow. If you've played Mass Effect 3, it kind of does the same thing but there's a slight pause right before you're able to play again. MP3 has no such break and technically, it's very impressive and something you really don't see. In terms of difficulty, you can expect to die quite a bit but it's always fair deaths and never frustrating, even if you have to repeat a scene several times because they keep taking you out.
The soundtrack provided by the band HEALTH is good enough that I downloaded it last night (<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Max-Payne-3-Official-Soundtrack/dp/B00859ZE40/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Max Payne 3 Official Soundtrack</a>). MP3 is already intense; the music makes it even more so.
The nice surprise with this title is that the multiplayer component is off the wall. This is the game that Stranglehold wishes it could have been. It plays just about the same as the main game but it's so polished and so deep and so much fun to play that I would recommend the game on the basis of the multiplayer alone. The competition is fierce and in a room full of 15 other people, it's a combined performance of mayhem, violence and "Did I really just do that?" moments. And to think that this is a taste of what we're going to be getting with Grand Theft Auto V... I can't wait!
RECOMMENDED?
Oh, most certainly. This may not be everyone's cup of tea but if you're a fan of Rockstar games like the Grand Theft Auto series, Red Dead Redemption or games from other studios like Mercenaries, you'll go bananas over this. This game takes everything the first two did and amps everything up to the highest levels. It's polished to a shine and simply one of the most fun games I've ever purchased. This is without a doubt my favorite game of the moment. | video-games_xbox |
Best since Guitar hero 3, Guitar needs improvement. I started with playing guitar hero 3 on a friend;s 360, then got guitar hero 2 and 3 on my own 360. Ever since then I've been a huge guitar hero player, buying every guitar hero game since 2007. Though during the last few I started to feel that guitar hero was getting stale and was initially going to ignore this entry in the series until I saw previews of it. I've been playing this game a lot since I received it a few days ago, and I must say this is one of the best guitar hero games since the early days of 2 and 3. This focuses mainly on the guitar, sporting songs that are more challenging and more fun on the guitar than the other instruments I haven't been able to try drums since my world tour set is broken and I don't have the model 2 set. With songs like Bat Country of Avenged Sevenfold, Bloodlines by Dethklok, and Fury of the Storm by Dragonforce, this game has improved much in the fun department. The graphics are the best they've been yet, back in guitar hero 5 there seemed to be some mist clouding up the screen making everything seem fuzzy, but here everything is crystal clear, bright and vibrant and with fantastic venues heavy with heavy metal aesthetics. The highlight of the game is quest mode, narrated by Kiss frontman Gene Simmons, who does an awesome job. The story goes that you must free the Demigod of Rock from imprisonment by unlocking the hidden warrior forms of eight characters from previous guitar heroes. The story has an epic, slightly cheesy and completely over-the-top feel that perfectly fits the franchise.
However, the reason I'm not five-starring this review is because of the Guitar, it works fine but after a couple hours the strum bar started incessantly squeaking and it breaks my concentration from time to time. Other than that it's probably the best design yet. They finally fixed the problem they've had since Gh3, not making the neck and body one piece. Instead the headstock is detachable as well as the sides of the body, leaving the battery slot in the neck. With the exception of the squeak I absolutely love this guitar.
Final verdict. If your a fan of the original guitar heroes and looking for challenge it's a must have. Though as for the guitar bundle, I'll leave that to your own judgment. | video-games_xbox |
Flawed Gawd. I really, really can't overstate how much I enjoy this game. Perfections and imperfections all, I love this thing for it's style, for it's humor, for it's constant and unnapologetic stroking of my ego. It appeals to me personally on so many levels I wouldn't know where to begin.
Which should be the first sign that it ain't for everyone.
Overlord is, at it's heart, a fast-paced puzzle game. Yes there's action and destruction and the slaying of creatures both creepy and cute. But real progress is made by careful placement of your four types of minions and patient exploitation of their strengths and weaknesses. Use the wrong kind at the wrong time? Yup, they're all dead: and it's amazing how naked and exposed your metal-clad, otherwise imposing self feels once that layer of Minions is removed between you and the enemy. You certainly can attempt a run'n'gun approach, throwing your critters at the bad guys and swinging your sword for all it's worth but you and your Minions are surprisingly frail and the game seems to reward a more patient approach, despite the chaotic nature of the visuals.
The game is far from from perfect: the Overlord moves a bit like an old Buick and more than twice I had Minions stuck on rocks and in other pieces of the environment. It's got it's fare share of bugs and poor animations (kick a villager and count down how long it takes him to actually fall, funny stuff) and the cut scenes look like they were thrown together in the eleventh hour with the remaining bits of the budget. Seriously, that last clip before the final battle? Bush league stuff, mate.
But what it lacks in polish and precision it more than makes up for in charm. None of the elements in the world of the game are terribly original: pseudo-English Old-timey country side, elves, dwarves, Hobbits (or Halflings, whatever), trolls, zombies, et. al. But the way the fairy tale creatures have been turned upside down is super clever and fun--most are ravaged and war-torn, some are corrupt and greed-driven. It's a Tolkien world filtered through the Grimm brothers and then again through Monty-Python... or something less mature even. Fart jokes, exploding bad-guys and rampant silly-ness coat everything, giving the adventure a light-hearted edge and making the 'evil' & general mayhem that you spread guilt-free.
Of course, the real stars of the game are the Minions, your little army of evil gremlins. You start with only five but by the end you'll have control of nearly fifty of the little guys at a time with hundreds more waiting in the wings. Push a button and they swarm on your enemies, jumping on backs, hurling fire-balls and giggling and squealing the whole time. Need one or ten to sacrifice themselves to increase your health? Not a problem, and they'll die with a smile. The voice-acting for the various ambient and battle noises they make is top-notch and there's endless fun in watching your fighter Minions pick up new weapons and armor from fallen foes. Honeslty, I get a little attached to my horde while playing and, though I know they're designed to be expendable dungeon fodder, I can't help but get bummed out when I seem them bite the dust for me. Maybe I'm just an old softy, but I consider that reaction a testament to how well these ugly litte citters were designed. And controlling them is pretty easy, if unrefined: you do have to give up control of the camera in favor of direct "sweeping" control of the Minions, but ultimately it's a fair swap.
Glitchy and Kitchy, the game is fun above all else. It's certainly not the most polished title available (by a long shot) but that forgiven, it's easily playable and even re-playable of you get into it. And if you enjoy a personal army of knee-high goblins who will bring you treasures and explode for your amusment then you, my friend, are in the right place. If that's not something you like the sound of... then maybe video games really aren't for you. Try books for a while. | video-games_xbox |
Do yourself a favor, Don't pass this one up. I truly believe Scarface: The World Is Yours would have been a blockbuster had it not been released after the 360's release. Many of my friends have said to me: "I'd get it if it was out for the 360". While, I totally understand not wanting to revert to the inferior graphics of the PS2 or Xbox, this game warrants at least a rental. I had hoped that it would at least be playable for the 360, but as of this writing it is not. 10/10/2006.
Scarface: The World is Yours does a lot of really nice things and rivals the fun and ease of play of GTA and Saints Row. While it doesn't compete with the graphics of Saints Row, the depth of game play could easily surpass it. The tutorials are built into the game story nicely and after 2 hours of play time, I realized I was still being tutored. It's that seamless that I didn't even notice it!
The game starts out (if you choose) with a combat tutorial back in the 70s. Tony is in a military boot camp off in Cuba and within five minutes you learn how to target specific parts, obtain balls and to toss yourself into Rage mode. As soon as you complete this level, the game sets you up with the storyline with pictures and quotes from the movie. This was a nice touch as you're watching these; you are also being shown the opening credits. If you haven't noticed yet that this game feels like playing the part, you soon will. As soon as the credits and scenes work up to the famous end sequence where Tony says `Say ello to my little friend', you get thrust into the action with enough balls to toss yourself into Rage mode and a quite powerful rifle. Instead of forcing you through the original, you pick up where the ending began and you get to construct an alternate ending.
This was an awesome way to work the storyline of the movie into a game. After all, no one wants to regurgitate what's been done in the movie otherwise we'd just buy the movie!
On to the Game play!
Tony's got the attitude straight out of the movie. He talks tough and vulgar. It's easy to feel like your really playing the part in the movie and you can talk to anyone on the streets with real voice conversations. Some of these get repetitive, but its far better than text based conversations.
The majority of the joystick controls are familiar and the tutorials will get you through the navigation several times before ending. My only complaint with the navigation is the Y button is used to exit menus. I'm used to B doing this for most of my Xbox games.
Aiming with the left trigger is pretty easy and when you find yourself unable to see who is shooting yourself, using the left trigger will highlight your target. You can also target specific vitals which will grant more balls. (Balls are used to increase your Rage mode bar)
Rage mode, while it sounded a little corny to me really does give the game the feel of the movie. When your health is getting low, hold down B and you're immediately tossed into a 3rd person viewpoint with unlimited ammo and invulnerability. This can be really helpful to finish off missions.
One of my favorite aspects to Scarface is the feel of building your empire. As you acquire properties, you can install surveillance or goons to protect the property. This is even taken a step further, hire a driver and you can use your cell phone to have him bring you a car. As you get money, Tony's not afraid of using it or flaunting it and this game makes you feel wealthy.
Another item that is unique and interesting is the negotiation meter. As you deal with suppliers, dealers and bankers you use a meter similar to a swing meter or kicking meter in sports games. The closer you get to the end of the meter, the better rate you get and the further (or if you go over) away the worse.
Banks are save points in this game and you can launder money through them on a case by case basis. The better your negotiations, the better the rate and once the money has been cleaned, the cops won't be able to take this money from you. You'll quickly learn that money is something you'll have lots of in this game with many areas to spend it as well. One of the initial missions has you hauling 50k away from a rival to deposit into the bank.
I've only put in three or four hours, but this game is that impressive. I'm still just touching the surface on this title and I highly recommend dusting off the old Xbox and giving this title a try. If this game had come out on the 360, people would have been saying "What is Saints Row?" It's that good and you're only hurting yourself by ignoring it because of the lack of 360 support. | video-games_xbox |
How can games get any better. Well, I finally did it. I swore I wasn't going to until later on, but I drug out my wallet and bought and X-Box. Halo is the reason why. I didn't think that just one game would make me want to buy the system, but this one did. NEVER before have I gotten my hands on a game that is so addictive and immersive. I pulled an all-niter last night on this one and I'm surprised that I was able to lay the controller down long enough to log on and write a review for it.
Here are just a few reasons why this game is the best:
It may be a first-person shooter, and I thought that Goldeneye would be the last one I ever needed, but I was wrong again. The gameplay and action here is so tight and frantic, you actually feel like you've been dropped into one of the bloody battles of "Startship Troopers".
The storyline is airtight, with GREAT voice-acting and character details and the plot zooms right along with plot twists and surprises. Unlike any other shooter I've ever played, you actually have a team and you do grow attached to your buddies. It's not your own skin you're trying to save, but theirs too.
Variety? You got it. During some points of the game, you can hop into a vehicle and blast your way across the landscapes, gunning down the aliens as they run your way. Fun stuff.
Again, the first-person shooter is a genre that I thought ended with Goldeneye, but the sheer amount of depth that went into Halo, makes the whole thing seem fresh and new again. If it's multiplayer action you're wanting, then there's MORE than plenty of that to keep you glued to your set longer than a Vivid Girls Marathon. Plain and simple. Call your buddies up and tell them to bring extra controllers.
How does the game look? Well, the graphics are STUNNING. This is the best looking game in history. The frame rate may move along at 30 fps, but it does it so smooth and seemlessly, that you'd never know it. You can be fifty yards from a wall, and when you run up to it, it's gonna look just as good up close as it did far away. There's no blurring to speak of. The characters faces are also some of the most realistic I've ever seen. They actually move with the voices and the expressions are very human. It's more like you're watching a movie than playing a game.
Like I said before, this is the MAIN reason I bought an X-Box and if you're not convinced yet, then I really don't know what else to say. One more thing though, this was a first-generation game for the console. As awesome as this one is, I can't wait to see what the next crop of games will look like... | video-games_xbox |
Just have fun. I have had this game now for about 3 weeks. I am a casual player and don't play everyday. I have played PGR 3 and 4 and Codemasters Dirt title.
This is a fun game. It takes a little while to master the controls (Hint, ease up on the throttle Mario, you'll do better). This is a game that's part game and part sim. The physics are as real as a game can get and still be playable. Otherwise most players would never finish the first lap. That being said, the game has some quirks that made me nearly throw it in the garbage till I learned how to work with them, not get around them.
You have to drive in this game. Unlike other race games you can't just stick your hood in there and push cars out of the way (except the demo derby). Same thing with following in a pack of racers. When you know a turn is coming up you have to slooow down or you will impact the car in front of you and you will take damage. Which will affect your ability to score high or even finish. The graphics are great and yes, the Voice Over can get really annoying. Repeating the same thing over and over. Unlike Dirt, it really doesn't offer a lot of useful information. You can derive your positioning from the HUD.
I saw a lot of complaints about car setups, or the lack there of. Fine with me, I don't have a lot of time to fiddle with this and that and just want to get right in and play without tweaking my gear ratios or my suspension preloads and so forth. I just want to get in and drive and race. Took me a while to get used to drifting, something I have never done, but once you get the hang of it it's fun.
Big con for me is it seems that it's all to easy to be spun out. Now, I know that's realistic on the track and all, but it only seems to take a tap and you're in a 360 and the guy that tapped you is on his merry way. I have yet to tap anyone out like that. Only seems to happens to you.
It's a fun game though as long as you realize it's for fun. | video-games_xbox |
Get used to 2nd place. I bought the limited collectors edition and I will give this game a better review when I have the time...
It looks beautiful, the new real time reflection mapping makes this game look as good as it gets on even the outdated Xbox 360 system, and is a step above Forza 3, and all the Top Gear content makes it even more fun...
The music is great! No more pop songs or songs with lyrics during the race, as that got rather annoying in the last game hearing the same song over and over again, so this time through it is a lot more fun!
Needs more fast mid and full size Station Wagons, though, as there is only one, an Audi RS2...
BUT...
The Career mode/World Championship is broken and WILL NOT let you set the A.I. Difficulty level like in the previous games. Turn 10 is apparently using some sort of CHEATING "Adaptive A.I."
So be warned that there is "RUBBER BAND A.I." in the Career Mode/World Championship. This means that even if you have a car that, is by all means, better and faster than all the other cars you are racing against, that for some weird reason, there will ALWAYS be a close grouping around you and one car (in the front) that is magically upfront by a long shot, and stays there, in most races. The A.I. cars, also, seem to have NITRO BOOST on most straightaways, so even if you DO have a faster car than the others, the closest A.I. cars will be on your rear bumper in a heartbeat even if they were a quarter mile behind you before the straightaway. I spend more time looking in the rear-view mirror and trying to block the CHEATING A.I. from passing me than I do enjoying a race in a customized car. This basically makes the game WAY TOO arcade feeling and it goes from being a wonderful driving simulator and racing game to an overly competitive demolition derby.
I do not know WHY Turn 10 took out the advanced race difficulty options for the World Championship mode as it makes an otherwise awesome game into a bit of an annoyance.
In the World Championship mode, the A.I. WILL NOT let go of the racing line! I've seen races where the A.I. cars will take a corner (in the same car I am using) at 3 times the speed I am going without so much as a squeal of their tires, it is literally like they are on rails! So if you want to play a Racing Simulator, you will have to stick to the Event List mode where you can make the A.I. cars behave a little more realistically.
Also, for some reason, Turn 10 Left out the single player Vs. A.I. Drag races! It looks like the only place you can do the drag races is on Xbox Live mode.
You can still set the A.I. Difficulty in the Event select, so I am only taking off one star for the moment. Hopefully this will be fixed or patched soon. | video-games_xbox |
By far the worst in the series, even for a LotR's fan. As a die-hard fan of LotR and the Lego franchise of video games, I was super pumped when my fiance gave me this game for my birthday. Up until the release of this game, we had completed most of the Lego games, including the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter installments. However, this game is by far the worst in the series, and I want to use this review to point out the few good points, but mostly negative points about this game.
Most of the Lego games feature a series of three movies (the only one I know of being more was the Star Wars one, which features all six episodes on one game) in which each movie hosts between five or six levels each. Within the levels, one must solve puzzles and defeat various bosses to unlock characters, find hidden treasure, and red Lego brick extras that enhance the game play. It becomes extremely fun for `collectionists' to get 100% of the game, which generally is not hard to accomplish, but does take some time. Lego's LotR's does not disappoint in this area. Besides a slew of bonus characters to unlock and play, as well as the red bricks, there are several mini quests one can take to earn mythril bricks, which are then used to build different armor and weapons.
In the previous Lego games, you generally started in a central hub and could then access the various movies and levels from there. For example, in Star Wars, the hub was the Mos Eisley Cantina on Tatooine. In the first Batman game, your hub is the bat cave of course. LotR departs from this long tradition. In order to get to the next level you must travel to various locations in Middle-Earth. While the map is open-ended, it is linear. You can access a map to see where you are going and can set waypoints (blue Lego studs in which to follow), although the waypoint system can be annoying. Until you beat the game and unlock Freeplay mode, your waypoint will remain on the main quest, and even if you switch it--oh say you want to unlock a new character--the waypoint will readjust itself to the original quest whether you want it to or not. While the area of travel is not like Skyrim in size, the idea of the easy accessibility of the hub is truly missed on this game. Even in Harry Potter, where the hub was the whole of Hogwarts, you still entered levels via a smaller hub (the little blackboard).
The game follows the three novels of LotR, though it is mimics the movies in just about every way. This is easy to see in the voice acting and appearances of the characters and creatures. By the way, this is the first Lego game to actually have the characters talk. A very small negative, but one nonetheless. However, it was nice to unlock characters like Tom Bombadil and Radagast the Browb, which were not portrayed in the movies.
There is some of the good and bad, now on to the ugly. The first horrendousness of the game is the split screen. Unless you play by yourself, you are forced to either play co-op in a split screen, which means when you need to shoot or throw something across the level, it becomes difficult to see where you are aiming. If you do not accept split screen, it will still do so when you wander away from your partner. This could be only a few feet from them, so if you run back and forth, a solid black line weaves in and out of focus and makes game play incredibly distractive. I remember this first appeared in the Lego: Pirates game, but I do not remember it being so horrible. Second, none of the characters can swim, and there is a lot of water in the game. If you fall in a body of water, you have to continuously mash on a button until you jump out. If you are crossing a body of water that requires several jumps, you are placed back at the beginning. Obviously this ups the hardness of the game, but if the Lego series are aimed at kids, then this is ridiculous. In other Lego games you could swim, and with special gear or characters, sink to the bottom and walk around to explore.
Third, the puzzles in the game range from super easy to scratch your head difficult. Lego puzzles have always been somewhat challenging, but you could generally figure them out. Here, we have characters that do not perform as they should, and require expert timing to nail a certain move. A good example is the level in which you must take down several of the war elephants. While these elephants are trying to trample you, Legolas must run to catch up to one, shoot two arrows at different locations, then jump from arrow to arrow to rope just to get on top of the thing! Granted it only took me a couple of times, but again, what about the kids? Other annoying game play includes getting caught by the Nazgul, Boromir, or the undead army, and having to mash buttons to escape. Last, while I like that there is plenty to do in this game, the way it plays out is difficult to do unless looking at a FAQ. Here is an example. Say, for instance you want to get an extra (red brick) in the game. First, you have to find a person (or creature) that will give you the red brick (to purchase of course), but only if you find something for them first. Sometimes they want you to craft something in mythril. If it is the latter, than you have to have enough mythril bricks, and hope you did not spend to many on crafting another item previously. If it is the former, than you must find an item inside a certain level. While this is not difficult by any means, and adds to the amount of time you will end up playing the game; in previous Lego games, you could simply find the red brick in a level and then go to a store to purchase the extra.
The game play is fun for the most part, especially if you are a fan of LotR, both the novels and the movies. If you are a fan of the Lego series, like myself, you will be disappointed. It all comes down to the idea that "if it isn't broken, why fix it?" Doing away with the hub, making it difficult to obtain the extras to get 100%, beefing up the difficulty of the game play and puzzles, and doing away with other traditions which made the Lego games down right fun and enjoyable make Lego LotR the worst in the series. I hope Lego returns to the old style in their future games, or else I'll probably have to pass on them. And since Lego is making Marvel Lego toys now, a possible game from this franchise in the series makes me excited and dreadful at the same time. | video-games_xbox |
Frustrating. I'm actually amazed at the shining reviews this game has gotten. The "preparation 1st" angle the creaters took with the combat is absolutely infuriating. Drink all your potions, and use all your enhancements before heading into battle. Uh, really? And how exactly, am I supposed to know what preparations to make, BEFORE A BATTLE???!!!??!!! Well therein, lies the problem with this game. Dying. I don't care what the fanboys of this game tell you. That's the only way to win. Die. Over and over again, until you come up with the EXACT formula to win even the most mundane battles. After 3 or 4 deaths, you will finally be like, "ok, I see."And then, finally, you'll reap a hard fought victory. Your prize? An absolutely worthless bunch of crap, and usually 1 armor or weaponry upgrade that might or might not be better fhan you're presently getting killed with. And whats the point of armor in this game really? 1 or 2 strikes from an enemy, or getting surrounded and you're dead. The game, fans, reviews, and instructions tell you to "strategically prepare". What this actually means, is give it your best guess, and after dying often enough, you'll finally come up with answers. The boss battles are especially infuriating. Furthermore, the camera and the idiotic combat system are constantly at odds with each other. Wanna collect that trap on the ground? Even that will make you curse and swear. More than likely, the supposedly agile Witcher will walk right into it, because: There is no 1st person viewpoint!!!! Why?!?! If the controls are this touchy, why?!?!?!?! Talking to who you actually want to talk to in a crowd is annoying. Selling items is a chore. There is no fast travel. The load after death has no option of WHICH BLEEPING SAVE TO LOAD!?!? So the place you just died might not be save that gets loaded. To make it worse, YOU CANNOT TURN OFF AUTOSAVE!!!!!! It goes on and on. If you have low self esteem, or like games where the gameplay stabs any good story it had to death buy this game. Apparently this game is a social experiment in patience and duration. | video-games_xbox |
Great visuals + OK game play = . A pretty good WWII shooter. This was one of the first games I got with my 360 about 4 weeks ago. Eventhough it was the first game I played when I got home, I put it down for a while since getting into GOW. After beating GOW, I came back to COD3.
Now that I have beat this game I must say that I am fairly satisfied with the game. And that is a big FAIRLY.
The graphics are the best thing about the game. The war zones seem life like down to the individual blades of grass swaying as you and your comrades creep through it. You will see dirt fly up in the air as you and your enemies exchange fire on the battle field. Glass breaks realisticaly as you try to kill Nazi's from inside houses. Your comrades and enemies are also done very well, the move like humans move and they die the same way. I really haven't found much to complain about with the graphics.
If the graphics are the best part of the game, the sound is a real close second. I decided to purchase the optical audio cable for the 360 and plugged it in directly to my A/V receiver. The result? True 5.1 surround sound from all 6 speakers. The sounds of explosions, bullets whizzing by your head, tanks, trucks, all sound lifelike. Crank the volume up and you get an even better audio experience. Truly impressed with the sound.
The controls are easy to pick up as well, the 360 controller seems well suited to handle this game. While nothing beats a mouse and keyboard, the controller gives you great control over your character.
So if the graphics are awesome and the sound it great, then the game has to be excellent right? Not so fast. While this game has all of the elements of an "excellent" game, they just don't come together as I would have exepected. To me the game is not nearly as fun as the original COD on the PC, and there were only a couple of levels in which it was easy to feel like I was actually there; something the original COD was able to do very well on every level. Maybe it was the actual levels; which I found many to be somewhat boring and tedious because of the annoying checkpoint system. I found myself having to do the same thing over and over and over again, which greatly took away from the fun factor of the game. I don't know about you, but it is real annoying for me having to spend another 10 minutes doing something I already did, just because I got killed before the next in game checkpoint. If a game is going to have checkpoints, make them closer together and/or give the player an option to save at any point in a game, even if they are only given 2 or 3 saves per level (e.g. Rainbow Six Three for the XBOX.) Another thing about the game was that many of the actual missions were simply not fun. I wanted to feel like I was just another person in the war, but things always seemed to center on your character, it would seem enemies would direct all there fire at you, and many of the missions involved YOU having to do something. Another ANNOYING thing about the game was that there was no way to skip through the cut screens between levels. It was fine to see them for the first time, but if you load a saved game after you turn on your 360 again, you have to sit through the cut screen again, with no way to just go to the action. Some cutscreens are rather long so you can imagine the frustration. This is unacceptable and I have no idea how this was overlooked and allowed to be in the final product.
In summary COD3 is an OK game, the four stars are actually rounded up values from a 3.8 or 3.9. It's definetely worth playing and completing, but I probably won't play it again unless I decide to get my XBOX Live subscription back again, which I am still debating due to the stupid kids online. | video-games_xbox |
When a 20-Year Hiatus Strikes, Who Ya Gonna Call? Certainly Not He-Man. Since I first heard news of a Ghostbusters game back in 2007 I was overjoyed as the lack of a third film left me sorely disappointed. Whether you're a child of the 1980s or a sci-fi comedy fan, the Ghostbusters franchise probably gave warm and fuzzy feelings inside you and a hole that needed to be filled. Problem was Ghostbuster co-writer Harald Ramis (played Egon and also co-wrote Animal House and Stripes) did not want to make a third film since almost 20 years had passed and he knew how badly such a time elapse faired for the fourth Indiana Jones film.
Enter Ghostbusters, the video game.
With CG graphics and voice acting, Ramis and Aykroyd were able to successfully create the third film albeit for the gaming console. Ghostbusters the Video Game ("GVG") is a virtual tribute to Ghostbusters fans as you feel as though you are in the film with all the themes that made the franchise as popular as it is.
Story
In GVG you are "Rookie," the new "experimental equipment technician" that gets to test out all the new tools and weapons just incase they malfunction (which, they don't) and the guy they send in to any situation if it is too serious for them to handle. In short, you're a red shirt. On your first day on the job you get a virtual baptism of fire with Slimer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and many other familiar and new ghosts along the way as you try to figure out why the recent outbreak of ghost activity is happening.
The story is intriguing as you actually investigate the paranormal events with your PKE meter (some sort of paranormal tricorder) all the while listening in to the guys coming up with hypothesis leading right up to the end twist, which actually surprised me. This kind of comedic sci-fi mystery is exactly what put Ghostbusters on the map and the tradition continues with GVG. While your character does not speak (nor is his real name specified beyond "Rookie"), this actually adds to the experience as you feel like you're part of the movie and you're just letting the main actors play their part with little to no interference from you.
The dialog is just plain hilarious. Aside from Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, all original actors returned to reprise their roles including Annie Potts as Jeanine and even William Atherton as Walter Pecker. Between the bantering from the actual characters ("We eat gods for breakfast!!"), the ridiculous phone messages ("That Viggo painting is a priceless artifact - it belongs in a museum!!"), and the abstract sayings of the Viggo painting ("I sense a dark future, where music is free and available for download."), I had almost non-stop chuckling and some heavy laughter throughout. The moments of boring dialog were VERY few and far in between.
Game play
The game play uses a mixture of styles from mostly Dead Space and the last two Resident Evil games. Like Dead Space, you see your character in third person over their right shoulder with the health and weapon gauges on the proton pack as opposed to a standard heads-up display or basic overlay. This means the screen has more screen space for actual gaming rather than obtrusive numbers from a display or overlay. It also gives the player a more realistic experience. The game play takes some ideas from Resident Evil 5 with the inventory selection from the D-Pad as the proton pack has four weapon modes (standard photon blast, slime gun, etc.) although it is more similar to Republic Commando than RE5.
The controls are very basic and require little time to master from basic movement, dodging, and selecting between primary and secondary fire. The games movement is actually very well calibrated as I required no tweaking to the sensitivity, I just picked up the controller and went with it despite how much movement is required (which is a LOT).
GVG's game play is also surprisingly simplistic but without the boring repetition. You spend much of your time "zapping" a ghost with your weapons weakening them, and then you snare them into the "trap" and retrieve the trap. There are some monsters that can be destroyed but you'll find yourself snaring a LOT of traps. This requires you to master wrangling ghosts with the snare secondary fire of the photon beam (which activates automatically thank God) as your controller will be moving back and forth trying to reel the ghoul in, like fishing.
When you're not zapping ghosts, you're following their trails with your PKE meter, scanning everything as you go. This means you focus in night-vision first person, which can mean that things will pop out at you and potentially startle whoever is playing.
One of the greatest things about the game play in GVG is the ally AI. For once, they are actually capable and helpful. Last night, on my second play through, I was at the Sedgwick Hotel and the guys actually reeled in two ghosts by themselves as I only provided cover. Not to mention the best part is that not only can you revive your team mates but they can revive YOU and do so in a timely fashion. This is unbelievable as your allies in GVG are more reliable than Delta Squad in Gears of War 2. Who woulda thunk it?
The only downside to game play, and it's a big one, is that you cannot drive Ecto-1. You get to cause serious property damage, shoot people with your proton beam and not get into trouble, and even ride down the fire station pole, but when it comes to driving the only ambulance every child has wanted to take out for a spin, it's a strict no-no. The main characters even taunt the player for not being able to drive in the last mission. Jerks.
The only other downside is that there is no new game plus. Once you beat the game, you're done. Like Fallout 3, this is just unacceptable as it diminishes replay value. I sincerely hope they will include downloadable missions and add-ons later on. You just can't leave the game like this!
Graphics and Music
The graphics are pretty well done. The facial expressions and movement is akin to Gears of War 2 as the textures are well done (but we'll be frowning upon them in six months when Assassins Creed 2 comes out). The lip-syncing is out of whack but it happens.
The environments are simply stunning... and fully destructible. You can blow up virtually everything. I had a blast (no pun intended) turning the Martinez's Bar Mitzvah buffet from a kosher delight to one charbroiled casserole with my proton pack (and subsequently got a gamer score for it). From the stores, the damage, the cemetery, it's all done exceptionally well.
As for the music, it's almost all from the original movies from the piano riffs to Ray Parker Jr's Ghostbusters. This gives the game a much more realistic feel to it, not to mention makes you feel like you're part of the film.
All in all, Ghostbusters gets a solid 90%. The controls were near flawless, the dialog was excellent, but the game could've been longer (took me eight hours to beat on casual), lacks side quests and a new game plus option, and you cannot drive Ecto-1.
A worthy rental and purchase!! | video-games_xbox |
Painfully frustrating...Not for casual gamers. Let me begin by saying that I'm not that experienced in hack-n-slash games. I play games, but I don't obsess over them (like some die-hards on these boards here), I think I fall under the MAJORITY, the casual gamers who play games to have FUN! If there is challenge along with the game, then so be it, but first, and foremost, I'm only interested in having FUN with the game.
And this game...Isn't fun AT ALL. It's frustrating, and the fun factor is replaced by infuriating game play. This game should fall under the "Rent First" category. But I decided to listen to a friend's advice to buy the game (last time I listen to his advice), he said that the game is difficult, but fun...Yeah, right. This game reminds me of ONE game (and this is something that NEW and CASUAL players need to know) Eve Online.
This game actually has a learning curve that you would end up NEEDING to have a webpage open to understand what in the heck you need to do, where to go, and where to avoid. There is no map (which would've helped a TON). And the AI is unforgiving at the LOWEST level. Let's not forget that every time you use a Bonfire, you manage to inexplicably re-spawn all the enemies you killed!
I've heard people talking about how "grinding" isn't required, and I think their drunk on their own Kool-Aid. The fact is that by all the enemies that you killed inexplicably re-spawn after use of the bonfire MEANS that you will re-kill all the enemies that you just killed a couple of SECONDS ago (which, by definition, means your grinding).
The game play does have something to be desired. The parry system is broke (or very laggy) and you will get hit and you will have a heck of a time timing ANYTHING (which relegated me to only blocking attacks). The dodge/roll is clunky, you will get hit when dodging/rolling out of the way of an attack (and it's also ridiculously tough to time right). I THINK (and don't quote me on this) the problem is that you seem to lag while doing these moves which might be the reason behind this.
I can honestly say that this game DOES NOT make me want to play the game. It makes me want to do anything else BUT play this game. That is one of the worse put-downs I think anyone could give to a game and this game is on that list.
I'm not saying to avoid it...Rent it first. But be prepared to have a couple of controllers broken as a result.
Me?...I'm going to see about selling this game. Maybe I could get SOME money of this garbage... | video-games_xbox |
A Typical Hack Hack hack slash button masher. This game is beautifully made with a lot of visuals and fatalities. The scenery is stunning and lush but the gameplay is just button mashing the entire time. 40 bucks to be given generic icelandic names and hack and slash hack and slash. This is time consuming for no just cause. The story is fair, but lacks diversity of enemies. The average is "orc like" creatures with bent backs and swords straight out of lord of the rings. Then there's these archers that always have good aim and a great rate of fire, but are never anything but annoying. Then as a more advanced race of creatures shieldsmen with swords. They are dark and armored thats about it. Then the champions are the most advanced they are button mashers too. The overall gameplay is a lot of enemies with only a few repeated moves to destroy them. There is only a few things good to say about it the visuals and seeing a hundred non controlled Vikings fighting. Yet, the mediocre thing about them is that they only have two looks bearded and unbearded. Their clothes are all identical. The quests are fun and easy until you have to go through a city to destroy a barracks and then it was 1 star after that. Too many enemies with limited damage ability. Like Assassin's Creed it is alot of graphic fancies, but zero substance. I resent ever paying money for something that doesn't even have checkpoints to destroy the barracks. Eight times and every time the result is the same red light and death. What happens? You are sent back to the stone that is your travelling portal. Your character that had killed countless enemies for them all to be for naught. This isn't a next gen game and it doesn't really feel like it was made after the year 2000 let alone it be made in 2007. Avoid this game unless you like to fight endless enemies, push the same amount of buttons to reach the same ending, see the same amount of graphic fatalities, and not have checkpoints in some of the biggest battles. | video-games_xbox |
Bland as crap. First off, the game is a straight FF VII rip off, let me explain. The military (as well as higher society) is abusing mako energy, I mean blastia, so ex-soldier Cloud, I mean Yuri, travels the World trying to set all the wrong things right. The only interesting part of this game (besides some funny and clever writing you can get in any other Tales game) also brings about the biggest problem with this game. Yuri being an anti-hero, and taking justice into his own hands. And while he kills people in some dramatic cut scenes, we also have to listen to just as many cut scenes with Yuri's party saying "Don't shoulder this responsibility on your own," (or some variation of that,) over and over and over again.
Next, the story seems to take place in the second and third act of a three act plot, but we only get the first act of this story through dialogue between Yuri and Flynn. And through these conversations we are supposed get an emotional attachment to Flynn. While I can say I did like Flynn, it was because of character design (he had BAD ASS white knight armor) and skills he was able to use early in the game. This came as a major distraction through the game, because I knew he'd never join my party because the only platform the game was released on in the US was the Xbox version. What would have made the game a million times better is if we started out in the military, and you do one or two extremely morally questionable missions, maybe have some night before the mission campfire scenes establishing some basic plot, but play through some Yuri and Flynn missions would have allowed the player to get some greatly needed emotional attachment to Flynn and also established Yuri's personality and motivations, as well as establish the bonds between these two characters. I'm glad Yuri knows Flynn will help, but how do I know this? Guess we just have to take Yuri's word on it.
Last thing I will speak about will be gameplay. It is fun and extremely easy to play as Yuri. He has easy combos he can use, as well as powerful skills he can chain to his combos. Unfortunately Yuri is the ONLY one who is like this. The rest are sluggish to use and very underpowered when compared to Yuri. This just makes them a chore to play. I know some people love this aspect saying it adds to the experience, but I prefer games like Abyss, Graces F, or Symphonia where there are multiple people who are just as strong, and are able to chain the same number of attacks. They differ by having different fighting styles and skills to make them unique. Also there are summon monsters in Vesperia, but you cannot summon anything in battle. Also a little disappointing.
Tales of Symphonia has everything this game has but tells it on a much grander scale. Better story, better cast, better developed characters, everything with the obvious exception of graphics. I would also say The Abyss was also a better Tales Of game, and has been flawlessly integrated into 3D. Graces F takes a completely new look at how to obtain skills and how battles are played out, giving you something familiar, but very fresh feeling. I would definitely recommend any of these games before this one. | video-games_xbox |
A nice spin from Rockstar's normal formula. Rockstar Games has a pretty notorious image across the world. They've created controversial games like Grand Theft Auto, Manhunt, State of Emergency, and the upcoming Bully. They wanted to stray away from that bad-boy image with Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. In their conversion from big and meaty games like Grand Theft Auto, they've made this over-simplified, undeniably fun and extremely challenging ping pong simulator.
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis...or just Table Tennis, to save my keyboard from deadly wear and tear, isn't a big smash, but it's definitely that smooth right spin that impresses the crowd with a few key twists and sends the weak and unskilled players diving in all kinds of directions.
Table Tennis is a difficult game. Though it's extremely simple in its concept, mastering the game is done on an entirely different level than simply picking up the controller and playing. This is something I couldn't accept for a very long time, and therefore went through a whole mess of emotions regarding the game. Like real table tennis, however, gaining skill and mastering the game is something that is extremely entertaining and exciting.
You see, Table Tennis is a whole lot faster than the tennis games you've played in the past. Imagine Virtua Tennis or Mario Tennis on speed, and you get the point. The controls are mapped to the Xbox 360 controller in a very simple way; with each face button corresponding to a directional spin on the ball and the left analog stick acting as your shot placement. At first, the system feels a little strange. Oftentimes, I felt that my player was "stuck" to the court and wouldn't react to my directions at all, and even more often I found myself using the A button for topspin almost 90% of the time until I got accustomed to the other controls. From there, it's a matter of knowing when and where to place other spins--for example, getting your opponent off-balance is the key to winning points in some rallies, and staying on your feet is the key to staying in the game.
And believe me, the games can be extremely exciting. I can recall several moments throughout the game's Tournament mode where I was sitting on the edge of my seat, staring wide-eyed at the screen and not speaking a word as my on-screen character swatted and dove for a high-speed table tennis ball. The hits would start to pile up and seconds started feeling like minutes. I held my breath and finally exhaled as I'd score a point, or I'd swear and shake my head as the opponent took advantage of my mistakes.
The A.I. in Table Tennis is truly next-generation. Some sports titles exercise obvious intelligence, like running through a huge gap in the defensive line in a football game or taking a wide-open three-point shot in a basketball game. Table Tennis takes it to a whole new level, a level where the A.I. is so unbelievably punishing to one's mistakes that one might begin to think the computer is in fact cheating. This was my thought at first. This attitude led me to truly hate the game until I finally realized what I was doing wrong, worked on my skills, and improved. That shows a truly great video game--a game that not only punishes you for your lack of skill, but forces you to improve through execution.
Visually, Table Tennis doesn't blow any fuses in the Xbox 360. However, it does have extremely detailed character models and some of the best crowd sound effects ever in a video game. You'll hear cell phones going off in the crowd, and when the action picks up, they'll even start chanting the name of the more threatening player. Though the overall look and sound of Table Tennis isn't something that would redefine visuals or sound, they're so well done that it's hard for me to care.
Table Tennis is a game that takes a lot of practice. Fortunatley, there are gameplay modes to accomodate that need. The Tournament mode is the primary source for single-player action, and it offers four cups, each one increasing in difficulty and number of matches required to win. The second mode is Exhibition, which serves as the host for same-screen multiplayer. Training mode is a must in Table Tennis, as it gives exercises for every single facet of the game except for human or A.I. competition. Last of all is an Xbox Live online multiplayer mode, which is obvious enough through that simple description.
Multiplayer will make your Table Tennis experience much better. While the single-player is fun enough on its own, I've decided that it's just practice for playing against friends. Skilled players will find themselves in 100, maybe even 200-hit rallies in no time. There hasn't been a better trash-talk video game since Halo 2.
Table Tennis isn't for everyone. Gamers without patience (i.e. myself, until a certain point) should stay far away from this game, because it's simply too technical and too difficult at first. However, those of you who enjoyed games like the Xbox 360's Top Spin 2 or maybe even the PSP's Virtua Tennis: World Tour, you'll most likely find something to enjoy here. Table Tennis makes the best use of virtual ping pong since the iconic Atari hit Pong, and it should be known that Rockstar can make great games that don't involve swatting at people--at least not swatting baseball bats and katanas. | video-games_xbox |
Not bad in its own right. So off the bat it must be said that the 3DS versions of the Skylanders games are completely different than their console counterparts in terms of story and gameplay. Where the console incarnations typically feature expansive levels for you to roam about and explore, their little brothers offer a more focused action-platformer approach which is pretty enjoyable in its own way. The levels in 3DS Skylanders are typically pretty short and tend to boil down to following a (minimally) branching path to the end of the level, or sticking around in a pre-defined arena taking on waves of enemies for a set time. As much as I'd like to want for more out of this title, I find myself appreciating the change of pace. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like a very lengthy game unless you're driven to 100% all the available challenges, though the gameplay is solid enough that you may just want to.
Some things to note about the 3DS version is how they handle Skylanders and add-on content. Rather than opting for the ability to swap out characters at will you will be able to select two at a time via an NPC at the game's main hub area. You are then able to swap between these two on the fly with a tap of the touch screen. Additionally, you can use this NPC to register your Spyro's Adventure add-on packs (Dragon's Nest, Darklight Crypt, etc). Doing so will permanently unlock a new set of missions within the game. As with the core content, these will be different than the console version. What about your items? This is probably my favorite change over the console version of the game. You are able to "equip" any one item along with your two Skylanders and use it at any time you wish while playing, rather than it just being used once when placed on the portal. You'll just have to sacrifice some of your "Radiance" to do so (an in-game pickup, usually tied to score in missions).
Ultimately the only real complaint I'd level at this title is how fickle the 3DS portal of power is so it's probably for the best that the game is designed to minimize how much you need to use it. Other than that the gameplay is fun, if brief and the handling of all the game's myriad additional junk is not only appreciable but quite well suited to the task, especially in regards to the consumable items. | video-games_xbox |
PDZ isn't anything like Perfect Dark 64 sadly. In PDZ, you take up arms as Joanna Dark once more, except this time as a teenager and a bounty hunter with her pops Jack Dark. Once her father is killed by the evil corporation of dataDYNE on a mission, and a conspiracy begins to unfold around the same company, Joanna teams up with Carrington Institute to try and topple dataDyne...and to avenge her dad's death as well.
You see the world through Joanna's eyes as she runs around blowing away enemies with an assortment of weapons including a shotgun, the Superdragon, a "Shockwave" sniper rifle (remember the FarSight in the 64 game? Well this is the equivelent of it), the DY .357 magnum, and many more. You get to use turrets, hover crafts, and this mechanical walker thing with an M60 on it so that was cool too. You can use ziplines to get from one building to the next, and you can even press up against walls for cover and precise firing.
Lets talk a difference between this title and it's masterpiece of a predessor on the Nintendo 64. For starters, in Zero before you can do a stage you have to select your weapons and make sure you have enough space in the item slots for it. So in essence, you could really only carry one assault rifle and one SMG. That is VERY lame in my opinion - I don't play a first person shooter to manage inventory. Moving on, in order to unlock new weapons - say a CMP150 SMG that wasn't in your beginning inventory -for use in other stages, you must complete that level while having the CMP150 as one of your current weapons; WHICH means you must toss a weapon, take the CMP, and beat the level with it to have it for further use. Another lame idea. So if you are currently wondering, yes I am missing a bunch of weapons in my inventory. However, Perfect Dark 64 didn't have any of this and equaled out for a much better experience.
The multiplayer is somewhat redeeming, but still no match for PD64. You choose a level, how big it is, your weapon set, character/team, bots, and gametype and go at it. There are some interesting games like Infection or Hacking, but it's been done before. However, this game pretty much took out the in-depth character & bot customization process the 64 version had as well as being able to command your team, and in turn, lost a lot of points and was almost lackluster. Furthermore, you must actually beat the game to unlock all the bots, teams, and characters to get the most of the multiplayer - ahem, LAME!. However, it will still provide you with some fun if you and a couple of your friends are looking to just blow each other or some bots away. There is also a Co-Op mode which was pretty fun I'll admit.
I'm forced to admit, but this is the best looking game I have ever seen. Everything looks incredibly realistic, the lighting is superb, the characters look humanlike and move as fluid as one as well. The enviroments, be it vast jungles, dense cities, or huge mansions are truley breathtaking. Perfect Dark Zero definitley showed the power of the X-Box 360, and really set the standard for future games. HOWWWWWWWEVER, and this was inevitable to avoid on this review, was the fact that I despise what they did with Joanna Dark's look. She was never a punk rock chick, nor was she a supermodel - she was grotesque in the 64, she was british, she was something that could pass off as a secret agent... sigh, why Rare, why?
The music has it's ups and downs. Some songs, like when you are..grr..managing your inventory..are techno-esk and remind me of the glory days of PD64. Then there are the heavy metal / rock sections which help you get pumped up for a big battle. Then, there are the actual rave tunes which truley ruined it all for me. It was ridiculous and didn't help the overall atmosphere of the game at all. The voice acting was good for the most part, except Jack Dark who was just annoying.
The ending was flat out bad, but from what I have seen recently, most games are. You destroy the main villian/CEO of dataDYNE (can't remember his name at the moment) who underwent some transformation and became something that reminded me of a Dragon Ball Z character with the kamahamaha blasts and super strength. Anyway, you kill him, and officially join Carrington Institute - hence setting the stage for Perfect Dark 64... not worth it in the least bit.
And I'm not going to lie - this game is hard, and then incredibly harder on other parts such as the Jungle stage. The good news? It's short, with a mere 13 missions.
With all the hype surrounding this game, and with the memory of how awesome the first game was, I'm actually really dissapointed in the overall experience I had. Perfect Dark Zero had it's moments of decently intense firefights and pretty good multiplayer, but for the most part it was just a run of the mill FPS - albeit with excellent graphics. I suggest a rental, nothing more.
...Also, in the club mission, if you look around at the videos on the wall...they are the from Windows Media Player. It was Microsoft's own little plug, just like in Condemned. | video-games_xbox |
Pure Fun. I like to find two player games that me and my 9 year old son can play together that are not too gruesome, and fun for both of us. This one fits the bill perfectly. It is hours and hours of bug killing fun.
The scenarios are perfectly challenging. You will face a wide variety of enemies, including:
- Ants that bite and spit at you.
- Spiders that jump, bite, and throw web at you.
- Annoying fleas that are difficult to shoot and cling to you requiring you to tap "Y" in the heat of battle to release them.
- Deadly, hard to kill flying wasps.
- Mechanized versions of the above, slightly harder to kill.
- Giant mechanized praying mantis
- Giant mutant spider that excretes poison, and charges you when it senses you attacking it. It also disperses dozens of fleas in addition to it's other challenges.
- Giant mechanized robots that require considerable damage to be destroyed. These creatures level skyscrapers and anything else in their way.
- Air assaults from also difficult to destroy "motherships" that reign down dozens of easy to destroy alien ships.
- Ant hills that require explosives to be planted on them to stop the flow of ants. Hard to get near.
- Super giant grand daddy long-legs spiders that drop dozens of ants and spiders on you while firing lazers with decent accuracy upon you.
...I'm probably forgetting a few, but this gives you an idea of what you will face. And, did I mention you could very well be facing all of these things at once?
Luckily, the weapons arsenal is just as extensive. You will begin with basic weapons and evolve to more suitable weapons as the game moves on. They do a good job of making these weapons available in time for increasingly difficult levels. Try them all, they all sserve a purpose.
Lastly, there are 4-5 types of characters to select from. Each has it's advantages and disadvantages. For example: more heavy armor = slower speed. One character drops stationary turret guns that automatically zero in on the swarms (highly recommended on later levels where swarm numbers exceed the hundreds). Another character has jet packs, but doesn't have as effective weapondry.
This is a game that is fun with above average graphics and city details. It's replayability is high due to the numerous character/weapon choices. And, the game can be different just by standing in a different place during an assault. | video-games_xbox |
Too many problems/disappointing. When I first popped the disk in my 360, I was really excited by the level design (Character designs were awesome though). The game has been compared to God of War, but it's not as good: I really liked the gruesome, darkness to this game, but every single level looks the same. I was hoping this would be more like Diablo in the sense that the deeper you go the more the environment changes, and was surprised the seven sins weren't given more attention.
If the lack of creativity in level designs were the only issue, this game would still be great. The main problem for me, however, was the controls and pointless puzzles, and storyline.
*Controls: There were certain parts of the game where if you don't jump perfectly from the correct spot on a rope for instance you will die. If you don't hit a button at the perfect time, you die. If you use the joystick while moving, your move will not work etc.
*Puzzles: Many times you are getting pumped in the game, when you come across puzzles that take TOO much time to complete, and have NO relevance to the game. I'm not against puzzles, but these are NOT like Silent Hill puzzles where at least what you do has some relevance...these puzzles will basically make you do a ton of ridiculous stuff just to enter a door or something (no reason why, the door leads to nothing special etc.)
***Towards the end of the game, swinging from ropes, dodging fire, jumping from moving ledge to moving ledge, and puzzles become MORE prevalent than actual fighting!***
*Storyline: I have NEVER read Dante's Inferno, and knowing the story was about Hell aside, I frankly knew nothing about this story before playing this game. I still know nothing about the story AFTER playing this game. The graphics switch between animation and cartoon, but make no sense.
I guess there are other things I disliked as well:
*The use of uncommon English words -- Whenever I play this game, I can't help but think that this ALONG with the story which presumes people have read the book: Drama Major. I would not be surprised if I was on key with this one.
*Despite the use of uncommon words, this game lacks sufficient text. By this I mean...there are points in the game where you decide to forgive someone and send them to Heaven *absolve* or send them to Hell *punish*. It would have been really nice if they gave more details -- they give around one or two brief sentences (with the bizarre words lol).
What I really liked about this game was:
*You can choose to Absolve or Punish people, and that you can be "holy" or "unholy" (or both).
*You have a "Final Fantasy" thing where you can "buy" certain traits off a grid thing.
*Fundamental level designs and character designs (although I still can't figure out why the ones you can easily absolve or punish look like little old ladies).
--Unfortunately, this game had so much potential and some great ideas...but nothing ever happened with them.
The traits you choose have little effect, whether you are holy or unholy has little effect as well, sectors of Hell all look the same, the storyline is horribly told, use of "Theater English" is just annoying, and of course the other stuff I mentioned above. `
I guess the bottom line is that a left-brained individual tried to be right-brained and made this game.
If this individual (or group of individuals) would like a game to gain inspiration from where this game fell short (creativity wise)then I highly suggest checking out games by Bethesda (for the holy/unholy & traits you can find/buy), Final Fantasy (for the scenery), and Diablo (for the storyline). GTA is also a great place to look for that feeling of "freedom" and being able to be evil (I mean c'mon, this game takes place in Hell, but doesn't feel close to it!).
Okay, well...that is my review lol. :) | video-games_xbox |
A great game, but feels too much like RE4. The Good: Amazing visuals, gameplay, boss fights, and story, lots of replay value, co-op is a blast
The Bad: Sheva's AI can be questionable some times, to similar to RE4, shorter than RE4, just isn't RE4
I was waiting for this game ever since I stepped foot into RE4 2 years ago (on the better PS2 version). For some reason RE5 feels like RE4.5 since it feels so similar and this was a big disappointment for me. Don't get me wrong RE5 is phenomenal, but all the similarities can make avid RE4 players quickly bored and/or not so impressed. Rewind four years ago to that pre-rendered still of Chris Redfield during the RE5 announcement and look (or remember) how amazing it looked.
Well since it took so long to come out RE5 now looks on par with most next-gen games. It IS one of the best looking games out right now, but what RE5 does that RE4 didn't do was amazing cinematic cut scenes. RE4 had a lot of interactive cut scenes, but RE5's are very cinematic (buy the collector's edition and you'll see the new camera technology they used to make these amazing cut scenes). There are fewer interactive cut scenes (press so-and-so button within 2-3 seconds), but everything else makes up for it. RE5's controls and basic gameplay are exactly the same as RE4's. Hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it right? There's still the over-the-shoulder camera along with the whole laser sight and the whole wonky control scheme. While it still works it does feel dated and I wish there was a more Gears of War type control setup or even something more modern.
One of my main gripes is you attache case is a whole lot smaller and you can't upgrade it like in RE4. Sure you have a quick select button, but I'd prefer more room for stuff thanks. You get nine NINE slots and they are quickly used up. Let's say you have a vest, four different weapons, and four ammo types there's no room for health (yes it's still the stupid herb ordeal), grenades or anything else. This requires a lot more sacrificing, but thankfully your sexy buddy, Sheva Alamar, has nine slots as well so you can trade and exchange items with each other. Yes, there is a "buddy system" and I think in zombie ridden Africa the buddy system is great (don't worry it's not a "bodyguard" system like RE4 Sheva actually fights). Sheva's AI is pretty good...sometimes she tends to try and shoot through you half the time and doesn't like to keep up with you when you're bombarded with enemies.
Rarely will you die from this but if you do you get mad. This is why RE5 is better played co-op online or offline. This is great and even has a Left 4 Dead feel since you're surviving zombie hordes while trying to stop...err...a really bad man from unleashing the new Uroboros virus around the world. Since this is on a next-gen system the boss fights are bigger, badder, and tougher and boy do I mean BIGGER!!! You thought the El Gigante was huge on the GC, PS2, and Wii try shooting up a 30 foot flying B.O.W. or something that's the size of a naval freight ship. A few new elements are added to certain boss fights such as "key weapons" and these are only good for that fight. You may have a rechargeable flamethrower, RPG, or even a satellite gun kind of like the Hammer of Dawn in Gears of War. While all boss fights are a major challenge you can always do it in one try. There are a lot more weapons in RE5, but most of them are useless since they are slight variations of other weapons. It takes longer to completely upgrade weapons and you can only do this when you start the game, die, and in between levels. No there's no creepy British dude with stuff under his coat selling you things. I found this change a bad one since it may hinder some people when they need a weapon before a certain point. Upgrades cost a lot more and thus makes unlockables harder to get.
Another great thing about being next-gen is the levels are now HUGE and the puzzles are challenging, but not confusing and scatter brained. There are a lot of little goodies to collect and unlock. You can use points from achieving certain things (such as finding all BSAA emblems, beating certain levels etc.) to unlock figurines, filters, costumes etc. These add great replay value and can make the game more fun a second time. When you beat the game you get a Mercenaries mode (like in RE4) that pits you against tons of zombies you have to fend off. RE5 is an amazing game, but feels too similar for RE4 veterans and may hinder and bring down your expectations. | video-games_xbox |
Of course it can't match the original's completeness; nevertheless, a really fun and challenging game. As a huge fan of the original Xbox remake (and subsequent re-releases since then) back when it was first released in 2004, I have to admit that initially I was kind of disappointed with Ninja Gaiden 2.
One of the things I love about all Team Ninja games is that they feature beautiful and often very kickass CGI movies as rewards for beating a chapter or the game. However they are not in this game, which kind of took me as a surprise considering that the first trailer for Ninja Gaiden 2 was all pre-rendered CGI. But then, I actually started playing the game and that was when I knew that, ultimately, higher quality CGI was not needed. The game looks beautiful on an HDTV and the in-game cutscenes are still of very high caliber. Just don't expect an amazing storyline like in a Bioware or Square Enix title; this game is not an RPG so everything is focused on the action, and the plot only exists in giving you a reason to unleash all hell and watch stuff explode. It certainly isn't as bad as some people have said it is.
Anyways, the most important aspect of this game is without a doubt the gameplay, so thankfully that is not an area of any disappointment at all. In fact, the gameplay has evolved to such a high point of awesomeness that if not for Ninja Gaiden 2's many minor flaws, I would proudly proclaim it as my favorite game of all time. Ultimate techniques have now been made easier to pull off, and new moves called obliterations have been introduced as a very stylish and fun way to finish off your amputated enemies. The gore has been increased dramatically with the ability to slice off not only the head but every limb as well, and with that comes added difficulty, because your crippled foes will become even more deadly and try to kill you with suicide bombings. Plus, you have many new fun-to-wield weapons to massacre with, such as a scythe and wolverine claws/razor boots combo. All that, in addition to the new challenges of lasting damage and even more aggressive enemy AI make for an incredibly enjoyable and rewarding experience.
Sadly, what other people have said about the camera being annoying and the framerates dropping or actually slowing to a crawl are true. Then those damn ghost fish are back. So those things aren't fun, but they don't tarnish the game's overall experience too greatly. People have emphasized these flaws to a point where you might think the whole game is bad, but if you just use the right trigger to center the camera when needed, and turn off the recording feature, you shouldn't experience them much at all--except the ghost fish are frequent enemies and there is one scene on a stairway that is unavoidably like playing the game in bullet-time.
All in all, I'd say Ninja Gaiden 2 is a fantastic game but one that does not really deserve 5 stars (more like 4.4), but I figured I would give it the full rating to offset other people's lower reviews. You should play it if you love action games period, because it is so fun (and much better than Devil May Cry--being better then God of War is debatable, though I'd say so). So yeah. | video-games_xbox |
Good for about a day. I bought this item about a week and a half ago, and got it in last friday ..1/25/08. I was all stoke because i was going to install my new intercooler for the weekend to see what all the hype was about. After alot of the reviews i was worried about the product, but seeing that half of the people said it worked for them i thought i might give it a shot. I Game alot sometimes 14- 18 hours on end without stopping specially if i'm playing COD4 online. So my xbox gets really toasty to the point that i could probably fry eggs on it. So i was worried that i would eventually get some kind of hardware failure. Any how what really got me to buying this was that i played alot of PGR with the family and i had the game start freezing on me. I read that it had to do with the cd/dvd drive getting hot and burning the c.d.'s SO about 2 weeks ago i started having the same problem with my Ace Combat game. Thats a real bummer because this is like one of my favorite games. I bought the ps2 just for this game because there was really nothing else to even compare to this game when it came to flight simulation for consoles. To make a long story short i installed the inner cooler on friday and at first i was like.."wow, this thing works". I was playing all night COD4 and Ace Combat and the Box was nice and cool. I was very pleased untill the next morning when i got up to play some more and i got a read disc error from the box. I've never gotten that message. So that already had me a little concerned. I tried to read the disk again and it worked so i was like w/e. i played for about 4 hours and when i went to turn of the console the controls stayed blinking. I was like "wTF?"... the controls turn off with the box always so why whould they still be blinking? Went ahead and turned the box back on and i got the RROD. I've never gotten RROD before so i knew that it was the inner cooler... i took off the inner cooler right away turned the box back on and everything worked fine!... Thank god. I'm not saying buy it or don't buy it all i'm saying is that your putting your box at risk. I'll wait for microsoft to either come out with something that they certify for the box or just manage my playing time. | video-games_xbox |
The Worst COD Ever. As many other people have rightly said this is by far the worst COD game to date. I've had nearly all of them since COD 2 and have been playing them online since MW2 and this is the most frustrating online community yet. I'm not sure whether it should be attributed to the tweaked gameplay introduced in Ghosts, the map designs, or simply the few people that do play this game. I had both the PS3 version and currently own the Xbox One version. The graphics look much better on next gen and going back to the PS3 version really showed how murky and poor looking the textures are on the last gen version (probably to make the next gen leap look bigger than it is considering BO2 looked almost as good as Ghosts on the Xbox One.) Even on next gen this game is really lacking a nice color pallet and is one of the ugliest, monotone Call of Duty's I've played, and as many people have said most maps are way too big for only 12 players.
The campaign starts out slow and you don't really care for the characters, luckily a few missions in you'll start to have fun but the story just isn't that great. I did really enjoy the under water and outer space missions though and later in the game a few events will happen that finally make you want to reach the end and see what happens. I'm sure most people have played it or know the ending by now but it is definitely a shocker but it seems to imply there will be a sequel which I hope doesn't happen. Once you get to the last few missions and the ending you'll appreciate the story a bit more and might want to play it though again on a higher difficulty.
Online is my most played mode of any COD but this one is very disappointing, there aren't many people online (one of the advantages to the PS3 version that has a decent amount of players so you're always playing against different people and not the same 20 try hards or new players that are horrible.) I am doing fairly well at the online but it is still a frustrating experience, my K/D isn't near as high on Battlefield 4 yet I find I have a much more enjoyable and less frustrating time playing it over Ghosts, but for whatever reasons I find COD much more addicting even though I don't think it's as good of a game. The one mode I really do like is Extinction which is a lot of fun and has a lot of replay value to it (the only con is it's hard to find a secession where no one leaves or someones doesn't act like an idiot and mess all of the field orders up.
I rarely buy DLC and I can't see how anyone finds it to be a good deal to own the Season Pass for this game, in addition to that I've never seem so much other DLC they try and pitch at you, like the different voice overs and character skins, and the most surprising thing is how many people buy them and of all games put that money into a game most people know isn't up to par for a FPS. Even when the Season Pass is on sale at $25 I can't justify buying it because of how bad the game is and since there aren't that many people on the Xbox One version there has to be even less that have all of the maps. That $25 would be better spent to get Titanfall or put towards Advanced Warfare. Speaking of Advanced Warfare it definitely looks like a huge step up from Ghosts but with a seemingly totally new approach I hope it is one that works and will be liked.
All in all Ghosts did introduce a few new features but overall it's very lackluster compared to the last few CODs which are still more enjoyable. However it is fairly priced now used so if you like Call of Duty it's definitely worth to low price to put some time into until Advanced Warfare comes out. | video-games_xbox |
An under-rated game. Timesplitters 2 is an amazing game and very fun to play for many reasons, one of them being the game has soo many characters you can play as in multiplayer mode! A large amount of these characters have to be unlocked, and it's no easy task to do so, but you'll have a lot of fun collecting them all--- or just get extremely frustrated in some cases.
The story mode is good, and some levels are more fun than others. Each level takes place in a different time period. One level you'd be in the past, the next in the future somewhere. Some of my favorite levels to play are:
Siberia
Notre Dame
Neo Tokyo
Wild West
The weapons are terrific and there are loads to use! You can even unlock bricks to use as a throw weapon.
There is more to this game than just the Story mode. With most games, all they have is Story and Multiplayer, and nothing more. But in Timesplitters 2 you can play the Challenges and Arcade League games, and depending on how well you did on the games, you'll get bronze, silver, gold, and maybe even platinum trophies! Arcade League and Challenge is also the main way to unlock new maps, weapons, fun cheats, and characters.
It can be boring playing a game by yourself sometimes, and if you have no one around that wants to play with you there is an option where you can turn on BOTS! Although bots can't replace a real person, it's a big plus that they have bots that you can play against. I absolutely hate it when a game doesn't have a bot option.
TM2 has a lot of game modes to play, such as Capture the bag, bag tag, deathmatch. My absolute favorite game mode is Virus. In Virus, you are supposed to try and evade the infected (those surrounded in green fire) for as long as possible, and if you do get infected you are then supposed to infect others.
The game is fun but does have one frustrating bot issue. If you have the game set to free-for-all don't be fooled and assume it's every man for himself. It's more like every bot against you. Seriously! The bots literally hunt you down and gang up on you. It doesn't matter if there are other bots in the same room. They will ignore the others and take you out together. Another thing that is kinda unfair is that the bots can dive but you can't... so while they roll and dodge your attacks, all you can do is move from side to side.
Overall, I enjoy playing this game and would recommend it if you are looking for a fun and addicting game. | video-games_xbox |
A nice mixture of many things. Gameplay during missions feels a lot like Halo: Gun handling, grenades, melee, movement, jetpacks, physics, abilities (only here they're "tied" to the type of character you choose) and even your handy artificial assistant. I'd say the closest one is Reach (which was developed by the same studio at about the same time). Now, wrap those missions in a RPG: Character classes, levels, unblocking perks, inventory, NPC interactions, economy, armor and weapons upgrade. There's also something that reminds me of Borderlands: Scavenging post-apocalyptic environments, loot chests, enemies dropping rewards when killed, the mostly independent good-willed hero, and the occasional humorous description of an item. And you can even find some Star Wars in it: speeder bikes and environment, armor and enemy design.
I'm not saying that this game lacks originality, just that it feels influenced by other franchises and combines them successfully (Halo was Bungie's major project anyway). There's also a social, yet anonymous component. When you're exploring a map, you see other people's characters, but they're not ghosts. You're sharing the same world, interacting with them by killing the same enemies and even reviving when necessary. Cooperating with total strangers enforces the game's story, where there isn't a fully organized army, only a group of survivors who fight to get mankind on its feet again. By the way, don't worry if you don't have a Xbox Live Gold account, this feature works just the same (it is a requirement to take part in some missions and competitive multiplayer tough).
The only downside I've found so far is the internet connection requirement. If your connection fails at the wrong time, you just get a black screen telling you that the connection has been lost, no matter what you were doing. It's very annoying when it happens while completing a mission. And as some people have pointed out, what will happen when Bungie decide to take down their servers? It will happen in a few years of course, but it's not like having a game that you can use as long as you get the hardware to play it.
Overall, its a great game. If you're a sci-fi FPS person youll love Destiny. Liking RPGs is not a requirement to enjoy it. | video-games_xbox |
Overwatch? You should try out Battleborn first. I am 36 years old and I only like multi player aspects with friends or co-op in a campaign setting with a story and player vs environment focus. So when Overwatch was announced that it was multi player (PVP pretty much only) it was disappointing. I understand Battleborn and Overwatch are not even close the same game. I also understand Overwatch has no MOBA elements and it is just a team shooter. But the reality is they feel close to the same art style and people will compare them. They are even launching around the same time.
Once in awhile I play MOBAs and think, "How cool would it be to have a campaign and story set around a MOBA? Where you were offered both sides instead of just a toxic multi player experience?" That is what Battleborn does and does well.
At the begining of the year nobody said the were hyped for Battleborn (Obviously some were but it flew under the radar for a lot of people - including myself). It was also very quietly advertised and when you think of the games that were coming out this year, Battleborn was low on the hyper meter. Which can be a great thing in my book. I had no expectations.
The art style will either hit the mark for people or miss the mark for people. In my opinion? It does look have a Wildstar feel but I don't want to take away from the art direction - this is a beautiful game if you like animated style. There are a whole bunch of realistic looking games out there and I like the fact the art style is fun and to match the feel of the game. Look at Star Wars Battlefront, beautiful game but they forgot one thing - any depth at all.
This game has a realism sprinkled in with a great sense of humor. The cut scenes feel like a quality cartoon but the downside there is no lip-movement of the characters. So the story plays out like a graphic novel vitual game. Regardless the story is very interesting and the way it is told does not take away from it. If you don't like humor? Want serious all the time? No reason the pick this game up.
Graphic wise this game performs great on PC and Xbox One. At 4k I am getting an extremely buttery smooth experience with a AMD nano snd Freesync. Not even using a perfered Nvidia card and that is very impressive. X-box one wise it looks as great as most console games can hope to be (some exceptions). But I am buying a GTX 1080 soon and I am sure it will be even 100% better.
Game play wise things are not overly complicated and it balances the shooter and MOBA elements very well. The characters feel very different and I feel I will be playing this game for a long time. They all have very different personalities and top notch voice acting.
This game has to be considered a game of the year contender, along with Stardew Valley, The Division, Uncharted 4, Fire Emblem Conquest/Birthright and Dark Souls III. You can't help but have a lot of fun when you start playing this game and when last I checked that is what gaming is all about. I will end up putting Cuphead up there with the top games of the year too I am sure, and Mirrors Edge (hopefully). All and all it will be a hard choice to make the end of the year.
No I am not saying this, "Should be game of the year". I am saying it should be in the conversation for it. Also on the PC side of things you have people complaining they get horrible performance with AMD cards while Nvidia card users proclaim it's a great game and runs great. I don't know what to say to AMD card owners, I will even post a video to twitch. The game runs extremely smooth on my Nano at 4k. I do have a i7 skylake too but I am not convinced it runs smooth because of my CPU. I even plugged my 380 x in and tried with my 1080p monitor. Not one issue. I can't duplicate what the complainers are saying. Not saying they are lying I just can't get the same issues to happen.
Same goes for the X-box One. Runs smooth and have not seen an issue yet. No frame rate drops I can notice.
Pros
Graphics
Sense of Humor
Story
CO OP
Game play
Music
MOBA elements aren't overdone
Different feeling characters
Amazing voice acting
Cons
Doesn't cook me bacon no matter how much I demand it do so.
Grade: A | video-games_xbox |
Starts with a bang, but quickly loses steam. Assassin's Creed truly shows off beautiful visuals and is truly a "Next-Gen" graphics showcase. The sound is amazing, especially if you have a 5.1 system or better. Lighting and textures are some of the highest details I've seen.
The tutorials are great and easy to pick up. You'll be fighting in no time and, due to the very cinematic and intuitive battle system, you'll look like a pro. The world is large and you'll feel very free to roam. Everything seems to be very well done and it is...at first.
The more you explore, the more you notice that everything is pretty much exactly the same. The cities are vast labyrinths of bland repetative architecture. The NPCs are numerous and nearly identical. You'll find yourself being accosted by the same woman begging for change in every city on every other block. Guards are apparently all twin brothers (BIG families).
Speaking of the guards. These guards are weak pathetic excuses for henchmen. Once a few abilities are unlocked you'll find that Counter attack is the guard's bane, and really the only ability you need. Wait for a guard to start to attack (they're kind enough to take turns, one at a time) tap the counter button (insta-kill), rinse and repeat. I've easily taken on 20+ guards at a time without sweating it. I'm not saying I'm that good, I'm saying they're that bad.
That brings me to the "stealthiness" of the game. It's not really there. There's no real consequence for being discovered besides killing pathetic guards. So instead of "blending" slowly through levels I just started tackling and running through levels to speed up the monotony. Don't worry the guards don't care as long as you don't hit them or kill anyone. Even then you can just kill them and move on. Even your primary targets don't really invoke much stealth to dispatch. You have the option, but it usually doesn't pan out, so it's just easier to rush the target, kill him and dispatch his guards after listening to him blather on for 10 to 15 minutes.
At first the missions are fun. Climb buildings for breathtaking views, save peasants from unruly guards for info and additions to your health meter, pickpocket, rough targets up, track down contacts and eavesdrop for info. Go to your bureau and then go kill the target. Fun at first until 15 hours in you're still doing the same routine for every mission. It's not like you even have to snoop around for who to pickpocket and whose conversations to listen in on. You climb a building marked by the hawk circling over head. It then displays everything you need to do on the map, including the other buildings you have to climb to get the info. So you just follow the map methodically until you've done everything to get the ok to kill whoever you need to kill. Boooooring.
The story... Unfortunately not redeeming, at all. The major plot twist happens 15 minutes in. As the story progresses you get your plot points told from the men you kill before they die. Unfortunately it's the same stupid thing everytime told in slightly different ways and the dialogue lasts a good 10 minutes. So you do a mission, get told the same thing everytime "the bad guys are doing good, and you're actually the evil one" and then you go back to your leader and he tells you "nope they're the bad ones, go kill this guy now." There is no depth to the main characters and even after 20 hours, you still really don't care either way what happens to any of them.
This game had SO much potential but fails because after the first couple hours there's really never anything new about it. It's painfully repetative. It's like a model: pretty to look at, but not enough depth or entertainment to spend more than a couple hours with. Rent it and save your cash. | video-games_xbox |
A Good Game,But Far From Great. Although not very long,this game is still pretty good and has an interesting concept. Playing as the ghost of a murdered detective and having a spiritual medium helping you to find out who your killer is,made me wanna keep playing to find out what happens at the end. There is very little to no combat in this game. It pretty much is a puzzle based title,where you have to gather clues,to piece together certain incidents,involving certain characters or of the killer. The only combat is,sneaking up stealthy to exorcise the demons who constantly hover around in search of your soul. These demons can be quite frustrating and annoying as well,which adds a challenge to the game. God knows "Murdered Soul Suspect" needed it too,because the game is pretty easy otherwise. The game isn't that long at all. I completed the story in about a day. There are little side missions,where you can talk to other ghosts around Salem, and help them out. But what I found to be disappointing was the fact that you have to complete these side missions,while playing through the main story. There is no going back,and freeroaming around Salem to finish the side missions that you missed,while playing through the actual game. You'll have to start an entirely new game. This definitely takes away from the fun factor and replayability. The graphics look nice,and the controls feel smooth,but unfortunately the game constantly lags. I'm sure the lagging issue is only present on the last gen versions and probably plays a million times better on the Xbox One and PS4,but for a game made in 2014 running on ten year old hardware,I guess that's to be expected. Overall,this is a game that'll provide you with a day or so of fun,but after you complete it,my guess is you'll probably just put it to the side for it to collect dust. I'd still recommend checking "Murdered Soul Suspect" out,especially if you're a fan of the paranormal...just don't pay too much for it. | video-games_xbox |
Namco's take on Max Payne 8.5/10. The Dead to Rights game have been ambitious to a degree
The first two were average but, the 3rd Retribution is where Namco found the right formula
The game is without a doubt a homage to the original Max Payne games along with elements from True Crime: Streets of LA
It does Max Payne better then Max Payne III did but, what do i know
The Controls: Easy to pick up and play (The QTE's are gone previously used in the other games
The fighting at first might seem a bit wonky once you get the hang of how to play it
Your feel at home within less then 15minutes
You also get to play as the dog Shadow (Which I honestly don't remember if the dog was playable in the previous games)
The dog controls very good unlike in Call of Duty: Ghost where the dog was a gimmick
This while not perfect works once you get the hang of Shadows movements and adds a vast different element to the game play
The game play solid if you ever played any 3rd person action titles you'll feel right at home
While it doesn't reinvent the wheel it's a enjoyable throw-back
Dead to Rights would've been a game you'd see in Arcades if Arcades in the States were not extincted
The audio: really good soundtrack/score that goes along with the game
along with plenty of perfectly cast v/o actors
Graphics A- Namco always have been able to make gorgeous looking titles
This is one of those non fighting arcade titles that stands out
Story: The overall story is compelling it's very much like a 1980's cop action flick but, it has plenty of interesting twist and turns
the story is well written a bit grim and dark though
(If you never played the previous Dead to Rights games don't worry this is a reboot of sorts
Overall this is a super underrated 3rd person action title that got lost in the shuffle
If you loved the original first two Max Payne (by Remedy) but Max Payne 3 was a massive let down check out this game
It's a worthy hard boiled story driven game
By far one of Namco's most underrated properties
It deserves more attention then it received 8.5/10 | video-games_xbox |
Finish the fight... again. Finish the fight. Five years on, the misguided marketing hook for Halo 3 still irks those who stuck with Bungie's strung-out storytelling and cryptic iambic prophesying only to find that the climax didn't deliver. The war might have been won (honestly, it was hard to tell) but our hero was left drifting in distant space. It wasn't an end, it was an abandonment.
The most important thing that Halo's new guardians at 343 Industries get right is a return to the fictional foundations of the original. Master Chief is our hero, Cortana is his unusually well-scripted AI companion, and he's fighting a war for Earth and mankind that's so unambiguous we needn't worry about his own lack of humanity - we can just get on with the precise, technologically advanced killing.
At least we could if Halo 4 would let us. The Chief's comeback might be a return to old ways - and a tacit admission that Bungie strayed into unsatisfying chin-stroking territory - but it also raises the issue of humanity early on, with a prologue cutscene regarding the original purpose of the Spartan programme.
It's an issue that doesn't go away. When we rejoin the Chief, he's been in stasis for four years, while the unsleeping Cortana has developed signs of rampancy, a form of AI dementia. She is losing her mind, and the awoken Chief sets out to save it by returning her to Earth - the augmented superman and his artificial soul on an odyssey home.
The major obstacle to this homecoming is a Forerunner planet, which pulls the pair's derelict ship to its surface, where they discover a great threat to mankind. It's of the kind that's big enough to merrily drive an uncomplicated narrative, and the sort that other sequels have lacked. Our heroes also encounter a new race of enemies called Prometheans. Their design parallels the three-tiered structure of the Covenant, with towering Knights looking very much like semi-digital Elites, joined on the battlefield by fluttering drones and, in the place of the comical Grunts, packs of canine units with weaponised heads.
The colourful Forerunner planet doesn't feel like retreading old ground so much as a welcome reminder that in a series capable of taking us anywhere in the universe we should expect more than earthy brown and starship grey
As the image of exploding robot dogs probably gives away, the Prometheans are not an unqualified triumph. In their similarity to the Covenant, 343 has played it safe, and there's something less than engaging about disposing of enemies made of energy rather than recoiling, crumpling flesh. That said, things improve when their backstory is revealed, and they are at all times more enjoyable than the happily absent Flood.
Not absent are the Covenant themselves, who seem to have returned out of convenience more than anything else. They're here to wake Master Chief with a familiar face and give the delayed Promethean entrance a little more weight, as well as to ensure their range of plasma weapons remain available to our hero. They may tag along, but the game is still better for them, providing a reliable ingredient in the pitched battles set in rocky pathways, pristine corridors and open battlegrounds that are Halo 4's central pleasure.
If this sounds like the formula of Halo: Combat Evolved, that seems to be the plan. Halo 4 might not recapture the wonder of that first ringworld, but it's not for want of trying. The game presents us with another mysterious environment in the Forerunner planet, which is at first pointedly drab - as if making a glib comment on Halo 3's muddy Flood bowels - before exploding into a series of lush, colourful scenes.
The trump card is the same as always: a sense of solidarity in movement and aiming that makes weighty sense of fighting through the bio-enhanced body of a supersoldier. And Halo 4's focus is tightly pulled onto close-quarters encounters, highlighting this kinetic accomplishment. The grand staged battles favoured by the preceding sequels are gone, replaced by tightly mapped fights with small clusters of Prometheans and Covenant; the lessons of Assault On The Control Room have been learnt and are repeatedly put into practice.
Not that things are exactly the same: Master Chief's choice of weaponry has expanded. An inclusive approach means the punchy, hierarchy-inverting pistol appears alongside its erstwhile replacements, the Battle Rifle and DMR, while the Promethean arsenal provides shotgun, rifle and sniper variants. The increased range of rechargeable power-ups has a greater tactical impact, though. These now boast a front-facing hard light shield and a Promethean sentry bot to be selected alongside the existing hologram, jet pack and power of invisibility, depending on your preference.
If Spartan Ops is a replacement for Firefight, then its first showing recaptures little of that mode's tense sense of escalation. That said, there's lots of promise here, and room enough to grow its tale into a compelling yarn
These powers are also the focal point of a multiplayer game that's slowly losing its identity. The bold, simple template of old featured no variable loadouts and no rechargeable powers, instead relying on a beautifully balanced weapon set and accomplished controls. This slowly eroding system has now been nudged a little closer to frenetic Call Of Duty standards thanks to the inclusion of sprinting for all players, item drops as a reward for kill streaks, and customisable loadouts. At the core remains the solid, steady hand of Halo, but those hoping Halo 4 would roll back Reach's intricacies and deliver an alternative to the current wave of console shooters will be disappointed.
Still, if there's work to be done with the multiplayer then Halo 4's campaign, and thus the series' overall sense of purpose, is back on track. Perhaps resolving just one problem at a time is the most we can expect. 343 Industries has certainly done that; Halo 4 isn't a reinvention so much as a recalibration, a common-sense repair to a drifting narrative, with a hero who is now back in play and back at his best. Halo 4's biggest victory is that it gives us Master Chief back. | video-games_xbox |
great tool. This game works well for me, and I have fun with it. I have played guitar for around 15 years and I'm reasonably good. I never took classes, but I study theory from books and just practice a lot. I have played professionally but nowadays I just want to have fun with my guitars.
When I got this game, I was impressed. It just worked. It recognized the notes, sounded great and it made sense, unlike Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It starts with few notes, but it climbs faster than I expected. Some of the more "sparse" songs feel really whole, like "Next Girl". I love the fact that, when a chord shows up, I don't have to do the exact voicing, as long as the chord sounds right (for example, using barre chords instead of open positions). It even has songs on drop D! My girlfriend is a beginner, and seeing her play was what really made me like this game: her progression through it was completely different from mine, but she also had a lot of fun. She played simpler arrangements, scored less points, but progressed nonetheless. It was so cool to see her finishing songs and then playing the riffs by herself while the game was loading! While she plays, I can just grab an acoustic guitar and try to play along with her.
The minigames are where the real learning is: chords, scales, techniques and such. If I were to complain about something, it would be the pacing of the minigames: for example, "Dawn of the Chordead" is really useful for learning the chords you actually use on the songs, but you have to unlock it. By the time you unlock it, the songs have been asking for chords for a while!
I recommend it. You won't learn guitar just by playing it, but along with studying, practicing and jamming, it's a great tool. Much better than the "pro mode" of Rock Band 3 (I have the Mustang controller and use it only as a midi input on my computer nowadays...).
About the lag: as most of you probably know, there's a lag problem with HDMI and Ubisoft recommends using an analog cable for the sound. What I did was I connected the XBOX to the TV via HDMI, then I grabbed the original composite cable that came with my XBOX, removed the big plastic protector around its input side and used it to connect the composite output to a set of external speakers. No need for extra cables, and no lag. | video-games_xbox |
Interesting Concept - Odd Gameplay Choices. Having loved many of Square-Enix's RPG games I was extremely excited to hear that this title was coming to the XBox 360 system. I preordered it, ignored review sites giving it mediocre reviews, and sat down for a good while to play it. Now I'll try to give a fair view of the game.
Story 3/5:
The idea behind the story of the game, in general, is that the moon is being chained down by some organization and there is a group that exists to cut down these chains. Quickly you learn that you have a giant case of mistaken identity to which people think you're the hero who does the chain cutting. Add in some annoying whining from the main character and you have a pretty basic story. As the game develops it gets a little better but there is nothing ground breaking regarding it and it leaves me wondering if they could have taken the concept further to make a more enjoyable game.
Graphics 5/5:
The game is beautiful from what I've seen while playing. Although at times the bloom effect seems a bit overused the majority of the game has a unique realistic look and is exciting to play. It definitely stands out in a market saturated with a more cell shaded and somewhat cartoonish look for video games (the xbox 360 RPG market).
Vocals 2/5:
The most surprising aspect of the voice acting in the game is the fact some scenes have it and some don't. You'll hear the main character talking in one scene and then the minute you go through a door you just see the words on the screen. It's almost as if the game developers just decided midway through to only have speech during key scenes? That would make sense but a lot of the scenes with voice acting aren't key so I highly doubt that.
The voice acting, on top of that, when you do hear it, is complete rubbish. The characters sound pained to be talking and often they seem not to fit the situation. The emotion and vocal tone often do not fit the scene and at times they sound unbelievable.
Gameplay 1/5:
This is where the game does its worst. I'm going to break off each area of the gameplay I want to focus on into mini paragraphs so bare with me for a moment.
Fighting:
Fighting seems to take a MMORPG approach in the game. The world does not deviate between battles and walking in a sense. When approached by enemies (or vise versa) you use the trigger button to arm your weapon and you can partake in battle. You use your two attack keys to either do short attacks or powerful attacks. There is also a button to parry but I found it hard to execute. Besides this there is the ability to connect (link) with other characters so the main character can take control of them and use their skills.
Connecting Issues:
One quick note about connecting (mentioned last in last mini)... you often find you need to connect at key parts in the story. One character has the ability to shoot arrows and you'll find that at one point in the story unless you use this ability in a short period of time it's game over. This is annoying because you often have no idea that the ability is needed and have to go back all the way to your last save if you didn't think to use it. Another annoying connect period is where you have to use a character's charm ability (which you are unaware he has unless you connect and try it) to lure enemies somewhere. This is unexplained and is unlikely anything a normal user will ever guess without hours of annoyance.
Items:
Items can be crafted in the game by using certain crafting skills for particular allies with you. When in the world items are used in real time so the enemy can attack you at any given point while you're cycling through as well. Likely this will lead most users to either prioritize items at the top of their item list or hope that the NPC allies pick the right medicine at any given time to help out.
Flute:
At times you will also need to use your flute for various means. This is annoying in the sense that you often will have no clue for the need of the flute. In one area to progress you need to use your flute in the vicinity of a particular area but there is no reason for this what-so-ever in the context of the area. It's like they wanted to throw in more flute time but didn't want to go through the trouble of making it intuitive.
Searching Missions:
Throughout the game you'll have annoying mini story pieces you'll need to accomplish. One of such is where you need to pick up a quantity of items from the general area. There is no significance to the story but you will need to just search and search for about 5 - 10 minutes time to find all the items without any way to skip. I don't understand the point of this really and it seems like just another attempt to add in more user game time without actually adding to the game at all.
Party System:
One thing I like about the game play is the party system. Often you'll find you have situations where more than one party is needed. The computer will take the assigned party teams that you make alternative to your own and have them follow a set course (you don't set it) that will lead to the objective. So at times you'll find your party of 4 with 8 other teammates on the screen battling it out epically. It's pulled off pretty well besides the fact each of these situations is overly easy because of the nature of them.
Linear:
The game is massively linear in that while each area is relatively large and allows you to explore a bit there is nothing to do but kill the enemies in the area without any other game paths. So there is nothing really special about searching a whole zone because while you often will find other treasure chests everything else you can find right in the same general vicinity.
Maps:
Finally, the mapping system in the game is completely outrageous. Often there will be one tiny cave that will connect one massive zone to the next and unless you search every nook and cranny of the zone you'll never find it. I spent a good hour searching for the one that led to the first mission after leaving the first town until I gave up and searched the web for walk-throughs. Funny enough, in my search, I found tons of other posts across the web asking for the same information. The area to area is completely massive but without any markers to keep the user on track.
In general the game play is very unintuitive and you'll spend an infinite amount of time trying to discover what the heck is going on many times throughout the story. If you can put up with this annoyance (and don't mind searching frequently asked questions on the net for help) then you may like the game for other reasons but else you should avoid altogether. I like the game it's just the game play stands out and has often led me to drop it, walk away for a couple hours, and retry some annoying sequence many a time. | video-games_xbox |
A good addition to the series. I was a little nervous about this game coming from a new developer. But I wasn't let down. I've played the other Thief games and I am a huge fan of the series. It's basically the same game as the others with a few exceptions.
The city hub idea is good-though it seems little once you've been through it couple of times and get used to the maps. The city is also broken up into sections so if you want to go from one to the other you're faced with load times which are a little long and can take you out of the game. The framerate on the Xbox version is a little slow to accomodate the excellent lighting architecture-but it's barely noticeable and a very minor complaint. The enemy A.I. is better this time around-they notice when lights are out or items are missing and will alert their buddies to help search for you-but only for a short while as they tend to 'forget' that they are searching for intruders and continue with whatever they were doing. Good for the clumsy gamer, but not very realistic. A 'faction' element has been added that basically just adds some side quests in order to get Garrett back in good standing with a couple of factions. It's a good idea, it just hasn't been fully developed and adds almost nothing to the game asit doesn't effect the missions. We'll see if they can improve on it for the next Thief game.
The levels are actually pretty big and non-linear with lots of objectives and there's a ton of gameplay. The story moves along quite well within these objectives. The orphanage (where I'm at now) is freakin creepy and a lot of fun. Every mission has been a lot of fun up to now and you're not just doing the same things over and over, there's plenty of variety.
If you have a PC (that can handle the game!) and an Xbox and want this game, buy the PC version. I've heard it's better (and cheaper!). I've played the other Thief games on the PC and decided to give the console version a try. I'm not disappointed, but if I was to but it again I'd go for PC. | video-games_xbox |
Shadow's origins. This game basicly explains Shadow the hedgehog's origins and has many different endings to the story also introduces an alien race bent on gathering the 7 chaos emeralds and to desroy humaity. Shadow has amnesia so he doesn't remember anything from his awakening to his frozen slumber and everything he did in sonic adventure 2. In this game you play as Shadow to help uncover the secret of his past while choosing which path to go by. by picking hero villans or nomral missions
the hero missions are in the blue gauge the villian missions are for the red gauge
Story/Plot: At the beginning of Shadow the Hedgehog, which takes place three months after the events of Sonic Heroes, Shadow, still suffering from amnesia, remembers only two things: his name and "that gruesome image" of his attempt to escape the space station ARK with Gerald Robotnik's granddaughter Maria and her death by gunshot from G.U.N. soldiers. He wonders whether he is an android due to hints given in Sonic Heroes. The game begins with Shadow reminiscing outside the city of Westopolis when the Black Arms drop out of the sky and invade it. Doom's Eye approaches Shadow, and Black Doom tells Shadow of an old agreement for Shadow to bring him the Chaos Emeralds. Stunned that Black Doom knew his name, Shadow realizes that he must find the Chaos Emeralds to learn his past.
The game progresses through the Westopolis level and five more levels from the different paths Shadow can take. As missions are completed, Shadow learns more of his past. He can choose to help the Black Arms or Doctor Eggman (Dark), to help G.U.N. and the series' heroic characters (Hero), or to help neither and keep the Chaos Emeralds for himself (Neutral). The missions completed determine which one of ten possible endings will be seen after Shadow collects all the Chaos Emeralds and defeats one of the game's final bosses. The possible ending events range from planning to defeat the Black Arms to planning to destroy the planet.
Completing all ten endings unlocks a final ending in which Black Doom uses Chaos Control, enhanced by the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds, to bring the Black Comet to Earth. Shadow then confronts Black Doom on the "Last Way" level, where he discovers that Professor Gerald Robotnik created the ARK's Eclipse Cannon weapon to destroy the Black Comet. During their confrontation, Black Doom attempts to control Shadow through mind control but fails, prompting him to transform into his "Devil Doom" form. In response, Shadow uses the Chaos Emeralds to transform into his "Super Shadow" form and defeats Black Doom. Shadow then transports the Black Comet into outer space using Chaos Control and obliterates it with the ARK's Eclipse Cannon. His friends are elated, as are people at G.U.N. headquarters. Shadow is then shown in the ARK's control room holding up a photograph of Maria and Gerald. He discards the photograph, declaring "Goodbye forever... Shadow the Hedgehog," and leaves the room.
when you do hero missions the blue gauge fills up and you can use Chaos control to go faster.
When you do the villan missions the red gauge fills up and you can use Chaos Blast to destroy everything the other sonic characters are filler characters. In the game you an use vehicles and guns.
The aliens are called the black arms and the leader helped proffesser gerald create Shadow the hedgehog the ultimate life forms. | video-games_xbox |
Operation Darkness Review. The mixed reviews for this game are certainly justifiable. Due to the narrow scope of the reviews here on Amazon I felt it was my personal responsibility to explain this game in the detail it deserves. Please allow me to summarize what I feel are the games strengths and weaknesses.
"Operation Darkness" features an excellent thematic concept that will resonate with most rpg players, namely "sci fi meets camp 1940's horror, set during WW2". Yes there are nazis, nazi vampires, special agent werewolves and nazi zombies, all pulled together by a well executed and thoughtful story set during WW2. Everyone agrees this is cool yes? Ok moving on...
The story is presented in similar fashion to squarenix's "Front Mission 4". If you have not played that game basically all story segments shown between playable sequences are displayed in a visual "audio book" format where a character speaks and a picture of them is shown, then when the next character responds a picture of that character pops up. Also there is lots of authentic WW2 footage to contextualize the story/progression of the war, very neat. This format works well for me, the story and voice acting are quite good, the footage lends an air of authenticity that helps to draw you into the idea that you really are part of a special unit during WW2. The "anime" esque panels that accompany the dialogue are exceptionally well crafted, beautiful. There are a few 3-D cutscenes, utilizing the ingame rendering, so don't expect any full motion, super gloss Final Fantasy esque cutscenes. And while we are on the subject of visuals, allow me to give my opinion on the graphics and overall thematic design. First off I feel the costumes, and artistic design of the characters all look just fantastic; from the "gaudi psychic spell wielding nazis" to the "prada coat wearing Jack the Ripper", the characters look great and are straight out of a top notch anime feature. Pay no attention to that one star review here on Amazon that states this game looks psone, simply not true. Granted the textures are not extremely detailed/life like, they are clean and look MUCH better than the best of ps2/xbox. Though some of the levels are bland/boring looking (forests/deserts and the like), there are many levels that look just great (1940's european cities, enemy compounds etc).
Which brings me to the mechanics of gameplay and strategy, which is where this game shines so very bright at times, and at other times will leave you feeling quite frustrated.
If you do not know by now this title is is a "strategy rpg", or srpg for short. Unlike traditional Japanese rpgs, or jrpg for short, like "Lost Odyssey" where your characters are fixed in place during combat, in a srpg your characters are free to move/attack according to a grid format. Being that your characters are free to move you must give very careful thought to the manner in which you engage in combat, move along the grid, use cover, and most especially support your entire unit. This game demands allot of careful thought to be successful, and even then you are probably going to spend allot of time viewing the "Game Over" screen. This is due to many factors which frustrated me more than anything, namely extremely limited access to health revival (detailed later) and if certain characters die mid battle it is Game Over.
Perhaps "my tactics" are not as solid as I would like to think, though I have played other games of the genre to successful results. Not here, you can be "whooping butt", then a minute later have a bunch of additional bad guys show up from a position/location that you absolutely can not anticipate, and have them defeat you in no time. All this means is that you basically have to lose allot and memorize the sequence of reinforcements before you can win at the later levels (basically everything after level 7, or hour 14). Simply put you can have solid early/mid mission tactics, then have a tank show up and simply blow you away, some will respond to this and say "ok now I know how to prepare for that for next time", and other gamers will scream "I just wasted an hour! NOT FAIR!!" Personally I responded both ways. And continued playing, many will just say "how could I possibly have won there?" and not play again due to the feelings of "frustration/unfairness". So if you are ok with "replaying" a 30min-1hr battle then you will reach some emotional highpoints Operation Darkness.
When "things come together", these moments are VERY exciting. And by exciting I mean pure unadulterated rpg fun, there are times where the strategy is coming together, and the group execution flows along just right, you are having tons of fun...that is until you get bazooka rounded to a central character, , die and it is INSTANTLY game over (I go into greater detail about how health, death and revival are extremely out of balance in Operation Darkness below). So as a game it presents some of the highest of highs, and lowest of lows. More emotional gamers will be tested.
From a mechanics standpoint there are some very interesting features which set this game apart from other srpg's, features that must be experimented with, understood, and mastered if you want to win. Unlike most rpgs you can not simply attack/heal your way through this game. You must utilize the distinct tactical actions available. There are three unique and distinct tactic options the game allows you to use outside of the normal "attack, special attack, magic attack, defend, move, item etc." usage options. These three unique action options are titled, "Cover Attack, Cover Ambush, and Cover Move". I will explain the three in detail, though understanding these options will give you a better sense of where I feel Operation Darkness does some new things and largely succeeds. The first "Cover Move", is where you define a click and drag selection on the grid where if an enemy enters that selected quadrant anytime during combat your character will move to a previously selected position. This can be very effective to have a character counter to the right position to successfully defend an enemy advance, excellent mechanic. The "Cover Attack/Ambush" options function similarly where your character will automatically attack within a circular range (the range is defined by the weapon you select, rifles have longer range, sub machine guns shorter range), so if any enemy moves or attacks from within that range your character will attack automatically, REGARDLESS of whether or not it is that characters turn. This tactic works very well against the low hp zombies, its great to see them go down with one shot, you feel like your strategy is working out as, "hey I am making kills and its not even my turn!". Though later in the game you can have 2 characters successfully "cover ambush" attack a moving infantry soldier, one with a sniper rifle and another with a mid range machine gun, to not have the troop go down...then survive to attack on another turn and deal lots of damage. The game is designed purposefully where "cover ambush/attack" attacks deal less damage than a turn specific "attack" choice, though when dealing with LOTS of enemies (you are often outnumbered three to one, or more) it sucks that you can not get get a single kill with two successful attacks against a single foe. This is not always the case, though often is. These cover mechanics MUST be used if you want to have any hope of victory, basically half or more of the characters in your party will be cover attacking/ambushing (and effectively running on autopilot, the game often feels like it is playing itself). You will probably take control of the other members of your party to move/attack specific "high priority" targets (i.e. the soldier with the BIG machine gun needs to be taken out IMMEDIATELY, and not the zombie with the luger pistol). Also if the moving/attacking enemies are pushing the limits of the range of your characters weapon they will miss, allot, I do not think I have played a rpg where there is so much "miss" results. Now you might be thinking, "well you must be ambushing from too far away!". However the level designs "suggest" specific engagement/defense positions (and there are some random ones, based on where you destroy tanks/vehicles which can be used as cover, random and neat), and most of the time you will be "covering" or attacking from these positions, and miss, again very often. As the enemy does its fair share of camping out and not advancing into your "cover ambush zone". This is frustrating. If you get too close to a group of enemies you can pretty much kiss that character goodbye, as you are always outnumbered you will be turned in to mince meat, melee attacks, though available I do not see how they could ever be used effectively in this game beyond the first few levels. There are no hp heavy "tanks" in this game (by tanks I mean a character who can absorb allot of damage), everyone is capable of death within a single turn if in the wrong position, or the AI decides to gang up on that particular character. In effect I have found most of the time you are defending positions, and making risky calculated attacks. Overall I found this style of play mostly enjoyable, though somewhat confining.
Also another thing that left me scratching my head is that once you move your character to a specific square you can not undo the movement, even if you have not attacked yet. Every srpg I have played allows you to undo a movement if you have not yet attacked, because most of the time you will not be sure if the ensuing attack will reach a target until you have moved. Why didn't the developers allow you to undo a move if you have not yet attacked/used an item etc? I can not answer this question, though it is frustrating to use a valuable, and often precious, movement/turn to realize that you are either out of range from a target, or in a position where you can not attack.
Moving on, I have read allot of complaints about the camera (also this game does not allow you to invert the camera/x-axis, I had to compensate for a style that I am not comfortable with, not a huge deal as you control the camera when action is "frozen", though it is still awkward controlling a camera not in ones preferred style, what is this 1996? Simply put ALL games that utilize a camera should offer camera control options). Furthermore, sometimes the camera goes and focuses on something unrelated to your attack, though this is a seldom occurrence it is still disrupts the rhythm of the game, it says "GLITCH" loud and clear. Though the constant ranting in most reviews of "the camera is horrible" is largely unwarranted, I am 99% of the time able to effectively use the camera to properly asses and make a decision.
Another element of the game that frustrated me was both the lack of inventory/item access during battle, and the pre battle inventory management layout itself. I will explain both in detail. First, when managing your inventory you have to endlessly scroll through the same items to get to the item you are looking for, for example, instead of showing "Medical Kit x 19", you have to scroll through 19 occurrences of the same item in the list, and all the other repeated items, to get to the one you are looking for. Similar to not being able to define the camera control, this was another frustrating and lazy minded design flaw that resulted in lots more time than necessary scrolling through inventory. Having 75+ items in my inventory it takes FOREVER to equip the 10+ member party pre battle. Thankfully you only have to do this once before battle, then save and you are good until the next pre battle (though you will have to endure some 2-5 min or so un-skipable bre battle cutscenes).
Next, before you go into a battle you can only equip 5 items, definitely 3 out of the five slots will be used for health recharge, and the other two for ammo recharge. There are other items that have effects on enemies like "Defense Down" etc (though not many), though being that most enemies are capable of devastating attacks that bring you down to zero hp, proper health allocation is an absolute must, you can not spare a health recharge for some other limited application effect driven item. Which in turn narrows the scope of gameplay because there is so much emphasis on health, and few chances to use the other items.
Now onto the most glaring flaw of Operation Darkness. If a main character dies mid battle it is game over! No chance for revive, just game over. As you will learn to work around this, and in turn keep your game ending characters in the back "covering" you don't really use them as much for "risky" moves because if it is unsuccessful and they die it is game over, hence not worth the risk. And because they are in the back defending use of their "special powers" is usually not applicable as you are usually out of range to use them. Furthermore the "special powers" your characters have can ONLY be used prior to movement, if you move to get within range of an enemy the option to use a more powerful attack will not be available until your next turn. Does not sound like a big deal but mid battle it is. To compensate for this you will most likely equip every single member in your unit with a Bazooka, which requires every character to use limited item space to equip ammo for it. This bothered me on a "deeper level" because it results in all your characters sort of feeling the same when it comes to attacks, EVERYONE must have a bazooka. And if all your characters are firing bazooka rounds this results in a generic sense of class distinction, where a werewolf feels no different from a soldier. Granted my feelings may shift on this as later in the game as more abilities and powers are acquired through leveling up.
I try not to say in my reviews that "this game would have been so much better if....", as it is a purely subjective thing to say...though it would have been sooooooo much better if there were some cool weapons specific to the classes, you know weapons out of a horror movie...battle axes, enormous medieval swords, some kind of "sci-fi" energy weapons for the re-animator character, etc...instead everyone uses the same real life weapons between all classes (if this is different later in the game please let me know). Outside of the very limited use "magic" based special attacks , the weapons are all real life WW2, boring.
Please allow me to bring the focus back to inventory access for a moment, if I have gone through all my health after being ganged up on by multiple enemies (often times 2 out of 3 health recharges will be used in a single ROUND of enemy combat), I should be able to use a turn to pull more health into my characters inventory, this is not allowed. If you are mid battle and out of health your only hope is to survive, or find some health on a dead nazi. A permanent death of a MAJOR character is also a potential result unless revived. Granted there is ONE character out of your 10+ party who can revive dead characters mid battle (though no hp recovery spells at this point), so if you are lucky you might be in a position to revive a fallen comrade, though if it is lights out for a "story" character, no chance to revive, game over. Poor design.
It is confusing why heal spells, or inventory access mid battle, is not available once the game reaches such punishing levels of difficulty. Furthermore, success in battle depends largely on memorization of when and where enemies appear and LUCK. Usually not a result of perfection of tactics. Which is a shame because the "cover based" tactical innovations present in "Operation Darkness" are exciting and largely innovative.
In summation I don't think I have ever played a game and had such mixed feelings of both positive and negative and kept playing. For you it will most likely come down to if you can overlook the games flaws and appreciate its positives. All its flaws aside I still felt very engaged by this title and am having allot of fun amidst the frustration. Due to the limited selection of rpg's on the Xbox 360 I would recommend this game to the "serious gamer" at the below $20 price. Not for the easily discouraged or overly emotional.
Thanks for reading, comments welcomed! | video-games_xbox |
Recommended for those that enjoy feeling uncomfortable or masochists in general. I'll say this much upfront. This game is geared toward male gamers and it's obvious from the outset that this game was created by someone who was probably driven to the brink of insanity by a previous or maybe even several, earlier relationships and somehow pulled through. That's not to say that women wouldn't enjoy it as well because I'm pretty sure they would, it would just be for altogether different reasons.
The dread and tension that envelops the overall experience of playing Catherine is quite remarkable in that it manages to evoke a genuine response from you if you can relate to the events that Vincent, the main character, endures. It's kind of difficult to explain but to put it simply, if you've ever been in a relationship where you've been forced to make difficult decisions or are faced with the looming prospects of the future, then you will appreciate all of the subtle nuances that have been put into it by the game's designers.
It's very strange at points, largely due to the Japanese angle. They've done a good job of Americanizing the game but that trademark weirdness that only the Japanese can come up with pokes its head out more often than not. The story is great and you'll like the honesty with which Vincent is handled, who is a very flawed but human character with traits and inclinations that most guys will be able to relate to.
Vincent suffers through dream sequences where you control him as he climbs a tower of blocks that you must pull and push into position and this is where the bulk of the weirdness can be found. If you don't get to the top in time, you'll die pretty horribly and usually at the hands of something that you really wouldn't want to get killed by. I mean it, some of the things you'll see in this game will not leave your mind at any point soon after you've gotten to witness them for yourself.
This is also where the game either does it for you or doesn't. These block puzzles are punishingly difficult. Not at first mind you but by the end of the second puzzle, you're pretty much guaranteed to be wiping the sweat from your brow. This may not be for everyone and unless you can appreciate a good challenge, I'd suggest you really ask yourself if you're ready to feel some genuine frustration.
This game is quite the experience to play, ESPECIALLY if you've got your significant other watching as you play. At certain points, your character will be at the bar with his friends and you'll receive text messages that you have to answer. You are given several options on how you want to answer the texts and believe me, as I was doing these segments I could literally feel the heat of my wife's stare on me as I fumbled with how to respond to these text messages.
The standard edition of the game comes packaged with an art book and soundtrack CD. The music for the game is very good and notes on how the music was designed for the game can be found in the book. Graphically speaking, the game is very well done utilizing a cross between anime and traditional graphics. The sound is also great stuff, especially if you have surround sound speakers. There are points where you'll feel like you're in Vincent's mind as you hear voices coming from every angle, usually at the same time.
There's a lot more I can comment on regarding Catherine but I think I'll close out by saying that this is one of the more unique games I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. It's not for everyone as the puzzles are really and I do mean difficult but if you can appreciate the work put into this title, then I think you too will walk away very satisfied with this. | video-games_xbox |
Fun Openworld Racing, Great Soundtrack, Addictive. I really got addicted to this game and recently finished both careers (racer/cops). I could not put the game down for days. The openworld driving is impressive and the voice control of your GPS and options is really handy. Kinect really works well here for calling out commands like "GPS Repair Shop" or "GPS Hideout." There is no pausing in an always online game so stopping to place points on a map screen is a bad idea. You are always playing online with other people which is an interesting experience. You don't have to engage with other people online, but they sometimes can provide support to you (or interference) in the middle of a mission or you can randomly choose to race them. If you're looking to just setup a series of races with friends then this game isn't going to be for you, it is a different kind of openworld free flowing racing experience. Upgrading your cars is fun, but can be very challenging at times, chasing people around online with as the cops is good fun. The background story was enjoyably absurd. The graphics are pretty good, nothing amazing, (the debris effect is overused and looks silly), but the openworld driving is impressive. The loading times were a bit too long in some spots and getting into your first game can take way too long, the game should use dedicated servers so that there is no host migration either. The final race is incredible (a massive race around the whole map) and the end credits song is really good. In fact NFS Rivals has one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while. EA continues a tradition of licensing great music for it's games.
I have to say after playing Rivals and Hot Pursuit that Need For Speed is now my favorite racing game series. I'm not a big fan of racing simulations. I prefer games that use a lot of power-ups and drifting, more like Burnout, Ridge Racer, and Asphalt. However you do get a good selection of real licensed cars in this game combined with over the top speed and action. Highly recommended. | video-games_xbox |
Immediatly enchanting. Here's an example of how good this game is. I bought an xbobx for this game. Its just that worth it.
once the menu screen shows up on your screen, I promise, you will be immediatly anchanted. The music is so deep and overwhelming, sorrowful and yet noble. And the visuals, although choppy at very rare times, are heavenly.
When you start out, you will of course pick which character you want to use for your adventure. There are plenty to choose from, ranging from fast-fisted warriors to huge barbarians. This just begins one of the greates aspects of the game - character customization. True, it may seem simplistic at first, but through the game you can gain so many styles and techniques that for one moment your character will be beating the heck out of his opponents with brute force, and then seamlessly meld into movments as graceful yet deadly as Crane.
Magic aspect aside, the martial arts are fairly true-to-life. For example, if you are using a longsword, the stance has you holding it above your head (note that not all styles have you doing this, just the one in Jade Empire). Now, when fighting someone with a spear, you might want to switch to either hand-to-hand or a weapon with a longer range. This is because the way that you hold your sword, its takes an extra 1/10 of a second (which in martial arts is precious time). The enemies spear can take advantage of that, and then your dead.
You start off in your martial arts school. When I saw this, i couldn't believe how beautiful it was. It was so peacful and enchanting. Even subtle details were payed attention to, such as the students going through REAL forms and excersises from Tai-Chi Chuan and the Lohan system.
The names are great. Furious Ming. Wu the Lotus Blossom. Gao the Greater (and lesser). Segacious Zu. I mean c'mon - thats just classic.
And perhaps most importantly - the story. Thats right people, there IS something MORE important than graphics (although Jade Empire's are phenomanal). This is an RPG after all. At first, it seems pretty formulated. I was a little dissapointed. But, don't lose heart. Very soon some amazingly creative and origional writing comes into play. The story is great.
Sadly, there is one thing that I just really do not like about this game at all. For starters, there is the Airship transportation. Its just a remake of Space invaders with a Chinese twist. Very big letdown there.
Secondly, all of the close-ups can get tiresome. I mean, with envoirnments so beautiful, I want to see more than just some warriors face, no matter how cool he/she looks.
But, despite these factors, I still give this game a 5 out of 5. And here is why.
Bad things about the game - 2
Good things about the game - 100+
Bottom line; If you have an XBOX, then there is no excuse not to have Jade Empire. | video-games_xbox |
Fall of Cybertron. The sequel to High Moons awesome War for Cybertron is finally here. Yesterday (August 21st, 2012), I went to GameStop and got it. Mine was preordered, so that will explain the things that are included in this review that involve the G1 Retro Pack.
Graphics- The graphics are prettier than War For Cybertron. Probably the best on a Transformers game.
Gameplay- Like War For Cybertron, Fall Of Cybertron is a third-person shooter. You got weapons from WFC, like the Neutron Assault Rifle, and the Scatter Blaster, but also new ones like Riot Cannon (But its probably just the Fusion Cannon with a different name) and the Corrosive Slime Cannon (I think that's what it's called). At the campaign, you get the G1-esque weapons Throwback Cannon, and, my personal favorite weapon, the Slingshock. And for you guys that go, "But that's only if you preordered!" I already discussed that in the beginning.
Story- I don't wanna spoil too much but here's the basic plot- The Autobots, who are on the ark, are being attacked by the Cons. Bumblebee was sent to help Optimus, who was duking it out with Megatron. Then the game shows you what happened 6 (earth) days ago, on Cybertrons last days, all leading up to what happened on the first chapter. I hope that's not too revealing.
Multiplayer- Awesome multiplayer. You can customize your character in four different classes; Infiltrator (Scout), Destroyer (Leader), Titan (Soldier), and Scientist. Each class has thier own ability you can do by pressing RB (ei, Infiltators have Cloak, Scientists have Heal Beam, etc.) You also have items you can use by pressing X to equip them, and then using either the left side or the right side of the D-Pad to activate it.
Other- Metroplex and Grimlock. Need I say more?
Graphics- 8/10
Gameplay- 8/10
Story- 9/10
Voice Acting- 10/10 (Peter Cullen and Gregg Berger FTW)
OVERALL SCORE- 8.5/10
EDIT (8/23/12:) Today I beat the campaign (on Normal) and now there are parts that I left out, once you beat the campaign, you get the weapons you won't get in Multiplayer; Electro Bolter and the GG Cannon (GG is Glass Gas). Also, I forgot to mention Escalation, which is kinda like Firefight from Halo Reach. Yes, WFC has it too, for those who haven't played that yet. There are , I think, five, no wait, four locations you can play in: Oblivion, Ancient, Downfall, and Ignition. And the last thing I forgot to mention was the lack of co-op campaign, which is unfortunate. Hence the score is now an 8.5. | video-games_xbox |
BELIEVE IT OR NOT, NEVER PLAYED UNTIL NOW. No, I actually never have played any of the Halo games before I bought this anniversary edition. Of course I've heard people talk about Halo, I've heard the name thrown around in all kinds of pop culture references, on television, online, etc.
I'm fairly new to X-box, so I've just played some of the other exclusive titles such as Gears of War, and I figured that it was time to give Halo a shot. I wanted to start from the beginning, I always do if possible. Starting on a sequel of a game is just like watching a movie sequel without seeing the original. Usually they fill you in enough so that you know what's going on, but it's always better to start at the beginning.
Ok so I will admit, at first I thought it was kind of terrible. Right off the bat you are fighting these giggling gremlins, and i thought, "ok this is obviously just a kids game". I also thought that because of the lack of blood and brutality. The gremlins and robot looking guys just groaned and fell over and that was it. I knew it was an old game, (with upgraded graphics) but Doom is also an old game and I used to LOVE the feel of blowing them away with a shotgun, the "feel" of the recoil, blood gushing everywhere while the demons flew backwards. The game also seemed a little repetative and simple. Also I got a little annoyed with not really knowing where to go at first, having just played a couple of games that basically pointed you where you needed to go. I kept with it though, and I'm glad I did.
Once you get used to the feel of the game and accept the fact that it's simpler in some ways, you start to appreciate the really great aspects of the game. It is fun to figure out what the different weapons do and which situations they work best with. You start to get a feel for where you are supposed to go. You get immersed in the world(s) around you. The story might seem a little basic at first, but the more you get into the game, the more interesting it gets, and the overall mood of the game gets a little darker and heavier. Suddenly it doesn't seem so much like a kids game anymore... and THEN you meet up with the Flood. Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! It's super creepy how you are introduced to them, and how they suddenly start swarming at you, while you are trapped deep in the bowels of some kind of alien base, and you have to fight your way out. The are evil, brutal, hateful creatures... and it just seems more satisfying to mow them down rather than a bunch of squeaky ewoks.
The game does stay a bit repetative throughout, sometimes it's almost frustrating to keep seeing the same exact layouts of hallways, leading to big round areas with a circular corridor and a central room with raised platforms, then find the next set of corridors that look exactly like all the others, then you go outside to either a bridge that you have to fight your way across or a huge open battlefield area. Then, it repeats all over again. And again. And again. But then there are changes of scenery a lot of completely new areas that break up the repetition. My favorite part so far is where you follow the flying orb... through some kind of futuristic place where they are keeping the flood I believe? (sometimes it's hard to follow the story because the girl telling you what's going on will explain something JUST as you are being bombarded by new creatures, vehicles, and explosions, so you can't hear what she says.) There are some cool variations, and sometimes you are given different tasks to change things up.
Anyway, I have really come to love playing the game. I haven't finished it yet, but in a way I almost don't mind the repetition because it has given me a chance to play the game longer and have more fun with it. I am NOT a fan of multiplayer, (in fact I can't stand it... to me games are boring without a story to follow, an overall goal, and making progress over time towards an end)which I know is a huge part of Halo, so I am glad that the solo campaign is also very well done. It took me a little while to get into it, but the more you play, the more you love it. I would give it five stars, and compared to games of it's era it is definitely five stars, but putting it into perspective of the entire game universe that is out there, I have to give it slightly less (would give it 4.5 if I could), but that's still saying a lot that a game that had it's heydey a decade ago is still 4 stars compared to todays games. It's been a great experience, and I'm looking forward to moving on to the rest of the series! | video-games_xbox |
Another mediocre Potter game. EA has been making "Harry Potter" games for almost 10 years now. In that time, many things can change in terms of technology, development, and general game publishing practice. Not such the case with "Half-Blood Prince", as it continues the Potter gaming trend of being slightly better than its predecessor but ultimately still being just a typical movie video game.
Improvements to the game are limited in quantity. The controls are much smoother and you no longer have the "angle steering" controls that made the OotP game so infuriating at times. (Rotate your character in desired direction THEN press up to move them in said direction) The camera has been tweaked as well and is not nearly as annoying to maneuver like OotP's. Graphics have not changed much; the recreation of Hogwarts remains a visual treat for the eyes but the characters that inhabit the world still look too plain and ugly. The voice acting is surprisingly good, quite a few of the original film cast has loaned their voices to the game and it does make it feel more like Hogwarts in the films.
As it IS a movie video game, the plot is naturally weak and is more or less sidelined in favor of the game's actual missions and tasks. This isn't much of an issue considering most of the people who are playing it are fans. Those who aren't fans, well, you were warned. The tasks aren't nearly as repetitive and boring as OotP's but they still aren't great. You can get through the story in a day easily and that can be achieved even when you're not actually trying.
As for replay value, there are quite a few mini-games to be played such as dueling, potion making, flying, and more but all of these things get old quick. All of them are actually quite fun for awhile (apart from Quidditch ugh) but none hold enough variety to keep you interested. Crests and other hidden obtainables can also be collected for rewards but again, unless you're a big HP fan it's doubtful you'll still be playing enough to get all of them.
To conclude, "Half-Blood Prince" is just another movie video game that's easily forgettable. Casual gamers: this game is not for you. HP fans: it's worth a rental but nothing more. | video-games_xbox |
Baldur's Gate + Star Wars = KOTOR. This game really needs no introduction. Pretty much anyone who follows games knows that this is widely held to be the best XBOX RPG--which isn't saying much, but in fact the game really is excellent--and even though it's a couple of years old, it still holds up pretty well. Gameplay essentially consists of your standard RPG fare of guiding your characters through the process of accomplishing quests, interacting with a diverse and interesting cast of NPCs, and of course large amounts of combat, all in service to a good story set against the backdrop of the Star Wars universe. It uses the Dungeons and Dragons D20 system and focuses heavily on the moral development of your main character--ie, you can choose to be good or evil through your words and actions.
Sound familiar? Within a few hours of firing this baby up, I was struck by a strong sense of deja vu. You may have noticed that, aside from the setting, this game sounds very similar in concept to the old Baldur's Gate computer RPGs. And you'd be right. After all, BioWare was involved in the creation of the old BG games and clearly they carried a few ideas from that series into this one. In my opinion, such similarity is a good thing--BG2 was one of my all time favorite games, and KOTOR is a worthy successor. The only problem is that the whole time I was playing it, I couldn't help but think that KOTOR could have been even better. The main area that I think could use improvement is the combat system. Don't get me wrong, the KOTOR system works well and provides for some exciting battles, but personally I think it would have been better either turning it into more of an action/RPG with direct control over a character, or else letting you have a larger party (say, six people, like in BG) and giving combat a more tactical focus, letting the different strengths of your party members complement each other. Having only three active party members I think limited the gameplay experience a little two much; in KOTOR I found myself sometimes having to go back and forth between the Ebon Hawk (your base of operations) and the combat zone to change party members, alternating between a trio of bruisers to clear out all the enemies and a group with a weak thief-type character to open doors and locked compartments. All in all, still an excellent game, but I can't help but wonder what might have been. | video-games_xbox |
how can you diss this game. ok let me start off by saying this game does freeze occasionally, and this is caused, at least in my case, by the system scratching the game. i had a similar problem with madden 02, where either they made the cd too thick or my system is just dirty.
the graphics in this game, though not nearly as good as the cybermapped faces of EA's game, are very good. the whole espn presentation makes me feel like im controlling a real life game. i've had people walk in while i was playing think i was watching espn classic. the movements and animations of the characters, though goofy, flow perfectly.
the speed of this game is perfect as well. right out of the box it's perfect. you don't have to mess with any of the games many, and I mean many, sliders. your team reacts so well to everything going on on the ice, and your defense and goalies will not let in 20835729087359 goals a game. which brings up another point, the goalies.
the goalies in this game are amazing. neither team will let in a mass amount of goals, every game is a reasonable score, unless you are playing finland against belarus. anyway, the animations of the goalies is flawless. in EA's game, the goalies seem to flop around hasek style, and they tend to not play like their real life nhl brothers. in ESPN, each goalie plays similarly to his own style, and the goalies are rated very well, and play as well as they are rated. you won't have a goalie with a rating of 49 shutting out a team with a goalie of 95 10-0.
the coup de grase of this game is its franchise mode. it is beyond words. you control almost everything. hiring coaches, scouts, trainers, minor league staff. and it all affects your team. i couldn't believe the offseason either. the scouting in this game is amazing. you can actually play games and go through skills competitions with players before you draft them. there's so much more that i just don't have the time or space to talk about.
when all is said and done, for 20 bucks, you are getting a game that is worth 50. this game hip checks EA right over the boards and into the opposing bench. this is a true hockey simulation with a million different modes that i forgot to mention. party mode, shootout, skills comp, franchise (the best i have ever seen), pond hockey, mini rink mode, international, playoffs, tournament, no helmet, even the heritage classic. this game is loaded with hours and hours and hours of fun. | video-games_xbox |
Fantastic Sequel, Hack the Planet. I was a fan of the first Watchdogs, and this sequel delivers a worthy follow-up.
The campaign is great, with a main storyline and a bunch of side missions that will keep you busy for days. I'm not going to spoil anything, but the plot is hilarious at times. For example: One mission you'll encounter early in the game involves a pharmacy CEO who wants to buy the only copy of a hip-hop album. It gets better and better as it goes.
The multiplayer wasn't working at launch (early reviews may have mentioned this) but it works pretty well now. You can join the world of another player and spy on them while they try to find you, or chase them down for a bounty. There are co-op missions you can do with a friend or random strangers. Co-op missions can be anything from stealing data to freeing prisoners.
Every time you finish a mission, you earn "fans" and the more fans you have, the more hacking skills you can unlock. When you first start out, you can't even steal a car without setting off the alarm. Eventually, you can control self-driving cars, hack helicopters....or choose from a couple of dozen other tricks to unlock.
You can play the whole game stealthy, or you can run in, guns blazing. It's completely up to you.
There are collectibles to find, and many of them require some really interesting platforming on the part of the player. You might see a hidden item on top of a building, and you will have to choose from one of three or four different ways to get up there. If you can't reach something, you may have to use your little RC Car or a Drone to assist you in missions. It really mixes up the gameplay.
The city of San Francisco is beautiful and you can interact with the people who live there. You can hack into their conversations, and no matter how many people you meet, you'll almost never hear a repeated conversation. Crash into someone's car and watch what happens. The AI is a lot of fun. The map is huge, and you can either drive it or use a fast travel option.
Overall: Did you like the original Watchdogs? Games like Grand Theft Auto or Sleeping Dogs? You'll like this. | video-games_xbox |
Nostalgic with room for improvement. Pros:
Drums:
Drums play smooth.
Drum navigation is nice because then you don't have a guy banging around on the drums and making you go through menus.
Bass petal is solid and works well.
Guitar:
Keys and neck feel sturdy. Strum bar is solid and quiet. I really like playing with the higher frets.
Freestyle guitar solos are a lot of fun. Amp feedback sounds cool as you tilt your guitar and play during freestyle. Nob allows you to switch the sound of feedback.
Microphone:
Build feels high quality.
Cord is longer
Bass:
No new features.
Would be neat if they introduced bass solos to make the instrument more enticing to play.
Menu:
Auto calibration works perfect.
Playing a show is fun. It lets you play song after song and vote on which song is next, to end the show, or play an encore. This seems ideal in a party setting and will help you pick songs quickly and keep the show rocking.
Tour mode is a familiar and fun feature. The character creation is simplistic and easy to grasp.
Of course you gotta turn on awesomeness detection.
Cons:
Free style guitar solos feel gimmicky after a while and will make you want to just hear the normal solo after a while.
Freestyle vocals are hard to activate at times. You need to fill the whole gold bar with random words else it won't activate.
No online play (yet?)
No microphone connection on the instruments for party chat.
Wish microphone was wireless as the other instruments are.
Sometimes instruments lose sync during song. Not sure why?
The avatars you make cant be used as standins (other instruments played by AI) which I hope is patched.
You cant do batch downloads and have to download DLC individually.
Some Legacy DLC (DLC from RB1-3) is missing but will be added as time goes on. (RB1, RB2, Green Day, & Track Packs for example)
Overall:
Instruments feel very high quality.
65 songs on disc.
Throwback to early Rock Band days with simple menus and features but solid clean gameplay.
Wireless instruments are awesome. (cutting the chords is nice, especially during the party with alot of people walking around) Were coming from wired Gh2 explorers and rockband drums and microphone instruments. RB4 instruments feel like a dream compared to the old stuff.
Hopefully online play will be added in the future along with all DLC for download.
Harmonix said they plan on keeping Rb4 around for a while and will add features if enough people want them.
I find myself jamming out as hard as I did back in 2007 and I love it. Rock Band belongs on Next gen consoles and Im glad its finally here. I now know what I was missing. | video-games_xbox |
A blast to play. Seeing that there are quite a number of reviews for this game already, I'll keep mine short.
After being frustrated and bored (in no particular order) to near-death by GTA IV, I'm glad to be back playing a "gangster sandbox" game that's actually fun. Saints Row 2 is not a perfect game, and Stilwater isn't exactly a "living, breathing city" that got pro reviewers all over the world to engage in a "who could write the best 10/10 review" competition. What it lacks in presentation, however, SR2 compensates with lots of fun. I don't want this to sound like a GTA IV-bashing session, but since it's a known fact that the SR franchise is basically a GTA-clone, I'll do this off by listing some stuff that you'll enjoy in SR2, vs GTA IV:
- Mid-mission checkpoints: no more driving half the map to die, only to be told to drive half the map again.
- Regenerating Health Bar: you've an option not to die now.
- Three difficulty levels: so that even your five-year-old cousin can play this game and complete it, even though he shouldn't actually be doing so.
- Driving that actually works: you can do an Initial D drift with ease, without crashing into something or everything.
- Shots that actually register on your intended target: and not on someone (or thing) else just because you're pressing LT with five enemies ahead.
- Co-op on the fly: havoc is guaranteed as your friend and you could appear on different parts of the map to do whatever you want to do, including beating the whole campaign and completing all the side quests together.
- Customization: so that you can play the game as Megan Fox, your Homies can be dressed in ninja uniforms, and your cribs will have dance poles.
- Side Missions: favorites like Insurance Fraud and Escort are back, but check out the reality show-style Fuzz and the "like spraying s*** on buildings" Septic Avenger. Guaranteed to tickle a bone or two.
- No "couzan" to call you every five minutes for bowling: nuff said!
The game has its share of flaws. Ugly graphics, co-op completion glitches, pop-ups and all, but I'm sure you know these already. I'll end by saying how glad I am for SR2 to resurrect my interest in this genre. Being able to kill Julius for revenge just makes it all the more sweeter. | video-games_xbox |
WoW has made us lazy. I read many reviews for this game, and I as I come to a realization. WoW has made many once story loving people enjoy the thrill of now, losing their fasination with Roleplaying games. Now before you come down on me and tell me how WoW and Fable are awesome roleplaying games and I have no business comparing these two games, let me agree with you. They are great games and I don't have any business comparing them. Why shouldn't I compare them you ask? Because in fact I believe they have different genres. What qualifies as an adventure game, you might ask? Here's the answer: (1)Usually controlls a single character at a time. (2)Travels an expansive world/area, discovering new things. (3)Character progressive, but not necessarily story progressive. (4)Combat optional, but often included. (5)Minimal Story importance (keep in mind I said story importance, not minimal story quantity).
Now for an RPG, otherwise called Role-playing game. RPG's normally include: (1)HEAVY character progression, both ability and other. (2)Moderate to massive story importance. (3)One or more playable character's. (4)Story relations (not necessarily romantic) with other characters.
Looking at the two different types, it becomes clear that WoW and other like games tip more towards adventure, despite the heavy ability modifications made to playable characters. There's nothing wrong with games lacking heavy story involvement and personal character to character development, and they can be very fun. But Dragon Age most certainly falls into an RPG.
Yes it is story heavy. If you like to be completely envolved with a with story line and intercharacter relations, this game is for you. If not, this is most definetly not the game for you.
Yes, much of the game is dialogue. If you like to find out things by talking to people this game is for you. If you don't, this game is most definetly not for you. Keep in mind, if you're replaying something, you can skip (x for the 360) dialogue as it comes.
If you like to focus on attack attack attack, this game might not be for you. You do need a little bit of strategy to do very well. Whether that is pregame set up or hands on strategy. If you don't want to mess with that, you may want to just stick with characters that are type specific (one is obviously a healer, another is obviously a tanker etc)
If you don't have a lot of time, this game is probably not for you. Expect to not get anywhere anytime quick, unless you're fulfilling sidequests (sometimes not even then). Because its story heavy, you often can spend some time just talking to various people. If you don't have enough time, this game may not be very fun for you even if you are a true fan of RPG's.
Leveling:
Leveling is an iffy thing. Sometimes it feels like you're leveling up at lightning speed, other times you feel like its a snail's pace. It really averages out, but don't expect to be zooming along the skills and talents. Just sit back, enjoy the game and you'll become more powerful more quickly than you ever expected.
Graphics:
Personally, I don't think graphics are an issue, but if you were to compare it to a lot of other action games on the markets, and even some other RPG's, you might find it lacking. Then again, in my experience, graphics are more action games that need the thrill of combat.
If you still don't know if this game is for you, I recommend renting it. You probably won't be able to beat it, but a small rental fee is worth it in comparison to the 50-80 bucks you could fork out, only to be dissapointed, and trust me, you'll know if you like this game in the first one to two hours. I personally love it, but it's not for everyone. | video-games_xbox |
Great to whittle away the hours with. This is a very good port, much better than all the previous versions of the Sims on consoles. It maintains what's great about the PC version without giving up too much to play via a controller. Make no mistake, getting the hang of the controls takes some time. They're not as intuitive as you would think, but after an hour or so of goofing around and experimentation you slide into the mechanics pretty easily. I'm an older gamer with limited gaming time, so spending a lot of time learning control sets can be frustrating, but having followed a love for the Sim City (and by extension, the Sims) franchise for over 20 years I know that getting the hang of the controls yeilds a big payoff. I personally found that starting with a 1 sim house made the experience easier in learning the mechanics.
There is no 'online play' mode, the best you can do is download items other players have made available. And downloading content is clunky...you need an access code to enter the EA area, and it doesn't automatically log you in all the time--which means if you want access to EA content, it restarts the game back to the menu. It doesn't ruin the game but it isn't seamless in any way, and while my version came with a code having to create one could be a pain, and sometimes I have to enter it even after having already done so (with different plays). Occasionally, some content you might want to download from other users is no longer available...for some unknown reason.
While you can *kinda* build, and you can get objects from the internet (the Xbox Live version of it anyway) the options and abilities are hampered. It's more like can edit a house than actually building one. If you enjoy being an architect more than a manager, you might not be happy with the game. But honestly, taking that out of the equation forces you to play with your Sims a bit more than you would if you could fully unleash your inner HGTV-show decorater.
Its flaws are minimal and aren't overwhelming, and if you're looking for a more casual Sims fix then you're really going to like this game. If you're a micro-managing Sims fan who wants all the bells and whistles, the PC version is probably your better bet. | video-games_xbox |
Only for the hard core role playing fan. I was told that XBox would be a console for console type games. Both Halo and Morrowind prove that XBox is the dreaded dumping ground for PC type games. Depending on your perspective this can be either good or bad.
I have mixed feelings about Morrowind. It has some interesting elements to it, but its mouse & keybord style controls (similar to Halo) are a serious annoyance, as are its overly complex character creation and game play mechanics. I think this is as close as it gets to a perfect translation of a pen and paper RPG to a console game as it gets. This strength is also a weakness. It can take hours to generate a character. I'm also upset that we have so few options with how the character would look. Our options are hideous, to ugly. There are not enough options, and no matter what you do your character will be pretty darn unattractive. For as elaborate as the rest of the game is, this aspect of the game is a sore disappointment. I had no problem establishing a character as a "hottie" in Sega's Phantasy Star Online.
The game is unusual for a "console" RPG. It takes place in a first person perspective, something I'm not sure I like. It's interesting, and bearable, but maybe I'm just used to playing console RPGs in the vein of Final Fantasy.
The graphics of this game vary. The water in this game is simply amazing, the scenery is intricate and detailed, the character models are mediocre, however, and there is one major complaint I have with the title, horrendous load time. I thought the XBox was supposed to be the fastest. This game will show you why Nintendo's data streaming technique and mini-DVD is a much smarter choice. I'd like to see this game using data streaming technology because it would drastically cut down the seemingly hours of load time. However, unlike past PC-like console RPGS (Summoner for PS 2 come to mind) this game makes it worth it to sit through the loading, and actually has game play tips and hits which are very helpful during loading sequences.
As a hardcore RPG fan I found this game to be quite enjoyable despite my complaints, and would definitely recommend this game for console players wanting to test the waters of a more PC oriented game, or hardcore RPG fans who want something that is unnecessarily overly complex. The game's complexity will woo some gamers, but will surely scare others. I strongly suggest renting the game before you buy it. | video-games_xbox |
Thrives on CO-OP. Frustrating Single Player. This is my honest opinion on how I feel about this Dead Island and is based off my experiences while playing it. With that said, I have clocked in around +20 hours of gameplay doing side quests, exploring, and advancing the plot. I'll break this up into respectable categories and talk about some key issues and experiences I have had. Most of my review will be mentioning how the Single Player fares.
Presentation/Story:
Being a zombie game, I don't expect too much on story. Since most zombie games/movies are very badly acted, written, or directed. At least the one's I've seen. Nevertheless, Dead Island's story is summarized with you, one of four characters to choose from, are at a resort on an island off the coast of Papua New Guinea for your own reasons. You come to realize that a virus outbreak has occurred in the hotel you are staying at and you find that everyone is dead. You escape through a turn of events and find survivors. You also realize that you are the only one that is immune to this virus. You now try to survive and do your best to escape by helping others.
Dead Island's plot develops more and more as you play at strange pace. Cutscenes feel out of place at times with no adequate transition to how our heroes got to their destination. Acting within each cutscene feels forced and is unappealing because of that. This leads me to believe it was on purpose and was meant to be campy. If this is true, then it is a fun experience. Otherwise, it is as bad as any other zombie game/movie. Dead Island is divided into 18 chapters and 4 acts. Additionally, there are 4 main areas: the Resort, Town, Jungle, and Prison. Some of the chapters can be considerably longer or shorter than others. Of course this depends on how much you do in each chapter (ie side quest, collection quest, etc.).
Basically, the story just feels almost out of place, or feels forced, and unrefined.
Gameplay:
There are mixtures of gameplay mechanics from other games such as: Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, Condemned and Far Cry 2 to name a few. Primarily, Dead Island is a melee/close combat game similar to the Condemned games. There is a wide array of weapons but a few select types: Firearms, Blunt, Sharp, and Throwable. Note that all Blunt and Sharp weapons can be thrown. Throwable weapons include Molotov cocktails, Grenades, and those of similar functions. Blunt and Sharp weapons are as they sound. From Baseball bats to Tonfas, from Knives to Katanas. These will be your main weapons throughout the majority of the game. Swinging, running and jumping all consume a stamina bar. Which will recharge over time. This can be upgraded from leveling up. You can also kick zombies out of the way or to stop them from charging you without using stamina (with the exception of the jump kick which takes a good chunk of stamina). Firearms are Pistols, Assault Rifles, and Shotguns of different models and calibers. Although, it's not as wide of a variety as the melee weapons but I guess a resort island wouldn't have an arsenal ready for a zombie apocalypse.
All weapons degrade in its condition as it is being used (except for Firearms). This can be upgraded through a workbench, where you can also create and repair weapons, that are scattered throughout the play areas. You can also obtain bonuses through leveling up. For example, Xian Mei has an ability to boost the condition of Sharp weapons up to 30% more. At first, conditions of weapons are low, but after upgrading and having the bonuses, they last considerably longer. Weapons are ranked by rarity indicated by color, like Borderlands, with white, green, blue, purple and orange. Orange is the most rare. Although, I have found that purple weapons having better stats than orange weapons. Also like Borderlands, Each character has their specialities. One excels at throwing, being a balanced character. One excels in Firearms, the support character. One excels in Sharp weapons, playing the assassin role. Finally the last character is excels in Blunt weapons, playing the role as the tank. Everyone can use all the weapons, as long as they the right level. So there are no restrictions. Movements are stiff while moving the camera and aiming, but after getting used to it and messing with the look sensitivity, it becomes more tolerable. Yet, it is still an issue when in a big fight. 'One other thing like Borderlands, is when you die, it isn't game over. You only lose a percentage of your money (around 10%) and you respawn somewhere close to where you died. I have respawn both in safe areas and in the middle of zombies.
Zombies also respawn after a while. if you move out of a particular area then come back, usually zombies will spawn right back. Disregarding both destroying the brain or burning techniques for getting rid of zombies. The two rules that every zombie slayer should know. This can become cumbersome during grab and fetch quests. You can always run by them as long as they don't run after you. There are also special infected, just like in Left 4 Dead, all with their strengths and weaknesses.
Inventory management is full of bugs. There are also other bugs not limited to the inventory and I hope they are fixed in a future update. One glitch is having 10 Medkits in two separate slots in the inventory menu. For example, you could have 8 in one slot and 2 in another slot. This takes up your very limited inventory pack. To fix this you would have to drop the 2 medkits then pick them up. But you are going to have to hope that they do not fall through the ground (another glitch). I'll mention other glitch: sometimes zombies can go through walls. In particular, the ones that run. This is very inconvenient and frustrating because these surprise attacks are unfair. Despite that surprise attacks are supposed to be a surprise, in this game, they get very predictable when a zombie is just around the corner while indoors (hint: There is always a zombie around a corner). These cheap scares just become mundane and a chore.
Essentially, prepare to do tedious quests and careful maintenance to your weapons constantly while you play.
On a side note, I will say that I feel extremely defenseless when I cannot block enemy attacks and that I am forced to only dodge oncoming attacks. I feel that if you were able to, it would have prevented some unnecessary deaths.
Graphics:
The visuals are not that exciting when looked at closely, but are certainly beautiful when looked at from afar. Character models and faces look ugly because of unrefined, blocky textures. I would expect this from a launch title or something released in 2006. I guess this is from budget cuts and re-doing parts of the game. Additionally, there is lots of texture pop in which removes any immersion to the "realistic" experience. The character models suffer from what I call "literal syndrome." This is were the model takes the same action as it does in first person when looked at in third person. If you have seen the third person Mirror's Edge video, it's kind of like that. If you haven't, it basically makes your character look like an orangutan. To make the game more "realistic" they would make two separate animations for a third person model and the first person model, but I guess that was too much work or they ran out of time.'If this is no big deal to you then, graphics are simply nice.
Sound:
There is little music during battle, but it arises on occasion during firefights and heated moments. During cutscenes, musical scores attempt to drive moods of sadness or turmoil and leaves me thinking if deliberately exaggerated to serve the campy theme. That intention is yet to be seen. Voice acting spikes in volume from low to high during cutscenes. The sound is tolerable and decent.
Overall:
Dead Island has the reputation of "realism" or "realistic gameplay." To me, this is amusing because such thoughts or ideas shouldn't be used in video games. There can only be additions of making it more "real" but can't absolutely become "realistic." With that said, I can say Dead Island certainly tried to be "real" but falls flat because of poor acting, graphical issues, and stiff controls. Despite that, it doesn't mean that the game isn't all bad. Killing zombies has always been fun; more so with friends. For the best experience, try to get 3 (or at least 1) of your friends and play co-op for a while. This game is made for co-op. So use it for what is it for to get the most fun out of it. Another note on co-op is that it is NOT split screen co-op. You must play through the interent. Perhaps even system link.
In my honest opinion, if I had another chance, I would have waited for a discount of at least $10. Because I do no think it's worth full price. Do to all the bugs and errors I've faced. I do want a real good zombie game to be made, Left 4 Dead has come close, but I like what Dead Island has been doing. The developers just need to refine what they have done here.
Nevertheless, you should rent Dead Island at the very least to see if you'll like it.
Thank you for your time. | video-games_xbox |
Constant backtracking and few scares make this the worst Silent Hill of the first four. The Good: Improved combat, interesting story
The Bad: Not very scary, extremely difficult to navigate, poor level design, not many weapons, gateway idea is bad, backtracking is lame, puzzles are almost impossible to figure out (even for SH standards), not incentive to play again
Silent Hill 4 is a continuation of the long running Silent Hill series that started on the PlayStation way back in 1998. As a kid I remember how incredibly horrifying SH was, and how ridiculously hard the puzzles were, thus sending the rental back due to complaints of nightmares to my mother. Fast forward to 2004 and we get SH4 that is a mediocre approach to the amazing survival horror series. For some reason Konami changed everything for this game thus making it less fun and a MAJOR chore to play. You play as Henry Townshend who wakes up in his apartment one day with the front door chained up. You walk into your bathroom and there is a hole in it that is a wormhole to these creepy SH worlds. You are following murders of a man named Walter Sullivan and must release his soul and find out why he's killing all of these people. The story is very interesting yet there are little cut scenes and very little dialog so most of the story is told through diary pages and memos that you pick up which is actually kind of bland and boring (and lazy on Konami's part).
SH4 is very strange in a sense that the game uses an initial gateway between levels and you travel back and forth to heal, save, and unlock the rest of the worlds. After you finish a world you get warped back to your apartment room 302 and you are free to roam around. This is in a strange first person view and you can save (this is the ONLY save spot) and dump stuff into your trunk for later storage. You only get about 10 slots in your inventory so going back to your apartment via red holes is essential. While this isn't so bad there's so much back tracking and repeats of levels it will make you sick. While you're in a level you wander around in the same SH fashion picking up strange objects and using them in puzzles. The only problem is that the memos that give you the puzzles are so unbelievably vague that you will have almost no idea what to do unless you wander around aimlessly just trying everything out. Most SH games you do this, but it's pretty obvious where to go if you use a little bit of brain power you will get it. In SH4 things are so NOT obvious that you will completely miss it.
This is all tied together because SH4 has the worst level design ever and that is just paths that lead to nowhere. You will wander around hallways and go up and down ladders that lead to dead end rooms or send you back to places you don't recognize. Not only this but if you miss certain items (like the Swords of Obedience) the "boss" later on can not be fought and there's no way to go back. Thanks to the whole gateway system if you missed an item you can not go back unlike past SH games. There are four worlds that you must complete by finding a placard at the end of each level. In SH fashion you must complete weird puzzles by putting the right pieces in the right places and this is figured out by memos you pick up. Like I explained above they are so vague you can't really figure out what to do except look through a walkthrough.
After you complete a world you go back to your apartment and look through the peephole in your door and read all these pages to advance the story. After you complete the fourth world everything changes and your room becomes haunted. You must use Holy Candles that you find throughout the world and place them down in front of these demons on your walls to rid them before they kill you. I found this extremely annoying and a pointless game play element which just makes this SH game very weird and a bad departure from the series. After completing these four worlds you open up another whole your washroom (yeah what?!) with the four placards you go BACK through these worlds again trying to find god knows what, but the levels are continuous and you don't get warped back to your apartment (thus not getting healed). I found this really annoying and very boring since I just spent Hell in these worlds and I have to go back?!
Now the boss fights are really stupid since they aren't traditional SH bosses they just look like regular enemies and you must hack away at them till they fall then stab them with that Sword of Obedience I mentioned. This is both boring and stupid since if you miss a sword you just have to run away from this boss until you finish the level. Now if I should mention improvements the combat is actually really great since you just lock on and whack away. You can charge attacks, but that's about it, but if you play on a harder difficulty you're gonna be SOL because the game can be extremely tough since they throw dozens of enemies at you at times. The only weapons in the game are melee weapons and a pistol and revolver...yeah lame where's the shotgun? Half way through the game you have your neighbor, Eileen, following you around everywhere and this is extremely annoying since you can't leave her behind and she hobbles on one leg so she's very slow. She has to be near you before you go through doors or you leave her behind. This was a HUGE game play mistake and it's probably just as bad as the level design.
Now the only thing I haven't mentioned is the scary factor...is it as scary as past SH games? The answer is no. The enemy designs are a little creepy, but not out of this world terrifying like the past SH games. Are the levels creepy? Not really. Sometimes you'll see something weird in the background, but you won't really notice is. The atmosphere is a little spooky, but nothing that'll make you crap your pants. The past SH games scared the living Hell out of me, but SH4 didn't really do much on the scary factor. I feel SH4 is really toned down and Konami tried to do something new and failed at it. The siren doesn't even go off in SH4!! C'mon...If you played the hell out of the other SH games then go ahead and pick this up at bargain bin price, but don't expect a whole lot. | video-games_xbox |
A Great Game With A Bad Port. I love this game. Though there are a number of issues with this port. Here is my full-fledged review.
UPDATE 11/21/14: Pre-Order codes now work.
Basic Known Issues:
As most of you know the pre-order codes do not work. There is also an installation issue where you have to go offline to install the game. Another thing on which I have not seen too much in reviews is the world & character textures do not load well. I have seen some problems with cutscenes; when you go into feasts for instance. It'll show a tad bit of what's going on, and then it goes back to the loading screen, then it shows more, back to the loading screen, etc. etc. It can be very annoying after a while.
Graphics:
There are some bad textures that'll take a tiny bit longer to load after the loading screens. Also noticeable is the bad anti aliasing. If you're looking for good graphics they didn't put too much pride in this port, and it's a very sorry one. Especially seeing as how the port version of this game was pushed back for "polishing."
Gameplay:
Not too much to say here besides that the gameplay is very awesome. The combat is very fluid & fun. It's incredibly satisfying killing all of the orcs, more-so than in previous LotR video games.
Other Comments:
If you're into a game with a fantastic story & gameplay and not also looking for anything that looks good graphics wise then you'll like this game, I promise. The nemesis system isn't too bad and not 'as' dumbed down in this port version as you may have thought it would of been. There's still a fairly nice randomization in looks, voices, names, etc.
Overall:
The game itself is 5 stars, however this port I will give a 4. Even though the 'last-gen' release has its issues, I feel that it's a good enough and playable enough game to overlook the existing problems. According to WB Games there will be an upcoming patch that'll hopefully fix a plethora of the issues. This last-gen version of the game also lacks any of the season pass/dlc releases that are on the next-gen consoles. If you're getting a next-gen console, just wait and get the game there. It'll be a far more enjoyable and worthwhile experience. But for those that are still keeping to their last-gen consoles, this is still an alright buy and will provide many hours of fun. | video-games_xbox |
Perfect for Fighter Games. I have read some bad reviews on this controller, the only ones that had me worried were the ones saying the controller was DOA or died shortly after. All of the other reviews seemed like people hating on what makes this controller great.
I have always had a stigma towards Mad Catz; back in the early days I had bought one of their controllers, was either N64 or Dreamcast, but it was awful, cheap and uncomfortable. I just got back into console gaming this last September and have a ton of catching up to do, tried playing a fighting game on Xbox controller, that was the worst. So I went to the Internets to price fightsticks... Little out of my price range for a game I'm not sure I'll be hardcore about, in looking I came across these "Fightpads" and saw that they were made by Mad Catz, I completely skipped by them till I realized that all the best fightsticks were also mad by Mad Catz and figured what the hell...
This controller is the perfect melding of an old Sega Saturn controller (Widely considered the best fighting controller) and an Arcade stick with a dash of Xbox controller for shape. The buttons take on the Arcade stick feel, the are bigger and clickier which feels more like arcade buttons to me, I love it. The D-Pad seems to get the most criticism, I'm not sure why this is the single BEST D-pad I have ever used for fighting games, it feels like a D-pad on the end of a Joystick and on top of that I don't get blisters like I did from ALL of the other D-pads. I cant say anything about the Turbo feature as I don't use it at all. The only complaint I have about this controller is cord length, it is just a little too short for me, but I believe it is a solid 9ft so I guess that's on me.
If you are a fight game enthusiast on a budget, this controller is a MUST. Mad Catz has some a long way in the past 10-15 years, they are finally doing it right and I'm glad I gave them a second chance. | video-games_xbox |
The definitive version of the game -- one whose sum is greater than its parts. Let's make this clear from the outset: this is not a brand-new game, but rather the "director's cut" of the title that released a few months back. Those expecting a whole new "Madden" will be disappointed, but look a little deeper and there's much to discover.
First, the game looks better and runs smoother; there's more detail everywhere, from raucous crowds to sideline personnel, but it doesn't scream "next-gen" like some other titles. There's still work to be done going forward, but it's not as if "Madden 25" looks ugly -- far from it.
While the graphics might not dazzle, the immediately-noticeable improvement to the game's animations take gameplay up a notch. The war in the trenches that decide football games -- intricate battles between defensive and offensive linemen -- are far more dynamic and realistic. No longer do the lines simply ram into each other like buzzing electric football players of yore; they move with purpose, and they're a bit smarter to boot. Combine that with a more realistic running game, and one finds a new level of depth and challenge -- along with the satisfaction that come with success.
The end result is a more thoughtful and rewarding on-field experience, where play-calling and execution involves much more than snapping the ball and mashing the "sprint" button.
Unlike the last time "Madden" moved forward from one generation to the next, nothing's been left behind; all the modes you'd expect are there, from the multi-season Connected Careers mode to the card-collecting Ultimate Team -- if you're migrating from the Xbox 360 to the Xbox One, all your cards will come with you; a godsend for those that have dumped plenty of hard-earned cash into the fantasy-team extravaganza already.
It's a very solid package, filled chock-full of content, and it's easily the definitive version of "Madden 25"; a game that creeps ever closer to becoming a true-to-life simulation of the NFL. | video-games_xbox |
Awesome quality for a great price. The Sentey Vibros headset is great for my PC gaming needs. The headphones are great quality and have a very good microphone. The package it comes in is also high quality, as many reviews state, it also comes within a reusable case. With color changing dragons on the cans, it's obvious Sentey went out of their way to make the Vibros look top notch.
Since I'm using the headset for in-game voice communications, the microphone is most important to me. In many ways the Vibros microphone is outstanding: I've used this with both Ventrilo and Mumble and - without much tinkering with settings - the headset delivers high quality sound. There's no unnecessary feedback as is the case with other headsets in this price range. The only thing I'd caution against is making sure you read the Amazon product information fully: this is an omnidirectional microphone. Being of such high quality, it is extremely sensitive to sound and I find that it picks up almost all moderate-to-high volume sounds where I play. This is probably an obvious fact to other gamers that know about different microphone types but it may be worth mentioning in case you need a less sensitive microphone (gaming at parties, tournaments, with the TV on in the background, etc).
The sound quality from the speakers in the headset are terrific, full bass and tremble. I've tested them with games, movies and streaming music and I've got to admit that the sound quality is outstanding. The surround sound settings are configurable through the included software but like most users I use the default settings with the 7.1 Virtual Speaker Shifter DSP on.
The only issue I have with the headset (and the only reason I'm giving it 3.8-4 out of 5 stars) is that the headset is very loose fitting. The cans literally lie on my ears, there's almost no tightness or gripping. The adjustability mentioned on the product page means raising and lowering the cans themselves not tightening or repositioning them in any other way. Seeing as how no other reviewers are mentioning this, it's sort of significant (or may just mean my head is an abnormal size, which I doubt). This problem is such a big deal that I was tempted to give the headset 3/5 but since I'm not moving my head much while gaming, the headphones will do the job (and do it well as I enjoy other aspects of it).
The headset is of high quality construction (pliable plastic), the inner cushioning on the headset is a thin leather (or leather like) material (I'm hoping that this won't wear down any time soon). The construction is great because it makes the headset both durable and comfortable (I have a Skullcandy Hesh made of harder plastic and it's extremely annoying). The weight on the Vibros feels more like it's from the part that goes on the head as opposed to the cans themselves: this makes the headset extremely lightweight, a big benefit to hardcore gamers.
Many have stated that the controller is too close to the headset, I have to disagree. But it really does boil down to personal preference. I like to "reach up" for my controls but I can understand where some would want it in their lap. The buttons are: Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute Microphone, Mute Volume and Mic On/Mic Off (the glowing "X" in the center).
Having some questions about the product, I contacted Sentey Support. I would rate them very high: the turn around time was extremely short and the answers were knowledgeable.
All in all I'd say this is a terrific buy for the price. I'm extremely pleased with my purchase and recommend it to other gamers. While the looseness is noticeable and slightly annoying, I'm impressed with the headset overall and look forward to trying out their other gaming products in the future. | video-games_xbox |
Great workout, not so great Kinect. I like this game, but the Kinect implementation sucks.
The Bad:
I checked to see when it was released and expected it to be close along the lines of the first Your Shape game. Unfortunately, it's sad that it was in fact released 7 months after, but the Kinect response and registration feels more like a Kinect launch game. Several times it fails to register my movements, and tells me I got 90% or something at the end when I probably did an extra 5-10 reps that it failed to recognize. The voice recognition is also not very good. I tell it 'Trainer - Skip Tutorial' and it pauses the game. I put the tv on mute in case it's having trouble distinguishing my voice, but it still just pauses the game. After a few tries it will eventually recognize the command, but to me that is unacceptable. I use the Kinect commands to play Netflix, and the only time I have an issue with it registering my command is when the volume is up, as soon as I mute it has no problems. The main issue with this failure is there is no other way to skip the tutorial that I could find, so I am stuck either doing the tutorial for the 20th time (haven't had the game that long yet) or shouting at my tv 10 times for it to register. The other disappointing thing is the lack of dialog in this game. In one 60 second exercise I hear the same 3 lines 10 times each. You don't even have to be doing the exercise and the trainer will continue to say 'great job'. Also when doing stretches it will say, 'lay flat on your back', or 'look over your shoulder', but it will not tell you when to switch. Obviously if I am following their instructions I cannot see the tv and so you have to continually break the stretch or just go on your own. Considering the lack of dialog I figured they should at least be able to tell you that much. Also with the stretches where you lay on your back it will often 'lose' you and pause the game, despite being green (your outline shows up green when the Kinect is registering you).
The Good:
The exercises are awesome. It is an incredibly good workout. You can select a program, 30 days or 60, and it has a calendar with the days you should work out, the exercises all laid out. During the program it tells you how many exercises you have remaining and at the beginning it tells you an estimate of the amount of time it will take. I also like that it has you do stretches before and after the program.
Conclusion:
It seems that despite being late to launch the game, they did not take the extra time to make sure it would work well with the Kinect (I'm basing this on the fact that the second Your Shape, fitness evolved, works considerably better with the Kinect). If you are just looking for something to show you how to do a good workout, and good UFC training, and to keep track of your workouts (moderately well) then this is a great game. If you are looking for a game just to keep you in shape, that works really well with the Kinect I would either wait for a second release or go with Your Shape Fitness Evolved. | video-games_xbox |
Might be old, but still a great find. I originally bought this game in a "bargain basement" situation without much information on it. I just bought this one to have the disc as a back up in case something happened to my original! TERRIFIC game! Great story line that drive you forward and through the game. Although some missions are easier than others, it is still a challenge and is a very LONG RUNNING GAME. What I really love about the game is that you don't have to stick to the assigned missions--the playing field is VERY EXPANSIVE and you have the opportunity to interact however you want with it! Go on the next mission or just circulate on your own, blowing up and shooting whoever and where ever you so desire. Plus an added feature: even after you COMPLETE THE GAME, you can still go on playing it! You can still go around the map and wreck havoc! AWESOME! Obviously, Pandemic really spent a great deal of time working on this game, the playing field (very detailed) and it offers a vast array of situations for everyone. I really appreciate the fact that you can either turn on or off the "nudity" (for those who don't see the need) and that while the story line itself is based on violence, the visuals are not just total and excessive blood and guts. There are a few glitches (people standing on invisible towers, etc.) however, it is not so distracting that it takes away from the overall game. This game will be my "old standby" game that I go to for years to come. The story never gets old (who gets tired of killing Nazis??) and is enjoyable to play through on different difficulties. Now I know why everyone was so disappointed that Pandemic closed it doors and never got to develop a Saboteur #2--I would have been the first in line to buy it! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR ALL AGES, LEVELS AND EXPERIENCE. Don't let its rarity fool you--great game--grab it if you can find a copy!!!! | video-games_xbox |
4.5) L.A. Console-quential. At just under 36 hours I can honestly say that LA Noire is different. I noticed only one of my friends had this game and I keep getting messages from people on my Friends List asking me how it is and I honestly don't know what to say. It looks about twice as good as RDR (Red Dead Redemption). No boring desert here, instead you get a fully alive and well crafted city waiting to be explored. It even LOOKS like a 1950's technicolor masterpiece. I think it'll win Game of the Year if for no other reason then the graphics alone. Everything down to the minor detail was painstakingly recreated, I mean there are actually tire balance weights (whatever they're called) on the tires. The cars look beautiful (fun fact Jay Leno actually gets mentioned in the credits). There's some caveats though.
I get asked, "Would I like it?" And that's a hard thing to say. I can't recommend it without hesitation. The reason you may ask? When you see the R* logo most people expect a certain thing. Action for instance. Well it's not an action game -- at least not right away. This is basically an old point and click adventure game wrapped in a veneer that makes most movies look fake. This isn't a problem for me, because I really enjoy those sorts of things. I knew though that something was up when I couldn't draw my weapon at will and two-thirds through the game and I've only shot 30 bad guys. Then during the last few cases in the Arson Desk you have some of the funnest action gameplay I've seen. However it's also at this point where the story takes a dive for me.
The first two-thirds of the story are excellent; well thought out; and very fun. This game is serious though, no low-brow humor here. I counted maybe three things that made me laugh out loud during the 23 hour story. That's not bad either as I don't necessarily care for R*'s brand of humor. (It's ok in small doses but I just don't find it all that funny.) So the seriousness was a very welcome and unexpected change of pace for me, that enabled me to enjoy the story even more. It's very adult both in attitude and content. With that said though I ended up hating the main character by the end of it. It's hard to explain and I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but you'll figure it out eventually at the end. That of course doesn't mean that it'll make sense. Quite frankly I don't think anything past the Vice desk made any sense but I rolled with the punches. They did a great job up until then. (Yes I know what Noire is but be honest with yourself the ending just sucked.)
Specifically I would like to point out:
Interrogations -- This is a very cool feature where you watch facial expressions with Bondi's 'ground breaking' technology and choose whether or not the person is telling the whole truth, concealing something or flat out lying (because you have evidence to back it up). However I never really felt comfortable with the system. Maybe a little more 'practice' cases would've helped. It was either so obvious it might as well have been phoned in or it would've taken Sherlock Holmes to figure it out. Not game breaking it's just a new fun game mechanic that I'm sure will be refined later. Hopefully in a sequel or something.
Driving -- Driving just sucks. I mean the cars look good but I swear motorists in this virtual LA drive like I imagine they really do in LA. CRAZY. Let's put it this way they won't stop for you and can pop out of almost anywhere. Most (99%) cars corner like they're on rails having an effective turning radius of 2 miles. They accelerate as though they were driving through molasses and break as though it's on ice. And just so you know; vehicle, city and pedestrian damage count against your case ranking. Let your partner drive.
Invesitgations -- Are a lot of fun. Searching the crime scene and/or bodies for clues to motive and person/s responsible was handled very, very well. Including a few red herrings. :)
Cases -- Of the four detective desks (Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Arson) you work at throughout the story most of these were very fun, and had a great selection. The cases for the Vice Desk were very few and pretty short. It felt like they cut a lot out as this was the shortest desk in the game. Homicide was about the most creative, and Arson was the most action packed.
Replayability -- Almost zero unless you want achievements. If you do go for achievements you'll notice that there is a ton; and I MEAN TON; of stuff you can NOT skip. Which is a drag if you've played something three times as even the best of writing can get old after a third viewing. And on that note...
Preorder DLC with achievements -- Why wasn't Amazon given a preorder case too!? I knew it was coming. In this day and age DLC has become the norm, but to have preorder content that wasn't available to all preorder customers with achievements tied to it is just plain stupid. Shame on R* and Bondi for this!
All told if nothing I've mentioned bothers you it's certainly worth your time. It's such a unique game that it's hard to review and I'm thankful someone decided the risk was worth it because I really enjoyed it. I hope we can see more from Bondi, I'm just afraid that it may be too out of the box for your average Call of Duty player. Which is a shame because they're missing out. If you have patience and like mysteries you can't do much better. I would also recommend Deadly Premonition and Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper as both of these games share similar elements in one degree or another. While fun neither are as beautiful looking as LA Noire.
On a personal note I had lost faith in R* after the mess of GTA IV, (let's face it San Andreas is still the best GTA) my faith was renewed after Red Dead Redemption, and totally solidified again with LA Noire. | video-games_xbox |
General Mindless Dinosaur-Slaying Fun. Turok is sort of a space-marines-meets-Jurassic-Park story. In a futuristic world with high end weapons and armor, you're pitted against the raw muscle and razor-sharp teeth of meat-eating dinosaurs.
Really, the game is all about fun. It has nice graphics, but not nearly as stellar as other games out there. The scenery of black mountains and drifting clouds are pretty, but could be better. The character animations are all right, but sometimes clunky and clippy. The voices are all right, but sometimes get flat or cliched.
When it comes down to it, this is all about pitting yourself against dinosaurs with the best weapons you could imagine from various sci-fi shows. It's you against bit, sharp-toothed monsters of gigantic proportions. They are faster than you, stronger than you, there are lots of them out there. Can you hold your own against them?
The answer hopefully is yes. There are multiple levels of gameplay here, so you can start with the easier one if you haven't played these games before, or just dive into the killer-hard level if you enjoy a challenge. You'll be sneaking around, taking shelter behind jungle plants, plotting out the best place to lay your ambush.
Yes, there's a plotline of sort, with crosses and double-crosses. You get your hands on various weapons. Ironically, we tended to stick just with the knife, for silent, deadly kills. The other favorite weapon was the bow with a variety of arrow types.
The game is a good length and whether you enjoy it or not probably depends on whether the idea of blasting away at dinosaurs for hours is a fun thing to do. We did enjoy playing our way through it, but it was not one of the games that we kept on the active shelf to revisit for months afterwards.
If you're not a dinosaur / monster-slaying fan, it might be best to rent this one for a weekend and see how it appeals to you. That way you could get the dinosaur mashing out of your system if it's not your cup of tea - or get yourself completely hooked and decide to get one of your very own. | video-games_xbox |
This ABYSMALLY morose game leaves you ATROSTICIZED. ***NOTATION: "If ANYTHING about this review which I wrote after this game released was inaccurate this game's developers would not as of the date of this posting (posted this notation 5/2/2013) have a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT filed against them for the advertisement and distribution of this product. Sega and Gearbox Software currently have a class action lawsuit against them for this game, because this game IS THIS review". NOTATION ENDED 5/2/2013 12:15PM PT
A while back I wrote a review which stated "Developers give to professional game reviewing companies a piecemeal display of the actual product to review, and when the final product is sold based on those reviews it is NOT what was advertised".
Randy Pitchford the CEO of Gearbox Software originally worked for EA (Electronic Arts). When he created his own gaming company years after leaving EA, he and Gearbox Software earned credit for their reputation by creating "Borderlands". After earning a reputation in the gamin industry and community, THIS game right here that you are considering buying is the game that will remain in the minds of consumers when ever placing any faith in Randy Pitchford and Gearbox software ever again. Why? Because "if" you purchase this game you need to know "what" you are paying for. ANYTHING you read in this review is something that can be researched on the web, and found repeatedly by example after example.
Gameplay-
Horrid. The AI in this game destroys any and all hope of an enjoyable experience. Regularly while playing this game the "aliens" would fall through the floor, disappear through walls, get stuck in loopy animations throughout the environment, and would even (and this is just disgusting development) kill you AFTER they were nowhere near you because the game would try to auto-correct the AI location after the aforementioned and despite not being in the same room as you are the aliens would still do damage to you. In other words the alien that just fell through the floor is now somewhere in the data of the game swinging at you and killing you despite not really being in the same room you're in.
The AI of the good guys in this game has them running into walls, corners, standing in doorways blocking you, firing their guns at you, even got to the point where people who were programmed to help you were trapping you in corners of rooms while the aliens not even located there were killing you blocked in a corner. In one scene in a hanger bay, the aliens are falling from a ceiling all onto the the same spot atop of a dropship. From the dropship they are all jumping to the same location onto the floor... and falling through the floor into god only knows where. All I know is no matter where I was this transpired about 10-12 times before I went online to find out why.
Graphics-
BEFORE the actual product ("Aliens:Colonial Marines") was released Randy Pitchford was SHOWING the GAMEPLAY to everyone everywhere. Randy Pitchford showed the "footage from the actual game" albeit a "work in progress" to advertise this product. The things you see on the web that advertise this game ARE NOT IN THIS GAME. Everything that is a form of advertisement for this game from "Gearbox Software" is a LIE. The "in-game" footage that is all over the web being used to advertise this game is NOT IN THIS GAME. It is NOT WHAT YOU ARE GETTING if you buy this product. The graphics are absolutely the most horrid graphics Ive seen in 20 years of gaming.
The best way to describe the graphics in this game is this.
Imagine watching a low-resolution mpg on a PC from 1996. Only its interactive, and you can explore the environment by moving around. The pixelating, screen fracturing, jumpy environment... it literally appears as if your watching several puzzel pieces being moved if each puzzle piece made up a portion of your TV screen. tHE IMAGE FRAGMENTATION IS so bad that I literally HAD, and I mean HAD to STOP playing it.
Sound-
Its all sound bites. The actors from the original movie cannot be blamed for what was done to them in this product. Everything you hear in this game appears to be a "sound bite" from the movie "Aliens" minus some additional voice acting. The sound of the pulse rifles, the sound when an alien jumps on you, even the sound of the shotgun from the original movie "Aliens" appear to be recorded from the movie and poorly dubbed into this game. I EVEN found an app on my phone that had the sounds on it from an app that was out before the game and using Sony Vegas recorded the sounds from my phone app, then recorded the sounds from the captured gameplay and lined them up and found them to be... YES, identical.
Multiplayer-
No. I'm not going to even go there.
Overall-
**THIS game was advertised using footage from a product that Gearbox Software is not selling you. When you are looking at the actual footage of "what" Randy Pitchford is selling, and receive what he actually gives you, you will discover you have been flat out undeniably lied to. If you chose to give Randy Pitchford and Gearbox Software your money for this game, you are buying a game that was literally made somewhere between 5-9 months. Information has come out that this game was given to gearbox Software from Sega, Sega payed Gearbox Software a huge amount of money to finish this game, and Randy Pitchford took that money and sent the game to Timegate Studios (another company) and told Timegate to finish the game. As of the date of this posting a large group of individuals at Timegate have been fired/let-go that worked on "Aliens:Colonial Marines".***
The bottom line is simple here.
If you are out in the world and you are selling something YOU are responsible for selling it.
Randy Pitchford told us, showed us, and advertised to us what he ISNT SELLING.
If you buy this game you are buying a broken, poorly developed, horridly designed and miserably put together non-functional video game.
This is not a videogame.
This is a lie, and Randy Pitchford was the one out there telling it so he can have your money.
I know, because he took mine. | video-games_xbox |
As a non-fan of Assassin's Creed, this game is awesome. Assassin's Creed is one of those series that is constantly disappointing me. I start playing them, get enthralled in the historical context and parkouring around all over the place. Then, I invariably get bored. The systems in place never seemed to hold my attention. The most I've played an Assassin's Creed game was probably the second one, but even that game I never finished. Never even came close. Because boredom. With my new Xbox One, with its kind of depressing slate of exclusive games, I wanted to make sure that I had a game that I knew wasn't a rushed launch title. So I sighed and picked up Black Flag, expecting to play it a little bit and then go back to playing XCOM on my PC. I was shocked to find that I didn't hate Black Flag.
Actually, I absolutely love it.
The biggest problems with these franchises (see: Call of Duty, Assassin's Creed, Elder Scrolls) is that each game is released as iterations, in that the core game is remarkably similar to the first game, but each time they iterate it, refine it. They change the story but you are doing pretty much the same thing you've done in Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty. The story and settings might be different. They might have given you a dog (or a Dragon Shout). But you're still playing the same game. In that regard, Black Flag follows suit. You're still assassinating Templars. You're still free-running across buildings. You're still performing absolutely annoying eavesdropping missions or sometimes frustrating sneaking missions. You're still caught up in some metaphysical story. You're still being interrupted with annoying modern day Abstergo interludes. But this iteration has a boat, something somewhat introduced in AC3, and it makes you a pirate. And that has changed absolutely everything, for me, at least.. There's just more to this iteration that makes me want to play than any time before.
Examples. Naval fortresses. These are heavily fortified areas that turn into a mini-boss battle of sorts, between your ship, the Jackdaw, and the fortress's armaments. Once you've destroyed the armaments, it immediately segues into sieging the fortress on foot. It culminates in an assassination and the keep becomes yours and sheds light on the map of the area surrounding it. These, so far, have been eminently thrilling for me.
Sea battles. The first time I fought a ship in a stormy sea, with rogue waves crashing into us, high seas causing eye-sight issues and complications for firing cannons, and water spouts spawning around us, I was entranced. The epic scale, the graphics, everything was just so exciting. And then when the ship was dead in the water and I could board it, swinging from my ship to the burning wreckage of my foe, before jamming my sword into an unaware British soldier was everything I imagined as a kid, growing up on pirate films. It was exciting. It was thrilling. It was different.
Hunting/fishing. Yes, hunting is back. Yes, it's still kind of annoying. But it's tied to your growth (health upgrades, pistol upgrades, storage upgrades, etc.) and presented a lot easier. Each island or area has a certain type of animal, marked on the map. And it doesn't take a lot of skins to create new items. But the game also introduced fishing and these little moments can be thrilling. When you go harpooning, you're in a small boat and it's just you and a very large fish/whale. There's a good variety between the whales (humpback, killer, even the mythical white whale) and sharks (Bull Sharks, Hammerheads and, of course, a Great White), and they add little wrinkles to the combat, depending on the animal.
Later on, as these games do with breadcrumbs, Black Flag introduced the diving bell. This device allows you to investigate shipwrecks on the bottom of the ocean. These are both thrilling and terror-inducing, reducing you to a weaponless man in an often shark-infested area. The first time a shark lunged at me from behind, spawning a QTE minigame, I almost leaped out of my chair. It was so intense. I had to yell "Xbox record that" to share the moment. These shipwrecks are all different, with their own sets of obstacles and threats. Some include sharks and rely on racing from wreckage to areas with heavy seaweed to hide in. Some involve underwater cave systems, requiring you to be quick before you run out of air. All of them are thrilling and add just a bit more to the game.
The rest of the game is pretty much the same Assassin's Creed game you've been playing since the beginning, just refined and iterated. You can upgrade your ship, the Jackdaw, by adding different cannons, increasing the durability, etc. You can also purchase items to customize the appearance of the ship. And of course, there's a home base that you can start sinking your money into, to upgrade it. I just feel more attached to this part than I have in previous games, mostly because of the pirate motif.
I don't really have much else to say on other aspects of the game. I don't really care about the stories in these games; they are more of a means to an end, for me. The graphics are awesome, but that's to be expected. I don't know how this version compares to the PS4 (other than the PS4 version is rendered in native 1080p) or the previous generation, but I honestly don't care because it looks beautiful, particularly the open sea. It is engulfing in its majesty and I haven't seen water effects look this realistic (though the boat sometimes seems to be floating through it, when you're in travel mode). I will say that the on-land portion is mostly just okay, for me, but for fans of previous Assassin's Creed games, you'll probably find the same stuff to love. What makes this game and what I wanted to focus on was how much different it feels because of the pirate theme. Black Flag is the most fun when I'm on the open sea, destroying ships, fighting epic battles, tackling legendary ships and exploring the massive world. I really hope that they will stick with this motif a little bit because this is the first time I've truly enjoyed an Assassin's Creed game and will be the first Assassin's Creed game I've completed. Very much recommended. | video-games_xbox |
Shame it's no longer available. Back in elementary school (I'm 17 at the time of writing this), <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Marble-Blast/dp/B000OFBJ74/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Marble Blast</a> was KING when it came to computer classes. EVERYBODY played it when they had nothing better to do, and they LOVED it. I was so fortunate to be able to find a Windows port of the game and since then held it on my Windows XP to this day. It's a unique marble game with an interesting and colorful charm.
Despite the success of the game, though, there's apparently been some troubles with GarageGames's rights to distribute games. I don't know why, but led to the Marble Blast games not being available officially. The closest thing you can ever get to getting a taste of this game is buying the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-Live-Compilation-disc-with-Pac-Man-Championship-Edition-on-it/dp/B0043KI082/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox Live Compilation disc with Pac-Man Championship Edition on it</a>, which contains a demo of this game.
With that said, Marble Blast Ultra is admittedly not as grand as its predecessor(s). The catchy music is gone, the graphics are not as colorful (though they're at least pretty darn detailed here), and even the announcer has been replaced with some robot-female voice. The overall tone just isn't really the same or as charming as it was before.
That doesn't mean the game still isn't fun, though. What made Marble Blast fun before is around in Marble Blast Ultra. The marble-rolling control certainly feels suited to the <a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Xbox-360-controller/dp/B003ZSN600/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Xbox 360 controller</a>, and the "Super ____" power-ups and gravity modifiers are still pretty cool and enjoyable to use. The level design is intelligent and makes varied uses of the power-ups and gems your marble collects. The game is just plain fun! | video-games_xbox |
A good game that easily could have been great. Avatar is a solid gaming experience. There is absolutely nothing in this game that keeps it from being a lot of fun. The graphics are spectacular and the story is quite compelling. The Na'vi and RDA campaigns play like completely separate experiences which surprised me. They take place in different sectors of Pandora and each one is distinct. Playing as an Avatar, you tower over the humans and the plant life. As a human you are dwarfed by the plant life, Na'vi, and animals. The RDA campaigns really give you a sense of how hostile the environment is.
I have played through all of the Na'vi campaigns and over half of the RDA campaigns and I feel that the RDA campaigns are definitely harder. One of the nice things about Avatar, though, is that it is not a hard game by any means. You don't die much and you shouldn't have to play any of the segments multiple times to succeed. This may irritate hard core gamers but as a less skilled player, I consider it a plus.
Avatar is a good game but with a little more polish and a few adjustments it could have been steller. While the graphics are solid, there are still a few occasional glitches. In the later campaigns there is a little "drop-in" from time to time and throughout the game AI controlled Na'vi and RDA soldiers will appear from a long distance as featureless moving dolls. Then when you get closer the details will snap on. This is hard to explain but when developers make a game the character models are like fleshed out stick figures with a "skin" added later. It was weird and mildly irritating during the game to see characters moving around in the distance as little white figures and then once you got just a bit closer, "pop," now the details. The only other glitch and one common in many games is that some AI controlled characters would get stuck running in place against some of the scenery and once I saw an arrow get stuck in midair. Also the dragon like creatures the Na'vi fly called Banshees are sometimes seen perching in midair. No big deal but silly nonetheless.
Speaking of AI. Sometimes the enemy AI (wheter Na'vi or RDA depending on which side you play) is dumb as a stick and other times so clever you have a hard time staying alive. I would have preferred the AI to be better thought out. The developers should have either started the AI out as pretty stupid and then gradually smarter as you progressed through the game or make it class specific. For example, some the Na'vi tribes would be smarter or tougher than others with variations within tribes depending on ranks and on the RDA the AI could be assigned based on rank (grunts, commandos, elites, etc.) Either approach would be better than what was actually done.
The controls, weapons, skills, and vehicles are pretty well thought out but a few changes would have made them more fun. Both sides can equip 4 weapons and 4 skills at a time. However, each side has one default that you cannot swap. The RDA has twin pistols with infinite ammo that are almost useless and the Na'vi has a bow. Now the bow is a great weapon that you will probably use regularly throughout the Na'vi campaigns so it isn't really a problem but the pistols are a wasted slot. When you play as the RDA you need all the firepower you can muster. The skills are good but unlike the advertising there isn't 60 weapons and 20 skills. You have a handful of weapons and skills with 4 automatic upgrades for each one as you gain in experience points. The Na'vi have 6 weapons and if you count each upgrade you technically get 24 but they are not really that different just more powerful. The Na'vi have 9 skills and the upgrades bring you up to 36. The RDA have 8 weapons and 7 skills. Each side has a sprinting skill but a dedicated standard sprint would have been nice. The left joystick button isn't used so they could have made that the sprint which would have been nice. The RDA vehicle controls work just fine although the AMP suit is not much help if you get swarmed by Na'vi because they are so much faster. The suit gets destroyed in seconds and if you don't get clear of the blast you're toast. Also, I don't understand why when you run over the Na'vi they aren't killed. Usually there is minor damage if anything. The animal controls are okay but it would have been nice if they could have figured out a way for you to use weapons while riding. Also, it is hard to land the Banshees even when it looks like a spot has room. You keep pressing "Y" but the stupid thing won't land. This is major irritation.
Two final things that I can think of at moment that could have used some improving is the campaign structure towards the end of the game and enemy spawning. The last Na'vi campaign seemed rushed. In the rest of the campaigns the quests were spread out across the maps in such a way that you would have explored most of the map by the time you finished the sector. To complete everything I had to go back after I beat the game and explore the rest of the map. The developers clearly got in a hurry and I am curious to see if the final RDA campaign is structured the same way. A big improvement would have been to completely separate the campaigns. This would have aided the replay factor big time. What I mean here is that you have to play the opening sequence twice if you want to play both the Na'vi and RDA campaigns. You start out as an RDA soldier and after you are transferred to your Avatar body you come to a point where you have to choose sides. Take one route and you stick with the RDA and lose your Avatar, take the other and you turn on the RDA and remain in your Avatar body. It works as a story but it is boring to have to do the same stuff twice in order to get the point where you can take the route you didn't take the first time round.
Now regarding enemy spawning. Sometimes you clear an area and then you have to travel a ways before the enemy respawns. Other times they respawn so quick you have to sprint away to get clear. Also, sometimes the enemy follows you until you kill them and other times enough distance gets you clear. I would have much preferred a less haphazard approach. No respawning until you replay a sector would have made much more sense.
The multiplayer is okay. I am not a big multiplayer fan and I cannot see where this game breaks any new ground in this mode. I haven't tried the conquest mini game yet but I suspect it some kind of RTS game.
In conclusion, all quibbles aside, you can't go wrong with this game. It is interesting and fun at the same time. Buy it sooner or later. | video-games_xbox |
Fallout 3 earns +9.5rads/out of 10. The great things about Fallout so far into the game are as follows.
- A huge world to explore with adventure and excitement
- Great graphics, dialogue and a strong story plot
- Easy conversion from the Elder Scroll's series
- Hours of gameplay
I am sure with more hours of gameplay i will find other great things about the game. But so far the story goes as follows (do not read if you do not want any spoilers. Review will continue futher down).
You are born and from there you start creating your character from gender to the look of the character. You are in Vault 101 from which you believe you were born in. During delivery your mother passed away and your dad is a doc that brought you into your new world. You go through scenes of the years growing up in the vault which allows you to get use to the game and also allows you to work on your skills before the story starts to kick into gear. When you are 19 years old you are forced to wake up by your friend that is the overseers daughters (think of it as the president's daughter). She tells you that your father has escaped the vault and the guards have killed his best friend. Now they are searching for you and she helps you escape. once outside the vault the story goes where you direct it.
(now it's fine to continue reading the review) The great thing about Fallout 3 is that it feels like a future Elder Scroll's, which is a warning to the ones that did not like the series you may not like this game. But the shorten version of the game left huge gaps in the open world. Plus the experience points only come with leveling up, that means no more running around and earning stamina experience. Or no more sneaking and earning experience for that either, but Bethseda attempts to make up for this by finding items that lift up experience and perks that give experience boost as you level up. Now due to the lack of places to search and experience to gain in the open world it leaves me using the fast travel more and more. There are a few glitches in the game I have found by mistake but that is the beauty of the Xbox360 updates.
I will have to say that there were nice updates to the Fallout game as well. Like the VATS system can really help when surrounded by enemies. Also the way to disable limbs can really help out when dealing with enemies that have huge weapons. You can now become over cumbered and still move around, but you cannot run or jump. Being able to adjust the third person point of view to either give you the Gears of War/Resident Evil 4 feel or the Assassign's Creed/Oblivion feel.
I can say that Fallout 3 totally lived up to the hype in my eyes and I just cannot get enough of this game. i strongly recommend this game and can see it as a strong contender for Game of the Year... | video-games_xbox |
Weapon Based Fighter. This is my fourth game in the Soul series of weapon-based fighting games. I own Soulblade, for the Playstation, Soul Caliburs II and III for the PS2. And now, this game. Soul Calibur II was released for all three of the previous generation consoles: PS2, Gamecube, and XBox. All three versions have the same basic game mechanics, with the the players having the same moves. However, each version has a different bonus character. Now, for the average player, it would not be worthwhile to acquire all three versions of the game, just to be able to play all three of the bonus characters. But, if you are a big fan like me, even minor differences between each version will prompt you to play and collect them all.
I have also played Tekken 5. However, I much prefer the Soul Calibur series due to the greater variety of moves possible with each unique weapon. Basically, you can spend many months playing this game without getting bored. There are so many unique moves to master for each of your characters. And there are so many modes that you can play. Now, to get the most out of the game, you will need to play Weapon Master Mode. Playing throught this mode will unlock some of the game's best features. You earn not only gold, but additional costumes, weapons, and gallery items. You can also unlock additional modes for purchase, like the famous Battle Theatre.
Battle Theatre is a CPU/AI vs. CPU/AI battle. You're basically a spectator on this one. Personally, Battle Theatre is very entertaining for me. I love it.
But it's not all sunny skies here. You see, each chapter in Weapon Master Mode presents a unique challenge. Which is all well and good, and adds a lot of strategy in addition to just fighting well. The conditions for victory will be outlined prior to the start of the challenge. At that point, you will have the chance to select your character and his/her weapon. There's more needed to winning these battles than quick reflexes. You need to use your head and plan out an effective strategy. However, the AI that you fight against will cheat you out of your victory from time to time. This is what some reviewers are referring to when they say the AI is "cheap". I was fighting Taki, using Ivy. The condition was that my fighter will enter the fight with full health, which will slowly diminish regardless of whether Taki hits me or not. Meaning, my character's HP meter will automatically decrease during the match. Which means, I would have to win quickly before my HP runs out. Ofcourse, Taki will be attacking and doing her damage to further decrease my HP. Well, I cornered Taki where she couldn't move. I had Ivy kicking and hitting her repeatedly. But guess what! Taki's health meter refused to decrease! I had her in a corner. And then she lands one blow and my character lost. Now, my fellow players, that is the AI cheating. Basically, sometimes you get the feeling that no matter how well you play, the AI will not let you win. Especially if it is your first attempt.
One of my favorite modes is Team Battle. In this mode, you choose a team of three players and take them through stages fighting a team created by the AI. The last "boss" on the final stage will be a creature called Inferno. Basically, Inferno will stop the battle twice. It will then change weapons and discipline to throw you off.
Are the characters level? Meaning are they equally capable in combat. My guess, during high level play, is that they probably are. However, for the average player, some of the characters will be more advantageous to play. From my experience, characters with solid, horizontal, sweeping moves have a large advantage. They can keep the enemy from getting close, for one thing. That's why during Weapon Master Mode, you will end up fighting against Berserker more than any other enemy. Berserker uses a large axe, and he has a rare move that allows him to perform a very low, 360-degree horizontal sweep that can keep fighters like Talim and Taki away. Basically, Berserker is a "cheap" character. You will get sick of Berserker after a while. But, with enough skill, you can take any character and get close to do your damage.
I recommend Soul Calibur to just about any video game player. At least give it a try. If you're the type who like to learn and master techniques, as opposed to just mindless bashing, then this is the game for you. However, please remember what I said earlier: The AI cheats. Yes, the AI is very cheap and will cheat you out of a victory time and time again. But only those who have reached a very competent level of play will notice the AI cheating. For example, under the situation that I mentioned above, most neophyte players will not be able to back Taki into a corner and chain their attacks continuously. However, an experienced Soul player like me can do so. But like I said, the AI refused to allow Taki's HP to go down, regardless of what I was doing. Her health meter held steady after over ten seconds of continuous punishment. Was it a game flaw? I don't believe so. I think it's just that it was only my second attempt at the challenge, and it was one of the last challenges in Weapon Master, supposedly one of the hardest. And the AI simply would not allow me a victory, no matter how well I was playing. Yes, that takes away from the game's scoring. Where it not for the cheap AI, this game would have gotten a five-star rating from me.
This game is easy to pick and play. However, it will take a very long time to master the techniques. I have spent many months learning how to use Ivy, Raphael, and Nightmare in combat. It took me a long time just to be able to "buffer" Ivy's command throw, Summon Suffering, in the heat of a fight. In Soul Calibur III, I hardly ever lose with either of those three characters. It requires commitment to learn and master some of these techniques. I suspect that is probably why none of my middle school students play this game. There is a lot of strategy involved if you want to play any other mode besides Arcade. I suspect that most gamers at that age simply do not want to plan out strategies. | video-games_xbox |
Not great for a small kid or a parent. I think this is the first video game I've ever felt strongly enough about to review; I've gamed for a lot of years, and none have ticked me off quite as much as this one. I picked it up because my 4.5 year old son is big into Batman & Robin (the original tv series), and I wanted to get a fun game we could play together without the darkness and violence of the newer Batman iterations. This is my first Lego game aside from some demos over the years, none of which have left much of an impression on me. From the reviews and the description, this seemed like it would be a great choice; fun, kid-oriented, creative, relatively simple co-op where I could do the heavy lifting while he wanders around. I know it's E10+, but other reviewers mentioned it being suitable for younger kids.
Unfortunately, everything about this game is annoying - the Lego stuff, the controls, the level designs, the difficulty, the violence - and after completing three stages I'm wishing I'd never bought it.
Lego stuff: The Lego aspects seem entirely incidental to the gameplay; you can smash stuff and hold down the B button to make wiggly bricks construct into something, but there is zero creativity to it and no rhyme or reason why you need to do it. Why does Batman need to smash up the Batcave to build a charging station for his spacesuit? Who knows? Other than that, aside from the characters being cutely blocky at first, the game seems to have nothing to do with what Lego is all about: creativity, modularity, and fun. I guess Minecraft is the obvious answer to the creativity part, but I wish this game had a middle ground.
Controls: Like I said, I've been gaming for a lot of years, and I have a hard time mastering the controls for this, let alone trying to explain them to my son. Actions seem randomly mapped depending on character and suit, and there's little rhyme or reason to when you have to use what aside from wandering around hoping for an icon with a character face and button to pop up (which still isn't an indication that you need to use that character to do that action right now; often there is some invisible previous action you need to complete before that object becomes actionable). Which leads me to...
Level designs: I had to look up instructions more than I'd like to admit - far too often you need to do some unmarked action using some specific character/suit combo to progress, which is entirely hidden unless you look it up. It's just poor design, especially for kids. Maybe I'm getting too old for this, but it got incredibly frustrating trying to figure out what I had to do next over and over and over. To make matters worse, it's just flat boring for long stretches. The third chapter consists almost entirely of a) using random Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter powers to make statues move for some reason, and b) smashing things apart in the Batcave to get Batman's rocket to work. Then for some reason it turns into a less-interesting Resogun clone for a while.
Difficulty: This is really a combo of the inconsistent controls and level design issues, but this game is weirdly hard. Maybe something in 10-year-old brains would make it make sense.
Violence: This may not be a fair criticism since it *is* rated 10+, but I did want to mention that this game is oddly violent for a small kid. My son was bothered when Batman "went crazy" in the second level (try explaining mind control to a 4-year old who idolizes Batman) and started attacking Robin and destroying the Batcave (isn't that what we'd been doing already??), and he flat out got scared when Batman got huge and started smashing Robin & Alfred with his fists. Of course, being Lego, the characters would explode into arms, legs & head when he hits them, which is also sort of disconcerting (especially when I respawned next to where I died and kicked my own head!). The cutscenes themselves are also pretty violent as well; even the opening credits have bad guys shooting machine guns at Batman and him beating them senseless.
Anyway, this is getting long, and as you can tell from the other reviews, I'm an outlier here. I just wanted to give fair warning to other parents of small kids (especially those sensitive to violence) that it's not the fun "parent & child" throwback to the old-school, fun Batman that you might hope from a Lego property. It's too dark, violent, difficult and boring for this father/son combo. I guess I'll send him back to Forza Horizon (seriously, he loves driving around the countryside) and I'll head back to Uncharted, Fallout & Gears after his bedtime. Oh well. | video-games_xbox |
Fun for a while, but too repetitive. At it's core, Borderlands 2 and the "pre-sequel" are fun games. They're intense shoot-em-ups with great carnage, tons of different weapons, and enough different enemies where you have to strategize. Without playing the first Borderlands, I enjoyed the shooting sprees, finding new weapons, and figuring out new tactics. The game is pretty hilarious, specifically with the ongoing commentary from the main villain, Handsome Jack.
But that fun only lasts so long. Eventually there are no new enemies and you've tried out every kind of gun. Quests are incredibly dry and all the same: Go find this person/area, but oh no! You can't access him/her/it for some reason, and someone tells you to take a huge detour where you have to fight more of the same guys. And you get there, are almost get there, and there's another blockage! So you have to do something else and travel across the map, fighting the same guys, and MAYBE you'll finally get to the next objective, but you'll probably have to run around more. You also get sidequests, which are all kill this thing or collect these objects (by killing these things). And enemies completely respawn, so you have to fight through a ton of the same guys and travel all the way to the other side of the map.
It was incredibly repetitive and there weren't really any extra features to keep the game fresh. Other than a sort of "arena", the entire game is running around shooting bad guys with little variation. By the end of Borderlands 2, I was skipping the sidequests and sprinting through enemies to get to the end. I was hopeful that Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel would find a way to expand on what the previous game did, but it's actually the exact same game with a few tweaks. It feels more like an expansion than a new game. Also, the dialogue gets dull and Jack is not nearly as funny. It's also tougher than it's predecessor, and I found myself dying several times each play, compared to maybe once or twice in Borderlands 2. This game takes place on the moon and for half of the game, you have to worry about your "oxygen levels" which is completely unnecessary and obnoxious. Why they added that "feature" I don't know, but it's really the only change from the previous game. The graphics are the same, UI is the same, menus are the same, many of the same characters, same types of guns, etc. The "pre-sequel" is more tedious and difficult.
Borderlands 2 has great dialogue and the pre-sequel has solid dialogue, but it goes to waste: half of it happens when you're knee-deep in corpses and bandits and it's hard to pay attention to the commentary with bullets and explosions everywhere. The storylines are pretty pointless and boring, and serve more as a mechanism for the witty dialogue.
I'm very negative, and it's a solid game. The action is fun (but repetitive). If you like a pure shooter with lots of guns, with few RPG elements, and if story doesn't matter to you, Borderlands 2 and the pre-sequel might be for you. | video-games_xbox |
Good fun, exciting baseball game. This game is pretty darned good. A great take on baseball in an arcade setting. Up front you need to know that this is NOT a simulation baseball game, this is an arcade game. the things the players can do in this game are beyond ridiculous. Incredible wall jumps, dives across the outfield, leaping 30 feet into the air for a foul ball and landing on the dugout are among just a few, but that's the charm of the game.
The pitching mechanic is actually very good in this game. You aim the reticule where you want the pitch to land then hold a button coensiding with the pitch you want. When you release, you try to release at the top of the accuracy bar that fills up when you hold the button down. The higher up it is, the better and if it's too low you will "tip" your pitch and the batter will know exactly where the ball is going to land. Your only hope then is that they misguess the pitch type and whiff.
Batting is very simple. Bunt, regular swing, power swing and with your left stick you aim where you would LIKE the ball to go. Unlike other baseball games you are not trying to guess where the ball will be pitched. Aim where on the field you want the ball to land. It won't always go there, but with a tipped pitch it is very likely.
What drags this game down is the poor baserunning mechanic. It is extremely frustrating at times like when you choose to control a player and they always stop when you take control of them even if you are holding the direction you want them to go ahead of time. Then they have to start running all over again. You WILL get thrown out baserunning because of this. Another annoyance is the Big Slam! When the computer gets Big Slam! you throw the first pitch and that's it. The computer throws the rest for you so you better hope the first one is great because the rest will be just as good. Vice versa when YOU get big slam and the computer pitches a tipped pitch, they can still pitch better pitches for the remainder of the Big Slam! For some reason the computer always has the edge in Big Slam! mode.
This game is a lot of fun, though. Once you get used to the game, and there is a learning curve so start out on EASY, the game becomes a lot of fun. If you see this game for $30, it's worth it. Grab it! | video-games_xbox |
Worst Game Ever. I bought this game at Toys R' us for $50 back in January, But now that I have the Xbox One version, I don't ever want to play the Xbox 360 version again. First of all, all of the REAL work here was put into the newer version of the game, Leaving this with practically no work or effort put forth in it's development at all. Which explains why it is NOTHING at all like the Xbox One version of the game, don't let the back of the case fool you with this by claiming there is Xbox Live Activity or Online Races, which sadly there is none of. The radio stations are also cut off. In the Xbox One game, you have 6 stations (Horizon Bass Arena, Horizon XS, Horizon Pulse, Hospital Records, Ninja Records, and Levante FM). The 360 Version only has the first three with half the songs. The graphics are not that great either, considering the age of the xbox 360 compared to the One. The setting of the game is in Southern Europe (France and Italy to be exact). But the graphics don't look like it as much as they should. They have blocked off large areas of the map that are included on the Xbox One, and some dirt roads are not shown on the map in the 360 version. And the design of this version, is pretty boring due to the lack of good graphics. In the "Nice Massena" area, there is literally nothing to smash to add xp or start a skills chain like the XB1. And most of the Off Road areas are just empty grass fields with nothing there except trees and a crappy, non-realistic view of the distant land forms.
There are so many bugs and glitches in this game that it just ruins it all together. There are trees floating randomly a little above the ground, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. What I found most annoying, was that if you used the map to set a route to a specific location, it would glitch and reset the route to the nearest Hub instead. I have also had several incidents of these Invisible Walls that just pop up randomly for no apparent reason, making you crash and lose your skill chains.
It is also a lot harder to obtain money or rewards on the 360 than on the One. For instance, you don't get a "Wheel Spin" for leveling up. Which is where you can win free cars or money. There is no reward for photographing different cars at the festival, which thankfully, there is on the One. The only way you can earn any money is from winning races, beating rivals, or winning showcase events, which are different on either console. This version has 4 showcase events, but the One has 5 each with a better car (Which you win for free by finishing first place in the event).
Sadly, there are no DLC Packs or downloadable Add-ons like there is on the One. Most of the cars in the Auto show are cars from the first Horizon and some of the previous game's DLC Packs. But some of them, like the LaFerrari, Veneno, McLaren P1, etc. were released after FH1 and included in the next game. The Xbox 360 has only about one fifth of the cars that the Xbox One's Auto Show has. Not only that, but it actually costs money (Game Money, Not Real Money) to buy someone else's design from the storefront in the garage. Where on the XB1, you can download them for free right from the autoshow when you buy a new car. It's also a lot harder to control your car on this version than it should be. The cars have terrible acceleration and are too stubborn when you drive them, meaning that they're kind of "Locked onto the Road" which is annoying because it makes drifting very difficult unless you are going at least 80mph.
In General, This game is not worth five cents at the highest. It is just severely downgraded from what it should be and not worth a penny of your hard earned money. If you are looking for the REAL version of this game, buy the Xbox one instead of this sorry little excuse for what is called "Impressive"! Not at all worth what I paid and expected much better than what it actually was! | video-games_xbox |
Another Great Product. Activision, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer and Treyarch
There are many different ways to keep yourself entertained this day and age. Many of us choose to socialize with friends and hang out, but there are others that would rather socialize with people they have never met or will meet. Yes, I am talking about video games and the consoles in which they are played on. Many video game consoles can access the internet just as easily as your computer, smart phone, and laptop. Modern Warfare 3 in particular will let you join many different lobbies that will allow you to interact with people that do not even speak your language. This game is a great buy and well worth the 60 dollars you pay for it.
Modern Warfare 3 was the most anticipated game of the year just a few short months ago in 2011. This game was talked about by anyone and everyone that like first person shooter games. You can spawn as the Spetsnaz (Russian Special forces), PMC( Private Military Company), PRF(African Militia), and Delta forces in which you will be fighting next to your comrades in the heat of battle against your opponents as a rifleman, sniper, or machine gunner. This game provides graphic content like blood splatters also known as pink mist. The game is rated M for mature which means you will have to provide a legal I.D. stating you are 17 or older to purchase the game. Although the content is set for 17+, I would recommend this game for ages 12 and up "the content of this game is not that graphic." This is set to be at 17 and up because of the violence and language during the campaign mode of the game.
I have always enjoyed the Call of Duty series brought to us by Activision, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, and Treyarch. They have been busy since October of 2003 when they released the very first Call of Duty. Since then they have released Call of Duty II, Call of Duty III, Call of Duty IV: Modern Warfare, World at War, Modern Warfare II, Call of Duty Black Ops, and lastly Modern Warfare III. They keep you at the top of your game giving you an in-game world leaderboard. You can check your stats from kill:death ratio, accuracy, wins and losses, and world rank in your specified game mode. You can play with your team in a death match, or be a lone wolf as it's every man for himself. This is one of if not the best MMO (massive multiplayer online games) out there. Modern Warfare 3 sold more copies and has grossed more money than any other video game ever.
I would like to talk about the gameplay of the MMO. MW3 is not for the person than runs endlessly throughout the map looking for kills to help their team to a victory, nor is it for the camper that sits in the corner waiting for you to walk past so he can shoot you without knowing he was there. People that play in the middle of these two styles I believe have the most success. I myself never played the other Call of Duty's competitively because I did not purchase it within the first 24 hours the game was released. I felt I would be at a disadvantage against people whom had higher ranks and better weapons. So, as November 2011 came about I made sure I had the game pre-ordered and picked up within the first 24 hours of its release. I got home with the game and was amazed at how smoothly the game flow was. Many online games cannot handle the frame rate and you seem to lag or jerk as you move.
One thing I would like to see change about Call of Duty players and see Activision and Infinity Ward act on is people who cheat during the game. There are certain controllers, mods, and aimbots that are illegal in the Call of Duty community that people get away with using. These are modified, and or hacked devices that enhance ones game play. A controller mod allows players to shoot their weapons faster, making single-shot and bolt action weapons with a low rate of fire shoot as if it were a machine gun. An aimbot is totally different it does not help your shooting ability, but rather locks on to the enemy through walls and behind buildings. With an aimbot your accuracy is 100% and your bullets penetrate numerous materials, like buildings, trees, vehicles, and reinforced concrete structures that would otherwise be impenetrable. This makes the game unfair to many inexperienced newcomers to the online play. I personally know of friends who I have met online that brag about using these and not getting caught. One more thing as I mentioned earlier, is an unfair advantage for the newcomer versus higher ranks. The people with higher ranks have better guns, camouflage, and experience with the gameplay. Those are my few cons about the game. To make this more effective Activision and Infinity Ward should allow the new guy to use the same high powered gun as the higher ranked lieutenant. Arguably one of the best weapons is not available to new comers as they will need almost 1,200 kills to obtain the Remington ACR. This could take a few hours normally an inexperienced player can get between seventy-five and one-hundred kills per hour.
Modern Warfare 3 is a great buy, and I assure you it will bring fun for you and your friends for years to come. I play old Call of Duty games all the time just for fun. MW3 I play competitively to increase my win streak. I have many hours logged to my gamertag (online I.D.) and am currently world ranked in the top 800 players. I would rate this product 4.5/5 star material. If you are looking for a great game and interested in first person shooter games I recommend Modern Warfare 3 as I can assure you it will exceed your expectations. | video-games_xbox |
Addicted to this game, seriously can't stop playing. Really, this game kicks ass so much, hell, I'd be playing it right now but I've been wanting to write a review on it for others. Anyone who gives it or has given it 1 star, is most likely nitpicking, or maybe their copy has some glitches in it, I dunno. I haven't seen or noticed any of the things they're talking about. This game is like Baldur's Gate meets Mass Effect with a touch of Morrowind/Oblivion, really, if you've liked any of those games then for the most part there's no reason why you shouldn't like this. Anytime I play, I end up playing for 5-7 hours, literally, hell, would of kept playing if I didn't really need to get to bed because I had things to do later in the day. I was only going to play it for 2-3 hours, then give the 360 a rest and then play some GTA Episodes of Liberty City (Lost & Dammed, plus Ballad of Gay Tony), for a while, but ended up playing this for 5 hours, then stopped to make something to eat & other stuff, then played again for 2 hours.
I dunno who said the graphics are horrible, but they must be half-blind or maybe colorblind, because the graphics of the background and the people are amazing. If you activate Rock Armor (I'm a mage) you actually see little rocks fall off your body constantly, it's a nice touch. The voice acting in my opinion is top-notch, and the lip-syncing (lips moving correctly when talking) is pretty darn good if you ask me. Every so often when you're walking around like say in a town, 2 of your teammates might start talking to each other in a conversation, which is a nice touch, not only that, but if you look closely at them you will see their lips move. Some games wouldn't have that, but this is Bioware, Bioware kicks ass. I could go on and on about the little nice touches here and there, but you should just go buy it and find out yourself.
Your actions really do have ramifications, I won't say too much, but if you choose to learn and go the way of "such-and such" at one point, you will actually have to fight 1 or more of your companions, and lose them forever. There's a few points in the game like this called "Crisis moment".
I don't have Xbox Live and really had no intention on getting it, ever really, but I might have to, so I can get the DLC for this game. There's 2 already out and 2 more on the way I just read, and I'm willing to bet that won't be the end. I know nothing about Xbox Live and found out I need a router (around $60 or so I heard) and the Wireless adapter which is about $100, but was told I could get it for less. So yeah, the game must be good if I'm planning on getting on Live soon to get the DLC.
Now, for the gripes:
1) Sometimes there are "Random encounters" on the world map when you travel from 1 place to another, which is kinda nice, but can be equally a pain, because sometimes you may have to fight a bunch of dudes including a nasty mage, and if you don't have the best setup in your party currently (like a good tank warrior, a mage to do damage, and 1 healer) then you're pretty screwed and will probably die. Also, say you saved at the beginning of where you appear on that explorable map of the Random Encounter, and you did die and reloaded back to that point, you're stuck, you cannot leave until you get past whatever the encounter is. The only way to exit is on the other side, and that is a bit annoying.
Because say you don't have a healer in your group currently, well, a main good healer, you can either keep trying to get past the battle w/o one, or you need to reload a save before that random encounter and rearrange your party members. So, get in the habit of saving very often if you don't, seriously. I had to reload a save about 10 minutes prior because of that type of situation, and I still had the same random encounter. Some are more common then others, some are rare I read. Point being, either have the best setup all the time or save before you plan on going from 1 point to another on the world map.
2) Would be nice to have 5 party members instead of 4. Basically, a good setup is a warrior/tank, a damaging mage, a healer mage, and a rouge for backstabbing and unlocking chests. Sometimes I wanna have more magic damaging though, or sometimes I want the Dog, because if you have him search an area, he may find items for you (like gifts that can be given to other members to increase their likeness towards you, or other stuff).
3) The Combat is good, but for some reason there's no targeting, at least that I know of, maybe I need to fiddle with the tactics section more, not sure. Basically, what I've been doing, and what I think you have to do, is face towards the enemy you want to attack, or cast a spell on. Seems like whenever I'm in battle, all the enemies have a red circle under them, as though they are all targeted, not sure why that is, I guess so you know who are enemies, but it makes it seem like they're all targeted. You might be able to use the D-pad to change the target, not really sure. It's not bad but could use some refining imo.
4) If 1 or more party members die, and you want to bring them back to life, the spell doesn't "target" 1 of them, it's an AOE (Area of effect) type of spell, that you can move around on the battlefield. This is all fine and dandy, but, you need to know where your downed comrades are to target them with the AOE. Unless you know where they are, it won't work. I would of preferred the traditional type of spell that you target with, then later on get a higher spell that revives all downed companions.
5) (Minor gripe) For mapping spell, skills, or other stuff like bombs as a shortcut to the X, Y, and B buttons, there's 3 onscreen and then if you press and hold the right trigger you make a 2nd set pop up, for a total of 6. Not enough, lol, maybe for some character classes, but for a mage, 2 sets of 4 would of been better, but what button would be used though? That's the thing..
Well, that's all I guess, I could say a lot more but this is pretty long as it is, and by now I think you should have a decent idea what to expect. | video-games_xbox |
Metroid Prime Asylum. Ok, so Metroid Prime Asylum does not have the same ring to it as Metroidvania but this game is to the Metroid Prime series as any 2D Castlevania game is to 2D Metroid games after Symphony of the Night. Most of the time while playing this game, with the exception of the stealthy elements and third person perspective, I felt like I was playing a Metroid game, which was fine by me. There is tons of backtracking where areas only become available after obtaining a particular item and there was a need for constantly scanning the environment like in the Metroid Prime games. Loading times are cleverly disguised with with slow opening doors such as in the Prime series.
This might possibly be the best Batman/Superhero game. Batman Arkham Asylum is a must buy if you grew up a fan of Batman: The Animated Series, it features the same writer and voice actors from the 90's tv series. Would not recommend it for a younger audience due to the strong language and violence in the game.
Batman Arkham Asylum is a solid game that I loved playing but there were a few issues that kept if from being a great game. The 2D map in this 3D game with multiple levels and corridors was frustrating at times, this is one aspect that I wished would have been borrowed from the Metroid Prime series; partly due to this, you will end up playing the entire game in Detective Mode which makes you look at Arkham through florescent x-ray goggles. The other major complaint about the game is the receptive uninspired boss battles. Most of the boss battles consist of a super villain perched up out of reach directing a bunch of henchman at you, I hope this changes in the upcoming sequel, Batman: Arkham City.
A few technical gripes about the game: the saved data in this and the newer Game of the Year version are incompatible. I replaced my Xbox 360 with the newer slim version and my Xbox 360 has trouble reading this game making the disc spin faster which causes a loud rattling sound; I contact Microsoft about this and they said it was normal. | video-games_xbox |
More Like an Expansion. Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers for the Xbox and Playstation 2 is a sequel to Full Spectrum Warrior, which was based on a training simulation in use by the United States Army. In all honesty, though, it's less of a sequel and more of an expansion pack.
The game takes place in the fictional country of Zekistan, which is awash in terrorists, insurgents, and Taliban loyalists. In the first game, the country's dictator, Al-Afad, was captured, along with many of his officers. In Ten Hammers, only one province remains to be secured: the Tien Hamir area, where Mullah Qari Ra'id is attempting to hold off the coalition forces. Even more, Al-Afad's remaining loyalists have also infiltrated the region and are trying to stage their own rebellion. Opposing these forces are the Zekistan militia, which is being trained as a peacekeeping force, the United States, and Great Britain.
Players of the first game will be familiar with the controls; there are two fire teams of four soldiers (a team leader, an automatic rifleman, a grenadier, and a rifleman). Cover plays an important part, and straying out of a defensive position usually results in death fairly quickly. Strategies like flanking, using smoke grenades, and suppressing fire will help your soldiers live longer and achieve their objective.
In addition to these classic elements, new features have also been implemented. Fire teams can now split up into 2 2-man buddy teams for extra flexibility. Mechanized units such as Bradley Fighting Vehicles will occasionally join up as a third squad, and so will units of British soldiers and American special forces. Some two-story buildings can be entered to provide both cover and a higher angle against enemies with cover. A new special ability has been added for team leaders and riflemen, allowing them to take precision shots at enemies partially behind cover (though the process of aiming puts them at risk). Air strikes can be called in via a laser designator . New commands for movement allow for shooting on the run or moving stealthily.
A new multiplayer mode has been added, with a variety of scenarios and locations. Some pit elite insurgent snipers against US infantry, some have fights between Al-Afad's loyalists and the Al-Ra'id, and one even has a four-way battle between Al-Afad, Al-Ra'id, the Zekistan militia, and British mercenaries. The Zekistan forces operate differently than the British and American forces; instead of moving in squads, they move and are commanded as individuals.
One minor annoyance that I have with this game is that there seems to be less development on the part of the soldiers. Only one team (Alpha) is carried over from the first FSW; the Bravo team in this game consists of new recruits. While the official Ten Hammers website does have short 1-to-2 sentence descriptions of Bravo team, there are no biographies of them in the manual or in-game. Character development in cinematics seems lessened, as well. In the first game, you were made to care about your soldiers, whereas in this one they seem less like real people.
Another annoyance are several bugs that make the game unbeatable and require a level restart; one such bug is located in the second level, where you must bring an injured enemy officer back to a CASEVAC. If you have an injured soldier being carried in the same squad as the enemy officer, neither casualty will be able to be taken care of, and the two carriers will mill awkwardly around the medical truck. Some have reported bugs of friendly soldiers just freezing and not being able to continue the mission.
The graphics and sound seem approximately of the same quality as the first game, thus furthering the idea of this being an expansion pack-type game. Certainly this is a good game, with plenty of solid additions and of course new missions, but it just doesn't feel like a sequel. | video-games_xbox |
From realistic robotic warfare on a epic scale, to.. toy robots. I played the first two of the SC Series (the original and Forged Alliance).
I enjoyed solving the original Supreme Commander for the first time. After that, the Campaign get's dull because you only get to use the full Arsenal (Tech 3 and Experimentals) in the last Battle of each Faction.
Forged Alliance was more fun, plays a lot faster with alot more action, and left you with the feeling of being in an epic battle and surviving, with a classic storyline to go with it. The very first battle immediately sets the tone of the game. You get access to the full Arsenal in all three factions as soon as you are able to achieve Tech 3. However, the campaign maps of each faction is different from the other in the original Supreme Commander - something I wish GPG did in Forged Alliance.
Then I solve Supreme Commander 2. Although I admit the Graphics, and level of detail is much better than the first two of the series, I think it was a bit too much on the robotic units themselves. They look more like "toys", and the Experimentals were ridiculously oversized, compared to the standard units - I wonder how you can manufacturer something of that size in time for battle? Oh, and why wasn't the Cybran Spiderbot not included in Supreme Commander 2 instead of in the Battlepack one addition? The details of the Base structure units, and those in the battle field such as the water ripple effects, however, look great. Also, I did not get that same feel of surviving an epic battle, nor did the Storyline have much appeal to me. Although the new Tech tree system solved some problems of the Tech levels in the first two (Tech 1, 2, 3 and Experimentals), I didn't get the same feeling of accomplishment. the Tech tree system just seemed too easy to me. In the first two, I liked how I would have to fend off wave after wave of enemy attack units, while I slowly built up my economy and base structures, and was finally able to build my Tech 3 units, and first Experimental.
They're all video games so they're suppose to be entertaining. All three were fun to play, including the skirmish modes, and they feature alot of the best RTS elements around.
Still, I hope the realism, epic feel of large battles with the storyline of Forged Alliance, and a Tech system that challenges you, will be found in Supreme Commander 3. Otherwise, put the series on the shelf and stick to playing the first two. | video-games_xbox |
Apparently streamlining means "dumbing down. Please bear in mind I am one who has routinely purchased and beat each Assassin's Creed within a week of its release.
Assassin's Creed 3 is a game that seemed to wish to reinvent the wheel and break what has already worked perfectly in the name of "streamlining."
For me, this is "dumbing down."
Want to counter? Just press B. Think you had to act too quickly to deliver the kill shot? Press X during that slo-mo action sequence to do it. Want to do the combo kill? Just push x while directing to the next enemy.
Was pressing A while holding r trigger too much for you? Just hold r trigger now. Of course that means you can't sprint, but since you probably couldn't figure out that the controls were already so easy that you were probably complicating it by inputting a bit too much as it is... We heard your cries of despair and dumbed it down for you.
The same game review folks that LOVE this "streamlining improvement" also said that there was "no clear explanation" as to what the different ingredients of the bomb-making in Revelations did *** COUGH COUGH *** G4's Morgan Webb! *** COUGH COUGH *** I can only assume since everything was written on the screen, those who say that are simply functionally illiterate.
Storyline? I love it. Graphics? The horses looked better in Brotherhood, It pains me to see cloaks go through horses and other items such as guitars go through the arms of NPCs. Have any of you walked through the streets and see an NPC seated on a bench? Well, more like seated in a manner that shows him seated IN the bench?
And the update that installed as soon as you put the disc in didn't even fix it.
It pains me to write this review, since installment after installment completely blew me away and seemed to improve upon perfection every time. Unfortunately, the squeaky wheels get the grease, and we live in a world where we cater to those of whom demand less. | video-games_xbox |
I think they messed up a good thing. I was playing the game all last night and I am afraid I must say I am a little disappointed. I loved the first SWBF and played it for countless hours and hours. If you were the same way this review is for you.
Here are just a couple things that bugged me:
-You can do a lot more in the starfighters but I can't believe they brought over the flight control method from the Star Wars "Starfighter" series of games. You need both thumb sticks to fly. One turns you and the other rolls you. It is extremely awkward to fly this way and I think it is the main reason those other Star Wars games didn't do so well. I don't know why they messed with the SWBF 1 controls. If it was because they wanted you to be able to loop and barrel roll they should have used the same system Halo uses with the Banshees. That works pretty well with one thumbstick.
-In the SWBF1 the AT-ATS were pretty scary. Their main guns had a slow fire rate but they had a large area of damage. They just had to hit close to a soldier and he was dead as well as any others standing close. In SWBF2 I was standing there with a Vanguard working on an AT-AT and this thing is firing like a machine gun at me but doing no damage. I actually had to walk up the hill behind me to let it hit me directly before I died. It was laughable. The dread you felt when an AT-AT in SWBF1 turned its head towards you is completely gone.
-Playable Jedi's: I thought the genius of the SWBF1 was that you were just a grunt trying to effect the outcome of the battle. You could die easily and that gave the game some challenge. Now you can be some all powerful Jedi flying around the battlefield killing everything. If I wanted to do that I would have just played "Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith" or "KOTOR: Sith Lords".
I am going to keep playing the game to see if it gets better but if you were a big fan of the First Battlefront don't automatically assume this one is just as good and run out and buy it like I did. You might want to rent it first and see. I wish I had.
However, you are a 12-14 year old kid who likes to watch things "blow up real good" as you mow down countless enemy soldiers with no challenge and no real strategy required...this just might be your game. | video-games_xbox |
A trip through the Rabbit Hole. I bought this game, because of the gameplay I had seen, because of the trailers which really caught my attention.
Anyways...NO regrets! Great purchase, and would buy it again at its current price point. Especially even more so after learning about the developers situation. (They seriously need to move to a "free'er" location than they currently live at.
The atmosphere of the game, is what won me over. This reminded me of the Fallout Series, but with its own twist. Your not getting so much of an open world experience as you are following the journey of a man and his quest to save a small place on earth.
Just throwing this out their, their's a well done lap-dance in this game. But only if you pay for it, and its well placed. Like a oasis in a desert. So it serves a purpose.
Anyways, bullet point time.
Pros-
Graphics
Game-play mechanics
Weaponry Mechanics
-Knife throwing is a blast
Music is well done
Atmosphere of the game, the environments are all varied, in each one it doesn't feel like a repetitious place, even if your traversing another tunnel. Which, all things considered was probably hard to pull off.. being as the place was literally nuked.
Story, (Thanks to the book author)
And the content in the game is well done, you face quite a few scenarios that would probably be found in a post apocalyptic world. Where baser instincts take over. And it was nice to see the touched upon.
Con's
The world isn't open, you can't visit places at whim.
"more of a things I wish were"
Backtracking, because ammo is sparse, you know, so it'd be nice to be able to back track and collect ammo, or revisit places. Or this aside, it'd been nice to be able to pick up more weapons, you might not have been able to use them, but instead put them in your "Junk bag" or "sellers bag" or something.. so you could sell them at vendors. I left many a good firearm laying about. Which sucked.
Ammo choice would have been nice, I'm mainly referring to the shotgun. Been nice to plug some of those ball bearings you find into your shells, or use slugs..
Anyways, if you enjoyed the fallout 3 and newvegas for the 360, you'll more than likely enjoy this game as well. Yeah you can't explore, but its still fun and worth the effort.
disclaimer: all just my perspective. | video-games_xbox |
Better levels, but cheaper enemies and even dumber teammates. I bought this game because I was relatively satisfied with the first rainbow six 3 game on XBOX. This one for the most part does not disappoint, however there are a few flaws that make this game not worthy of a 5 star rating.
Black Arrow plays almost exactly like the first RS3 on XBOX. Even the characters are the same guys, you are Ding Chavez and your teammates are Dieter Weber, Eddie Price and Louis Louiselle. All of the weapons are the same except there is no .50 caliber sniper riffle, it has been replaced with a sniper rifle that uses 7.62mm shells which still gets the job done, but just doesn't have the powerful sound as the .50 cal. The first thing you will notice different about this game are the levels. Each level has been beautifully done complete with better lighting, graphics and attention to detail. Just imagine playing the levels in Splinter Cell 2 as a FPS. The storyline while a bit better than the first seems to jump around a lot, still lacks depth. The enemies are much smarter and will constantly throw grenades at you, call for backup and even rush you when they know you are reloading. This makes the game challenging and fun however the fine line between challenging and frustrating is often crossed in this game.
One thing you will immediately notice is that RS6:BA still uses the painfully annoying limited save system which I wish they get rid of. If you are playing veteran difficulty you are only allotted 2 saves per mission (you were given 3 in the previous game). You will often have to complete 2 tasks before your first save to help spread your saves out. This results in restarting levels over and over and over and over and over and over again, and I am not exaggerating one bit. Be prepared to restart levels anywhere from 20 - 25 times before you are familiar with the layout and cheap enemies hiding in impossible places and literally coming out of nowhere. While terrorists are smarter they are also very cheesy, I have noticed that the CPU randomly places enemies in different spots when you are not looking. I have actually seen a terrorists drop out of the sky on a balcony to try to get a cheesy kill on you. I have also noticed that if you have your team with you more terrorists will randomly appear than if you're by yourself. Levels are also filled with "trigger points" meaning that a room can be totally clear at one moment but if you cross a certain point, the room is filled with enemies magically appearing behind crates and coming out of doors and windows. The fun factor of this game is hurt greatly because of this. You spend entire missions creeping through trying to guess where the next enemy will randomly appear and trying to set off the trigger point and run for cover before you are shot up. Another thing I found very frustrating about this game is that certain terrorists never seem to die no matter how many times you shoot them, I have put at least 15 shells from an M16 into the back of a enemy and he still runs away like nothing hit him. On another occasion I have hit an enemy in the head two and three times and even saw blood splatter, but yet the enemy is still alive and fires back like nothing happened. I am sorry but even a grazed bullet to the head should a least stun you. As bad as all these things are, I think the most frustrating aspect of this game is the almost comical stupidity of your teammates. These guys are supposed to be the best however, they will die at a moments notice if you leave them alone for even a few seconds, you have to cover your own (...) and protect them because they are flat out idiots. You tell them to throw a grenade at a spot and instead of throwing the grenade from where they are standing, they will first run to the spot you tell them to throw the grenade, then throw it. Needless to say terrorists waiting around the corner usually kill them. You tell them to hold their position they won't stand where you tell them to, instead, these guys will just go to the nearest opening and give up the entire team's cover by firing at enemies. To make matters even worse, they will stand there and let the enemies pummel them with bullets. My 3 year old knows that if something is hurting him, he will most away from the source of the pain, however your dumb teammates will just complain "I'm hit!!" or "Taking fire!" while their life bar gets shorter and shorter. They will continue to stand there until the enemy is dead or he is dead. The latter usually is the outcome. Another thing that is funny is how three guys with automatic weapons have trouble even taking out one enemy. I have seen an enemy armed only with a pistol, wipe out my 3 teammates without taking one hit. The last words of my teammates as they fall to the ground are "Taking fire!!" As long as you don't depend on your teammates, you should be fine. I usually tell my team to hold while I go alone and clear out the area to make it "safe" for my team. Kind of defeats the purpose of a squad-based shooter, don't you think? To me it seems that your teammates are even dumber than they were in the previous RS. Combine the stupidity of your teammates with the fact that the voice recognition command system only works 80% of the time makes the teammate portion of this game the most frustrating.
I have already beaten the game on veteran after having it for only a week, but I probally won't go back and play it on Elite, because the only difference between the different difficulties is the number of saves you get per level. Recruit you get 3, veteran you get 2 and elite you get 1. Not worth playing again on elite because of the maddening frustration factor.
I haven't played multiplayer on this game and don't plan to anytime soon. XBOX live is becoming filled with immature stupid kids and cheaters who ruin the experience. This review is based on the single player alone. Though the missions are done a lot better this time around, the constant need to have to restart missions, cheap enemies and stupid teammates, outweigh the improvements which is why this game gets the same 4 star rating that I gave the first RS. | video-games_xbox |
Mediocre and disappointing. Buyer Beware Bioware. Dragon Age 2
Bottom line: appallingly mediocre game.
After the treat DA:O was, it's sequel is a joke. It's a dumbed-down, consolized, brainless button-masher.
The Good:
Without doubt the biggest sequel highlight is its revamped combat which has been greatly improved and can even be great at times. Although it needs some tweaking to tone down combat movement speed and remove unrealistic ninja-type actions (i.e. triple summersault leaps in mid-air 10 ft high or teleporting constantly).
- Better graphics than it's predecessor but still under par with current games standards (Witcher 2, Skyrim etc.)
- Improved combat system
- Much improved specialisation (abilities) tree. (i.e. cross-class combos)
- Cinematic combat mechanics
- Pretty environments
- Relatively bug-free
- The hero (excuse me, Champion) now talks.
- Re-used dungeons allow you to know where everything already is beforehand saving time "exploring".
- Junk loot is automatically stashed in your inventory trash
Tha Bad:
Where to start? So many problems, ranging from game-breakers to petty issues.
- Where's the epic? The publicity said: "Embark upon an epic adventure that shapes itself around every choice you make". The story is not epic at all; just some bloke hanging around in the same town doing petty repetitive chores for over 10 years. On top of it, years are fast-forward without your input. Additionally, as I go into detail scrolling further down, your decision-making is non-consequential as the same outcome results regardless of your choices 95% of the time. Tried and tested. This being an RPG is clearly a game-breaker for me. Why bother putting options at all then? Bethany dying you say? Oh please, you can do better than that.
- Poor storyline (BioWare et tu?). Feels linear and predictable.
- Poor plot. We are missing an antagonist (an Arl Howe to hate and chase down). Story is just a string of incoherent sidequests which you couldn't care less for.
- Lack of immersion
- Shallow Companions, nowhere near DA:O. You cannot even interact/start conversations with them unless in the appropriate location i.e. Merrill's house or Ander's clinic.
- Looong loading screens reminiscent of Resident Evil days.
- Whatever happened to Morrigan and the child? Bring her back!
- Recycled environments ad nauseam. You will play in the same dungeon over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. Re-pe-ti-tion. They just block a door but you can still see other unaccessible rooms in your mini-map. Or they make you enter a dungeon you've seen before 20 times from the rear end so you don't notice it's the same one you've been trudging for the prior 12 quests. So lame and lazy. It would seem like a joke only the prank is on you for spending 43 pounds on this crap game.
- Sreamline abuse = removal of core key features that constituted the personal hallmark of the DA franchise. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
- Removal of Origin stories
- You can only play as a Human, unlike DA:O
- Removed coercion option in dialogue
- Removed customization (which is not equal to charactization btw, in case you forgot)
- Removed steal option for rogues
- Watered-down romance, downright bland
- Removal of beautiful love song during romance/sex scenes
- Removed "harder core" sex scenes
- Removal of crossbows (except Varric's, which you can't use anyway)
- Awful combat speed a la ninja. Can't see what the heck is going on.
- Rogues ridiculously overpowered. One backstab and Hawke's entire energy bar goes down. (Rogues teleporting..really?)
- Enemies materialise out of thin air in successive waves killing tactics as you do not know from where they will come next or how many there are. This flaw kills weaker ranged units such as archers and mages. Lame
- Prerendered cut scenes forcing combat starting positions which effectively negate player manual tactical positioning. We cannot think like generals if you guys already make the starting moves for us
- Music composition nowhere near as good and epic as DA:O
- Removal of trap-making for Rogue-types
- Removal of poison-making
- Removal of rune-crafting
- Rogues frequently cannot detect traps ! Eg level 11 rogue, with 25 cunning, in Act 1 Deep Roads shortly after meeting Sandal in a large square room with only one ogre. There are 3 or 4 traps that went undetected. WTF?
- Removal of cool animated finishing moves
- Elves look retarded
- Beards look terrible
- Removal of different enemy clases. Enemies are now mostly generic. Variety gone. Hurlocks, Genelocks anyone?
- Unable to customise Companion armour. Lame and lazy!!
- Atrezzo repetition: ox-carts spam dungeons and streets. Again lazy.
- Rogues make enemies explode at the touch of a blade (very stupid and unrealistic)
- Almost the whole disjointed story takes place within one venue, a city, Kirkwall. Moreover, within said city, you are trudging in no more than 8 re-used dungeons. So much for exploring a fantasy land. Do you remember than on dying there's a pop-up that says "Your journey ends..."? That's because you are meant to be exploring the lands, not being a lab rat memorising the same dungeon over and over again. For example, Bethesda has hired 8 dungeon-designers for Skyrim. Please spend more coin next time in level-design.
- Removal of random encounters whilst travelling from one location to another, whether fights or merchants
- Removal of camp-time. This was a fantastic feature that made you know and feel for your companions. Why not do the same in the Hanged Man for example?
- Shameful recycle of Codex from DA:O
- Darkspawn look comical (Skeletor clones)
- Way too much worthless junk loot
- Generic names cause inventory confusion: ring, belt, boots, amulet etc...
- Stupid menial sidequests that take 3 minutes, or less, to complete. Abuse of "fetch-type" (fed ex) quests that feel like tedious repetitive chores ("I found this, I believe its yours"); thanks but no thanks, I already have my life for that. Pitiful reward for completing most of them. You really have to force yourself to finish this game, least you ignore the side quests...
- Ridiculous amount of experience awarded for finding crafting elements i.e 205 points
- Lazy system of potion-making/rune-crafting (over-simplified)
- Generally dumbed-down from predecessor. (I'm not even talking about combat)
- Major flaw: decisions bear no real impact on story as the same outcome happens regardless of your choices 95% of the time (tried and tested). Why bother putting options at all? It's just cosmetic. This is truly a game-breaker for me and the proverbial straw on the camel's back. The game feels linear like ME2 and this is a BioWare RPG gentlemen, or so it says on the back of my box. Now what was Daniel Erikson's 2010 definition of an RPG again? Hmmm...?
- Terrible ending
- Stupid conversation wheel imported from ME2.
- Embarrassing simple dialogue options: bad, funny, good. With pictures in case you are confused (with a heart for romance) which option to pick. Quit the hand-holding, we are not 3-year olds.
- Clearly rushed game (Da money rulz EA)
- Poor dialogue compared to DA:O
- Hard difficulty is easy, nightmare difficulty is way too difficult. Unbalanced. Nightmare is just a war of attrition in which enemies have huge health bars that are chipped away ever so slowly (i.e. giant spider, rock wraith) that hinges on how many health potions you have in your inventory.
- Another particularly annoying and unpractical battle animation, albeit cool, are mages wand-waving when enemies are drawing near. This is very troubling on playing on nightmare difficulty because while 3 shades are approaching at 3m distance and I'm frantically clicking on the "A" button, my mage disregards my commands as he's apparently too busy swirling his wand around showing off only to be killed 3 seconds later. Not cool, please tone down or remove.
- Major combat flaw: on fighting on large open spaces, such as Hightown, the team members may spread out. Imagine I switch from my rogue over to Anders because he's being ragdolled. On switching over the tv screen freezes, turns black and a pop-up appears with a "loading..." message. It takes 4-5 seconds to actually come off and take control of Anders. This is bad enough but the problem is that the fight has continued in real time and by the time the 5 seconds are over he's already dead. And here comes the worse; when I switch over back to my rogue the screen freezes -again-, turns black and the loading message comes up -again- having to wait yet another 5 seconds to take full control of my rogue by which time he's also dead on playing at nightmare level. On nightmare one cannot afford to completely lose control of the team for 10 seconds or more. This flaw needs to be addressed ASAP.
In conclusion
If you like deep, rich, epic immersive storylines in a cRPG where you get to visit and explore a fantasy land, such as the ones BioWare was renowned for, you may want to look elsewhere. DA2 will not appeal to you. You have been warned.
If you rather enjoy casual, laid-back action adventure games, that don't require much thinking, but are taxing on your button-mashing abilities, look no further; Dragon Age 2 is your kind of game. Moreover, if you liked DA2's demo, you'll love it.
If you loved its predecessor, Dragon Age: Origins, like me, you will probably dislike DA2 which is a completely different game that only bears the same name; similarities end there.
My advice: rent it first before buying. In my book (RPG lover) this game is clearly the definition of a day-one rental. If you really must have it, wait until the GOTY or when the Ultimate edition is released.
Imo, it's a rushed, consolized game devised to cash-in unashamedly on DA:O's success. The franchise has made the -failed- transition from the cRPG genre over to the "Action"-RPG genre (consolization or casualization, whatever) with the aim to broaden its fanbase (EA making more bucks whilst BioWare sells itself out) on the wake of Mass Effect's 2 success.
Utter betrayal of loyal fanbase.
It's the RPG equivalent of the disservice Xbox's Civilization Revolution did for the classic PC Civilization franchise i.e. remove grey matter and substitute it for "an awesome thing will happen on pressing da button" (sic)
The only way to actually like this game and give it a 5 (doesn't deserve more) is if you completely forget DA:O AND ignore the fact this game is actually a sequel to one of the greatest all-time RPG's. So if you are able of the afore feat and disregard there's a "2" slapped right at the end of DA you may think this game is okish. In fact, if DA2 had been done by a third party, I would say meh, give it a 5, and wouldn't have even bothered to waste my time reviewing at length, moving on to a true RPG game.
But as it turns out, it's a BioWare game. Well my friend, it isn't ok, its garbage. The game was marketed and sold as an "epic" sequel to an existing consolidated franchise; not as a non-related DLC which is what DA:2 really is. The only thing epic about DA2 is its failure by all accounts.
If ain't broke, don't fix it.
DA:O was already the commercially (and critically) successful blueprint on which DA2 should have build and improved upon. Why such a radical departure (180 degrees) from an already consolidated and highly profitable franchise with an existing fanbase? DA2 fixes successfully everything that was NOT broken from DA:O.
The changes made to DA2 are not in line with those brought about by ME2 in respect to ME1. Streamlining made sense in ME2 because it improved the gameplay redunding in a better user experience without detracting from ME's personality, or at least not that much. DA2 radical departure are no improvement, they make for a completely different game that alienates the existing fanbase which had different expectations more in line with the original game. The sequel, let us not forget, was sold on the piggyback of the first installment.
They said: "Think like a general, play as a Spartan". More like mash button "A" until first wave of enemies are wiped out. Take a pause so your white knuckles recover, rinse and repeat. Hack-fest at its best. Dungeon Siege developers would be teary-eyed proud of DA:2.
Not up to BioWare's standards. Easily this years' biggest disappointment.
Contender to Skyrim or the Witcher 2? Ha ha ha, what a joke. Serious contender to occupy the racks of second-hand games in your nearest gaming store along with Kane & Lynch and Homefront within three weeks of its release.
BioWare get your act together or you risk alienating your fanbase, you know, us who pay your mortgages. One more red strike like this and you are out BioWare, for good.
And finally let me close this review with some friendly advice. Companies should never mess-up with their customers, specially long-time hardcore fans, much less mistreat them or insult them. And that goes for Mr Laidlaw, DA2's lead designer, and his ridiculous interviews.
Drakan | video-games_xbox |
Looks good; very flawed. Short version:
Buggy and stupid. Unless you really want to play the story mode in Champion, just stick with Round 4. Champion has slightly better graphics and physics details, but Round 4 is superior in nearly every other aspect.
Long version:
The graphics and physics are spectacular. The range of control that you have over your fighter is great and consistent with previous Fight Nights.
At first, Champion seems perfect, but there are major flaws which cause it to depreciate quickly. Here's a list of them (not ranked):
1. User control of foot work is poor. The game forces and restricts your movement in a seemingly pointless, and very frustrating, way. There is nothing at all realistic about it.
2. The "make your own character" mode is so buggy that it is practically unplayable. The game does not properly save changes in your boxer's stats, meaning that you can never advance the skills of your boxer. There's no point in even playing because you will never be able acquire the power, speed, stamina etc you must have to advance in the ranks.
3. Body/head blocking is automatic. This criticism is more debatable, but I think it is a serious flaw because it takes away a major strategic element. One of the fundamental strategies of boxing is to attack the body so your opponent's hands will drop, leaving their head exposed for the haymaker (because it's very difficult to properly block your head and body simultaneously). In Round 4, this strategy was very effective.
4. The story mode is overtly racist against white people. White men are called crackers and invariably depicted as either cackling skinheads or scheming, vicious businessmen. The only white people in the game who are portrayed at all positively are the main character's subservient trainer and a white girl who falls in love with the main character.
5. Stamina depletes FAST. I think it's fine for the boxers to have realistic stamina, but it seems like you're uselessly tired after the first two or three rounds no matter how careful and conservative you are with your energy. | video-games_xbox |
Combat not evolved. I got this game around 10 months after release and there's a 41GB download. Depending on your internet connection it may take a few hours to download upon putting in the disc.
First I like to mention that Halo 5 Guardians has very good production values in terms of graphics and story; gameplay is similar to the past games as there's really no new gameplay innovations that will change the FPS genre as it seems like the game developers just wanted to play it safe so they don't rile up the fans(?).
Graphics are above average. The CG cutscenes are really good, you can see the over emphasis of the freckles on people's faces and pours on the skin are over exaggerated. In game graphics are what you'd expect from this generation of consoles at 60FPS, but with some odd textures here and there (if you go out exploring the level in detail), wish there was better transition from cutscene to in-game in terms of graphic fidelity as the former outshadows the latter.
Story is okay. There's no epic or emotional moments present in the previous titles; and the ending is very disappointing as there's no resolution and a huge cliff hanger. Guess they want to build up to Halo 6 like they did from 2 to 3. Also if you're new to the series it's hard to fill in the gaps of what is happening as you're just chucked into the action.
Musical scores and sound effects are spot on, what you expect from a Halo title. I'd say one of the best from the series. Voice is pretty standard. One of the characters you play, Locke is expressive in CG cutscenes, but in game he's pretty monotone similar to other characters you come across. Wish the characters were more expressive like Cortana in Halo 4
Gameplay is similar to past titles; there's barely any game play innovations to speak of as if they borrowed from past titles and mobility options has increased. Some new features has been added such as aiming down sights and faster ground pound, side dashing, but it still feels the same except there's no duel wielding. There is a team mechanic where allies can revive you. If you plan to play it alone your AI teammates are very lame as they just sit in the background and only help you when there's a set number of enemies on screen (or you give them commands); let's say there's a dozen enemies once it goes down to 9 or 10, the AI will decide to sit back and relax until you take the rest of the enemies out, you give them an objective (which you may not have time to do in the fast paced action especially on higher difficulty) or if you need revival.
In the campaign, you trudge through level by level trying to shot anything that moves. Boss battles are a joke. You fight the same boss half a dozen times, but with different horde of minions, also some of the set piece battle moments are present in cutscenes and not in gameplay, very disappointing.
Multiplayer online is very good as you expect, more fun if you have friends joining into the fray. There's multiplayer co-op but no couch co-op which is also a disspointment forcing you to purchase 2 copies of the game, and another Xbox One if you don't own it already. Online maps are huge compared to previous iterations of the series making for more fun tactical gameplay
Requisition point system (micro transactions). You basically have to grind extraordinary amount of hours or pay real world money to get weapons and skin customization via cards. Even if you pay real world money it's basically all luck as you have to buy card packs and pray you get a legendary item. Would be great if you can get these customization options through achievements (like collecting Intel or skulls, get certain amount of headshots etc) rather than exorting to this lame luck system. When you see a full decked out player, it doesn't mean that player necessary have skill, rather s/he just got lucky or spend tons of cash on his/her customization. There's also temporary cards that gives you bonuses within a match which in and of itself is slightly unbalanced at times, but it does give variety in the matches as it give different scenerios each time.
If you like Halo and want a continuation of the story; it's a good title to own. For the others it's a rent or as of this review maybe wait till it's $20 or less | video-games_xbox |
Great multiplayer. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series of games have seen a whole lot of change over the years. The series started out as a slow, tactical, shooter with a heavy emphasis on planning. When the series made its jump to the Xbox with Rainbow Six 3, the game dropped the planning stage to attempt to appeal to a broader audience, while still retaining a tactical shooter feel. The game was extremely successful, becoming one of the most played games on Xbox Live. But after a well received expansion, the developers took a sharp turn and moved the franchise into arcade shooter territory. The majority of the fans were disappointed, and the game was a critical failure. But don't worry Rainbow fans, Ubisoft has indeed learned from their mistakes. Vegas is the most intense and tactical Rainbow Six game, making it easily the best in the series.
Rainbow Six: Vegas takes place in Las Vegas as you probably have guessed. Most of the story unfolds while you are playing the game, either in helicopter briefings while you are flying to your next target or while you are on foot from an audio and video feed in the top left of your screen. This is a pretty nice change from the text briefings before missions that Rainbow Six players are used to. Without giving too much of the plot away, terrorists have attacked various casinos in the city, taking some hostages and planting bombs. You play as Logan Keller, a team leader for a group of highly skilled soldiers, and it is your job to go from casino to casino and take care of business. If this all sounds familiar, that's because it is. We have all heard this same basic story dozens of times in other games and Hollywood action movies. But while the storyline isn't exactly original, it is good enough to keep you at least mildly interested. What really matters is the gameplay, and that is where the game truly shines.
If you have ever played Gears of War, your might be surprised how similar the two games play. They were in development around the same time, so it's hard to say if any copying was going on, but both games have a heavy emphasis on cover, requiring you to use anything you can hind behind to stay alive. However, the cover system in Vegas works quite a bit better then it does in Gears. You have a lot more control when it comes to moving around cover and shooting out. Also, the cover seems more important in Vegas then it did in Gears, mostly because you can take much fewer shots in Vegas before going down.
Another element both games have in common is a squad of teammates that you fight along with. Controlling the team works similar to other games in the series. You can still tell your squad where to move, whether to hold fire or shoot on sight, to stack up behind doors before throwing in a grenade and storming in as well as all of the other commands you could give in the previous games. However, there are a few additions. For example, you now have a snake cam that allows you to peak under doors. Using this device, you can then give your team priority targets in the next room, to make sure they take down the most important enemies first when they enter. Your teammates also have some pretty good AI. They know how to take cover and engage enemies, meaning you really don't have to worry about them that much. They also do a great job taking down terrorists, making them very useful.
Besides commanding your squad, the game has other features that allow for some complex tactics. Many of the rooms have multiple entry points. Using the snake cam you can scout out the room before determining how you want to enter it. You can even use two entrances at once, by having your team stack up outside one door while you go to another. Then you can order your squad to barge in guns blazing at the same time you enter from another door. You also have the option to do some repelling during some points of the game, which adds another entrance, the windows, to a room.
Your large selection of weapons also allows you to take in some tactical considerations. Vegas features a ton of assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, and pretty much any type of gun you can think of. Each of the weapons offers some level of customization. Pistols can have things like extended magazines or laser sights, while rifles can be fitted with different types of scopes depending on what is needed. Once you have selected your guns, you can choose from items like explosive grenades, C4, breaching charges, flash grenades, and more.
With the cover system, team controls, multiple entry points, and a large selection of weapons, Rainbow Six: Vegas offers a lot of choice when it comes to tactics.
But the single player campaign is only half of what the game has to offer. Rainbow Six: Vegas has a fully featured and expansive multiplayer option, which easily makes it the best on-line shooter on the Xbox 360. The core of the multiplayer experience is what the developers call the P.E.C., or "Persistent Elite Creation". When you first start out, you create your own character and have a limited access to different types of gear like body armor and weapons. After every match, your character gains experience, allowing you to go up in rank and gain access to more items. It's a neat feature that rewards you for playing, yet doesn't make the game feel unfair for new players that don't have access to all of the items. Different armor makes you choose between mobility and protection, while other weapons may be more powerful but are harder to control.
There is a good selection of game modes to choose from that range from objective driven modes like attack and defend, to more standard offerings like solo and team deathmatch. The levels are varied and well designed for the most part. Though some, such as the Calypso Casino level, were clearly designed with attack and defend in mind and can be slightly unbalanced in other game modes like team deathmatch due to one team having a better spawn point. But if you are not into competitive gaming against other players, Vegas offers cooperative gameplay over live for the entire single player campaign with up to three other players. Or you can play "terrorist hunt" which is a mode that puts you and your friends in a level with a bunch of randomly placed terrorists that you need to take out.
Overall, Rainbow Six Vegas is a great game with a lot of value. The single player is challenging and offers a lot of depth, and the multiplayer packs in a lot of features. You could easily find yourself playing this game until the next Rainbow Six game comes out. It is not often that developers try to reinvent such a successful series, but Ubisoft gave it another shot and ended up creating the best Rainbow Six game so far. | video-games_xbox |
It has it's flaws, but it's still a fun game. To start off: The first half of this game deserves 5 stars. I was blown away when I started playing this; the graphics were amazing, the worlds were beautiful (and creepy), the characters were well narrated, the fights were challenging, and I would actually get scared during parts of the game. Each enemy was given it's own introduction, and the first encounters seemed almost like mini boss fights. Then there were the bosses: the first two were RIDICULOUSLY hard. It made the game very intense. You were struggling and striving to survive, just as you should in a survival game. However, it was all down hill after the defeat of the second boss. As another reviewer mentioned: in the second half of the game they bombard you with supplies. By that time you should have discovered ways to make short work of most of the creatures you encounter, so you find yourself overstocked. Having an overstock of supplies takes the anxiety out of your encounters, which is half of what causes a horror game to actually be frightening. The last two bosses are rather easy (in comparison to the first two), making it almost seem like the designers got the beginning of the game switched up with the end. Also, the second half starts to take on more a cheesy "we ripped this off the Silent Hill movie" feel. By the second half the game starts to deviate from it's roots in the other Silent Hill games and head more in the direction the movie did. The plot ended up feeling very "Americanized"; a large amount of the mystery was stripped out of it, and it ended up feeling more like a sequel to the movie rather than the other games. It seems funny in retrospect; during the second level I kept thinking there was no way the designers were going to be able to top it and it seems they realized the same thing and didn't even try.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a fun game and I recommend it to fans of the series. The fighting system is greatly improved and more involved, you now have the added bonus of dodging and combo attacks that will have to be used if you want to make any progress in the game. Also, as another reviewer mentioned, each enemy has it's own weaknesses that can be taken advantage of to make short work of them. This all works to make fighting feel much more realistic than it has in previous games. Once again, the worlds do look amazing, and if you're anything like me you'll find yourself spending quite a bit of time just looking at details in the graphics. But, most importantly, I found this game to be fun--and challenging--to play.
**Warning to novice players: There is no easy mode for this game. The game settings are for Normal and Hard, with the normal mode feeling more hard than normal. People who are not used to survival games--or who can't get used to the new fighting system (dodging and combos)--are going to find this game to be very frustrating. | video-games_xbox |
Great System. General
Ok, so I want to start by saying that I am fortunate enough to own both the PS4 and the Xbox One. Honestly, The PS4 does have an edge over the Xbox one on paper with Graphics and the fact that they used GDDR5 instead of GDDR3 (like the xbox one). I think Microsoft should have jumped up and went with the faster ram. But needless to say you really can't tell that much of a difference. The only place I think that you can tell the difference is when you're actually installing a game to the disc. It definitely takes longer to install a game on the Xbox one when compared to the PS4. But, the Xbox One and PS4 both let you play the game while the disc installs to the hard drive, so it isn't that big of a deal. There isn't that much difference to be honest since I own both systems. Again, I don't have a favorite... I'm honestly still kind of up in the air on which one I like better. I bought PS4 first and love it. I eventually wanted to get an Xbox One and my wife came home the other day and surprised me with an early Christmas gift (Xbox One). God she is a GREAT woman! :) So anyways I'm still up in the air on which one I really prefer. They honestly both are great and I don't think you can go wrong with either one. I think it's just a matter of what your flavor is and what you're looking for. If you're looking for the best gaming graphics, etc... I think PC's still really hold true to that but of course are more expensive to build a rig that can really do some hardcore gaming (which I own one as well). I don't really game on my PC though to be honest because I am a network engineer for AT&T and I work on a computer all day. So sometimes I don't even want to touch my computer whenever I get home. These consoles give me another alternative to still be able to enjoy gaming.
Kinect
Next, the Kinect 2.0 is great. I haven't really tried out any motion games yet but the voice commands are awesome, Skype is great, the picture is clear, it can follow me around my living room when talking to someone else on a cell phone on Skype, computer, etc.... Which I think is pretty freaking cool.
Voice Commands
I see a lot of people complaining about voice commands, but for the most part the Kinect picks me up every time. There have been a few times I have to repeat what I say, but I'm sure it will get better over time with the system updates from Microsoft. Being able to say Xbox Turn Off, Yes and the console turns off as well as turns off my TV; then later I walk back into my living room and say XBOX On, it turns on my Xbox One as well as my TV and I'm back at my Xbox one Interface (which it signs me in by knowing who I am via the kinect 2.0) is pretty freaking innovative to me. My PS4 can't do that.... Again, I can tell my xbox, XBOX watch TV, it goes to TV, then can say, XBOX watch AMC, it flips my TV to AMC and BAM, I 'm watching AMC. There will need to be some improvement here because it gets into a bind whenever you try to watch additional channels that are more specific like Disney Kids or something like that which is more specific (it doesn't always seem to pick up what you say then will randomly flip to whatever channel). You have the ability to say Xbox go Home, it will take you back home, Xbox go to "whatever app" The PS4 has similar voice features but not nearly as many when compared to the Xbox one. In addition, you can be playing a game and say Xbox snap TV, and up in the right hand corner it will show TV, and you can switch between the two snapped apps. Pretty neat idea in my opinion.
Graphics
I know there are a lot of Sony fan boys out there which are constantly ragging on the xbox one for the edge that Sony has over the "One" on paper. But to be honest, whenever I hooked up my xbox one and put in Forza 5, my jaw pretty much dropped at the graphics. The cars are freaking phenomenal looking and again these are just the first round of games which were pretty much built graphical to fit the Xbox One and 360. So I can only imagine as development goes on how much better the graphics will in fact get. I haven't checked out any other games yet. I plan to pick up Call of Duty Ghost and Eventually Ryse.
Game Selection
There isn't much to choose from to be honest. But, again there isn't on either console at this point. A few of the games are available on both platforms. Both consoles will have select titles over time that are only available on PS4 or Xbox One.
Pros:
Kinect 2.0 is super accurate for movement and speech and offers great additional nearly all aspects of the console
Games look great
Controller is comfortable
Being able to watch TV through the console and say things like "Xbox watch fox" and the Xbox tells my DirecTV DVR to go to fox is pretty freaking cool in my opinion.
Cons:
Interface is definitely different for those use to the xbox 360 interface. But it didn't take my very long to figure out where everything is.
No built in charge pack like the PS4 (although Microsoft does include the first set of batteries)
Not very many games to choose from (But the same goes for the PS4)
No cross platform party/chat (I'm sure it will come with time maybe).
Price ($600+ with the console and one game)
Conclusion:
So... I was on the fence to be honest and couldn't decide which one of these I wanted to pre-order. I ended up pre-ordering the PS4. Not really because of the advantage of graphics.. I game a lot with my brother in law and I asked him which console he was going to get first and he said PS4; so that's why I bought that console first. In all honesty, if your not a fan boy in any way, you could probably just flip a coin and make a decision. IF you are looking on Amazon at reviews to try to help you with a decision let me see if I can make this a little easier:
If you're looking to solely game and use a few apps here or there and aren't worried about the innovative features/multimedia etc... Then I say go with PS4. If you're looking for gaming plus the ability to do other innovative things like watch TV the console, have the console switch channels for you, Skype, and other user experiences, then I say go with the Xbox one. I'm not a fan of either one of these consoles yet. I like them both for what they offer. But I have to say that a few of the innovative ideas that Microsoft threw into the Xbox One are pretty freaking cool. I can only imagine that both systems will have their things that set them apart to certain gamers over time. I list a con on the price on Xbox One because for the console + one game and even a 3 month membership for Xbox Live you're over $600. When I picked up my PS4 + controller + 3 games (buy 2 get one free) + PS+ membership, I am at about $570. So the xbox one is a little bit more expensive. But if your going to buy the Playstation camera for the similar experience you're going to pay an extra $60 so it's pretty much about equal on price at that point. So if price is a factor and you're not looking for the motion type stuff then PS4 is going to be a cheaper option for you. Both consoles require an online membership now and people that say PS+ is only $30-40 (only if it's on sale normal price $49.99) gives it a $10 difference over the Xbox Live membership which is typically $59.99 but if your a smart shopper you're going to look around and you can usually find them for about $35-39.99 a year. Sony does give more free games with PS+ it seems like then xbox live but I've only really seen one round of that so far with the next gen consoles. So we shall see how that goes over time. Again, to wrap this thing up it solely depends on what your looking for out of the next gen console. I wanted to give an honest review being that I own both systems and get frustrated when I came on these sites and some jerk off writes a review that hasn't even owned the system and just is a fan boy of one or the other. If you're like me whenever you want to read a review to make a decision on purchasing something you want a TRUE and honest review that can help you make a decision. So I hope that I'm able to help someone that's on the fence like I was with this review. | video-games_xbox |
A Great game you want to experience and the price is Right on. I'm a mature gamer and have played many 1st person shooters and this is one my favorites. If you're trying to decide whether to buy this game, I will give you some info that may help you decide. I purchased and played this game when it first came out so I was lucky to experience it at it's best. I have bought the game for relatives and also have the PC version. I can only comment on the single and co-op player game modes since I don't play multiplayer. I won't talk so much about the details of the game because it's pretty well covered in the other reviews. I'll just cover a few things you may not have read yet.
This is an older game so the graphics and some gameplay elements won't be able to compete with newer games like COD:Modern Warfare 2 or Halo Reach. It's common sense to not expect it to be as good as some of today's more modern games. Now if you had to pay $60 instead of $20, then you should expect it to compete with today's games.
Unfortunately there are not as many people playing the co-op campaign story so it's hard to find games. Most co-op games you do find are playing the Nazi Zombie game mode which is very popular and have new DLC (downloadable content) released every now and then. When playing co-op campaign story it was always annoying when someone on the team would run and gun and get killed right away. If no one healed him in time, the mission would fail forcing everyone to restart. It would seem that this would promote good teamwork, but you come to realize that most people don't care about teamwork and will run and gun the entire time and the rest of the team is forced to constantly heal them in order to continue through the mission. And guess who get all the medals, rank and high scores, ... yep the obnoxious run and gunner. So either luck up with a good team or play with friends and you'll have a great time.
The only other negative thing is that the game is extremely difficult on legendary/veteran mode for certain levels. I usually play/complete all the games on legendary/veteran for the ultimate challenge. I am still stuck on this one but I will keep trying to finish it when time allows. The one I'm stuck on is the one where you storm the Reichstag building in Berlin. The Nazis constantly respawn and throw a never ending barrage of grenades so it's nearly impossible to beat. I come back to retry it every four to six months so with luck I will eventually get past it. I have enjoyed beating all the other levels prior to this one, so I won't be satisfied till I finish the entire game on the toughest mode.
So for $20 you can't beat this game. The levels are challenging, interesting and really immerse you in the intense battlefield. I have played all the levels many times using different strategies. It's fun and have a variety of battlefields forcing you to deploy different strategies so it's never boring. The Nazi zombies is a blast to play too. It's like you are getting two games for the price of one. It's important to remember that it all about how long you can survive so you will die eventually but it's intense as the time increases. You will get the max enjoyment with a good team with headsets. Expect a lot of screaming back and forth as the pace increases. Like I said, lots of fun!
The COD games are fun and for me an educational experience of sorts. The story lines are interesting and you really get a feel of what it was like to be there in a way. I have spent a fair amount of time researching the various things I have experienced in these games. Everything from locations, weapons and the real historical account in several of the battles. The price is right so go get it! Might as well pick up COD 2,COD 4 and Modern Warfare 2 while you're at it. They're all good. You can't say one is better than the other because they're all different from one another. COD 2 was just as incredible as the others so try them all. | video-games_xbox |
Superior Headphones, Insanely Low Price, Excellent Customer Service. The Melee is a forgotten gem that is still relevant 3 years later. They are far superior to any gaming headset I have ever had before. I cant begin to tell you how much I love these headphones.
I am very big into gaming and have been since I was a kid. I bought them to use with my Xbox One, so I am really just going to touch on using them with the current console. I decided to get the Melee instead of the 4Shot (Xbox One Model) because at the time the Melee was cheaper than the 4Shot and there is no discernable difference except that the 4Shot comes ready to use with the Xbox One. There is an extra step that you have to take in order to get the Melee to work on the Xbox One, and Ill touch on that later.
This has got to be at least my 7th gaming specific headset that I have owned. Ive used headsets in just about every price range, except for the super primo $250+ category because uh what would I rather spend my money on? One headset or a bunch of games? PRIORITIES MAN.
I have used various Turtle Beach headsets, along with a Triton and a Sony Surround Sound headset. The one headset I can say that I have used the most out of all the ones I have owned is the Turtle Beach XO One wired headset, and the Polk Melee has put the XO Ones on permanent retirement.
Lets start off with the most difficult thing that youll have to do to use these with the Xbox One.
1. Contact Polk Audio Customer Service via phone once you have received the headset.
2. Let them know that you just got the Melee headset brand new and you want to use it with your Xbox One and that you want to get the Boom Mic as well. (The original mic was plagued with issues, and the boom mic was offered as a free replacement)
3. Give them your model and serial number and just wait a few days for your free adapter and mic! The Xbox One adapter that Polk sends you is a little control puck that attaches to your Xbox One controller if you have the old version that dumb Microsoft decided to not include a 3.5mm jack on. NOTE- EVEN IF YOU HAVE THE NEW CONTROLLER AND DONT NEED THE ADAPTER, YOU STILL NEED TO GET THE BOOM MIC!!!
Yeah so, even 3 years later Polk Audio has a ton of the adapters and mics in inventory and they are STILL offering them for free. They didn't give me any hassle and were very nice about sending me the accessories; they came within a week as well.
Okay so lets talk about whats included in the original package: A bunch of stuff to use the headset with the Xbox 360, so if you don't have a 360 anymore you can go ahead and toss the extras right into the dumpster (I mean recycle your electronics!) There are only 2 things that I kept from the original box aside from the headset and that would be the optical cable (why waste it?) and the 3.5mm inline mic and cord that you can use for talking on your cell phone (if you want to look like a loser?) or to use them for listening to your music. (This is actually a great idea as they sound amazing)
So, this is why I love these headphones and why they replaced my XO Ones
My #1 important factor: Sound Quality
I cant hear a damn thing in the outside world when I put these on. This is great for a number of reasons.
1. I CANT HEAR MY WIFE so I can focus on tense moments when I need to clutch a win. I did not realize how much sound leaked in through my XO Ones until I tried one on after the other. It was like night and day.
2. The seal around your ear allows bass to be more amplified and pronounced.
Aside from a great seal, you get surround sound!
In the contents of the original packaging (that you probably threw out by now) there was a digital sound processing (DSP) box that allowed you to experience surround sound in your headphones on your 360. And you got to experience tripping over a bunch of cords and cables. With the Xbox One, the DSP is wireless and so that box and subsequent cables are no longer necessary. THIS INFORMATION WAS SOURCED DIRECTLY FROM A POLK AUDIO TECHNICIAN, SO ITS LEGIT. If you look in some Reddit forums you can also find this info as well.
The sound quality is just pure aural joy. I usually play shooters and I can hear every bullet, explosion, foot step, and rage quit with bionic hearing.
Other great stuff: Comfort, Build Quality, Style
The ear pads and headband are a leatherette material and they are oh so soft and cool to the touch. I have not had an overheated head from my long gaming sessions.
The build quality is amazing, they are made out of freaking metal! Yet, they are light enough that you still feel comfortable wearing them for extended periods.
Honestly, Turtle Beach headsets are just plain ugly AF, so it was a really nice change of pace to have an Ice Blue headset. They may even be passable enough to wear outside. I would never know, as I never go outside. I just play video games.
So in essence, my listening experience has been completely revamped and I am so glad that I found the Polk Audio Melees. The sound quality, comfort, style, and build quality far surpass any other headset I have ever used. | video-games_xbox |
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